Sunday, April 21, 2013

StarFest 2013

It's time for me to get my geek on!  Yes - I can be a total and complete geek.  There are so many ways to be a geek in this day and age.  The most typical kind of geek is a person who is absorbed and focused on video games and any kind of gaming technology.  Zack falls into this category.

Other geeky categories are those folks who just love computers and the ever growing integration of technology into day-to-day life.  There are cell phone geeks, tablet geeks, GPS geeks (I am one of those...).

But the oldest category of geek that has been around for the last 70 years or so, is the science fiction geek.  This weekend the geeks of the science fiction world had their Christmas as StarFest was held at the DTC Marriott in Greenwood Village.

StarFest is one of those science fiction conventions that bring together every type of media in which science fiction plays out - from books, to movies, to TV shows, to video games.  The hall mark of a convention like this is that people come dressed to the hilt in the costume of what ever character is their favorite.  You will see zombies, Star Wars Storm Troopers, characters from Pokemon, Harry Potter characters - any character that has anything to do with science fiction will be there.  Even the definition of science fiction for these conventions is pretty broad.  Harry Potter would not be one of those genre's that would normally be described as science fiction.  Regardless there were plenty of people dressed in Harry Potter costumes.

In addition to the common people dressing up in costumes, there are stars from various science fiction movies and TV shows and authors of sci fi books.  I can't say I had heard of many of them, but most of these stars and authors had their very dedicated group of fans/followers.  The only "star" I recognized was Melissa McBride who plays Carole on AMC's "Walking Dead".  

I had never heard of StarFest until I met Lisa.  For her and other members of her family this is a yearly tradition.  Lisa's attachment to StarFest is her love of any kind of movie or TV show that was directed by Joss Wheldon.  He is clearly one of the preeminent producers of science fiction TV and movies.  Some of his works are: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Firefly, Serenity, The Avengers - and the list goes on and on.

Having heard from Lisa and her family all the fun things that go on at StarFest, Zack and I just had to go this year.  We went on Saturday afternoon and were quickly caught up in all the activities.  As soon as we walked in the door, I was able to get this great picture of Zack with Chewbaaca from Stars Wars.  (I believe this was the original Chewbacca from Star Wars - no imitation!  And yes he is over 7 feet tall!)  In general the entire thing was amazing!





Zack and I spent about 2 1/2 hours hanging out there on Saturday afternoon and then Lisa and I went on Saturday night.  We went to see the costume contest and Dr. Horrible/Buffy the Vampire Slayer Shadow Casting.  (Shadow casting is kind of like karaoke for an entire episode of a TV show or movie.)

The best part of the evening was just hanging out and people watching.  We grabbed a couple of beers at the bar in the Marriott and just watched all the craziness.  And let me tell you - it was CRAZY!  I don't think we have ever laughed so hard watching all the insanity that was going on around us.  Some of the costumes that people were dressed in were remarkable.  And from a male standpoint...  let me tell you - there are a lot of sexy women characters in science fiction!!

I think next year we'll definitely be going back and part taking in more of the events.  It is some of the best people watching in the entire world.  If we make a day of it, I am sure I'll probably imbibe in a few alcoholic drinks as we watch all that takes place.  For a fun event - I really recommend going to StarFest. 

Hope everyone had a great weekend.  I know we definitely did! 

Need to catch up on writing some blogs about the hikes that we have been taking.  Over the last week we have spent a bunch of time hiking and "bagged" two peaks  - Evergreen Mountain and Green Mountain.

Thanks and peace to all! ~ J.  

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