This is Post 1 of 6, first of six related posts which together make up our June 12, 2021, DIY, Virtual MonSFFA e-Meeting!

1) ZOOM CHAT OPENS RIGHT NOW!

We officially open today’s Zoom chat now, at 1:00PM, the same moment we’ve put up this first post of the afternoon. Our Zoom will run in parallel to the Web site-based content that will be presented throughout this e-meeting and will afford folk opportunity to catch-up, talk about The Nevers, Jupiter’s Legacy, Army of the Dead, Loki and other recent genre offerings, discuss today’s presentations and ask questions directly of our presenters, and of course, this being Montreal during the playoffs, cheer the Habs on as they pursue a remarkable 25th Stanley Cup! Go, Habs, Go!

To join our Zoom session today, click here and follow the prompts: This Afternoon’s MonSFFA Zoom

If you’re not fully equipped to Zoom by computer, you can also join in by phone (voice only); in the Montreal area, the toll-free number to call is: 1-438-809-7799. If you’re from out of town, find your Zoom call-in number here: International Call-In Numbers

Also, have this information on hand as you may be asked to enter it:

Meeting ID: 880 4618 9993
Passcode: 282522

2) HOPE RECEIVES A SHOT IN THE ARM!

As millions more doses arrive weekly, Canada’s national rollout of vaccines continues apace, and while provinces like Ontario and Manitoba have been facing a sudden stretch of exceedingly high infection rates, the COVID-19 numbers are generally coming down across the country, precipitously so here in Québec! Montreal and Laval having been moved into the less-critical orange category just a few days ago, there are currently no high-alert red zones anywhere in the province—none, nada, zip! In fact, numerous of Québec’s regions have recently been reclassified safer yellow, and even green zones, something we have not seen since late last summer! We also learned this week that in just two days, on Monday, June 14, authorities fully expects to downshift all regions of the province again, into either yellow or green zones! Also, Québec’s unpopular, interminable but apparently effective nightly curfew was finally lifted province-wide at the end of May, much to the joy of a weary populace. Some Public Health-imposed restrictions, too, have cautiously been relaxed as we gingerly edge toward a return to normal.

Most Québecers have, by now, received their initial jab, with first-shot percentages in some age cohorts ranging into the high 80s and 90s! A number of workplace vaccine operations and pop-up clinics have been set up in an effort to jab as soon as possible those who have yet to receive their first shot.

And, officials recently authorized that the second shot be offered sooner than originally scheduled and hopes to have inoculated the majority of citizens by the end of August! Meanwhile, youngsters and teens have been cleared to receive the vaccine and that process is underway with all urgency, the aim being to have school-aged children fully vaxxed by the time classes resume this fall.

At the moment, officials report that Quebec’s population as a whole averages out to between 75 and 80 percent having received their first shot, a significant marker achieved some three weeks ahead of schedule, which has allowed the government to get started in earnest on administering those important second shots to all. In just a week, second-shot numbers have climbed from 5 or 6 percent of the population having received the shot to about 10 percent!

There have been set-backs and missteps. Delays in vaccine shipments earlier in the rollout caused some concern but now seem to be largely behind us. Provinces like Ontario and Alberta had too soon rescinded safety measures and ended lockdowns in order to quickly reopen, leading to the explosive spread of new and considerably more transmissible variants of the virus, a situation which, fortunately, is now slowly abating. Several instances of extremely rare and sometimes fatal blood clots resulted from our use of the Astra-Zeneca shot, fueling the off-the-beam arguments of anti-vaxxers, and poor and contradictory messaging from authorities, not surprisingly, engendered general public mistrust and an avoidance of that vaccine.

But a reasonable evaluation cannot but conclude that Québec’s vaccination program so far has been especially well managed and successful. The key to our ultimate victory over the virus will be to resist the immediate and understandable urge to deconfine, unmask, and gather together again in small groups or large as the warm, sunny weather arrives. We can start to slowly, carefully, one step at a time do just that, but we must always remain mindful of the possibility that moving too quickly and carelessly could open the door to new variants which might be more resistant to the vaccines.

So follow the government’s rules religiously, lest we risk extending our collective misery longer than is necessary!

