Fandom Café Book Discussion Series Launches
Fandom Café presents its bi-monthly book discussion series starting 29th of November 2008. Fandom Café will be hosting a series of intimate gatherings discussing books, authors, poetry, creative writing and of course…one’s passion for the written word-the love of reading.
The series kicks off with a discussion of works by Arthur Clarke, Robert Jordan and Michael Crichton. For more information, visit their official website. Welcome to Fandom Café
Read or Die member Rachel Teng writes about Fandom Café, a library and hangout for Manila-based science fiction and fantasy buffs, in today's Manila Bulletin.
MB did not update their online Youth archive today, so I've posted the entire column here.
Fandom Café: For Fans, By Fans
by Rachel Teng
One of the things that Read or Die members have difficulty with is looking for a venue to meet up and talk to each other. The members are scattered through the metro, some even coming in all the way from the provinces just to see everyone else. Apart from that, it’s hard to look for a place where we can just sit and talk all day.
We usually end up in cafés like the Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf in Gateway or Greenbelt. The atmosphere of their branches are welcoming, and we like their cakes and drinks. Still, we tend to move around after a while, feeling a little embarrassed to sit there in a group for hours at a time.
This is why we were rather ecstatic when we found out about Fandom Café. As the name says, Fandom Café is a place where different fans and fandoms can come together to meet up or get together in a fandom activity. For those who aren’t in the know, fandom is the term used to describe a group of active fans of anything, be in TV series, manga, toys, movies, comics and – you guessed it – books. Finally, a place where we can be bibliophiles without feeling like we’re trolling coffeehouses!
Fandom Café was initially built as the business arm of the New Worlds Alliance in April 2007, by founders Paolo Jalbuena and Jon Sideño. The New Worlds Alliance is the collective term used for many the science fiction/fantasy fandoms found here in the Philippines. The New Worlds Alliance includes groups like Via Astris (The Star Trek Club of the Philippines), The Philippine Tolkien Society, Pinoy Harry Potter, Star Wars Philippines, Pinoy X-Philes, Pinoy Slayers, and The Alliance of Eclectic Gamers and Interactive Storytellers (AEGIS). With all these groups around, there eventually came a need for a venue where the members of these groups could meet and gather. Enter the Fandom Café.
[caption id="attachment_180" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="click on the image for a larger view"]
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What does the Fandom Café offer to its clients? It’s a good meeting place for small groups of people, with an activity room equipped with a television, gaming consoles and a comfortable couch upstairs, and an Internet hub downstairs. They also have delicious sandwiches and snacks, as well as the best coffee the Read or Die members have tasted in a café yet. (They also offer ice to the residents of the building where FC is located!)
The truly unique feature of Fandom Café is its hominess, the natural way it makes you feel at home as soon as you take a step in the shop. As soon as you come in, the first things that you can see are their posters, collection of toys, and books displayed everywhere. This immediately tells you, “Yes, the people who go here have the same interests as you do!†The members are also very chummy and are open to talking about all kinds of topics, from books to tabletop games, television series to movies and games. Science fiction and fantasy can be very broad, so there’s never any difficulty looking for things to talk about.
Best of all, Fandom Café is home to an extensive library of science fiction and fantasy books, many of them rare and out of print. The books themselves do not belong to the café – instead, the books are donated or lent by the many members of NWA, so that the books can be read other people and also for safekeeping. Truly a café made for fans, by fans!
Their collection is huge: thousands of books covering a wide period of science fiction and fantasy – from The Rebellious Stars (The Stars, Like Dust) / An Earth Gone Mad printed in 1954 to The Lies of Locke Lamore of 2007. They also have books from old, well-known authors like Arthur C. Clarke and Ray Bradbury, as well as science fiction and fantasy classics like A Canticle for Leibowitz and Tolkien’s Lost Tales. You might recognize some of their series, like Robotech and Doc Savage, or you might be interested in their rarer books, like A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs, printed in 1912.
Fandom Café has opened its library to the public, so if you are interested in speculative fiction works like science fiction, fantasy, or even horror, this is the place to go. For only 500php a year or 1000php for a lifetime membership (students get an additional 50% off on all rates), you can already take home two or four books of your choice home at a time. Check the rest of their books out in their catalogue at http://library.fandomcafe.com/ -- it’s not complete yet, and there are some three thousand more books that they need to catalogue, but this does give you a good idea of what you can find in their collection.
As previously mentioned, Fandom Café is also a good place to meet up and have gatherings, especially for small fandom-related events. It’s located near the MRT station in Cubao, and is open from 6AM to midnight. A location map can be found in their main website, http://www.fandomcafe.com/
Fandom Café also occasionally has events of its own that anyone can join. They have livecasts every Sunday night, film viewing once in a while, and its members also attend conventions or hold one of their own. NWA has thrown six conventions already, so you can be sure that membership in the Café will also give you the best news of these events.
