The March 2024 issue of the club’s news bulletin, Impulse, is now available for viewing or download (“Impulse” page).

Click here: ImpulseMarch2024(OnlineVersion)PDF

THE NEXT MonSFFA MEETING IS SCHEDULED FOR SATURDAY, MARCH 9, 1:00PM-5:00PM!

At: Le Nouvel Hotel, 1740 Boul. René-Lévesque (corner St-Mathieu), “Salle Maisonneuve” (South Tower)!

…and concurrently on ZOOM!

www.MonSFFA.ca

ATTENTION! IMPORTANT NOTICE:

MonSFFA is moving back downtown to a new meeting hall!

We’ll be meeting in “Salle Maisonneuve” of Le Nouvel Hotel! Le Nouvel is located on a major bus line, and is just a short walk from either Metro Guy/Concordia or Lucien-L’Allier.

Note that this new locale is only one block west of our pre-pandemic meeting place, the Hôtel Espresso (corner Guy and René-Lévesque)! We’re returning to our old, familiar neighbourhood, folks! And we hope to welcome home both current and former club members; see you all on the 9th!

Meeting Theme: Our March 2024 meeting precedes St. Patrick’s Day by about a week. The city’s Irish heritage has long been a part of Montreal’s cultural mosaic. MonSFFen are encouraged to wear something green to the meeting, perhaps a shamrock!

MARCH AGENDA INCLUDES:

CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE FAN KIND!—We share our experiences meeting SF/F celebrities! Come prepared with your stories of having met famous SF/F stars—writers, actors, artists, etc.—especially if said encounter was a tad unusual! And, show off any autographs and unique mementos you consequently obtained, or photos of your meeting!

SCIENCE FICTION BEFORE IT WAS CALLED SCIENCE FICTION—We look at works of proto-SF. Tales of travel to other worlds, of alien beings and robots, and of interplanetary war date back decades and centuries prior to the publication of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, often cited as the first true science fiction story. Well before the term “science fiction” was coined, works such as Johanne Kepler’s Somnium and Lucian of Samosata’s satire True History included elements of what, today, we define as SF! We’ll examine these and other works of science fiction before it was called science fiction.

NOW SHOWING—Join us for a fun and challenging game. We’ll show you a movie poster advertising a SF/F motion picture, but with the film’s title and stars masked off or blurred out; will you be able to provide the title of the film?

Subsequent Meetings: Saturday, April 13 and Saturday, May 11!

4) THANK YOU

We thank for their contributions to this afternoon’s programming Josée Bellemare, Danny Sichel, Cathy Palmer-Lister, and Keith Braithwaite, as well as all of our contributing participants. And, of course, we thank all of you who joined us on ZOOM; don’t forget to comment on today’s get-together.

5) NEXT MONTH’S CLUB MEETING

MonSFFA meets again on Saturday, March 10, from 1:00PM to 5:00PM. Details will be forthcoming; check in with us at www.MonSFFA.ca for updates, the next issue of our club news bulleting, Impulse, and for additional content.

See you next month!

6) SIGN-OFF

Enjoy the rest of your day, everyone; until next we gather, keep well and safe!

1) INTRODUCTION

Welcome to MonSFFA’s February 2024 meeting! This afternoon’s proceedings are soon to get underway. Our Lachine Legion meeting hall booking for this month remains unconfirmed at this time, unfortunately, so we will be getting together exclusively on ZOOM, today! See the instructions, below (at the end of this post), to join us online and participate.

Our programming agenda begins at 1:00PM; the meeting will conclude at 5:00PM. This opening post has gone up about an hour in advance of the meeting’s start time to allow folk to gather online at their leisure. A second, concluding post will go up at 5:00PM to officially thank today’s presenters/discussion moderators, and to publish the date of our next meeting, which we expect will return us to our hybrid model of live-and-in-person and virtual.

THEME: We’ve chosen to attach a Mardi Gras theme to this month’s meeting! Mardi Gras celebrations are now ongoing in New Orleans, and conclude on February 13. SF/F cosplayers can certainly appreciate, and perhaps derive inspiration from the colourful, exquisite costumes of Carnival!

2) THIS AFTERNOON’S AGENDA

Today’s programming agenda is as follows:

Please note that, 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. Please also note that all programming is subject to change!

1:00PM

COLOURFUL, CRAZY MARDI GRAS!—As our meeting theme this month is Mardi Gras, we’ll offer a quick primer on the celebrations, focusing on the colourful, exquisite costuming and decorative flair of New Orleans’ famous Carnival. SF/F cosplayers may well find inspiration here, for everything from a fantasy Masquerade gown to a new Batman villain!

