[See below for previous issues]

The OUSFG Newsletter
Michaelmas Term 1997

Video Meetings are in Oriel 24:2 (Ian Snell's room) at 8pm on Wednesdays of even-numbered weeks. Library Meetings are in Christ Church Annexe V:9 (St Aldates; Duncan Martin's rather larger room) at 8:30pm every Sunday. Discussion meetings are also in Duncan's room, at 8:15pm on Wednesdays of odd weeks (but then they would be odd given some of the topics for discussion). There was a Start of Term Party, but you've missed that.

First Week

Sunday 12th October
Afternoon 15.00 Fresher's Party. St John's Garden Quad Reception Room already booked, but drinks obligation tricky. (Old members: set-up begins at 14.00, and please bring your own drinkies, subject to us sorting out this terrible purchase obligation).
Evening 20.00 Very chaotic library meeting
Wednesday 15th October
History of OUSFG. Usually saved until the Freshers know a little about who's who already, and possibly a bit too likely to terrify those who expected a quiet night in our library or an abstruse discussion or one of our speakers.

Second Week

Sunday 19th October
Library meeting, Duncan Martin's Room, Christ Church
Wednesday 22nd October
Video meeting: Roswell and The Springfield Files. Stylish Kyle followed by that Simpsons tape

Third Week

Sunday 26th October
Library meeting, same time and place
Wednesday 29th October
Dick for Freshers Tanaqui explains it all, even VALIS. On one level, a source for the invisibles comic and a bunch of rather feeble entendres; on another a catalogue of weirdness enhanced with Humanities references to the influence of Thomas and Henry Vaughan on Dick himself.

Fourth Week

Sunday 2nd November
Yes, visit our lovely library in congenial surroundings. Demand biscuits, tease the librarian, or free-associate.
Wednesday 5th November
Video meeting: Dark Star and Bad Taste

Fifth Week

Sunday 9th November
Enjoy Duncan's tea and the big heap of SF-related books. Maybe bring back one you signed out earlier in term.
Wednesday 12th November
Alex and Peter do Conspiracy Theories. Likely to cover Illuminatus stuff and anything that's in the media or society gossip-mills at the time. Definitely going to be strange, if they tell you anything at all. When they put on their shades, get ready to avoid the mindwipe light.

Sixth Week

Sunday 16th November
Ask Duncan for more tea, and have him send you to the pub because he's got to do some work or some such excuse.
Monday 17th November
Speaker: Michael Marshall Smith
Wednesday 19th November
Video Meeting: Delicatessen and City of Lost Children

Seventh Week

Sunday 23rd November
Understand one of the bantering interchanges/ freefall topic-torturing of Alex Williams and Peter Sidwell. Take out the entire Dune sequence as an antidote.
Wednesday 26th November
William Burroughs Memorial Workshop. Under the expert guidance of Colin Wilkinson and Ralph Lovegrove, learn how easy it is to learn Dadaist literary techniques and cut-up/fold-in textual assembly of varied sources. Can you match the gravel-voiced guru of the Interzone? Bring pritt sticks and old books.
Saturday 29th November
Party: Christmas Party with the roleplayers.

Eighth Week

Sunday 30th November
Hang out with books or pints and bask in the camaraderie you have built up over this term.
Monday 1st December
Speaker: Kim Newman
Wednesday 3rd December
Traditionally Silly Games Night. Foolish videos such as Brass Eye might be shown. Chris Morris is... Alabaster Codify, amongst many others, targeting media celebrities.
Anyone thinking that this smorgasbord of fripperies is somewhat lacking in the meaty sci-fi you expect can request the following from your Video Ubermensch:
  1. Episodes of Babylon 5 up to the end of Season Four shown of necessity in the remotest reaches of Headington (NTSC format, right off the satellite feed, and complete with well-dodgy ads. for "adult" services)
  2. The complete Star Wars Special Edition trilogy, with Jabba the Hut and rearing Tattooine fauna looking rather incongrous in the old footage (a bit much for a Wednesday night, but possible over a weekend)
  3. Third Rock from the Sun, since the Third Rock in Third Week video meeting has been dropped.
  4. Trials and Tribble-ations - the Tribble reprise for Star Trek: DS9
  5. Any other oddity you think Tanaqui might have captured in iron oxide

Speakers

Confirmed this term: Michael Marshall Smith (17th November) and Kim Newman (1st December). Confirmed return, next term: Diana Wynne Jones (probably 11th February[new]).

Discussion Meetings held over for another term

Martin Beer on Arthur C. Clarke, Adrian Cox and his unique Orson Scott Card puppetry, Neal Tringham's selection of utterly atrocious, appalling, hysterically funny SF excerpts.

Some Old Newsletters

Here are some random newsletters from the ancient and revered days when OUSFG had cyberpresidents. 'Txixt then and now, while an OUSFG president has been just the thing if you want to know exactly what is meant by a metonym, they are unlikely to be good companions on the infobahn. And rather more recently... Today, we can announce a great step forward: a literate cybercommittee! This is just what one would want from the forward-looking SF group that brought you Sfinx and the Bloomsbury Good Reading Guide to Science Fiction and Fantasy. Mark my words: in a couple of years' time, everyone will be hopping on the cybermetonym bandwagon.
HTML 3.2 Checked... Best viewed with ANY browser! Last updated 4th November 1997. http://users.ox.ac.uk/~ousfg/misc/newsletter-97mt1.html
Tim Adye, <T.J.Adye@rl.ac.uk>