12 July 2015

 Birthdays
Vivienne Jolie-Pitt b. 2008 (Maleficent)
Erik Per Sullivan b. 1991 (Wendigo, Armageddon)
Phoebe Tonkin b. 1989 (The Originals, The Vampire Diaries, The Secret Circle, H2O: Just Add Water)
Melissa O’Neil b. 1988 (Dark Matter)
Mikaela Hoover b. 1984 (Zombie Basement, Guardians of the Galaxy)
Natalie Martinez b. 1984 (Self/less, Under the Dome, Death Race)
Walter Perez b. 1982 (The Avengers)
Kristen Connolly b. 1980 (The Whispers, The Cabin in the Woods, The Happening)
Michelle Rodriguez b. 1978 (Resident Evil: Retribution, Battle Los Angeles, Lost, Avatar, BloodRayne, Resident Evil)
Topher Grace b. 1978 (Interstellar, Predators, Spider-Man 3)
Steve Howey b. 1977 (Stan Helsing, Ctrl)
Anna Friel b. 1976 (Neverland [TV], Land of the Lost [2009], Pushing Daisies, Bathory: Countess of Blood)
Phil Lord b. 1975 (writer/director, The Lego Movie, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, Clone High)
Jaason Simmons b. 1970 (Sharknado, Frankenstein & the Werewolf Reborn!, Frankenstein Reborn!)
Byung-hun Lee b. 1970 (Terminator: Genisys, G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra)
Tamsin Greig b. 1966 (Doctor Who, Neverwhere, Shaun of the Dead)
Charlie Murphy b. 1959 (Frankenhood, Mattie Fresno and the Holoflux Universe, Night at the Museum)
Mel Harris b. 1956 (Stargate SG-1)
Jamey Sheridan b. 1951 (Arrow, The Stand)
Cheryl Ladd b. 1951 (Charmed, Millennium, The Fantastic Journey)
Brian Grazer b. 1951 (writer, Splash)
Jay Thomas b. 1948 (Horrorween, Dragonfly, C.H.U.D.)
Edwin Neal b. 1945 (Halloween: Harvest of Souls 1985, Power Rangers, Knight Rider 2000, Future-Kill)
Denise Nicholas b. 1944 (Ghost Dad, Blacula)
Bill Cosby b. 1937 (The Meteor Man, Ghost Dad, Journey Back to Oz [TV])
Gordon Pinsent b. 1930 (Relic Hunter, Ray Bradbury Theatre, Blacula, Colossus: The Forbin Project)
Kathy Staff b. 1928 died 13 December 2008 (Mary Reilly)
James Gunn b. 1923 (writer, The Immortal, This Fortress World)
Buckminster Fuller b. 1895 died 1 July 1983 (inventor)
Cheerio Meredith b. 1890 died 25 December 1964 (The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm, The Three Stooges in Orbit)
Edgar Stehli b. 1884 died 25 July 1973 (Seconds, Atlantis, the Lost Continent, Twilight Zone, 4D Man)
Tod Browning b. 1880 died 6 October 1962 (director, The Devil-Doll, Mark of the Vampire, Dracula [1933])

Notes from the birthday list.
1. The Picture Slot. In previous years, the Picture Slot went to Michelle Rodriguez from Lost and Jamey Sheridan from The Stand. This year, I decided to remind folks that 51 years, Time magazine wanted to let its readers known that Bucky Fuller was the future. Living in their future, I would have to say... not so much.

2. Spot the Canadians! There is little likelihood you can spot the Canadians from the credit lists today. Melissa O'Neill has only one credit and Gordon Pinsent has some Canuck-fi credits, but he's old enough to have work before his home and native land had its production boom.

3. Nepotism FTW. Vivienne Jolie-Pitt is in her one movie playing a scene opposite her mom. Charlie Murphy is the brother of Eddie Murphy and that definitely was how he got his start, though now he best known for Charlie Murphy's True Hollywood Stories.

4. Hey... no Star Trek! I can promise we will NOT be using this label tomorrow.

Many happy returns to all the living on the list, except for the guy who needs to be shipped off to Monster Island, and to the dead, thanks for all the memories.


Movies released
Pacific Rim released, 2013
The Cabin in the Woods released, 2012

Predictor: Robert A. Heinlein in his 1957 book The Door Into Summer

Prediction: At the dental-supply house I bought ten kilograms of gold, isotope 197, in the form of fourteen-gauge wire. I paid $86.10 a kilo for it.

