DragonCon ALL The Podcasts!

So this year at DragonCon I was part of a lot of different Podcasts throughout the weekend! Four in total! This post is just an easy link to all of them for anyone that would be interested in hearing them all! 

Earth Station One Live from DragonCon!

I have done the live podcast since before I had my segment A Geek Girls Take on the ESO network. For maybe the last three or four years now. It is always so much fun to talk about the convention and all the cool stuff going on with this amazing group of people! You can check it out here!

ESW Live from DragonCon! What makes a good companion! 

I sat in on the ESW panel again this year and you can hear all the awesome stuff we talked about here!

The next one was the recording for The Arrow Squad and the Arrow Fan panel at DragonCon! It is always fun to get to talk about the shows I love and how those shows have evolved over the years! And this year was no different! Check out the PodCast here!

The Flash panel was also recorded, but I have not been able to find the link to that one as of yet. Once I do I will update this post with it!

Concerts at DragonCon! The Doubleclicks

Every year I make it a goal to attend some of the great concerts while at DragonCon. The musical artist that they get for the con is one of my big reasons for wanting to attend! For the second year in a row they had The Doubleclicks again, which I adore these two ladies. Their songs speak to the nerd girl in me and let me know that my struggles of growing up as that awkward weird nerd girl, were also faced by others, and in knowing that it gives me a sense of community with my fellow geek ladies.

The Doubleclicks is made up of sister duo Angela and Aubrey. They are an awesome, guitar/ukulele and cello wielding duo who occasionally bring on the help of a cat keyboard in their music! They played a great set at the one concert I got to attend at DragonCon, playing songs like "This is my Jam" and "Velociraptor" and also did a really fun cover of the Doctor Who theme on the cat keyboard. They have so much energy on stage and between songs have some really funny banter, since these two girls have a great humor about them and overall just seems like two really cool people.

Even cooler Angela was dressed in a ghost busters costume from the new movie, showing how much she supported the new film and liked it! She rocked that costume and the two of them rocked their set at DragonCon that Friday! You can check out these two ladies online here!

[Tea Review] Owl's Flower Tea from Discover Tea

This weeks tea review is a little different than my normal reviews. I have reviewed one of Discover Tea's custom blends before with their Oolong Who, so I was excited to get to review another custom blend (that can be ordered if this sounds like something you would like.) Along with the tea I also have photos fro the Owl's Flower book release party. Owl's Flower is a light novel series from Kara Dennison and Ginger Hoesly (the two wonderful ladies who did art for my cookbooks.) Also, since the light novel series has a small focus on food, I have contributed a recipe per book that goes along with the story.

Owl cookies from the release party. Honey Sugar cookies, recipe by me and you can find it in the first book.

During InterventionCon in Rockville Maryland The two had a book release party on the Saturday of the convention where they had their two custom blend teas and honey cookies made from my recipe. During the party they gave away some cute gift baskets with Owl's Flower mugs and tea in them. 

The first tea blend that I tried was called "Owl's Flower" An Oolong bend with Sage and Floral Scents to it. The actual tea for this blend was lovely, you can see the sage in there with the Oolong and the sage really is the main smell you can smell when you take a wiff off this tea out of the bag. The floral scents are in the background but there is a great earthy smell to this tea.

The sage smell comes through once brewed too. And it is such a lovely dark color in the cup. The taste is earthy, with the sage at the front and the floral scents in the back after the initial taste. 

The next tea that I tried was called Stormy and was prepared as a cold brew with seltzer water. 

Stormy is a Lamarche Spice, Cherry Rose Green Tea and Lime. The blend has a great green tea taste and with the seltzer water is has a unique taste to it. 

The tea itself looks love, the green tea leaves look great and it has a wonderful fruity/spice smell to it. The Cherry Rose Green tea on its own is one of my favorites from Discover Tea so I was really excited this as included in this blend. 

The color was a lovely light color, and had little bubbles in it from the Pelogrino. Very fun and unique way to prepare the tea. 

Ginger and Kara at their release party held at InterventionCon 7

You can find out more about the Owl's Flower Light Novel Series here. Also check out Gingers awesome art shop (where you can get mugs, shirts, etc.) Here. And Discover Teas here!

And check out the wonderful convention, InterventionCon here! Intervention is an amazing convention that focuses on creators and all the work they do and helping others who want to be creative achieve their goals to do so!

DragonCon! The Panels!

