30 July 2015

Birthdays
Joey King b. 1999 (Oz the Great and Powerful, The Dark Knight Rises, Battle Los Angeles, Jericho)Aml Ameen b. 1985 (Sense8, The Maze Runer)
Yvonne Strahovski b. 1982 (The Astronaut Wives Club, I, Frankenstein)
Martin Starr b. 1982 (Dead Snow 2: Red vs. Dead, This Is the End, Futurestates, The Last Lovecraft: Relic of Cthulhu, The Incredible Hulk, Roswell, Mysterious Ways, God vs Evil)
Lisa Wilhoit b. 1981 (The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Hook)
Jaime Pressly b. 1977 (Charmed, Mortal Kombat: Conquest, NightMan)
Christopher Ray b. 1977 (director, Blood Lake: Attack of the Killer Lampreys, Mega Shark, Asteroid vs Earth, Almighty Thor, Reptisaurus)
Nikolai Kinski b. 1976 (Aeon Flux)
John Reardon b. 1975 (Continuum, Supernatural, The Philadelphia Experiment [TV], TRON: Legacy, Super Hybrid, Eureka, Painkiller Jane, Merlin’s Apprentice, Andromeda)
Hilary Swank b. 1974 (The Core, Buffy)
Christine Taylor b. 1971 (The Craft, Here Come the Munsters)
Christopher Nolan b. 1970 (director, Interstellar, The Dark Knight Rises, Inception, The Dark Knight, The Prestige, Batman Begins)
Simon Baker b. 1969 (Land of the Dead, The Ring Two, Red Planet)
Terry Crews b. 1968 (Gamer, Terminator Salvation, Idiocracy, Click, The 6th Day)
Jason Watkins b. 1966 (Atlantis, Doctor Who, Psychoville, Being Human, The Golden Compass)
Kevin Blatch b. 1965 (Once Upon a Time in Wonderland, Flash Gordon [TV], Stargate SG-1, Dead Like Me, The Dead Zone, Seven Days, Millennium, Poltergeist: The Legacy, Strange Luck)
Vivica A. Fox b. 1964 (Sharknado 2: The Second One, Ella Enchanted, Tremors [TV], Batman & Robin, Independence Day)
Monique Gabrielle b. 1963 (Munchie, 976-Evil II, Transylvania Twist, The Return of Swamp Thing, Not of This Earth)
Laurence Fishburne b. 1961 (Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Man of Steel, The Signal, The Colony, Predators, The Matrix, Cherry 2000, A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors)
Richard Linklater b. 1960 (director, A Scanner Darkly)
Richard Burgi b. 1958 (The Green Inferno, Reaper, Firefly, Mann & Machine, The Flash)
Philip Davis b. 1953 (Being Human, Merlin [2011 TV], Doctor Who, Alien³, Howling V: The Rebirth)
Erwin Leder b. 1951 (Underworld)
Jean Reno b. 1948 (Rollerball [2002], Godzilla [1998], Le Dernier Combat)
Carel Struycken b. 1948 (Charmed, The Addams Family, Men in Black, Star Trek: Voyager, Babylon 5, Journey to the Center of the Earth [TV], Star Trek: The Next Generation, The Witches of Eastwick, Ewoks: The Battle of Endor, The Prey, Bigfoot and Wildboy)
Arnold Schwarzenegger b. 1947 (Terminator, The 6th Day, End of Days, Batman & Robin, Last Action Hero, Total Recall, The Running Man, Red Sonja, Conan, Hercules in New York)
William Atherton b. 1947 (Defiance, Lost, Stargate SG-1, Headspace, Race to Space, The Crow: Salvation, Twilight Zone [1985], Ghostbusters)
Frances de la Tour b. 1944 (Into the Woods, Hugo, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1, Alice in Wonderland [2010], The Book of Eli, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire)
Peter Bogdanovich b. 1939 (Voyage to the Planet of Prehistoric Women)
John P. Ryan b. 1936 died 20 March 2007 (Class of 1999, Faerie Tale Theatre, Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, It Lives Again, Futureworld, It’s Alive)
Richard Johnson b. 1927 died 6 June 2015 (Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, Zombie, Space: 1999, The Haunting)
Victor Wong b. 1927 died 12 September 2001 (Poltergeist: The Legacy, Tremors, Beauty and the Beast, The Golden Child, Big Trouble in Little China)

Notes from the birthday list.
1. The Picture Slot. A fine list today, full of stars, fabulous babes, household names and folks with iconic roles. In previous years, the Picture Slot went to Arnold Schwarzenegger and Laurence Fishburne, both of them stars and both iconic. Taking them off the list, there are still plenty of choices, but I went with Carel Struycken as Lurch. It's a small coincidence that Ted Cassidy's birthday is tomorrow, but he won't be in The Picture Slot, as he has already had his turn.

2. Spot the Canadians! There are two, they are spottable, so I leave it as an exercise for the reader.

3. Nepotism FTW. Nikolai Kinski is Klaus's son.

4. The Guy at the Door. I did not know until this morning that Peter Bogdanovich had directed a cheap genre film early in his career under and assumed name. He is also the oldest living person on the list and everyone younger than him is still with us, so he is also The Guy at the Door at the tender age of 76. As always, the blog extends special best wishes for a long and happy life.
 
Many happy returns to all the living on the list, especially Peter Bogdanovich, and to the dead, thanks for all the memories.

Predictor: Life Magazine, 1914

Prediction: The fashion trends of 1950

Reality: First things first. This version of Life has nothing to do with the iconic photo journalism magazine that began publishing in the late 1920s. This was a humor magazine from an earlier era.

The time frame is all wrong and men's fashion prediction is pretty bad, but from the 1960s on, there have been women's fashions at least as revealing as what the woman is wearing. The hair is a little outlandish, but only a little. Women smoking pipes in public is the one completely false note on the distaff side.
 
Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!

H.G. Wells is back for another chance to damage his reputation as a pleasant human being.
  
Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!