Wandering Luggage

Non-residents of the Crowne Plaza can also leave their luggage with the concierges (Kevin and Scott) for £1 per person.

Is There a Past for Science Fiction?

The panel on Scholarship of the Fan community concluded that fandom, as an oral community, would loose all it had just talked of. Here, then is a record of what otherwise would be lost, by a partial and prejudiced archaeologist.

A wide-ranging panel discussion began by discussing the terms ‘professional’ and ‘academic’, and later introduced the term ‘independent scholar’. We quickly diverted to talk of the insanity of bibliographic referencing by edition date without mentioning the date of original publication. We discussed the different interests and expertises of those who write about science fiction for love, and those who are paid for writing about science fiction, alongside an overwhelming workload which is devoted to other things. And the joys and productivity of collaborative working – most evident in fan-to-scholar personages (e.g. Tom Shippey) and certain conferences (e.g. the Liverpool Conferences).

We concluded with talk of the history of fandom. The value of fanzines and oral testimony were discussed, and skirted briefly around the issue of whether the history of fandom was of interest to scholars outside of fandom.

I left before suggesting that we write a bid to the Heritage Lottery Fund. But if bought enough White Russians, I’ll agree to do anything.

Pat

Wonderful Art

The Art Show went well and was enjoyed by both artists and the convention members who visited it. Final sales totalled £2771. One item remains to be collected by its buyer.

Thanks to Dave Tompkins, Ewan Chrystal, Nojay, Robbie Bourget, Erhard and all the gophers who helped. Also thanks to Rog Peyton for the Art Auction. Service to the state.

John Harold

Thanks!

Many thanks to everybody who helped out at the convention, but the newsletter especially wants to thank the people who kept us supplied with not only contributions, but also lots of illustrations (such as the ever-present ‘Captain Hook’ SMS, John Toon for the imaginary lobster in issue 6, Ila Khan for the above gopher) and photographs (such as John Dallman for most of the masquerade photos, as well as David Cook, David Ulicsak, Jane Killick, Pat Reynolds, Thomas Recktenwald), and everyone else who found the newsroom.

Going Orbital

If anyone has a local Sci-Fi shop, bookshop or library that would be willing to put out Orbital flyers, please collect some from the Orbital desk before you go.

Convoy on the Horizon

Since Convoy is a one year bid, please join now, rather than waiting. You CAN’T wait until next year to get on board, it’s already underway.

Overheard

Iain Coleman (a Scot) striding manfully back to the Crowne Plaza from the City Inn, with the wind blowing freely about his kilt: “Trousers – they’re a gay thing, aren’t they?”

To Gripe Or Not To Gripe

Feedback on Concussion was generally positive. Actually that's not true. The feedback was mainly negative but about relatively small irritations such as signage and programme changes. This counts as positive at 10:00 on a Monday.

As usual, part of the reason given for a lack of nice-to-haves such as better signs was a lack of volunteers – in the month or so before the convention as well as on the day. Last year’s UK Worldcon (unlike ’95 and ’87) does not seem to have generated a great deal of interest in volunteering - perhaps because it ran quite smoothly itself.

One big issue for Concussion has been childcare facilities. Scottish law is much stricter than English law about using qualified childcare and the number of parents who have arrived and asked for childcare was about three times the number who indicated they would even be attending. In other words, the childcare facility was overwhelmed by the number of toddle-in memberships sold.

There was virtually no discussion of the programme, which probably counts as positive feedback too. The only comment was that it was good to have programme starting early and finishing late. Thanks to the late breakfasts available at the weekend it was actually possible for people staying in the main hotel to get to a programme item before breakfast – or two on Saturday if they were really dedicated.

Representatives of Convoy and Orbital were busily noting observations.

Recombinant Daleks

John Dallman wins the Recombination Dalek. Please find a member of the committee to claim your prize.

Dead Dog Video

A player and screen will be available in Orkney this afternoon. Captain Tartan will be showing from 14:00 – from 15:30 it will be serve yourself. All the material from the media programme will be available in case there’s anything you wanted to see but missed.

It Ain’t Over Yet

To reassure all ye helpers: GRT’s are to be accepted until midnight.

Food Corner

A new and strangely apposite crisis on the catering front – an order for salad brought the news that the con has eaten the hotel out of rocket.

Marion Pitman

Indian Mutiny

Bombay Blues, down the side of Glasgow Central Station.

An all-you-can-eat Indian at £9.95 a head for the evening buffet. Distinctly average. Aftertaste: rough and persistent. The food started out tepid and was neither heated nor replaced while we were there. Fine if all you’re looking for is something cheap.

