Review FANDOMEDIA 2006 Hunger. Perth Sept 30 + Oct 1

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FANDOMEDIA 2006 "Hunger"

Recently I attended the second Fandomedia mini-convention, held at the same
venue as last year's, being The Emerald Hotel in Perth (a most excellent
venue for
such conventions)

Not to be confused with Perth/WA's main annual Science Fiction and Fantasy
convention ("Swancon") this was intended only as a much smaller affair.
For 5 years running a mini-convention has been run, at about this time of
year, at The Emerald. This year, a first, the 'Con actually started Friday
evening. I was unable to attend then (as I's staying at Rockingham where
only a
skeleton bus service operates), however I did get to ask "Ju" (the un-ending
bundle of energy who is the Convener of this 'con) on the
Saturday what sorta turnout they had had for the Friday evening and she
said
they'd gotten off to a terrific start with somewhere between 40 and 50
attending then (sorry I missed it).

I arrived Saturday morning well before the 10 am start time of programming.
Quite a number of fans had arrived already, Rob Masters and Alicia Smith
were already at a table gaming with several others (and yes they had even
more new games, including "Not Tonight Josephine").

Someone had brought along a THERIMEN and I had a brief play with it. This
had been assembled from a Dick Smith electronics shop kitset, although they
have existed for over 70 years (originally they ran on valves aka vacuum
tubes and were the size of a large valve radio, nowadays they're little
bigger than a 500 gram block of butter.

A THERIMEN is of course the only musical instrument you play, without
touching it at all. It's actually a kind of electronic sythesizer, with 2
small radiowave antennae. By moving your hands and fingers closer and
further away, from the antennae, you affect the sound output. Not commonly
used in commercial music, the Beach Boys used one in their 1960's hit song
"Good Vibrations".

As a mini-convention Fandomedia ran 2 full time panel-room streams, plus a
part time video-room, so there was always plenty going on. Plus there was a
lounge area with several tables setup, for Gamers or folks with stuff for
sale. I bought a couple of Grant Watson's latest comic creations, but also
present over the weekend was Sally B. and other cohorts representing ASIM
(Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine), Russell Farr and his wife .. (er
"Mrs
Farr" ?) with some specialist clothing items and a large presence by
Fantastic Planet bookshop (thanks for supporting this event guys). Sorry I
don't have url links for the above already imbedded in this review, I might
try to get them sorted later. But they're located at Shop 8 Shafto Lane
just a short walk Westwards from Perth's central mall. Also available in
Shafto Lane are CRUMPLER BAGS ( www.crumpler.com.au ) who were also present
supporting the convention


I wasn't very well for much of Saturday so when the hotel had a room ready
for me about noon, I crept upstairs for an aspirin and a nap.

However I did attend part at least of each panel stream, ducking next door
to just do a head-count on the panels I unavoidably missed.

The numbers attending hovered around the 50 count, adding all rooms together
and including those Gaming or just socialising around. There were still
some 53 folks around for the brief wrap-up and thanks ceremony at the end,
Sunday evening. Some people could only attend on one day or the other due to
work commitments, and I know of other fans who because of commitments were
unable to attend at all. Hopefully the numbers worked out and the
convention broke even with costs, any small surplus returning to WASFF
funds.

The main guest from Interstate was MARIANNE DE PIERRES. She's originally a
sandgroper but now resides in Brisbane, Queensland. She's written a fair
bunch of stuff in the past.

Local guests were Lyn Battersby and Elaine Kemp, both well known in
Perth/WA SciFi fandom circles.

So for those of you who didn't make it along, I'll tell you a few things
that went on. Note that this list is not intended to be a complete rundown
of what happened, just to give you anoverall impression of what went on.

"The Way The Biological Clock Ticks" was one item Saturday morning, the
panel upfront hosted by Sarah Xu (with a suckling babe-in-arms at the time)
the, well known in WA fandom "almost doctor" Cathy Cupitt (....but wait,
there's more, she now *IS* THE Doctor Cathy Cupitt PHd, congratulations
Cath) Elaine Kemp and Shay. Shay, (who's surname I fear escapes me) gave
the panel some male perspective. The audience at this item got to learn more
about IVF and embryoes and cancer and more.

After lunchbreak "Escaping The 2 Headed Monster" was fronted by Elaine Kemp
(longtime partner of reknowned author Stephen Dedman) and Lyn Battersby
(married to Lee Battersby at a past Swancon, some 2 years back, also held at
The Emerald Hotel). Both Elaine and Lyn (previously Lyn Triffitt) are
accomplished authors in their own right, but have partner authors of higher
public profile. Unfortunately I missed this item as I's not well and had to
retreat upstairs for more aspirin and another nap.

