Tag: Pacific Northwest

Ed’s Picks of the 2017 Vancouver Fringe Festival

Vancouver Fringe Festival

By Ed Sum
(The Vintage Tempest)

When frequent Fringe theatre attendees can not get enough from one festival, thankfully those living in the Pacific Northwest can hop a ferry over to continue the fun. A few days is definitely needed to rest (thank god for Labour Day) to rest up before going from Victoria to Vancouver, British Columbia, performers included. This mainland side show starts September 7th and lasts for the same amount of days as the capital city.

Now if I can convince a relative to let me crash there for a week, the following are my picks of this show I feel are must see. I’m not repeating those I have seen already. You can click on this link to see my picks from the Victoria show — most of which are appearing in Vancouver.

Please click on the show titles for the show dates and to purchase tickets.

Vancouver Fringe FestivalSWORDPLAY: A PLAY OF SWORDS

Chandelier-swinging, dastardly schemes and swordfights, swordfights, swordfights await as Sex T-Rex bring their signature cinematic style to the stage, dancing from The Princess Bride, to Final Fantasy, to Game of Thrones and dipping their rapier wit into all things sordid and sworded.

Pages: Page 1, Page 2, Page 3, Page 4, Page 5, Page 6, Page 7, Page 8, Page 9, Page 10

Nanaimo Convention, MosaiCon, to Return in 2017!

mosaicon-bannerBy James Robert Shaw (The Wind up Geek)

Mark your calendars, break out your costumes, and perfect your mad video game skills because MosaiCon will be returning in 2017. It has been confirmed by none other than Marc Gervais, General Coordinator for Nanaimo’s multifaceted fandom convention. Gervais has a table at this year’s anime and cosplay convention, Tsukino-Con, at the University of Victoria campus. Gervais was able to confirm the dates for MosaiCon are Saturday and Sunday, September 16th and 17th of 2017. Gervais informed this journalist that a meeting will be held with MosaiCon’s board to decide a location to host the con.

Continue reading “Nanaimo Convention, MosaiCon, to Return in 2017!”

[Victoria, BC] NeXus Con Sets Out to Bend the Rules of Gaming Come Aug 27!

Nexus-Con-teaserBy Ed Sum (The Vintage Tempest)

NeXus Con is a new event organized by Dwayne Morash who simply wants to introduce folks to gaming (in all its various forms). The show will be held at Saanich Commonwealth Place on August 27th, 2016 from 11am to 9pm, and it is an intimate type of event where it will be capped at 40 or so people

New players do not have the opportunity to simply try games out without buying, and this show hopes to change all that by flipping the formula traditionally found in conventions. Most shows require a separate entry fee just to play in tournaments. This event dispenses with all that and it’s going to be more like a meet n’ greet spotlighting the favourite games of past and present.

Morash is the founder/editor of Game Nexus, a local news and information site for all things related to games. Just like this website, there will be video games, tabletop miniature battles, role-playing games and collectable card games to try out. For a reasonable fee of $25, attendees can sample the best in what gaming has to offer. Trends change like the roll of the dice, and the goal of Morash is to provide a quality event minus all the hustle and bustle of one that is corporate run. He gave me a heads up about this event, and I had some questions:

Continue reading “[Victoria, BC] NeXus Con Sets Out to Bend the Rules of Gaming Come Aug 27!”

Vancouver Expo Announces Two New Guests Aug 5-7, 2016!

Vancouver Expo LOGOA new convention on the Pacific Northwest scene is Vancouver Comic and Entertainment Expo in British Columbia (which will take place August 5-7th, 2016) and they have announced today their next round of guests: Bill Moseley and Michael Berryman. These two are horror film veterans with a bevy of credits which make them recognizable nearly everywhere they go! Both performers have been on the scene since the 70’s, and have their own legion of followers who enjoyed watching their special brand of terror over the years.

Bill Moseley Promotional Picture

Moseley is best known as Chop Top in Tobe Hooper’s The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 (1986) and since then, he’s appeared in many cult films like The Blob (1988) to cement his status in the world of genre films.

He played the Deadeye Captain in Army of Darkness (1992), and appeared in Repo! The Genetic Opera (2008) and The Devil’s Carnival (2012), two films by prolific director-producer-writer Terrance Zdunich. Alleluia! The Devil’s Carnival (2015) is a sequel Moseley is involved in and perhaps he may offer some clues as to what’s next in this set of films.

Berryman’s unique looks makes him a lovable terror in such products like Wes Craven’s The Hills Have Eyes (1977) and Weird Science (1985), but who doesn’t remember his role in Mötley Crüe’s music video “Smokin’ in the Boys Room?” This actor can do humour very well, but he does not get the opportunity as much.

Continue reading “Vancouver Expo Announces Two New Guests Aug 5-7, 2016!”

LANtasy Wants the Fun in Fandom to Return in Victoria, BC!

Pearkes Recreation Center will play venue host to Gottacon and LANTasy.

LANTasy Event LogoMarch 12-13, 2016
Pearkes Arena, Victoria BC 

Tickets: $30 weekend pass
or $15 per day (pre-registration).

LANtasy‘s motto is “Play Games, Have Fun” at their upcoming event taking place March 12th and 13th. For the fandom living in Victoria, BC, hopefully everyone can put the incidents of 2015 behind them. The final quarter of that year was less than positive: GottaCon (GC) announced they were closing their doors and Island Fantasy Convention did not happen. The reaction by the community was not kind with how the latter event was handled. However, with a new year Tsukino-Con remains strong and the technical crew behind GC decided to continue the legacy the broad-spectrum gaming event represented.

Jeff Pedlow is one of the department heads. He says this show will exist to bring people together and his group really loves the gaming community that exists here. Despite the name, they are not playing favourites over what kind of activities are being offered at this show. Yes, there will be a heavy Local Area Network (LAN) gaming presence, but there is more to the show than just that — board gaming, miniature gaming and RPGs are offered. People will be encouraged to come in costume (cosplay). Essentially, this event will be just like GottaCon in their early days. In what’s for certain, Pedlow says that his group does not take any money from the event and their goal is to throw community-centric gaming events for everyone living on the island. As their Facebook page shows, there are qualifying events taking place in and out of the Capitol Region that will lead up to the finals at LANtasy.

“If we grow in size, that’s always great, but our primary concern is throwing fun events for the community to come out and enjoy,” said Pedlow.

Even though this event is two months away, perhaps fandom should start planning. In addition to their FAQ about this event, Otakunoculture talked to Jeff about other lingering queries:

Continue reading “LANtasy Wants the Fun in Fandom to Return in Victoria, BC!”

LANTASY Announces Cosplay Contest!

LANtasy

By James Robert Shaw (The Wind up Geek)

Activities for fans in the Northwest just became much more fun. LANtasy 2016, a gaming convention run by the LANtasy Gaming Society just announced a cosplay contest. Now con goers can get more involved by showing up in their best and most creative costumes for all to see. Prizes have yet to be announced but you can imagine the swag one can take home just for being the victor.

We here at OtakunoCulture wonder if prizes will be handed out for a 2nd and 3rd place or will there be just one victor and then some creative categories like ‘Best Anime Character Portrayal.’

Now for those of you who aren’t as advanced in your costume skills as some of your fellow cosplayers, don’t worry, LANtasy has that covered too. There will be a full cosplay booth with a repair station for those of you who are met with wardrobe malfunctions. And for those interested there will be samples at this booth of different materials you can use to make costumes.

LANtasy will run March 12th and 13th, 2016 at Pearkes Arena in Victoria, British Columbia. Tickets are available online here or to learn more visit LANtasy’s official website and Facebook page.