So long, CyPhaCon: sci-fi cake will never be the same

Been a week since I got back from CyPhaCon in Lake Charles, La., where it was great to
not only see a con that has tripled in size since I was there in 2012, but to see my Lake Charles buds again—from top dawgs Garrett and Stuart, and Rachael the best guest assistant ever (well, one of them anyway)...  I only wished I'd gotten out to prowl around all three floors more often.

I must say also that it was a miracle that I was able to reign in my infamous sweet tooth in these post-LifeGoal days of Weightwatchers... with all the goodies on-site abounding from 
Corina Joshlin at Cajun Cakes N Creations, and others ... and Rachael's mom's own catering ... But all that has decidedly led me to realize and codify my new theorem on #Southernfandom and its #concakes.
I mean, really: Apparently, no Southern convention happens without a cake, or two. I used to just know this, having grown up in Southwestern fandom, so it was a happy re-discovery for me. And these ain't no SoCal fandom cakes for show—these actually get eaten. With little to none left over to cram into someone's fridge and then spoil—as you'll see.

So yes, the weekend as seen in my own top snaps:

From the overdue quality time with ol' Shran/Weyoun/Brunt, et al, himself, Jeff Combs!... 

(How did I not snap one with mon capitan Vic Mignogna and Bonesian heir Chuck Huber?)

And my first-ever banner charity signing ...
















To our hotel clerk Emily, the very professional yet uber-DS9 and TNG fan who greeted us with the most restrained squee ever—a welcome reminder of Trekland's vastness, when you think you're merely in the middle of middle-city Southerness...

To the local color signage—thank you, KD's Diner! (But how would you ENFORCE this? ) ....

And more local color signage, courtesy KD's … I'm hoping this is just another way of saying, "Please wait to be seated." (Okay… I'm not really hoping that.)

And yep, those Orion's Envy ladies and their glee to finally see The Green Girl and stock up on  chotskis... (check back at TREKLAND soon for more with them)...














To the glorious thunderstorm monsoons I wish I could bottle up and take back to SoCal...

To what became the theme of the weekend: #Southernfandom #concake!  Hashtag dominion!

And another awesome creation—this one by Corina Joshlin at Cajun Cakes N Creations. 

But, great kid—don't get cocky!

I'm told to guess what ship will turn up cakeified in 2016 on its 50th anniversary, hmm....




Like I said: #Southernfandom #concakes are not just for looks. They get et.

(Plus, this is proof positive that they really don't have shields in Star Wars...)














Thanks again, my Cajun buds! See you next time.

With cake.

Is it psych or is it Trek-v-Wars? Our WonderCon panel is online!

Before we get any further from that WonderCon weekend...

I want to make sure all our Trekland friends got to see this fun panel's video (below the fold) that my friend Dr. Andrea Letamendi asked me to be part of a few months back. Joining in on an actual comic-con type panel—you know, with panelists—is still a new thing to me, coming from the arena of the solo show from Trek and media cons.

But Drea wanted me to be involved as the "franchise guy" for Trek, and I met the other panelists that day (at left, with mod Brian Ward of Shout!Factory (center), Robot Chicken writer and Wars guy Hugh Sterbakov (right), and Drs. Drea and Ali Mattu).  It was amazing I made it in time with Friday LA freeway traffic snarls ...and this vid, recorded by Ali's front-row friend Lowen Baumgarten, shows me to all the world sneaking in as I barely make the opening intros, before I'd even got by to get a badge (how did WC even let me in?)

Seriously, Drea and Ali had a great plan of getting across some serious behavioral points and even concepts for storytelling, within the fun of the moment. But I came away from that hour at first feeling like it got caught somewhere between her pitch and the later trash-talk smackdown format it turned into—and I was concerned it came off as a mishmash.

But never fear—this is Trek and Wars. We had to run off as it ended, but random folks kept stopping to tell me all weekend in Anaheim that they loved the panel ... and now this video shows people were indeed having a good time. The fact that the Trek folk were outnumbered 2-1 and yet actually edged in the "winner vote" at the end tells the tale as well. (We did, actually, as this actual Yahoo News story seems to point out). Maybe that's the old bit of the Wars folk showing up "armed for bear" and the IDIC Trek gang just rolling their eyes at all of it, "Really?" It was also fun correcting or detailing even a few innocent misconceptions by our Wars brethren about Trek, which I think the audience appreciated—especially regarding any monolithic Trek reaction to artificial intelligence, whether android, robotic or (my inclusion) holographic.

