BASFA meeting #959 (initially declared to be "3-ish") was called to
order at 081222.1904.
There was no president, secretary or treasurer. The VP became acting
president and Glenn Glazer stood in as secretary.
VP reported that the president had nothing fannish to report. As VP, he
recommended the new SF in SF for Tom Becker's layout skills. He
announced to the shock, but perhaps not dismay, of many that there was
no new Drink Tank, but it would be out tomorrow. He then went on to
welcome back our prodigal wanderers, Daniel and Kelly, back from New
Zealand where the stills are legal but the books are expensive. This
was followed by some out of order New Zealand natter.
Announcements
-----------------
Harold: Bah humbug.
Glenn announced that he would be reviewing "Anathem" today.
Ken announced that there would be a Legion of Rasselon meeting this
Friday at the Carl's at First and Bjo^H^H^H Trimble.
Reviews
---------
During reviews, the VP, at his peril, did everything in his power to
fail to recognize Dave Clark at every possible turn: follow-ons, his
reviews, etc. This would have Consequences.
Ed reviewed Cory Doctorow's "Little Brother" as worth full price
hardcover and "Day the Earth Stood Still" as having terrible plot holes,
but good effects. Worth matinee or rental.
Glenn reviewed "Anathem", to no one's surprise. He mentioned that the
early phases have a monastic feel similar to "Canticle for Leibowitz" or
the Deryni books and that it was one of the few works of fiction he'd
read that had math proofs in the appendix. Since Stephenson writes
fairly long books, he allows the reader to get involved in a particular
setting and then when the characters are yanked from their surroundings,
the reader feels as overturned as the characters. He finished by
mentioned how much he enjoyed Stephenson playing with language in terms
like "concent" and "anathem".
Glenn then reviewed Cinnebar's 2007 Late Harvest Cabernet Sauvignon as
wonderfully balanced.
John O reviewed Dickens Fair as worth full price, even if it is easy to
get discounts. The Saturday he went, it was the Fair's second biggest
day ever. There were a number of follow-ons, including Stellen
mentioning that he liked the location for its permanent qualities and
Daniel noting that it was not wheelchair accessible[1].
Dave G. showed up at this point and gave a treasurer's report: $101.60
regular, $32.65 party. Ed mentioned that of the $800 or so in the
party fund, he is owed about $700, but hasn't submitted any receipts yet.
Andy reviewed/announced that there is a video of Swinging Eddy on youtube.
Andy reviewed "Lost Treasures of the Grand Canyon" as surprisingly an
Aztec ripoff rather than an Egyptian ripoff. Not good, but not bad.
There were follow-ons trying to get a comparison between this and other
mediocre to awful films.
At this point, the meeting diverged into sources of bad British accents,
starting with several films and ending with John O's remark that there
were a lot of them at Dickens Fair and Cheryl saying that the largest
source of bad British accents was in Birmingham (England).
Dave C (finally) reviewed "Top Gear" as still enjoyable for occasional
SF content like converting a car into a space ship, a James Bond driving
test and the Lamborghini Batmobile from "Dark Knight". There was a
discussion of favorite episodes and details of the driving test.
Chris reviewed several things:
- "Bohemabot" - a robot that steals hands to play the harp, the
review was too inchoate to record and the film apparently was worse.
- "Water Pill" - Wynona Ryder method acting as a bipolar pill
popper. Cute, ambiguous ending.
- "Blackadder Christmas Special" - a fyne, fyne thing.
- "Venture Brothers Christmas Special" - very Venture Brothers.
- Today's Miko fact: She was the inspiration for "Convoy" by C.W.
McCall, though he got the attribution incorrect.
Henry reviewed the 2008 "hunting season" in which people had strapped
their "kills" in all sorts of weird ways to their vehicles. Turns out
he was referring to Christmas trees and remarked on the large number of
tree farms in the SCruz mountains and the bad driving people do on
mountain roads. Glenn followed this with a story about a biker who laid
his bike down at (the) 9 and Skyline. Connor suggested that you didn't
need to go hunting deer when you could knock three of them over coming
down your driveway. Lisa offered that pumpkin hunting (as opposed to
tree hunting) was best done in Half Moon Bay and Stellen followed that
with a mention of a youtube video where big cats get ahold of some
pumpkins (possibly http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iUq6Ffi12_E).
Evil Kevin reviewed his quarter century party at IBM as nice, with the
cake being better than the plaque.
Miko reviewed going through the snow on the Grapevine as very pretty.
Fred late announced that Contact would be April 3rd and Yuri's (NOT
yaoi's) Night April 4th. See http://www.contact-conference.org/ for
details.
There were three birthday auctions: Kelly, Daniel and Miko, followed by
auctions of more tangible stuff. Here, at last, the VP's perfidy would
come home to him as Dave Clark outbid everyone to pay $21 for a
miniature chocolate champagne cake "for Chris to eat in 30 seconds, no
hands". A table was pulled to the front of the room, the VP seated at
it, given a napkin at his collar and then given the one, two, three,
go! While he did not manage to completely finish the cake in 30
seconds, he put in a very credible effort given that the cake was
sticking to the napkin it was sitting on. Several folks captured this
on video and it may go up on youtube soon. Note to VP: Don't Annoy the
Dave.
The rumor of the week was "Damn, I forgot what I was going to say." and
we adjourned at a time which is a lacuna in these minutes.
Best,
Glenn
[1] This is _Dickens_ Fair - it only needs to be CRUTCH accessible.
--
We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.
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