We Will Remember Them
Meeting on the 26th of November
Exceptionally, our next meeting will be later than usual, and on a Sunday, November 26th.
There will be 3 presenters: Lil and Carly, Joe, and Danny.
Joe has sent us this outline:
Air Shows and Aviation Museums
by Joe Aspler, with contribution by L.E. Moir
Many SF fans are modelers and fans of old airplanes. This is a presentation on airshows and aviation museums. These include the RAF Museums (London and Cosford), the National Air and Space Museum (Washington), the USAF Museum (Dayton), the Imperial War Museum (Duxford), the RCAF Museum (Trenton), and the Canadian Aviation and Space Museum (Ottawa).
During my life as a business traveller, I spent the equivalent of more than three years on the road: airplanes, airports, hotels, meetings, taxis, rental cars….. That’s one reason why I missed so many monthly MonSFFA meetings, and several ConCepts as well. One benefit at least was that I could arrange side visits. Some destinations had air museums. Other destinations even had an air show.
This is a presentation on some of those places. Note that you’re seeing only a small selection of a vast number of aircraft. All are rare, and some are irreplaceable last examples.
Two zines to share!
HAVE A SPOOKY HALLOWEEN!
Stranger than science fiction: Inside China’s newest landmark
The Chendu SF museum was commissioned in 2022 to host this year’s 81st annual World Science Fiction Convention, nicknamed Worldcon. A building of this size and complexity would typically take four to five years to build, says Flores. But the 59,000 square-meter building — which is three times the size of the Sydney Opera House — went from concept to completion in just 12 months.
https://www.cnn.com/2023/10/30/style/chengdu-science-fiction-museum-hnk-spc-intl/index.html
Stranger than science fiction: Inside China’s newest landmark
CNN —
The seven-point metallic star floats on the glassy surface of the lake, reminiscent of a far-flung future civilization, or a spaceship touching down on an alien planet. It looks like something straight out of science fiction. Which it is, in a way: it’s the brand new Chengdu Science Fiction Museum in the capital of Sichuan province in Southwest China.
From one side, the dynamic roof mimics the sloping mountains in the distance; from another, the canopy takes on the appearance of a cloud, its cantilever arches suspended above seamless panes of glass.
“From every angle, it will always look different; it will always look unusual or unexpected,” said Paulo Flores, one of the project directors at Zaha Hadid Architects, which designed the museum.
Perhaps more unexpected than the design itself is the time it took to build.
The museum was commissioned in 2022 to host this year’s 81st annual World Science Fiction Convention, nicknamed Worldcon. A building of this size and complexity would typically take four to five years to build, says Flores. But the 59,000 square-meter building — which is three times the size of the Sydney Opera House — went from concept to completion in just 12 months.
Prometheus: First Look At Stargate’s Next Ship Model
Prometheus: First Look At Stargate’s Next Ship Model
(With thanks to Mark Hicky for bringing this to our attention.)
Check out the first look at the Prometheus model, coming soon from Master Replicas.
Your Stargate fleet is getting a brand new ship, courtesy of Master Replicas. This week the company is revealing the Prometheus model, with a first-look exclusively here at GateWorld. Check it out below.
As with previous ships in the line we expect the Prometheus model will be made of ABS plastic and die-cast metal. It will measure 8 inches (20.3 cm) long and 3.5 inches (8.9 cm) wide, and come with an included display stand. That’s just shy of the Daedalus model, at 8.8 inches.
The ship made its debut in the sixth season episode “Prometheus,” only later being formally christened with that name. The model bears the ship’s distinctive boxy look from the television series, as well as the experimental moniker “X-303” emblazed on the side.
Master Replicas advises us that the model will be available for sale in February (a delay from the previously announced November window). Pricing has not been announced yet, but previous Stargate ships have averaged somewhere around $60 U.S.
And yet another zine!
We received an actual printed zine! Our thanks to Joe Aspler who scanned it so we could post it on line.
We used to trade with Memphis, then they disappeared. This may be a resurrection? Memphen 283 fanzine
The Weird Aliens of Early Science Fiction
From the BBC, a look at some interesting early ideas on what aliens might look like.
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20231019-the-weird-aliens-of-early-science-fiction
Humanity’s ideas about aliens have been evolving for millennia – but in the era before television, they were considerably stranger.
In October 1961, Betty and Barney Hill sat down with an astronomy lecturer at their home in New Hampshire, and made an extraordinary claim. The previous month, they had been snatched by aliens! Their description of the little grey creatures became the archetypal alien of movies and TV. But before then, the aliens that came from our fevered imaginations were much weirder!
Lots more zines to share
Lots more zines have been arriving in the mail! In order of reception:
First, some updates to e-fanzines administered by Bill Burns
- Heath Row’s The Stf Amateur, October 2023 (apazine bundle)
- Garth Spencer’s The Obdurate Eye #32
- Opuntia #558, edited by Dale Speirs
- David Grigg’s The Megaloscope #9
- Taral Wayne’s Dark Toys #76
- Perry Middlemiss’s Perryscope #37
- Henry Grynnsten’s Wild Ideas #40
- Alexiad #130 edited by Lisa & Joseph Major
- Christopher J. Garcia’s Claims Department #55 through 59
- Octothorpe #94, a regular fannish podcast by John Coxon, Alison Scott and Liz Batty, is now on line
From Garth Spencer:
At last, from the fevered imagination that brought you mocha tea and the Mad Science Forum, we present OBDURATE EYE #32, the personalzine that should have appeared a week ago!
And also from Garth:
From the N3F:
Time’s Arrow_Jean-Paul L Garnier
And from Leybl in Israel, the war issue
Halloween MonSFFA Meeting: Post 7 of 7, 4:30PM – Close of Meeting and Clean-Up!
12) Thank You!
We thank for their contributions to this afternoon’s meeting Joe Aspler, Keith Braithwaite, and Cathy Palmer-Lister, as well as all of our contributing participants. And, we thank you who attended, both here online, and physically in the meeting hall; don’t forget to comment on today’s get-together.
13) Next Meeting
MonSFFA meets again on Sunday, November 26, 2023—note that for this instance only, we’re meeting on the Sunday, not our usual Saturday, as the Legion hall was unavailable on the 25th.
Please mark your calendars accordingly; we hope to see you all again on Sunday, November 26!
14) Sign-Off
Enjoy your Halloween and we’ll see you all next time!