In Austin, TX, this weekend brings IkkiCon, three days of Anime and Japanese culture. The musical guests include The Browncoats, kind of hard-rock filk. My vote for favorite event name: Steampunkapalooza!
Also this weekend, MagFest takes place in Alexandria, VA, a game and music con. This year they have 12 bands preforming, four per day.
Anime South runs from the 18th to the 20th in Destin, FL. Besides the usual Cosplay, Panels, Viewing Rooms, and Maid Cafe, they have some unusual events, like Anime Speed Dating and the Anime Tractor Pull. Musical guest Eyeshine seems to be touring the Anime and Sci-Fi Con circuit this winter, so they may be playing near you sometime soon.
Also this weekend, Tsunami 16 2009 happens in Merida, Yucatan Mexico. Unfortunately the homepage, while one of the most visually stunning images I have seen for an Anime con, is just that: a JPG image. A bit difficult to click on anything and get more information.
As the holidays gets closer, there is less and less to do, but there are still a few things. The best bet for this week looks to be the Houston ComicCon on the 12th and 13th. There are Comics creators and artists as guests, including the creator of Deadpool, but this is predominantly a collectibles event.
Cons are pretty thin on the ground in December, at least this year. The Steel City Con is a Toys and Collectibles kind of event, going on in Pittsburgh, Pa this weekend, and the CapIcons event is the same, in Tyson’s Corner, Va.
The only Con of importance this weekend is a kind of Meta-Con: the SMOF Con, or Secret Masters of Fandom Convention. They have to hold it when nothing else much is going on, because they run all the Cons that count, and would be too busy to show up when their Con was happening. So from December 4th to the 6th the majority of them will be in Austin, Texas, and syncing with this years theme: Time Management! Even people with time machines need to keep it under control, after all. My favorite Gimme from this cons collection: the SMOF Austin Restaurant Guide, which even non-SF folks will find very useful when they visit the best little town in Texas.
If you haven’t been to a collectibles event before, they are different from most other cons in that they are pretty much all dealer room. The one thing that makes them worth attending (unless you are a collector, of course, and if you are you already know this stuff) are the Celebrity Guests. You actually get to talk with them one-on-one while you pay your money for an autographed photo, or to get a picture taken with them. I have passed up a lot of photo opportunities over the years that I regret now, but count myself lucky for the questions I have had answered from folks like James Doohan (Trek) and Candy Clark (Man Who Fell To Earth), amongst many others.
Celebrity Guests at the Steel City Con include Ernie Hudson (Ghostbusters), Peter Mayhew (Chewbacca), and Luciana Carro (BSG).
CapIcons doesn’t seem to have any guests (at least that I could find), so from my perspective, what’s the point? Collectors will still be there, of course.
Lots of people look forward to holiday weekends because of the extra time you get, and fans are no different than anyone else in that respect. Give a fan an extra day or two, and they will look for a way to celebrate; one of the better celebrations is a good Con, and there are a lot of them this weekend. In fact it looks like this may be the final major weekend of the 2009 convention season, since December looks noticeably more quiet.
In Keokuk, Iowa we have KeoKon, a general readercon, with fan films, filk, Anime, and all the usual guests, costume ball, dealers rooms, etc. This one runs Friday and Saturday only.
ChambanaCon 39 takes place in Springfield, IL, and refers to itself as a RelaxCon. GoH this year is Eric Flint, and again all the usual ReaderCon events. This particular Con does seem to be heavily into Filk, with what looks to be a Con-long Filking room (Con long being Friday through Sunday).
OryCon 31 happens in Portland, OR, with Writer GoH Patricia Briggs, editor GoH Lou Anders, and several others. This ReaderCon has a lot going on.
LosCon 36 has the tag line BUT WAIT… THERE’S MORE!, and that seems to sum this event up. Tananarive Due and Steven Barnes are the writer GoH’s, themes include Dress Like A Pirate Day on Saturday, there is a Steampunk Science Competition… and that’s just the tip of the iceberg. You will have to visit the site to see what all is happening at this one.
Steampunk also features in to DarkoverCon in Baltimore, MD. The tracks at this Con are so rich they have built four of them into the web site, and you will find the Steampunk Events in the Alternate Track. Again this is a ReaderCon, built by fans for fans. The Video schedule has some rare gems, including the 2008 remake of The Survivors, based on the 1970’s classic BBC series. They will be showing all 6 hours of season one (yes, they are making a season 2); the original was created by Terry Nation, inventor of the Daleks. Another classic film offering is Mistress of Atlantis/Siren of Atlantis/L’Atlantide (1932); the queen is the Maria of “Metropolis,” Brigette Helm. And there are so many more, and still more tracks.
SorcererCon is somewhere between a ReaderCon and a MediaCon, and takes place in San Jose, California. Their baseline statement is to complex for me to re-quote here, but trust me, this is an event you will want to be a part of if you possibly can.
TardisCon in Chicago (or if you want to be nit-picky, Lombard, IL) looks to lead the pack for this weekends MediaCons. They have a truly impressive collection of talent here, centered around the 8th Doctor TV-Movie, with Paul McGann, Daphne Ashbrook (Dr. Grace Holloway), and Yee Jee Tso (Chang Lee) all taking part. Other media guests include Naoko Mori (Toshiko of Torchwood) and Nicholas Briggs, amongst still others.
Another Fan-run MediaCon this weekend is Star Base Indy located in Indianapolis, which has been running since 1988. It started life as a Trek con (witness Garrett Wang, William Morgan Sheppard, and Deborah Downey as the primary guests), but is now expanding itself to a wider fanbase.
To start out this week we have PhilCon 2009, which despite its name happens from November 20th through 22nd, in Cherry Hill, NJ. This is one of the big East Coast events each year, if you are in the neighborhood you should stop by.
The Anime con I will be attending this weekend is Anime USA in Arlington, Virginia. There are a huge number of guests and events, and you can take a look at previous years videos to get an idea of what kind of fun they have in the shadow of the Pentagon. This year kicks off their very first round of having a Host Club for the ladies and a Maid Cafe for the guys, and both come with karaoke variants. FYI, the Gear Masters Ball is Formal Steampunk this year.
The Arkansas Anime Festival (AKA the A2F) also has a Steampunk/Victorian Ball/Dance, but what I really find interesting is they keep having Ani-Raves separate from the Con itself, one a month. Wish someone was doing that around here with J-Rock non-Anime artists also represented; I would be there every time!
Other Anime Cons this weekend include DaishoCon in Stevens Point, WI. Besides all the usual panels and events, they also have Zombie Survival 201, a Cosplay Swimsuit Contest (with a depressingly cautionary warning about the indecent exposure laws), and other silly instructional presentations. In Indiana, Anime Crossroads has great guests and a Cosplay-oriented events schedule. Also this weekend is Another Anime Con in Nashua, NH., and BishieCon in St. Louis, MO.
ZonaCon in Orlando, FL, is running with the tag Where Anime Meets Horror, and leaning to the Zombie side of UnLife. Horror Hound Weekend would have to win my vote for best Media Con this time. I am not a horror fan, but Elvira trumps all other film hosts, and with movies like Black Sheep and Let The Right One In, you know it is going to be twisted enough to be interesting. And then there is the flip side of that con: YuleCon, the Holiday Anime and Gaming Convention in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area.