24 December 2013

 Birthdays
Stephenie Meyer b. 1973 (author, Twilight/New Moon)
Carmen Moore b. 1972 (Stargate SG-1, Wolf Lake, Andromeda, The 4400, Battlestar Galactica, Smallville, Eureka, Flash Gordon, Caprica, Supernatural)
Mark Millar b. 1969 (writer, Kick-Ass, Wanted)
Nicholas Meyer b. 1945 (director, Time After Time, Star Trek II, The Day After, Star Trek VI)
Fritz Leiber b. 1910 died 5 September 1992
(won 1958 Hugo for The Big Time and 1965 Hugo for The Wanderer)

A short list of birthdays with a preponderance of writers for a change, and the Picture Slot goes to the most highly regarded of the writers, the late Fritz Leiber, instead of the most financially successful, She Who Will Not Be Named. The one actress, Carmen Moore, has something in common with many actors who get a lot of appearances on 21st Century sci-fi TV shows. She's Canadian. This is not surprising given how many lower budget shows are filmed in Canada these days.

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

Favorite predictions published in 2013

Predictor: John Elfreth Watkins, writing in The Ladies' Home Journal in 1900


Prediction: Giant guns will shoot twenty-five miles or more, and will hurl anywhere within such a radius shells exploding and destroying whole cities. Such guns will be armed by aid of compasses when used on land or sea, and telescopes when directed from great heights. Fleets of air-ships, hiding themselves with dense, smoky mists, thrown off by themselves as they move, will float over cities, fortifications, camps or fleets. They will surprise foes below by hurling upon them deadly thunderbolts. These aerial war-ships will necessitate bomb-proof forts, protected by great steel plates over their tops as well as at their sides. Huge forts on wheels will dash across open spaces at the speed of express trains of to-day. They will make what are now known as cavalry charges. Great automobile plows will dig deep entrenchments as fast as soldiers can occupy them. Rifles will use silent cartridges. Submarine boats submerged for days will be capable of wiping a whole navy off the face of the deep. Balloons and flying machines will carry telescopes of one-hundred-mile vision with camera attachments, photographing an enemy within that radius. These photographs as distinct and large as if taken from across the street, will be lowered to the commanding officer in charge of troops below.

Reality: Welcome to a five day retrospective of this year's predictions. Regular readers should not be surprised to be looking at a picture of my man crush John Elfreth Watkins. He does not technically count as "science fiction" because he was a museum curator and not an author, but I open up the prediction section to anyone willing to speculate about the future that is now the past or is only a few years away. I'm not sure if I found him on a wild Google hunt or got his name from one of the many very helpful bookstore employees or reference librarians who have been such a wonderful resource for me.

There are several very good predictions from Watkins, though regular readers will recall he went a little overboard on what the great advances in agriculture would look like. This one in particular predicts a lot of stuff that is not in existence in 1900, including "flying machines", effective submarine fleets, tanks, aerial surveillance and very long range artillery. For this and other predictions, John Elfreth Watkins was my favorite of the early weekly "regular contributors". His Wednesday regular spot has been taken over by a contemporary, the British writer T. Baron Russell from his 1905 book A Hundred Years Hence. I haven't been able to find out as much about Russell as I found out about Watkins; for example, I haven't been able to find a photograph of Russell. I haven't made all five selections for favorites yet, but so far Russell is not on the list. Sadly, Russell is to Watkins as Shemp is to Curly, as Kenney Jones is to Keith Moon. We will never love the replacement as much.

Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!

Another weekly regular gets on the year end list. Yes, we are going to hear from Sensible Bob one more time.

Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!

14 December 2013

 Birthdays
Vanessa Hudgens b. 1988 (Journey 2: The Mysterious Island, Sucker Punch)
Martin Christopher b. 1977 (Fringe, Stargate, Eureka, Night at the Museum)
Natascha McElhone b. 1969 (The Truman Show, Solaris, Feardotcom)
Ted Raimi b. 1965 (Supernatural, Spider-Man, Xena: Warrior Princess, Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, SeaQuest 2032, Army of Darkness, Darkman, Alien Nation, Evil Dead I and II, Shocker)
Debbie Lee Carrington b. 1959 (Total Recall, Return of the Jedi, Invaders From Mars, Batman Returns, Mighty Joe Young, Buffy the Vampire Slayer)
Celia Weston b. 1951 (Under the Dome, The Invasion, The Village, K-PAX, Hulk)
Dee Wallace b. 1948 (E.T., Cujo, The Howling, The Stepford Wives, Critters, Alligator II: The Mutation, The Frighteners)
Lee Remick b. 1935 (The Omen)
Lewis Arquette b. 1935 died 10 February 2001 (Babylon 5, SeaQuest 2032, Attack of the 50 Ft. Woman, The Man From Atlantis)
Laurence Naismith b. 1908 died 5 June 1992 (Jason and the Argonauts, The Valley of Gwangi, The Invaders, Village of the Damned)
Frances Bavier b. 1902 died 6 December 1986 (The Day the Earth Stood Still)

