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The superhero construction kit Description: Work with others in this fun workshop to design your own superhero, complete from powers to costume to secret identity. |
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Shock-value in comics Description: In the last ten years, the comics industry seems to have been focusing more and more on supposedly "shocking" material, with some promotion even placing the sex and violence of a comic as its greatest (and often only) selling point. Is the industry risking its credibility by drowing its readership in a sea of pointless voyerism, or is it merely a harmless trend? |
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Classic fantasy that isn't LOTR Description: Contrary to popular belief, Tolkien didn't invent everything you've ever read. What are some of the other essential classics which should be acknowledged for their contribution to the genre? |
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Where has comics got to go to from here? Description: More than twenty years on, "Watchmen" and "The Dark Knight Returns" are still hailed as the greatest Western comic book stories ever told. Are creators capable of producing stories that will rank alongside these classics, or has the industry already reached its creative peak? Is there any potential for expansion and maturity left within the medium in it's current form? |
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Is there something wrong with the comic book industy? Description: The comic book industry is plagued with oddities and misconceptions - for example, the practice of shelving works by publisher, then character, then finally writer/artist; the idea of comics as "genre" rather than "medium"; the huge gap between mainstream publishing and the direct market. Is there something wrong with the way the industry currently operates, and if so how can we go about fixing it? |
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The Word came from Outer Space Description: The Aetherius Society, Raelians and Scientologists all share a unique trait - their self styled messiahs were initiated into the mysteries of the universe by beings from other planets. Most often mocked for seemingly crazy ideas and practices, what do their followers actually believe? And what impact has this had on modern society? |
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Casting call: "Swancon - The Movie!" Description: Swancon goes Hollywood! Which celebrities should portray Swancon's familiar faces in this never-ever-to-be-released adaptation? |
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Comics being made into movies Description: Hollywood can't get enough of the cape and tights these days, and even "non-mainstream" comics such as From Hell, Road to Perdition and V For Vendetta are getting the adaptation treatment. When making Sin City, Robert Rodriguez even made the claim that a comic itself is useable as a final storyboard, thus strengthening the link between the two mediums and making fan-service virtually inevitable. Given their track record so far, can we safely assume that Hollywood knows what they're doing? |
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Childrens books with subversively adult material Description: A discussion of the books that people of any age can enjoy, but for completely different reasons. |
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Beginners juggling workshop Description: Pretty self explanatory really - an opportunity for anyone to learn the basics of juggling three balls. It's fun and easy! |
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Different types of horror Description: A guide for the uninitiated - "survival" horror vs "intelligent" horror vs "comedy" horror vs "slasher" horror vs etc etc etc. What to seek out and what to avoid. |
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When style becomes more important than substance Description: With advanced CGI making heavily stylised films more and more common, are we reaching a point where the "image" of a movie is becoming more of a priority than the plot and character development? |
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Doing "no-explaination" fiction well Description: How to make your story intriguing and interesting without actually giving anything away. Think Aeon Flux (the cartoon), for an easy example. |
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Cosplay Description: A cosplay competition. |
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Celebrities of Fandom and the Fannish Social Heirarchy Description: Absolutely not featuring Simono. A discussion of the strange phenomenon of the fan that everyone knows, even if they don't know them personally. Is a fan celebrity merely a popular person within the social circles of fandom, or is it something more than that? Furthermore, why do we imagine and encourage this perceived social hierarchy, particularly within a convention that celebrates something we all have in common? Does the idea of the social heirarchy, with fan-celebs at the top, splinter us as a community, or is it simply an unavoidable part of being in a large scale social group? |
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Predicting the classics Description: A discussion of the books we think everyone will be fondly recalling in twenty years' time. |
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Autobiographical sci-fi Description: A discussion of those stories written from the autobiographical perspective of a fictional character, as well as those written (in whole or part) as genuine autobiographies with elements of the fantastical thrown in. Our panelists discuss their experiences of working within this sub-genre. |
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Keeping Cyberpunk Fresh - Punking up SF Description: In the past 25 years, we've seen popular SF go through phases of cyberpunk, steampunk and genepunk, so where to next? For that matter, is there anywhere to go to next? |
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How to run a convention Description: So you want to be more involved in Swancon and/or similar events, but have no idea where to start. A guide for the curious, but uninformed. |
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Theory of Roleplaying Description: A discussion of Play-Theory and it's conflicting implementations. Serious stuff, no anecdotes allowed. |
