Wandering Around Ottawa Comiccon – S09E35

The second day of Ottawa Comiccon was crazy busy and very packed. I was in a hot sweaty mess having to wander around to see people in costumes and try to recognize people that I may know.

On Saturday’s agenda, I had the opportunity to check out a few Q&As (from Summer Glau and Sean Astin) and a panel on cosplay harassment.
The panel was hosted by Hollaback! Ottawa and it was to explore how people are being harassed in their costumes. Since conventions have become popular over time, there’s become a sense of negativity from online as people posts photos over on blogs and social media. Mentioned in the panel is that if you make a crappy costume, you still make an effort to be part of the fun. Cosplay have really stepped up the notch from fans being very creative and dedicated their time making their costumes.

It’s Hollaback! Ottawa’s first time being at the convention and I would give kudos to the group and the organizers of Ottawa Comiccon for stepping it up and bring awareness to the subject. Their slogan was Cosplay =/= Consent, meaning cosplays is not consent.
The reason for checking the panel was that I know a friend who was part of the discussion. Unfortunately, she was late due to car trouble. I was able to meet with her later. The photos from the group is posted below.

As usual, I took several photos of the cosplayers and there are a few I remember from last convention, Ottawa Pop Expo. At least I was able to get a few Sailor Moon related photos and there seems to be a lot of cosplayers who dressed up as Poison Ivy. I didn’t take any photos of cosplayers dressing up from the Doctor Who characters.

After attending Ottawa Comiccon for two days, I’m feeling pretty sore from all the walking and there was another event I went after Comiccon, that will be on the next entry.
You can view the photos below.

Thanks to Ottawa Comiccon for making a fun jam-packed event in its third year.
Note: I noticed some of the quality from the photos didn’t turn out great. Late night editing can get to you. I apologize for the mistakes I made. To the cosplayers I photographed, I have the non-watermarked version if you want it.

Ottawa Comiccon 2014 – S09E34

Fans of comic books, Sci-Fi, Anime and horror unite for Ottawa Comiccon at EY Centre. It’s the third year that it’s running and as usual, fans flocked down to EY Centre on a Friday afternoon to be dressed up in cosplay or to wait in line getting an celebrity autograph and photo-op.
This year sees celebrities from Summer Glau, Christopher Lloyd (Back to the Future), Bruce Campbell (Army of Darkness), Sean Astin (The Goonies), Edward James Elmos and a bunch of others. While comic book creators attending this year are Bob Layton (Iron Man), Tony Moore (The Walking Dead), Glenn Fabry (Preacher) and Neal Adams (Batman).

It’s my second year covering the event and I’m going around taking photos of cosplayers in their unique and very creative costumes that they spent time in designing. Friday was just a glimpse on how the setup was like and it’s good so far. I will expect to see a lot more for Saturday and will check out some panels.
For now, you can check the photos from Friday’s start of the convention.

Ottawa Pop Expo (Sunday Edition) – S09E13

Day 2 of Ottawa Pop Expo was a relaxed affair as I decided to check out the celebrity Q&A. I forgot to take a photo of their logo but able to take a photo from their video screen along with a countdown.
Let’s say that it was more on Doctor Who as Neve McIntosh and Seventh Doctor, Sylvester McCoy were guests of the pop culture convention. It’s their first time to be Ottawa, Canada.
Aside from that, the first panel I checked out which was the Q&A on Doctor Who’s 50th Celebration. After the brief session, I had to bolt over to the celebrity Q&A for Neve McIntosh, who plays Silurian, Madame Vastra in the current series of Doctor Who. She’s quite a lovely actress without the heavy makeup as the fan-favourite Silurian. Her Q&A was pretty good as she told the crowd as being a lifelong Doctor Who fan and having Tom Baker (Fourth Doctor) as her first and favourite Doctor growing up. McIntosh also said that she will be back for Series 8 when Peter Capaldi takes over for Matt Smith in the new year. Towards the end of the Q&A, a couple of Daleks and Seventh Doctor, McCoy appeared to join McIntosh on the Q&A. It was quite the fun and hilarious moment as it felt like the Seventh Doctor crashed the party.
After her Q&A was then McCoy’s turn to get questions asked. Quite an entertaining and funny Q&A session as McCoy decided to walk off the stage and get interactive with the fans. Things he brought up was that he never watched the previous Doctors and decided to be his own character. He mentioned the 1996 TV movie and not knowing about the perks as he mentioned Eric Roberts wanted to change the carpet. McCoy also cracked a joke on Toronto mayor, Rob Ford. He liked how Canadians are polite towards him.
Overall, it was great to see one of the living Doctors to be Ottawa. It’s definitely a treat for Doctor Who fans in the Nation’s Capital. You will see some of the photos from below.