All actors on the list today, females outnumbering males. Ted Raimi has had the most work in genre TV and film, much of it in projects where his brother Sam is the producer or director. Debbie Lee Carrington is a little person, working sometimes in body costumes as an ewok or penguin and other times not. Yes, Frances Bavier, a.k.a. Aunt Bee, was in the original The Day the Earth Stood Still.  Laurence Naismith played the ship builder Argo in Jason and the Argonauts, Lewis Arquette was part of the improv team Christopher Guest worked with, Dee Wallace is still getting work one role at a time, bless her. But I decided as I often do that Pretty Girl = Picture Slot and went with Natascha McElhone. My late mom was a model back in her teens and twenties, and she had a long nose, high cheekbones and a wide jaw. It's not like anyone needs any extra boost to think Natascha McElhone is gorgeous, but that look always gets a second look from me.

Many happy returns of the day to all our birthday boys and girls, and to the departed, thanks for all the memories.


Movies released
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey released, 2012
King Kong released, 2005
I Am Legend released, 2007

Now it's a year later and we get the second installment of The Hobbit. I have a friend who I expect would like to see it, but if that doesn't work out, I'm not waiting for it to come out on video. Some movies are big screen or not at all.
 

Predictor: Asa C. Matthews (1833-1908), first comptroller of the U.S. Treasury, predicting the 20th Century in honor of the 1893 Columbian Exhibition held in Chicago.

Prediction: Looking to the future my eye detects on the dim horizon an American republic which shall embrace not only the present United States and Alaska, but all the remainder of the North American continent now under British, Mexican or minor domination.

Reality: Given how much expansion had already taken place in Mr. Matthews' life, it's not surprising he would think that we would somehow conquer or acquire everything from Panama to Ellesmere Island. We had a similar prediction from John Elfreth Watkins back at the beginning of the year. But even with the Spanish American War and the Panama Canal still in the near future for Matthews, the United States did not do much more land grabbing, and almost none on the continent itself. Canada, Mexico and the countries of Central America are still independent of us and happily root against us whenever we play soccer.

Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!

Ray Bradbury is back with his stories about the colonization of Mars at the dawn of the 21st Century.

Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!

24 July 2013

Birthdays
Anna Paquin b. 1982 (X-Men, True Blood)
Summer Glau b. 1981 (Angel, Dollhouse, Firefly/Serenity, The Sarah Connor Chronicles, The 4400)
Rose Byrne b. 1979 (X-Men: First Class, 28 Weeks Later)

Yet again, a whole lot of pretty to choose from, but because of my partiality to Joss Whedon (and his not subtle tip of the hat to the great Frank Frazetta in this framing), I'm going with Ms. Glau as River Tam in Serenity.

And as always, I wish many happy returns of the day to all concerned.
 

Prediction: There will be no wild animals except in menageries. Rats and mice will have been exterminated. The horse will have become practically extinct. A few of high breed will be kept by the rich for racing, hunting and exercise. The automobile will have driven out the horse. Cattle and sheep will have no horns. They will be unable to run faster than the fattened hog of today. A century ago the wild hog could outrun a horse. Food animals will be bred to expend practically all of their life energy in producing meat, milk, wool and other by-products. Horns, bones, muscles and lungs will have been neglected.

Predictor: John Elfreth Watkins in a 1900 issue of The Ladies' Home Journal

Reality: It's a sad day here at the blog, because this is the last of the predictions from John Elfreth Watkins. No longer will the tinted photo of 1900's version of The Most Interesting Man in the World be looking out at us every Wednesday morning. I do have his replacement lined up, but quite honestly, though T. Baron Russell gets some stuff right, it just won't be the same. As my tribute to him, I have included the label Never To Be Forgotten. When I select the Predictions of the Year and present them between Christmas and New Year's, I'm sure we'll see him again.

And, oh yeah, the reality check. We still have plenty of wild animals and it's a good thing too. Cattle and sheep still have horns. The lives of food animals can be pretty miserable, but this prediction is way, way off. Sorry to see Mr. Watkins leave the field with such a disappointing result.

Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!


We hear from H.G. Wells again from The Shape of Things to Come.


Join us then... IN THE FUTURE! 
 

17 July 2013

Birthdays
Tim Rose b. 1956 (voice of General Ackbar and Howard the Duck)
J. Michael Straczynski b. 1954 (writer Babylon 5, Thor)
Donald Sutherland b. 1935 (The Hunger Games, Invasion of the Body Snatchers)

I just don't get enough chances to remind people of Howard the Duck, a pretty good comic book that was turned into a truly awful movie. Mr. Straczynski is still getting paid to write, good for him. Mr. Sutherland gets the picture slot because I decided it's Awesome Grey Facial Hair day.

Prediction: To England in Two Days. Fast electric ships, crossing the ocean at more than a mile a minute, will go from New York to Liverpool in two days. The bodies of these ships will be built above the waves. They will be supported upon runners, somewhat like those of the sleigh. These runners will be very buoyant. Upon their under sides will be apertures expelling jets of air. In this way a film of air will be kept between them and the water’s surface. This film, together with the small surface of the runners, will reduce friction against the waves to the smallest possible degree. Propellers turned by electricity will screw themselves through both the water beneath and the air above. Ships with cabins artificially cooled will be entirely fireproof. In storm they will dive below the water and there await fair weather.

