#convention coverage

Cosplayer Interviews with MarissaMacaroni, AliAbides, and TheCosplayMouse

Author Interviews: @sherlockianwhovian, @findingtallahassee, @distant-rose, and @searchingwardrobes

Also, there will be articles scattered throughout the week as well, including ones like: “The Challenges of Playing in Someone Else’s Sandbox”, “Sex and Cosplay: The Double Standard and the Status Quo”, and “Using Fandom to Teach”. 

To my dear friends, supporters, followers and all my #SPNFamily: Due to recent events over the past

month, both online and off, both positive and negative, it's become painfully clear the time had come when I needed to seriously re-evaluate my online/fandom life. With so much happening, and so many things to consider, it's taken me the better part of that month to come to any definitive conclusion; however, after an obsessive amount of self-reflection, many, many conversations with friends that genuinely care about and love me, and too many prayers and hours of contemplation to count, the time has now come to publicly share my thoughts with you.

As most of you know, I was recently blessed with an amazing, full-time, at-home job with a great company and a generous salary, plus benefits, and a fantastic boss to boot! It's a literal chance of a lifetime that is affording me the opportunity to regroup, re-focus, re-imagine, and rebuild every aspect of my life entirely! As such, it would be insanely irresponsible, ultimately stupid, and after years of prayer for just such an opportunity, I honestly feel it would be downright sacrilegious to do anything but devote myself entirely to the effort it will take to make this endeavor ultimately successful. Unfortunately however, as we've all learned from the show we love so much, success does not come without significant sacrifice. In this case, I'm afraid that means, effective immediately I am officially retiring from covering conventions online.  

Deep breath...

Whew! Ok, moving on... As I mentioned, the reasons for my retirement are both positive and negative, and related to events both online and off. Yes, my new job was indeed the main reason for it and would obviously be an offline and positive event, but it was not the *sole* reason and to leave it at that would be a disservice to the truth. The fact is, in addition to my job and the changes it will bring to my life, there have been negative events online that my decision was also greatly influenced by. Simply put, the level of hostility and toxicity in fandom today has exacerbated my depression and anxiety to the point that lately, I dread coming online and fear what I will see when I do - and I've been feeling this way for a while now. From *my* perspective, the negativity I have witnessed in fandom, though it's always been there to some degree, has grown exponentially this past year. And frankly, it's breaking my heart.

I thought about going into all the horrifying things I have witnessed and experienced this past year, but most of you know what's going on out there already, and those of you that don't have made a conscious decision not to expose yourselves to it, and I wanted to respect that. But part of me also wanted to shine a light on it in hopes of inspiring a change in the behavior of those that participate in it. In the end though, I honestly just came to believe there's just not anything I could say that would make any difference whatsoever anyway. So I will only say that in terms of my retirement, the negativity did indeed play a part in my decision. I *could* have just not covered Fridays and rolled back Sat & Sun coverage enough to maintain a good sleep schedule, but why should I keep exposing myself to all this negativity that keeps upsetting me so much? Then I thought about all the people that *don't* attack. There are so so SO MANY people that *genuinely* appreciate the coverage my team and I provide. THEY are the ones that have motivated me to continue doing this for so long. And I swear, I almost kept doing it just for them. I was thisfreakingclose! It BREAKS MY HEART to disappoint them and that was, without a doubt, the absolute hardest part about this decision. But I found my answer to this quandary while I was reflecting on my journey in this fandom thus far. My journey started the day I started by fighting, even if it was only for my own very existence and through allll the pain I felt every single miserable day of my life. Then eventually, through the acceptance and love coming from the fandom, I came to believe I really was enough; that I was worthy of existing, of friendship, and even all that love that was being offered. Then I was gobsmacked to discover I was actually, finally loving myself enough to accept a great opportunity without self-sabotaging it along the way. And today, I've come to realize that #SPNFamily, the *real* #SPNFamily, will always have my back. So I'm putting myself first for the first time in like, ever, and doing what's best for me, and I know in my heart y'all will understand, because that's just how awesome y'all are, and I can't thank you enough for it!

