THE ICS FILES
ELECTIONS!
The upcomming January meeting marks our election. It's time to select a Board of Directors! Consider this your election call. Below is a copy of the section of our club constitution that deals with elections. Please read this carefully.
Anyone who wishes to be considered for a position on the Board can declare their intenetions at the next meeting. If you can not attend attend the next meeting then please contact a current Board member. Your name will be placed in consideration.
If you are not able to be present but would like to cast an absentee ballot then simply e-mail or snail mail your five selections. Any ballot of more than five or less than five will be invalid. If your any of your chosen candidates decides not to run those names will be discounted from your ballot but the rest of the names will still be valid.
We are a democratic club. To maintain our democracy the members of our
club have to vote. Please take advantage of your right to play a part in
deciding the destiny of your club.
PROCESS OF ELECTIONS
ELECTIONS WILL BE HELD AT THE FIRST MEETING OF EACH CALENDAR YEAR: Election calls are to be sent out at the end of each calendar year, notifying members of the pending election and providing ballots. Voting may be done either in-person or via absentee ballot. ELIGIBILITY: Every member-in-good-standing
will be eligible to vote and to hold office.
ELECTIVE POSITIONS
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THE SWEETNESS OF DECEMBER
Our December meeting was small but excellent. Many
of us had personal obligations that kept us busy and unable to attend the
meeting. Those of us there found it a rewarding experience. Our Yankee
gift swap was the gentlest and most mannerly such event that I've been
involved with. Usually participants have all the etiquette of pack dogs
fighting over a cut of meat! To give you an idea of how gentile this one
was, I drew number "1." That's usually the worst number. You get your gift
stolen several times. I got something that I actually wanted (a VHS copy
of Dark City) and KEPT IT! Everyone walked away happy! Thanks to the intrepid
John Ward for pinch-hitting as the movie man that night (we settled on
a screening of Tremors). And condolences to Gary Roberson, who was supposed
to bring the movies but took an unfortunate 80 mile detour when he got
lost coming from an unfamiliar location. The evening had a few more surprises--further
details are below.
THE CLUB SCALES AN OLD OBSTACLE
We were happy to announce in our last meeting that
the club now has a checking account! We're banking at Chesapeake Bank.
We don't have to pay any service charge if our balance remains over $250
each month (otherwise we'll be charged $5.00). There's no per check charge.
And our money draws interest! This comes just in time for payment of our
annual dues!
DUES NEWS
Starting in January everyone owes dues again. It's
$20 per individual and $30 per couple. Just as last year, everyone has
a three month grace period to pay up. We will gladly accept checks.
THE CLUB FACES NEW OBSTACLES
The question is often asked, "When are we going
to get a bigger screen TV?" Many of us strain to see the 19" picture on
the TV at the meetings. The problem that we've had is that the church will
not allow us to store a television at the hall, and we can't ask Tom to
tow his giant screen monster in from Pennsylvania. We may have a solution.
We've looked into video projectors before and found
them prohibitively expensive. Most of them range from $5,000 to $8,000.
Some go as high as $14,000. When I took a closer look, I discovered that
these are not the projectors that we'd need. These high end projectors
are made to be used in fully lit rooms and to support high end computer
graphics. They're often used by salesmen giving power presentations or
by people giving seminars. For a video projector that would be hooked to
a VCR and used in a darkened room, we're looking at just under $2,000.
This would give us the ability to see a large projected
picture. There is a movie screen in the room that we'd project onto. It
could be hooked up to a VCR, DVD or laser disc player. It weighs about
10 pounds. At the moment, if Joe Plempel can't make it to a meeting most
of us couldn't get the TV and cart in their cars. The projector could easily
be brought by anyone if Joe wasn't available.
There may be some time factors to face here. These
are considered the lower end of projectors. The big money is with the fancy
LCD projectors. Several companies are phasing these out. While we don't
have to rush, we may not have all the time in the world either.
So where does the money come from? We're starting
a special fund to raise money for the projector. Some people may contribute
to it directly. Others talked of having another auction. Others still spoke
of placing things for sale on e-Bay and donating the proceeds to the fund.