The last Q&A to check out was a popular actor who was in the hit show, The Game of Thrones. I decided to check out Jason Momoa because of the blogger I met at the convention to check this guy out. Mind you, I’m not into Game of Thrones as I listen to a radio show on Sunday nights. I know people tweet like crazy, hence the spoilers. OK, onto Momoa. He played Khal Drogo from the hit series. On stage, he got a nice comfortable chair and drinking Guinness beer. He talked about his time on Game of Thrones, Conan and going against Sylvester Stallone. He also mentioned about a movie he directed called Road to Paloma. The tone of the Q&A was more on the no-so family friendly side as Momoa swore a bit and there were a few guys asking negative questions towards him. It kind ruined the fun atmosphere because I could say that men are jealous of him, but it’s just my opinion.

All in all, what a way to wrap things up for the first year of Ottawa Pop Expo as the main convention, Ottawa Comiccon will be in full swing for May 2014.
Check out the photos!
I’ll be back again for the radio show recap as I have the interview with Kat Burns of Kashka.

Ottawa Pop Expo (Saturday Edition) – S09E12

I had the opportunity to attend Ottawa Pop Expo, a pop culture fan convention which features genres from comics, sci-fi, horror, anime and a bunch of others. It’s in the realm of geek culture nonetheless. The convention is presented and run by the organizers of Ottawa Comiccon. It’s the first time the pop culture convention is being held in December as Ottawa Comiccon has been running for two years and held in May.

For this convention, I decided to take photos of the cosplayers for the fun of it. You will see a bunch of photos below. I totally forgot to create a main photo for the blog entry. Luckily, I took a photo of their podium as shown above.
I decided to check out the celebrity Q&A with Tom Felton. The actor who played Draco Malfoy from the Harry Potter film series. I got to deal with the screaming fans who are big into the actor.

Lastly, how could I say that I finally met one of Canada’s known wrestling analyst/commentator and TV personality, who’s currently with The Weather Network. It’s none other than Arda Ocal. I’ve been tweeting him back and fourth about wrestling and his time at The Score (now Sportsnet 360) on the programme, Aftermath. It’s a privilege to finally meet him and just good timing to see Ottawa become a fun city.

I will be back for another entry on Ottawa Pop Expo for Sunday and it’s most likely on Doctor Who.

The Interview with The Doctor Who Society of Canada – S08E40

This is an epilogue to writing about Ottawa Comiccon. Unfortunately, things didn’t go as planned on my radio show at CKCU-FM. The interview with the Doctor Who Society of Canada hit a snag as I did not get the audio file when the radio show was happening. As I make up for the error, The audio interview is posted for the blog version of the radio show as well as a separate link. Apologies on the technical difficulties that happened on Wednesday.
I had the opportunity to interview one of the members of the Doctor Who Society of Canada at Ottawa Comiccon. Aside from being a comic book fan, I’m also a diehard Doctor Who fan and it was with great privilege to chat with the not-for-profit organization. Luckily, I was able to do the interview as Saturday before the crowds got hectic throughout the day.
Even though, I didn’t buy anything at the convention, I was able to buy a one year membership for the society and hopeful that an Ottawa chapter of the DWSC will happen.
As I don’t want to spoil much about the interview, you can listen to the interview from below.

On the radio show, there were new songs from Bravestation, Austra and A Tribe Called Red. For the non-English music part, I played Moonlight Densetsu by Moon Lips (the theme to Sailor Moon S & Super S) as a nod to Monica In Heels because she and her friends were dressed up as Sailor Moon and gang at Ottawa Comiccon. This ends the post about Ottawa Comiccon.
Lastly, an event to check out this Saturday is Chinatown Remixed. On the radio show, Silkken Laumann was played because they are performing at Chinatown Remixed. A nice way to promote the month long event.
The Wild 10 Countdown this week has Gold & Youth on the top spot. You can check the top 10 over at this link.
The playlist from the live show is over at this link.
The audio for the radio show is split into two parts due to the error.

