17 August 2015

Birthdays
Daniel Huttlestone b. 1999 (Into the Woods)
Taissa Farmiga b. 1994 (American Horror Story)
Austin Butler b. 1991 (Arrow, Wizards of Waverly Place, Aliens in the Attic)
Rachel Hurd-Wood b. 1990 (Solomon Kane, Dorian Gray, Peter Pan)
Brady Corbett b. 1988 (Melancholia, Thunderbirds)
Ebon Moss-Bachrach b. 1978 (The Last Ship, Fringe)
Dana Daurey b. 1976 (Bewitched)
Donnie Wahlberg b. 1969 (Saw II, III & IV, The Sixth Sense)
Helen McCrory b. 1968 (Penny Dreadful, Hugo, Doctor Who, Harry Potter, Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles, Frankenstein [1994])
Andrew Koenig b. 1968 died 14 February 2010 (InAlienable, Deep Space Nine)
David Conrad b. 1967 (Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D, Roswell)
Don McKeller b. 1963 (Blindness, eXistenZ, Last Night, RoboCop [TV])
Larry B. Scott b. 1961 (Super Force, Hard Time on Planet Earth, SpaceCamp)
Nicholas Bell b. 1958 (I, Frankenstein, Wicked Science, Attack of the Sabertooth, The Lost World, Chameleon, The Genie from Down Under 2, Dark City, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie, Sky Trackers)
Tim Bagley b. 1957 (Zombieland [TV], Grimm, The Day After Tomorrow, Sabrina, the Teenage Witch, The X Files, 3rd Rock from the Sun)
Gail Berman b. 1956 (producer, Alphas, Angel, Buffy)
Robert Joy b. 1951 (Defiance, Superhero Movie, Alien vs. Predator: Requiem, The Hills Have Eyes [2006], Land of the Dead, Star Trek: Voyager, Fallen, The Dark Half, Maniac Mansion, Millennium, Amityville: 3-D)
Jennifer Rhodes b. 1947 (Charmed, 3rd Rock from the Sun, Night of the Demons 2, Quantum Leap)
Shane Briant b. 1946 (Farscape, The Lost World, Chameleon 2 and 3, Time Trax, Hawk the Slayer, Captain Kronos - Vampire Hunter, Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell, The Picture of Dorian Gray [1973])
Robert De Niro b. 1943 (Stardust, Adventures of Rocky & Bullwinkle, Frankenstein [1994], Brazil)
Franco Columbu b. 1941 (The Running Man, The Terminator, Conan the Barbarian)
Floyd 'Red Crow' Westerman b. 1936 died 13 December 2007 (The X Files)
Sandra Harrison b.1935 (Blood of Dracula, Adventures of Superman)
Glenn Corbett b. 1933 died 16 January 1993 (Automan, Land of the Giants, Star Trek)
Harve Bennett b. 1930 (writer, Time Trax, Star Trek II, III, IV and V, The Bionic Woman, The Invisible Man)
Ted Hughes b. 1930 died 29 October 1998 (author, The Iron Giant)
Julianna McCarthy b. 1929 (Deep Space Nine, Starship Troopers, The Frighteners, Dark Shadows [1991], )
Julius Harris b. 1923 died 17 October 2004 (Eerie, Indiana, Darkman, Amazing Stories, The Incredible Hulk, King Kong [1976])
Maureen O’Hara b. 1920 (Bagdad, Sinbad, the Sailor)
Evelyn Ankers b. 1918 died 29 August 1985 (The Invisible Man's Revenge, Son of Dracula, The Ghost of Frankenstein, The Wolf Man)
John Brahm b. 1983 died 12 October 1982 (director, Twilight Zone, The Outer Limits, The Undying Monster)

Notes from the birthday list.
1. The Picture Slot. The previous Picture Slot folk are Glenn Corbett from Star Trek and Helen McCrory from Harry Potter. This year, I'm going with one of our two A-list stars (more on the second later in the post) in one of my favorite films Robert DeNiro as Tuttle in Brazil.

