Headed home to SoonerCon—my how you've grown!

Hey, we know all Trek/sci-fi/comic-con conventions and shows are unique ... but the one that's most unlike any other, to me, is the one that has me back each year, much appreciably, as a guest of my homies in OKC at SoonerCon, this year back at the Reed Center in suburban Midwest City June 26-27-28—with guests including fellow STC'er Chuck Huber and my friend from Voyager and other realms, Bob Picardo. It looks to be another boom year with turnout closing in on 3,000.

Sinec SCon rebooted in 2007, I've been invited to all but that first tentative year—and I always make sure to catch up with friends and family alike that week. A few years back I realized that SoonerCon should be a lot more than "old home week"—with the vibrant multiple fandoms, and new breed of indie filmmaking ... and then, even the coming of the USS Ajax fanfilm and the Starbase Studios that is now home to many productions and one-time users.

Kudos to my old bud Leonard (who sang at our wedding) and "new" friends Aislinn and Matt for the big economic-impact press coverage on SoonerCon in OKC's Journal-Record—for, as with practically every other pop culture convention, the times they are a-boomin': SoonerCon was lured from downtown OKC by Midwest City (home to Tinker Air Force Base), where a recent study estimated the weekend's economic impact at $1.9 million! To a battle-hardened veteran of the fandom "respect" wars of the 80s and 90s, I would have died to have data like that on my side—much less the PR. Now, everybody just reads about San Diego, and The Big Bang Theory, and gets it. Or IS it already.

The other thing that comes back to me each year is that there's plenty of Okie fans today who have no clue about the generation prior to our move out to L.A. in '94—which is great. That means the regional fanbase is fresh, and growing ... but with the red dirt in all our veins, it's like meeting a whole new batch of "old" family each year at the reunion. It's also a bastion of mostly progressive thought, arts boosting and diversity respect in a famously "red state" —and kudos to the new Tulsa-bound "OKPOP" state arts/pop culture historical museum being signed into law with funding.

Looking forward to staring to mesh out outreach for Enterprise in Space with the first NSS chapter folks I was familiar with, the 46th state's own Oklahoma Space Alliance.

It's also a shoot trip for more survivors of The Con of Wrath—four Okies, plus three down in Dallas— as well as a homecoming for my DP Neal Halford's festical-winning horror short, The Case of Evil, for one of his other "hometowns"—showing at 3:30 pm Saturday in the Theatre.

Oh—and I STILL kudos to Bernina of OKC for sponsoring the bulk of the costuming/cosplay segment of the weekend and the masquerade prizes. I think it's doubly awesome that SoonerCon has cosplay out the wazoo but still sticks with the old-school term of "hall costumes" for all-day, non-contest entrants.

All in all, for those of you in the region, I hope you can make it by one or more days. Here's the entire program schedule... and here's the whole gamut for me—plus tabling TBA:

FRIDAY:
5 pm, Ballroom D/Main: The SoonerCon edition of our patented "Trekland: Between the Cracks"—2015's Trek losses, anniversaries, rumors, all from my archives, injokes and blooper. Plus--forum cross-talk time for the audience.

Table times:  2-5 pm
(Opening Ceremonies is at 6 pm)

SATURDAY:Table times: 12 noon-3:30 pm

11 am, Ballroom A: "Podcasting"—a first for SCon, on a panel on the basics of content and production, with several local podcasters writers/artist guests. You can bet there will be lots of Other Side of the Room knowledge divulged, even if it isn't specifically from trekfm.

4-6 pm, Ballroom D/Main: "The White Iris" latest (Ep. 4) Star Trek Continues on big-screen, with Q&A following with me & Chuck (McCoy) afterward—proud again to have the history, plus ongoing as Creative Consultant. PLUS: Chuck and I will judge a "McCoy-off"—come ready to grouse and toe-rise!

10 pm-12 midnight, Parlor Room (Sheraton 101): Yes, it's a "Dr. Trek Show" crowdfunder for The Con of Wrath, and the opportunity to support the doc with a $20 or more gift for screen credit, awesome video rariites and sneak-peeks and maybe grabbing a prize for trivia. AND you are out in time for the decent room parties—the ones still going strong.

