Monday, March 19, 2012

This Week in Geek - 2012/03/19

A showcase of this week's finest geek and geek related activities for the week. Mark your calendars.

Its that time of year again
Image by Stephanie Clifford


Longer Term
  • Beauty! - National Cherry Blossom Festival - Washington DC area - March 20 through April 27
    • Its back! And delightfully early this year thanks to the complete lack of winter in DC (although I'll be honest - I could handle hosting winter just one year out of four). The blossoms are the center piece and can be taken in at your leisure (though if that happens to fall on a weekend, plan for crowds). All the other events though; the art showings, the parade, the street events, the cultural displays, are highly scheduled and you should really check the calendar. For those fans of Japanese culture and for those fans of beauty I can't recommend it highly enough. As a personal note, there's just something about walking under those delicate blossoms and then going to see a naginata school face off against a kendo studio under the spring sunlight...
  • Convention - Tekkoshocon X - Pittsburgh, PA - March 21 through 25
    • You. Anime. Games. Costuming. Thousands of people who love the same thing. Pittsburgh. That's Tekkoshocon in a nutshell. Extensive anime and related fandom sessions from Thursday through Sunday, constantly running shows, and a great hotel venue. And let's be honest: Pittsburgh is just as close as some other cons we'd list as "in the DC region" so don't be shy about the drive.
  • Convention - Virginia Festival of the Book - Charlottesville, VA - March 21 through 25
    • A convention in a looser sense of the word than most of us are used to, this is a networked series of presentations and panels about literature held at locations scattered through Charlottesville starting later this week. Panels on everything from how twisty family relationships can work in stories to retelling myths and fairy tales to author focused sessions on the uses of social media for writing (and career) promotion, the Festival is at once not quite focused on our subcultures and yet speaks directly to the processes and dreams many of us pursue.



Saturday
  • Politics - Reason Rally - Washington, DC - 10:00 AM through 6:00 PM
    • Normally we try to stay fairly apolitical here at DCG (with exceptions: see Aine's SOPA piece and Jeff's Occupy experience). The Reason Rally is another one of those exceptions. Its an event for those who seek to place rationality at the forefront of public discourse, something I, personally, would enjoy. However, that's not why its here. Its here because there will be talks and performances by figures many geeks love, such as Paul Provenza, Adam Savage, Penn Jillette, Richard Dawkins, and Eddie Izzard. Two notes: 1) If you've never been to a long event on the Mall (especially a political one) Google accounts, packing lists and travel hints. They can be great events, but also taxing ones. 2) Be prepared for some conflict seekers as religious protestors are expected and some tea party folks are holding an anti-Obama, anti-health care protest just a couple of blocks off the Mall at the same time.
  • Sports - The Harlem Globetrotters - Washington, DC - 1:00 PM
    • Its... alright, listen, is the Harlem Globetrotters. Take them as a retro-chic act, as a political statement about the absurdist nature of Jim Crow era racial politics, take them as a sports-comedy performance. And if you don't know who they are or what I'm talking about then set aside your crunchy cynical shell for an afternoon, grab some friends, and go watch.
Would this man lie to you?
Image by uncle_shoggoth

  • TV Science - Mythbusters: Behind the Myths Tour - Washington, DC - 8:00 PM
    • I... I'm actually really sad I didn't notice this one till it was too late to budget for it. Its Adam and Jamie. On stage. Demanding audience participation. Performing experiments, sharing anecdotes and trying to stump each other. I can only hope there are explosions.

Did I miss something? If you have an event you’d like to promote that isn’t on this list, leave a comment or
email us.

Other weekly reoccurring events are listed on our website (such as Rocky, CCG tournaments, crazy themed happy hours). For more information, check out the calendars at DC Geeks.

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