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Recent Journal
A Return to Form MFF 2023
5 months agoThursday
The evening started off later than expected for when I would have liked to arrive, but I made it to the Crowne Plaza at a reasonable time at least. I had brought dinner for group of those I knew like previously in 2019, this time 16 bean and ham soup. I got my room key from the dragon whom I was sharing a room with, and set the slow cooker on high, so while I was gone getting my badge from Reg line the soup could heat up again from what became room temperature soup.So I went to reg line and saw a huge line of people about a 2 hour wait and that was just for the regular pre-registered members for MFF. The MFF staff was not even doing at the door registration this evening that was for Friday morning. I went in and since I chose to be at the Sponsor level for MFF I was able to go to the short line and bypass the main crowd; I was in and out within 15 minutes as compared to my last time at MFF 2019 which was a reg disaster with failed badge printers. The QR code system was new to me and was for signing in, it was something that you got in your email however as stated.’ “This code is not a replacement for your photo ID. You must still present your government-issued photo ID when picking up your badge.” Therefore, the time was still the same other than sign in, and the badge was printed immediately from the blanks they had. In the past, the method was, the badge was already printed out all the staff had to do was find it, relative to what was the first letter of your last name.
Other features if note, no con books, no foldable pocket maps this year, you wanted a schedule, you had to look at mff2023.sched,com, seems no one uses flip phones anymore and this does force your hand kind of like.
I got back to the room and the soup was pretty hot by this point, so I text messaged the group that it was ready, and even my dragon roommate was welcome to stay. We all had soup and cornbread muffins, 7 including myself were all present,. After the soup supper it was back to the hotel to get some more time in to mingle with the furs and take photos.
I took my leave to go over to the Hyatt for taking pictures at the hotel, while the others went back to their rooms to suit up those who had suits. Once I got to the hotel there was already a crowd and some new features to be seen that was not existent the last time in 2019 at MFF, One was the half lockers, all along the glass wall on the way to the grand ballrooms in the Hyatt. I was a smart feature for when those going to the rave have a place to drop off their stuff, without having to go long distance to multiple hotels in the surrounding area. Another feature was the big screen place outside of Main Events so you could see what was going on inside without stepping inside, all the banners and extra signage now.
Between talking pictures, and talking to peeps I spent many hours that otherwise in my mind felt like mere minutes. By the end of my time it was already past 2am, I got back to my hotel room for the night to a quiet dark place, but all was good. Now if only I could fall asleep faster a s my mind just kept me up, all the things to do, see had seen, it was all so fast and I missed it.
Friday
Despite going to bed late my body will continue to wake me up early whether I want to or not, as so it goes. I head breakfast, and wet out to the Convention space to do my morning run of the floor and get whatever fursuiters I could before opening ceremonies. On the way to the convention center I saw a new addition, paid crowd control for furries to be able to cross N. River Rd, in front of the convention center and not just at the corner where Bryn Mhar Rd. is. Before that point I also saw a confection company called Moon Shine Confections a pop up lace local to Chicago, but out sources to Ohio, with their many flavors nougat filling that you can break like a KitKat, I ended up buying an assorted array of these confections.When opening ceremonies, started one of the first things stated that on Thursday alone over 9000 pre-reg people had already gotten to the con, (me included) with at one point over 1600 people checked in an hours’ time.
Met the charity for this year called Live Like Roo (the name of a dog) a charity that gives money to people to help pay vet expenses, like cancer treatments etc. There was even a presentation that we saw as a series of zoom calls of the head of the charity telling the people that they were getting x000k dollars for their pet medical bills. It was beautiful and a way to make them and the audience tear up and was the video used that ultimately made Live Like Roo become this years charity.
We met the other leads like Art lead, the Board of Directors, Security leads, Programing director, etc, and of all positions, there was around 700+ staff and additional 2000 unlisted volunteers, and these people were not being counted in the final tally of total attendance come Sunday at Closing Ceremonies, With a few other notations aside, The con was officially open an so everyone exited the halls, as a guy with a semi muted megaphone tried to keep the crowd moving, and do not stop in the hall.
