Pages 11 and 12 cover the fascinating topics of ‘panels’ and ‘video’. It would appear that the author of the latter had *slightly more* to say on their topic, as the former has enough white space for another of the indescribable doodles that grace the pages of this progress report.
panels
Time catches up to all of us. Yes, the convention is almost upon us once again. The Programming Committee is working hard to create a varied and interesting programme that hopefully not too many people will complain about, after all, somebody always complains. Even if their complaining is about too much to do. There will be a mix of the usual events, panels, talks and such, along with some new ideas.
Here are several items of note, that may grab your interest, R.A. Lafferty’s “Interurban Queen” alternate universe panel, “Physicist free” world building, book launch (Going Home Again – Howard’s new book from Eidolon Publications), Mythology presentation and discussion, a few gaming panels, Science Fiction Rock’n’Roll (will never die), Readings from our main Guests (Howard’s readings are legendary in the SF convention world and really should not be missed), Rubber Suit monsters, The Great Debate, Comics, Anime, Star Trek, B5, the Zombie panel and so much more that it will melt your brain, well at least mine.
Now that I’ve told you what’s going to happen, I can fill you in on the format. We have three main rooms, two will be used for programming events, panels and such one will be used for gaming, free-forming, the Market day and anything else we can think of to keep it in use. All the major Guest events will occur in the Main programming room. We also have a Fan lounge, a video room and four small rooms, which can be accessed during the Con if people want to hold small discussions or on the spot games (Nuclear War).
video
Greetings,
The first order of business is to introduce the victims..er…volunteers who are the Video Committee. We are Simon Oxwell, John Samuel, and Grant Watson.
This year’s Video Committee have decided to shamelessly copy the format of last year’s programme. Each of the Committee members will hold a screening of personal favourites one night from midnight to dawn. Currently the themes are expected to be:
| Night | Perpetrator | Theme |
| Friday | Simon | Technogeek |
| Saturday | John | The Inevitable Anime |
| Sunday | Grant | Cult British Television |
It is rumoured that feature items of the theme nights will be Tron, the final episodes of El Hazzard: The Magnificent World, and The Prisoner. Of course, these rumours are vigorously denied and have no substance whatsoever.
The practice of “Morning Cartoons will also be stolen from last year’s programme. In a sadistic move ordered by the chief programming guru David Yeates (We deny all responsibility), the Banana Splits will be shown each morning at 7:00 AM.
Continuing the fine old practice of plagiarism, an alternate video room will be available for free form programming. So if you miss something, or have something you want to show this can be arranged.
Mystery Science Theatre 3000 will be making an appearance, probably several appearances. Other feature items to look out for will include items related to panels or panels with a video theme (including a possible “Not All Dubs Are Evil” panel).
If you ask really nicely, we might just screen “Neverwhere”. Maybe.
The last three pages (13, 14, and the back cover) consist of 13) a short blurb entitled ‘meetings at the moon’, with the white space at the bottom cleverly disguised with a doodle of what may or may not be a 4 armed alien; 14. a list of current members (including a number of the usual suspects) and BC) a half page that acted as the front for posting and a half page of information about the committee, the associates of the committee, a link to the webpage [remember, this was 1996], and a little bit of administrative gumph. The gumph includes “Thank you to Rachel R for internal artwork.”
meetings at the moon
As you may know, we’ve been holding informal meetings at the Moon Cafe in Northbridge, on the last Tuesday of every month. Attendance has been fair, but I would like to encourage more people to attend. Why? Because it’s a lot of fun, catching up with other Con goers, and most of the committee usually attends. We also like to hear your opinions on events at the Con and what you would like to see happen. Remember, Mondays and Tuesdays are cheap pasta nights at the Moon. If you’ve never attended a Con and want to find out what all the fuss is about come along and meet people who know.
Remember we try to make these social evenings, so come along and have some fun. The address, for those of you who haven’t been there before, is 323 William Street Northbridge, just up from the corner of Newcastle Street.
The next meeting at the Moon will occur on the 26th of November. People will be there from 6:30pm till about 10:30pm or later depending on how much fun we’re having. Other days at the Moon Tue 10th December, Mon 30th December and the 14th of January.
Remember the more you put into the convention, the more you will get out of it. If you have ideas for panel, events, etc and you are unable to come along to the Moon, contact me or forever hold your peace. You can talk to me about any part of programming by calling men on (XX) XXX-XXX, or by emailing me at yeates@[domain omitted].