17 September 2014

Birthdays
Ella Purnell b. 1996 (Maleficent, Kick-Ass 2, Intruders)
Augustus Prew b. 1987 (Kick-Ass 2)
Neill Blomkamp b. 1979 (director, Elysium, District 9)
Ian Whyte b. 1971 (Hercules, Game of Thrones, Clash of the Titans, Prometheus, Solomon Kane, Dragonball: Evolution, Aliens vs. Predator 1 & 2, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire)
Malik Yoba b. 1967 (Alphas)
Tracy Dali b. 1966 (Paranormal Movie, Space Girls in Beverly Hills, The Scorpion King, Encino Man, Back to the Future Part II)
Bryan Singer b. 1965 (director, X-Men, Jack the Giant Slayer, Mockingbird Lane, Superman Returns)
Kyle Chandler b. 1965 (Super 8, The Day the Earth Stood Still [2008], King Kong [2005], Freddy’s Nightmares)
James Urbaniak b. 1963 (Teen Wolf [TV], Futuremanity, The Venture Brothers, Futurestates, Wizards of Waverly Place, The Sarah Connor Chronicles)
William Shockley b. 1963 (Quantum Leap, Alien Nation [TV], Freddy’s Nightmares, RoboCop)
Dustin Nguyen b. 1962 (VR.5, SeaQuest 2032, Highlander [TV], Earth Angel)
Paul Feig b. 1962 (Sabrina, the Teenage Witch, Zombie High)
Keith Cooke b. 1959 (Mortal Combat: Annihilation)
Aaron Lustig b. 1956 (Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, The Day After Tomorrow, Charmed, Star Trek: Enterprise, Bedazzled, 3rd Rock from the Sun, Brimstone, The Relic, Pinocchio’s Revenge, Star Trek: Voyager, The Shadow, Memoirs of an Invisible Man, Quantum Leap, Edward Scissorhands, Darkman, ALF, Alien Nation [TV], Ghostbusters II)
Tim Burd b. 1955 (Saw II through IV, Repo! The Genetic Opera, Resident Evil: Apocalypse, Mutant X, Odyssey 5, TekWar, Deadly Nightmares)
Cassandra Peterson b. 1951 (Elvira)
John Ritter b. 1948 died 11 September 2003 (Terror Tract, It Came From the Sky, Buffy, It)
Bruce Spence b. 1945 (I, Frankenstein, The Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader, Legend of the Seeker, Nightmares & Dreamscapes, Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith, Peter Pan [2003], The Matrix Revolutions, Farscape, Queen of the Damned, BeastMaster [TV], Dark City, The Munsters’ Scary Little Christmas, Halfway across the Galaxy and Turn Left, Hercules Returns, Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior, The Cars That Eat People)
Paul Benedict b. 1938 died 1 December 2008 (Attack of the 50 Ft. Woman[1993], the Twilight Zone [1987], The Addams Family, The Man With Two Brains)
David Huddleston b. 1930 (Jericho, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Capricorn One, The Sixth Sense [TV], Bewitched)
Roddy McDowall b. 1928 died 3 October 1998 (The Second Jungle Book: Mowgli & Baloo, The Alien Within, Quantum Leap, Earth Angel, Doin’ Time on Planet Earth, Fright Night 1 and 2, The Wizard, Alice in Wonderland [1985 TV], Small& Frye, The Martian Chronicles, Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, The Thief of Baghdad [1978 TY], Wonder Woman, The Cat from Outer Space, Laserblast, The Fantastic Journey, Embryo, Planet of the Apes [4 movies and the TV show], Journey to the Unknown, Bedknobs and Broomsticks, Topper Returns [TV movie], It!, The Invaders, Batman, Twilight Zone)
Ib Melchoir b. 1917 (writer, Death Race, Planet of the Vampires, The Outer Limits, The Time Travelers, Robinson Crusoe on Mars, Angry Red Planet, Men Into Space, Reptilitcus)

Last year I used James Urbaniak as Doc Venture and this year it came down to three choices: Roddy McDwall, Elvira and Bruce Spence. I chose Bruce Spence because I love Dark City so much.

