Apr 4, 2008 - Barry Malzberg Cancellation - We regret to announce that Barry Malzberg will not be appearing at I-CON 27.

Apr 4, 2008 - Jon Rosenberg and Steven Cloud will not be appearing - Due to circumstances beyond our control, Mr. Rosenberg and Mr. Cloud are unable to appear at I-CON 27.

Mar 28, 2008 - Conrad Brooks Cancellation - Due to circumstances beyond our control, Conrad "The Gielgud of Bad Movies" Brooks will not be appearing at I-CON.

Mar 27, 2008 - Rocky Horror Picture Show! - It's a contest! You can be a mad scientist, biker zombie, or suburban housewife losing her inhibitions. Win fabulous prizes!

Mar 18, 2008 - RepRap Demo Cancelled - We regret to announce that RepRap.org's Zach Smith will be unable to attend I-CON. The RepRap demonstration has been canceled.

Mar 16, 2008 - BattleStar Galactica Season Premiere! - Come see the season premiere of the hit series on a big screen, with 700 of your closest friends. Win BSG DVD sets!

Mar 9, 2008 - GM Signup - Interested in running an RPG? Sign up to be a GM.

Mar 9, 2008 - Awards Banquet - Tickets are now available online for the Awards Banquet. This event is held each year honoring guests for outstanding achievements in their field or genre. This year, the Awards Banquet will be held at the Holiday Inn Ronkonkoma on Saturday April 5, 2008 starting at 5:30pm. For more information or to purchase tickets please visit the Awards Banquet page

Mar 9, 2008 - Cosplay Competition - This I-CON 27 Cosplay Competition is now open to all types of cosplay, not just anime! Registration closes March 28, so hurry over to the Anime page to register online!

News Archive

Erwin S. (Filthy Pierre) Strauss got into fandom and filking (science- fictional folksinging) at MIT in the mid-1960s. He caused a stir there by publishing the MIT SF Society's collection of underground campus songs. He went on to be a fixture at East Coast cons, playing the piano at the group- style filksings that were traditional there. In the mid-1970s, he started publishing a newsletter of SF convention listings, and shortly thereafter began a similar column for Asimov's SF Magazine, the latter of which continues. Around that time, when the existing "hymnals" for group filks went out of print, he first published the Microfilk, an encyclopedic compendium of all the filks he could get his hands on, in ridiculously tiny type. The first edition cost a quarter (fans of his generation had better eyes, and less money, then than now). This continued till the early 1980s, when other filk publishing began to boom, and people started getting persnickety about things like rights and permissions. He continues to write occasional filks.

Outside the musical field, he's written books like "Basement Nukes" and "How to Start Your Own Country." These have been mentioned in SF novels (e.g., Lewis Shiner's "Slam"), and are rumored to have been found in the library of the "Heaven's Gate" comet cult. Less controversially, he's written "The Complete Guide to Science Fiction Conventions," an introduction for the neophyte congoer. He is an inductee in the Filk Hall of Fame, a recipient of SF fandom's Big Heart service award, a Fellow of the New England Science Fiction Association, and the recipient of the Special Noreascon Four Award for contributions to the fan community. He can be recognized by his iridescent "Filthy Pierre" badge, and his mouth-powered organ.

Bibliography:

• The MIT SF Society Index to the SF Magazines 1951-1965; preliminary mimeographed edition 1964; expanded hardcover edition 1966.
• Filthy Pierre's Songs of MIT; self-published; 1965 (traditional bawdy songs of the MIT campus' life and culture).
• Filthy Pierre's Songs of Significance; self-published; 1965 (just plain bawdy songs).
• Filthy Pierre's Microfilk, self-published; 1975 through 1983.
• How to Start Your Own Country; Loompanics; first edition 1979, second edition 1984 (what the title promises, plus case histories of those who tried and mostly, but not always, failed).
• The Case Against a Libertarian Political Party; Loompanics; 1980 (philosophical contradictions in the concept of a libertarian political party, and war stories of run-ins with the Libertarian Party).
• Basement Nukes: The Consequences of Cheap Weapons of Mass Destruction; Loompanics; 1980, reprinted 1984 (expanded version of 1970s writings from his APA, The (Libertarian) Connection; for an updated edition, see your daily newspaper).
• The Complete Guide to Science Fiction Conventions; Loompanics; 1983 (an introductory booklet for neophyte congoers, and for their friends and families).
• The Con Committee's Guide; self-published; 1984 (intended to be a starter for a comprehensive guide -- essentially what Ross Pavlac puts out now as the "WorldCon Runner's Guide" -- it contains a few of my ideas like the Voodoo message board used at WorldCons).