This year at DragonCon I had the opportunity to attend and speak on a number of panels throughout the weekend! I always love watching and sitting in on panels that so many amazing and well spoken fans do for the convention. They come together to share their opinions on different fandom topics, and offer an opinion I may not always think of myself when approaching the specific topic that is being spoken on.

I participated in five panels this year at DragonCon. Three for the American Scifi Media track and two for the Brit-Track. I was lucky enough to speak on the Arrow, Super Girl and The Flash Panels, which were all great talks about the writing, female visibility in the super hero genre, the way the stories have taken on their own life from their comic book counter parts and how the fan just love these characters and their stories. 

The Super Girl panel had to be one of my favorites. The show itself shows how much it is needed just by the people attending the panel. A father in the audience raised his hand asking about comics for his 7 year old and what he can get her to read that is age appropriate that will help nurture her love of Super Girl and other female super heroes that she has gained from watching Super Girl. As a female comic reader who has been reading comics since she was a child, and worked for many many years at a comic shop, where she regularly heard "You're the owners daughter right? Why else would a girl be in a comic shop?" It made me so happy to see a father realizing his daughter loves these stories and using that as her gateway for reading instead of trying to push on her stereotypical girl likes, since we no longer live in a world where stereotypes define female likes and male likes. I had a great talk with the dad afterwards and gave him a list of super hero's and child friendly comics and books to pass her way, so hopefully that helped him some. 

Another really amazing Panel was the Brit Track David Bowie panel I got to sit on. I will admit I was scared I would be a blubbering, crying mess when we started talking about the Star Man, whom I loved so much. But this panel was so relaxing and getting to hear so many stories from the panelist AND the audience, it really showed how one person can change so many through their music and art. David Bowie touched so many peoples lives and getting to hear the stories of a few, and share my own was amazing.

My last panel of the weekend was the always fun Earth Station Who live podcast! I have done this one for four years and always love getting to be a part of it. We talked about what makes a good companion and you can check out the episode on the ESW network from the link here .

DragonCon is always one of my favorite conventions during the year. They have great programming and lots of amazing music and costumes. It is always a blast to get to go and enjoy the fandoms I love with a ton of other fans!

You can find out more about DragonCon by visiting their webpage here! 

DragonCon ESW Episode! What Makes a Good Companion?

This year at Dragoncon I got to be on the ESW panel for the third year in a row for the ESO and the DragonCon Brit Track. It is always a blast to be on panels for the con and to record so many awesome podcasts while there! Check out the first of many podcasts I was part of right here!

[Conventions] Zenkaikon 2016

Convention: ZenkaiKon 10
Location: Lancaster, Pa.
Date: April 1st-3rd 2016
Webpage: https://zenkaikon.com/

This was my first ZenkaiKon, and I was super excited for it! I have never done a convention in Pa. so I was excited for it! I was asked to judge the cosplay masquerade for the weekend so I was also excited to judge at a convention I had never judged at!

I arrived at the con Friday afternoon, I am not familiar with Lancaster since I have only been to a Vietnamese restaurant there called Rice and Noodles, and never downtown, so it was a bit of an adventure! I park and walked to the convention center (GPS why did you fail me!) since I had to end up asking some convention goers if I was going in the correct direction!

I found the convention center (but not before passing a French bakery and buying French Macarons, because they are one of my food weaknesses.) Got my badge and made a b-line to the dealers room to put out the Intervention flyers, also visited the Otakon table to see some friends. The dealers room and artist alley were all in a large room all together. Before leaving Lancaster for the night I had a great dinner at the Federal Tap House.

The convention lay out was nice for the space, they had Main events in a large room next to the dealers room. Sci-fi photo guys were doing green screen photos the level above and there were panel rooms, where they had fan panels and guest panels going on. There was a cosplay exhibit with costumes from the DC opera and award winning costumes from cosplayers. They also had a maid cafe and other events going on as well.

Saturday I got to the convention center bright and early, worked at the two tables promoting cons I work for (Intervention and Otakon), then judged the costume contest! Judging is always fun because you get to see the costumes in the contest up close that the entrants work so hard on. There are so many talented people in cosplay, it is always so fun to get to see that talent up close! Once judging was done, I did a friends makeup for her Amethyst costume then got into my TARDIS dress for the contest. I also got to play some Ukulele since my friend is learning how to play, so helped him get used to strumming!

I also got to eat at Issei Noodles (which I have only ever eaten at their Camp Hill location so I was really excited to eat there again!) I got Spicey Tan-Tan  Ramen and a Matcha Bubble Tea.

