Current Post On Trae’s Blog:
So a lot of you know that I have a Patreon. If you didn't, uh... you do now? I originally launched it for my comics, but it kind of transitioned to being mostly focused on my Witchcraft podcast years ago -- because that's where I had extra content I could give folks -- but it's overall just for "me" in general.
Anyways.
My goal for the last year has been to increase the "value" for Patreon patrons, with all paid tiers getting access to a copy of Super Awesome Action Heroes, and the five dollar and ten dollar tiers getting access to my novels (at different times -- the five dollar tier patrons get them on a year delay).
For a while I had been doing Patreon exclusive "vlogs," but those didn't last just because I literally ran out of things to say in them. I mean, I'm boring. The only eventful stuff in my life is the eventful stuff happening to all of us right now. Back in April, I think I came up with something fun that I've now done two months in a row.
And that's record reaction videos to episodes of The Pagan Invasion.
You see, for the April episode of BS-Free Witchcraft I did an episode on the structure of Satanic Panic propaganda, and used the first episode of 1991's The Pagan Invasion as the example to illustrate my points. For that episode I needed to, obviously, rewatch that first episode for research.
Rather than just watch it in private though, I recorded my rewatch as a commentary and reaction video and posted it as a Patreon exclusive video. And even though the podcast has moved on from the topic, folks asked me to react to episode two... so I did that last week. I fully intend to review the whole series on my Patreon now, and each one of my videos ends up being like two hours long. I don't know if I'll get a chance to do one every month, but I plan to get through the whole series.
Honestly I'm not sure why I didn't think of doing something like this before.
So yeah, we're doing fun stuff there. Oh, also, before I forget to say something -- July is the annual Q&A episode of BS-Free Witchcraft, and I need listener questions. If you have something you want me to respond to on the show, just send it in via the show's contact form by July 11th 2025.
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Why do I find it awesome yet somehow disturbing that Veronica is cosplaying Attack on Titan?
because she’s obviously Potato girl
I’m from New Jersey and I’ve been going to cons since 2009; literally the only mention of room parties I’ve heard was from your comic series.
Same here.
Jesus. Didn’t we have this discussion…oh a few months ago, Trae?
I think we’ve got a soft spot for the ol’ room party at NebKon, otherwise we wouldn’t have started a room party block…
Either way, agreed its a dying art. Part of it has to do with several cons adapting late night programming…part of it. The rest of it I think just stems from some conventions just not wanting to deal with it anymore. I know Naka in KC has greater difficulty with room parties due to Kansas laws (Kansas laws suck donkey balls btw).
A few months ago? More like a year or two ago.
bah, it hasn’t been that long
I also think the interest has died too. One year my brother and I had bought food like Doritos, Ramen cups, and yes even marshmallows as a way to barter at room parties because we knew food might be an issue at the parties.
However that year there was a huge lack of parties. I also think behavior has also contributed like 2 years in a row at No Brand Con, some drunks have shattered glass bottles in the pool area prompting the staff to drain the pool.
Overall the room party is a dying art but overall i feel it has to do with a lot of different factors.
I don’t even want to think about where that poor hairbrush had been…
No, just… no
Anime cons in the NE region of the US doesn’t have room parties like the ones in the strip. It’s usually just a friends thing. Sci Fi cons however are Saturday night dens of nerdy debauchery that Baccus would love themselves. Comic cons and other cons has there’s too.
So. Many. Stories.
Room parties are still huge at SciFi cons here too — they were a thing at Wisconsin Anime cons for a long time, I think, because most of the early Anime cons there grew out of people who had planned SciFi cons previously… so we promoted Room Parties.
Because that’s a thing you do.
(hey look, I’ve caught up!)
Tables are far more productive, so we’ve been leaning towards those.
I’ve noticed a decline in the notion of the room party at furry cons, but the room party hasn’t been something other cons use to promote themselves. It’s just “Hey, let’s hang out, maybe with some modest theme.” FurFright was the big Room Party con during its Waterbury years, due to half the rooms facing a central atrium.