25 May 2013

Birthdays
Esme Bianco b. 1982
Cillian Murphy b. 1976
Mike Myers b. 1963
Frank Oz b. 1944
Sir Ian McKellen b. 1939

If the Picture Slot went to the most important actor on the list, it would nearly impossible to argue against Sir Ian McKellen, not only for an entire career but for his importance in the genre as both Gandalf and Magneto. But this year I'm going with the Picture Slot = Pretty Girl rule and giving it to Ms. Bianco, not only because she's the only pretty girl on the list but to give her a shout out after how horribly her character Ros was used on Game of Thrones this season.

Many happy returns of the day to all concerned.

Movies released
MIB 3 released, 2012
Back to the Future: Part III released, 1990
Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi released, 1983
Star Wars released, 1977 (before we knew it was Episode IV: A New Hope)

Wow. It was 36 years ago today that nerds around the world were given a new hope that science fiction films could become the most important movie genre of all.

And it was 30 years ago today that some of us realized that while they might be shiny and fancy and show us things we had never seen before, a whole lot of them were going to stink on ice anyway.

Ewoks. Oh, how I hates 'em.

So on this blog, May 25 is officially the Birth and Death of Hope.

 May 25: Towel Day

Douglas Adams, most famous as the author of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, died on May 11, 2001. One of his fans decided sent out a message on the 2001 version of the Internet - kind of a sad thing by today's standards - that two weeks after his death on May 25, and every May 25 into perpetuity, fans of Adams would carry a towel with them to show their solidarity.

Here are the reasons why, according to the guide.

A towel, it says, is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have. Partly it has great practical value. You can wrap it around you for warmth as you bound across the cold moons of Jaglan Beta; you can lie on it on the brilliant marble-sanded beaches of Santraginus V, inhaling the heady sea vapours; you can sleep under it beneath the stars which shine so redly on the desert world of Kakrafoon; use it to sail a miniraft down the slow heavy River Moth; wet it for use in hand-to-hand-combat; wrap it round your head to ward off noxious fumes or avoid the gaze of the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal (such a mind-bogglingly stupid animal, it assumes that if you can't see it, it can't see you); you can wave your towel in emergencies as a distress signal, and of course dry yourself off with it if it still seems to be clean enough. 

Advice the wise must surely follow, even to this day.



 

Prediction: December 4, 1912: Germany attacks the United States, sinking three cruisers and a revenue cutter in Honolulu, also bombarding the city.

Predictor: Jack London, The Iron Heel, published 1907

Reality: London definitely gets points for seeing that war is coming, but he's not quite as eerily prescient as H.G. Wells was in predicting war in 1940 between Germany and Poland. It should be noted that there was something of a mutual admiration society between London and Wells and that Wells' fully admits The Shape of Things to Come was inspired by The Iron Heel. In The Iron Heel, the story is told as a 20th Century diary discovered centuries later. The future annotator mentions Wells as an important thinker of his day.

Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!

While today we looked at hope for the future George Lucas gave us then cruelly snatched away, tomorrow is our first visit from the man who almost strangled  filmed science fiction in its cradle.

Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!