MidSouthCon 31 is underway here in Memphis, Tennessee, and your roving reporter is right in the middle of it.
This year's Con is hosting the biggest crowd I remember seeing. The guest list is pretty impressive this year, and I'm sure that's a big part of the draw.
After arriving at the Con, getting checked in, and finding the nearest bar, I began my series of in-depth interviews with Con attendees. Being a bold soul, I simply turned to the first pretty woman I saw and asked for an interview. She not only agreed, but later accompanied me to my hotel room. Her picture and interview is below:
One of the great things about any Con is the Dealer Room. There you can find just about anything -- SF and fantasy prop art, books, comics, and of course art.
We picked up an piece of original art by Levi White. Levi uses spray paint to create some really stunning and unusual pieces, such as ours, shown below:
In keeping with my newfound habit of sticking a Zoom H1 microphone in the faces of strangers, I begged Levi for an interview, and you can listen to it by clicking the link:
Levi can (and should) be reached via email at artbylevi@hotmail.com. He does everything from superheroes to Star Trek to Dr. Who, and his prices are so affordable starving authors can afford them!
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| Artist Levi White and muse |
When you think of cons, you might not also think of music. But MidSouthCon has a house band, and they are Order of Tyr!
Here they are in the Dealer's Room, many hours before their first Friday evening show. I picked up their new album, Tearing Reality Asunder, and they were also kind enough to speak to me after I made it clear I was fully capable of rolling on the floor and screaming if my request for an interview was denied.
The Order plays a powerful, straight-ahead blend of heavy metal, hard rock, electronic, and prog-rock, all blended with fantasy themes and lyrics. You can check them out further by hitting their webpage, VideoGameMetal!
Costumes and cosplayers. I know that's what you want to see, so let's open with the best of the Con so far. I give you <drumroll please> The Black Widow!
Regular Con-goers will recognize Alex as the 'Catwoman Cosplayer,' who graces MidSouthCon and several othyers with her beautiful costumes every year. This year, she's at MidSouthCon as The Black Widow, and she was kind enough to grant me an interview:
You can find Alex on Facebook here. Stop by her page and give her a like!
And now, for a more or less random series of Con images:
It looks like fun, Frank. Wish I could be there.
ReplyDeleteYikes. Although that portrait Levi did of you is almost spot on. The ears look a little bigger than your actual ears, but the rest is a spitting likeness!
ReplyDeleteIt's been a blast, Roach!
ReplyDeleteMaria, I think Levi captured the essence of me rather well.
ReplyDeleteAlthough he did miss out completely on my chiseled square chin and manly brow.