Monthly Archives: September 2013

Rose City Comic Con returns for 2014!

  By K. L. Zolnoski | September 26, 2013 - 12:10 pm | Comicons
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RCCC Logo

RCCC Logo

RCCC Logo

Portland’s home grown show announces dates for 3rd annual convention

Portland, OR – Rose City Comic Con saw record attendance during their second annual convention held at the Oregon Convention Center the weekend of Sept 21st & 22nd, 2013. Over 17,000 people attended the event, which marks an over 400% increase in attendance from year one.

Attendees turned out in all manner of costume to enjoy the over 2000 artists, panelist, vendors, writers, celebrities, droids, staff and volunteers who worked tirelessly all weekend to create an impressive fan experience. Heck, there were even 5 puppies and 3 kittens in attendance!

Rose City Comic Con is very proud to announce their third annual convention will be taking place September 20th & 21st, 2014, once again at the Oregon Convention Center. RCCC 2014 will feature a greater variety of film/television stars, voice actors, comic guests, vendors, merchandise, gaming, contests, artists, speakers and pop culture than ever before!

Look for regular press releases containing all of the latest news leading up to the show in September 2014. For more information, please visit RCCC’s website at www.rosecitycomiccon.com

Cosplay Panel at The Rose City Comic Con

  By K. L. Zolnoski | September 25, 2013 - 12:14 pm | Comicons, Uncategorized
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Cylon & Batmobile

RCCC Cosplayers

RCCC Cosplayers

Yes there was actually a “Cosplaying 101” panel at the Rose City Comic Con. As you know, gentle reader, I find the cosplay an equal draw to the Con as the celebrities who graciously attend. It makes me happy to see other people dress up as their favorite characters, it makes me happy to see people express themselves and have such an uplifting creative outlet. I, personally, feel that it is good and healthy for people to let their imaginations run free and to express themselves so beautifully. Stepping down from my soapbox, it is just a wonderful extra bit of joy that cosplayers bring to cons.

The other thing about cosplayers is that they are happy to talk about their creations, the characters that inspire them and the trials and tribulations of costume design and crafting. The Cosplay Panel at the RCCC was every bit as informative as you might expect. The best bit of advice was at once surprising and eminently practical: Plan for a way to use the restroom and always take into account the weight of the costume. It’s one of those things that gets forgotten in the frenzy of costume creation and yet is so important. It seems small but it is of vital importance.

Cylon & Batmobile

Cylon & Batmobile

They also suggested lurking about ebay to find the pieces to construct your costume. Often times you don’t need a full sheet of something and a scrap or bit from another crafty person will do. You can build some really nice costumes without spending a mint. In fact I’m planning on taking that advice for some of the pieces for the costume I would like to put together.

The biggest thing though is to not be afraid or intimidated. It’s the joy and love that you bring to the cosplay that really makes it, not the professional seamstressing. Not that professional seamstressing doesn’t show in a well made costume but that’s not the point of it. It’s just a nice bonus.

Rose City Comic Con Kaiju of Pacific Rim Panel Discussion A Real Treat

  By K. L. Zolnoski | September 24, 2013 - 6:52 pm | Comicons
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Crimson Typhoon from the Official Pacific Rim Stills on Facebook

Crimson Typhoon from the Official Pacific Rim Stills on Facebook

Those of you who read my movie reviews on The Geek Girl Project, or even have followed this blog for any length of time, will know that I am a huge Godzilla fan from way back. If you read my tribute piece on Pacific Rim you will know that it was my father who instilled in me this love of giant monsters by watching them with me when I was a small child. I recently learned that he got his love of Godzilla from his own mother, my late and beloved grandmother. So it was no small thing that there was, for the first time since I started going to Comic Cons (granted only in the past couple of years) that there was a panel discussion on Kaiju at the Rose City Comic Con.

Godzilla was the very first Kaiju (strange monster) or more accurately Daikaiju (giant strange monster) and all others have followed in the giant radioactive lizard’s footsteps. So with great excitement and anticipation I attended the Kaiju panel discussion at the Rose City Comic Con. They specifically focused on the Kaiju of Pacific Rim, which is, in my humble opinion, the best movie of the year (and yes I saw Star Trek: Into Darkness and I thought it was fantastic).

