Saturday, October 11, 2014

11 October 2014

 Birthdays
Helen Colliander b. 2000 (Being Human)
Dante Palminteri b. 1995 (Sharknado 2: The Second One)
Michelle Trachtenberg b. 1985 (Buffy, Meego)
Bradley James b. 1983 (Merlin)
Kristy Wu b. 1982 (Return to Halloweentown, Buffy, Future Tense)
Doona Bae b. 1979 (Sense8, Cloud Atlas, Doomsday Book, The Host, The Ring Virus)
Trevor Donovan b. 1978 (Surrogates)
Matt Bomer b.1977 (Space Station 76, Winter’s Tale, In Time, Relic Hunter)
Emily Deschanel b. 1976 (Spider-Man 2, Rose Red)
Holly Fields b. 1976 (Charmed, Seedpeople, The Big One: The Great Los Angeles Earthquake, The Munsters Today, ALF, Communion, Quantum Leap)
Kane Kosugi b. 1974 (Godzilla: Final Wars, Ultraman: The Ultimate Hero)
Claudia Black b. 1972 (Haven, Stargate SG-1, The Dresden Files, Moonlight, Farscape, Queen of the Damned, Xena, BeastMaster [TV], Pitch Black, Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, Amazon High)
Constance Zimmer b. 1970 (FreakyLinks, The X Files, Babylon 5)
Stephen Moyer b. 1969 (True Blood, Priest, Ultraviolet)
Lennie James b. 1965 (The Walking Dead, The Prisoner [2009 TV], Jericho, Lost in Space [1998])
Luke Perry b. 1965 (Supernova, Jeremiah, Clone High, The Fifth Element, Invasion, Buffy the Vampire Slayer [1992 movie])
Sean Patrick Flanery b. 1965 (Scavengers, Phantom, The Devil’s Carnival, Stephen King’s Dead Zone, Savage Planet, Demon Hunter, Charmed, Stargate SG-1)
Michael J. Nelson b. 1964 (Mystery Science Theater 3000)
Nicola Bryant b. 1960 (Doctor Who)
Eric Keenleyside b. 1957 (Once Upon a Time, Godzilla [2014], Supernatural, Fringe, Stargate SG-1, Kingdom Hospital, Phenomenon II, Smallville, Stephen King’s Dead Zone, Honey, I Shrunk the Kids: The TV Show, The X Files, Poltergeist: The Legacy, Cloned, Highland [TV], Bordello of Blood, The Twilight Zone [1989], War of the Worlds)
Dawn French b. 1957 (Psychoville, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban)
Stephen Spinella b. 1956 (Heroes, Virtuosity)
Tim Choate b. 1954 died 24 September 2004 (Babylon 5, The Charmings, Tales from the Darkside, Def-Con 4, Ghost Story)
David Morse b. 1953 (Horns, World War Z, Hearts in Atlantis, The Green Mile, Contact, Twelve Monkeys, The Langoliers, SeaQuest 2032, Tales from the Crypt, Prototype)
Catlin Adams b. 1950 (Underworld: Awakening)
Caroline John b. 1940 died 5 June 2012 (Doctor Who)
Ron Liebman b. 1937 (Slaughterhouse-Five)
Robert Patten b. 1925 died 29 December 2001 (Project U.F.O., Wonder Woman, Westworld, The Invaders, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea)
Frederick Kerr b. 1858 died 3 May 1933 (Frankenstein [1931])

Notes on the birthday list.
1. The Picture Slot. Wow. that's a lot of choices of people with iconic roles. Last year, Michelle Trachtenberg from Buffy. This year, I could easily have chosen Stephen Moyer from True Blood, Michael J. Nelson from MST3K, Lennie James from The Walking Dead, Luke Perry from Jeremiah, Tim Choate as Zathras from Babylon 5 or one of the two Doctor Who companions, Caroline John or Nicola Bryant. I'd also include several roles from David Morse as candidates and just because I love The Host so much, I might use a picture of the Korean actress Doona Bae.

But of course, you aren't looking at any of them. I chose Claudia Black as Aeryn Sun from Farscape. When it comes to muscle tone, cleavage and a very large gun, I'd give Ms. Black my vote, possibly even over any of the actresses who played Sarah Connor, and that is some serious competition.

