WHERE ARE THE FLYING CARS? SCI-FI FANS PACK 3-DAY CONVENTION.Byline: DANA BARTHOLOMEW Staff Writer It had promised to be a world of moving sidewalks The Moving Sidewalks was a 1960s psychedelic blues-rock band, most notable for giving future ZZ Top guitarist Billy Gibbons his start in the music business. The group members were Billy Gibbons on guitar, Don Summers on bass, Dan Mitchell on drums and Tom Moore on keyboards. , flying cars and stogie-shaped rockets blasting passengers into outer space. More than 70 years after Buck Rogers This article is about the science fiction character. For other uses, see Buck Rogers (disambiguation). Buck Rogers is a fictional pulp character who first appeared in 1928 as Anthony Rogers, the hero of two novellas by Philip Francis Nowlan published in the magazine first rocketed past the moon, fantasy and science fiction fans still dream of a world without traffic jams, world wars and the limits of Mother Earth. ``I wanted to fly -- fly to the moon, fly to the planets, I wanted to be a spaceman,'' said Larry Alger, 54, of North Hollywood, one of more than 1,000 fantasy and sci-fi buffs who converged Friday for LOSCON 33, a three-day convention steeped in the pages of Robert A. Heinlein Noun 1. Robert A. Heinlein - United States writer of science fiction (1907-1988) Heinlein, Robert Anson Heinlein and the TV escapades of ``Space Patrol Space Patrol has been the title of several science fiction works:
``We all like to dream - when cars fly, when people aren't bound by gravity, when people move through time,'' Alger said. ``There's always the dream of the human race totally united against the alien menace - when people of all races and creeds are bonded together as one.'' The convention, hosted by the North Hollywood-based Los Angeles Science Fantasy Society The Los Angeles Science Fantasy Society or LASFS (pron: "Loss-Fuss") is a membership fan club in North Hollywood, California, a suburb of Los Angeles, California. It is the oldest continuously operating science fiction club in the world, helped considerably in that record by , highlights ``Exploring the Golden Ages of Science Fiction.'' Held at the Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. Airport Marriott, it continues through Sunday. There were lawyers in propeller beanies, Web designers in space costumes and throngs of visitors who gathered to celebrate what some of the best authors, artists and filmmakers envisioned for life beyond the 21st century. The 72-year-old science fantasy society, composed of more than 5,000 past and present members such as Heinlein himself, bills itself as the oldest continuously operating science fiction club in the world. ``The golden age of science fiction The Golden Age of Science Fiction, often recognized as a period from the late 1930s or early 1940s through the 1950s, was an era during which the science fiction genre gained wide public attention and many classic science fiction stories were published. is 10 - because you are 10 years old when you fell in love with it,'' said Scott Beckstead, 48, of Westlake Village, head of the society and chairman of its 33rd confab. For sci-fi buffs, the golden age of science fiction was launched in the 1930s with future notions of orbiting nuclear reactors, interstellar travel  This article or section uses citations that are either broken or outdated. and a future of personal helicopters and people movers made popular in science magazines. Such books as H.G. Wells' ``The Time Machine'' and such movies such as ``When Worlds Collide'' (1951) swept the imaginations of children and adults seized by the promise 7/8 and peril 7/8 of technology. With a resurgence of science fiction and such TV series as NBC's ``Heroes'' still offering an escape from ho-hum Earth, science fiction and the fantasy world of dragons and griffins still promise an escape from an ever-shrinking world. ``It's much better to think you have a phaser blasting away at the jam of traffic,'' said actor Tadao Tomomatsu Tadao Tomomatsu is an actor living in the Los Angeles area. His biggest role to date was as "Mr. Shake Hands Man 2" on the British TV show Banzai when it was recreated for US television (replacing Mr. Shake Hands Man 1). of Burbank, featured in ``Heroes'' and ``Godzilla.'' ``We're sci-fi fantasy buffs - Jedis, brown coats, wizards, storm troopers, everyone from across the universe and other dimensions Other Dimensions is a collection of stories by author Clark Ashton Smith. It was released in 1970 and was the author's sixth collection of stories published by Arkham House. It was released in an edition of 3,144 copies. .'' The convention will feature talks by such notable sci-fi authors as William Tenn William Tenn is the pseudonym for the science fiction work of Philip Klass. The pen name is an homage to playwright Tennessee Williams. Born May 9, 1920, in London, England, he moved before his second birthday with his parents to New York where he grew up in Brooklyn. and guest such as Fred Patten, who introduced the sci-fi animation of Japanese anime to the United States. There are ``filking'' sing-alongs of sci-fi fold music; seminars such as ``What Happened to the Science in Science Fiction''; a sci-fi and fantasy masquerade; and a world of sci-fi games, art, books, a teen room and a roomful of storyboards and prints used to make such Hollywood films as ``Jurassic Park'' and ``The Land of the Giants.'' ``They visualize our dreams,'' said Casey Bernay, a self-proclaimed ``curious-ator'' of a union display of Hollywood artists and creator of a nearly 10-foot papier-mache Brewster Rockit of the Brewster Rockit comic strip. ``We all want a flying car,'' said Arlene Satin, 51 of the Los Angeles Science Fantasy Society. ``This is the 21st century. Where are they? We were supposed to have them already. And moving sidewalks. And houses that take care of themselves. ``I think that science is still working on it.'' CAPTION(S): 2 photos Photo: (1) Koriel Kurer, far left, Madeline Foss and Rebecca Foss, all 15, are dressed up in science fiction-inspired costumes for the Los Angeles Science Fantasy Society convention at the LAX Marriott. (2) This comic book cover is among the artwork on display at the L.A. Science Fantasy Society convention. John McCoy/Staff Photographer |
|
||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion