16 March 2015

 Birthdays
Kristopher Higgins b. 1987 (In Time)
Alexandra Daddario b, 1986 (The Last Man on Earth, Percy Jackson, Texas Chainsaw 3D)
Eve Gordon b. 1982 (Power Rangers Dino Charge, The Almighty Johnsons, King Kong [2005])
Brooke Burns b. 1978 (Mortal Kombat: Conquest, Conan)
Sophie Hunter b. 1978 (Torchwood)
Sienna Guillory b. 1975 (Believe, Resident Evil, Inkheart, Eragon, The Time Machine)
Tara Buck b. 1975 (True Blood, Sabrina, the Teenage Witch, The X Files)
Alan Tudyk b. 1971 (Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, Airship Dracula, Transformers: Dark of the Moon, Dollhouse, V, Firefly/Serenity, I, Robot, Tucker and Dale vs. Evil)
Rupert Sanders b. 1971 (director, Snow White and the Huntsman)
Ashley Miller b. 1971 (writer, Power Rangers, X-Men: First Class, Thor, Fringe, The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Andromeda)
Judah Friedlander b. 1969 (Sharknado 2: The Second One, Cabin Fever 2: Spring Fever, Meet Dave)
Lauren Graham b. 1967 (3rd Rock from the Sun)
Ted Ludzik b. 1966 (Warehouse 13, Lost Girl, Outlander, Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium, Resident Evil: Apocalypse, Witchblade, RoboCop: Prime Directives [TV])
Gore Verbinski b. 1964 (director, The Ring, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl/ Dead Man’s Chest/ At World’s End, Rango)
Jerome Flynn b. 1963 (Game of Thrones)
Kevin Smith b. 1963 died 15 February 2002 (Warriors of Virtue 2: Return to Tao, Riverworld, Xena: Warrior Princess, Hercules: The Legendary Journeys)
Todd McFarlane b. 1961 (writer, Spawn, Spider-Man)
Irwin Keyes b. 1952 (Professor Creepy’s Scream Party, Dead Kansas, Evil Bong 3-D: The Wrath of Bong, Legend of the Phantom Rider, Black Scorpion, Here Come the Munsters, Timemaster, Tales from the Crypt, Adventures in Dinosaur City, Frankenstein General Hospital, Nice Girls Don’t Explode, Zapped!, Nocturna)
Steven Grives b. 1951 (Sinbad and the Minotaur, Scooby-Doo, BeastMaster [TV], 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Time Trax, Highlander II; The Quickening, A Nightmare on Elm Street 5, Horror Planet)
Kate Nelligan b. 1950 (A Wrinkle in Time, Wolf, Dracula [1979])
Victor Garber b. 1949 (The Flash, Sleepy Hollow, SGU Stargate Universe, Ice Quake, Tuck Everlasting, ReGenesis, Twilight Zone [1986], Tales from the Darkside)
Michael MacRae b. 1949 (Battlefield Earth, The X Files, The Wizard, Automan, Knight Rider, Coma, Future Cop)
Erik Estrada b. 1949 (Chupacabra vs. the Alamo, Homeboys in Outer Space, Alien Seed, The Six Million Dollar Man, Kolchak: The Night Stalker)
Margaret Weis b. 1948 (author, Dragonlance series)
Nancy Fish b. 1938 (Early Edition, The X Files, The Mask, Death Becomes Her, Tales from the Crypt, Werewolf, Howard the Duck)
Eddie Carmel b. 1935 died 30 July 1972 (50,000 B.C. (Before Clothing), The Brain That Wouldn’t Die)
Roy Chiao b. 1927 (Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom)
Jerry Lewis b. 1926 (Slapstick (of Another Kind), Batman, The Nutty Professor, Visit to a Small Planet)
Victor Maddern b. 1926 died 22 June 1993 (1990, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Doctor Who, The Prisoner, Blood of the Vampire)
Leo McKern b. 1920 died 23 July 2002 (Ladyhawke, The Omen, Space: 1999, The Prisoner, Alice in Wonderland [1966 TV], The Day the Earth Caught Fire, X: The Unknown)
Mercedes McCambridge b. 1916 died 2 March 2004 (Amazing Stories, The Exorcist, Bewitched, Lost in Space)

Notes on the birthday list.
1. The Picture Slot. In previous years, the slot went to Alan Tudyk from Firefly and Serenity and the late Kevin Smith, Ares on Xena and Hercules. (Though I've typed it several times, he is still a "Wait... he's dead?" guy for me.) While the list has several names the public knows, it's Jerome Flynn as Bronn from Game of Thrones who gets the nod because I am jonesing hard for new episodes and I also think he's got the most iconic role. 

