Tag Archives: April

Meeting re-caps

Meeting recap, some news of interest to members

April 26 Meeting

Early birds arriving around 11 O’clock were entertained by a series of clips compiled by Sylvain st-Pierre: ATTACK OF THE SPONSORS FROM MARS. These often hilarious TV adverts were mostly new to us.

Giant antThe SF Cinema Matinée, hosted by Keith Braithwaite, featured BUGS. Five movie titles were on offer, the winner was THEM!. The audience was impressed especially by the strong  dialogue and reasonably sound science. It holds up well.

Paleo Art,Archaeopteryx again presented by Keith Braithwaite, Jurassic Art–Painting the Prehistoric Past, proved very interesting especially as he showed the evolution of our interpretation of the fossils.

News: Danny Sichel gave a brief presentation on The SCP Foundation and also advised us of a sale of used library books. The sale is Saturday, second of May, to Sunday 10th of May, from 13h to 19, at  l’Aréna Etienne-Desmarteau, 3430, rue de Bellechasse. Bring lots of bags–apparently the entire floor of the arena is packed with books discarded from several Montreal libraries. almost 11 thousand books and magazines in fact, and every day books are added to replace those sold. WEBSITE with map, pictures, poster.

 computer-condomSwimming with Cyber Sharks–-Tips on Protecting Your Computer From Attack:  Steven Janssen gave an interesting presentation on protecting our computers. The main lesson learned was to create strong Pa$$Words. Common phishing tactics and frauds were also discussed.

Supper was at La Cage, where we were bombarded by noise as the restaurant was packed to the rafters with hockey fans. Ah, well, at least we got seats, and service was reasonably quick in spite of the crowd.

Impulse

Download Impulse for April 2015

April 2015 Impulse, our free-to-all monthly newsletter, is now available for download.

ImpulseApril2015PDF

Upcoming meeting

April Showers Bring —?

umbrellaApril showers bring May flowers–unless you’re a SF/F fan of course! Then who knows what those showers may bring you? It might not be raining cats and dogs!

Bring your umbrella to the MonSFFA meeting on April 26th, there will be a prize for the most creative!

Upcoming meeting

SF Cinema Matinee to feature BUGS! GIANT BUGS!

Giant ant
Take me to your picnic!

A sub-genre of ’50s monster movies was the “Big Bug” film. And, of course, along with April showers comes the reemergence of insects as Spring takes hold of the environment. So with all of this in mind, Keith has chosen the following movies for us to choose from, all featuring giant insects of one kind or another:

Them! (1954)
The Black Scorpion (1957)
The Fly (1958, and set in the quiet, unassuming little town of Montreal, Quebec!)
The Deadly Mantis (1957)
Beginning of the End (1957)

And so we have giant, mutated ants and grasshoppers (locusts), prehistoric scorpions and a praying mantis, as well as a human-fly hybrid, the victim of his own mad science!

Upcoming meeting

April 26 Meeting

April 26

Dragon and Robot copy

ELEVEN O’ CLOCK  EARLY BIRD SPECIAL:  ATTACK OF THE SPONSORS FROM MARS

These are SF&F ads for generally mundane products, like cars or insurance policies, seen during TV shows (the “brought to you by…” type of things). Quite often, they were more interesting than the show proper…

NOON: SF Cinema Matinée, hosted by Keith Braithwaite.  Learn about the details of production, how the special effects were achieved in a pre-digital era, and the reasons the film is considered an exceptional example of the genre, or a masterpiece of sci-fi cinema!

TWOish: Paleo Art, presented by Keith Braithwaite: Jurassic Art–Painting the Prehistoric Past: A brief history and appreciation of the amazing art that illustrates, in scientific journals, books, museums, and exhibitions, the Age of Dinosaurs and other prehistoric eras, breathing life, again, into creatures long departed.

THREE-THIRTYish:  Break, Raffle, MonSFFA news, Table Topics

FOURish: Swimming with Cyber Sharks–-Tips on Protecting Your Computer From Attack.  In a world of everyday Web surfing, the potential for attack from cyber sharks remains an ever-present danger. Steven Janssen will  offer a few simple, easy ways of protecting your computer, and yourself, from cyber attack.

Steven works for the RCMP cyber crimes division, which he tells me bears little or no resemblance to CSI:Cyber, LOL

FIVEish: Supper at La Cage, or ???