You Don't Know Jack!

I recently was catching up with old con buddies from years well past and was pleasantly surprised with what friend and fanboy, The Great Luke Ski has been up to since I was last in contact.
Besides a new album, new dvd, and hitting high on Dr. Demento's Funny Five, he's gotten a great fan video made for his track "You Don't Know Jack."

Enjoy the video and be sure to check out LukeSki.com!

Steve Englehart is confirmed for SiliCon 2007!

Author Steve Englehart has confirmed for SiliCon 2007! Some of you eagle eyed fans may have noticed we had Steve Englehart down as one of last year's guests. Due to an unforeseen set of circumstances Steve had to pull out of last year's show. He assured us that it was unavoidable and he promised to make our next convention. Well Mr. Englehart is a man of his word and he is one of the first guests we have confirmed for 2007. For those true believers out there Steve Englehart is a well known name. After ground breaking runs on Captain America, The Avengers, and The Defenders for Marvel, Steve made his way over to DC and redefined how we all saw the Dark Knight. If it wasn't for the famous collaboration of Steve Englehart and Marshall Rogers (with a little Walt Simonson thrown in) we may never have seen a modern Batman movie! It is our pleasure to welcome Steve to the show, I'm sure he has plenty of stories about his past and present projects to keep everyone enthralled. Don't miss your chance to meet and talk to a true comic legend! Take a look at this recent interview with Steve over at Batman-on-Film about his involvement with the original Tim Burton Batman movie and his current work.

Jrock Connection Rocked!

We're back from a long weekend of music at the Jrock Connection. It was a total blast! I saw great bands, hung out with friends, and attended some cool events. Among the bands I saw, Mars is an American band unique with having two lead singers (one Japanese and one American) that sing in both English and Japanese. They put on a great show and really pumped up the audience. Art Beat was a rougher power trio that never seemed to be lacking in the energy department. They started their set at "11" and never came down from there! The headliners Karma Shenjing played twice (once Friday and Saturday) but had different sets. Always the visual performers Karma is a returning favorite for JRock Connection. The first night they even returned for an encore in spite of being short one guitar due to technical difficulties. Some on site wizardry brought the guitar back to life and they headlined the Saturday night show in full force. On top of putting on a great show they are honestly the nicest guys, truly happy to be performing and were really cool during the meet and greet, signing autographs and taking pictures with the fans. Its nice to see bands that realize their popular because of the fans act accordingly. I attended the Iron Cosplay and the Fashion show, both events were cool, but I really enjoyed the Fashion Show. The designers all had some interesting takes on Kei Fashion and showed some cool collections like one inspired by Alice in Wonderland by Lain! I saw reps from JTAF, Fanime, and Sac-Anime all out promoting their cons. It was cool to catch up with everyone and find out their plans for the upcoming shows. This next year is going to be insane with the number of cool conventions to go to! Thanks again to Yami and her incredible staff for a fun weekend and well run show!

Two Cons for the Holiday Weekend!

SiliCon is going to be out in force this holiday weekend for two great conventions. Some of the crew will be making the trek down to the Los Angeles Airport Marriot for the Sci-Fi convention LosCon with guests William Tenn and Bernie Wrightson. While the more unsavory rebel types among us will be enjoying the jams at J-Rock Connection located in the Santa Clara Marriot from Friday to Sunday. You can't go wrong this weekend, either you have two cool events to choose from OR you can just sit at home and eat until you explode while watching the parade on TV...I know where I'll be :-) Viva la Rock! I mean Banzai Ongaku!

J-Rock Connection & Edward Scissorhands the musical?

J-Rock Connection is only a week away. We will be there representing SiliCon 2007 and enjoying all the music. There should still be some tickets avaliable so check J-Rock's website and reserve yours today!

And now for the most awkward sigue way...we have some words about a completely different type of music event.