If we can get a healthy down payment we may be able to charge the projector
and simply pay down the balance monthly. The club agreed that we'd re-visit
this issue at our April meeting, when we see how our special fund is doing.
Starting in the next issue I'll give you monthly updates on the status
of the fund.
You can earmark contributions directly to the projector
fund. In the event that we decide not to use the money for that the fund
will roll over into the general funds.
CALENDARS WERE A HIT!
We had the grand unveiling of our 2000 calendars
at our last meeting. Everyone there seemed pleased as punch with them.
They cost the club $12.99 each. We'd agreed that if anyone wished to pay
over that amount to help the club they'd be welcomed to do so. The following
people have ordered calendars and have them being held for them:
Mark Piasecki
Linda Conrad (2)
Kevin Flynn
Charlie Wittig
Cindy & Brian Smith
Jeff Barker
Bill Littman
Lorne Marshall
If you ordered a calendar and would like it sooner than the next meeting
please let me know. I'll either try to run it by to you (if I can) or mail
it out. You can pay for your calendar when you pick it up or mail in a
check now. Based on everyone else's response, you should like it.
NEWS OF OUR NEXT MEETING
Our January meeting will be held on Saturday February
26th at 6:00 P.M. at the church hall behind the Perry Hall Presbyterian
Church located at 8848 BelAir Road. Take Baltimore Beltway exit 32 north
on Belair Road. Turn left onto Joppa Road. Immediately past the miniature
golf course turn left into the parking lot. If you miss it there are ample
turn-around opportunities. If you get stuck call 410-598-8005. That's Dave
Henderson's cell phone. He'll talk you in.
COME TO THE RESCUE OF BRIAN AND
CINDY!
Brian Smith and Cindy Collins have a problem with
their cable company. They have dropped Fox from their schedule. Being the
dedicated fans of "The X-Files" that they are, they'll either have to sell
their house and move to another cable system or get someone in the club
to start taping episodes for them. If you can help contact them at ccollinssmith@mgfairfax.rr.com
or call them at 703-536-4588. New episodes of the show start airing on
January 9th.
PLEDGE DRIVE ON MARYLAND PUBLIC
TELEVISION
Between March 4th and the 26th Maryland Public Television
will be having their Spring on-air pledge drive. The times available are
Monday to Wednesday, 8:00 P.M. to 11:00 P.M. and Saturdays and Sundays
3-7 P.M. and 6:30-11:30 P.M. If we volunteer we'll get on-air plugs throughout
the time that we're there. We need a minimum of 20 people. They have 24
phones available. I've already been contacted by them for March. I'll need
to respond soon. You don't need to be a member of the club to staff the
phones. Our friends and family members can come. I'll need your prompt
response on this. E-mail me at davidandmargie@erols.com.
Or call me at 410-788-4086.
THE GLASS TEAT
"Batman" returns? Reports are that Warner Bros. is doing a new live
action "Batman." The show would be called "Bruce Wayne." It would feature
an 18-year old Bruce Wayne on his way to becoming Batman. . . . Out of
the past. New Line television and Richard Donner are developing a new super
hero show called, "Matthew Blackheart: Monster Smasher." It features a
World War II hero frozen in his era and revived in the 21st century to
fight the evil Mortas and his army of morphing lackeys. . . . "Futurama"
moves. If you like "Futurama" this ain't a good sign. It was mentioned
in the last issue that Fox is suspending the show during most of January.
It's now announced that when it returns it will be on at 7:00 P.M. on Sunday
nights instead of its current 8:30 slot sandwiched between "The Simpson's"
and "The X-Files." Matt Groening is very upset. he said of the Fox brass,
"They obviously don't know what they're doing. . . . They run in one direction,
then run in another direction the next moment. There's no sustained support
of anything. . . . Cleese's new show. John Cleese will executive produce
a new show for ABC that is being described as a supernatural sitcom. It
will be set at the law firm of Karpool, Ruumki & Whetfish. All three
partners have made deals with Satan and have become demons. . . . Piller
and the WB. Michael Piller, best known for co-creating "Star Trek: The
Next Generation," and "Star Trek: Voyager" has just signed a deal with
the WB network to create at least one new series and to write three new
pilot scripts. Piller and his son are said to working on a spiritual fantasy
based on a work by Orson Scott Card, a Hitchcokian thriller, a futuristic
adventure series and a character-driven contemporary fantasy. . . . Buffy
on the move? The WB's contract for "Buffy" is up in 2001. The show's producers,
Fox, are said to asking for a princely sum to keep it on the Warner Bros.
network. If they balk, look for "Buffy" on Fox. . . . The Sci-Fi "Crypt"
connection. The Sci-Fi Channel has acquired the exclusive broadcast right
to all 93 episodes of HBO's "Tales of the Crypt." They began airing the
show on Wednesday nights back in December. . . .
