On Wednesday night, I was a guest on ANNCast to talk about sexism in anime and fandom. It’s the most popular podcast I’ve ever been on, and certainly the most structured.

We talked until midnight for me (since I’m on the East Coast, they’re three hours behind), and I’m usually in bed by eleven. I prepared some notes before we started talking, but I don’t think I had enough of a filter. Simply put, as soon as I signed off of Skype, my fiancé said to me, “You’re gonna get hate mail for that.”

He’s probably right. I’m definitely going to get shit for accusing lolicon fans of being childish, for saying that geek culture rewards women who act like sluts, and other equally unfiltered remarks. The former high school debater in me cringes, but these raw musings probably made the podcast more interesting than if I had been my most thoughtful, polished self. At least that’s what I’m telling myself!

Give it a listen here.

Aine from DC Geeks took some time out of her busy schedule covering notable geek events in the district to conduct an interview with regular old me. I was really honored. Interviewing other people is a big part of my job, so I know what a time commitment it is when somebody else prepares questions for me.

A really good interviewer can be like a brainstorming partner; when she asks questions about your beliefs, it can help you to affirm and solidify them. Aine’s question about my use of the word “weeaboo” did that for me.

I know that with a word with a history as contentious of that of “weeaboo” will always be problematic, but I think my answer here is the one I most believe in:

Aine: Another quick terminology question: weeaboo. Are we taking it back? Or do we need to wait a bit before it loses its racist connotations?

Lauren: I was taken aback by your word “racist,” but it’s true. When I reviewed the etymology of the word, I remembered that “weeaboo” was the Perry Bible Fellowship nonsense word that 4chan used as a replacement for any instance of the word “wapanese.”

However, I don’t believe weeaboos are intentionally racist. I recently wrote about Saturday Night Live’s sketch about weeaboos (and a lively discussion is still going on in the comments), and I particularly liked what the professor said about the overenthusiastic students:

“If there’s such a thing as a loving version of racism, I think you’ve found it.”

I’ve used the word “weeaboo” to describe myself a few times: when I cooked Japanese food, when I bought a kotatsu, and when I wore a kimono to celebrate my 24th birthday at a sushi restaurant. I’ve even written an apologetic letter to Asian people about my embarrassment over being so enthusiastic about a culture that is not my own, nor do I have any idea about. (I have never even been to Japan.)

I realize that my interest in Japanese culture could be misconstrued as racism, and so I feel guilty about it. But I think my enthusiasm, as is the case with all weeaboos, comes from a very well intentioned place.

Does anyone else ever feel guilty about a fandom-inspired interest in Japan?

Katsucon has been under fire after flip-flopping about their fan art policy for two weeks up to the convention. Finally, they decided to only enforce copyright when copyright holders brought violations to their attention.

This is surprising since the initial copyright complaint came from somebody who wasn’t a copyright holder at all.

“The complaint came from a Katsucon volunteer without a vested interest in copyright holding,” said Chad Diedrichs, Katsucon’s press liason. Aside from managing press, Diedrichs is also the author of Katsucon’s official fanart policy.

Diedrichs would not disclose the volunteer’s name, but listed several of my friends who might know him personally. This leads me to think that he’s a regular fixture in the local convention circuit. The complainant expressed concern with what he called Katsucon’s “percieved permissiveness” about copyright violation.

“He filed the complaint over a year after the con, so we’re not sure what triggered him,” he said.

Diedrichs said that when a complaint is formally issued to Katsucon’s parent company as in this case, Katsucon must create a formal response. Since it all happened just weeks before the convention, Diedrichs said the initial reponse was a bit of a knee-jerk reaction, which concerned artists,  attendees, and staff like Diedrichs alike. Katsucon had to make a decision.

“We could change the policy too little too late, or we could leave a bad policy in place,” he said. Clearly, the con chose the former. Thus, as Diedrich’s announcement ran, the convention would take an approach “similar to YouTube” and take action under notice of the copyright holder.

However, it was too little too late.

See that row of tables? That’s part of the Katsucon Artist Alley this past weekend. After the confusion around Katsucon’s fan art policy, whole rows of artists chose not to show up. Luckily, I had a chance to talk to some of the artists that did.

One artist, Jessi Bavolack of Geeks Next Door, said that the policy was “extremely confusing,” but decided to go ahead and take the artwork she planned on bringing in the first place.

