@@@@@ @ @ @@@@@ @ @ @@@@@@@ @ @ @@@@@ @@@@@ @@@ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @@@@@ @@@@ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @@@@@ @ @ @ @ @@@@@ @@@@@ @@@ Mt. Holz Science Fiction Society Club Notice - 3/3/89 -- Vol. 7, No. 36 MEETINGS UPCOMING: Unless otherwise stated, all meetings are on Wednesdays at noon. LZ meetings are in LZ 2R-158. MT meetings are in the cafeteria. _D_A_T_E _T_O_P_I_C 03/08 MT: Space Colonies in Fact and Fiction (follow-up) 03/15 LZ: THE FINAL REFLECTION by John Ford (STAR TREK Novels) 04/05 LZ: The "Giants" Trilogy by James Hogan (Characterization in Hard SF) 04/12 MT: "Decorative Horror" and Clark Ashton Smith _D_A_T_E _E_X_T_E_R_N_A_L _M_E_E_T_I_N_G_S/_C_O_N_V_E_N_T_I_O_N_S/_E_T_C. 02/21 STAR TREK IN THE 20TH CENTURY CLUB: Drug Legalization (6:30PM, LZ 2D-305) 03/04 APRICON X. NYC. GoH: Robert Sheckley; Info: Barnard-Columbia SFS, -03/05 313 Ferris-Booth Hall, Columbia Univ., NYC 10027. (212) 663-2240. 03/11? Science Fiction Association of Bergen County: TBA (phone 201-933-2724 for details) (Saturday) 03/18? NJSFS New Jersey Science Fiction Society: Toni Taylor (artist) (phone 201-432-5965 for details) HO Chair: John Jetzt HO 1E-525 834-1563 hocpa!jetzt LZ Chair: Rob Mitchell LZ 1B-306 576-6106 mtuxo!jrrt MT Chair: Mark Leeper MT 3E-433 957-5619 mtgzz!leeper HO Librarian: Tim Schroeder HO 3M-420 949-5866 homxb!tps LZ Librarian: Lance Larsen LZ 3L-312 576-3346 lzfme!lfl MT Librarian: Evelyn Leeper MT 1F-329) 957-2070 mtgzy!ecl Factotum: Evelyn Leeper MT 1F-329 957-2070 mtgzy!ecl All material copyright by author unless otherwise noted. 1. From Dale Skran: Join us in continuing the previous discussion of space colonies in science fiction. The SSI presentation [videotape] left a great deal to be desired, and failed to mention many of the real classics while over-emphasizing hack writers such as Mack Reynolds. Read Jerry Pournelle's _T_h_e _E_n_d_l_e_s_s _F_r_o_n_t_i_e_r Volumes I & II as preparation. Also check out Joe Haldeman's _W_o_r_l_d_s and _W_o_r_l_d_s _A_p_a_r_t. [Both volumes of _T_h_e _E_n_d_l_e_s_s _F_r_o_n_t_i_e_r and _W_o_r_l_d_s are available from the LZ SF Club Library. -ecl] THE MT VOID Page 2 2. A while back I made some comments about health food stores being unappetizing places dedicated not to seducing the palate but to convincing the mind that this stuff is good for you so you should eat it no matter how it tastes. And I still think that health food stores are palaces of flim-flammery, dedicated to selling you things like "organic vitamins." Anyone who thinks that a molecule of vitamin C remembers whether it grew up in a rose hip or a Pyrex test tube has some darn funny ideas about chemistry. I remember how bad vitamins tasted when I was a small child and it seems to me that my ape ancestors, who must have been pretty healthy, never ate anything that tasted that bad to them. But of late I have been thinking that I ought to be concerned more about a healthy diet. Well, I always knew I would get to that point. I remember reading cereal boxes when I was young and seeing that a serving contained 25% of the daily requirement of niacin, iron, and that sort of thing. I remember telling myself that someday I was going to get really health-conscious and start having four bowls for breakfast. So anyway, over the past few years I have been cutting down on the amounts of the fun foods I eat. I eat less cholesterol-packed steaks. I like soups but let's face it, they contain enough sodium to qualify as liquid salt-licks. And chocolate is right out, what with the headaches and acne it causes, the tooth decay it causes, and all the calories it has. Pasta was what made The Great Caruso great, and not in a good sense. Well, of late I see ads telling me that these foods are not the culprits I always thought they were. No more unbiased source than the cattle-growers are telling me that beef is not just good for me, it is real food. Jeez! I've been trying to survive eating fake food, I guess. Uh, care for another wax apple? Chocolate no longer causes acne and is now thought to inhibit tooth decay. And as we know, "Soup is good food" and no diet is healthy without pasta. So