The first annual Gatchapalooza (the second official Gatchaman get-together of 1997) was held during Anime Weekend Atlanta from November 14 to the 16th.

You can read an edited version of the convention report I posted to the Gatchaman mailing list shortly after returning, or you can skip right to the image archive. All in all, it was a great trip and I'm looking forward to the next one!

Keep in mind that this is all from my point of view and may be a bit verbose. ;)

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I guess I should start from the beginning:  Thursday morning at 3:30 A.M.,
when Bill and I woke up for our 7 A.M. flight.  Ugh.  X-P  Never, EVER
have a 20-oz coffee before a turbulent flight in an MD-88 (fairly
small plane:  3 seats, aisle, 2 seats).  Between being incredibly wired
and having to get up every twenty minutes, it was not an enjoyable flight.
;)

At any rate, we arrived in Atlanta at almost 10 A.M. and got our rental
car.  Rather, we *experienced* our rental car:  The purple Plymouth Neon
from HELL!  Gack!  We drove around and did the touristy thing until we
hit the hotel, where Donna [Gregory] and her hubby were waiting.  Nothing much
happened that day except for registration and the expectation of meeting
others that night.  It was about 9:30 or so, and they hadn't arrived yet, so I 
figured I'd go to bed.  Good thing I didn't -- a half-hour later, we sat around 
the hotel lounge having a drink or two and some food.  Total Gatchamaniacs 
together at one time: 4.  More to come. :)

Friday came early, since Bill wanted to hit the breakfast buffet (which
was good, I'll admit).  We hooked up with Donna and attempted to get our
badges, which hadn't been ready the night before (well, Mine and Bill's,
anyway).  While walking around, I saw someone wearing one of the San Diego
con shirts and realized that we probably had another list member among us.
Add one more Gatchafan to the list.

Things got interesting after lunch.  Alara [Rogers] was bringing the TV and VCR 
and hadn't arrived yet (no surprise, since the weather up the northeast
was terrible), so we really didn't have anything to set up.  Plus, I hadn't
planned on doing anything until 8 P.M., when we'd have our party, so we
hadn't done anything with the room.  One of the con organizers got a bit
testy about that, getting us a bit testy in response.  We eventually
ended up putting up a sign asking folks to join us at 8 (the con
schedule had us opening at 1 P.M.) and shut the room.  We then tried to find
Dave Merrill to try to clear things up.

We found Dave, he told us not to worry and that everything was fine (whew),
and even offered us the use of his TV and VCR for a while.  Yaay!  We planned
on grabbing them after opening ceremonies and went to Kroger to pick up
food for the party.  "Big K" soda goes a long way at 2 for a dollar. ;)

We headed back to the hotel, set up the room and locked it so the
food wouldn't grow feet, and spent some time in the con suite (while
there were still relatively few people there).  Dave, the guy in charge
of the con suite, offered us some relatively innocuous-looking potato
chips, and we ate greedily. :)  They were good -- not as strong as sour
cream and onion -- and we wondered what they were. Dave pulled the bag
out of the garbage (hey, I didn't ask him to!) and showed us.  Being in
Japanese and saying "potato chips" on the front, it didn't help too
much. ;)  Leave it to Bill to find the sticker with the ingredients list.
It was seaweed.  We ate more and enjoyed them anyway. :)  Then, we
left for opening ceremonies to collar Dave and get the A/V equipment.
After the ceremonies (at which they wished Steve Harrison some good
mental vibes), Dave thrust a kids' shirt in my hands with the word
"HAPPY" on it, and a weird bootleg picture of Jun.  It was so strange,
it was cool! :)  We then headed back to the room for the party.

At 8, we opened the room, Donna made an opening speech since I'd
come down with major stage fright all of a sudden (thanks, Donna!), and
we let the video and the food flow! :)  We had a slight incident where
someone from the gaming room next door walked out with a bag of chips,
but the violator was duly followed and the chips apprehended.  No harm done.

Over the course of the day, we'd met many, many others from the mailing 
list.  Lots of Gatchafans now!  Quite a few other folks popped their heads in 
and out, and a good time was had by all.  We shut the room down at midnight, and 
I stayed up for a while helping Alara bring in her tapes, etc.  *More* videos!  
Whee!

