The SHUTTLE June 2005 The Next NASFA Meeting Will Be 18 June 2005 at the Regular Time and Location The Next Con Stellation ConCom Meeting Will Be 7 July 2005 at Marie McCormackÕs House { Oyez, Oyez { NASFA Calendar The next NASFA meeting will be 18 June 2005 at the JUNE regular time and location. 01 BD: Glenn Valentine. The June program is TBD at press time. The June after- 02 Concom Meeting: Marie McCormackÕs house. the-meeting meeting will be at Mike KennedyÕs house; 7907 02 BD: Lloyd Penney. Charlotte Drive SW, Huntsville. 03Ð05 ConCarolinas Ñ Charlotte NC. Due to space (and time!) limitations, the ongoing adven- 10Ð12 Sci-Fi Summer Con 2005 Ñ Atlanta GA. tures of PieEyedDragon will not appear in this issue. It is 14 Flag Day. scheduled to resume next month. (continued on page 2) Inside this issueÉ Minutes of the May Meeting ..........................................2 Time Magazine Top 100 Movie List ..............................5 Review of The Star Wars Saga .......................................3 Awards Roundup ............................................................5 NASFA Receivables .......................................................4 Letters of Comment ........................................................8 Deadline for the July 2005 issue of The NASFA Shuttle is Friday, 1 July 2005. th Our 25 Year of1 Publication! 17Ð19 HyperiCon Ñ Nashville TN. Committee meeting (if scheduled) is at 5P. The business 18* NASFA Meeting Ñ 6P Business, 7P Program, at meeting is at 6P. The program is at 7P. Anyone is welcome to BookMark. Program: TBD. ATMM: Mike Ken- attend any of the meetings. There is usually an after-the- nedyÕs house. meeting meeting with directions available at the program. 19 FathersÕ Day. 21 First Day of Summer. JULY May Minutes 01 Canada Day. by Steve Sloan, Secretary 01Ð04 Gaylaxicon 2005 Ñ Boston MA. 02 BD: Deb Stone. The May meeting of the North Alabama Science Fiction 04 Independence Day. Association was called to order on Saturday, May 21, 2005 in 06 BD: Mary Axford. the BookMark upstairs meeting room at 6:11P by President 07 Concom Meeting: Marie McCormackÕs house. Mary Ortwerth, sans Crickets. 15 BD: Jay Johns. OLD BUSINESS 15Ð17 Trinoc*coN 2005 Ñ Durham NC. Mia will be throwing a Con Stellation room party at the 16* NASFA Meeting Ñ 6P Business, 7P Program, at Rocket City FurMeet, which will be held on the weekend of BookMark. Program: TBD. ATMM: TBD. May 27th. She asked for suggestions, because this will be the 22Ð24 ShowMeCon 3 Ñ St. Louis MO. first time sheÕs hosted a room party. She received many good 24 ParentsÕ Day. tips from the club, and especially from Mike Kennedy. In 29 BD: Mark Paulk. keeping with the Bunny-Con theme of this yearÕs 29Ð31 LibertyCon 18 Ñ Chattanooga TN. Con Stellation, there were also plenty of sillier suggestions, including MaryÕs Òrabbit pelletsÓ (aka chocolate malt balls). AUGUST Fortunately, Mike already has many useful things from past 04Ð08 Interaction (63rd Worldcon) Ñ Glasgow Scotland. room parties, so heÕs prepared. We heard many other important 04 Concom Meeting: Marie McCormackÕs house. tips for room parties: Open up on time, smile, greet every- 05Ð07 Crescent City Con XX Ñ Metairie (New Orleans) LA. bodyÉ And the most important tip of all: make sure that the 08 BD: Jim Woosley. guests can easily tell what con your room party is advertising. 11Ð15 Tolkien 2005 Conference Ñ Birmingham England. ItÕs time to start thinking about choosing a con chair or co- 12Ð14 ConGlomeration 2005 Ñ Louisville KY. chair for next year. No one at the meeting voiced any interest 14 BD: Edward Kenny. in the position, so weÕll have to take nominations. Doug says 19Ð21 Armadillocon 27 Ñ Austin TX. heÕs willing to give it a try if heÕs chosen, and heÕs strongly 20* NASFA Meeting Ñ 6P Business, 7P Program, at leaning toward a relaxicon. BookMark. Program: TBD. ATMM: TBD. Someone new entered the room, and the subject of demon 21 BD: Deborah Denton. bunnies came up, so the club explained the story behind them. There is no evil that cannot be ascribed to these bunnies Ñ even SEPTEMBER leisure suits! Anita pulled one out of the closet, so we all got a 01 Concom Meeting: Marie McCormackÕs house. disturbing glimpse of a naked bunny. 01Ð05 Cascadia Con (8th NASFiC) Ñ Seattle WA. CONVENTION BUSINESS 02Ð04 Mephit Furmeet 9 Ñ Memphis TN. Anita talked briefly about Con Stellation guests. She 02Ð05 Dragon*Con 2005 Ñ Atlanta GA. mentioned one famous name, but she thinks we should stick to 05 Labor Day. inviting guests we can actually get. Mary made an Artist GoH 09 BD: Mike Cothran. suggestion and Doug made a GoH/MC suggestion. 