Announcing the Labor Day Weekend Otaku-thon of Doom!

Summer is coming to an end, which for many people unfortunately means it’s Back to School time. (I feel your pain) It also means that it’s time once again for the infamous MDA Labor Day Telethon. I remember watching this with my parents for years when I was a kid, groaning at the lame jokes, and watching the various performers.

Thinking about this gave me an idea — how about we hold our own Labor Day event — a Labor Day Otakuthon, if you will? No, I won’t be crass and ask for your donations (though if you do I certainly wouldn’t mind). Instead, I am envisioning a sort of live group call-in show where hosts, co-hosts and guests can drop in and out at will, and we can talk about anything that strikes our fancy. (This is actually something I’ve been wanting to do for a while now.)

We can talk about what we think of the Summer 2011 anime season so far. We can talk about the various anime conventions we’ve been to this year. We can sing the praises of our all-time favorite anime, or lampoon and ridicule the worst anime in the history of mankind. Whatever!

I was thinking that we could do this on Labor Day weekend, which is Saturday and Sunday, September 3rd and 4th this year. No, we won’t be going all weekend long – I don’t want to completely emulate the MDA telethon (which in its heyday lasted as long as 21-1/2 hours!). I was thinking of doing this for a few hours on both Saturday and Sunday (to give as many people as possible on both the east and west coasts an opportunity to join in).

I’ve already lined up a few co-hosts who will be joining us. But for this to really succeed, we need you! If you’ve got a reasonably good computer and Internet connection, and a decent mic or USB headset, you can participate using Skype (which can be downloaded for free). Or you can join in by dialing a (toll free, in the US or Canada) telephone number.

If you’re interested in participating, drop us a line letting us know around what time(s) you might be available that weekend. I’ve also set up an editable web page where anyone who is interested can suggest topics of discussion; also please list the days/times that you might be able to join in there.

Look for another blog post closer to the weekend in question (sometime next week) that will detail the specific time(s) we’ll be operational, as well as instructions on how to join us by Skype or phone.

J-List is a peaceful island of Japanese pop culture for you