SHORE LEAVE 16
Vince Maiocco
Leave 16 and kree's Spock-Odo-Quark con in Valley Forge. Well, you had
every right to hope, er, I mean think that, because my wife and I almost
immediately had to go to Cape Cod and Arizona after the cons, so the
reports had to wait until now to get written. There are a total of three
messages in this set:
1) Shore Leave XVI(yes, there really have been 16 of them)
2) kreeyayShun Valley Forge 7/30&31/94
3) The Gates McFadden Autograph Scandal
I may not have all my facts together for #3, so that may have to wait until
I hear from another individual. Meantime, this is SL16, followed by kree
in a separate message.
Well, Shore Leave seemed to be a big hit with almost everyone that was
there. I only had one complaint, really, which I've already spoken of, but
I'll reiterate later, in its appropriate section. First, let me give you
an abbreviated rundown of the planned schedule of events, with a very brief
commentary:
First. let me just say, for those who have never been to a Shore Leave, or
any fan-run con, that SL tends to have several things going on at once,
in many different rooms of the hotel, so that you have to pick and choose
what you're gonna partake of. Now, before some a**hole complains about
that, the Guest stars do their thing on both Saturday and Sunday, so you
never have to forgo their speeches or the autograph session in favor of
something else. You can see them speak and sign on Saturday and then
attend the competing presentation on Sunday, or vice versa. Shore Leave
has 27 inch color TV's on pedestals in the main hallway, so that whatever
is going on in the big room is visible to those in the "foyer". This is
especially useful when you are standing in the autograph line(an hour
before the stars sit down to sign), but you want to observe a GOH speaking,
or one of the fan-created skits, etc.
OK, the highlights for Friday were:
Fan Club Recruiting Mixer
Project: Trek Rec Deck(a charity to decorate all non-essential areas of the
U.S.S. Enterprise with Trek memorabilia, for the
crew, who are in there for months on end).
Joan Winston and Jacqueline Lichtenberg speak
Filk Singing(5 hours or so<G>)
Fanzine Seminar
Computer BBS Seminar(no idea what that was about<G>)
All nite long, there were ST eps. St movies and Sci-Fi films running
Blood Drive
Klingon Jail(Charity fundraiser - finger an enemy of the Klingon Empire,
get him/her arrested and then his/her friends have to cough up cash to get
him/her out. Tony Todd(Worf's brother, Kurn, was arrested on Sunday -
along with his little stuffed rabbit - and raised over $100, cursing and
screaming the whole time<G>)
Telescope Skywatch
Art Show
All I can comment on of the above is the Joan Winston chat. In case you're
not familiar with the name, Joan is the "Mother" of the fan-run Trek
convention. She started it all in 1971. In 1977, she published a book
called "The Making of theStar Trek Conventions", or "How to throw a party
for 12,000 of your most intimate friends". I was at the 1972 NYC con. I
recently acquired a very old copy of Joan's book. I got her to autograph
it at SL16. Here's what she wrote: " Dear Vince At Long Last - Enjoy!
X Joan". I believe the "X" is a hug<G>.
Saturday, we had:
Presentations by artists, writers, comic people
Dennis Madalone(TNG and DS9 Stunt Co-ordinator)
Tony Todd
Terry Farrell
The masquerade Party and Costume Contest
Art Auction
Trek Rec Deck Auction
Panels on Costuming and make-up tips(I went so I could apply lipstick
better<G>)
Many of the same events from Friday
OK, so, is there anything else from the above you need to know about
besides Terry Farrell<G>? I'll be honest, I expected a vacant airhead who
giggled a lot and said nothing. Boy, was I in for a surprise!! She didn't
get into anything heavy(it _IS_ a party, after all), but Terry is no
vacant lot. She's intelligent, bright(yes, there's a difference, look it
up<G>!), witty, funny, charming and a lot more mature than anything I've
ever seen her in lets you see. Many of the guys who got up to ask her
questions jokingly made references to getting a date with her, or asking
her to meet them in the hotel bar, or up to their rooms. She was able to
joke back, kiddlingly agreeing to do so, without putting them down,
refusing to go along with the gag, and yet, making sure no one
misunderstood and thought she really meant it. She's hoping for more
episodes like "Dax and the three Klingons", because she really likes to
fight. Most of the fighting in that ep was a double, but watch closely and
you will see her in a few. At the autograph line, I'll admit that Terry's
was the only one I really, really wanted. Tony and Dennis were nice to
get, but I hadda have Dax's autograph. My original plan was to have her
autograph an action figure for me and another for my wife on Saturday and
then her "character card" from the DS9 trading card set for each of us on
Sunday. Well, that plan got shot to hell when Shore Leave decided, days
before the con, to limit a fan's opportunity to one sig per guest star for
the entire weekend!! I never thought I'd see a time when kreeyayShun did
anything better than a fan-run con, but when you go to a kree con, you can
get 2 or more items signed each day, most of the time. Shore Leave has
limited everyone to one item per day for quite a while, now, but apparently
all future Shore Leaves will limit us to one item per con! There is no
good reason for this. They claim it's to insure that everybody gets a sig,
but the real reason is that they aren't able to successfully negotiate a
good deal with the stars. Someone has to get tough, remind the stars that
without the fans, they simply wouldn't still have this job, and since sigs
are one of our most-treasured memories of seeing a star in person, they
shouldn't limit the amount of time they are willing to sit and sign.