Reality: This scene takes place in 2000, when gold was selling for $9,000 per kg.There's missing a numerical prediction and there's missing by two orders of magnitude. Ouch.

Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!

For me, the great comfort of Mondays is knowing the OMNI Future Almanac is waiting for me.
 
Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!
 

5 February 2015

Birthdays
Anthony Ingruber b. 1990 (Avalon High, Avatar)
Jeremy Sumpter b. 1989 (The Sasquatch Gang, Peter Pan [2003])
Brittany Allen b. 1986 (Warehouse 13, Extraterrestrial, Lost Girl, Virtual Mom)
Jamie Brewer b. 1985 (American Horror Story)
Myndy Crist b. 1975 (Dark Skies, The Time Machine [2002])
David Meunier b. 1973 (Revolution, Jericho, Buffy, Angel, Charmed)
Rod Roddenberry b. 1974 (producer, Star Trek New Voyages: Phase II, Trek Nation)
Danielle Koenig b. 1973 (InAlienable, Invader ZIM, The Craft)
Markus Redmond b. 1971 (Angel, The Mating Habits of the Earthbound Human, Project: ALF)
Michael Sheen b. 1969 (The Adventurer: Curse of the Midas Box, Twilight Saga, Doctor Who, TRON: Legacy, Alice in Wonderland [2010], Underworld, Mary Reilly)
Leslie Zemeckis b. 1969 (A Christmas Carol [2009], Beowulf, I Married a Monster)
Chris Parnell b. 1967 (Evil Alien Conquerors)
Eric Michael Zee b. 1966 (How to Make a Monster, Independence Day)
Arabella Field b. 1965 (American Horror Story, Bug, Godzilla [1998])
Laura Linney b. 1964 (The Exorcism of Emily Rose, The Mothman Prophecies, The Truman Show, Congo)
Jennifer Jason Leigh b. 1962 (eXistenZ )
Tim Meadows b. 1961 (The Venture Bros., Aliens in the Attic, Coneheads)
Debra Jo Fondren b. 1955 (Mork & Mindy)
Robin Sachs b. 1951 died 1 February 2013 (Resident Evil, Torchwood, Buffy, Star Trek: Voyager, Galaxy Quest, Babylon 5, The Lost World: Jurassic Park)
O’Neal Compton b. 1951 (Deep Impact, Lois & Clark, The Attack of the 50 Ft. Woman, Quantum Leap, Brother Future)
Barbara Hershey b. 1948 (Insidious, Once Upon a Time, Breakfast of Champions, Faerie Tale Theatre, The Invaders [TV])
Tom Wilkinson b. 1948 (The Green Hornet [2011], Batman Begins, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind)
Christopher Guest b. 1948 (actor, Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian, The Princess Bride, Heartbeeps; director, Attack of the 50 Foot Woman)
Charlotte Rampling b. 1946 (Melacholia, Babylon A.D., Angel Heart, Zardoz)
Roy ‘Chubby’ Brown b. 1945 (writer, U.F.O. [1993])
Susan Hill b. 1942 (writer, The Woman in Black)
David Selby b. 1941 (Dark Shadows [2012 and 1966], The Black Hole [2006], MorphMan, Doctor Franken)
Stephen J. Cannell b. 1941 died 30 September 2010 (creator, The Greatest American Hero)
H.R. Giger b. 1940 (illustrator, Necromicon, Giger’s Alien)
Stuart Damon b. 1937 (Space: 1999, UFO, The Champions, Cinderella [1965])
Stefan Gierasch b. 1926 died 6 September 2014 (Brimstone, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Dark Shadows [1991], Megaville, Werewolf, The Twilight Zone [1986], The Greatest American Hero, The Incredible Hulk, Blood Beach, Carrie, Holmes and Yo-Yo, Return to Earth)
Tim Holt b. 1919 died 15 February 1973 (The Yesterday Machine, The Monster That Challenged the World)
Red Buttons b. 1919 died 13 July 2006 (Early Edition, Alice in Wonderland [1985], C.H.O.M.P.S., Pete’s Dragon, Wonder Woman )
William S. Burroughs b. 1914 died 2 August 1997 (author, The Soft Machine, Naked Lunch, The Wild Boys: A Book of the Dead)
Willard Parker b. 1912 died 4 December 1996 (The Earth Dies Screaming)
John Carradine b. 1906 died 27 November 1988 (Twilight Zone [1986], The Ice Pirates, Frankenstein Island, The Howling, The Sentinel, Land of the Giants, Lost in Space, The Green Hornet, Billy the Kid vs. Dracula, The Wizard of Mars, Twilight Zone [1960], Invisible Invaders, The Cosmic Man, Half Human)

Notes from the birthday list.
1. The Picture Slot. In 2014, I had a picture of H.R. Giger and in 2013, I used a poster from Spy Kids 3D: Game Over, which had been released ten years before. There were several interesting choices still available - Charlotte Rampling from Zardoz, Christopher Guest from The Princess Bride, Laura Linney from The Truman Show - but instead I went with the oldest guy on the list, the great character actor John Carradine, father to a whole passel of actors. He played vampires, mad scientists, aliens, you name it. He had 347 film and TV credits. He worked until he died. He was also in a movie that got the MST3K treatment, The Unearthly.

2. Nepotism FTW. Rod Roddenberry is Gene Roddenberry's son. Leslie Zemeckis was an actress in Cinemax style soft porn until she married Robert Zemeckis.

3. A Canadian stands alone. Brittany Allen has a few credits in Canuck sci-fi, but not enough to make her country of origin screamingly obvious.

4. Wait... he's dead? Robin Sachs. I typed in his death date last year and it still hasn't quite registered. I remember him best as Ethan Rayne, a recurring bad guy on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. He was also Sarris in Galaxy Quest, but that was under a lot of mask and make-up.

Many happy returns to all the living on the list and to the dead, thanks for all the memories.
 
Movies released
Spy Kids 3: Game Over, released 2003 

Predictor: Lewis Douglass, U.S. Budget director, in remarks after the U.S. went off the gold standard in 1933

Prediction: This is the end of Western civilization.

Reality: People believe a lot of nonsense, but belief in the gold standard is one of those things I find particularly silly. Wealth is created by humans, most by changing raw materials, some of it by a concept alone. Some is disposable and some lasts. Gold is a finite resource, nowhere near as valuable as iron or aluminum in terms of utility, but it was decided it was precious because it is pretty and fairly rare. It can't be the definition of the money supply. People who think things were better when the economy was defined by the gold standard are extremely ignorant of history. And yet this jackassery continues, like belief in astrology or the idea that being a Cubs fan is a sign of character instead of dull and masochistic tendencies.

Never to be Forgotten: Mary Healey 1918-2015
Singer and actress Mary Healey died last Tuesday. She worked in film and TV almost exclusively with her husband Peter Lind Hayes as a musical act. She is remembered here for her role in The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T., a fantasy film from 1953 written by Dr. Seuss about a child who fantasizes his piano teacher is a mad genius. When I was a kid, this was a lot scarier than most 1950s monster movies. Healy played the kid's mom.

Best wishes to the family and friend of Mary Healey, from a fan. She is never to be forgotten.

Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!

More treasures from the charm offensive of H.G. Wells, bigot and scumbag.

Join us then... IN THE FUTURE! 