Fandom Café: For Fans, By Fans
by Rachel Teng
One of the things that Read or Die members have difficulty with is looking for a venue to meet up and talk to each other. The members are scattered through the metro, some even coming in all the way from the provinces just to see everyone else. Apart from that, it’s hard to look for a place where we can just sit and talk all day.
We usually end up in cafés like the Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf in Gateway or Greenbelt. The atmosphere of their branches are welcoming, and we like their cakes and drinks. Still, we tend to move around after a while, feeling a little embarrassed to sit there in a group for hours at a time.
This is why we were rather ecstatic when we found out about Fandom Café. As the name says, Fandom Café is a place where different fans and fandoms can come together to meet up or get together in a fandom activity. For those who aren’t in the know, fandom is the term used to describe a group of active fans of anything, be in TV series, manga, toys, movies, comics and – you guessed it – books. Finally, a place where we can be bibliophiles without feeling like we’re trolling coffeehouses!
Fandom Café was initially built as the business arm of the New Worlds Alliance in April 2007, by founders Paolo Jalbuena and Jon Sideño. The New Worlds Alliance is the collective term used for many the science fiction/fantasy fandoms found here in the Philippines. The New Worlds Alliance includes groups like Via Astris (The Star Trek Club of the Philippines), The Philippine Tolkien Society, Pinoy Harry Potter, Star Wars Philippines, Pinoy X-Philes, Pinoy Slayers, and The Alliance of Eclectic Gamers and Interactive Storytellers (AEGIS). With all these groups around, there eventually came a need for a venue where the members of these groups could meet and gather. Enter the Fandom Café.
[caption id="attachment_180" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="click on the image for a larger view"]
[/caption]
What does the Fandom Café offer to its clients? It’s a good meeting place for small groups of people, with an activity room equipped with a television, gaming consoles and a comfortable couch upstairs, and an Internet hub downstairs. They also have delicious sandwiches and snacks, as well as the best coffee the Read or Die members have tasted in a café yet. (They also offer ice to the residents of the building where FC is located!)
The truly unique feature of Fandom Café is its hominess, the natural way it makes you feel at home as soon as you take a step in the shop. As soon as you come in, the first things that you can see are their posters, collection of toys, and books displayed everywhere. This immediately tells you, “Yes, the people who go here have the same interests as you do!†The members are also very chummy and are open to talking about all kinds of topics, from books to tabletop games, television series to movies and games. Science fiction and fantasy can be very broad, so there’s never any difficulty looking for things to talk about.
Best of all, Fandom Café is home to an extensive library of science fiction and fantasy books, many of them rare and out of print. The books themselves do not belong to the café – instead, the books are donated or lent by the many members of NWA, so that the books can be read other people and also for safekeeping. Truly a café made for fans, by fans!
Their collection is huge: thousands of books covering a wide period of science fiction and fantasy – from The Rebellious Stars (The Stars, Like Dust) / An Earth Gone Mad printed in 1954 to The Lies of Locke Lamore of 2007. They also have books from old, well-known authors like Arthur C. Clarke and Ray Bradbury, as well as science fiction and fantasy classics like A Canticle for Leibowitz and Tolkien’s Lost Tales. You might recognize some of their series, like Robotech and Doc Savage, or you might be interested in their rarer books, like A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs, printed in 1912.
Fandom Café has opened its library to the public, so if you are interested in speculative fiction works like science fiction, fantasy, or even horror, this is the place to go. For only 500php a year or 1000php for a lifetime membership (students get an additional 50% off on all rates), you can already take home two or four books of your choice home at a time. Check the rest of their books out in their catalogue at http://library.fandomcafe.com/ -- it’s not complete yet, and there are some three thousand more books that they need to catalogue, but this does give you a good idea of what you can find in their collection.
As previously mentioned, Fandom Café is also a good place to meet up and have gatherings, especially for small fandom-related events. It’s located near the MRT station in Cubao, and is open from 6AM to midnight. A location map can be found in their main website, http://www.fandomcafe.com/
Fandom Café also occasionally has events of its own that anyone can join. They have livecasts every Sunday night, film viewing once in a while, and its members also attend conventions or hold one of their own. NWA has thrown six conventions already, so you can be sure that membership in the Café will also give you the best news of these events. Philippine Sword and Sorcery
There's been a fun discussion going on about Filipino-written sword and sorcery (S&S) stories. Linking to some of the relevant posts here:
Filipino Sword-And-Sorcery (at The Grin Without a Cat)
The Conan Question (at to the tale, and other such concerns)
Filipino Sword and Sorcery (at the PGS Multiply journal)
More on Filipino Sword and Sorcery (PGS Multiply)
Because of the dearth of S&S stories from Filipino writers, Banzai Cat is wondering if it would be good to open a group blog called Pinoy Pulp that would address this issue. Read his post about it here:
Conan vs Panday
Philippine Genre Stories Forum
A forum for readers of the Philippine Genre Stories is up!
