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Sci-fi events
enter galaxy
this weekend
By Patrick Hambrecht
Staff Reporter
Rndromeda One will min
ister to the needs of 500
role-playing, Star-Trek
king, Jedi-worshiping pil
grims at the downtown
Ramada Hotel this week
end.
Andromeda One, a regional science fiction/
fantasy conference scheduled from today to
Sunday, will be chock-full of celebrities and
frivolities. One of the foremost fantasy artists in
America, Bill Hodgson, will present demon
strations of his crafl.
Among thcothcr big names will be Katherine y
Kurt/, writer of the celebrated Deryni series, L
and Lincoln'saward-winningsci-fi writer Rob- \
ert Reed. Other Nebraska professionals will
attend, including comic writer Frcdd Gorham
and fantasy author Tom Frcyc.
Participants in the conference will have
:hances to meet the celebrities and ask them
questions during a panel discussion today at 6
).m. After the panel discussion, the artists will
ead special conferences on how to write and
Iraw for the sci-fi and fantasy industry.
Andromeda One will offer more than 50
pecial pvents. including games, panels, dem
mstrations, training sessions and a filksinging j
cssion.
* Mitaiiigmg is me nuuie ari 01 rewriting
opular songs to deal with important modem
icmcs, like space exploration and artificial
itelligcncc.
Scott Clark, a chief organizer of the
ndromeda One conference, said a
lksinging performance often created
tender, moving scene.
“There’s a moving song, to the
ne of ‘The Wreck of the Edmund
tzgcrald,’ written about an Apollo
ission that nearly ended in disas
r,” Clark said.
Other special attractions arc targeted
involve participants. An art auction will
held, featuring some of the best international
id local fantasy artists. Talks will be given on
crything from vampires to com ic books to Dr.
One audience member will even be able to
in an intimate icecream social with Katherine
iirtz, if he or she wins the “Who-Dun-It”
ntest.
Besides the special events, Andromeda will
iy host to ongoing attractions. Numerous
e-playing competition** will be offered, in
king Dungeons and Dragons, Car Wars and
ttletcch modules. Awards will be given in a
“Cial ceremony to the winners of a high
mol writing contest.
Though the Andromeda organizers don’t
x:ct the conference to make a profit, all
:css revenue will be given to charity.
Clark said he was already beginning to plan
a possible “Andromeda Two.”
UFO gurus
to descend
on Lincoln
By Sam Kepfield
Staff Reporter
If you’re a die-hard fan of “The
X Files,” you might want to
skip it this Friday and head
over to East Campus fora real
dose of the unknown.
j. The Fortean Research Center is
sponsoring its sixth Exploring Unex
plained Phenomena Conference, run
ning from today to Sunday at the
Nebraska Center for Continuing 4Edu
calion, 3^rd and Floldrcge streets. The
theme for this year’s conference is
“Exploring the UFO Mystery.”
Scott Colborn, director of the
Fortean Research Center, explained
the group’s working philosophy,
j “We try to keep an open mind, but
{not so open that our brains fall out,”
;he said.
The group takes its name from
Charles Fort, an early 20th-century
I writer who collected data on anoma
lous events that science ignored.
“We don’t ask people to listen to
our opinions. We ask them to look at
the data and make up their own
minus, coioorn saia.
Col born sees his group, and the
conferences i t sponsors, as slowly pre
paring the path for the government to
finally disclose that humanity is not
alone in the universe. Colborn scoffs
at the notion that UFO believers arc
conspiracy-theory cranks waiting to
be beamed up to the mother ship.
“Studies show that as a person’s
educational background goes up, so
does theirdisposition to believing that
other 1 ife forms arc out there,” he said.
One featured speaker at this year’s
conference is Kevin Randle, a former
Air Force intelligence officer and
Army helicopter pilot who has de
voted several years to examining the
crash ofaUFOnear Roswell,N.M., in
1947. Randle has written two books
on the subject; his second book, “The
Truth About the UFO Crash at
Roswell,” was published three weeks
ago.
Randle will review eyewitness tes
timony about the July 1947 crash and c
allow the audience to hear recordings
of the witnesses’ statements. Randle
has also unearthed evidence of a se
cret investigation conducted by the
Air Force into the matter. His speech
is scheduled for Saturday at 8 p.m.
Marc Davenport, the editor of
“Contact Fomm,” is another return
speaker. Davenport will present
a paper entitled “Visitors from
Time: The Secret of UFOs” to
day at 2 p.m.
James uoouaii, a lrcciancc
journalist who writes on se
cret programs, will speak on
“Secret Government Bases”
Saturday evening. Goodall,
from Tacoma, Wash.,believes
the Groom Lake facility in the
Nevada desert is the most 1 ikely
host for alien spacecraft or tech
nology derived from them.
A security clearance and 20 years
in Leavenworth arc real good incen
tives for not talking,” Goodall said.
Karla Turner, a professor of En
glish who has specialized for the past
six years in examining people ab
ducted byaliens, will present a discus
sion on “The Alicn/Human Abduc
tion Agenda: Propaganda, Fantasy and
Fact.” Turner said she was a victim of
alien abductions.
In addition to the speakers, there
will be displays of books and other
supernatural-related phenomena in the
lobby of the Nebraska Center. Also,
the evcr-popular ghost lourof Lincoln
will be tonight from 8 to 10 for $7. *
Registration for the conference is
$50 for all 14 lectures or $7.50 per
lecture, and one can register at the
door.