LA ALERT: BlasterCon celebrates '70s-'80s Birth of Geek—say hi, and get a discount from TREKLAND

UPDATE:
Hey, turns out FRIDAY is "Star Trek Night" with Huston's "New Starship" Bridge restoration/Sci-Fi Museum panel at 5 p.m., our Con of Wrath and things Trekland show is at 6, and a Fan Films featuring ST Continues panel is at 7 p.m.
But there are a lot of unique touches with this show: check it out. Plus, the classic arcade games arcade will be open after Thursday's preview Red Carpet of celebs at 7 ish, too; check that link.

A new con in L.A.?

You bet—though the organizer of BlasterCon is hardly a rookie, and its focus is fresh: across-the-board genres, but a cool micro-focus on the fandom and franchises that exploded in the '70s and '80s, when everything in pop culture changed.

But it's coming up fast—so keep reading. And here's a special discount just for you Trekland guys and gals.

BlasterCon is just a month away, the May 10-12 weekend—and I only found about it a few weeks ago, when Todd Whitesel—a 20-year con vet and the 10-year organizer of anime's Pacific Media Expo—and program coordinator Tom Bateman asked me to be a guest. I guess something about the birth of media conventions with Star Trek in 1973, before Star Wars, and that whole "Con of Wrath" thing I've been soaked up with—much less the TNG rebirth in 1987—seemed to qualify for their theme.

It's over at the Warner Center Marriott, on Topanga Canyon and Oxnard; con rates, and all that. I'm still talking about programming details with them, and more of their other guests are to be announced—but it will be a cool, new, young con... so I hope to see you there. We'll have our Trekland "On Speaker" CDs and fundraiser Klingon PADDs to boot, as well as a laid-back day to have fun. And, potentially, one of our patented live "Con of Wrath" MEETUPS on Saturday night to boot.

And that discount? Go to the BlasterCon ticket link page and use this code just for TREKLAND readers to get $5 off admission: Q5RDB. It comes on top of whatever other discounts you may be getting already.


It'll be a fun weekend—right here "in town" (for me, anyway). Bring your cool mom on Sunday!

Star Trek Google Doodle reshines light on Bobby, too

Google's Star Trek day has been such a splash for the franchise, this year's "off-year" 46th anniversary celebration—and good will for Star Trek in general, with lots of great mainstream media coverage on the Google Doodle design team choices. And a huge spike at startrek.com.

It's even given me the chance to tell folks that Chekov is not in the animation because he's in Hollywood getting ready to get his Walk of Fame Star! 

But Bobby "The Gorn" Clark's wife Judy just reminded me that's it cool in another way—the local media is all over the fact that, of all Trekdom to throw at Google-Kirk and his hapless landing party for today's episode, it's obviously Vasquez Rocks Planet and the Google-Pez Dispenser Gorn that Google chose! (Though that wind sounds pretty Guardian of Forever Planet to me.)

Here's Bobby (at right, sans scales) choreographing the original "Arena" shoot from 1966 for our gang last month on the Hollywood2Vegas Film Sites Tour for Geek Nation Tours before Vegas Khaaan...









Oh—and if you have no idea why I'm talking about any of this—go to google.com. NOW.

What ComicCon and fandom are really all about

Forget the bucks and booze and bigscreens and parties and promos... here's what it's all about:

I spied this mom sitting ahead of me, neither one in cutesy costume—but she's just making sure her son knows the classics ... in this case, a newly remastered Blu-Ray LooneyTunes with Daffy in "Duck Twacey" that's about to roll...: