Welcome back! I hope you guys had a great Thanksgiving without too many headaches from Black Friday. Instead of shopping, my sister and I attended LosCon at the LAX Marriott. It's an annual science fiction convention in Los Angeles. Neither one of us attended before, so I thought it would be worth a shot. Unfortunately, it's a really small event. There was a small number of vendors and we didn't see a lot of cosplayers either. However, it had some lovely artwork and several panels. Photography wasn't allowed regarding the artwork, but we saw quite a few paintings, sketches, and crafts. Star Wars was a popular theme with some of the artwork. I also noticed some steampunk and dieselpunk themes too. Our day actually started with an awesome breakfast buffet at the hotel. It included fruit, hot and cold cereal, bacon, sausage, biscuits and gravy, scrambled eggs, lox and other cold meats, hard boiled eggs, a big variety of pastries, yogurt, an omelette station, etc. $18 for a huge variety of quality food. I highly recommend the buffet if you're staying at the Marriott near LAX. I'm going to include some photos. Usually, I have a much bigger photo gallery. But this should give you a decent idea. I thought Pendragon Costumes had the best selection of clothing. They specialize in Renaissance Faire clothing and custom leather attire. You can find out more about their merchandise at www.pendragoncostumes.com. I encountered a familiar vendor from previous events. Gears and Roebuck's Rusty Junk Emporium had a lot of steampunk merchandise. I really like her work and the prices are pretty reasonable. If I'm going to buy a steampunk Nerf gun some day, it will probably be from this vendor. I believe Gears and Roebuck is from the Norco area, but she sells merchandise at events throughout Southern California. Contact the vendor through Facebook if you want to commission her for a project. https://www.facebook.com/GearsAndRoebuck/ Cargo Cult Books & Notions is an independent book seller in the Berkeley area. They had a lot of neat sci-fi and fantasy titles. My sister bought a book called Sherlock Holmes vs. Cthulhu. I'm sure it's a fun parody and adventure story. Take a look through my photos to see if any publications spark your fancy. Maybe I'll try The Massacre of Mankind by Stephen Baxter. It's supposed to be a follow up to War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells. You can also visit Cargo Cult's Facebook page. I ran into a couple of my steampunk acquaintances from San Diego. Cerulean St. Amor and Doc Synchronous were at LosCon to market the Gaslight Gathering. It's an annual steampunk festival and I believe the next dates are April 6-8 of 2018. The convention is going to have a carnival theme with family entertainment during the day and spooky stuff at night. It should have plenty of steampunk vendors, panels, a costume contest, etc. I'm pretty sure attendees will also have a chance to explore a fallen airship too. Details are available at www.gaslightgathering.org and Facebook. My sister and I attended a panel that covered 19th century science fiction. It was a little different than I anticipated. The panelists discussed several authors who were less well known than H.G. Wells and Jules Verne. They talked about several female authors and obscure titles from some of the more popular novelists. An interesting idea was discussed. Why does pop culture and the scholarly world focus on authors like Wells and Verne? There was a great variety of quality literature in the 19th century and much of it disappeared into obscurity. Why did it happen? Truthfully, we don't know the answers. People have a lot of theories, but I guess it goes to show an author needs luck, connections, and a strong fan base. Today, we know the majority of modern authors will never achieve their big break. It wasn't any different for authors during the 19th century. The literary world is incredibly competitive.
I want to bring up something else. The parking isn't very good at the LAX Marriott. There isn't enough self parking, leaving valet parking as the only option for many people. It's expensive and some of the parking staff are really rude. Keep that in mind if you're planning to stay at the LAX Marriott or attending a convention at the facility. That's all for now. LosCon was a much smaller event than my usual excursions. Not sure if I want to attend again. The parking situation doesn't make me feel enthusiastic to come back. However, the food is pretty good. It also had decent steampunk representation and quite a few panels. I'll decide further down the road. Leave a comment if you want to say anything about this post. We're almost done with 2017 and I'm going to write plenty more topics in 2018. Good luck with the holidays and I'll see you guys next week.
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