Period. I'm not interested in hearing anyone else's opinion on this,
unless they agree with me. Anyway, back to the report. I got Terry to
sign a DAX figure for me on Saturday and then took a couple of photos of
her. I came off the line and knelt down a few feet away from her. Then I
said, "Hey, Terry, would you stick your tongue out for me?" I meant to
say, "... out _AT_ me", but I guess the devil got to me first<G>. Terry
reacted to the words I used, gave me a very chiding look, as if she had her
hands on her hips and with a non-verbal 'Harumph', said NO is a pretty firm
voice, then immediately smiled, put down her pen and wagged her finger at
me long enough for me to get a really good shot that I'm pretty sure
doesn't look like anybody else's(which was all I was going for with the
tongue thing, anyway<G>). On Sunday, I sent my wife through with a second
action figure(now on it's way to Nevada) and got another nice photo of
Terry and my wife, both smiling right at the camera. Two gorgeous,
intelligent, personable ladies in one photo(that last sentence was a paid
non-political announcement - paid for with my hide<G>). Not that I'm
biased or anything, but Terry Farrell is a real living doll(on several
levels) and I am now one of her biggest fans.
Regarding the costumes, there was a 12-year old DAX that I got a picture
of that was the most adorable thing I ever saw. Her younger brother the
Captain, was resplendant in his one-piece Command red TNG uniform and black
sneakers, too<G>. I saw a Ferengi(a la "The Last Outpost") that was
impeccable and, for those of you who are B5 fans as well, Ambassado G'Kar
was also there. This guy had a full-head mask of sculpted foam rubber that
was absolutely perfect. I did a double-take as he walked by... twice<G>!
Then there was Sunday:
For the most part, a rerun of Saturday, except for a different sequence and
the addition of 2 events that "MAKE" a fan-run con for me: Mystery Trekkie
Theater(MTT)" and "Cheap Treks(CT)". MTT is is exactly what you might
think; a Trek takeoff of MST3K, where a bunch of people sit just in your
way while you're watching a TREK episode(MTT seems top always use TOS,
which I think has the best impact) and they talk to the screen. In this
case, the guys doing the kibitzing are people like Peter David, Arne
Starr, Howard Weinstein and(maybe) Bob Greenberger(if I've named the wrong
individuals, I apologize, but I think I got it right). If the names are
unfamiliar(shame on you<G>!), they do a little writing and drawing in the
TREK Universe<G>. CT is a fan-written, fan-produced, fan-scored,
fan-choreographed... well you get the idea... parody of a Trek episode, or
original trek-like story. It has credits that roll at the beginning and
end, music, singing, dancing, everything you'd expect from a fan show and a
lot, lot more. This last effort weas the least entertaining I've ever seen
them do, and it was great!! Imagine crossing one of those old
beach-blanket-bingo movies with a standard TOS plotline and then adding a
few TNG elements. I think I've described it well enough<G>.
All in all, another hugely successful and enjoyable weekend in Hunt Valley
except where noted above.
Thanx for reading all this. Stay tuned for my kreeyayShun Valley Forge
Report on this same Bat-channel<G>!
LLAP
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* WaveRdr 1.10 [NR] * UNREGISTERED EVALUATION COPY