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SF&F Concept Albums Description: A discussion of science fiction and fantasy themed concept albums - the good, bad and the obscure. |
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Radio SF Description: Radio is a particularly underexposed medium for SF. This panel is a general discussion of its successes, failiures, history and potential future directions. |
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Saturday Morning Cartoons - Future Classics Description: Which contemporary cartoons do we think are destined to become the next "Mysterious Cities of Gold" or "Inspector Gadget?" |
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Non Western Sci-Fi Description: The USA and UK don't have a monopoly on Sci-Fi. What does the rest of the world have to offer? |
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Help make the "Geek to Dane" dictionary Description: Facilitating communication for the masses. |
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Socialism in Sci-Fi and Fantasy Description: Che got himself a laser pistol. No, not quite. A serious discussion of the representations of socialism in speculative fiction. |
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When the inconceivable just becomes the absurd Description: A discussion of surrealism and absurdity in science fiction and fantasy. Imagination is great, but is it possible to reach a point that's just "too far" for the average reader? Does our aesthetic fixation on surrealism and absurdism have limits? If you make something too far removed from reality, is it doomed to never make a connection with your audience? |
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Memetics Description: Ideas as virii. Infect the con! |
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The science of time travel Description: People sometimes say that time travel is theoretically acheivable. This panel is intended for those who wish to discuss the finer points of the science of such an undertaking. |
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Interactive webpages Description: From the user-created entries of wikipedia to film sites that feature integrated puzzles, a discussion of the way in which the traditional, info-base webpage is moving away from being, more or less, a digital book. |
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"Continuous Storyline" Combined With "Monster of the Week" Description: Which TV shows do the best job of neatly combining week-by-week thrills with an engaging ongoing narrative? Is there such a thing as a seamless combination of the two? Why have we seen a large shift over the past 15 years from TV shows which entirely consist of self-contained episodes, to the more recent, heavily serialised ones, and are we due for another cultural shift back again? |
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Game Design Description: The art of designing good video game environments. (This is my interpretation of someone else's panel submission. If this is inaccurate, please feel free to contact me and it'll be corrected.) |
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Swancon - The Great Debate Description: Topic and debaters to be determined... |
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Jelly Belly Cocktail Party Description: Just like a regular cocktail party, only with shotglasses full of Jelly Belly concoctions rather than booze. |
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DDR Aerobics Description: Dance dance your morning away. |
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Toy Modding Workshop Description: Does your favourite character not exist in toy-form? Then make them! |
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Drugs in SF (no, for real this time) Description: The drugs of tomorrow in the SF of today. |
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Who Wants to Be a Pocky Millionaire? Description: Answer anime questions and win chocolate! No Eddie Maguire, we promise. |
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The Politics of Taste Description: Why does something as simple as what people do and don't like have to cross the line from being a totally subjective area into the realm of fan politics? Why do we experience phenomenons like popularity backlash ("everyone else likes it so it must be bad") and blanket expectations ("what do you mean you're not a Buffy/Bab5/BSG fan?") within the fan community? |
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TV Anthology Series Description: Uncle Damian tells you about some of his favourites. |
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Looking at the Japanese Ring Cycle of films Description: Creepy Uncle Damian chats about those wacky Japanese films about the crazy chick and the well. |
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Looking back on the X-Files Description: Spooky Uncle Damian tells us about Mulder and Scully. |
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Grumpy Old Men of Swancon Description: Not entirely sure what this is about, but it sounds a lot like ye-olde Swanconners ranting for an hour. You'll have to ask Damian. |
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Video Quiz Description: Test your powers of observation by watching snippets of video and then answering questions about it. |
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Cliffhangers Description: Uncle Damian hangs off a cliff. To be continued... |
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Military SF Description: You're in the army now in 2020. A discussion of military themed science fiction. |
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Fandom in Academia Description: Ways you can get paid to be in fandom. (or: Ew! My academia got some fandom on it!) |
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Evolution in SF&F Description: A look at both the "from" and "to" of evolution in science fiction and fantasy. If humans came from apes, then where did the elves and dwarves come from, and where could their species be headed next? |
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Putting real world characters into fantasy worlds Description: Elvis flies a spaceship through the wardrobe into zombie President Kennedy's magic kingdom. What do writers achieve by providing these character-based links between fantasy and reality in their novels? Are alternate histories and "what if" stories mere flights of fancy, or do they have something to teach us? Does the shift towards reality increase the feeling of audience involvement? |