1:30PM

WORST MONSTERS!—We’ll discuss and debate which are the genre’s worst monsters! From the giants of Kaiju to those slimy, slobbering horrors from outer space, from the creations of mad science to the supernatural demons of the underworld, which do you believe are the most frightening, the most feared, and those to be avoided at all costs? In other words, which are the worst monsters? But we’re asking, too, which are the most laughably ridiculous, B-movie examples brought to the screen by cheap, poor-quality special effects? In every sense of the word “worst,” which do you rate as the genre’s worst monsters?

2:30PM

SCI-FI’S LOVABLE ROGUES, AND WHY WE LOVE THEM!—We ask who are the Han Solos of the genre, and why are they so damned compelling, interesting, and appealing, often more so than the ostensible hero of the piece? Are we naturally drawn to the bad boy, or girl, and if so, why?

3:30PM

BREAK!—We’ll take a quick break for refreshments at this point, hold our raffle, then immediately following, dive into a brainstorming session on programming ideas for future meetings.

4:00PM

PROGRAMMING IDEAS!—We’ll be polling MonSFFA’s membership for programming ideas; we want to hear from you, the members of this club, as to the kinds of topics you’d like to see on future meeting agendas! Your suggestions are encouraged and welcome!

Club members have received via e-mail the pertinent information needed in order to join in the conversation on ZOOM. Those details are also posted right here!

3) JOIN THIS AFTERNOON’S VIDEO-CHAT ZOOM!

To join our ZOOM video-chat, which will run throughout the next few hours, simply click here and follow the prompts: This Afternoon’s MonSFFA e-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:

Meeting ID: 811 1208 8455
Passcode: 153624

Sci-fi fun begins at 1:00PM! Thanks for joining us today, and enjoy the meeting!

The club’s next meeting is scheduled for tomorrow, Saturday, February 10! We’ll be meeting exclusively on ZOOM from 1:00PM-5:00PM!

THEME: We’ve chosen to attach a Mardi Gras theme to this month’s meeting! Mardi Gras celebrations are now ongoing in New Orleans, and conclude on February 13. SF/F cosplayers can certainly appreciate, and perhaps derive inspiration from the colourful, exquisite costumes of Carnival!

ATTENTION! IMPORTANT NOTICE:

Please note that, regrettably, we were unable to secure confirmation of our requested booking of the Lachine Legion’s meeting hall sufficiently in advance of our selected meeting date this month.

Rather than cancel the meeting outright, we have opted to instead hold our get-together entirely on ZOOM! The meeting will proceed as intended, but only online, as a video-chat on ZOOM.

So then, we will not be gathering, this month, in our usual physical meeting hall in Lachine. We will be getting together on ZOOM!

OUR AGENDA INCLUDES:

COLOURFUL, CRAZY MARDI GRAS!—As our meeting theme this month is Mardi Gras, we’ll offer a quick primer on the celebrations, focusing on the colourful, exquisite costuming and decorative flair of New Orleans’ famous Carnival. SF/F cosplayers may well find inspiration here, for everything from a fantasy Masquerade gown to a new Batman villain!

WORST MONSTERS!—We’ll discuss and debate which are the genre’s worst monsters! From the giants of Kaiju to those slimy, slobbering horrors from outer space, from the creations of mad science to the supernatural demons of the underworld, which do you believe are the most frightening, the most feared, and those to be avoided at all costs? In other words, which are the worst monsters? But we’re asking, too, which are the most laughably ridiculous, B-movie examples brought to the screen by cheap, poor-quality special effects? In every sense of the word “worst,” which do you rate as the genre’s worst monsters?

SCI-FI’S LOVABLE ROGUES, AND WHY WE LOVE THEM!—We ask who are the Han Solos of the genre, and why are they so damned compelling, interesting, and appealing, often more so than the ostensible hero of the piece? Are we naturally drawn to the bad boy, or girl, and if so, why?

PROGRAMMING IDEAS!—We’ll be polling MonSFFA’s membership for programming ideas; we want to hear from you, the members of this club, as to the kinds of topics you’d like to see on future meeting agendas! Your suggestions are encouraged and welcome!

So join us on ZOOM tomorrow, February 10. The meeting starts at 1:00PM, but our ZOOM-chat will be open a little in advance for those who wish to log on early.

Club members have received via e-mail the pertinent information needed in order to join in the conversation. Those details will also be posted on our Website (www.MonSFFA.ca) at noon tomorrow, well in advance of our 1:00PM official start-time.

 We hope to see you all online tomorrow afternoon, February 10!

The club’s next meeting is scheduled for this Saturday, February 10, on ZOOM from 1:00PM-5:00PM!

THEME: We’ve chosen to attach a Mardi Gras theme to this month’s meeting! Mardi Gras celebrations are now ongoing in New Orleans, and conclude on February 13. SF/F cosplayers can certainly appreciate, and perhaps derive inspiration from the colourful, exquisite costumes of Carnival!

