The Avengers Rocks!

May 10, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Marvel's The Avengers

I’m sure most of you have seen the new movie from Marvel Entertainment, The Avengers. Your favorite Marvel Super Heroes, Iron Man, Thor, The Hulk, Captain America, Hawkeye, Nick Fury and Black Widow all together in the SAME movie! If you haven’t seen it yet, go see it now! It’s that good. This film has already broken records in movie attendance and for good reason, it has more star power than any other film to date with all of the original cast members, save Edward Norton’s Bruce Banner who is expertly replaced by Mark Ruffalo, coming together to play the Avengers characters. It also has Joss Whedon, director of such con-cult classics as Firefly and Buffy The Vampire Slayer, at the helm.

This has proven to be an excellent match of talent as the film manages to please the widest array of audiences possible, from kids to senior citizens, and even ‘gasp’ women! More than all that, it has a great script with an awesome pace,  special effects that are convincing and acting that feels real. This is the film Marvel fans have been waiting for, and it doesn’t dissapoint.

Go and check it out if you havent seen it, and if you have, go see it again and study up on costumes!  That’s what I’m about to do!

We welcome all comments! Let us know what you thought about the movie, the costumes, or whatever! Enjoy and see you next time!

Filed Under: CON*news Tagged With: , , , ,

Memories of Dragon*Con 2011…

September 20, 2011 By Leave a Comment

The 1st ever CON*tourage Rock Star Photo Shoot held Saturday Night was a huge success!

Ahhh, the memories! It’s now 2011 and what an amazing year… to be alive, to be at Dragon*con and to be a part of CON*tourage! It is rewarding in a very unique way to each one of us. Now that Dragon*Con 2011 is past us, let’s take a few minutes and reflect on our own Dragon*Con histories and remember why we started coming to Dragon*Con in the first place (everyone’s got their own story and we invite you to comment with your own stories) .

The reason I started coming to Dragon*Con was my interest in gaming way back in 1999. I was into a little game called Magic: the Gathering, and a fellow player invited me to Dragon*Con.  GWAR and Mark Hamill were the big draws of that year, so it took little to convince me, and let me tell ya’, after that weekend I was hooked through the bag. Here it is over 10 years later and I’m still enjoying every moment spent at Dragon*Con.

DRAGON CON 2011 PICTURES

This year was was jam packed full of wonderful new memories. Arrival at the hotel had that usual air of excitement, magnified by the re-designed Hyatt lobby which was a refreshing change (though the old lobby will always hold a special place in our hearts). Check in was a breeze and we were up in our familiar CON*tourage Party Suite within minutes, which was a relief after a year of hoping we didn’t get screwed. We got everyone situated, including a few newcomers.

Badge retrieval, while slightly faster than in previous years, there were still no shortage of people, and the line was ginormous. After a solid 2 hours, we had our badges and could move on to setup duties. Mark, Adam and I went on our run to get all the supplies from Adam’s apartment and a Wal*Mart run for beer, beer and more beer and a few other important items, like beer cups.

Then we got ready for the Meet and Greet. We had planned to hold the meet and greet in the newly up-graded Twenty Two Storys Bar, located in the lobby of the Hyatt. The bar was already jam packed and the level of people who showed up was astounding. This quickly became a problem with the bar staff who promptly told us we had to “Do this somewhere else.” After some confusion, we moved our entire setup downstairs to an unused corner of the hotel and we continued on as planned. The raffle was held for the remaining passes and it drew quite an enthusiastic crowd, with some winners screaming in triumph. It was awesome to see all of the people wearing CON*tourage T-shirts, and Syd and Rich made us a fabulous new CON*tourage flag that helped out a lot!

Next we returned to the suite to get the room ready for the Heavy Metal Party the following night. Setup was fantastic and we want to thank everyone who showed up to help. There were seriously too many people to mention, at it made setup so much easier this year. We had the party 85% ready to go by the end of the night and everyone got a chance to hang out and re-unite.

Friday Night’s Heavy Metal Party was EPIC beyond human proportions. DJ Nemesis rocked the house till after 3 AM with his amazing skills and quick wit. The party was simply a triumph of light, color, awesome heavy metal and a huge costumed crowd having a great time.  Amazing drinks were served by our most AWESOME bartenders, Syd, Rich and DJLawless mixin a few drinks as well. For the first time we offered our own Collectible Cups emblazoned with the Dragon*Con, Con*Tourage and our sponsors logos (yes, that’s right SPONSORS!). Thanks to Mark, Maddie, Tarra, Bonzo, David, Adam, Emm, Lin, David, Jenn, Wil, Ty, and the rest of the group for helping set up and being there for us! We love all of you!