2. Spot the Canadians. Robert Joy and Don McKellar, neither easily spotted.

3. Nepotism, not much of a win. We have some siblings, Donnie Wahlberg and Taissa Farmiga, but I'm not sure they count. Poor Andrew Koenig is the son of Walter, but he committed suicide five years ago, so I hesitate to say it's "For The Win".

4. And special birthday wishes to... the other A-List movie star on the list, Maureen O'Hara, the archetype in Hollywood for the redhead who turns strong men into taffy with a glare and a turn of her lovely head. She turns 95 this year and all the rest of us are lucky she decided to come to our world.

Many happy returns to all the living on the list, most especially the low flying angel Maureen O'Hara, and to the dead, thanks for all the memories.

Movies released
ParaNorman released, 2012
The Time Machine released, 1960

Predictor: OMNI Future Almanac, published in 1982

Prediction: Authors will enter their text either on a computer terminal linked by telephone (or other type of cable) to a publisher's central computer. The increasing mechanization of publishing will require that writers buy and use word processors to increase their productivity and have their texts be compatible with publishers' computer systems.

Reality: I don't exactly remember the last time a prediction was so good my first thought was "Well, fucking D'UH!" The thing is, in 1982 this was not a done deal. This prediction gets an unqualified A. I might even look to see if I sill have any gold stars handy.
 
Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!

The Commie John Langon-Davies has been exhausted and will be replaced by Robert A. Heinlein.
  
Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!

1 February 2015

 Birthdays
Britanni Johnson b. 1989 (Star Trek Into Darkness, Zombie Break Room)
Alex Arleo b. 1987 (Sharknado, The Haunting of Whaley House)
Lee Thompson Young b. 1984 died 19 August 2013 (Smallville, FlashForward, The Sarah Connor Chronicle, The Hills Have Eyes II, Jake 2.0)
Sara Malakul Lane b. 1983 (Sharktopus, 100 Degrees Below Zero, 12/12/12)
Rachelle Lefevre b. 1979 (Under the Dome, Twilight, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, Big Wolf on Campus, The Hunger [TV])
Rutina Wesley b. 1979 (True Blood)
Candace Smith b. 1977 (Heroes)
Ana Alexander b. 1976 (Land of the Lost [2009])
Michael C. Hall b. 1971 (Gamer, Paycheck)
Hynden Walch b. 1971 (Groundhog Day)
Brian Krause b. 1969 (Plan 9 [2015], Dark Rising: Warrior of Worlds, Alien Rising, Camel Spiders, Beyond Loch Ness, Charmed, Tales from the Crypt, Sleepwalkers)
Pauly Shore b. 1968 (Encino Man)
Brandon Lee b. 1965 died 31 March 1993 (The Crow)
Sherilynn Fenn b. 1965 (Bigfoot, The 4400, Dream Warrior, Birds of Prey, Tales from the Crypt [TV], Zombie High, The Wraith)
Abdul Ayoola b. 1965 (Warm Bodies, Immortals, 10.5: Apocalypse)
Linus Roache b. 1964 (Batman Begins, The Chronicles of Riddick)
Bill Mumy b. 1954 (Babylon 5, Deep Space Nine, Superboy, The Flash [1991], Captain America [1990], Twilight Zone [Movie and TV], Lost in Space, I Dream of Jeannie, Bewitched, The Munsters, The Wizard of Baghdad)
Elisabeth Sladen b. 1946 died 19 April 2011 (The Sarah Jane Adventures, Doctor Who, Alice in Wonderland [1986], Gulliver in Lilliput)
Bart Braverman b. 1946 (Good vs Evil, Brimstone, From the Earth to the Moon, Harry and the Hendersons [TV], Freddy’s Nightmares, The Wizard, Automan, Alligator, 20 Million Miles to Earth)
Leo Burmester b. 1944 died 28 June 2007 (Innocent Blood, The Abyss)
Linda Gaye Scott b. 1943 (Westworld, The Green Hornet, Lost in Space, Bewitched, Batman, My Favorite Martian, My Living Doll)
Terry Jones b. 1942 (Erik the Viking, Jabberwocky, Monty Python and the Holy Grail)
Bibi Besch b. 1940 died 7 September 1996 (Tales from the Crypt, Tremors, The Day After, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, Meteor, The Six Million Dollar Man)
Sherman Hemsley b. 1938 died 24 July 2012 (Lois & Clark, Alice in Wonderland, The Twilight Zone, The Incredible Hulk [TV])
Garrett Morris b. 1937 (Good vs Evil, Black Scorpion I & II, Coneheads, Twilight Zone [1985], The Invisible Woman)
Richard Roat b. 1933 (3rd Rock from the Sun, Lois & Clark, Hard Time on Planet Earth, ALF, Logan’s Run [TV], Holmes and Yo-Yo, Westworld)
Stuart Whitman b. 1928 (Time Trax, Superboy, Omega Cop, Tales from the Darkside, Knight Rider, The Monster Club, Demonoid: Messenger of Death, The Cat Creature, Night of the Lepus, The Invisible Six, The Day the Earth Stood Still, When Worlds Collide)
Peter Sallis b. 1921 (Wallace and Gromit, Taste the Blood of Dracula, The Mouse on the Moon, Curse of the Werewolf, H.G. Wells’ Invisible Man)
Andrea King b. 1919 died 22 April 2003 (Red Planet Mars, The Beast with Five Fingers)
Bruce Gordon b. 1916 died 20 January 2011 (Timerider: The Adventure of Lyle Swann, Hello Down There, Curse of the Undead)
Gene Sheldon b. 1908 died 1 May 1982 (Babes in Toyland [1961])
George Pal b. 1908 died 2 May 1980 (director, 7 Faces of Dr. Lao, The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm, The Time Machine, tom thumb, Atlantis, the Lost Continent)
Helen Chandler b. 1906 died 30 April 1965 (Dracula [1931])

