Wednesday, March 11, 2015

11 March 2015

Birthdays
Anton Yelchin b. 1989 (Only Lovers Left Alive, Star Trek [2009], Fright Night, Terminator Salvation, Taken)
Daniella Kertesz b. 1989 (World War Z, AfterDeath)
Thora Birch b. 1982 (Shadow Realm, Dungeons & Dragons, Hocus Pocus, Purple People Eater)
David Anders b. 1981 (iZombie, Once Upon a Time, The Vampire Diaries, Arrow, Warehouse 13, Heroes, Children of the Corn [2009], The Revenant, Charmed, The Source)
Johnny Knoxville b. 1971 (Men in Black II)
Terrence Howard b. 1969 (Iron Man)
John Barrowman b. 1967 (Arrow, Torchwood, Doctor Who)
Peter Berg b. 1964 (director, The Six Billion Dollar Man, Battleship, Virtuality, Hancock; actor, The Leftovers, Hancock, Shocker)
Alex Kingston b. 1963 (Arrow, Doctor Who, FlashForward)
Jeffrey Nordling b. 1962 (Arrow, TRON: Legacy, Apollo 11, Time Trax, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Alien Nation, Beauty and the Beast)
Elias Koteas b. 1961 (The Last Days on Mars, Let Me In, The Fourth Kind, The Haunting in Connecticut, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Skinwalkers, S1m0ne, Gattaca, The Prophecy, Cyborg 2, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles)
Fulvio Cecere b. 1960 (The Flash, Continuum, The 100, The Tomorrow People, 666 Park Avenue, Grimm, Lost Girl, Matty Hanson and the Invisibility Ray, Resident Evil: Afterlife, Watchmen, Supernatural, The Middleman, Battlestar Galactica, Reaper, Eureka, Stargate SG-1, Blade: The Series, Stephen King’s Dead Zone, Paycheck, Dead Like Me, Odyssey 5, Taken, Smallville, Witchblade, Relic Hunter, Dark Angel, Earth; Final Conflict, Strange World, Millennium, Cloned, Highlander [TV], The X-Files)
Robert Glenister b. 1960 (Doctor Who)
Stephen R. Hart b. 1958 (The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones, Space Janitors, Oz the Great and Powerful, Lost Girl, Fear Itself, Wonderfalls, Resident Evil: Apocalypse, Carver’s Gate)
Rob Paulsen b. 1956 (The Tick, Samurai Jack, Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law)
Douglas Adams b. 1952 died 11 May 2001 (author, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy)
Diane Sherry Case b. 1952 (Superman [1978])
Jerry Zucker b. 1950 (director, Ghost)
Mark Metcalf b. 1946 (Buffy, Angel, Star Trek: Voyager)
Angelique Pettyjohn b. 1943 died 14 February 1992 (The Wizard of Speed and Time, Biohazard, Repo Man, Mad Doctor of Blood Island, Star Trek, Batman, Mr. Terrific, The Green Hornet, The Phantom Planet)
Nancy Kovack b. 1935 (The Invisible Man [TV], Marooned, Star Trek, Batman, I Dream of Jeannie, Bewitched, The Invaders, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, Jason and the Argonauts)
Albert Salmi b. 1928 died 22 April 1990 (Knight Rider, Small & Frye, Dragonslayer, Empire of the Ants, Escape from the Planet of the Apes, Future Cop, Land of the Giants, Lost in Space, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, Twilight Zone)
Christopher Anvil b. 1925 died 30 November 2009 (author, Federation of Humanity, The Day the Machines Stopped)
Ferdy Mayne b. 1916 died 30 January 1998 (Frankenstein’s Aunt, Howling II:… Your Sister Is a Werewolf, Conan the Destroyer, The Greatest American Hero, Hawk the Slayer, The Vampire Lovers, The Fearless Vampire Killers, Masters of Venus)
Shemp Howard b. 1895 died 22 November 1955 (The Invisible Woman)

Notes from the birthday list.
1. The Picture Slot. The Picture Slot has been given in earlier years to Anton Yelchin as Chekov in the Star Trek reboot and Douglas Adams, both iconic in my book. Removing them from the list, we still have plenty of great candidates. From the Doctor Who universe, there's John Barrowman and Alex Kingston, from Buffy, there's Mark Metcalf as The Master, but I am in a Star Trek babe mood this morning (like I'm never NOT in a Star Trek babe mood), so the decision was between Angelique Pettyjohn and Nancy Kovack. This decision boiled down to breasts wrapped in tribble skins and breast wrapped in aluminum foil, and I have to say, people wearing aluminum foil as clothing just screams "FUTURE!".

