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Orycon 34 Con Report

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The Convention : Orycon 34

The theme:  Apocalypse How?

The place: Lloyd’s Center double Tree Inn , Portland Oregon

The dates: 2nd – 4th November 12, 2012

Orycon is the premiere Science Fiction convention in Oregon.  This Year my big Hello Kitty Plush was the accompanying plush.

Friday:

Not wanting to take an unpaid time off, I went to and left work early. First stop was registration, it went very fast. Next I attending the rest of the AMV clinic, now having some tools I some question, now just getting but to sit down and use them.  I was distracted and missed a few panels, others panels that were published for the program you own con did not happen. The convention did not get off to a good start.  I went to opening ceremonies. It’s not a good omen if the opening ceremonies’ were sparsely   attended; no more that 30 people attended.  I went out to dinner and came back for the DoubleClicks Concert, they are a nerd-folk duo based in Portland, Oregon that plays songs of Star Trek, D and D, finding geek love, (in the wrong places). I seen part of their set at Rose City Comic Con; they were excellent and very funny. I got a cheap beer afterwards and went home for the evening.

Saturday:

I side to go for the breakfast buffet at the Hotel.  I got sidetrack from any panels I wanted to attend because I spent a good part of the morning in video room watching the British Hitchhiker guide to the Galaxy in all its 1980’s cheesy special effects.  I wanted to see how they handled deep thought and the dish of the day. Lunch go diverted to the con suite, it was a bit touchy when Occupy Portland jerks used the park across the hotel for their protest.  There not much in the way panes so I did a little reading room roulette, I just sat in reading room and waited for whoever to arrive for their reading, I got Richard A Lovett; I was impressed I bought a book of his short stories and ran Mary E. Lowd and blow the rest of my con book budget, picking up Otters in space.

Latter I went out an early dinner because I want to attend a show of Children of Terra Firma, a film by local independent SF/fantasy film makers. I got a taste of independent SF and fantasy films at Northwest Wonder and Rose City comic Con, it started to become an interesting niche for me.  After than I hung around and cruised the room parties. There we all types some with adult beverages some with not. There was a party for everybody.  Finally I went down to the main floor to catch Guy’s AMV viewing; do  to a temporal shift caused by a flux capacitor demonstration, quantum physics prank  or daylight saving time ending, stayed to  2:00am but the time shifted back to 1:00AM and I  did not leave to con till 1:30AM.

Sunday:

After church I rushed down to catch the Origin of fandom panel, this was a very interesting panel dealing with the origins of the Science Faction Fandom. The big takeaway was it was started in the 20’s by young men and teens creating clubs. Often these clubs did not last long because of the 3 / 4 rule: three votes for A, and four voted for B. The description of the clubs and drama remind much of furry fandom today; furthermore, the big flap over excluding six Futurians for the fort Worldcon in 1939 reminds me of the Uncle Kage vs., Insane Kangaroo today. One of the panels know the early pioneers of the furry fandom, to bad I could not have a longer talk with him.  The rest of the time I tried to run out the clock hanging around the con suite and video until it closed because I had a furmeet at 7:00pm. Failing I left the con around 5:00pm.

The Good:

I love the Doubleclicks concert

The Origins of the fandom panel.

 

The Bad:

Programming, notwithstanding Orycon did improve the panel’s selections over last year, but my beef with publishing of programming. For example Orycon wanting until the last week to publish the schedule on line and while a great idea, not publishing the create you own con until a few weeks before the convention. We not given enough time to create a panel we need at least a few months to properly prepare ourselves.

The Ugly

Sparsely attend opening ceremony. I been to past Orycon, Kumoricon,  and Ranfurrest,  Even smaller cons like  Furry Fiesta 2009 and  All Fur Fun. I never see pitifully attended opening ceremony. Perhaps its time to The Not Ready For Sidereal Time Players to retire.