The cosplay contest was a lot of fun! The skits were entertaining and the MC was funny, so what more could you ask for? Oh and the contest itself was also incredibly well run, so that too! Picking winners is always a hard choice, because so many people bring their A game!

The room is filling up before the start of the Cosplay Contest! 

I had a blast for the Friday and Saturday that I attended ZenkaiKon. This was a really fun con, and hopefully I'll make it back there next year! I also got some really cute stuff in the dealers room/ artist alley too!

I did finish off my weekend at my favorite Vietnamese restaurant in all of Pa.! Rice and Noodles! Which has some of the best Pho I have ever eaten.

Lancaster is a great location for this con, there are so many great food places around the convention center/hotel. It is a very busy downtown area, and there were so many amazing food places to eat at! (which is always a big plus for a con to have so many options and price options for food!) If you are near the Lancaster area, I would definitely check out this awesome con! 

[Conventions!] (Re)Generation Who 2

(Re)Generation Who 2 was my 6th convention this year. I work for the convention running their press department, and I love every minute that I am there! Along with running press this year, I also did an interview, played Ukulele for the Davors Variety show and had a book release party for my new Unofficial Doctor Who Cookbook, "Shut Up and Eat 2! The Unofficial Doctor Who Series Nine Ready to Dine Cookbook"

(Re)Generation Who has such an amazing atmosphere. The fans are excited to be there, the guests are excited to see the fans and everything is so inviting and fun! Everyone who works for this con wants to see all the attendees happy and smile about their interactions at the con! It's that simple. And from what I saw throughout the entire weekend, that seemed to be happening!

I arrived at the con on Thursday and did a few con related work things, and also got to see a Pug!!! Like I cannot go anywhere without seeing a cute squishy face puggy!!!

My amazing friend Cassandra who worked for press this year! She was wonderful!!!!

My big work started on Friday, getting press running then recording and taking questions in the Frazier Hines and Companions interviews. Both of these panels were amazing, and once I have a chance to edit the videos I'll post them over on my youtube channel! I also got to have a really fun rehearsal with Cat Smith and Terry Molloy, since the three of us were playing in the Davors Variety Show together on Saturday!

Time to play some Uku!

Saturday was the day I was most nervous about, my first book release party for Shut Up and Eat 2! and the Davros Variety show, plus working for press all day and helping out on some interviews by taking questions.

The book release party was first, and it was so well attended, I had no idea there would be so many people in the audience, I was thrilled and it was a bit nerve wracking having a ASL interpreter repeating everything I said! Ginger and Kara were also in attendance and I was so happy both of the fantastic artists who worked on this book and believed in it could be there! 

After the book release party I headed straight to the Peter Davison "5-ish Doctors" panel. Kara was interviewing Peter Davison for it and it was a fantastic panel! The stories he told were amazing and the audience had a lot of great questions for him as well!

Next up was the "Tea With the Doctors" event. This is such a fun concept, and the fans that attend it always seem to have such an amazing time! I have never seen anything like this at another con. I have seen breakfast with the guests or other inclusive type events, but this tea is such a fun concept.

No photo of me as Osgood, so have one of Melissa holding a drawing Kelsey Wailes did!

After the Tea I sat in on an episode of Captain Kyle's Cosplay Spotlight as Osgood. Sadly I did not get a photo during the filming, but once the episode is released I will definitely post a link! (there is a pretty hilarious part where I am doing charades of Doctor Who villains!)

Another event I was really excited for was the "Davros Variety Show" I was asked to play Ukulele with Terry Molloy and Cat Smith, and of course I jumped on the chance, because I love performing and I rarely get to do so! So many other wonderful acts also performed, and the show seemed to really go over well! 

After the Davros Variety Hour it was some work, then the Dominic Glynn concert, I was very excited for this since one, awesome music, and two, I was interviewing him in the morning! The concert was lovely and even had a special appearance by Colin Baker!

Sunday, the last day of the con, but still lots of amazing panels and events going on! Terry Molloy did his fantastic "Acting for Audio" panel, that is always full of information. I have attended this panel/workshop every time I have been able too and I learn so much every time. 

At 1pm on Sunday I had the honor of interviewing Dominic Glynn for the "Music of Doctor Who with Dominic Glynn." This was such an enjoyable time talking about growing up with music and how he became a composer for film and television. I am so happy I was asked to do this interview. It was definitely a high light of my weekend!