Saturday Night we introduced a new theme, the ‘Fiesta Con Loco’ party and it was a huge success. We had Booze-Filled Pinata Bashing, Day Of The Dead Costume Contest, Nude Bodypainting by Antonio Tiggs, a sugar skull shrine to dead rock stars, Cerveza and Margaritas all to the backdrop of DB BNOT. It was a CRAZY PARTY and everyone had a blast. Huge thanks to Leah, Marie and Lin for creating so many awesome decorations and for helping out so much.

Also a HUGE shout out to all of our Board of Directors. Thanks for being there everyone, this year couldn’t have turned out better in my opinion.

We finished up with DJNEMESIS at the Dragon Dance for the ‘last hoorah’ of Dragon*Con 2011. What a year! It went flawlessly and we have you all to thank for such great times.

Next up: Spooky Empire’s Ultimate Horror Weekend in Orlando FL, on October 7-9, 2011 and then little 5-points Halloween festival on October 21, 2011.

Filed Under: CON*news, CON*Parties

CON*tourage Presents – 8-Bit Showdown – The Video Game Party @ Play On Con

June 7, 2011 By Leave a Comment
The Video Game Party

Click To See The Full Poster

Remember the feeling of an old-fashioned JOYstick in your hands. Remember when you could finally play video games at HOME!! CON*tourage proudly presents the 8-bit Party Showdown - THE VIDEO GAME PARTY – A TRIBUTE TO CLASSIC VIDEO GAMES and the SYSTEMS we played ‘em on! ONLY at Play On Con in Birmingham, Alabama on Saturday Night, July 30th in Suite 816. The party starts at 10 PM. We will have all of your favorite classic video games set-up to and ready to play your ass off. ALSO we’ll have Booze, ’80s Music, Dancing, Singing, and Costumed Freaks jumping around and other assorted mayhem.

Join us for the hottest late-night party at Play On Con. A night you will never forget, Compete in our CLASSIC VIDEO GAME COMPETITION. See all of the wild and crazy costumes and have the time of your LIFE! Don’t forget to visit our Facebook Event page and RSVP so we know your comin!

ALSO – Sataurday morning we will host our amazing and fantabulous PANCAKE CHOW-DOWN!  Come get your share of sugary carbs and refuel for another day at PLAY ON CON! ($3 donation requested)

And we are ACCEPTING DONATIONSto help keep the parties rollin! Just click on the ‘DONATIONS’ button on the right hand side of our site in the SideBar. NO DONATION IS TOO SMALL OR TOO LARGE. We appreciate it, and so will you when you see what we have in store for Ya’s!

Filed Under: CON*news Tagged With: , ,

Had a blast at May-Hem! Next up – Play On Con!

June 5, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Got to meet Anthony Micheal Hall at Spooky Empire's May-Hem!

It was good times in Orlando, Florida last weekend for Spooky Empire’s May-Hem at the Wyndham Resort and Hotel. This con was just as much fun as Spooky Empire’s Screamfest held annually at the same hotel in October. It was the first time they have held a con in May and it was a resounding success, albeit it was hotter than hell.

Met up with Pete Hickey, Will and Ty as well as many other friends including the boys from Evil Fire Lizards Dr. Skull, Cris Crum and Dean Martin, Plus Dementia and Florida Phil, Clutch Rocketship and the Wolfpack crew. It was an all day – all night CON*crazy weekend with a seriously impressive guest list including Bruce Campbell from Evil Dead, The Walking Dead cast, Anthony Micheal Hall from Sixteen Candles / The Breakfast Club and more recently The Dead Zone and also Alex Winter from Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure and The Lost Boys. The line to get a Bruce Campbell autograph was one of the longest I’d ever seen. He has a lotta fans. I myself am a Anthony Micheal Hall fan as The Breakfast Club is one of my Top Ten Favorite Films, So I got an Autograph (Which as you all know I rarely ever do) and a picture (graciosly taken for me by Dementia).

The pool party was as Epic as always with a live band playing all night long and lots of crazyness going on everywhere. Many of the stars came out to hang with the fans including Mr. Hall and others. It was a weekend that was way worth it. One thing we all enjoyed very much was a trip to Giadano’s Pizza for some of the most amazing Deep Dish Pizza on the planet. Mark your calendars for next year!

Now it’s on to Play On Con in Birmingham Alabama in July. Can’t wait to party with you all again. Stay tuned for the official party announcement and poster design for this event coming at you real soon. Love you all and keep rockin!

Filed Under: CON*news

The NEW “Old” Forum Is Now BACK FROM THE DEAD!