Ugly Political correctness and identity  politics  There was  a big flap over the Autism panel it seems they did not  have somebody  with autism on it, Now having  a High autistic brother I was interested in it but after  seeing  the profanity written post on other sites, I can now see why Orycon  canceled the panel.

Over all I felt had a very good time, except for a few hitches I say Orycon 34 was much improve over Orycon 33.

 

When Bronies Disappoint

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Sometimes I am embarrassed by the Brony fandom.

This post was supposed to be my Musings of a New Brony as I open declared myself at rainfurrest  2012 I am a Brony  but a recent post on Equestria daily has almost made me to rethink if I really want to associate with the fandom.  My issue was the response to a post on Hasbro’s earnings conference call. A storm arose on Equestria daily over comment on what Hub is going to a 13 episode:

Q: Felicia R. Hendrix – Barclays Capital, Research Division

Right. But you’ve also been reducing your program production cash spend.

A: Brian D. Goldner – Chief Executive Officer, President, Director and Member of Executive Committee

Okay, yes, and the cash spend really has to do with when you have successful TV series. In fact, Hasbro Studios TV shows outperformed other TV shows on The Hub by 74% in ratings. We’re 4 of the top 10 shows on the network right now. So as you look at great performance of TV shows, you’re able to produce fewer episodes and subsequent series than you needed to produce in the earlier series. If you’re — you know kids love watching the episodes over and over again, but you have to add an element of newness. But you don’t need to spend to produce the entire new series again. You can add 13 episodes or 26 episodes to a pool of 52 already produced episodes. So therefore, you’re able to, with successful TV series, produce fewer in out-years.

Q: Felicia R. Hendrix – Barclays Capital, Research Division

Okay. You’re obviously not thinking about the parents who have to watch with the kids.

A: Brian D. Goldner – Chief Executive Officer, President, Director and Member of Executive Committee

Well, but I think it’s also important to note so that there’s no concern. Overall, the Hasbro Studios has greenlit over 800 half hours of programming, and we still have several hundred half hours of programming that we’re currently producing for the network for new shows. So it’s not that we’re not producing, we’re just both producing more efficiently and also looking at where there are successful TV series, we obviously then spend less per new series because we’re able to produce fewer shows.

 

This interchange, taken  on a storm in the comment section with plenty  of F-bomb spiked post as if we bronies are entitled  to 26 episode season three.  It is this type of fan boy behavior is why I often have many problems with fandom.  Already Bronies are on thin ice with me.  The biggest problem is not My Little Pony as much as Millennial Generation. They spend a large amount online isolating themselves to their own little peer group particularly though social networking; as such the millennial generation lack  many mature social skills including dealing with anybody  outside their peer  group. They have very bad narcissistic attitude couple with an obnoxious sense of entitlement.  I seen them having a temper tantrum like if a parent told them they have to bring their younger sibling with them. I had put on my “I am the adult hat” and chide anime fans, and furries for the same bad attitude.  My Little Pony Friendship is Magic is a show for young girls between five and ten years old, we Bronies older and are the unexpected guest.

Now lets counter the narcissism in the in the brony by say Hasbro is under no obligation to serve the Brony fandom. It clear by the conference call Hasbro has no issue with the Brony fandom, but it is not the market they choose to be in. It is simply a business decision. I can surmise Hasbro only wants in the toy business not the collectable business. There is a good reason, fan or craze generate collectable markets are very volatile and very short term; ask Tops (sport cards) and Ty (beanie babies) both nearly went bankrupt when the craze crashed. Second the just do not have the resources.

More of a concern is our love for My Little Pony is harming the show.  Let go back Hasbro create a show and Hub distributes My Little Pony to sell advertizing and   for Hasbro to market its full girl’s toy line, not just selling My Little Pony but marketing other toys during ad breaks. Now if the obnoxious Brony fan drives away the primary demographic: no market equal no ads, no ads no sales and eventually no show. We should have a vested interest to first be on our best behavior and encourage the younger fans less Hasbro decides the show ran its course and end production.

