SpockSoc

Hello Everyone,

To finish off SpockSoc’s movie madness month, this week we’re going to see Cowboys and Aliens at the Randwick Ritz on Tuesday (the 23rd). We’ll meet up outside Cinema 1 at 6:50pm. For those interested, we’ll go somewhere nearby for dinner afterwards.

As discussed at tonight’s screening, we are planning on seeing Thor (3D) at the Ritz this coming public holiday Tuesday at 11:20am. As this is a 3D screening if you have 3D glasses please bring them as Ritz do charge an extra $1 to supply them. We also expect it to be fairly busy (public holiday, new movie & cheap Tuesday), so try to be early to ensure we can get tickets and decent seats.

For those few who are unaware of Thor, if you have seen Iron Man 2 and waited for the end credits you would have seen a teaser.
Following summary is from IMDB:
Marvel Studios expands its film universe with a new type of superhero: THOR. This epic adventure spans the Marvel Universe; from present day Earth to the realm of Asgard. At the center of the story is The Mighty Thor, a powerful but arrogant warrior whose reckless actions reignite an ancient war. Thor is cast down to Earth and forced to live among humans as punishment. Once here, Thor learns what it takes to be a true hero when the most dangerous villain of his world sends the darkest forces of Asgard to invade Earth. Kenneth Branagh directs this fantasy epic which stars Australian actor Chris Hemsworth as the ancient Norse god, Tom Hiddleston as his evil brother Loki, Natalie Portman as Jane Foster, a young woman who befriends Thor on Earth, and Anthony Hopkins as Odin, Thor’s father and king of Asgard. Expect to see agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., previously seen in ”Iron Man,” to make an appearance, further forshadowing the coming of The Avengers!

This week: the long-awaited AGM! Woo hoo! The AGM is neccesary for the continued existence of SpockSoc next year, and it’s vital that we have at least fifteen members there, so please try to come, even if it’s just for the AGM. We’ll kick off the AGM itself at 7:30 on Friday, over dinner – send me an e-mail ahead of time if you want to order pizza and won’t be able to make it before 7:30. Pizza is $5 per half.

All exec positions are up for re-election. We’re all students, after all, and we’ll all have to graduate someday, so at some point we’ll certainly all need to be replaced. Please think seriously about whether you want to help keep SpockSoc running. You also get to hear fun things like the state of our finances, and read the club constitution.

So: AGM, 7:30pm Friday, Red Centre G001. Be there. If we don’t get the numbers, we’ll have to do it over during the summer break, and noone wants that, do they?

Also, we’ll be showing Defying Gravity, but seriously, the AGM is the main draw-card here, right? =) The series follows eight astronauts on a journey of exploration around the solar system. However, they’re not alone on the voyage, and not because there’s aliens hovering outside the window – they brought something with them. What’s inside the mysterious Pod 4? What’s waiting in store for them on their journey?

We showed the first half of the season way way back in the first few weeks of session one – I’d meant to show this much earlier, but I forgot to include it until I was reminded of it a few weeks ago. With that in mind, I’ll certainly open with a brief recap and character introduction. The screening starts at 5pm Friday, Red Centre G001.

Hope to see you there,
-Joel
el presidente

Come along this Friday and test your knowledge of Sci-Fi and Fantasy Trivia! Over two hundred dollars’ worth of prizes to be won! Also, have fun! See our shiny ad in What’s On in this week’s Blitz – it’s shiny. =D

The trivia night starts at 5pm in the Drawing Room (which is upstairs in the Roundhouse) on this Friday the 30th. Doors will be open from 4pm. Entry is $5 each, and everyone is welcome – members and non-members, UNSW staff/students and… other people alike. We’ll also be getting pizza for dinner – $5 per half pizza of choice. We’re finishing at 9pm, cause that’s when they’ll come to boot us out of the room, but we’ve got a jam-packed night of trivia all planned.

Screenings will resume next week with Terry Pratchett’s Going Postal and new episodes of Futurama.

On Saturday, we’re teaming up with the UNSW Anime Society to bring you a marathon of Planetes. Woo!

In the year 2075, mankind has reached a point where journeying between Earth, the Moon and the space stations is part of daily life. However, the progression of technology in space has also resulted in the problem of space debris – dropped equipment, cast-off fuel tanks, obsolete satellites, etcetera – which can cause excessive and even catastrophic damage to spacecraft and equipment. This is the story of Technora’s Debris Collecting section, its EVA worker, Hachirota “Hachimaki” Hoshino, and the newcomer to the group, Ai Tanabe.