BABYLON 5 IN CONGRESS?
Jerry Doyle has an unusual resume'. He's been an
aircraft salesman and a Wall Street broker. He's known to fans as Security
Chief Michael Garibaldi in the series "Babylon 5." He's now trying to change
his title to "Congressman Doyle." He has filed as a Republican to run for
Congress against incumbent Democratic Congressman Brad Sherman. He entered
the race when Jeff "Skunk" Baxter, former guitarist for the Doobie Brothers,
dropped out. At this point he'll be running unopposed in the March 7th
primaries. His only opponent, Irv Rubin, founder of the Jewish Defense
League, was forced to drop out when it was discovered that he didn't
have enough signatures on his petitions to enter the race. Doyle has vowed
to move the Republican Party away from the "radical right" and into a more
centrist position. At this point he has no platform, no outside funding
and no backing from the state Republican Party. When asked what he has
in his favor he said, "I'm the only candidate with his own action figure."
"FOR OF ALL SAD WORDS OF TONGUE
OR PEN. . .
. . . the saddest are these, 'It might have been.'
" The show that was to have been the mutual creation of Chris Carter and
J. M. Stracynski, mentioned in the last issue, has been dealt a significant
reversal. The show was to have been titled, "The World on Fire" and would
have been 90% mainstream and 10% science fiction. They were to have produced
the show at Fox and air it on CBS. After killing "Harsh Realm," a show
that did not have the benefit of Carter's sole involvement, the suits at
Fox decided that if any show wasn't 100% Chris Carter it was too risky.
The show now reverts back to Stracynski. He'll be investigating other avenues
for getting it on the air.
A NEW INTERNET SCI-FI NETWORK
There's something new on the net. It's the Cyber
Sci-Fi Network. It's done by the creative talent that have previously given
us "Star Trek: The Next Generation," "Earth: Final Conflict," "Space Rangers"
and "War of the Worlds." Their goal is to broadcast original science fiction
programming over the net. Majel Barret-Roddenberry will star in "Mars and
Beyond" when it debuts there in a couple of months. She'll play the head
of NASA during the first manned Mars mission in 2014.
BLAIR WITCH HITS THE COMIC STANDS
The Oni Press, makers of comics for a mature audience,
is releasing "The Blair Witch Chronicles." This special four issue series
will be telling further tales of the Black Hills of Maryland. The first
issue will deal with a 1950's prank that went horribly wrong. Look for
issue #1 in March.
SPIELBERG'S NEXT PROJECT
After months of speculation about picking up the
Kubrick opus, A.I., or another chapter of Indiana Jones, Steven Spielberg
announced that his next project will be Minority Report, a science fiction
film based on the Philip K. Dick novel of the same name. No word yet on
the eventual outcome of the other films, but he did say, after taking two
years off after Saving Private Ryan he's about to go into a major "work
spurt."
LORD OF THE INDIE RING
The massive Peter Jackson Lord of the Ring epic
trilogy, now shooting in Australia, isn't the only Ring film being done.
Tiny L.A. indie film company, Elemental Films, is seeking permission from
the Tolkien estate and Houghton-Mifflin to film Elessar. It would be a
short digital film about the young Arwen and Aragorn, characters that will
be in the Jackson film. If the permission is granted shooting is
expected to begin this month.
A MATRIX PREQUEL
There's been a lot of talk about a two-part sequel
to The Matrix. Producer Ron Silver has been talking about a prequel that
would take the form of an anime' feature. The film would be a bridge from
our era to the world that was portrayed in the film. According to Silver,
"We're talking about dealing with that story in animation, because it would
be impractical to shoot a war between man and machine in live action. The
[Wachowskis] are very big fans of of Japanese anime'--Ghost in the Machine
and Akira--and we may involve that style in some kind of animation."
