FANTACON

This past weekend, I took some time off to attend several events being held in the New York Capitol District.

Fantacon -This is the 36^th year of this event which celebrates comic books, anime, horror, fantasy and most anything else that fits somewhere into those categories. Here are some of the people I spoke with.

Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame- My friend Jon Soto, his fiancée and his family manned a table at the event. They sold tee shirts and other souvenirs dealing with the Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame.

Jimmy Hart- A great wrestling manager most noted in the 1980’s. He managed some of the greats in the sport including-Hulk Hogan, Bret Hart (no relation) and Jim Neidhart (The Hart Foundation), Greg "The Hammer" Valentine, Jerry "The King" Lawler, "The Million Dollar Man" Ted DiBiase, King Kong Bundy, Earthquake, Dino Bravo, the Nasty Boys, The Giant, and  probably the most famous;The Honky Tonk Man.

Besides wrestling, Jimmy Hart was a member of the rock band “The Gentrys” whose best known for the 1965 version “Keep on Dancing”.

 

James Tolkan-A notable actor you would remember form numerous movies, but most known as the principle in Back to the Future.  I was able to speak to him for several minutes. He had made a comment about signing autographs recently in London, England where the line went for miles.  I had to remind him he was in Albany, NY. He was a very nice man, and I have to say I hope I look as good as him at his age.

Sam Costello- Split Lip Comics. He is a comic book writer. I am in the process of reading his “The Harvestman, and other Unnatural Creatures”.  It was nice to meet another author at this event.

Very Scary Productions- An independent film maker whose interests’ center on horror and gore. I bought a copy of their movie “Project D: Classified” I will probably check that out this weekend. They seemed like a nice group, so I recommend you check them out.

Kevin Van Hentenryck- An actor which starred in the classic horror comedy movie; Basket Case. This is a classic cult movie that wrote the book on the b-movie horror genre. It was great to meet him. He is a great self-taught sculptor.

 

 

Geek Culture Podcast- The person at this table simple called himself Tom. This is a podcast over the internet which dedicates itself to talk about TV, Movies, Toys, Comics, & pop-culture and all things nerdy.

Myths, Lies and Misconceptions about the Medieval World.

TIME LINE WORLD HISTORY/ALTAMONT FAIR

I had mentioned I may be going to a medieval fair over the weekend, unfortunately this did not occur. I however, was able to go to a Living History event and a Fair. This is my comments on both.

The Time Line of World HISTORY Weekend located at Schuler Flatts Park in MENANDS, NY.  Over the last several years I have tried to attend a Civil War Days here, this has now changed to include other periods of History.

I was able to visit a tent by the Civil War Medical Coalition. They displayed numerous artifacts used in medicine during the battles in that time. Although, medicine had advanced during that century, it was still unsanitary compared to today’s standards.

Also I visited the tents for the Watervliet Historical Society and the Historical Society of the Town of Colonie; this is the location of the event. Both groups are dedicated to appreciate and promote the history of the area.

This event featured different sections of history, I saw Civil War reenactors, and also one person dressed in Ancient Roman gear. While I was there I saw a skirmish conducted by several World War II reenactors.

One of the vendors was the Knowlton Sutlers. A sutler is a peddler who follows an army and sells his product out of a wagon or tent. Knowlton Sutlers had a wide selection of unique and historical items.

After visiting this event, I drove to the Altamont Fair. This is located just outside of Albany, NY.

This was a wonderful fair, which I enjoyed attending, it hosted many wonderful events and rides that you would associate with such a fair.

I was able to meet Daniel Crowler of Oak and Acorn Ancient Metalcrafts a blacksmith who also does historical reproductions with re-enactment equipment of the era. It was a pleasure to meet someone so informed and knowledgeable about medieval blacksmithing and hopefully I will be able to use his knowledge in upcoming books.

One of the best events I saw was  the Coronas Circus Hollywood.

The Coronas family is a multi-generation of circus performers. The show they put on there was spectular, every single performer was outstanding. These acts included a chair balancer, horse trainer and a performer on the Wheel of Death (also known as the Space Wheel). Before the circus began, Bibi the clown entertained the audience and got them motivated and performed between acts when they adjusted or changed the equipment.

The following are acts which I thought was particularly exciting and entertaining.

Aerial silk- This is a type of performance in which an artist performs area acrobatic while hanging from a fabric. This act was elegant and mesmerizing and was a joy to watch.

Hooping- The performer, Crystal Coronas, was very entertaining using hula hoops, some of her act was set to Afro Circus/ I live to move it, from the film Madagascar 3. The conclusion of her act she performed with more hula hoops than I could count.

Since I brought this up I wanted to mention about Hula Hoops. Many people think it was an invention of the 1950’s; this is mostly because of an episode of M.A.S.H. when one of the characters sees a Korean child using a piece of pipe made into a hope, and he tries to sell the idea back to a toy company in America. Actually the hula hoop, called simply a hoop could date back to around 1,000 B.C. in Egypt. These hoops were made of dried reeds. In the 14th century a fad of using a hoop spread around England, it was used as a form of exercise. The name Hula was added in the 19th century by sailors returning from Hawaii, who said the Hula dance resembled someone using a hoop.

The final performance was on a high wire act. The two performers were the best I have ever seen. The woman showed considerable strength holding her partner on her shoulders while on the wire.  Not to be outdone, he carried her from the high wire to the ground on a wire set at a 45 degree angle. This act concluded a wonderful circus and I hope I get the opportunity to see them again.

For those of you that are interested, my novel; Legend of the Mystic Knights 

is still on sale for $0.99 for the Kindle. If you do not have a Kindle, they now have a Kindle App which allows you to read the novel on any reading device.

Medieval Life; It’s a Living, Barely

 

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