The series consists of twenty-six half-hour episodes, so we’ll easily be able to fit the whole lot into one marathon, unlike our normal sci-fi series – no ending on cliff-hangers. So come along and unwind before the exams start, and show the Anime Society what great people we are. =D It’s a great series, and they put special effort into getting the science right.

It’s on Saturday the 5th of June in Quad G026, starting from as close to 9am as we can manage – not too much later or we won’t finish in time. It’ll run until 11pm
is basically directly West of Rex Vowels – I’ll hang the orange SpockSoc banner outside so you can see it. It’s a flat-floor room, so bring any sort of chair or cushion or pillow you want to sit or lie on, and we’ll shove the tables out of the way and sprawl. Meals will be decided on the day, so bring money for them just to be sure.

SpockSoc will be going to see Iron Man 2 this week at the Randwick Ritz – the movie starts at 7pm on Wednesday. Ordinarily for a popular movie I’d arrange tickets ahead of time, but Iron Man’s opening caught me by surprise. We’ll meet up inside the lobby in front of the doors to cinema one, starting from 6:30pm – I won’t wait after the movie starts, so be there on time. =)

As part of the fancy SpockSoc membership perks, I’ll reimburse $2 to anyone who presents their membership card – for those who might not recognise me, I’ll have the orange vinyl SpockSoc banner on me. If people are interested, we’ll go out to dinner as a group afterwards. I can’t manage before, because I’ve got class until 6.

On Saturday, by popular demand, we’ll be having a Lord of the Rings marathon. It’s going to be in Quad G026, which is pretty much midway on the route between Rex Vowels and Quad G032. I’ll hang the banner outside – if you go to Quad G032 and look to the right, you should be able to see it. It’s the bright orange one that says “SpockSoc”. Anyway, we’re starting at 9am on Saturday – the movies are long, so even though we’ve booked the room out for fourteen hours, it’s going to be squishy once meals are factored in, so I’d like to start close to 9am.

As usual for marathons, I’ve specifically booked a room with movable furniture, so we can shove everything out of the way and lie on the floor or whatever. So bring a cushion, beanbag, mattress, couch, armchair… portable ball pit? Anything you want to lie, sit or otherwise make yourself comfortable on. We’ll sort out meals on the day – we’re pondering having one person get takeaway Chinese or similar for everyone, to streamline the process a bit.

Apologies for those who can’t make it – we took things into consideration, and decided that it was either this weekend, or we’d have to leave it until much later in the session, or even early next session. It’s something of a can’t-please-everyone situation.

This Saturday the 20th, we’ll be having a Babylon 5 marathon! We’ll be starting sometime not too long after 9am and going until late, so feel free to drop in whenever even if you can’t make the whole thing. We’ll be in Goldstein G04 either Quad G026 or G027 – to get there, stand outside the glass door do G032 and head towards the main runway – G026 is on the left once you get out from under the covered-over area. The banner will be outside as usual, so it should be easy to spot.

The room we’ll be in has movable furniture – means we can shove all the tables to one side if you want to bring a beanbag or pillow or air mattress or folding bed or comfy chair or even a couch. So bring something to sit/lie on (or use the plastic chairs that are there if you like), bring some snacks if you so desire, and prepare for a whole day of Babylon 5! Fun!

The marathon passes over both lunchtime and dinnertime. Usually I’ll get pizza (at $5 per half) for one meal, and let everyone do their own thing for the other, but specifics will be arranged on the day. There’s access to a microwave if people want to bring their own food, but it’s not exactly close by.

UPDATE:

Due to availability issues, the location for the Saturday marathon is changing. (Pharmacology seems to have booked out the whole Quad for the whole weekend – poor sods.) We’re now in Goldstein G04. Prior members will know where that is, but for new members, the Goldstein building is directly opposite the Quad from our normal Friday room. Simply follow the brick path across the lawn and through the archway in the wall on the far side – Goldstein is the building on the right immediately after you pass the archway. I’ll hang a banner outside. (If you navigate better with a map, check out the campus map – Goldstein is building D16, and the door’s on the Western side. If you try to enter through the wrong door, you’ll wind up in the college part of the building, which is not where we are.) Everything else about the marathon is still the same.