Anime Central 2001 (May 11 and 12, 2001)

Proof of intellegent life in Chicago: Webvan.

Proof of something else...: A PT Cruiser.

The nice people I spend an hour with in the reg line... my first reg line ever.

And of course, the nice hotel decides to completely reconstruct the lobby during the convention.

Dave, Rod, Maria and Michael in ConOps/

Kevin Lillard, Lionel, Dave and Dennis give the Fan Photography panel.

And Lionel draws diagrams to illustrate a point.

The panel is interrupted by... Steve Bennett!

A brave soul working in the dealer's room.

The "bedroom" of the "suite" where I stayed.

The other room of the "suite."

The view out my "suite"'s window.

My truck that cost more to rent that my airplane tickets or my hotel room.

Joe and Katy at the Merchandising booth.

A typical cosplayer photo session.

The elevators all seemed to go up and down in unison, so they all let out at the same time.

Taka models his 5XL sticker!

And later they let us walk on raw concrete...

Michelle, Conty, Scott, Ken and Wynne.

S.W.E.K in concert, the other anime cover band.

All of S.W.E.K.

The lead guitarist had a remote pickup, so he roamed around...

Scary...

Joan and Katy in ConOps.

Michelle and Conty.

The overwhelming crowd at the MegaTokyo panel.

Dom and Piro of Megatokyo fame.

So that's why it crashed...

"It's not that I will win, it's that you will LOSE!"

Hank's hair gets mussed.