Predictor: John Elfreth Watkins in a 1900 issue of The Ladies' Home Journal

Reality: It's a big swing and a miss for my man crush today. Cunard does still have ships going between London and New York if you have seven days you want to fritter away in idleness.

Ah, frittering. Oh, idleness. Such luxuries. 

He saw airships being used in war and that's about it, which is not that surprising when you realize he is making his predictions before the Wright brothers got their contraption airborne. In his favor, a combination catamaran/hovercraft/submarine would be pretty damned cool.

Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!

Arthur C. Clarke stays earthbound for this prediction, foreseeing exciting advances in health care.

Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!

10 July 2013

 Birthdays
Chiwetel Ejiofor b. 1977 (Serenity)
Peter Serafinowicz b. 1972 (Star Wars, Shaun of the Dead)
Fiona Shaw b. 1958 (Harry Potter)
Ron Glass b. 1945 (Firefly, Serenity)
Nikola Tesla b. 1856 died 7 January 1943

Nice selection of birthdays. I am breaking the Cute Girl = Picture Slot because Ron Glass as Shepherd Book has facial hair almost as cool as Mr. Wednesday on this blog, John Elfreth Watkins.

Many happy returns of the day to every one but Tesla, who died 70 years ago.

In the year 2000!

Prediction: Few drugs will be swallowed or taken into the stomach unless needed for the direct treatment of that organ itself. Drugs needed by the lungs, for instance, will be applied directly to those organs through the skin and flesh. They will be carried with the electric current applied without pain to the outside skin of the body. Microscopes will lay bare the vital organs, through the living flesh, of men and animals. The living body will to all medical purposes be transparent. Not only will it be possible for a physician to actually see a living, throbbing heart inside the chest, but he will be able to magnify and photograph any part of it. This work will be done with rays of invisible light.

Predictor: John Elfreth Watkins in the 1900 edition of The Ladies' Home Journal

Reality: Watkins opens with his weakest card, the direct application of medicine to the flesh near the organ to be treated. Most medicine is either swallowed or injected today, methods similar to 1900. He then goes big on microscopes and x-rays and gets it completely right. Once again, he isn't a magical thinker, but instead a well-read person extrapolating advances from cool stuff already in existence. Wilhelm Röntgen published the x-ray picture of his hand wearing a ring in 1896, and a learned fellow working at the Smithsonian like Watkins would certainly know about this by 1900.

Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!

It's H.G. Wells again, with an exciting prediction for the year 2012.

Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!

3 July 2013

Birthdays
Patrick Wilson b. 1973 (Watchmen, Prometheus)
Tom Cruise b. 1962

A good sign of how important genre movies have become is to look at Tom Cruise's career. He's always trying to make hits, though not always succeeding. That used to mean comedies and dramas. Now it's sci-fi.

Many happy returns to both gentlemen.

Movies released

The Amazing Spider-Man released, 2012
Transformers released, 2007
Men In Black released, 2002
Terminator 2 released, 1991
Back to the Future released, 1985

In the Year 2000!

Prediction: Oranges will grow in Philadelphia. Fast-flying refrigerators on land and sea will bring delicious fruits from the tropics and southern temperate zone within a few days. The farmers of South America, South Africa, Australia and the South Sea Islands, whose seasons are directly opposite to ours, will thus supply us in winter with fresh summer foods, which cannot be grown here. Scientists will have discovered how to raise here many fruits now confined to much hotter or colder climates. Delicious oranges will be grown in the suburbs of Philadelphia. Cantaloupes and other summer fruits will be of such a hardy nature that they can be stored through the winter as potatoes are now.

Predictor: John Elfreth Watkins in the 1900 edition of The Ladies' Home Journal

Reality: Again, Watkins overshoots on the agriculture advances.  Tropical fruits are much easier to grow in the tropics and while refrigeration and some methods of keeping fruit fresh have improved, the summer months are still the time to have the tasty melons.

Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!


We interrupt our regularly scheduled weekday line-up for a prediction about July 4, 2008 from a movie some people consider the worst cinematic dreck of the 21st Century.

Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!

26 June 2013

In the Year 2000!

Prediction:Vegetables Grown by Electricity. Winter will be turned into summer and night into day by the farmer. In cold weather he will place heat-conducting electric wires under the soil of his garden and thus warm his growing plants. He will also grow large gardens under glass. At night his vegetables will be bathed in powerful electric light, serving, like sunlight, to hasten their growth. Electric currents applied to the soil will make valuable plants grow larger and faster, and will kill troublesome weeds. Rays of colored light will hasten the growth of many plants. Electricity applied to garden seeds will make them sprout and develop unusually early.

Predictor: John Elfreth Watkins in 1900, published in The Ladies' Home Journal

Reality: It can be done, but it's expensive. For crops with average rates of return, it's often not profitable, but for something like marijuana it makes sense.