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Verging on Invincible Description: If your main character has the ability to rip a mountain in two, there seems to be only a limited number of ways in which you can provide any sense of suspense when they're fighting the forces of evil. The obvious solutions are the "equally powerful villain", the generic "weakness" (eg. kryptonite) or the existense of regular moral quandries to be dealt with, but have these concepts been done to death already? Furthermore, what is it about characters who are almost "godlike" that makes us want to read about them? |
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Breaking Reader Expectations Description: A discussion of the authors who can always keep readers on their toes by creating genuinely unpredictable narratives. Which writers go further than mere plot twists, and excel in writing stories where you genuinely have no idea which direction they'll go in next? |
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Telling the story while living in the shadows Description: Novels written from the perspective of a character other than a hero. |
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Construct the modern day League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Description: 20th Century British literature only. Who made the cut? |
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Life after death for SF&F Description: A discussion of different views of the afterlife in SF&F. |
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Original reasons for an alien invasion Description: If it isn't because of interstellar highways, exhausted resources or a strange bovine fascination, then why do they come? |
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Supporting characters whose full story you'd like to hear Description: Which incidental/supporting characters deserve to have their stories told in full? |
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Future Landscapes Description: How can we get to a non-distopic future? Global warming, peak oil, the end of the fossil fuel era. Do we have to go through the apocolypse as depicted in Mad Max or is there a way to reach the future with our society intact? What will it look like? What are the possible sources of energy? How will our houses, towns and cities change? What is the landscape of the future? "Collectively we envision our future" (Grant Stone 2006 "Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were. But without it we go nowhere." Carl Sagan So if we can't imagine our future how are we going to get there? I can give a presentation or put up some pictures to spark panel discussion, which ever way you wish to play it. |
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Murder By Death Description: A panel featuring SF/murder, fantasy/murder and vampire/murder genre crossover panellists, with discussion regarding interesting crimes in interesting contexts, including motivations, methods, consequences and investigation techniques for murder. |
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The Prophecy Description: A discussion of the use of prophecies in texts as foreshadowing/storytelling devices. Why do they always seem to include a clause about a saviour? Are they universally cliched? Does their use create too much of a danger of making the story predictable? |
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Breaking the Light Barrier Description: Moving faster than the speed of light is almost a cliche in Science Fiction. Is it possible? How could we do it? The feasability or otherwise of warp drives, quantum tunnels, spaceship flattening, wormholes, etc. |
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Filkaraoke Description: Filk + Karaoke! Make up the words as you go along, or bring some you prepared earlier. Best done late at night. |
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Book Club Description: Actually 3 panels, and they're more discussion groups than panels. The idea is that 1 book per major author-guest is chosen, everyone is notified long enough prior to the con for them to have time to read it, and then 3 "Book Clubs" are held. Just like a regular book club, I suppose. 1 or 2 moderators needed for each of these, so you can still put your name down. Exactly which books we'll be covering is yet to be determined. |
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Getting the physics right - or wrong - in space battles Description: In movies it looks so easy - spacecraft whoosh around, rockets blasting, just like airplanes. They use the word 'orbit' a lot, and the sky is black rather than blue, but it's really just Biggles and the Red Baron a bit higher up. How realistic is that - do the laws of celestial mechanics matter even if your spacecraft have 'reactionless' drives, or can you ignore them? Does anyone except the occasional geek even care? |
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Britpulp! The return of British Telefantasy Description: The successful return of Doctor Who to the BBC has spearheaded a new revival of British science fiction television on a scale unheard of since the 1980s. With Doctor Who, Torchwood and Robin Hood already on the air, and with more Doctor Who spin-offs and a revival of The Prisoner on the way, is this a new golden age of British SF television? |
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Martian Chronicles Presentation Description: A presentation by David Medlen on Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles. |
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Whatever happened to my post apocalyptic world? Description: What happened to the dreams (or nightmares) of a generation of people who expected the end of the world as we know it? What trends are there to predict the next great possible calamity, and what does the fiction and movies say about our fears and expectations? And have the old dangers really gone away? |
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Comics Movies Casting Call Description: Run the casting couch for the comic book movies to rule them all. Which actors are ideal to play your favourite characters? (Note: this might be a general casting call for a whole batch of well known characters from different comics, or it might focus on the entire cast from a particular comic) |