ATTENTION! IMPORTANT NOTICE:

Please note that, regrettably, we were unable to secure confirmation of our requested booking of the Lachine Legion’s meeting hall sufficiently in advance of our selected meeting date this month.

Rather than cancel the meeting outright, we have opted to instead hold our get-together entirely on ZOOM! The meeting will proceed as intended, but only online, as a video-chat on ZOOM.

So then, we will not be gathering, this month, in our usual physical meeting hall in Lachine. We will be getting together on ZOOM!

OUR AGENDA INCLUDES:

COLOURFUL, CRAZY MARDI GRAS!—As our meeting theme this month is Mardi Gras, we’ll offer a quick primer on the celebrations, focusing on the colourful, exquisite costuming and decorative flair of New Orleans’ famous Carnival. SF/F cosplayers may well find inspiration here, for everything from a fantasy Masquerade gown to a new Batman villain!

WORST MONSTERS!—We’ll discuss and debate which are the genre’s worst monsters! From the giants of Kaiju to those slimy, slobbering horrors from outer space, from the creations of mad science to the supernatural demons of the underworld, which do you believe are the most frightening, the most feared, and those to be avoided at all costs? In other words, which are the worst monsters? But we’re asking, too, which are the most laughably ridiculous, B-movie examples brought to the screen by cheap, poor-quality special effects? In every sense of the word “worst,” which do you rate as the genre’s worst monsters?

SCI-FI’S LOVABLE ROGUES, AND WHY WE LOVE THEM!—We ask who are the Han Solos of the genre, and why are they so damned compelling, interesting, and appealing, often more so than the ostensible hero of the piece? Are we naturally drawn to the bad boy, or girl, and if so, why?

PROGRAMMING IDEAS!—We’ll be polling MonSFFA’s membership for programming ideas; we want to hear from you, the members of this club, as to the kinds of topics you’d like to see on future meeting agendas! Your suggestions are encouraged and welcome!

So join us on ZOOM this Saturday, February 10. The meeting starts at 1:00PM, but our ZOOM-chat will be open a little in advance for those who wish to log on early.

Club members have received via e-mail the pertinent information needed in order to join in the conversation. Those details will also be posted on our Website (www.MonSFFA.ca) at noon on the 10th, well in advance of our 1:00PM official start-time.

 We hope to see you all online this Saturday, February 10!

The club’s next meeting is scheduled for this Saturday, February 10!

ATTENTION! IMPORTANT NOTICE:

Regrettably, we were unable to secure confirmation of our requested booking of the Lachine Legion’s meeting hall sufficiently in advance of our selected meeting date this month.

Rather than cancel the meeting outright, we have opted to instead hold our get-together entirely on ZOOM! The meeting will proceed as intended, but only online, as a video-chat on ZOOM.

So take note, we will not be gathering, this month, in our usual physical meeting hall in Lachine. We will be getting together on ZOOM!

THEME: We’ve chosen to attach a Mardi Gras theme to this month’s meeting! Mardi Gras celebrations are now ongoing in New Orleans, and conclude on February 13. SF/F cosplayers can certainly appreciate, and perhaps derive inspiration from the colourful, exquisite costumes of Carnival!

OUR AGENDA INCLUDES:

COLOURFUL, CRAZY MARDI GRAS!—As our meeting theme this month is Mardi Gras, we’ll offer a quick primer on the celebrations, focusing on the colourful, exquisite costuming and decorative flair of New Orleans’ famous Carnival. SF/F cosplayers may well find inspiration here, for everything from a fantasy Masquerade gown to a new Batman villain!

WORST MONSTERS!—We’ll discuss and debate which are the genre’s worst monsters! From the giants of Kaiju to those slimy, slobbering horrors from outer space, from the creations of mad science to the supernatural demons of the underworld, which do you believe are the most frightening, the most feared, and those to be avoided at all costs? In other words, which are the worst monsters? But we’re asking, too, which are the most laughably ridiculous, B-movie examples brought to the screen by cheap, poor-quality special effects? In every sense of the word “worst,” which do you rate as the genre’s worst monsters?

SCI-FI’S LOVABLE ROGUES, AND WHY WE LOVE THEM!—We ask who are the Han Solos of the genre, and why are they so damned compelling, interesting, and appealing, often more so than the ostensible hero of the piece? Are we naturally drawn to the bad boy, or girl, and if so, why?

PROGRAMMING IDEAS!—We’ll be polling MonSFFA’s membership for programming ideas; we want to hear from you, the members of this club, as to the kinds of topics you’d like to see on future meeting agendas! Your suggestions are encouraged and welcome!

So join us on ZOOM this Saturday, February 10. The meeting starts at 1:00PM, but our ZOOM-chat will be open a little in advance for those who wish to log on early.

