Redemption Convention

A multimedia SF (and fantasy and horror, etc) convention that takes place in the UK in the February of every odd-numbered year since 1999. The next Redemption is Redemption 17, on February 24-26, in 2017. Redemption remains fan-run, and not for...

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Guess where I am today? Yep, at the Royal Victoria... We have a meet with the hotel this evening.

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Red 19 Ghosts of Honour

Well, we had a poll on Facebook, and decided that both Mary Shelley *and* Peter Cushing should be 19′s Ghosts of Honour...

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Yay for Red 17 guest Lynette Nusbacher on new TV - season 2 of Abandoned Engineering started on Yesterday about five minutes ago! I should have given a heads-up, but at least there's a +1 Channel and there'll be reruns over the week.

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Bad hotel rooms really are the stuff of travelling nightmares - suspiciously stained carpets, dirty shower curtains and loud neighbours that leave you just wishing for your own bed.

Not a shocker to anyone here...

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Redemption would not have been Redemption without Slash Pictionary (more like Crack Fannish Pictionary these days, but the original name stuck). Basically, what we do is let the participants write down the names of characters on pieces of paper and put those in one hat (or, well, pile), and then adult/slashy/plain insane prompts in another hat or pile, and then each participant blindly picks out one character and one prompt for their drawing. The weirdest, and most hilarious combinations ensue. But more on that below.

Earlier that day, the same room hosted panels by myself and @filmforfancy about a) silent film body acting (hence stick Cesare) and b) villains as liberating influences in dark het and supernatural romance because of their Otherness (=being outside the stereotypical patriarchal/heteronormative masculinities) being relatable, interesting, more well-characterised, etc. Hence, Lady Jaffar to illustrate the things you can do with a magic-user villain played by an androgynous bisexual transvestite. As you do.

The Pictionary ended up traumatising all four people involved, so I took pictures of just these two I had to draw myself (to spare you the other horrors): Jaffar in a bathtub full of tadpoles (I think the tadpole idea was @originallonemagpie’s, so ask HIM what the fuck because I don’t know either) and “vacuum cleaner insertion” just happened to become paired with Torsten Barring, of whom you could fucking believe it, too. (More astonishing was that all four people in the room had actually seen the movie and knew who Torsten was, so this was one of the LEAST cracky ones.)

The ones I am sparing you from included a pole-dancing Jar Jar Binks, Twelve in a bikini, Thor and Davros having a homoerotic duel and Darth Vader in a sparkly evening dress he probably stole from Servalan. Among others. (If anyone has more pictures, share at your own discretion. There were some bizarre, fun LOTR ones we got from the lovely E, whose Tumblr name I can’t look up on mobile without destroying this post, but if you have more to share, go ahead. Was it Galadriel as a furry?)

Anyway, this is a hysterical game and I recommend it for all conventions of a relaxed/slash/crack-friendly bent.

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We’re masochists...

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Off to Redemption!

And that’s me done for a while, Tumblr-wise–I’ll be leaving for the Redemption ‘17 convention in Sheffield, UK, in a while. The weather’s terrible all throughout, so keep your fingers crossed I’ll even arrive in Sheffield in one piece! Really looking forward to seeing all you wonderful people over there– @filmforfancy​ and @originallonemagpie​ in particular–and hoping and praying my health will allow me to enjoy the event as much as possible. It’s going to be tough on my system, but it’s basically the highlight of my life every two years, so I can’t not go–it’s the best con ever, after all.

This year, I’ll be hosting talks on writing queer het/dark het and taking part in panels about Old Hollywood slash (this year’s Ghost of Honour, Basil Rathbone shall feature heavily), a celebration of femslash finally having made it into the mainstream of fanfic out of the ghetto, panels about wizards and the moral complexity of villains and also hosting the traditional (and hysterical) Slash Pictionary and much more besides. You can find all the convention items listed here, so just look for “Snowgrouse” and you’ll find descriptions of my items, especially the “Queering Het” and “Villains as Liberators” ones–these are the queer het and dark het panels and the synopses explain what the talks are going to be all about.

Het’s a much-maligned genre, often brushed off as just heteronormative crap, but as a writer of really diverse het that’s everything but normative, I want to smash that stereotype. These talks are all about utilising and resurrecting and leading het to subversive, LGBTQ-friendly and overall more diverse directions (dark het fans often preferring not only un-patriarchal but all kinds of “Other” male leads–”un-masculine” like Jareth and Jaffar, “deformed” like the Phantom or The Beast, etc). And queer het’s the sort of thing I write with Jaffar and Torsten–writing both of them as bisexual/genderfluid/kinky, just like their lady loves. That kind of thing. I’m really looking forward to those two talks. At Redemption, these talks are always interactive with the audience as well, so it’s that I present my basic stuff first and then it’s opened up to discussion between the audience, so everyone can join in!

