Howdy folks! Work’s finally slowing somewhat so its time for another blog post. My lovely wife and I attended Teslacon over the weekend and have some ideas for upcoming panels or shenanigans we’d like to see and possibly run ourselves.

1) A shooting gallery. I’ve got a number of ideas cooking here. It needs to be easy to clean up, quick to run, set up and take down, and not dangerous. Repurposed laser tag guns or the like would probably be ideal.

2) A shoot off. I’ve heard of “duels” in shooting events involving 2 steel targets that are placed so that the targets fall across each other. At the sound of the buzzer, 2 shooters draw and put their target down as soon as possible. The target on the bottom dropped first, so that determines the winner.

3) Either or both of the above combined with a panel on arms training in the late 1900s, with anecdotes drawn from J.B. Noel, Reichenbach and similar books. An advantage to writing this blog is that I usually want to do a little more research into a topic when writing about it. For example, I finally looked up just who “J.B. Noel” was – not just an author, apparently! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Baptist_Lucius_Noel

4) Private panel – cocktails of the Old West, along with tastings! I don’t see how I can do this subject justice without building the cocktails, explaining their history, and passing out tasters. I’d need money to cover costs and a limit as to size. A more public panel could cover the saloon in the old West and discuss how it wasn’t the dingy little hole in the wall many movies make it out to be, but a thriving place that was frequently trying to “out-novel” similar establishments just up the street by bringing in more and more extravagant drinks, shows, and decorations. I think a slideshow would be incorporated to show what some of the old places looked like and still look like. A research tour would be fantastic but I doubt I’ve got the time or money to pull it off this year. This book would probably provide a very firm foundation for either undertaking: http://www.amazon.com/Wild-Bartenders-Bible-Byron-Johnson/dp/087719050X/ref=la_B001JRXM0I_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1415888536&sr=1-1

As always, questions or comments are welcome! What would you like to see at a Wild West and/or Steampunk convention or event?