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Top 10 Movies Based on Comics Description: What makes a good movie of the comic? Hollywood has delivered its share of catastrophies but there's been some really great adaptations as well. Count down the best of the best. |
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Comics Hidden Treasures Description: The comics lurking in dark corners that are worth your time and money. |
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The Mars Society Description: Come hear some local rocketeers explain the hows and whys of getting to Mars. |
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Legalities of Fan Creative Description: Fanworks often come with disclaimers that are longer than the work itself. Come get the lowdown on the realities of copyright infringement and those pesky C+D orders. |
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SF and Fantasy Post-11/9 Description: Planes crashing into the Twin Towers was the climax of the Lone Gunmen pilot. The Star Trek franchise experienced a notable change of tone between Voyager and Enterprise. Remakes like BSG and War of the Worlds have heavy undertones reflecting those of the present political climate. Come hear what's happening to the genre in the so-called "age of terror." |
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Feminist Military SF Description: Chicks With Guns: A feminist take on military science fiction and fantasy. Possibly featuring Elizabeth Moon, if we ask nicely. |
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Podcasts Description: Mystery Audio Geek Theatre 2007: Come hear a podcast being made! |
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Taboos of Fandom Description: Does anything go in fandom? What are the big no-nos, and are they changing? |
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Outsiders Guide to Fandom Description: Where am I and why is the person next to me wearing a space suit and a tail? |
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Fandom Crossovers Description: When universes go smoosh. Crossing over fandoms: when it works, and when it doesn't (and what you'd love to see!) |
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SF's Expolitation of Mythology Description: BSG refers to greek gods, Stargate steals from the pantheons. Why SF writers keep their myths close. |
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Breakfast of Champions - SF Foods Edition Description: Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, and sugar is one of the five geek food groups. Get up early to chow down! |
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SF and Graphitti Art Description: Science fiction and fantasy often play a large roll in urban graphitti art, both commissioned and illegal. Come and discuss these representations of our beloved genres, and suggest the places where curious art-lovers can see the best work. |
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Sci-Fi Costuming and Gothing Fashion Store Description: In Victoria, a gothic fashion show called Nocturnal Instincts runs annually, featuring works from dozens of goth fashion houses. Give this panel a vote if you'd like to see us try to get something similar going with the goth fashion distributors of Perth. |
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Superheroes - Is the Market Falling? Description: The person who submitted this panel didn't bother to include any sort of a description, nor any contact details. Still, it sounds like an interesting premise. If you'd like to run something under this heading, put your name down and email the details to either Tom or Erika. |
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Marketing First, Movie Later Description: Highly marketable movies are hitting theatres more and more frequently these days, complete with highly stylised teaser trailers released months - sometimes years - before the movie itself. Discuss the ways in which Hollywood uses clever promotion tricks to whip audiences (those comprised of fans in particular) into a frenzy of anticipation. |
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Villains That Aren't Stupid Description: We all know that most ficticious villians have a tendency to lose - that's the way fiction often works. Discuss which villians are smart, resourceful and just plain evil enough that they'd pose a genuine threat in a world where the heroes don't necessarily win. |
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Languages Other Than English in English Texts Description: The title says it all, really. |
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Costuming Description: A presentation by some of WA's most experienced costume designers. Come along and get some valuable advice on how to make that ultimate masquerade outfit! |
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Magic in Space Description: A discussion of the works in which the most common conventions of science fiction and fantasy meet in a genre-splicing amalgam. |
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When Writers Can't Escape Their Work Description: A discussion of the pros and cons of writing something that is so well (or poorly) received that you'll forever be remembered for it (and nothing else). |
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Guests - Why Do We Bother? Description: Are guests always necessary for a good convention? Is the adage that "it's the fans that make the convention" true enough that we could do without them? Discuss. (If you're lucky, we might get some guests to partake, and then the sparks can really fly!) |
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Mask/Costume Making Workshop Description: Come along and prepare for the masquerade! |
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"i" before "e" except after "inconc" and before "ivable!" Description: A discussion of the silly, strange and sadistic quirks of the english language. |
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The Night Stalker Description: A discussion of the television series. |
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Dark Shadows Description: A discussion of the TV series. |
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The History of Animation Description: A look back at the roots of the artform, including its most influential figures and landmark creations. |
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The Future of Feminism and SF |