Doubly fun was getting in a zinger that not only barbed the Wars crowd (since we had to go there), but also the old Shatner/SNL "Get a life!" wrongful Trek stereotype as well. (Thanks, reporter Eric, for getting that in.) In fact, Drea's title got a lot of mainstream media play before and after; driving down, it was one of just two KNX radio news highlights of the WC day mentioned.

But I had a blast meeting Dr. Ali from NYU and Hugh, albeit oh so briefly, as well as working with Drea and Brian. The SDCC gods willing, we might even revisit nurture-v-nature and all the rest at San Diego—so if you happen to make it down in July, take a look for us.




AND the right side of our house, with Lowell in full hand-held mode:

Obama at the Gridiron: Revenge of the Vulcan?

For a guy who gave away the secret of his Trek cred even before this famous pose, President Obama sure took a lot of heat for his Trek/Wars mixup of a "Vulcan mind trick" last week. Trouble is, it came from supposedly serious pundits, not just the late-night laffmeisters. And we already know he knows full well the difference.

So now the president gets his revenge, or a chance to explain, courtesy of Saturday night's annual Gridiron Dinner roast of and by journalists in D.C. It's never televised, though some transcripts of the evening have nonetheless surfaced :

"I’ve been trying to explain this situation to the American people, but clearly I am not perfect," Obama says at one point in his monologue. "After a very public mix-up last week, my communications team has provided me with an easy way to distinguish between Star Trek and Star Wars." (Laughter.) "Spock is what Maureen Dowd calls me.  Darth Vader is what [GOP Speaker] John Boehner calls me."

And then to close—reclaiming by mocking his inner Trekkie, in public, once again:

"I want to thank everybody for just a wonderful evening … And in the words of one of my favorite Star Trek characters, Captain James T. Kirk of the USS Enterprise: ‘May the force be with you.’ ”

Don't forget—we can thank John Hodgman for a lot of this initial investigative D.C. Trek work on camera:

White House to Empire wannabes: Geek snark wins out

Sure, it's cross-franchise, but this is too good to pass up, even in Trekland:

And just what tone you'd expect, too, from the Administration of our first Trekkie President (although everyone knows he's ready to take on a bat'leth any time):

For starters, Pawl Shawcross—of the Science and Space Branch at the White House Office of Management and Budget—actually titled the reponse to this "We The People" online petition of 35,000 signatures as...

 ..."This Isn't The Petition Response You're Looking For" ...

Death Star Petition Gets White House Rebuff

Via Ethan Klapper/ HuffPo...

The White House responded Friday night to a petition on its website urging construction of a Death Star for job creation and national defense purposes by 2016.  ...

—The construction of the Death Star has been estimated to cost more than $850,000,000,000,000,000. We're working hard to reduce the deficit, not expand it.
 

—The Administration does not support blowing up planets.
 

—Why would we spend countless taxpayer dollars on a Death Star with a fundamental flaw that can be exploited by a one-man starship?

I'm told this reply is being sent on all hailing frequencies and linguacode ...

Happy "May the Fourth Be With You" Day, from OUR side

Hey, sure I celebrate. I liked the REAL trilogy....

...And if not for Star Wars, who KNOWS when we might have ever seen a Star Trek—The Motion Picture?

The date... was 1987.

STV: Aren't you a little short to be a parody?

All these years on the pro side of Trekland can easily leave one jaded, but every once in a while life still has its geek moments. Sometimes they even pop up from another franchise! *gasp*

With TREKLAND truly alive now, I dusted off another "Switching to Video" long waiting in the wings... and so it was that, while in Dallas a year ago, I had a memory timewarp back to the days when just about the only things fans put on frames of celluloid were parodies and satires, not whole-cloth new fan-made episodes. And while FedCon USA may have been a bust, this moment was not. In short:

I GOT TO MEET PRINCESS ANNE-DROID!

(Or Cindy Freeling (nee Furgatch).

Those of you wondering what the hell... I'll say nada but refer your Googlefingers to a little cult classic called Hardware Wars. Nuff said.