An "Erotica Writing Workshop" took place and I arrived at one panel room
just as "Breaking News On Computer Games" was wrapping up, so missed that,
however it was well attended and I'm sure that Grant (Watson?) and Greg (?)
did a great job. Anna H. was wandering around barefoot as usual. Her
offspring had shoes on at one stage, but clearly it's a genetic thing, as
that state of affairs didn't last long. A fluctuating number of toddlers and
young children were around, it's good to see that SciFi fans are helping to
breed up a new generation of SF/F fans.

Just before the dinner (tea) break on Saturday arvo/evening was scheduled
the one item that was clearly indicated as unsuitable for children. It was
Elaine K reading some excerpts from her recently web published erotic work
"Bad Case Of Loving You". The small but fluctuating number of children and
toddlers present were catered for by an excellent piece of
programming, a very much child-friendly event was scheduled opposite
Elaine's reading, in the other panel-room. There were more adults than
children present there, but I commend the 'con organisers/programmers, for
this alternative being available.

The part-time video stream was poorly attended, there's simply no denying
it, but
it was well organised and run, and the programming itself was perfect. A
few old classics, a few brand new items some just days from
their first USA screenings, and with some short "filler items" of cartoons
and musicvideos.

Several times as I passed by I stuck my head in the door (of the small room
used for the video screenings) to do a headcount and the count was zero,
yep, no-one present at all. However the guy running the video-stream (sorry
I don't know his name) was only ever in a room next-door, and would check
back regularly and always kept items
running on schedule, so a really big thanks to him. Sorry I don't know his
name but he's a top dude and is often seen at 'cons helping out.

I actually watched several items on the video program, sometimes I was alone
in the room, sometimes there was upto 5 others present. Perhaps more people
would have attended if a video timetable had been part of the
panel-room-timetable given out as conventioneers arrived, so hopefully 'con
organisers will consider that in future. However I think it was simply the
fact that there was plenty of other interesting stuff going on. Nobody can
be everywhere at once, so you've gotta miss something to attend something
else. The room could have seated more than a dozen fans, and another
half-dozen could have sat on the floor upfront, if needed. I would
recommend that the next mini-convention (NIGHTS EDGE 10 and 11 November
2007, http://nightsedge.blogspot.com) does also run a video program, even
just if only part-time.

On Saturday I watched both NEAR DARK an almost classic Vampire movie set in
the US MidWest Farmbelt area and later HOMECOMING (a new film, dead US
military personal killed in Iraq, return to life as zombies to vote Prez
Bush out of office)

Later on Saturday night I's invited upto someones hotelroom where we watched
the pilot double episode of EUREKA. Yep someone had brought a DiVX disc
along, and a $49 cheapie Woolworths miniature dvd player which worked fine
connected to their in room hotel telly. Golly I want one of them dvd
players....unfortunately they were only available for a limited time.
Looked a bit like a giant butterfly trying to take-off, fantastic, I've
never seen a home dvd player before that looked like anything, other than, a
rectangular box.

Sunday morning I returned my room key-card and the first panel item I
attended was absolutely engrossing without actually being gross-out. Titled
"Blood Lust, a presentation of Parasites and Invertebrates" the presenter,
who I know only as "Dr Hoz" gave a factual but throughly entertaining talk,
accompanied with various slides on a big screen. There were Rabbits,
"Zombie" crabs, domestic cats that infect human brains with deadly virus and
a whole lot more. I was humming and har-ring about attending this item as I
thought it would be all yucky and gory, maggots and worms and things, but it
was not ! Swancon is well known for having a serious "academic stream" as
part of it's programming and even mini-cons like Fandomedia and Genghiscon
(www.genghiscon.org) often have some factual items in amongst their
programming.

Later "Cooking With Coffee" was fronted by professional Barrista "Kaneda"
ably assisted by Sarah P. I's there for awhile but a head count proved
difficult. as more and more people continually trickled into the room,
obviously they smelt the free sample tasters !

After lunchtime on Sunday I unfortunately missed the panel item "Soylents Of
The Lambs, You Are Who You Eat", but I had a good excuse.....I's in the
video-room watching the very first ep of the brand new show HEROES. Yep
just literally a few days after airing in the USA, here it was. It's hard to
say from seeing just one episode, but this is certainly a series worth
looking out for (especially to my friends LAS +CMW +SB)

All good things must come to an end. I think maybe Ju was hiding somewhere
as this final item started some 20 minutes later than timetabled.
(naughty-naughty, score one
demerit for that ! ) Thanks were given to the guests and sponsors and the
raffle was drawn. Gamers from the other room (still engrossed in conquering
the Universe, or something) seemed to win enough of the prizes and Lee
Battersby managed to win 4 items (3 were going to his kids and the 4th he
gave away)

Mention was made of next year's mini-con, also to be held at The Emerald
Hotel, to be called NIGHTS EDGE the underlying theme to be Cyberpunk, so
pencil that into your diaries folks.

I'm not exactly sure what the definition of "Cyberpunk" is, but I think its
sexy Japanese robots with big space-blaster guns, fighting each other, I
guess I'll just have to, go along to find out. Ju's not organising that
one, she's tuckered out, poor thing, so Sarah Parker will be holding the
reins.

GENGHISCON should be happening again
for the 5th (?) time in January 2007 and SWANCON next in April 2007. Fans
should support these events if possible. Come along and expect to have a
darn good time.

Catherine Jemma
8 October 2006 (minor revision 23 Oct)
Outback Western Australia

this email brought to you by Rubbish-Dump computer-power !

Find me at http://myspace.com/catherinejemma
check my weBlog http://catherinejemma.blogspot.com

Patsy....."So is killing NOT wrong anymore ?"
Trudy....."We don't have to worry about Right and Wrong anymore, ZOOT
decides for us"
................The Tribe episode 2:49

Cate's whinge re Saturday Newspaper 7 Oct 2006

OK I've just driven down and collected my Saturday's newspaper and this week
I actually got around to reading a fair bunch of it, and I'm excited ! Oh
no, sorry, that was that Queensland guy who used to say that in the tv
adverts.....

Actually I'm pretty darn peeved off by a few things I've just read......and
something else outstanding from a few days earlier.

So ok, this communique is being made available to various folks, friends of
mine, plus my 'Blog. Mostly it refers to today's paper, being the Country edition of
Saturday's West Australian newspaper 7 October 2006

Page 6, some poor guy has been charged with "reckless driving" for
travelling at 80 kmh in a 110 kmh zone. Y'say what ? Just how overpaid and
unworked ARE local police that they finding extra work for themselves.

Somewhere on the main highway (about 400 km from here) this guys old car
developed a breakdown. It was a big old Ford LTD model. Now this is a long
lonely stretch of main highway through outback areas. Coolgardie is a large
enough country town and as well as fuel stations would have food-shops and
mechanics/car repairs available.......certainly it has a well staffed police
station, most of their duties in that area being traffic patrol duties

Once out of the main townsite area, there are long stretches of open road,
no farmhouses or phoneboxes to call for help in the event of a breakdown.
Every 50 km or so if you're lucky, often 100 km or more apart, you'll find a
"Roadhouse" a sorta combined petrol station and takeaway food place (a few
of the larger better equipped ones have showers and motel rooms for
overnight accomodation) however roadhouses DO NOT have repair workshops or
mechanics on staff. Mobile phone coverage (aka cellphones) is confined to major towns only, unless you have one of those special "satellite" will-work-anywhere-on Earth type phones, once you're a few kilometres out from a major town, you're on your own.

Well this guy was in between Coolgardie and Bullabulling, some 40 km from Cg
when his old car's auto transmission stuffed up. He was able to get going
again, but only by travelling in reverse, so he was travelling along on his
merry way when a police radar speed trap stopped him for doing 30 kmh
*below* the speed limit. The newspaper article does not make it clear
which direction he was travelling in, whether just to BB to use the phone or
to Cg where mechanical repairs would be available. The article says he'd
driven about 20 km distance when he was stopped by the police.

Now anyone who's driven an auto car in reverse knows that there's nothing
terribly unsafe about it and in a short time you can quite "get the hang" of
driving rearwards in a brisk manner. After 20 km of practice, even starting
off at just normal carpark reversing speed, I reckon he'd be pretty darn
good at reversing-at-speed !

Now this poor bloke only has the money to drive an old clunker of a car and was
already having a bad day when his transmission shit itself (pardon my
language), here he was stranded miles from the nearest help on an outback
highway, he's able to get moving, underway again albeit backwards, and is trying desperately
to get back to somewhere where he can get proper help......and along come a
bunch of boys-in-blue (well actually country and outback coppers have
different uniforms, sorta Khaki coloured)... and spoil his day a little
bit more than it already was.

All I can say Is I hope he gets off when it comes up before the Coolgardie
traffic court on Monday.

