The Maltese Falcon in Calgary

Chrononauts assemble! As part of the Cineplex classic film series, The Maltese Falcon will be shown this November at the Scotiabank Theatre Chinook.

Those not familiar with the adventures of  Sam Spade can watch the trailer here:



I'm so in for this, anyone with me?

Showtimes for The Maltese Falcon

• Wednesday, November 17, 7:00pm
• Sunday, November 28, 1:00pm

I have posted the rest of the film series here to pique your interests, while the complete showtimes & schedule can be found on the Classic Film Series website.

December: "It's a Wonderful Life"
January: "A Star Is Born" (1954)
February: "Doctor Zhivago"
March: "The Wizard Of Oz"
April: "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest"
May: "The Sound of Music"
June: "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid"
July: "Spartacus"
August: "M*A*S*H"

Vintage Dungeons and Dragons Experiment

I have never played Dungeons and Dragons. That is a bit of a shameful confession in the geek community. I'm not totally unfamiliar with RPGs, as I have played some of the Palladium titles, like "Robotech" and "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles". Also, I've played enough computer RPGs based on D&D to know the basic tropes. However, I've never been on a dungeon crawl armed only with a pencil, character sheet, a bag of dice and an imagination.

This is not a completely unheard of situation among my friends. Some of us wanted to play in our youth, but had no one to play with, or our parents outright disallowed it. Realizing a group of my friends were all are missing a core geek merit badge I thought a little project is called for.

I propose to my local friends that we acquire some vintage monster manuals and player handbooks, and start up a game of novices. Let us roll up some characters using the game rules we would have been playing with, had we all met as teens. We could either play it in self-imposed isolation, to simulate the pre-internet world we would have been playing in, or we can play it with a wry 21st century, Web 2.0 mind, blogging and twittering our experience.

I think it may be 3D6 of fun to play with other n00bs, and collectively decode a known obsolete and challenging rule system. This would be a Fall/Winter thing, so we have some time to think about it, pick a common release edition and get some books & dice. Who's with me?

Pegwarmers: Fandom documentary screening

Pegwarmers is a feature length documentary about science fiction and fantasy fandom, which "looks to uncover the veil of mystery and examine the stigma that surrounds this often misunderstood subculture." Filmed in 2005, Jason Hoehn interviewed a varied group of Star Wars, Star Trek, D&D, Comic and SCA fans to find out who we were, and why we do the things we do. After years of production, the film was screened at the Calgary film festival in 2007, and is now available on DVD.

I was lucky enough to be included in this film, espousing my thoughts on Star Wars fandom, so I'm a little biased, but I think the film is a fair look at the community.

Pegwarmers will be screened as part of the Alberta Premiere of 'Fanboys' at Calgary's Plaza Theatre, May 17th, Tickets are just $10.00 for both movies.



Time: Sunday, May 17, 2009 at 8:30pm
Location: The Plaza Theatre
Street: 1133 Kensington Rd NW

Steampunk in Calgary: Postponed!

It has come to my attention that Saturday, October 11th is the Calgary Zombie walk. I think the previously scheduled Anachronaut gathering can be postponed for another time. After all, another time is what we are all about.

Image by Mr. Sable.

International Talk like a Pirate Day: Calgary

Avast! Yar! Plunder!

Friday September 19th is Talk like a Pirate day Many local privateers will be gathering at the Atlantic Trap and Gill in Calgary that evening.

Tell them Dr. Haggis sent you. It won't get you anything, but you should still say it.

Previously:

• Talk like a pirate 2006

Calgary Steampunk Gathering: Anachronauts Assemble!

I am planning a Steampunk gathering at Heritage Park in Calgary for Saturday, October 11th. Heritage Park is a 1880-1910 reenactment settlement, so it is the perfect setting for our well mannered and anachronistic hyjinks.

The idea is to have lunch at the Wainwright Hotel, ride the steam train, enjoy the free amusements, and have lots of pictures taken in our steampunk finery.

I'm looking for all Calgary area steampunks, neo-victorians, pulp adventurers and keen photographers to attend. Costumes are not required as it should be a fun day out for all. This is Thanksgiving weekend, which will have a strong effect either way on attendance, though I hope works to our benefit. If you are interested in this event, either post here or email me direct.

Keep it brassy!

Inside Jokes Status Report

Here is the current status of some inside jokes that Slashboing has been monitoring:

Beans: Obviously.
Hippo: Maybe.
Waffles: N'pas.

More on these as they develop.

That is all.

I'm surprised no one has tried carrier pigeon

Here are all the ways in which I have been contacted in the last week:

Called at home
Called on cell
Called at work
Knock on the door
Note in my mailbox
Emailed at home
Emailed at work
Comment on my Blog
Comment on my Livejournal Feed
Comment on my Flickr account
Private message on Flickr
Post on CSFFS forum
Private message on CSFFS forum
Post on Fanforce forum
Private message on Fanforce forum
Post-it under the windshield of my car

If sometimes one of your messages get lost in the shuffle, or I don't reply to you in a timely fashion, I apologize.

Inside Jokes for the Folks

As I recently discovered, my circle of friends use each others blog as more than just a nice diversion, as a but as a true source of daily information.

So here is a collection of inside jokes, aimed directly at my close friends.

• fanboy basic movements number 1
• don't eat found meat
• clam jerkey shouldn't expire
  
• who hasn't been painted blue yet?
• you have quite the induced wembly
• programmable shirts & e-toast
• "The Big Suck"
  

Thank you for your time.

