Taking Trekland back home for 'Silver' SoonerCon # 25

Thanks to my homies back in red-dirt fandom land, I'll be back BUSY with a Portal 47 drawing and all the Trekland road show once again in metro OKC for SoonerCon next weekend—which this year is a triple treat. And BUSY for me!

It's SoonerCon 25 ... on its actual 30th anniversary...and also the 25th anniversary of its onetime OKC sister media con, my own baby Thundercon.

SoonerCon is still a comfortable size at an expected 2,000, but incredibly diverse and sprawling in coverage—from anime, comics, "Oklahoma's largest sci-fi/fantasy art show", and SF/F lit and media ... to gaming, live-action role-play, "real space" science, cosplay, fan films and indie cinema.  There's also the latest inductees into the Oklahoma Speculative Fiction Hall of Fame. And it still supports a charity: this year, the Oklahoma state chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI).

And they've even got SoonerCon red carpet photo-op billboard walls!

It's been growing about 15% a year since coming to the Reed Center in suburban Midwest City, five minutes east of downtown OKC just off I-40 at Sooner (yes) Road ...and has sold out the adjoining Sheraton. I'm told the next-door Hawthorn Suites/Wyndham has all mini-suite rooms and is honoring the con's $99 room rate with an SCon mention —and day/ weekend memberships* are on early-bird discount through Wednesday. You can find late news on Facebook, too.

As the comic-con mega-model has taken the country's mainstream imagination in grassroots pop culture by storm, I've seen many old-school "lit cons" across the country wither and die out altogether. Kudos to SoonerCon after its 2007 reboot, where both Leonard and the old vets join Aislinn and the new blood with savvy marketing and sponsorships... and the growth stays vibrant.

I mean, look at this sponsor row (above)—including Bernina of OKC, who sponsors the entire cosplay/costuming shebang! (Logical, Captain.)
OKC is also home to one of the three major TOS fan-film studios in the US, of course, with the education-based Starship Grissom and other productions filming at Starship Studios.  I'm also looking forward to crossing paths on the con trail with mon capitan Vic Mignogna of Star Trek Continues and joining him for the Oklahoma big-screen premiere Saturday of STC's recently-debuted sixth outing, "Come Not Between The Dragons."

I also get a chance to join SCon's rich space science/STEAM track to evangelize a whole hour with Oklahoma Space Alliance folks about non-profit Enterprise in Space. Our Con of Wrath DP Neal Hallford will be back home and doing some panels, too!

But of course my big focus this Trek anniversary year is my PORTAL 47 insider fan service, and talking about the upcoming ST Beyond with new-found enthusiasm as well as the new CBS Trek series coming in January on streaming All Access. There are three Portales in the Oklahoma City metro alone (and one ex-pat on hand), and we'll have a live meetup for sure.

So here's my way busier-than-usual days at SCon... which is also here, on-site (scroll).

And in the cookie-cutter hours between these panels, I'll be at my table— 

 
FRIDAY (tabling noon-3, 4-5 )
 
3 pm: SoonerCon @midnight: Worst Book Ever (Maynard)— In @Midnight style, I'll relay audience suggestions to writer panelists to create the best "worst titles" and intros ever. PART II will include the book covers drawn Sat.)

5 pm: "The State of the Trek" Forum (Ballroom D)— My renowned fan forum where YOU talk and opine after my kick-off. And boy have things picked up. No rusty/dusty topics here.

6pm: Opening Ceremonies (Ballroom D)


SATURDAY (tabling noon-2, 3-6 )
 
11 am:  Monster in an Hour (J Stage)— I moderate audience shoutouts to several artists to fulfill the dictum of a "monster robot" artwork—which then goes to the charity auction.

2 pm: Trekland, Between the Cracks (Ballroom B)— Hey, it's my annual show of in-jokes and insights, updated for this incredible 5-0 Fever anniversary year in Trek, new movie and new series! Are you a JJverse fan—I especially want to hear from you!

4-6 pm; ST Continues screening of Ep. 6, "Come Not between the Dragons," with a panel following with Vic (Ballroom D)— Where anime fans discover Trek, and Trek fans find their childhood. :-)

6 pm: Art/Charity Auction (Ballroom A/B) — I have some historic SoonerCon & ThunderCon pieces you locals don't want to miss.


10 pm-midnight: The Dr. Trek Show (Parlor: Sheraton 104)—Your last chance to get in on my annual, live-touring crowdfunder event to support my documentary, "The Con of Wrath"...with prize trivia, rare unseen Trek clips AND sneak peeks of the doc with George, Walter, Nichelle...and plenty of time to still go party.
 
SUNDAY (Do the math—I have one hour of table time today, at 2 pm !)

Noon: Enterprise in Space: For Real! (Theatre)— I get an hour to update and recruit new "virtual crew" crowdfunders, as spokesman and lead fandom/celeb outreach for this amazing, non-profit global program for student projects to orbit and be returned— inspired by the best of sci-fi and sci-fact, aboard the first real Enterprise in space. Members of the Oklahoma Space Alliance, the local chapter of EIS's sponsoring National Space Society, will join me too.

1 pm: Star Trek at 50 (Ballroom D)— A true panel, where Vic and I and everybody will share about our inspirations, dreams, and loves from Gene Roddenberry's unending little space saga's sandbox.

3 pm: SoonerCon Scoops and Stories (Ballroom D)— Yep, the veterans finally get to party and jawbone over our local con memories from the pre-cool days of fandom. Here's where it's great to have homies ... I think.

And Closing at 4 pm— for what will surely be an historic SoonerCon.
If not exhausting!


____________________
*In the grand old tradition of true sci-fi conventions, your SoonerCon attendance is a membership—in contrast to a mere show, with a ticket.

