The Smoky Mountain Geek Expo 2022 and the Twenty Year Reunion

 Hello Friends, 

Today we continue our look at events past that I really should have posted months ago. In this post we are going to discuss the Smoky Mountain Geek Expo. It was the first year of Waynesville, North Carolina's first convention. To actually have a convention in my neck of the woods is amazing. I was excited that I didn't have to get up so early to get somewhere to find parking.

 

The costumes: 

I was the 11th Doctor... Again. I had plans to unveil my new costume, but complications kept me from getting it done, so I went with my standby.

Fangirl was Willow from The Owl House. It was fun seeing this costume come together over time. There's even a little bottle of Etta's Elixir on her belt.

 

The Convention:

It was a small convention, but not a bad showing with over 1,150 guests according to their Facebook Page.

It was good seeing vendors that I was familiar with from other conventions. I felt like I was getting really familiar with the regional Geek Vendor Community more that I had before, I think it's because I attended multiple Geekish events this year instead of just one. 

We saw our friends from Morgan's Comics. I know I talk about these guys often here, but they are our most local store and the Asheville comic shop we most frequent. So if your in West Asheville check them out!

There was a lot of cool signs at this thing some offering protection in these uncertain times:

Others were a beautiful pen rhyme basically telling "you break it you bought it":

The Nerdy Old Men Podcast were recording there that day. They were kind enough to let me get a picture of them while they were getting things ready, so go check them out!

We saw some good costumes the was a person dressed as Edric Blight from The Owl House. They shared some of their Moo-chi with us:

 

We saw this Hagrid which left me a little sad, due to the fact Robbie Coltrane had passed recently.

It's Marvel's Biggest Fans

 

I think this angel has been following me. I saw him at the WNC Comic Con now here, I think it's the sam vendor. I think in addition to Thursdays he should be the Angel of Conventions, well one of them at least.

We were only there a couple hours, but we had a lot of fun:

Still won't work on wood!!!!

After the con we stopped for some Burger King and went to Fangirl's house where we chowed down while watching Warehouse 13. I also finally got to meet her dog Kiki, named for Kiki's Delivery Service. 

The Barely Domesticated Kiki lounging in her natural habitat.

After a respite it was off to our second event our 20 Year Class Reunion:

It was great seeing old friends it was especially great to see the Captain in person after three years due to Covid. I was so happy to see her.

All Hail the Captain!

It was a fun night I got to see a lot of friends I haven't seen in person for years, my voice was horse for talking over the DJ's music, but it was fun. The night ended with us taking Fangirl to her car she parked a little ways away. I gave her her gifts I've had over the last few years for her, including this Holiday. I also got to properly meet her driving buddy Jack:

Don't you just love my friends? We are fun people what can I say. We said our goodbyes then headed for home. I was pooped afterwards understandably. 

Well I hope the rest of your weekend is good, God bless, and wave to the skeletons in passenger seats, it's only polite.

*Thrifty Geek*

WNC Comic Con 2022

 Hello Friends,

 

This past Saturday Fangirl and I went to WNC Comic Con in Fletcher, NC. This is our first year at this particular con. The Asheville Anime Regional Convention has yet to start up again, and I didn't want to go a third year without a con, so I suggested this one. There was a bit of a line to get in, but it was worth the wait cause this cute little R2 unit was roaming the floors making happy little chirping sounds:

 

There was also a Punisher themed van there:

 

Vendors

 

There were lots of great vendors with so many things I wanted to buy! One such stop was the Pop Up Wand Shop that had these gorgeous homemade wands, some had roses on the handle end. They were beautiful. Sadly I did not get a card or website information to be able to find them should I ever have extra cash to buy one of those rose wands. If I often find myself unable to purchase from vendors I take a card should I ever be able to purchase from them later on.

 

 Roxy Taylor from Auntie M's Novelties has beautiful homemade , sealed, shimmery bottles that are fandom themed. I was looking at this Ghostbuster one she had with Slimer green liquid inside. I wanted it so bad, oh if money were no object. 

I fear what would happen if we put these guys in a room together.

 

The Wishing Well had Legend of Zelda Ocarinas for sale. I've been wanting one since I saw them advertised in a Nintendo Power magazine. 

One of my favorite jewelry shops was Elder Nerd Designs she does chain mail jewelry and some look like dragon scales. She had some with the Supernatural anti-possession symbol. I also loved her Mermaid Lantern items.