May 15, 2011 By 2 Comments

Greetings from your friendly neighborhood web-master, Master Andre, for a late-breaking news story! After long hours of trying to work with the now “Old”  new bbpress forum, WE, the CON-tourage party-masters have decided that the “Old” forum was a hell of a lot better! It’s a damn good thing we never turned the “Old” NEW  forum off completely, which makes this rather easy.

TO ACCESS THE NEW “OLD” FORUM – CLICK HERE

For those of you who used to have an identity on the “Old” NEW forums, you can pick up where you left off. For those CON-tourage members who started on the NEW “Old” forums, well, you’ll have to create a new profile and join in the new-new-old forum. If you forgot your username or password, let us know and we can look it up or change it for you. Well,  That’s all for now. Keep rockin!

Filed Under: CON*news

New banners up in our CON*links section!

April 19, 2011 By Leave a Comment

CHECK IT OUT Y’all! We have added some new banners to a handful of different websites in the CON*links section of our sidebar! We encourage all of our visitors to check-out all of our links and see what kind of cool stuff is going on! If there are any links we missed or, if you know about, or own, a great website – submit the link to us  and we will kindly add it to the site. We appreciate link-backs too so any link traders out there, hit us up and we can spread the SEO love!

Filed Under: CON*news

CON NOOGA was a great Success…now on to THE ROAST!

March 5, 2011 By Leave a Comment


First thing, Mark (aka Bama Spyder) and I want to thank all who helped out at CON NOOGA this year, we couldn’t have done anything without you! We love all of our crew! Thanks to all who attended, we hope you all had a blast! We returned from being beaten by the Pirates a year previous and have reigned SUPREME! The trophy was given by CON NOOGA chairman Todd Patton himself who personally congratulated us on the official win. People are going to tell tales of our ’80s ROCK PARTY for years and for many of us, it will be a night we will never forget. Next year we will return trumphant and host a most excellent celebration party, so mentally book yourself now!

Now on to the festivities at hand. The PhotoGnome ROAST of the Century! This event is shaping up extremely well. Tons of support for PhotoGnome has propelled this event into the stratosphere!  We have recently enlisted the services of the mighty THANDOR (of Boozepack fame) who now owns and operates an estabishment named Dune Lounge, located  at 2030 Powers Ferry Rd. SE, Suite 440, Marietta, GA  that we will be using to host the Roast. Thandor, as some of you might remember, beat us out of the party battles at Frolicon 2009 with his Pimps and Hoes’ Party. Now we join forces for this event spectacular.

To add to the excitement, The Big Leneski and his crew of misfits host an hour long talk show about general geek-culture, most of them with very special interviews! They’ll be promoting the PhotoGnome ROAST every Sunday night & also be at the event to record live, do interviews & be a media partner! Afterward polishing it up, they’ll post it online for all to enjoy.

The infamous and witty DJ NEMESIS will be taking helm as the PhotoGnome ROAST MASTER.

We are also very excited to have some great sponsors on board that will help make this event extra special, including Girls of the Con, Three Muses Clothing, CON-voluted, Play On Con, DriveThruRPG.com, SKW Productions, Quad @ Spring4th Complex and Dune Lounge. If you have a business or group you’d like to promote we are still accepting Roast Sponors which you can learn more about HERE.

Pre-register your regular tickets by March 8th ($20)…we’ll also have tickets available “day of” for $25 – time to break out your costumes and online leading up to the event!!! We also still have VIP ROASTER spots available ($50) if you have dirt on the Gnome and want to be a part of the ‘roasting’ action.

Needing to book a hotel for your stay during the PHOTOGNOME ROAST? We have decided to recommend the Extended Stay Deluxe Atlanta – Marietta (2010 Powers Ferry Rd NW, Atlanta, GA, 30339) which is priced at $61 but you NEED to book via www.Hotels.com to get the good deal. This is a great location as it’s just down the street from the Roast location (0.8 miles away). It’s where all of us cool kids will be staying!

2011 CON*tourage PhotoGnome Roast Sponsors

Filed Under: CON*news, CON*Parties

CON NOOGA 2011 Party Poster Revealed

January 18, 2011 By Leave a Comment

80s Rock Party Presented by Con-tourage.com

Here it is ladies and gentlemen. The first party of the year will be in Chattanooga, Tennessee, on February 19th, 2011. Where? At the one-and-only Con Nooga as a part of their ROOM PARTY BATTLE. Last year we were driven out by PIRATES!, but this year…VICTORY WILL BE OURS! Come and witness the awesome Rad-ness of the ‘80s ROCK PARTY hosted by www.CON-tourage.com.

We have some great things planned for this party and into the rest of the year so STAY TUNED and get your CON-GEAR ready, ’cause we got some partyin’ to do!

