31 August 2015

Birthdays
Holly Earl b. 1992 (Dracula: The Dark Prince, Doctor Who, My Hero, Red Dwarf)
Ryan Kelley b. 1986 (Teen Wolf, Ben 10:Alien Swarm, The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Smallville)
Leo Bill b. 1980 (Doctor Who, Alice in Wonderland, Jekyll, 28 Days Later…)
Shannon Richardson b. 1979 (The Walking Dead, The Vampire Diaries)
Mike Erwin b. 1978 (The Vampire Diaries, Hulk)
Sara Ramirez b. 1975 (Spider-Man, Star Patrol)
Marc Webb b. 1974 (director, The Amazing Spider-Man 1 and 2)
Chris Tucker b. 1972 (The Fifth Element, The Meteor Man)
Jason Presson b. 1971 (Gremlins 2: The New Batch, Twilight Zone [1985], Explorers)
Zack Ward b. 1970 (Fallen Cards, Blood Lake: Attack of the Killer Lampreys, Save the Supers, Warehouse 13, Dollhouse, The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Transformers, Lost, Charmed, Resident Evil: Apocalypse, Freddy vs. Jason, Sliders, Forever Knight, Maniac Mansion)
Jonathan LaPaglia b. 1969 (Seven Days)
Phina Oruche b. 1969 (Charmed, The Forsaken, FreakyLinks, Restless, Homeboys in Outer Space)
Daniel Bernhardt b. 1965 (The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, Creature, The Matrix Reloaded, Mortal Kombat: Conquest)
Todd Carty b. 1963 (Krull)
Julie Brown b. 1954 (Wizards of Waverly Place, Alien Avengers II, The Addams Family [1993], Quantum Leap, Earth Girls Are Easy, The Incredible Shrinking Woman)
Dawn Roddenberry b. 1953 (Star Trek)
Lowell Ganz b. 1948 (screenwriter, Robots, Splash)
Roger Dean b. 1944 (artist)
Larry Hankin b. 1940 (Weird Science, Star Trek: Voyager, Lois & Clark, Star Trek: The Next Generation, ALF, Amazing Stories, Faerie Tale Theatre, Doctor Dracula)
Jack Thompson b. 1940 (Man-Thing, Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones)
Noble Willingham b. 1931 died 17 January 2004 (Quantum Leap, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Tucker’s Witch, The Howling, Man from Atlantis)
James Coburn b.1928 died 18 November 2002 (Faerie Tale Theatre, Looker, Twilight Zone)
Anthony Bate b. 1927 (Ghost Story, The Guardians, The Champions)
Buddy Hackett b. 1924 died 30 June 2003 (Space Patrol, Scrooged, The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm)
Herbert Wise b. 1924 died 5 August 2015 (director, The 10th Kingdom, The Woman in Black)
Ed Grady b. 1923 died 10 December 2012 (Surface, Children of the Corn III: Urban Harvest, Children of the Corn II: The Final Sacrifice, The Handmaid’s Tale, D.A.R.Y.L., Wolfman)
G.D. Spradlin b. 1920 died 24 July 2011 (Dark Skies, Space, The Greatest American Hero)
Richard Basehart b. 1914 died 17 September 1984 (Mr. Merlin, The Island of Dr, Moreau, Time Travelers, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, The Satan Bug, Twilight Zone)
Frederic March b. 1897 died 14 April 1975(I Married a Witch, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde)

Notes from the birthday list.
1. The Picture Slot. In previous years, it was Richard Basehart - partly because I'm an MST3K freak and Gypsy loved him so - and the artist Roger Dean. The three finalists today were Frederic March from Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Julie Brown from Earth Girls Are Easy and the winner, Chris Tucker from The Fifth Element, the only actor in the film who was as loud as the special effects.

2. Spot the Canadian! If I went to four finalists, I would go Whedonverse nerd and chose Zach Ward from the last episodes of Dollhouse. He is Canadian and likely best known from his role as a bully in A Christmas Story.

3. Nepotism FTW. Dawn Roddenberry. No more need be said.

4. The Guys at the Door. Director Herbert Wise died early this month, and if not for that, he would have been the oldest living person on the list but not the Guy at the Door. With him gone, suddenly 1940 is the cut-off year on this list between the living and the dead, and our two Guys at the Door are Australian actor Jack Thompson, whom I first noticed or his role in Breaker Morant, and Larry Hankin, the guy who played Kramer in the show-within-a-show version of Seinfeld. When this demographic oddity occurs, we wish the Guys at the Door a little extra.

5. The crazy extra. Shannon Richardson is a domestic terrorist who was caught by the FBI for sending letters laced with ricin to President Obama and New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg. She also had minor roles in a few TV shows, but imdb.com gives her name and her picture but does not list her credits. This is odd.

Many happy returns to all the living on the list, especially Jack Thompson and Larry Hankin, and to the dead, thanks for all the memories.

Predictor: OMNI Future Almanac, published 1982

Prediction: In the early part of the 21st Century, am ultralight airplane will be developed to explore the surface of Mars. Based partly on the U2 spyplanes, it will be capable of flight in Mars' thin atmosphere and will film vast amounts of the red planet's surface.

Reality: Umm... no. No matter how ultralight this thing is, its useful lifetime would be measured in hours, maybe days at the most. If you are going to send something to Mars, more bang for the buck is required.
 

Never to be Forgotten: Wes Craven 1939-2015

Horror director Wes Craven died yesterday at the age of 76. He came up making horror films when Hollywood's worst kept secret was that low budget horror films were enormously profitable. Several horror directors from his era, including John Carpenter, David Lynch, Tobe Hooper and of course Craven himself, were given "auteur" status. The film distributors made sure fans knew the name of the director, hoping that they could build a brand with loyal viewers who knew what they wanted, even if reviewers considered the films beneath contempt. It turns out the distributors were right. (Note: Having a successful film with many sequels is not enough to get this treatment. Sean S. Cunningham wrote and directed the first Friday the 13th, but isn't involved in the later big screen versions. His name is not nearly as well known as those of his contemporaries.)

Craven has three great successes attached to his name: The Hills Have Eyes, A Nightmare on Elm Street and Scream. Other directorial credits include Vampire in Brooklyn, New Nightmare, The People Under the Stairs, Shocker, The Serpent and the Rainbow, The Twilight Zone [1985-6], Deadly Friend and Swamp Thing.

The outpouring of affection for Craven on Twitter was not unlike the love shown for Roddy Piper. My favorite tweet was from John Hodgman, who wrote:


I met Wes Craven in Chicago in 2012 and he could not have been less terrifying. I miss him.

As Vincent Price said, the goal is not to be remembered, but instead to be missed. For Mr. Craven... achievement unlocked.

Best wishes to the family and friends of Wes Craven from a fan. He is never to be forgotten.

Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!

A new month, a new splash illustration, birthdays and predictions galore.
  
Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!

