YESTERDAY'S UNCONVENTION STORY

I don't know why but yesterday's link to the Unconvention review that misunderstood Richard doesn't work. Try clicking:

http://www.google.co.uk/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rlz=1T4ADFA_enGB342GB342&q=older+is+wiser+unconvention

and then following the first (top) link....

A REVIEW OF UNCON WHICH MISSES THE POINT AT LEAST AS FAR AS THE BOY FREEMAN IS CONCERNED

http://forteanzoology.blogspot.com/2011/11/yesterdays-unconvention-story.html

HOME AGAIN

We had a great time at Uncon, and then at my Mama-in-law. Apparently Rebecca L is gutted at not being able to make it this year so Tania (bless her) made sure that she was included in every picture by brandishing a picture of her.

What a sweetie!

It will take me a couple of days to get back in the swing of things, but I would like to thank Graham and Liz for their sterling work in keeping the bloggo afloat in the abscence of the captain....

I would also like to thank everyone who helped at Uncon, especially Shosh and Gavin, and Tim and Graidi. Wot a bunch of sweeties.

(Yes I have trimmed my beard, and about time too)

BYE BYE FOR A WEEK

Corinna and I are off to The Unconvention, and after that we shall be visiting Corinna's mother in Rutland. We shall therefore be away, and out of contact, until next Wednesday at the earliest. This is old-school out of contact meaning the bliss of having no computer, so if you email me don't be offended when I don't reply for a week or so.

Graham and Prudence are in charge of the CFZ, and Graham and Lizzy (with contributions from Oll Lewis and Andrew May) are in charge of the blog. I am sure both teams will do a superlative job.

Until next week. Over and Out!

PS: In case of emergency email graham@cfz.org.uk

UNCON UPDATE, AND REQUEST FOR HELP

http://www.forteantimes.com/events/uncon2011/

The CFZ will be at Uncon this year; Richard is lecturing, and Corinna and I will have a stall. However, we will have less CFZfolk than usual, so if there are any blogfolk out there who fancy lending a hand on the stall or doing a spoot of videoing for CFZtv please email me at jon@eclipse.co.uk

By the way, some people were speculating on the FT Message Board that my non-appearance as a speaker is because of my failing health. It is kind of you to be concerned. My health is fairly poor these days, but the main reason I am not on the bill is that there was nothing that I actually wanted to talk about this year..

See you on the day...

UNCONVENTION 2010: Richard Freeman - Return to Sumatra

UNCONVENTION 2010: Mark Chadbourn/Natasha Mostert/Adam Nevill - PANEL: Forteana and Fiction

UNCONVENTION 2010: Jan Bondeson - Queen Victoria's stalker.

UNCONVENTION 2010: Jonathan Downes - Texas Blue Dogs

UNCONVENTION 2010: Gordon Rutter - A History of Talking to the Dead

UNCONVENTION VIDEOS

For those of you who are following the series of videos on CFZtv covering events at last month's Unconvention in London, we have some mildly bad news. I suppse that I should have posted this right at the beginning, but I forgot.


We took two cameras to Uncon with us, intending to film as many speakers as would let us. Sadly there was an accident early on and one camera was broken. So we only have about half the number of talks up that we had hoped. Never mind - better luck next time....

UNCONVENTION 2010: Paul Cornell - the fortean aspects of Dr Who

UNCONVENTION 2010: Andy Roberts - Berwyn Mountain UFO Crash

UNCONVENTION 2010: Rebecca Lang - Australian Big Cats

UNCONVENTION 2010: Ian Ridpath - The Rendlesham Forest UFO Incident

ALAN FRISWELL: THE CFZ - THE LAST FORTEAN PUBLISHING HOUSE?

The FT UnCon always promises to be a weekend of unusual events, and so it was. Over the two-day period, I finally met Rebecca Lang, amused a small child with the deft and dextrous use of a hot dog and a pigeon, fed a homeless person, drank a reasonably substantial quantity of alcohol and saw a ghost--as you do.

The various stalls and tables were of special interest, returning me to those wonderful days of childhood when I would haunt the bookshelves of W.H. Smith, which in those informative times were stacked with titles describing every sort of paranormal and Fortean phenomena, many of which found their way home with me, or at least as many as I could twist the arm of my mum and dad to buy for me.

Sadly--'tragically' is more like it--the popularisation and public accessibility to this material seems to have diminished somewhat in the latter years, whether due to lack of interest or publishers losing faith in a field that perhaps appears to be increasingly esoteric.

