By Jamie Ruby

St. Louis, Missouri is home to the horror, sci-fi, and popculture convention Contamination for the second year running. The event looks to be a great place to meet some of your favorite celebrities and have a fun-filled weekend, without breaking the bank. The convention will offer a chance to mingle with some stars, play a little zombie laser tag, see a concert, and more. Contamination runs from June 24th - June 26th this year and is being hosted by Dyer Straits Productions.

Contamination organizer Dave Dyer sat down with SciFi Vision in an exclusive interview to talk about the upcoming event and all it has to offer.

Dyer previously worked as a dealer/vendor around the United States before he decided to also start Contamination. "Going to all these shows that I've gone to, there's nothing like [Contamination] in St. Louis. So I came up with the bright idea to try to take it upon myself to try to put this thing together, and it was two years in the making for the first one, and now hopefully every year gets a little easier."

By Jamie Ruby

Skyler Samuels is probably best known for her recent work on the supernatural series, The Gates. She, however, has appeared in a few series, including The Suite Life of Zack and Cody and Wizards of Waverly Place, for example, as well as films such as The Stepfather and Furry Vengeance.

For Samuels's newest project, she will be starring in the upcoming ABC Family series, The Nine Lives of Chloe King, which premieres tonight at 9pm eastern. The series is based on a series of books by the same name, written by Liz Braswell (a.k.a. Celia Thomson).

The story follows Chloe, as on her sixteenth birthday, she starts developing some strange powers. Chloe is actually part of the ancient race the Mai, who are considered both part god and part human. She must race to save her people from extinction by the assassins that have been hunting her kind for millennia.

Samuels recently sat down with the digital media, including SciFi Vision, to promote the new ABC Family series.

WHO IS CHLOE KING?

ONE BIRTHDAY CHANGES DESTINY FOR A TEENAGE GIRL, IN ABC FAMILY'S ORIGINAL SERIES "THE NINE LIVES OF CHLOE KING," PREMIERING
TUESDAY, JUNE 14 AT 9:00 PM ET/PT

New Original Series Based on Alloy Entertainment's
Successful Book Series of the Same Name

Burbank, CA (Wednesday, May 4, 2011) – A smart, pretty, slightly offbeat teen girl who lives alone with her single-mother suddenly discovers her destiny is far greater than she could have ever imagined, in "The Nine Lives of Chloe King," premiering Tuesday, June 14 at 9:00PM ET/PT on ABC Family. The new one-hour scripted action drama follows Chloe King, who is looking forward to celebrating her 16th birthday with her friends and single mother -- just like every other year – that is until she starts developing heightened abilities and discovers she's being pursued by a mysterious figure. Chloe soon learns she's part of an ancient race called the Mai, which has been hunted by human assassins for millennia — and that she may ultimately be their only hope for survival.

By Karen Moul

Blind auditions and exceptionally talented contestants are not the only things that sets The Voice apart from other singing competitions. The show has aggressively embraced online media and even has its own "V Correspondent," Alison Haislip, who blogs, tweets, and posts to Facebook during the episodes.

She encourages the performers to do the same, saying it is "incredibly crucial" to interact with fans if they hope to advance in the competition.

"People can vote not just by telephone," Haislip explains, "but online at nbc.com and using the NBC Live app. [So] the more you can get yourself out there online the better chances you're going to have."

But Haislip also believes online interaction has benefits beyond The Voice.

"Something this show has become known for," she says, "is giving artists a second chance.

"And some of those artists...have said that the reason they didn't have their first chance is because labels or managers or whoever said that they just did not have a strong enough online presence, they did not have a big enough fan base online to get their news out there."

By Karen Moul

The Voice's final battle round made headlines for The Kiss. Emily Valentine stunned the judges and the audience by sharing a romantic smooch with competitor Curtis Grimes.

"Neither of us have ever sung a duet before," says Valentine. "And by 'singing a duet' I also mean 'kiss on stage.' "

She says the feelings between her and Grimes are real, but the kiss was part of the performance. "We kind of thought about well, how can we utilize the best of this opportunity?" she explains.

"Curtis and I are very like-minded in the business sense of our careers and recognized that it was such a unique experience," battling each other after growing so close. "And at the ninth hour," continues Valentine, "Curtis was like 'Let's just do it. Let's do a kiss at the end of our song.' And I was like 'Oh my God, I can't believe this is going to happen!' "

Cherie Oakley got a surprise of her own when coach Blake Shelton introduced her to Reba McIntyre.

"I wrote this song [called] 'Turn on the Radio' shortly after the flood happened in Nashville," Cherie tells Scifi Vision. "And everything with my record deal started to crumble at the same that Reba heard the song and wanted to sing it.

"And so obviously I gave her the song," Oakley adds, "and the song climbed the charts...We tried many times to meet and it just never happened."

And then fate and NBC intervened to put Oakley and McIntyre on The Voice.

"I got to meet her and share one of the coolest experiences of my life with the entire world, Oakley concludes. "It was so surreal. It was crazy."