the time has come for me to become a health nut. I am going to eat all the foods I like but be very careful to read only the right ads. My health deserves it. 3. Recent SF Library acquisitions include: Asimov, Isaac ROBOTS AND EMPIRE (MT) Carter, Carmen DREAMS OF THE RAVEN (LZ) Delany, Samuel R. BABEL-17 (MT) Drake, David HAMMER'S SLAMMERS (MT) Heinlein, Robert A. FRIDAY (MT) Powers, Tim ON STRANGER TIDES (LZ) Smith, Clark Ashton POSEIDONIS (MT) Sterling, Bruce MIRRORSHADES (LZ) Van Vogt SLAN (MT) Wylie, Philip GLADIATOR (MT) THE MT VOID Page 3 4. Note in the heading that the LZ Librarian's phone number has been corrected, the HO Chair's e-mail address has changed, and I seem to have inherited the MT Librarian's job. [-ecl] Mark Leeper MT 3E-433 957-5619 ...mtgzz!leeper I have yet to see any problem, however complicated, which, when you looked at it the right way, did not become still more complicated. --Poul Anderson THE MIGHTY QUINN A film review by Mark R. Leeper Copyright 1989 Mark R. Leeper Capsule review: Likable, boyish police chief on a Caribbean resort island solves a murder involving a childhood friend. Just an okay mystery story, this film has "TV pilot" written all over it. Rating: low +1. As they say in the song, "You've not seen nothing like _T_h_e _M_i_g_h_t_y _Q_u_i_n_n. Resolving the double negative, it means you have seen something like _T_h_e _M_i_g_h_t_y _Q_u_i_n_n and indeed you have. Ever since _H_a_w_a_i_i _F_i_v_e-_O, it has been common knowledge that television producers have wanted to set police films in pleasant climates. We've had _C_a_r_i_b_e and _M_i_a_m_i _V_i_c_e actually make it to production. Though nobody has said it anywhere, my natural cynical suspicion is to believe that Jamaica is some producer's dream and _T_h_e _M_i_g_h_t_y _Q_u_i_n_n is the pilot for a television series. The film has the unmistakable (or maybe only semi-mistakable) feel of a television pilot. Our hero is a young, idealistic Chief of Police, Xavier Quinn (played by Denzel Washington). Born on a large Caribbean island, Quinn went to the United States to get his training from the FBI. He returned to the island to keep the peace driving an open jeep and wearing a conveniently photogenic uniform with short pants and short sleeves. His boyish charms are irresistible to women regardless of social status. Quinn has his problems dealing with the island governor, an ex-chicken inspector, whose chief concern is to keep a lid on things for the resort business. The governor is played by Norman Beaton, who looks a bit like the late Adolph Caesar but, without insulting Beaton, lacks Caesar's magnetic screen presence. In this case Maubee, Quinn's boyhood friend, is suspected of being involved in the murder of a resort owner who has been found with his head cut off. Maubee is even more boyish and winning than is Quinn and he seems to be magical to boot. Maubee is very disappointingly played by Robert Townsend (of _H_o_l_l_y_w_o_o_d _S_h_u_f_f_l_e). Townsend has a bad habit of grinning at the camera that director Carl Schenkel should have curbed but did not. This is one of those films when you are never more than ten minutes from a break in the action for the next song (in this case, reggae). Lest you think that this is an actively bad film, the basic story is okay as a mystery--not great, but not all that bad either, though the villain is perhaps a bit predictable. M.~Emmet Walsh and Esther Rolle are present and are always assets. (Though having just seen Rolle in PBS's superior production of _A _R_a_i_s_i_n _i_n _t_h_e _S_u_n, I find her performance here and this whole film tepid by comparison. You want a recommendation? See _A _R_a_i_s_i_n _i_n _t_h_e _S_u_n.) Other assets of _T_h_e _M_i_g_h_t_y _Q_u_i_n_n include some likable interaction between Quinn and his young son, and the fact that the movie does not become a real action film, at least not until the last few minutes and then only half-heartedly. There are at least a couple of in-jokes, one a reference to _G_u_e_s_s _W_h_o'_s _C_o_m_i_n_g _t_o _D_i_n_n_e_r? and another a visual reference to _D_r. _N_o. I'd rate _T_h_e _M_i_g_h_t_y _Q_u_i_n_n an ambivalent low +1 on the -4 to +4 scale.