Pictures from Horror Con

^ "Dirty Mouth? Clean it up with Orbit!" ^

^ Me and my friend meeting Derek Mears at the Convention. ^

^ Zombie Friend at the convention. ^

 ^The fury of the zombies is not to be underestimated. ^

^ That makeup took 2 hours, and it was worth it. ^

^ Nom time for zombies. ^

Another Convention? Yep.

This weekend was a busy week, so I give you what I did on Saturday. As you’ve probably deduced, I live in the Sacramento area where there seems to be many small conventions. I attended the Sacramento Horror/Sci-Fi Convention for the first time yesterday… It was worth a short review.

The Sac Horror/Sci-Fi show is small. It’s smaller than SacAnime and I’ll say confidently that the crowd size was laughable; this isn’t necessarily a bad thing, however, it offered a homey atmosphere and made it possible to meet people and keep in touch with them throughout the convention. It also offered more space to move around without having to worry about trampling on another person.  I would consider that a huge plus. The seating is limited, the panel room and film room are the best places to find a seat that isn’t on the floor.  All-in-all, the actual space and comfort of the event was excellent.

The attendees and con-goers were not bad people, most of them were (obviously) nerdy as all hell and that was awesome. There were all sorts of Star Wars shirts along with Star Trek and about a million shirts based on cheap horror movies. The costumed group was limited and many of them were just teenagers slathering on cheap makeup and slashing their shirts to look like zombies. There were a few costumes that had more to offer but it was fairly limited in that aspect.  The crowd was friendly and open to people who DID dress up, so it was fine experience.

The “special guests” were excellent and I must say they did an fine job in finding some good people to come. They had Billy Dee Williams (Lando Calrissian), Derek Mears (Jason and Predator), C. Andrew Nelson (Darth Vader), Ed Gale (Chucky) and a few others I personally didn’t recognize but were non-the-less important to others. The lines were fairly short and the guests very civil, I actually had a fairly lively conversation with Derek Mears.

The movie selection in the movie room was awful. I really must say that what I did see was not very good. There were two decent shorts but then things became strange when one of those movies started turning into some strange sort of pornography that centered on masochism and many strange fetishes. I took my leave then, a little sad since it took a fair amount of work to get into the room (nobody under 18 may enter without an adult guardian) but feeling like it was fairly ridiculous. If I wanted some hardcore, fetish pornography I’m sure I could find better things on the internet. I would say that the films were overall awful, unless you like that sort of thing… fake blood and bad acting.

The final event of the day was my favorite. It was the Zombie Ball. The ball was just a few bands playing for us to all enjoy. The first band lacked a vocalist and played strange music that felt a little too upbeat and cheery. The second group was good, but all fairly young. The third group was awesome, they were a sort of metal with very gothic lyrics; we had a lot of fun jumping, head banging and even moshing a little, as small as the crowd was we found a way to pull it off…. There was a short contest for the “best zombie costume” and then the night ended around at least 

I would say the con is worthy of 3/5 stars. I won’t go into details about what I did but I can post a few pictures later, and you’re always welcome to ask… That’s the Sacramento Horror/Sci-Fi Con in a nutshell, and a nice story about a Saturday night.

SacAnime

So, this is a little break from my usual D&D posts. I wanted to talk about what I did on the 3rd of September that made me miss my Friday game that week. It's also my first post about a convention, I'll be doing a few of these just to give my personal input on things.

So, Sacramento (which is nearby my home) is home to something called SacAnime. It's name is undoubtedly hilarious, and the security is laughable at best... but I have fun. The event usually runs for the first Friday, Saturday and Sunday of September and is not worth the 35 dollars you pay at the door, but the ten dollars is costs with pre-registration is fine. There are professional and amateur cosplayers alike and to be honest, the company isn't half bad. I've never had the pleasure of going to a large convention and I've heard that SacAnime is small and sort of pathetic compared to the big ones like Fanime, but it's all a matter of opinion.The con is held at the Radisson hotel and the layout isn't the greatest but it's improved over the last two years. A good portion is inside and this is great when it comes to the California heat or the winter rains. There are comfy chairs in the lobby and readily available food suppliers.

Friday is a day that really isn't that exciting unless you're wanting to get a jump on the vendor's room. I haven't had a chance to go to the entire day of Friday but it's not their biggest day I can assure you. There is usually some live music, and some games played amongst the attendees. The pre-reg line is longest on this day. It's a good day to go to if you're looking for some prime shopping and a day to get a feel for how things are going to play out for the weekend.

Saturday is my favorite day to go because even from the morning there is a lively crowd and plenty of people. The people who come are awesome, fun and social. You only get a few weirdos and nothing too bad in the way of bad cosplays. You get there early and get in line to get your ticket, the line is longer but it's tolerable with some company. Once you're in the shopping is still pretty good and the vendor's room is packed, but morning is the best time to go shopping because your chances of losing the good items is low still. The day is easily lost while watching anime, spending time with the other attendees and browsing the artist alley. There are the occasional panel through the day and as evening draws near the live music starts and the other things begin to shut down. The rave starts at 10 and while they advertise as family friendly it's really not that bad. The line for that is long and once you're in you won't want to be leaving unless you plan on getting stuck in line again. This is when the furries and the best of the freaks come out to play. It's my favorite event.

Sunday is more-or-less a waste of time. It's a few lazy games, the AMV and Music Video contest, and sales on what's left in the vending room. I wouldn't go unless you really like the atmosphere and have something to do with yourself.

All in all the convention is a good one, simple and small as it may be... I hope to start attending some larger conventions and get a little variety but the area I am in is limited and my cash is also limited, ahahah! If you're ever in the Sacramento area, be sure to hit it up and maybe we'll cross paths!

My overall rating: 3/5