“We thought it would be easier to ask for forgiveness than permission,” she said.

I pointed out one of her pieces: “Ed and Silent Al,” a spoof drawing mashing up Fullmetal Alchemist and Jay and Silent Bob, and asked if she’d been asked not to sell it at Katsucon.

“This is protected under parody law,” she said. “Fair use works in for-profit cases in art just like it’s allowed in music.”

Bavolack said she hoped Katsucon learns from their error. “I still love Katsucon. But [my fan art] is supposed to be a tribute to stuff we love. A convention isn’t for fans if fandom isn’t allowed in it.”

Another artist, Kaysha “Eldanis” Siemens said that she came to Artist Alley with no reservations since she is focusing mostly on original art. A North Carolina resident, she’s accustomed to fan art restrictions at Anime Weekend Atlanta, which she said only allows “three pieces of fan art, five copies of each print.”

“At first I thought, ‘Well, that’s arbitrary, how does having fewer prints make it more legal?’” she said. But she said she thinks that this is the direction conventions are going in now.

“A restriction to originals only helps me focus on building my portfolio,” she said. “Plus, in Europe, all their conventions are originals only and they deal with it just fine.”

On Saturday night of the con, Katsucon held an open forum for artists to express their thoughts on the matter. While I didn’t get to attend, the fact that the forum existed shows one thing: Katsucon’s learning from this mistake, and their damage control began even before the convention was over.

In a news article, this is where I would put my “full disclosure.” But this is my blog and you know what I’m going to say: I love Katsucon and really want to believe that it’s on the mend. So let’s get some unbiased opinions into this conversation — based on the evidence, what do you think?

 

 

I love having a blog because it gives me a reason to reach out to people I admire. Ever since I started subscribing to Wired magazine last year, I have looked forward to Brian Raftery’s articles. He’s written for a lot of magazines, but these articles resonate with me the most, and for good reason. His February 2010 article about the Cheezburger Network led me to his website, where I found another favorite in his ROFLcon synopsis. But in November when I read his article about the Insane Clown Posse, I knew I had to get in touch with him.

I’m so glad I did. Even though I’m just a fan, he was nice enough to set aside more than an hour for our phone interview. Brian gave me a lot of insight about what it means to be a freelance journalist today.

Our discussion fell into a few categories, which I’ll elaborate on one at a time.

Writing about subculture

One of the reasons I reached out to Brian was because I admired his depictions of various subcultures. However, Brian’s job description — at least in his editorial position at Wired — is to examine “intersection of pop culture and technology.” Still, Brian doesn’t think that his pop culture work is ever entirely removed from subculture.

“Whenever I write about pop culture, there’s always an element of subculture,” he said.

He said that subculture writing is interesting since it hasn’t been written about to death. “I would much rather write about a small or sizable movement of fans than a Jennifer Lopez album,” he said.

Brian said that as a writer, he finds subcultures fascinating because they’re often ignored or ridiculed.

“I like looking at stories of people or things that maybe other people don’t take seriously and then take them as seriously as I can.”

The problem with subculture writing though, is often finding the audience. At Wired, Brian’s articles need to be comprehensible to a mainstream audience without boring the diehard fans. Luckily, he explains, the readers are always smarter than you expect.

“On the first drafts of stories I will find myself losing paragraphs upon paragraphs trying to explain what LOLcats are or something and at a certain point you realize you’re going to lose people who are really interested in this.”

However, he said it’s very important to give the people who are unfamiliar with the topic an entry point. This is made easier since most of Brian’s stories aren’t about subcultures he himself is interested in. With that in mind, he looks for the big picture reason about why this topic is important to write about now, and uses that purpose to draw readers in.

Working as a freelance journalist

Brian’s current gig as a freelancer allows him to control his own life and make his own hours, but it didn’t happen overnight. After graduating from Penn State, he accepted an internship and then a job at Entertainment Weekly. After leaving the magazine in 2003, he became an editor at GQ. After that, he realized he had enough connections in the magazine world to make a living as a freelancer.

At first, he said, it was terrifying. “It’s such a survival sort of thing. You wake up in the morning and if you don’t start working, you’re not going to be able to pay your rent. Some people tell me, ‘If I freelanced I’d just watch TV all day,’ but if you do that, eventually you’re not going to have a TV.”

