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Welcome to The Genre Traveler! Please sign up using the form to the right so that you'll get all the latest updates to the site. You also might want to sign up for the RSS feed, which you can do via email or your favorite RSS Reader. Then you might be interested in the annual Hugo Award Base Design Competition. Although the silver rocket stays the same every year -- identifying the award as a Hugo -- the base upon which the rocket is mounted changes with each Worldcon. If you're interested, you better hurry with your design. It is due by midnight (MST) Dec. 31, 2007. For more info, visit www.denvention3.org/hugodesigncompetition.php.

As I reported in the July issue of The Genre Traveler, the "Back to the Future - The Ride" at Universal Studios Hollywood is going to be transformed into a Simpsons thrill ride due to open in Spring 2008. Therefore, this ride will be closing soon.

Yesterday, Universal Studios Hollywood announced that "Back to the Future - The Ride" will close when the park closes on Labor Day, Sept. 3, 2007.

Not to say anything bad about the Simpsons -- I guffaw each night to the shows re-runs -- but I'm really going to miss the Back to the Future ride. I've ridden many times, both sober and intoxicated. It is a hoot and a half regardless of your state of inebriation. In fact, this ride was often the reason I would go to the L.A. Dance-a-thon when I lived in the area eight years ago.

"Back to the Future - The Ride" was introduced in 1993 as a continuation of the Oscar-winning blockbuster Back to the Future film trilogy directed by Robert Zemeckis and executive produced by Steven Spielberg for Universal Pictures. Since that time, more than 61 million visitors have experienced this time-travel adventure ride.

To give the ride a proper send off (and, I'm sure, as a ploy to increase summer visitorship), Universal Studios Hollywood is giving people the opportunity to win a 1981 DeLorean. To learn more about winning the DeLorean, visit www.universalstudioshollywood.com or the theme park to register at specially-created Back to the Future kiosks.

Modern horror icons Freddy Kreuger, Jason, and Leatherface are heading to Halloween Horror Nights 17 at Universal studios this Halloween season.

Universal studios is running a contest now through August 15, 2007, where the winner receives a trip for four (4) to either Universal Orlando Resort or Universal Studios Hollywood to attend this year's Halloween Horror Nights. To enter, click here.

If you are a fan of the TV shows Buffy the Vampire Slayer, its spin-off Angel or the short-lived Firefly and its movie spin-off Serenity, and you're going to be a San Diego's Comic-Con later this month, then please do read on.

Joss Whedon, creator of the aforementioned shows, has teamed up with Dark Horse and eBay to offer fans the opportunity to sit down to a private dinner with Joss himself at Comic-Con.

Beginning tomorrow, fan can bid on seats at his table with proceeds going to Equality Now, an organization founded in 1992 to work for the protection and promotion of the human rights of women around the world. The auction will run from July 2 to July 12. The charity auction also offers additional rarities, including signed editions of Dark Horse’s upcoming Serenity hardcover. For complete details, visit ebay.com/josswhedon.

For more information about Equality Now, visit equalitynow.org.

I just got this in my email today and thought I'd pass it along. Its an opportunity to win a free ticket to see Hostel Part II this Thursday in Hollywood, Calif. What follows is an excerpt from the email I received:

Lionsgate & Screamfest invite you and a guest to a special advance screening!
Thursday, June 7th at 7:30 p.m. in Hollywood

For your chance to receive a pass, send an email with your name, date-of-birth and telephone number to Hostel2@alliedadvpub.com
(Please include SCREAMFEST in the subject line.)

Last January, writer/director Eli Roth terrified moviegoers with the blood-drenched Hostel, which catapulted to the top of the box office charts and became the first Number One film of 2006. One year later, Roth takes us back to where it all began, and deeper into the darkest recesses of the human mind.

In Hostel: Part II, three young Americans traveling in Rome set off for a weekend getaway led by a gorgeous, sophisticated European acquaintance who invites the trio to join her at an exotic natural spa, assuring them they will be able to relax, rejuvenate and bond.

Will the girls find the oasis they are looking for? Or are they poised to become victims for auction, pawns in the fantasies of the sick and privileged from around the world who secretly travel there to savor more grisly pursuits?

With Hostel, Eli Roth cemented the cutting-edge credentials he earned with his debut feature Cabin Fever (2002). In Hostel: Part II, Roth invites fans to take another frightening trip where suppressed urges -- once unleashed -- have chilling consequences.

Trailer at: www.hostel2.com
Rating: R