Wednesday, June 18, 2014

18 June 2014

 Birthdays
Max Records b. 1997 (Where the Wild Things Are)
Willa Holland b. 1991 (Arrow, Legion)
Jacob Anderson b. 1990 (Game of Thrones)
Meaghan Rath b. 1986 (Being Human, 10.5: Apocalypse)
Kristina Klebe b. 1979 (Chillerama, Zone of the Dead, Halloween [2007])
Alana De La Garza b. 1976 (Forever, Charmed, Smallville, Mortal Kombat: Conquest)
Kim Dickens b. 1965 (FlashForward, Lost, Hollow Man)
Ralph Brown b. 1957 (Jack the Giant Slayer, Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist, Star Wars: Epidsode I – The One We Don’t Discuss, Alien³)
Isabella Rossellini b. 1952 (The Phantom, Infected, Earthsea, Merlin [1998], Death Becomes Her)
Carol Kane b. 1952 (Addams Family Values, Scrooged, The Princess Bride, Transylvania 6-5000)
Miriam Flynn b. 1952 (Evolution, Deep Space Nine, Buffy)
Steve Miner b. 1951 (director, Eureka, Day of the Dead, Smallville, Lake Placid, Halloween H20: 20 years Later, Friday the 13th II and III)
Mac McDonald b. 1949 (Red Dwarf, The Fifth Element, Gulliver’s Travels [1996 TV], The Tomorrow People, Nightbreed, Batman, Superman IV: The Quest for Peace, The Empire Strikes Back, Rollerball)
Roger Ebert b. 1942 died 4/4/2013 (writer, critic)
Michael Sheard b. 1938 died 21 August 2005 (Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Doctor Who, Space, The Invisible Man, The Empire Strikes Back, Blakes 7, The Tomorrow People, Space: 1999)
George Hearn b. 1934 (Star Trek: The Next Generation)
Richard Boone b. 1917 died 19 January 1981 (The Last Dinosaur)
E.G. Marshall b. 1914 died 24 August 1998 (The Tommyknockers, Superman II, Vampire)
Nedra Volz b. 1908 died 20 January 2003 (ALF, Earth Girls Are Easy)
Keye Luke b. 1904 died 12 January 1991 (Gremlins, Superboy, Beauty and the Beast [1988 TV], Star Trek, Project X, The Green Hornet [1966 and 1940])

Last week, the Picture Slot would have belonged to Jacob Anderson, leader of Danerys' Unsullied. But Game of Thrones is officially off the air now, so it's a open race. Carol Kane from The Princess Bride is certainly iconic, Isabella Rossellini is obviously a fabulous babe, Michael Sheard is famous as the admiral who Darth Vader chokes with his brain. (Sheard also played Hitler five times, though I don't see the resemblance.) But as you can see, the Picture Slot went Keye Luke in his role from Gremlins. You might notice that he was in two different versions of The Green Hornet, which is only barely a genre show. He was Kato in 1940.

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

Movies released
Toy Story 3 released, 2010


Predictor: Herman Kahn in Things to Come, published in 1972 by the Hudson Institute

Prediction:By 1985, cable TV will be a virtually unlimited smorgasbord of home entertainment for every taste.

Reality: Welcome to our new regular Wednesday predictor, Herman Kahn, who is called "a prominent futurist". Our regular commenter has some choice words for anyone called a futurist, but let's note that this was a very good call. In 1972, cable is pretty much a forced option for people who live away from the big broadcast antennas and though cable 30 years ago is a paltry thing compared to today, it was quite a step up from the three networks, PBS and UHF we had in the early 1970s.

Kahn was a conservative intellectual and gained notoriety in the 1960 when working for the RAND Corporation and stated that nuclear war was survivable and winnable. Characters stating his ideas showed up in several movies, notably Walter Matthau in Fail-Safe and Peter Sellers as Dr. Strangelove in the movie of the same name. Not unlike Lee de Forest, Kahn is hit and miss, unlike Ray Kurzweil and Paul Ehrlich, who were pretty much miss and miss.

And miss and miss and miss again.

Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!
  
I mentioned Lee de Forest and of course, tomorrow is his regular date, guessing about the year 2000 from his vantage point in 1960.

Join us then ... IN THE FUTURE!
 

2 comments:

  1. Our regular commenter has some choice words for anyone called a futurist,

    Perhaps we can refer to him as a "Prominent bearded person". Pretty snappy for the 70s, when ZZTop hadn't made the scenes yet.

    stated that nuclear war was survivable and winnable.

    This prediction, however, while maybe technically true (let's ask the survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki how 'surviveable' this might be), is pretty much bollocks.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. This was about the most attractive picture of Kahn I could find, most of them highlighting his enormous girth. I don't like him much and there will be predictions nearly as cold as Paul Ehrlich, but I didn't want to go in for fat shaming. Bad idea shaming is good enough for me.

      Delete

Traveler! Have you news... FROM THE FUTURE?