IMAGINATIVE CINEMA FOR THE MONTH
OF JANUARY
Fantasia 2000 debuts January 1st. This movie has
been Disney's biggest project for most of the 90's. If you miss the IMAX
showing it will be in regular theaters in April.
Super Nova, the troubled production from MGM, opens
January 14th. Angela Bassett, James Spader and Lou Diamond Phillips star
in this story of a hospital ship going to assist a mining colony with a
distress call. They discover only one left alive human and a strange alien
artifact. They experience technical problems just as a nearby star is about
to go super nova. Look for the director's credit. Director Walter Hill
had his name removed but didn't want the in-your-face pseudonym of "Alan
Smithee" used.
Eye of the Beholder, a neo-noir thriller, premieres
January 28th. Ewan McGregor is a British private detective (known only
as "The Eye") with a troubled life and a troubling assignment. He's paid
to follow a woman (Ashley Judd) across the country. He begins to suspect
that she's a serial killer but is so obsessed with watching her that he's
powerless to intervene.
MASS MERCHANTS GAIN A MAJOR NET
PRESENCE
The so-called "brick-and-mortar" retailers are gaining
a major presence online. Walmart has allied itself with America Online.
The two giants will work together to provide a new internet service provider
for the types of rural areas that Walmart specializes in--places where
there are no local numbers available to dial into for internet service.
AOL will have links on the Walmart site. Kmart has teamed with Yahoo! to
offer Bluelight.com as a new internet portal. It will give Kmart customers
free internet access, e-mail, instant messaging and other services. Microsoft
has spent $200 million partnering with Best Buys. Microsoft's internet
products will be demoed and sold in Best Buy stores and at BestBuy.com.Circuit
City has also teamed up with America Online. AOL product will be offered
in Circuit City stores and AOL will link to Circuit City's web pages. It's
too soon to tell where this will all go. I'll keep my eye on them for you.
USED DVD POISED TO HIT THE MARKET
Online e-tailers have been stockpiling used DVD's
with the intention of selling them when conditions are ripe. DVD Empire
in Mars, Pa. will start selling them during the second quarter of next
year. SecondSpin.com already specializes in used videos, CD's and DVD's.
They have not been able to keep up with demand. Reel.com (the online presence
of the Hollywood Video stores) has been selling select used DVD titles
between $10-12. When the used market heats up Reel.com and Blockbuster.com,
with large brick and mortar chains renting out product, will probably wind
up leading the field.
AN ALL-IN-ONE DVD PLAYER
Make way for Samsung's DVD-N2000. It will play DVD's.
It will play audio C-D's at various speeds without distortion, even backwards.
And it serves as a games console for various platforms, such as Sony PlayStation.
This is all thanks to the trademarked NUON technology developed by VM Labs
in California. The DVD-N2000 carries a suggested retail of $499.
GET READY FOR DVD-RW
On December 3rd Japanese retailers offered something
that U.S. retailers will be selling later this year. They started selling
the DVD-RW--the first recordable DVD players available on the consumer
market. These first units are from Pioneer and sell at $2,399. Recordable
discs are $29 each. At the moment they can record up to six hours of content.
Philips Electronics will have their own DVD-RW's available later this year.
If this catches on look for many more to follow and prices to tumble.
VIDEOCY
Rental titles releasing 1/4: The smooth remake of The Thomas Crown
Affair hits today. Look for the cameo appearance by Steve McQueen (the
star of the original version) in the newspaper's that Brosnan's reading.
. . . Vampire Vignettes makes it's debut, from the tiny Sub Rosa Studios.
As you might have guessed, it's an anthology of stories about vampires.
. . .
Rental title releasing 1/11: Those "other" super heroes, The Mystery Men, hit the streets today. The movie features performances by Ben Stiller, William H. Macy and Janeane Garofolo. . . . Lake Placid, the film about the massive African crocodile that we're told migrated across the ocean and into a Maine lake, surfaces today. Bill Pullman, Bridget Fonda and Oliver Platt pit their wits against him. . . . In Oxygen Maura Tierny plays a secretly masochistic cop up against a sociopath (Adrien Brody), racing to find and free his kidnap victim, whose been buried alive and is running out of air. . .
