Geek Venues (4/4)

The final guest post from Brannen in a series about geeky hangouts around DC.

Places for Pages

Welcome back geeks and friends to the show that never ends, come inside, come inside.

I might be on cold meds. You have been warned.

I have to admit that I’m a book geek. When I finally accumulate Sod Off money my personal cave isn’t the sybaritic den that some might guess (that’s for sharing with guests, after all), no. It will be more like this:

No, I don't have enough. Why do you ask?
(via Charlotte L.)

There is just something about the weight of the book in your hands, the smell of old paper, oiled leather, hint of must and dust and words both shouted and whispered into my ears by people I’ve never met.

For a lover of books, not just as an idea transmission medium but as objects in and of themselves, then you’ve got to get over to the Folger Shakespeare Library. The collection is amazing and it runs far beyond just getting to coo at covers and look at a few displayed pages. The Folger does an excellent job of bringing out not just the texts but the context of the works as well. The easy hours of the place and the free admission make it a very attractive offering if your out for city exploration or scratching that academic itch. If you’re willing to pay out a bit the Folger also has an ongoing schedule of plays, musical performances, poetry presentations and other live works. The place makes a great spot for a geeky, elegant date when you’re looking to impress (or taking advantage of your SO’s patience to soak in your own preferred geekdom).

The second spot for the book geek and the final suggestion for this little series on geek outings for the winter winds up at a place very near and dear to my heart. If I had a church, a temple, a mosque or sacred grove this would be it:

Try not to fall when you look up, it happens surprisingly often.
(via Angela N.)

Yeah. That’s the Library of Congress that I’m talking about. Take a look at that image above again. Now think about your personal library or local library. Now look at the image below:

Sing in me, Muse, and through me tell the story...
(via Matt Riggott)

Yeah, tell me its not a place of reverence and I’ll call you a liar.

The complex itself is surprisingly large, spanning several buildings in DC and a whole warehouse area outside of the city. The buildings in the city are linked by a series of tunnels, so if you’ve ever been curious about underground DC you can get a small (and well lit) taste of what a lot of the federal passages around the area look like. I suggest coming in from the main entrance, though. Knowledge = power = energy = matter = mass, as we all know, and you can really get a feel for that as you come into the main reading room. It truly does feel like a temple to knowledge, to the understanding and creativity of humanity. Its an incredible place to seek out on a wander, no matter whether you’re on your own or with others.

There are several options for visiting the library as well. You can do the standard tour thing, or even download some self guided tours onto your phone. The outer rooms of the library buildings tend to be special focus and often hold small exhibits that shift over time. Honestly, I’ve spent hours in there just for the art and architecture, let alone the book collection.

Ahhh, yes, the collection.  It is massive and you need to know a few things about it. First of all, if you want to actually access anything you need to get yourself a Reader’s Identification Card. The process isn’t bad, it took me about 20 minutes last time I got one. You need a valid photo ID, the ability to fill out a short form and then you’re issued a card good for two years. Once you’ve got that in hand you can use the on-site catalogs and can even request materials. Yeah, request. You can’t go digging through the stacks, which honestly is for the best. Just a warning though, depending on traffic this can take a while and what you want may not always be available. Last time I was in I requested a fair obscure book dealing with a Norse mythological figure. They’ve got it in the catalog, but after a bit more than an hour of a wait I was informed that it wasn’t available at that time. So if you’re going in to research, have a full list of materials you want to look at. On the upside its almost like a restaurant: Tell them which desk you’re at when you turn in the requests and they do the rest.

Well, that’s it for now. I hope these ideas have encouraged you to get out and about, even as the weather gets colder. Whether you’re seeking solitude from the maddening throngs or looking for that cool place to share some special company, there’s no reason to ever claim being bored in DC. We have a vast and rich region to enjoy. Get out there!

Until next time, I hope your obsessions blossom beautifully.

This Week in Geek 2011/12/25

This Week in Geek, Christmas edition! Here’s a list of the events going on between Christmas and New Year’s. If you know of additional meetups or open events, please share them in the comments.

Longer Term

• Mental Health - Tactical Airsoft Arena - Rockville, MD - Monday through Saturday
• For when you really need to just pelt the shit out of that uppity hipster nephew in an airsoft match or blow off steam post-in-laws at the shooting range. The Tactical Airsoft Arena offers a great set up for a variety of interests. Check out their holiday hours.

