Bookmark this page. With her permission, this page has information about, and links to some old song parodies by, a talented author/singer named Roberta Rogow. Here’s a picture of both Roberta and her late husband, Murray, who died on September 22, 2002. When one of her daughters, Louise, was only four years old, Roberta dressed her as a “Tribble Princess.” There’s some more information about her family over at Louise’s Website.
She’s been active in sci - fi fandom since 1973. She’s an Active Member of both the Science Fiction Writers of America and the Science Fiction Association of Bergen County. She’s a Children’s Librarian at the Union, NJ Public Library. She’s edited many fanzines, including some Blake’s 7 poetry and some Next Generation stories. Buy some of her old Grip issues.She was “The Art Show” at the 1989 WorldCon convention. Her decade old encyclopedia, Futurespeak: A Fan’s Guide to the Language of Science Fiction, has a forward by C.J. Cherryh. Roberta did a decade’s worth of research for that book! Roberta also wrote several stories which were published in C.J.’s Merovingen Nights series. Roberta had contributed stories to some Sherlock Holmes anthologies and historical fiction mystery novels about both Arthur Conan Doyle & Lewis Carroll. She said that she did 6 months worth of research for her 1st novel, The Problem of the Missing Miss. Her more recent books in this series are, chronologically, The Problem of the Spiteful Spiritualist, The Problem of the Evil Editor, and The Problem of the Surly Servant. Here’s where you may buy some of her books. In 1998 she’d also contributed a short story called I Am a Fine Musician, which is in this book. Her novels are available in hardcover; they’re not yet available as audiobooks, though some of the anthologies are available as paperbacks. Here are some of her more recent publications. She’s sometimes mentioned in the JERSEY FLATS, TOO section of The View From Entropy Hall. Jersey Flats is her contribution to APA-Q, which is run by John Boardman. She is now reviewing juvenile mystery books in a column called Child’s Play, which appears in Mystery Scene Magazine. The next issue is due out in November, and will have an article by her about Holiday Gifts for Young Sleuths, which describes some toys and games for kids who are interested in mysteries.
I’d 1st met her at a convention over a decade ago. I’ve only attended conventions in which she’d been just a dealer, rather than also as a guest/panelist because those conventions aren’t local for me. Roberta has been among the many guests/panelists at the Balticon, WARP 10, L.A.con III, (the 54th World Science Fiction Convention, 8/29/96 - 9/2/96, in Anaheim, California), Lunacon ’97, 4/97 LoneStarCon, Shorecon 97, the ’98 LUNACON, Shore Leave, Bucconeer, and Conucopia conventions. In ’96, besides the convention, KATHLEEN CRIGHTON interviewed Roberta regarding Babylon 5. She’s both a Registered Author and a fan at Bouchercon 2000. She’s a participant at Bouchercon 2001 — A Capital Mystery! Here’s her daughter’s list of her tentative appearances. Some additional appearances, which may not be included on that previous link were as follows: Deadly Ink (a mystery convention), 6/22/01-6/23/01; Shore Leave, 7/13/01-7/15/01. She’s an Attending member at the Bucconeer conventions in Baltimore, Maryland. She’s among the many Worldcon members who actively supported Philadelphia’s Millennium Worldcon bid. She was Toastmaster at LunaCon in 3/02 and the filk guest of honor at the 2nd Jersey Devil Con in 4/02. She was also at Slanted Fedora in Philly, August 23 - 25; ConJose/WorldCon, San Jose CA, August 28 - Sept 2; PhilCon, December 13 - 15. She’s the Chief Bid Operations Officer for the 2004 Worldcon bid for New York City.
On 5/1/98 Roberta talked about The Care and Feeding of Local Authors and Artists at the New Jersey Library Association Annual Spring Conference at the Ocean Place Hilton Resort & Spa in Long Branch, New Jersey. She may have been to the Slanted Fedora Con in 1/04 in Secaucus, NJ. She ran the Filk at LunaCon in March, and she attended BaltiCon over the Memorial Day weekend, 5/04. She attended Shore Leave in 7/04, and WorldCon, which was in Boston in 9/04. She’s planning to be at the Creation Con in New Jersey at the Meadowlands Crowne Plaza Hotel on November 27 and 28 (Thanksgiving weekend).You may also contact her at P.O. Box 1124, Fair Lawn, NJ 07410. Please don’t send this cool, nice, patient lady any junk mail. I’ve posted her P.O. Box to help her to autograph her publications (books, filk song tapes, fanzines, etc.). Please don’t SPAM her via any listservs. After 25 years in Fair Lawn, Roberta Rogow is now living in Irvington, NJ. Her old mailbox address is now invalid.
She kindly gave me permission to post many of her 80’s filk songs, originally from REC-ROOM-RHYMES #2 because her master for this cassette [and several others, which I don’t have] are quite worn. Re-recording these songs wouldn’t be cost effective for her. Therefore, I’ve not infringed on her copyright. She sang the songs and played her acoustic guitar. Unless otherwise noted, she wrote these songs. David Maskin played his synthesizer. I recently added some electronic percussion, via my old synthesizer on the right channel. Please also give Roberta some feedback about her songs and books. Please download an MP3 program, such as the latest version of the Real Player to play these songs. Also, you may encode your own mp3 files as 4 - bit wave files, via Microsoft’s Windows Media software! By the way, please link to the pages referenced in this paragraph, rather than directly to the songs (musical reviews for science fiction/fantasy shows, films, and books). Please retain the copyright information if you’ll convert any of these songs into different formats! Roberta has written and sung songs about the Chronicles of Amber, Indiana Jones, Ladyhawke, Blade Runner, Conan, Diana (from "V"), The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (song written by Gregory Baker), E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Starman, Darkover’s Laran, and other series. She also sang Rogues’ Gallery, based on the old Thieves’ World book series) and a song about Arthur Bertram Chandler. There’s a newer version of Fact/Fiction, a very mellow song about sci - fi in general, by Barry Gold on the tape Bigger on the Inside. Many of the links in this paragraph are for my pages, rather than the songs. When you’ll hear them, please remember that they all pre-date The Next Generation.
I’d listed Roberta’s Star Wars songs on this page because I don’t yet have a page specifically about the series. Star Wars Promo was sung to the melody of Jimmy Crack Corn. Droids are People was sung to the melody of the old TV series Kids are People Too. Both that song and My Old Man refer to several shows/films. I’d posted a rap song about the Ewoks from the 1985 Ice Capades souvenir program.
In 1994 she’d recorded another cassette, Rogow Rides Again, which I won’t post without her permission. Unfortunately, Random Factors has apparently sold out of this tape! Her new filk tape is currently in limbo. Please visit my filk music group for some great bookmarks.
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