Nov. 18 and 19 you can join fellow Harry Potter fans in Seattle, Wash., for a weekend of wizardly fun. There will be:

• An exclusive showing of the Harry Potter Exhibition,
• A private HP Fan Trips IMAX showing of the movie,
• An afternoon of activities at a true English castle, and
• An exclusive HP Fan Trips Gala Banquet.

Should you decide to attend, you’ll join other guests on Nov. 18 for a butterbeer reception at the Hotel Maxwell. Afterward, you’ll be whisked away for an exclusive HP Fan Trips opening of the Harry Potter Exhibition at the Pacific Science Center. You’ll then be treated to private HP Fan Trips IMAX showing of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part I at midnight at the Pacific Science Center.

The next day, Nov. 19, you’ll travel by private coach to the authentic English castle, Thornewood Castle, for an afternoon and evening of fun activities. The castle was brought over from England to Washington by Chester Thorne. This castle was used as the backdrop for ABC’s Stephen King mini-series Rose Red.

As an added bit of fun, you’ll stop of at the Museum of Glass in Tacoma on the way to the castle and watch beautiful glass pumpkins made before your eyes.

For more information, contact HP Fan Trips at 800.487.1136.

Producer Steven Fisher approached Ustream in April looking for an innovative partner in online media to join the effort to raise $100,000 for each of five charities supported by the original cast and crew of Firefly.

“They were the natural first choice,” direct Michael C. Dougherty said. “Ustream has empowered millions through their innovative platform. I was lucky to find they were also Browncoats.” (Note: Fans of Joss Wheedon’s Firefly universe call themselves Browncoats.)

Ustream has donated $40,0000 in bandwidth and several thousand dollars in development hours. The company will also be promoting the premiere broadly across its social channels. The stream will take place in conjunction with a live premiere at Dragon*Con in Atlanta, Georgia.

Browncoats: Redemption is a feature-length, fan-made sequel to Joss Whedon’s film Serenity, itself a sequel to the short-lived TV series Firefly. The film is using a unique nonprofit model, leveraging modern day crowd sourcing and high-end independent production to create a feature length film with the blessing of the original director, Joss Whedon. All donations received from the DVD go to the following five charities supported by original cast and crew members of Firefly/Serenity:

• Equality Now – www.equalitynow.org
• Kids Need to Read – www.kidsneedtoread.org
• The Dyslexia Foundation – www.dyslexiafoundation.org
• The Al Wooten Jr. Heritage Center – www.wootencenter.org
• Marine Corps Law Enforcement Foundation – www.mc-lef.org

“With the premiere powered by Ustream,” said Dougherty, “the five charities we are supporting will gain awareness and donations at a level we never could have reached on our own.”

Browncoats: Redemption takes place three months after the events at the end of the Universal film, Serenity. Exposed for transgressing against the entire universe, the Alliance hone in on a small transport crew on which to place the blame. We find Captain Laura Matthews and the crew of Redemption unintentionally thrown into a situation that some view as the potential catalyst for the second unified rise of the Independents against the Alliance since Unification Day.

I’ve already recorded a fun interview with Dougherty and Heather Fagen, who plays Captain Matthews. The podcast is currently scheduled to post on October 1.

The production has already raised more than $6,000 for these groups at events and conventions. With a goal of 32,000 DVD orders, the producers hope to disperse another $100,000 to each organization at absolutely no cost to the charities.

What:
Live online streaming of Browncoats: Redemption, a fan-filmed sequel to Joss Wheden’s Serenity

Where:
Ustream: www.ustream.tv/browncoatsmovie
The Film’s page on Facebook: facebook.com/browncoatsmove

When:
September 4, 2010
4pm Pacific | 5pm Mountain | 6pm Central | 7pm Eastern

Scientists, authors and education experts will all gather to discuss whether there are ‘Twilight zones’ in the teenage mind; areas of the brain in some way affected or altered by the reading of books like the wildly-popular vampire novels of Stephanie Meyer, author of the Twilight series now being made into films.

The three-day conference, starting today and lasting through he weekend, will make connections between recent neuroscience research and the representation of the adolescent in literature, film, computer games and social networking sites.

