{"id":30334,"date":"2014-10-23T01:31:36","date_gmt":"2014-10-23T08:31:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/?p=30334"},"modified":"2014-11-05T01:09:18","modified_gmt":"2014-11-05T08:09:18","slug":"icon-2014","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/?p=30334","title":{"rendered":"ICON 2014"},"content":{"rendered":"

I am not your typical ICON<\/strong> participant. I’m a mom over the age of 50 (okay, okay \u2013 nearly 60).\u00a0 There were some people over 50 at ICON \u2013 but not many.<\/p>\n

Which is a shame, because ICON is really fun.\u00a0 I confess right here in the beginning that I didn\u2019t go to a single workshop, or lecture, or movie. I spent the day, as I have at the previous three ICONs that I’ve been to, people-watching and browsing the stalls. Since there were so many things for sale this year, going around to each stall twice (especially the book sellers!) took the entire afternoon.<\/p>\n

The costume parade is always interesting. The level of costume making is amazing \u2013 everyone goes to great lengths that to get his or her costume just right. Most of the costumes were characters from games I’ve never played or movies I haven\u2019t seen \u2013 but it didn\u2019t matter, I enjoyed the experience all the same.
\nI spoke with quite a number of people there about what the attraction of ICON is, and their answers were all basically similar.<\/p>\n

Adi Zilka<\/strong> (below) was dressed like a character from an online game, League of Legends<\/strong> (no, I had never heard of it, but her costume was amazing!). When asked why she comes to ICON she replied, \u201cI come to see merchandise, to meet friends from all over the country, and it\u2019s a good reason to dress up!! You can be whatever you want to be \u2013 a Goth, or an Orc, you can do it \u2013 nobody cares.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Adi<\/a>
Adi Zilka – League of Legends – ICON 2014\/Photo: Karen Feldman<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Tehila Brooks<\/strong> and her sister Avigayil<\/strong> (below) were dressed as Jedi from Star Wars<\/strong>. They have each been to ICON five times. Tehila says, \u201cIt is so awesome to be here and to talk to people who understand. Ever tried to talk to someone about Dr Who? It\u2019s refreshing to be able to say something and everyone knows what you are talking about.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Tehila<\/a>
Tehila and Avigayil Brooks – Star Wars Jedi\/Photo: Karen Feldman<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Dana Venkert<\/strong> (below) was dressed like a character from Brave, Merida<\/strong>. It took her a few weekends to make her costume.\u00a0 This is only her second time at ICON.\u00a0 She says, \u201cIt\u2019s not only that I like what is here; fantasy, anime, science fiction, etc. People who come here are proud to like this stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Dana<\/a>
Dana Venkert – Merida from Brave\/Photo: Karen Feldman<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Hoshen Gruman<\/strong> (below), dressed like Queen Cercei<\/strong> from Game of Thrones, has been at ICON 5 times. She says she comes to ICON \u201cmostly because of the people. It\u2019s weird people together, it\u2019s fun, it\u2019s good vibes! The lectures are interesting and you can’t find anything like it anywhere else.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Hoshen<\/a>
Hoshen Gruman – Queen Cercei from Game of Thrones\/Photo: Karen Feldman<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

So if you have geeky kids or are a science fiction\/fantasy lover, this is a perfect place to spend an afternoon or several afternoons. They have famous authors speak, and a costume parade and much more. And it is simple to get to \u2013 just a short walk from the HaShalom train station in central Tel Aviv. Which makes it easy even for old people like me to get there…<\/p>\n

ICON took place from October 12 – 14, 2014 this year. For information on future events, check out the ICON website<\/a>\u00a0 and ICON facebook page<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I am not your typical ICON participant. I’m a mom over the age of 50 (okay, okay \u2013 nearly 60).\u00a0 There were some people over 50 at ICON \u2013 but not many. Which is a shame, because ICON is really fun.\u00a0 I confess right here in the beginning that I didn\u2019t go to a single […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":43,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30334","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-culture"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30334","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/43"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=30334"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30334\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=30334"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=30334"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=30334"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}