Meeting #1860 - Monday, 4 May, 2026 Trey Haddad, President Ken Patterson, Vice President Dave Gallaher, Treasurer Galen Tripp & Laser Pistol Packin’ Mama, Sergeants at Arms Barbara Johnson-Haddad, Secretary
In-person at Parktown Pizza 3031 Meridian Ave, San Jose, CA 95124 *************************** NEW ZOOM FOR 2026 https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82190960810?pwd=k8qAIDt9sntTTLOI6FoerafmYvU2AR.1 Meeting ID: 821 9096 0810 Passcode: B4SF41D --- One tap mobile +16699009128,,82190960810#,,,,*5724576# --- By Telephone 669-900-9128 Meeting ID: 821 9096 0810 Passcode: 5724576 Find your local number:https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kcSpSAHaD *************************** Called to order at 20:00 Total of 4/3 in attendance Secretary The minutes of meetings 1859 was accepted as happy Mothers Day! Treasurer Regular: $15,805.32 Party: $230.58 Money can be sent to salve guilt via PayPal - sent to: [email protected] Though we did accrue $165.59 since the resumption of live meetings. Vice President Nothing fannish to report. President Not present Committees: None. New Business: None. Announcements: Yochanan: Lego has changed their toys’ age limit has been change from 4-99 to 4-100+, to honor Sr. Richard Attenborough, who just turned 100. Ken: British Invasion! Saturday, May 23 4-8pm South Bay Yacht Club, 1491 Hope Street, Alviso southbayyachtclub.org/events <http://southbayyachtclub.org/events> Authentic British food, The 5150 Band - A Rock And Roll Emergency - playing British Invasion tunes, a Pub Quiz, photo booths, a TARDIS, Martin Gooch's films, and loads of fun! Only $30 per adult, under-18s go free! SNL-UK Has been renewed for a second season, with four more episodes. This week is the season one finale, with host Ncuti Gatwa. 3-Below is having another public sale this Saturday from 11 - 4. And another in June. 3belowtheaters.com <http://3belowtheaters.com/> Reviews Yochanan: New adaption of Lord of the Flies (Netflix) 4 1-hour episodes. Each one focusses on the four different characters. Visually gorgeous. Mior quibbles. Very British, and kept in the same era as the novel. Excellent, worth full price. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_of_the_Flies_(TV_series) Peacemaker (Max) 2 seasons or eight 1-hour episodes. James Gunn’s DC Comics action comedy, John Cena’s Peacemaker character post Suicide Squad. First DCEU series. Stand alone seasons. Opening dancing sequences are a sight to see (season ones were better). Episode titles are pun-tastic. Not sure final episode of season two stuck the landing. Show is better than it has any right to be. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peacemaker_(TV_series) Recursion by Blake Crouch (novel) Author of Dark matter (as seen on TV+) Powerful road not travelled. It’s not time travel – or is it? Uses False Memory Syndrome as a plot point. Chapters are non-sequential dates. Had dreams about the novel – he was troubled (in a good way). An amazing novel. Worth full price. goodreads.com/book/show/42046112-recursion <http://goodreads.com/book/show/42046112-recursion> Ken: Chess CMTSJ – Bishop Cast I have been listening to the music from Chess for over 40 years now, when a friend in high school made me a cassette of the album (I have since bought both the album and CD). As I really only knew that original release, I had some surprises in seeing an actual staging. From what I can gather, this is the version that ran on Broadway in the '80s – which has many changes from the original album and West End versions (and even more for the 2025 revival!) So, I was a little confused with why some things were missing and why some of the songs were out of order. None of that, however, impacted my enjoyment of the show. Besides this being my first time seeing Chess staged, this was also my first time seeing a show put on by the Children's Musical Theatre - San Jose (CMTSJ). They have two separate casts that alternate shows. I saw that Bishop Cast (the other is Rook). Despite my trepidation of a youth ensemble tackling an adult story, they managed to do so admirably. While there are a couple members of the cast that I don't think were up to the task (who I will not name, because they did put in the effrt) there were definitely a couple of stand-outs for this group: Their Anatoly (Jai Kaushik) the Russian grand master, and Florence (Klara Klotzbach) the American's second. Kaushik's performance as the Russian player was incredible from his firstfirst song (Where I Want to Be) and especially the act one finale (Anthem). He even manages to carry his (I assume learned) Eastern European accent into the singing – which is not something one usually hears (unless you're a Proclaimer...) Klotzbach has a commanding presence as the Hungarian-Amercan refugee (it's an important distinction) who is the second to the erratic American player. Both her, and her character, carry the story through a roller-coaster of emotions, and many amazing solos (Someone Else's Story, Nobody's Side, and Heaven Help My Heart). The two really work well together, as their characters' romance blossoms. They pair play all the emotions with an amazing level of maturity that some adults would find hard to pull off. They are obviously the elder members of the cast (Klotzbach listing herself as a senior at her high school, where she was also a director of a play at the end of last year) so they bring all the experience of their deceptively young years. Something that you just can't get from the albums is the staging. Modern technology has made it easier to have the original multi-media aspect of the staging realized on a modest budget. Here they use projection to illustrate the chess board squares on the set. There are moving parts to that just slide in and out effortlessly – and even one moving section that gives a surprising punctuation to the emotional ending of the first act. I should also give a shout out to the choreographer Whitney Janssen – and especially her balletic chess pieces, which were wonderful to watch. This is something, I gather from the CMTSJ's Artistic Director's message, that is relatively unique to their productions of Chess (this is the second time they have staged the show, the last was 20 years ago – which is just about as far back now as the original stagings were to that!) There is one aspect of the show that the production can't do anything about, and that is the audience. Sometimes the people around you can negatively impact your experience. This has been a running problem for me (which is why I don't do many concerts any more). I ended up relocating to the balcony for act two. All these pieces moving on stage produce an amazing game of Chess. https://www.cmtsj.org/chess/ Rumor of the Week: A belated happy Mothers Day to all BASFAN mother (of humans or pets) and to the Mothers of all BASFANs. Adjourned at: 20:41 There was no auction
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