My next place to go was to Artist Alley or Dealers Den and bother were a distance from where I was as the most comfortable way not in the rain to the convention center was through the sky bridge. When I got back to the Convention center I was making my way to get to Dealers when I heard another staff security on a megaphone state, “Dealers Den is closed, there is a 2 hour or so wait.” This just goes to show how many people we have at MFF this year with no covid restrictions and fire safety code do not mix. With that I made my way to go to Artist Alley, and found that other people had the same idea and went there as well, to the point that there was a long line forming there as well with over an hour wait. I decided then and there that I would just walk about the convention space, till the dragon Meep & Greet at 2pm.
I had already taken dragon pics before even going to the meet but I meet some familiar faces and a bunch of new ones while there and it was also. It was nice to meep and rawr along with others, and to even see a drone used to take the group photo for this meet. It was also fun to be among a bunch of suits also the Plush Army (if all your stuffed animals came to life) ones all fell down and became a giant cuddle pile for dergs in suit and not in suit alike; yes it was warm and cozy.
I went back to see if the line in the Dealers Den was open or at least a shorter line, it was not, and Artist Alley was not either, so back to the Hyatt I went. There was some time to kill before the Bird Cheep & Greet at 5 so I went to the Bird Nerds panel instead, and ended up waiting for no show panel host, because apparently the host had a covid scare. Then Chris the Comedy Bunny came in to impromptu take over the panel in his own antics and we do bird facts to him instead. It was not what I was expecting, but at least it was funny. Missed the Skull creatures meet up going on at that time, but maybe next year.
The next event was at 5 and that was the Bird Meet and Tweet that is how birds greet each other afterall. Unlike the dragon meet this room had all the chairs still in the rows rather than some setup and the rest open space. So the room was crowded and less than enough space to walk around easily, and all the birds that could have been there, were not because if the cramped spaces, I made the best of the situation, and got photos, and stickers of byrds while there, and it was a lot of cute chirping going on and a lot of “gwah/caw” from the crows.
It was past 6 pm now and I went back to see if the Dealers Den or Artist Alley did not have a giant waiting line to get in. Taking the sky-bridge back to the convention center I made my way, and found that for the Dealers Den at least, there was a bit of a wait but I was now in, to see the sights and only had to wait likely less than 5 minutes. The room space provided was bigger now then in 2019 and had 100 vendors, that including the adult side of the Dealers Annex. Alas with less than an hour to browse I was more just glancing over the artists then actually stopping over look at what they had to offer. I did this till I started hear the announcement that Dealers was closing in 15 minutes. With that I made my way down to the Artist who I knew was a Dealer, and said I was going back to the hotel to heat up left overs.
With my quick trip I went back to the hotel to heat up the 16 bean soup and those who showed up did. After dinner, “She” stayed in the room I was in since I was only 2 floors below hers and she had 5 other roommates to work around. So she worked on commissions, and I put the food away and went back to the hotel.
I made my way back to the hotel, now being night, I opted to take the longer way, to get back via the sky-bridge, at the ground elevator by the Embassy Suites. (or “Em Bussy Suites” more on that later).
I get back to the hotel and make my way to what was now called the “Con Suite” for the Protogen and synth Meet and Beep at pm. Nowhere had I ever seen so many beep boops in one place, and more interestingly as I took photos it was amazing that over 90% of all proto suits were self-made from the head down. The beauty of protos is that the head matters more than the body suit, if you even need one at all.
As for the Con Suite a couple things seem to have happened, Covid killed it, for 1 but more on that later. The room was just round tables set up, not even long tables with paper on then for sketching, no snacks or soda fountain. It really was a strange site, and I was thinking at the time it was more so you were forced to buy from the food truck outside the hotel 2nd set of revolving doors, by the Grand ballroom area.