Lastly, it’s the Victoria Day weekend. Have a safe holiday!

Ottawa Comiccon 2013 – S08E39

It’s been several years since I went to a comic book convention. Ottawa Comiccon was the event for comics, Sci-Fi and Anime fans alike to bring out their inner geek and to hobnob with the celebrities. The event is in its second year over at Ernst & Young Centre. It’s my first time to attend the convention as I had previously went to comic book conventions in Toronto. It’s also convenient to attend in my area, except for the one hour bus ride.

I had the opportunity to check out the marvellous vendors and the varieties of people dressing up in wonderful costumes. It ranged from comic characters to Sci-Fi characters such as Doctor Who and various Anime characters.
Being a comic book fan, I did not bring a lot of comics and trade paperbacks but was able to get my X-Men: The Dark Phoenix Saga trade paperback signed by Chris Claremont. It was definitely a plus as he’s a legendary storyteller.

On Saturday, I got to check out a few panels. One panel had quite a humourous trainwreck which was Name That Anime Tune. The participants did not know certain themes to Anime shows and I didn’t know any as I haven’t followed a lot of Anime shows for so long. One panel I truly had to attend was The Doctor Who panel as it had two authors from the book, Who Is The Doctor. They talked about 50 years of DW and how’s still a hit for 50 years. Plus, the Dalek appeared and humourously crashed the Q&A panel.

It was funny bumping into people I know and some have said that it’s their first time attending Ottawa Comiccon. It’s pretty surprising that Ottawa is known for being a boring city but the magnitude of Comiccon showed that there’s a big following for comics, Sci-Fi and Anime. The organizers and sponsor bringing in big name celebrities know how to attract fans and people in general. It’s quite wonderful to experience seeing lots of people to be at a convention.
The only setback I had was the lack of cell phone signal at Ernst & Young Centre. I was hoping to tweet and photos but the reception was not great to do so. At least I was able to shoot photos on the DSLR camera. You will be able to view the photos of people in their creative costumes from below.
There’s a photo of lovely ladies in Sailor Moon costumes and I know one of them as you can check her blog. They were made quite nice and also got some attention from the people. ’nuff said on that one.
Links to my Instagram from Friday – my media pass, green Dalek, Dalek Emperor (I think), classic Dalek, and R2D2.
Overall, I had a good time at Ottawa Comiccon and the organizers sure made it top notch. Lastly, happy Mother’s Day to everyone!

Coming up on Wednesday’s radio show, I will be airing the interview from a member of The Doctor Who Society of Canada.

An Evening of Sci-Fi Symphony and Mr. Sulu – S04E22

I am back from my April hiatus and this blog entry will be interesting because on Friday night, I went to The National Arts Centre for NACO’s Pops concert, Sci-Fi Spectacular. What was unique with this concert was that George Takei of Star Trek’s Mr. Sulu was on hand as the narrator for the famous Star Trek theme song and for another song. There were songs from Star Wars, Star Trek, Superman, Harry Potter and 2001: A Space Odyssey that were played. I didn’t expect to go to NAC for this because plans to go to the Black Mountain, Ladyhawk and Pack A.D. at Capital City Music Hall as part of BC Scene, fell through. In a way, I was surprised to enjoy the Sci-Fi Spectacular and getting to meet George Takei at the end of the concert (photo above). What was also ironic was that my bro and I ended up sitting at the front row for the concert. I was like having an “oh crap” moment because I got a good view and having George Takei be several feet (about 8-9 feet) away was fantastic enough. Before the show started, it was almost a sci-fi convention because there were people dressing up as Star Wars characters. It reminded me of the comic and anime convention when I went to Toronto and almost driving myself nuts with it.
Oh yeah, prior to going to NAC, my bro and I decided to hang outside at Capital City Music Hall to see if CBC Radio 3‘s Pedro Mendes and/or Amanda Putz would be around. The answer was yes, I got to see them, even though I wouldn’t be attending the concert. I’m happy I got to meet another Radio 3 personality. No Craig Norris and Grant Lawrence (har har) yet. I wasn’t sure if Pedro would know or heard of me because on CBC Radio 3’s website, I go by WildWorks. All in All, it was a great Friday to enjoy and even the weather was awesome too.