Technorati Tags:
Inside Jokes, nablopomo

The Zombie Apocalypse has an upside

The successful Second Annual Calgary Zombie Walk lurched forward this Saturday, moaning and dragging its limp limbs.

Others are more succinct than I, so here is a small collection of reviews from the event:

• Mfiles (Starbucks Zombie)
• Archeron (caddy/golfer)
• 7 Deadly Sinners
• "Janet Weiss" RHPS
• A SAIT of Affairs /w tonnes of pics
  

Here is the master Flickr Group Pool with lots o' pictures from the event: http://www.flickr.com/groups/calgaryzombiewalk

Technorati Tags:
Calgaryzombiewalk2006, Zombie Walk, Calgary, Zombies, Brains?

Zombie Love

Here are some details for the 2nd Annual Calgary Zombie Walk which takes place on Saturday, October 14th.

It starts at 3pm from Olympic Plaza and/or 4pm from the park at 17th Ave and 8th St.

The walk will start in two stages, as follows:

1. All "super zombies" are invited to gather at Olympic Plaza no later than 3pm. From Olympic Plaza the horde will head down Stephen Avenue to 4th Street SW, then head south to 17th Ave. Shambling westward form that point, the next stop is the park at 17th Ave & 8th St, where we will meet:
2. The lazy zombies. A second group of zombies will gather at the above mentioned park at or around 4pm.
   

Finally some links to get you in the zombie spirit.

• Look like a Zombie: A great guide on Wiki How
• Sing like a Zombie: Jonathon Coulton's "RE: Your Brains"
• Know what to look for: The Zombie Walk Pool on Flickr.

Photo Credit: Mark Webster on Flickr via the Blogthis! feature.

Technorati Tags:
Zombie Walk, Calgary events, Zombie, Halloween, Jonathan Coulton

Calgary Browncoat Shindig: September 30th

To alert all Firefly/Serenity fans in Calgary looking for a Browncoat community, I bounce this wave from the Canadian Browncoat Yahoo Group.

-Transmission is as follows:

We will be meeting at Tony Roma's on Sept 30 at 18:45 hrs (6:45 pm )

6712 Macleod Trail Se (Map of Location)
Calgary, AB

We have the party room starting at 6:45 pm

I think this is going to be a good evening and I am looking forward to meeting my fellow Calgary Browncoats

-End Transmission

Can't Stop the Signal

Technorati Tags:
Browncoat, Shindig, Done the Impossible, Firefly, Serenity

DragonCon 2006: Last Day Monday

Monday is a little more sedate at DragonCon. Even though programming runs until 5:00, many people spend the morning checking out of the hotel to save on an extra night.

We spent the previous night shaking our groove things at the Drum Circle after the Yule Ball so we slept in a little. The drum circle made veritate and Lexial want to take up bellydancing again, and made defender75 and I want to hit the Gym. We are coming back to D*Con as bronzed gods.

I honestly don't remember much of Monday. I don't think I wore a costume beyond my geek patch shirt. I had a nice little lunch then off to some panels.

First up was "Unsolved Codes" hosted by Elonka Dunin, a noted cryptographer. First she debunked the Da Vinci Code as the load fiction that it is. Then she gave a brief review of her work with Kryptos, the Code challenge sculpture on the CIA grounds. She is the leading expert on Kryptos and is very passionate about the work, the artist and its eventual solution.

She also reviewed some of the world's famous unsolved codes, including the Voynich Manuscript. I was a little disappointed to find out that she thinks the work is a hoax, as it has intrigued me for several years. I will save a detailed explanation of the Voynich Manuscript for another post, but I will include a sample page to show why it is so compelling.

The next panel up was "The Wikipedia Effect" which I was quite excited for as I am a strong supporter of Wikipedia, but the presentation was directed towards convincing neophytes of the value of the project, and not to long time contributors. I left this panel early.

• Panel Count Monday: Two
• Total Panel Count: Seven, a record?

We hit the dealers room for some last minute deals as things were shutting down. I wore my "Down with Pants, Up with Kilts" shirt and got a few compliments on it. Mark Goddard (Major Don West from Lost in Space) told me it was a good shirt, and asked about all the Kilts worn at the convention. "Is there a show on now where some guy wears a kilt?" He asked, thinking the Utilikit was an homage. I informed him that, "No, the are just fun to wear."

And then the event was done. Not with a bang but with a *sigh, that was fun lets do it all again soon*.

Our whole squad got together for the first time Monday in preparation for dinner. Individual schedules kept us in smaller "fireteams" through the weekend so it was nice to see everyone all at once.

(missing from this picture is iRob/iJenn as they had to leave early for home)

We all want to go back again sometime, though for me it may be an every-other-year thing to save money. I will eventually post some conclusions I came to during my trip, but that will have to wait.

Yours in Fandom
Drhaggis.

Technorati Tags:
Dragoncon 2006, Elonka Dunin, Kryptos, Convention report, Fandom

Talk Like A Pirate

In honour of "International Talk like a Pirate day" on September 19th, all pirates and wenches in Calgary are invited to gather at 7:00 at the following tavern:

Atlantic Trap & Gill Pub
3828 Macleod Trail S

Pirate dress, attire, and attitude is strongly encouraged.

Until then, keep to the code.

Technorati Tags:
Talk like a pirate, dress like a pirate, be a pirate, Pirate, Pyrate, Wenching, talk like a pirate day, arrrrrr