Metro Con and How you Can Grow Beyond your Founder

Opening Ceremonies 2019

This weekend would had been Metro Con last year, but Metro Con this year would had been held on the 11th to the 14th of July but due COVID-19 the event got cancelled and even if it was a low punch, we understand the circumstances and there is always one in the future that I can always go.

Metro Con for me is my first convention ever, I went to the conventions when I was 32 years old, I went because a former friend who knew I followed certain Youtuber, so she asked me to go with her and I said OK, I was mesmerized by the convention as it was my first event ever but that's a story for another day.

Aggretsuko Cosplayers

I find the story of Metro Con fascinating because there are plenty of activities, great cosplayers, the vendor's hall is a little bit small and the merchandise is not that varied but still you can find cute things and there is not a big artist alley but the soul of the convention are the cosplayers. A lot of the people that go are super creative with their cosplays, and is just fascinating to take photos but also to see what the cosplayers will do every year.

Continuing with the convention cases, this example goes with the San Japan case I exposed not long ago in which the founder got involved in a problem because he got exposed saying racist commentaries about guests followed by an empty excuse on Facebook in which he said he only followed whatever the attendees want.

The aspect on this case is what Metro Con did to linger out of the founder's image after he got arrested for statutory rape on 2009, which several reports indicated that over the years he was in to predatory practices before being arrested and subjected to register as such.

Looking at old articles, one from Anime News Network when the problem happened, the current CEO and Owner Alex Craddock "Roy Harms is our CEO, and a very close friend of mine. I trust him with my life, my dreams, and my 4-year-old child, and so would anyone else that has ever met the man." He continues,

"An arrest does not mean a conviction to or admittance of the crime being charged. In this particular situation there is one thing required for an arrest to be made, and that is a claim."
A problem with that statement, is that people seems to had forgotten about it, but even so Alex kept part of the promise that he made in the public statement 11 years ago and made the event family friendly over the years, and there hasn't been any sights of Roy inside Metro Con but that doesn't mean he still active.

Another problem and Alex statement is that Roy was convicted but not incarcerated, a quick search on the Florida Database he is still there, he got registered and he still subject to visitations from the county, but the problem is that even with visitation Roy was still present outside of Metro Con, such as 2017 in Holiday Matsuri and Omni Expo around 2016, even his Linkdn profile marks him as active on public events as a Trade Show Consultant which is somewhat hypocritical that he has still somewhat of a controlled access to a computer but there is no way to find if he is active on social media, but even a small search around Twiiter pop results about his doings being a sexual predator.

Now, what really happened that people essentially forgot about this scandal? The answer is no, people who are familiar with the development of Metro Con and have been going through the years they still speak about this incident, and people who are newer but get well positioned within the convention scene they also know it, I learned from a friend who has been going there from 12 years and it chilled my spine because is somewhat of an open secret.

But, the operations and how the event is promoted has essentially distanced from the era of Roy Harms, which from the information I had found under the tutelage of Alex has been positive and more fan oriented events had been placed inside the convention, but also they had brought people that are meaningful and varied within the guest spectrum over the years up to the point that as time pass by, there is not too much mentioning of Roy Harms at all that he was ever the person who founded Metro Con.

The Simple Modern Aspects of Calvin And Hobbes Towards The Millenials

Tampa, (Fl) --- There are several analysis that can be made to Calvin & Hobbes, from the philosophical traces of Bill Watterson to the use of science as a component of the satire. There is not going to be another Calvin and Hobbes and there is not going to be any spiritual successor of this comic, that has been concluded since 1995.

It's amazing that's been almost 20 years since Calvin and Hobbes ended, and the comics strip it is still as fresh as it was on November 18th of 1985. It's quite amazing to think how much the world has changed in the last 29 years. Paris is Still Burning and Jenny Livingston went to make television, AIDS is still a menace, the newer generations are focused on more of the sensual pleasures (not to mention, clicktivism) where they ask for anything without even working; school system keeps failing and becoming more intolerant with everyone... The list can keep going on because the topics that the cartoon dealt are still valid, because even with the time people can always find a point to argue using critical analysis.

The juxtaposition of Calvin and Hobbes personality goes on practicality vs. impulsive actions; not necessarily old vs. young; as Hobbes if we go on the idea of imaginary friend is just a mere reflect on Calvin's more mature persona but yet with the ambiguity and analysis of relation toward reality. We can think, that Hobbes is just a mere reflection on what Calvin will become, maybe it could be applied towards the Millennials if they learn to look beyond the sensuous pleasures in life and learn how to work their lives out.

On one of the story arcs, where the family goes on a camping trip Calvin shows a total annoyance to be in contact with the nature as there were no amenities or technology that he could use; to think the strip had the beginning on the late 1980's and see how a child can't focus his attention because there are no technologies is some of a "problem" that is still seen today, where kids can't see themselves without a functioning tablet, computer or handheld video games.

Calvin, is on the point of finding his own cultural identity, there are no points that can relate them to the counter culture movements of the previous ones, there is not a solid ideology and some of the political ideas are related to grassroots waves that create influences because of the Internet weight. Probably Calvin is more keen to Generation X, both generations tend to be interrelated on the use of technology and also to be more liberal on certain ideas opposite to the Baby Boomers.

Calvin and his parents could be seen as both generations living under one roof, but yet the depth of his parents was never explored to know if they were more progressive than they looked on-panel; maybe, Calvin himself could be a reflection of his parents ideals on how to deal with reality and with people, even on an intellectual level.  

Daria: The Last Cartoon of Generation X

Daria Logo

Tampa, (Fl) --- As a member of the so called Generation X, the last generation that mixed the voice of non-conformity with the use of technology to express their non-conformity before they became hipsters and yuppies and raid into the conformity of the modern corporate world, they were much as me, a group of idealistic people who tried to change the world and eventually just gave up in their vast majority.

When the world of the generations was changing along came MTV Daria's; the last cartoon of a generation that wasn't keen to technologies and was more outspoken, which makes me wonder if in a hypothetical example Daria would turn out to be much as the rest of her generation,? and would lost her focus in life to become a writer.

The world of Daria wasn't far away from reality (except from that musical episode), a misunderstood teenage girl with a high IQ but yet extremely asocial to almost anyone else even among her family, but showing rare exceptions to one of her aunts and her father. Her best friend Jane who was much a young Bohemian who was as smart as Daria but yet not as solid to her cause; Daria's sister Quinn who was an insecure teenager fearful of rejection because as her sister she had some degree of intelligence but opted to hide it in order to fit in with the popular cliques and the list goes and goes.

The beauty of Daria is that is classic timeless piece of media, as the content is fresh and funny even almost a decade and a year later after the show ended in 2002; the show itself could follow a revival and find a new legion of fans but yet a follow up movie regards what happened with Lawndale wouldn't be a bad idea but yet if the show would be as fresh as it was on his prime is highly improbable, because today's generation is more self-centered than the one of a decade ago.

One sociological aspect of Daria is handling of alienation from part of society without gambling with sociopathic behaviors (even if they can be used to scared one or two individuals for your own amusement) but the topic of alienation is not exactly related to Daria herself as every single character face desolation and alienation in their own way.

Helen being scared of intimacy, Quinn fearful of being alone because of her "brains", Jake being fearful of interacting with other humans and being fearful of being rejected because of his neurosis but yet none of the characters seems to keep a healthy relationship between themselves because at the end they are full of themselves.

Probably Daria as a show projected what MTV become and was, as well what the future generations after the Generation X turned out to be, a bunch of individuals who don't give a crap about anything beyond their cellphones.