Rental titles releasing 1/18: Bowfinger is a comedic tour, given by fast-talking auteur Steve Martin and his target Eddie Murphy, into the world of poverty-row film making and Hollywood cults. . . . The 13th Warrior, the Antonio Banderas/ Michael Chrichton movie that was repeatedly held back over 1 1/2 years, travels along its troubled road to obscurity with a stop at video store shelves today. . . .Nautilus is a sci-fi "thriller" that is not linked to Jules Verne. A rogue scientist in 2100 builds a time-travelling submarine to avert a global disaster triggered by burrowing into the earth core. . . . In The Dead of Space is brought to us by Roger Corman's New Horizon's Video. A conspiracy of Russian separatists threatens to pull a space station out of orbit and send it hurtling into Los Angeles. . . . Dr. Who: The Space Museum and the Crusade contains six early black-and-white episodes of this long-running British sci-fi show. If you're a really ardent fan you can buy this for $34.98. . . . From Dusk to Dawn, part 3: Hangman's Daughter, the long awaited prequel of the Robert Rodriquez film, hits today. Don't look for any of the cast or creative talent in this one. . . .
Rental titles releasing 1/25: The Tempest is a Shakespearean fantasy that recounts the clash of beauty and monsters and nonsense and innocence and terror on the island of a great magician. This version, with Peter Fonda and John Glover, is relocated from Shakespear's era to the American Civil War. It was originally a movie that aired on NBC. Check it out and see if it hangs onto its magic. . . .
Sell through titles releasing 1/4: Menno's Mind stars Bill Campbell, Bruce Campbell and Corbin Berenson. It's set in a future when "Big Brother" never stops watching. A man with a massive intellect challenges the system when he discovers a presidential candidate's plot to use a computer to fix the election. The VHS goes for $14.98. . . .
Sell through titles releasing 1/11: Time Masters is an animated feature about a mercenary hero that races across the galaxy to save a boy from a cosmic menace. It has a recommended retail of $19.95. . . .
Sell through titles releasing 1/18: Animal Farm, George Orwell's dark allegorical fantasy about repressive governments, releases today. It was done in conjuction with Jim Henson's Creature Shop. The recommended retail is $14.98. . . .
Sell through titles releasing 1/25: Natural Born Killers releases today on DVD. The disk features deleted scenes with Ashley Judd and Dennis Leary, an alternate ending, and a 5.1 Dolby Digital Stereo audio track. . . .
THANKS FOR THE MEMORIES
Madeline Khan was one of the rare performers that,
not only appeared, but excelled in every medium. She did one of the most
difficult thing that any actor can do--she made us laugh! She was born
in Boston in 1942 and grew up in New York. She made her screen debut in
1965 in a small role in Kiss Me Kate. In 1973 she was nominated for an
Oscar for her role in Paper Moon, and again in 1974 for her Marlene Dietrich-like
character in Blazing Saddles. Her work in that and other Mel Brooks films;
Young Frankenstein, High Anxiety and History of the World, part 1; may
go on to be her finest comic legacy. She received a Tony for her stage
performance in "Sisters Rosenweig" and was nominated three other times.
This past October she married John Hansbury. In November she publicly acknowledged
that she was battling ovarian cancer. On December 3rd that battle reached
its sad conclusion. She was 57.
The movie that kicked off the whole wave of 50's sci-fi was George Pal's 1950 release, Destination Moon. It was based on the Robert Heinlein 1947 novel, Rocketship Galileo. The steel-eyed captain of the expedition was Jim Barnes, played by John Archer. John Archer's expedition reached its end on Sunday, December 5th. He was 84. He was born Ralph Bowman. He won a radio contest for an RKO contract made out to "John Archer" (beating out young rival Hugh Beaumont). He used to joke that he went from a "Bowman" to an "Archer." He may best be remembered by generations of radio fans as the man who supplied the question and answer every week, "Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? The Shadow knows!" His acting legacy is carried on by the daughter that he had with his first wife, actress Marjorie Lord. Anne Archer carries on her parents' tradition, adapting her father's stage name.
