I-Con 27 at SUNYSB
Many years ago I was probably the only gaming geek on the Island whose mom attended more I-Cons than I did. She would go back when they had Dr. Who guests, but as Dr. Whos popularity faded in the US, she stopped going. Now into it’s 27th year (next weekend - I-Con April 4-6), I-Con is a science fiction convention held on the campus of Stony Brook University. Usually they’ll have somebody from Star Trek or Babylon 5, and lots of sci fi authors and sci-fi film makers, anime artists, sci-fi movies around the clock, science shows, filking, medieval re-enactment fighting exhibitions, and lots of gaming of all kinds. 
My friends and I would attend mainly for the gaming - non-stop role-playing and board games run by volunteers filling entire lecture halls with long-haired, dice-wielding miscreants. Trek guest is Jeffery Combs (who played, among many more unsung roles in heavy makeup, Weyoun on DS-9). Weekend pass is $55 if you didn’t hook up with a membership long ago. Anyone interested this year?
Comment posted on 4-1-2008
Too much of a commute for me, but I used to love this con. Who are the headliners? What games are you going to play?
Comment posted on 4-2-2008
So far I’ve heard from only one person with any interest in going, but without specific plans. Another friend is apparently the event co-ordinator this year and so will probably not be gaming much. Follow the link to the site - the main guests are listed right on the front page, click programming to see the various genres (there’s too much to list here). I will probably try to get over to see Mark Gunn and the Brobdinagian Bards though
Comment posted on 4-7-2008
What a great time! Aakin was running it this year, and though I saw him all over the place, he was too busy to even stop and say more than a quick “Hi”. Good job though, man! Another gaming friend Dan ran the gaming rooms and everything went really well. To echo his own words, “it was epic!”, so many games happening, and the ballrooms held them all under one roof which was a nice change from years past. Sean and Aileen made it over to I-Con on Saturday so I had some company, and it was nice meeting Sean’s friends John and Ashley, I hope we can get together again in the future.
Marc Gunn and Andrew McKee were fantastic as the Brobdinagnian Bards. Marc developed a nose bleed during the last show on Saturday which returned to haunt him on Sunday as well, but they plowed through and man, what a funny show! These guys are true entertainers. I can’t wait to see the Youtube version! I really enjoyed the Chemistry magic show given by a now 71 year old Krshnan, and the Physics of the possible with Helio Takai from BNL. He was really well prepared with cool physics experiments, a very nice (and funny) gentleman. I enjoyed the talk that Jeffery Combs gave on Reanimator (I had forgotten he had the lead role in that as Dr. Herbert West) and I think he enjoyed talking about something other than Star Trek for once, nice guy. I also got to watch part of the Macra Terror, a Dr. Who episode for which the video is lost, but an audio track exists, and someone reconstructed the video portion with still images shot with a camera during filming. It was really interesting, since for once the bad effects did not detract from the show (for me) and I was able to concentrate on the story which was pretty cool.
Comment posted on 4-7-2008
I had a look at the schedule .pdf for the Con and holy cow! It was gigantic. Too much to do, too much to see. It must have taken hours to go through the thing. I wish we had a local con similar in magnitude.
Helio Takai is an old BNL buddy of mine, and one of the nicest people I’ve ever met. We worked together on many projects over the years, and now he’s working with my papa.
Comment posted on 4-8-2008
I only took a very few crappy pictures taken on the phone.