Monday

• Steampunk - Chrononauts’ Winter Stroll - Washington, DC - 1:30 PM
• Time travelers, gentlemen adventurers, and Victorian tinkerers, gather round. Starting off at the Smithsonian Castle, you can all enjoy a stroll around the National Mall this Boxing Day. The Facebook event is here. Images from last year’s event are available on Flickr.

A local family of chrononauts poses in DC. (via the von Hedwigs)

Tuesday

• Gaming - Open Game Night - Washington, DC - 6:00 PM
• This is the last open game night of 2011. If you haven’t given the group a shot, you can make this last your first. Get a jump start on that resolution to be more social. If it’s not a night that you can pull yourself away from Old Republic, visit the link above. You can vote to try and nudge their next event to a day you would be free.
• Music - Thursday at the 9:30 Club - Washington, DC - 6:00 PM
• I just added this event to the list because (1) Thursday is a fun band. (2) The 9:30 Club is pretty awesome. (3) You get to spend the next few days telling people you’re seeing Thursday on Tuesday. It’s the little things in life...

Friday

• Entertainment - Olde City Side Show - Washington, DC - 8:30 PM
• For those of you interested in the side shows and vaudeville acts in addition to the burlesque, this event is for you. Fascinating, horrifying, either way you won’t be bored. I’ll steer clear of spoilers, but having read the act descriptions, I have to say this is not an event for those with faint hearts, weak stomachs, or delicate constitutions.

The impressive crew of the Olde City Side Show.
More photos are available on their site.

Saturday

• Museum - Lost and Found: The Secrets of Archimedes - Washington, DC - 10:00 AM
• I’ve posted about the Archimedes Palimpsest before. This is your last chance to see the exhibition before it closes. There’s a full article on why the Palimpsest is so amazing. Recovering data that’s a decade old is amazing, and this project recovered deleted data from over 2200 years ago.

• Reddit - Redditors’ Meetup - Reston, VA - Noon
• If you’re a local redditor, you should check out the meetup. It’s been considerately scheduled from noon to 5:00 PM so as not to interfere with your pre-existing New Year’s plans. Kicking off with a white elephant gift exchange, the hangout continues with lunch and ice skating. The meetup page has a spreadsheet for figuring out carpooling if you need a ride to Reston.

Sunday

• Remedies - Hair of the Dog - Anywhere where drink had been consumed in beastly quantities some time previously
• If you don’t drink, you can lecture your whining friends about the etymology of “hair of the dog.” For the rest of you, good luck. You may be pretending you’re going to go on one of the many runs in the area. But we all know how this is really going to play out, and preparedness is key. Repeat after me: vodka, tomato juice, Tabasco sauce, Worcestershire sauce, horseradish, celery salt, pepper, lemon juice, and a celery stalk.

Wishing you and your’s a great holiday and a geeky new year. “Though here’s a tip. Just ‘ho, ho, ho’ will do. Don’t say ‘Cower, brief mortals’ unless you want them to become moneylenders or some such.” And yes, I did learn everything I needed to know about Christmas from Terry Pratchett.

Geek Venues (3/4)

The third guest post from Brannen in a series about geeky hangouts around DC. This time, he covers a few museums that usually get missed in the online lists.

For Science!

Welcome back, geeks and friends. Today’s posting is brought to you by something I’ve been experimenting with involving high grade coffee beans, pure water, some lab equipment and very, very slow expression of the goodness in the beans. I’m almost to the point where I can see time, but not quite yet. Let’s see where I am by the end of this posting.

As promised on Saturday, tonight I want to talk about a couple of spots to get out to with friends, family, loved ones or those you hope to entice into becoming your companion for a time. But not just any kind of spot. Thus far I’ve looked at places for gaming, spots for making but tonight I want to talk about a couple of places that fall more under Science! than anything else.

For those who want a more mellow time (and perhaps be reminded of just how small and meaningless and... okay, I’m back), I can’t really suggest a better spot than the Albert Einstein Planetarium. Oh, sure, there are IMAX theaters all around you in the complex where you can watch Big Bird talk about the sky and stuff about planes, but that’s just local details. In the planetarium you get a kind of purity, a sense of where you are with all the stars shining around you. Not everything is sedate out there. I’ve been hearing good things about the Cosmic Collisions presentation at the planetarium as well, so you can go for the peaceful and philosophical or you can still get massive (galactic scale) bang ups. The choice is yours.