25 December 2014

Birthdays
Georgia Moffett b. 1984 (The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot, Merlin, Doctor Who)
Hal Scardino b. 1984 (The Indian in the Cupboard)
Moneca Delain b. 1981 (Supernatural, Painkiller Jane, Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer, Smallville, Battlestar Galactica, Mysterious Ways)
Patrick Brennan b. 1972 (Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2)
Klea Scott b. 1968 (Minority Report, UFO Kidnapped)
Dean Cameron b. 1962 (American Horror Story, Deep Core, Honey, I Shrunk the Kids: The TV Show, They Came from Outer Space, ALF)
Jillie Mack b. 1957 (Tales from the Darkside, The Wizard)
CCH Pounder b. 1952 (Warehouse 13, The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones, Avatar, End of Days, NetForce, House of Frankenstein [1997 TV], White Dwarf, Tales from the Crypt: Demon Knight, The X-Files, RoboCop 3, Quantum Leap)
Sissy Spacek b. 1949 (An American Haunting, The Ring Two, Tuck Everlasting, Carrie)
Stuart Wilson b. 1946 (Dinotopia, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III, Space: 1999, UFO)
Paul Wilson b. 1945 (The Big Bang Theory, Star Trek: Voyager, The X Files, Circuitry Man I & II, The Munsters Today, 976-EVIL, My Best Friend Is a Vampire)
Gary Sandy b. 1945 (Sabrina, the Teenage Witch, Troll)
Rick Berman b. 1945 (writer, Star Trek)
Mabel King b. 1932 died 9 November 1999 (Dead Men Don’t Die, Black Vampire, Tales from the Darkside, Amazing Stories, The Wiz)
Dick Miller b. 1928 (Trail of the Screaming Forehead, Route 666, Small Soldiers, The Warlord: Battle for the Galaxy, Weird Science [TV], Tales from the Crypt: Demon Knight, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Lois & Clark, Matinee, Eerie, Indiana, The Flash [TV], Freddy’s Nightmares, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Innerspace, Amazing Stories, Gremlins 1 & 2, Night of the Creeps, Explorers, The Terminator, V; The Final Battle, Space Raiders, Twilight Zone: The Movie, Heartbeeps, The Howling, X; The Man with the X-Ray Eyes, The Little Shop of Horrors[1961], War of the Satellites, The Undead, Not of this Earth, It Conquered the World)
Rod Serling b. 1924 died 28 July 1975 (writer, The Twilight Zone, Time Travelers, Planet of the Apes)
Dean Ellis b. 1920 died 12 October 2009 (illustrator)
Mike Mazurki b. 1907 died 9 December 1990 (Alligator, Land of the Giants, I Dream of Jeannie, Batman, It’s About Time, Mr. Terrific, The Munsters, Zotz!, The Canterville Ghost [1944])
Frank Ferguson b. 1906 died 12 September 1978 (Land of the Giants, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, Twilight Zone, Topper [1954 TV], Adventures of Superman, The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms, Bud Abbott Lou Costello Meet Frankenstein)
Barton MacLane b. 1902 died 1 January 1969 (I Dream of Jeannie, The Munsters, Cry of the Werewolf, The Mummy’s Ghost, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, The Walking Dead [1936])
Humphrey Bogart b. 1899 died 14 January 1957 (The Return of Doctor X)

Notes on the birthday list.
1. The Picture Slot. Last year, I used Rod Serling, who would always be my first choice on this list for his importance to the genre, most especially on TV. The second most important name in terms of TV genre is Rick Berman, who has worked on nearly every Star Trek project since The Next Generation began.

My most obvious choice for this year would be Sissy Spacek, who is both a movie star and has an iconic role in genre in Carrie. But I'd like to point out the great selection of Oh That Guys who were born on Christmas. Paul Wilson was a semi-regular on Cheers, Mike Mazurki was almost always a thug and was a regular on the 1960s sitcom It's About Time, Frank Ferguson got a lot of work in Westerns and Barton MacLane was General Peterson on I Dream of Jeannie. I should also note that CCH Pounder is a great Oh That Gal, though given how many TV shows on which she has been a regular, she may now be at the "Hey, it's CCH Pounder!" level of fame.

But the king of the Oh That Guys born this day is Dick Miller, shown here in his last moment on screen in The Terminator, though certainly not his last moment on screen in his career. Mr Miller turns 86 this year and I'm sure all my readers will join me in wishing him a Merry Christmas, happy birthday and thanks for a great career.

2. Spot the Canadian. There's just the one and the list of credits does give it away. Answer in the comments later today.

3. Fun facts to know and tell. Bogart in sci-fi? Oh, yes. I was an insane completist as a kid when it comes to Bogart movies and he made a lot of B-movies for Warner Brothers before his breakout roles in High Sierra, The Maltese Falcon and Casablanca made him a bankable movie star. He plays a mad scientist/vampire. Another interesting tidbit is Jillie Mack, who has only a few credits to her name and is better known as Tom Selleck's wife. They met on the set of Magnum, P.I.

Many happy returns to all the living on the list, and to the dead, thanks for all the memories. And to my readers, Merry Christmas, or if you are a complete Scrooge, happy Isaac Newton's birthday.


Movies released
Children of Men released 2006
Gulliver’s Travels released, 2010
Into the Woods released 2014
 

Predictor: The Christmas Invasion, aired 25 December 2005

Prediction: In 2006, the Guinevere One is scheduled to land on Mars, but goes missing as the Sycorax invade Earth.

Reality: This was the introductory episode for David Tennant as the Tenth Doctor. I know that Doctor Who and reality and two great tastes that do NOT go well together, but I'd like to point out that the British as a space exploring nation is a complete non-starter in the 21st Century.

Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!

Back to the regular schedule and a prediction from young H.G. Wells in 1902.

Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!

12 September 2014

Birthdays
Alfie Allen b. 1986 (Game of Thrones)
Emmy Rossum b. 1986 (Comet, Dragonball: Evolution, The Day After Tomorrow)
Marty Adams b. 1981 (Hemlock Grove, Orphan Black, Dead Before Dawn 3D, Lost Girl, Repo Men, Repo! The Genetic Opera, Saw IV)
Ben McKenzie b. 1978 (Gotham)
Paul Walker b. 1973 died 30 November 2013 (Pleasantville, Tammy and the T-Rex, Timeline, Programmed to Kill, Monster in the Closet)
Gideon Emery b. 1972 (Teen Wolf, True Blood, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice)
James Frey b. 1969 (author, I Am Number Four)
Darren E. Burrows b. 1966 (The Lone Gunmen, The X Files, Class of 1999, Hard Time on Planet Earth)
Ramon Franco b. 1963 (Resident Evil: Extinction, The X Files, NightMan)
Amy Yasbeck b. 1962 (Dracula: Dead and Loving It, The Mask, Quantum Leap, Splash, Too, Werewolf, House: The Second Story)
Robert John Burke b. 1960 (Limitless, Witchblade, From the Earth to the Moon, Thinner, RoboCop 3)
Gregg Edelman b. 1958 (Spider-Man 2, The Manhattan Project)
Hans Zimmer b. 1957 (composer, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Amazing Spider-Man 2, Man of Steel, Rise of the Undead, Batman Begins, Pirates of the Caribbean, Inception, Rango, Inception, The Ring, Smilla’s Feeling for Snow, Space Rangers)
Joe Pantoliano b. 1951 (Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief, Daredevil, The Adventures of Pluto Nash, Roswell, The Matrix, Congo, Robot in the Family, Highlander [TV], Tales from the Crypt, Deadly Nightmares, Amazing Stories)
Christopher Neame b. 1947 (Star Trek: Enterprise, The Invisible Man [TV], Seven Days, The Apocalypse Watch, Sliders, Earth 2, Star Trek: Voyager, Babylon 5, The Flash, Superboy, Ghostbusters II, Beauty and the Beast, Bloodstone, Blakes 7, Dracula A.D. 1972, Lust for a Vampire, No Blade of Grass)
Milo Manara b. 1945 (artist)
Bill McKinney b. 1931 died 1 December 2011 (Hellborn, The Green Mile, It Came from Outer Space II, Back to the Future Part III, Galactica 1980, Strange New World, I Dream of Jeannie)
Ian Holm b. 1931 (The Hobbit, Lord of the Rings, The Day After Tomorrow, Simon Magus, eXistenZ, Alice Through the Looking Glass [TV 1998], The Fifth Element, Loch Ness, Frankenstein [1994], The Borrowers, Dreamchild, Brazil, Time Bandits, Alien, The Lost Boys [TV 1978])
Freddie Jones b. 1927 (Neverwhere, Dune, Firestarter, Krull, Firefox, Space:1999, Son of Dracula, Alice Through the Looking Glass [TV 1973], Old Drac, Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed)
Stanislaw Lem b. 1921 died 27 March 2006 (author, Solaris, The Futurological Congress)
Edward Binns b.1916 died 4 December 1990 (Captain Nice, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, Twilight Zone)
Mary Stewart b. 1916 died 9 May 2014 (author, The Merlin Trilogy)
Desmond Llewelyn b. 1914 died 19 December 1999 (Merlin [1993], Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde [1980 TV], Moonraker, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, The Curse of the Werewolf, H.G. Wells’ Invisible Man)
Walter B. Gibson a.k.a. Maxwell Grant a.k.a. Edward S. Sullivan b. 1897 (writer, The Shadow, The Twilight Zone)

Fun facts I learned today in research.

1) Hans Zimmer was in The Buggles.
2) Freddie Jones is not Aubrey Morris. As they have gotten older, I have a heck of a time telling them apart. Also, both are still alive, born in 1927 and 1926 respectively. Good on ya, fellas.
3) It feels like a lot of the cast from Northern Exposure kind of faded away after the show was through. In the case of Darren E. Burrows who played Ed Chigliak, it feels that way because it is that way. He never got a role as good as that before or since.

As for the Picture Slot choice, I do have a fondness for Game of Thrones. Next year, I'm not sure what I'll do.

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

Predictor: Mission to Mars, released 10 March 2000

Prediction: In 2020, the first manned craft lands on Mars.

Reality: Of course, (spoiler alert), most movies taking place in outer space include contact with extraterrestrials, and this one does as well. The prediction part is interplanetary travel by 2020 and while it's still six years away, if someone gave me an even money bet, I'd be glad to wager that we will not have a person set foot on Mars by then. In the movie's favor, 2020 is one of the years when the Earth and Mars are on the same side of the sun. This happens about every 25 or 26 months.

Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!

Yet another prediction from 1893, complete with awesome facial hair.


Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!

5 August 2014

Birthdays
Mars Curiosity landed 2012
Olivia Holt b. 1997 (Girl vs. Monster)
Ryan McDonald b. 1984 (Warehouse 13, Fringe, 2012)
Jesse Williams b. 1981 (The Cabin in the Woods)
Sophia Winkleman b. 1980 (The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe)
Victor Cruz b. 1980 (Gotham, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, Fringe)
Paul Kasey b. 1973 (Doctor Who, Being Human, The Sarah Jane Chronicles, Inkheart, Torchwood, 28 Days Later…, Blade II)
James Gunn b. 1970 (director, Guardians of the Galaxy, Slither [2006])
Jonathan Silverman (Jekyll, 12:01)
Mark Strong b. 1963 (John Carter, Green Lantern, Kick-Ass, Babylon A.D., Stardust)
Tawny Kitaen b. 1961 (Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, They Came from Outer Space, Witchboard)
Maureen McCormick b. 1956 (I Dream of Jeannie, Bewitched)
Natalie Trundy b. 1940 (Battle for the Planet of the Apes, Conquest of the Planet of the Apes, Escape from the Planet of the Apes, Beneath the Planet of the Apes, Twilight Zone)
Larry Elmore b. 1948 (artist)
Alan Howard b. 1937 (Lord of the Rings)
John Saxon b. 1935 (From Dusk Till Dawn, Hellmaster, My Mom’s a Werewolf, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Prisoners of the Lost Universe, Battle Beyond the Stars, Wonder Woman, The Bionic Woman, The Six Million Dollar Man, Strange New World, Planet Earth, The Time Tunnel, Queen of Blood, Blood Beast from Outer Space)
Zakes Mokae b. 1934 died 11 September 2009 (The X Files, Waterworld, Outbreak, Vampire in Brooklyn, Knight Rider)
Joan Weldon b. 1933 (Them!)
Neil Armstrong b. 1930 died 25 August 2012 (first man to walk on the moon)
Don Matheson b.1929 died 29 June 2014 (Dragonflight, Alice in Wonderland [1985], Land of the Giants, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, Lost in Space)
Parley Baer b. 1914 died 22 November 2002 (Star Trek: Voyager, Roswell, Quantum Leap, Time Trackers, Twilight Zone [1986], The Incredible Hulk, Project U.F.O., Bewitched, Land of the Giants, I Dream of Jeannie, The Addams Family, My Favorite Martian, My Living Doll, The Outer Limits, The Brass Bottle)
Reginald Owen b. 1887 died 5 November 1972 (Bedknobs and Broomsticks, Bewitched, Mary Poppins, A Christmas Carol [1938])

Since astronauts are trump this year, the Picture Slot decision was easy. If Neil Armstrong is removed from contention, my idiosyncratic top four would be Mark Strong (the closest we have to a 21st Century movie star on the list), John Saxon (not quite a movie star in his day, more of a TV/b-movie star), Parley Baer (a TV Oh That Guy whose 271 credits span from I Love Lucy to Star Trek: Voyager) and Reginald Owen (still my favorite live action version of Scrooge).

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

Movies released
Rise of the Planet of the Apes released 2011
 

Predictor: Philip K. Dick in the 1958 short story Null-O

Prediction: As of August 5, 1969, the population of the world as been reduced to 3,000.

Reality: I'd say this is an odd little story by PKD, but almost all of his stuff is odd. The title is clearly a tweak of A.E. van Vogt's earlier novel The World of Null-A, a writer many people in sci-fi hated but Dick considered him an important influence. The basic plot is that people with no empathy make a concerted effort to locate others with no empathy and plan to make an improved world by wiping everybody else out.