Or so I have been told. No first hand info.  NSA, please don't put me on any list, it's just a waste of resources.

Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!


Arthur C. Clarke is talking about space travel again. Odds are he won't be right.

Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!

19 June 2013

Birthdays
Paul Dano b. 1984 (Looper, Cowboys and Aliens)
Aidan Turner b. 1983 (Kili in The Hobbit)
Zoe Saldana b. 1978 (Avatar, Star Trek)

Is there any chance Mr. Dano or Mr. Turner will get a shot at the Picture Slot the next time June 19th rolls around?

No. Not one chance in Hell. Many happy returns of the day to all three of these actors.

 

Movies released
Jason and the Argonauts released, 1963

Fifty years ago, I saw this movie on the big screen at the Grand Lake theater in Oakland, California. It is still one of the most memorable movie going experiences of my life. By today's special effects standards, it doesn't look real, but to my mind that is actually the point. It looks magical. Lots of scenes of giant gods and puny mortals, battles with a giant bronze statue, the skeleton army and several other magical beasts.

Great pacing, great visuals and wonderful music by Bernard Herrmann are just a few of the treats in this movie. Fifty years ago, this was a movie "made for kids" and Serious Film People wouldn't even consider discussing it as they would A Serious Film.

Simply put, they are wrong. Jason and the Argonauts was an important step forward in the history of cinema and still a hell of a lot of fun to watch.

Here's to Ray Harryhausen, who died earlier this year. He will never be forgotten.

In the year 2000!

Prediction:Ready-cooked meals will be bought from establishments similar to our bakeries of today. They will purchase materials in tremendous wholesale quantities and sell the cooked foods at a price much lower than the cost of individual cooking. Food will be served hot or cold to private houses in pneumatic tubes or automobile wagons. The meal being over, the dishes used will be packed and returned to the cooking establishments where they will be washed. Such wholesale cookery will be done in electric laboratories rather than in kitchens. These laboratories will be equipped with electric stoves, and all sorts of electric devices, such as coffee-grinders, egg-beaters, stirrers, shakers, parers, meat-choppers, meat-saws, potato-mashers, lemon-squeezers, dish-washers, dish-dryers and the like. All such utensils will be washed in chemicals fatal to disease microbes. Having one’s own cook and purchasing one’s own food will be an extravagance.

Predictor: John Elfreth Watkins in a 1900 issue of The Ladies' Home Journal

Reality: Watkins loses a point or two, but he gets a lot right as well. His love for pneumatic tubes can be compared to the Hard SF's love for space travel, but the basic idea of delivery food is exactly true and the size of the kitchens is at least somewhat true. Having a cook is an extravagance, purchasing one's own food isn't. You can't eat out every night.

Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!


It's H.G. Wells' turn at bat tomorrow, predicting the future of gambling.


I've got five bucks that says he's wrong. (Add General Ackbar's favorite line here.)

Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!

5 June 2013

Birthday
Mark Wahlberg b. 1971 

Wahlberg's career has only a few genre films in it, including Tim Burton's Planet of the Apes, M. Night Shyamalan's The Happening and you could kinda sorta say Seth McFarlane's Ted.

It would be hard to choose a trio of directors who have done a better job of getting on my nerves.

But it's not their birthday, it's Mr. Wahlberg's, and the blog wishes him many happy returns.  

Prediction: Store Purchases by Tube. Pneumatic tubes, instead of store wagons, will deliver packages and bundles. These tubes will collect, deliver and transport mail over certain distances, perhaps for hundreds of miles. They will at first connect with the private houses of the wealthy; then with all homes. Great business establishments will extend them to stations, similar to our branch post-offices of today, whence fast automobile vehicles will distribute purchases from house to house.

Predictor: John Elfreth Watkins in The Ladies' Home Journal, published in 1900

Reality: Futurists were keen on pneumatic tubes. I can understand it. They made a cool noise and felt like watching a magic trick. I remember being in an office when I was a kid that had pneumatic tubes. They were big at drive-through banks back in the 1970s before automated tellers took over.

Watkins can be forgiven for thinking this was the wave of the future because both New York and Philadelphia had installed large scale pneumatic tube systems in the 1890s. According to the linked article, the cost was considered prohibitive by 1918 and the cities replaced the systems with auto delivery only. Watkins does get partial credit for assuming the automobile would make horse carts obsolete. Autos weren't rare in 1900 by any means, but they did have to share the road with horses everywhere and trolleys in most major cities.

Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!

Another prediction from H.G. Wells, this time about the future of war and architecture.

Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!

29 May 2013

Birthdays
Sebastian Shaw b. 1905 died 23 December 1994
Adam Brown b. 1980

Not particularly well known names on the birthday list today. Shaw was the actor who played Darth Vader unmasked in Return of the Jedi and then played the ghost of Anikin in the last scenes of Return of the Jedi. In the 2004 re-mastered edition - or as I prefer to call it, the "re-ruined edition" - Hayden Christensen plays the ghost of Anikin, just so the young people won't be confused.