If you are coming, please Join the Facebook event page and help give me a head's up.

SUNDAY:
Table times: 1-3:30 pm 

11 am, Theatre: "Enterprise In Space: 2019, For Real": The latest video and clips about this non-profit I'm the spokesman and outreach chief for, hopefully with some local Oklahoma Space Alliance folk on hand for a bit of the hour, whose parent National Space Society is the EIS sponsor.

Noon, Ballroom D: 20 Years of Voyager—This is really Bob P's Q&A but I'll be on hand to throw in some context and help close out the weekend.

(and Closing ceremonies at 4 pm)


WHEW.

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.)

"Star Trek Continues" coming with me for a big-screen viewing back home at SoonerCon 22—this weekend!

It's red-dirt return time again for me!

Every time SoonerCon rolls around each June, I not only get to go back home for a visit with family and old friends, but meet a ton of new ones as well.

So here is ever-booming SCon next weekend, and the schedule is out: it's  another great lineup of guests and a program/panels list that's bulging at the seams at 100+ events. I'm in there as a special guest on a few of them—my own stuff, plus a couple of actual panels (see below).

But what's really new is a request for my usual Con of Wrath benefit meetup to add a special big-screen HD showing of "Pilgrim of Eternity", the debut of Star Trek Continues we premiered at Phoenix ComiCon that has gotten over 125,000 combined online views. I was honored to be a last-minute addition to play Dr. McCoy in this best-ever feel of a 60s episode with some surprise guests and cameos.

In fact, you can see "ST Continues" Friday night on the BIG screen at the Reed Conference Center/Sheraton, as SoonerCon is trying out the Reed and adjoining Sheraton, et al hotels in suburban Midwest City this year, just five minutes east of downtown OKC's Bricktown nightspots and only four blocks from Rose State College campus (and a former home of ours!).



And everyone who checks into our meetup deal Friday night gets a free limited-edition "Phoenix premiere" poster of "Pilgrim" (left) —plus a chance at a drawing for a cast-autographed version!

Only the Phoenix crowd of 3800, and a couple other cons where producer/Kirk Vic Mignogna has brought it since, have experienced the big-screen treatment.  So, fellow Okies and indie fans, look for us at 9-12 pm Friday night (leaving your Saturday night free). As usual when I'm at a live con, your donation for The Con of Wrath is just $20 (or more) for your screen credit and this private meetup with prize trivia, rare Trek video and recent doc clips shot in process, including George Takei. And here in OKC, you get the "Pilgrim" on big screen, too!

(If you want to see what all the STC hubbub is about first, check out STC at its webpage, like the Facebook and follow Twitter for updates on the next episode ... and even catch some of our rave reviews from the likes of Slate and Breitbart and Pearls of Geek, among others...)

But solo or group, here's the rest of my "organized" schedule for SCon:

FRI - 5PM-F  (group panel) "Out of Darkness: The Iterations and Resilience of Gene Roddenberry's Star Trek"   

FRI - 9 PM-THEATER  - Our Meetup Benefit for Wrath of Con featuring Star Trek Continues on the bigscreen—plus all the rest of the goodies.

SAT-1PM-THEATER My "Between the Cracks" Trekland 2013 show: "JJVerse Reaction Edition" show   

SAT-2PM-F  (group)" Cinema So Far: 2013 in Fan Genre Films"

SUN-1PM-THEATER "What Do You Crave, Trek Peeps?" —This is a special one I requested— i just want to hear what, if any, Trek fen feel they are missing in their addiction.  Is it possible to know what you don't know?  Besides having new Roddenberry Universe back on the weekly small screen?

Also, this year I'm going to unleash on SoonerCon a stick of shirts, fliers, programs, buttopns, etc, from SooneCons and ThunderCons past ('80s and '90s) that should find good homes —and for a good cause: once again, the Infant Crisis Services of OKC.

Can't wait! And, this year, to catch up with some of the faces of folks I have not been able to get to know from the new fandom of my stomping grounds that have come along the past decade or so. I'll have a table, yes, but I won't be chained there—it's gonna be a minglin' year. Better follow SCon along on Facebook and Twitter, too.