End of the Year

If you get a chance to see It's Only a Play, do it! That was total unmitigated fun! Nathan Lane is a comedic god! I believe that the cast is changing starting from January 7th, so do it very quickly.

As I mentioned in the previous post, the next year promises to be quite full with plenty of fun and interesting events. As I took stock of what is coming, the prospective calendar started to look very full:

 

January 3th - It's Only a Play (oh, yes, I am definitely seeing this again!)

January 9th - Shatner's World - We Just Live In It

January 22nd - Fleetwood Mac in Madison Square Garden

January 29th - Love Letters is sadly no go. For unknown reasons, performances got cancelled.

January 31st - annual Rutgers University Geology Museum Open House

March 13th - 15th - Monster Mania

March 20th - AACE 2nd Northeast TCM Symposium (I had no chance to go to the first one, so I have no idea if this is professionally useful or not; we'll see)

March 29th - The Audience (a Broadway play with Helen Mirren!!!)

April 10th and 17th - NYU class NYC Building Code Overview (definitely professionally useful, I just hope they won't cancel it)

April 10th - 12th - NY/NJ Mineral, Fossil, Gem & Jewelry Show

April 24th - 26th - the spring Chiller Theatre

April 30th - May 3rd - trip to Chicago to celebrate my grandmother's birthday (read: museums galore!)

May 8th - 10th - Philadelphia Comic Con

June 12th - 14th - Star Trek Convention in Chicago (it is still not on sale unfortunately; as most people on the convention circuit know, Creation is doing only two ST conventions next year in preparation for the 2016 50th anniversary tour, for which the dates have been already posted; on one hand I can totally understand it, and I can't wait till 2016 but, on the other hand, the 20th anniversary of Voyager gets practically no coverage)

August 6th - 9th - Star Trek Convention in Las Vegas, and the biggest party in the universe!

October 9th - 11th - New York Comic Con

October 26th - 30th - CTBUH 2015 International Conference in NYC

November 18th - 20th - Greenbuild International Conference in Washington, DC

 

Whew! And I'm sure that more things will get added! This going to be fun!

So Far and More...

So, both the UGC conference and the Edward Tufte course were great (the latter in more of an amazing category, actually - ET is truly an information design guru; as one of examples on a topic being discussed, he presented a volume of Euclid published when Shakespeare was alive!). Overall very interesting and definitely helpful from the professional point of view!

The TNG Reunion was a blast! Seeing these folks is like meeting good old friends. I swear, there is no relationship out there like the one between Star Trek actors and their fans.

AMNH has hit it out of the ballpark yet again. Meeting Chris Hadfield was extraordinary! I got to shake hands with him and speak with him in Russian - totally mind-blowing! The Saturn lecture was wonderful - both Carolyn Porco and Neil DeGrasse Tyson were on top form!

Chiller Theatre was chilling....no, it was awesome. Had a chance to meet and/or see some wonderful actors who played in some of my favorite movies (doesn't hurt that they happened to have cameos or guest roles on Star Trek, so my autograph collection in the Encyclopedia has increased).

On November 18th, I had an opportunity to see yet another StarTalk Live! with Neil DeGrasse Tyson. It was held at the Beacon Theater this time, and featured Richard Dawkins and Bill Nye! Bottom line, Science was representing!

 

Anticipated winter events:

 

December 4th - It's Only a Play

January 9th - Yet another outing to see Shatner's World - We Just Live In It

January 22nd - Fleetwood Mac in Madison Square Garden in its most famous Rumours line-up!!!

January 29th - Love Letters, a Broadway event featuring a variety of amazing Hollywood actors. I am going to see the one with Anjelica Houston and Martin Sheen.

Can't wait until next year - 2015 is going to bring more wonderful conventions, another Greenbuild Expo to attend in Washington, DC and hopefully many more interesting events.

Updates, Updates...

Yet another half a year is gone, filled with some pretty fun events!

Both the NY&NJ Gem Show and the Chiller Theatre did not work out, unfortunately - spring colds are no fun. But all other events, shows and conventions were totally awesome!