It was now around 9pm and I went back to my walk around the hotel and take photos as I come upon them of fursuits. It was then I chose to step outside, the lighting is good with the overhead lights and whether smoking or just cooling off in suit, that is where you congregate with the warm and fuzzies. This is where it gets interesting for me, I got outside, and there is a husky with a Bluetooth boom box playing 2000s “buttrock” aka common rock radio songs like old “Q101 everything alternative.” My opener to this was Teenagers by My Chemical Romance. But even tough not my favorite band, I was hooked, I put the camera into my backpack so as not to break it; it was time to rock and rave.
Breaking Benjamin, Three Days Grace, Disturbed, System of a Down, The Offspring, oh my; with every classic to every tune I felt like I was anything pre 2010, and it was amazing. Hands in the air, singing along, bobbing heads, these are my people (furs rather), and I wished t could last all night. We even had someone who was blowing up condom balloons and putting marker faces on them. When some of them condoms broke we did a break in the music and raised our phones with lights on waving them, to remember the fallen ones, as “Sarah Mclachlan Arms Of An Angel” plays, and with all the furies, it may as well had been for an ASPCA commercial.
After our brief intermission the regularly schooled rock music requests was back on, and so was the party. Alas all good things must eventually come to an end, and ours was cut short by the battery dying in the boom box. We’ll have to try again, tomorrow so as it goes.
I spent the rest of my night doing what I do, photo ops and after 2am I called it a night
Saturday
As with MFF past, I started my Saturday with the Sponsor, brunch, I paid, so I was going to indulge my gluttony; 3 plates worth infact. I managed to meet LeShorin there and something I was not expecting to have happen. It was a nice chat actually, and from then on, on and off she became my tail through Sunday.With Brunch done I alas missed, Cartoons made me a furry, panel, would have been interesting to see what peoples responses would have been. I instead made my way to Artist Alley Dealers Den to even see if I could get in this time and actually look around. I got into Dealers Den which was good, and made my way around to see the over 100 venders, not including the Annex area, a place I never actually went the while weekend. I made my way around, looked at crafts of all sort and had to make my way out before 2pm for the Pokemon meet.
Saw a line of jingle bous walking along the sidewalk to the convention center to the Pokemon meet. As expected the Pokemon meet was quite full and the biggest congregation of any meet and greets I attended, even bigger than the Dragon Meep & Greet. A lot of Pokemon were there with very little duplicates of the same species. Things mot seen but I was expecting, Charizard, Gargiviore, Picachu, but we did have Ritchu, Blaziken, Swampert, Grovile, etc. There also was non-Pokenon species including Digimon and hand crafted Japanese style kitsune tails, Kimonos and masks, fabric paint, and all the other fancy hand crafted trimmings of jewelry and apparel; of who I would see at the anime panel.
Next was time to go to back and see Artist Alley, and that was a big ol “forget about it.” Where Dealers Den was to capacity on Friday, on Saturday the 2 hour wait with all the line wrapping around the entire 2 sides of the artist alley and art room. The reality is this did not end the entire day, so I did not even get to see the Artist Alley on Saturday. So back to Dealers I go to for now.
The anime panel was at 4:30. When I got there I saw a number of familiar faces, including some of the Pokemon from earlier also an Inuyasha Kitsune cosplay, the 2Kitsune from earlier, Digimon, 1 Legendz cosplat, of Shiron. If my camera battery did not die I would have gotten more photos, I had to go back to my hotel for that and to get the other one charging. II at least have memories who and what I saw while there.
Next was the Meet and Bleat, oh deer. That is exactly what it was too, all things hooved a lot of who were caribou; but there was what could be white tailed deer, but green and yellow in color with first name John. Also got a prancing performance by the Jingle Bous, of whom I saw earlier on and made like a giant conga line with alot of the bleat suiters good thing Santa was not there lol. Good thing I got some photos earlier on. I just put the camera in the back pack I was wearig foe safe keeping at this point.
