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I'm so excited: I'm finally getting back East to a convention, and what a granddaddy of the old-school Trek fan cons it is: Shore Leave in Baltimore, where recent years' summer con/tour timing blocked my return for the first time since 2003, when the final TNG Companion black-cover edition came out. A lifetime ago!
It's not too late at all for you to get there, either!
We're even doing a reporter-survivor interview for The Con of Wrath while there—and of course I'm going to find time to get by to see the Great Lady "E" back in her refurbished state and restored place of honor at the Smithsonian Air and Space. Can't wait to meet and thank fellow guest, Curator Margaret Weitekamp, in person for helping make that far-flung project come true.
Shore Leave is notable as the biggest summit every year of the New York Trek author mafia, and believe you me I'm much feeling my rookie status at joining this august and dangerous group as the interloper. I only hope they will be kind, since I finally deigned to stray "back East"—or "Back Mid-Atlantic," as I am constantly corrected to say.
Shore Leave is back once again at the venerable Hunt Valley Inn in Baltimore's north suburbs, and I can't wait. I have a mix of author panels and some solos, and I'll have everything from all things Trekland and another PORTAL 47 prize draw to Enterprise in Space and, of course this year—joining in that illustrious Shore Leave author and actor guest list to celebrate Trek's 50th.
I also hope to have, finally, an East Coast opportunity for the "Dr. Trek Show" to crowdfund for the Con of Wrath—stay tuned!
I'll post a schedule update soon.
A little Trekland gift for all Trekfans everywhere... and one that is long overdue:
This, posted at last, is the HD video I shot of what can only be called an amazing night in Star Trek history—shot off guard, from my seat, on hand-held zoom, on Dec. 3, 2012. It was already an electric evening at Hollywood's Egyptian Theater—the ballyhooed launch party for LaLa Land Records' incredible 15-disc original Star Trek complete soundtrack box set, a landmark moment for Trek and true film audiophiles everywhere. Friends Jeff Bond and Neil S. Bulk, among others, had all labored with love over it. And I have more vidchats from that night to share as well.
But the breathless moment of the evening was its climax, when an audience sat spellbound and delighted as TOS composer Gerald Fried, then 82, not only presented a duet medley of themes from his three classic scores for "The Paradise Syndrome," "Amok Time" and "Shore Leave"—but took to the oboe to play them himself, with pianist Rich Ruttenberg deftly adding the undertow.
It was simply 9 minutes of music intersecting history for a result I'd never experienced before, much less in Trek—and with no other apparent video cameras around, I'm just glad to have been able to capture it and share it now. The audio alone would be one thing—and those audience recordings are out there, I believe—but this decidedly unfancy video still adds the visual joy and drama as well...including the audience's delighted reaction to you-know-what from that Vulcan episode, and their 45 seconds of final applause.
Maddeningly, I ran out of chipspace just before the piece ended, but was covered by my iPhone mic—so I hope you enjoy what I edited together here, with sounds and sights alike:
I'm so excited: I'm finally getting back East to a convention, and what a granddaddy of the old-school Trek fan cons it is: Shore Leave in Baltimore, where recent years' summer con/tour timing blocked my return for the first time since 2003, when the final TNG Companion black-cover edition came out. A lifetime ago!