So! If you are at the convention (and it’s still not too late to join!), do come and say hi! I’ll be the short, curvaceous ginger with the gothy/cleavageous outfits and the walking stick (or a riding crop) who responds to calls of “Conrad Veidt” by falling over and frothing from both ends. (FFF’s the darker and taller chick who’ll fall over and froth from both ends.) I’d be really happy to meet other fans there:3

I haven’t queued up anything on my Tumblr because I don’t trust the sodding thing, so it’ll be quietish over here until I get back onto my computer on Tuesday, so see you all then.

*Waves* Bye for now, my lovelies!

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Saturday Guest Announcement

We're also pleased to announce that one of our one-day guests, on the Saturday, will by film archivist/curator Miranda Gower-Qian. Miranda is an independent film programmer and MA graduate in film curation. Having studied under Professor Laura Mulvey, Miranda specialises in silent film curation as criticism and is particularly interested in the materiality - and intertextuality - of film. She has written about the significance and utilisation of the human body in deriving audience perception in silent film, something that she believes translates significantly to ideas about the fluidity of film through time and space. Hopeless cinephile and moustache enthusiast. She was also responsible for programming the Phoenix Cinema in East Finchley's first Silent Film Festival in July 2016, a festival planned to to continue this year.

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A quick note that there will be a postal PR for Redemption 17 at the end of this month, which will cover things like travel details to the venue, the membership list, and so on and so forth for convenience, though these will, of course also shortly be available online.

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Episode 3, Time Commanders - BBC Four

A team of karate veterans try to defend the Roman Empire against Attila the Hun.

A Redemption 17 guest is on BBC Four tonight - sadly the last episode of the series. And no, it isn't Gregg Wallace - it's Dr Lynette Nusbacher.

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We're never going to forget our original core shows, and Red 17 is the closest Redemption to the 40th anniversary of Blake's 7 – which is actually in January 2018. So we'll be celebrating that anniversary a little early, with - among other things - a look at the very first episode, and a vote among attendees as to their favourite episode of the series...

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Redemption 17 GoH, Dr Lynette Nusbacher, was on fine form in the new rebooted Time Commanders tonight!

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I just watched the first episode of the new Time Commanders and have come away from it with Dr Nusbacher as my new second personal hero, right after Laura Jane Grace :D

Seriously, how much courage does it take to transition while working in a military academy - and hold on to your job afterwards? How much did she have to go through before finally making that decision? It’s also really heartening to observe that there are other people out there who share a sliver of my experience in terms of a strange combination of gender dysphoria and military history.

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Indeed - and she’s also an excellent fencer and a good friend.

Hopefully we might record some of her panels at the convention and be able to share them on here afterwards.

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There is a new general Redemption conventions Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/redemptionconvention and a Redemption 17 Event page at https://www.facebook.com/events/494283660742777/

There will be a Christmas Blitz of fun stuff on there, and we encourage people to share and invite and generally talk to us there about the conventions.

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Redemption 17 GoH, Dr Lynette Nusbacher, was on fine form in the new rebooted Time Commanders tonight!

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Redemption’s website will be updated tomorrow (November 10th) with Programming info and some other bits and bobs. In the meantime, here’s what you’ll need to know about the Ruler Of The Universe elections, far more important than mere terrestrial politics:

Ruler of the Universe – the current ruler, Oswin has turned into a tyrant under the control of an evil Grandmother-Regent!  Can you inspire the populace to follow you in a uprising and resist her, negotiating your way to a safe and productive relationship with the rest of the universe? This time, however, you don’t need to go it alone - you can nominate a Champion to undertake the tasks for you, and even have a Squire/Henchperson/sacrificial goat if you wish... or recklessly go it alone, or declaring war and conquering worlds, if you prefer...  You will need to demonstrate strategic skills, enthusiasm, cunning – (outright bribery) in a series of role play games, challenges and scenarios suited to you and you can nominate anyone on the team to take them.  Your predecessors include Servalan, The Master and The Red Dalek so that should give you some idea of the level of er, expertise required.

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I love a good Con

Imgur: The most awesome images on the Internet.

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Booking by credit card is now live on Redemtpion's website, at http://www.redemptioncon.org.uk There is a charge of £3.50 for booking by cedit card, which uses Stripe.