I've driven lots of old cars over the years and I know what it's like to
have a previiously reliable vehicle suddenly start failing on me, sometimes
a makeshift roadside repair means you can push on a bit further, hoping to
reach some help, watching the water temp gauge as it shoots skyward, or
listening for that strange noise, and trying to get the speed *upto* 30 kmh
as the fuel starvation or ignition problem cuts in and out
periodically.......yep been there done that.

.......my last car that died on me,an automatic (but it did still keep going
forwards !) got me home with multiple stops to keep refilling the radiator,
it took some 20 or 30 litres of water to get the last 100 km home. Some
kind of major internal defect in the engine had suddenly developed whereby
cooling water was being sucked into the combustion area and blown out the
exhaust, although just for good measure, some was also finding it's way into
mixing with the engine oil......oh well I only paid $100 for the car and got
9 months regular use from it so can't complain. That model is known for
doing in their heads/gaskets as they age

...THIS ADDED on 21 SEPTEMBER 2010...I just found this on a Beaututes website...I believe this item is somewhat dated but I'm unsure exactly when it was written...I'm not sure if the url link will work properly

quoted section begins

A man who was stopped by police as he attempted to drive from Kalgoorlie, in south-eastern Western Australia, to Perth, in reverse, has been fined and had his driver's licence suspended.Scott William Poulton was sentenced in Kalgoorlie Magistrates Court yesterday after he was caught by police earlier this month on the Great Eastern Highway just outside Coolgardie driving his car backwards.

Poulton was charged with reckless driving and driving without a licence.He told officers at the time the transmission on his car had failed and the vehicle would only go in reverse.Magistrate Dennis Temby fined Poulton $1,100 and suspended him from holding a driver's licence for 18 months.He said Poulton put the public in danger and he compared his actions to driving blindfolded. http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems...0/s1771961.htm

quoted section ends

Page 11..... has an article on stolen cars, the procedure known as
"ReBirthing" or "Ghosting". Basically it works this way, you goto an
insurance company sell off of badly damaged cars. Buy a car of a certain
make and model. It can be a total write-off, banana shaped wrapped around a
pole then burnt out. Then you steal an identical make and model car, then
swap the body number "VIN" plate etc Now this system is well known,
depicted in the original "Gone in 60 seconds" film of about 1975. Car
insurance companies actually facilitate this kind of theft because they
deliberately leave the VIN ID plate and number plates and rego attached to
obviously written off cars, knowing that the wreck can never actually be
really re-built, and knowing full well that it will be bought at auction by
car theives, to provide the ghost identity for their next stolen car
project. When some ten plus years ago, car insurance companies were
quizzed publically as to why they were working in with car theives to
promote car thefts, their response was words to the effect that, if they
cancelled the damaged cars legal identity, such as by removing the VIN id
plates and handing them back to the government.....then they would only get
lower prices for the wrecks at auction, because the only people bidding on
such wrecks would be genuine buyers just wanting salvagable parts, it's the
car theif rebirthers who are prepared to pay higher prices for absolute
wrecks

Yep it really really is a case that "car theft, brought to you by your local
insurance company" (apologies to KM, I know you work for an insurance
company, in an unrelated area).

Actually a similar thing was going on until recently with stolen mobile
phones throughout Australia. For years and years and years Telstra and other
mobile phone connection suppliers, would happily and knowingly connect
stolen mobile phones. They didn't care, so long as they got their monthly
connection fees. If the phone when stolen was still under contract then the
original owner still had to pay out the entire connection fee anyway, so the
phone company was "double-dipping" getting paid twice over. The technology
systems in place all along could have prevent stolen mobiles from being
re-connected, (the carrier, to connect you, needs to know each phones set at
the factory internal id) but that would cut into the profit telecoms
carriers make, especially by double-dipping, so they simply chose to support
mobile phone theives. Only recently did govt and public pressure force
carriers to change their policy and come out and say, that from a certain
date onwards, they would no longer knowingly connect stolen. mobile phones.

Of course even before that racket they're making a fortune on the improper
use of premium pay for use telephone services. For almost 2 decades now
unauthorised people, often underage minors (at parent's home) or employees
at a workplace have been racking up bills of between $10,000 and upto
$60,000 in a case I heard of. Yep for *just* $5 a minute you can phone
"Sexy Sarah" and listen to her talk to you about what she's wearing or doing
or whatever, or something like that. I never called that sorta thing
m'self (20 minutes of that kinda pollava and I could buy another car instead
! ) but there's enough folks around who get hooked into an addictive
behaviour of that sort of phonecalls, leaving parents and employers to foot
huge phonebills........of course Telstra and other carriers get HALF of the
fee.....there's no way the'd wanna stop that, eh !