This is a hard spot to beat for sheer versatility. Desperately need a break before you go Sweeny Todd on visiting family? Head out for an afternoon showing and then a walk over to say hi to Albert himself. Need some alone time? Metro over and enjoy. Looking for something with more geek cred than a movie to take the object of your affection to? Take a walk around the Mall and wind up in the dark, looking up.

I wish you could see the ground at his feet. It's a map of more
than 2700 local stars. (via Bernt Rostad)

Pulling a serious one eighty from the planetarium (and heading over state lines) brings us to The National Firearms Museum, a prime example of the application of science. Now, I’ll say up front, this won’t be everyone’s cup of tea. That being said, I know a lot of geeks who enjoy heading to the range now and again. I know a lot, lot more geeks who love guns (along with swords and lightsabers and knives and...) as part of their fandoms and fan iconography.

The museum itself is home to fifteen galleries and more than 2700 firearms. Most of the galleries are arranged by historical period (not a bad way to hook in a proto-geek child if you have one available) with a few specialty galleries like the toy gun section or the Hollywood Guns gallery. They also have collection images online, but that’s just the same as getting to see them in person. Check out the site for hours and directions, but if you’re the type who enjoys weapons or perhaps has a love of reserve engineering then go and enjoy an afternoon.

Coming up next from Brannen on DC Geeks is the final installment of this little series, two places the book geek has to go in DC.

Geek Venues (2/4)

The second guest post from Brannen in a series about geeky hangouts around DC.

Welcome back, geeks and friends. Tonight’s thoughts brought to you by Lady Caffeina, She of the Bright Eyes and Trembling Hands. "It is by caffeine alone I set my mind in motion, It is by the beans of Java the thoughts acquire speed, the hands acquire shaking, the shaking becomes a warning. It is by caffeine alone I set my mind in motion" But, enough about my chemical addictions, let’s talk about a deeper and more insidious need of mine.

Crafter Spots

I tend to keep my hands and brain busy during evenings and weekends in making things. Its just something I do and the need to do it has gotten worse as I’ve gotten older. Culinary experimentation, fermentation, carving, building - its all there. Lugh help me, I’m actually looking through poly resin information in the other window and having visions of an extremely sticky-then-hard disaster in my future. There’s something about this time of year though; the chill in the air, the early sunsets, the endless, sanity destroying loops of carols in public spaces, that just makes me hands itch with memories of yesterday. Memories of handmade Christmas gifts (not out of some sort of ethical or aesthetic choice, but because us kids didn’t get an allowance or budget for gifts. We either had to make them or endure the shame of failed social obligations.) rise like swamp gas out of the muck of the mind.

Not all such memories are bad though, and obviously they haven’t kept me from indulging that drive to make and that ever expanding curiosity about how things work. And I know I’m not alone in that. The geek culture seems to have a large population of crafty and/or DIY folk in it. Sometimes the crafting is a way to further their hobby. Sometimes the making is the hobby. Either way, I call it a good thing (and look for further thoughts on this in the future). But for now, let’s stick with the original theme: getting out and indulging yourself.

HacDC is one of hundreds of Hacker Space or Maker Space shops that have sprung up around the globe over the past decade, spaces devoted to amateur engineers and their networks. Head over to their site and you’ll get a taste of what’s going on in the space. Gatherings for microcontroller and electronics enthusiasts are coming up soon, as is the ongoing software developers’ get together. They hold free classes and workshops, maintain space for the technical and social needs of those who want to tear apart and rebuild technology and generally do very cool work with the tech available to most folks. Their Spaceblimp project had me mesmerized. So as a way to get out for an evening, a working date in those early, what-do-we-talk-about stages or something to do with friends, its a great venue. Just keep checking their website, mailing list and other channels of communication.

See? You could be doing this on your weekends. (via blackrazorus)

If your needs are a little more... muscle intensive, then get yourself over to the gatherings of the Blacksmith’s Guild of the Potomac. Mostly meeting at the forge at Gulf Branch Nature Center in Arlington, they’re easy to get to and a friendly bunch of folks.