Club members have received via e-mail the pertinent information needed in order to join in the conversation. Those details will also be posted on our Website (www.MonSFFA.ca) at noon on the 10th, well in advance of our 1:00PM official start-time.

 We hope to see you all online this Saturday, February 10!

The February 2024 issue of Impulse is now available!

To view or download this latest issue of Impulse, click here: February2024IMPULSE

Impulse is the monthly new bulletin of the Montreal Science Fiction and Fantasy Association (MonSFFA). The electronic version is available on this Website, and past issues are archived, here, as well (see Impulse page). Print copies are available at the club’s in-person meetings, and are distributed by postal mail upon request.

Regrettably, MonSFFA’s Website began experiencing numerous intermittent disruptions on the very day of our January 2024 meeting, Saturday, the 13th!

The site went down for much of that morning, preventing us from posting material related to our meeting, as is our custom. Only one post was put up before the site went down for a good stretch, effectively disrupting the online part of the meeting. Fortunately, we were still able to live-stream proceedings on ZOOM for our online participants.

Note that we have posted, below, some of the links and information on solar eclipses that our two guest speakers had on hand at the meeting, including this map of the Montreal area showing the path of the solar eclipse expected on April 8 of this year—scroll down for more related information.

As for the Website disruptions, we initially speculated that the problem might be connected to local power failures, or the far-reaching winter storm blanketing Ontario, Quebec, and the Eastern U.S. that day. But the disruptions have continued since, and the issue has not yet been resolved.

If you are reading this, obviously the site is up and running, but we caution that it may well go down again at any moment! If it does, try again in 20 minutes.

In the meantime, we have contacted the appropriate technical support services to report the problem so that a remedy may be found and implemented as soon as possible. We eagerly await word, and a return to normal functionality!

Astronomy specialists David Shuman and Paul Simard guested at our January meeting, presenting their documentary short, “Shadowchasers.” If you missed the meeting, find the film here:

https://vimeo.com/340109017

Here are links to other resources that our guests recommended. Astronomy sites will be updating as the April solar eclipse date draws near.

https://rascmontreal.org

https://www.rasc.ca

https://eclipse2024.org/eclipse-simulator/2024/1504?elevation=47

Safe, approved solar-eclipse viewing glasses may be purchased at these sites:

EclipseGlasses:

https://www.eclipseglasses.com/collections/eclipse-glasses-stock

Daystar:

https://www.daystarfilters.com/glasses/Glasses.shtml

Rainbow Symphony:

https://www.rainbowsymphony.com/collections/eclipse-glasses-safe-solar-viewers

Here, also, is a NASA link showing how to build a safe pinhole viewer:

https://science.nasa.gov/eclipses/future-eclipses/eclipse-2024/safety/

Eclipse glasses may also be found at astronomy stores in our region:

LA MAISON D’ASTRONOMIE (Montréal)

ASTRONOMY PLUS (Longueuil)

DAVID ASTRO (Boucherville)

1) INTRODUCTION

We’ll open 2024’s programming on the topic of the upcoming solar eclipse in April!

Welcome to both those present here in our meeting hall, and those participating from home via ZOOM!

If all has gone well, our ZOOM participants are now viewing a live-stream of MonSFFA’s January 2024 Meeting. As previously stated, it is our aim to live-stream all or most club meetings, thereby creating hybrid events in which participation may take place both in-person and virtually.

This afternoon’s proceedings are shortly to get underway. Those of you joining us online may follow along, and participate, by way of our ZOOM-chat.

This is our first meeting of the New Year and we’re kicking off with not one, but two special guest speakers, the RASC’s David Shuman and Paul Simard, who will provide their expertise on solar eclipses, and tell of their many adventures “chasing shadows.” As an added bonus, they’ll host a screening of their documentary short, “Shadowchasers”!

We will also hold our AGM and Executive-Committee Elections this afternoon. And, we’ll continue where we left off in November with Part II of our presentation on Air Shows and Aviation Museums, tapping into the aviation industry, which often inspired early SF and made aviation fans, too, of many sci-fi devotees!

Today’s programming agenda will begin at 1:00PM (next post); those online are invited to connect via ZOOM now…

2) JOIN THIS AFTERNOON’S VIDEO-CHAT ZOOM!

To join our ZOOM video-chat, which will run throughout the next few hours, simply click here and follow the prompts: This Afternoon’s MonSFFA e-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:

Meeting ID: 838 2459 4309
Passcode: 761217

3) TODAY’S AGENDA

1:00PM: Guest Speakers David Shuman and Paul Simard on the Upcoming Solar Eclipse, plus a Screening of their Documentary Short, “Shadowchasers” 

3:00PM: Break; AGM and Club Elections

3:30PM: Air Shows and Aviation Museums, Continued

4:45PM: Wrap-Up, Sign-Off, and Clean-Up

Please note that, 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. Please also note that all programming is subject to change!