2. Canadians, spottable and not. Stephen R. Hart and Fulvio Cecere are Canadian actors who stayed home. Elias Koteas is a Canadian who wandered South and decided he liked it here. David Anders has some Canadian credits, but he was born in the States.

3. MST3K. Angelique Pettyjohn was in The Phantom Planet.


4. Not related. Terrence Howard and Shemp Howard, but you knew that.

5. Making exceptions by invoking the First Rule of Blogging. It is my custom to ignore voice work, in large part because I don't want to be typing all day, but Rob Paulsen worked on three of my favorite cartoons, so he is listed here. The First Rule of Blogging is, of course, You Aren't The Boss of Me.

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

Movie released
Robots released, 2005
 
Predictor: George Sutherland in his 1901 book Twentieth Century Inventions

Prediction: The stoking difficulties on large ocean-going steamers have become so acute that they now suggest the conclusion that, notwithstanding repeated failures, a really effective mechanical stoker will be so imperatively called for as to enforce the adoption of any reasonably good device. The heat, grime, and general misery of the stoke-hole have become so deterrent that the difficulty of securing men to undertake the work grows greater year by year, and in recruiting the ranks of the stokers resort had to be had more and more to those unfortunate men whose principal motive for labour is the insatiable desire for a drinking bout.

Reality: Oh, Mr. Sutherland, and we were getting along so well.

Question 1: Are you implying there are people who work all day with no intention of getting a drink after?

Question 2: Just how many drinks constitutes a bout?

Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!

Another incorrect but authoritative forecast from The Experts Speak.

Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!

11 comments:

  1. According to the old engineering joke, Roche's limit is three beers. Assuming that all workers are like Roche, the fourth drink would then comprise a bout.

    There. It's fixed.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks for this valuable information. I just had three beers and I'm switching to wine, which officially makes this a bout.

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    2. I thought it was start with wine and switch to beer, then to hard liquor. But I am notorious for bad decisions....

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    3. At least you admit it. Always start with the hard liquor.

      Delete
  2. Mark Metcalfe moved to a suburb of Milwaukee and opened a restaurant with his wife, but kept a bit of acting going, most notably in local theater. In particular, with the First Stage children's theater academy; he played the Father one year in A Christmas Story.

    Asked about his acting history after one show, he choked up and said without a doubt, working with the kids at First Stage was way better than working in TV or movies...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I like that story. Thanks for sharing.

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    2. Metcalfe also played the title character in a live version of "The Giver" and was STELLAR. in the course of the show, he was barefoot, and his feet are seriously fucked up....

      We took our son to First Stage productions since he was old enough to sit still for some period of time, and sent him to the Academy for summers as long as he felt like it. He said it was the best place to be, as everyone there ACCEPTED everyone else, no judgement. We sent him to New York with them on a Young persons Theatrical tour, and went along as chaperones, because, damn, it was New York, you know. And it was JUST AS AWESOME AS YOU WOULD WANT.

      We have season tickets to Milwaukee Rep, Stiemke Theater, and Skylight Musical, and they often have children cast members, and almost always, they are from First Stage. FS is amazing and wonderful and while some of the kids go on to be actors or theatrical staff, some, like Young Zombie, go on to other careers but never forget how important the acceptance of weirdness and embrace of art can be to a well-balanced individual.

      Delete
  3. Since I love First Stage, not just for the confidence they instilled in our son, but also because they are so good and their plays are pretty much awesome and cheap as hell:

    http://www.firststage.org

    Good Lord, their current season included Big Fish, Our Town, and Hamlet???!?!

    Shit. Maybe we should have kept our season tickets....

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Always love hearing stories from the proud undead parents.

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  4. For many years, the only places I would see Mark Metcalfe appear were in films where he was also had a production credit, so I would guess he made those as much because he wanted to as for a paycheck. (Girls in Suits at Lunch comes to mind, not to mention Head Over Heels, which got recut with a happy ending that made no sense and re-released under the title of the Ann Beattie novel on which it was based, Chilly Scenes of Winter.)

    And then he did Buffy. Good to now know he survived the aftermath of that.

    ReplyDelete

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