It time we start  acting like adults stop this silliness of flying  off the handle every them the Hub makes a change of a  charter  name a la Derpy  or Hasbro  ignore  your whiny entitlement  tirades. You’re not the center of the world. Just enjoy the My Little Pony Friendship as the great show. If you want a company that markets to little girls and young women   but would love to have a foothold in the men’s market, my suggest become a fans and have in interest in Hello Kitty and other Sanrio characters.  I do no say this flippantly but as a male fan of Hello Kitty.

Halloween and Orycon

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Noting much going on, it is usually very quiet when I live, I do keep a few candy bars or a bag just in case.  I am lucky if to see one trick or treater this year. I will  dump a hand full into the bag. No horror movies toning, thanks to Redbox killing the DVD rental business.  Redbox offerings are slim and getting to the nearest video store is a eight mile round trip.

The big news is I decided to go to Orycon the Science Fiction convention this weekend, I already registered. If you seen my last year report I was not a happy camper. The problem the old guard  , noting Orycon  historically  focuses on written Science  Fiction, had turn Orycon 33 into a \writers  business convention, Yes Orycon  is  about written science fiction but how about something for the reader and fan of movies and TV.  Well it looks like Orycon has listen so I am going this year.

Rose City Comic Con Report

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Sorry for the delay

The Con:  Rose City Comic Con

The Place:  Double Tree Inn Portland Oregon.

The Dates:  8th – 9th September 2011

Rose City Comic Con is a first year comic an pop culture convention in attempt to bring a San Diego type comiccon to Portland Oregon. My big Hello Kitty plush was the accompanying plush.

Saturday :

The day stared with a hitch; I failed to pre-register ant thought it was going to be a small convention, when I got there around 12:30pm I was instructed to line up, informing us the convention hall had exceeded the maximum of capacity 2500. They eventually allowed allow people to enter 25 at a time and I final go in.

 

There was not much in panels to do. I attended Richard Hatch panel an presentation. Richard Hatch played Apollo on the old  Battlestar Galactica Tom Zarek  in the Rebooted new series. He was enjoyable and very approachable. I even got a picture with holding my big Hello Kitty plush.   Next I ran around and watched the last half of a interesting moving about live action role players to in a style of a fantasy saga.  I regretted missing the first half.  I went out to dinner that to the after party, which was part panel, part trivia contest and part costume contest.

Sunday :

I went back to the con after church, not much panels of interest but found plenty of costumes to use up last of 35mm film.  I wrapped this up around 4:00pm

The Good: I like the geek after party notable the Nerd folk group the Double Clicks.  The Star Wars and the 501st Legion group really outdid themselves in costuming.

The bad; I wish Rose City   had more panels and con space. Orycon had 800 to 1300 attendees but 75% more con space that Rose city Comic con.

The ugly: I been to the Lloyd Center Double Tree during Labor Day for Kumoricon and never had any problem going though expositor’s hall but this year  the room was stifling hot and stuffy, somebody need to work on the air-conditioning  and circulation .

Rainfurrest Con Report

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Con Report  Rainfurrest The Return

The Convention Rainfurrest

The place: Hilton Hotel can Convention center

The dates:  27 through 30 September 2012.

 

Rainfurrest is a Furry convention held every year at the Sea Tac area. My large chococat was the accompanying plush. This was my return to Raifurrest aft a two year absence.

Thursday: I got up and rush to the Amtrak train station. Because of the condition of my truck I decided  to take  the train up especially after my plans  for renting a car fell through.

I got to the hotel The Hilton Hotel and Convention center store my stuff and head out for lunch, then set up in my room and attended the opening ceremonies.. I have to say the stage set up was a fry cry form the first Rainfurrest 2007. The opening ceremony was in what would have been a smaller panel room today and for guy in front.

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