22 August 2013

Birthdays
Richard Armitage b. 1971 (The Hobbit)
Kristen Wiig b. 1973 (Paul)
Adewale Akimmuoye-Agbaje b. 1967 (Lost, G.I. Joe, The Mummy)
Ty Burrell b. 1967 (Hulk reboot)
Colm Feore b. 1958 (Chronicles of Riddick, Thor, Battlestar Galactica)
Mark Williams b. 1959 (Harry Potter)
Honor Blackman b. 1925 (Jason and the Argonauts)
Ray Bradbury b. 1920 died 6/5/2012

My natural inclination for the Picture Slot would be Honor Blackman as Hera and I certainly might go that way next time the 22nd of August rolls around, but this year I put in the picture of the most important person on this list as far as the genre of science fiction goes, and that is Ray Bradbury. His book The Martian Chronicles is going to be a regular source of material on the blog very soon. Every chapter but one of this book first published in 1945 has as its title a month, a year and a phrase, such as the first chapter January 1999: Rocket Summer. The last three take place in 2026, a little too far in the future for this blog, but the rest are between 1999 and 2005, so they work perfectly.

Of course, we didn't start sending people to Mars in 1999, so the "reality" part of each prediction could just read "Well... no." But I like Ray Bradbury more than that, so I'll make a little more effort. Bradbury is the complete opposite of "hard science fiction" and thought of himself more as a storyteller. I wasn't a big reader of science fiction when I was a kid, but my favorites back in the 1960s were Bradbury, Vonnegut and Frank Herbert.

Many happy returns to the living on our birthday list, and of course, when the birthday of an important person who is now dead rolls around, it's a good time to remember them as well.

Best wishes to the family and friends of Ray Bradbury, from a fan.

Prediction: 1990: The Bronx is a lawless No Man’s Land. An 18 year old heiress, disgusted by the methods used by her father to amass the fortune she will inherit, runs away to the Bronx, where she comes under the protection of Trash, the leader of a gang known as The Riders.

Predictor: 1990: The Bronx Warriors, released 22 August 1982

Reality: This Italian film should not be confused with the 1979 Walter Hill film The Warriors, which has now taken on cult status. It should also not be confused with a good movie in any way. The tagline in the poster is "The first to die were the lucky ones!"

In reality, the people who never saw it were the lucky ones.

Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!

Yet another prediction from a movie, this one giving an exact date for a catastrophic event.

Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!