Morgan's Comics Table. Sorry it's slightly blurry.

My peeps from Morgan's Comic were representing that day. They had a video game demo set up too on one end.

Artists and Authors

As with many conventions there were some great artists and authors. Dan Jaworsky had a style I liked with his imaginings of nerdy things, I also noticed the artist Adam Casey from Winston-Salem among the artists. I found Rick Lonon's I wanna say stempling art amazing, though I got the term wrong when I did complement him. Sorry! 

I talked writing and bookmarks with New York Times Best Selling Author F.T. Lukens. Her works seem interesting, I may have to look into them. She's also from right here in North Carolina.

Costumes

What's a con without costumes. Captain America and the Scarlet Witch lent their talents to the judging table:

The esteemed judges, again sorry for the blur.

 

I once more became the 11th Doctor.  I ened up kicking back with my fellow aliens:

I also kicked back with myself, hope we don't cause a paradox.

Lovely Geeky Items That Are Mine Now

So you've heard me lament about what I couldn't afford to get, bet your wondering what did you get? Well I had like twelve dollars so I had to spend wise and everything I bought fit in this tiny bag:

 

But good things come in small packages:

Save for gift items and a donation I made to the Klingon Assault Group this is my haul. Back left to right: a Castiel sticker, a Cyan Among Us sticker because that's the color I usually play in the game, a Link sticker, a Supernatural pin because I'm making up for lack of SPN stuff in my life.  I also always buy a pin from every con I've been to.  Front row is a glow in the dark cat and some dice I purchased from The Deck Box. I know what your thinking a lot of little stuff, what can I say it's the little things that make you happy. 

After Party

Not really that much of a party we just went to Cracker Barrel for a later lunch. I spent way too much time enjoying the moving lit glitter globes.  I partook of my usual meal grilled chicken tenders and two sides of mac and cheese, I'm picky with some restaurant sides. I only like them prepared a certain way, and most places make them the way I don't, Mac and Cheese is one of the few sides that people don't screw up much. 

 

It was a fun con, I loved meeting everybody. Fangirl is actually thinking of adding that to our yearly cons. So that's going to be fun and I was so excited to learn my county is getting it's own con! Sadly it's same day this year as the Pumpkin Festival, and if it keeps falling on the Pumpkin Festival we may switch to this geeky event. We'll see. 

 

I hope you guys have a good week, geek on, and God Bless.

*Thrifty Geek*

AARC 2018

 

Happy Friday My Friends,

Ok this post is coming out later than I planned for the pure reason I accidentally left my camera in Fangirl's car and didn't see her again for a week or so. But I am now ready to tell ya about the Asheville Anime Regional Convention (AARC). This year it was up to a two day con, Fangirl and I only attended Saturday July the 28th. We headed out early to get good parking and make our reservation. Fun Fact the building this con is held in was where I attended my first concert and met my first celebrity, Bryan White.

We took a spin around Artist Alley. I purchased my con pin for this year, I went with a Tardis, I know I'm predictable. We also ran into an author friend of ours, Amanda Churi, that we met three years ago at our final GeekOut! Last year at ARRC I purchased book one of her Trilogy The Twisted Trilogy : A Lapse in Time. This year I bought book two: The Dark Materials. She was happy to learn I had actually read the first one. Her fiance Kevin was there again this year, dressed as the character I'm pretty sure he inspired.

We headed to the Dealer's floor where we did a quick preliminary walk through before heading to make our reservation.

Here's where the nerds are at

Fangirl had discovered there was going to be a Marshmallow Rainbows Maid Cafe at the con this year and really wanted to have our lunch there. Once the schedule came out she made our reservations. As we stood waiting for the Cafe to open we watched a maid yelling at the con floor below trying to get more customers, Fangirl warned her to be careful or they'd all see up her dress, the maid looked at her and said she was a burlesque dancer so it wasn't nothing knew. I'm sure in my head at that point I was like Jim Carrey going "Alrighty then."

Bubbles mark the entrance to the maids lair

The maids soon let us into the cafe, where a DJ was busting out possibly J-Pop tunes.  We were joined by a dude named TJ, who we'd befriended as we waited in line, and learned was a vet, thanks for your service.

Fangirl and our Lunch Mate TJ

At each space we found with the menu gifts of paper flowers with chocolate in them, and a vial of bubbles.

