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UnCon 2006

cassandra78 said:
While I'm here, I would like to mention I have just left several FTMBers in a very dodgy pub in Camden, you can blame any bad behaviour on the Fleeble.
bad behaviour! me? :shock:
nothing wrong with the worlds end, although the dj could have done with being strung up. it has a been a very nice weekend. have met with old friends and some new. the call of cthulhu film was excellent. enjoyed jan bondesons(sp?) talk once again and the rat scabies talk was very enjoyable too. i saw you sitting up the front at one point James. it was very nice to be greeted by mr Owen Whiteoak again. i have had a lovely week actually as i have been holidaying in rosslyn castle with some fellow board members and then we ended up in london for uncon. i must thank mr Gordon Rutter for his talk he gave us in edinburgh and also for electrocuting jima. ignore anything anyone has to say about me that is bad, it is all lies, especially from that cassandra78 person :blah:
 
Sorry I couldn't stay and talk for much of the drinking, I was commendeared by jon downes on saturday night and had an offer i couldn't refuse (undrinking) on the friday. hope everyone had a good time, personal highlight for me talks wise was ben radford (who came to the cfz stand in the company of mr Ricard (may his name be blessed) after the talk for a chin wag. But the best bit of the uncon was Gordon's speach at the end, which I thought was fantastic, congratulations to him and min on their betrothal :)
 
Yes congrats to the our foremost Fortean couple :)

Just as long as Gordon isn't working on putting Min in a glass case in his collection ;)
 
Yeah it was fantastic! I really enjoyed myself and met loads of really interesting people. Bit disappointed that I couldn't go drinking though as I had to keep going home too early...

Congratulations to the happy couple! What a fantastic way to propose!!!

Sarah-Jean
 
Yup, Gordon's proposal at the end was very moving, even though I don't know the guy myself.

Overall, I've had a great weekend. I've been to some really interesting talks, got some cool books and met some lovely people. I'm back in Cardiff now, trying to decide when to summon up the courage to look at my bank balance. ;)
 
big thanks to anyone whose noticed me not posting for the last 4 months ...

erm, yeah, I'm back for a bit.

Spent the week before Uncon in Rosslyn Castle with Cider, Pea, Feeps, Anome, Sally, Lizard23, and Magical Trevor. We found the grail, obviously, but we're not telling you where we've put it ;)

fLeebLe also snores louder than me, whatever he may tell you otherwise, he is also to blame for everything, ever

Thanks to Gordon for electrocuting me in Edinburgh, and congratulations to him and Min

The drive from Rosslyn to Doncaster was made so much better by having to drive down some dodgy country roads to avoid most of the A1 traffic jam. Could've met up with Cider, Pea & Anome's train if it weren't for that.

Big Hello's to Zarathustraspake and Cassandra, who I haven't met before, and the guy from Solihull and the two women he was with, whose names and presence on this board is unknown.

Hello to the other people I met (Timble, Stormkahn, Swan, Kitty, Elffriend and Sister, Colin & his girlfriend), and Bullseye and Faggus, who I didn't, and to Mana, who turned up to the pub rather than the talks and then suggested I was letting the side down by not being drunk (I had a very dodgy fried chicken & rice and ended up missing the nightclub to go and be sick, hopefully Colins g/f didn't suffer the same thing).

Hello to all the ftmb mods who turned up and didn't make themselves known to us, we don't all smell y'know. Was a bit disappointed by the turnout considering we couldn't go on the upper galleries where there was some air in the hall.

So, yeah, umm, the talks and stuff then.

Priory of Sion - I ended up walking out of this, a nice bit of showing off about meeting Tom Hanks and Dan Brown (not much to show off about, really) and being in some fishy-sounding film (Da Vinci Cod?) didn't impress. neither did the slightly muddled sounding Priory of Sion part, and from what I've heard the Turin Shroud thing didn't sound that impressive.

Call of Cthulhu - The HP Lovecraft Historical Society silent movie version, very good for something recorded on zero budget in someones back garden. Most of the effects were very good, apart from the boats in the sea ones, and the monster itself was a very early horror movie style, which worked in the style they decided to film it, perhaps owed some debt to Nosferatu and similar films.

Missed the next few hours.

UFO's and the Hippy Movement - This sounded crap on paper, but was a very interesting talk on the use of drugs in the English Underground movement, and how flying saucers fitted in with this. Didn't mention Sun Ra till the questions though.

Witchfinders - Another good talk, I got the book which is also a good read

Evolution and Pop Culture - After a hesitant start this also turned into an interesting talk on Creationism and the Scopes trial in America. The tunes done on the ukelele were entertaining and a good way of breaking up the talk into something more listenable.