Notes form the birthday list
1. The Picture Slot. In both 2013 and 2014, I used pictures of Bill Mumy, the first from Lost in Space and the second from Babylon 5. I could go with the Mumy trifecta and use a picture from The Twilight Zone, clearly iconic, but I decided to go with someone else. Among the people younger than I am, I think Rutina Wesley from True Blood and the late Brandon Lee from The Crow count as iconic in genre, and to go super old school, Helen Chandler was Mina opposite Bela Lugosi in Dracula. But with all the people who died young here, I wanted to honor the oldest living person on the list, Peter Sallis, the voice of Wallace, who turns 94 today. The writing in Wallace and Gromit is very good, but Sallis' interpretation gives it that little something extra. When the criminal mastermind penguin takes the red rubber glove off the top of his head and Wallace exclaims "Good grief, it's you!", I can still laugh just typing this in.

2. A lone Canadienne. Rachelle Lefevre is Canadian. Her list of credits doesn't have that typical Canuck feel.

3. Wait... he's dead? I already had typed in several of the death dates of actors last year, but this is the first time I added Oh That Guy Leo Burmester. He has a scene in Passion Fish as the very flamboyant brother of main character Mary McDonnell. After he leaves, McDonnell's caretaker, played by Alfre Woodard, says "I didn't know your brother was... literary." "He always has been." replies McDonnell. I'm sorry Mr. Burmester isn't still around. He was really good.

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

Predictor:Tom Clancy’s NetForce released 1 Feb 1999

Prediction: In 2005, a division of the FBI called NetForce has been instituted to investigate Internet crime. A Bill Gates-type has found a loophole in his new browser that lets him take over the Internet.

Reality: Well... for a Bill Gates-type to take over the Internet, nearly everyone would have to use an Explorer-type browser, and that is ridiculous enough to be laughable.

This month's splash illustration: Walt Disney made several episodes of his TV show introducing Disneyland to the public. This painting depicts domed cities on Mars from Mars and Beyond, first shown in December of 1957.

Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!

Ten of fourteen pro football experts at ESPN believe the Patriots are going to win today. We'll be back tomorrow to get their final numbers. 

Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!