Now, just a couple of warnings about smithing: it takes time to pick up even basic skill, its hot, it takes time to pick up basic skills, you need keep aware, it takes time to pick up basic skills. But there is a pay off for patience and perseverance: you get to make things out of metal, with metal, in your own hands. Machine pieces can be a lot of fun and produce some beautiful work. Casting is just neat (and something I’m trying to figure out a way to do a lot more of), but there’s something about handling steel gone orange in the flames, about shaping it with heavy wallops and delicate strikes, of learning to coax and seduce the metal into what you want. And from a fantasy geek standpoint: who wouldn’t want to make their own mace?

Trust me: Wear closed-toe shoes. No, I don't want to talk about it.
(via Derek Key)

Unless you’ve found a truly special someone, this probably isn’t a date kind of activity. Though, hey, if you have, team forging can be awesome. I would recommend this spot as a great way to get to know your friends, though. There’s something about dripping sweat and the concern of metal searing skin while you work that tends to focus the mind and bring out honest words. Or maybe that’s just my experience.

Coming up next from Brannen at DC-Geeks... we retreat a bit from the making to the use of tools in a couple of spots that might appeal to the science geek in us all.

This Week in Geek 2011/12/18

A showcase of this week's finest geek and geek related activities for the week. Mark your calendars.

Nat Geo's Weird but True Series via National Geographic

Longer Term

• Science - National Geographic: Weird but True - Washington, DC - Monday to January 2nd
• Just visiting the website for this event taught me that hippo sweat is red. Imagine the wonders that you could learn from actually stopping in. Become masters of the animal questions in Trivial Pursuit and learn tidbits that will solidify your position as coolest uncle or aunt with the younglings at Christmas. Or better yet, take the visiting family to something other than the usual round of memorials when they ask you to show them the district.
• Art - Seasons: Arts of Japan - Washington , DC - Monday to Friday
• Can't wait until the centennial Cherry Blossom Festival in March? The Freer Gallery should hold you over. Great for geeks whose love of Asian art goes so many centuries beyond the recent anime craze. The current exhibitions include beautiful Japanese screens, ceramics, and paintings.
• Art - Dr. Seuss’s “Secrets Of The Deep” Art Exhibition - P & C Art Gallery - Washington, DC - Tuesday to Saturday
• The exhibition includes pieces of "Suessian" art from private collections, and promises to be a great cross section of his seven decades of creations. If you can't make it, here's a link to some of his additional work. Wait, Suess wrote a book called The Seven Lady Godivas? According to Wikipedia, it looks safe for both work and kids except for a few butts. How have I never heard of this?
• Holidays - Festivus - Everywhere - Friday to Saturday
• There's all brands of holiday celebration this week: Hanukkah, Yule, Kwanzaa, Christmas, Pixmas (and the inevitable discussion of that Wintereenmas foolishness - or vice versa, depending on your webcomic persuasion), and Hogswatch. But beyond all of these, free from the hassle of decorations, is Seinfeld's Festivus. "For the rest of us."

Festivus cheer! via M. Keefe

Tuesday

• Gaming - DCGN is Only Human - Washington, DC - 6 PM
• At Bread and Brew from 10 until 2 this Tuesday, there shall be Game Night, well day, but the DC Game Night group will be there. Sounds like there's Dominion players showing up, but pack some games and get out there to meet a few new friends.

Saturday

• Holidays - Santarchy - Oxon Hill, MD - 1 PM
• "This unusual annual event features a water-skiing Santa, flying elves, the Jet-skiing Grinch, and Frosty the Snowman performing on the Potomac River." Convince the young ones that not only is Santa real, he's kind of a badass. This sounds like a great event given the persistent mild weather we've been having.

Happy Holidays everyone! An exciting week! Get to it! Other weekly reoccurring events are listed on our website (such as Rocky, CCG tournaments, crazy themed happy hours). For more information, check out the calendars at DC Geeks.

Review: Gamer Symphony Orchestra

The Gamer Symphony Orchestra assembled via GSO

The Gamer Symphony Orchestra (GSO) started off in 2005 as the brainchild of UMD student Michelle Eng and an ensemble of musicians, primarily pulled from University of Maryland Repertoire Orchestra. They started off with the idea that video game music is a legitimate form of art that should be respected as such. Over the last 5 years they've grown from a few band geeks with a dream to the powerful force of music they are today. Just being viewing the performance it's obvious that the people involved are very passionate about this project.  Their labor of love really comes out in their work.  Speaking of which...


To me the first signs that shit just got real came when I looked at the program.  Take a look.  Is that  Shadow of the Colossus and Disgaea?  Wait really?  I was expecting more stereotypical Triple A title style games.  You know, the kind that are so popular you don't even really need to be a geek to be familiar with the piece.  Yet... while the pieces and games chosen are slightly off the beaten path, they aren't so far in the woods that they are completely unheard of (Although I might have paid money to have heard some of the music from Mass Effect). I really have to give a tip of the hat to them for their total selection.  I would have liked to see more variety in general, but it was an excellent list.





While I enjoyed the concert in general, the main stand out piece was Laharl-sama no Sanbika due in no small part to the Solo (Duo?) performance by Diana and Jasmine Bestul-Taylor.  I'm a big fan vocal additions to orchestral pieces. They added an aspect of confidence and a certain level of solidarity. This song's title can be translated as "Ode to Lord Laharl", the main character of the game Disgaea. Disgaea in general had an over the top semi intense feeling to it. The performance of all involved added up to that rather well.


I'm amazed that this format of music has gained the level of traction that it has.  GSO and Video Games Live are both proof that this form of entertainment is either desired by more than just the nerd subculture or that the nerd population has grown so large that it can be catered to (outside of movies and TV shows).  The fact that we can go to concerts, orchestral performances, and museums specifically tailored to our interests now is definitely a sign of the times.  A very positive sign.  I almost feel like convention life is slowly creeping into real life.  Maybe cosplay will be a more casually accepted form of expression?


Speaking of which, I saw at least one person cosplaying in the crowd.  I mean, wow.  That's crazy awesome.  This woman was dressed as Link.  A pretty decent costume too.  If I had known it was that kind of party.... Man, perfect time for my wizard hat and robe.  I think as a culture we should make more of a habit to dress up in cosplay / cosplay like fantastic clothing, especially when going out to geek styled events. Nerd solidarity.





Last thing though.  Their zinger / encore was the main theme from Katamari Damacy.  When it started up I half stood up and said "You're kidding me? You went there"  If you heard/saw anything like that, yeah that was me.  This was not in anger though.  I was just shocked.  I can check that off my list of things to see. Really, it was the perfect end to things. All in all, check them out.  Lot's of energy, lots of passion, lots of geekery.

Geek Venues (1/4)

Hey guys, this week I’m posting the first of a short series of guest posts from fellow DC Geek, Brannen, about a few fun spots he’s come across in DC. Give him a warm welcome.

Hello, DC Geeks. Brannen here, filling in for Aine this week. But for now, you’re stuck with me and a glass of something decidedly not coffee, so away we go.

The holidays are upon us, but I’m not going to talk about that. What I’m interested in tonight is venues. More to the point, venues for the geek around DC. Maybe its for a date, maybe its a new option for a family outing, maybe its a haven from family and friends. No matter the situation we need options. Below are a few I’d like to suggest as alternatives from the usual routine.

If your game center systems look like this, run.
You’re either in an art installation or an epilepsy study.
(via visual velocity pc)

Game Centers

Aye, it can seem a bit odd at first glance. Go out to some place and pay them for the privilege of using unfamiliar systems where I can’t lounge around in my boxers while my music throbs out of the speakers I got adjusted to just the perfect angle? And yet... and yet there’s an appeal to this. Maybe I’m odd, but I actually put this experience out there with going on a bar crawl or chatting up folks at a con. We’re all strangers, but we’re strangers together, an obviously shared interest and an excuse to interact. Or not. She may want to frag me while I just want to finish out the entire Zelda franchise.

That is another plus for game centers though: the collections. It may be tarnishing my reputation here, but I’ll admit that video games aren’t my primary area of fandom. I certainly can’t hold a candle to Aine’s collection (or obsession), nor that of several other of the DC Geeks writers. I’ll lose days at a time to a good game, but my collection numbers in dozens of titles, not in the hundreds. Its also a bonus if you’re trying to get family or friends interested in your specific interest (especially if they included folks who are completionists, like me. Poor souls.).

In Virginia you can take a look at GamePad for a start. In Maryland there’s Graphix Game Center. These are just a start, though. Whip out the Google-fu and keep looking. Its not a bad idea for a first date, a day just for you or a way to occupy your geek spawn for an afternoon.

