6 March 2015

Birthdays

Aryana Engineer b. 2001 (Resident Evil: Retribution)
Dylan Schmid b. 1999 (Once Upon a Time, Horns, Stonados, Falling Skies, Fringe)
Alisha Bow b. 1997 (Extant, Paranormal Activity 4)
Elise Eberle b. 1993 (Salem, The Astronaut Farmer)
Samantha Potter b. 1990 (Big Bang Theory)
Eli Marienthal b. 1986 (Jack Frost)
Joel Palmer b. 1986 (Dreamcatcher, First Wave, Poltergeist: The Legacy, The X Files)
Ellen Muth b. 1981 (Dead Like Me)Shaquille O’Neal b. 1972 (Steel, Kazaam)
Dwayne Boyd b. 1972 (Under the Dome, Resurrection, Sleepy Hollow [2013], The Walking Dead, The Hunger Games)
Shane Brolly b. 1970 (Underworld, Deadly Swarm, NightMan)
Moira Kelly b. 1968 (Heroes)
Connie Britton b. 1967 (American Horror Story, A Nightmare on Elm Street)
Shuler Hensley b. 1967 (Odd Thomas, After.Life, Van Helsing)
Jonathan Scott-Taylor b. 1962 (Damien: Omen II, 1990)
Tom Arnold b. 1959 (Homo Erectus, Coneheads, Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare)
Michael Carmine b. 1959 died 14 October 1989 (*batteries not included)
Richard Schenkman b. 1958 (director, Mischief Night, Abraham Lincoln vs. Zombies, The Man from Earth)
Eddie Deezen b. 1957 (Lloyd in Space, Teenage Exorcist, Critter 2, A Polish Vampire in Burbank, WarGames, Zapped!)
Larry Cedar b. 1955 (Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, National Treasure: Book of Secrets, Charmed, Stargate SG-1, Star Trek: Enterprise, Honey, I Shrunk the Kid [TV], Star Trek: Voyager, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Philadelphia Experiment II, C.H.U.D. II, The Hidden, Amazing Stories, Otherworld, Dreamscape, Twilight Zone: The Movie, Battlestar Galactica [1978])
John David Carson b. 1952 died 27 October 2009 (Empire of the Ants, Creature from Black Lake, Day of the Dolphin)
Anna Maria Horsford b. 1948 (Minority Report, The Chronicle)
Rob Reiner b. 1947 (actor, Batman, director, The Princess Bride)
Martin Kove b. 1946 (Alien Lockdown, The Black Scorpion, Timelock, Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, Future Shock, Hard Time on Planet Earth, Twilight Zone, Beyond Westworld, The Incredible Hulk, Death Race 2000)
Ben Murphy b. 1942 (The Genesis Code, Seven Days, The Twilight Zone [1989], Time Walker, Gemini Man)
Allison Hayes b. 1930 died 27 Feb. 1977 (The Hypnotic Eye, Attack of the 50 Foot Woman, The Unearthly, The Undead, Zombies of Mora Tau)
William F. Nolan b. 1928 (author, Logan’s Run)
Gordon Cooper b. 1927 died 4 October 2004 (astronaut)
Will Eisner b. 1917 died 3 January 2005 (author and illustrator, The Spirit)
Virginia Gregg b. 1916 died 15 September 1986 (Project U.F.O., Man From Atlantis, The Six Million Dollar Man, Bewitched, The Addams Family, My Favorite Martian, Twilight Zone, Kiss of the Vampire)
Lou Costello b. 1906 died 3 March 1959 (The Thirty Foot Bride of Candy Rock, Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy, Abbott and Costello Meet Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Jack and the Beanstalk, Abbott and Costello Go to Mars, Abbott and Costello Meet the Killer, Boris Karloff, Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man)
Frank Hoban b. 1870 died 12 June 1943 (illustrator)
Cyrano de Bergerac b. 1619 died 28 July 1655 (author, The Comical History of the States and Empires of the Moon and Sun)

Notes from the birthday list.
1. The Picture Slot. In previous years, The Picture Slot was given to astronaut Gordon Cooper and Allison Hayes, start of the original Attack of the 50 Foot Woman. Not wanting to repeat myself, there were a few choices I considered iconic, but how many people on the list have an award named after them? If that's the second criterion, Will Eisner stands alone.

2. Baby Canadians, hard to spot. The two youngest people on our list, Aryanna Engineer and Dylan Schmid, were both born north of the border, but their credit lists don't make that obvious. Joel Palmer is also Canadian. Ellen Muth, star of the Canadian production Dead Like Me, was born in the states. 

3. Nepotism FTW. Rob Reiner was first an actor and then a very successful director, but even before that he was Carl Reiner's son. His successes are certainly his own doing, but his dad's name probably opened a few doors early.

4. Not to be confused with... John David Carson started his career in his teens in the 1970 and I though he might be related to Johnny Carson, but that was not the case. Jonathan Scott-Taylor is a British actor who played Damien in The Omen II, not to be confused with Jonathan Taylor Thomas, the child actor who played Randy on Home Improvement  many years later.

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

Movie released 
Watchmen released, 2009

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

Prediction: The telephone will almost certainly prove a very potent auxiliary indeed to the forces making for diffusion. At present that convenience is still needlessly expensive in Great Britain, but even under these disadvantages the thing is becoming a factor in of ordinary life. Consider all that lies within its possibilities. Take first the domestic and social side; almost all the labour of ordinary shopping can be avoided--goods nowadays can be ordered and sent either as sold outright, or on approval, to any place within a hundred miles of London, and in one day they can be examined, discussed, and returned--at any rate, in theory. The mistress of the house has all her local tradesmen, all the great London shops, the circulating library, the theatre box-office, the post-office and cab-rank, the nurses' institute and the doctor, within reach of her hand. The instrument we may confidently expect to improve, but even now speech is perfectly clear and distinct over several hundred miles of wire. Appointments and invitations can be made; and at a cost varying from a penny to two shillings any one within two hundred miles of home may speak day or night into the ear of his or her household. It will be possible soon to send urgent messages at any hour of the day or night to any part of the world; and even our sacred institution of the Civil Service can scarcely prevent this desirable consummation for many years more. The business man may then sit at home in his library and bargain, discuss, promise, hint, threaten, tell such lies as he dare not write, and, in fact, do everything that once demanded a personal encounter.

Reality: Okay, here is Wells at his best. The telephone at the turn of the century is something akin to a toy for the rich, but he knows it's going to get cheaper and better and it will change the way we live in unimaginable ways. Good on ya, Herbert.

Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!

Back to 1893 with great facial hair and a very dim view of all this socialism stuff.

Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!