Checkpoint 95

Dave Rowe cartoon

CHECKPOINT 95

(Apr/May 1979)

Checkpoint 95 is a Peter Roberts creation, modishly duplicated chez 38 Oakland Dr, Dawlish, Devon, UK. It's yours for Things or cash: 5/50p (UK & Europe), 4/$1 (America & Africa – yes, we do have at least one subscriber there – airmail), or 6/£1 (Australia & NZ, airmail). Please pay in sterling, US $ bills, or IRCs (one of which = 10½p to me). Cartoon by Dave Rowe. Restormel Pub: 141.


TERRY HUGHES WINS TAFF: Detailed results and a list of voters appear in Taff Talk 3 (attached to one of these Checkpoints), but the main results are as follows:

Terry Hughes 108 votes
Fred Haskell 40 votes
Suzle Tompkins 40 votes
HOF 2 votes

Congratulations, and look forward to seeing you, squire. As for the rest of you, make a note of his CoA, handily printed elsewhere, and let either of us know, as TAFF Administrators, of any schemes you might dream up concerning the fund. I might add that it isn't too early to start thinking about a European representative for the next TAFF race; I've already had a couple of approaches and even at this early stage it looks as if TAFF will have some good candidates in 1980. Drop us a line if you're planning to make any nominations – the official time for it isn't yet upon us, but it's handy to know what's happening.

CHECKPOINT FAN POLL: ballots are being distributed to UK readers, but if anyone else wants to vote (& feels qualified to do so) they're welcome. Deadline June 20th. List: Best UK Fnz (1-5); Best UK fanwriter (1-5); Best UK fanartist (1-5); Best Single Issue (1); Best Fnz Cover (1); Best Article/&c (1). Sign the ballot, please.

YORCON REPORT: (of sorts) The con was held over Easter weekend in the Leeds Dragonara Hotel; Guest of Honour was 'Richard Cowper' with Pat & Graham Charnock as Fan GoHs. Though most active fans attended, the total membership was smaller than usual (300-400), probably because of the forthcoming Seacon.

It's a long way from Dawlish to Leeds, but, man and boy, I eventually arrived on Thursday afternoon as the first few fans were trickling in. The Dragonara was quite attractively laid out with *two* adjoining bars and lifts that could whisk you unseen from the entrance to the privacy of your own room. Somebody told me the doors automatically opened at the upstairs lobby, but we decided that by spreadeagling themselves spider-like on the ceiling of the lifts athletic fans could avoid detection. After that I always glanced upwards when entering the things. Actually they were such nice lifts that a room party, complete with armchairs and tables, was held in one on Sunday night.

Much of Thursday and Friday was taken up in meeting new arrivals. Amongst fans not seen for a while were Lisa Conesa and, going back to the fifties, Dave Cohen (sometime editor of Blue Moon, &c). A traditional brag & poker session was held late on Friday night when, after watching warily for a while, Ron Bounds was persuaded to sit in. He immediately started winning. Rotten foreigner.

Saturday afternoon was enlivened by me finding a comparatively elderly fringe fan drunk in a Leeds gutter. I think he got to his room by hiding on the floor of the lift. He was paralytic the following afternoon too, and can't be long for this world. In the evening I started chatting to Kees Van Toorn, ended up at Ron Bounds & Bobbi Armbruster's LA IN 81 party, and stayed there, still talking & drinking, till 8.00am, whilst Jim Barker produced more LA IN 81 cartoons than I ever want to see again. I'd thought I'd sworn off all-night parties long ago, but so it goes.

Sunday was accordingly quiet. I missed Pat & Graham's all-action all-singing fan guest of honour spot – the fan room was crowded out – but I hear it was notably successful. I did go to the bidding session where Don West (ill & unable to attend) lost his Bradford bid to a well-organized Glaswegian one. More of that elsewhere.

As usual I missed the banquet (we went out to an Italian place – Leeds was surprisingly well-served with restaurants), but stepped back in to see Rog Peyton winning the Doc Weir Award – a popular choice too.

Monday, as ever, was the day most people left. I ended up in the evening at Bob & Sadie Shaw's dead dog party. Travelling back to Devon on Tuesday, Paul Begg and I met a member of the Third Order of Discalced Carmelites on the train who invited me to San Diego Zoo. No kidding. Strange things happen on trains.

A good Eastercon, I'd say, and all honour to the Yorcon committee.

ALBACON 80: Next year's Eastercon will be in the Albany Hotel, Glasgow, the bid having won convincingly on a show of hands at this year's Yorcon. The Scottish fans had some literature already printed, plus badges (I was wondering who this Al Bacon bloke was, till I saw the truth), and thus seem to be going into the Eastercon business with some enthusiasm. Colin Kapp is to be GoH, with Jim Barker as Fan GoH. The Scottish Bob Shaw is Chairman and Albacon registration is £5 (£2 supporting) from: Helen Brown, 18 Gordon Tce, Blantyre, Glasgow G72 9NA, Scotland. The first PR should be out in June. (Details from Bob Shaw)

RECOMMENDED FANZINES: (well, a few of them anyway)

Wrinkled Shrew 8 (Pat & Graham Charnock, 4 Fletcher Rd, London W4 5AY)(usual) Nice to see a Shrew again after a two year gap – I thought they might have become extinct, what with the bad weather, the price of cat food, and all. Main item in this issue is Rob Holdstock's life & times with the Octopus Encyclopaedia Of Sf – interesting, as most of this inside-publishing stuff usually is. There's also an inoffensive piece by Terry Hughes, a calendar of Charnock events, and some editorial oddments. Not a Great Shrew (as Shrews go) perhaps, but welcome nonetheless.

Mainstream 3 (Jerry Kaufman & Suzanne Tompkins, 303 16th Ave East (102), Seattle, WA 98112)(75¢ or usual) Also welcome is Jerry & Suzle's return to genzine publishing (the first two Mainstreams were personalzines). However, the contributions in this issue leave a lot to be desired. Loren MacGregor tells of cars he has known – which is ok, but not very fascinating; Jon Singer has some sort of technological column – which I didn't understand; and Jessica Amanda Salmonson writes on "feminist politics" - in such poor English that the whole thing is suspect (does she know "ethnicity" means "heathen superstition"? Bloody obscure word, even if she does). So, this isn't a good issue – I can't pretend otherwise. But I look forward to the future when Jerry & Suzle get back into the swing of things.

Rune 55 (Lee Pelton & Carol Kennedy, 1204 Harmon Place (10), Minneapolis, MN 55403)(50¢ or usual – 4/£1.50 from Dave PIper in the UK) Being a clubzine, Rune is inclined to be more of a mixture than most and this issue has several ho-hummy items – a feeble con report, a dull description of Honolulu fandom (didn't even mention Jan & Dean), reviews, and so on. But the lettercolumn, the cartoons by Ken Fletcher and Teddy Harvia, and a transcript of a lunatic panel of Minneapolis fan history are all good and there's a liveliness throughout the fanzine that makes up for any shortcomings. It's frequent too, and that can't be bad.

Fanhistorica 2 (or 8)(Joe Siclari, 2201 N.E.45th St, Lighthouse Point, FL 33064)($1 or usual) I suppose one of the dangers of a fanzine devoted to fannish reprints is that those most likely to be interested, the fan historians, are also those most likely to have the original material, and hence not need the reprints. Thus I've a copy of Laney's "Ah! Sweet Idiocy!" (well worth reading) which Joe starts reprinting in this issue. Still, it would take a good collection (and a good memory) to be familiar with all the stuff here and I was delighted to see a Ted White article on numbered fandoms, a Tucker thing on the art of the ancient annish, as well as a Willis item, a new article by rich brown, and a good letter column. I should quickly note that Fanhistorica isn't exactly serious & constructive: the reprints are well-written, amusing, and immensely entertaining. I enjoyed it thoroughly & hope that Joe can publish as frequently as he'd wish in future.

