Category: Weekly Meeting Minutes

Life Out if Order by Audrey Niffenegger–impressive but surprisingly dystopian. Recommended (after experiencing the original).

Dark Reading Matter by Jasper Fforde –the final Thursday Next book is a fun very meta story.

CL Polk The Feywild Job— D&D novel–quite impressive.

Godzilla Minus Zero (in theatres) Amazing. Like Minus One, it’s not always about the big monsters, but also about the human monsters. This sequel may be better than the first (Empire to it’s Star Wars). Full price. Note: Alamo Drafhouse’s The Big Show showings have a 30 min pre-show with related material.

• Valerie: The Kaiju edition of Journey Planet is out now

Rick reviewed post exposure treatment for rabies as maddening

 ‘Wicker‘, a movie that is a crazy R-rated raunchy historic rom-com with dry British wit about a woman having a wicker husband woven for her.  He enjoyed it & rates it as worth a bit more than matinee.  There were comments made about the humor in the movie & that the movie used a lot of practical fx

Dr Who 4 episode showing of, ‘An Unearthly Child‘ and thought it was an interesting concept & that everyone does an outstanding job that he enjoyed very much. Ken followed that he thought that both the lighting and directing were done exceptionally well for these episodes

‘Dark Matter‘, streaming, for season 2 on Apple Plus as very character driven. He thought it was a well-written show although he did not like that the season ended on a cliff-hanger and rates it as worth full price

‘Small Prophets‘ on Apple TV as humorous and delightful 6 episode mini-series that involves alchy & homunculi & he rates it as worth subscribing to Apple TV in order to see it

‘Teenaged Sex & Death at Camp Miasma‘ as a teen comedy slasher movie that doesn’t take itself too seriously & was overall enjoyable.

The final season of ‘Stranger Things‘ and he admits that the show is not his genre, but he can see what caused the interest in the show, but the script showed little wit and the acting was nothing spectacular, but it did barely engage his attention. There were some comments to the topic.

Rewatching ‘Agatha All Along‘ & the first season of ‘Murderbot‘ as both seasons of both shows are ‘bloody perfect’ and are both great for re-watching

‘May Day‘, an action-adventure film starring Ryan Reynolds, currently streaming on Apple TV as that it had some extremely good visual effects and camera work. He rates it as worth full price. Rick agreed.

 ‘Dark Matter‘, also streaming on Apple Plus as each story in this second season has been either written by or co-written by the author – that he has enjoyed everything he has watched and all are worth full price.

 ‘Dr Who, season 1‘, streaming on YouTube as an interesting 2-part episode that he found, after searching.

Roger Cheesbro’s version of Gilgamesh, ‘ghIlghameS’ in the original Klingon as a wonderful read.

‘Hunting the Dashia‘ by Rebecca Inch-Partridge as an action-packed book with a very well-thought-out universe full of different kinds of sentient beings

The Nethercutt Museum in Silmar, a car museum that has guided tours for $20 & he found it worth full price. He highly recommends it.

The town of San Miguel, halfway from San Francisco to LA off the 101 freeway, and took a short tour there. He rates the visit as worth matinee. Rios Caldonea was built in 1846 & he visited the museum there

1932 film, ‘The Old Dark House‘ which is Boris Karloff’s first on-screen credit, a very short film & not well known. There are elements from this film that may have inspired some of ‘Rocky Horror’ & he found it interesting. He rates it as full prince (but the 1963 version is worth watching on cable).

‘Saturday Night Live UK‘, on Peacock & he considers that the show has been having fun this season. He mentions that this last week James Austin Johnson appeared in the cold open as President Donald Trump, with some rough language.

Hope (in theatres, streaming soon) SF/Action/Horror. 2:37 R-Rated. South Korean, directed by Na Hong-jin. Set near the DMZ. Amazing set dressing, and the cause is teased for a long time. Very little character development, but it leads up to a crazy apocalyptic ending. Lots of amazing practical events. Has similarities to Nope. A bit of an abrupt ending. Worth full price.

The Legend of Korra (Paramount+) part of the Airbender universe. 4 seasons, 52 episodes. Follows the next water bender. More mature themes than the earlier shows. Steampunky. Ends a bit abruptly. Worth full price, though would have liked a better resolution.

the season closer of ‘Lanterns‘ was successful, tying up loose ends & rates it as being worth full price

‘Avatar Aang: the Last Airbender‘, animated with good visuals & a ‘mid’ plot, he rates it as worth matinee & was kind of forgettable. The non-memorable was agreed upon.

‘The House of Dragons, season 3‘, all 8 episodes & he considers it the best season yet. It was absolutely worth full price & the first 3 episodes in particular were total bangers & highly recommended.

The Netflix streaming show ‘Robots‘ is a rather silly romance movie that wasn’t that bad, worth matinee. The movie did inspire him to read some of Robert Sheckley’s sci-fi.

 ‘The Bride!‘, a semi-sequel to ‘Frankenstein’, where the creature gets a girl.  He thought it was very interesting.  Yochanan agreed that some of the plot was a bit confusing, but points out that the visuals were striking.  Other comments were that there is some blood & gratuitous violence – and that there were no blue people in it at all.

‘The Traitors‘, several versions of a TV reality show that has some resemblance to the video game ‘Among Us’. He finds the shows to be entertaining

An episode of an old 1962 show, ‘Out of this World‘ of which 1 episode remains, hosted by Boris Karloff, called ‘Little Lost Robot’, based on an Asimov short story as interesting

Ke Huy Quan was at the Santa Clara convention center. The Kepler’s Literary Foundation. With the premium ticket you got his book, Never Say Die (which was pre-autographed) along with a selfie. He talked about being a boat person, and the struggles coming to America. Really nice talk. Worth full price.

