Baltimore | The Tantisper Tower

(This was originally posted on my other blog in May 2008, but I’ve deleted it from there and moved it here, as a more appropriate location, grouped with other Balticon posts.)

The 42nd annual Balticon science fiction convention was held from May 23 to 26 at the Hunt Valley Inn in Maryland. Highlights included guests of honor Connie Willis, author of Doomsday Book and several other novels, and Naomi Novik, author of the Temeraire series; a panel retrospective on the life and works of Arthur C. Clarke; the Weird Tales magazine anniversary celebration; discovering the work of artist Steven Archer, whose series, 365 Days of Blasphemous Horror, has just begun on the Weird Tales website; the annual update on dinosaur discoveries by Dr. Thomas Holtz Jr., in which was emphasized “birds are dinosaurs”; the Dover and Trafalgar Victory Ball; books and more books; and retro carpeting.

Security at Balticon is always extremely tight.

Dealers Room

Dealers Room (Pirate Section)

NASA astronaut plays Vulcan lyre

See the rest of this entry, including a Cthulhu hat…

The 5th annual Privateer Day was held on April 17 and 18 in the Fell’s Point waterfront neighborhood of Baltimore, Md. Fell’s Point was the center of Baltimore’s clipper ship industry and was once called by the British Admiralty a “nest of pirates.” This celebration of all things piratical (the fantasy kind, of course) included games, weapons demonstrations, cannon firings, a Swashbuckler’s Soiree, parrots, live music, a cruise aboard the schooner Pride of Baltimore II, and plenty o’ pirates.

I went last year and regretted not having a camera with me. I made up for it this year, snapping away at everything. Below are a few of the photos.