9 September 2014

 Birthdays
Kelsey Chow b. 1991 (The Amazing Spider-Man)
Josh Herdman b. 1987 (Harry Potter)
Julie Gonzalo b. 1981 (Vamp U)
Michelle Williams b. 1980 (Oz the Great and Powerful, Halloween H20: 20 Years Later, Timemaster, Species)
Rogelio T. Ramos b. 1976 (Spider-Man 3, Zombie Night)
Goran Visnjic b. 1972 (Extant, The Deep, Elektra, Practical Magic)
Henry Thomas b.1971 (Nightmares & Dreamscapes, Cloak & Dagger, E.T.)
Eric Stonestreet b. 1971 (American Horror Story, The Island)
Julia Sawalha b. 1968 (Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride, Comic Relief: Doctor Who – The Curse of Fatal Death)
Adam Sandler b. 1966 (Bedtime Stories, Click, Little Nicky, Coneheads)
David Bennent b. 1966 (Legend)
Michelle Johnson b. 1965 (Specimen, Death Becomes Her, Beaks: The Movie, Werewolf)
Brenda Epperson b. 1965 (Bug Buster)
Charles Esten b. 1965 (The Postman, Lois & Clark, Star Trek: Voyager, Star Trek: The Next Generation)
Hugh Grant b. 1960 (Cloud Atlas, The Lair of the White Worm)
Bruce Stait b. 1959 (Fringe, Final Destination 5, Supernatural, Tron: Legacy, Stonehenge Apocalypse, Smallville, Blade: The Series, Stargate: Atlantis, The 4400, Battlestar Galactica, Andromeda, First Wave, Poltergeist: The Legacy, The X-Files, Highlander [TV], Omen IV: The Awakening, Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future)
Jeffrey Alan Combs b. 1954 (Elf-Man, Dorothy and the Witches of Oz, The Dunwich Horror, The 4400, Abominable, SharkMan, Star Trek: Enterprise, Star Trek: Voyager, House on Haunted Hill, Deep Space Nine, Time Tracers, Perversions of Science, The Frighteners, Babylon 5, Ultraman: The Ultimate Hero, Doctor Mordrid, Trancers II, The Flash, Guyver, Robot Jox, Re-Animator, Beauty and the Beast, From Beyond, Re-Animator, The Man with Two Brains)
Janet Fielding b. 1953 (Doctor Who)
Angela Cartwright b. 1952 (Lost in Space [1998 and 1965], Logan’s Run [TV])
Tom Wopat b. 1951 (Jonah Hex, Smallville, Meteorites)
Jeffrey Alan Chandler b. 1944 died 19 December 2001 (Deep Space Nine, Star Trek: Voyager, Twilight Zone [1985], Knight Rider)
Art LaFleur b. 1943 (Speed Racer, The Santa Clause, Angel, Space Rangers, Trancers I & II, The Blob [1988], Zone Troopers, WarGames, Wizards and Warriors, The Invisible Woman, Jekyll and Hyde… Together Again, The Incredible Hulk)
Topol b.1935 (SeaQuest 2032, Flash Gordon)
Margaret Tyzack b. 1931 died 25 June 2011 (Quatermass, 2001: A Space Odyssey, A Clockwork Orange)
Nick Ramus b. 1929 died 30 May 2007 (Harry and the Hendersons, Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home)
Cliff Robertson b. 1923 died 10 September 2011(Amazing Spider –Man, Escape From L.A., Return to Earth, Charly, Batman, The Outer Limits, Twilight Zone)
Neil Hamilton b. 1899 died 24 September 1984 (Batman, The Munsters, The Outer Limits)

Last year, Henry Thomas got The Picture Slot. This year, it was a wide open field. Regular readers will know that iconic genre roles trump movie and TV stardom, so folks like Adam Sandler, Hugh Grant and Tom Wopat were not in the running this year and unlikely to be used in the future. The main choices were Michelle Williams from the Oz movie, Jeffrey Alan Combs from Deep Space Nine or Re-Animator, Angela Cartwright from Lost in Space, Topol from Flash Gordon, Cliff Robertson from a number of roles or Neil Hamilton from Batman. But this year I have a soft spot for Doctor Who, so we get Janet Fielding as the companion Tegan, sometimes known as "the mouth with legs".

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

Predictor: FM-2030 in UpWing Priorities, published 1981

Prediction: Telespheres: Let us speedup the orbit shift from industrialism to the new age. The world of telespheres is flowing from the confluence of breakthroughs in many areas: limitless energy, interactive telecommunication, ultra intelligent machines, biological and cultural revolutions, space colonization. These and other forces are recontexting life in fundamentally new ways. We are creating electronic environments that integrate all peoples and services. No one need remain waterholed near stationary centralized sources of learning, livelihood or decision making. You connect from wherever you are.

For example, the track beyond school is teleducation which facilitates transmission of continuous updated info to anyone, anywhere, anytime.

Beyond hospital: preventative telemedicine.

Beyond bureaucracy: telemanagement and teleconference.

Beyond vindictive judicial systems: preventative crime telemonitor.

Beyond profit retailing: direct teleshopping from production decenters.

Beyond leadership government: teledemocracy via universal referendums…

Reality: One of the most annoying experiences possible is when someone you believe is an idiot is right, and I have to say FM-2030 gets several things right here. The "electronic environments that integrate all peoples and services" is the thing that lets you read my little musings, the Internet. That wasn't an obvious call in 1981. The "continuous [sic] updated info" describes Wikipedia, that are more people working from home, taking online classes and definitely shopping, but his awful neologism "decenters" as a noun instead of a verb, does a bad job describing the very centralized Amazon.com.

Here's what he gets wrong. He uses the word "waterholed" to talk about an old-fashioned way of doing things, but he misses that people really do need to be near sources of clean water and that's not going to change. Online education has to overcome the fact that most people aren't self-motivating enough to succeed without a lot of supervision. Hospitals aren't going away and preventative telemedicine only goes so far. We have telemonitors everywhere, as Ray Rice learned yesterday to his disadvantage, but we still have a vindictive judicial system, here in the "enlightened" United States more than anywhere if you measure incarceration rates. Just because people shop online, that does nothing to end "profit retailing", it just means people's spending does nothing to improve their own communities. As for teledemocracy and universal referendums, the election system in most democracies has done little to move forward into the 21st Century.

I promise that next week when we see his next prediction, FM-2030 will go back to being a useless prat.

Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!

Herman Kahn makes his final prediction from 1972 book. 

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!

23 February 2013

Birthdays
Dakota Fanning b. 1994
Kelly Macdonald b. 1976
Majel Barrett-Roddenberry b. 1932 died 12/18/2008  

I love Kelly Macdonald's work, but most of it is not in the sci-fi genre. Ms. Roddenberry, on the other hand, did little else but work on sci-fi TV shows, so she earns a photo.
 

What life will be like... in the year 2001!

Predictor: Leo Cherne (Executive Director, Research Institute of America)
Everyone has access to free power created by solar, atomic energy will be widespread...
The average American will have a 24 hour work week, 6 hours a day four days a week...

Predictor: Hubert J. Schlafly (engineer)
Systematic information will be in a form instantly available for response to remote inquiry...
By 2001, we may be in the dot and dash stage of the electrical transmission of solid matter.

Reality: Solar power is not in the universal access phase and atomic power had some big setbacks. People don't have 24 hour work weeks, except those unlucky bastards working at companies trying to deny them access to health care, so Dr. Cherne lays a big goose egg.

Mr. Schlafly on the other hand gives a pretty good description of the Internet in the statement I underlined. He doesn't say exactly how it will take place and the word "computer" is nowhere to be found, but that isn't surprising. 1956 is akin to the Dark Ages when it comes to computers. As for the electrical transmission of matter, we are a long way away from replicators, but maybe we could count 3D printers as the early starting point, "the dot and dash" stage as Schlafly puts it.

Just don't expect one to give you "Earl Grey tea, hot" anytime soon. Just sayin'.


Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE! The editor of Radio & Television News gets a lot of stuff wrong and a UN delegate from the Philippines gets a lot of stuff right.

Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!