Sierra McCormick b. 1997 (Land of the Lost, Supernatural)
Devon Murray b.1988 (Harry Potter)
Matt Smith b. 1982 (Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, Terminator: Genisys, Doctor Who, The Sarah Jane Adventures, Clone)
Michael Stahl-David b. 1982 (In Your Eyes, The Congress, Cloverfield)
Dwayne Cameron b. 1981 (Legend of the Seeker, Power Rangers, Dark Knight, Amazon High)
Joaquin Phoenix b. 1974 (Her, The Village, Signs, Superboy, SpaceCamp)
Michael Dougherty b. 1974 (writer, Superman Returns, X2)
Greg Eagles b. 1970 (Teeth and Blood, The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Black Scorpion, The Burning Zone)
Julia Roberts b. 1967 (Mirror Mirror, Mart Reilly, Hook, Flatliners)
Stephen Hunter b. 1968 (The Hobbit)
Chris Bauer b. 1966 (Tomorrowland, True Blood, Fringe, The Lost Room, Devil’s Advocate, Snow White: A Tale of Terror)
Jami Gertz b. 1965 (The Neighbors, The Lost Boys, Solarbabies)
Lauren Holly b. 1963 (Alphas, Lost Girl, Living with the Dead)
Daphne Zuniga (Spaceballs, The Fly II)
Jonathan Mostow b. 1961 (director, Terminator 3)
Annie Potts b. 1952 (Ghostbusters I & II, The Man Who Fell to Earth [TV movie], Amazing Stories, Twilight Zone [1985])
Joe R. Lansdale b. 1951 (writer, Bubba Ho-Tep, Batman, Jonah Hex)
Ian Marter b. 1944 died 28 October 1986 (Doctor Who, The Abominable Dr. Phibes)
Dennis Franz b. 1944 (City of Angels, The Fury)
George ‘Buck’ Flower b. 1937 died 18 June 2004 (Power Rangers, Wishmaster, Village of the Damned, Plughead Rewired: Circuitry Man II, Warlock: The Armageddon, Mirror Images, Waxwork II: Lost in Time, Dragonflight, They Came from Outer Space [TV], Back to the Future Parts I & II, They Live, Mac and Me, Pumpkinhead, Sorority Babes in the Slimeball Bowl-O-Rama, Berserker, The Night Stalker, Starman, Escape from New York, The Fog, The Time Machine [TV movie], The Invisible Man [1975 TV])
Jane Alexander b. 1939 (Terminator Salvation, The Ring, Testament)
Suzy Parker b. 1932 died 3 May 2003 (Twilight Zone)
Joan Plowright b. 1929 (The Spiderwick Chronicles, George and the Dragon, Last Action Hero)
Elsa Lanchester b. 1902 died 26 December 1986 (Off to See the Wizard, Mary Poppins, Bell Book and Candle, Alice in Wonderland [1955 TV], Bride of Frankenstein)
John Boles b. 1985 died 27 February 1969 (Frankenstein [1931])
Notes on the birthday list.
1. The Picture Slot. Last year, it was Matt Smith as the Doctor. This year, I went with the biggest movie star and her poster picture from Mirror Mirror. Next year, there are lots of possibilities, including Elsa Lanchester from The Bride of Frankenstein, Suzy Parker from the original Twilight Zone series (a model/actress, in her day possibly prettier than Julia Roberts), Annie Potts from Ghostbusters or Daphne Zuniga from Spaceballs. The only male who is even in the running is Joaquin Phoenix from Her.
2. We got plenty of nothing! Not only is today's birthday list Star Trek free, we are also devoid of Canadians. I expect this is going to be rare.
3. Oh That Bum. The busiest beaver among our birthday boys and girls today is George 'Buck' Flower, who started his career in 1970s soft porn but later became a character actor specializing in beggars, bums, winos and homeless men. Seriously, over 10% of his 158 roles are nameless, credited only as Drunk, Homeless Man, Wino, etc. You might think I am mocking him, but I always show respect to guys who make a living one role at a time. The only thing he had that was close to a regular paycheck was playing a character named Roy on the short-lived TV sitcom Flo. That's a hard way to keep food on the table and may he be blessed by Odin, Vishnu and the little Baby Jebus.
Many happy returns to all the living on the list and to the dead, thanks for all the memories.
Movies released
In Time released 2011
Prediction: Teledemocracy: All forms of leadership are intrinsically authoritarian - the differences are in degrees. Voting for leaders and representatives (who then make unilateral decisions for the people) is not democracy. Let us stop deluding ourselves. In our times democracy means direct participation in all decision making. This means voting not for leaders - but voting directly on issues.
Accelerators: Every week every month - or as often as necessary - people deploy their tranceivers to vote directly on issues. All sides of every issue are regularly telecast. Computer flashforwards of probable consequences of each scenario are simultaneously aired. (Because there are no struggles for leadership issues are depoliticized. The focus is on the merits of each plan.) Temporary committees (picked at random every month) supervise the referendums and implementation of decisions. In the age of two-way interactive telespheres leaders and representatives are as superfluous as scribes. By the first decade of the new century government will exist mainly in name as power will shift to the people via direct consensing.
Reality: Time to bring The Big Ugly Stick out of its burlap bag and give old FM-2030 a few well placed and well deserved whacks. I'm pretty sure FM stands for Frozen Moron, but I'd have to look that up. Just in case I got it right, I'm going to start using the nickname FroMo for this goofball.
Yet again, I have typed his stuff verbatim. I continue to be amazed the lengths to which he went to avoid using commas. But let us not be blinded by his bad punctuation and pompous neologisms. The real problems here are his incredibly bad ideas. Let's start with the first sentence about all leadership being authoritarian. Can you imagine what it must have been like inside his cult? I imagine a fascist dictatorship, don't you?
I live in California and the proposition system, first instituted in the days when the oil and railroad trusts owned the legislature, was meant to allow direct participation. Now, it is often a way for moneyed interests to get their way using a method cheaper than the outright bribery used so often today. In FM-2030's scenario, the problems we have now would be even worse. The rich would do everything they could to make sure their interests were protected, most notably by monopolizing the airwaves so their view would always be available. The temporary committee idea is a good way to make sure nearly no project taking a year or more to complete would ever be completed. As for the computer "flashforwards", who programs the computers? If some programmer's work in prediction is consistently wrong, who is the person who decides if he or she is sacked or not? If decisions were made by consensus, we'd probably have Ebola quarantine zones in every state and not a penny being spent to combat climate change.
Old FroMo has been steadily wrong time after time, but these two paragraphs are like the distilled essence of his arrogant bullshit.
Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!
Like with FroMo, I type the predictions from the 1911 New York World article verbatim. Unlike FroMo, I rarely want to bring the anonymous writer back to life and beat him senseless.
Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!
, I'm going to start using the nickname FroMo for this goofball.
ReplyDeleteThis is the kind of innovation that brings me back to this blog.
As Jeeves might say "I am glad to have given satisfaction, sir."
Delete