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Things to Do: Cons

Chattacon 35 takes place in the historic Chattanooga Choo-Choo Hotel in TN from the 22nd to the 24th. Guests at this ReaderCon include Sherrilyn Kenyon, Timothy Zahn, Jody Lynn Nye and Bill Fawcett.

COSine 2010 is a ReaderCon with GoH L.E.Modesitt Jr., happening from the 22nd to the 24th in Colorado Springs. Another fan-run gathering is ConFusion 2010; it runs from the 22nd to the 25th, and is the annual Science Fiction convention hosted by the Stilyagi Air Force of Ann Arbor.

The main MediaCon this weekend is the Salute to Star Trek in San Francisco from the 22nd to the 24th. Primary GoH’s are William Shatner and Patrick Stewart, but there will be a ton of others there as well.

Further ConFusion takes place in San Jose, CA, from the 21st to the 25th. Now in its 12th year, FurCon is one of the largest anthropomorphic (aka “furry”) conventions in North America.

On the 23rd through the 26th (they are running from Saturday through Tuesday because Tuesday is a national holiday), ArcanaCon XXVIII takes place in Melbourne, Australia. This is primarily a GamerCon, with the emphasis at the RPG end of the spectrum.

For Anime conventions, the SoDak Anime Convention happens from the 23rd to the 25th in Rapid City, South Dakota. Guests include Voice Actors Vic Mignogna and Wendy Powell, and something no anime con should be without: their own in-house roller derby team, the Rushmore Rollerz, who run under a theme song by Florence and the Machine, A Kiss With The Fist.

More Music while waiting for Avatar; the Beat goes on…

Weather is moving in, so I may not get to see Avatar in my local theater on opening day. But since William Gibson inspired me to post some music yesterday, I thought it might to be fun to post a bit more today, this time recommended by Wil Wheaton from his Radio Free Burrito podcast. The band Monsters from Mars may not be posting many new tracks these days, but I sure like the old ones.

I just noticed that John Scalzi posted some of his favorite music videos today as well, and there are some great tunes there.

Speaking of old audio tracks, anyone remember Lord Buckley? With his classic poems from Hipsters, Flipsters, and Finger Poppin Daddies, knock me your lobes, to The Naz, to Gods Own Drunk, and many more, he was the precursor that ushered in everyone from William Burroughs to Lenny Bruce around 1950 or so (Buckley started recording about 1940). In the process, he singlehandedly invented the language of the Beat Generation, and introduced Jack Kerouac to stream of consciousness poetry, Allen Ginsberg to free-form rhyme, and cheered on Neal Cassady as he also created a unique variation on what it was to be an American Beat. Neal never wrote anything, as near as I can remember; he was just the quiet center around which everyone else kept writing, and doing, and evolving, using him for their inspiration.

Silly Saturday, Interesting Animation

You can’t get much sillier than Gadgets you’ll need to Survive a Zombie Attack; thanks, Crave!

When I see a link from William Gibson on Twitter, I make a point of following it. He has found some of the most interesting things, most of which I was unaware of. This video is a case in point; A musical video clip by Yannick Puig Inspired by the sound track “I lived on the Moon”, of the Kwoon’s album “Tales and Dreams” (description from the creators YouTube page). Another great one is the Norism series of images.

And did I mention the Muppets do Rhapsody?

Things To Do: Cons

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.