This, of course, is nothing like the world we live in, unless you look at it through an odd lens, and then it does start to look like our world. This can be said of nearly all of the stories of PKD, a writer whose ideas linger in the brain long after the story is finished.

Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!

More random guesses from Herman Kahn. 

Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!
 

10 March 2014

Birthdays
Olivia Wilde b. 1984 (Her, TRON: Legacy, In Time, Cowboys & Aliens)
Rafe Spall b. 1983 (The World’s End, Life of Pi, Earthbound, Prometheus, Grindhouse, Dracula [TV], Shaun of the Dead)
Edi Gathegi b. 1979 (X-Men: First Class, Twilight)
Jon Hamm b. 1971 (Sucker Punch, The Day the Earth Stood Still, Charmed)
Paget Brewster b. 1969 (The Venture Brothers, Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law, Cyxork 7)
Jasmine Guy b. 1962 (Dead Like Me,The Vampire Diaries, Lois & Clark)
Scott Frank b. 1960 (writer, The Wolverine, Minority Report)
Sharon Stone b. 1958 (Sphere, Total Recall, Badlands 2005)
Robert Llewellyn b. 1956 (Red Dwarf, MirrorMask)
Bruce Joel Rubin b. 1943 (writer, The Time Traveler’s Wife, The Last Mimzy, Deep Impact, Jacob’s Ladder, Ghost, Deadly Friend, Brainstorm)
Warner Anderson b. 1911 died 26 August 1976 (Destination Moon)
Sam Jaffe b. 1891 died 24 March 1984 (Battle Beyond the Stars, The Bionic Woman, Batman, The Day the Earth Stood Still, Lost Horizon)

Last year, Olivia Wilde was in the Picture Slot because... purdy. We have many other purdy choices, but for iconic in sci-fi, I would argue on this list the top three are Ms. Wilde in the new TRON, Warner Anderson in Destination Moon and the guy you are looking at, Robert Llewellyn as the mechanoid Kryten from Red Dwarf. Some might argue for Sharon Stone, but I really don't care for her. I do like Jon Hamm, but he was in the not very memorable version of The Day the Earth Stood Still. I would be more likely to use Sam Jaffe from the classic version in a future picture slot.

In any case, many happy returns to all the living on the list, and to the dead, thanks for all the memories.

Predictor: Mission to Mars, released 10 March 2000

Prediction: A manned mission to Mars lands on the red planet in the year 2020. From there, things do not go well

Reality: People are still talking about this, but as of today it is still all talk. Several proposals discuss the option of sending people on a one-way trip. The facts are it's a long way to go, very expensive and risky and almost no way to make a profit. Maybe some years from now I will be forced to recant, but a manned mission to Mars is not likely in my lifetime.

Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!

Ray Kurzweil returns to predict the world of 2009, with his usual spotty results.

Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!

19 January 2014

 Birthdays
Benjamin Ayres b. 1977 (Lost Girl, The Vampire Diaries, Smallville, Supernatural, Battlestar Galactica, Stargate SG-1)
Allen Steele b. 1958 (author, Orbital Decay, The Death of Captain Future)
Katey Sagal b. 1954 (Futurama, Lost, Jack and the Beanstalk [2010], Smart House)
Richard Lester b. 1932 (director, Superman II and III, The Mouse on the Moon)
Tippi Hedren b. 1930 (The 4400, The Birds)
Edgar Allan Poe b. 1809 died 7 October 1849 (author, The Masque of the Red Death, The Fall of the House of Usher)

In his 1998 book The Dreams Our Stuff is Made Of, Thomas M. Disch argues that Poe, not Jules Verne or H.G. Wells, is the true father of science fiction and that it is a distinctly American genre which from its inception was closely linked to hoaxes and Poe was involved in a few during his very brief life. I'm not completely convinced by this theory, though I recommend the book wholeheartedly and thank my friend Michael Strickland for giving it to me. Whether or not he counts as science fiction, he definitely counts as fantasy and this blog acknowledges artists from both genres.

Many happy returns to the living on the list today, and to Edgar Allan Poe, nobody loved a rotting corpse as much as you did, buddy, and now you have been one for eight score and five. Keep up the good work.

Predictor: Ray Bradbury in The Martian Chronicles, published 1950

Prediction: In November 2005, nuclear war breaks out on Earth and the vast majority of settlers on Mars decide to return.

Reality: Perhaps I should have written "spoiler alert" on the prediction, as this is the first real plot point in The Martian Chronicles, a loosely connected set of short stories collected and published in 1950. This will also be the last prediction taken from the book, ignoring the dates past 2020 that make up the last few chapters.

I have to say the idea that people on Mars would return to Earth en masse because of nuclear war makes no sense to me.  Splitting the species into two populations so widely removed from one another greatly increases the chances of survival. For one branch to rejoin the other as it heads on a suicidal path is a very bad idea.

Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!

OMNI Future Almanac gets its regular Monday shot at trying to guess the events to come from its vantage point in 1982.

Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!

5 January 2014

Birthdays
Oscar Isaac b. 1980 (Sucker Punch)
Paul Jarrett b. 1979 (Continuum, Fringe, Twilight: Eclipse, Smallville, Stargate, The Grudge 2, Dead Like Me, Stephen King’s Dead Zone, Millennium, The X-Files, Sliders)
January Jones b. 1978 (X-Men: First Class)
Bradley Cooper b. 1975 (Limitless)
Paul McGillion b. 1969 (Once Upon a Time, Fringe, Sanctuary, V [2010], Star Trek, Stargate: Atlantis, Smallville, The X-Files)
Vinnie Jones b. 1965 (X-Men: The Last Stand, Mysterious Island [2005])
Clancy Brown b. 1959 (Sleepy Hollow, John Dies at the End, Cowboys & Aliens, A Nightmare on Elm Street [2010], The Burrowers, Lost, Carnivale, Star Trek: Enterprise, Starship Troopers, The Outer Limits [1996], Earth 2, Highlander, The Bride, The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai)
Jeep Swenson b. 1957 died 18 August 1997 (Batman and Robin)
Robert Catrini b. 1950 (G.I. Joe: Retaliation, True Blood, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, SeaQuest 2032)
Roger Spottiswode b. 1945 (director, The Sixth Day)
Cliff Potts b. 1942 (Silent Running, Star Trek: The Next Generation)
Hayao Miyazaki b. 1941 (Ponyo, Howl’s Moving Castle, Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke, Kiki’s Delivery Service, My Neighbor Totoro, Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind)
Robert Duvall b. 1931 (Deep Impact, The Sixth Day, The Handmaid’s Tale, THX 1138, The Time Tunnel, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, The Outer Limits, Twilight Zone)
George Reeves b. 1914 died 16 June 1959 (The Adventures of Superman)
Stella Gibbons b. 1902 died 19 December 1989 (Cold Comfort Farm)

A very long list today, and I had to break a three way tie for the Picture Slot. It was either going to be:

a) Hayao Miyazaki, my favorite artist on the list
b) Robert Duvall, an honest to Odin movie star who did a lot of genre early in his career or
c) Clancy Brown, the guy glaring out at you. We have a lot of "oh, THAT guy" actors here, and Mr. Brown is the most recognizable of that group.

