Lincroft-Holmdel Science Fiction Club Club Notice - 5/15/87 -- Vol. 5, No. 44 MEETINGS UPCOMING: Unless otherwise stated, all meetings are on Wednesdays at noon. LZ meetings are in LZ 3A-206; MT meetings are in MT 4A-235. _D_A_T_E _T_O_P_I_C 05/27 MT: ? 06/03 LZ: ? 07/15 LZ: (unknown, but it will be in 1B-205) HO Chair: John Jetzt HO 1E-525 834-1563 LZ Chair: Rob Mitchell LZ 1B-306 576-6106 MT Chair: Mark Leeper MT 3E-433 957-5619 HO Librarian: Tim Schroeder HO 3M-420 949-5866 LZ Librarian: Lance Larsen LZ 3L-312 576-2068 MT Librarian: Bruce Szablak MT 4C-418 957-5868 Jill-of-all-trades: Evelyn Leeper MT 1F-329 957-2070 All material copyright by author unless otherwise noted. 1. I'm sorry. There isn't much time to write this week. The last several weeks have been very trying. My campaign to make people aware of the square dancing menace has taken up most dangerous properties. This ever-present menace of people getting involved in the dirty business that is square dancing has taken up much of my time. Since I reported to you that I was onto the square dancing' games I have made myself known to them. Since then when I come home from work, I find the grass matted down and Coke bottles left lying around as if hundreds of square dancers had been do-si-doing over my zinnias. Phone calls in the middle of the night suggest I allemande left into a lake. A well-known TV personality heard of my campaign and approached me because he thought the square-dancing menace was "un-Christian." Now he and his wife Tammy have been put in a position where they can no longer help. A Democratic candidate promised to make exposing the square dancers part of his platform; now he is out of the running. Who will be next? I don't know how long I can keep writi Mark Leeper MT 3E-433 957-5619 ...mtgzz!leeper HOLLYWOOD SHUFFLE A film review by Mark R. Leeper Copyright 1987 Mark R. Leeper Capsule review: TV situation comedy punctuated with hilarious skits. Robert Townsend produced, directed, and starred in this comedy about the lack of roles for black actors in Hollywood. The story could have been better but the humor of the skits was right on target. What should I tell you about _H_o_l_l_y_w_o_o_d _S_h_u_f_f_l_e? I saw it with an audience that loved it. Three people I was with were darn insulting to me because I did not love it too. Should I say positive things to tell you what was good about it or say negative things to tell you why it wasn't great? Some of both, I suspect. Bobby Taylor (played by Robert Townsend, who also produced and directed) is a talented black actor doing what a lot of talented black actors do. He's working at a fast-food restaurant and desperately trying to find an acting job. There are few actings jobs for blacks at all and they are all as street pimps, muggers, servants, or slaves. Not that Bobby wouldn't love to get one of these roles, but deep down he wants to play great dramatic roles, like starring in ripoffs of _R_a_m_b_o and _I_n_d_i_a_n_a _J_o_n_e_s. As Bobby goes through the frustrating life of an aspiring black actor, he imagines skits relevant to his situation. The film is structured perhaps not so much as a story but as a set of skits with a connecting story. The skits, while not always entirely original, are funny. They are very funny. One is as ad for the "Black Actors School" that is great. And another, a take-off of review programs, is magnificent. The problems with the film are all with the connecting story. I am not saying it is actively bad. It just is not particularly good. yes, it makes a serious point--that there are few good Hollywood roles for black actors--and further, it suggests that black actors should refuse to take the stereotyped roles that have traditionally been given to blacks. But the story is just not done on a very high level. There is too little time left after the skits to do a story of any more depth than an episode of _T_h_e _J_e_f_f_e_r_s_o_n_s. What's left is manipulative and sentimental. Talk about stereotypes: there is Bobby's sweet but cantankerous grandmother and his adorable little brother. Without the skits the story might be good enough to play on TV, on ABC, maybe. With the skits, the film is quite worth seeing. Rate it a +1 on the -4 to +4 scale.