I went to see the Edward Scissorhands Musical at the Orpheum Theatre the other night. It was a press screening, but the house was still pretty full eager fans. Tim Burton's creations have had a built in goth fan base since "Beetlejuice". I didn't really know what to expect. When I first heard about this play I'll admit I didn't have high hopes for it, I anticipated some smarmy retelling of a decent black fairy tale film. When I found out it was entirely told through dance I was really looking forward to a horrid night of pseudo-ballet. Despite all my preconceptions I ended up enjoying the show. The sets really stood out first thing, being an homage to Burton's eclectic animated style, they were very functional and not too overpowering. Set Designer Lez Brotherston (who also did the costume design) made good use of a minimal amount of drops and static set pieces, and painted a very dream like picture of middle America and Edward's haunted home. The story is changed a bit from the movie, but not so much that you don't recognize it. The Director/Choreographer Matthew Bourne made it seem effortless to tell the story without words, there wasn't a time where I didn't "get" exactly what he was trying to communicate. The music is arranged by Terry Davies inspired by Danny Elfman's original score. The cast was energetic without any real stand outs, which I actually found refreshing, there didn't seem to be any greedy attention hounds trying to out do their fellow dancers. If you are a fan of Tim Burton and especially if you are a fan of Edward Scissorhands I suggest catching this show. If you have only a passing interest in theatre or are expecting a full scale Broadway production then take a pass. Edward Scissorhands runs from Nov. 11 through Dec. 10 at the Orpheum Theatre, 1192 Market St., San Francisco. $35-$90. (415) 512-7770

Fan Swap Meet at SiliCon 2007 & More!

Hello Everyone! We are busy working on creating some new events for SiliCon 2007 that we hope everyone to enjoy. Our goal is to make SiliCon a convention that will appeal to a wide variety of fans. As we firm up these new events we will be making regular announcements here in the blog and on the website. This next year SiliCon will be hosting our first ever Fan Swap Meet! We have set aside a special area just for attendees to get together so they can buy, sell, barter, trade, or auction off all sorts of personal treasures! The guidlelines for the Swap Meet are still being determined and will be posted online before the show, look for more info at www.siliconventions.com in the up coming months.
If that is not enough to excite you then I suggest going to see the new James Bond movie "Casino Royale". This is by far the best James Bond film to come out in recent years. A lot of that has to do with the fact it's the only Bond film based on an Ian Fleming novel released since the '80s (Octopussy & Never Say Never Again aka Thunderball were the last). This film brings Bond back to his roots and shows how he became 007. In any case this film rocks!

Sac-Con December 10th & Staff Request

We're headed up to Sacramento to attend the Sac-Con comic book convention on Sunday December 10th. This event happens four times a year and always promises to be a fun. There is a large dealers room, gaming tournaments all day, costume events, charity auction, art contest, and great guests including Denise Crosby and Tony Todd from Star Trek! The convention only costs $6.00 to get in and is located at The Scottish Rite Masonic Center at 6151 H Street, Sacramento right across from Sacramento State University. Check the website for more info and updates.

Do you have what it takes? SiliCon is looking for dedicated volunteers to fill some open slots on our staff roster. Take a peek at our website and see if there is anything you feel you would be a good fit for.

Carnival of Stars Nov. 11&12 Centennial Hall, Hayward

We'll be at Carnival of Stars the November 11 & 12 checking out the show and passing out flyers for SiliCon 2007. Our friends from Sac-Anime should be there also. Stop by and enjoy a full weekend of dancing, fantastic food, excellent shopping and other great events. See you there!

J-Rock Connection Nov. 24 - 26

I was just checking out the J-Rock Connection website in anticipation of the upcoming show (I've already bought my tickets, have you?) and they have announced 3 more bands! The line up is now Karma Shenjing, Serafilia, Hagakure, Mars, ArtBeat, lo:lita, and {mid:night}! That's a total of seven bands...wow I'm going to be exhausted by the time that weekend is over :-) I didn't make it to J-Rock last time and I'm really looking forward to a cool event this year.
On a completely different tangent I checked out the new X-Men III DVD finally. Even though I saw the movie a couple of times in the theatres I was admittedly a little disappointed in the film. I really just missed Byran Singer's touch on the story. I'm not saying I didn't like it, just not as much as I was hoping to. In any case I heard that some of the deleted scenes made a few things a little clearer and I will certainly have to agree. If you're like me and the film left you wanting a little more, give the DVD a shot, some scenes like the fight at Jean Grey's house and some of the alternate endings really make for a better film.