Many happy returns of the day to all our living birthday boys and girls, and a brief mention for the three on the list who are dead.

Stella Gibbons' Cold Comfort Farm is a very unlikely book to be called genre, but she did set it in the future (written in the 1930s, takes place in the 1950s) and there are a few futuristic touches in the few scenes set in London, but much of the story takes place on a farm that could be set in the 19th Century.

George Reeves played Superman on TV and died of a gunshot wound. There are several competing theories as to exactly what happened. The under-rated movie Hollywoodland, starring Ben Affleck and Adrian Brody, does a good job explaining the three most popular theories.

Jeep Swenson was a professional wrestler. He was listed as 6'4" and 405 lbs. (1m93 and 184 kg for readers more comfortable with the metric measurements), and that weight was mostly muscle. He played Bane in Batman and Robin, the movie credited with finally killing the 20th Century Batman franchise. Swenson died of a heart attack at the age of 40.
 

Predictor: Ray Bradbury in The Martian Chronicles, published 1950

Prediction: In September 2005, The LaFarges, an old couple that have moved to Mars, are visited by their son Tom, who died years earlier on Eath.

Reality: As has been written many times, Bradbury is really a fantasy storyteller rather than a science fiction author. The Martians have magical abilities and no scientific explanations are ever given. Bradbury killed the Martians off in an early chapter, but they keep popping up through unexplained time warps or unexplained lone survivors.

Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!

The OMNI Future Almanac tells us what will be the ten leading companies... in the year 2000!

Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!

12 December 2013

 Birthdays
Mayim Bialik b. 1975 (The Big Bang Theory, Pumpkinhead)
Jennifer Connelly b. 1970 (Hulk, The Day The Earth Stood Still, Inkheart, Labyrinth, Phenomena)
Madchen Amick b. 1970 (Witches of East End, Fantasy Island[reboot], Star Trek: The Next Generation, Sleepwalkers)
Sarah Douglas b. 1952 (Superman II, Conan the Destroyer, Stargate SG-1, Babylon 5, Beastmaster 2, V: The Final Battle, Space: 1999, The Last Days of Man on Earth)
Bill Nighy b. 1949 (Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Jack the Giant Slayer, Wrath of the Titans, Doctor Who, Total Recall [reboot], Underworld, Pirates of the Caribbean, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Shaun of the Dead, Phantom of the Opera)
Leslie Schofield b. 1938 (Star Wars: A New Hope, Doctor Who)
Eugene Burdick b. 1918 died 26 July 1965 (author, Fail-Safe, The 480)

I'm assuming people do not need the first five names on the list "explained". I always love a same day birth pair, and with Ms. Amick and Ms. Connelly, that's a whole lot of pretty. You could argue that Sarah Douglas in Superman II is not the most iconic genre role on the list, but then, you'd be arguing with me and... it's my blog.

Leslie Schofield played a Death Star officer who told Grand Moff Tarkin the stolen plans could present a problem, only to be on the receiving end of serious Moff scoff.

Eugene Burdick, the only dead guy on today's list. wrote Fail-Safe and The 480, a political thriller that warns of people predicting the future using... computer simulations!

Yes, this is back in the punch card days. Scary!

Many happy returns of the day to all the living on the list, and thanks to Mr. Burdick for all the memories.

Predictor: Isaac Asimov, asked to speculate about 2014 in honor of the 1964 World's Fair

Predictions, (interrupted with reality): Communications will become sight-sound and you will see as well as hear the person you telephone. The screen can be used not only to see the people you call but also for studying documents and photographs and reading passages from books. Synchronous satellites, hovering in space will make it possible for you to direct-dial any spot on earth, including the weather stations in Antarctica, shown in chill splendor as part of the '64 General Motors exhibit.

(Okay, let's just stop here for a moment. This is a tape measure home run. Not just picture phones but documents on the Internet and large scale com-sat networks. Very nice work, Mr. Asimov, really tip-top.)

(What could go wrong now? Well, Isaac gets a little space happy.)

For that matter, you will be able to reach someone at the moon colonies, concerning which General Motors puts on a display of impressive vehicles in model form with large soft tires intended to negotiate the uneven terrain that may exist on our natural satellite.

(Would soft tires make the most sense? Fixing a flat in a vacuum sounds like a major pain in the butt.)

Any number of simultaneous conversations between earth and moon can be handled by modulated laser beams, which are easy to manipulate in space. On earth, however, laser beams will have to be led through plastic pipes, to avoid material and atmospheric interference. Engineers will still be playing with that problem in 2014.

Conversations with the moon will be a trifle uncomfortable, by the way, in that 2.5 seconds must elapse between statement and answer (it takes light that long to make the round trip). Similar conversations with Mars will experience a 3.5-minute delay even when Mars is at its closest. However, by 2014, only unmanned ships will have landed on Mars, though a manned expedition will be in the works and in the 2014 Futurama will show a model of an elaborate Martian colony.

(Okay, space happy but not space crazy. No one stepping foot on Mars by 2014. Recall that Heinlein and Clarke had us all over the galaxy by the turn of the century. Isaac steals a point from Bob and ACC by being sensible.)

Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!

TED Talks! Movers! Shakers! Game Changers! Clueless dorks!

Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!

10 November 2013

Birthdays
Michael Jai White b. 1967 (The Dark Knight, Spawn)
Vanessa Angel b. 1966 (Weird Science, Stargate SG-1, PuppetMaster vs. Demonic Toys)
Daniel Waters b. 1962 (writer, Demolition Man, Batman Returns)
Neil Gaiman b. 1960
(won 2002 Hugo and 2003 Nebula for American Gods)
(won 2009 Hugo for The Graveyard Book)
Roland Emmerich b. 1955 (director, Universal Solider, Stargate, Independence Day, Godzilla, The Day After Tomorrow, 2012)
Roy Scheider b. 1932 died 10 February 2008 (2010, SeaQuest 2032)
Richard Burton b. 1925 died 10 November 1984 (1984, The Exorcist II)
Russell Johnson b. 1924 (This Island Earth, It Came From Outer Space, The Twilight Zone)
Claude Rains b. 1889 died 30 May 1967 (The Invisible Man)

Interesting mix of folks on both sides of the camera today. Russell Johnson is best known as The Professor on Gilligan's Island, the last male actor surviving from the cast. (Tina Louise and Dawn Wells are both still alive.) Roland Emmerich has promised that he'll never make another sci-fi film, so we have that going for us. The three deceased actors, Roy Scheider, Richard Burton and Claude Rains, all had long and distinguished careers with just a few roles in genre. While Vanessa Angel easily meets the Pretty Girl = Picture Slot criterion, instead we get a picture of the unkempt hair and pale visage of Neil Gaiman because... fanboy.

Many happy returns of the day to all the living on our list.
 

Prediction: In October 2002, a second wave of settlers comes to Mars, mostly city dwellers in contrast to the largely rural first wave.