The following is from the forum's disclaimer, as written by Charles Tan, who co-mods along with Paolo Chikiamco:
The Digest of Philippine Genre Stories (PGS) and it's publisher, Kenneth Yu, is not officially connected to this PGS forum in any way. No official of the Digest is a moderator of this forum, which runs independently, and retains it's right to be such. It is, however, meant to be an online forum for discussions on PGS--its stories, authors, features, articles--as well as to give suggestions for its improvement. It is also a place where its members can discuss anything related to publishing, fiction, literary events, books, reading, and the like.Some interesting discussions have already been generated. Register and jump in!
The LitCritters on Philippine Speculative Fiction
I attended the LitCritters' talk on speculative fiction on the first day of the Manila International Book Fair armed only with my trusty WinX notebook and cell phone camera, so I'm afraid I wasn't able to get any clear shots or recordings. But I'd like to share what I learned there, and I hope I'll be able to present my notes in an orderly fashion, because a lot of interesting things were said.
I've also taken the liberty of linking to some of the recommended stories, so you can read them online. If there are any that I missed, please feel free to comment with links to them, and I'll add them right away.
The speakers were Dean Alfar, Nikki Alfar, Vin Simbulan, Kate Aton-Osias, Alex Osias and Andrew Drilon. They each spoke of the different forms speculative fiction in the Philippines could take.
Dean Alfar opened the talk by defining Philippine speculative fiction as "the literature of the fantastic." It is fiction written by Filipinos that asks "What if?" or "How about if?" This sort of writing has not always been welcome in "serious" literary circles, he said, since traditionally, all other stories seem unimportant compared to "realistic" stories.
But while writers are being taught to write fiction that matters, young people (writers and readers) want what matters to them. There is now a decline in the number of Filipino readers, because of the need to prioritize what we read. (more…)
Speculative Fiction Discussion at the Manila Book Fair
Tomorrow is the start of the 2007 Manila Book Fair. There's a lot to look forward to! Among them is the talk on Philippine Speculative Fiction, which is to be given by the LitCritters panel in Function Room B, at 2:30 PM.
I hope to be there :) Not as a panelist, of course, but as just another face in the crowd.
New Worlds Transformed Starts Today!
This is a very late announcement, my apologies. The New Worlds Alliance, an organization of fan groups focused mostly on fantasy, science fiction and horror, has launched the New Worlds Transformed convention. The convention will run from July 9-15 and will include a costume parade (+ a cosplay competition), Harry Potter Day (check out related contests, btw!), a Story Creation Game and much more!
Admission is free, so drop by and have fun! Here's how to get there.
Plug: The Medieval Studies Society of the Philippines
Mr. Ralfy Acuña left a comment at my blog talking about his organization, the Medieval Studies Society of the Philippines (MSSP). For those who may be interested in joining, here's Mr. Acuña's announcement:
Greetings! We are in the process of forming a Medieval Studies Society of the Philippines (Mediaevalis Studii Philippinarum Insularum Societas). The core members are professors and researchers in philosophy, literature, theology, history, and political science from the Ateneo de Manila University, San Beda College, University of Asia and the Pacific, and the University of the Philippines (Cebu, Diliman, and Manila campuses). The goal of the Society is to foster the study of medieval cultures from different parts of the world. Planned activities include tours of local sites such as churches, academic lectures and conventions, exhibitions, educational outreach programs, and publications. We would like to work with various local groups interested in topics connected to medieval culture, including C.S. Lewis, Tolkien, fantasy fiction, the Gothic, and others. We would like to invite you to subscribe to our low-volume announcement mailing list, which you can join by sending e-mail to mspis-subscribe@yahoogroups.com or by visiting http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mspis/. We'll send updates to the list once a month, including updates to the website. (The current website of the Society is located at http://mssp.kritikon.net, but it only contains a banner. I'll try to update it during the next few days.) Finally, you have any questions or comments, you may write to medievalph at gmail dot com. Feel free to offer suggestions on what you want the Society to exhibit or discuss in the future. Regards, Ralfy AcunaI confess I'm curious about how "medieval" Philippines will be represented here. Wikipedia says "The Middle Ages are commonly dated from the 5th century fall of the Western Roman Empire until the fall of the Eastern Roman Empire in the 15th century," although this is still disputed. But if we're going by the general time frame, this would be pre-Spanish era, yes? The Spanish explorers and colonizers came sometime during the 16th century, IIRC. Writers who lean toward a specific subgenre of speculative fiction (alternate history) could learn a lot from the group discussions. Also, history is fun!