Funny, I don't remember Zelda being co-op. (via Kevin)

Coming up on Saturday on DC Geeks... A counterpoint to tonight’s venues of the ephemeral. I’ll talk about local spots to make, build and craft.

This Week in Geek 2011/12/11

A showcase of this week's finest geek and geek related activities for the week. Mark your calendars.

Longer Term

• Theater - Hack and Slash Christmas Special - Brooklyn Park, MD - Friday through Monday
• Did you miss the Hack & Slash shows earlier this year? No worries, their fantastically popular holiday show is coming up this weekend. As their site advertises: it’s not only in color, but live! Tickets are on sale here.

Just like the Hack and Slash we love,
but with more Christmas! (via greyloch)

Wednesday

• Museum - National Geographic: Exploring the Edge of Existence - Washington, DC - 7:00 PM
• John Mather (2006 Nobel Laureate in Physics), will be talking shop with Robert Ballard (National Geographic’s Explorer-in-Residence - coolest job title ever!) about how technology is expanding the limits of the known universe. The event is unsurprisingly sold out, but you could always keep an ear to Twitter for cancellations.

Friday

• Museum - After Hours at the Crime Museum - Washington, DC - 7:00 PM
• Heads up: Their site has the creepiest gif I’ve seen this side of 1995. This event teaches the history of crime and punishment in America “with a twist!” Get temporary prison tattoos, watch a blood splatter demonstration, pick out a last meal, and more! You stay classy, Crime Museum.

This page in the Where's Waldo books was always the hardest.
(via affinity)

Saturday

• Event - Santarchy - Washington, DC - 1:00 PM
• Also called Santacon, this event is “non-profit, non-political, non-religious, and non-sensical.” This Saturday, dress up in Santa suits, run around town, give gifts, sing songs, and do generally Santa-like things. The Santarchy site has the full rules (e.g. “Don’t fuck it up for the rest of us!” - their words of holiday cheer, not mine.)
• Beer - Snow Day: A Bar Crawl - Washington, DC - 1:00 PM
• Explore DC one bar at a time. There’s great deals on drinks, and the event registration is half-off if you sign-up in advance. Of course, the event is 21+ (sorry, kids). The event will hit the Front Page, Bread and Brew, Madhatter, The Mighty Pint, Black Finn, and 19th. Here’s a song to put you in the mood.

• Family - Dinosaur Film, Puppet and Craft Festival - Annandale, VA - 3:00 PM
• For those of you with geeky kids: spend a day outside with interactive learning stations and the chance to handle real fossils. There’s 25 reservations available for kids ages 4 to 9. At $9.00 a ticket, it’s still less expensive than going to see that horrible Chipmunks movie.

Yay dinosaurs! This one looks like a "Sue." (via Mike Shaver)

An exciting week! Get to it! Other weekly reoccurring events are listed on our website (such as Rocky, CCG tournaments, crazy themed happy hours). For more information, check out the calendars at DC Geeks.

Quarterly Con List

As I snagged the last non-overflow room in the Marscon hotel, after the appropriate fist-pump and victory dance, I started thinking about how I need to plan ahead better for conventions. So I'm helping you all do as I say not as I do by putting together a quick round up of longer term events that you may want to start planning (read: budgeting) for now.


December is kind of a dead-zone for Mid-Atlantic conventions, but after the holidays there is a sort of con-splosion. Here's January through March.


January 5th - 8th

• MAGFest - National Harbor, MD
• You know that scrap of FF7 music you love and that's been your ringtone through the past three cell phones you've owned? Meet the guy that wrote it. Nobuo Uematsu is just one of their big name guests. If you love video games and music, you should check out MAGFest.

January 13th - 15th

• MarsCon - Williamsburg, VA
• Marscon is one of my all-time favorite cons (don't let the website fool you). This year's theme is the end of the world, but there's usually a heavy steampunk contingent, regardless of official theme. They've recently updated their programming and guest list.
• GCOM Gaming Retreat - Churchton, MD
• A weekend retreat of gaming brought to you by the Games Club of Maryland. Looks like food and lodging is included at the West River Retreat Center. Great place to get away and enjoy a few pick up games.

Happy 20th, SheVaCon!

