ZIA @ the International Space Development Conference (ISDC) Dreams to Reality Banquet, 6pm, May 29, 1999 Radisson Hotel, Houston, Texas
We started booking a small tour to Houston and back, and at some point concluded that it would cost less to just fly. Liz and I had plane vouchers, and the cost of renting a van for a week and driving across country is phenomenal. Our equipment actually fit right on the plane. We each carried on two and checked the rest at no extra cost. Hint: tip the outdoor bag check man $20 or $40 and he won't charge you the extra $100 or $200 for the oversized items!When we arrived at the Radisson, the only other people in the lobby were Buzz Aldrin (yes, the second man on the moon!) and Tom Stafford (Apollo 10 astronaut). I was star struck. I managed to spark up a small conversation with Tom Stafford and invite him to our show the next night in the Houston Room. I told him we were a "pro-space" band. He looked a little confused at first and then finally said, "Oh, I see. Wow. That sounds really great!"
That evening we went to the Apollo 10 banquet and heard all three Apollo 10 astronauts give some very emotional and gut wrenching speeches. Especially Gene Cernan. He was practically in tears remembering the Apollo era and how the dream was lost. Well, we haven't lost yet...all these great people in the same room created enough pro-space energy to bring back the Apollo gods.
After the banquet we hung around the lobby with everyone else getting snapshots with various famous people (well, famous in these circles) including the founder of the Mars Society, the founder of the Artemis Society (back to the moon!), the founder of the X-Prize Foundation (he's raising ten million dollars and is going to award it to the first commercial space plane to go up and down with people in it, like the old days when the first airplanes were awarded cash prizes).
I managed to give Buzz Aldrin a CD after some encouraging. He kept ignoring me when I finally blurted out, "I'm the president of the Boston Chapter of the National Space Society and the Region 8 Chapters Coordinator!". He is Chairman of the Board of Directors, so that was just enough for him to finally look at me out of the corner of his eye and say, "Oh, hello" and nod. At that point I shoved a ZIA "Frontier Creature" CD into his hands and said, "Please have one of our CD's. We sing pro-space lyrics", then he turned around and my moment having Buzz Aldrin's attention was over.
Then I proceed to chase down Gene Cernan. I saw him walking and tried to catch up...calling out, "Gene... Mr. Cernan..." but his friend informed me that he was rushing to the men's room and to catch him on the way out. So that I did. But it wasn't easy. I had to practically corner him. I realized later that when I was holding out my CD he probably thought I wanted an autograph, and he was already busy running away from other autograph seekers. When he finally heard me say, "I just want to to take this CD", he took it and I quickly said, "I have a band and we sing pro-space lyrics. We're playing tomorrow evening on the same stage." He said thank you and ran off. Boy, astronauts are excellent speakers, but they're not the most personable people in the world.
There was one famous person at this shindig, however, who is VERY personable. Bruce Boxleitner, captain of Babylon 5, also of Tron fame, was at the after dinner hospitality party. I saw him across the room and wondered, "who is this extremely handsome, slightly older man"..."oh, it must be Bruce Boxleitner!" Then I fluffed up my hair and smoothed my shirt, in case he were to glance in my direction. He was surrounded by at least 15 people listening to his political rants. He is definitely the most charismatic and friendly famous person at this whole shindig. Bob Zubrin is extremely charismatic when he speaks about Mars before a crowd, but when it comes to "up close and personal", Bruce is the man. Before the party was over I managed to invite Bruce to our show and he said he would be there as long as he got the best seat in the house.
The next day we went to see Bob Zubrin (founder of the Mars Society and author of "Mars-Direct: Humans to Mars within a decade") speak at a luncheon. Once again we were served delicious food, chocolate cake and coffee. What luxury. Bob Zubrin has formalized a plan to send humans to Mars - to stay - within 10 years of the start of the plan, for 20 billion dollars (as opposed to the 400, 000 estimate during the Bush era). NASA has actually adapted his plan and elaborated on it, thus earning the name "Mars Semi-Direct". I have seen Bob Zubrin speak at least five times by now and he continues to give me chills every time. He is absolutely hilarious too. I just knew that if Liz and Hae Young saw him speak they would feel the love. And they did. Now we all want to go to Mars. Right gals?
