Kowabunga

See original post as well.

Silicon 2007 was a big success with attendance easily topping last year. According to a staffer I spoke to, there were over 1,000 attendees, including staff, volunteers (can't run a con with out 'em) guests and kids in tow.

Silicon 2007 also hit an important milestone by selling out their room block. This is important as it helps a con get discounts on the function rooms from the hotel as the hotel is able to make good revenue by selling room nights.

As I mentioned earlier, there were a number of great panels providing how-to on special effects makeup and casting latex appliances. Cool stuff. Also, the film festival is a big hit with Silicon with more entries.

This year's undeclared theme was horror film. I'm not a big fan of modern day horror films, as I tend to prefer the classic Universal monster pics of the '30s and '40s. They did have some hot animated films and other fun stuff, including a parody of the WW2 training films featuring zombies.

On the downside, I wasn't able to attend some of the panels I was most interested in. Kind of hard to get on the road to a con with a two-year old to get ready.

The dealers room had a few different non-standard tables from what you typically see. One was a table of reps from Smooth-on, a special effects materials supplier. They ran a couple of how-to panels and answered a lot of questions on casting materials, etc.

The best part about Silicon was hanging out with some of my friends that I don't see too often since I moved to Minnesota. It was good to get caught up with them and pal around, and Tilly the Wonderdog is always a treat to see.

What was surprising is that Mitchell, who is one of the Klingons of the IKV Bloodlust and a buddy for over ten years now, went to the same high school I went to. A couple of years after me, so there was no chance of crossing paths there. Small world!

The party scene was top notch with a lot of good parties. The Black Hole Bar, hosted by the Bloodlust, was probably the best decorated and serving the best booze.

Silicon may not be drawing big name actors to it. by skipping the big price actors they are able to bring in substantially more people involved in the film industry capable of putting on demos and how-to's which is far more interesting than listening to someone like Leonard Nimoy reliving his glory days.

I have one negative to say. One of the video production exhibitors was showing clips from their film in the main hallway which is very public. Now normally I wouldn't give a rat's you-know-what, but this was graphic sexual content from a racist-porno film. I also really don't care about the movie's content. It's the displaying of graphic sex scenes where children are present that got my goat. There were also some other inappropriate antics by the strippers (they call themselves "dancers) who were featured in this porno film. Fortunately other people voiced their disgust with Con-Comm. That was the one negative with Silicon.

Photos:

Gene and Mary	Geek!
Doctor Who and his new companion	Sara and Gene, agents of KAOS
Anna with a monster	FX demo
prop room	prop room
Mary as the Doctor	Not sure who this is
ambulance from Firefly	Masked Mustang and a Princess
Cassandra, the Last Human	Guitar!
Qayla	Katah
Pete	Sqotty with the gang

Tags:

Silicon Fandom Klingon KAG ROFF

Posted by Sqotty at 9:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
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We are two-thirds of the way through Silicon 2007 and this is the first opportunity I have had to post. It's been that crazy of a week (and most of it without Internet access).

Silicon has a plethora of guests, predominantly from the direct to video horror film industry. This also includes the Independent and Fan Film Festival which is predominantly horror film oriented, no surprise as this year's theme is horror films.

Special Effect Make-up artists held several demonstrations yesterday using various latex based appliancs. I only caught one of these, but I did see the Italian Zombie running around at one point.

There were quite a few entries in the Masquarade, with our favorite being the Masked Mustang, which is a furry horse super hero. There was also a very cool powered Dalek in the Masquarade. I'll post pictures tomorrow.

The party scene, which was good on Friday night, went into high gear on Saturday with the Klingons, not unexpectedly, having the livliest party, serving up Phaser Shots and Disruptor Blasts. The BSG group had a fun party as did the SF/SF Internet Fanzine, which was celebrating their 50th issue.

Good parties, and good times. Lots to see and do, and not enough time to take it all in.

Silicon has been well attended, no idea what the turnout is, somewhere around 800, maybe a bit more.

It has also been good to catch up with a lot of friends we haven't seen since last year.

