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. Kenneth Yu of PGS Profiled in SIM
Learned from Ian Casocot: Ruel De Vera profiles Philippine Genre Stories' Kenneth Yu for Sunday Inquirer Magazine.
Spec Fic-Related Announcements
1. From Philippine Genre Stories:
There will be a feature and interview on October 18, 2007, on the radio station Jam 88.3, for PGS. It will be from 8 to 9 in the evening. I'll be there, on-air, with PGS contributor Miggy Escaño, author of the cover story for PGS3, Tuko. Hope you have the time to tune-in and listen!2. Don't forget, the LitCritters will be holding their next Open Session on October 20, at A Different Bookstore in Serendra. Everyone's welcome to attend. 3. The Writers Forum panelists for New Worlds 5: The 5th Philippine Science Fiction and Fantasy Convention, have been revealed! For their names and the forum schedule, click here.
RX 93.1 Spotlight on the Manila International Book Fair, Philippine Speculative Fiction, and Read or Die
Charles has posted a recording of the RX 93.1 interview of Dean Alfar of the LitCritters, Kristin Mandigma of Read or Die, Gwen Galvez of Anvil Publishing, and Blooey Singson of the Manila International Book Fair.
He's also posted transcripts of some excerpts from the interview. Thanks, Charles!
Please note, Kristin Mandigma of Read or Die is going to be on radio again tonight at Jam 88.3, 9-10 PM. She will be reading some poetry and promoting the Manila Book Fair.
Team Alfar Interviews at PinoyCentric
Via the Bibliophile Stalker:
Nikki and Dean Alfar, both well-known Filipino speculative fiction writers, have interviews up in PinoyCentric.
Read Nikki's interview here.
Nikki wrote about her experiences as a young writer, which were quite fun to read about. Perhaps they're also something a lot of us can identify with.
At six, Nikki already knew that she was going to be a writer. "I started writing Nancy Drew-type stories, then I moved on to the Sweet Dreams type. I used to get in trouble a lot in school because my notebooks were full of stories but had no notes," she relates. "Pretty much from the start, I was really into this whole speculative fiction bent. One of the first novels I read was Stephen King’s Cujo and later The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien," Nikki remembers. Her parents were not as encouraging, however. "My mom brainwashed me, 'If you're going to be a writer, you will be poor!' and I didn't want to be poor. I'm kikay [stylish], so I can't be poor!" she laughs. Enrolling at UP Diliman's creative writing program didn't provide much encouragement either. "You know how it is," she explains, "in grade school and high school, you think you're very brilliant—and then you get to college and you realize: hey, there are other more brilliant people and you're just okay!"Read Dean's interview here. Dean talks about advocating speculative fiction:
DFA: Speculative fiction or "spec fic" is the umbrella term we use for the genres of fantasy, science fiction, horror, surrealism, magical realism, and slipstream fiction. These labels are bookstore labels, and for me, are as artificial as fiction itself. Definitely all fiction is fiction. It's all make-believe. I advocate this movement of shifting the paradigm and thus exposing more people to these stories, so that the value of these stories becomes more apparent rather than the status quo, which is they are considered worthless. Academics raise their eyebrows at these stories because they have privileged the mode of realism. I have no issue with the realist writers. All I'm saying is they should have no issue with us and permit these stories to be published and to be read.It was interesting to note that if Dean had not been successful as a writer, he would have wanted to be a teacher! Although I daresay he'll probably be successful as both :) Those who may be interested in joining the next open session of Litcritters: it's on July 7, 2007. See Dean Alfar's post for details.
Transcript of Philippine Genre Stories Interview on NU 107
Philippine Genre Stories went on the air one more time last Wednesday, this time on NU 107.5. Charles also has the full transcript of this interview up on his blog.
This section of the interview may be especially interesting to other spec fic writers out there:
NU107: I heard you have a writing contest coming up. You wanna talk about it? Kenneth: That's right, thank you for reminding. Each issue has an image and it's a section called Image Inspiration, and has an image be it a photo or a drawing by a local artist. NU107: Where can you find that? Kenneth: It's at the last page. NU107: For this issue, you have... Kenneth: A drawing by Andrew. Who's also a talented artist. So we invite people to write a short short story, between three hundred to five hundred words, and then a panel of judges, who don't know each other, will give their comments and rank them and the winner gets to win a free copy and have their story published in the next issue. NU107: So how do they go about sending their entries? Kenneth: Everything is on the blog, philippinegenrestories.blogspot.com, but this particular contest is over. So wait for the third issue, we'll have a new picture, a new image, for which people can join.Vin and Andrew, spec fic pros also present in the interview, also have interesting responses to the rather general question: What is the value of writing stories? Read the full transcript to know their answers.
A Transcript of Philippine Genre Stories Interview on Mellow 94.7
Charles Tan (Bibliophile Stalker) has finished transcribing the Mellow 94.7 appearance of Vin Simbulan, Dean Francis Alfar and Kenneth Yu of Philippine Genre Stories. You can read the full transcript here.
I especially liked how Dean defined an "inventory" of stories in this passage. I wonder how many spec fic writers out there can say this goes for them as well -
Dean: Well an inventory is just a collection of stories that a writer has written over a brief period of time, let's say several months. Some writers like to have things when they're struck by inspiration of because they have discipline, write a story or two. And then when there are calls or obvious venues or calls for submission, we send it out. Some times though, we write specifically to submit or if there is a competition or contest, then we write. It's good discipline to have an inventory, to have some stories up your sleeve. You never know if four publishers suddenly come knocking down your door saying we want your story, each! And you say no problem, no problem.
Again, the full transcript is here.