The first two years were the toughest. “I took everything I could get,” he said. “It’s the most hustle I’ve ever done, certainly.” But after a couple years, he was able to use his magazine industry contacts to make and keep a couple of streams of income. (The Wired magazine job, for example, came about when he pitched a story to another magazine, and they suggested he try talking to a contact of theirs Wired.)

Now, by “always working three months ahead,” he’s able to schedule time off for writing fiction, honing his comedy improv skills, or taking a technology sabbatical.

As a young journalist, of course I wanted to know how to get my own writing contacts! But Brian said that he owed a lot of his success to luck and timing. He said the magazine community is very small and getting writing jobs is a matter of breaking into that group.

“I really lucked out. I had some great mentors… There were a lot of people who were incredibly generous and gave me writing jobs even when I was just an intern. Nobody would have known I had any talent if an editor hadn’t given me a chance.”

Here’s an audio clip of Brian’s advice for young writers today combined with a bit of talk about new venues for writing:

The writing process

Brian’s articles are long but they never lose my attention. Even when I think I know a topic, like the Cheezburger Network, he always manages to reveal facts I didn’t know yet. So in order to figure out how he starts working on a story, I decided to give him a story assignment. On furries. Listen to the clip to hear how that turned out:

Afterward, I wanted to know what it was like to write about the Insane Clown Posse. You will be amazed at how much preparation went into writing this story… including listening to every single ICP album twice. If you don’t listen to any of my audio clips, listen to this one!

Niche journalism

In 2009, Brian finished his first book, Don’t Stop Believin’: How Kareoke Conquered the World and Changed My Life. It was especially interesting to hear about Brian’s work examining a subculture that he himself is a part of. As a subculture reporter myself, I worry about getting too involved in my subject and I was glad to hear that I’m not alone.

Brian said that it’s natural to become familiar with the people you report on. When you work a beat, he said, you get to know people. However, he said it’s important to be able to tell the difference between being friendly and being friends.

“[In an interview] the trick is to make sure you’re not sitting there thinking ‘Oh wow, we’re friends now.’ I always wait a couple days after an interview before writing the story. You kind of need that clarity so you think ‘this is my subject. They aren’t someone I have to make happy with this. They’re someone I have to be fair to and accurate about,” he said.

He said this is something that he’s been especially vigilant about policing. After reporting on the Insane Clown Posse, for example, “I found myself defending them to friends… But the story itself remains very neutral.”

From what I told him about my reporting on anime conventions, he thinks that as niches go, this is a big one. He doesn’t think it’s easy to get too immersed within but for any subculture that you’re also a part of, “you have to find a level of engagement you’re comfortable with.”

–
I’m so grateful to Brian Raftery for putting aside some time for a fan and aspiring journalist. It was amazing to talk with someone with such an interesting career. His success has definitely inspired me to more seriously pursue my particular brand of otaku journalism.

Remember when I announced this back in September? This morning, I presented my long-awaited speech on WordPress for the TBD blogging network. Some cool people attended and tweeted about it and I was very appreciative. But if you didn’t make it, don’t despair! My presentation, cheat sheet, and even the actual speech itself are all available for download right here. If you’ve heard my voice before, you can just read it and imagine I’m telling it to you… unless you find that creepy.

Download the speech as a PDF.

Download the cheat sheet.

Watch the presentation:

Enjoy! And if you like it, please leave a comment. I spent a lot of time writing this and I’d love your feedback.

From left: Patrick Macias, Gia Manry, Colette Bennett

For many of us, it seems like a fantasy. Watching and reviewing anime as part of the daily grind. Getting paid to cover anime and gaming conventions. Making money off of things most otaku pay money to do.

A lucky, hard-working few have made this their reality. This includes three journalists that I deeply admire:  Patrick Macias of Otaku USA Magazine, Gia Manry of Anime News Network, and Colette Bennett of Tomopop (and more!). I sent out email questionnaires to all three of them about how they started — and maintain — their careers, plus their advice for the rest of us. This is what they told me.

Getting started

As an unpaid anime blogger, I was very interested in finding out how the journalists had made the transition from free work to paid work. Patrick, who began his career pre-Internet, had the most experience in this department.