Adam Brown plays Ori the dwarf in The Hobbit.

Up released 2009

I have to say that with all the special effects extravaganzas that bombard us from the screen, Pixar has generally done a very good job of keeping the story lines at the level of human interest and character development, making them some of the most watchable...

SQUIRREL!
...
...
...
...
...

(On the Internet, no one knows you're a dog.)  

In the year 2000!

Prediction:  Hot and Cold Air from Spigots. Hot or cold air will be turned on from spigots to regulate the temperature of a house as we now turn on hot or cold water from spigots to regulate the temperature of the bath. Central plants will supply this cool air and heat to city houses in the same way as now our gas or electricity is furnished. Rising early to build the furnace fire will be a task of the olden times. Homes will have no chimneys, because no smoke will be created within their walls.

Predictor: John Elfreth Watkins in 1900, published in The Ladies' Home Journal

Reality: Watkins misses that the hot and cool air spigots will be machines run by electricity or gas and so a central plant is unnecessary, but other than that, once again he is on the money.

Comparing Watkins to the later predictors isn't exactly fair, but it's like Heinlein and Clarke are shooting from the free throw line and Watkins is out in three point territory, shooting a better percentage and making the sci-fi writers look awfully damn sad.

 I wonder if the later writers even knew about Watkins. After all, they didn't have a resource like the Internet and they probably wouldn't think to look for futurist speculation in The Ladies' Home Journal.  He wrote no fictional stories I can find, and his last day job was as a curator at the Smithsonian, his best known work as part of the team that restored the John Bull steam locomotive.

Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE! 

While later speculative fiction writers might never have heard of Watkins, it is almost certain that Watkins, Heinlein, Clarke and H.G. Wells and all the rest did know about the guy who gets introduced tomorrow. For on the 30th of May, 2000, this important writer's hero (and alter ego) Julian West awakens from a strange coma which began in 1887.

Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!

 

15 May 2013

Movies released
Matrix Reloaded released 15 May 2003

The movies I mention are not all post Star Wars and not all big box office hits, but a lot of them are. On a day like this with no birthday to mention (still researching this and that may change next year), expect to see a movie poster in the picture slot.

In the year 2000!

Prediction: Coal will not be used for heating or cooking. It will be scarce, but not entirely exhausted. The earth’s hard coal will last until the year 2050 or 2100; its soft-coal mines until 2200 or 2300. Meanwhile both kinds of coal will have become more and more expensive. Man will have found electricity manufactured by waterpower to be much cheaper. Every river or creek with any suitable fall will be equipped with water-motors, turning dynamos, making electricity. Along the seacoast will be numerous reservoirs continually filled by waves and tides washing in. Out of these the water will be constantly falling over revolving wheels. All of our restless waters, fresh and salt, will thus be harnessed to do the work which Niagara is doing today: making electricity for heat, light and fuel.  

Reality: Coal isn't that scarce, sad to say. As for heating and cooking, Watkins is talking about coal being delivered to people's homes as a energy source and as far as that goes, he's right, that's over. As for water power, it certainly increased over the 20th Century, but it has its environmental costs as well. I've never quite understood why the tides aren't used as an energy source, probably because they only flow at their hardest for a few hours a day.


Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!

Tomorrow, it's H.G. Wells' turn again, so we'll get a glimpse of The Shape of Things to Come.

Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!

 

8 May 2013

 Birthdays
Michael Gondry b. 1963
Stephen Furst b. 1955
Theodore Sturgeon b. 1918 died 5/8/1985

Gondry is the writer and director of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Furst played Vir on Babylon 5, but the Picture Slot goes to Ted Sturgeon, who makes nearly everyone's short list of important SF writers in the 20th Century.

Many happy returns to Gondry and Furst.


Movies released
Star Trek (reboot) released, 2009

In the year 2000!

Prediction: Grand Opera will be telephoned to private homes, and will sound as harmonious as though enjoyed from a theatre box. Automatic instruments reproducing original airs exactly will bring the best music to the families of the untalented. Great musicians gathered in one enclosure in New York will, by manipulating electric keys, produce at the same time music from instruments arranged in theatres or halls in San Francisco or New Orleans, for instance. Thus will great bands and orchestras give long-distance concerts. In great cities there will be public opera-houses whose singers and musicians are paid from funds endowed by philanthropists and by the government. The piano will be capable of changing its tone from cheerful to sad. Many devices will add to the emotional effect of music.

Predictor: John Elfreth Watkins in The Ladies' Home Journal, published 1900

Reality: I love the phrase "families of the untalented". In 1900, people were expected to make their own entertainment. The idea of music broadcast over telephones is a popular idea from the futurists of this era. Recall that the first radio broadcasts happen in the 1920s, so even though it had been invented, no one in this era saw how big Marconi's gadget was going to be, not unlike the SF writers from the 1950s and 1960s failing to guess what will happen when computers get smaller and cheaper starting in the 1970s. Public opera houses and their endowments are certainly true.

Watkins gets no points for the prediction of a device that changes the tone of a piano from cheerful to sad, since that device already existed in his day. It's called "a good pianist".

Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!

Alternate Thursdays means Arthur C. Clarke. Knowing his work, I'm guessing it's about exploration of the solar system and I'm guessing it will turn out wrong.

Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!

1 May 2013

Birthdays
Julie Benz b. 1972
John Diehl b. 1950

Ms. Benz's best known role in the genre is as Darla on Buffy and Angel. Mr. Diehl's long successful career has only a view roles in big sci-fi hits, including Jurassic Park III and the original move version of Stargate. Many happy returns to them both.

Movies released
X-Men Origins: Wolverine released 2009  
 

In the year 2000!

Prediction:Telephones Around the World. Wireless telephone and telegraph circuits will span the world. A husband in the middle of the Atlantic will be able to converse with his wife sitting in her boudoir in Chicago. We will be able to telephone to China quite as readily as we now talk from New York to Brooklyn. By an automatic signal they will connect with any circuit in their locality without the intervention of a “hello girl”.

Predictor: John Elfreth Watkins in The Ladies' Home Journal, published in 1900

Reality: This is why I love John Elfreth Watkins. Sure, sometimes he gets all goofy about Big Fruit, but sometimes he hits one out of the park like this. Futurists from the turn of the century are very big on the telephone and expect it to become even more important as time goes on, but he correctly predicts a direct dial system, intercontinental calls and mobile phone, since he talks about a call from Chicago to a ship in the Atlantic, mobile phones.

In the last week of the year between Christmas and New Years, I'm going to go with a Best Of list. This one is certainly in the running.

Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!

We are starting to run low on Arthur C. Clarke predictions, so he will now share the Thursday slot for a few months with another Englishman who will become our Thursday regular for the rest of the year, Herbert G. Wells.

 
Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!

24 April 2013

Birthdays

Damon Lindelof b. 1973
Rory McCann b. 1969
Aiden Gillen b. 1968

Many happy returns to the folks on today's birthday list. Lindelof is a writer/producer who works with J.J. Abrams frequently, notably on Lost and the Star Trek reboot. McCann plays the Hound on Game of Thrones and Gillen plays Littlefinger on the same show.

No pretty girl on this list, so the picture slot goes to Gillen, who I loved on The Wire as Tommy Carcetti and is a favorite of my sci-fi buddy Jodi for his work on Queer As Folk.

Also... kitty.

I mean, this is the Internet and I wasn't born yesterday.

In the year 2000!

Prediction: How Children will be Taught. A university education will be free to every man and woman. Several great national universities will have been established. Children will study a simple English grammar adapted to simplified English, and not copied after the Latin. Time will be saved by grouping like studies. Poor students will be given free board, free clothing and free books if ambitious and actually unable to meet their school and college expenses. Medical inspectors regularly visiting the public schools will furnish poor children free eyeglasses, free dentistry and free medical attention of every kind. The very poor will, when necessary, get free rides to and from school and free lunches between sessions. In vacation time poor children will be taken on trips to various parts of the world. Etiquette and housekeeping will be important studies in the public schools.

Predictor: John Elfreth Watkins in The Ladies' Home Journal, published in 1900

Reality: This selection isn't the most prophetic work my man crush has produced, but it is very typical of Victorian era futurism both in the United States and Great Britain. Starting with Edward Bellamy's Looking Backward: 2000-1887, published in 1888, many writers believed deeply in socialism to improve the lot of the poor, especially when it came to education. Watkins is just the first of the turn of the century visionaries I've quoted, but we will hear from many more in the future! Besides Bellamy himself - I'm waiting until we get to exact dates quoted in his most famous work - weekly slots will be given to T. Baron Russell on Wednesdays when I have finally printed the last of Watkins' work. (sniff.) And as Arthur C. Clarke winds down, he will start sharing time with the best known science fiction writer of the era who produced a lot of predictions with dates attached, H.G. Wells.

Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!
 
Arthur C. Clarke predicts the greatest invention in history. Make sure to have some Earl Grey tea (hot) by your view screen for this one.
 

Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!

17 April 2013

Birthdays
Jennifer Garner b. 1972
Henry Ian Cusick b. 1967
Sean Bean b. 1959
Kristine Sutherland b. 1955

Another interesting birthday list. If I were selecting on the basis of most important career in genre, Sean Bean from Lord of the Rings and Game of Thrones would probably get the nod, but as I often do, I'm going with The Cute Girl. Mr. Cusick's best known work in the genre is on Lost and Ms. Sutherland played Buffy's mom.

Prediction: There will be No C, X or Q in our every-day alphabet. They will be abandoned because unnecessary. Spelling by sound will have been adopted, first by the newspapers. English will be a language of condensed words expressing condensed ideas, and will be more extensively spoken than any other. Russian will rank second.

Predictor: John Elfreth Watkins in The Ladies' Home Journal published 1900

Reality: Not a sterling effort this time around. With all the changes English has been through, cleaning up spelling has not been one of them.The "condensed words and condensed ideas" is reminiscent of Orwell's Newspeak. We do abbreviate and use acronyms more than was done as hundred years ago and few modern writers show off their vocabulary like many did in the past, so he gets some partial credit there.

