10.14
We’re taking a birthday break this week so we can move onto scarier fare.
With things getting cold out, then getting warm, then warm and muggy, then acting like it might get cold, but continuing to be warm and muggy, I’m sure we’re all in the mood for Halloween. You know… if the humidity gets high enough, you can pretend its spooky fog.
If you need a little more help getting into the Halloween spirit than a muggy Houston day may offer, look no further than the Crypticon Houston 2009 Horror Convention taking place October 16th through the 18th.
A number of horror stars and industry folk will be descending upon our city in order to prey upon those curious enough to attend the con. If you do plan to attend, please stay out of the basement, the attic, and any parts of the hall built on a desecrated Indian grave site. You’ll have to do your own record diving at City Hall if you want to determine the spectorally-speaking “safe” locations and to study possible defensive postures should the hall need to withstand an onslaught of zombies.
If all of that seems a little much, you can just relax and catch a movie at the con, however, entering a darkened room is probably on someone’s list of horror no-no’s.
The Houston House of Horror Movie Room will screen a number of movies and trailers during the weekend. Some titles that caught my attention were Spirit Camp, described as “Friday the 13th” meets “Bring it On”, and another flick titled the Quick and the Undead. Both of those are showing Friday night.
Poultrygeist is another fave, but you’ll have to wait until Saturday night for that one. Houston’s own Two Star Symphony will be performing and international favorites such as Adrienne Barbeau, Kristy Swanson, and Courtney Gains, the red headed actor behind Malachi of The Children of the Corn and the creepy pasty guy with red hair in the burbs. I’d like to point out that he’s totally passable for a coder in that movie. He also performed live on stage once with Phish. That can be scary, depending on how you feel about jam bands.
Moving right along… (Which is something Jam Bands have a hard time with…)
Jonathan Breck will also be on hand. Though he’s known for portraying the villaneos daemon The Creeper in the Jeepers Creepers films as well as several other horror offerings, he had a single appearance in a Star Trek: Voyager episode titled “Survial Instinct” in which he plays a dying Borg. If you catch him on a panel or in person at the con, be sure to ignore all of his horror credentials and ask him about that instead. I bet he really really loves that. A lot.
And while we may know what scares Jonathan Breck, you can attend Crypticon Houston to find out what it takes to make you shiver. Because it’s not going to be the weather.
Check out www.crypticonhouston.com for details and directions. You do have to pick up a ticket to attend the event. Since the door prices are a little scary, be sure to check out the website for online registration.
And while there is definitely a horror genre in anime, it’s safe to say that the majority of anime won’t make you scream and run for the door. And if that is your unintended reaction to anime, maybe you just haven’t found the right anime. You can remedy that in a few weeks at Oni-Con, Houston’s own Anime conference taking place Halloween weekend at Marriot Westchase on Briarpark Drive.
There’s a lot going on at this con, and I’ll be sure to cover that next week. In the mean time, hit www.oni-con.com for all your informational needs.
Our one non-con event of the week is The Linux Workshop at HAL-PC which happens every Wednesday night from
This is a group I was actively involved with for a couple of years before I started sitting in here. A number of seasoned Linux gurus are generally on hand to guide the new to Linux crowd to the open source light. If you need a little more Linux hand holding than we can give you on air, this is the group for you. You’re welcome to bring your Linux box or Linux box-to-be if you’ve hit any snags along your Linux journey.
Again, things run from six to eight every Wednesday at HAL-PC, so you’ll be in the car just in time for Technology Bytes next week if you want to swing by and see what these Linux people are up to. www.hal-pc.org
for details and directions to the HAL-PC Headquarters. Not to worry – Linux is not scary.
That’s it for your phantasmagoric four one one and that’s that for BarretTime.
