Back from Uncon
Tuesday, April 15th, 2003 18:45![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kittiwakeI spent the weekend at Unconvention in London. A good time was had by all.
Saturday Sessions:
Mushrooms - Madness, Myths and Magic - Gordon Rutter
You, Neanderthal and the Paranormal - Stan Gooch
Dracula vs. the Mummy - Gail-Nina Anderson
The Angel of Mons - David Clark
The Original BBC Ghostwatch - Stephen Volk & Lesley Manning
Ghostwatch screening.
Sunday Sessions:
The Real Sword in the Stone - Dr Luigi Gariaschelli
Sex at Room Temperature: Buffy & Forteana - Ian Simmons
Decadent Saints: from the Bizarre to the Ungodly - Grenadine Gray
The Laughing Jesus and Booger Events - Ken Campbell
Cryptozoology Panel Discussion - Jon Downes, Richard Freeman, Loren Coleman
& Charles Paxon
Before the first session, I had a go at the Paranormal Olympics. There were 10 different tasks, to test things such as telekinesis, remote viewing, clairvoyance and dowsing. I need to have a look on the ASSAP web-site to see how I did at things like the remote viewing and the dowsing.
Worst Session:
Someone needs to tell SG that long lists of human characteristics that he
says will be grouped together (for no apparent reason) showing that a person
has more Neanderthal or Cro-Magnon blood does not make for an interesting
lecture. Nor does the constant repetition of defensive statements such as
"This isn't fantasy" and "I'm not the only one to say this, real scientists
think so too" give your audience much confidence in what you are saying. A
lot of people walked out, but unfortunately I am too polite to do that. I
wish I'd gone to the session on Death Rays instead.
Best Session:
The "Ghostwatch" session and screening. I didn't see "Ghostwatch" when it as shown on TV on Halloween 1992, but I certainly remember being very annoyed that I hadn't seen it after all the kerfuffle it caused. The BBC has never dared to repeat it since, so I was looking forward to this chance to see it.
"Ghostwatch" is the BBC's equivalent of the controversy over Orson Welles' broadcast of "War of the Worlds". It was a play, but in the form of a live broadcast from a house haunted by a poltergeist, complete with a studio discussion and audience phone-in. Unknown actors played the family and various experts, while the air of reality was completed by having several extremely well-known TV presenters playing themselves.
Although it was in the listings magazines as a play and the trailers had given it away somewhat, a large proportion of the audience was completely fooled and totally terrified when Sarah Green was lured into the cupboard under the stairs by the poltergeist, as her real-life husband watched from the TV studios where he was running the phone-in and finally the TV studio was invaded by the poltergeist and had to be evacuated. Apparently Sarah Green (a former presenter of the long-running children's programme Blue Peter) had to appear on children's TV the next week to reassure the UK's children that she hadn't really been killed!
When we watched the screening there was a lot of laughter, mostly caused by the totally realistic sounding 'crass TV presenter' comments and the arguments between the 'paranormal expert' in the TV studio and the 'sceptic expert'. However there were some really jumpy moments even though we knew it wasn't real, and you could certainly see how people could have been fooled, as it was played totally straight.
Saturday Sessions:
Mushrooms - Madness, Myths and Magic - Gordon Rutter
You, Neanderthal and the Paranormal - Stan Gooch
Dracula vs. the Mummy - Gail-Nina Anderson
The Angel of Mons - David Clark
The Original BBC Ghostwatch - Stephen Volk & Lesley Manning
Ghostwatch screening.
Sunday Sessions:
The Real Sword in the Stone - Dr Luigi Gariaschelli
Sex at Room Temperature: Buffy & Forteana - Ian Simmons
Decadent Saints: from the Bizarre to the Ungodly - Grenadine Gray
The Laughing Jesus and Booger Events - Ken Campbell
Cryptozoology Panel Discussion - Jon Downes, Richard Freeman, Loren Coleman
& Charles Paxon
Before the first session, I had a go at the Paranormal Olympics. There were 10 different tasks, to test things such as telekinesis, remote viewing, clairvoyance and dowsing. I need to have a look on the ASSAP web-site to see how I did at things like the remote viewing and the dowsing.
Worst Session:
Someone needs to tell SG that long lists of human characteristics that he
says will be grouped together (for no apparent reason) showing that a person
has more Neanderthal or Cro-Magnon blood does not make for an interesting
lecture. Nor does the constant repetition of defensive statements such as
"This isn't fantasy" and "I'm not the only one to say this, real scientists
think so too" give your audience much confidence in what you are saying. A
lot of people walked out, but unfortunately I am too polite to do that. I
wish I'd gone to the session on Death Rays instead.
Best Session:
The "Ghostwatch" session and screening. I didn't see "Ghostwatch" when it as shown on TV on Halloween 1992, but I certainly remember being very annoyed that I hadn't seen it after all the kerfuffle it caused. The BBC has never dared to repeat it since, so I was looking forward to this chance to see it.
"Ghostwatch" is the BBC's equivalent of the controversy over Orson Welles' broadcast of "War of the Worlds". It was a play, but in the form of a live broadcast from a house haunted by a poltergeist, complete with a studio discussion and audience phone-in. Unknown actors played the family and various experts, while the air of reality was completed by having several extremely well-known TV presenters playing themselves.
Although it was in the listings magazines as a play and the trailers had given it away somewhat, a large proportion of the audience was completely fooled and totally terrified when Sarah Green was lured into the cupboard under the stairs by the poltergeist, as her real-life husband watched from the TV studios where he was running the phone-in and finally the TV studio was invaded by the poltergeist and had to be evacuated. Apparently Sarah Green (a former presenter of the long-running children's programme Blue Peter) had to appear on children's TV the next week to reassure the UK's children that she hadn't really been killed!
When we watched the screening there was a lot of laughter, mostly caused by the totally realistic sounding 'crass TV presenter' comments and the arguments between the 'paranormal expert' in the TV studio and the 'sceptic expert'. However there were some really jumpy moments even though we knew it wasn't real, and you could certainly see how people could have been fooled, as it was played totally straight.