Page 5 ..... About 5 years ago an English family newly migrated to Perth WA
and bought a large old house (they have 4 kids and wanted a decent size
house on a large block). The house is very old and now some 5 years on they
are ready to demolish it and build something newer and better suited to
them.....including complying with the new state laws requiring new houses to
be substantially better designed, far more electric/energy and water
efficient than previously, insulation to keep it warm in Winter and cool in
Summer without having to resort to paying for unnecessary air conditioning
and heating.

Now some years back, this house was owned by members of the "Court" family,
almost a dynasty here in WA, both the father and one son having served terms
as state Premiers in the past. The Court family are very very rich and own
lots of houses and other assets, they didn't want this house anymore and
sold it and made a big fat profit and laughed all the way to the bank.
Consequently this English family have come to buy it in 2001, intending all
along to demolish it and build their own dream home.

Now suddenly, people are saying "you can't demolish that house because it
used to belong to the Court family". Note that this house IS NOT subject to
any kind of historical building preservation order, the UK family bought it
with no conditions on a freehold title.

Suddenly their application to council for a demolition permit (usually just
a formality) is held up, the Historical places people want 6 weeks to even
assess it and there's talk of the Court family buying it back at a price
they will decide "derr what !"

Look here you lot "The Court Family" this place was so UN-important to you
that you flogged it off, first chance you got, to the highest bidder. You
didn't care tuppence about it.

To suggest now that the new owners should be forced to live in an
uncomfortable old house with high energy and water bills, or sell it and
move is unfair.

I say to that UK family, *if* you choose to sell it, then offer it at
auction. With Perth house prices currently in "Pyramid Money Scheme" mode
the price will go ballistic, you can even push the price up further by
making pretend dummy bids (called politely "vendor bids" although the laws
regarding them do differ from state to state)

If the Court family have suddenly decided that they wanna own that house
again, let them buy it back at whatever the market rate, on that day, is.

If the UK family wanna demolish their own old leaky drafty dark-and-dank
pox-hole of a house, then let them !

Look it's as simple as this. The old owners no longer wanted the house so
sold it, freehold title, no Historic building preservation encumbrances. If
the new UK migrant family wanna knock it down and build something better
then ok, Live with it.

.....recent news but not in the newspaper this morning....while in NZ it
made the news that a few years before some smart alec had trademarked the
numbers 10 through to 20 in New Zealand. (how I dunno, I guess they
convinced the relavent govt patent/trademark and copyright authority that
they'd invented something new and unique I guess)

More recently NZ set up a new football team to take part in an expanded
Australian Eastern States football league. In NZ the league is known as
"Super 14" (there
are 14 players each side, in that football code). The NZ branch paid the
good old "un-disclosed sum" to the person who had trademarked the number 14.
Now if you want my opinion then they could probably have just started using
the number 14 anyway, but obviously they thought that a negotiated payment
in advance would reduce the costs of lawyers and dragging it through
interminable court proceedings (even if they were to ultimately win).

This was reported in the air of "wasn't this person so clever, trademarking
all the numbers likely to be used for future team sports events then selling
the rights later for massive profit" etc

Well yesterday it was announced that someone (being someone totally
UN-connected with the recently deceased Steve Irwin and the Australian
Private Zoo based in QLD) had taken out the appropriate web url licence on
various web urls to do with his daughter Bindi Irwin (only 8 years old but
already being groomed for tv animal shows) I dunno but I guess
"bindiirwin.com.au" ???

Well I don't support the NZ govt selling off the number 14, I use that
number myself ! (such as whenever I count the number of days in a
fortnight) however if some one has done the required legal steps to rent the
relavent urls, then I say good on them. They'll most likely end up selling
those rights onto the Irwin family/zoo business anyway, golly what a great
idea, I wish I'd thought of it myself. Maybe I could've made enough money to
buy a Perth house.....mmmmm you'd wanna do a title search going back
donkey's years, see if anyone in the Court family has ever owned it at any
time in the past. Don't want them to come a-knockin' on the door one day
saying "you're not allowed to modernise it, and I want it back !"

cheerio
Cate

Note that for your reading enjoyment a limited number of spelling mistakes
have been accidentally, err, deliberately included...have fun spotting them,
"theives" seems to have got through every time !

this email brought to you by Rubbish-Dump computer-power !

Find me at http://myspace.com/catherinejemma
check my weBlog http://catherinejemma.blogspot.com

Patsy....."So is killing NOT wrong anymore ?"
Trudy....."We don't have to worry about Right and Wrong anymore, ZOOT
decides for us"
................The Tribe episode 2:49