HomiCon

Convention
Name:	HomiCon (Homicon)
Dates:	1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999
Frequency:	annual
Location:	Fell's Point, Baltimore, Maryland
Type:
Focus:	Homicide: Life on the Street
Organization:
Founder:
Founding Date:
URL:	website
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HomiCon was a Homicide: Life on the Street annual convention.

"HomiCon is an annual convention for fans of Homicide: Life on the Street. At least once a year, fans gather to meet, visit shooting locations, share memorabilia, and hoist a few in honour of The Best Damn Show on Television."

See photos and links at HomiCon.

Yahoo Group

HomiCon was a Yahoo group started on May 7, 1999 that had moderated membership, with 225 members at its close. The group's peak period was 2999-2004. While scattered posts continued until September 2019, when it was active it had as many as 800 messages a month. (Archive link)

Description

Discussion about Homicide: Life on the Streets, The Wire, related TV shows and life in Baltimore. This is also where we plan for for HomiCon - an annual gathering of Homicide: Life on the Street fans in Fell's Point, Baltimore.

Con Report 1999

SUBJECT: HomiCon '99

SUBMITTED BY:BubbazMom

[snipped]

Approximately 11 days before Homicon was to begin, I received a letter from our bus tour company telling me that our tour was cancelled. The owner of the tour company made it sound like we were asking too much and she would not be able to deliver what we expected and she didn't want to do the tour if it couldn't be top-notch. The bottom line was that she was unable to rehire the man who had done last year's tour. I e-mailed Kathy and Maura to tell them what happened and then I e-mailed Paul Kilduff who did the tour with us last year, but was no longer working for the tour company. He was very supportive and even though he said "I told you so" it wasn't said as many times as he should and could have. Even though the owner later agreed to give us a tour, it was obvious she would probably cancel the day of the tour. I ended up cancelling her. Paul came through and made the tour better than we could have ever hoped for. I'll get to that later in the narration. I don't think he realizes what a hero he was and how much the Homiconners appreciated what he did last Sunday. I just wanted to state up front how much I appreciate what he did and the work he put into the tour. All I've heard were complimentary things and how much everyone is looking forward to next year's tour.

[snipped]

Got into Baltimore around 10:45 and made it to the Admiral Fell at noon. My room wasn't ready, but the staff greeted me like it was old home week. After all, it's like my fourth or fifth stay in the hotel. I was informed that the packages from Court TV and the Baltimore CVB had arrived. I left my luggage in their good hands and went to explore Fells Point again.

[snipped]

Gina Marie and Erika had prepared gifts for Kathy, Maura and me. I couldn't believe mine. It was a little ceramic teddy bear in a fire hat and slicker a la Mike Kellerman. It now has a place of honor on my fireplace mantel. The Mike Kellerman connection doesn't end there. Maura and the writers from Autofocus came up with a Mike Kellerman trivia quiz for the Mike Kellerman Pub Crawl. Maura outdid herself on this. She had toy badges for us and had prizes for the top three winners. We started out at the Wharf Rat where Bill Grossman serenaded everyone Richard Belzer style with "Mack the Knife." In honor of Mikey most of us had shots of "Jim Peam." Outside the bar Maura read several questions. We all yelled out answers. It was a hoot.

Next we went to Miss Irene's but it was obvious it wouldn't be "safe" for us in there that night so we did our thing outside. Maura's questions were hard. I thought I was a Mikey expert but I was stumped on a lot of them. The good news is that so were a lot of others. We passed the Waterfront. Sad, so sad. I don't remember if it was then or the next day when the owner tried to get us to come inside. It was like "I don't think so." Then on to High Tops. It was too crowded so we did the "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" routine from "Wu's on First" outside. Then a round of questions and answers. Next stop The Horse You Came In On.. They wanted a dollar cover charge to get in but we nixed that. Still, I was let in long enough to buy a t-shirt. They didn't have any last March when I was last in Baltimore. Anyway, to the delight of passers-by and the bouncers of The Horse we finished off the trivia quiz. When it was all over I had won, Bill Grossman was second and Ketina Taylor was third or vice versa. Our prizes was a plastic Glock 9 mm. inscribed with the Mike Kellerman Pub Crawl. Maura, it was a great! Somehow or other I managed to get the gun through the x-ray machines. I presume they x-ray luggage that is checked. I also presume that plastic doesn't really show up in x-rays, especially when hidden in shoes.

[snipped]

Ralph Tabakin and his guests came and was he ever a doll. He had brought copies of stills and other pictures from the show and he had little skeletons for some of us. He signed and took pictures of us and we took pictures of him. I don't know if you read my post on the ng but he's not sick. The reason he can't hold his head up is because of complications from an old World War II injury. About five years ago he was helping his sick wife (she later died from cancer), and he dislocated or pulled muscles in his neck. Because of the old injury the muscles did not regenerate. He undergoes physical therapy all the time but what you see is probably going to be as good as it gets. After all, he's about 78 years old. Still, he's sharp as a tack and enjoys getting out, and working whenever he can.