While he kept his day job writing for a nationally syndicated news service, Patrick spent his free time contributing articles about otaku themes to fan publications for “little or no pay.” This led to him getting a position in San Fransisco covering Asian films. Around 1997, this publicity got Patrick hired at Viz Media’s editorial department. Since then he has gone on to co-own a media company, become editor in chief of Otaku USA Magazine, and write two books.

“I got lucky early on with regards to having my work syndicated and getting decent pay for it,” he said. “But there was little to no fiscal reward for my Japanese pop culture writing for a long time.”

Gia Manry’s career path began while she was still in school. She wrote news for a popular Harry Potter site for free because “it was fun and good experience.” Later, she started blogging about manga, but applied for jobs at the same time.

“I started my first manga-related blog (a very niche one) around the same time I applied to Anime Insider, and I got to work for them about five months later,” she said.

After Anime Insider shut down, Gia wrote for a couple other anime sites, started her own anime news site, and finally ended up at Anime News Network. While she makes a living off her work as an anime blogger, she said she does occasionally work for free.

“I’ve also volunteered my time for causes I appreciate, and I have worked for free when I had things that I wanted to say and had full control over where and how I said them,” she said.

In Colette’s case, blogging became a second career. Stuck working a job in L.A. that she didn’t enjoy, Colette said things turned around after she met a graphic novel artist and admired his lifestyle.

“He really inspired me. I talked to him often about my dream of writing about videogames. And one day he said ‘Why don’t you start a blog?’” she said.

Colette started a blog but took it one step further. As she worked, she emailed a link to her blog to the editors of all her favorite video game websites, advertising herself as a freelancer willing to cover gaming events. Eventually both Kotaku and Destructoid offered her jobs. She chose Destructoid, but contributes to several other blogs including Gamasutra. She didn’t make money off of the original blog, but it certainly contributed to her eventual job.

“I think working for free is a good experience to start out, but I think everyone needs to have a cut off,” she said.

The typical workday

This career is no joke. When I found out about each journalist’s daily routine, I realized that each one of them is an incredibly hard working person. It shows that not just anyone can succeed in the field.

Patrick said he wakes up at 6:30 a.m. each day to begin checking email, blog statistics, and social networks. He pauses to do housework until 10 to 11, when he gets down to the day’s writing and editing.

“Unless I have a really pressing deadline, things start to slow down around 5 p.m., at which point I start thinking about dinner,” he said.

For fun, he has been playing Modern Warfare in the evenings after work. His day usually ends around midnight.

Gia gets up between 7 and 8 and commutes to work — as she joked, her commute is “bed to computer.” You might think that with a trip like that, it’d be tempting to go back to bed, but Gia is truly dedicated.

“It would be so easy to lock myself in the house for weeks on end! I’m sort of obsessive and when you work on a job you love, especially an Internet-content job, there’s always something you can be doing,” she said.

With that in mind, she makes sure to run errands, exercise, or visit friends in order to step out of the house for a bit. But afterward, her workday continues until the evening.

Colette did not specify a wake-up time, but based on the number of sites she contributes to on a daily basis, her workday runs long.

“On a normal day, I start by checking our schedule and going through my RSS feeds to send tips to the staff. After that, I usually return emails, contact any distributors or advertisers I may need to follow up with, edit the work of my writers and then work on reviews,” she said.

Aside from managing a staff, Colette said she spends a lot of her day focusing on site-building. And of course, she takes photos of toys for Tomopop five days a week. “Really stressful [part of the] job,” she joked.

Advice for the aspiring

These three journalists have truly made it, but what hope is there for the rest of us?

Patrick thinks the growth of anime journalism is very limited. Even though the fandom itself is strong, he said, the industry has its own problems.

“Some are common to the entertainment industry at large (such as digital piracy, loss of advertising and sponsorship, competition from other media) while others are unique to anime and manga (the bursting of the ‘manga bubble,’ the closure of several high-profile anime distributors, the difficulties of dealing with Japanese license holders),” he said.

However, he did have advice for the aspiring anime journalists who can rise to the challenge. Learn Japanese to get a leg up on the competition, he suggested. And develop your own unique writing voice, so you don’t get lost in the crowd.