2. Hey... no Star Trek! For the first time in a long time, I did not find a single actor whose birthday is October 11 who had a credited role on any of the jillion iterations of Star Trek that have been made over the past half century. That's really unusual and it gets its own label starting today.

3. The curse that is Babylon 5. Four actors on that show whose names were in the opening credits - Richard Biggs, Andreas Katsulas, Jeff Conaway and Michael O'Hare - died and the oldest of them made it to 60. Tim Choate was not an opening credits actor, but Zathras was a recurring role. He died at 49. Compare this to the cast of Deep Space Nine that aired at about the same time. As far as I know, everyone from the opening credits cast is still alive, as well they should be.

4. Spot the Canadian! I think it's pretty easy today. Answer in the comments.

5. Wait... born 1858? Not a typo. Frederick Kerr played Baron Frankenstein, the doctor's father in the 1931 version.

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

Predictor: Joaquin Miller (1839-1913), poet and playwright, predicting the 20th Century in honor of the 1893 Columbian Exhibition in Chicago.

Further introduction: Miller's name survives to this day, though his reputation is in tatters. Two of his contemporaries, Ambrose Bierce and Bret Harte, championed his work "though not enthusiastically" as is written on his Wikipedia page. He was a tireless self-promoter and had some success when he went to England, where society saw him as an amusing rough spun curiosity. Many people who comment about him are ready to say he had almost no acquaintance with the truth.

Still, that's some 19th Century facial hair. I mean, I haven't seen anyone in the baseball playoffs this year with a beard that intense, and that is saying something.


Predictions (realities): We will cut off the foreign vote, the ignorant vote and the verdant vote. (Guy sound like a Republican if you count libtards as the "the ignorant vote". This one gets a zero.)

States should send their oldest and wisest men to govern as senator, unencumbered by the noisy and dirty area of electioneering. (Again, there's some Republican bullshit running around that senate seats shouldn't have to be decided by popular vote. This guy is losing ground and fast.)

We will build new cities on beautiful sites, as men now build hotels, emptying the unclean and preserving the healthful and new. Whereabouts I do not know, but all the world is going to town. Machinery has emancipated man from the fields.  (Here he scores a few points. A big change did come in the 20th Century in terms of the urban/rural ratio. As for new towns built like hotels, that describes Tahoe and Vegas well enough.)

With large fortunes, some day we will require the bulk of the rich man's money, when he is done with it of course, to build national parks to give back to the nation which helped him get hold of it. (This would require a Death Tax. As we know - because the children of Sam Walton made it abundantly clear - Death Taxes Are Bad.)

As for literature, we cannot improve on the Bible, the Arabian Tales or Shakespeare. The sensational newspapers will disappear. (People do still write and literature moves forward. Sensational papers still survive.)

As for discoveries, Truly it seems that some new Columbus must launch his airships on the great high seas and gulf streams that surge and roll above us. (It's not clear if "airships" should mean balloons are heavier than air flight, but in either case, air travel certainly is one of the big differences between the 19th and 20th Centuries, so points for this one.)

Who now alive will be best remembered? Edison, of course. (Good choice, though Mark Twain, Alexander Graham Bell and Queen Victoria might get some votes as well.)

Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!

Another nice quiet Sunday, relaxing and reading about nuclear conflagration.

Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!
 

7 comments:

  1. Addenda:

    Claudia Black also had guest spots in "Moonlight" as a vampire and in "The Dresden Files" as a p.i. who worked with Harry (a wizard) on a case involving an incubus. She doesn't really do accents well but when she uses her own voice, it works for me.

    Stephen Moyer played his first vampire in the British 6-episode-series "Ultraviolet" (good series, worth checking out).

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  2. Today's maple-leaf bearer is Mr. Keenleyside. His résumé offers plenty of clues, but the dead giveaway is the TV series War of the Worlds, a shining example of unintentional comedy.

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    Replies
    1. Good catch, though not a difficult one. I forgot to put the comment in when I posted the blog entry.

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  3. Eric Keenleyside is the Canadian. Supernatural, Smallville, X Files is definitely a Canuckistan trifecta.

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