So I spent the bulk of last week in Massachusetts, partly to visit my family but mainly to attend PAX East in Boston with seventy thousand of my closest friends. This year, PAX was in the fucking enormous BCEC instead of the comparatively diminutive Hynes, which meant I spent a good chunk of Friday trying to figure out where the hell I was and where the hell I was going, but I definitely walked off that fried dough over the course of the weekend. Because, oh yeah, they set up a goddamn carnival-style food court in one of the cavernous halls. It was but one of many wonders offered up to those who were intrepid enough to find them.
Earlier, I started trying to write up my entire PAX experience, and found it exhausting before I’d gotten halfway through Friday, so I think that’s a no-go. But I will give you a few highlights, and then many photos and also some videos.
As I mentioned before, the Friday night concert was definitely the best moment of PAX for me. The lineup featured not only my very favorite Protomen, but also MC Frontalot, of whom I am also very fond, as he is both an excellent rapper and a longtime friend. This was the only point during the weekend at which I abused my special Knowing People powers; they opened the concert line at 4pm for a 9pm show, and I could not quite stomach sitting on a floor for five hours, DS or no DS. So instead I got in during soundcheck, claimed the best spot in the house, made friends with some Enforcers, and improved a vending machine soda with the contents of my flask. Not a bad way to spend an hour. And then it was time for the show, which I can’t even begin to describe. It was wonderful, as good as or better than last year’s show. You can sample it for yourself, below.
Friday was also the night of my hotel room party, which I know was successful because it resulted in photos like the ones below and also in the arrival of several very stern people from hotel security at 4am. I woke up a few hours later and admired the wreckage: beer-soaked carpet, broken glasses, someone’s abandoned doughnut, beef jerky of mysterious origin, a gigantic (empty) bottle of Jack, and three people sleeping on my floor in nests of towels and extra sheets. I feel like this is the moment at which I knew without question that this PAX was a success.
Over the weekend I also managed to work in quite a lot of tabletop gaming, which was deeply satisfying. Apart from being a reason to actually sit down for a few hours, I got to try out a couple of new games, meet a couple of new people, and get my D&D fix for the first time in a couple of months. I really love the Dungeon Delve events that WotC holds during conventions even if they are, to a certain degree, not quite in the spirit of D&D. You get an hour to get as far into the adventure as you can, and at the end of the hour or whenever the party is dead, you are awarded tokens based on how far you got and how many things you killed. It’s really kind of awesome and bloodthirsty, and the tokens can be exchanged either for loot to use on your next delve, or for real life swag like condition cards or a WotC backpack or whatever. I just wish I’d had time to do it more.
Another highlight was Saturday night, when I attended not one but two off-site dinners. The first was held by Kickstarter and featured such awesome internet people as Len Peralta, Chris Dahlen, and our own Chris Pappavaselio. The second was all about lobster at No Name, and featured fun and beer. Saturday evening was actually the only time I made it out of the hotel/convention center orbit, but it was totally worth it.
Other highlights include Mega Ran’s late-night Jamspace set, the keynote and PA Q&A on Friday morning, all kinds of hotel room antics and shenanigans, post-con dinner at Michael Jackson O'Connor’s on Sunday night, and even watching the final round of the Omegathon from the seated comfort of the overflow room with my PAX besties. I cannot think of a single not-awesome thing that happened, and I really cannot wait until next year.