“You have to know more than your audiences, who already have vast amounts of information at their fingertips via Wikipedia and Google,” he said. “Way too much of what masquerades as ‘anime journalism’ nowadays is just people rewriting press releases or recycling content from news aggregators. You really have to bring something unique to the table in order to stand out.”

Gia said she gets questions from aspiring journalists a lot. She said there is only a handful of sites paying content creators right now. Plus, she adds, it’s not only a difficult industry but a difficult economy overall. With that in mind, she doesn’t believe anime journalism is a growing career venue.

She said she wouldn’t suggest anyone quit their day job to go into anime journalism, or even writing online. She said that this field rewards only those who love it and are willing to work harder than anything for it.

“I think a lot of people also don’t realize that working in a field you love is hard,” she said. “Don’t get into this field to make lots of money, and don’t get into this field because you like anime so it’ll be easy to write about it. Expect to work your butt off to prove you’re worth hiring over all the other fans, and expect to care– for better and for worse –about what you’re doing.”

Colette was slightly more optimistic.

“Anime journalism is a viable career venue, but a very small one,” she said. “However, since there is a flood of news coming out of Japan at all times, I think there is always room to do something.”

Colette suggests aspiring anime journalists read as many blogs as they can on a regular basis, and figure out what they cover and cover well and, more importantly, what they’re missing and what they can do better.

“You’ll need a way to stick out since the market is full of people who want to do the same thing, so consider something innovative,” she said. “Don’t be afraid to stand out.”

–

My interviews included plenty more questions than the three listed. Would you like to hear more about these talented professionals? Let me know in the comments.

Sometimes I get so excited about the “otaku” half of my blog title that I forget about the second half. So if you’d find it interesting to see me take off my fangirl cat-ears and put on my journalism hat for an afternoon, you might find my November 6 workshop interesting.

I am working with American University, my alma mater, and TBD, a DC news site, to present a workshop for bloggers about using WordPress to its fullest. I’ll be discussing layout customization, widgets and plugins, SEO features, and overall how you’re probably only using 10 percent of WordPress’s full capabilities. And of course, I’ll be explaining it all with journalists in mind.

Let me know if you can make it. It should be a laid-back good time!

Thinking about going to T-MODE but not sure if it’s worth it? Want to hear a little more before you decide? Well then, thank goodness you read my blog!

Due to my connections to T-MODE’s Marketing Director, John Bowers (full disclosure: he’s my boyfriend), I was able to get him to sit down to share a few details about what the convention has in store this year:

Lauren: To start, congratulations on your new position as T-MODE’s Marketing Director? What do you do, exactly?

John: Well my duties aren’t completely defined yet, however my basic goal is to promote T-MODE and to make sure we deliver the experience that our con-going community expects.

Lauren: What CAN the con-going community expect from this year’s T-MODE?

John: Well T-MODE is a small con with big con flavor. Like other area conventions, we are going to be screening anime, hosting gaming (table top and video) and providing cosplay events as well as bringing in big name talent.

Lauren: What are some of the “don’t miss” events of T-MODE?

John: One of our “don’t-miss” events is the Cosplay Variety Show. It’s our version of the traditional masquerade without all the hassle. We also throw in a concert and a fashion show to round it out and keep the entertainment up! We are also having a “Matsuri” this year where you can play traditional Japanese festival games for tickets which can then be redeemed for prizes.

Lauren: I’ve heard T-MODE has a cap on how many people can attend. How soon do people need to buy my tickets in order to make sure they get in?

John: We aren’t near the cap yet, however, after the announcement of Wendee Lee our roomblock sold out and our pre-reg has really picked up. The sooner you pre-reg the better! We did just receive word that they are extending our room block, so there is still limited space in the hotel.

Lauren: Voice actress Wendee Lee is coming?

John: Yes! Wendee Lee, you could say, is our star attraction. She hasn’t been to an East Coast con in years and has been off the con circuit for a while. Because our con is small, the chance of you getting to not only meet Wendee Lee but also hang out with her are high. We even offer more expensive Otaku Passport memberships which get you into private guest events with her.

Lauren: Exciting to hear! What are you personally looking forward to the most at T-MODE?

John: Personally, I’m excited for the gaming. We are still working out some of the details but we are planning to have old arcade cabinets scattered throughout the con. We’re also planning to have a Rock Band Tournament for epic prizes!

Lauren: Sounds fun! Anything you’d like to tell potential visitors?

