This Week in Geek - 26/03/2012

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


Longer Term

• Convention - I-Con - Stony Brook, NY - March 30 through April 1
• The only regional convention on the calendar for this week (a nice break after the last month of being triple booked), and one that looks like a whole lot of fun. With dozens (and I literally mean dozens upon dozens) of guests from scifi TV and films, authors, artists, anime guests; with hundreds of panels, games, events; with one of the largest con art rooms in the country and a packed vendors corral it looks like a really good time.

Pale blossoms, pale stone, dim sky, my preferred time along the monuments.
Image by Ryan Stavely

• Skill Expansion - Cherry Blossoms at Sunrise - Washington, DC - March 26 through April 8 - 6:15 AM
• Part of being a geek (at least to my mind) is making. We'll get into specifics in a dedicated post, but this ongoing workshop is a great example. For those geeks who love their cameras (and I saw nearly as many of you at Katsucon as I did cosplayers), this is a chance to hone your craft in a more serene space. Held in the early morning hours around the Tidal Basin, led by a professional photographer, it seems like an amazing way to start your day.

Saturday

• Aeronautics - Blossom Kite Festival - Washington, DC - 10:30 AM
• Come on, how often do your inner child and your inner engineer get to play together without causing mayhem (I still maintain that a mass accelerator is a perfectly legitimate basement project)? The festival gives kite lovers a chance to come out and, for the more dedicated/confidant, a chance to show off and compete in three dozen categories. 
• Movies - Samurai Cinema - Washington, DC - 11:00 AM
• An add on to the NatGeo samurai exhibit, this pack of three classic samurai films from the 1950s and 60s will be shown back to back (though you pay by the film, so you can pick and choose if you want). All the films will also be shown from their original 35mm format. Bonus: if you've bought admission to the exhibition at the National Geographic building than the films are free. It is first come, first seated, though, so get there early.

Its not for everyone, but for supporters of the culture,
the respectfully curious, and the experimentally inclined...
Image by Hyougushi

• Culinary Spiritual Cultural - Tea Gathering at Ippakutei - Washington, DC - 12:30 PM
• This is probably the event of the week that has me most excited. There is a formal tea house on the grounds of the Japanese embassy and members of Omote Senke Domon Kai will be leading traditional tea ceremonies on this day. Reservations are required, so hop on this one soonest.

Sunday

• Holidays - April Fools Day - Everywhere - All Day
• So are you more of a prankster, an absurdist, a mind bender, or one of those who just tries to ignore the whole day? Personally I incline more towards the surreal in my humor, but then again every day is a great day for jokes, puns, and twisting logic lines that make a formalist just weep and then burst into a rage. Mu advice for this one? Let your creativity flow.

Yeah, we're a bit heavy in one direction this week with all the cherry blossom focused events soaking into our geek culture. Then again, this annual moment is one of the aspects that makes DC geek culture unique in flavor and mood. At this point it would not surprise me (nay, it would make me happy) to see someone cosplaying as Y.T. zooming around the tidal basin on her skates, vanishing like a ghost beneath those pale blossoms.


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.