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Meeting 779
June 27, 2005
Trey Haddad, President
Nathan Slurm-r & Chris Garcia, Vice-Presidents
Dave Gallaher, Treasurer
Galen Tripp, phantom Sargent at Arms
Barbara Johnson-Haddad, Secretary
Meeting began hesitantly at 8:03 pm and restarted for real at 8:08
12 people attended
Minutes from the previous meeting were not read, because no one had
brought them.
Secretary, Treasurer and President were all AWOL
Nathan Slurm-r, as acting President, presided over the meeting. In his VP
report, he noted that a schoolboy got himself in trouble during the Pledge
of Allegiance, for replacing "United States" with "United Federation of
Planets".
In a separate incident, a Dalek prop had been stolen in England. Its
plunger arm attachment was left with a ransom note requesting information
from the Doctor. Later the Dalek was recovered, and the entire incident
was claimed not to be a publicity stunt. Yeah, right.
Chris Garcia submitted his VP report #1 in writing. Quoting Evelyn Aurora
Nelson, age 6, it said in part, "Chris ... is a poop-butt."
Announcements:
Michael Siladi noted that Westercon in Calgary was happening this
week. His group is spearheading a bid for San Jose in 2007 Westercon, and
he was soliciting memberships and pledges for votes. The intended theme
of the bid is "Do you Gnome the way to San Jose?" If the bid wins, then
both the 60th Worldcon and the 60th Westercon will have been in San
Jose. Also, there has not been a Westercon in SJ since 1983, or a bay
area Westercon since 1987.
Reviews:
Mike reviewed a sneak preview of "Serenity" as "really really good." The
version he saw was almost complete, lacking only end credits. He noted
that it tested well with focus groups and suspected that studio execs
might now be kicking themselves for missing a potential summer
blockbuster. He rated it full price plus waiting in line.
"Howl's Moving Castle" was again reviewed, this time as worth matinee, so
you can save up to buy the book for comparison purposes.
Julie is continuing to read YA time travel novels listed in an
article. He was disappointed with Vivian Vande Velde's book "Heir
Apparent" as not having much time travel in it. It was about a VR gang
and a kid trapped in an unwinnable video game, but did not rise to the
potential of its premise.
Art reviewed the Toshiba RDSX34 system for recording TV programming. The
first annoyance was that the device was louder than his fridge. The
second annoyance was that the device had difficulties - lasting over 48
hours - of connecting to its source to find the TV Guide signal. The
Comcast customer service did not serve this customer. Instead, the
problem was resolved when Toshiba tech support suggested that he
reboot. The system also offered him three incomprehensible choices for TV
line-ups, which also could not be parsed by Comcast support. Not only
that, but the remote was "ill-conceived and inconsistent." AND the DVD
tray would not open. Despite these problems, Art did manage to record
some programming Saturday night.
Nathan and Michael Siladi followed on that TiVo was worth its weight in
gold and about various computerspeak details about hi-definition and
memory sizes. After quite a lot of technical discussion, Kelly B noted,
"I don't have a TV."
Kelly reviewed the Alameda County Fair, specifically the pig races, which
(Chris G noted) opened for the Village People. Three of the original
Village Persons remained, and some of the replacements - including an
actual Native American playing the Native American - were not born when
the band started out. Others were astounded by Kelly's in-depth knowledge
of the band's history and membership. Kelly noted that in the pig races,
"Hairy Porker" won.
Chris G reviewed "Bewitched", noting that no one was more adorable than
Nicole Kidman playing dumb. He also reviewed "Batman Begins" as
interesting in that Gary Oldman played a good guy without any ulterior motive.
We took in 25 cents and a partial roll of dimes.
We adjourned at 8:52 pm
And the rumor of the week was "The Enemy List Will Grow," with those
voting against that rumor being added to the Enemy List.
Robert B. Hole, Jr.
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
www.biologybase.com (science)
www.robert-hole.com (art and writing)
www.radio-sf.com (the speculative fiction audio ezine)