Predictor: Ray Bradbury in The Martian Chronicles, published 1950

Reality: This is another of those one page chapters in The Martian Chronicles, a quick exercise in prose style that Bradbury loved to write.

Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!

A 1965 Senate subcommittee predicts a worker's paradise in the year 2000.

Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!  

3 November 2013

 Birthdays
Dolph Lundgren b. 1957 (Universal Soldier, Johnny Mnemonic, Masters of the Universe)
Gary Ross b. 1956 (director, The Hunger Games, Pleasantville)
Kevin Murphy b. 1956 (Mystery Science Theater 3000)
Kate Capshaw b. 1953 (Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Dreamscape)
Aneta Corsaut b. 1933 died 6 November 1995 (The Blob)
Lois Smith b. 1930 (True Blood)
Claudia Barrett b. 1929 (Robot Monster)
Osamu Tezuka b. 1928 died 9 February 1989 (writer, Astro Boy, Metropolis)
Robert Quarry b. 1925 died 20 February 2009 (Count Yorga, Vampire)
Leonard Stone b. 1923 died 2 November 2011 (Lost in Space, Land of the Giants, Soylent Green, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory)
Ignatius Donnelly b. 1831 died 1 January 1901 (author, Caesar’s Column, Atlantis: The Antediluvian World)

It's a little unusual to have a list this long and the youngest person on it is in his fifties, but that's today's list.  I could easily have put Tom Servo in the Picture Slot or Dolph Lundgren. If I was in a puckish mood, I might have put Claudia Barrett being carried away by the guy in the gorilla suit with a space helmet, but I decided on Astro Boy instead.

I have discussed Ignatius Donnelly before, the writer of the anti-Semitic futuristic story Caesar's Column. Looking up names on the Internet Speculative Fiction Database this morning, they listed his book on Atlantis in "non-fiction". He made up Atlantis. We should be allowed to call a hoax that is now 131 years old a hoax.

Just sayin'.

Best wishes to all the living on the list.  

Predictor: Ray Bradbury in The Martian Chronicles,  published as a book in 1950

Prediction: In August 2002, Tomas Gomez, a worker newly arrived on Mars, has a strange meeting across time with a Martian. They disagree about whether the Martian is in the past or the future. Both of them are going to parties.

Reality: Yet again, Bradbury shows why the Hard SF crowd looked down their noses at him. Right now, I'm reading Rushdie's memoir Joseph Anton, and Rushdie is definitely of the view that writing is about sentences. It's obvious that Bradbury felt the same way.

Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!

Switching up the line-up a little this week to get another prediction about 2014 from Isaac Asimov in 1964.

Join us then... IN THE FUTURE! 

20 October 2013

Birthdays
Katie Featherston b. 1982 (Paranormal Activity)
Rose McIver b. 1987 (Hercules, Xena, Power Rangers, Once Upon a Time)
Sam Witwer b. 1977 (Being Human, Angel, The Walking Dead, Smallville, Battlestar Galatica, Star Trek:Enterprise)
Kenneth Choi b. 1971 (Captain America: The First Avenger)
Viggo Mortensen b. 1958 (Lord of the Rings, The Road)
Danny Boyle b.1956 (director, 28 Days Later)
Bill Nunn b. 1953 (Spider-Man)
George Harris b. 1949 (Harry Potter, Flash Gordon)
George Wyner b. 1945 (Spaceballs)
Anneke Wills b. 1941 (Doctor Who)
John Anderson b. 1922 Died 7 August 1992 (Star Trek:The Next Generation, Twilight Zone)
Rex Ingram b. 1895 died 19 September 1969 (The Thief of Bagdad)
Bela Lugosi b. 1882 died 16 August 1956 (Dracula)

Next year, it will be an interesting choice for the picture slot. This year it's Bela Lugosi, no question.

Many happy returns to the living on our list.
 

Prediction: February, 2002: Ninety thousand people now live on Mars.

Predictor: Ray Bradbury in The Martian Chronicles, published in 1950

Reality: This is one of the really short chapters, only two paragraphs long. As much grief as I give Bradbury, if you are of the opinion that writing is about sentences, you really should give The Martian Chronicles a read. He worked very hard at his craft and it shows.

Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!

An exact date from 2015 is going to preempt our regular schedule of predictions for most of this next week.

And, yes, there are flying cars.

Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!

13 October 2013

Birthdays
Katia Winter b. 1983 (Sleepy Hollow)
Ashanti b. 1980 (Resident Evil, Buffy)
Jennifer Sky b. 1976 (Buffy, Xena, Cleopatra 2525)
Sacha Baron Cohen b. 1971 (Hugo)
Christopher Judge b. 1964 (Stargate, The Dark Knight Rises)
Hiro Kanagawa b. 1962 (Arrow, Caprica, The Day the Earth Stood Still, Smallville, Millennium [TV Series] )
Wayne Pygram b. 1959 (Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith, Farscape)
Chris Carter b. 1956 (writer, The X-Files)
John Lone b. 1952 (Iceman)
William Zappa b. 1948 (Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior)
Melinda Dillon b. 1939 (Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Harry and the Hendersons)

Long birthday list, everybody is still alive (yay!), and a tough decision for the Picture Slot. I would argue the biggest name in terms of genre is the writer Chris Carter and the biggest name in terms of show business in general is Sacha Baron Cohen. I could also go with Christopher Judge or Wayne Pygram because their characters are part of the iconic look of Stargate and Farscape respectively. I instead went with Jennifer Sky, not only because of the Pretty Girl = Picture Slot rule (d'uh!), but she also wrote an interesting op-ed in The New York Times last month about how much of an influence it was on her life to get a role on Xena: Warrior Princess.

Movies released
Strange Days released 1995

We will get some predictions from Strange Days later in the year, since the movie gives not only a year when it takes place, but also exact days, the end of 1999 and the beginning of 2000.

Prediction: December, 2001: Benjamin Driscoll, something like the Johnny Appleseed of Mars, plants trees with the intention of making the atmosphere more oxygen rich. The trees sprout to full height by the time he wakes up the next morning.

Predictor: Ray Bradbury in The Martian Chronicles, published in 1950

Reality: I remember way back on The Simpsons when Bart ran for class president against the chubby nerd Martin Prince. Martin's campaign promise was that the library would be stocked with the ABCs of science fiction, Asimov, Bester and Clarke.

His sickly little pal pipes up. "What about Ray Bradbury?"

Martin looks at his friend dismissively. "I'm familiar with his work."

Martin is representing the people who call the genre "SF" instead of "sci-fi", the people who like more science with their fiction. (Neil DeGrasse Tyson put out a tornado of tweets last week blasting the science of Gravity, but ended saying he still enjoyed it.) Bradbury was a storyteller, not a scientist, and in many chapters of The Martian Chronicles, it shows. A lot.

Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!

An exact date from H.G. Wells, not from The Shape of Things to Come and technically not from the future even from his point of view, but I'm letting that slide this time.

Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!
 