One more day to go, then homeward bound for me.

Tags:

Silicon Fandom Klingon KAG

Posted by Sqotty at 10:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
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Silicon is over, back from vacation, on normal work hours. No more excuses. Time to get the Silicon 2006 photos posted.

As noted in my earlier post during the run of the con, Silicon 2006 was a well attended mid-sized con, with somewhere around 700 fans in attendance.

161k JPEG Dan Lopez with the various Guests of Honor.	75k JPEG Anna Marie, now one year old, in Original Klingon outfit. Would you believe this is her FIFTH convention?
149k JPEG a local furry. He kept insisting it was "duck season."	172k JPEG Masquarade entries.
252k JPEG Dragon	229k JPEG Dragon menacing my wife and daughter.
137k JPEG Sara, of "Renegade Chickens" fame.	170k JPEG Sue and Cassandra.
139k JPEG Anna Marie.	140k JPEG Kate and Mary.
156k JPEG Johanna MacDude.	134k JPEG Lady Di and Klingon Pete.
148k JPEG Mike, Captain of the Bloodlust.	135k JPEG Klingon Warrior.
193k JPEG Party scene.	161k JPEG Party scene.

That's it for this mission report.

Tags:

Silicon
Science Fiction Conventions
Science Fiction Fandom

Posted by Sqotty at 6:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
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The problem with traveling sans computer, it makes it difficult to report on the fun stuff going on.

I am at the Silicon 2006 Internet Cafe.

Silicon is beginning to wind down, this being the third and final day of the con. It's been a real experience coming back to the Bay Area for a mid-sized science fiction convention.

The Artist Guest of Honor is Mark Bode, son of Vaughn Bode. I'll be honest, the Bode clan of artists are not my cup of tea. But that's my problem. I did have a chance to chat with Mark, and he seems like a okay guy to know. And the art is fine, just not my cup of tea.

Media Guest of Honor is Bob Burnett, who directed Free Enterprise, and presented a showing of the film with live commentary. Unfortunately, we missed it (it was at 10:30 in the morning...and with baby in tow, it's tough getting moving in the morning).

An old friend of mine from my southern Califonia days, Craige Howlett, was the Fan Guest of Honor. It was good running into him and chatting, and showing off Anna to him.

The Masquarade Competition was nearly a full house with a fine array of contestants, with a lot of young folks participating. I don't have a list of winners here. One of the really funny outfits was a gal dressed like a D20, and entered as Lady Di.

Although the number of parties was small (only four or five), all of the parties were excellent and well attneded, with the famous Mara's Bar, run by the local area Klingons, being a main focal point.

Chocolate and alcohol were plentiful thoughout both evenings, as well as mucho conversation and a charity "slave" auction.

I have to comment on something truly wierd that happened during the party cruise through. I was walking around with my (now one year old) daughter in my arms when I was asked by a couple of women if I plan to raise her to be a Democrat. Obviously, these two denizons of California, had no idea who I am. After I stopped laughing, and told them that she has already had her picture taken with the Governor of Minnesota, and about the plans to attend RepubliCon in '08 (the Republican National convention), they then went off about Bush destroying th Constitution, or some such Monnbattiness. It is sad that Republicans and conservatives are forced to be underground in this state that claims to be open-minded. And yes, there were other weird encounters of a similar nature. However, I won't go into those.

A couple of old frineds of mine, Tracy and Johanna, along with some of their friends, put on a panel on military costuming, with a power point slide show and some good examples. Probably the best of the several panels I attneded.

There was also a Fan Film Festival, with some excellent short films, such as The Bat Man a spoof of the original Batman, only this time, the Dark Knight uses a baseball bat. also shown over the weekned was a cool production from a Star Wars group called IMPS

Overall, it's been a fun con. Ran into several people I haven't seen in years, which was cool, and got to jerk some left-wing nuts chains! Who could ask for more?

I'll have pictures up sometime after I return from California.

Tags:

Silicon
Science Fiction Conventions
Science Fiction Fandom

Posted by Sqotty at 3:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
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