Michael Ahl and Dirk Pratt who have been in over 100 of the episodes are extras. Michael wears the name tag I.M. Phatt. They were both a lot of fun and told some great stories. The hit of the evening was when Michael showed a tape that had been given to everyone at the season six wrap party. It was filled with clips from all six seasons and at the end they showed the board. It was divided into seasons as headings and under each season were the names of the episodes of that year. Then at the very end, you see someone writing "Season Seven" and the cast and crew erupted as did every one in the room watching. Then Michael said everyone present at the Redball would be sent a copy of the tape. It was truly a moment.

Patrick and his wife put on a great spread but I couldn't tell you what it was. I think I remember having a buffalo wing and a wrap of some kind. I was too busy giving the guests "crabs," little embroidered red crabs that the Baltimore Convention & Visitors Bureau gave me. I also met Vince Perranio and his brother Paul. It was a fun evening. Before we knew it it was already 7:30 and we started giving out the door prizes and the big prize was a nice basket that Erika had made up. Valerie won that. Court TV had given us some Court TV cubes and towels to give away and I had some barbecue sauce. Robin Schwalb came up with the best idea which was a box of couscous with a Meldrick cover. We had several of those to give away. Court TV also had given me copies of David Simon's book and a Homicide bookmark for every attendee.

[snipped]

Paul had been up till 2 a.m. redoing tapes so we would have the visual stimulus of the shot to go along with the real thing. The Columbus Day Parade wreaked havoc with his tour plans and he had to reroute everything so we could get in the downtown scenes before they closed down the streets. It really was better seeing the locations with the tape and we have to thank Paul's daughter Crista for the fine job she did with the VCR. Poor Bill could finally see the locations this time and didn't have to rummage through his tapes to find applicable ones. We didn't do the Subway area as much as last year because the Johns Hopkins station was closed down on Sunday. Still, we did Federal Hill and a lot of areas including Pigtown, the Belvedere, the B&O Railroad Museum.

[snipped]

Then we went across the street to the cemetery where Jake Rydzinski's (sp?) father was killed. Other cemetery scenes were filmed there too. The rain had stopped and the day was turning into a nice one. We went through Druid Park and the area where Luther shot his lieutenant. We went to the house on Eutaw Street where Bayliss was shot. Bill rang the doorbell and lo and behold we were taken inside the hallway (we didn't see that last year) and then out in the back yard to see where the shooting scene was shot. The garden is rather large but not as large as it looks on the episode. When you consider how many people were in that scene, it's just amazing that it turned out the way it did on tv.

Paul gave us a great, great tour and I hope he agrees to do another one next year. I can't thank him enough. I also want to thank Kate Finston who lives in Baltimore and saw a lot of the filming and shared some stories with us.

[snipped]

There had been rumors that The Corner was filming somewhere on Broadway. Gina Marie and Erika left and then Jenn presumably to look for the cast and crew. Bill and I walked up Broadway until it became evident that there were no film crews and the neighborhood started looking iffy. We went back and headed to abar across from Henderson's Wharf but it was closed. We ended up meeting Jenn at the Daily Grind. Bill left and Jenn and I had a latte. The Grind looks different, almost too modern. Dogs aren't allowed in any more, but they do have a doggie window so the owners can get their coffee and the dogs don't feel deprived.

Monday morning was the last of my banking responsibilities. We met at 10:00 for the Monday walking tour. Joining us was Cheryl Wagg's friend Diane, who has kept a very low profile during Homicon99. Zippy gave us a fine tour. We met a crew member of an old schooner that was there for a race that was going to occur on Wednesday. Actually Zippy gave us more than the usual tour and although Monday's group didn't get to meet Gene Hackman, we did get to meet Reggie Cathey. He was here to do The Corner. He plays Skillio (sp?) a bad drug lord. Sorry, I haven't read The Corner. Too depressing. He used to play a Klingon on Star Trek someone named Morong (sp?). He also played the drug courier that Bayliss and Pembleton busted when they thought he was a murderer. So, he had a Homicide connection. He was really nice and we got some good pics.

[snipped]

I had a fantastic time but like Kathy and Maura, I was more concerned that everyone else had a good time. It looks like they did and so I feel good about that. I might have missed out on some things, and I'm sure I'm forgetting a lot of the things I did do, but in return I got to meet a lot of new people and it was fun keeping Homicide alive. Seeing the regulars like Maura, Kathy, Melissa, Bill, Jim and Judy, Jim and Susan, Crys, Joanne, Cheryl W., Jenn, Teddy, Terri, Robin and Morph, and meeting the new guys Gina, Erika, Emily, Tara, Linda, Pat, Gail, Mark, Marie, LeAnthony, Mickey, Gene, Ketina, Amie, Kate, Martha, Jeanne, Holly, Jules, Welby, Karlyn, Erin etc. was worth it. So much that I'm ready to commit to next year.