The Master's Banquet and a couple gifts

Yes at bubbles we all became kids again. We were also given a sticker with a drawing of our maid, and a bracelet. I was given a blue and green bead one cause it matched my pineapple shirt. We ordered the Master's Banquet from the menu which was the whole meal they offered Sandwich, Chips, and a dessert. We also purchased the Special Gift, which was a picture with your waitress. Our section was taken care of by Maid Sniikersnee, the pink maid who is the Yandere type according to her pic on Facebook. She was fraking awesome, actually they all were. On the tiny pic they give you when you took a pic with your table's maid she wrote her name and drew some hearts in what else pink.

After the meal they broke out board games where our Table played Candyland the My Little Pony edition. Sniikersnee was Twilight Sparkle, I was Fluttershy, Fangirl was Rainbow Dash, our Vet friend choose Pinkie Pie, whose piece had gone on a trip so Sniikersnee substituted with one of her pins, a cleaver with cake on it. I never made it to the end... I'd get close then the cards would be against me. *pouts* To finish our hour the DJ spun a tune as the maids lip synched and performed a dance.

We then took a longer stroll around the Dealer's floor where of course we noticed the larger selection of Anime inspired cars this year:

There we some amazing costumes:

Nicholas D. Wolfwood from Trigun and a genderbent Harley Quinn (Thanks Fangirl)

I think both of these are from Kiki's Delivery Service, I know the Kiki is. (Photo courtesy of Fangirl)

This is the most funny costume I saw, I can't help when I see this to recall that Classic Foamy the Squirrel episode Rules For the Masses (warning not suitable for younger/sensitive audiences) where Foamy suggests you be sure to shower while at the con.


We settled in at the stage for the Cosplay Lip Synch Battle. There was some amazing peeps I have to admit. The one I really remember was a Poison Ivy Neegan, basically cause of the costume with it's green lights. There was even a Dipper from Gravity Falls competing which I thought was cool seeing a  costume from the show.

Chilling in the crowd during the Lip Synch Battle

The battle is under way

We stopped at a couple of the featured guests' booths, the one I was most  thrilled to meet was Johnny Young Bosch, who currently does a lot of voice acting, but when I was growing up I knew him as Adam the Black Power Ranger. I'm happy to add his sig to my collection John Hancocks.

Fangirl's Cabbit hanging out at Artist's Alley still donning Fangirl's Jane Hat and now her Maid's gift bracelet.

We went back for another round at Artist Alley and visited with Amanda one last time, before bidding the con adieu. We were pooped. I think we may have had enough energy and money to partake of the Chinese food.

This Geek was pooped after this con, and dang look at that crazy hair!

If you want to see others' experience at AARC I suggest Brotalku's post, I think they show some of the Lip Synch Battle in it and you get a brief glimpse of Fangirl in the crowd, look for the purple. Also check out League of Extraordinary Appalachians' post, I think they have a couple for this con, they cover the costume contest a couple of them were in.

After the con I was inspired to write a poem about my experience at AARC that I hope to add to a poetry collection I'm working on that focuses mainly on Geeks and Dreamers. This is just the I think  2nd draft I look for it to be edited further at some point:

When the Anime Buffs Gather

A stroll through artist alley
Fills the eye with pretty trinkets
A meeting with that indie author
Named for a passed family dog
Another book sold
Another book read
Another step for a dream come true

With a military vet
You pass through a doorway
Into a cheery world of color and techno music
Ruled by rainbow hued maids
Where gifts of bubbles makes kids out of adults
And a game takes you back to that one 7th grade social studies class

With a meal and a dance
 The rainbow ladies send you back into the crowd
Populated with souls wielding giant hammers and huge furry heads
A nerd Mom nurses her babe
Already bringing it up in the geeky ways
Smart Momma
On stage characters are locked in a lip synch battle
Poison Neegan illuminates green and wields a mean bat
While a Haunted Hill Nurse Harlequin does a split

A hero of your past emerges
Taking a moment to sign your meager offering
Thank you for your time
Thank you for your work

Surrounded by downtown traffic
A couple begins their lives together
As the people pour out of an ornate church
Into the rays of the afternoon sun
Geez how many people can be in one bridal party?

I hope your Weekend is awesome and if you want to see epicness totally check out The Hillywood Show's® Supernatural Parody 2. As always may God bless you guys!

Ninja <[0000]---------------[0000]> Writer