The three convention heavy hitters this year undeniably were the Creation's Chicago and Las Vegas conventions and the Wizard World's Philadelphia Comic Con. The Chicago Convention was the first time I have done a VIP Experience (which included the in-person meet & greets with all attending celebrities!). Las Vegas rocked as always, and this year even more than usual as Creation has stepped up their game significantly in preparation for the upcoming 50th Anniversary of Star Trek. And the Philly Comic Con gave us the rare and unprecedented appearance of Whoopi Goldberg. Because of her, as well as the appearance of Matt Smith, this fairly sizeable pop culture event was, for a change, heavily overrun by Trekkies and Whovians, which admittedly was deeply, deeply satisfying!

Shatner's World was just as good as I remembered; I sincerely hope that there will be a DVD release of this show.

Eddie Izzard is without a doubt one of the funniest people ever - the concert was simply brilliant! 

Bill Nye is awesome. I am very glad that he is back in New York. The show was FUN. Because Science!!!

AMNH continues to impress with its exhibits and members programs. An Evening in the Cosmos with Neil deGrasse Tyson was a wonderful photo essay describing the creation and production of the new Cosmos series. Excellent job! Also, I finally had a chance to see the Pterosaurs and Spiders Alive! exhibitions. All perfectly executed, except one nag from me - there really should be an age limit on Spiders Alive!. Most toddlers either were too small to understand, or too bored, or too scared. In any case, screaming kids are not particularly conducive to fun museum experience.

I had a fantastic opportunity to take an Architecture Tour with AIANY last Friday. A complete circumnavigation of the Manhattan Island with a  running commentary by an architect from the AIA. If ever in NYC, check it out, very much worth the time and the money!

 

Coming up in the fall:

 

September 22nd - Façade Face-Off: NYC and Beyond, an Urban Green Council conference

October 10th - leading up to the New York Comic Con is the cool New York Super Week, as part of which there is going to be a reunion of the Cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation Moderated by William Shatner! I am not going to NYCC this year but this event certainly makes up for it!

October 14th - You Are Here with Astronaut Chris Hadfield at the AMNH

October 16th - Presenting Data and Information: A One-Day Course Taught by Edward Tufte

October 20th - A Decade at Saturn with Carolyn Porco at the AMNH 

October 24th - 26th - the fall Chiller Theatre

December 4th - It's Only a Play, a new Broadway play with some amazing actors

Hopefully, there will also be some more great events at the AMNH. Also, with luck I'll be able to see a small exhibit of Hokusai Manga at Marquand Library in Princeton University.

In Addition to Below

April 9th - An Evening in the Cosmos with Neil deGrasse Tyson at AMNH
April 24th - a movie event, Shatner's World (I was lucky enough to see this witty retrospective live a few years back; it will be great to watch it)
July 18th - Bill Nye The Science Guy will be doing a talk in New York

And speaking of AMNH, there is a new exhibition coming up - Pterosaurs: Flight in the Age of Dinosaurs

Time Flies (Events in the New Year)

Oh, my! And it's the beginning of another year, again. As a matter of fact, it is already the beginning of February. Tsk-tsk-tsk.

Hopefully, lots of events to plan and attend. Already quite a few conventions lined up.

 

April 11th - 13th - NY&NJ Gem and Fossil Show

April 25th - 27th - Star Trek Convention in Cherry Hill, NJ

April 25th - 27th - Chiller Theatre

May 13th - Eddie Izzard concert (finally, finally, the American part of the Force Majeure tour is here!)

June 6th - 8th - Star Trek Convention in Chicago

June 19th - 22nd - Philadelphia Comic Con

July 31st - August 3rd - Star Trek Convention in Las Vegas (the greatest party in the galaxy!)

October 9th - 12th - New York Comic Con

 

Also, a trip to Iowa in May is already booked - my sister's long-awaited graduation, yay!

The end of last year brought the unbelievable experience of seeing Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen together on stage in two different plays, Waiting for Godot and No Man's Land. Fucking amazing! Enjoyed Waiting for Godot so much that I got tickets to see it again with my sister as a present for her for Christmas. And now we are repeating the treat and seeing the play again in March.

 

The annual Rutgers University Geology Museum Open House last Saturday was a somewhat less exciting affair than usual. Although the one lecture I was looking for and actually attended (before the snow storm set in and I had to leave), "Imaging the Ancient Margin: How the Southeastern United States Was Built" was very informative and entertaining.

Happy 2014!!!

 

Happy New Year!!! May it be kind and prosperous to all!