Silicon Valley ComiCon 2017

Silicon Valley ComiCon was in April this year, and we had a chance to go for all three days.

If you recall from my previous blog post on SVCC, there were some issues that SVCC had to contend with last year, and I think they did an outstanding job in fixing many of their issues from last year:

• Crowd management --- they did a lot better in terms of crowd management. The lines for getting tickets / registration seemed to be better managed. Personally, we got our "badges" ahead of time (so much better than last year), and friends reported that getting their badges went without a hitch.
• Signage was a lot better this year and with the added functionality of their SVCC app for your mobile, it was easier to find things!
• Food options were now plentiful. SVCC reserved the local nearby park, closed it off, and had a plethora of food trucks available. This was good for the SVCC crowd, the Science March crowd, and any locals in the area. 
• Panels -- there were lots and lots of panels this year, and they were easily accessible. The app made them a lot easier to find.
• Badging in & out --- For whatever reason, SVCC is still enamored with the concept of "badging" in and out of the convention center. (Nearly all tech companies require employees to use a badge to get into their buildings, so I suppose they are emulating that.)
• They also did a bag check before you could badge into the convention (which I don't remember from last year). At the main entrance, this caused a back-up when trying to enter (with the additional badge check).
• Badging in/out (especially in the main entrance while trying to leave). Sometimes the scanner/tablet didn't read the badge correctly, which caused further delays. 
• LUCKILY, there were other small entrances (if you knew where they were) so you could get in/out without the crowd, but by Sunday, you were only able to badge out of those locations.

There were some pretty cool things they did this year.

They had a big tie into the Science March -- they had keynote speakers, provided the aforementioned food trucks, and reserved areas. Not only did them have a lot of STEM/STEAM panels, they had lots of interactive science exhibits for kids to do. They had hands-on exhibits from the SJ Children's Discovery Museum & Libraries, NASA ,and the SJ Computer Museum

The SJ Computer museum was particularly fun because they had a lot of "old school" computers from old Atari 2800s to Apple IIes, projectors, and the first mobile phones 

For all ages, there was an entire area of free arcade games (e.g. Pacman, DigDug, Qbert, Joust, etc) for anyone to play. They also had old school console games -- older SNES, Ataris, and PC games.

 

And a lending library for a variety of board games!

Of course, there was a slew of panels to attend, ranging from specific STEM/STEAM related d panels (hosted by NASA scientists, the SETI institute) to cosplay to comic book related topics to Star Trek/Star Wars and other media panels. It was all sorts of awesome. There were definitely a few panels that I wanted to attend that were conflicted by others I wanted to see!

 

The Over 30 Cosplay Panel

Key note panels...boy, were there key note panels. Buzz Aldrin, the whole cast of Star Trek: the Next Generation, SETI institute, Adam Savage, and Tori /Kary from Mythbusters & White Rabbit.

TESTED filmed some of their episodes with a few of their hosts. It was neat to see them work, as well as many of the props they've built.

Overall, it was a vast improvement over last year; we were very happy with how things changed. Of course, there are small things here and there that can be improved upon, but that's true for any convention. We had a blast and are looking forward to next year!

Silicon Valley Comic Con Report

Last weekend, my Viking and I attended the first Silicon Valley ComicCon that was presented by Steve Wozniak and Stan Lee. Sufficed to say, we were extremely excited to go.

Overall, we had a lot of fun. There was some good stuff AND bad stuff. Most of the bad stuff primarily had to do with issues that you could say was due to it being a first-time con. Issues such as:

• Crowd management --- the lines for a lot of things such as getting tickets and badges (for both the paying and pre-registered crowd) were insanely long.
• Lack of signage directing people to the correct areas. And some  volunteers often didn't know what was happening.
• Inefficient methods of dealing with badges --- We had to stand in line to get our pre-registered badges, which then arrived IN THE MAIL on SATURDAY EVENING. Also, as an attendee, you had to "badge" in and out of the actual ComicCon area. This made for some confused attendees and bad crowd management trying to get in and out of the specific ComicCon area.
• Lack of food options in the convention hall -- There were only 2-3 food vendors for the insane Saturday crowds, which resulted in 20-60 minute waits for food. However, on Sunday, they learned their lessons and opened the concession stands inside the center.
• Insufficient number of panels to attend -- For the sheer number of people that attended, there weren't enough panels. And of the panels that did exist, the lines to get into them were long or confusing -- as lines for tickets and some of the panels were in the same area. However, the panels were quite interesting and they tried to meld technology and comic books with some success.