It was now going on 7pm and I was looking at my phone and saw a pinned message. “Birds meet under the statue in the Hyatt” This was a plan meet by Storm Gryphon who was going to play host for and help decide on where to walk to for dinner. In total 11 birds showed up me included, and so we took or leave into the night air. We all were just winging it, as we may have chosen a restaurant, but did they have room for 11? It took us 3 attempts before finally coming to a Bar Grill and Entertainment called Kings Entertainment.
Kings Place in Rosmont is food and a bar, but also has Bowling Lanes, Pool, smoking longue, Arcade, electric slot machines, and still room for a dining area and bar. If had to describe it, it was a miniature Dave & Busters as it could not be spread out, no space was not unused, nothing underutilized, even different floor levels. It was pretty slick and the food was actually good and with cost of current 2023 inflation, at a modest price point. Speaking of I was the last to get my food because seems the order either got lost or just shuffled but I was forced to inquire about it. When I got my Bourbon BBQ burger topped with cheddar and crispy fried onion with waffle fries, it was quite tasty indeed and minus the wait was worth it.
When all said and done we made our way back to my hotel in the Crown Plaza to replace, and charge the camera battery before going back to the Convention center. It was past 8 and there were places to be. The place for me starting with was Fandom Horror Stories in the convention center. This was an 18+ panel at 9 where the audience told their events, Gas con MFF 2014 was my story and the first to set the tone for the rest of the stories. Others spoke of the fire alarm indents at IFC, past Anthrcon stories, and a few not even furry specific conventions; but coming out of the furry closet to their family and friends stories.
After the panel was over I made my way back to the Hyatt the was an open invite for all byrds to a room party, and because booze was going to be there, not smart dude. I got there and the room was not full to capacity yet. I ran into the guy who did the buttrock event, Friday, front of hotel said he would be starting in a half hour, back to him on a bit... There was Bacardy Rum and Kirkland Hard Seltzer , and whatever else was there was what people brought themselves. Nintendo Switch was playing on the flat screen and byrds were just chilling, also this is where the bird totem comes in where all the fursuit head were stacked in a corner.
It was at this room party that I met someone who was MFF staff on break and I heard them talking about the food Trucks outside the lobby rooms to the grand ballroom at the Hyatt. As I understand it MFF used to have hot food service, I remember that from MFF 2014 Thursday night back when Alkali was kitchen staff and by 2015 it was only snacks and cold things like lunchmeat chips, candy and the soda machine from hell. Fast forward to 2020 covid killed the con and in the return year Con-suite as we knew it was scaled back. Funny thing is there were signs of this back in 2019 when MFF first tried the Food truck idea; and the in hotel catering service dog bowls even in 2018. In any event, MFF attendance exceeded all measure of funding con suite, to the point that just to provide snacks and soda and nothing else was nearly $25000 plus added fees by the hotel for cleaning the floors and spills across the main hotel areas to another some thousands of dollars (this was also in pre covid dollars, so inflate all these number to 3023 levels) Needless to say, Killing Con-suite in the way it did to outsource to catering companies, saves a big penny in the MFF budget better served towards, important staff duties and things like security budget, since we needed it for now both the hotel and the convention center, and the street crossings.
The other part of the evening at this party was listening to others talk about healthcare, mental health why Indiana has the best of both currently under its system. The other part to that, trans rights, trans health, and how many orgies you have been to or plan attend this weekend, quite wild stuff actually from my perspective. Also where a buzzed bird said they were staying at the Embassy Suites but slurred speech said Em-bussy Sweats, we all chuckled but new it was time to get that byrd back to the nest, good thing his mate came to pick him up. All the same interesting to know stuff, and even got to try apple pie moonshine before the party shut down for the night.
I went to see if the Buttrock rave was going on and it was not alas so my hop was for Sunday at that point. I spent the rest of that night walking around and seeing about fursuit photos and if anyone was playing CAH or just I knew to chat with. Thus ends my Sat. into Sunday.
