David Knoll b. 2000 (The Strain)Jack Reynor b. 1992 (Transformers: Age of Extinction, Dollhouse)
Veronica Gomez b. 1982 (Dude, Where’s My Car?)
Sonita Henry b. 1977 (Olympus, Young Dracula, Doctor Who, Star Trek [2009], The Fifth Element)
Ewen Bremner b. 1972 (Snowpiercer, Jack the Giant Slayer, The Lost Room, AVP: Alien vs. Predator, Judge Dredd)
Ariadna Gil b. 1969 (Pan’s Labyrinth)
Mariska Hargitay b. 1964 (Lake Placid, Freddy’s Nightmares, Ghoulies)
Gail O’Grady b. 1963 (Time Trax, Superboy, Werewolf [TV])
Richard Roxburgh b. 1962 (Sanctum, Van Helsing, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen)
John H. Tobin b. 1955 (Transformers: Dark of the Moon, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, UFO: Target Earth)
David Patrick Kelly b. 1951 (K-PAX, The Crow, Tales from the Darkside, Dreamscape)
Richard Dean Anderson b. 1950 (Stargate, Legend [TV])
Richard Gilliland b. 1950 (Parts Per Billion, Torchwood, Vampire Clan, Star Kid, Dark Skies, Bug)
Rutger Hauer b. 1944 (True Blood, 2047 – Sights of Death, Dracula 3D, Metal Hurlant Chronicles, Meteor, Minotaur, Batman Begins, Salem’s Lot, Smallville, Flying Virus, The 10th Kingdom, Merlin, Lexx, Omega Doom, Buffy the Vampire Slayer [movie], Ladyhawke, Blade Runner)
Gil Gerard b, 1943 (Star Trek New Voyages: Phase II, Reptisaurus, E.A.R.T.H. Force, Buck Rogers in the 25th Century)
Greg Hildebrandt b. 1939 (Illustrator)
Tim Hildebrandt b. 1939 died 11 June 2006 (Illustrator)
Arlene Golonka b. 1936 (Dr. Alien, The Girl with Something Extra)
Lou Antonio b. 1934 (director, Dark Skies, American Gothic; actor, Bewitched, Star Trek, I Dream of Jeannie)
Walter Michael Miller b. 1923 died 9 January 1996 (won 1961 Hugo for A Canticle for Leibowitz)
Florence Halop b. 1923 died 15 July 1986 (Gemini Man, Captain Nice)
Frances Bay b. 1919 died 15 September 2011 (Repo Chick, Charmed, Inspector Gadget, The X Files, Quantum Leap, Critters, Arachnophobia, ALF, Alien Nation, Amazing Stories, Fairy Tale Theatre, Topper [1979 TV movie])
Susan French b. 1912 died 6 April 2003 (Star Trek: The Next Generation, Flatliners, Quantum Leap, Somewhere in Time, Captain America II: Death Too Soon)
Dan Duryea b. 1907 died 7 June 1968 (The Bamboo Saucer, Twilight Zone)
Notes from the birthday list.
1. The Picture Slot. In previous years, I used the Star Wars poster done by the Hildebrandt twins and the cover art from A Canticle for Leibowitz as representatives for our birthday boys and girls, but this year I decided to choose an iconic role. There are several choices on from TV, notably Richard Dean Anderson, Gil Gerard and Lou Antonio from his role on Star Trek, but looking at movie roles, the best choice is Rutger Hauer from Blade Runner. I do feel like a geezer when I can only name people older than I am as candidates for The Picture Slot, as though I am not keeping up with current trends. In my defense, iconic isn't easy and there's a lot of randomness in it.
2. A fledgling Canadian. David Knoll, who turns 15 today, was born in Canada. The Strain is a Canadian sci-fi show, but it's quite a stretch to assume a person is Canadian from a single credit on one show. He's the only Canadian born actor on the list today.
Many happy returns to all the living on the list and to the dead, thanks for all the memories.
Prediction: The new ethics will hold life to be a privilege and a responsibility, not a sort of night refuge for base spirits out of the void; and the alternative in right conduct between living fully, beautifully, and efficiently will be to die. For a multitude of contemptible and silly creatures, fear-driven and helpless and useless, unhappy or hatefully happy in the midst of squalid dishonour, feeble, ugly, inefficient, born of unrestrained lusts, and increasing and multiplying through sheer incontinence and stupidity, the men of the New Republic will have little pity and less benevolence. To make life convenient for the breeding of such people will seem to them not the most virtuous and amiable thing in the world, as it is held to be now, but an exceedingly abominable proceeding. Procreation is an avoidable thing for sane persons of even the most furious passions, and the men of the New Republic will hold that the procreation of children who, by the circumstances of their parentage, _must_ be diseased bodily or mentally--I do not think it will be difficult for the medical science of the coming time to define such circumstances--is absolutely the most loathsome of all conceivable sins. They will hold, I anticipate, that a certain portion of the population--the small minority, for example, afflicted with indisputably transmissible diseases, with transmissible mental disorders, with such hideous incurable habits of mind as the craving for intoxication--exists only on sufferance, out of pity and patience, and on the understanding that they do not propagate; and I do not foresee any reason to suppose that they will hesitate to kill when that sufferance is abused.
Reality: Meet H.G. Wells, vicious racist scumbag with a hankering for human blood. Looking back from the future, his writing career continues for decades but all his big hits have already been written by 1902. Two later books, Food of the Gods and Shape of Things to Come, will be turned into several films each, but they aren't as famous or interesting as his earlier works War of the Worlds, The Invisible Man, The Time Machine or The Island of Dr. Moreau. If we can trust Wikipedia, Anticipations made a big splash in Edwardian England, and the last chapter - from which this quote is taken - is a big reason why. His bright vision of the future is that the English and a few other white nations are the top of the genetic heap and anyone who can't keep up shouldn't be allowed to breed, much less survive.
Within a few years, he would walk away from his most grotesque ideas of the ideal future society but with this book, He became an important voice to the people who wanted to cling to the British Empire, a position of influence that wore away at his soul and imagination. He would still write over a hundred books after Anticipations, but only a handful are actually worth reading.
Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!
A bit of local boosterism from a small town passes as a prediction of the future from 1893.
Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!
The new ethics will hold life to be a privilege and a responsibility, not a sort of night refuge for base spirits out of the void;
ReplyDeleteThat's almost FroModian.
with such hideous incurable habits of mind as the craving for intoxication
OH NOW IT"S ON, WELLS!
Now that you mention FroMo, I'd almost like to revive Wells somehow just to get a chance to kick his ass one time. It's been a while since I used the "scumbag" label, but there are several more quotes of his that deeply deserve the name.
DeleteJust say the word and I will discharge one of the brethren....
Delete