Birthdays
Fran Kranz b. 1981 (Dollhouse)
Gil Birmingham b. 1953 (Twilight)
Cheech Marin b. 1946 (Spy Kids)
Harrison Ford b. 1942 (Star Wars)
Sir Patrick Stewart b. 1940 (Star Trek: The Next Generation)
Today presents a difficult decision. Harrison Ford or Sir Patrick Stewart? Star Wars or Star Trek?
Kingdoms have swayed in the balance of simpler decisions.
But this year, I found out a few things about Sir Patrick that give him the nod in the first 13th of July this blog will celebrate.
He does charitable work for two causes, ending domestic violence and helping people with post traumatic stress disorder. Here's a video from a comic convention where he talks to the crowd about why.
Sir Patrick is a wonderful mensch as well as an A-Number-1 Tip-Top Actor. Many happy returns to everyone on the list.
(Thanks to Laura Eakins for pointing out an earlier error on my part. My data base erroneously had Mr. Ford's birthday on 14 July.)
Songs of the Future!
For the next few Saturdays, this blog will celebrate popular songs that predicted future events, with dates included that have already passed or will happen soon. With this last criterion, a song like In the Year 2525 is not going to be included.
Song and songwriter: Marathon by Jacques Brel, 1968, English lyrics by Mort Shuman and Eric Blau
Lyric:
And the Seventies flash and the Eighties bang
And the Nineties whimper and the century hangs
Robots working in the cotton fields
Vacations on Venus just a tourist deal
Fornication on tape, instant happiness...
Reality: The predictions about the decades are vague, but flash, bang and whimper sound like a war and its aftermath. This is written at a time of great nuclear anxiety, but as we know, there wasn't a big nuclear war and with any luck there won't be one.
So let's go with the specific predictions.
Robots working in the cotton fields: Big machines driven by humans, yes. Robots, no.
Vacations on Venus: No. Way too hot and a poisonous atmosphere.
Fornication on tape: Video taped porn? Yeah, absolutely.
Instant happiness: There are mood-altering drugs that could be called "instant happiness", but they don't work in all cases.
Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!
The next few Mondays will be predictions from OMNI Future Almanac, so I'll be handing Sunday chores over to Popular Mechanics.
Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!
I didn't even have to play the video to know which one you meant. That one is priceless.
ReplyDeleteOf course, I played it anyway. O yes I did.
Even zombies need a little tear in the corner of their eye every once in a while.
DeleteJust FYI - a birthday to add to your list for next year is Harrison Ford (b. 1942). I think his genre credentials are secure. :)
ReplyDeleteOh, what an awful bollox on my part! I did some research and had Mr. Ford's birthday tomorrow. I have fixed the error. Mr. Ford gets the picture slot next year to be sure, but lovely Sir Pat gets first.
Delete