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    this con is on

    Houston artist unleashes new free virtual pop culture convention

    Craig Lindsey
    Apr 28, 2020 | 5:10 pm
    Tiffany Shepis QuarantinedCon
    Scream queen actress Tiffany Shepis will make an appearance at QuarantinedCon.
    Photo courtesy of Tiffany Shepis

    Though states around the country— including Texas— have been slowly but surely been trying to reopen businesses and public places and so forth amid this global pandemic, there have been many events that are still cancelled and won’t go down until sometime next year.

    For those disappointed that Comicpalooza had to cancel its festivities this year, a new online convention is ready to sate your geeky thirst. On Saturday and Sunday, May 2 and 3, locals can go online and attend QuarantinedCon, a new pop-culture convention where guests can hang out with celebs, get items from vendors, and enjoy the same convention fun right in the comfort of their own home.

    The con is mainly the brainchild of Dirk Strangely, a Las Vegas-born, Houston-based multimedia artist and frequent guest at comic-book conventions. He has built that convention over at his online platform known as ArtFarm.tv.

    “It’s something that me and a few people in my network have been building for about three years now,” Strangely (government name: John Christopher Carson), tells CultureMap. “We’ve been helping artists manage their online business and offline business. But, when the pandemic hit, I realized the whole industry basically tanked, and all the people in my network have been wondering how they’re gonna make a living… And my platform is the perfect place to have a convention.

    So, what I did was put my network to use to get the word out to supply and provide people in my community and in my industry a means to continue business in a pop-culture convention industry.”

    This convention is a free-for-all in every sense of the term. People can check out everything from magicians to people doing balloon-animal tutorials to live concerts to watch parties over on Facebook — all for free. Strangely has already rounded up quite a collection of guests.

    John Kassir, who voiced the Crypt Keeper from HBO’s Tales from the Crypt, will be in the house, along with horror icon Kane Hodder (who has played Jason in many a Friday the 13th movie) and Deadwood cast members Peter Jason, Larry Cedar, and Pasha D. Lychnikoff, among others.

    “Once I started getting some of them set up,” says Strangely, “word of mouth started spreading like wildfire. And even with the celebrities, when I got one of them, they would tell their friends that they’re doing it, and their friends — obviously they’re gonna have other celebrity friends. So, they tell their friends and their friends are calling me like, ‘Hey, I’d love to be part of this too.’”

    Strangely is hoping that this online convention will entice other well-known conventions to hit him and his platform up about doing online extensions of their conventions that people all over the world can attend.

    “Conventions are a huge part of our industry and, yes, we’re helping all the people who go to conventions,” he says. “But what about the actual conventions themselves. We are going to help them do their own virtual, online conventions and provide a full-blown experience like they provide physically. And, if we do go back to gathering again soon, we’re also gonna do it to supplement their convention. So, they’re not limited to who can come to their convention geographically.”

    For more info on QuarantinedCon, visit the official site.

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    news/entertainment

    Rising up

    Houston chef slices into Gordon Ramsay-led cooking competition show

    Brianna Caleri
    Feb 2, 2026 | 4:00 pm
    Trinidad González Next Level Chef
    A Trinidad González/Facebook
    Chef Trinidad "Machete" González is competing on Next Level Chef.

    A Houston chef is showcasing his skills on Season 5 of Next Level Chef. Trinidad Gonzalez, better known locally as Chef Machete is one of the professional chefs who will compete in cooking challenges for the opportunity to win $250,000 and professional mentorship from celebrity chef judges Gordon Ramsay, Nyesha Arrington, and Richard Blais.

    This Fox show has a unique conceit. Chef teams work together in three kitchen stacked on top of each other, like a strange multi-story culinary incubator where the top floor's kitchen is pristine, with state-of-the-art equipment, the bottom floor's kitchen is decrepit, and the middle floor is an average commercial kitchen. Other twists bring added challenges.

    Locally known for his Bay Area taqueria Gordo Niños, Machete is a self-taught chef who serves fusion style tacos and burritos. Available with fillings such as chicken, pastor, and beef, the chef's "secret menu" of over-the-top items such as deep-fried burritos or the "Surf N Turf Killa-Dilla," a quesadilla stuffed with shrimp, carne asada, french fries, guacamole, two kinds of cheese, and Mexican ketchup — add the chef's signature "Lean Sauce" for another $1. He's also a multi-time winner of taco competition that's part of the University of St. Thomas's popular Two Saints and a Taco fundraiser.

    Machete survived the first episode, which aired on January 29, making him eligible to be drafted onto a team led by one of the judges. A new episode, which debuts this Thursday, February 5, will feature two Texas-based "social media" chefs, Tim Laielli and Christian Alquiza.

    Laielli, who is based in Dripping Springs, has 1.4 million followers on Instagram and 910,000 subscribers on YouTube. He doesn't have an obvious signature style that viewers can expect him to lean on in the competition. If anything, his strength may be his willingness to try new recipes, often using his daughters' requests and cuisines around the world as a springboard (whether complying or completely ignoring them) into dishes like Thai curry, homemade McGriddles, and a lot of steaks.

    Over in Austin proper, Alquiza posts videos under the punny account name @illsqueezeya. He's also worked for the channel First We Feast, where he hosts Hot Kitchen, a snappy instructional show focusing on indulgent, dramatic foods like super-hot chicken and a 10,000-calorie cheat meal.

    Alquiza's personal videos follow more of the standard food show format, with the chef speaking to the camera and offering step-by-step instructions to follow along with. Even though his image is mostly wrapped up with First We Feast, Next Level Chef considers him a social media chef.

    The two Austin chefs have even collaborated before. Things seem to have gone well on the show, since all three Texas chefs posed for a picture at Beyond The Lines Tattoo in Austin, with a text overlay revealing that the chefs got inked up together.

    Next Level Chef season 5 contestants at Beyond the Line Tattoo Looks like the chefs had a good time.Beyond the Lines Tattoo/Instagram

    Viewers can watch Next Level Chef every Thursday on Fox or streaming the next day on Hulu.

    ----

    Eric Sandler contributed to this article.

    Trinidad Gonz\u00e1lez Next Level Chef

    A Trinidad González/Facebook

    Chef Trinidad "Machete" González is competing on Next Level Chef.

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