The $11-million Terminator Salvation wooden coaster at Six Flags Magic Mountain (Valencia, California) opens this weekend. Named one of the top 5 new U.S. theme park rides and attractions for 2009 by The Los Angeles Times, the ride features video clips featuring stars from the film, released earlier this week, rapper/actor Common and model/actress Moon Bloodgood.

To experience the ride, you must first go through “training” … a.k.a. wait in line. Once you get to the coaster loading station, or “safe house”, you can view movie props and memorabilia including Terminator robots. Once on the ride itself, you are a “resistance fighter.”

Enjoy the ride!

I know I’m a little late on this, but at least you still have a week to catch this art show.

The Hyaena Gallery has new art by Rick “Dienzo” Blanco on display now through the end of the month. A L.A. based artist, Blanco has built an award-winning commercial art career over the past 15 years or so.

His paintings merge Goth, vampires and little big-eyed girls in a manner that intrigues, entices and, possibly, even makes you anxious. Unique to this show is his collaboration with Gothic Lolita maven, La Carmina. He not only incorporated fashions created by the designer into some of his works, but painted one of Carmina herself.

Humorous horror artist Mike Sosnowski will be attending Monsterpalooza the end of this month at the Burbank Convention Center. He’s a real nice guy. If you go, stop by and say, “Hi!” And remember to say The Genre Traveler sent you.

There’s this guy, named Brock Cooper, who is a real zombie enthusiast. In fact, he’s got a blog dedicated to the subject at zombietheater.wordpress.com.

I stopped by today to check it out. If you can overlook the typos and misspellings, you will find his post to be quite well written and entertaining. I read a post that pondered the question, “Why do zombies always want to eat human flesh?”

Personally, zombies scare the crap out of me, but I did enjoy reading Brock’s musings and maybe you will, too.

Dozens of international scholars of science fiction and popular authors will discuss the impact of Jules Verne, the 19th century French author of Journey to the Center of the Earth and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, at the 2009 Eaton Science Fiction Conference at the University of California, Riverside May 1-3.

“Verne’s influence on the hardware and the locales of modern science fiction — the center of the earth, the bottom of the seas, outer space — is widely recognized,” said George Slusser, professor emeritus of comparative literature and curator emeritus of the Eaton Collection. “More significant is his influence on the shape of modern science fiction: the extraordinary voyage has become a foundational motif by which scientific knowledge is linked to the exploration of richly imagined worlds.”

Presented by UCR Libraries’ Eaton Science Fiction Collection and the College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences in coordination with the North American Jules Verne Society, the three-day “Extraordinary Voyages: Jules Verne and Beyond” conference will include the presentation of the second Eaton Award for Lifetime Achievement in Science Fiction, in-absentia, to Frederik Pohl, author of The Space Merchants, Gateway and other science fiction classics.

“We are really delighted to be able to host an Eaton conference with this emphasis on Jules Verne,” said Melissa Conway, head of Special Collections and Archives at UCR. “Verne’s influence – right up to the present day — cannot be underestimated. In the United States – largely as the result of inept translations — he has been perceived as an author of adventure books for children. I hope this conference will help in correcting that unfortunate misperception.”

The conference includes presentations of academic papers and panel discussions, a Science Fiction Poetry Association poetry reading, and an award ceremony for winners of the second University of California Science Fiction Short Story Contest. The program is available online at eatonconference.ucr.edu/index.php.

Registration for the conference is required. Books by conference authors will be available for sale, as will items from various vendors, including New Zealand’s Weta Workshop, which designs and manufactures special props, costumes and models for films such as the Lord of the Rings trilogy, King Kong and The Chronicles of Narnia. Conference registration is not necessary to visit the vendor displays.

A symposium, “The Histories of Science Fiction,” will precede the conference on campus on Thursday, April 30, from 2 to 4:30 p.m. in the Special Collections Reading Room of the Rivera Library. The symposium is free and open to the public.

Now in it’s 4th year, Florida Supercon moves into a larger venue and includes celebrity guests, artists, writers, vendors, industry guests, Q&A’s, parties, costume contests, anime programming, manga, cosplay, workshops, panels, cosplay photo shoots, dance parties, console gaming, LAN gaming, tabletop gaming, collectible card gaming, tournaments and more. Taking place June 5, 6 & 7, 2009 at the Doubletree Miami Mart Airport Hotel and Convention Center in Miami, FL, the three day festival will feature more than one hundred guest celebrities, artists, writers and industry guests.

This year, guests include:

Cindy Morgan - Yori in Tron.

Bruce Campbell - Actor, Writer, Director and Producer, best known for his starring role as Ash in the Evil Dead trilogy (Evil Dead, Evil Dead 2 and Army of Darkness), as well as the swashbuckling King of Thieves in Xena: Warror Princess. Currently starring as Sam Axe in Burn Notice, Bruce has an array of impressive credits which include Bubba Ho-Tep, Spider-Man, Spider-Man 2, Spider-Man 3, Aqua Teen Hunger Force: The Movie, Man with the Screaming Brain and Congo.

Matthew Lewis - Neville Longbottom of the Harry Potter series of films

Brian Thompson - Actor seen in Mortal Kombat: Annihilation (Shao Khan), Buffy The Vampire Slayer (”The Judge” and “Luke The Vampire”), The X-Files (Alien Bounty Hunter), Star Trek: Generations (Klingon Helm), Star Trek: The Next Generation (”A Matter of Honor”), Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (”To The Death” & “Rules of Engagement”), Enterprise (”United,” “Babel One,” “Aenar”), Dragonheart (Brock), Charmed, Alien Nation, Werewolf, Terminator and Kindred: Embraced.

Many more have already agreed to show, and dozens more will be announced in the coming months.

The convention hours of operation are:

Friday, June 5: 3:30pm - 2:00am
Saturday, June 6: 11:00am - 2:00am
Sunday, June 7: 11:00am - 6:00pm

For more information and updates, visit www.floridasupercon.com

Florida Supercon Tickets are currently available online and will be available at the show.