Today I have a somewhat different con report for your perusal (or, far more likely, glossing over, failing to find photos of hot cosplayers, and unceremoniously closing.) APIICON is not a "con" in the same sense as DAICON, FanimeCon, Otakon, lolicon or Decepticon. Rather, the "con" is short for "Conference," and the APII is short for "Asian Pacific Islander Issues."

That doesn't mean a bunch of Asians and Pacific Islanders get together and talk about their crippling, childhood-trauma-rooted neuroses, as useful as such a discussion would be for me. The Issues at stake at the 18th annual APIICON included student activism, Ethnic Studies and related programs, ethnic neighborhoods, sexual trafficking and more; these diverse questions were united under the theme of "peeling off" labels imposed on Asians ("likes anime," "wears glasses" and "spends a lot of time on the Internet," to name a few... well, shit.)

A highlight of the conference was speaking with UC Berkeley alums (some of whom I recognized from my Tai Chi Chuan courses) who had been around during the '60s and taken part in the activism that characterized the period, particularly the Asian American Political Alliance (AAPA). Things, as we quickly came to realize, were quite different back then. Asians were still just a small minority on campus; the Asian American Studies department was merely one experimental course and so many hopes; there were no freezing blizzards to walk uphill to school against (this being California,) so they had to make do with gentle breezes. Yet nor was there Facebook, anime (well, maybe Astro Boy) or the academics-uber-alles ethos that today permeates campus life. These men and women had been willing and able to devote themselves wholly to the change they wanted to see in the world, even at the cost of flunked classes and lost scholarships in some cases--a tradeoff that would be unthinkable in today's Berkeley. As one speaker said, Asians may be far greater numerically and politically than ever before, but many challenges still lie ahead--my question is, are today's youth ready to make the sacrifices to confront them?

God, I'm such a hypocrite.

Anyway! Also interesting was the seminar on ethnic enclaves. "Step forward if you know what DFC stands for," facilitator Brian Batudo said. Thinking that "delicious flat chest" probably wasn't the answer he was looking for, I kept quiet as the one person who stepped forward explained that the acronym referred to Durant Food Court, the area we were all accustomed to calling the "Asian Ghetto." The surprises kept coming as I heard that San Francisco's Japantown, where I had been two weeks prior, had been sold off; unable to be designated a protected historical town due to its reconstruction in 1966, Japantown had been bought out by 3D Investments, and though the city guaranteed it protection for 15 years, it was impossible to say what would happen after that. So if you need any taiyaki, Gunpla or anime magazines/artbooks, you'd better buy them within the next 15 years, is what I'm saying.

Punctuating the discussions were a series of musical guests. First was a shoe-vibrating performance by Cal Raijin Taiko, a member of which I took for a cosplayer at first and would've asked for a photo if I hadn't run into a friend just then. Second was High Notes, which played well despite being down a member--James had gone to the Navy the week before to sail the seven seas, and Dave and Nina were unable to secure a bunnysuited high school girl as a replacement. Next was iLL-Literacy, with verbal offerings ranging from Nico's diatribe against the police, Ronald Reagan and Lunchables to Adriel's observation that "stereotypically, our eyes are a little smaller, so it's harder to tell that we're staring." Finally, Rising Asterisk had the Oaklanders, and quite a few others, throwing their hands in the air.

Overall, APIICON was excellent, although the cosplay, the dealer's room and the game room left much to be desired.