Sunday, August 3, 2014

3 August 2014

Birthdays
Kyle Schmid b. 1984 (Being Human, Lost Girl, Arrow, Dead Before Dawn 3D, Smallville, The Covenant, Odyssey 5, My Best Friend is an Alien, Virus)
Evangeline Lilly b. 1979 (Ant-Man, The Hobbit, Real Steel, Lost, Smallville)
Tomas Lemarquis b. 1977 (Snowpiercer, Errors of the Human Body)
Franco Castan b. 1977 (The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, Revolution, Coma [TV mini-series])
Michael Ealy b. 1973 (Almost Human, Underworld: Awakening, FlashForward)
Stephen Graham b. 1973 (Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, Inkheart)
Melissa Ponzio b. 1972 (Teen Wolf, The Walking Dead, Touch, The Vampire Diaries)
Brigid Brannagh b. 1972 (Star Trek: Enterprise, Angel, Charmed, Kindred: The Embraced, American Gothic)
Elizabeth Berrington b. 1970 (Doctor Who, Psychoville, Nanny McPhee, The Little Vampire)
Anne Marie DeLuise b. 1969 (Smallville, Sanctuary, The Thaw, Painkiller Jane, Stargate SG-1, Supernatural, Dead Like Me, Stephen King’s Dead Zone, Mysterious Ways, Code Name: Eternity, First Wave, Total Recall 2070, Earth: Final Conflict, Highlander: The Raven, Eerie, Indiana: The Other Dimension, Side Effects, Darkman II: The Return of Durant)
Luke Massy b. 1966 (Thor, Charmed)
Isaiah Washington b. 1963 (The 100, Bionic Woman [2007])
Lisa Ann Walter b. 1963 (War of the Worlds, Bruce Almighty)
John C. McGinley b. 1959 (Target Earth, Highlander II: The Quickening)
Kristoffer Tabori b. 1952 (Sliders, SeaQuest 2032, Quantum Leap, The Twilight Zone [1985], Small and Frye, Brave New World [TV movie])
John Landis b. 1950 (director, Honey, I Shrunk the Kids: The TV Show, Innocent Blood, Twilight Zone: The Movie, American Werewolf in London)
Philip Casnoff b. 1949 (Dollhouse, Message from Space)
Phil Rubenstein b. 1940 died 26 June 1992 (RoboCop 2, My Mom’s a Werewolf, ALF, Mannequin, Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, Knight Rider)
Martin Sheen b. 1940 (The Amazing Spider-Man 1 and 2, Seeking a Friend for the End of the World, The Time Shifters, Total Recall 2070, Babylon 5: River of Souls, Alchemy, Crystal Cave, Project: ALF, Captain Nuke and the Bomber Boys, Roswell [TV Movie], Beyond the Stars, Firestarter, The Dead Zone, The Outer Limits)
Stephen Berkoff b. 1937 (Witches of East End, Doctor Who, Children of Dune, Deep Space Nine, Space Precinct, Metamorphosis [TV movie], Outland, A Clockwork Orange, UFO, Prehistoric Women)
Jean Hagen b. 1923 died 29 August 1977 (Panic in Year Zero!)
P.D. James b. 1920 (author, Children of Men)
Alex McCrindle b. 1911 died 20 April 1990 (Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope)
Clifford D. Simak b. 1904 died 25 April 1988 (Won 1964 Hugo for Here Gather the Stars)

Last year it was Evangeline Lilly in the Picture Slot, an easy choice being both very pretty and a role on a major genre TV series. This year, I was thinking about going with Martin Sheen, the best known actor on the list and a lot of genre roles throughout his long career. But instead I went with Michael Ealy from the cancelled TV series Almost Human, a show my dad was very fond of. Other candidates include Alex McCrindle as the rebel general Dodonna from Star Wars or younger actors Kyle Schmid or Anne Marie DeLuise.

John Landis will never be in the Picture Slot because he got away with murder on the set of The Twilight Zone

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

Movies released
Total Recall released, 2012  
Predictor: Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1922 (quoted in The Experts Speak, written by Christopher Cerf and Victor Navasky, published 1998)

Prediction: “It is highly unlikely that an airplane, or a fleet of them, could ever sink Navy vessels under battle conditions.”

Reality: The reason Roosevelt made this prediction was Gen. Billy Mitchell sank a ship that was being towed in 1921 with a squadron of fighter planes. No one was shooting at the planes, so it couldn't count as battle conditions. Twenty year later, the Japanese sunk almost the entire American Pacific fleet with squadrons of fighter planes when Roosevelt was president. To be fair to F.D.R., the technological improvements to aircraft in those twenty years were hard to foresee.

Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!

Regular schedule interrupted for an exact date prediction from a movie.

Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!
 

3 comments:

  1. Also, there was a failure of foresight (something that seems to have been repeated) in that no one was prepared for the Pearl Harbor assault.

    FWIW, Milwaukee's airport is named after Billy Mitchell. For my part, I don't think generals should use the name Billy.

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  2. I find it interesting that you feel that way about Landis. There certainly are many different view points on that topic. I followed the trial pretty closely when it happened but came away feeling like a lot of people were culpable. A very unfortunate accident
    that could have been prevented, but murder...?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi, Michael. Thanks for your respectful disagreement. I didn't follow the trial closely and may be too influenced by people who have the worst opinion of Landis, but I do feel that directors of the era were given too much leeway and the death on the set of Midnight Rider just this year reinforces my view that the director should be held responsible in such cases.

      Delete

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