Event Recap

For the fourth consecutive year The SFSNNJ capped off the Face
The Fiction series with our annual Holiday Dinner & Panel
Discussion, this year's topic being the Sights & Sounds of SF.
Dean Cartier opened the doors for us at 6:10 p.m. so that Ann-
Marie & others could bring in the food and items for the swap
table, while "Santa" Bill W. brought in & set up the drinks. Our
Dinner hour was enlivened by the presence of our surprise
guests, Master Chris Trimarchi (a gaming friend of Master Todd &
Field Ops Director for Americans For Prosperity-NJ, the group I
work for) who bought the legendary Mayor Steve Lonegan of
Bogota (the senior policy advisor for AFP-NJ & my friend) with
him. The food available included eggplant, ziti, meatballs, rice &
potatoes, as well as salad & a cheese & crackers platter. A little
after 8:00 p.m. Master Todd started the discussion proper by
introducing the Sounds representatives first: Larry Weiner &
Angelo Panetta from the Radio Repertory Company of America,
and old friend Tony Tellado, who hosts the Sci-Fi Talk radio
show. Larry & Angelo talked about how they submitted their first
production series, Garson Krebs Private Eye (which resembled an
old fashioned radio drama) to NPR Playhouse. Unfortunately NPR
Playhouse was dropped from the airwaves shortly thereafter. Larry
said their next series was The Stealer of Souls featuring Katey
Segal from Married With Children ("and Futurama" cried Big
Gene) followed by their first foray into science fiction, Flight of
the Bumble Bee with Marina Sirtis from TNG in the lead role. The
success of these drama series led to the Anne Manx drama with
Claudia Christian from Babylon 5 as Anne (All these series can be
purchased as CD's at their website, www.rrca.com ). Angelo
talked a little about the production end of it (Larry writes the
scripts & Angelo writes the music score & handles the sound
effects) and played an excerpt from one of their programs. Tony
Tellado talked about his Sci-Fi Talk show and how it has evolved
into a podcast (along with how shorter interviews work better
than longer ones). Illustrators Mike Schneider (who put together
the reanimated version of Night of the Living Dead [the original
being one of Mr.Lonegan's favorites BTW] & Dorian Bachman
were up next and they talked about the steampunk series they
were working on (they also had on display some of their artwork)
& J.M. DeSantis discussed his involvement with the Planet
Lovecraft magazine. One of the highlights of the Question &
Answer period was the panel's discussion of the future for their
respective works. Mike S. boldly stated that Mass Media as we
knew it in the
20th Century is dead, having been killed off by the Internet. Tony
agreed, saying that the networks will always exist because of real-
time coverage of news & sporting events, but that entertainment
will be almost completely controlled by the Internet without the
restraints of commercial considerations. Both Larry & Angelo
argued that artists were more creative under those restraints then
they are now. Larry envisioned a future where each person had
his own channel & created his own content. Afterwards
everybody relaxed with coffee & dessert until clean up began. By
11:30 many of us were out the door & headed to the Stateline
Diner to continue the evening, where Master Toper’s Xmas film
choices were again ridiculed.
About Senses of SF Panel

This month we have a special panel of SF guests with a twist! We
welcome Larry M. Weiner and Angelo Panetta. Guest Larry
M. Weiner is the creative director and head writer for the Radio
Repertory Company of America, a NJ based producer of
original audio drama (www.rrca.com). Larry will discuss the ins
and outs of the Radio Repertory and sprinkle in some sound
bytes of award winning science fiction audio. Larry will be joined
by audio partner, Angelo Panetta. Also joining our panel is Tony
Tellado from SciFi Talk (www.scifitalk.com). SciFi Talk is a
site where fans can connect with 'Like-Minded Lovers Of SF
movies,Novels,Podcasts And TV'. Tony hosts three podcasts on
science fiction,fantasy and horror, Sci-Fi Talk and Sci-Fi Talk Live,
and the Best Of Sci-Fi Talk. Representing the sight portion of our
panel, we will have filmmaker Mike Schneider (Night Of The
Living Dead Reanimated --
www.neoflux-animator.com/notldr/notldr.html), Dorian
Bachman (sculptor, fine artist turned comic artist/animator) and
writer/illustrator, JM DeSantis (www.jmdesantis.com).