20 June 2015

Birthdays
Hulk released 2003
Jadin Gould b. 1998 (Man of Steel, Battle Los Angeles)
Claudia Lee b. 1996 (Kick-Ass 2)
Christopher Mintz-Plasse b. 1989 (Kick-Ass, This is the End, Fright Night)
Shefali Chowdhury b. 1988 (Harry Potter)
Dreama Walker b. 1986 (Vamperifica, The Invention of Lying)
Collings Pennie b. 1985 (In Time)
Jobeth Wagner b. 1985 (True Blood, Hancock)
Kate Kelton b. 1978 (Haven, Growth)
Ronnie Gene Blevins b. 1977 (Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., True Blood, The Dark Knight Rises, A.I. Artificial Intelligence)
Tom Wlaschiha b. 1973 (Game of Thrones, The Sarah Jane Chronicles)
Josh Lucas b. 1971 (Space Warriors, Hulk)
Raymond Olubawale b. 1970 (Resident Evil)
Robert Rodriguez b. 1968 (director, Sin City, From Dusk Till Dawn, Planet Terror, The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl 3D, Spy Kids, The Faculty)
Nicole Kidman b. 1967 (How to Talk to Girls at Parties, The Golden Compass, The Invasion, Bewitched [2005 movie], The Stepford Wives, The Others, Practical Magic, Batman Forever)
Chuck Wagner b. 1958 (Into the Woods, The Sisterhood, America 3000, Automan)
Miles O’ Keefe b. 1954 (Waxwork, Sword of the Valiant: The Legend of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Ator the Fighting Eagle)
John Goodman b. 1952 (Speed Racer, The Borrowers, Fallen, Arachnophobia, C.H.U.D.)
Don Mantooth b. 1952 (Knight Rider, Battlestar Galactica [1979], Kolchak: The Night Stalker, The Six Million Dollar Man)
Candy Clark b. 1947 (Buffy the Vampire Slayer [movie], The Blob [1988], Starman [TV], Amityville 3D, Q, The Man Who Fell to Earth)
Oliver Cotton b. 1944 (Penny Dreadful, The Dark Knight Rises, Beowulf [1999], Space Precinct, Space; 1999)
John McCook b. 1944 (David’s Dinosaur, Amazing Stories. Once Upon a Brothers Grimm)
John Mahoney b. 1940 (3rd Rock from the Sun, The Manhattan Project)
Wendy Craig b. 1934 (Out of the Unknown)
Brett Halsey b. 1933 (TekWar, Forever Knight, Automan, Knight Rider, Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, The Bionic Woman, Revenge of the Creature)
Danny Aiello b. 1933 (The Stuff)
James Tolkan b. 1931 (Early Edition, Robo Warriors, Back to the Future, Masters of the Universe, Iceman, WarGames, Wolfen, The Amityville Horror, The Werewolf of Washington)
Olympia Dukakis b. 1931 (The Librarian)
Bonnie Bartlett b. 1929 (Firefly, Stargate SG-1, SeaQuest 2032, The Wizard, V, Salem’s Lot)
Martin Landau b. 1928 (Sleepy Hollow [1999 movie], The Adventures of Pinocchio, The X-Files, The Return of the Six Million Dollar Man and the Bionic Woman, The Twilight Zone [1985, 1964, 1959], The Return, Meteor, The Fall of the House of Usher, Space: 1999, The Outer Limits)
Robb White b. 1909 died 24 November 1990 (writer, Thirteen Ghosts, House on Haunted Hill, The Tingler)

Notes from the birthday list.
1. The Picture Slot. In previous years, the Picture Slot went to Robert Rodriguez and Nicole Kidman. This year, it was a toss-up between Martin Landau and today's winner, Tom Wlaschiha, who playes the Faceless Man Jaqen H'ghar on Game of Thrones.


2. Hey, no Star Trek! Star Trek is far and away the most common label on the blog, but some days there are no Trek artists are celebrating birthdays. So far this month, it's happened about once a week.

3. MST3K. I know Revenge of the Creature got the treatment, there may be others.

4. Spot the Canadian! Kate Kelton is our lone Canadian today and she's hard to spot.

5. The Guy at the Door. Regular readers will know I feel somewhat awkward pointing out this demographic quirk when it happens, but today I can put a positive spin on it, or at least I think I can. Martin Landau is the oldest living person on the list and everyone younger than him is also alive. This includes a bunch of actors in their 80s, some of the best known names on the list. There is a nineteen year gap between Mr. Landau and the next oldest person, the writer Robb White, and it is completely unreasonable to expect Mr. White would live to be 106. So in terms of good news, no one on our list died young and the oldest person happens to be Martin Landau, to whom the blog extends its best wishes for him to enjoy many more happy, healthy years. 

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

Predictor: Morris L. Ernst in his 1955 book Utopia 1976

Prediction: Radio and television will no doubt continue to be part of effortless imbibing, but the difficulty of supplying over five billion new words a year to fill our demanding may well create a competitive disability.

Reality: The lion's share of Mr. Ernst's predictions are about uses of leisure time, and he believes Americans will have much more with a new 30 hour work week. More than that, he believes Americans will use the extra time in morally and physically uplifting ways, and he does not consider being in an audience uplifting. He gets some points for predicting the entertainment industry may effectively run out of things to say, but does not make the further prediction that movies and TV would make so many remakes and people would still watch them.

Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!

Sunday belongs to Robert A. Heinlein's The Door Into Summer, whose predictions are mostly about technological advances in the last half of the 20th Century.

Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!