Evolution vs Intelligent Design - Another good talk that covered some of the same ground as the Pop Culture talk

Will the real Ogopogo please rise up - Thankfully we were spared the Eminem impression, but another good talk that pointed at some of the holes in the reporting of Ogopogo

Rennes lc & the Holy Grail - Entertaining, although covered little that wasn't in their book, which I read several months ago. Rat could've backed off the mic a bit, and the sound effects were a bit too loud. Didn't get chance to tell him who has the grail and what milkshake they're keeping in it, but that's an in-joke that about 6 or 7 people will get ;)

Magic Lanterns - Informative, fun, and I'm only sorry i couldn't go to the museum to see more of them

Fairies and Angels - Not really my thing, went on a little too long for the point that was being made. About half way through I became convinced that a lot of the people who'd crept onto the balconies had done so for GNA's corset rather than the actual talk, although this may be a result of the cynicism resulting from a sore arse after having sat in the chair far too long.

Sadly I missed Doug Skinners Musical Curiosities, I was intending to go and see it, but I really had to have dinner by the time it was due to start.

Think thats about it, same time next year? :)
 
I did think it was funny the way Rat Scabies signed copies of his book with the words "Dan Brown is a tosser".

I was also amused during the evolution vs. intelligent design talk by the way a woman popped up in the questions at the end and said, "I'm an American from the Mid-West and I resent the way you're depicting some of my countrymen as ignorant philistines..." before launching into a defence of Intelligent Design, thus inadvertently proving Ian Simmon's point.
 
Mighty_Emperor said:
Yes congrats to the our foremost Fortean couple :)

Just as long as Gordon isn't working on putting Min in a glass case in his collection ;)
Oh! Congratulations, Gordon & Min!

Still, being from Edinburgh, the knowledge that two can live as cheaply as one comes natural. ;)

And, Heaven Forbid:

lucillelund.jpg
 
Another fascinating weekend. One disappointment was the numbers seemed well down on the last UnCon. Was the Bank Holiday weekend a bad idea with so many being commited elsewhere?

Maybe a re-think is in order.
 
SoundDust said:
Hello to all the ftmb mods who turned up and didn't make themselves known to us, we don't all smell y'know. Was a bit disappointed by the turnout considering we couldn't go on the upper galleries where there was some air in the hall.

Thanks for the overview - good stuff.

The reason none of the mods made themselves known is because none of them (or their big bearded other halves) were there - largely down to lack of cash or other commitments and one case of turning up a week early (the week early team must also have gone some way to the poor turnout too).
 
It was lovely to meet everyone, I have nothing to add about the talks really, I did see the musical curiosities and left halfway through as it was downright painful, thats just my humble opinion tho! The fairies one covered no new ground apart from 1 or 2 pics I have never seen before which was nice. My favourites were Rat Scabies & the magic lanterns.
I had my aura read, I'm on the fence with that to be honest.
Really enjoyed the CFZ, especially the guy who was identical to hagrid, wonderfully moving talk.

Special hello to the lovely Scots couple, hope you enjoyed the London Dungeon. Who won Battleships? It was also a pleasure to meet the charming Anome, hope you are enjoying your extended travels.
I must mention it was particularly interesting to meet the loveable dwarf Stormkahn :blissed:

Will add more later when my long term memory kicks in.
 
cassandra78 said:
I must mention it was particularly interesting to meet the loveable dwarf Stormkahn :blissed:

LOL - I suspect he might prefer Baldrick ;)
 
Yea, he was telling me about his doppleganger which I suggested must have been Baldrick. Anyway, lets not talk about it, he'll only turn up.
 
cassandra78 said:
Really enjoyed the CFZ, especially the guy who was identical to hagrid, wonderfully moving talk.
It's a long shot, but I reckon I can guess who that was, even though I wasn't there!
 
Ahh just got back from 1st uncon, excellent, there are some sound folk out there. Big hello to those I can now recognise from this forum, stormkhan ( such level headed serious discussions, I rarely come upon). The crowd who stayed at rosslyn castle ( I would have stayed and set up my own small fudal state). Alan from Aberdeen, hope you got your plane Ok. Tina from south wales who's first uncon it was too. Zarathustraspake, once you qualify its all down hill from then on mate. And all the other folks who's names i can't remember, the anarcosyndcalist, The highgate vampire bloke, the aristo who had something to do with lemmy?. nice one, I GO SLEEP NOW!
Steve and Tracy.[/img]
 
cassandra78 said:
Really enjoyed the CFZ, especially the guy who was identical to hagrid, wonderfully moving talk.

