by John Kenneth Muir
Retro TV Files Books
Links Book Reviews
I-Con 23 occurred on the weekend of March 26-28, 2004 at the sprawling (and lovely) campus of Stony Brook near Ronkonkoma, Long Island. After receiving our guest badges, my wife Kathryn and I were off to the races, and to a number of fascinating panels.
The first one that I attended was Friday night at 7:00 pm on the authors track, Genre Bending. I sat on a panel with novelist Ryk E. Spoor (author of Digital Knight; from Baen), and Nick Mamatas, author of the highly-original Move Under Ground (a blending of Kerouac and Cthulhu...) from Night Shade Books. This was a fun presentation, and we talked a lot about genre blending and the lines of division. I was thrilled to see that my old buddy from the Breakaway Con in 1999 and Main Mission 2000, Phil Merkel, was in attendance for this one.
After Genre Blending, I had the honor of making my first in studio-appearance on Destinies: The Voice of Science Fiction, the long-lived and highly acclaimed radio program broadcast from the campus. This was actually my fourth appearance on the show, but usually I phone in from my home office in North Carolina, so it was great to see the preparations going on in the studio.
Destinies is a fantastic and informative genre program that is celebrating its 21st anniversary this year, and it was a treat to see host Howard Margolin do his thing live and in-person, multi-tasking like crazy and vetting a terrific show. The other guests on Destinies (and in the studio) this night were Keith R.A. DeCandido - a writing idol for me, in no small part because of his brilliant Farscape novel, House of Cards. He toils in the universes of Buffy, Resident Evil, Star Trek, Andromeda and more - all quite deftly, and it was great to meet him.
Also there was the talented actor Bill Blair, a multi-faceted fella who has played aliens in DS9, Sliders, B5 and a slew of other programs (including my new favorite, Carnivale). Blair was really charming, and I was particularly interested in his experiences working on Army of Darkness over ten years ago.
Star Trek authors Terri Osborne and Glenn Hauman also shared the studio with us, and were very impressive indeed, as was filk singer Adam Goss, who floored me with his filk song about director John Carpenter.
The show lasted nearly 90 minutes and was highly entertaining and a lot of fun. Watching Howard energetically strut his stuff - proving a charming and deft host, jumping from diverse guest to guest, made me grateful to be in print rather than radio. Doing a radio show "live" is a tremendous amount of work - and pressure, but Margolin makes it look easy by sheer force of his personality (and his encyclopedic knowledge of all things genre).
Saturday, March 27, brought more great new experiences. I sat in on a panel about radio in science fiction, and watched as Howard Margolin, NiteShift host Mike Sargent, SciFi Talk host Tony Tellado, and actor/producer Craig Wichman (of QuickSilver Radio Theater) discussed the history of the genre in the medium. These guys were so great, so knowledgeable that the hour literally flew by. I felt that I was privy to a conversation among five friends and professionals, not merely a guy sitting in the audience.
Next up, I participated in the Comic Heroes in Movies panel with fellow Space:1999 novel author Bill Latham - a friend and brilliant writer. Also on the panel was Howard Margolin, Craig Wichman, Tony Tellado and MaryAnn Johanson - The Flick Filosopher! I was honored to serve as the moderator on this panel, and each of the guests brought some great knowledge and perspective to the subject. Mr. Tellado was charming and laconic, with a terrific sense of humor, and MaryAnn Johanson had a deep knowledge and passion for film that was truly amazing. She floored me with some of her astute observations about everything from a unique theory on Die Hard with a Vengeance to her insight about superheroes. The learned Jim Knusch (aka Professor Kinema) was able to join us for a time, and bring his vast repository of film history to the proceedings as well. Again, I felt really fortunate to be in the company of these folks and enjoyed talking about topics like "best line in a superhero flick," or "worst sequel," or "worst translation to the screen." This was a fascinating hour.
Next up I had a promotional signing in the Dealers Room and got to meet a number of fans while signing copies of my book from Applause Theater and Cinema Books, An Askew View: The Films of Kevin Smith. Unfortunately, I was counterprogrammed against Debra Margolin, Howard's wife, and a clairvoyant and clairaudient who has been reading professionally for almost twenty years. My wife, Kathryn, ditched me (!) to attend Debra's event, and she says it was absolutely amazing. Debra read her, and floored Kathryn with her accurate reading. Next year, I'm not going to miss this one!
Later on Saturday afternoon I arrived (late) to join authors Keith R.A. DeCandido and Terri Osborne for a passionate debate about the Future of the Genre on Television. We collectively mourned the passing of Firefly, Buffy, Angel and The X-Files, though the panel was deeply divided about the merits of Enterprise.
After a banquet Saturday evening in which amazing guests like Daniel Keyes, Scott Edelman and Connie Willis were honored, and the legendary Julius Schwartz was remembered, we attended a really fun cabaret that featured a number of diverse artists. The show was hosted by Ghoul A Go-Go, an entertaining throwback to 1960s-style horror hosts, and there were a number of entertaining acts that followed Adam Goss was back with some great filk, Chase Masterson sang some jazz and crooned to Howard Margolin -from a perch on his lap (the lucky dawg!) and Vaughn Armstrong kept the audience rocking with the ukelele and harmonica.
As the Cabaret continued, the Brobdignagian Bards and Emerald Rose kept things hopping, and the amazing - and very funny, Voltaire took the stage. He kept the audience in stitches with a tale about I-Con 2000, and his prank on a couple of guests from Earth: Final Conflict. He also sang a great song about Star Trek, but being a Jersey Boy myself, I sat on my hands for his (admittedly hilarious...) song "Bomb New Jersey."
Sunday was another crazy day, but terrific fun. Howard Margolin, Professor Kinema and I co-hosted a panel on morality, symbolism and meaning in 1970s Science Fiction Television - and I felt this is where I was really in my element, considering my long-time affection for series like Space:1999, Kolchak: The Night Stalker, Battlestar Galactica and, yes, Star Maidens.
Following this panel, our last event at I-Con 23 was a panel on Series Films featuring MaryAnn Johanson, Professor Kinema, Howard, and Tony Tellado. This one was so much fun that I think we all forgot there was even an audience. We could have discussed this topic for hours.
During the fourteen hour car trip home to N.C. (!) my wife Kathryn and I reflected on the weekend - a lot. It was a great show, and I want to thank Professor Jim Knusch and the very sweet, very generous Diane Brown for inviting me.
Hopefully, I'll wrangle another invite for next year and I-Con 24!
