Dawtrina: The Online Home of Hal C. F. Astell

Welcome!

Just in case you don't recognise the name, you may know me instead as Henry, Fan, Poe, Poetry, Albert, Intrigued, Dawtrina, Chewy, Twin, English, Halberto and even Count Chaos. All these, and no doubt many others, are li'l ol' me. Even though I've lived in Arizona since 2004, I am not yet Hank Chuck Frank. I am, however, a centenarian Venezuelan woman on Facebook. I figure that if they want to data mine me, they should have fun doing so.

There's a lot here at dawtrina.com so I created a site map to help you around. Otherwise just browse, explore and enjoy, but please e-mail me if you have any problems.


What I Do

I keep myself busy. Here are some things that take up my time (links are internal unless highlighted otherwise):

Apocalypse Later

Here's the home for the Apocalypse Later Empire (apocalypselaterempire.com).

Fandom

Here's my full Geek Resume.

  • Serving as an officer for the non-profit fandom groups LepreCon, Inc. (leprecon.org) and CASFS (casfs.org).
  • Documenting the history of fandom in Arizona at Arizona Fandom (azfandom.org).
  • Chairing the traditional science fiction/fantasy convention, CoKoCon (cokocon.org).
  • Handling publications for CoKoCon and others, like Westercon 70 and LepreCon 45 (both leprecon.org).
  • Co-running a Victorian oddities group, the Arizona Penny Dreadfuls (azpennydreadfuls.org).
  • Running the Awesomelys (awesomelys.com), a pop culture group working panels at conventions.
  • MC'ing my better half's steampunk fashion shows at Wild Wild West Steampunk Convention (wildwestcon.com) and Phoenix Fan Fusion (phoenixfanfusion.com).
  • Appearing on panels at a wide range of conventions across the southwest.

Active Projects

  • Writing monthly book reviews for The Nameless Zine (thenamelesszine.org).
  • Reviewing Doc Savage novels monthly in original pulp order at Doc Savage Runthrough (apocalypselaterempire.com).
  • Reviewing Hugo Award winners for Best Novel monthly in chronological order at Hugo Award Runthrough (apocalypselaterempire.com).
  • Celebrating the centennials of those important to film in 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016 (apocalypselaterfilm.com).
  • Reviewing films chosen for me by major actors and other filmmakers in Make It a Double (apocalypselaterfilm.com).
  • Writing about genre non-western films made in Arizona from the '50s to the '80s in Dry Heat Obscurities (apocalypselaterfilm.com).
  • Writing about horror movies set on holidays in Horror Movie Calendar (apocalypselaterfilm.com).
  • Exploring the wildest movies you might not believe exist in Weird Wednesdays (apocalypselaterfilm.com).

Other Hobbies

  • Researching my genealogy, some of which is detailed in (Auto)Biography and Family History.
  • Detailing playlists for Radio 1's The Friday Rock Show (1978-1993).
  • Researching the career of author Guy N. Smith at Smithland (smithland.co.uk).
  • Collecting far too many different things. Collections are cool.
  • Getting up to steampunk shenanigans as my alter ego Henry, Count Chaos.
  • Tracking changes to the IMDb Top 250 every New Years Day.
  • Writing short stories, poems and peoms at Scribbles.

Other Stuff

  • For everything else at Dawtrina, check out my Site Map.

Creative Commons License
Last update: 1st January, 2020

This site contains no ads or trackers, just standard HTML code and static images. It should work seamlessly with the Lynx text browser. I believe I've stripped out all the crap I thought was cool in 1998, like animated gifs, JavaScript and IFrames. If I missed something, please forgive me. I was young enough at the time to still know everything.