Last Saturday, I attended the Robert A. Heinlein Centennial held at the Westin Crown Center Hotel here in Kansas City, Mo — Robert A Heinlein’s hometown. I am sorry to say that the event was a disappointment. It felt as if it was planned to be a high profile convention with a few thousand attendees that would inspire some genuinely insightful looks into the author’s life. Instead, the convention felt almost second rate, thrown together and lifeless.

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This weekend I will be attending a convention celebrating what would have been Robert A. Heinlein’s 100th Birthday.  The event lasts three days:  from this Friday through Sunday,  and will be held here in Kansas City, Heinlein’s hometown, at the Westin Hotel at Crown Center.  There are a great deal of events and panels planned, but I will most likely be sticking with the visitors pass, which is significantly cheaper ($10 per day versus $60 a day or $120 for the weekend) but restricts access to just the dealer’s room, Heinlein life museum and some panels.

Hopefully, it will be a fitting tribute to the life of one of my favorite authors, and a fun time as well.

Find out more at: http://www.heinleincentennial.com/

The USPS has been promoting their new stamps commemorating the 30 year anniversary of the release of the original Star Wars movie.  One of the more interesting and nerdy-cool gimmicks they are using is the transformation of many mailboxes around the country into models of R2D2 from the movies.   One of those mailboxes is located in downtown Kansas City, my home town, and I got a few snapshots of it over the weekend.

While attending the Conquest KC science fiction and fantasy convention this year, I participated in the Story in a Bag contest.  For the contest, the conquest staff prepared a series of bags containing short sentences or words that had to be incorporated into a new, custom written story which the contestants had one hour to complete.  The best stories in each of three categories (science fiction, fantasy and horror) were judged within three skill levels (youth, adult amateur, and adult professional/published). 

Read more to find out the results.

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One of the main events at the 2007 Conquest Science Fiction and Fantasy Convention was the Conquest Idol Competition.  This was the first year for this event at Conquest, but its popularity will ensure that it will continue next year. 

The effect of listening to a bunch of dedicated nerds get up on stage and try to sing was both painful and hilarious.  The best acts, unsurprisingly, were those that embraced their bad singing and used it along with intentionally horrible song choices for maximum comedic effect. 

Though the singing was almost universally bad, the event was a blast and I hope to see what next year’s entrants can do.

Click “Read More” for additional photos of the event.

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Last weekend I attended Conquest, the 38th KC Science Fiction convention hosted by the KaCSFFS at the Kansas City airport Hilton. Con Quest is primarily a literary convention, and therefore the focus is mostly on the writing and appreciation of science fiction and fantasy stories. However, the convention featured several related events, including a massive gaming tournament with Magic the Gathering, Yu-Gi-Oh!, and the World Of Warcraft (WoW) card game, viewing rooms showing various independent science fiction movies and anime, LARP gaming, a LAN room, a dealer’s room, and an art show. Also, on Saturday night, there was a live show featuring “Conquest Idol” a singing competition, and a Masquerade.  Various quests of honor also spent the weekend hosting autograph sessions and panels dealing with their various areas of expertise. 

It was an interesting experience in many ways, and I learned a lot.  If  at all possible I will be returning next year.

Click “Read More” for additional photos of the event.

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This weekend, I will be spending some time at the Conquest science fiction convention here in Kansas City, MO at the airport Hilton hotel. This is the 38th year for the con, but will be the first time I attend. I met one of the con organizers at Naka-Kon a few months ago, and saw him again at Anime St. Louis/ShoMeCon last month. It seems to be a very well organized convention and they have a lot of interesting events, so it should be a good experience. I will be posting several updates and photos after the con, so check back for more next week.

While at Anime St. Louis and Show Me Con last weekend, I saw a production by the theatre/LARP troup “The Dragons Keep.” From their website:

“TDK is a unique role-playing game and improv show that mixes improvisational theatre with a Dungeons & Dragons style LARP (Live Action Role Playing). Think Saturday Night Live meets Lord of the Rings with Audience Participation. The cast play all of the NPC’s (Non-Player Characters, like monsters) and a few selected members of the audience are called up on stage to be the PC’s (Player Characters). Only audience members that fill out a character card prior to the beginning of the show will be eligible to be called up on stage. These audience “party members” are given a quest. To assist them with this quest they are given a spell orb (with seven spell charges), weapons and armor. With the aid of a guide (one of our cast members), the party is lead through a somewhat perilous adventure that tests their wits, strength, and overall moral worth. Some party members successfully make it through the entire adventure, and others.well, let’s just say they aren’t as lucky. Every show is a chapter in our ongoing, two-year story arc, so every show is unique. “

See more photos and read my impressions of the show after the jump. (more…)

I just got back from a crazy busy weekend trip. I left Friday with my two roommates to go to another friend’s wedding reception, which was very non-traditional and very fun. We left the wedding late Friday evening and drove 2/3 of the way to St. Louis where we stopped at Graham Cave State Park to camp for the night. We woke up at 7:45 in the morning and explored the park and the historic cave the park was named for, and then drove to St. Louis, stopping on the way at a trucker diner for an incredible breakfast. In St. Louis, we registered for Anime St. Louis/ShowMeCon, a combination anime and science fiction convention held at a Marriot hotel. The convention had over 1000 people in attendance and we spent the greater part of Saturday late into the night and sunday until about 3:00 at the convention. After leaving the convention, we traveled to a nearby park just outside St. Louis and played a round of Frisbee golf. On the trip back we stopped in Columbia, Mo. for dinner, and finally made it home.

Needless to say, I am exhausted, so I am about to get some much needed rest. I will be posting more in detail about the proceedings and loading an image gallery in the morning or when I have time.