Indefineable Moment

Travelling peacefully up to my room, the lift doors opened on the mezzanine and in got the entire cast of the corsetry panel. As my granddad used to say, “All that meat and no bread!”

I always thought I was a ‘bottom’ man, but I may be considering conversion.

Mike Westhead

T’was Phlosque

And the Unicorns, had dire and nimble hair-care aid

All airbrushed were the Elven groves

And the mimeographs overpaid

Beware the Dragonshlock my son

The clichéd shyte, the colours bright

Beware the jewel-jugged ‘birds’ and shun

The frumrous loads of trash

He took his access card in hand

Long time the ‘tasteful gift’ he sought

Till rested he by an auction twee

And stood quite still... he thought

And while in Fannish thoughts he stood

The Dragonshlock with style quite lame

Posed wistfully in a 2D wood

In an expensive frame!

Now, Lot 1.2.

Who’ll bid? Ah, you!

The Access card went snicker-snack

He paid on cred for with his head

He’d nodded at the back

And hast thou paid for Dragonshlock?

Come to ‘The Arms’! One Beamish, boy!

Caloo Callay! one’s born each day!

He chalked up “Sold: ‘Hiss Joy’ “.

T’was Phlosque

And the Unicorns, had dire and nimble hair-care aid

All airbrushed were the Elven groves

And the mimeographs overpaid

SMS (as spoken during the Masqerade)

Ditmar Awards

The Australian Science Fiction Awards, commonly referred to as the Ditmar Awards, recognise excellence by Australians in Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror, were presented at Conjure, 45th National Science Fiction, Brisbane, Australia.

Best Novel: Geodesica: Ascent - Sean Williams & Shane Dix, Ace

Best Collected Work: Daikaiju! Giant Monster Tales - Robert Hood & Robin Penn, Agog! Press

Best Novella or Novelette: The Grinding House - Kaaron Warren, The Grinding House

Best Short Story: Fresh Young Widow - Kaaron Warren, The Grinding House

Best Professional Artwork: Australian Speculative Fiction: A Genre Overview (cover) - Nick Stathopoulos, Australian Speculative Fiction Project

Best Professional Achievement: Robert Dobson, Robert Hoge, Kate Eltham, Heather Gammage - Clarion South 2005, Clarion South Workshop

Best Fan Achievement: Shane Parker - Conflux Poster Art, Conflux

Best Fan Artist: Edwina Harvey - The Australian Science Fiction Bullsheet, website and newsletter

Best Fanzine/website: Ticonderoga Online (ticonderogaonline.org) - Russell B Farr, et. al.

Best Fan Writer: Shane Jiraiya Cummings - Writer/reviewer, Horror Scope

Best New Talent: Rjurik Davidson

William Atheling Jr. Award: (criticism or review) Divided Kingdom: King Kong vs Godzilla - Robert Hood, King Kong is Back, Benbella Books

Thanks to David Cook for sending these in on the newsletter email address.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ditmar_Award

Heard

The Crowne Plaza shop (on the way to the car-park), sells Scottish legends books, but also has a nifty means of acknowledging visitors. As you enter, the ribbits are not the result of strange hearing related ailments, but are actually from Frederickson*, the guard frog. Not a real frog. Probably.

* Frederick, the original guard frog, died. So this one is “son of …”.

** we don’t do no barking footnotes -ed

Sudoku 3

All right everyone, finally, here is the difficult one (for those few uninitiated, to solve the Sudoku puzzle, simply place numbers in the empty cells so that each row, column and 3x3 block contains all the different numbers – this means no number
can appear twice in any row, column or 3x3 block.).

These Sudoku puzzles were created by Tero Ykspetäjä.

Slippery Slope

What do you get if you ask the hotel for some water for the Ops room?

Friday: Two jugs of chilled water with ice and lemon, presented on a tray with nice water glasses.

Saturday: The same, but with no lemon.

Sunday: No lemon. No tray. Plastic cups.

Monday: No lemon. No jugs. No ice. Just two bottles and some plastic cups.

And what if we were a 5-day convention? Applying the scientific method of extrapolation:

Tuesday: A hose.

Overheard in the bar

"I just went past the filk room. There was one person in there, singing to himself. Does that mean he was wilking?"

Thought for the Day:

“The universe itself is composed of nothing more than an enormous matrix of strings vibrating to their own noodly music, forming a single, unified coherent framework of invisible spaghetti.

Gospel of the Flying Spaghetti Monster.