22 September 2013

 Birthdays
Tom Felton b. 1987 (Harry Potter)
Tatiana Maslany b. 1985 (Orphan Black)
Godfrey Gao b. 1984 (The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones)
Laura Vandervoort b. 1984 (Smallville, V, Ted)
Billie Piper b. 1982 (Doctor Who)
MyAnna Buring b. 1979 (Twilight: Breaking Dawn)
Daniella Alonso b. 1978 (Revolution)
Mireille Enos b. 1975 (World War Z)
Frazer Hines b. 1944 (Doctor Who)
Toni Basil b. 1943 (Village of the Giants)
Samuel A. Peeples b. 1917 died 26 August 1997 (writer, Star Trek)

Today's birthday list has a bunch of choices for Pretty Girl = Picture Slot. Every female on the list qualifies. If I was going to go with the face best known to the public, it would probably by Tom Felton as Draco Malfoy. But I chose Tatiana Maslany, who is so good in the Canadian sci-fi show Orphan Black that airs on BBC America, playing a remarkable number of roles very effectively. If you haven't seen the show, I recommend finding it. I bought it on iTunes and I'm looking forward to the second season, which will air next year. 

Many happy returns of the day to all the living on this list.
 

Prediction: In June 2001, the Fourth Martian Expedition lands and this one survives, because the Martian population has been wiped out by the chicken pox.

Predictor: Ray Bradbury in The Martian Chronicles, published in 1950

Reality: Bradbury gave the Martians magical powers and an implacable hatred for humans, so if the stories were going to move beyond "crew lands, sees amazing things, gets killed", the Martians had to be out of the picture and Bradbury decided on chicken pox as the culprit, brought unwittingly by previous expeditions, which he plays as both tragic and slightly ridiculous.

Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!

What with preemptions and such, it's been over a month since we heard from the folks who brought us The OMNI Future Almanac, that 1982 treasure trove of predictions that should have already happened or are just around the corner. While they aren't always correct, they are big on exact years, which makes them a favorite of mine.

Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!
 

15 September 2013

Norman Spinrad

Birthdays
Jonathan Liebesman b. 1976 (director, Battle Los Angeles)
Tom Hardy b. 1977 (The Dark Knight Rises, Inception)
Kenneth Hite b. 1965 (Lost in Lovecraft)
Colin McFarlane b. 1961 (Batman Begins, The Dark Knight)
Ed Solomon b. 1960 (writer, Men In Black)
John Reynolds b. 1941 died 16 October 1966 (Manos: The Hands of Fate)
Tommy Lee Jones b. 1946 (Men In Black, Captain America)
Norman Spinrad (Star Trek, Bug Jack Barron, The Iron Dream)
Henry Darrow b. 1933 (Star Trek, Babylon 5)
Jackie Cooper b. 1922 died 3 May 2011 (Superman)
James Fenimore Cooper b. 1789 died 14 September 1851 (The Monikins)

Eleven birthdays today, no fabulous babes, nearly equally split between actors and writers/directors. I nearly went with poor John Reynolds in the Picture Slot, whose only role on film was as Torgo in Manos: The Hands of Fate. He died at 25 the same year the film was made, and movie is best known to fans of the TV show Mystery Science Theater 3000. Instead, today's picture is of Norman Spinrad, because I still recall fondly his book The Iron Dream. The conceit of the story was that it was written by a young Adolph Hitler and for me, the story lived up to the premise.

I was also surprised to find James Fenimore Cooper's name on the list at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database. His story The Monikins is about intelligent monkeys who can speak and the trip to their homeland.

Many happy returns of the day to the living.

Prediction: The Third Martian Expedition lands on the red planet in the month of April, 2000. They find a small town in the style of the early 20th Century Midwest, populated with family members of the crew.

Predictor: Ray Bradbury in The Martian Chronicles, published in 1950

Reality: Small town Midwestern life from the early 20th Century is often portrayed by Bradbury as idyllic bordering on paradise, but just as often there is some aspect that acts like the serpent in Eden. Long story short, the Third Expedition does not survive.

Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!

An exact date for nuclear annihilation taken from a TV movie.

Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!
 

8 September 2013

 Birthdays
Martin Freeman b. 1971 (The Hobbit, The World's End)
Thomas Kretschmann b. 1962 (King Kong)

Air date of first episode
Star Trek, 1966

No disrespect to either Mr. Freeman or Herr Kretschmann, but today is the 47th anniversary of the words "Space, the final frontier..." being spoken, and in science fiction history, that is indeed a Big Damn Deal. If someone in 1966 predicted that Star Trek would be the most important TV show Desilu Studios ever produced, that person would have been called mad. Star Trek could never eclipse I Love Lucy in the history of television, right?

Well, that's at least partly right. Star Trek left the small screen and became a movie franchise or more accurately, three movie franchises, the original cast, the Next Generation cast and now, the reboot.


Many happy returns to Mr. Freeman and Herr Kretschmann, and here's hoping the reboot series can get around to making a good movie instead of just successful ones.

 

Prediction: In August 1999, the telepathic Martians begin to sense the thoughts of Second Expedition. When the four men land, they are assumed to be figments of the imagination of some insane individual, one of the aspects of insanity on Mars.

Predictor: Ray Bradbury in The Martian Chronicles

Reality: I didn't read The Martian Chronicles when I was a lad. I did read Bradbury's Golden Apples of the Sun and R is for Rocket. I think if I had read this one back then, I would have soured on Bradbury completely. This is a really depressing work.

Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!

There have been several interruptions of our regularly scheduled features over the past few Monday, but tomorrow we get another prediction from the pages of Popular Mechanics.

Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!
  

1 Septmeber 2013

Birthdays
Jhonen Vasquez b. 1974 (writer, Invader ZIM)
C. J. Cherryh b. 1942
(won 1982 Hugo for Downbelow Station)
(won 1989 Hugo for Cyteen)
Yvonne De Carlo b. 1922 died 7 January 2007 (The Munsters)
Edgar Rice Burroughs b. 1975 died 15 March 1950 (John Carter)

Though I put the Cute Girl in the Picture Slot, writers outnumber actors on today's birthday list, which is a rare thing.

While Cherryh may be the more honored in the genre, Edgar Rice Burroughs is easily the best known to the general public. My favorite tidbits of info about Burroughs are that he was 36 before he sold his first story. Before that, he had bounced around in low paying and lackluster jobs, the most often mentioned was as a pencil wholesaler. While the first story he sold was one of his Martian adventures, Tarzan is his best known creation and the keystone to his financial success. Though he had only started writing in 1911, he had made enough money by 1920 to buy his own ranch in California, which he named Tarzana. A town sprang up around the property and the citizens voted in 1927 to adopt the name of the ranch as the name of the town.

While I mention him last, Jhonen Vasquez is the creator of one of my favorite cartoon shows of all time, Invader ZIM. Many happy returns to Vasquez and Cherryh.

Prediction: February 1999, the first expedition to Mars lands and encounters the native population. It does not go well.

Predictor: Ray Bradbury in The Martian Chronicles, copyright 1950

Reality: Of course, humans so far have only set foot on the Moon and not anywhere else in the solar system so far. The best information that we have about Mars is no living creatures are there, though some think there might have been life in the ancient past.