Avatar the Last Airbender the Animated Series (Netflix & others) Deeper than most cartoons. Truly bingeable story that does connect. The seasons follow the elements (water, earth, fire) Still has legs. Paramount+ has a feature film (to be reviewed later) and a new series on the way. Liked it a lot. Worth full price. American production, so technically not Anime.

Coyote vs. Acme (in theatres) 96 on RT! Wiley E. Coyote sues Acme. Animated & live action mix. Harmless fun. Usual Looney Tunes gang. Rescued by industry and fans. Plot is a bit forgettable. Coyote and Roadrunner were non-verbal.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds: Season four finale, Tomorrow’s Enterprise, went out on a high note. Could have worked as a series final episode. Uhura was a key figure in this. Time travel shenanigans, and a current and future crew. The non-corporial/non-linear being could be something that had been seen before.

• Yochanan: Liked it a lot. The wig designs and uniforms (scoop neck) were nice touches. Episode was a tad confusing, but fun. A very good episode. Worth full price.
• Ken: One of the best of the entire run. Please remember for Hugo nomination in the new year. Was not confused (nor Rick).

Lanterns (HBO) continues its first season. In the penultimate episode, it continues to be a twisty puzzle box. Absolutely delightful. Witty, with unexpected depth. Looking forward to the season finale.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds: Season fours penultimate episode, Once La’an a Time. Our heroes encounter medieval fantasy world with their doppelgangers from the first season story The Elysian Kingdom. Rather pat conclusion, but the entire plot was a cut-up that was amiable.

• Yochanan: Thought it was a cute episode. Many podcasts hated it because they loved the first one.
• Ken: I reviewed it last week…

Monster (Netflix) Normally he hates horror that doesn’t touch SF. Costume drama dresses it up. Series profiling murderers. The violence is sanitized. Pleasant scenes, interrupted by the horror. Captured his attention to keep watching. 3/3.5 of 5. Felt like horsdrves, not a meal. Sarah Paulson appears as Aileen Wuornos.

Using Interlinear Gloss (also called the [James] Hamiltonian Method) for language study is really interesting. Lingua Boost app really good for that as well. He’s also been toying with ChatGPT in this. Discovered that emojis also really help for learning.

Strange New Worlds: Once La’an a Time (Paramount+) Fairy tale like setting & multiple doppelgangers of various characters, with a twist. He enjoyed the episode, although ‘it was not ‘Citizen Kane’.

Strange New Worlds: Orders of Magnitude (Paramount+) It was a normal Star Trek episode. A Bad-miral episode, where the Captain is off ship, and the Admiral takes command – with Kirk saving the day! Interesting to get the Admiral’s background, and the Kirk family. Def Enjoy.

• Yochanan: Also enjoyed. Wasn’t a gimmick episode. Though a bit Crimson Tide. Joe Morton was the admiral (Eureka & Terminator) The B-plot has kick-ass Uhura! Kirk did Kirk shenanigans. Over all an enjoyable episode.
• Ken: Very good. Sets up balance of terror (including using the same neutral zone map).
• Rick: A little bit done before. Plot a little bit didn’t make sense. Can respect what they were trying to do. Not quite as successful as the soap opera on.

Caught up on Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. The last one was “interesting…” Gimmicks galore this year, getting weirder and weirder. At least they are interesting, and playing with the story telling.

• Yochanan: Kind of with Lisa. They pulled out a gimmick he didn’t see coming. The episodes aren’t bad, but one after another (if there’d bee a 26 episode season). Mount had a chance to really act at the end of the episode. Cute, well done, cookies at the end of the credits.
• Rick: The soap opera pastiche was a triumph. Acting, production techniques, and the guest stars were spot-on. Deliciously funny, right to the end. Ethan Peck doing his “different Vulcan” very uncanny.
• Mo: Stuart Fails to Save the Universe also has a lot of post credit Easter eggs (she also recommends the series). (Adrienne says there’s only one more episode of this season, and the episodes can be very short!)

Coyote vs. Acme (film) Laughed our heads off. Really good job of blending real with animated. Wylie does not talk, just holds up signs. The story is funny. Hate the sleazeball ACME lawyer. Lots of characters pop up. Used the history to make a really good story. Full Price!

• Mo: She liked the Coyote’s past talking explaining why he wants to eat the roadrunner.
• Adrienne: Saw an early preview. Found it amusing, but didn’t LOL. Lots of people were at her early Sunday preview. MO: Marvin is specifically tied to Space Jam, so understandable he’s not in ACME… Film was OK (didn’t hate it).
• Bruce: Has not seen yet – he is still rooting for the Klingon (see Ken’s review below).

The End of Oak Street (movie) Really liked it. If you like dinosaurs and monster movie, this will be your thing. It was fun. Enjoyed it thoroughly.

Went to WorldCon, stayed at the Hilton. Asked for an accessible room, but got a Audio-Visual Accessible room. Got changed rooms to an appropriate accessible room, and (about 2 a.m.) Mo spots a bedbug! Security came up promptly, and they got moved to (yet) another (accessible) room. During all this, she lost her iPhone and iPad chargers! Hilton gets high praise. Uber, on the other hand, is horrible regarding wheelchair accessibility.

• Mo: Moved from 14->10->4th floors. Met some nice new friends with all the horrendous experiences – but doesn’t recommend all the non-hotel stuff (that wasn’t minuted…)
• Lisa: Her roommate got in first, noisy AC, changed to another room (which was OK). Weird problems. Costs extra (about $50) for a Disney view.