Oct. 12: After one year, it's an open house for Portal 47!

My baby is one year old! Portal 47, the monthly insider deep-dive to more in-depth Trek, was launched a year ago this month—and we're having a party to celebrate!

Well, a virtual open house, actually, and you're invited: On Oct. 12, a special edition of one of our guest telebriefings. And in the spirit of #StarTrek50, it's a doozy: None other than Robert Butler, director of Trek's 1964 first pilot, "The Cage."

I thought Robert, whom I've met at a couple of recent panels here in L.A., would make a wonderful guest for this opportunity to show off one of the key features in the Portal package.  At 88, he can't travel much, so the phone-conference format is a perfect way to open up his appearance to the whole world. And there's not a lot of his colleagues still with us.

As the Portales do once a month, you can even send in questions in advance for our guest. Just reserve your virtual seat at this link, and see how, when and where to join in—and forward your pre-questions, if you like. We'll have some visuals, too, for those online...where we never have bandwidth issues.

It's just one of the features our deep-divers get every month—a part of what we call a mini-con all year long, no matter where your center seat is. (Seriously. Any continent, or wilderness... with a wi-fi signal, that is.)

But next week, all are welcome to see what that's like, and get a dose of first-hand Trek tales in the process... where no savvy fan has gone before. Hope you can make it!




(And by the way: If you tried to make our launch call a year ago and could not get in...don;t look for that to happen again. We're good!)

MIchigan: Let's talk "Happy Trek 50th" at your library

Well, THIS is different...

And so exciting: I'm going on a five-library tour of Michigan to celebrate Trek's ongoing golden anniversary next week. I mean, you didn't think the Big 5-0 ended on Sept. 8, did you? The anniversary year has only begun!

And this is doubly intriguing as it won't be a hard-core fan audience, but lots of armchair fans or just newbie-curious (I';m guessing) at local regional libraries all around suburban Detroit. Just as when the Alexandria, La., library had me visit last spring, I can't wait to see what kind of curious mainstream patrons come out to hear the amazing, wacky, and above all inspiring attraction of Gene Roddenberry's vision —and how and why it has lived long and prospered, generation after generation.

I'm counting on seeing plenty of the Michigan Trekfan faithful, of course, who can make it.

I've only been to Michigan once—at a weekend internet convention two years ago—so this is literally new ground for me.  I'll have a 60-90 minute talk, with a special "Between the Cracks of Trek" slideshow of course,  and then table time in each venue.  My thanks to Rob Butler at the Caroline Kennedy Library in Dearborn Heights for sparking the idea, then talking to more sister sites to add to the tour while I'm in-state.

So here's the schedule, as you can see at ln.com's NEWS page. Times are for the actual talk start, but since all but Saturday bump up against closing time at each site, I'll be there at least an hour early with a table to avoid the "closing rush."

Hope to see a lot of our Wolveriner Treklanders next week!

Here's the schedule:

Monday, Sept. 19, 6:30 pm

Redford Library

Redford, MI

Tuesday, Sept. 20, 7:00 pm

Caroline Kennedy Library

Dearborn Heights, MI

Wednesday, Sept. 21, 6:30 pm

Berkley Library

Berkley, MI

Thursday, Sept. 22, 6:30 pm

Lincoln Park Library

Lincoln Park, MI

Saturday, Sept. 24, 10:30 am

White Lake Library

White Lake, MI

Happy Trek 50th! It's only now I can be excited

Hey, it’s Sept. 8!

My early fandom benchmarks & treasures

The Official Big 5-0 is here, at last.
 
Everyone and their alien dog is doing the Star Trek thing: mainstream news, bloggers, entire nations of state-owned media.
 
So, just as I promised when I started this blog, I'll take the personal route on this landmark day.

And say, after a year of joining fans worldwide to celebrate and reflect on Gene Roddenberry’s gift to us all, that I’ve got to come clean and admit it:
 
I take Star Trek for granted. And always have.
 
I mean, don’t get me wrong: I likely would not have wound up with a lot of my life choices—from a wife, to the expression of career training in numerous fields—had it not been for the little space saga that could.
 
By that I mean the original series, of course—no bloody A, B, C, D, V, E, J, or new D—and the by fact that I was but a kid when I got trekkified: one hour at a time, one day at a time, every day after school. Just like so, so many others.

I fell for those characters, I fell for that universe. I fell for the fact it was our universe—as both a history buff and a NASA kid, it made complete sense.
 
Because here’s a second admission: I can be deadly with the practical and the pragmatic. I had a “Well, yeah” put-down comeback that was years ahead of the “Well, duh” fad...and I used it full force, on wide-beam setting on Star Trek. 
 