SoonerCon's always special for me—and now, with Vic!

Another fast con turnaround — no time for posting new vidchats or Trunk offerings, sorry! — but this time it's for the roots.

Yes, it's time for my annual pilgrimmage to SoonerCon — and a few days' visit "back home."

That's why, big or small, nothing compares to my now-annual trip back to OKC and catching up with both fan-friends and everybody else from my first 35 years on this planet... as much as I can! Once again, I want to thank Jerry Wall and Leonard "Confather" Bishop for having me back as a featured guest, even though Trekland is hardly a big chunk of interest there. Anime is growing amid the multi-program tracks that already focus on gaming, guests for a huge art show and authors' panels, live role-play, and a cosplay/costuming track so big it's sponsored by Bernina of OKC. Yep, SoonerCon 23 is emerging from its traditonal lit-con roots to embrace media and continues on the rise since the 2006 re-startup. (By the way, Midwest City is a southeast OKC suburb, minutes from downtown and Bricktown off I-40.)

This year will be fun for me as they have mon capitan Vic Mignogna in as the anime GoH, as SCon grows that track of its programming. Even as, of course, Vic pulls double duty across genres and "helps" me out with the American big-screen debut of Star Trek Continues' Mirror epic, "Fairest of Them All." With luck I'll get him down to Norman for some eats—or at least over to Cattlemen's, eh?

Most of all, I look forward to connecting once again with all the "new", post-90s goings on in Red Dirt Fandom—as I finally realized a few years back that coming to SoonerCon needed to be more than "old home week" for me. There is so much go on in Oklahoma with indie filmmaking and all the new genres repping up—and even in Trek fandom, where newer folks know me only from the Companion, STC, Stellar Cartography and all those podcasts—not so much from the "old days" of ThunderCon, and schlepping my concordance fanzines every year. (I just hope I can also make a run up to Claremore to check in on the Will Rogers Memorial again—it's been a few.)

As for me at SCon, I'll have all things Trekland on hand—including my "Trekland: On Speaker Vol. 2 for "All Good Things", and the latest on "The Con of Wrath"—plus news of my two new non-profit boards I'm spending time on: the Hollywood Sci-Fi Museum, fresh off its "Bureacratic Kickstarter" to amp up sponsors for actual opening, and the looming "Enterprise in Space" real-world orbiter mission, about to kick off in July.

So, hey—if you're in easy driving range of OKC (and that's several states' worth, for a 3-4 hour drive) it's still not too late to get these ridiculously reasonable membership rates and come on down, still. Just better come on down and say "Dr. Trek sent me!"

I mean, just CHECK OUT all the guests and this full weekend schedule—much less my part of it:

FRIDAY:

8:00 pm

Ballroom C - Main Programming

Star Trek Continues

SATURDAY:
2:00 pm	Ballroom C - Main Programming	Larry's Trekland: Between the Cracks
4:00 pm	Ballroom C - Main Programming	Star Trek Continues
10:00 pm	Parlor Room 103 (Sheraton)	"Con of Wrath" Meetup CrowdFunder

SUNDAY:

1:00 pm	Ballroom C - Main Programming	What Star Trek Means to Me (panel)
2:00 pm	Artist's Alley  downstairs	Autographs

I'll be tabling much of the weekend, too.

So tell me—any Treklanders headed in? (Crappy hits-whore bloggers, YOU can stay home.)

Back to BayouCon!—and SoonerCon right behind

For some reason they just love them some Trekland in small-but-growing BayouCon in southwest Louisiana—so I'll see all my Cajun friends there again this weekend for Year Number 5, right?

Although it is on the smaller end of the con scale, I always have a great time with the fan-folks and food of "Contraband Country," and hope everyone makes it out. Who knows, maybe another junior blogger will be on hand to pick up a new headline-grabbing non-tidfbit?

It's a jammed weekend as you can see here, and I don't arrive until just as it all opens, so here's what's what for just me:

FRIDAY:
@ 8:45, Film Festival : I'll do a mini-Q&A at the end of screening Star Trek Continues Ep. 1, "Pilgrim of Eternity"

SATURDAY:
4 pm, Main Stage: "Trekland: Between the Cracks": My old favorite venue for the latest visual springboards to news, in-jokes, throwbacks and topic-starters. And, of course,  constantly updated with the most in "What kind of world we live in" from the Trekland perspective: have you realized what's really going on these days?

@7:40 pm, Film Festival: Post-screening Q&A after 7pm showing of Star Trek Continues' Ep. 3, "Fairest of Them All"—This is the one JUST OUT…from the mirror universe. Proud to be consulting and on hand for this one.

8-10 pm, Film Festival: The latest CON OF WRATH crowdfunder-meetup "Dr. Trek Show"; as usual, it's a pitch-in $20 for a screen credit, plus a shot at prize trivia, rare Trek clips and sneak peeks from the doc.

SUNDAY:
12 noon, Main Stage: Our "State of the Trek" Open forum on what's up with the biz and the fandom of Trek. Prepare to have your perspective stretched by me as well as fellow fans.


And there you go, Cajuns. I hear there's a new recipe of jambalaya comin' backstage … 

Meanwhile, NEXT weekend, Red Dirt Staters:

I'll focus on it more in a day or two, but the schedule for SoonerCon 23 is already up for next weekend back in Oklahoma City,or, actually, suburban Midwest City—which doubles as my annual entree to a visit "back home." All our Trekland fun is on tap there too—including a Con of Wrath "Dr. Trek" crowdfunder meetup, of course—plus it's the added bonus of being back among my peeps. And this year with mon capitan Vic Mignogna on site, too—assuming he survives his Aussie sojourn!  

One-day or full SCon membership passes in all forms are still available—online, mail, other locations, and at the door!