John: T-MODE is a big con in a small package and lets you experience cons the way you want to with out all the crowds and waiting in lines. T-MODE is a really consumer driven experience con. We want to have the best con experience possible for all of our guests!

Find out more about T-MODE on their Web site or at their booth at Sakura Matsuri.

This is the third installation of my interview with filmmaker Danny Ledonne, which I have published here in three parts. In this section, Ledonne and I discuss the upcoming video game, Heavy Rain, violence in video games and how the media reports violent crimes.

Q: Heavy Rain, have you heard of it? It’s being touted as the first of its kind- an artistic documentary, an interactive drama. I wanted to ask you what you think about it.

A: What I can say is that concept is not entirely new but that concept has never really been accepted commercially and so I think what many game designers I’ve talked to have said is, “Look, we’re going to have the tools at our disposal to make video game that you could think of more as art games that aren’t using the conventional commercial assumptions about video games being fun and entertaining and fast paced and easy to understand and comfortable to play,” but those games are really up against an entire demographic that has been carved out by the video game industry to not accept games like that. Here’s the bottom line- when video games came out, they were installed in saloons and bars and pubs and places like that and adults would go and put quarters in these games while they were having fun at a pub and I think video game publishers and developers said, “Well, if we’re going to expand this market, we need to get the video game into the American family’s home, we need a way to make a video game seem commercially palatable to a broader audience.” And so systems like the Atari and especially the Nintendo in 1985 capitalized on creating fun family entertainment and it shows everyone in the family sitting around a TV having fun, it’s usually the girls watching, the boys playing, video games. But what has happened in the last ten years is that video games have begun to become much more sophisticated, they’re going to have more mature audiences. But video game makers still present it as the whole family huddled around the video game, as they would play Operation or Scrabble or something like that. So until that mindset changes, you’re going to have some really incredible artistic video games that a very small segment of people who read the New York Times and go to art museums are actually going to play, and most video gamers are going to go on message boards and forums and say, “LOL this game sucks, the graphics suck, this game is so boring” because they’re expecting it to be like Halo 3 or Gears of War or Assassin’s Creed and it’s not going to be like that at all.

Q: Graphics are getting better and better. Do you think that today’s first person shooter is actually going to desensitize kids to violence because they look just like people now. (more…)

This is the second installation of my interview with filmmaker Danny Ledonne, to be published in three parts. In this section, Ledonne shares his views on interactive narratives, and weighs in on how his own interactive narrative, Super Columbine Massacre RPG, fits into the canon.

Q: One thing we’ve touched on is how, in interactive narratives, you think you have a lot of control, but you don’t really have as much power as you think you do- it’s what the author of the narrative is influencing you. It’s linear at your own pace so it’s still going to go to the place that the creator deems. What do you think about that?

A: I know a number of game designers who have confided to me or they’ve said out loud in panel discussions, “You know, we’re actually not giving the player the opportunity to do whatever he or she wants, we’re giving them that feeling, we’re giving them perhaps that illusion. But ultimately all you’re doing is creating lines of codes, and on some level we’re still experiencing life in a linear way, we can’t travel through time, we exist in a three dimensional space and have gravity. So there’s all these restrictions in our real lives and in our virtual video game lives that are actually sources of constraint, so we don’t have no limitations, but I actually think that’s probably a good thing. If you were to exist, and there have been video games that have tried this, if you were to start a game with no explanation as to what it is, what you’re supposed to do, you don’t know what the controls are, and you just sort of go around and interact with objects but there’s really no clear reason as to why, you kind of have this existential moment in the game where you’re not sure what the purpose of the game is or what your purpose in the game is. So I think as much as we talk about interactivity, I think people still really secretly desire some elements of vary straightforward linear experiences in the game world because without that the experience just really falls apart. Some games do this in a more open ended way, “sand box games” like maybe The Sims or whatever where you can freely explore and experiences things. But even games like that have all kinds of assumptions built into them about how you’re supposed to interact with the game, and those are sort of, much like life, as with any game whether it be a video game, a board game, a sport, or an activity you play, there are rules to govern what the limits of the game are and how you play the game.

Q: I’ve heard that this is a negative, when interactive narratives are used in the news, that games do not give you that many choices and allow the creator’s bias to seep through. So you don’t think this is a negative? (more…)