Thursday, December 26, 2013

26 December 2013

 Birthdays
Zach Mills b. 1995 (Super 8, Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium)
Kit Harington b. 1986 (Game of Thrones)
Temuera Morrison b. 1960 (Star Wars: Episodes II & III, The Island of Dr. Moreau)
Jon Kilik b. 1956 (producer, The Hunger Games, Pleasantville)
Akihiko Hirata b. 1927 died 25 July 1984 (Godzilla, Rodan, The Mysterians, The H-Man, Mothra, King Kong vs. Godzilla, Atragon, Ghidorah, Ultraman, Godzilla vs. the Sea Monster, Son of Godzilla, Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla)
Shirley Patterson (aka Shawn Smith) b. 1922 died 4 April 1995 (It! The Terror from Beyond Space, World Without End, The Land Unknown, Batman [1943])
Elisha Cook Jr. b. 1903 died 18 May 1995 (Rosemary’s Baby, Star Trek, Salem’s Lot, Blacula, Batman [1966], Adventures of Superman)

Okay! It's St. Stephen's Day and we survived Christmas! The birthday list has more than a few choices for the coveted Picture Slot. For famous right now, Kit Harington, who plays Jon Snow, Ned Stark's bastard who knows nothing, would be the obvious choice. For the "Oh, That Guy" selection, Elisha Cook Jr. started out in the 1930s in character roles and worked for decades with a few roles in genre, probably the best known of those as the lawyer who defends Kirk from a court martial on Star Trek. But instead I went with the Japanese "Oh, That Guy" Akihiko Hirata, who plays the "I have a bad feeling about this" scientist in the original Godzilla and goes on to roles in about a dozen sci-fi and giant monster movies over the next twenty years. (Note: this is the only movie where he wore an eye patch, if I recall correctly.)

Many happy returns to the living on the list and to the departed, thanks for all the memories.


Favorite predictions published in 2013

Three predictions from two contributors to the 30th Anniversary issue of Amazing Stories, dated April 1956.


Hubert J. Schlafly (engineer): Systematic information will be in a form instantly available for response to remote inquiry.

Reality: He didn't say how exactly, but that's not a bad description of the Internet with a search engine. 

Gen. Carlos Romulo (Philippine delegate to the United Nations): Colonialism will have ended... I might be able to talk to Manila from New York with something I have in my pocket.

Reality: Colonialism is pretty much over and a cell phone can call internationally. 

Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!

The 1970s version of Archie Andrews looks at being a teen... in 2012!

Join us then... IN THE FUTURE! 

2 comments:

  1. Ah, thanks for Mr. Hirata. I haven't seen all those films but I've seen most of them. I think I'll see if they are on Netflix. Also, "It! The Terror from beyond Space" was pretty good, a sort of "The Thing gets on a Rocket."

    ReplyDelete
  2. too bad those two guys didn't combine their predictions: "Systematic information will be in a form instantly available... with something I have in my pocket."

    ReplyDelete

Traveler! Have you news... FROM THE FUTURE?