On Friday afternoon in Hyatt International South, Jason Hughes and his martial arts students, Mari Baker, Tammy Cleaveland, and Don Roberts, presented the history and techniques of Jodo, a stickfighting discipline. Jodo differs from quarterstaff or bo staff fighting in that the stick is shorter than a conventional staff. Jo Jutsu is the art of the staff, the first weapon… Read more →
Riley Blanton welcomed Peggy Eisenhower, Christy Morris, Michael Morris, and Bryan Young to the Marriott (A601-602) for a discussion of the soon to launch live-action series The Mandalorian, which will be part of the Disney+ streaming service. The series, created by Jon Favreau, will be set after the fall of the galactic empire and before the rise of the First… Read more →
A standing room only crowd poured into the High Fantasy track room in the Marriott (L401-403) to hear the latest on the highly anticipated and much talked about Lord of the Rings television series coming to Amazon Prime. Kirsten Z. Cairns (Greendragon) of The One Ring.net (TORN), Rebecca Perry, Constance Wagner, and Jim Wert took the crowd through a brief… Read more →
Saturday at 10AM the annual Dragon Con parade kicked off. People lined the streets for hours beforehand to get good seats for the event everyone looks forward to each year. Attendees had a beautiful day to admire the amazing costumes that marched down the street for well over an hour. The parade featured special guests including Grand Marshal Mark Sheppard,… Read more →
The High Fantasy track welcomed a full house of members Friday evening to Marriot L401-403, to spend an hour exploring the relationship between the works of John Milton and J.R. R. Tolkien. Jim Wert and Constance G.J. Wagner worked through the similarities between Milton’s Paradise Lost and Tolkien’s Silmarillion with a particular emphasis on the comparison between Satan and Melkor…. Read more →
The Marriott Imperial Ballroom faded slowly into darkness Saturday afternoon as screens flanking either side of the stage lit up with color and sound for a good old-fashioned trailer. Not for a feature film, but a ten-episode TV series that had been released the day before on Netflix—The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance. The trailer was truly spectacular, showing glimpses… Read more →
Music is an industry requiring high levels of commitment and perseverance to achieve success. But as many musicians under a time crunch may have wondered, is it possible to complete this process in one day? Yes! Twice, actually. This was demonstrated during Instafilk 2019, an event where panelists and the audience work together to create and record a filk piece… Read more →
On Friday at 1PM in Hyatt International South, the Palmetto Knights busted a number of myths about medieval warfare. Laurence Lagnese moderated the program. Participants were Brant Hale, Chris Walters, Josh Waters, Kirk Curtis, and Jeff Bowers. The audience tremendously enjoyed the demonstration portions of the panel, which involved various grades of steel available in the medieval period. The group… Read more →
