We thank club members Joe Aspler, Danny Sichel, Keith Braithwaite, and Cathy Palmer-Lister for their contributions to this afternoon’s programming. A tip of the hat, as well, to all of our contributing participants, and everyone who helped to plan and run this meeting. Finally, of course, we thank all of you who joined us here on ZOOM; don’t forget to comment on today’s get-together (www.MonSFFA.ca).
6) NEXT MONTH’S MEETING:
We will again meet exclusively on ZOOM next month; Saturday, February 8, 1:00PM to 5:00PM! Among the topics we’ll explore: literary genres that mix well with the science fiction and fantasy genres, and water in SF/F, a life-giving resource for we humans, both in actuality and allegorically.
We return to our downtown meeting hall at Le Nouvel Hotel beginning in March, as winter, hopefully, begins to recede.
7) SIGN-OFF
Thank you, all, for taking part today. We appreciate the enthusiastic involvement of our members, and we hope you will all join us in 2025 for another year of sci-fi fun! See you next month!
Welcome to MonSFFA’s first meeting of 2025! Happy New Year to all, and we trust everyone enjoyed the Holiday break!
Today’s proceedings will be getting underway shortly. We are meeting exclusively online, today; join our ZOOM-chat and take part in the meeting from the warmth and comfort of home! See the instructions, below (at the end of this post), to join in and participate on ZOOM.
Our programming agenda begins at 1:00PM; the meeting will conclude at 5:00PM. This opening post has gone up 30 minutes before the meeting’s start time to allow folk to gather online at their leisure.
A closing post will go up at 5:00PM to officially thank today’s presenters/discussion moderators, and to publish the date of the next MonSFFA event.
For your amusement during this pre-meeting half-hour, here are a half-dozen sci-fi movies set in the year 2025! These are depictions of what filmmakers of the past expected our world to be like by now!
Futuresport (1998)
“In 2025, a revolutionary sport is the only way to stop a revolution,” reads the film’s tag line! This is a made-for-TV movie starring Dean Cain and Vanessa Williams, and centered on “Futuresport,” a combination of basketball, baseball, and hockey featuring hoverboards and rollerblades! Our heroes must prevent a war from breaking out between the North American Alliance and the Pan-Pacific Commonwealth over control of the Hawaiian Islands.
Futuresport (1998)
Her (2013)
In near-future—2025—Los Angeles, a lonely, introverted man, played by Joaquin Phoenix, buys a new AI-powered operating system for his computer and falls in love with the artificial entity, voiced by Scarlett Johansson.
2025 Armageddon (2022)
Hostile aliens misinterpret as depictions of Earth mythology the decades of monster movies produced by real-world film studio The Asylum, and create simulacrums of the creatures as part of a plan to invade our planet! The “delightfully meta” plotline sees twin sisters, one a naval commander, the other with NASA, who as children were avid fans of The Asylum’s low-budget, straight-to-video creature features, now battling a battalion of rather familiar monsters from the studio’s film library!
Repo Men (2010)—Advanced medical technology has been developed, allowing the Union Corporation to sell expensive, artificial organs to patients on credit. But when a patient fails to pay, the corporation dispatches so-called repo men, played here by Jude Law and Forest Whitaker, who are tasked with repossessing from that patient their artificial organ, often at the cost of said patient’s life!
Endgame (1983)
No, not that one! This is an inadequately budgeted Italian post-apocalyptic actioner riffing on films like Mad Max and The Running Man. The nuclear war-devastated wastelands of New York City are populated by bands of scavengers and telepathic mutants persecuted by an elite cadre of survivors who stage gladiatorial-like games broadcast as a reality television program called “Endgame.”
Endgame (1983)
Pacific Rim (2013)
Guillermo del Toro’s homage to kaiju movies takes place mostly in 2025, when cities are regularly attacked by giant monsters, who have been emerging from the deep-ocean “Breach”—an interdimensional portal—since 2013. But mankind fights back using massive mecha robots called Jaegers!
