Birthdays
Rupert Grint b. 1988 (Harry Potter)
Jennifer Lien b. 1974 (Star Trek: Voyager)
Barret Oliver b. 1973 (The Neverending Story, Cocoon, D.A.R.Y.L, The Twilight Zone)
Stephen Fry b. 1957 (V for Vendetta, Alice in Wonderland)
Orson Scott Card b. 1951
(won 1986 Hugo and Nebula for Ender’s Game)
(won 1987 Hugo and Nebula for Speaker for the Dead)
Kenny Baker b. 1934 (Star Wars)
William Morgan Sheppard b. 1932 (Star Trek, Babylon 5)
A lot of birthdays today and more than enough controversy. Stephen Fry has only a few science fiction and fantasy credits in his long career, but he is known for being openly gay and an avowed atheist. Fry is one of several celebrities now raising awareness of the legal plight of gays and transgender people under Vladimir Putin's rule in Russia.
On the other end of the spectrum, we have Orson Scott Card, whose entire writing career is in science fiction and fantasy. He openly embraces the hatred of homosexuals that is a tenet of his Mormon faith and just as his best known work is being turned into a major motion picture, wrote a short paranoid fantasy deeply popular with right wing shitheads that Obama is going to turn urban street gangs into a national police force.
For the picture slot, Ron Weasley or R2-D2 would have been completely understandable choices or I could have gone with The Cute Girl and had a picture of Jennifer Lien in character from Voyager. Instead, I chose the child actor Barret Oliver, a kid who quit the business not long after puberty hit. Almost all of his best known work was in science fiction or fantasy from the 1980s.
Many happy returns to almost all of our birthday boys and girls.
In the Year 2000!
Prediction: Dresses of glass and aluminum, men clothed to look like a cross between Prince Valiant and Batman and a British narrator who knows his job is to make sure the copy is dripping with homoerotic tension.
Predictor: A Pathe newsreel from 1939
Reality: The reality is obvious. The future is fabulous!
Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!
For the next few months, Sundays will belong chapter by chapter to Ray Bradbury's 1945 classic The Martian Chronicles.
Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!
apparently pockets will still only be for men. Nice to see him in a jumpsuit though.
ReplyDeleteSwish!
"Ooh, swish!" and "candies for cuties" made this video absolutely essential. The guy's facial hair is also a great touch.
DeleteAlso interesting to see one designer implicitly admitting that skirts aren't completely practical. Looking outside just now, it seems they haven't disappeared though. In fact, coming from IrishFest last weekend, they seem to be spreading to other genders.
ReplyDeleteAlso, the idea that clothing will be much less protective, since environments will be climate controlled. Apparently "outside" will disappear! (although it is rapidly veering toward uninhabitable, so 1/2 a point). Granted, this is also common in old sci-fi movies. Although it seems to only apply to women. Maybe they will be the Cloud Minders. Men, apparently, will need to be Batman. Batmans. Afflecks, I dunno. His facial hair is troublesome though. He looks more like Krankor.
In fact, other than the pointy shoulders, one of the remarkable things is that most of the women's fashions shown wouldn't be that unusual right now. The one with the mesh top is very common (well, except maybe the coiled tubing parts). Even the crazier ones are less frightening that what is seen on fashion runways these days.