conventions – Page 14

CascadiaCon

December 17, 2019September 5, 2005 by Michael Hanscom

For the past few months, there’s been two different events on my radar for the Labor Day weekend that I was interested in: Bumbershoot and CascadiaCon. Some time ago, I’d decided to forego CascadiaCon in favor of Bumbershoot, but then over the past week I got a bit ticked at the Bumbershoot people over their “no cameras” foolishness, and ended up deciding that I didn’t want to head that way, either. So this weekend was looking to be pretty low-key.

Thursday evening Prairie and I went out for dinner with some friends from the Vogue (something that’s becoming a weekly event), and found out that Erin had been asked to showcase some of her clothing in a fashion show at CascadiaCon. Over the course of the conversation, I ended up getting asked to photograph the show, and Prairie was asked to be one of Erin’s models!

So, Saturday evening, Prairie and I headed down to the SeaTac Hilton, picked up CascadiaCon attendee badges at the registration desk, and found our way up to the designated “green room”. Prairie was soon buried in hair, makeup, and clothing, so I wandered back and forth between the green room and the conference room where the show was going to be.

The show itself was much fun — three designers showcasing four clothing lines (Imp of Satan, Fetishwear, Winter Couture, and Notorious Curves) in a late-night, 18+ only Fetish for Fantasy Fashion Show, hosted by Betty Rage of Glitzkrieg Burlesque and Cherry Baum (aka Mickey, who I know from the Vogue).

There are, of course, lots of pictures in a Flickr photoset. While my photos aren’t nearly “professional” quality (after all, there’s only so far you can push a little point-and-shoot, no matter how many dials and buttons they stick on it), I did the best I could. Here’s a few sample shots…

Conventions…or the lack thereof

December 13, 2019April 9, 2005 by Michael Hanscom

I’m often amused at just how off my timing seems to be. I just found out about Cascadia Con, what looks to be a major Science Fiction convention taking place here in Seattle later this year. From what I’ve been able to figure out while fighting my way through their website (which, I’m sorry to say, is horrid), whenever the WorldCon (World Si-Fi Convention) is held outside of America, there is a US-based NASFiC (North American Sci-Fi Convention) — and they’ll be right here in Seattle this year.

The downside, however, is that the convention is scheduled for the first four days in September — which is exactly when Prairie and I are planning to be busy moving into our new apartment, wherever that ends up being. This will probably involve renting a truck, schlepping all of her stuff into town from Ellensburg and all of my stuff from my apartment to the new one, getting it all set up, unpacked, arranged…all that fun but very time-consuming work.

Ah, well — I’ve made it almost 32 years without going to something like this, I’m sure I can make it a few more until the next one rolls around. But I reserve the right to whine about it for a moment. ;)

Additionally, while looking at their site, I did stumble across a link to Sakura-Con, an Anime festival that’s going on here in Seattle this weekend. I’m hardly the biggest Anime fan out there, but what little I’ve seen I’ve generally liked — however, while I’m sure there might be a number of photo opportunities there, I’m not sure it’d be worth the $30 one-day fee to wander around on my own for a few hours.

One of these days I’ll actually manage to hit one of these things, I swear!

“Walk Away Satisfied (Hot Tracks)” by Zino feat. Edwards, Jayne from the album Hot Tracks 15th Anniversary Collectors Edition (1997, 5:52).

Emerald City ComiCon

December 13, 2019February 5, 2005 by Michael Hanscom

“I’m not funny — I’m freakishly obsessed!” I burst out laughing when I heard this (thoroughly embarrassing the girl who’d said it, I think), but it seemed as oddly appropriate as it was amusing while I wandered around the Emerald City ComiCon this morning.

I’d heard about the con just a couple of days ago, and decided to go more or less on a whim this morning when I had nothing else planned for the day. I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect, as I’ve never been a major comic collector, and my only prior experience of any sort with comic conventions was watching Chasing Amy. As it turns out, though, that wasn’t bad mental image to have going in: lots of people wandering around in everything from street clothing to full Stormtrooper regalia The inevitable Star Wars costumes, Emerald City ComiCon, Seattle, WA , lots of booths with various merchandise and wares for sale, and lots of authors and artists available to meet.

Since I didn’t have any particular agenda or people I wanted to see — to be honest, I only recognized a select few of the names I saw on the placards on each booth — I just spent a couple hours wandering around the show floor, seeing what there was to see, and doing a lot of peoplewatching.

A few random highlights:

Michael Gagné’s Insanely Twisted Rabbits: Hilarious drawings of rabbits viewed through either a seriously twisted imagination or a lot of illegal pharmaceuticals. Or both. When it comes to rabbits with big, sharp, nasty, pointy teeth, I’m afraid that Monty Python has nothing on these bunnies.
Catalyst Studios’ masks and book bindings: Some absolutely incredible work in these. Books that had been re-bound with skulls and faces emerging from their covers (some of which were actual books with new covers, others were blank notebooks suitable for journaling or sketching), masks that strongly reminded me of the ballroom scene in Labyrinth, and lots of smaller sculpture work. Beautiful stuff.
While I was wandering around Bumbershoot last year, I ran into a girl who got a good laugh out of my “I’m just here to get laid” messenger bag. She ran into me again today and recognized me, and we ended up chatting for a few minutes. I gave her my e-mail and website address so that she could track down the right page and order a book or shirt for herself. I knew there had to be a few more people out there that thought it was funny!
As I was walking along at one point, I noticed a girl talking with her friends shooting a look in my direction. Suddenly, all three of her friends suddenly swiveled around to look in my direction, and I cracked up. As I figured, they’d noticed and were admiring my Utilikilt. We chatted for a few minutes, then they took a picture of me and I took one of them. So, somewhere out there on some guy’s digital camera is a shot of me from today — if by any random chance he happens to see this, I’d love a copy of the shot!
From what I could see, the biggest draw to this year’s ComiCon was the chance to get an autograph from Jhonen Vasquez, creator of Johnny the Homicidal Maniac and Invader Zim. I didn’t bother taking the time to stand in line, but I did get to get a quick shot of him between a few fans as he was signing merchandise. Turns out he looked more or less exactly as you’d expect he would from his work — which in an odd way, was a minor bummer. I was kind of hoping he’d be some pudgy, poorly shaven, badly dressed forty-something white guy that looked more like a redneck or a trucker. Just because in my world, that would be really funny.