Ly from Pixel Who. <3 this lady! 

The rest of Sunday was spent working for the con. But what an amazing weekend this was! I had been looking forward to it for months, and I was definitely not disappointed! So many of the staff I work with are like family to me, and I am always happy to spend a weekend working with them. I cannot wait until Intervention 7 and next years (Re)Generation Who!

[Convenitons!] Jimmy's first con!

Traid Anime Con is a convention that is located in Winston Salem, NC! Which is close to where I live, I worked for the convention all weekend, but talked my parents into bringing  out a special little guest to the con for an hour or so on Sunday! Jimmy got all dressed up in his Poe Dameron ( Pug Dameron) cosplay and made his way to the con!

 

Jimmy arrived at the con and was instantly greated with people who wanted to pet him and see him! He was pretty popular! Every since we got Jimmy, my parents and I have been making sure he was good with people and other dogs, he loves playing with other friendly dogs (like his cousins Mally and Stella) and being around people! This time at the con would be the ultimate test for how well he did in groups of people!

 

He even got his own little Guest badge for the con, because what con can say they had a cosplaying Pug on their guest list? Triad Anime Con, that's who! 

Jimmy also had to let me know he had missed me over the last few days, since I had been away for a few working at the con! He gives the best little puggy kisses! 

 

He even got to get in on the Fandames group photo! He was quite the ladies Pug!

 

After hanging around the con for a few hours and meeting all his new friends, he was ready to go home and take a nap! I mean come on all X-Wing pilots need some time to rest too! 

 

All latched in the car and ready to go home where all the yummy snackies are!  Thank you so much Traid Anime Con for letting him come out and visit for the day! I know a bunch of people enjoyed getting to meet him and he had a blast getting all the pets and attention! 

 

Jimmy did so well at the con, he was a little skittish when people just ran up to him (which I asked them not to do) or when people were overly loud. The only time he barked was when a lady walked by with a puppet that had bells on it, which I think the thing scared him. However he barked and once it went away he was back to walking around getting pet! He also found himself a BB8!!

Find out more about Triad Anime Con here!!

 

 

[Convention] Mysticon 2016

 

 

Mysticon 2016 was the first con of the year where I was a guest, and not staffing the convention, so I actually got to see and do a lot this past weekend in Roanoke, Va. This is my fifth Mysticon and I love it every year!

As always I come in on Friday (a lot of people came in on Thursday this year.) I roomed with two of my favorite people in the world Cami and Matt, who I was super excited to get to see since it had been forever since I had, had a chance to hang out with them!

Parking this year at the hotel was so much easier too! Last year it was a bit crazy since they only allow guests to park at the hotel, so I was relieved when it was not a hassle this time around!

I knew Mysticon this year was going to be crazy since the Guest of Honor was George R.R. Martin. And the con had sold out of tickets back in Sept. So it was going to be a packed weekend!

I had a bunch of panels on Friday evening, along with dressing the con chair for opening ceremonies!

Photo Michael Ventrella

 

Doesn't she look awesome! Carla rocked that dress, sadly this is an action shot from opening ceremonies since I was silly, and didn't take a photo of her after we got her into costume!

 

I got to be moderator on a fun Doctor Who panel titled, "The Doctor Wears his Sonic Sunglasses at Night" which was a lot of fun talking about series 9 of Doctor Who! I then went and was a part of a panel titled "Remakes, Revamps, Revisits, where we talked about films we would like to see remade or ones we do not think should be touched!

 

Photo by Michael Ventrella

This panel was a blast and Bill had contacted us all before hand so there was a really nice slide presentation of what movies we thought should be remade or not touched, the panel went great and we had a pretty full room of people too!

 

 

 

From there I went on to Iron Costumer, which is a panel I was hosting where three groups have an hour in a half to make a costume based on a theme, they have lots of items to use and then one the con supplies. The theme was fantasy and dragons and the item was duct tape, the three teams made some great costumes in the time they had!

 

After that I headed to the panel The Star Wars Expanded Universe, where I got to talk about some of the character I wish would show up in the now Star Wars universe, my favorite books and stories from the old Star Wars Universe and just nerd out on Star Wars! Which I love doing!

 

Once panels were done for the night for me, I checked out the Con Carolinas and Charlotte Geeks room party, which is always fun! Hung out with the Roanoke Valley Whovians for a bit and just took in the con at night! Panels went on until late (Mysticon has no lack of programming, lots of it!) I turned in somewhat early though around 11pm.

