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Science Fiction (Sci-Fi) – Commentary Lesson

Hi, this is Kristin. Welcome back to the commentary for the conversation Science Fiction or Sci-Fi. While thinking about this conversation, I remembered actually going to a convention called Dragon Con. Con is short for convention. Convention is a big meeting. I went many years ago back when I was still living in Georgia, Georgia being a state in the southeastern part of the United States. It’s where I grew up.

Every year in Atlanta, Atlanta is the capitol city of Georgia, every year in Atlanta they have a convention called Dragon Con and I actually went many, many years ago when I was living there. I went with a friend of mine. And it was spectacular. I had never been to anything like this before. Let me explain what Dragon Con is.

So Dragon Con is a convention, like I said, or a meeting, big meeting, big group meeting. And it focuses on science fiction and fantasy as well as gaming. For example, there is the fantasy game called Dungeons & Dragons. And also it focuses on comics, like comic books, so characters from comic books.

So what it is is they rent a hotel every year in Atlanta and…or they don’t rent the whole hotel, they rent rooms…so in different rooms there will be different things going on.

For example, there might be speakers. The Dragon Con organizers might get different stars from different science fiction movies or different fantasy movies or, y’know, different TV series. They might ask them to come and speak. So there are speakers and there are rooms where people are just playing this game, Dungeons & Dragons, that I mentioned or other fantasy games.

There, I remember there was one big room that was only things that were being sold. So people had booths and they were selling all sorts of different things. And there might be authors there signing books that they’ve written. And, one of the most fun things for me was the people coming to Dragon Con, many of them were dressed up in all sorts of costumes, whether it was one of their favorite characters from a science fiction movie or one of their favorite characters from a fantasy TV show or whatever.

There were all in…or many people were in costumes. Just really well done, well done costumes, some of them handmade, I’m sure. Some probably bought in stores. But it was a really fun, exciting atmosphere.

I was really happy to have gone to it because if I had not known my friend, I don’t know that I would have gone to something like this. He invited me because he was, he’s very much into science fiction and fantasy and comic books. So, yeah, I was happy that he invited me.

There are also other conventions that happen around the United States. For example, there are conventions just for Star Trek fans, the TV show and movies that were mentioned in the conversations.

So it would be very similar to Dragon Con, a Star Trek convention would take place in a hotel and, y’know, they might ask different actors or actresses from the movies or the TV shows to come and speak.

People will come in all different costumes from their favorite characters from the movies, the TV shows.

There’ll be a lot of things being sold, all related to Star Trek, posters, T-shirts, whatever. And it’s…I found out about the Star Trek conventions from a documentary, a real movie, in other words, called Trekkies.

So if you have any interest in learning more, I highly recommend if you can get a copy of Trekkies, renting it and watching it. And there’s also a second one, I think it’s just called Trekkies 2, which I have not seen. But the first Trekkies I watched with AJ. It was really, really interesting to see how these people are so passionate about Star Trek.

And there’s other fairs and conventions. There’s…there are fairs that are, their focus is on fairies and I’ve read about these taking place out in the woods, y’know, out where there’s a lot of trees and everything is about fairies. And there’s the Renaissance Festival is something that happens around the United States.

I’ve actually been to at least one, maybe more than one, in Georgia back when I was still living in Georgia many years ago.

The Renaissance Festival is…it takes place, like I just mentioned the Fairy Festivals, Renaissance Festival takes place in the woods also, so an area where there’s a lot of trees. And the organizers of the Renaissance Festival will actually build buildings, they’ll actually construct, they’ll make a village.

So it’s, y’know, just out in an area where there’s trees and there’s not…there’s not houses. It’s pretty, pretty vacant. There’s nothing else there except the trees. They’ll actually make a village. It’ll just, y’know, one day it’s trees, the next day it’s an actual village from the 15 to 1600s. That’s when the Renaissance era, time period was, the 1500s to 1600s.

So the Renaissance Festival is really interesting as well. You go and it’s like you’re…you go back in time.

You’re walking in this village and there’s all sorts of people who are working for the Renaissance Festival.

They’re dressed up in clothing from the 15/1600s. You can find food that I think was supposed to have been eaten at that time period. Like, for example, a big…a big chicken leg, for example. I can’t remember what other food was. I was vegetarian. I didn’t eat meat at that time so I didn’t really eat much of the food.

But there’s also little stores you can go in and buy things. There’s reenactments of things. For example, I remember watching a jousting event. So what jousting is is there’s two horses and two people on top of the horses and, y’know, I believe the people would be dressed like knights so they would have armor, hard, hard material or clothing on to protect them.

So they’re facing each other on their horses and they ride towards each other. And they’re carrying a long pointed, it’s basically a weapon, I guess. I’m not sure what the idea is. I think you’re…I think maybe you’re trying to knock the other person off the horse. I’m not exactly sure but it was, and this was a really long time ago when I went, but it was quite interesting. But that’s jousting. You can look it upon the internet if you’re more curious.

Something that happens here in the US is a group that meets regularly called the SCA. They meet at different places around the United States. And the SCA, they are a historical reenactment group. So, for example, they will reenact battles and they reenact battles from the Middle Ages. So the Middle Ages being the 500 to 1500s, that time period.

And actually AJ used to be involved many, many years ago with the SCA, back before I ever met him.

And he’s just recently getting reinvolved with them. He was going to…he went to a couple of meetings in Indiana when he was visiting his mother and sister, his family. But he’s back in San Francisco now and he’s going to be attending a group, an SCA group here in San Francisco. So he’s really excited about that and he’s been buying clothing that he can wear when he’s fighting. He really likes the fighting.

So these are all subcultures of America. Dragon…people going and participating in something like Dragon Con or the Star Trek conventions or the Renaissance Festivals or being a part of a group like the SCA or going to Fairy Festivals or Fairy Fairs, as they call them. These are all subcultures.

We had a conversation recently about jambands. A jamband, an example being the band Phish that Joe and I really like, and AJ likes them as well. Or the band the Grateful Dead. These are jambands and they also are a…the fans of these jambands are also a subculture of America.

So subculture meaning people coming together, you have a common passion and maybe you wear similar clothing and there’s similar slang spoken or different, different terminology or different kinds of words spoken that are particular to that group. But subcultures, I’m sure they’re, y’know, in other countries as well.

I know in the brief time I was in Japan living in Hiroshima, I remember seeing people dressed in different styles. For example, I remember seeing guys dressed like they were from the 1950s. And I remember seeing these girls that were dressed like baby dolls. So I was really fascinated by that and these are subcultures, I’m sure, of Japan.

So like I was saying, a subculture is a way to bring people together to connect. And actually if you happen to live here in America and are looking for a way to interact with Americans and better you English, think about a passion that you have and maybe do some research on the internet and see if there is some kind of a group that meets regularly that you could start going to. That would be a great way to connect with people and better your English.

So I’m curious if, y’know, if you do have subcultures in your country and what those would be. So share with us on the Ning site, on our social site, what those are.

Alright, this concludes the commentary for the conversation Science Fiction. Have a good month and I’ll see you next time.