09Ð11 Outside Con 18 Ñ Dickson TN. Mary and Mike talked about doing a radio spot for 11 GrandparentsÕ Day. Con Stellation, but we wonÕt need to worry about that until 11 Patriot Day. after we have guests lined up. 11 BD: Ray Pietruszka. Steve showed off his new Burger King tie-in toys. They 12 BD: Pat Butler. werenÕt the fuzzy plush Chewbacca he was looking for, though. 13 Yom Kippur. ÒSex or chocolate?Ó ÒSex and chocolate.Ó We verged on 17 Citizenship Day. Too Much Information. 17* NASFA Meeting Ñ 6P Business, 7P Program, at Mike saw the new Star Wars movie, and there were no BookMark. Program: TBD. ATMM: TBD. surprises. Jar-Jar doesnÕt die, but at least he doesnÕt have any 22 First Day of Autumn. lines, either. [I think it was someone else who made these 23Ð25 Anime Weekend Atlanta Ñ Atlanta GA. observations but I donÕt recall who. -ED] 26 BD: Jenna Victoria Stone. We discussed whether Mary should change the pictures on 29Ð02 Archon 29 Ñ St. Louis MO. her gavel plate (currently the Ewoks and Barney), so she can smash new characters like Jar-Jar. OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO NEW BUSINESS The North Alabama Science Fiction Association meets on The new guy introduced himself. His name is Barry, and the third Saturday of each month. (Unless there is a large heÕs from the Philadelphia area. He moved down here to work nearby convention being held that weekend Ñ in which case at the Arsenal. He got pelted with some good-natured Pennsyl- we often move the meeting to the second or fourth weekend.) vania jokes. We all introduced ourselves, and welcomed him The regular meeting location is the upstairs meeting room at to the club. He says he has an embarrassing middle name, so BookMark on South Memorial Parkway. The Executive donÕt go there. I think we did a pretty good job of entertaining 2 him, because he said weÕre hilarious. He asked if we had any would be the correct term for Luke. He calls himself a Jedi questions. Obviously, the first question was, does he play because he has no idea what Jedi means. How could he? His spades? Steve asked him what part of the Arsenal he works in. total training time with Obi-Wan and Yoda canÕt be more than Barry works on simulations, which many of us can relate to. a few weeks, and during that time Obi-Wan and Yoda lie like After he mentioned that he majored in computer engineering, rugs. Most of what he knows about being a Jedi he makes up we started talking about literal-minded engineers, and the as he goes. In the expanded universe Luke does encounter other limited value of PhD degrees and statistics. force users and learns force manipulation from some of them, The meeting adjourned at 6:48P. Many of the members but these characters are not reliable sources about the Jedi code went on to the Huntsville Stars game at 7:05P, which served as and canÕt teach it. the program and After-The-Meeting Meeting. WhatÕs interesting is that this must be intentional. Obi- Wan and Yoda knew where Luke and Leia were, their big hope and plan at the end of Revenge of the Sith appears to be Òwait for the kids to grow up and then let them fight.Ó The Star Wars Saga This is an odd plan in the first place. Why would they Being Mostly a Belated Review of Star Wars: Episode VI expect Luke or Leia to be better than Yoda? And if they think Ñ Return of the Sith training should start earlier why let it wait? It is possible that by Doug Lampert Owen and Beru refused to allow Obi-Wan to train Luke but would Bail Organa have refused to let Leia be trained? Even if Star Wars: Episode III Ñ Revenge of the Sith; PG-13; we assume that Owen and Beru did keep Obi-Wan from Starring Ewan McGregor, Natalie Portman, Hayden Chris- training Luke, why did Obi-Wan give Luke to them in the first tensen, Ian McDiarmid, Samuel L. Jackson, Jimmy Smits, place? Why find families to raise either of the children if the Frank Oz, Anthony Daniels, Christopher Lee, et al.; Directed tradition is that Jedi raise the younglings themselves quite by George Lucas; Written by George Lucas; Produced by nearly from infancy? George Lucas and Rick McCallum; 140 minutes When Luke finally is trained there is no mention made of avoiding all emotions and passions, just ÒdarkÓ emotions and Mike asked for a review of Star Wars Episode III Ñ passions. When Luke wants to rescue his friends in The Empire Revenge of the Sith, so I will start with a short one. Episodes I Strikes Back Yoda doesnÕt try to tell him that his friends are and II set the bar for Star Wars movies awfully low and better off dead and that he should be glad when they die since Revenge is clearly better than that.