The BIRRIAFEST is Today!

September 30, 2006 0

Here I am, giddy with anticipation for what is, in many ways, Porto Diao’s coming-out party: The 2006 BirriaFest. It’s been the longest month I’ve lived in recent years and as a result of all the planning and machineering I’ve grown to have a constant state of stress and paranoia about things not coming out right and might have reflected that as my past life as a drill officer. I hate that; in my desire to make everything perfect and have the network be put out there for the thousands of people who will attend the event today, I almost went overboard and missed the mark on the point of this place which is to let creators and creative people breathe. Sure, setting up any big venture will bring distress to the proceedings and I succumbed to the pressure at times but the excuse I give myself is that this is the first time I sponsor something like this… or better yet, it’s the first time I lead a group of exceptional people like this into semi-uncharted waters. I could tell we stood apart from the other groups and shops that will be there so I feel proud of that. If this thing pulls off the way I think it will then the main goal would have been accomplished: have people talking about the network and the members that compose it. I sincerely believe that when I’m with these people I’m with some of the most inventive, creative set of men and women I’ve ever stepped in a room with and seeing them exchange ideas like fireworks is a sight to behold. It’s great, and with their help I’m molding my widdle network into what I’ve wanted it to become since the start… a place for great ideas.

When you go to the BirriaFest today, I beg you to take a look at all of the booths and tournaments; the guys from JSpotPanama.com have made a grand effort to bring the best festival they could make with everything from fashion, video games both new and old, comics, art, movies and much, much more. You’ll be able to peruse and purchase a lot of stuff, and for the love of all things holy, ANIMETAL will be there. They’re a local metal band that specializes in video game themes and such… they’re like the Panamanian Mini Bosses, if you will. We went over to the site last night to see what we were going to do with our booth and what not while the Kinky Workshop people were rehearsing the fashion show they’ll put up today and after talking about everything with the pertinent parties I went up on stage to get my people their badges and Animetal was rehearsing. I’ll tell you one thing: listening to them blast out the Mortal Kombat theme was great, and the Mario World 1-1 theme as well, but when they unleashed the Legend of Zelda theme, it gave me the chills. They sound unbelievable… I can’t wait! There will be food and drink available inside the BirriaFest grounds, but it will get hot. It’s cramped up and everything you ever thought a convention would look and smell like so be prepared. Take some cash to buy some DVDs from Panama DVD or some comics from Metropolis Comics (I can’t stress enough: the concept of a comic book shop in Panama is something that knocks me out cold every fucking time. I haven’t gone yet for fear of literally going insane) and what’s most important: PLAYING THE MAD GAMES. They’ll have consoles, arcades and LAN parties all over the floor just ripping ass while stuff happens on stage. Jus so that I can finally convince you if you haven’t made your mind up yet, I looked around and found the tournaments list so you can have a better idea of what’s gonna go down this afternoon. As you will notice in the coming minutes, the roster is ridiculously amazing: