Lolitas in New York and Chicago

[splitpea.livejournal.com]

Hey all. I'm planning for college now and I was wondering what type of Anime/Japanese Culture events happened in New York City, The rest of New York State, and Chicago.

I KNOW this shouldn't really be a basis to choose a college on, but I would hate to move so far away from my home and end up being just as bored as I am here. I live near a darn good college with plenty of LARP chances and cool friends, I just wanted to go to a school that is ALL about art, and I can't find one in the southeast that I actually want to attend.

I've narrowed it doun to *cough*fifteen*cough* schools in the North. The ones that are beckoning to me, though, are in New York City, New York State, and Chicago.

Anime Picnics? EGL tea-parties? Cosplay events? Clubs? Conventtions? Anything and everything, just let me know.

x-posted in cosplay

Comments

[oshidori.livejournal.com]

StonyBrook (http://www.ic.sunysb.edu/Clubs/anime/) is your best bet. It's not in the city, but its got a great anime club, and the club has its own convention (http://www.iconsf.org/) on campus every year. (it's not just anime though, it's also a sci-fi and fantasy convention too, but theres lots of LARP involved for all three things!)

Theres also Otaku Army (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/OtakuArmy/) and NYO! (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NYOCosplay/), both of which are cosplay and anime clubs and meet and do stuff together frequently in the city (and are not based on a campus, anyone in the metro area is welcome to join), including fabric, supplies, and anime shopping trips (eventually I plan to host some sewing parties and sewing and patternmaking classes for members since I'm the resident fashion industry proffessional). And I plan on starting a Lolita club and hosting tea parties (I live in Queens)

We also have the Annual Sakura Festival at the Brooklyn Botanical, which has a beautiful Japanese garden. It seems to be growing bigger every year too. I guess along with the Japanese population here in the city ^_^

A lot of the art and design schools have pretty active anime clubs, especially Parsons (http://www.animepass.com/) (my rival, we tried to get an anime club going but everyone at my school, FIT, is way too busy for any club lol) and SVA (http://questanime1.tripod.com/). NYU I think also has a decent program, and actually has classes regarding the history of anime and stuff like that (either there or Columbia, I forget). Our other conventions include BAAF (http://www.bigappleanimefest.com/) and Anime Next (http://www.animenext.org/). BAAF takes place in Times Square, while AN is upstate.

There are also several clubs and lounges with anime nights or overall themes (with like anime being played on giant projectors and stuff), a great fansubber who lives in flushing (you can pick up the stuff right from his house and not pay any shipping) several anime shops in Chinatown, K-town (korean, midtown), Little Korea (in queens) and Little Japan (midtown). And lots of straight up Japanese karaoke bars and restaurants. Not to mention New York-Tokyo.org (http://www.newyork-tokyo.org/) which host many anime and non-anime events, including a J-drama and movie film festival a few weeks ago, and invite japanese singers and bands to play here often. There are also various japanese festivals held in artist communties as well all around the city ^_^

This is probably where I should start singing the 'I love NY' tourism song :p

hoped that helped!

*all school links are to the anime club sites, not the official school sites ^_~

PARSONS!!!!

[splitpea.livejournal.com]

Hey, that's where I wanna go!

Re: PARSONS!!!!

[oshidori.livejournal.com]

uh-oh. this is usually when i should ask WHY?!? The only good thing in that school is the club, and the connections. Its the joke of the art schools. Watcha want to go for?

Re: PARSONS!!!!

[splitpea.livejournal.com]

Jokes don't have really hard requirements?

Actually, the Art Institutes are giving me hassles. Parsons is the only one that have been decent to me so far. I'll look into FIT, but I haven't heard of it before. I'm still looking, though. I just hope to get into SOME art school.

Re: PARSONS!!!!

[oshidori.livejournal.com]

That's really weird...most people who have heard of Parsons have heard about FIT. I mean, it's one of the top fashion schools in the world, and people from all over the country and world try to get in. (btw, FIT stands for the Fashion Institute of Technology (http://www.fitsuny.edu/), I remember once I said FIT online before and the person didn't know what the heck i was talking about until I told her what the acronym stood for)

Why are they giving you hassles, if you don't mind my asking? I can tell you now that FIT is waaay cheaper than Parsons, we have one of the best Fashion libraries and research centers in the world, and you don't need an SAT score to get in. The teachers are all industry professionals and most of your fellow classmates will be too (it's not a traditional school where everyone is 18-21... people all ages attend since its a vocational school, which is cool cuz you can learn a lot from them as well)

It's not only a Fashion school, theres a lot of really cool majors, including Toy Design, Illustation, Jewelry, Fine Art, and business majors for the art industry as well. Check it out ^_^

Plus, if you need a portfolio review before you send yours in, you can do that too and have them critique it so you can fix whatever you'd need to before sending it in.

so yeah. Woah, I've been all informative and stuff...this is so winning me brownie points!! XD

Oh, maybe if you'd like, we should take this to email? mine is XOshidorix[at]nyc[dot]rr[dot]com

*hugs you*

[splitpea.livejournal.com]

This is THE BEST EVER!!! You make me want to go "Screw you, Chicago!!!", flip off the west-coast, and kick my hometown to the curb. Like I said in my entry, I know that Anime community is no reason to consider or not consider a college but, you've got to somewhere where you know you'll be happy. AND a place where you know you won't waste money. (Anime conventions are the ONLY reason I actually have a savings account, lol! Well.. that and my car, but still) Oh, and, since you live up there. My friends say that there is no point in having a car if you live in NY. Is that true? My car just curplunked and the mechanic said I can fix it and it may only work for another year. I'll only buy a new car if I NEED ONE because I can rent a car to travel.

Re: *hugs you*

[oshidori.livejournal.com]

if you live in the city, it'd be ludacris to have a car. You have access to a bus, cab, or subway within at least 5 blocks in most of areas in all the 5 boros. Let me put it this way, you can hop on a train and spend no more than 45 minutes (and thats from the farthest reaches of the city) on a train, or spend at least twice that sitting in traffic.

So your friends are right. I don't even have a license and I'm 23. Theres no real point, unless you want the luxury of one (mainly for weekend driving and stuff like that), otherwise, it's too much of a hassle ^_^

Re: *hugs you*

[eggvip.livejournal.com]

pssssssssst this is splitpea
I just wanted to thank you for the advice you gave on this thread.
It's been in my memories, forever, and after going to a college I'm not happy with, I'm considering going to FIT. I should have gone there in the first place, but my family hates the idea of me going into design. I'm twenty, now, and after two years of dying slowly, I think it's about time I say "Screw family! Hello future!"

[violentbloom.livejournal.com]

My boyfriend went to NYU as did my best friend and they both thought it was a great school. It's a very prestigious school. And after paying 80+ thousand dollars for college you'll be wanting it to look good on your resume.
..and it's new york right? it's got to have tons of anime stuff happening. Plus you can take the subway, and of course the train down the coast for stuff.