2) MEETING THEME FOR JANUARY 2025
Organize your SF/F book collection! De-clutter your stash of comic books! Finish that genre novel you’ve been writing, on and off, for years! Actually finish building a sci-fi scale model spaceship kit! What, if any, New Year’s resolutions have you made for 2025?
3) THIS AFTERNOON’S AGENDA
Today’s programming agenda is as follows:
1:00PM – Who Dares to Mock Cthulhu?—The Dreamer, The Great Old One, and More…
Who mocks Cthulhu? The answer seems to be…everyone! Perhaps it’s the horror industry’s version of whistling past the graveyard, but everyone likes to poke fun at the most evil of the Old Gods. From children’s stories, board games, and the world of literature to Broadway and beyond – people mock Cthulhu. They even make a few bucks off him. Watch out for the recipes in those Cthulhu-based cookbooks! Today’s presentation will review this arcane history, and will end with a singalong!
2:00PM – Villains!
We look at the villains of our favourite genre, and the villainous villainy they bring to the table!
3:00PM – Break and Club Elections
Executive Reports for the previous year, 2024, club elections for 2025, other club business, and raffle.
3:30PM – Jumping SF/F’s Shark!
Multi-part, seemingly endless book series? Epic tales centered around a “Chosen One” or rightful heir to the throne? Palace guards or battalions of spacetroopers who can’t shoot straight? Superhero movies? Dragons? Dystopias? AIs that inevitably prove evil? We discuss and debate those themes, trends, or tropes that we believe the genre has overworked to the point of exhaustion, cliché, banality! Put forth your examples of shopworn SF/F, and outline why you find those particular works so irksome!
But on the other hand, we’ll also cite those tropes of which we just cannot get enough, and trumpet examples of SF/F subject matter well executed despite the timeworn cog upon which the piece is built!
4:30PM – Final Thoughts and Wrap-Up!
We close the afternoon with final thoughts, questions, and commentary on today’s topics, as well as other club-related matters. Your feedback, dear members, is always welcome!
Please Note: While we strive to keep on schedule, we do, sometimes, fall behind a little, or find ourselves having to reshuffle the order of items on the agenda for one reason or another, or reschedule planned presentations/discussions. Therefore, please understand that all programming is subject to change!
FYI, Regarding the Club Elections Taking Place This Afternoon:
The club begins each year with the election of its Executive Committee for that year. These elections take place at our first meeting of the year, in January, and are officially confirmed by the following meeting, in February. All MonSFFA members in good standing, having paid in full their annual membership fees, are encouraged to participate.
The club elects annually a president, vice-president, and treasurer, who together form MonSFFA’s Executive Committee and are charged with the responsibility of running the club on behalf of the membership. These executives recruit advisors and appoint officers to assist them in carrying out this responsibility.
Any MonSFFA member in good standing who is responsibly and reliably able to carry out the duties of office may run for any one of the Executive posts. Candidates may nominate themselves, or accept nomination from another member in good standing. Nominations are received by the chief returning officer, or CRO, usually just before the commencement of voting on Election Day.
All MonSFFA members in good standing are eligible to cast a ballot. Members are asked to be present at the designated place and time in order to exercise their right to vote. Proxy voting is not permitted, except under special circumstance and by approval of the CRO (out-of-town members unable to attend the vote, for example, may have their ballots cast by the CRO in their absence).
4) JOIN THIS AFTERNOON’S VIDEO-CHAT ON ZOOM!
To take part in this afternoon’s meeting online, join our ZOOM video-chat, which will run throughout the next few hours. Simply click here and follow the prompts: This Afternoon’s MonSFFA Meeting on ZOOM
If you’re not fully equipped to ZOOM, you can also take part by phone (voice only); in the Montreal area, the toll-free number to call is: 1-438-809-7799.
Also, have this information on hand as you may be asked to enter it:
Meeting ID: 831 9399 0929
Passcode: 292667
The sci-fi fun begins at 1:00PM! Thanks for joining us today, and enjoy the meeting!
