LOTNA Review of 2011

by David Lee

We began the year by going to the Fitzrovia Radio Hour, where the attendees had a jolly good time. Sadly this was all for January, blame the cold weather.

In February the year truly got going in all it's geekdom. The book club had it's first meeting of the year, M.R. James's Ghost Stories was the subject under discussion. We had two outings one to go see Paul, the film not Paul Tuck and another to see Showstoppers the improvised musical, every show is different and all of them are entertaining to say the least. February was also the month of the Cons, Conventions not Decepticons! Picocon 28 and Redemption were both attended and much fun was had plus drinking. But the true highlight of this month was our victory at Redemption's Ruler of the Universe, where our candidate The Master though superior evilness and an alliance with Big Brother becoming The Big Master "may be reign forever". And so shall he sit atop his Throne made from the bones of all who oppose him till the next Redemption in 2013.

March was the month of our Anniversary, for 13 years LOTNA has existed and we intend to celebrate this fact. We once again returned to the Den of Geek movie quiz where LOTNA Prime and LOTNA Reloaded battled against other geeky teams for prizes. Much fun was had by both teams and much ass was kicked. We closed the month with a Science Museum Lates and who can say no to SCIENCE, for it is after all half of why we're here in the first place.

April was time for the return of the best returning Science Fiction Show of 2011 (clears throat) DOCTOR WHO, as voted for by LOTNA Members in the annual LOTNA Awards And sticking to tradition, we watched it on the biggest TV the pub could offer for that's how we roll. After all, we wouldn't want our members to choose between a meeting or staying home to watch it, no sir ree. The Book Club had it's second meeting of the year, discussing the Woman in Black by Susan Hill. And like the month before this one, it was closed by another SCIENCE Museum Lates.

May was quite jam packed, we had two trips out to the Cinema, one to see Attack the Block and the other Super, both were enjoyable and worth watching again. LOTNA once again continued it's tradition of kicking ass, we attended the Sci-Fi London Film Festival Quiz and achieved 2nd place, which was by no means easy, our competition was indeed formidable. As we neared the end of this month, a small group of us headed into the woods for a four day Live Action Roleplay Event called Dropzone . The highlight of which was the final hour of the theme game, where waves upon waves of Xenomorphs (Alien) attacked us, as we attempted to vacant the planet. Have no fear we survived (just about) and were able to close the month with SCIENCE… Museum Lates.

In June we went to see X-Men 1st Class on mass and a prequel movie it was really good, thus showing not all prequels turn out to be poor, I'm looking at you Star Wars! Our Kerri was helping to direct and was starring in a production of Rent, so we showed our support and batched up to go see it. Like the year before Kelly put on a hunting trip, but instead of treasure, we hunted for puzzles, thus began the London Conundrum. The book club came together once again to discuss SlaughterHouse 5 by Kurt Vonnegut. And at the end of month we partook in some SCIENCE at the Science Museum Lates.

July marked the return of the LOTNA Writers Group which quickly turned into a monthly event. Once again thanks to our LOTNA Funds and the help of many people within the group we had a table at London Film and Comic-Con to help promote the group, we obtained many new members from this venture. An after party followed this, as the people from Genesis joined in on the fun. Later that month a group of us went to go see the Axis of Awesome, which were indeed awesome. As the month closed came another Science Museum Lates (anyone sensing a pattern).

August had not one cinema trip but two; the first was to go see Captain America The First Avenger, which served to make us look forward to the new Avengers film. If Thor, Iron Man and the fact Joss Wheldon had written the script hadn't already. The second film trip was to go see Super 8 which we agreed that we all got our money's worth and it was indeed a film with Spielberg's influence written all over it. Make of this what you will. Frank Herbert's timeless classic Dune was the core discussion at another Book Club meeting. Do I have to say more than Science Museum Lates? Of course I do SCIENCE!

In September we went to go see Troll Hunter and of course the month was ended with a Science Museum Lates.

October made up for the previous month's semi quietness with a rush of activities. The month began with another Live Action Roleplay Event called Goldrush, set in the Firefly universe, another testament to the awesomeness of the verse. Speaking of big loud events we also attended the Klingon Banquet, which I'm sure has already painted a nice mental image of what the event was like. We also attended the Entertainment Media Show or the Show formly known as Prince, I mean Collectormania. In true LOTNA tradition we had our annual auction, which not only allowed people to part with their un-wanted stuff but gain whole new stuff (yay stuff), the geekness must flow after all. Much was sold and much more was raised for the funds. The book club read was Orson Scott Card's Sci-fi classic Ender's Game, like Dune this is another book well worth reading if only to get a sense where some of the concepts we see now all over the place came from. And the ending of the month wouldn't be the end of the month without a (pauses for effect) SCIENCE, so yea' another Lates.

Remember, remember the awesomeness of November. In this month we once again returned to the Den of Geek Quiz with only one team this time. But if they thought that would stop us from kicking ass they were wrong, LOTNA Prime took 5th place in the Quiz missing a prize by a few points. A film trip was planned to go see the long awaited Tintin Movie. And At the Mountains of Madness by H.P. Lovercraft was the book of choice for this month's meeting of the Book Club. And with heavy heart I must write that this month had no Science Museum Lates meeting, curse you world events getting in the way of SCIENCE.

December began with pure manly epiciness, as a trip was planned to go see Flash Gordon at the Prince Charles Cinema. "Gordon's Alive!" Which just so happens to be the best and cheapest Cinema for geeky movies. Along with a trip to go see the Muppets Christmas Carol and all three Lord of the Rings film at the same cinema later in the month. The real highlight of December was the Christmas Party where the resources of LOTNA came to bear to produce a jam packed evening of fun and geekery and some jammed packed cakes (mmmmmm cakes). The evening featured such events as the Lotna Awards (results of which can be found here) the reveal of the "LOTNA CALENDAR" people who were their know why I must write it so. Furthermore the Secret Santa where we all saw the Ruler of the Universe "may be rule forever" chase off Santa and take over the present giving. Though everyone who took part did get a "LOTNA CALENDAR and a CAMPAIGN BADGE" so no real harm was done, well apart from Santa's Reindeer… poor Ruldoph.

So yeah it's been a good year thank you to all the organisers who ran stuff and thank you to the people who gave their support for showing up and for being members of LOTNA. This wouldn't be a review without me giving a score so…

I give 2011 a score of 42, till next year. Nuff said.

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