2. Canadians galore, but hard to spot. Ted Ludzik has the most Canadian looking resume and sure enough, he is Canadian. On the other hand, Victor Garber, Kate Nelligan and Todd McFarlane are all best known for work they have done in the U.S., though Garber has a few Canuck credits as well.

3. MST3K. Eddie Carmel in The Brain That Wouldn't Die is the only one I know for sure.

4. Hey... no Star Trek! It's not a super rare event, but I'm still always surprised when it happens.

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

Predictor: The OMNI Future Almanac, published in 1982

Prediction: As the turn of the century approaches, biologists will successfully transcribe all the genetic information in a healthy human cell for the first time. The fully detailed 'map' for the coding of human cell operation will allow researchers to consider ways in which the code might be strengthened or protected for better health or longer life.

Reality: The Human Genome Project was declared complete in 2003. As for the practical benefits, the Wikipedia page has those still in the future tense.

Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!

A new predictor takes the Tuesday slot for the next few months.

Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!
 

30 December 2014

Birthdays
Jena Sims b. 1988 (Attack of the 50ft Cheerleader, The Vampire Diaries)
Caity Lotz b. 1986 (Arrow, The Pact II)
Faye Marsay b. 1986 (Doctor Who)
Ashley Bashioum b. 1983 (Flight of the Living Dead)
Kristin Kreuk b. 1982 (Beauty and the Beast, Space Milkshake, Vampire, Smallville, Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li, Earthsea, Snow White: The Fairest of Them All)
Kristen DeLuca b. 1981 (Ligeia, Knight Rider [2009])
Eliza Dushku b. 1980 (The Guild, Torchwood, Big Bang Theory, Dollhouse, Tru Calling, Angel, Buffy the Vampire Slayer)
Tyrese Gibson b. 1978 (Transformers, Death Race)
Lucy Punch b. 1977 (Into the Woods, Fairy Tales [2008], Ella Enchanted, Dinotopia, The 10th Kingdom)
Zahf Paroo b. 1975 (Polaris, Continuum, Fringe, 10.5, Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed, Battlestar Galactica, Andromeda, Dark Angel, Stargate SG-1)
Jason Behr b. 1973 (Skinwalkers, The Grudge, Roswell. Pleasantville, Buffy, Alien Nation: Millennium)
Daniel Sunjata b. 1971 (The Dark Knight Rises)
C.S. Lee b. 1971 (Toxin, The Unborn, Beyond, The Stepford Wives [2004])
Meredith Monroe b. 1969 (Transformers: Dark of the Moon, Vampires: The Turning, Minority Report, NightMan)
Bryan Burk b. 1968 (producer, Westworld [2015 TV], Star Wars: Episode VII, Believe, Fringe, Revolution, Almost Human, Cloverfield, Star Trek, Lost, Super 8, Future Shock)
Andrew Fleming b. 1965 (director, The Craft)
Sophie Ward b. 1964 (Book of Blood, Dinotopia, Crusade, Waxwork II: Lost in Time, Return to Oz, The Hunger)
George Newbern b. 1964 (Jericho, Journeyman, From the Earth to the Moon, Perversions of Science)
Kelli Maroney b. 1960 (Gila!, Not of This Earth, Night of the Comet)
Tracey Ullman b. 1959 (Into the Woods, Once Upon a Mattress [2005 TV])
Ellen Sandweiss b. 1958 (The Evil Dead [1981 and 2013], Oz the Great and Powerful)
Patricia Kalember b. 1957 (Limitless, Signs, Jacob’s Ladder, Cat’s Eye)
Sheryl Lee Ralph b. 1956 (Sabrina, the Teenage Witch, Witch Hunt, Amazing Stories, V, Wonder Woman)
Lloyd Kaufman b. 1945 (way too many Troma movies to type)
Fred Ward b. 1942 (10.5, The Crow: Salvation, Invasion: Earth, Tremors, Deadly Nightmares, UFOria, The Right Stuff, Timerider: The Adventure of Lyle Swann, The Incredible Hulk)
Glyn Dearman b. 1939 died 30 November 1997 (A Christmas Carol [1951])
Jack Riley b. 1935 (Harry and the Hendersons [TV], C.H.U.D. II – Bud the Chud, Hard Time on Planet Earth, Spaceballs, ALF, Faerie Tale Theatre, The Halloween That Almost Wasn’t, Attack of the Killer Tomatoes!, The Girl with Something Extra, I Dream of Jeannie)
Joseph Bologna b. 1934 (Alligator II: The Mutation, Not Quite Human, Transylvania 6-5000)
Russ Tamblyn b. 1934 (Attack of the 60 Foot Centerfolds, Babylon 5, Wizards of the Demon Sword, Aftershock, Quantum Leap, Dracula vs. Frankenstein, Necromancer, War of the Gargantuas, tom thumb)
Jack Lord b. 1920 died 21 January 1988 (The Invaders)
Jo Van Fleet b. 1914 died 10 June 1996 (Cinderella [1965 TV])
Jeanette Nolan b. 1911 died 5 June 1998 (Incredible Hulk, The Manitou, The Sixth Sense [1972 TV], The Reluctant Astronaut, The Invaders, Twilight Zone)
Tom Keene b. 1896 died 4 August 1963 (Plan 9 from Outer Space)
Rudyard Kipling b. 1865 died 18 January 1936 (author, The Jungle Book)