MonSFFA opens 2025 with an “online-only event,” our first club meeting of the New Year, scheduled to take place exclusively on ZOOM tomorrow, Saturday, January 11, from 1:00PM to 5:00PM! Join our ZOOM-chat and take part in the meeting from the warmth and comfort of home!
Among the topics we’ll be exploring tomorrow are H. P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu—we’ll ask “Who Dares Mock Cthulhu?”—villains, and those moments when we believe an SF/F print or screen series has “jumped the shark!”
Please note that next month’s meeting will also unfold as an online-only event; we will return to our downtown meeting hall at Le Nouvel Hotel beginning in March, as winter, hopefully, begins to recede.
See You All Online Tomorrow Afternoon…
At this meeting, we will also hold our election of MonSFFA’s Executive Committee for 2025!
FYI: The club begins each year with the election of its Executive Committee for that year.
These elections take place at our first meeting of the year, in January, and are officially confirmed by the following meeting, in February. All MonSFFA members in good standing, having paid in full their annual membership fees, are encouraged to participate.
The club elects annually a president, vice-president, and treasurer, who together form MonSFFA’s Executive Committee and are charged with the responsibility of running the club on behalf of the membership. These executives recruit advisors and appoint officers to assist them in carrying out this responsibility.
Any MonSFFA member in good standing who is responsibly and reliably able to carry out the duties of office may run for any one of the Executive posts. Candidates may nominate themselves, or accept nomination from another member in good standing. Nominations are received by the chief returning officer, or CRO, usually just before the commencement of voting on Election Day.
All MonSFFA members in good standing are eligible to cast a ballot. Members are asked to be present at the designated place and time in order to exercise their right to vote. Proxy voting is not permitted, except under special circumstance and by approval of the CRO (out-of-town members unable to attend the vote, for example, may have their ballots cast by the CRO in their absence).
MonSFFA opens 2025 with an “online-only event,” our first club meeting of the New Year, scheduled to take place exclusively on ZOOM this Saturday, January 11, from 1:00PM to 5:00PM! Join our ZOOM-chat and take part in the meeting from the warmth and comfort of home!
Among the topics we’ll be exploring this Saturday are H. P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu—we’ll ask “Who Dares Mock Cthulhu?”—villains, and those moments when we believe an SF/F print or screen series has “jumped the shark!”
Please note that next month’s meeting will also unfold as an online-only event; we will return to our downtown meeting hall at Le Nouvel Hotel beginning in March, as winter, hopefully, begins to recede.
See You All Online This Saturday…
At this meeting, we will also hold our election of MonSFFA’s Executive Committee for 2025!
FYI: The club begins each year with the election of its Executive Committee for that year.
These elections take place at our first meeting of the year, in January, and are officially confirmed by the following meeting, in February. All MonSFFA members in good standing, having paid in full their annual membership fees, are encouraged to participate.
The club elects annually a president, vice-president, and treasurer, who together form MonSFFA’s Executive Committee and are charged with the responsibility of running the club on behalf of the membership. These executives recruit advisors and appoint officers to assist them in carrying out this responsibility.
Any MonSFFA member in good standing who is responsibly and reliably able to carry out the duties of office may run for any one of the Executive posts. Candidates may nominate themselves, or accept nomination from another member in good standing. Nominations are received by the chief returning officer, or CRO, usually just before the commencement of voting on Election Day.
All MonSFFA members in good standing are eligible to cast a ballot. Members are asked to be present at the designated place and time in order to exercise their right to vote. Proxy voting is not permitted, except under special circumstance and by approval of the CRO (out-of-town members unable to attend the vote, for example, may have their ballots cast by the CRO in their absence).
Welcome to MonSFFA’s 2024 Virtual Christmas and Holiday Get-Together!
Here, again, is the information necessary to join the conversation!
JOIN THIS AFTERNOON’S CHRISTMAS/HOLIDAY VIDEO-CHAT ON ZOOM!
