// Category Archive for: Conventions/Expos

FanExpo Canada 2013: 100,000 Fans Can’t Be Wrong

By Less Lee Moore

Another year of FanExpo Canada has come and gone. As usual, the four-day event was jam-packed with people and panels, photo ops and paraphernalia. With so many things happening and so many attendees, there are bound to be a multiplicity of experiences. Here are mine.

Day One: Thursday, August 22

The doors opened at 2:00 p.m. and as usual, there was already a line-up. I don’t like to brag, but I enjoy being able to go through the Media entrance and not wait in the lines outside. Although, never fear, non-media folks: I still have to wait in a line to get onto the exhibition floor like the rest of you. (I do think it would be nice if media got to go in about an hour before the show opens, just to prepare for photos and video shoots.)

This year, due to the addition of the Sports segment and the expected increase in attendance, FanExpo took up multiple floors in both the South and North buildings. This meant a bit more walking across the bridge between buildings, but it also made for less cramped conditions (at least on Thursday, Friday, and Sunday; I didn’t attend Saturday).

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FanExpo Canada 2013: Top Ten Picks

By Less Lee Moore

The Cybertronic Spree
Photo © Paul Hillier Photography

FanExpo Canada 2013 runs from Thursday, August 22 through Sunday, August 25 this year. The annual four-day event is crammed with stuff to do and see across multiple fandoms, like anime, comics, gaming, horror, science fiction, and now, sports. It can be a little overwhelming to plan out your days.

My favorite part of FanExpo is always Rue Morgue’s Festival of Fear, but with so much to choose from, there’s always a bit of crossover. I’ve come up with my Top Ten Picks of this year’s FanExpo, which I think will satisfy all of your fandom-related urges.

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Assemblog: August 16, 2013

How I Live Now

New this week on Popshifter: Lisa calls The Conjuring one of the best movies of the year; Brad takes a look at Antiviral, My Amityville Horror, Swamp Thing, and The Incredible Melting Man, all out now on home video; Ricky wants to go to a strip club in Hell if they’re going to play Demon Queen’s Exorcise Tape; Jemiah is impressed with Into The White with Rupert Grint; Chelsea hopes The Hot Flashes does better on home video than it did in theaters and suggests Los Nuggetz for garage rock fans who are looking for something they haven’t yet heard; Melissa calls Intoxicated Man 1958 – 1962 a tantalizing glimpse into the early work of Serge Gainsbourg; and I am touched by the music documentary A Band Called Death and amused by the new video from Big Black Delta, “Money Rain Down.”

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Assemblog: August 2, 2013

Rinko Kikuchi as Mako Mori in Pacific Rim

New this week on Popshifter: Brad reviews yet another Scream Factory reissue, this time it’s The Burning; Jeff finishes up this month’s Waxing Nostalgic Cover Albums series with Replicants’ eponymous album; Paul informs critics that being average is not worse than being bad; John pays tribute to The Olivia Tremor Control’s Bill Doss; I embrace the post-punk transvestite stylings of The Garden on their new album The Life And Times Of A Paperclip; and enjoy a lot of good movies new on home video and in theaters: Trance, Kiss of the Damned, The Last Will and Testament of Rosalind Leigh, and Berberian Sound Studio.

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Assemblog: July 26, 2013

Idris Elba in Mandela: Long Walk To Freedom

New this week on Popshifter: Brad is a big fan of two new Scream Factory Blu-Ray releases: Ninja III: The Domination and The Howling; Jeff rethinks not having given Bulletboys a chance before and urges others to give the 2006 version of The Wicker Man another chance; I review the vinyl reissue of White Fence‘s self-titled debut as well as the splendid Lenses from Soft Metals, and marvel at the brilliant, hilarious Computer Chess.

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On Money and Manners in Geek Culture

By Anonymous

With geek culture becoming more and more prominent, there is a lot of discussion, both online and IRL, about convention etiquette. The topics range from how to act around celebrity guests, to when to take pictures, to how to respond to sexual harassment at conventions. But I’m here to tell you that conventions you aren’t even attending may deserve more respect than you’re giving them.

Because, you see, I don’t care whether you can afford to go to my convention.

I should explain. The convention that I work on gives 100 percent of its proceeds to charity, unlike most fan-based conventions and corporate conventions, which may include philanthropy but which operate mainly as businesses. We may not have world-famous celebrity guests, but food and lodging are included in the ticket price (with varying rates for day trips and one-night stays, of course). And yet, despite our charitable purpose, it feels like we can’t even mention our event in public without someone complaining about how expensive it is.

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Assemblog: June 28, 2013

Among The Living (image from Twitch)

New this week on Popshifter: Chelsea reviews new albums from Dessa and Bosnian Rainbows; Julie puts the music of Dream Affair into a musical context; Paul explains why Christy Moore’s “Delirium Tremens” has multiple meanings; Jeff lifts up his lighter for Styx’s Big Bang Theory; Cait reminisces on Big Star and their soundtrack for the movie Nothing Can Hurt Me; and I try to describe the somewhat indescribable film The Rambler.

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Assemblog: June 21, 2013

Elysium

New this week on Popshifter: Melissa remarks on the good and bad in The Cary Grant Film Collection on DVD; Chelsea loves El Valiente, the new album from Piñata Protest; Jeff finds little to love in Ozzy’s covers album, so cleverly titled Under Cover; Paul remembers some of the great roles from James Gandolfini; I have great things to say about iLL Manors, the debut film from Ben Drew; discuss the horror bona fides of Donna Davies’s documentary Nightmare Factory; and am impressed by The ABCs of Death, now on home video.

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The Art Of Frankenweenie: From FanExpo to Fantastic Fest

By Less Lee Moore

At this year’s FanExpo Canada, I was fortunate enough to take a trip through the mind of Tim Burton. No, I wasn’t shrunk down like Fantastic Voyage or anything. The kind folks at FanExpo worked with Disney and Mr. Burton to present an exhibit of the artwork for the movie. Since Frankenweenie will premiere at Austin’s Fantastic Fest tonight (and will open in wide release October 5), I thought it was a good time to share these terrific photos with you.

First some history: Frankenweenie was a 29-minute short Burton made in 1984. The story is about a kid named Victor Frankenstein who decides to bring his beloved dog Sparky back to life after poor Sparky is hit and killed by a car.

Like the original, the full-length Frankenweenie is in black and white, but the new version is much longer and will also be released in 3D.

These photos do not do the exhibit justice. The detail was amazing and I literally wanted to play with everything there, even the fake Tim Burton desk.

Take a look at these images and don’t forget to check out the movie in October!

FanExpo Canada 2012: In Pictures

By Less Lee Moore

We came, we saw, we Fan Expo’d.

Click on each thumbnail for a larger image and a description!. We’ll have more coverage of some of these happenings in the upcoming weeks.