02/08/05 Geospeakers Meeting Summary

President Ann Gunderson rocked the meeting to order. She asked Mitch Smith to lead us in the galvanizing quote, which turned out to be an expose of another President's embarrassing hires, e.g., "W's". We then welcomed our guest, Dave Thompsen.

Under club business, we were reminded (by Ann) of the Spring Toastmaster's Table Topics and International Speech Contest, coming up on Thursday evening, March 31 at Allstate Insurance. We do not have contestants, but Mitch Smith will be the Toastmaster for the evening. All are encouraged to attend for fun, enrichment, and to support Mitch in this new role. Also, Chris Gutmacher and Gary Curtis are the committee handling the nominations for Toastmaster of the Year (2004) for Geospeakers. Please send your nominations to them. Chris Gutmacher also reminded us to bring our checks or cash for our dues to the next meeting.

Ann then introduced our toastmaster for the day, Shane Detweiler. Shane gave us his thoughts on the movies, our theme for the day. He and Ann traded introductions, as she was the Master Evaluator for the day. Her team consisted of Carol Reiss as Timer, Stephanie Ross as Ah (and other oddities of speech) Counter and Mitch Smith as Wordmaster Grammarian.

Lauri Kanerva gave his second speech, Speech #2 from the Basic Manual, Organizing Your Speech. His title was "It's a Bird, It's a Celestial Plane. It's Superbook!" Lauri once again served to provide us with fascinating information about the celestial world he is so fond of and speaks so eloquently about. His organization was based on the various parts/benefits of a wonderful Astronomy book that appears as a magazine, but is actually a book. We were impressed with how deftly he showed information and great photos and graphics in the book, as well as his knowledge of galactic matters.

For Table Topics, Gary Curtis encouraged us to recommend a movie we had seen, to answer one of his probing questions, or simply to comment on the movies in general.

• Stephanie enjoyed "White Christmas and "Easter Parade", even though they were a "little sugary" in her words. She recommended "____ the Volcano" for its dark imagery and the different roles played by the same person. It was a movie with zigzag imagery themes, about overcoming low self esteem.
• Ann tried to field the question about movie ratings, mainly by saying she had trouble with violence in the movies and that her kids had trouble with her having trouble with violence in the movies.
• Mitch recommended China Town with Jack Nicholson and Faye Dunaway, noting the great music of Dark My Sweet and Body Heat and the advent of neo film noire, creating the Hollywood version of Jazz. Another favorite of his is Blade Runner.
• In answering what part she would like to play in a movie, Fran said that at a recent workshop she gave on research challenges she played an adversarial role. She was asked if she felt like Julia Roberts and answered she felt more like Julia Childs! She recommended "Spiderman II".
• When asked how important cinematography is to a movie, Carol responded that she mainly saw Disney movies, but that she wanted to see "Aliens of the Deep" at IMAX.
• Shane recommended "Some Like It Hot", with a classic cast: Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis, Jack Lemmon. He had some doubts about whether the comedy in this older classic would transfer, but he thoroughly enjoyed it, and said it would be safe for the kids.
• Dave Thompsen, our guest, spoke eloquently about his favorite scene--when Luke Skywalker finds out that Darth Vader is his father.
• Chris was asked whether she thought political films have much impact on society. She said yes, but admitted she really did not like to see political movies with real-life violence. She is okay with Star Wars or the Lord of the Rings trilogy, but not films like Hotel Rwanda or Schindler's List.
• Lauri's two favorite films are "Duck Soup" with the Marx Brothers and "Fredonia", about going to war over imaginary insults. It was beyond humor, in his words.
• Stephanie also noted that "Aliens of the Deep" brought funding to science. We got into some discussions of the movies in general, but had to wind down to hear the Oscars for Table Topics:

We got into some discussions of the movies in general, but had to wind down to hear the Oscars for Table Topics:
Most Eloquent: Lauri Kanerva
Most Humorous: Fran Hostettler
Most Interesting: Mitch Smith

Chris then evaluated Lauri's speech, noting as previously mentioned, the wealth of information presented, the good organization, strong opening and body of the speech. Suggested finishing as strongly as he began to craft a very interesting and well organized speech.

Mitch read us the Last Word, which bears repeating:
"Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we." President George W. Bush, Washington, D.C., August 5, 2004.

The meeting was rocked to a close and all left for the movies!

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