Part of this can be attributed to it being a first time convention and some can be attributed to merely poor planning on their part. But, I'm willing to cut them slack and to see how they address issues for next year.

On the flip side, we had a lot of fun. They had various groups from the 501st legion, Rebel Legion, a Star Wars memorabilia museum, and Madame Toussads wax museum! A few technology companies, such as Occulus and other VR firms were there. And the line to see them was long.

However, by Sunday afternoon, we'd pretty much seen everything we wanted to see...twice over. So, we hoofed it home to relax for the rest of the afternoon. Given all the number of limited available panels, etc., it probably worth it for most people to only come one day. For a budget conscious comic book fan, one day would have been more than enough.

Here's a few photos of the things we did see:

We popped into a few of the panels, which included Steve Wozniak and Stan Lee. These were hilariously fun. Unfortunately, we missed a few other panels due to the aforementioned long lines. However, just like San Diego Comic Con, they had big screens for the one large room so you could see what was going on stage.

There was some large movie poster/props that were on display in several areas. (This bird is bigger than me, and its wingspan is at least 6 feet long)

More than a few prop groups were there. Some were for show, and some for sale. The Star Wars museum had an interesting collection of memorabilia.

Insofar as cosplayers, there were a LOT of costumes from a variety of science fiction and fantasy genres. It was a lot of fun to see many of them.

Surprisingly (or not), there was a lots and lots of Star Wars costuming, especially with members of the local 501st garrison there.

Of course yours truly was also in my Star Wars costume. I ran into a lot of femme Han Solos over the course of Saturday, but alas, only one male Slave Leia and only one Wookie, not counting Peter Mayhew, who was one of the guests of the convention (and one that I had wanted to meet!)

It just wasn't the adults. We saw a lot of kids as well. And they were adorable.

There was also a costume contest consisting of 100+ cosplayers (which was a bit much). Some of the costumes were good, some were okay, but everyone had fun.

Sufficed to say, we enjoyed ourselves, despite the issues that occurred. Next year, we'll be a bit more prepared to deal with the crowds, lack of available food issues, and whatnought. I really hope they solve this year's problems and really up their game for next year.

Because, it would be awesome to have an annual comicbook convention in Silicon Valley again!

GallifreyOne 2016 - ConReport

Earlier this month, I attended GallifreyOne, the Doctor Who convention, in Los Angeles. It's always held at the LAX Marriott hotel, and the hotel, itself, really gets into the swing of things.

  

There are some pretty amazing costumes at Gallifrey, like this Davros.

There were folks in "older" Doctor Who.

And new Doctor Who, and as evidenced by the photo, the same people cosplayed different eras of Whovian characters.

As always, there are some pretty creative fiber artists who make their costumes accordingly.

And some very creative takes on iconic pieces, like this Dalek Fez.

And some pretty awesome mashups -- like this 10th Doctor Jedi

There was even a T-Rex carrying around a small little TARDIS that she would occasionally spit out. :-)

I was on a couple of panels, including Doctor Who Crafts -- a panel for crafters that love Doctor Who. Topics ran from how to manage your crafting to how to make money from your crafts. I'm considering writing up an article about that for the blog.

I also was on a panel for Cosplay Diversity, which was also pretty interesting. My co-panelists were from different walks of life and we covered a range of topics at a fairly high level.

This was my first year doing panels at GallifreyOne, although I've done them for years at other conventions. I had a good time and met some pretty amazing people on them.

The guests were amazing. Sir John Hurt was one of them, and the crowds to listen to him being interviewed were huge. My DH Viking got Sir John Hurt's autograph on an ALIEN chestburster, because, well...that's just how he rolls.

 

I, of course, cosplayed throughout the convention, but only managed to get a few photos of me in them. One of them was my "comfy" costume, Rosie the TARDIS (which I'll post about later, including the making.)

Overall, it was a most excellent convention, and one that we're looking forward to attending again next year.

Stitches West 2015

Stitches West is the weekend immediately following GallifreyOne, which didn't give me much time to catch my breath in between weekends.

I went off with friends, and it was a fun time. We saw a ton of geeky and nerdy knits! I met a fellow knitter from the Who Knits? forum on Ravelry, and she had made this Doctor Who themed shawl

And one of the vendors showcased everyone's favorite Joker with their new colorway.

And who can resist a bit of Harry Potter?

I got a chance to wear my Eagle Twist shawl, which got a ton of compliments. Everyone loved the cable down the middle of the back. Then on Sunday, I wore my St. Brigid sweater...and again got a lot of compliments on it. At least one person recognized the pattern; she had knit it herself.