Putting English first in usage isn't right in terms of native speakers, as it ranks behind Mandarin and Spanish. If we include people who have English as a second language, it jumps over Spanish into second place. Putting Russian in second place was an odd choice in 1900. At that time, Russia was still ruled by the czar and was considered a backward country by European standards. Watkins doesn't elaborate on why he thought they would have a big century of growth.

Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!
 
Thursday is Arthur C. Clarke Day and I have a confession. With Heinlein and Clarke, I put a lot of their accurate stuff in early and now we are down to the scraps. The middle of the line-up this week doesn't acquit itself very well.

Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!

3 April 2013

Birthdays
Cobie Smulders b. 1982
Alessandro Juliani b. 1978
Matthew Goode b. 1978
Jamie Bamber b. 1973
Marlon Brando b. 1924 died 1 July 2004

Predictable Dirty Old Man that I am, the picture slot goes to the Cute Girl. Ms. Smulders best known work in genre is in last year's The Avengers.  Juliani and Bamber were both on Battlestar Galactica, Matthew Goode is a British actor who was in Watchmen and Brando is on the list for playing Jor-El in the Superman series starring Christopher Reeve.

(Blogger's note: Just recently, I got to thinking about Alan Moore's Watchmen, and I realized Rorschach keeps a journal with dates.  The problem is that Watchmen does not take place in the future, but in an alternate past. It's published 1986 and 1987 and the journal entries are from 1985,  so it doesn't fit my needs. Grr.)

In the Year 2000!
 
Prediction:  No Foods will be Exposed. Storekeepers who expose food to air breathed out by patrons or to the atmosphere of the busy streets will be arrested with those who sell stale or adulterated produce. Liquid-air refrigerators will keep great quantities of food fresh for long intervals.

Predictor: John Elfreth Watkins in The Ladies' Home Journal in 1900


Reality: Food exposed to the fresh air is still allowed, especially with fruits and vegetables, but uncooked meats in stores are usually behind glass or wrapped in plastic. Food safety is a much bigger deal now than it was in 1900 and refrigeration is now widespread. Still, it's not a crime to have an open air market and violations of food safety are punished with fines instead of jail time.

If I were grading this, it's probably a B+.

Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE! 

Our usual weekly schedule will be interrupted for several days in honor of a very important diary in speculative fiction that starts "April 4, 1984. Last night to the flicks. All war films."
 
Join me then... IN THE FUTURE! 

27 March 2013

Birthdays
Nathan Fillion b. 1971
Adrian Rawlins b. 1958

Nathan get to be Picture Boy today. His best known genre work is all in the Whedonverse, a bad guy on Buffy, Captain Hammer in Dr. Horrible's SingAlong Blog and of course Captain Mal Reynolds on the TV show Firefly and the movie Serenity.

Mr. Rawlins plays Harry Potter's father James in the movies.

In the year 2000!

Predictor: John Elfreth Watkins in The Ladies' Home Journal, 1900

Predictions (Reality):The milkweed will have been developed into a rubber plant. Cheap native rubber will be harvested by machinery all over this country. (Both the Germans and the American tried during WW II. Neither succeeded.)

Plants will be made proof against disease microbes just as readily as man is to-day against smallpox. (This has taken place.)

The soil will be kept enriched by plants which take their nutrition from the air and give fertility to the earth. (Epiphyte plants existed even in Watkins' day.)

Sugar cane will produce twice as much sugar as the sugar beet now does. Cane will once more be the chief source of our sugar supply. (There are more acres of sugar beets vs. cane in the U.S., but both are now outstripped in the sweetener market by high fructose corn syrup, an invention from the second half of the 20th Century.)

Strawberries and cranberries will be grown upon tall bushes.  (Not so much. These plants still hug the ground.)

Melons, cherries, grapes, plums, apples, pears, peaches and all berries will be seedless. (Seedless melons, apples and grapes exist, as do seedless oranges. Cherries, peaches and plums have pits. Harder to get rid of pits.)


Figs will be cultivated over the entire United States. (The best sources say the West Coast, Utah and Texas.)

Not the best hit to miss ratio for our pal John Elfreth this week. Some agricultural problems are harder to crack than others.

Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!

Thursday is Arthur C. Clarke's turn, where he predicts the speeds of spaceships in the early 21st Century.

Join me then... IN THE FUTURE!

20 March 2013

Birthdays
David Thewlis b. 1963
Chris Wedge b, 1957 (director, Ice Age)
John De Lancie b. 1948

Damn. The guy who played Q is 65. This wins the daily contest for "What's the first thing today that will make me feel really old?"

Many happy returns, Mr. De Lancie. You were really good on Breaking Bad as well.

 

In the Year 2000!