Globally, wealthier countries like ours will have to help poor countries get the virus fast under control in those jurisdictions so as to prevent humanity from suffering any further from COVID-19. If we vanquish the virus here at home but the contagion continues in India, for example, Canada, the U.S., Europe, and other nations would remain under potential threat. We’ve all experienced first-hand the terrible world-wide consequences a rampant, deadly virus precipitates, and none of us wants to live through another period like the last year-and-a-half!

Finally, of course, we’ve learned some valuable lessons these past many months. In retrospect, we probably should have closed our borders more quickly and completely, and shutdown more thoroughly at the outset. Canada will certainly have to regain the domestic vaccine-production capacity it once had, and rethink its approach to medical research and development. We should also strive to produce in-country our own supply of PPE in future. Canada, and indeed, the whole world should be better prepared for the next pandemic, unfortunately an inevitable eventuality!

3) HAPPY FATHER’S DAY!

Next weekend, on Sunday, June 20, we celebrate Father’s Day! Those of you fortunate enough to still have your dad, give thanks. We are all coming off a particularly grim year during which many of us found ourselves separated from family by safety protocol-driven necessity, so as the pandemic begins to wane, give your dear ol’ dad a big, hearty hug, if that’s at all safe and possible! Otherwise, call to chat and wish him a Happy Father’s Day—he’ll surely appreciate hearing from you. Luke Skywalker exempted.

4) MEMBERSHIP RENEWALS

We remind club members that MonSFFA has resumed the collection of annual membership fees. Note that every active club member has benefitted from a full year of fees-free membership.

For most MonSFFen, our 2020 renewal dates became 2021 renewal dates. So if your annual membership fees were due in June 2020, that’s been bumped up a year to June 2021. If your fees were due last July, they are now due this upcoming July; August 2020 shifts to August 2021, and so on.

But what about those few MonSFFen who had, in fact, paid their fees last year, most prior to pandemic lockdowns going into effect and our suspension of in-person meetings? These folk, having paid last year’s dues, will not miss out on the fees-free year enjoyed by their fellow club members! Those who fall into this category will see their annual fees next become due beginning in 2022.

Of course, we welcome back any former members who may have let lapse their memberships, and we invite to join our ranks any prospective members who may have discovered the club via our virtual meetings.

Note that there is no change to our fee structure. A standard one-year membership is still only $25; the premium Platinum Level membership, $35; a family membership (up to four people, single postal mailing address), $40; and the Platinum Family Level, $50. Make your cheques or money orders out to “MonSFFA” and mail to our new postal mailing address:

 

MonSFFA, c/o

125 Leonard

Châteauguay, Québec, Canada

J6K 1N9

 

To those MonSFFen who have recently renewed their memberships, we thank you for your prompt attention and patronage of this club.
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5) TODAY’S MEETING: INTRODUCTION

As we gather online for this month’s virtual club meeting, we take a moment to encourage all MonSFFen to book their second vaccine shot as soon as the option becomes available to them, and to please continue to take all necessary precautions in order to keep themselves and others as protected from the virus as can be. Even as some are eased, it is important that we not let up quite yet on those recommended safety protocols that remain in place. Summer has begun, the city, province, and country are slowly reopening, and the last thing we want to see is case numbers starting to spike upwards again!

This is our 15th virtual MonSFFA meeting. The afternoon’s get-together will unfold right here on the club’s Web site over the course of the next few hours, beginning with this first post, and followed by subsequent posts at 1:30PM, 2:30PM, 3:00PM, and 4:00PM, with a concluding post at 4:45PM. All content will also be available concurrently on MonSFFA’s Facebook page (www.facebook.com/MonSFFA), however, note that the interface best suited for taking in this meeting is this very Web site.

Today we’ll be celebrating the art and career of “visual futurist” Syd Mead and quaffing Romulan ale or Klingon bloodwine in the bars, lounges, taverns, and saloons of SF/F, served by likes of Star Trek’s Guinan and Spider Robinson’s Mike Callahan. We’ll also talk further on sci-fi scale-modelling projects, and during our Show-and-Tell, demonstrate genre-themed pyrography! All that, and more over the next few hours!

