Convention Fans

If you read my blog regularly, you know that one of my big fandoms is Rocky Horror Picture Show. I have a much beloved cast back in Orlando (The Rich Weirdoes) that I spent a lot of time with. I’ve seen the film in a theater with a shadow cast well over 100 times. Unfortunately, I have never had a chance to attend an official Rocky Horror convention. Thankfully, YouTube helps me fill this void in my life. Not only have I found some great videos from recent Rocky Horror cons, but some video from the 1989 Rocky Horror convention (featuring Rocky Horror creator and star Richard O’Brien).

The 1989 video is from the national Rocky Horror convention hosted by Midnight Madness in Chicago, Illinois. The video is mostly Richard O’Brien, giving a fantastic kick off speech. Then he delivers the Transylvanian Oath (which is the same oath my own Orlando cast uses), and proceeds to sing the Transylvanian Anthem. The quality of the video may not be specular, but it is from 1989. Take a look:

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The second video features Little Nell and Patricia Quinn, from the 2008 Rocky Horror convention in Atlantic City, New Jersey. They give a little introduction to the convention’s showing of Shock Treatment. These two are delightfully funny together:

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From that same convention, here’s Patricia and Little Nell actually dancing during the showing of Shock Treatment:

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If you have any videos from a Rocky Horror convention, post a comment with a link! You can also check out other videos from conventions here!

I’ve never had the pleasure of attending one of the big Star Wars Celebration conventions. Although I do consider myself a fan of the movies, and like many, I always enjoy an appearance by the 501st Legion. Thank goodness for YouTube though, which is full of wonderful videos from Star Wars Celebrations of years past. I was browsing for fun videos to share, when I started coming across multiple videos of a Boba Fett with a real jet pack. Yes, you read that right. The guy FLIES FOR REAL.

The flying Boba Fett is actually “Rocketman” Dan Schlund. Apparently he is a lifelong Star Wars fan, who decided to celebrate the franchise’s 30th anniversary by making one hell of an entrance at Star Wars Celebration 2007.

Video #1 is from an attendee, YouTube user deftonesbear. You may want to turn down the audio however, because a crying kid can be heard throughout the video. None-the-less, it provides a pretty good shot of Dan’s flight:

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Yesterday, I posted a convention profile for Fangoria’s Weekend of Horrors in Los Angeles. I was surfing YouTube for fun convention videos, and discovered a six part video series from Fangoria’s Weekend of Horrors 1986. This is one of the reasons why I love YouTube so much. Without it, most of us would never get to see this kind of vintage video footage. (Hell, in 1986 I was only three years old.) These videos are like fandom time capsules. Sure, we get a good laugh out of the crazy hair and Coke-bottle glasses, but we also get to see how fandom has evolved over the past decade or more. But don’t get me wrong, there is a TON of bad 80s hair in these videos.

Thanks to YouTube user CTM1978 for uploading these. Here is the description of the videos:

“Back in 1986 Fangoria released this video made during one of their Weekend of Horrors. This video was a great thing for those of us that couldn’t make it to the conventions. For some reason they never put out another one of these and have never released it onto DVD. So I have uploaded it for the viewing pleasure of those who want to see what a Weekend of Horrors looked like back in the mid 80’s.”

That being said, here you go! Video #1 of 6: “My parent’s think I’m crazy”

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This was posted to the Dragon*con LiveJournal community today, and I just had to pass it along (I’m doing this just for you Tara). Nathan Fillion has a great relationship with his fans, probably because he’s just so damned charming. I had a chance to meet him at last year’s Dragon*con, and got to watch him introduce himself in total fanboy style to Michael Dorn (Star Trek’s Worf).

He actually mention’s Dragon*con and Comic Con by name in this interview with Jimmy Kimmel, calling them a “weekend long orgasm.” Yes Nathan… exactly. Kimmel went on to show Nathan pictures of cosplayers dressed as his various characters.

Anyway…here’s the Kimmel interview, enjoy!

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Feel free to post your own Nathan Fillion stories in a comment!

If you read my blog regularly, you probably saw the big Katsucon 2009 feedback entry. Yeah, it wasn’t pretty. In fact, the feedback was so overwhelmingly bad that the chair of the convention personally responded to it, via a comment on Cosplay.com. Even though a lot of attendees had some serious (and seemingly valid) complaints, there have been a lot of videos posted on the internet that show attendees having fun. I’ve collected a few of these videos and posted them below. There’s everything from rave videos to footage of the Anime Dating Game.

The first video is the “The Ninja Line-up Katsucon Dance Off,” which shows off the dancing talents of a group of Katsucon attendees. Just a little warning: if you aren’t a Britney Spears fan, you’ll wanna play this on mute. But don’t miss the great Vincent Price cackle that ends the video.

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