
AltFanThingieCon 2000 began in the only logical place such an event can possibly begin.
In the pub.
Reg and I kicked off proceedings on Friday night (Thursday night/Friday morning for most of you) at the pub, sinking pints and catching up. We then straggled back to chez Tree and did the ritual book swap... "Ooooh, I found a copy of this and thought you would really enjoy it and I have a couple more by him if you do..."
My sucky workplace chose to do a server upgrade that weekend, so the next day Reg and I were forced into the inhospitable environment of the local internet café. The usual madness ensued, much chatting, much silliness and much fun.
There are heaps of great shops in the area, so we spent the afternoon shopping. No luck finding autographed items this time, but blood was almost shed over a second-hand hardcover edition of 'Fungus the Bogeyman' by Raymond Briggs. Reg nearly had to be sedated before he went berserk with glee at finding a positively ancient Marvelman (Miracleman) schoolboy's annual. Too cheesy for words, but such fun!
Many cool books and comics were purchased to be consumed along with (what turned out to be pretty ordinary) sushi. The bindings were a little difficult to chew, but otherwise a lovely evening was had. Very quiet, only the sound of turning pages breaking the silence.
The next day, we were off to the wilds of Upwey. A brief sojourn in Ringwood on the long train journey out to chez Reg turned up a couple of hard to find goodies that kept us very happy on the rest of the journey. Reg then showed me around Upwey, and two minutes later we were off to his place.
Really, Upwey isn't that bad, after all, it does have Wormhole Books (tragically closed for my visit but I did get to leave a pathetic nose print on the glass as I slavered over the window display) and positive sightings of Frank Zappa after death in the local café.
Further visual interest was had in exploring Reg's current abode. His housemates have 'interesting' taste in décor. However, Reg would not let me see his personal lair, so reports about it cannot at this time be confirmed.
Nair, the psychotic Russian Blue, decided that I was the only person on the face of the earth that she liked, so I spent the rest of the afternoon trying not to sneeze and brushing shed hair off my black outfit.
We became the aus-borg again and took turns in the chatroom that afternoon, trying desperately to remember to change the colour of the text when we swapped. If anyone called you 'sweetie' that afternoon, it could have been either one of us. Again, much fun was had chatting and catching up.
I had to call it quits early, a two-hour train ride home in the dark not appealing too much, so I bid farewell to the thingies and mine host and headed off to the station and home.
« No, really?Randomly hopping channels one night, I happened upon 'The Movie Show', a program that reviews, oddly enough, movies. They mentioned a 'Japanimation' festival happening in Sydney and that the dubbed (English script by Neil Gaiman, featuring Gillian Anderson--swoon) version of Hayao Miyazaki's latest movie, 'Princess Mononoke', was being screened as part of it.
That night.
Considering the film has never been (and doesn't look like it ever will be) released in Australia, that caused me some consternation. I had seen it in San Francisco the previous year, but there were other thingies who would probably like to see it. So I frantically contacted everyone I could and booked tickets to the one and only Melbourne showing. Good thing I did too, it sold out the following day.
The queue was enormous when I arrived, so I dutifully found a place and looked at the lovely postcard freebie that I got. Poor Reg got abducted by public transport and we skidded in just in time.
It was gorgeous the first time around. It was spectacular the second time. Apart from having to muffle giggles at the odd line ("Oh my god, it's the nightwalker!"), it is a visually spectacular film and Neil does an astonishing job of translating the dialog into English and fitting it to the animation. The voices were pretty good, although I wasn't that enamoured with Claire Danes. Of course, I thought Gillian Anderson did a fabulous job as Moro, the wolf god(dess). And it was a kick seeing Neil's name on the big screen again.
Reg and I enjoyed it thoroughly and much rehashing was done over sushi in China Town afterwards (complete with wasabi god of the forest with foliage made of the green plastic stuff wasabi comes wrapped in and wooden chopstick weaponry.) The wasabi sculpture prompted the following exchange:
LadyMissTree: "See the wasabi, feel the wasabi, be the wasabi..."
Reg: "There is no wasabi..."
Mononoke is gorgeous to watch and if you ever get the opportunity, go see it. If you're in Melbourne, drop by and I'll pop my copy in the DVD player for you. BYO popcorn.
« No, really?