Prediction: Peas as Large as Beets.
Peas and beans will be as large as beets are to-day.
Strawberries as Large as Apples will be eaten by our great-great-grandchildren for their Christmas dinners a hundred years hence. Raspberries and blackberries will be as large.
One will suffice for the fruit course of each person.
Cranberries, gooseberries and currants will be as large as oranges. One cantaloupe will supply an entire family.
Roses will be as large as cabbage heads.
Violets will grow to the size of orchids.
A pansy will be as large in diameter as a sunflower.
A century ago the pansy measured but half an inch across its face.

Predictor: John Elfreth Watkins in The Ladies' Home Journal, published in 1900

Reality: Hmm. Okay, this is disturbing. My historical man crush seems to have a thing for Big Fruit.

Not that I'm judging.  Longtime readers of my original blog are fully aware that I am the last person who should judge these sorts of things.

Still, that's a whole lotta Big Fruit. Big Flowers, too.

I talked to my historian friend Jodi who put this in perspective. Back in the late nineteenth century, Luther Burbank and George Washington Carver were among the Heroic Scientists bringing us a better tomorrow. Larger plants and longer growing seasons were a big part of the exciting innovations of the day and as usual, Watkins isn't making stuff up out of whole cloth but extrapolating the recent developments of his era one hundred years into the future.

These examples are taken from three separate predictions Watkins made about agriculture. I'll publish the rest of the agricultural predictions next week, the ones that aren't fixated on largeness.

Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE! 

Thursdays belong to Arthur C. Clarke, this time taking a date from his fiction instead of his published predictions.

Join me then... IN THE FUTURE!

13 March 2013

Birthdays
Harry Melling b. 1989
Tim Story b. 1970
Joe Johnston b. 1950
William H. Macy b. 1950
Roger Zelazny b. 1937 died 6/14/1995
(won 1966 Hugo for … And Call Me Conrad)
(won 1968 Hugo for Lord of Light)

We've got actors and directors on the birthday list today. Melling was in the Harry Potter series, Story and Johnston are on the other side of the camera. Macy doesn't have a lot of work in genre films, but he was in the third Jurassic Park.

But I gave the picture to Zelazny, who won Hugos for two of his novels.

In the Year 2000!

Prediction: No Mosquitoes nor Flies. Insect screens will be unnecessary. Mosquitoes, house-flies and roaches will have been practically exterminated. Boards of health will have destroyed all mosquito haunts and breeding-grounds, drained all stagnant pools, filled in all swamp-lands, and chemically treated all still-water streams. The extermination of the horse and its stable will reduce the house-fly.

Predictor: John Elfreth Watkins in the Ladies' Home Journal, 1900


Reality: Yeah, well... It pains me somewhat when Watkins swings and misses. As regular readers must already know, I have a man crush on old John Elfreth. Sometimes I even imagine he had a lovely speaking voice.

To be fair to him, while these pest insects still exist, the problem is much smaller than it was back in 1900. The biggest goof here is "the extermination of the horse". He was right that they were on their way out as essential beasts of burden, but even the human race that had wiped out the passenger pigeon and Steller's sea cow wouldn't be so callous as to kill all the horses. I mean, how would we have that cute Budweiser ad if we killed all the Clydesdales?

Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE! 

Thursday means Arthur C. Clarke, and tomorrow he gets one right when predicting what we'll know... in the Year 2000!

Join me then... IN THE FUTURE!

6 March 2013

Birthday
Allison Hayes b. 1930 died 27 Feb. 1977

My thanks to reader gbaji for pointing out this name I missed. Miss Hayes is best known as the star of the original 1957 version of Attack of the Fifty Foot Woman, an awful film with one of the most famous and iconic posters of all time.
 

In the year 2000!

Prediction #1: Photographs will be telegraphed from any distance. If there be a battle in China a hundred years hence snapshots of its most striking events will be published in the newspapers an hour later. Even to-day photographs are being telegraphed over short distances. Photographs will reproduce all of Nature’s colors.


Prediction #2: Man will See Around the World. Persons and things of all kinds will be brought within focus of cameras connected electrically with screens at opposite ends of circuits, thousands of miles at a span. American audiences in their theatres will view upon huge curtains before them the coronations of kings in Europe or the progress of battles in the Orient. The instrument bringing these distant scenes to the very doors of people will be connected with a giant telephone apparatus transmitting each incidental sound in its appropriate place. Thus the guns of a distant battle will be heard to boom when seen to blaze, and thus the lips of a remote actor or singer will be heard to utter words or music when seen to move.

Predictor: John Elfreth Watkins, writing in a 1900 issue of The Ladies' Home Journal

Reality:  Damn, this guy is good. He's writing from a time before Edison has made The Great Train Robbery but slightly after Marconi's first successful experiments. All he guesses correctly are TV, transmission of color photos, (nearly) instantaneous worldwide news.

Of course, we denizens of Watkins' wonderful predicted future turned this stuff into the cable news industry. That's on us, not him.

Watkins made only about two dozen predictions. He gets things wrong, but when he is accurate, it's almost eerie.  I'm going to miss him when I write his last one.  I'll probably bring him back next year maybe like once a month.

Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE! Thursday belongs to Arthur C. Clarke, who predicts in the 1960s some strange alliances in the year 2001.
 
 Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!