16 January 2015

Birthdays
Yvonne Zima b. 1989 (Iron Man 3)
Mason Gamble b. 1986 (Gattaca)
Birgitte Hjort Sorensen b. 1982 (Automata)
Aaliyah b. 1979 died 25 August 2001 (Queen of the Damned)
Nick Dash b. 1974 (R.I.P.D., Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen)
Josie Davis b. 1973 (Wizardream, The Cursed, In the Land of Merry Misfits, Mortal Kombat: Conquest, Dead at 21, Free Spirit)
Eriko Tamura b. 1973 (Reaper, Heroes, Nuclear Hurricane)
Dameon Clarke b. 1972 (Supernatural, A Scanner Darkly)
Annika Peterson b. 1972 (The Man from Earth)
Garth Ennis b. 1970 (writer, Constantine, Ghost Rider, The Punisher)
David Chokachi b. 1968 (10.0 Earthquake, Army of the Damned, Abner, the Invisible Dog, Rage of the Yeti, Bats: Human Harvest, Witchblade, Psycho Beach Party, Sabrina, the Teenage Witch)
Heather Elizabeth Parkhurst b. 1968 (Perversions of Science, Witchboard 2)
Kathy Evison b. 1963 (Highlander [TV], SeaQuest 2032)
Mark Steger b. 1962 (The Pact I & II, Mr. Jones, Heroes: Going Postal, I Am Legend, Modern Prometheus LLC, Men in Black II)
Debbie Allen b. 1950 (Quantum Leap, Alice at the Palace)
Caroline Munro b. 1949 (Vampyres, Demons 6: De Profundis, Starcrash, Space: 1999, At the Earth’s Core, The Golden Voyage of Sinbad, The Abominable Dr. Phibes, Captain Kronos – Vampire Hunter, Dracula A.D. 1972)
John Carpenter b. 1948 (director, Ghosts of Mars, Vampires, Escape from L.A., Village of the Damned, Memoirs of an Invisible Man, They Live, Prince of Darkness, Big Trouble in Little China, Starman, Christine, The Thing [1982], Escape from New York, The Fog, Halloween, Dark Star)
Kate McMullan b. 1947 (Author, Dragon Slayer’s Academy)
Keith Wayne b. 1945 died 9 September 1995 (Living Dead [2012], Night of the Living Dead)
Fred Coffin b. 1943 died 31 July 2003 (The Invisible Man [2000 TV], Zenon: Girl of the 21st Century, NightMan, The X-Files, Something is Out There, Amazing Stories, Twilight Zone [1986])
Michael Pataki b. 1938 died 15 April 2010 (Halloween 4, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Automan, The Amazing Spider-Man [1978], The Invisible Man [1975], The Bat People, Grave of the Vampire, The Sixth Sense, The Andromeda Strain, The Return of Count Yorga, Star Trek, Mr. Terrific, Batman, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, My Favorite Martian, Twilight Zone)
Susan Sontag b. 1933 died 28 December 2004 (Zelig)
Sherry Moreland b. 1922 died 24 February 1995 (Pyro… The Thing Without a Face, Adventure of Superman, Mesa of Lost Women, Rocketship X-M)
Elliot Reid b. 1920 died 21 June 2013 (Small Wonder, The Munsters, Son of Flubber, The Absent-Minded Professor)
Steve Conte b. 1920 died 1997 (The Kindred, Bewitched, Batman, The Wild World of Batwoman, Face of the Screaming Werewolf, Teenage Zombies, I Was a Teenage Werewolf)
Stirling Silliphant b. 1918 died 1996 (writer, Space, Charly, Village of the Damned )
Leslie H. Martinson b. 1915 (director, Small Wonder, Manimal, Small & Frye, The Powers of Matthew Star, Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, Wonder Woman, The Bionic Woman, The Six Million Dollar Man, The Immortal, The Green Hornet, Batman: The Movie, Topper, The Atomic Kid)
Ethel Merman b. 1908 died 15 February 1984 (Batman)
Alexander Knox b. 1907 died 25 April 1995 (Holocaust 2000, The Son of Dr. Jekyll)
Jason Johnson b. 1907 died 24 November 1977 (The Bionic Woman, Wonder Woman, The Invisible Man [1975], The Andromeda Strain, The Cape Canaveral Monsters, Twilight Zone, Adventure of Superman, Invasion of the Saucer Men)
Karl Freund b. 1890 died 3 May 1969 (cinematographer, Metropolis, Dracula, The Golem)

Notes from the birthday list.
1. The Picture Slot. Last year I used a picture of Caroline Munro and I doubt any heterosexual male could blame me. Choosing not to repeat myself, my top two picks were Aaliyah from Queen of the Damned, which I didn't see, or Michael Pataki as the Klingon who taunts Scotty into a fight in The Trouble with Tribbles, which I have seen plenty of times though not recently.

2. The Camouflaged Canadians. Alexander Knox stopped working in the mid 1980s, so he's not even available during the Golden Age of Canuck Sci-Fi. Dameon Clarke was on Supernatural, but lots of Yanks show up on that show as well. His credit list is short here because he is largely a voice actor and I only list voice work in special instances.

3. Calling Willard Scott! I often point out the people who died young on the birthday lists, morbid bastid that I am, but to the best of my knowledge, we have our first centenarian today with Leslie H. Martinson, director of lots of TV shows from the 1950s through the 1980s and a few feature films as well. Congratulations to Mr. Martinson and I wish him all the best.

4. MST3K.  The actors who appeared in movies that got the Best Brains treatment are Sherry Moreland in Rocketship X-M and Steve Conte in The Wild World of Batwoman and I Was a Teenage Werewolf, as Zombie Rotten McDonald was kind enough to correct me.

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

Predictor: H.G. Wells in his 1902 book Anticipations

Prediction: The Twentieth Century will see the effectual crowding out of most of the weaker languages--if not a positive crowding out, yet at least (as in Flanders) a supplementing of them by the superposition of one or other of a limited number of world-languages over the area in which each is spoken. This will go on not only in Europe, but with varying rates of progress and local eddies and interruptions over the whole world...

What will these aggregating world-languages be? When one comes to look closely into the question one is surprised to discover how slow the extension of English has been in the face of apparently far less convenient tongues. English still fails to replace the French language in French Canada, and its ascendancy is doubtful to-day in South Africa, after nearly a century of British dominion. It has none of the contagious quality of French, and the small class that monopolizes the direction of British affairs, and probably will monopolize it yet for several decades, has never displayed any great zeal to propagate its use.

Reality: Wells thought the odds of English becoming the dominant language in the world were low and he put the job on the Brits. He had no idea how much the 20th Century would be the American Century. English has supplanted French as the language spoken by educated people around the world.

Looking one day ahead...  INTO THE FUTURE!

Back to 1893 to get predictions from one of few women who were asked their opinions.


Join us then...  IN THE FUTURE!