Early 1999 was one of the times when Mars was closest to the Earth, but even then the distance is a little over 50 million miles and to make the trip in about a month means traveling at speeds at least twice as fast as the Cassini space probe.

This month's splash photo
Every month, I change the picture at the top of the page. I like pictures that are wide and not tall so the title of the daily post is visible as well as the first Picture Slot. This month it is artist Patrick Grimmel's rendering of the Hyperloop high speed tube train, proposed this year by Elon Musk, the billionaire behind PayPal and the Tesla electric car.

I've read the .pdf, which addresses stuff like earthquakes and power outages and avoiding sonic booms while traveling faster than sound, but I am not enough of an engineer to judge the practical aspects. I can say that it's nice to see something in the 21st Century that has that optimistic feel and sleek look that are so typical of the mid 20th Century's vision for the near future.

Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!

We hear again from George Orwell and his prediction of a new holiday.

Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!

25 August 2013

Birthdays
Blake Lively b. 1987 (Green Lantern)
Alexander Skarsgård b. 1976 (True Blood, Battleship)
Tim Burton b. 1958 (Beetlejuice, Alice in Wonderland, Planet of the Apes)
Tom Skerritt b. 1933 (Alien)
Sean Connery b. 1930 (Zardoz, Outland, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade)
Michael Rennie b. 1909 died 10 June 1971 (The Day the Earth Stood Still)

Yet another all Hollywood list of birthdays today. For me, the biggest surprise is that Tom Skerritt is only three years younger than Sean Connery and just turned 80(!). By any reasonable yardstick, Ms. Lively's career is the shortest on the list and has the least to do with science fiction or fantasy but... she's purdy.

It also gives me a chance to repeat something I tweeted yesterday that is somewhat on topic.

"I don't remember the Internet pissing itself when Ryan Reynolds was announced as Green Lantern, because THAT would have been useful."

Many happy returns of the day for the living.
 

Prediction: In January 1999, a rocket takes off from Ohio on the way to Mars. The heat from the blast melts the snow and icicles all over town and the locals call it "rocket summer".

Predictor: Ray Bradbury in The Martian Chronicles, a collection of short stories published in 1950

Reality: Rockets produce a heat blast, but it is contained in a relatively small area and dissipates quickly as the rocket climbs. As we know from bitter experience, the heat blast of take-off was not enough to warm up the O-rings on the rocket carrying the space shuttle Challenger. At low temperatures, the rings were brittle instead of flexible and failed catastrophically.

Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!

Let's get another prediction about nuclear powered vehicles, because that can't possibly screw up.

Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!
 

5 August 2013

Birthdays
Alan Howard b. 1937
Mars Curiosity landed 2012

Mr. Howard has had a long career on stage and screen in Britain, and his one important role in a sci-fi or fantasy film is as the voice of the One Ring in The Lord of the Rings trilogy. I've always loved trivia like this, such as Clive Revill being the voice of the emperor in The Empire Strikes Back before the role was taken over by Ian McDiarmid.

Many happy returns of the day to Mr. Howard.

Regular readers will know I make fun of sci-fi at least as often as I commend it, but it was one year ago today that Curiosity landed on Mars and began to send back data. This is a lot of amazing technical achievements rolled into one small package and I inaugurate a new label "real science fiction". Congratulations to all the people who made this happen. This is what the future was supposed to look like.
  

Movie released
Rise of the Planet of the Apes released 2011

Prediction: "Still far from practical realization, the apparatus combines a portable television transmitter with a push button telephone. When the receiver is lifted, the image of the person making the call flashes on the screen. Fantastic as it may appear today, engineers believe that television telephones may become commonplace with a generation."

Predictor: Popular Mechanics in 1940, one of the many from the book The Future That Never Was, available on Amazon.

Reality: As you can see in the picture, they count this prediction as true because by 1960, TV phone technology worked, though they admit TV phones cannot be called commonplace even today.

Modern readers will also note two other unrealistic details. The woman is holding a receiver and she isn't naked.

Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!

We get the last prediction from Larry Niven. It's about space, it's wrong and it's more than a little boring, one of the main reasons he is being given the heave ho.

Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!  

30 July 2013

Birthdays
Christopher Nolan b. 1970 (Inception, Batman trilogy)
Laurence Fishburne b. 1961 (The Matrix, Man of Steel)
Richard Linklater b. 1960 (A Scanner Darkly)
Arnold Schwarzenegger b. 1947 (Conan, Terminator, Predator, Total Recall, etc.)

If I was going to give the Picture Slot to my favorite work on the list, I would either go with Fishburne for The Matrix or Linklater for A Scanner Darkly, my favorite film adaptation of any Philip K. Dick work so far, but even though I hated Governor Schwarzenegger - his first act was to slash the community college budget and throw me out of work for a semester - on this list he is the most important person in the genre.

Many happy returns to the first three guys on the list. Governor, if I survive you, I promise to piss on your grave.

 

In the Year 2000!
 
Prediction: Intelligent life will be found on Mars.

Predictor: Robert A. Heinlein in a series of predictions made in 1950 about the year 2000.

Reality: I remember the hope when I was a kid. We were taught there were canals on Mars. Everything else we learned about canals was that they were man made, some of them engineering feats as great as anything in the history of mankind. Naturally but incorrectly, I added two apple and two oranges and got intelligent life on Mars.

In my defense, I was probably eight at the time. Ridiculous Bob has no such excuse.

Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!

Regular readers will already know that John Elfreth Watkins no longer holds down the Wednesday slot, so tomorrow will be the first predictions from his contemporary T. Baron Russell.

Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!

23 July 2013

Birthdays
Daniel Radcliffe b. 1989 (Harry Potter)
Charisma Carpenter b. 1970 (Angel, Buffy)
Woody Harrelson b. 1961 (The Hunger Games, Zombieland, A Scanner Darkly)

A nice selection of birthdays today. Charisma Carpenter certainly qualifies for the Cute Girl = Picture Slot criterion, but I decided instead to have a picture of young Daniel instead, here dressed up for his role in the Broadway revival of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying instead of his more famous role on film. I'm always happy when an actor with a career defining role can get a chance to do something else.

Many happy returns of the day to all.
  
 

Prediction: 7/20/1996: First manned landing on Mars (Harry Bedrosian, Christopher Luden, Abe Cooper) finds the remains of a Martian.

Predictor: The Eye of the Octopus, Larry Niven, published 1966

Reality: As little regard as I have for Niven, the small benefit of the doubt I will give him is that this was written in the late 1960s, the most optimistic era for the general concept of space travel before or since. In 1966, we hadn't reached the moon yet but it was on a real life "to do"list and it got done. In the minds of sci-fi folk, a moon base and then further exploration were the obvious and inevitable next steps, but the reality of budgets and lack of profitability got in the way.

Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!

  Our time is finite, all things must pass and several other completely true cliches cannot change the sad fact we face tomorrow.

The last of the predictions of John Elfreth Watkins.
 
Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!