Real Talk By: J. Valdez

What a weekend! I got the chance to attend Midwest Media Expo in Detroit. My first year going, and their second year hosting it. Overall had a great time, they hosted some great events, had some awesome guest, and an amazing location for it all.

The Expo was held at the GM building in downtown Detroit, MI. The Rencen as it’s known, is a 72 story building/tiny city. I say tiny city because it had everything inside, a hotel, restaurants, pharmacy, bars, and even it’s own police station. It was definitely a great location to hold this event. The layout of the building did take some getting used to, even people that had been there before had a bit of trouble getting to different locations.

I attended the following events. Deadpool Cafe, Harp Twins concert, Steam powered Giraffe concert, World Cosplay Summit Finals, Formal Dance, and the Dance on Saturday night.

Deadpool cafe was one event I was excited about, especially since I got there a bit late and hadn’t eaten. The food I think was a decent portion, the price was a bit high, but we were also paying for a show, and we definitely got one. I have a video that’s still being worked on, but that shows a small part of what happens when you let a bunch of Deadpool run a cafe. I hope to see it again in the future.

I got to the the Harp Twins concert a little late, I was still getting used to the building and was just kind of lost for a while. I  did enjoy the concert however, seriously it was like nothing I’ve ever been to, truly enjoyable. Check them out. A couple of samples will also be in my vlog video of the weekend.

Next up I kind of stumbled into the Steam powered giraffe concert. Among one of the more interesting things during the weekend, I didn’t stay too long thinking I was late for a different event. There may have a bit of their show in my vlog as well. That will be up soon, you can also check them out here.

The last concert I went to was Akira Yamaoka and Mary Elizabeth McGlynn. I got there just in time to hear Mary sing “Snake Eater” which may be included in the vlog. Definitely had a great time attending all of these events. They were all amazing shows, and if you ever have the chance to see one, take it.

There was more to this Expo than just music. There were dances, good selection of merchandise in the Dealers room and Artist Alley, and the huge Game room. There was something to do at all times. Oh, and I lied, there was more music, but not just from the guest, throughout the weekend I encountered many talented attendees, on the pianos in the building, or on Ocarinas. I’m glad to have witnessed all of that, and will have a separate video to show them off, along with all the dancing I like to record.

The only real problem during whole weekend was navigation. It was a bit weird getting around the building, especially the con area. And as helpful as the staff members were, a few of them didn’t know where certain things were located. It took me about 30 minutes to find the Deadpool cafe. I do like that the schedule was available as downloadable web app, however that schedule didn’t seem too accurate. I believe that the final schedule didn’t reflect some events times. This may have been due to some unavoidable last minute changes. They did have a few schedules around the con that were accurate.

It was still a really great time, probably one of my favorite events this year. I can’t wait for Youmacon, or next years Midwest Media Expo. I will be updating this with the videos, once I get permission for a few events. The World Cosplay Summit is one of the events pending the ok to post the video. It was my first time attending a competition like this, and wow, the amount of work that these teams put into their cosplays and their show is incredible. Can’t wait to post the video.

Below I have a gallery of some of the pictures I took during the weekend, lots of great cosplays, lots of great people.

The full gallery can be viewed here.