Tuesday, April 22, 2014

22 April 2014

Birthdays
Amber Heard b. 1986 (Zombieland)
Michelle Ryan b. 1984 (Metal Hurlant Chronicles, Cockneys vs Zombies, Doctor Who, Merlin, Bionic Woman, Jekyll, The Worst Witch)
Francis Capra b. 1983 (The Strain, Touch, Clear Skies 3, Heroes)
Gemma Whelan b. 1981 (Game of Thrones, The Day They Came to Suck Out Our Brains!, Gulliver’s Travels, The Wolfman)
Eric Mabius b. 1971 (Outcasts, Resident Evil, The Crow: Salvation, Millennium)
Sheryl Lee b. 1967 (Vampires)
Jeffrey Dean Morgan b. 1966 (Watchmen, Jonah Hex, Supernatural, Star Trek: Enterprise, Angel, The Burning Zone, Sliders)
Brooke McCarter b. 1963 (The Lost Boys, The Twilight Zone [1987])
Catherine Mary Stewart b. 1959 (The Witches of Eastwick [TV], Night of the Comet, The Last Starfighter, Mr. Merlin)
Ken Olandt b. 1958 (Total Reality, Digital Man, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Leprechaun, Super Force, V)
Joseph Bottoms b. 1954 (Wishman, The Black Hole)
Steve Englehart b. 1947 (author, Marvel, DC, Max August)
Jason Miller b. 1939 died 13 May 2001 (The Henderson Monster, Vampire (1979), The Exorcist)
Richard Marquand b. 1938 died 4 September1987 (director, Return of the Jedi)
Jack Nicholson b. 1937 (Mars Attacks!, Wolf, Batman, The Witches of Eastwick, The Shining, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, The Terror, The Raven, Little Shop of Horrors)
Eddie Albert b. 1906 died 26 May 2005 (Time Trax, The Girl from Mars, The Twilight Zone [1986], Dreamscape, Beyond Witch Mountain, The Devil’s Rain, Escape to Witch Mountain, The Borrowers, The Outer Limits [1964], Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea)
Byron Haskin b. 1899 died 16 April 1984 (director, The Outer Limits[1964], Robinson Crusoe on Mars, From the Earth to the Moon, Conquest of Space, The War of the Worlds [1953])

Okay, I'll say it. There is one person here much more famous than the rest of the list: Jack Nicholson. More than that, while he has had a long career, he has done genre roles all throughout it, from his early days working for Roger Corman to playing The Joker in the first big budget Batman. I would also like to point out that regardless of the ways he has abused his body, he is still alive while Jason Miller and Richard Marquard, born just two years and one year after him, are already dead. Jack has some crazy wicked luck working for him.

And yet, the Picture Slot goes to Michelle Ryan from the reboot of Bionic Woman because... pretty.

Also iconic.

Many happy returns to all the living on our list and to the dead, thanks for all the memories.
 
Predictor: Geoffrey Hoyle in the 1972 book 2010: Living in the Future, illustrations by Alasdair Anderson

Prediction: The alarm clock wakes you up to music. No chairs, no tables, no beds. The bedroom is an office, the kitchen is a living room. With so many people in the world, there can be no wasted space.

Reality: Say hello to our new Tuesday regular, Geoffrey Hoyle, son of the physicist Sir Fred Hoyle, not to be confused with the British actor Geoff Hoyle who was in The Lion King on Broadway. Hoyle co-wrote a lot of the science fiction his dad worked on and in 1972 made this children's book. If you want to see the whole thing at a single go - just 31 pages with nice big illustrations and text re-written at the bottom for readability - you can click on this link to a website created by Daniel Sinker. Thanks, Daniel!

The book is this amalgam of capitalist progress, socialistic living situations and a feeling of a pleasant post-apocalyptic hellhole. If somebody is serious about taking away my chairs and tables, I would consider it time to exercise my Second Amendment options, if you know what I mean. As for my bed, I sleep in a La-Z-Boy lounger, which has been great for my back. Still, space is nowhere near at the premium Hoyle considers early on.

Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!

We travel backward in time to 1905 to another British version of the brave new world that awaits us.

Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!

6 comments:

  1. Hoyle was right about the bedroom being an office, and the kitchen a living room, although maybe not the way he meant.

    Rooms in houses have become much more multipurpose in all regards. With wi-fi, the bathroom serves as a meeting room, the dining room....well, there's not much use for a dining room anymore. Put the cat tree there, I guess. The garage become the band practice space, and the basement becomes the guest room and recreational space after the laundry has been moved up to the kitchen area.

    Of course, all of these trends were well under way in 1972.

    One of the reasons space is not at the premium that he thought it would be (at least in America; in other countries, it does tend to be tighter) is because of the widespread conversion of farmland to development, and the ensuing white flight diaspora.

    He seems to be a keeper, though!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hey, Zombie! Happy to hear from you. I know this is your field of expertise and I'm always glad to get some first class zombie-splaining on topics architectural.

      Hoyle is going to be fun for the next four months or so.

      Delete
    2. I'm not veering into the zombie version of mansplaining, am I? I can never tell....

      Delete
    3. or Archi-splaining, which I am reliably informed is even worse...

      Delete
    4. You are right, I used the ____splaining construct without realizing it's usually meant as a derogative.

      No derogatory comment was intended. I like hearing about stuff I don't know from people who know it better.

      Delete
    5. Good to know.

      Now, let me tell you the History of Salt....

      Delete

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