Saturday morning was another early one (damn that breakfast buffet!), though
I didn't actually have to open the room (thanks, Sarah!).  Now that we had all 
the parts of the fanzine (the hazards of e-mailing parts of the fanzine is that 
you don't always get the e-mail...  D'oh!), we could make a Kinko's run.
Mistake #1:  while color copies look nice, I think the one we added made
the price a bit prohibitive for folks in general.  Mental note for the
next con, I guess...  The fanzine did look nice, I have to say, in spite
of myself. :)  We came back just in time for lunch and the Sherbert parodies!
At 11, the room filled to capacity and we sat there laughing until our
sides split.  I'd have to make a separate post for the parodies alone,
so I won't go into detail here -- suffice to say that this was OAV footage
used to the fullest. ;)  I will never listen to Comfortably Numb again
without thinking of Joe.

After the parodies, we showed some more videos for a while, then turned off
the TV to announce our first panel:  All About Gatchaman.  You never
saw a room clear so fast in your life.  Ah well...  *We* had fun (and
Alara answered the age-old question, "Why is Egobossler blue?"  The
answer?  Apparently, nobody notices, since it's never discussed...  The
plastic surgery to make him look like his brother *is* talked about, but his 
brother isn't blue.  Not one whit.  Desslock, anyone?).

After more videos, we got the board game tourney in gear.  After deciphering
the Byzantine rules (Janet's words, not mine :), we sat down to play.
I subjected the first round of players to some bizarre Ska cover tunes
before we set up Alara's TV (Dave had reclaimed his) and played some BOTP
for those who hadn't seen it while the game was played.  I think this is
the first time we heard Secret Agent Man that weekend. ;)  Anyway, after
a long game, Janet ended up the big winner, taking home the amazing cel
painted by Sarah.  Shana Gardner ended up taking second place and the EEEEEVIL
BOTP comic book. ;)  Kat and I both had the gliders, so I left 'em for
Dave Merril as a token of our appreciation (heh).

After the tourney was over, we played more video (natch), singing
a rousing rendition of "Gatchaman no Uta" each time the opening credits
rolled around.  Dang, that was fun. ;)

At about 8:00, we closed the room down (since the entire world was in the
hallway waiting for the costume contest) and decided to head out
for a trip to Iwase bookstore and Yakitori Den-Chan.  I got directions
to the restaurant from the concierge and Kat explained how to get to
the bookstore.  Then we split up.  BIIIIIIIG mistake.  Since we had Kat
in the car, we got to Iwase first.  And waited.  And waited.  And heard
"Secret Agent Man" again.  And waited.  Eventually, Alara's carload of
folks came by.  Nobody else.  We figured, after waiting for a while,
that the others might be at the restaurant, so we headed there.

As a matter of fact, there were quite a few folks there who had a table waiting
for us.  D'oh!  The last carload eventually joined us and we were finally all in 
the same building once more. :)  After finding Woodchuck cider on the menu, and 
imbibing in it, a few of us (no, the cider-laden ones didn't drive) went on a 
midnight Kinko's run (and damn near pissed off everyone working there) and 
laughed ourselves silly. :)

One of the ML'ers ended up interviewing a bunch of us that day...  I'm very 
curious as to where these tapes will end up.  ;)

Sunday was another buffet day (you expected any different?), and it
seemed to fly by as we attempted to pack, show videos, and do our
Red Impulse "panel."  We *did* leave the TV on this time and held our
discussion on the other side of the room, as to not chase away the two
folks who'd requested the last 5 episodes of Gatch I.  We strayed off
topic a good part of the time, but I believe the conclusion was, even
though he may not be a Rat Bastard, he still wasn't a good parent. :)

We made a few phone calls to ML'ers Steve Harrison (though he was off
gallavanting and we had to talk to his MACHINE) and Wendy Dinsmore, and
alumna Ennien Ashbrook (and chased a ton of people off the phones while
we did it!), packed, and said goodbye (dunno how closing went -- I suppose
someone else will have to describe that).  *snif* :(  It had been a blast
meeting everyone and now it was time to leave.  To top it all off,
my camera batteries died so I couldn't get a pic of the neon Neon, *and*
there was snow on the ground when we arrived in Boston.  Grumble...

At least we had a good time in Atlanta.  Thanks, folks!  We couldn't have
done it without you!

If I missed anything, I apologize.  I hope this hasn't been too painful
to read (are you sleeping yet?)! :)  Any additions?  Anyone see anything
a bit differently?  Anyone quite sick of me talking yet? ;)

Can't wait for the next con (though I don't think I'll ever *organize* one
again)!  Hugs to all (and to those who wish they could've been there)!

-- Jen (whose fingers hurt now)

Jennifer Nolan | jnolan@bit-net.com