There is an excellent article at CNet UK’s Crave site called The future is now: Sci-fi films in real locations. Besides all the movies you would expect, it mentioned one I somehow missed: The Girl From Monday. It turns out it is part of Netflix streaming collection, so I will be seeing it soon. Another quality read is io9’s Greatest Swashbuckling Heroes From 100+ Years Of SF Books. The collected artwork alone is worth the visit, like the ERB John Carter of Mars covers (including the one that inspired a certain Starwars costume), and the commentary is just as informative and entertaining as the article itself.
What could be better than a new Harry Turtledove story? A new Harry Turtledove story you can read online for free thanks to TOR and the author. Another in the online series of science fiction they continue to present there. For more free reading, swing by Peggy’s Free Science Fiction with Biology Directory. For years her Biology in Science Fiction blog has been a great place to learn and be entertained, and it looks like she has been working on the directory for a while now.
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.
The Prisoner miniseries will kick off Sunday the 15th and run for 3 nights. This miniseries is a remake of the 1967 cult classic, and will run for three consecutive nights. Currently the original Prisoner is available on On Demand and on DVD.
That was the good TV news; the bad news is that Dollhouse is canceled, which figures, since it was getting better every episode. You can see what Joss has to say about the final episodes.
Torchwood, on the other hand, now has a real good chance of having a season 4! Add that to word that Ray Bradbury’s new miniseries should hit the airwaves soon as well, and the tally comes to 3 good announcements to one bad.
The First Irish Discworld Convention takes place the first full weekend of November, the 6th through the 8th. Yes, Terry Pratchett is the guest of honor (health permitting), and all sorts of fun things are planned; see the con blog for more details. This one looks unlike any other con for the weekend, and would be my first choice if I had just figured out that pesky teleporting thing. Except maybe for the PMX2009 event, listed below.
Chevron 7.3 in Northampton, UK, is a Stargate mediacon, with the guests leaning heavily to the new series Stargate Universe. Also in Europe, J-PopCon is an Anime Con that takes place in Valby, Denmark, close to Center of Copenhagen. It is the biggest Anime event in that country, and has been running since at least 2000. To round out the international listings, Vertigo is a one-day Anime con taking place on Sunday in Santa Cruz, Bolivia.
For events in the US, Astronomicon takes place November 6th through the 8th in Rochester, NY. Mike Resnick is the Author GoH, and one of the events is the Grand Great Lakes Steampunk Cotillion, Symposium and Tea Social, along with all the usual fun stuff you expect at a readercon.
Anime Cons around the US include Aki-Con in Everett, Washington, Anime NebrasKon in Omaha, NekoCon 12 in Hampton, Virginia, and Zenkaikon 2009 in King of Prussia, PA. They all have screenings, events, panels, and cosplay, but the Kabuki Mask Painting Workshop caught my attention, especially listed after the Cosplay Swimsuit Competition and Dating Auction.
Some anime is included in the Pacific Media Expo 2009, but the event also includes live-action movies, the hottest bands, the latest fashion, and the newest pop culture trends from Japan and the Pacific Rim, making this a truly unique happening. I would probably have to clone myself this weekend to attend this one and the Irish Diskworld convention.
Gamer Cons this weekend include Carnage 12 in Fairlee, VT, Millennium 12 in Round Rock, Tx, and UberCon XII in Edison, NJ. And no, I don’t know why that last one went with Roman numerals when the Arabic numbers were a good enough Twelve for every one else.
Finally in Charlotte, NC there is the one-day Charlotte Comic-Con on Saturday the 7th.
There is a reason I follow science fiction authors on Twitter. One example is Lilith Saintcrow, or @lilithsaintcrow in Twit Speak. In a single screens worth of entries she referenced the Symphony of Science, which is echoed in Sagans Latest Music, an ethical discourse on the difference between Kindness, Morals, and Justice, a serious Netiquette site called One Geek To Another, a report on gender-based evolutionary size tactics and why they work, an a news story indicating that Bush used PsyOps on the American public as a way to distract us from what he was doing. 10 posts, 6 ways to tie your brain in a knot; you got to love the web, and the people like her that contribute to it!