In closing, let me just clarify, I am not leaving fandom for good, I'm just not covering cons anymore. If you're just following me for con coverage, feel free to unfollow me with no hard feelings at all. But if you enjoy my TL between cons, I hope you'll stay as my TL will likely be more of the same, though admittedly, I probably won't be posting as much. It's not exactly earth-shattering news that Jared & Jensen are my faves, as are Sam & Dean, and I won't apologize for that to anyone, nor should I have to. For some unfathomable reason, some people seem to think that means I don't like other cast and/or characters. So, for the record, I plan to continue doing just what I've always done between cons: celebrate my faves, and anyone/anything else I personally enjoy, with respect to, and without negativity towards other people's faves.

Finally, I want to say thank you to ALL my current, and past team members! Everyone that has ever helped me cover these wonderful and fun Supernatural conventions all over the world!  I could NOT have been near as successful as I have without you!!!!!! I also want to say that I will always be grateful for this fandom and everything it has given me. You have no idea just how much personal growth I've experienced as a direct result of being part of this fandom. I'm looking forward to just being a regular fangirl again so I can reduce the negativity I see and block out the harassment I receive in order to maintain a healthy and uncluttered mind so I can focus on improving my life going forward. Thank you all, from the bottom of my heart, for helping me get here! For the first time in my life, I can finally say, I've got it from here!

Written by: @robinwritesallthethings

So most of you probably don’t know this, but I used to be a teacher. Like, a legit college-level English teacher. I taught composition and literature to mostly freshmen students, and honestly, it was a blast. I quit to become a writer because that is my first passion, but truthfully, I still love to teach. Luckily, since I work for The Citrus Scale, I still have plenty of opportunities to do just that.

One of the biggest obstacles teachers face in any classroom is how to connect with students. Especially when you’re teaching something like literature, the first question students have is why do they need this? And actually, I like this question. I think it’s very astute to wonder about the value of what you’re being taught and why, and I was always happy to answer.

This is where fandom can really benefit you. If students are interested in what they’re working with, or at the very least feel like they can understand it, they are far more likely to listen to what you’re saying. In my literature classroom, we studied romance, and we read… wait for it… Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, Twilight by Stephenie Meyer, and Fifty Shades of Grey by E. L. James. Yes, I broke a few brains with that last one, just for the record. Apparently several of my students had never heard of the Internet, you know what I mean? And yes, someone’s grandmother literally called the college to complain about me teaching Fifty Shades. To her credit, when she found out my plan for it, she agreed with me and withdrew her complaints, which was a better result than I could have imagined.

A lot of people at the administrative level were skeptical of my choices. Even though most of them had never read Twilight or Fifty Shades of Grey, they just couldn’t see the value in requiring students to read them. They saw them as...

If you can’t tell, we had a blast at Pensacon 2019! There were Harry Potter, Gilmore Girls, and Walking Dead actors to hang out with all weekend. There may have even been a certain boy band member that our CEO is still freaking out about! Overall, this is the one to beat for us, so let’s just take a second and go down the list of what makes an awesome convention and where Pensacon exactly stacks up in each category.

Community is a big thing to us here at The Citrus Scale, so it makes sense that it would be first on our list when judging a convention. Pensacola, Florida knows how to have a good time and Pensacon weekend is no exception. It’s smack dab in the middle of downtown, and with its campus approach it puts you right in the action the whole time. As we’ve already said, all the nearby restaurants pick a fandom and show off their decorating skills. There wasn’t one restaurant or business we walked into that wasn’t ecstatic to see cosplayers and con-goers. Yes, it’s because of the money, but we’ve been to plenty of events where surrounding businesses want the fans to stay in their building and not venture out. Pensacon isn’t like that at all. Everyone is so welcoming and friendly!

The guests are next up on our list and we have to say for something that is dubbed a ‘small con’, it doesn’t feel like that when it comes to the lineup. No, Chris Evans isn’t likely to show up at Pensacon, but at the same time, the sheer amount of celebrities that do make up for things like that. Also, William Shatner was...