Nothing like showing off your hard work at Stitches!

Of course, I picked up a few things at Stitches that were just too pretty to pass up. A lovely orifice hook for my wheel. I love the shape and it fits in my hand well.

A fair trade basket. It's larger at the bottom than at the top. It carried everything I bought at Stitches. I tried very hard not to fill it up.

And of course, there was the yarn.

I stopped at Miss Babs booth where I picked up a Wowza and Yummy skeins (along with two mini skeins).  I also picked up a sweater's worth of Madeline Tosh at Webs. There was also a new vendor called "Yarns on the House" whose yarn base was absolutely lovely (80% Superwash Merino, 10% Cashmere, 10% Nylon). They had nearly sold out by Friday, but I picked up a skein to play with at my leisure while they restocked.

I hope ya'll had a good time at Stitches.

GallifreyOne: Convention Report!

This past weekend was the Doctor Who convention, GallifreyOne, located at the LAX Marriott hotel in Los Angeles. This convention is spectacularly fun, and a great place for cosplayers, costumers, and crafters to really show off their work.

There was a lot of different skill levels. There was some pre-made / purchased costumes, and a lot of hand crafted ones. There were costumers of all ages.

I was glad to see many parents getting their children started early in the cosplay world.

 

7 month old twins dressed as Amy Pond & River Song.
I LOVE their hair

Or you can get them even younger with this customized Dalek stroller!

There were costumes everywhere. One of the panels for the day was "Iron Costumer", which is a take of "Iron Chef". There were two teams of costumers (Team Omega and Team Rassilon). They were given sewing machines, a motley of different fabric, and 45 minutes to build a costume around the following theme:

Romana has regenerated. The President of Gallifrey needs a new outfit 

The costumes they came up with were pretty spectacular. Each team divided up into "Props" and "Sewing". There were extremely inventive! The gentleman's staff are whiteboard markers that are attached to each other then covered with foil.

We had costumers ranging from beginner to full-fledged prosthetic masters.

 

Dream Crab anyone?

And what's nifty is that there are a lot of fiber artists at GallifreyOne as there are many knitted costume pieces in the very show itself! This young lady had her own take on the 7th Doctor, played by Sylvester McCoy.

 

Her underbust corset is duplicate stitched. 

She initially did Intarsia for her gloves, 

and opted to duplicate stitch for her underbust

There were many variations of the 4th Doctor's scarf running around. I wore my gloves on a couple of days and received a lot of compliments.

In addition to one-person costumes, there were a lot of group costumes as well.

And for those not doing group costumes, there were plenty of meet-ups for cosplayers doing a specific costume. For example, there was a Missy Meetup as well as a Companion Meetup. It was a good way to meet other cosplayers who love the same characters you do.

The number of cosplayers is pretty large at Gallifrey. The masquerade alone had 40 entries! I'm already starting to plan my own set of costumes for GallifreyOne next year. I hope to see you there.

Fanime 2014

Historically, the months of May, June, and July are especially busy for me, and this year is no exception. In fact, this year is proving to be even busier than previous years. Not only did we have our Memorial Day weekend conventions, Valhalla ren faire, and SLO faire, but we're also adding ComicCon to the mix! OY! (More on that later)

However, before I get into that, I need to actually catch-up on the backlog of posts that I've been meaning to write. So, I'll start with the long Memorial Day weekend.

MyViking &; I volunteered at our local (and large) anime convention, which ended up with 40,000 guests. He was the head of the masquerade on Sunday evening, and I was working the photography for that event in addition to putting together some of the audio (music) for various contestants, as well as helping to coordinate between the contestants, judges, and the masquerade crew. Sufficed to say, the weekend was a lot of work, but it was fun.

We arrived on Thursday evening, and set up for photography on Friday. I spent three days taking photos of most of the contestants and of the Masquerade event itself (which was a 12 hour day of work!). And then on Monday, we broke down all the photography gear to be packed and returned home.

I did manage to get out on several days to check out the rest of the convention and wear my own costumes, including my Melinda May cosplay that I had worked on for several weeks. On Saturday evening, we also managed to get to one of the many concerts that were scheduled. (There was also dancing involved). But, even after the convention ended, my real "work" began in getting all the photographs processed for the convention. This process took nearly 1.5 weeks to complete -- mostly in the evenings.

But the results were definitely worth it.

I'll have the photos up on my portfolio website soon enough. I need to work out some logistics with the Fanime convention, and then they can be made available.