29 July 2015

Birthdays
Munro Chambers b. 1990 (Turbo Kid, A Wrinkle in Time)
Penny Bae Bridges b. 1990 (Space Jam)
Genesis Rodriguez b. 1987 (Moose Jaws, Tusk)
Tania Gunadi b. 1983 (Pixel Perfect, Haunted)
Allison Mack b. 1982 (Lost in Oz, Smallville, The Nightmare Room)
Dominic Burgess b. 1982 (The Leftovers, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Doctor Who, Batman Begins)
Jeremy Beiler b. 1982 (Men in Black 3)
Megan Hayes b. 1980 (Sleepy Hollow, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, +1)
Rachel Miner b. 1980 (Supernatural, The Butterfly Effect 3: Revelations, The X Files)
Lana Kinnear b. 1976 (Iron Man, Citizen Toxie: The Toxic Avenger IV)
Stephen Dorff b. 1973 (Immortals, Blade, Space Truckers)
Dileep Rao b. 1973 (Touch, Inception, Avatar, Drag Me to Hell)
Wil Wheaton b. 1972 (Titansgrave: The Ashes of Valkana, Sharknado 2: The Second One, Big Bang Theory, Eureka, The Guild, Neverland, Star Trek: Nemesis, The Invisible Man, Python, Deep Core, Flubber, Perversions of Science, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Monsters, The Curse, The Last Starfighter)
Graham McGrath b. 1971 (Krull, Frankenstein [1984 TV])
Mans Marlind b. 1969 (director, Underworld: Awakening)
Timothy Omundson b. 1969 (Supernatural, Warehouse 13, Jericho, Xena, Starship Troopers, Dark Skies, SeaQuest 2032)
Daniel Raymont b. 1969 (Alien: Resurrection)
Richard Steven Horvitz b. 1966 (Invader ZIM, Babylon 5, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, The Munsters Today)
Dean Haglund b. 1965 (The Icarus II Project, Atlantis Down, The X Files, The Lone Gunmen, Honey, I Shrunk the Kids: The TV Show, Sliders)
Alexandra Paul b. 1963 (Firequake, A.I. Assault, Disaster Zone: Volcano in New York, Cyber Bandits, Deadly Nighmares, Christine)
Kevin Spirtas b. 1962 (Daredevil, Quantum Leap, Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood)
Brian Peck b. 1960 (Jack and the Beanstalk [2010], X-Men 2, X-Men, The Tick, Children of the Corn III: Urban Harvest, Return of the Living Dead I, II and III)
Marcus Gilbert b. 1958 (Army of Darkness, Doctor Who)
Wendy Hughes b. 1952 died 8 March 2014 (Star Trek: The Next Generation, Amerika)
Charles Hallahan b. 1953 died 25 November 1997 (Roswell, Warlock: The Armageddon, Cast a Deadly Spell, Twilight Zone: The Movie, The Thing)
Mike Starr b. 1950 (Deep Space Nine, Millennium, Early Edition, James and the Giant Peach, 3rd Rock from the Sun, Freejack, Cat’s Eye)
Leslie Easterbrook b. 1949 (Lavalantula, House of the Witchdoctor, House, Halloween, The Munsters Today, Misfits of Science)
Ryan Cutrona b. 1949 (The X Files, Dark Skies, Millennium, Babylon 5, Alien Nation)
Charles Hallahan b. 1943 died 25 November 1997 (Space Jam, Roswell, Warlock: The Armageddon, Twilight Zone: The Movie, The Thing [1982])
David Warner b. 1941 (Penny Dreadful, Doctor Who, Hogfather, The League of Gentlemen’s Apocalypse, Cyber Wars, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde [2003 TV], Planet of the Apes [2001], The Secret Adventures of Jules Verne, Total Recall 2070, Wing Commander, The Last Leprechaun, Perversions of Science, Beastmaster III, Babylon 5, Lois & Clark, Necronomicon: Book of Dead, The Lost World, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II, Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, My Best Friend is a Vampire, Frankenstein [1984 TV], Faerie Tale Theatre, The Company of Wolves, Cast a Deadly Spell, TRON, Time Bandits, Time After Time, The Omen)
Robert Fuller b. 1933 (The Brain from Planet Arous)
Lloyd Bochner b. 1925 died 29 October 2005 (Legend of the Mummy, Superboy, Millennium [1989], Manimal, Battlestar Galactica, The Amazing Spider-Man, The Six Million Dollar Man, The Bionic Woman, The Starlost, The Dunwich Horror, Bewitched, The Green Hornet, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, Twilight Zone)
Gordon Mitchell b. 1923 died 20 September 2003 (Evil Spawn, She [1982], Frankenstein ’80, The Giant of Metropolis, Atlas Against the Cyclops)
Frank Marth b. 1922 died 12 January 2014 (The Incredible Hulk, Battlestar Galactica [1979], Captain America, The Bionic Woman, The Six Million Dollar Man, Kolchak: The Night Stalker, Marooned, The Invaders, The Green Hornet, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, My Favorite Martian)
Chris Marker b. 1921 died 29 July 2012 (writer, La Jetee)
Melvin Belli b. 1907 died 9 July 1996 (Star Trek)
William Powell b. 1892 died March 5 1984 (Mr. Peabody and the Mermaid)
Maria Ouspenskaya b. 1876 died 3 December 1949 (Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man, The Wolf Man)