As we cannot yet safely assemble in person indoors, this June virtual meeting has been prepared especially for you, MonSFFA’s membership. Sit back, check out each of the afternoon’s posts, scroll down leisurely through the proffered content, and enjoy! And join our Zoom this afternoon, as well (see first item for details)!

Don’t forget to comment on what we’ve presented. Let us know what you think of specific topics or the meeting overall. Your input helps us to tailor these virtual meetings for maximum interest and enjoyment.

6) MEETING AGENDA

In This Afternoon’s Virtual Meeting:

1:00PM, Post 1 of 6 (Introduction, Zoom Opens)

1) Zoom Chat Opens

2) Hope Receives a Shot in the Arm!

3) Happy Father’s Day

4) Membership Renewals

5) Today’s Meeting: Introduction

6) Meeting Agenda

7) Trivia Challenge!

1:30PM, Post 2 of 6 (Science Fiction Art)

8) Presentation: Syd Mead—Visual Futurist

2:30PM, Post 3 of 6 (Break)

9) Mid-Meeting Break (Display Table, Raffle, Zoom Continues)

3:00PM, Post 4 of 6 (The Saloons of SF/F!)

10) Presentation: A Science Fiction Writer Walks into a Bar… 

4:00PM, Post 5 of 6 (“Fancraft!”)

11) Zoom Chat: Show-and-Tell

4:45PM, Post 6 of 6 (Wrap-Up)

12) Trivia Challenge: Our List of 25 “Winter” SF/F Movies!

13) Thank-You!

14) A Closing Song by the Holderness Family

8) TRIVIA CHALLENGE!

We are well into the Stanley Cup playoffs and the Montreal Canadiens—Nos Glorieux, le Bleu-Blanc-Rouge, les Habitants, or the Habs—are in serious contention, which the storied team has not managed for many years! The last time Lord Stanley’s Cup was hoisted in Montreal was in 1993, the trophy’s centennial year. The Canadiens have won the cup a record 24 times and are in the hunt this year for a 25th championship.

Go, Habs, go!

The team endured a lengthy period of mediocrity beginning in the late 1990s, during which time les boys failed to advance much past the first round, if they made the playoffs at all!

As the pandemic nears an end, a Stanley Cup victory would make for a welcome signal of our return to normal! After all, it was once quite normal for this city to boast of hockey supremacy. We were all thrilled a couple weeks ago by the Habs’ come-from-behind, game-seven series triumph over the heavily favoured Toronto Maple Leafs, our long-time rivals. We followed in short order with a sweep of the Winnipeg Jets! And now it’s on to Las Vegas to face the Golden Knights in the conference championship, with a ticket to the Stanley Cup final as the prize! Finally, after so many years of frustration for Montreal hockey fans, does ultimate victory await?

Go, Habs, go!

All of that to set up a trivia challenge in honour of this city’s famous ice hockey team and the drive for 25! Thus are we tasking sci-fi fans to name 25 science fiction and fantasy movies set, at least in part, on an ice planet or during winter! We’re talking feature films, here, or TV movies, not episodes of an SF/F television series. So Star Trek’s “All Our Yesterdays” or The X-Files’ “Ice” would not qualify. Miniseries do not cut the mustard, either, so John Snow’s exploits beyond the Wall don’t count! Animated cartoon movies, like Disney’s Frozen flicks or the multi-film Ice Age franchise, are also out.

Now, when we say “in part,” we mean that at a minimum, one scene of some substance in the film must be set in icy, snowbound conditions. So a brief shot of snow-capped mountain peaks in the background during a sequence of dialogue or action is not enough. And because, of course, most Christmas-themed movies are set in winter, and the whole Santa Claus thing is, technically, fantasy, and there are a lot of these films, we will allow you to include in your list only one Christmas/seasonal movie.

While many sci-fi films are set in futuristic cities, on barren, rocky planets, or lush, tropical-jungle worlds, there are nevertheless more than 25 “winter” movies in the genre film catalogue, obviously! We’ll post our list of 25 in today’s closing Post 6 of 6 at 4:45PM for you to compare to your own. But as long as you’ve written down 25 SF/F movies that meet the criteria outlined above, you’re good!

Have at it, and go, Habs, go!