It's a party, it's a convention .... What the hey,
it's OOO-La-La Con,
the ultimate party and relaxacon.

With Special Guests

DAVID COOK
Author of
King Pinch and Soldiers of Ice

and

J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI
Writer/Producer of
Babylon 5 and Crusade

Artist Guest of Honor

MARY JANE JEWELL

Fan Guests of Honor

WILLIAM ELLERN

Plus - Video Room, Galactic Ice Cream Social, Plutonium Chili Cookoff, Mardi Gras Feast, Art Demos, Dealers, and Science Fiction Auction

$13.13 Pre-Attending,   $15.93 at the Door

ATTENDANCE LIMITED to 150 / Call for Speaker Confirms

At the LASFS CLUBHOUSE
11513 Burbank Blvd., North Hollywood, CA 91601
(818)760-9234
We're right close to the 170 fwy, park on the Boulevard.

OOO-LA-LAMEDUCK (a message from the chair)

Narf, Poit.

Seriously??   It is an honor and a joy to be Chair for this: La-La-Con #5.   I only hope I can live up to the expectations of those who shanghaied me in the first place.   Everyone here hopefully will enjoy the company of each other, the silliness, the fun and new/old friendships of the LASFS.   For those first timers ... enjoy the silliness, the fun and the new friendships.   The chair (wicker, rocker, etc.) would like to thank everyone working/volunteering this convention from the Committee, staff and those understanding people in and out of the club.   I would like to thank Mike Donahue for his guidance and experience of the last four La-La's for this "new" era in my con experience; Liz Mortensen for misunderstanding that I understood the budget; Sherri Benoun (honto Wakarimasen .. eie Totemo); the LASFS Banquet-teers, and the Time Meddlers (now fire up the TARDIS, and get me out of this ... just kidding!)

So now without further ado ... stop reading this and go enjoy the Con.

-- Tadao "Friendly Pine-Tree" Tomomatsu

David Cook (Guest of Honor in Absentia)

    It is with unfortunate regret that Dave Cook must withdraw from this year's LaLaCon event due to his new job in Austin, Texas and deadline pressures.   We will definitely miss him!
    Dave "Zeb" Cook has avoided real jobs for more than ten years by designing games and writing books, which he doesn't consider a bad deal.   He has written several novels including "King Pinch," "Soldiers of Ice," "Horselords" and "Beyond The Moons," and a host of role-playing material.   An adopted Wisconsinite, he has a family with a passion for giant monsters and other things he's not going to tell you about, except that the micro-zoo is smaller since he wrote one of his books!
    Dave is a great fan and funster, and enjoys being a Chili Head with his wife Helen and great-but-fast-growing son Ian.   He enjoys writing, anime, barbeque and darn it if Dave doesn't have more Transformers, Godzillas and Gameras than our chairman.

J. Michael Straczynski (Media Guest)

    For a fifth year, we are joined by JMS.   If you don't know who he is or why we call him JMS ... where've you been for the past six or seven years?
    Joe was the creator and executive producer of Babylon 5, as well as the spinoff series Crusade that, yes, was canceled by TNT, but we can always hope that they'll see the error of their ways (watch it on TNT when it starts in June and tell all your friends).
    Babylon 5 has been a mainstay of Loscon and other LASFS-sponsored events such as our LaLaCon's, and so has Joe.   Each year, he's brought some fun to us, sharing footage and stories and anecdotes from the set.   This year promises to be no exception.
    A fan who made it professionally (his words!), a master storyteller and Hollywood producer who's managed to balance the two ... we are honored to welcome JMS back for another visit!
    Did we mention ... you should watch Crusade starting in June?

William Ellern (Fan Guest of Honor)

    William B. Ellern says he's always been a science fiction fan, discovering Planet Comics (#3) when he was seven years old ... "I read it and WOW," he says, "it caught my imagination, and I was hooked."
    Coming from Spokane, Washington, Bill came to California and first joined LASFS in 1958.   At the time, membership was low, and Bill and his cohorts were meeting in the basement room of an apartment building.   He stayed with the organization through many years of hardships, and many different moves (including its sojourn at the old "Mathom House").   Today, he's mostly a congoing fan, which he usually attends with his lovely wife, Anne Morrel.
    Bill has a very diverse past.   He worked as an engineer, including a stint on the Ranger spacecraft project for the Jet Propulsion Labs.   He's written many a short story including "Moon Prospector" (Analog, 1966), "New Lensman Serials" (Perry Rhodan Magazine, 1975) and "Triplanetary Agent" (Perry Rhodan Magazine, 1978).   He even participated in a Fannish Western movie filmed at Calico Ghost Town in the Sixties!
    Listen to Bill for a while and you get the picture.   He's got stories.   "There was the time Mike Classen was hypnotized by Larry Maddox and talked to a ghost," he says.   "Or the time when I left a party, and half an hour later a bullet went through where I was sitting.   Or the joy (not) of being a Treasurer for the Westercon, twice!"
    Best of all: "Or when I discovered the LASFS' secret purpose."
    Bill, care to enlighten us while you're at it?

Mary Jane Jewell (Artist Guest of Honor)

    Born in Portland, Oregon and growing up with an artistically inclined sister and a mother who made many of their clothes as well as teaching ceramics plus a father who was a talented amateur photographer, it is no wonder that Mary Jane turned to artistic endeavors.   But it is the range of her interests that is surprising.   Starting at age 6, she made clothes for her dolls and at 14 began making her own clothes.   This was the start of an enduring love for the sewing machine as a tool for her artistic expression.   Over the years, she has used it to produce many forms of art including beautifully made clothes, soft sculpture, wedding dresses, historical and stage costumes and quilts.
    Photography has long been an outlet for her desire to create beauty.   Starting with an antique Kodak 50th anniversary box camera, she took postcard perfect photos on vacations as a teenager.   Now she uses a Canon EOS with zoom lens, but her object is the same; to capture images that cause herself and others to look at the world with clearer eyes.
    Handiwork has been another arena for Mary Jane.   Exquisite embroidery, applique and bead jewelry are among her accomplishments here.   A recent passion for Hawaiian quilting resulted in, among other things, a prize-winning quilt featuring space ships and planets.
    Recognized for her excellence in design, she has also received prizes for three of her historical costumes, including Best Journeyman at Costume Con II.   Her silk painting has been awarded as well.
    Perhaps surprisingly, she has done little two dimensional graphic art.   Her one serious effort was made for Bruce Pelz's Fantasy Tarot deck and was published as part of the deck.   Unfortunately, the original drawing was damaged in the 1994 earthquake.
    Science Fiction art shows have been Mary Jane's main venue for exhibiting her artwork to date, but this may not last.   Look for her in galleries when she gets her portfolio put together and shown around town.

Saturday, April 24

Sunday, April 25