1 January 2015

Birthdays
Lara Robinson b. 1998 (Childhood’s End [2015], Knowing)
Jeff Gulka b. 1987 (Stan Helsing, The X Files, Stargate SG-1, Millennium)
Colin Morgan b. 1986 (Humans, Merlin, Doctor Who)
Katrina Law b. 1985 (Arrow, The Resistance, Legend of the Seeker)
Jonas Armstrong b. 1981 (Edge of Tomorrow, Rage of the Yeti)
Christopher Redman b. 1980 (Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters, Arrow, Stephen King’s Dead Zone, Stargate SG-1, Ginger Snaps, Kids in the Hall: Brain Candy, Tales from the Cryptkeeper)
Danny Lloyd b. 1973 (The Shining)
Verne Troyer b. 1969 (Gnome Alone, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, Sabrina, the Teenage Witch, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, Mighty Joe Young, Young Hercules, Men in Black, Men in Black, Pinocchio’s Revenge)
Morris Chestnutt b. 1969 (Kick-Ass 2, American Horror Story, V [2011], Anacondas: The Hunt for the Blood Orchid, Freddy’s Nightmares)
Juliana Donald b. 1964 (The X-Files, Babylon 5, Deep Space Nine, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Superboy, The Purple Rose of Cairo)
Dedee Pfeiffer b. 1964 (Supernatural, Stephen King’s Dead Zone, Vamp)
Mark Wingett b. 1961 (Snow White and the Huntsman, War of the Dead)
Alexia Robinson b. 1960 (Total Recall)
Linzi Drew b. 1959 (Lair of the White Worm, An American Werewolf in London)
Adrian Hall b. 1959 (Chitty Chitty Bang Bang)
Madolyn Smith Osbourne b. 1957 (2010)
Jodi Long b. 1954 (Eastwick, RoboCop 3, The Exorcist III, Splash)
Richard Edson b. 1954 (The Astronaut Farmer, Frankenfish, American Gothic, Strange Days, Attack of the 50 Ft. Woman [1993 TV], Howard the Duck)
Don Keith Opper b. 1949 (Infection, Harsh Realm, Critters 1 through 4, Quantum Leap, City Limits, Android)
Rick Hurst b. 1946 (Return of the Killer Shrews, Earth Girls Are Easy, Starman, The Last Precinct, The Cat from Outer Space, The Six Million Dollar Man, The Girl With Something Extra)
Stanley Kamel b. 1943 died 8 April 2008 (Dark Angel, Ravager, Dark Skies [1996], Beauty and the Beast, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Knight Rider, Mork & Mindy, The Incredible Hulk, Captain America II: Death Too Soon, The Sixth Sense [1972 TV])
Don Novello b. 1943 (Atlantis: The Lost Empire)
Frank Langella b. 1938 (Parts per Billion, Superman Returns, 10.5: Apocalypse, Jason and the Argonauts [2000 TV movie], The Ninth Gate, Brainscan, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Masters of the Universe, Dracula [1979])
Ty Hardin b. 1930 (Image of the Beast, I Married a Monster From Outer Space, The Space Children)
Valentina Cortese b. 1923 (The Adventures of Baron Munchausen)
Carole Landis b. 1919 died 5 July 1948 (Topper Returns, One Million B.C. [1940])
Dana Andrews b. 1909 died 17 December 1992 (The Frozen Dead, Crack in the World, The Satan Bug, Twilight Zone, Curse of the Demon)
E.M. Forster b. 1879 died 7 June 1970 (author, The Machine Stops)

Notes from the birthday list.
1. The Picture Slot. Happy new year, dear readers! Last year, I used a picture of Frank Langella and this year I chose the late, great Oh That Guy actor Stanley Kamel in a role from Star Trek: The Next Generation. This was the episode where a wise time traveling alien (not Kamel's character) tried to explain why Wesley was so special. It didn't work, the fans still hated him.  

2. Spot the Canadians! There are two, both born after 1970 with at least somewhat telltale credit lists. See if you can spot them!

3. (Mostly) Fun Facts to know and tell. Verne Troyer was in the running for the Picture Slot, but since he went on reality TV I've been kind of ambivalent about him. Don Novello is better known as Father Guido Sarducci. Danny Lloyd was the little kid in The Shining; Kubrick shielded him from the goriest of the scenes and he didn't know it was a horror film until several years after. Poor Carole Landis committed suicide at the age of 29, reportedly because she was unhappy about her lack of success in her career. E. M. Forster is best known now for writing books turned into movie by Merchant/Ivory, but The Machine Stops is an interesting allegory written in 1908 that looks a lot like our relationship with the Internet today.

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

Movie released
The Wizard of Oz released 1939


It hard to see a good reason now why it wasn't released on Christmas so kids could see it over the week long break, but film marketing then wasn't like film marketing now. The expectation that fantasy films would be the big hits was still generations in the future.
 

Predictor:Congressman Henry Reuss, November 1967, quoted in the book The Experts Speak, complied by Victor Navasky and Christopher Cerf.

Prediction: When the U.S. government stops wasting resources by trying to maintain the price of gold, its price will sink … to $6 an ounce rather than the current $35 an ounce.

Reality: The U.S. stopped buying in 1971. Within ten years, the price was $815 an ounce.

This month's splash illustration: I woke up this morning and though "Syd Mead!" always a good choice for futuristic drawings. I found this one and since I like wide, short rectangles for the picture at the top of the blog, this one was perfect. The big orange thing is a transportation device of some sort. Does it fly or just run on the ground? What keeps the large blade like object at the front from falling forward? The thing looks so thin, why doesn't a good breeze knock it over on its side?

Hypothetical question asker, don't be dense! It's a Syd Mead drawing. It's supposed to look awesome and it does! That's enough for me.

Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!

Friday is the day for H.G. Wells' predictions from the 1902 book Anticipations. I have to admit that the more I read it, the less I think of him.

Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!