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Albany Anthrocon 1998 Report

... or what I did during my summer vacation II

Albany Anthrocon 1998

Thursday, July 2

Started off from home. Stopped by the Woodbury Commons outlet mall along the NY State Thruway to see if there was anything interesting at Toy Liquidators. Got to try out the E-ZPass thingie. No stopping at toll gates. Woo-woo! :)

Reached the OMNI Albany in the evening. Checked in and then met Richard de Wylfin while I was moving some of my luggage into the room. Went downstairs later to the lobby to wait for my roomie, Digeri. (His con report is here.) Picked up the con material and my panelist packet later that night when the registration table opened.

Pictures:

Friday, July 3

Woke up early and took a walk around the block. Took a close look at some of the bronze sculptures in the street. Found out later that it was an outdoor exhibit by J. Seward Johnson.

Had breakfast with Digeri at Bruegger's Bagels. Went to see some panels but ended up in the lounge where I met many furs including Ratman, Gene Catlow, Nate Patrin and Striker Redwolf, and joined in a round of sketch swapping.

In the afternoon, I sat on the "Breaking into the Genre" panel with Richard de Wylfin and Daniel "Slyder" Harris. It was somewhat interesting although we went off on a tangent into issues of copyrights.

Attended the Yerf panel later in the evening. Met some Yerfers there, including Digo and Spaceroo. Visited the dealer's room briefly after that where I met Conrad "Lynx" Wong and picked up my contributor's copy of PawPrints.

Went to the PawPrints lounge later in the evening with Digeri to schmooze around and read zines before going to the Norma Jean theater for the midnight screening of Dr. Dolittle. It was a pretty funny movie with a lot of butt humor although unfortunately the sound got cut off for a while midway through the movie.

Pictures:

Saturday, July 4

Had breakfast at Fitzgerald's in the hotel since all the places outside were closed for the holiday. Missed my second panel "Anime, Cartoons and Furry Comics" because it moved somewhere else and no one told me. Oh well.

Went to a fursuit event briefly and got some pictures. Then met Kevin J Dog and Sir Fox and traded more sketches. While we were drawing, the fursuiters paraded out through the lounge so we got a few more snapshots.

Stopped by the dealer's room again to shop, shop, shop. Met Karl Maurer of Fur Visions and Al Jones. And browsed around at Ed Zolna's overflowing table of course.

Sat on another panel "Those Dang Claws, Teeth, Ears, Horns and Long Tails" with Richard de Wylfin. It was a lively discussion and we mostly let the audience speak.

Went to the Yerf ice cream sandwich party later. The party moved to the PawPrints lounge upstairs when we had to vacate the ballroom. Got to meet the rest of the Yerf crowd there and out came the pencils and sketchbooks, of course. I also met a few other furs I knew from last year: Leonid, Skorzy, Will Sanborn. Stayed there until the party ended at four in the morning. Was hoping to see the fireworks that night from the lounge but it rained so the fireworks was postponed until the next day.

Pictures:

Sunday, July 5

Last day of the con. Attended a panel or two and then the art auction and post-con meeting later in the afternoon.

Hung around after the con with Austin Dern, Royce, Spaceroo, Leonid and Snoo and went out to dinner with them at the Troy Pub and Brewery. One of the menu items was the Black Collar Stout Pie but someone called it the Black Collar Stoat Pie instead so I drew a sketch of what eating a Black Collar Stoat Pie might look like on the placemat.

Afterwards, all the roads were closed because everyone was parked on the streets and highways to watch the fireworks. So Spaceroo and I rode around in Royce's car through various towns around Albany before returning to the hotel.

Pictures:

Monday, July 6

Had breakfast, packed my bags and checked out of the hotel. Stopped by the Colonie Center Mall on my way back.

Pictures: