HERE's a review I did of a scifi convention I attended
Hi Catherine,
I limited my spell checking to Americanization of common words like
emphasize, etc. Apart from those, and changing colour to color, there was
little to change
I have to correct these, other wise our automailer demands a correction for
every copy it sends out and it takes all day. It is quite happy to accept a
different spelling for a word in a custom dictionary, but not from the main
dictionary, so these common words just keep popping up if we don't change
them. I did explain this in the newsletter, so you needn't worry that your
Aussie friends will think you've gone "yank" on them.
Your dialect input is untouched.
Also, I changed the spelling of Robert Silverberg's name to it's correct
form. An easy mistake to make.
Best wishes,
David
-----Original Message-----
From: Eastlant Sci-Fi Group [mailto:eastlant@kua.net]
Sent: Tuesday, May 01, 2001 11:38 AM
To: Eastlant Automailer
Subject: Convention Reports and Open Newsletter - May 2001
Eastlant Sci-Fi Group
Convention Reports and Open Newsletter
May 2001
Introduction
This section will appear in this issue only, so please bear with us as we try to explain what this is all about, and persuade you to contribute.
General
As we have now effectively withdrawn from organizing conventions, it makes sense for us to use our communications network to allow others to spread the word about events in their own area, either those they have been involved in or attended as a delegate.
As a result, every month we will publish this combined convention report and open newsletter, providing we have something to put in it. This is a forum for you to comment on anything that interests you in Fandom, Genre TV and Movies or anything else that interests you.
We will compile and publish this newsletter without editorializing or commenting, except where we are specifically invited to add information on a specific topic, or asked for an opinion.
The only changes we will make, however, are to spelling. In order for our automailer to work properly, the spelling has to be standardized to American English; otherwise it kicks out any message we try to send for further correction. We apologize for this requirement, especially as we know that a lot of the input to this newsletter will be from clubs and convention committees and fans in the UK and Australasia.
In addition to the Con Reports and Open Newsletter sections, we also intend to include URLs to club and convention websites, announcements, Small Ads, or anything else that you are interested in. If you run a club, let us know about you – location, meeting times, and dates, website, etc. Any permanent information will be published every month in a special club section which will eventually grow into a reference for any new contacts we make via newsgroups, introductions, etc, so you could well gain some new members from it.
This newsletter will be published usually during the first week of every month, but will refer to the previous month’s correspondence, so June’s edition will contain everything we received in May.
Convention Reports
Anyone is welcome to send in a report on any event they have attended, or on progress towards events they are planning.
As we intend not to editorialize, you should take great care not include anything controversial or offensive in your report. If you do, our only choice is to omit the item entirely and send it back to you for amendment. This doesn’t mean that you can’t criticize failures or shortcomings, just do so constructively.
Open Newsletter
In this section, you can send in any comments, questions or short articles on any subject you like, as long as it has some connection to our genre. Such things could include:
Your opinions of the Buffy move to UPN;
Thoughts on the writers’ strike;
Comments on how genre shows are treated on your local TV system;
Movie, book, game or video reviews;
Invitations to events, movies, parties, etc in your immediate vicinity;
Items for sale or wanted – genre-related please – no furniture or 3 bedroom duplexes;
Anything else that fits the pattern or takes your fancy.
Club Section
Send us your club details and we will include them here, and will leave them in the newsletter until you send us any modifications or tell us to remove the item. If you have a website that is open to browsers, feel free to include that also.
That should cover just about everything, but if you have any ideas, feel free to suggest them. The idea of these newsletters is to provide as much information to our subscribers as possible, so we are open to any reasonable ideas.
So, on with the first issue.
Convention Reports
Delegate Reports:
SWANCON # 26 in Perth, Western Australia 2001
I hereby give permission for this email report to be sent onwards to other email addresses, and internet newsgroups, and may be loaded up to websites and used in print fanzines which are not primarily intended for profit, also it may be edited for length, where such editing does not change the original meaning and intent, subject to being credited to me (as listed below in my 'signature').
I've just got back home from attending my 6th "Swancon". Another absolutely excellent time.....what more can I say.
The state of WA is approx 4 times the size of Texas, yet the total state population is only about 1.8 Million people, of which about 1.4 M live in the greater Perth area. Perth is the state capital, and the only "real" city in WA.)
Perhaps that explains why Swancon's are so precious to us. WA's Swancon is considered by many to be the best regular convention to be held in Australia, and it's Australia's only regular "generalist" convention. (In order to capture from as great a population of fandom as possible, as well as scifi books, movies, and TV series, gaming, fanzines, anime' cartoons, RPG freeform and an Academic stream are also to be found there).
This year's Swancon was held over the Easter long weekend, Thurs 12 April to Mon 16 April 2001 at "The Rydges" Hotel in Central Perth. I don't know the official figures but Swancons usually get approx attendance total somewhere around 300 to 350.
As a convention venue it was very good, and the con areas were reasonably wheelchair accessible for the couple of participants affected. (There was just one minor incident that I heard about, whereby a wheelchair and an elevator door, tried to re-enact a scene from the recent film "Gladiator" )
(At a con several years ago, only one of the con's 7 main rooms had been wheelchair accessible, although the hotel had promised the con organizing committee a year earlier that it would be 100 % in compliance with disability access guidelines)
The Rydges is a 4 star hotel and the rooms are priced accordingly. The Room rate was shocking, for three of us sharing a room, without breakfasts or any extras AT ALL, the basic room rate was over $200 per night. For that price we didn't even get a free newspaper daily or a bowl of fruit in our room, something we'd got previously at a 3.5 star hotel. Unfortunately I didn't realize until after the con had started, and we'd already booked in, that a Holiday Inn was located almost directly across the road which was charging almost half that rate, and that another hotel just a short walk down the road charged only $80 per night, for a 3 occupancy room...........golly if I'd known that earlier it would've given me an extra $160 to spend on stuff there, eh! (My 2 room companions also). Also a substantial disappointment was that the in-house movie channel, was a "pay-per-view" system. Previously I've stayed at two star type places and their movie channels were always free.
Pretty damn poor value for money I reckon. I definitely won't be staying at a Rydges Hotel again, anytime soon.
Swancons run a video-room 24 hours a day, and often there's an extra "alternative" video stream running from Midnight through to 7 am, so for reasons of personal safety I like to have accommodation at the convention venue (or very nearby would be ok) in case I decide to attend something at nothing o'clock in the morning.
Next year's Swancon, indeed the next 2 years cons, are to be held in the 3.5 star Kings hotel in central Perth. The same venue where I attended my first con 6 years ago. The huge rooms there are nearly half the price, and the convention areas are good.
I will especially NOT, just be a name-dropper, (I'll keep it to the Absolute minimum, please don't be offended if your name is not mentioned) or this report would be boring for those not associated with WA fandom and others who weren't at the con. However I cannot fail to mention that the International Guest of Honor was Robert Silverberg.
"J.D.".........After seeing his new book on a merchant's selling table, I was about to make some disparaging remarks about Jack Dann, along the lines of "That cheeky bastard wants us to buy his new book, but hasn't got the bloomin' decency to even turn up to Swancon" (with my tongue, very firmly planted in my cheek, I must emphasize). My mouth opened to say those words, but just before the sound came out, I caught a glimpse of Janeen Webb circulating through the crowd. (For those that don't know, JW = aka Mrs. Jack Dann). So I knew Old Jack was sneakin' around somewhere ! Jack and Janeen come over from Melbourne for almost every Swancon. Jack's hilarious talks and MC-ing, is not to be missed, and Janeen's often to be found on the more Academic type panels.
I regret that this Swancon I only got to attend parts of Jack and Robert's speeches, there just seemed to be too many things on at once (and that wasn't even counting the video streams........this year I saw one item only in the main video room, and nothing of the alternative video stream). There were up to 4 rooms available for panels, one room being a normal double bed type hotel room with the bed removed and about 16 chairs instead. The "Academic" stream panel item, held in that room, that had the word "Buffy" in the title, was, not surprisingly packed out to about 30 people...........hint to con organizers: If it's got "Buffy" in the title, schedule it for the biggest room you've got! As well as Sara Buttsworth and Tess Williams, Helen Merrick was also a part of the academic stream this year, and I remember her from the Swancon 6 years ago too.
Kate Orman and Jonathon Blum were always 'round somewhere, when not attending panels, they have both published many authorized Dr Who novels.
It's generally agreed that guests are "more accessible" at 'small' cons Like Swancon. You really are just more likely to run into them in the lift, or over a cuppa somewhere.
Other interesting panels featured Aussies who had worked, and were working, on some of the US financed TV and movie stuff, in the major studios located in Sydney and Brisbane (Gold Coast).
I must mention, Cathy Cupitt's (soon to be, Dr C.C. Phd) panel where she gave us her verbal report of attending the Worldcon in Chicago last year, as Australia's DUFF fan delegate. Some great stories she told, she promised a written report later. She was flogging off Janice's fanzine-report of her attendance at the 1999 Worldcon in Melbourne, as a fundraiser. I can say I did my bit, and bought a copy.
I look forward to Cathy's full written report later, but a couple of Stories just stand out to be told. I don't want to "steal the thunder" from a couple of Cathy's best though. Look out for Cath's DUFF report,(hopefully appearing soon) and especially look for the stories about the Chocolate coated frozen banana, and the gang of motorcycle bikies !
On a more serious note, Cathy said she'd read reports about "The graying of fandom" on the internet but didn't know what they were on about. However in Chicago she noticed that American fans really were an older average age than Aussie fans. Exactly why the reason for this she didn't know. (Or if she did say, I must've forgotten.....my age catching up with me ! ) My thoughts, based on what little I know, I must admit, are perhaps we need to try more to accommodate younger fans with their anime and Pokemon, Sony Playstation computer games and Buffy, in with us older folk who grew up with Star Trek (The original series) and Arthur C Clarke and Isaac Asimov books Cathy Cupitt also mentioned a fanzine panel she'd attended while at Chicon.
On the panel were 2 Hugo winners and 3 Hugo nominees, and yet the audience that turned out seemed to be barely a dozen people from a convention total of some 5000 approx. She reckons that nearly half of those that did turn up were Aussies anyway. Australia would seem to be leading the world in fanzine interest and production, per head of population at least. Perhaps this area of fandom deserves more study and thought.
Another fanzine fund-raiser I bought was the "ConSensual" "slash" text story book (part proceeds to an Aids charity). I'd sorta half-heard of this "slash" thing before at earlier Swancons. The ConSensual book features a variety of stories by different authors, but they are not individually identified, part of the fun is to try to guess which author wrote which story. Consensual started with a panel (including the books 3 co-editors and some of the contributors), with different members reading each story from the beginning up to the point where the first "too explicit" word was. Some stories got almost fully read aloud, while others stopped after one sentence or so. The book was then offered for sale at the end of that panel, and later at a ConSensual Room Party (a very polite and decent and tame affair I must point out) however we did have a gross of condoms to blow up into balloons. With the help of a hand operated pumping device, I got one condom up to nearly a meter long before it popped.
Further, it was discovered that condomballoons could be statically charged by rubbing them on some willing volunteer's hair, and they would then stick to the hotel room's ceiling !
Just before midnight, I noticed some activities had spilled out of the 2 hotel rooms set aside for gaming, and about 3 separate clusters of gamers were sprawled across the floor of the second floor, just in front of the elevators. One group was using a 4 player chessboard. The game in progress finished then, and I was invited to sit in. OK it took me just under 2 hours to be eliminated but at least I wasn't the first one to die ! The 4 player chessgame apparently came over from South Africa many years ago (It had an R.S.A. patent number). I took sufficient notes to be able to fashion one for myself, now I just need to go into a games shop and buy 2 identical chessboards to cut up and re-fashion, and 2 different colored sets of identical pieces (That one was Red/Yellow/Blue/Green, but the blue and green pieces were difficult to differentiate, especially in a hotel corridor during the wee small hours). Then I'll be ready for next year, eh.
Comics aren't really my thing, but I do try to expand my horizons at every con, so I attended one panel titled something like "The comics you absolutely must have" or some-such. I took notes during that panel, and later on Easter Saturday, when most shops were open, I went to a nearby comics specialty shop. To my great regret "Homicidal Lesbian Terrorist" was not available.......aahh, pity.
However at that comics panel I had bought a copy of Grant Watson's comic-fanzine.
During the combined awards ceremony, later (being the WA state awards Known as "Tin Ducks" and the Australian National awards, for which WA was hosting them this year, called "Ditmars") Grant won so many awards that he nearly wore a rut in the carpet with his feet alone as he walked up and down the room to the podium and back to his seat. By the end of the awards ceremony Grant was almost overcome by tears.
Totally overcome by tears, were the identical twins Ruth and Rachel Turner who won an award for voluntary services to fandom (which they definitely deserve.....they're always bopping 'round like busy little bees, fundraising and organizing things for Jafwa etc.....The Japanese Animation Fans of WA club.).
I won't name her directly, but "Subverting the dominant paradigm" (as she put it in University-speak) was a well known fan and past committee member who's always to be found at Swancons, bare-foot of course. At one point I heard a member of hotel staff giving her an ear-full, and she was giving back as good as she got ! (Note for overseas.......in Australia it is 'almost' universally acceptable to be barefoot in most
places..........except in fancy hotels that is ! )
I attended both of the business meetings, re the future WA Swancon bid selection, and the future National convention/Ditmars. WA was the only bidder for the Nat-con in 2003 so we have it again them. Mention was made that lately Perth and Melbourne seem to have been hogging the Nat-cons, (Melbourne has it next year) but quite simply no-one else has been applying to have them. It was suggested that both Adelaide SA and Canberra ACT have a strong fan base and that one of them should put together a bid for a future Nat-con. Come on guys ! We're not deliberately hogging them all, we do want to share ! Years ago, the Nat-con only came to WA occasionally, and in those years Swancon swelled by over 100 extra attendees from the Eastern States.
One panel I attended "Song-vids, what are they and how are they made ?" Aha so that's what those fan-made things I got second-hand are. I reckon they're really great. We were shown 2 on videotape and 2 as computer thingies.
Anime' is not usually my specialty, but I was most impressed with those I saw. Now I want to add collecting song-vids to my videotape wish-list !
Since attending my first Swancon 6 years ago, and thinking, "Golly, where have you been, all of my life" I haven't missed a single one. And I've already booked and paid for next years (partly so's I get the cheapest early bird rate). If I can give next year's a quick plug ......You've got up to 30 June 01 to pay for next year's Swancon at the earlybird rate of $80 (That's Australian dollars, so only about $ 42 in US money, or about $100 in New Zealand pesos).......and what will that get you ? Five days of the most fun you can have with your clothes on, at the best con in Australia from Thurs 28 March through to Mon 1st April 2002, at The Kings Hotel in Perth (Hotel room costs extra, obviously, if required ! ) Checkout www.swancon.com for details or to book. (The theme will be "Dragons" - Mmmm! Sounds like some interesting masquerade costumes there, and probably with long tails to trip over and wings to bang into ! ) See ya there!
For those of you who can't wait until April 2002, this year, for the first time ever, we in WA are having a "mini-con" in November 2001 to tide us over between Swancons. It's called Borderlands and will have an emphasis on nanotech and bionics. No website yet, but bug Simon on soxwell@central.murdoch.edu.au if you want info or to book. Max number limited to 130 humans.
Catherine Jemma (Cate)
21 April 2001
Outback Western Australia
catherinejemma@myway.comREMOVEthis
Upcoming Events:
Fan run conventions
FSF presents James Marsters (Spike from Buffy) in 2 x one-day events, May 19 and 20 in Sydney, Australia.
FSF presents Emma Caulfield (Anya from Buffy) and Brian Thompson ( Alien Bounty Hunter from X files amongst many other roles) in Sydney on June 3.
Contact FSF at bookings@fsf.com.au or visit www.fsf.com.au
These guests will be also doing an event in Auckland, New Zealand on May 26/27.
Go to www.pulpexpo.com for information.
Open Newsletter
This is an old-fashioned idea, going back to the time before the Internet and newsgroups. It used to be the standard format for many fanzines, with subscribers writing into an open section of the magazine where they could air their views and ask questions.
I was very sad to see the demise of this form of communication, but perhaps we can have our own version of it here. This is your forum to comment, criticize and even complain, about TV, Movies, Networks, Producers, even us if we have upset you.
So, let’s have your input for next month’s issue.
Club Section
In this first issue, we would like to specifically mention our good friends and colleagues at Infinite Frontiers, one of the UK’s premiere SF clubs,
http://www.infinitefrontiers.co.uk
and Friends of Science Fiction (FSF) in Sydney Australia.
www.fsf.com.au/
If you run a club, let us have your details and we will post them here next month and in all future issues.
Hi Catherine,
I limited my spell checking to Americanization of common words like
emphasize, etc. Apart from those, and changing colour to color, there was
little to change
I have to correct these, other wise our automailer demands a correction for
every copy it sends out and it takes all day. It is quite happy to accept a
different spelling for a word in a custom dictionary, but not from the main
dictionary, so these common words just keep popping up if we don't change
them. I did explain this in the newsletter, so you needn't worry that your
Aussie friends will think you've gone "yank" on them.
Your dialect input is untouched.
Also, I changed the spelling of Robert Silverberg's name to it's correct
form. An easy mistake to make.
Best wishes,
David
-----Original Message-----
From: Eastlant Sci-Fi Group [mailto:eastlant@kua.net]
Sent: Tuesday, May 01, 2001 11:38 AM
To: Eastlant Automailer
Subject: Convention Reports and Open Newsletter - May 2001
Eastlant Sci-Fi Group
Convention Reports and Open Newsletter
May 2001
Introduction
This section will appear in this issue only, so please bear with us as we try to explain what this is all about, and persuade you to contribute.
General
As we have now effectively withdrawn from organizing conventions, it makes sense for us to use our communications network to allow others to spread the word about events in their own area, either those they have been involved in or attended as a delegate.
As a result, every month we will publish this combined convention report and open newsletter, providing we have something to put in it. This is a forum for you to comment on anything that interests you in Fandom, Genre TV and Movies or anything else that interests you.
We will compile and publish this newsletter without editorializing or commenting, except where we are specifically invited to add information on a specific topic, or asked for an opinion.
The only changes we will make, however, are to spelling. In order for our automailer to work properly, the spelling has to be standardized to American English; otherwise it kicks out any message we try to send for further correction. We apologize for this requirement, especially as we know that a lot of the input to this newsletter will be from clubs and convention committees and fans in the UK and Australasia.
In addition to the Con Reports and Open Newsletter sections, we also intend to include URLs to club and convention websites, announcements, Small Ads, or anything else that you are interested in. If you run a club, let us know about you – location, meeting times, and dates, website, etc. Any permanent information will be published every month in a special club section which will eventually grow into a reference for any new contacts we make via newsgroups, introductions, etc, so you could well gain some new members from it.
This newsletter will be published usually during the first week of every month, but will refer to the previous month’s correspondence, so June’s edition will contain everything we received in May.
Convention Reports
Anyone is welcome to send in a report on any event they have attended, or on progress towards events they are planning.
As we intend not to editorialize, you should take great care not include anything controversial or offensive in your report. If you do, our only choice is to omit the item entirely and send it back to you for amendment. This doesn’t mean that you can’t criticize failures or shortcomings, just do so constructively.
Open Newsletter
In this section, you can send in any comments, questions or short articles on any subject you like, as long as it has some connection to our genre. Such things could include:
Your opinions of the Buffy move to UPN;
Thoughts on the writers’ strike;
Comments on how genre shows are treated on your local TV system;
Movie, book, game or video reviews;
Invitations to events, movies, parties, etc in your immediate vicinity;
Items for sale or wanted – genre-related please – no furniture or 3 bedroom duplexes;
Anything else that fits the pattern or takes your fancy.
Club Section
Send us your club details and we will include them here, and will leave them in the newsletter until you send us any modifications or tell us to remove the item. If you have a website that is open to browsers, feel free to include that also.
That should cover just about everything, but if you have any ideas, feel free to suggest them. The idea of these newsletters is to provide as much information to our subscribers as possible, so we are open to any reasonable ideas.
So, on with the first issue.
Convention Reports
Delegate Reports:
SWANCON # 26 in Perth, Western Australia 2001
I hereby give permission for this email report to be sent onwards to other email addresses, and internet newsgroups, and may be loaded up to websites and used in print fanzines which are not primarily intended for profit, also it may be edited for length, where such editing does not change the original meaning and intent, subject to being credited to me (as listed below in my 'signature').
I've just got back home from attending my 6th "Swancon". Another absolutely excellent time.....what more can I say.
The state of WA is approx 4 times the size of Texas, yet the total state population is only about 1.8 Million people, of which about 1.4 M live in the greater Perth area. Perth is the state capital, and the only "real" city in WA.)
Perhaps that explains why Swancon's are so precious to us. WA's Swancon is considered by many to be the best regular convention to be held in Australia, and it's Australia's only regular "generalist" convention. (In order to capture from as great a population of fandom as possible, as well as scifi books, movies, and TV series, gaming, fanzines, anime' cartoons, RPG freeform and an Academic stream are also to be found there).
This year's Swancon was held over the Easter long weekend, Thurs 12 April to Mon 16 April 2001 at "The Rydges" Hotel in Central Perth. I don't know the official figures but Swancons usually get approx attendance total somewhere around 300 to 350.
As a convention venue it was very good, and the con areas were reasonably wheelchair accessible for the couple of participants affected. (There was just one minor incident that I heard about, whereby a wheelchair and an elevator door, tried to re-enact a scene from the recent film "Gladiator" )
(At a con several years ago, only one of the con's 7 main rooms had been wheelchair accessible, although the hotel had promised the con organizing committee a year earlier that it would be 100 % in compliance with disability access guidelines)
The Rydges is a 4 star hotel and the rooms are priced accordingly. The Room rate was shocking, for three of us sharing a room, without breakfasts or any extras AT ALL, the basic room rate was over $200 per night. For that price we didn't even get a free newspaper daily or a bowl of fruit in our room, something we'd got previously at a 3.5 star hotel. Unfortunately I didn't realize until after the con had started, and we'd already booked in, that a Holiday Inn was located almost directly across the road which was charging almost half that rate, and that another hotel just a short walk down the road charged only $80 per night, for a 3 occupancy room...........golly if I'd known that earlier it would've given me an extra $160 to spend on stuff there, eh! (My 2 room companions also). Also a substantial disappointment was that the in-house movie channel, was a "pay-per-view" system. Previously I've stayed at two star type places and their movie channels were always free.
Pretty damn poor value for money I reckon. I definitely won't be staying at a Rydges Hotel again, anytime soon.
Swancons run a video-room 24 hours a day, and often there's an extra "alternative" video stream running from Midnight through to 7 am, so for reasons of personal safety I like to have accommodation at the convention venue (or very nearby would be ok) in case I decide to attend something at nothing o'clock in the morning.
Next year's Swancon, indeed the next 2 years cons, are to be held in the 3.5 star Kings hotel in central Perth. The same venue where I attended my first con 6 years ago. The huge rooms there are nearly half the price, and the convention areas are good.
I will especially NOT, just be a name-dropper, (I'll keep it to the Absolute minimum, please don't be offended if your name is not mentioned) or this report would be boring for those not associated with WA fandom and others who weren't at the con. However I cannot fail to mention that the International Guest of Honor was Robert Silverberg.
"J.D.".........After seeing his new book on a merchant's selling table, I was about to make some disparaging remarks about Jack Dann, along the lines of "That cheeky bastard wants us to buy his new book, but hasn't got the bloomin' decency to even turn up to Swancon" (with my tongue, very firmly planted in my cheek, I must emphasize). My mouth opened to say those words, but just before the sound came out, I caught a glimpse of Janeen Webb circulating through the crowd. (For those that don't know, JW = aka Mrs. Jack Dann). So I knew Old Jack was sneakin' around somewhere ! Jack and Janeen come over from Melbourne for almost every Swancon. Jack's hilarious talks and MC-ing, is not to be missed, and Janeen's often to be found on the more Academic type panels.
I regret that this Swancon I only got to attend parts of Jack and Robert's speeches, there just seemed to be too many things on at once (and that wasn't even counting the video streams........this year I saw one item only in the main video room, and nothing of the alternative video stream). There were up to 4 rooms available for panels, one room being a normal double bed type hotel room with the bed removed and about 16 chairs instead. The "Academic" stream panel item, held in that room, that had the word "Buffy" in the title, was, not surprisingly packed out to about 30 people...........hint to con organizers: If it's got "Buffy" in the title, schedule it for the biggest room you've got! As well as Sara Buttsworth and Tess Williams, Helen Merrick was also a part of the academic stream this year, and I remember her from the Swancon 6 years ago too.
Kate Orman and Jonathon Blum were always 'round somewhere, when not attending panels, they have both published many authorized Dr Who novels.
It's generally agreed that guests are "more accessible" at 'small' cons Like Swancon. You really are just more likely to run into them in the lift, or over a cuppa somewhere.
Other interesting panels featured Aussies who had worked, and were working, on some of the US financed TV and movie stuff, in the major studios located in Sydney and Brisbane (Gold Coast).
I must mention, Cathy Cupitt's (soon to be, Dr C.C. Phd) panel where she gave us her verbal report of attending the Worldcon in Chicago last year, as Australia's DUFF fan delegate. Some great stories she told, she promised a written report later. She was flogging off Janice's fanzine-report of her attendance at the 1999 Worldcon in Melbourne, as a fundraiser. I can say I did my bit, and bought a copy.
I look forward to Cathy's full written report later, but a couple of Stories just stand out to be told. I don't want to "steal the thunder" from a couple of Cathy's best though. Look out for Cath's DUFF report,(hopefully appearing soon) and especially look for the stories about the Chocolate coated frozen banana, and the gang of motorcycle bikies !
On a more serious note, Cathy said she'd read reports about "The graying of fandom" on the internet but didn't know what they were on about. However in Chicago she noticed that American fans really were an older average age than Aussie fans. Exactly why the reason for this she didn't know. (Or if she did say, I must've forgotten.....my age catching up with me ! ) My thoughts, based on what little I know, I must admit, are perhaps we need to try more to accommodate younger fans with their anime and Pokemon, Sony Playstation computer games and Buffy, in with us older folk who grew up with Star Trek (The original series) and Arthur C Clarke and Isaac Asimov books Cathy Cupitt also mentioned a fanzine panel she'd attended while at Chicon.
On the panel were 2 Hugo winners and 3 Hugo nominees, and yet the audience that turned out seemed to be barely a dozen people from a convention total of some 5000 approx. She reckons that nearly half of those that did turn up were Aussies anyway. Australia would seem to be leading the world in fanzine interest and production, per head of population at least. Perhaps this area of fandom deserves more study and thought.
Another fanzine fund-raiser I bought was the "ConSensual" "slash" text story book (part proceeds to an Aids charity). I'd sorta half-heard of this "slash" thing before at earlier Swancons. The ConSensual book features a variety of stories by different authors, but they are not individually identified, part of the fun is to try to guess which author wrote which story. Consensual started with a panel (including the books 3 co-editors and some of the contributors), with different members reading each story from the beginning up to the point where the first "too explicit" word was. Some stories got almost fully read aloud, while others stopped after one sentence or so. The book was then offered for sale at the end of that panel, and later at a ConSensual Room Party (a very polite and decent and tame affair I must point out) however we did have a gross of condoms to blow up into balloons. With the help of a hand operated pumping device, I got one condom up to nearly a meter long before it popped.
Further, it was discovered that condomballoons could be statically charged by rubbing them on some willing volunteer's hair, and they would then stick to the hotel room's ceiling !
Just before midnight, I noticed some activities had spilled out of the 2 hotel rooms set aside for gaming, and about 3 separate clusters of gamers were sprawled across the floor of the second floor, just in front of the elevators. One group was using a 4 player chessboard. The game in progress finished then, and I was invited to sit in. OK it took me just under 2 hours to be eliminated but at least I wasn't the first one to die ! The 4 player chessgame apparently came over from South Africa many years ago (It had an R.S.A. patent number). I took sufficient notes to be able to fashion one for myself, now I just need to go into a games shop and buy 2 identical chessboards to cut up and re-fashion, and 2 different colored sets of identical pieces (That one was Red/Yellow/Blue/Green, but the blue and green pieces were difficult to differentiate, especially in a hotel corridor during the wee small hours). Then I'll be ready for next year, eh.
Comics aren't really my thing, but I do try to expand my horizons at every con, so I attended one panel titled something like "The comics you absolutely must have" or some-such. I took notes during that panel, and later on Easter Saturday, when most shops were open, I went to a nearby comics specialty shop. To my great regret "Homicidal Lesbian Terrorist" was not available.......aahh, pity.
However at that comics panel I had bought a copy of Grant Watson's comic-fanzine.
During the combined awards ceremony, later (being the WA state awards Known as "Tin Ducks" and the Australian National awards, for which WA was hosting them this year, called "Ditmars") Grant won so many awards that he nearly wore a rut in the carpet with his feet alone as he walked up and down the room to the podium and back to his seat. By the end of the awards ceremony Grant was almost overcome by tears.
Totally overcome by tears, were the identical twins Ruth and Rachel Turner who won an award for voluntary services to fandom (which they definitely deserve.....they're always bopping 'round like busy little bees, fundraising and organizing things for Jafwa etc.....The Japanese Animation Fans of WA club.).
I won't name her directly, but "Subverting the dominant paradigm" (as she put it in University-speak) was a well known fan and past committee member who's always to be found at Swancons, bare-foot of course. At one point I heard a member of hotel staff giving her an ear-full, and she was giving back as good as she got ! (Note for overseas.......in Australia it is 'almost' universally acceptable to be barefoot in most
places..........except in fancy hotels that is ! )
I attended both of the business meetings, re the future WA Swancon bid selection, and the future National convention/Ditmars. WA was the only bidder for the Nat-con in 2003 so we have it again them. Mention was made that lately Perth and Melbourne seem to have been hogging the Nat-cons, (Melbourne has it next year) but quite simply no-one else has been applying to have them. It was suggested that both Adelaide SA and Canberra ACT have a strong fan base and that one of them should put together a bid for a future Nat-con. Come on guys ! We're not deliberately hogging them all, we do want to share ! Years ago, the Nat-con only came to WA occasionally, and in those years Swancon swelled by over 100 extra attendees from the Eastern States.
One panel I attended "Song-vids, what are they and how are they made ?" Aha so that's what those fan-made things I got second-hand are. I reckon they're really great. We were shown 2 on videotape and 2 as computer thingies.
Anime' is not usually my specialty, but I was most impressed with those I saw. Now I want to add collecting song-vids to my videotape wish-list !
Since attending my first Swancon 6 years ago, and thinking, "Golly, where have you been, all of my life" I haven't missed a single one. And I've already booked and paid for next years (partly so's I get the cheapest early bird rate). If I can give next year's a quick plug ......You've got up to 30 June 01 to pay for next year's Swancon at the earlybird rate of $80 (That's Australian dollars, so only about $ 42 in US money, or about $100 in New Zealand pesos).......and what will that get you ? Five days of the most fun you can have with your clothes on, at the best con in Australia from Thurs 28 March through to Mon 1st April 2002, at The Kings Hotel in Perth (Hotel room costs extra, obviously, if required ! ) Checkout www.swancon.com for details or to book. (The theme will be "Dragons" - Mmmm! Sounds like some interesting masquerade costumes there, and probably with long tails to trip over and wings to bang into ! ) See ya there!
For those of you who can't wait until April 2002, this year, for the first time ever, we in WA are having a "mini-con" in November 2001 to tide us over between Swancons. It's called Borderlands and will have an emphasis on nanotech and bionics. No website yet, but bug Simon on soxwell@central.murdoch.edu.au if you want info or to book. Max number limited to 130 humans.
Catherine Jemma (Cate)
21 April 2001
Outback Western Australia
catherinejemma@myway.comREMOVEthis
Upcoming Events:
Fan run conventions
FSF presents James Marsters (Spike from Buffy) in 2 x one-day events, May 19 and 20 in Sydney, Australia.
FSF presents Emma Caulfield (Anya from Buffy) and Brian Thompson ( Alien Bounty Hunter from X files amongst many other roles) in Sydney on June 3.
Contact FSF at bookings@fsf.com.au or visit www.fsf.com.au
These guests will be also doing an event in Auckland, New Zealand on May 26/27.
Go to www.pulpexpo.com for information.
Open Newsletter
This is an old-fashioned idea, going back to the time before the Internet and newsgroups. It used to be the standard format for many fanzines, with subscribers writing into an open section of the magazine where they could air their views and ask questions.
I was very sad to see the demise of this form of communication, but perhaps we can have our own version of it here. This is your forum to comment, criticize and even complain, about TV, Movies, Networks, Producers, even us if we have upset you.
So, let’s have your input for next month’s issue.
Club Section
In this first issue, we would like to specifically mention our good friends and colleagues at Infinite Frontiers, one of the UK’s premiere SF clubs,
http://www.infinitefrontiers.co.uk
and Friends of Science Fiction (FSF) in Sydney Australia.
www.fsf.com.au/
If you run a club, let us have your details and we will post them here next month and in all future issues.
posted by Catherine Jemma at 7:40 PM
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