There were three speakers on the panel: Kyle Young of Kaijucast.com (shameless plug), Jeff and Brian. These guys know their Kaiju. They even gave me a couple of suggestions for movies I haven’t seen and I thought I was fairly up on my Japanese monster movies. Kyle specifically suggested a trilogy called Daimajin that was recently released in the US as an excellent example of feudal monster movies based upon Yokai, which is the Japanese equivalent of our mythological monsters like ghosts, the Loch Ness Monster, or Sasquatch.
They had a lot of interesting things to say about the Kaiju of Pacific Rim. For example Knifehead was patterned after a Goblin shark. Also that the names had meanings, like Otachi translates roughly as big sword or that Raiju is a reference to a Yokai.

Their final word of advice for Kaiju fans and specifically fans of Pacific Rim was to follow Travis Beacham on Tumblir. Something I intend to do as soon as I have 5 minutes to spare.

Overall it was an excellent panel discussion. My only quibble is that there wasn’t enough discussion of Godzilla or other classic Kaiju. Given that Pacific Rim is A) a fantastic movie and B) they only had an hour I can understand that they couldn’t cover all of the Kaiju they would have liked to. Since the panel drew a larger crowd than they expected and with a new Godzilla movie coming out in 2014 I am hoping to attend more like it at future cons.

Oh and one last thing. Kyle grabbed a bunch of promotional Godzilla posters from the San Deigo Comic Con and I was able to snag one. Thank you Kyle! K.

David Giuntoli and Christopher Judge @ Rose City Comic Con

  By K. L. Zolnoski | September 23, 2013 - 12:21 pm | Comicons
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Gavid Giuntoli signed photo

Gavid Giuntoli signed photo

Gavid Giuntoli signed photo

Indeed, gentle reader, I had the distinct pleasure of meeting both David Giuntoli of Grimm fame and Christopher Judge, Oregon Duck #2 and T’lac from Stargate at the Rose City Comic Con this weekend.

David Giuntoli still has that air about him of newness to his fame. While every star I’ve met at a con has truly appreciated their fans, David still seems to be surprised that so many people are interested in him, like his show and think highly of him and his work (of course that is just my impression). He also has a charisma and spark of life about him that cannot be translated in media.

Christopher Judge was nothing less than absolutely gracious. He very kindly greeted everyone, even those who didn’t pay for an autograph. He had some Oregon Ducks paraphernalia with him also, playing to the home crowd very well. He really is a gentle, gracious and kind person. I am so very pleased that of all the choices I could have made to get autographs from that I chose his. I also got his autograph for my sister as part of her Christmas gift this year since she couldn’t make it to the RCCC and Christopher kindly signed the photo to her and wished her Merry Christmas.

It is always, always nice when people you like on television, who play characters you like, turn out to be just wonderful human beings. Granted this is just a snapshot of who they are. I only got to speak to each one for a few brief minutes but consider that it was a high stress situation. There were thousands of fans there and many people wanted to speak to them.

As I mentioned yesterday, Star Wars was well represented. I’m including some of the photos I took so you can enjoy the amazing cosplay.

RCCC Star Wars Cosplayer

RCCC Star Wars Cosplayer

Star Wars Cosplayers

Star Wars Cosplayers

And some awesome X-Men cosplayers. I’ve always been a fan of Gambit, espeically before he went back to being evil. There were some spectacular Storm costumes and we were delighted to see a Frozone cosplayer from The Incredibles. Alas I did not get a picture of Frozone but I did get this great picture of some X-Men cosplayers. IMG_2771

Sadly, due to money constraints, I was not able to speak to Avery Brooks. Tomorrow I will go over the Kaiju panel discussion so do come back to read all about that. It was delightful. K.

The Rose City Comic Con Delivers Comic Con Goodness

  By K. L. Zolnoski | September 22, 2013 - 2:39 am | Comicons
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Make A Wish Foundation Rose City Comic Con Patch

Make A Wish Foundation Rose City Comic Con Patch

Saturday was the first day of the Rose City Comic Con and it was a good one. I have to confess that I didn’t plan a lot for this first day of the con. Sure there was the Kaiju panel to attend and I got a few autographs but mostly I just let myself soak in the experience. The cosplay was some of the best I’ve seen. I have to mention that there were a lot more families at this con than I’ve seen at previous ones and that’s fantastic.

I saw a lot of Doctor Whos also. I think I saw more different representations of The Doctor at this con than any other I’ve yet been to. Star Wars was well represented with the Make A Wish Foundaton offering photo ops with either Stormtroopers and Darth Vader or Princess Leia and a collection of Jedi. There was also a patch that the brave could earn by shooting Stormtroopers with a nerf gun and getting 4 of 5 suction darts to stick to their armor. Of course a small donation was required to get the patch but it was great fun and all monies go to such a great charity.