 

Saturday!

 

I was up bright and early for a 10 am panel on Functional Cosplay: Making your Costume Fit You! Which was a fun panel on how to make costumes that are comfortable and functional for your needs.

 

I got to check out the dealers room after my panel, which is always nice, Pixel Who and lots of other great dealers where in there! Mysticon always has a nice dealers room with a great variety of books, art, henna/glitter tattoos/ hair tinsel, pottery, gaming stuff, elf ears and so on! Lots and lots to choose from!

 

I then got to go sit at the Guest Signing Table and sell some Cook Books and talk to a lot of wonderful people! Thank you everyone who bought my cookbook and stopped to chat with me! (and thank you John Hartness for loaning me some book easels!)

 

 

 

 

At 1pm I had Zombie Makeup for Kids! I love doing makeup panels about getting kids into makeup and what to let them use to play and experiment. I got to be on this panel with Anita Allen and Bill Mulligan. Bill and I have worked together a bunch on films doing makeup and acting, so it is always fun to get to nerd out about Fx makeup with him!

 

After my makeup panel I was really lucky to be asked to play White Guardian in the Mister Adventure Radio Show Podcast that was broadcast live at Mysticon! I have always loved sitting in on this at other cons, and since there are two characters in the Mister Adventure Universe based on me, I was really excited to get to play the voice for a character (not the one based on me though.) This was so much fun and we all had a blast and a lot of good laughs during this, once it is available to download online I'll post a link here!

 

Once Mister Adventure was all over I finally had a small break! So I went and got into my TARDIS Yukata dress and finally got some great photos in it! I had a lot of wonderfully talented people grab photos (Mikki, Jarod, and Dee) so I am so excited to see them all once they are finished with them!

 

 

 

For the next few hours I took in some of the convention. I sat in on some of the panels the Roanoke Valley Whovians had going on in their programming room, Looked around at all the artist tables and convention hallway tables. Chilled out at the RegenerationWho table and the Charlotte Geeks table.

 

 

 

Then came time for prejudging the costume contest! This is always a really fun event! Anita puts on a great costume contest! It is always organized and there is always a great turnout! So many wonderful costumes! The choices are always so hard to choose who gets what award, since there are so many great costumes!

 

 

Photo of the costume contest judges by Michael Ventrella

 

 

Then (yes it was a REALY full day for me!) I ran to the screening of my new film I co-directed with my best friend Mariah, titled "The Thicket". This was its world premiere and it premiered along with my friend Jaysen Buterin's new film "Don't Let the Light In". I sadly missed Jaysen's film since it played during the costume contest. The room was full, standing room only, which was nerve wracking. I snuck in and stayed at the back while The Thicket showed (I wanted to see the audiences reaction more so than the film, since, ya know, I have already seen it.)

The audience seemed to really dig the film, and I must have been grinning from ear to ear, because the audicne was laughing at the right parts and people were jumping at some of the scary parts. So I was THRILLED!

 

Photo by Christopher Moore

 

Oh and the film got Best Horror Short Film in the conventions film fest, so Mariah and I got to celebrate it winning its first award!

 

 

 

I then changed out of my TARDIS dress, had one issue, which was my only huge issue of the con, it was taken care of, and hopefully will not happen to anyone else again. However it ruined me for the night and I spent the rest of my night somewhat  scatter brained so I didn't do anything else for the evening.

 

Sunday

 

Last day of the con! There was a HUGE line for George R.R. Martin autographs in the hallways for his last signing. Luckily I got my book signed at ConCarolinas a few years ago so I wasn't too worried about getting anything signed. I loaded up my car and the day was beautiful! Like super warm!

 

I had no panels on Sunday (which after my marathons on Friday and Saturday, I was very happy to have a break) I hung out with Mariah for most of the day, we checked out the dealers room (I got a cute Pixel Who pin of the 8th Doctor.) Sat in on a few panels, chatted with some of the other filmmakers at the con (who I seriously admire, I love my indie filmmaking family!)

 

Mariah and I ready for closing ceremonies!

 

And then went to closing ceremonies! They handed out awards for the film fest, so Mariah and I got a nice framed certificate with our awards title on it!

 

I then grabbed some dinner with Mariah and we headed back to C-Ville!

 

Overall a fun con, it had its ups and downs. But it had a lot of awesome moments that I am so happy about!

You can find out more about Mysticon online here.