Sunday
The final day of convention, and the final chance to see things, to talk to new people, and go to any panels all in a span 7 hours; if you got up early as con shut down roughly at Closing Ceremonies, basically starting at 5 pm. This day for me was more was a day of playing catch up, including meeting up with Leshorin, and trying to get to Artist Ally and hope it was not a long waiting lines like as seen on Saturday.The number of people was down a fair margin actually since people had to leave for home this day. I went into artist Alley and ended up actually spending a few hours there alone just looking at all the vendors, and seeing if any of them were doing take home commissions. I rn into a pair of dudes who actually were doing $1 for 10 minutes or less pencil sketches, where you had a character or sona of yours roughly sketched with a meme phrase or situation attached. Honestly for $1 it was a good play tactic, it does not garner that much money, but over the span of the weekend it will add up as fast as they were being pumped out. I also ran into RavanTalons, and got a digital commission badge take home for that at a good price, so I got 1 new badge coming, from this year as a nice change of pace since IFC 2021. This was near the end of my time spent and last time going to the Artist Alley for this year.
Dealers Den last minute shopping trip was my final time there as well, to pick up any last Christmas gifts and anything else that struck my fancy. I walked the pace again even to the edges and came across AetusArts, aha Hah Aetus , an American Football nerd and furry story writer of the Adler Chronicles, not to be confused with Adler Eagle, the animator and podcast host. I got done there and met up with Leshorin at Dealers Den as well. So we talked a bit as she was also invited to dinner after the con with the group I knew.
When we parted ways I was making my way back to the Hyatt from the convention center, and saw Pepper Coyote and Draggor in passing, and that was all I saw of them this MFF. I got back to the hotel and tried to meet up with Kal’hona for however briefly. He works on security at MFF and now sports a yellow vest and a metal scales scarf, something if he had told me earlier I could have recognized him sooner. Anyway, as a member he of MFF staff it also makes him a gofur as I talked to him less than 10 minutes before he was called away to get a wheelchair for someone who was disabled in some way. I left and he agreed as he was technically not getting off shift till midnight, after which he was swiftly going to bed if I understood him correctly; this was the first and last time I see him this con.
It was starting to get dark and that meant Closing Ceremonies was coming up in about an hour or less by that point. I got in touch with Leshorin 1 more time to touch base in what I was doing and where it was decided to have dinner after MFF and Dealers Den closed.
At Closing Ceremonies it was a packed house, to the point the Dorsai not letting anyone else in and instead used a big flat screen TV in the large hallway for the spectators who could not make it into the Grand Ballroom. I was 1 such person. I at least stayed to hear the numbers for the convention: 15,547 total attendees, and that did not include staff member or members of the board, so add at least around another 1000 to that total. And as usual at Close, final donations were made to the charity “Live Like Roo” Which came to a total all said and done $185,758.31 raised to help pay medical expenses for vet bills. Ofcourse there was talk for next year theme and guests of honor, Special guests were TBD at present, but the theme was going to be, “The Great Furfest Heist”, and the fun fact of such a theme, a classic Heist thriller can take place in any era, whether, The Great Train Robbery, Pirates and pillage or modern Ocean 11 Style cyber heist Catch Me if You Can; thus this will be fun theming, not just playing a sleuth detective.
Finally it is all over and the trip that went far too fast was over till next year, same time, and same place, but there was still the Dead Dawg Dance. However, before all that was dinner to think about, I met back up with Leshorin and both of us went back to the Crown Plaza to meet the others who were packing their Dealers displays, art and prints, etc. We were all originally going to do Japanese Mitsuwa but the original host of that fell through, so we ended up on going to a Bulgarian restaurant in Des-Plains called Mehanta. When we eventually made it back to the hotel I dropped my stuff off in the room, whatever I did not need to carry with me. And we made our way to this restaurant at around 6:30 to 7 pm.