Now maybe I’m biased--I probably am--but the CFZ, through their independent publishing of Fortean material, is quite possibly the last outlet--or one of the very few--for this kind of literature.

There have been accusations from some quarters that the CFZ are guilty of ‘vanity publishing.’ Oh yeah--well what the hell is that? If it means the publication of a work without consultation or recourse to an established publisher, then personally, I think that’s a good thing, especially in the current climate.

I’m sure we all know the story of how Harry Potter was turned down by fifteen publishing houses before someone finally saw the light. So what chance for black dogs, albino eels, out-of-place pine-martens and Wells catfish? Not much, I would think, in a ‘reading’ environment that seems to actively promote illiteracy among the young and impressionable, through the deification of half-baked ‘celebrities’ who, seemingly unable to write for themselves, have their vacuous and tedious ‘autobiographies’ ghost-written by some anonymous scribe; and the downright obscene proliferation of drivel like OK magazine, that now occupy the very shelves where once were the Fortean books of my youth.

I’ve put up some of the titles that meant so much to me a kid, and it would be nice if the CFZ publications became just as special to some youngster today. And why not?

So well done to Jon and the CFZ team for keeping the diversity and interest of true Fortean publications alive.

MIKE HALLOWELL SENT THIS

Jacquie Hallowell took this pic of Mike (right), Steve Jones and some fat bloke at the Unconvention on saturday morning....

UNCONVENTION 2010: What a long, strange Trip it Was

Unconvention was lovely - I think it was the one I enjoyed most since 2003. I would just like to thank David Sutton and all the FT crew for being so kind and generous again. It really is appreciated....

JON ISN'T WELL, HE STAYED BACK AT THE HOTEL...

Just a head's up to anyone who is trying to get in touch with me at the moment. The last few months of stress and general unpleasantness have been too much for me and I am having another bout of my illness. I will be at Uncon this coming weekend but I shall be taking it relatively easy if I can. Yesterday I had to pull the plug on a project that was actually quite dear to me, purely because of the amount of stress it was causing, and I don't want to lose any others, so forgive me if I keep a low profile for a bit. (From previous experience, the `bit` may be as short as a couple of days, or it may be longer - time will tell).

THE ABSOLUTELY DEFINITIVELY FINAL UNCON RUNNING ORDER

SATURDAY 23 OCTOBER

HOGG HALL

Morning Session
10am Ian Ridpath
The Rendlesham Forest UFO Incident

11am Jan Bondeson
The Bosom Serpent

12pm Paul Devereux
Magical Mindscapes

Afternoon Session
2pm Jon and Corinna Downes
The Blue Dogs of Texas

3pm Paul Cornell
Fortean Themes in Doctor Who

4pm Helen Keen
It Is Rocket Science



CAYLEY HALL

Morning Session
10am Mike Hallowell
The South Shields Poltergeist Case

11am Rebecca Lang
Alien Big Cats of Oz

12pm Mark Pilkington
The Abuses of Enchantment

Afternoon Session
2pm Charles Foster
Wired for God?

3pm Jeremy Harte
On Having No Head

4pm Andy Roberts
Berwyn: The Welsh Roswell?





SUNDAY 24 OCTOBER

HOGG HALL

Morning Session
10am David Clarke
If You Go Down to the Woods Today: New Light on the Rendlesham Mystery

11am Richard Freeman
Return to Sumatra: On the Trail of Orang-Pendek

12pm Matthew Alford and Robbie Graham
Lights, Camera, Covert Action: The Deep Politics of Hollywood

Afternoon Session
2pm Lucy Skeaping
Have I Got News for Thee: Broadside Ballads and Broadsheets of 17th Century England

3pm Mark Chadbourn, Natasha Mostert and Adam Nevill
Panel: Forteana and Fiction

4pm Peter Brookesmith, David Clarke, Nick Pope and Ian Ridpath
Panel: Beyond Rendlesham: Ufology in the 21st Century



CAYLEY HALL

Morning Session
10am Gordon Rutter
A History of Talking to the Dead

11am Ian Simmons
UFOs and Climate Change: Paranoia, Conspiracy and Denial

12pm Jan Bondeson
Queen Victoria's Stalker

Afternoon Session
2pm Andy Roberts
Amazing Dope Tales

3pm Alan Murdie
Sex and the Poltergeist

4pm Gail-Nina Anderson
The Vampire Rabbit and its Kin

Those in blue are current CFZ bods or CFZ Press authors.