Filed Under: CON*news

Tron Legacy Review

December 20, 2010 By Leave a Comment

When I was 11 years old, I went to see the original TRON in a theatre that no longer exists. It was 1982, and video gaming was my entire world. I didn’t have a computer when TRON came out, I couldn’t afford one. I just had a dream and a few quarters to spend at the arcade I earned by delivering newspapers on my crappy bike. TRON was a staple game at the arcade, and it was a feeling like no other to grip that controller, drop a quarter,  hear the TRON music and be transported onto the grid every weekend. I remember pretending that very same bike was a light-cycle zooming through a computer generated grid.  It was a pretty poor substitute, but my imagination was ignited for a lifetime. 

 A long time has passed since those days. 28 years to be exact. A lot has changed in my life, and in video games. I have been there every step of the way. Ive owned countless video game rigs, computer systems and played thousands of hours behind the controller. When I heard TRON was coming back, after all these years, I was beyond excited. I wrote an article about the early footage over a year ago, way back before the re-design, when the Comic-Con trailer was leaked out and spread like a virus all over the internet. I have been patiently awaiting this film for decades and it’s finally here. Let me tell you, it does not disappoint. Its has once again ignited my creativity and imagination, and my passion for video games.

Visually it is breathtaking, and the 3-D, although not sickening or overpowering, is brilliant and adds amazing depth to the computer generated imagery. From the opening credits of a rezzed up Magic Kingdom (nice touch) to the last frame of the credits, it draws you in to the TRON world like never before. Sam Flynn (Garett Hedlund) is like-able and believable in the role of Kevin Flynn’s son and rightful heir to the ENCOM legacy. Of course Jeff bridges is back, (and what a career he’s had in the past 28 years) as Kevin Flynn and also, serving double duty as the CGI retouched CLU,  who I thought was tweaked just enough to be realistic yet obviously part of the computer world. Bruce Boxleitner, who played TRON / Alan Bradley in the original film also returns and does a great job playing his role in the story. Olivia Wilde plays Quorra, and is one sexy program. Some really great supporting cast players round out a very well cast film.

TRON Legacy does not rely on TRON to be seen and fully understood, however there are a myriad of special touches, nods and throwbacks to the original film that kept a smile on my face the whole way through. One very nice addition was a faithful recreation of FLYNNS arcade, complete with rows of video game cabinets from the 80′s, sound effects included, that holds a special place in my soul. Without giving anything away, TRON Legacy sets itself up for a sequel, and TRON 3 has already been confirmed. TRON Legacy has done well in its opening weekend and is sure to continue on through the holiday season racking up the bucks.

DAFT PUNK, the amazingly popular duo of electronic music were signed up to do the films score and what a perfect choice that was. The soundtrack stands alone as a masterpiece of the time and blends together so well with what you would expect that it heightens TRON Legacy beyond spectacular and into pure genius. Personally, its a no-brainer add to my I-Tunes library.

If you want to be dazzled by the latest computer generated images and a very good story, if you were a fan of video games and the original TRON, if you want to be transported to a science-fiction digital world, GO SEE TRON IN 3-D. There really is no other move like it.

Filed Under: CON*news Tagged With: , ,

CON*tourage invades Birmingham @ THE NICK

December 17, 2010 By Leave a Comment

The CON*tourage Crue back together again!

We had a smashing time this last weekend in Birmingham, Alabama. First and foremost we all came together to celebrate Mark’s Birthday (AKA Bama Spyder, AKA Axl, AKA Dr. Rockzo…the rock n’ roll clown – and so on). It was a great weekend and one we will not soon forget. We all CON*viened at Cosmo’s Pizza and had a few slices, a few beers and a few laughs before suiting up in FULL CON*tourage party gear to invade THE NICK.

We met up with our great friends ROCK U, the greatest fucking live karaoke band in the world and rocked out past 3 a.m. with those bastards! Everyone got up there to sing, many of us more than twice! We did all of our old favorites, “White Wedding,” “Crazy Train,” “Mother” and much more!. These guys know how to ROCK, and we rocked right along with ‘em. There were many new faces there too and we picked up some new followers along the way.

We’ve Posted new Pics on Flickr which you can access on the sidebar >>> and some videos up on Youtube for your viewing pleasure to commemorate a FABULOUS weekend. This is really what the FUCK its all about people!

We want to thank everyone who came out! Special Thanks to Adam (AKA Angus) and Jesse (AKA Nathan Explosion) who helped with setup and takedown. We’ll see you all in February for CON Nooga in Chattanooga, TN! And stay tuned for the big reveal of the CON*tourage Roast Honoree with the party happening April 2nd, 2011 in Atlanta!

Filed Under: CON*news
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