Notes on the birthday list.
1. The Picture Slot. A confession: I get these lists of names going onto imdb.com and searching actors credits for fantasy and sci-fi. Quite often, the youngest actors on the list are completely unknown to me. This list is an exception, as I knew the work of three of the women born in the 1980s before I looked them up, Jena Sims, Kristin Kreuk and Eliza Dushku. Ms. Kreuk was in The Picture Slot last year for her work on Smallville and Ms. Dushku is there this year with a publicity still from Dollhouse. There are several other good choices for 2015, though I would put Fred Ward from Tremors or The Right Stuff in the early lead.

2. Canadians spotted. Kristin Kreuk is Canadian, which often isn't true of the lead actors in Canadian genre TV. The other Canadian is Zahf Paroo, whose telltale roles include Stargate, Battlestar Galactica, Fringe and Andromeda.

3. Fun facts to know and tell. The late Glyn Dearman has a chance at the Picture Slot next year, as he was Tiny Tim in the 1951 version of A Christmas Carol starring Alastair Sim. I like a lot of versions of this story and this is certainly one of my favorites. It was also the one that was colorized. I'm old enough to remember a time when it looked like we'd never see any good black and white films again, all of the best would be colorized. Boy, I'm glad we dodged that bullet. The assholes with the money, most notably Ted Turner, lost that battle and lost it big. I don't get to type that sentence very often.

A little typecasting trivia. Lucy Punch has played the mean stepsister in three productions, Into the Woods, Ella Enchanted and on the Cinderella episode of the British TV show Fairy Tales. She is by no means the ugly stepsister, but she is always nasty.

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

Predictor: W. Warren Wagar from his 1991 book A Short History of the Future

Prediction: By 2010, the “geneprint” had replaced the fingerprint in police work.

Reality: This isn't worth full marks, but DNA is being used a lot more than it used to be. Most of the headline grabbing stuff is about people exonerated of crimes they were jailed for by use of DNA. I can't give full credit on this because I was just checked in for a new job and they asked for fingerprints as a condition for employment, not a DNA sample. I imagine there will be quite a stink if they ever try to switch over.

Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!

We had a prediction earlier this of the form "2014 will be The Year of ___________." As tomorrow is the last day, we can judge whether the prediction was true or not.

Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!