From: Steve Davies Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.fandom Subject: VoM Issue 14 (Worldcon Newsletter) Date: Sun, 03 Sep 95 20:53:56 GMT Organization: The Fortress Unvanquishable, Save For Sacnoth Lines: 145 Reply-To: steve@vraidex.demon.co.uk VOICE OF THE MYSTERONS The INTERGLACIAL Newszine Monday 28th August - Knackered Edition - Issue 14 Unsolicited, Honestly Forty-two years ago on a continent far far away (at Worldcon, Philadelphia) I captured a mimeograph machine and published a convention newsletter (The Philcon Reporter). It was not auspicious but it was the start of the tradition of con daily news sheets. I have since watched the tyke grow into a many headed monster. Some weekends over the decades have been exceptionally noteworthy. Voice of the Mysterons has today been one of the best - yeah, even possibly the best. I bow to you for a job well done - I know the hard work and dedication the entire staff has given. Fandom owes you its gratitude. You certainly have mine! (Dave Kyle, First Fandom) Base Motives This year's Hugo base has been designed primarily with the comfort of the nominees in mind. It is small, relatively light and comparatively easy to pack to take home. The design is conceived around the three materials most associated with Glasgow - no, not haggis, whisky and crushed tartan but granite, steel and glass. However if the bases had really been constructed of these materials they would have made the awards much too heavy and very easy to break. The bases are made of synthetic granite - coloured green in honour of Glasgow being the Green Place, perspex and a wafer of steel. The details of the award winners are set into the top of the perspex and in-filled with black to highlight them. Overheard in the Restaurant Waiter: - Can I get you anything else? Fan: - Enlightenment? Waiter: - Sorry, we had some yesterday but we've run out. He got a big tip. And Others Too Numerous to Mention At Con Office: - Peter would like to thank everyone who has worked in the At Con Office. A great bunch of Shift Managers contrived to save the phones from meltdown. Thanks, too, for the help from others, especially Miranda in the Gopher Hole for finding us such wonderful people as assistants. Gopher Mum: Thanks to Gopher Mum from her paddlers. Press Mildly Witty Shock From a newspaper whose name doesn't appear on the cutting that we got in the Newsletter office: "As the world sci-fi convention gets under way at the SECC, police have told Clydeside Expressway motorists to beware of Geeks seeking lifts." Existential Despair Well, what do you print in an issue of the newsletter that comes out after the Closing Ceremony when there's no actual news left? Final Body Count in SECC Showdown 4,800 formerly warm bodies. 3,600 pre-registered full attending, 750 day walk-ins, 150 full attending walk-ins, 150 visitors, 150 conversions and transfers. We were offered a statistical analysis of the membership broken down by age and sex, but we pointed out that most of them already were. The total membership of the convention including all no-shows and supporting members (but excluding pre-supporters) has just exceeded 7,000. GoH Speech Available RSN Part of Samuel R Delany's GoH speech wil be published in Paradoxa #3. The whole speech is likely to be published in a Friends of Foundation chapbook. Final Plug DreamHaven Books is pleased to announce the acquisiton of an untitled collection of short stories by Nebula award-winning author Martha Soukup. The collection, which will consist of 12-15 previously published stories, will appear in early 1996. An agreement was made at Intersection, many drinks were drunk and a ceremonial haggis was sacrificed. DreamHaven, publisher of books by Neil Gaman and Dennis Etchison, can be contacted at 912 W. Lake St., Minneapolis, MN 55408, USA - +1 612 823 6070 Sad, Sad, Sad Unconfirmable rumours suggest that a group of fans broke into a locked Tardis at 4am this morning so that they could be photographed in it. Things That Confuse Americans #5 (Sorry if that's the wrong number, but so many things confuse Americans.) The fact that British Green Rooms serve alcohol but no food rather than food but no alcohol. Samuel R. Delany by Heather Spears (illo not reproduced in electronic version) PAT on the Back The electricians report that 362 PAT (electrical safety) tests were conducted, with a 10%-20% failure rate. Some equipment was very dangerous but most was repairable. Fzzzzt! Zzzzap! Aaaargh! (Now you tell us.) Unsolicited Testimonial #2 Exceptional job on the newsletter. My congratulations. (James H. Hay) Ukrainians Redux Thanks to everyone who contributed money to us. Thanks to Security and Ops people for their kind efforts to help us. We are happy to find a lot of new friends. Your attitude and willingness to help moved us deeply. (Hellen & Alex) Nessie Ate my Hamster Presumptive Worldcon chair Mike Glyer sobbed on the shoulder of our anonymous reporter after he fled in terror from SECC Hall 5 following a traumatic assault on his alleged virtue. "I thought I was just going in for a free personality test" said Glyer, 13 3/4. Grovelling Apology #n We would like to make it clear that there is not one word of truth in the above story, which was written in a cheap attempt to fill up space at copy deadline. That's All Folks... It's over. Go home! (But strike the convention first.) Credits This issue dedicated to Psychosis, the muse of obssessive behaviour. Thanks (for all issues) to: Axe murderer Steve Davies, sex fiend Chris O'Shea, serial killer Mike Scott, spawn of Satan Alex Stewart, fall guy Jan van 't Ent, propeller head Tom Becker, WSFS liaison Robert Sacks, chocolate abusers Kurt Baty & Scott Bobo, bestiality Alison Scott, slaughter of the innocents Kathy Westhead, graphic violence Ian Gunn, graffiti artist Heather Spears, being James Steel James Steel, elf fetishists Giulia de Cesare & Sue Mason, shoe fetishist Pam Wells, Alison Scott clone Dana Siegal, lurking in shadows Christine Linton, excessive height Patrick Lawford, back masseur Heidi Lyshol, ego masseur Dave Kyle, Typhoid Mary Mike Moir, eminence grise Eva D. Fanglord, feather smoother Chris Bell. This one largely perpetrated by Mike Scott and insanity-checked by Alex Stewart - they're coming to take me away hee hee ha ha.... -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Stephen M.W. Davies | steve@vraidex.demon.co.uk | sdavies@cix.compulink.co.uk | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------