To take part in this afternoon’s Virtual Christmas and Holiday Get-Together, join our ZOOM video-chat, which will run throughout the next few hours. Simply click here and follow the prompts: This Afternoon’s MonSFFA Meeting on ZOOM
If you’re not fully equipped to ZOOM, you can also take part by phone (voice only); in the Montreal area, the toll-free number to call is: 1-438-809-7799. From out of town? No problem; find your ZOOM call-in number here: Call-In Numbers
Also, have this information on hand as you may be asked to enter it:
This post is a reminder to all that the club’s Virtual Christmas and Holiday Get-Together on ZOOM is set for this afternoon, beginning at 1:00PM! We hope you can join us for an afternoon of Holiday cheer!
The details you’ll need to join our ZOOM-chat are here, below; just click and follow the prompts. Have ready your favourite Christmas cookies and a cup of hot chocolate, or glass of mulled wine, and join the conversation! See you soon!
JOIN THIS AFTERNOON’S CHRISTMAS/HOLIDAY VIDEO-CHAT ON ZOOM!
To take part in this afternoon’s Virtual Christmas and Holiday Get-Together, join our ZOOM video-chat, which will run throughout the next few hours. Simply click here and follow the prompts: This Afternoon’s MonSFFA Meeting on ZOOM
If you’re not fully equipped to ZOOM, you can also take part by phone (voice only); in the Montreal area, the toll-free number to call is: 1-438-809-7799. From out of town? No problem; find your ZOOM call-in number here: Call-In Numbers
Also, have this information on hand as you may be asked to enter it:
This message is for our out-of-town members and friends, especially, and for those who missed the recent 2024 Christmas and Holiday Dinner Party downtown! MonSFFA is pleased to invite folk to a Virtual Christmas and Holiday Get-Together on ZOOM tomorrow, Saturday, December 14, from 1:00PM to 4:00PM!
Visit www.MonSFFA.ca tomorrow morning at 11:30AM for the necessary ZOOM details. At 1:00PM, get yourself a plate of Christmas cookies and a cup of hot chocolate, or a glass of mulled wine, and join us virtually for an afternoon of Holiday cheer! Drop in for just 20 minutes, or for a couple hours, and wish your fellow MonSFFen the very best of the season!
We’ll see you online tomorrow afternoon at 1:00PM!
In particular for our out-of-town members and friends, and those who missed the recent 2024 Christmas and Holiday Dinner Party downtown, the club is pleased to invite folk to a Virtual Christmas and Holiday Get-Together on ZOOM this Saturday, December 14 from 1:00PM to 4:00PM!
Visit www.MonSFFA.ca Saturday morning for the necessary ZOOM details, then get yourself a plate of Christmas cookies and a cup of hot chocolate, or a glass of mulled wine, and join us virtually for an afternoon of Holiday cheer! Drop in for just 20 minutes, or for a couple hours, and wish your fellow MonSFFen the very best of the season as we look forward to 2025!
This event will close out 2024 for the club; we’ll be back in January of 2025 to begin another year of sci-fi fun!
So, we’ll see you online this Saturday afternoon, December 14, at 1:00PM.
We are pleased to invite all MonSFFen, their families, and friends of the club to our 2024 Christmas and Holiday Dinner Party this evening!
This year, the club celebrates Christmas, and the festive season broadly, this evening, Saturday, December 7, beginning at 6:30PM! We’ll be gathering for dinner and drinks at the familiar Nouvel Hotel, our regular meeting locale, which includes the Novella Restaurant. Situated in the building’s south tower, or condo tower, the Novella is easy to find. Simply walk down the glass corridor, as if to a regular MonSFFA meeting, but turn right instead of left at the elevators; the restaurant is right there.
And, as is our tradition, we’ll be holding our fund-raising Christmas-gift raffle!
So join us for an evening of dining and merriment as we celebrate the season! We hope to see all of you this evening at MonSFFA’s Christmas and Holiday Dinner Party!
5) THANK YOU
