23 March 2015

 Birthdays
Vanessa Morgan b. 1992 (My Babysitter’s a Vampire)
Steven Strait b. 1986 (10,000 BC, Sky High, The Covenant)
Anastasia Griffith b. 1978 (Once Upon a Time)
Nicholle Tom b. b. 1978 (Gotham, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde [2006], Welcome to Paradox)
Michelle Monaghan b. 1976 (Source Code)
Keri Russell b. 1976 (Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, Dark Skies, Honey I Blew Up the Kid)
Jaume Collet-Serra b. 1974 (House of Wax [2005])
Melissa Errico b. 1970 (Frequency)
Marin Hinkle b. 1966 (The Haunting of Molly Hartley, Quarantine, Frequency)
Sarah Buxton b. 1965 (Freddy’s Nightmares, Otherworld)
Hope Davis b. 1964 (Real Steel, Flatliners)
John Pinnette b. 1964 died 5 April 2014 (The Punisher)
Jason Schombing b. 1963 (Supernatural, Alice [2009], Watchmen, Smallville, Tin Man, Stephen King’s Dead Zone, Fantastic Four, Mutant X, Seven Days, Stargate SG-1, The New Addams Family, The Crow: Stairway to Heaven, NightMan, Early Edition, Timecop, The X Files, I Still Dream of Jeannie)
Jenny Wright b. 1962 (Enchanted, The Lawnmower Man, Near Dark)
Charlene Ferenetz b. 1960 (Sabrina the Teenage Witch [Movie and TV], Mann & Machine)
Catherine Keener b. 1959 (Percy Jackson & the Olympians, Where the Wild Things Are, Being John Malkovich, S1m0ne)
Amanda Plummer b. 1957 (The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, Vampire, Battlestar Galactica, The Vampyre Wars, Dark Skies, The Prophecy, Needful Things, Freejack, The Hidden Room, Tales from the Crypt)
Teresa Ganzel b. 1957 (Hexed, They Came from Outer Space, The Charmings, The Twilight Zone [1986], Transylvania 6-5000)
Sal Lizard b. 1955 (Young Blood: Evil Intentions, Hillbilly Bob Zombie, I Am Legend [2007])
Kim Stanley Robinson b. 1952 (won the 1993 Nebula for Red Mars, 1994 Hugo for Green Mars, 1997 Nebula for Blue Mars, 2012 Nebula for 2312)
John William Young b. 1951 (Frankenstein General Hospital)
Barbara Rhoades b. 1947 (Quark, Tabitha, The Six Million Dollar Man, The Ghost Busters [1975], Far Out Space Nuts, Kolchak: The Night Stalker, Scream Blacula Scream, Bewitched)
Terry Alexander b. 1947 (Day of the Dead, Salvage 1, The Werewolf of Washington)
Elizabeth Ann Scarborough b. 1947 (won the 1990 Nebula for The Healer’s War)
Tony Burton b. 1937 (Poltergeist: The Legacy, Hook, The Shining, The Incredible Hulk, Gemini Man, The Invisible Man)
Kenneth Tobey b. 1917 died 22 December 2002 (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Honey I Blew Up the Kid, Gremlins 2: The New Batch, Innerspace, The Twilight Zone [1986], Gremlins, Strange Invaders, The Howling, Galactica 1980, The Vampire, It Came from Beneath the Sea, The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms, The Thing from Another World)
Joan Crawford b. 1905 died 10 May 1977 (The Sixth Sense [1972], Trog, Night Gallery)
H. Beam Piper b. 1904 died 11 November 1964 (author, Little Fuzzy, Flight from Tomorrow)
Philip Ober b. 1902 died 13 September 1982 (I Dream of Jeannie, The Munsters, The Brass Bottle, Twilight Zone)

Notes from the birthday list.
1. The Picture Slot. In previous years, the Picture Slot went to Michelle Monaghan, certainly fabulous but questionably iconic in genre, and Kenneth Tobey, who showed up in several 1950s monster movies. While we have an honest to Odin movie star in Joan Crawford, I think the writers on the list today are more iconic than the actors, so the Picture Slot goes to the three Mars books of Kim Stanley Robinson, each of which won either a Nebula or a Hugo, a rare feat for a trilogy. For example, George R.R. Martin currently has a total of... let me check... ZERO Hugos and ZERO Nebulas for the first five books of the Song of Ice and Fire.

2. Canadians, true and false. If you followed the standard operating procedure for Canadian spotting, the obvious choice is Jason Schombing, but he was born in Philadelphia and I can find no independent confirmation that he moved to Canada, though it certainly looks like he did. The native Canadians are Charlene Ferenetz and Vanessa Morgan, but their nationality is not made clear by their credit lists.

3. Nepotism FTW. Amanda Plummer is the daughter of Christopher Plummer, a Canadian, and Tammy Grimes, a Yank. Amanda was born in New York City and there is no sign of her claiming dual citizenship.

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


Movie released
The Hunger Games released, 2012

 Predictor: The OMNI Future Almanac, published in 1982

Prediction: In the future, plants that stand in a farm field will be only one part of a carefully controlled agricultural chain. The husks will be used after harvest to make gasohol to run the machines that preserve the harvested crop. The water that nourished the plants will be carefully recaptured and used again the next season. Nutrients lacking in the soils will be provided by farmers growing genetically engineered plants in the off season that spew the need nutrients from their roots into the soil. The future farmer will be the model of efficiency and his farm a self-contained eco-system.


Reality: It's a little odd to read such a pro-environment prediction that speaks well of genetically engineered plants, but it was written thirty three years ago when there were more pro-science environmentalist types than there are today. According to the best information we have here in drought-stricken California, the modern farm is hardly self-contained and they want their water NOW and FUCK ALL THE REST OF YOU!

I may be paraphrasing.

Never to be Forgotten: Gregory Walcott 1928-2015 Gregory Walcott, who died this week at the age of 87, had 114 credits, both film and TV, starting in the 1950s and continuing through the 1990s. One of his luckiest breaks was to catch the eye of Clint Eastwood, who cast Walcott as the foil to Eastwood the star, destined of course to fail, regardless of whether Clint was the good guy or the bad guy. But as Walcott well knew and his obituaries prove, he is best remembered for being in Plan Nine from Outer Space, incorrectly billed as the Worst Film Ever Made. Fans of MST3K can likely name five films just as bad or worse, from Manos: The Hands of Fate to Red Zone Cuba, with a few Gamera films thrown in for good measure.

Several of the other actors had next to no career after Plan Nine, some because of actual death and others merely career death, but Walcott's career was unscathed by appearing in this turkey, as was Lyle Talbott's. (Note: I am not saying Plan Nine is good, I just question its ranking as the worst.) Walcott's other appearance in genre include  House II: Second Story, The Six Million Dollar Man, Land of the Lost, Gemini Man and The Invisible Man [1975].

Best wishes to the family and friends of Gregory Walcott, from a fan. He is never to be forgotten.


Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!

Another prediction from John Langdon-Davies 1936 book A Brief History of the Future.

Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!