Saanich Archives | Otaku No Culture

[Victoria, BC] Anime & Cosplay Convention, Tsukino-Con, Expanding for 2017

By James Robert Shaw (The Wind up Geek)

Tsukino-Con, the little Victoria convention that could, is growing at a steady rate and may have its unique place among the larger conventions of the Pacific Northwest. The handlers of Tsukino, which rose in February 2010 from the ashes of the seven-year run that was Kei-Kon, have taken few risks.

Those behind Tsukino have adhered to the formula of having their con grow at its own rate rather than take on bigger cons in a head-to-head (Sakura-Con and Emerald City Comicon). Tsukino’s list of past guests is an impressive one, especially for a con of it’s size. Names of Sarah Anne Williams (Gakusen Toshi Asterisk, Mahou Shoujo Madoka★Magica), Tracey Moore (Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon), Josh Grelle (Akagami no Shirayuki-hime, Date A Live), J. Michael Tatum (Baccano!, Heroic Age), Terri Doty (Seikoku no Dragonar, Joukamachi no Dandelion), and Kensho Ono (Aldnoah Zero, Pokemon XY&Z) have appeared previously.

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[Victoria, BC] Charles Ross One Man Mega-Hit Marathon (Star Wars, LotR, Batman)

Charles Ross will be taking part in University of Victoria Phoenix Theatre’s celebration of 50 glorious years of creating great theatre.

Charles Ross presenting One Man Lord of the Rings

Charles Ross will be taking part in University of Victoria Phoenix Theatre’s celebration of 50 glorious years of creating great theatre. During this alumni festivity, he will be performing an exhaustive “One Man” Marathon (Star Wars, Lord of the Rings and Batman). The fun begins on October 11 and ends on the 17th. There are other shows taking place too, but I’m sure the nerds of Victoria, BC will be there for Ross.

For those who have not seen these shows, I heavily recommend to readers nearby to consider making a trip over to the south-eastern tip of Vancouver Island. Not many people realize this garden city is his home; for those who do not know what this part of the world is like, its beautiful for much of the year because of its varied (mostly British) architectural heritage, temperate climate and laid-back attitude.

To adventure here will imitate part of the hero’s journey Ross often puts across in his shows. To discover what that means requires attending a performance.

To learn more about this man and his works, including a look into how he approached developing each of these One Man shows, please look at these past interviews and look at his current works in progress:

(Otaku no Culture) Charles Ross’ One Man Star Wars & Lord of the Rings

(Two Hungry Blokes) One Man Star Wars Does the Dark Knight Trilogy

(Two Hungry Blokes) Will There Be Further Adventures of Ape Man and Fish Boy?

To purchase tickets, please visit the Phoenix Theatre’s web page here. Matinee shows are offered for Star Wars and Batman over the weekend.

[Victoria Fringe Festival ’16] SMUS Shakes it Up with Disney’s Camp Rock!

NOTE: Reblogged from Two Hungry Blokes & written by Ed Sum (The Vintage Tempest)

LOCATION:
St. Michaels
University School
3400 Richmond Road
Saanich, BC

SHOWTIMES:
Fri Aug. 26 – 7pm
Sat Aug. 27 – 2pm
Sat Aug. 27 – 7pm

Sometimes it’s tough to decide on what to take on as the first Victoria Fringe Festival presentation for the 2016 season. This year, the decision was a no-brainer and I had to see the results of what St. Michaels University School (SMUS) Summer Musical Theatre program produced. The folks involved always deliver a quality educational curriculum to teach the next rising stars the basics while having fun at the same time. On opening night, they put on the musical version of Disney’s Camp Rock.

This show highlights the musical stylings of bands like The Jonas Brothers and the modern sounds of the past decade. Like ’em or not, those who grew up to these tunes had a rollicking time with this production. James Shaw admits to not being fond of today’s music whereas I’m open; at least I keep up when he can not, thus making me the ideal candidate to look at this production. His limitations in what he likes to talk about make for better opportunities for me to talk about my fondness for modern Disney.

Opening night was not without a few chuckle-worthy moments, gaffes included; the group was able to roll with it and continue on. They also helped each other out on stage when lines were forgotten and I believe that’s the heart of what this program extols than to provide a higher calibre show other local professional theatre schools like Canadian College of Performing Arts works on. I’ve seen their production of Little Shop of Horrors years ago, and that was a memorable show to which I grinned like a Cheshire Cat from Alice in Wonderland when rubber bands were shot towards audiences!

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

By 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:

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Borealis Set to Shine On At Cinecenta, July 17 & 18 and on VOD

Plays at Cinecenta
University of Victoria
Student Union Buiding
3800 Finnerty Rd.

Jul 17 5:00 & 7:00pm
Jul 18 7:00 & 9:00pm

Borealis is an aptly titled movie because part of the story is about the collision course happening between father and daughter. They live in their separate worlds, but when reality is hitting hard — Jonah (Jonas Chernick, Degrassi: The Next Generation) has a huge gambling debt to pay off and Aurora (Joey King, Fargo) is going blind — they need to learn how to depend on each other to get out of hard times. The elder is not going to be able to pay off his debt anytime soon, and when he says to his teenage daughter, let’s run away. is that a good thing to do? In what this film explores is a gentle mix of emotional drama, incidental comedy and a touch of gangbuster fun.

Tubby (Kevin Pollak, The Whole Ten Yards) is the loan shark trying to collect from Jonah, and Brick (Clé Bennett, The Line), his muscle, are chasing after him. When going on the lam is tough in a province where the mob is everywhere, they are not going to get far. All Jonah wants to do is to show Aurora the Northern Lights once before her blindness settles in. The wife/mother died long ago, and he wanted his little angel to appreciate the life she has instead of tossing it away. There’s a lot of thought and sentimental feelings put into this story that was originally developed as a short film. Sean Garrity created Blind which expanded to Borealis.

I got the opportunity to speak to Jonas about this film, and talk to him about how this film came together:

First off, can you please introduce yourself to readers unfamiliar with your work.

I’m primarily an actor, from TV series like The Best Laid Plans, The Border and Fargo to movies like Seven Times Lucky, How to Plan an Orgy in a Small Town and Blood Pressure. In between gigs, I write, produce and act in my own films, such as 2006’s Lucid, 2012’s My Awkward Sexual Adventure and 2016’s Borealis, which opens this weekend at Cinecenta in Victoria.

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