Lina Leandersson b. 1995 (Let the Right One In)
Thomas Mann b. 1991 (Amityville: The Awakening, Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters)
Anna Camp b.1982 (True Blood)
Kristopher Turner b. 1980 (Beauty and the Beast [2013 TV], A Little Bit Zombie, Lost Girl, 2030 CE)
Zita Görög b. 1979 (Underworld)
Travis Aaron Wade b. 1975 (Touch, Torchwood: Web of Lies, Jekyll, War of the Worlds)
Gwyneth Paltrow b. 1972 (Iron Man, The Avengers, Contagion, Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, Hook)
John Patrick White b. 1972 (Galaxy Quest, Buffy, Sabrina, the Teenage Witch, 3rd Rock from the Sun)
Amanda Detmer b. 1971 (Vampire Diaries)
Tamara Taylor b.1970 (Lost, Serenity)
Patrick Muldoon b. 1968 (Spiders, Ice Spiders, Arrival II, Starship Troopers)
Christopher Cousins b. 1960 (Revolution, Awake, Supernatural, The Grudge 2 Earth vs. the Spider [2001], The Invisible Man [2001], Stargate SG-1, NightMan)
Scott Lawrence b. 1963 (Star Trek Into Darkness, The Host [U.S. 2013], American Horror Story, Avatar, Them [2007], Star Trek: Voyager, Brimstone, Timecop, Quantum Leap)
Shaun Cassidy b. 1958 (producer, Invasion, American Gothic)
Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa b. 1950 (The Man in the High Castle, Teen Wolf [2014], Mortal Kombat, Tekken, Heroes, Elektra, Planet of the Apes, Poltergeist: The Legacy, Vampires, Stargate SG-1, Sabrina, the Teenage Witch, The Phantom, Babylon 5, Space Rangers, Alien Nation, Superboy, Star Trek: The Next Generation)
Tom Braidwood b. 1948 (Alien Trespass, The X-Files, The Lone Gunmen)
David Kagen b. 1948 (Star Trek: Enterprise, Angle, Freddy’s Nightmares, Jason Lives: Friday the 13th Part VI)
A Martinez b. 1948 (Curse of Chucky, Mega Python vs. Gatoroid, Welcome to Paradox, Not of This World [1991 TV], The Incredible Hulk, Exo-Man, The Sixth Sense [1972 TV])
Meat Loaf b. 1947 (BloodRayne, Wishcraft, Tales from the Crypt, Americathon, Rocky Horror Picture Show)
Liz Torres b. 1947 (Futurestates, Quantum Leap, Alien Nation [TV])
Denis Lawson b. 1947 (Jekyll, Star Wars: Episodes IV, V and VI, Dinosaur)
Wilford Brimley b. 1934 (Progeny, Mutant Species, Cocoon I and II, Ewoks: The Battle for Endor, The Thing [1982])
Greg Morris b. 1933 died 27 August 1996 (Superboy, War of the Worlds [TV series], Wonder Woman, The Six Million Dollar Man, Twilight Zone)
Will Sampson b. 1933 died 3 June 1987 (Poltergeist II: The Other Side)
Roger C. Carmel b. 1932 died 11 November 1986 (Star Trek, My Living Doll, The Munsters)
Notes on the birthday list.
1. The Picture Slot. Last year it was Gwyneth, the only A list movie star here. If I was going for iconic, Meat Loaf in Rocky Horror, Denis Lawson from Star Wars (Wedge makes it through all three films, rare among the minor characters) or Roger C. Carmel in Star Trek would be my first three choices, but instead of going with movies and TV from my youth, the picture is of Lina Leandersson from the 2008 Swedish vampire movie Let the Right One In. It's not the first Vampire As Good Guy film by a long shot, but it does have a very different look and feel compared to American movies. If you haven't seen it and don't mind some gory scenes, I can recommend it.
2. A Martinez? Shouldn't he be The Martinez by now? A Martinez, no period after the initial was born Adolph Martinez in 1948. He used that name in his first film credit and never again.
Hey, Mr. and Mrs. Martinez in 1948? Too soon.
3. Teen scream Shaun Cassidy? Really? I was not aware Shaun Cassidy made the transition to producer. Good on him.
4. Another Philip K. Dick project? imdb.com lists The Man in the High Castle as pre-production and it should be released in 2015. It's an interesting story and I hope it gets made.
