Events « Pop-Culture Spectrum

Convention Season Catch-Up-Part One (Asbury Comic Con)

By Pop-Culture Spectrum, on April 19th, 2013%

As you saw on this website prior to both the Asbury Comic Con and MoCCaFest I wrote preview articles, but I have yet to go back and actually do follow ups and I it’s high time I do that as best as I can.

On the train to Asbury I got lucky enough to end up sitting next to two guys who would actually be tabling with their comic FIRST LAW OF MAD SCIENCE. Co-writer Mike Isenberg gain me issue 1 gratis and like a good drug dealer who knows his product is quality I ended up buying issues 2 & 3 later on at the show and am on board for anymore they release.

When I arrived in Asbury I had no clue where to go so I followed a bunch of folks who were heading in the direction of the con. I knew they were headed to the con because I was following a bunch of cartoonists I knew from conventions. Once I had my bearings I decided to walk around Asbury itself and discover the place.

I saw a bunch of restaurants I wanted to try out if I ever come back. I also found the graffiti and a few stores, although most were closed. There’s also a pinball museum/arcade and a few abandoned spots. Asbury is just an amazing spot. It also has The Stone Pony, which I had totally forgotten.

After I had looked around for a reasonable time I headed over to the show. The Asbury Convention center is a nice sized place. I could see wrestling events, basketball games, concerts, etc, doing really well there. I never made it across the street to the bar where the panels were because the convention was way larger than I expected. It wasn’t just the main floor with vendors, indie folks and the legends together, but in what would be considered the hallways to reach the other levels, tables lined the walls of various indie artists and creators. There was a lot to experience in it all and it was quite exciting actually. I actually ended up buying way more books than I planned on and I got a lot of nice sketches and saw people I totally didn’t expect to.

Puck & Wendigo from behind by Mike Dawson, inspired by his Ink Panthers broadcast

Eventually I felt con exhaustion hit me and I wanted to explore Asbury a bit more as well and since I was going to get a ride back into Manhattan, I had to grab the 2 hour trip back on the train.

Next year they’re planning on making Asbury 2 days. I hope they see about it maybe being during the summer months as well maybe. I could totally see myself coming in on a Friday afternoon and leaving Sunday with a fully full Asbury experience. Hopefully shared with a special someone.

Wizard Rock Will Live Forever!

By Pop-Culture Spectrum, on July 7th, 2012%

A week or so ago I was glad and excited to attend the final leg of a rolling wizard rock show titled Riddikulus! 2012. For those who don’t know about Wizard Rock I’ll try and break it down, but I must admit it reads weird and can only truly respected and understood when listened to. Wizard Rock is music inspired by the work of J.K. Rowling and the world of Harry Potter, both the books and the films. The people who perform this music are profecient, talented and in most cases create original music as well. Most of the music would fall under the non-category of the Anti-Folk movement in my opinion. These musicians would fit easily on a bill with Brook Pridemore, Jeffrey Lewis, Kimya Dawson, The Trachtenberg Family Slideshow Players, etc as well Nerd Rock groups like Kirby Krackle or Ookla The Mok. In the Wizard rock world bands like Harry and The Potters and Draco and The Malfoys have made a bit of attention outside of the genre, but there’s tons more talent in the genre that is deserving of a wider audience.

Riddicukulus only featured a few of the acts, but it was still a large assortment and very varied. Following I shall show some select photos, one each of each performer with links to where you can discover them best yourself followed by a link to Youtube Playlist featuring 20+ videos from the concert.

Jay Stolar and Grace McLean are Lily& James. When not doing Wizard Rock they are seperately very talented musicians. I’ve provided links to their pages on their names.