Nerf target Stormtrooper

Nerf target Stormtrooper

One of the best costumes I saw was Bane with his little Harley Quinn daughter on his shoulders. Check this adorable little girl and her amazing father.

Bane with little Harley Quinn

Bane with little Harley Quinn

Disney’s The Emperor’s New Groove An Underrated Movie

  By K. L. Zolnoski | September 4, 2013 - 7:18 am | Movie Reviews
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The Emperor's New Groove

The Emperor's New Groove

The Emperor’s New Groove

Disney is known mostly for its Princess movies and the recent acquisition of Marvel, along with the subsequent Marvel Universe movies, Iron Man, The Avengers, Thor, Captain America and the like.

There were some other movies Disney has produced over the years and one of them really stands out. That movie is The Emperor’s New Groove, released in 2000. It is one of the funniest, most original movies I’ve ever seen. I think Disney hired an all-star cast to do voices, including but not limited to the late (and great) Ertha Kitt, John Goodman, David Spade and Patrick Warburton, and then told the writers they could write whatever (Disney appropriate thing) they wanted to.

The plot is strong enough to carry the movie and the voice acting is fantastic. The story’s main players are young Emperor Kuzco (David Spade) who is spoiled, selfish and privileged; his royal advisor Yzma (Ertha Kitt) who is power hungry, cold, and equally self-centered; Kronk (Patrick Warburton) who is Yzma’s latest assistant and Pasha (John Goodman) a humble and goodhearted peasant with a charming family.

Yzma hatches a plan to do away with Kuzco so she can be the emperess but due to a mix up in potions turns him into a llama instead. Pasha ends up taking the llama Kuzco home and from there it’s a delightful and hysterically funny romp while Yzma and Kronk chase Pasha and llama Kuzco through the jungle and over the mountains of South America trying to finish their botched assassination attempt. Kuzco doesn’t realize that Yzma is the one trying to kill him, he thinks she can save him. Pasha tries to get Kuzco back to the palace and along the way Kuzco learns some compassion and humility.

The dialogue is snappy and the action is non-stop. I laughed out loud several times. There is so much going on in this movie that it stands up well to repeated viewings. There were jokes that I didn’t catch until the second time I saw this movie. Also there are a large number of very quotable lines from this movie for those of you who like to trot out snappy quotes from movies.

In all The Emperor’s New Groove is a delightful story told well. The Emperor’s New Groove is a smart movie that plays well to young and old alike. It doesn’t talk down to anyone and it avoids the cheap jokes. I think it is one of Disney’s most underrated movies.

Updates And Forward

  By K. L. Zolnoski | September 3, 2013 - 7:15 am | Author Updates
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Hubble Image of Magellanic Stream courtesy of NASA

Hubble Image of Magellanic Stream courtesy of NASA

Hubble Image of Magellanic Stream courtesy of NASA

As you well know, gentle reader, I took a short break from blogging. What happened is that I started a new job and it’s been tough getting used to the new schedule. It takes a surprising amount of time and energy to craft quality blog posts and I’ve been just mentally and physically exhausted for the past 6 weeks. The shorter blog posts you have noticed have been my attempt to post something that might be of interest. I thank you for your patience and I will be blogging once again.

For a brief update on my plans going forward: I intend to keep up with the Golden Age of Science Fiction Authors series as well as reviewing an assortment of movies. When it comes to movies, do keep in mind that I am a fan not a critic. Astronomy is a subject I adore and will be keeping up on.

As for my writing, I’m still working on the sequel to In The Flesh but I’m going to set that aside for a bit. What I want to do is start outlining my NaNoWriMo project for this year and it’s going to be the space opera I promised myself I could write. I’ve got a lot of ideas and I’m trying to narrow them down to the ones I really think will work best.

I have tickets to the Rose City Comic Con and next years Emerald City Comic Con so look for those updates too. It’s going to be a fun and exciting next few months. K.

Japanese Pranks Take Pranking To The Next Level (With Context)

  By K. L. Zolnoski | September 2, 2013 - 6:39 pm | Unique Finds
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The first video has been out for a while and despite the fact that I disapprove of pranks, because they seem to humiliate people which I don’t find funny–these are hysterical. So now I’m laughing and I have guilt.

This later one was just released and demonstrates pranking taken to the next level. The inclusion of the “Raptor Roar” is genius. Once again, I have guilt.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZGNk8pUj4Y