Notes from the birthday list.
1. The Picture Slot. Okay, in previous years I had Wil Wheaton and Lloyd Bochner in the Picture Slot. Wheaton had an iconic role and has become a major figure in nerd culture, while Bochner had the lead role on one the the greatest Twilight Zone episodes, To Serve Man. But seriously, this means I didn't give the Slot to David Warner two years running and I admit that's just wrong. I mean, could Wheaton or Bochner look like a bad-ass holding a colorized frisbee?

No, they could not. They aren't David Warner.

2. Spot the Canadians! Munro Chambers and Dean Haglund.

3. Wait... she's dead? Wendy Hughes died in March of last year and I didn't give her a Never to be Forgotten. I noted this glaring oversight last year on her birthday. This year, my brain adamantly refused to accept it had seen the memo about this.

Best wishes to the family and friends of Wendy Hughes, from a big fan. She is never to be forgotten, especially by the knucklehead writing this blog.

4. That's a long retirement. William Powell stopped acting in his 60s - Mister Roberts in 1955 - and lived into his 90s, never being tempted to get back on screen.

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


Movie released
Cowboys & Aliens released, 2011

Predictor: George Sutherland in his 1902 book Twentieth Century Inventions

Prediction: In farming and horticulture the field of labour is not so narrowly localised as it is in mining. Work representing an expenditure of hundreds of thousands of pounds may be carried out in mines whose area does not exceed two or three acres; and it is therefore highly remunerative to concentrate mechanical power upon such enterprises in the most up-to-date machinery. But the farmer ranges from side to side of his wide fields, covering hundreds, or even thousands, of acres with his operations. He is better situated than the miner in respect of the economical and healthy application of horse-power, but far worse in regard to the immediate possibilities of steam-power and electrically-conducted energy. No one can feed draught stock more cheaply than he, and no one can secure able-bodied men to work from sunrise till evening at a lower wage. Yet the course of industrial evolution, which has made so much progress in the mine and the factory, must very soon powerfully affect agriculture… But the presence of a source of power which can easily be shifted about from place to place on the farm for the purpose of watering the ground must very soon suggest the applicability of the same mechanical energy to the digging or ploughing of the soil. It is from this direction, rather than from the wide introduction of steam-ploughs and diggers, that the first great impetus to the employment of mechanical power on the farm may be looked for. The steam-plough, no doubt, has before it a future full of usefulness; and yet the slow progress that has been made by it during a quarter of a century suggests that, in its present form--that is to say while built on lines imitating the locomotive and the traction-engine--it cannot very successfully challenge the plough drawn by horse-power.

Reality: Regular readers will know that Sutherland looked at the problems with internal combustion engines and pretty much discounted their further usefulness, and so predicted great futures for electric engines and steam engines. Even with this major stumbling block in his predictions, I still like the guy.
 
Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!

A prediction from the Edwardian era about how folks will dress in 1950.
  
Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!