12 June 2014

 Birthdays
Abbey Lee b. 1987 (Mad Max: Fury Road)
Luke Youngblood b. 1986 (Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone)
Dave Franco b. 1985 (Warm Bodies, Fright Night)
Richard Ayoade b. 1977 (The IT Crowd, The Watch, Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace)
Rick Hoffman b. 1970 (Battleship, The Day After Tomorrow, What Planet Are You From?)
Gordon Michael Woolvert b. 1970 (Supernatural, Andromeda, Sliders, Mysterious Island, Forever Knight, Maniac Mansion, Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future)
Sarah Trigger b. 1968 (Pet Sematary II, Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey)
Frances O’Connor b. 1967 (Timeline, a.i. Artificial Intelligence, Bedazzled [2000])
Patrice Martinez b. 1963 (Beetlejuice)
Eamonn Walker b. 1962 (Unbreakable)
Paul Schulze b. 1962 (The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Roswell)
Scott Thompson b. 1959 (Star Trek: Voyager, Millennium)
Timothy Busfield b. 1957 (Revolution, Lois and Clark)
Gary Farmer b. 1953 (Mutant X, Forever Knight)
Roger Aaron Brown b. 1949 (Seeking a Friend for the End of the World, Supernatural, Dark Skies, Galaxis, RoboCop 2, Alien Nation, Hard Time on Planet Earth, Near Dark, Star Trek: The Motion Picture, The Incredible Hulk)
Len Wein b. 1948 (writer, Swamp Thing)
Henry Slesar b. 1927 died 2 April 2002 (author, 20 Million Miles to Earth, Examination Day)
Uta Hagen b. 1919 (The Twilight Zone [1986], The Boys from Brazil)
Irwin Allen b. 1916 died 2 November 1991 (producer/writer/director, Aliens from Another Planet, The Swarm, City Beneath the Sea, Land of the Giants, The Time Tunnel, Lost in Space, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, The Lost World)

 Regular readers will know that I have a complicated relationship with the work of Irwin Allen, the guy in today's Picture Slot. Compared to his contemporary show-runners Rod Serling and Gene Roddenberry, Allen is a midget in terms of talent and taste. But in terms have creating a good relationship with networks and giving them what they wanted, Allen is more successful than either of his more fondly remembered colleagues. I give him credit and have a label for his stuff because the 1960s is the beginning of Hollywood thinking of sci-fi as a genre that can make money, whether aimed at kids or adults, and Irwin Allen's shows were a big part of that.

To be blunt, the competition for Picture Slot today was not filled to the brim with iconic characters. Some of the faces are recognizable, notably Paul Schulze as Father Phil on The Sopranos, Scott Thompson from Kids in the Hall and Timothy Busfield from Thirtysomething, but none of those roles are in genre. The second place choice was Roger Aaron Brown, an Oh That Guy actor who you very well might see next year.

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


Movies released
This is the End, released 2013

Predictor: Oliver Owen in The Plague of Lights, published 1904, reprinted in Mike Ashley's anthology Steampunk Prime

Prediction: On 12 June 1906, the first recorded instance of the phenomenon known as "the plague of lights" occurs outside the Strand Theatre in London.

Reality: The story is one of those "old switcheroo" types, the lights from the sky touching people in the crowd symbolizing people who have found true love. Though I was happy to find Steampunk Prime since it had several stories with exact dates that were set in the future from the point of view of the writer, I'm not that keen on re-labeling the sci-fi from the Victorian and Edwardian eras "steampunk". Some modern stories set in that era deserve the label, but most of the stories I read from this collection don't have that feeling of the future coming in fast due to technology hurtling forward.

Just one readers opinion.

Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!

On Wednesday, we bid goodbye somewhat reluctantly to T. Baron Russell as a prognosticator. Tomorrow, we get the last prediction from Dr. Paul Ehrlich, I will be glad to see the last of him. I'm running out of adjectives to describe how bad his stuff sucked.

Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!