As it neared towards our moment in the spotlight we were all getting more and more nervous. Playing in front of hundreds of men and women in suits from NASA and various companies is a nerve wracking thing. Of course, once we were on stage it was all good. I was in heaven. I was singing my pro-space music to hundreds of space exploration fans. I was preaching to the choir, but for me there were two great reasons to be doing that. Number one, it gave me a big boost - enough positive energy to last me for many months to come. Number two, I want to let these people know that we are promoting the idea of human migration to space to a much younger crowd than they usually reach. Hopefully someday one of these companies will give us financial support so we can pursue our great endeavor of promoting this sort of optimism to the youth around the world.
Although I was in my own little fantasy heaven on stage during our show, cracking jokes and making little speeches about Carl Sagan and Clyde Tombaugh, I wasn't sure if the audience was really digging it. They were all sitting at very formal round banquet tables, anticipating their dinner. At least Bruce Boxleitner looked like he was enjoying himself, sitting right up front - the best seat in the house. I managed to get a few of the suited people to sing along to "Ad Astra...is our mantra... Ad Astra...to the stars!", but most of them just stared, taking in this strange new concept of an electronic pro-space female rock band. When we were finished the audience didn't have much on their minds except standing in line for the banquet food. Of course we were last in line after breaking down our equipment. However, after dinner was over we were bombarded by our new fans wanting to buy our "Frontier Creature" CD's. We sold 30 at $15 a piece! These people have money. This is a very different crowd than you find at Bill's Bar.
When we first got off stage I couldn't find Liz or Hae Young. I finally found them in the bathroom slouching in the two arm chairs. They looked like they were ill. It really was a nerve- wracking show, and they were just a little freaked out. Once we had dinner and did some schmoozing and sold a million CD's they felt a lot better. And so did I.
And then it was time for another hospitality party! And wouldn't you know it...our good buddy Blake, the handsome native Texan cowboy himself, arrived. He lives in Boston but just happened to be here visiting his family for his birthday. It's so strange when you're with someone you know from your hometown, in a totally different part of the country. Very strange. So, now that Bruce Boxleitner was more familiar with our female trio, we asked him to pose with us for a band photo. He accepted the offer graciously, and said "Hi Honey!" when the flash went off. He was saying hello to his wife Melissa Gilbert, who of course wasn't really there. After that, Liz asked him in a sweet little voice, "Can I take my picture with you?". Bruce said, "Liz, you smiled! You were so serious on stage," and they took a photo...then Hae Young took a turn at this great photo opportunity. At that point I figured I would get my chance too. However, Liz had a little trouble with my crappy camera and it wouldn't take the picture. I bent over to help her with it and then, FLASH!! I ended up with my big face in the picture and Bruce making a funny face in the background. Oh well, so much for that!
Blake offered to take us out on the town, maybe to a cowboy bar. I grew up being surrounded by cowboy bars in New Mexico, but we figured it would be something new for Liz and Hae Young. The cowboy bars were all closed though, by the time we were in the right area. We somehow ended up on the cruising strip where all of the Mexican gangs hang out. I really felt at home then. We were on that street, stuck in an enormous traffic jam for a long time, passing more gangs and cheesy clubs with wet teashirt contests. Very strange.
The next day was supposed to be the big "Buzz Aldrin" luncheon. Buzz, however, had some sort of emergency and had to cancel at the very last minute. So, who came to the rescue and saved the day? Bruce Boxleitner! He got right up there and improvised a great speech about filming Babylon 5 and entertained the lunch crowd, who had all but forgotten the fact that they didn't get to see Buzz up close and personal. Once again we had a fancy lunch, chocolate cake and coffee and schmoozed with the best of them. We made lots of new friends and contacts at ISDC, sold lots of CD's, signed about 20 autographs, and had a great time. We hope there are more space conferences for us in the future.
Hey, Star Trek conventions might be fun too..
-Elaine Walker, 1999