Coffee at Leblanc

  Momocon  Momocon has been one of my most anticipated geek conventions in the world and I finally made the trip this year. For those that don't know Momocon is located in Atlanta, Georgia. It was originally held at a college campus, but now is known for its venue at the Georgia World Congress Center. The Georgia World Congress Center (GWCC) is a huge convention center. If I would compare it to something I would compare it to the Walter E. Washington Convention Center located in Washington D.C. where Otakon is held every year, but I think that the GWCC is bigger. The GWCC is massive! It's made up of two buildings marked as Buildings A and B which both have five floors, but I think I even saw a sign past the cafe that said Building C, but if there was one Momocon didn't use it. In addition Momocon also uses the Omni Hotel which is the host hotel for the convention. The con's panels were held on the top floors of the GWCC with the bottom floors reserved for the Vendor...

 This is a very personal blog entry for me. I know the title alone will illicit certain reactions and assumptions. This is not a internet rant about a man feeling entitled to women or blaming the black community for not being accepted. This is my personal experience and I feel there's a lot of people that are dismissive about nerds' feelings on this subject. At my ripe old age I have never dated before and haven't had any friends since I graduated college back in 2014. In my childhood finding friends was fine, but it was in my high school years when it was really hard. I had only one real friend in those years and he had dropped out at one point so I was alone most of the time. There were some other people I did speak to but since I can't remember their names I don't think I should call them friends. Entering community college I was pretty much alone there. My high school friend surprisingly showed up, but again he had run off to chase some girl up in Maine so I was...

    This year I went to Otakon 2025 which took place from August 8-10. Otakon is a Japanese culture convention held in Washington D.C. at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center. This was my third year attending Otakon. I attended last year in 2024 and my first year was in 2021. As mentioned Otakon is a Japanese culture convention as implied from the name of the convention Otakon is a combination of the words otaku and convention. Though it centers around Japanese culture the emphasis on the con is more centered on anime. That may be a result of the community as anime has gotten way more popular since the con's inception in the 90s. Otakon offers events like traditional Japanese dance and music performances, idol performances, a manga library, panels focusing on anime, traveling to Japan, video rooms where you can watch anime, a vendor's hall and artist alley, and so much more. While I was looking forward to Otakon I was a bit hesitant. My experience with Otakon 2021 was po...

  So the Alamo Drafthouse theaters put Perfect Blue back in theaters for a special 25th anniversary watch party. Perfect Blue is one of the most famous anime movies of the nerd community. You may have seen gifs of it's most iconic shots in slowed and reverb music videos or in general use on social media. Now, I've seen them in context. I've watched Satoshi Kon's other famous movie, Paprika , years ago. Paprika was very weird and surreal, but I didn't really like it that much. Still, that didn't deter me from wanting to see Perfect Blue as others on the internet suggested I might like it better and I ultimately did.   Being a film from 1997 Perfect Blue is draped in 90s aesthetics with its animation, fashion, and dial up internet. The film was also meant for theaters. Although it's an animated film it's shot like a live-action film at times with zoomed out edits like one that centers on a character in the bedroom and pans out overlooking the city and...

  Anime has risen a bit in popularity over the years and made its way into fashion. While I do enjoy some anime I don't consider myself an anime fan. Those who have consumed hundreds of anime or closely follow the production of upcoming anime, anime artists, attend anime panels, or purchase a lot of anime merch are the ones I feel more comfortable giving the label. Still, I would like to discuss how the popularity of anime in recent years has affected fashion. Back in the late 90s when I was first introduced to anime through Pokémon , Sailor Moon , and Cardcaptors they were just considered cartoons as the years passed the term anime got introduced to me. Then, it was really niche regulated to children who didn't know the difference between cartoons and anime and teenage and adult nerds. While I was in high school these groups did not particularly care for fashion outside of wearing graphic tees that had anime on it and for some reason around that time those horrible button-up ...

I know there's a lot of anime out there, but I feel like Carole & Tuesday doesn't get enough love out there. Shinichiro Watanabe, the creator of Cowboy Bebop and Samurai Champloo is at the helm of this one so it's no wonder that the show is so damn good. What makes Carole & Tuesday so good is the energy it exudes. It's hard to describe quite the feeling it gives me, but I think heartwarming is the most apt. Seeing these two girls struggle to become professional musicians gets you invested in these characters when they finally have a moment of success. This anime came out three years ago so I think it's safe to talk about spoilers so I'm warning those now who haven't seen it. *SPOILERS AHEAD!* The two titular characters are very different, but compliment one another. Carole is hardheaded, brash, and kind. Tuesday is reserved and quiet, but both girls show a lot of determination. The pair's styles are also different: Carole dresses casually whi...

  Today marks the second annual Black Fae Day. What is Black Fae Day? Black Fae Day is a celebration of representation and diversity in the fantasy genre. The high fantasy genre has taken pop culture status in the past few decades due to properties like Dungeons & Dragons , Final Fantasy, Lord of the Rings , Harry Potter , and Game of Thrones . The holiday was created by Jasmine Le Fleur, Twitter handle @JupiterJazz, as a way to highlight black faces, creators, and fans of these mystical tales.  Black Fae Day was on May 8th last year where cosplayers took off with it, getting it to trend on #2 on Twitter last year on the holiday.  Hundreds of black women and men alike around the globe dressed up like faeries and posted their photos across social media. Some even took going beyond having dedicated photoshoots, picnics, and parties for Black Fae Day. Today, I would like to highlight some of the cosplayers who have dressed up for the day: Firaga Fox is a big gamer with...

So I'm sitting in a coffee shop drawing while listening to some music with my headphones. What am I listening to? Well, lately I've been on a binge of musical genres that were created by the nerd community or music genres that my fellow nerds seem to gravitate towards exclusively. There's future funk, chiptune, lo-fi, nerdcore, slowed & reverb, city pop, J-pop, and K-pop in my library. What makes these forms of music geek music? Well, it's just as I stated. Most of these music genres were either invented by geeks or music that tends to only be listened to by geeks. For some of these the origins are hard to trace, but in the case of chiptune it's quite obvious.  Chiptune derives its sounds from video games and dates back to the 80s when videos game really took off in the commercial space in the arcades and the home. Video games were limited in the sounds they could produce so musicians had to be more creative in their compositions. This lead to a unique sound and...