I was at the front of the hall trying to flog jon's the new 30th aniversery edition owlman and others book (now twice as long as the old one, plug etc) when he finished that talk, and even though I live with Jon and helped with sorting out clippings and stuff for the new edition even I learnt a few new factoids about the owlman from that talk.

I missed a quite a few of the lectures and shows I wanted to see as I was manning the CFZ stall then, I'll have to ask jon downes if he can get his hands on a time turner so i can see the magic lanturns, the Cthulhu film, rat scabies and foolish people.
 
Well I've just got back home now and for fairly obvious reasons I enjoyed it all, thanks for the good wishes from everyone. And soemone managed to get it all on video which is cool!

Gordon
 
gordonrutter said:
Well I've just got back home now and for fairly obvious reasons I enjoyed it all, thanks for the good wishes from everyone. And soemone managed to get it all on video which is cool!

Congrats to the two of you :D

Upload the clip to YouTube so the world (well us poor souls who didn't make it) can see!!
 
Mighty_Emperor said:
Congrats to the two of you :D

Upload the clip to YouTube so the world (well us poor souls who didn't make it) can see!!

Thanks.

It'll take a bit of time to get the tape as it's an American friend who taped it and he has a bit more time over here but once I have it I'll see what I can do.

Cheers

Gordon
 
Congratulations to you both, Gordon and Min! So, is the Freinds Meeting Hall licenced to perform weddings and can we see a romantic Fortean event next Uncon?

Mighty_Emperor said:
LOL - I suspect he might prefer Baldrick ;)
Ha! Wrong! That there Cassandra has dashed good taste!
:blissed:
 
LOL! No, but a guy did come up at the end to tell us he was a priest and offered to marry us! :D
 
min_bannister said:
LOL! No, but a guy did come up at the end to tell us he was a priest and offered to marry us! :D

Technically, being a Holy Man, I could have :)
 
well - I talked to Oll, which was nice, everyone else seemed curiously invisible, apart from gordon and min, who i didn't realise was min at the time.
I thought that the quality of the talks was generally poor (sorry!) with highlights being doug skinner and the magic lanterns one. The Call of Cthulhu film was also excellent. Rat Scabies was terribly disappointing. I still enjoyed miselg immensely.
 
Aahh ain't it sweet, Congrats Min and Gordon, I hope the wedding will be suitably Fortean, perhaps people could rain down fish instead of confetti :D

For me the Doug Skinner talk was also the highlight, mainly because it was delivered with wit and a certain sense of humour that was slightly lacking in some of the other talks.

Also the low turnout was actually quite stunning, you would have thought that without an Uncon last year, people would be keen to go.
 
My first Uncon and a little disappointed. I expected more 'stalls' than there were. The talks were good though esp the one on magic lanterns and Rat Scabies of course. I pointed out to Chris Dawes that he should come here and see what people have to say about Rennes le Chateau and he seemed keen to do that.

It was great to meet those of you I did although I didn't get to talk to many of you in depth.

Piccies:

Me and Rat Scabies ( I am not drunk just caught off guard)

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y181/elf_friend/72b208df.jpg

Rat in action

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y181/elf_friend/Picture008.jpg

Christopher Dawes the autor of Rat Scabies and the Holy Grail

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y181/elf_friend/f833372d.jpg
 
CygnusRex said:
Aahh ain't it sweet, Congrats Min and Gordon, I hope the wedding will be suitably Fortean, perhaps people could rain down fish instead of confetti :D
Hmm, bit smelly! :D Mind you, a Titum Arum bouquet would take peoples minds off that..

For various reasons I didn't really get the chance to talk to people much, only in passing and stuff which was a shame. Enjoyed the talks I managed to see though. 8) I also liked the magic lanterns and Rat Scabies. Also thought the stuff on demonic flying saucers was really interesting, two of my favourite subjects in one!
 
Ooh, congrats Gordon + Min!

I had a lot of fun, though I didn't speak to anyone... I was the confused looking student in the stripey jumper trying to keep out of the way on the Sat :eek:

Who was the guy who got up before the UFOs and the English Underground talk and said he had played bass with Pink Floyd?
 
Ian Simmons seems to be a sound bloke and a good scientist but is no kind of public speaker. Can he get someone else to deliver his thoughts? The pauses were threatening the sense of the thing and the people I was with dozed off.
Concentrate Ian lad. You were as fuddled as last time and you had a dodgy throat then.
 
Have to admit that I dozed off during Ian's speech too, but I did find it very interesting. I'd just had a late night.
 
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