February 17th - 19th

• Shevacon - Roanoke, VA
• They have a sci-fi writing panel with Timothy Zahn. Did you hear that? That was a 15-year-old me fangirling out. Without him, I would never have spent high school arguing over the extended Star Wars canon/apocrypha. Also, Boba Fett Jeremy Bulloch is going to be there. There are also many awesome non-Star-Wars guests. (Oh, and their superhero larp, or shlarp? Really fun.)
• Katsucon - National Harbor, MD
• Katsu is a great local anime con. They have a huge guest line up including the latest addition of Randy Milholland from Something Positive. Here's the full list. On a related note, I don't know what a Gundam Unicorn is, but I want one.
• Farpoint - Baltimore, MD
• Can't wait until the following weekend to get your Battlestar media guest fix? I understand. Kate Vernon (Ellen Tigh) and Michael Hogan (Saul Tigh) will be at Farpoint this year. For those of you who are still disappointed by the end of BSG, there's Kristin Bauer from True Blood. And if you haven't seen True Blood yet, here's all you need to know (nsfw-ish link).
• Wicked Faire - Somerset, NJ
• I know what you're thinking "Halloween? In February?" but their reasoning is dead on: This is for those of you who only truly feel at home on Halloween. "More than anything else, Wicked Faire is the one place in the Universe absolutely, totally, unbreakably, unstoppably and thoroughly devoted to creating a weekend where every kind of not-normal person out there can find a home." I love that it's 16-and-up so high schoolers can have a place to be at home as whoever and whatever they want to be.

I AM the Pumpkin King!

February 24th - 26th 

• PrezCon - Charlottesville, VA
• PrezCon actually starts on the 22nd. And you can spend ever second from Wednesday through Sunday challenging other congoers to bouts of Settlers of Catan (you can even compete in the Mid-Atlantic NSOC Qualifier). Looks like they only have a few rooms left, so register soon.
• Mysticon - Roanoke, VA
• I normally limit my Roanoke convention-going to Shevacon, but the Mysticon guest line up looks pretty persuasive. The guests of honor are Ursula Vernon (writer/artist of Digger), Nicki Clyne (Cally from Battlestar), Sherrilyn Kenyon (author of the Dark Hunter novels), and Bella Morte (an awesome band from my hometown of C'ville).
• MangaNEXT - East Rutherford, NJ
• Ok, I can't rag on New Jersey too harshly. After all, they do have MangaNEXT (by the people who brought you AnimeNEXT). I'm ashamed to admit that I'm not enough of an otaku to know any of the guests, but here's the list.

Simple website, epic line-up.

March 2nd - 4th

• StellarCon - High Point, NC
• It's a bit of a drive, but the guests are probably worth it. Patrick Rothfuss, John Kovalic, Mark Poole, and others. Looks like it could be worth loading up on five hours and making the trek down if you like sci-fi/fantasy media cons.

March 9th - 11th

• Madicon - Harrisonburg, VA
• In all honesty, I can't be completely objective since I helped run this event for years. It's an awesome student-run convention at James Madison University, celebrating it's 21st year. Good for gaming and hanging out, solid set of vendors and artists. There's usually a great larp or three as well. At $15 for the weekend, you can't beat the price.

Madicon celebrates
21 years at JMU.

March 16th - 18th

• PrinceCon - Princeton, NJ
• Another great university convention, this time back up in New Jersey at Princeton. The Annual Fantasy Role-Playing Marathon consists of a 46-hour larp. Make a character on Friday and live as them for the weekend. Keep an eye on their site for updates.

March 21st - 25th

• Festival of the Book - Charlottesville, VA
• This is a five-day festival of (mostly) free literary events open to the public. A celebration of literacy, books, and culture, the event is a great way to see local authors. Keep checking their website for updates.

March 29th - April 1st

• Mythic Faire - Atlanta, GA
• I had this whole blurb written, I was set to buy tickets. Then, I check the site. The banner on the website reads "The Mythic Faire has been postponed until winter of 2012-2013." Damn.
• I-Con - Long Island, NY
• Just pause for a minute on the homepage and scan through the slideshow of guests. I'm sure more programming and information will be available as we get closer to time, but even still the guest list is pretty impressive: DS9, Star Wars, Dr. Who. Another great east-coast media con.

Their site has new videos of past faires.

TBA

• Maker Faire North Carolina - Raleigh, NC
• Maker Faires are starting to crop up all over the place. North Carolina hasn't announced their dates yet, but keep an eye on the site and watch out for more local maker events throughout the year.

Wow, I'm not going to make a long post any longer. Let me know if I missed anything.