On December 19th, Desmond Llewelyn, the actor who played "Q" in the Bond films was killed in a car crash after promoting his new autobiography, Q-The Biography of Desmond Llewelyn. He was born 85 years before in South Wales. His family was horrified when he told that he wanted to be an actor. After failing his examination to enter the police force and admitting that he'd never be a minister, they reluctantly allowed him to enter the Royal Academy for Dramatic Arts in the mid-1930's. His aspirations were detoured in 1939 when Germany invaded Poland and World War II began. He served as a second lieutenant in the British Army. In 1940 he was part of a force sent to France to fight what would be the victorious German invading army. His retreat was cut off. He spent the next five years as a prisoner-of-war. After the war he was able to return to acting, appearing in several stage, television and film productions, usually in small roles. In 1963 he had a small part as "the equipment officer" in the second Bond film, From Russia With Love. This began a chain of films. It wasn't until 1971, in Diamonds Are Forever, that his character was given a sort of a name, "Q." In 1973 producers Harry Saltzman and Albert Brocolli feared that there was too much emphasis on the gadgets. They omitted Q from that year's Live and Let Die. That movie and the first film, Dr. No, became the only two 007 movies that Desmond Llewelyn would miss. He admitted to an irony in his life long career with playing the wildly inventive Q, bestowing the benefits of his mechanical genius on all five movie Bonds. In real life he confessed to having zero mechanical aptitude.
Clayton Moore's career started in the late 1930's. For Baby Boomers it started in 1949. That was the year that the story was told of 6 Texas Rangers who rode into a box canyon, into what turned out to be an ambush. With the help of a faithful Indian companion one of them survived--one "Lone Ranger." We'd hear Fred Foy's thunderous baritone roll out of our TV's tinny speakers with the weekly invitation, "Return with us now to those thrilling days of yesteryear. The Lone Ranger rides again!" Our young hearts would race even faster than Silver's hooves! The man who made that character come to life did more than simply play a masked hero for most of the fifties--he lived by the Ranger's Code of good behavior though out his life. He never wanted to disappoint his fans with a scandal stained life. To demonstrate how closely his life linked with his character, the name of his recent autobiography is I Was That Masked Man. The Lone Ranger would leave behind a silver bullet for each of the people he'd help. He left us something far more valuable. We got the memory of all those adventures! Even if the passing years have softened and blurred the details time can never efface the image of one man who fought for justice and sought to right wrongs. After escaping ambushes and beatings, bullets and arrows, he fell prey to the one adversary from which no one escapes--the passing of time. After 85 years Clayton Moore died in the century that he graced as it drew to a close. Job well done Clayton Moore. Thank you Masked Man!
JANUARY CALENDAR
SATURDAY 1ST: MOVIES-Fantasia 2000 debuts.
TUESDAY 4TH: VIDEO RENTALS- The Thomas Crown Affair and Vampire Vignettes
are released.
VIDEO SELLTHROUGH-Menno's Mind is released.
TUESDAY 11TH: VIDEO RENTALS- The Mystery Men, Lake Placid and Oxygen
hit the
streets today.
VIDEO SELLTHROUGH-Time Masters comes out today.
FRIDAY 14TH: MOVIES- Super Nova debuts
TUESDAY 18TH: VIDEO RENTALS- Bowfinger, The 13th Warrior, Nautilus,In
The
Dead of Space, Dr. Who: The Space Museum and the Crusade and
>From Dusk to Dawn, part 3: Hangman's Daughter all release today.
VIDEO SELLTHROUGH- Animal Farm releases today.
SUNDAY 23RD: SPECIAL EVENT- Golden Globe Awards show is broadcast.
MONDAY 24TH: The Imaginative Cinema Society's 1st Anniversary!
TUESDAY 25TH: VIDEO RENTALS- The Tempest releases today.
VIDEO SELLTHROUGH- The DVD of Natural Born Killers releases
today.
FRIDAY 28TH: MOVIES-Eye of the Beholder premiers today.
SATURDAY 29TH: ICS MEETING AT 6:00!