ATTENTION
ALL WARRIORS OF KAG! I AM THE GREAT AND POWERFUL THOUGHT
ADMIRAL KRIKOR EPETAI-JECHWI'! HAVING WRESTED CONTROL FROM
THE MIGHTY KERLA, I NOW TAKE MY RIGHTFUL PLACE AS ...
<crackle, fizz, smoke>
Damn, I blew out the pomposity generator. Stupid cut-rate
Ferengi parts. I guess I'll have to do the rest of this
column without it; let's start again:
Hi, I'm the new guy! If you were at Marcon, I hope we had a
chance to chat face to face; I met a LOT of people that weekend, and I
might have missed a few. And if you weren't there, maybe I'll
see you at a con sometime in the near future; I want to try to get to
some cons in different parts of the continent over the next few
years. At any rate, I told you all about myself in the LAST
issue of the Mindscanner, so I won't bore you with any more
introductions. Let's move along.
Speaking of moving along, the last twenty years of KAG were awesome,
and KAG ATTACKS! at Marcon was an awesome way to celebrate
them. Yay us. But that's the past. Star
Trek is by definition about the future, and that is where we should be
looking. If the new Star Trek movie shows us anything, it is
that we can honour our past while still moving forward in an exciting
new direction. As the filk says, "It's the End of Old Trek As
We Know It, and I Feel Fine."
In the months since Marcon, I have attended four other
conventions. At
each of them, KAG made their presence known in different
ways. At
Polaris, KAG had a fan table and a General Assembly, in addition to our
members generally bimbling and making a good impression on the other
congoers. At Otakuthon, KAG members worked for the convention
as
"Special Ops", because as the concom said, "if you want the best in
convention security, you gotta go with the Klingons." And at
Worldcon
and Fan Expo, even though KAG's presence was less overt, the Klingon
Batman costume put Klingons in the public eye.
The point is that there are any number of ways to make our presence
known, but the important thing is simply to MAKE OUR PRESENCE
KNOWN. A phrase that I heard our founder Kris use once, and
that I have come to adopt as a catchprase, is that KAG is "fandom worn
on the shoulders". If you're not ready to put on a
weird-looking (and probably uncomfortable) outfit and go out in public,
then this is not the right club for you. If you don't like
people staring at you, this is not the right club for you. If
you just want to sink into the background, then KAG is definitely not
the right club for you.
But if you have always thrived on attention, or conversely if the
wearing of the rubber and vinyl helps you to conquer your innate
shyness and stand out in a crowd, then KAG is where you
belong. As Admiral KwISt is fond of saying, KAG is all about
showmanship. And that showmanship can manifest in many
ways. Costuming is certainly a big part of what we do, but
there are others. We host kick-ass parties. We use
our attention-grabbing abilities to assist in various charity
efforts. We provide security. And we get actively
involved in any number of aspects of fandom.
As a timely example, I am happy to announce that KAG is
branching into a new area with the creation of a new KAG Division.
The Hol 'ampaS (Language Academy), spearheaded by qurgh, will allow
those members with an interest in Klingon language to have both an
outlet for their efforts and a resource to draw upon. I'll
let qurgh elaborate in his article later in this issue.
So as we move into our next twenty years, think about what YOU can do
to make a mark on Klingon fandom. Find something you excel
at, and run with it. There's a reason why, even after twenty
years, KAG is still the biggest and the best: because we cultivate the
natural talents of our members, and encourage them to seek glory by
their contributions, instead of tossing around hollow titles and
meaningless awards willy-nilly. As a KAG member, you too can
achieve high reknown, but you have to EARN it.
This is as it should be; Klingons prefer actions over words.
Hmmm. Based on how wordy this column has been already, there
must be a residual pomposity field affecting my keyboard.
I'll try to burn off the remaining charge:
Thought Admiral Krikor
epetai-jechwI', RaN, DoM, LeT, TeRS
Leader of KAG
Crimson Knight Fleet Commander
Epetai of the House of jechwI'
Sick Puppy
Wearer of the Cement Overshoes
Lord of Everything ... thing ... thng ...
<fade>
(there, that's better)
- Krikor
