costumes

Otakon 2013 Diary: One fan’s view

Otakon 2013 Diary: One fan’s view

18 photos

With Otakon – the massive celebration of East Asian pop culture held at the Baltimore Convention Center – now in its 20th year, we wanted an insider’s view of the action.

So we turned to Carrie Wood, who has been attending Otakon since 2002 and has been actively cosplaying (for the uninitiated, that’s when fans dress up as characters from their favorite TV shows or video games) since 2003. Here’s her take on Otakon 2013.

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BronyCon 2013 photo booth: The many faces of ‘My Little Pony’ fans

BronyCon 2013 photo booth: The many faces of ‘My Little Pony’ fans

14 photos

With thousands of “My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic” fans flocking to Baltimore for the annual BronyCon convention, Baltimore Sun photographer and videographer Christopher T. Assaf wanted to look at the individual convention-goers.

To capture the true “brony” spirit, Assaf set up a black backdrop and took portraits of costumed “My Little Pony” fans using the Hipstamatic app on his iPhone. He also asked the subjects of these photos why they came to BronyCon and why they chose their various costumes.

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Man’s best (dressed) friend

Man’s best (dressed) friend

39 photos

This past weekend the Maryland SPCA held their 17th annual “March for the Animals” in Baltimore’s Druid Hill Park. Along with the 1.5 mile walk-a-thon, there was a dog agility course, a “flea-less” market of pet friendly vendors, musical chairs for the dogs, and of course, a pet costume contest. Despite all the attention focused on this wonderful cause, I couldn’t help but wonder whether our four-legged friends love, or loathe, being dressed up for our amusement. Until someone develops a good bark-to-speech app, we’ll just have to settle on appreciating their cuteness, while throwing in a few extra treats for good measure.

Let’s take a quick look at the adorableness from last weekend along with other past pet-centric events.

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