Way back in February of this year we attended Pensacon in Pensacola, Florida. Yes, it took forever to get this content out, but we’ve had some major growing pains in the meantime. For one thing, we were just a little ole fandom magazine, The Lemon Magazine, when we attended and now we’re a full-fledged news and media company, so… yeah. Anyway, we had an absolute blast, all of which will be outlined in the posts to follow, but we wanted to give a quick review-y type post for those interested in attending in the future. 

The one thing you really want to know if you’re searching for this convention is whether or not you should fork over the money to attend, right? Well, we can definitely say it was worth it! Every single second was jam-packed with things to do and see. The entire town of Pensacola turns out for this thing and even nearby businesses and restaurants transform. For instance, most within walking distance will change their interiors for the entire weekend into something resembling The Enterprise or Platform 9 ¾. And if that’s not enough, the celebrities that attend every year are more than worth the ticket price. 

Okay, so let’s get to it. First, we were given press passes, but we didn’t get to skip lines or anything like that, so we were treated to the true convention experience. Nothing fancy, which was just fine. We can’t exactly report on what it might be like for you to go if we get anything above and beyond what our readers might get. The only thing that was different was our check-in. It’s in a separate area and the lines for those with regular weekend passes had a pretty hefty line even earlier in the morning, so that’s something to keep in mind when you’re planning. The staff was amazing, though, so while the lines were long, they went fast. Also, if you don’t have parking passes, you will have to pay for something nearby. We suggest taking an Uber or Lyft instead. You’re not gonna want to leave, so it’s fine. You can also get a hotel downtown too, though those can sell out fast. 

Day one is technically Friday afternoon (or Thursday night if you have VIP passes), so not a lot of people attend that day compared to Saturday and Sunday. However, we advise going all three days, if you can swing it. Being there on Friday, when it opened to the public, let us browse all the vendors before the huge crowds the next day. Getting all the shopping out of the way first was nice and allowed us to spend more time in panels and photo op lines the other two days. 

Pensacon has a campus layout. This means that the entire convention is spaced out over several buildings. They’re all within walking distance of each other, as is downtown, so even without a car, everything is completely manageable. We went ahead and started in the main building, the Pensacola Bay Center, where all the vendors are located. This is also where some of the bigger stars are located, and while this place can be a maze, we didn’t have any trouble navigating. Just pay attention to the signage and you’ll be good. 

Because it’s a smaller convention, you could easily walk right up to celebrities’ tables and get an autograph and picture for a fee without much wait. It varied depending on the celebrity and their status, but everyone that attends is pretty reasonable. There were a lot of Harry Potter stars this year, so that was especially fun for us. William Shatner was also there, and his line was pretty long, but even that wasn’t something you might see at the real big conventions, like SDCC or something. Oh, and don’t forget cash. If you didn’t pay for a staged photo op beforehand, cash was key. For most, that we noticed anyway, that was what they accepted. For the vendors, they were more set up to take cash and debit, so just keep that in mind. 

For Saturday and Sunday, there was a lot of walking from one panel to the next. We go into further detail about those in the upcoming articles, but each was very well moderated. Everyone got to ask their questions and was respectful. I did hear of people getting in trouble for recording in the panels, even press, but it was made very clear that you weren’t to do that, so we’re not sure why people still tried it. Regardless, at all the panels we attended, we had zero issues. Everything ran smoothly and on time. We only heard of one panel being canceled, but from what we understand that was due to some outside triggered fanboy threats that, thankfully, never came to fruition. 

Overall, we will be attending any way we can as many years as we can. It was intimate, professional, and had some awesome celebrities and panels. Pensacon even has its own film festival with an award ceremony, though we didn’t have time to attend this year. And before we forget, the cosplayers brought it. We were lucky enough to interview some lovely ladies that attended this year, and you’ll be able to read those later this week too, but every single person we saw cosplaying was incredible. The craftsmanship still has us freaking out! They were all so nice too, and very accommodating of every person who wanted to take a picture, as most cosplayers are.