It’s Back! And we have collected even more books, comics, and DVDs than we have had in the past. Bring lots of cash, and lots of bags! Unbeatable prices!
Pocket Books, 3/1$, Trade Paperbacks 2$, Hard Covers 3$
When: October 19, 2024
Where: Hotel Nouvel, corner René Lévesque & St Matieu
Time: Open to the public starting at NOON!
Zines to Share!
From N3F: Tightbeam3561
Added today at https://efanzines.com:
From Joe Major: Alex134
From Leybl Botwinik, CCMay2024-v01
“It became something of a joke in the film industry that Corman could negotiate a contract from a public phone, shoot the film in the phone box and pay for it with the coins in the change slot.”
Roger Corman, who directed a series of cult films including 1960’s The Little Shop of Horrors, has died aged 98.
His family told industry publication Variety that he died on Thursday at his home in Santa Monica, California.
“His films were revolutionary and iconoclastic, and captured the spirit of an age,” their statement said.
Jack Nicholson and Robert De Niro are among the actors he helped develop. Directors James Cameron and Martin Scorsese cut their teeth on his films.
Many of his films became cult classics and he became famous for the speed at which he worked, often making two films at the same location and at the same time, in order to save money.
Roger Corman was born in Detroit on 5 April 1926. His father, William, was an engineer and he had intended to follow in his footsteps.
However, while studying at college, he became attracted to film-making and after a spell working for General Motors quit his job and went to work at 20th Century Fox as a messenger boy.
Having failed to make much progress, he set off for Europe where among other things, he briefly studied English literature at Oxford. He returned to the US with ambitions to become a screenwriter.
He sold his first script, The House in the Sea, in 1953 and it was filmed as Highway Dragnet the following year with Corman being credited as co-producer.
However, he was so upset by the changes made to his story that he scraped together some cash and set himself up as a producer.
Corman began directing in 1955 with Swamp Women and over the next 15 years he made more than 50 films, gaining a reputation for the speed with which he could turn them out.
It became something of a joke in the film industry that Corman could negotiate a contract from a public phone, shoot the film in the phone box and pay for it with the coins in the change slot.
The 1960 release, The Little Shop of Horrors, which featured a brief appearance by a young Jack Nicholson, took just two days to shoot with Corman using the set of a previous film, Bucket of Blood.
A stage musical based on the film opened in 1982 and would itself spawn a second film version four years later.
Corman decided to widen his horizons with a series of films based on the works of Edgar Allan Poe and featuring Vincent Price as the lead in all but one of them.
The May issue of Impulse is now available for download. http://www.monsffa.ca/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/ImpulseMay-June2024OnlineVersionPDF.pdf
There is news regarding our upcoming field trip to the Biodome and lots of information about our guest speaker, Rich Larson.
Some members of the club invested infilters for their telescopes and cameras. And I think all of us have eclipse glasses. Needless to say, the weather is not co-operative, but if there’s a break in the clouds, get out and enjoy the show.
Space Weather News for May 6, 2024
https://spaceweather.com
https://www.spaceweatheralerts.com
ANOTHER DAY, ANOTHER X-FLARE: Solar activity has gone into overdrive. Since May 3rd, Earth-orbiting satellites have detected four X-class solar flares and an even greater number of almost X-class events. The responsible sunspot, AR3663, is still very active, and NOAA forecasters say more X-flares are possible this week. Full story @ Spaceweather.com.
X-FLARE CHAMPION OF SOLAR CYCLE 25: Active sunspot AR3663 produced two more X-flares today, a pair of X1’s on May 8th at 0145 UT and 0509 UT. This makes it the most active sunspot of Solar Cycle 25 so far. Since May 3rd, the active region has tallied six X-flares, more than any other sunspot in the past 7 years. It may continue to run up the score as it approaches the sun’s western limb later this week. Solar flare alerts: SMS Text
THE CHANCE OF FLARES JUST DOUBLED: There are now two dangerous sunspots facing Earth. In the past 48 hours, AR3664 has more than doubled in size, becoming one of the largest sunspots of the current solar cycle. It is inset in this magnetic map of the sun from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory:
Among the sunspot’s dark cores, magnetic poles of opposite polarity are bumping together in explosive proximity. As a result, AR3664 now poses a threat for X-flares like its more active cousin AR3663 in the northern hemisphere.
Do you have eclipse glasses left over from April 8th? Use them to look at the sun today. AR3663 is ten times wider than Earth and can be seen with no magnification. Solar photographers, submit your images here! Solar flare alerts: SMS Text
PETER S. BEAGLE • I’m Afraid You’ve Got Dragons • Simon & Schuster/Saga Press, May 2024 (ya, hc, eb)
The 1970s TV series Space: 1999 began – like many a sci-fi drama – with a bang. A nuclear explosion tears the Moon out of Earth’s orbit and sends Moonbase Alpha and its inhabitants on an exciting adventure through deep space.
It obviously left an impression on a young Elon Musk. In 2017, when envisioning SpaceX’s plans for a future Moon base, he named it Alpha. Today, SpaceX is working with Nasa to return humankind to the Moon’s surface as part of the US space agency’s Artemis programme. The planned lunar outpost, however, has a more pragmatic working title: Artemis Base Camp.
Nasa and the US Department of State have issued combined guidelines for peaceful lunar exploration in the form of the Artemis Accords. So far 36 nations – including India, Japan, the UK, Canada, Australia, the United Arab Emirates and South Korea – have signed up.
China is also spearheading a base on the Moon with an equally practical title. The International Lunar Research Station, announced in 2021, currently has Russia, Belarus, Pakistan, Azerbaijan, Venezuela, Egypt and South Africa as signatories.
But whichever coalition builds the first base on the Moon, they will all need a reliable power source. Across the world many companies and space agencies have all come to the same conclusion.
“The truth is that nuclear is the only option to power a moonbase,” says Simon Middleburgh from the Nuclear Futures Institute at Bangor University in Wales.
The N3F, FanActivity Gazette
FanAct202404
April 2024 issue of The National Fantasy Fan
TNFF202404
R-Laurraine Tutihasi sent this note:
You can see many photos from our recent eclipse trip, chosen by Mike, available at http://www.weasner.com/vacations/TSE_2024_trip/index.html
Latest update from Bill Burns:
Download the app: Developed by Quebec Federation of Amateur Astronomers (FAAQ), this app will give you information related to where you are standing. Also, it is good for years to come. While we won’t see another eclipse in Montreal in our lifetimes, they are fairly common and who knows? You might catch the bug and start chasing shadows. https://montreal.ctvnews.ca/quebec-app-helps-amateur-astronomers-watch-the-eclipse-1.6834789
There are two major hubs of activity for viewers in the Montreal area if you are ok with crowds.
Parc Jean-Dapeau : Plan to get there early, the Metro is expected to be crowded. Free eclipse glasses will be distributed to the first 150 000 arrivals.
Montreal Science Centre :The Science Centre in collaboration with Cirque du Soleil will distribute 20,000 free pairs of eclipse glasses.
Watch to music: The OSM has a playlist on Spotify. Click start right at 2:14 for best listening experience!
There is a small margin of error in the maps along the edges of the path of totality. Try to be closer to the centre, you wouldn’t want to miss this event by being a block too far away! If you are willing to travel, the best viewing, ie longest duration of totality, will be in the Eastern Townships.
Timing for the total solar eclipse in Montreal:
What to watch for:
Keep your glasses! The sun is approaching maximum, there are often sunspots you can see with your eclipse glasses. Just make sure to keep them in pristine condition and always check for scratches or pinholes.