Of course our technology would progress from the wheel to the horsepower to the airplane to the starship… from fire to oil to antimatter. And for a species that grew from the level of caves to city-states to nations to United Nations, well of course we’d eventually become a union of intelligently populated planets—once we found them. And once they found us— because they, like us, had to figure out the self-survival recipe or they'd never have made it to the stars in the first place. (Well, most of them, anyway. Cue the grumpy Vulcans.)
 
I read the early books like Star Trek Lives!, grappling with why Trek was so mold-breakingly popular. I saw the interviews… I read the fan letters, the magazine essays.  Optimistic future, humanity survives, we don’t kill each other or the planet or the new kids we find out there to play with …yadda yadda yadda... yeah, yeah yeah.
 
It was a concept that got so many young people excited and engaged...and still does.

Me, not so much. Remember, I was "well, yeah" when "well, yeah" wasn't cool. I mean, I knew how to gush—I just didn't see the need. Duh.
 
But the years since this teenager fell for that vision of future history have hardly been rosy.  World progress has not been inevitable; tolerance and diversity and justice have not arisen automatically, along an ever-rising path to global peace and prosperity.

The go-go ‘70s grew into the cushy ‘80s and the dot-com ‘90s...and then, just about the time Star Trek's optimism seemed old hat in many ways... along came a global melt-down, a rebound of intolerance and pushback, and a generation that never saw a hot world war — but was sure plenty scared of a hot world.
 
And then Leonard died.

As I said at the time, his passing hit me not just hard, but unexpectedly: with guilt. Guilt that, while favoring McCoy and Scotty, and mourning De and Jimmy, I had taken Leonard and Spock far, far too much for granted.

And as the Five-O party started, and all the old truisms and quotes were trotted out again to explain Trek's appeal and Trek's longevity... I realized I was guilty once again. Of taking the core of the whole damn franchise for granted.

Even more than in 1966 or even 1986, Star Trek is an incredible gift of inspiration and hope, an ageless lesson in diversity and respect, a needed lesson in rationality and curiosity...and a damn flexible storytelling vehicle with great characters, cast, commentary and yes, canon—which you might say the biggest sign of respect of all: from creator to audience.

Yes, the years go by, world progress is not on autopilot, and it's actually gotten easier to gush about Star Trek. I bet we'll be saying the same thing after the next 50.

Duh.



-------------------------------------------------------------
Have a great #happy50th day today! 
Remember to share your pics of your party or meetup tonight at Larry Nemecek's Facebook or on Twitter with the hastag #mytrek50 ....
And if in L.A. (or on Facebook Live) drop by our "we are all fans" Trek50 meetup tonight at Lucy's in Hollywood anytime from 6-10 p.m., co-hosted by Roddenberry's Mission Log podcast, for a toast on Star Trek's debut half-past hours across the US time zones, shared on Facebook Live.

The REAL 50th at last!—and if in L.A., come toast with us

After all the big conventions and events, after all the special merch, after all the other hoopla... it finally all comes down to Thursday....THIS Thursday, Sept. 8...at 8:30 pm Eastern*... at the hour when "The Man Trap" first flickered across NBC's airwaves.

So where will YOU celebrate Star Trek's actual 50th anniversary of its aired debut?**

Lots of folks are having get-togethers in their homes ... or nearby watering holes, or pop-culture storefronts: many will be screening "The Man Trap" at its debut hour—all over the world, actually. Feel free to take snaps of your own celebration and share with us on the Trekland Facebook page that night! 

But IF you're in SoCal with no prior plans and want to share the night with Trekfans... please do so! Here's an invite to join us that night to toast Star Trek's 50th at Lucy's El Adobe, right across the street from Paramount Pictures and a onetime watering hole of Gene Roddenberry and friends. You can check out his autographed photo to the joint (right)!

Together with co-host John Champion of Roddenberry's Mission Log podcast, my Portal 47 will be lifting a toast at 6:30 pm* to the debut of Star Trek on the equivalent of its premiere in Eastern time—and then twice again on the half-past hour for Central/Mountain and Pacific times. 

You're on your own for drinks, and some of us are getting dinner around 7:00.

 

But we'll have a giant 50th Anniversary card to sign ... and some other fun and a surprise or two as well. Most of all, we're coming together to mark this landmark that has meant so much to so many.

And for those around the globe not with us in person, you can join us in spirit: I plan to film each toast, and any fun surrounding subspace chatter, all live on Facebook Live online at my Trekland Facebook—again, at 6:30, 7:30 and 9:30 PDT.*

For a Thursday night, and after all the big extravaganza of the past few weeks, I just wanted to do something relaxed, in an LA venue of even a tenuous Star Trek connection... with a vibe where folks with no plans otherwise could come for fan fellowship and fun. There may even be recent tales of Vegas, New York and elsewhere...or memories from further afield in fandom, back further on the timeline.