5. Die young much? Wait... he's dead?And a bonus: The Guy at the Door. We have three deceased actors on the list and none of them lived long enough to collect Social Security. It had registered in my mind that Will Sampson and Roger C. Carmel were dead, but somehow I forgot about Greg Morris. Also, while it's not true on every birthday list, all the dead today were born before everybody living. I call the oldest living person on a list like this The Guy (or Gal) at the Door, who in this case is Wilford Brimley, overweight, diabetic and celebrating his 79th birthday today. C'est la vie, said the old folks, it goes to show you never can tell.
Many happy returns to all the living on the list and to the dead, thanks for all the memories.
Movies released
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 released, 2013
Predictions: Man will conquer the atmosphere. Traveling from New York to San Francisco or New York to London will take less take less than twelve hours, making the railway and steamship obsolete. Personal dirigibles will be commonplace. Electricity will be the motive power for these aerial cars and they will be made of aluminum or some other light metal.
The telephone will supplant the telegraph and calling from Boston to Moscow will be done as readily as we now call between neighboring cities. The dwindling power of the telegraph and railroad barons will obviate the need to nationalize these businesses.
Domestic life will become easier with ready access to electricity and women will elevate her political and social status from subordinate to men to equality.
Wealth will accumulate, business will combine and the gulf between rich and poor will be more profound. The attempts to correct this by statue are doomed to fail.
Our greatest city in 1993 will be Chicago, not only the greatest in the nation but the world.
Reality: Okay, the facial hair and clothes, pure 19th Century. If his wire-rims were pince-nez, he would have had the trifecta.
As for the predictions, it was bold in 1893 to say air travel would be so dominant and the telephone was going to be useful worldwide. Of course, we don't have personal dirigibles and electricity is not the motive power of flying machines. But he writes "aerial cars"! Longtime readers will know I give points for that, even though they don't actually... well, you know... exist.
Equality of the sexes is not complete, but women do have the vote and electrically powered modern conveniences do make life much easier than it was in 1893.
As for wealth accumulating, it can be curbed by a progressive tax code and income inequality was much lower for most of the 20th Century than it was in The Gilded Age. But of course, Republicans and their wise stewardship of the economy have made us realize that a prosperous middle class is one of those luxuries we just couldn't afford.
And he ends by sucking up to Chicago. Meh.
Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!
Nuclear war! Hunh! Good God, y'all! What is it good for?
Well, it does give me something to write about on Sunday mornings. And we actually haven't had one since WW II ended, so that's another positive point.
Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!
By "less than twelve hours," I would assume that Ingalls thought that a transcontinental flight across North America would take maybe 9-10 hours. Doing that today requires a long layover in Chicago, Denver or the like; a direct flight takes five hours and change.
ReplyDeleteIt's a rare instance of someone underestimating the amount of progress made in some technology (here, air travel), and that makes this prediction very interesting.
Well, the Internet is the obvious case of something badly underestimated, but I think my point still holds.
DeleteI paraphrased. He said "between the sunrise and sunset of a summer day", which going one direction would be less than 15 or 16 hours and 9 or 10 going the other way. I'm not sure how precisely he made his calculations, but in the shorter direction that would mean air speeds of around 300 mph (~500 kph). In 1893, those speeds would have been thought to be crazy fast.
DeleteUnderestimations certainly happen. For 1893, just saying there would be fast air travel was a big leap of faith.
I'm not sure I'd call "Let the Right One In" a "vampire as good guy" film. She is, in many ways, an inhuman predator and that was one of the few movies I'd seen in ages which could make me afraid of vampires.
ReplyDeleteFor next year, another option for picture slot would be Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa who is at least at "Oh, that guy" status. I always enjoy spotting him in a movie or TV show, and his voice is almost as distinctive as his appearance.
Tagawa is the best Oh That Guy on the list for certain. We'll see what mood I'm in a year from now.
DeleteMr Brimley had a great role in The Thing. A movie, in my humble O, that deserves Top Shelf status in its category. That flick is required viewing for any newbie that interns at the infamous Mount Washington Observatory here in New Hampshire. The place is cold, snowy and isolated and just the right back drop for that film. Carpenters best film if I do say so myself!
ReplyDeleteI liked the Scandinavian version - technically a prequel - from a few years back as well.
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