By AJ Grillo

May 23, 2011

It is time to revisit an old friend, not that this friend has ever been far from my thoughts. I am speaking of Lost. We are one year removed from the series finale, and websites and chat rooms all over the world are doing a re-watch of the finale. Lost was an amazing roller coaster ride of mystery and intrigue. It made us think; we could play along with the cast of characters in trying to figure out what was going on. A few times from season four on I was afraid that the journey was going to be better than the destination. Was I right? Possibly. Then again, why did it matter?

Lost kept us riveted for six years. I myself had the honor of being there for the beginning of the "web mazes." Lost related fan sites popped up everywhere, not to mention all the official online content. This was the first time that a show had bridged the gap of television and internet so flawlessly. Even when Lost was on hiatus we still had plenty of online content to mess with to keep us occupied.

However, after awhile it seemed Lost had presented too many questions for them to all be answered: what's the smoke monster, what are the whispers, who are The Others, and hundreds more. But none so prolific as the line that became the benchmark of the show uttered by Charlie in season one, "Guys, where are we?" Did Lost answer the many, many questions presented? Some yes. Were we happy with some of those answers, mostly not.

In the end, it didn't matter. Lost was not about the island per se. Yes, the island itself was a character, but the show was a character driven show about survivors of a plane crash who happened to be on a mystical island with unusual abilities. The characters themselves were "lost" in life, not just on the island. It was about redemption and finding themselves.

By Karen Moul

The Voice Battle Rounds continue, with celebrity coaches sending four more performers home each week. America won't get to vote until the field has been reduced by at least half. But despite being eliminated early, recent performers say they wouldn't change the show's format.

Pop singer Kelsey Rey feels "the coaches did a great job working with us, regardless of the outcome. I think that the whole show was such a great experience, and what we learned from it was amazing."

Adds Rey, "I don't think there should be anything changed about the show, because everything does happen for a reason. And all [of us]...have great things coming for us. That's all thanks to the show. I don't think that anything should have changed."

Rebecca Loebe agrees. "The format of the show," says the folksinger, "with the blind auditions is incredibly intriguing, and has caught a lot of people's attention, for sure.

"And something that I appreciated," she continues, "is that they really had a lot of respect for a diversity of creative expression. They didn't try to change what anyone did, you know?"

By Karen Moul

The Voice's second Battle Round brought few surprises as several high-profile contestants moved on to the next stage of the competition. Powerhouses Javier Colon, Beverly McClellan, and Nakia all blew the coaches away with their blind auditions, so wins in the Battle Round were not a big surprise.

The toughest battle of the week was probably Tje Austin vs. Nakia, a matchup Austin described as "kind of like pairing Sade up against Janis Joplin." They were both great singing Ne Yo's "Closer" but when it was over, Austin went home. Nakia has been featured heavily in NBC promos, so his victory was not a huge surprise to regular viewers.

Leaving early was difficult for Austin. "I think that getting eliminated from the Battle Round is probably the hardest round to get eliminated from. For me," he said, "it would be great to be eliminated by America's choice."

"It's just hard," added Austin, "getting eliminated in the Battle Round when I feel that while Nakia is a great artist - he's a great guy, great artist - I would love to know what America would have thought, you know?"

By Jamie Ruby

Red Faction: Origins, which premieres tonight, June 4th, on Syfy, is based on the popular video game franchise Red Faction. The story takes place between Red Faction Guerilla and the recently released Red Faction Armageddon.

The story follows Stargate Universe's Brian J. Smith as Jake Mason, officer in the Red Faction Militia, and son of Alec Mason (Robert Patrick), who originally led the Martian Colonies to their freedom twenty-five years ago. Jake's sister Lyra (Tamzin Merchant) was kidnapped twelve years ago, but after he discovers her to be alive he must try to reunite his family, even if his sister is no longer on their side.

The movie also stars Battlestar Galactica's Kate Vernon as The Matriarch, Danielle Nicolet as Tess De La Vega, Gareth David-Lloyd as Hale, and Devon Graye as Leo.

Red Faction: Origins was directed by Michael Nankin, and the screenplay was written by Andrew Kreisberg.

Smith, Vernon, Nankin, and Kreisberg recently sat down with the media to discuss their new film, airing tonight on Syfy.

By Jamie Ruby and Kenn Gold
Written by Jamie Ruby

John Zaffis is what people would call a collector, and has been for more than thirty years. However, what he collects is not what one would expect. Zaffis collects objects that have been inhabited by paranormal spirits or engery. He is both a paranormal researcher and a demonologist. Each week on Syfy's new reality series Haunted Collector, Zaffis, along with his family, try to help people who are being haunted by something in their home.

Zaffis and his team use both hi-tech gear, such as audio and video recorders, EMF (Electro-Magnetic Field) meters, and FLIR cameras, and "low-tech" items, such as talcum powder and sea salt, to detect and contain supernatural activity or energy.

Zaffis works to identify what object is causing the problem and then removes it from their home and puts it in his paranormal museum in Connecticut, or buries it if need be, to neutralize the negative energy.

Haunted Collector airs Wednesdays at 9pm (ET/PT) on Syfy.

John Zaffis and the executive producer of Haunted Collector, Rick Sasson, recently talked to the digital media, including Jamie Ruby of SciFi Vision and Kenn Gold of MediaBlvd, about his new reality series and his paranormal investigations.