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

 Predictor: Uncredited writer in The New York World, March 1911 in a piece called One Hundred Years Hence

Prediction:Feb. 1, 2011. Seven o’clock in the morning. The closed shutter prolongs the night. John Smith sleeps peacefully. Suddenly at his bedside the clapper of the phonograph-alarm trembles and produces sweetly harmonious sounds.

John opens his eyes. Reaching out his hand, he presses an electric button. Automatically the shutters open. The Window closes and the sunlight pours into the room.

John Smith’s chamber is furnished with taste and even with a certain amount of luxury, not because he is rich, but that in the 21st Century luxury costs little and no one is poor. The brass bed is no longer that heap of blankets, feathers, wool and hair against which hygienists used to rail. A metal mattress supports pneumatic cushions inflated with air, the temperature of which is regulated at pleasure. All is ready for his toilet and bath.

Through the room the air circulates freely, ceaselessly renewed by ingenious mechanism. Within the walls conduits of water, warmed by a central furnace, distribute everywhere equal heat in the cold season. In summer the same conduits serve to cool the air.

Mr. Smith, who lives on the forty-fifth floor of One Hundred Eighteenth Avenue, New York, has not yet risen. He is talking to the table beside his bed.

“I want a cup of synthetic cocoa, very hot.” he says.

In a few minutes the table opens and the aromatic breakfast appears before the eyes of the hungry man. This is no magic table; no spirit concealed in it. It is simply provided with a microphone by means of which Mr. Smith expresses his wants to the officials of the public alimentation service, which has its branches on the ground floor of every house of any importance.

Why drinking his chemically produced cocoa Mr. Smith listens to the morning papers. Every house with ‘modern conveniences’ communicates with a central information bureau which gives it at all hours the news. Slip a small coin into a slot and a speaking trumpet is uncovered, which at once begins in a sonorous voice to recite the telegrams of the night, the news items, the political news, the stock quotations, literary and dramatic criticisms. When Mr. Smith has heard enough of one article he presses an electric button and the voice tells him something else. This continues until his toilet is through.

Something of a dandy, Mr. Smith is dressed in a full tunic in the Grecian style, which sets off his powerful and youthful figure and allows perfect ease of movement. His shoes are polished by electric buttons.

Reality: Here's our new Wednesday regular and I would say he's pretty darned good. Let's go from beginning to end.

1. Alarm clock radios, not alarm clock phonographs. In 1911, radio is still pretty much wireless telegraphy instead of sound broadcasting.

2. Pneumatic cushion beds. They exist but they aren't the standard.

3. Central air and central heating. Not with water in the walls, but these do exist now.

4. Calling for food from a central kitchen in your apartment building, sent automatically. This is not the case. We don't have a "public alimentation service", though Starbucks seems like it in some cities.

5. Synthetic cocoa. There are a LOT more chemicals in food now than there were in 2011. In later predictions, our new guy will go off the deep end, but there is synthetic cocoa, though many of us wish there wasn't.

6. "Listening" to the morning paper. This is kind of like news radio, right? Notice this is the only section where our newspaper guy thinks about how Mr. Smith will pay for something. We don't get to fast forward through radio, but we can do it online. Once again, he couldn't know the technology, but he's not far off.

7. Guys don't wear tunics. Your legs should be really good to think about wearing a tunic. 

Never to be Forgotten:
Darrell Zwerling 1929-2014

Today we have two obits. Darrell Zwerling is best known as the water commissioner Mulray in Chinatown, but he is remembered here for roles in Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, Capricorn One and Doc Savage: Man of Bronze, where he is the not dead guy on the right. He kind of looks like Allan Arbus, the guy who played the psychiatrist on M*A*S*H, but obviously those are two different  guys.

Best wishes to the family and friends of Darrell Zwerling, from a fan. He is never to be forgotten.  
 

Never to be Forgotten:
John Bardon 1939-2014

The other obit is for the British actor John Bardon, best known for East Enders. His genre credits include Polterguests, Gulliver’s Travels [TV] and One of our Dinosaurs is Missing.

Best wishes to the family and friends of John Bardon, from a fan. He is never to be forgotten.

Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!

We interrupt the regular schedule for a prediction from a movie... starring Doug McClure!

Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!