“We are bringing together people from different disciplines from all over the world to look at the physiological, psychological, chemical and sociological effects of reading teenage fiction,” said organizer Professor Maria Nikolajeva, the first director of the Cambridge/Homerton Research and Training Centre for Children’s Literature, dedicated to studying children’s media. “Research is going on not just [at Cambridge] but around the world into neuroscience and literature; how the teenage brain responds to narrative in the printed word, computer games, media and social media.”

One question the conference will address, says Nikolajeva, is “Do we want young people to go on reading? Does it matter?” I know what I think on the matter, but we’ll have to wait for what these scientific minds come up with. (Note: I’ll try to get Nikolajeva as a guest on the podcast.)

The conference is one of the first of its kind and includes keynote addresses from author Meg Rosoff and the hugely respected American linguistic anthropologist Shirley Brice Heath.

Sessions at the conference include “What is it about good girls and vampires?”, “My life would suck without you” and also a session looking at how gay teenagers are portrayed in young adult literature.

“We can absolutely say that all these different forms of entertainment for teenagers have values,” adds Nikolajeva. “There is evidence, for example, that library use increases among teenagers the day after a popular film comes out.”

Nikolajeva said that the current trend for darkness and dystopia in children’s literature, prevalent in books such as Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games, reflected concerns in the wider, adult world.

And this begs the question, at least for me, if dystopian fiction is such a concern, then why were Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, Pat Frank’s Alas Babylon and George Orwell’s ]]> http://www.thegenretraveler.com/science-fiction/does-genre-literature-affect-the-teen-brain/feed/ 0 http://www.thegenretraveler.com/science-fiction/does-genre-literature-affect-the-teen-brain/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheGenreTravelerBlog/~3/BFqen_zJwvw/ http://www.thegenretraveler.com/science-fiction/meet-ray-bradbury-at-dvd-signing/#comments Thu, 02 Sep 2010 15:29:30 +0000 Carma Spence http://www.thegenretraveler.com/?p=2289 If you are a fan of the legendary Ray Bradbury and will be in the Los Angeles area on Sept. 19, you’ll want to take advantage of the opportunity to meet the man himself. Bradbury will be appearing at the Los Angeles Comic Book and Science Fiction Convention from 12pm to 2pm to sign copies [...] If you are a fan of the legendary Ray Bradbury and will be in the Los Angeles area on Sept. 19, you’ll want to take advantage of the opportunity to meet the man himself.

Bradbury will be appearing at the Los Angeles Comic Book and Science Fiction Convention from 12pm to 2pm to sign copies of the just released DVD, Ray Bradbury’s Chrysalis.

Bradbury’s writing has inspired generation after generation of writers with his iconic works such as Fahrenheit 451, The Martian Chronicles, Something Wicked this Way Comes, The Illustrated Man, Dandelion Wine and many others. In fact, I chose him when, in High School, I had to select an American Author to write six papers on.

Several of Bradbury’s stories have been adapted for film and television. 27 of his stories were adapted for the classic EC Comic Books of the 1950s in such titles as Tales from the Crypt, Vault of Horror, Haunt of Fear, Crime Suspenstories, Shock Suspenstories, Weird Science-Fantasy, Weird Science, and Weird Fantasy. He just turned 90 years old in 2010 and is still active and involved with creating new works.

Back when I was writing those papers, he only had five novels and I had to select a few short stories for my final paper. But these days, he has several more novels out.

Ray Bradbury’s Chrysalis is based on one of his short stories. Appearing with Ray for the signing will be Cast Members Glen Vaughan, Corey Landis (Dinocroc vs. Supergator), Elina Madison (Creepshow III), Darren Kendrick, Larry Dirk, Producer Roger Lay, Jr. (Ackerman on Bradbury), Composer Brandon Moore, and Creature Effects Designer Lee Romaire (Van Helsing – makeup, War of the Worlds – animal effects). The DVD, Poster, and CD will be available for purchase at the Convention.

What:
DVD signing with Ray Bradbury

Where:
The Los Angeles Comic Book and Science Fiction Convention
Shrine Auditorium Expo Center
700 West 32nd Street
Los Angeles, Calif.

When:
Sunday, September 19, 2010

For more information:
www.comicbookscifi.com

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