Raffles 2 (Stu Shiffman & Larry Carmody, 880 W.181st St (4d), New York, NY 10033)($1 or usual) Running out of space, boss, and I want to squeeze in Rich Coad (don't we all?), but Raffles is an attractive Noo York fnz with some splendid hand-cut cartoonwork and a bunch of light but pleasant articles, notably D.Potter on train fandom (read it yet, Darroll?) and Jerry Kaufman on con indigestion.

Space Junk 1 (Rich Coad, 781 Castro St, San Francisco, CA 94114)(usual) Must mention this, since it's got a Cheryl Cline piece, "The Heat Death Of Iguanacon", which is beautifully written and my favourite Good Bit from any of the fanzines noted here. Bit thin otherwise, but good to see Rich pubbing his ish again.

THE PIT: Looks like it's going to be full after this double issue, but if I don't hear from you this may be the final egoboo for Edgar Belka, Alan Dorey, Martin Easterbrook, Steev Higgins, Roy Kettle, Jim Linwood, Tom Perry, & Marshall Tymn.Meanwhile the pendulum's coming down for those only paid up to 96: Richard Barycz, Vernon Brown, Dave Bridges, Al Fitzpatrick, Colin Lester, Paul Magennis, Alan Smith, Nick Shears, Douglas Faunt, Jim Meadows, Ron Salomon, William Schroeder, and Rune Forsgren. Cash will put off the day, so will a response in the fan poll, or news, or crossing your fingers & hoping I'll forget or chicken out at the last minute (this latter course, not recommended). Do your stuff.

WEIRD TALES: Rob Jackson news is that Maya is being replaced by a duplicated fnz, Inca (available for 50p or whim) and that the Bob Shaw collection, The Best Of The Bushel is now published (£1.10 or $2.20 to Rob Jackson, 8 Lavender Rd, West Ewell, Epsom, Surrey, KT19 9EB or Sam Long, 1338 Crestview Dr, Springfield, IL 62702); I haven't read my copy yet, but it's some 60 A5 pages long, neatly produced & printed with Jim Barker illustrations, and contains some 13 pieces with an intro by Walt Willis. Can't be bad. Forthcoming volumes include Bob Shaw's Eastercon speeches and a UK fanthology. // Colin Lester, meanwhile, has copies of a 35 page name index for professional activity noted in International Sf Yearbook. If you want the index it's 40p ($1) from Colin at Pierrot Publishing, 17 Oakley Rd, London N1 3LL. // Odd news from Malcolm Edwards who says that a musical comedy version of Flowers For Algernon starring Michael Crawford opens in London in June; Malcolm swears this is true. // Rob Hansen sends a clipping about Mike Moorcock's forthcoming five-part BBC series on sf writers. Mike claims he'll be discussing some of the authors' works whilst mountain climbing in Yorkshire. Should be strange. // Finally, a few Seacon items: Marsha Jones reminds me that Art Show space must be booked in advance – if any of you are intending to exhibit yourselves at the con, therefore, I'd recommend contacting Marsha (or Suford Lewis) and seeing the rules & other information right now. I myself, meanwhile, am looking for photos of the 1965 London Worldcon for display in the Seacon fan room; they'll be well looked after, protected, and returned. Thanks to Norman Shorrock, we've already got some great snapshots of the 1957 Loncon. If you have any films featuring fans or convention slides (particularly of the two Loncons) you'd be willing to show at Brighton, please contact me or Eve Harvey (55 Blanchland Rd, Morden, Surrey, SM4 5NE). Eve's looking for other photos, UK fan artwork, and help in the fan room as well. Hope to hear from you.


O, I wish I was in de land ob cotton!
but we all have our crosses to bear,
and yours is:

CHECKPOINT 95

from:
Peter Roberts
38 Oakland Dr
Dawlish, Devon
United Kingdom

Printed Matter Reduced Rate