Hey, we only get one shot at the true golden anniversary moment for Star Trek—just make you sure to mark it somehow, somewhere, with fans you love and enjoy. Maybe that means we'll see you at Starbase Lucy's!

If you do plan to come by... PLEASE just help us keep tabs on turnout and click the "Going" button on the Facebook Event page—thanks!






*As my talented buddy and fellow STC'er James Kerwin pointed out, Daylight Savings Time was not created until 1967—so, techincally, celebrants this year ought to mark "The Man Trap"'s 1966 debut at *9:30* PM EDT—an hour later—to compensate.

**And yes, we all know by now, thanks to the wackiness of younger-brother sales and marketing, Star Trek actually flashed on-air before an audience the TWO DAYS before NBC's Sept. 8 premiere— on the CTV, in Canada!

A music gift from Five Year Mission & Geek Nation Tours

Everybody's partying this year, and now Five Year Mission band and Geek Nation Tours have teamed up to present their own gift to Trek fandom—a new song and video, "Take A Ride."

Take a Look! It's just a fun freebie to everybody—all about "taking a ride" through Star Trek to "STLV," the big annual Vegas "Khaaan" that expands to five August days this year in the crazy anniversary frenzy....and doing it via the tour stops of the expanded #LA2VEgas tour that I lead.

"We commissioned a song with Five Year Mission as a gift to the Star Trek community on this most important of years," says my bud Teras Cassidy, "head geek" at Geek Nation Tours. "It is especially dedicated to Star Trek fans making trips around the world to events celebrating the 50th anniversary."

So whether that's New York, England,  your local con down the road, or your own imagination via plasmascreen, podcast or any other portal — as always, it's all about the Trek travels of the imagination... and the friends.  Vegas #STLV is sold out and the tour is closing, so it's not so much about selling as celebrating. It's just a glorious fun road-trip song fest. That's the spirit!
 
I'm gonna cut FYM a hit-break and send you to their YouTube channel for the song—and give you a very non-spoilerific still above (and below). You can also download it easily at the GNT 50th anniversary Tour page: scroll down to July 29 and click "Take a Ride" to get the song.

...And both of them ready for sharing from either Facebook page, of course.

I expect to have a full orchestral and choir arrangement by the time we set sail in San Fran for the tour in July... if I don't take it with me everywhere I go this year already. Seems like just the thing for San Diego, Scarborough and CLEVELAND as well; OKC is soooo cool already, it can only help the gloss.

The new Star Trek stamps: THEY didn't need a petition!

The news today about the four Star Trek stamps for the 50th anniversary next year is welcome, fun news. I love the crisp look by designers The Heads of State, though with a definite Prime TOS  tilt to them… which is, after all, appropriate for the 1966 anniversary. I didn't see a first day of issue listed anywhere, yet, but… Sept. 8, anyone?

And somehow, it is SO perfect that the sight of beaming, a Vulcan salute, the Big E and the delta shield patch with warp stars … should all be emblazoned with FOREVER in all caps.

(Yes, I know that the unending label is about the postage rate. Still,  it's awesome.)




We've come a long way since the USPS finally recognized Star Trek with a stamp, albeit through the backdoor via the 1960s edition of the "Celebrate the Century" millenium-looking decade by decade special stamp sheets, in 1999 (at right). It was a hoot to deal with helping announce the release of that issue in the old Communicator as the official source. Of course, nowadays the Postral Service is hip to giving pop-culturists (and promotion-cooperative media) exactly the nostalgia they crave on a dwindling communication art form.

What's almost forgotten now is that  Bill Kraft, a stamp collector from  Sauk Rapids, Minn., led a lonely, 17-year petition campaign for a Star Trek stamp all through the '70s, '80s and into the '90s to help that along—i.e., on paper with stamps!—way before The Big Bang Theory and the geek revolution made it mainstream. As both a Trek fan and a stamp collector, *I* was a party to that petition as well… and I'm so glad Bill shared the celebrity support letters and the saga of that effort in his book, Maybe We Should Get God to Write a Letter…. still available on Amazon.

How fitting that when news broke about the new bright and shiny pop-art Trek stamps for 2016, I got this short email from Bill about the story:

"I'm assuming it is in conjunction with Trek's 50th anniversary. I didn't even have to campaign this time."

We do still have our Star Trek campaigns to wage, Bill. It's just that commemorative stamps are not one of them!