The restaurant was not much to see on the outside, but very ethnic Slav on the inside, you saw the long wood tables and seats, like see in in the German restaurants, solid wood, traditional music playing, and the festive Eastern Euro look. Then there was the fact that Cyrillic writing was above English, and even the locals who were there either spoke with heavy accent or did not speak English at all. Even when it came to the staff, it had that “old country feel”, our chad of a waiter sounded like with Russian accent square jawline and facial hair, as he made the gurls swoon a bit. He was good at his job to as he always knew how to upsell without it feeling forced upon or like guilt you into it too much. We had several appetizer type dishes and we also split clay pot dishes Shopski style Feta, and so many other things as the names of them escape me at this time plus Dessert Crepes.
After we made our leave from the restaurant, got cheap gas, we made our way back to the Crown Plaza, some of the group was exhausted, needed to pack for Monday, and wanted sleep without having to stay up late on commissions. As for me and Leshorin we made our way back to the Hyatt, we saw Fender, the mascot for FA on the sidewalk I have to assume that was the actual guy who is an FA head and not just a poser, but never can tell these days; we took some photos anyway.
We got into the hotel and as we walked in the front to see if a rock party was happening outside, it was not I went in and Led Leshorin to the area where we were to meet someone and it seems to have missed them, off to the Executive wing elevators we went. That is also where I and Leshorin parted ways for the night as I went back to the main hotel atrium, and they waited for the call to come up to the room.
Back in the hotel I eventually ran into Filtho, the guy who started the ButtRock rave back on Friday. This is where I understand what happened to Saturday: Back on Friday after the battery died on the BoomBox, Filtho forgot his charger back at home. He need a 15amp brick socket with a large end to charge it, apparently some guy had one in his hotel room, Fast Forward to Saturday evening, Filtho did not test the BoomBox after having it on the charger all night till that evening. Apparently, it was dead in a half hour and who knows why at that point, battery fails, electric arc circuit board failure, to be determined after he got back home again.
The rest of my night was spent taking photos and anything else I could do before I called it a night at 3am. So that is what I did, Saw the Asian photobooth after the Dead Dawg dance, Went around to see about any card games happening, or on the off chance I knew someone and talk and or visit with them. In the end, I eventually called it a night before taking the long slow walk back to the Crowne Plaza, on what was now pretty much a dead skywalk half the lights turned off, and the only sound you heard was your own footsteps. So long MFF hopefully make it even bigger and better in 2024.
Monday
At long last it was time to actually think of going back home, back to work and back to normal scheduled programing. First I had to get my stuff to the car, pay for my portion of the room and breakfast, all before 11am. After I did all that, I did out of curiosity make my way back to the Hyatt to see if there were any fursuit stragglers still around, and if there was anyone It was just people wearing their fusuit heads as their cart and rolling suitcases and totes. If I wanted to volunteer to do tear down post con, I had no idea who even to talk to so I did not. I made my way back to my vehicle and return to home for the last time from Rosemont this year.Final Thoughts
As great as MFF was and what I saw, I should also point out what I did not see: No fursuit Parade or Masquerade. I already spoke on Con Suite, however What about Alkali, Xander Pandez, Draggor, Fox Amore and Pepper Coyote, and others. I also never spoke on Whose Lion is it Anyway, 3 Headed Monster, The Dragget Show, all staples of MFF and not a peep this year. Needless to say thing went very public on Nov.19 things when down on, “formerly known as Twitter” rather than deal with the public, most were a no show. Alkali made 1 appearance for the Charity auction, as the auctioneer, and that was about it and left as fast as he came in. and I believe Fox Amoore has not left the UK nice 2020 because of covid. It is to say MFF was not the same this year and who knows what the future holds in following years. An if there is anything I have forgotten then I will have to me and edit it at later date.With that said, best wishes, Keep calm, carry on, and Merry Holidays to you all.
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