31 August 2013

Birthdays
Marc Webb b. 1974 (Director, The Amazing Spider-Man)
Zack Ward b. 1970 (Transformers, Dollhouse)
Jack Thompson b. 1940 (Star Wars episode II: Attack of the Clones)
Richard Basehart b. 1914 died 17 September 1984 (Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea)


Many happy returns to the living on our list today. I gave the Picture Slot to the late Richard Basehart because Gypsy on Mystery Science Theater 3000 had a big crush on him.

Songs of the Future!

Prediction:
Toll the bell, pay the private eye
All's well, 20th Century dies.

Predictor: David Bowie, I Have Not Been to Oxford Town, from the album Outside, released 26 September 1995

Reality: The predictions are not really in the lyrics as much as they are in the liner notes. The premise is that many ritual murders will occur at the end of the 20th Century and art critics will be brought in, not to solve the crime but instead to decide whether or not the murder should be considered art.

Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!

Sundays belong to The Martian Chronicles for the next few months, and tomorrow the first men set foot on the Red Planet.

Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!
 

20 July 2013

Birthdays
Roberto Orci b. 1973 (writer, Xena, Star Trek (reboot))
Josh Holloway b. 1969 (Lost)
Carlos Saldanha b. 1968 (co-director Ice Age)
Reed Diamond b. 1967 (Dollhouse)

In a situation like this, I often go with the Whedonverse actor in the picture slot, but even though I gave up on Lost well before the ending that disappointed many, there's no denying how popular it was during much of its run.

Movies released
The Dark Knight Rises released 2012

There was a time not so long ago that I saw nearly every big budget sci-fi and comic book movie that came out, but a few bad experiences cured me of this habit. For me, The Dark Knight was one of those bad experiences, so I didn't see The Dark Knight Rises.
  

Songs of the Future!

Prediction: The public discovers the world will end in 1977, five years in the future

Predictor: David Bowie in the song Five Years from The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, released in 1972

Reality: The world didn't end, of course, but music fans will likely have noticed that I use the label "We've got ____ years/And that's all we've got" for all apocalypses with specific dates on them, which is the hook from Five Years.

Five Years is song one on side one on Ziggy and it's one of the best opening songs on an album of all time as far as I'm concerned. More than that, I once remember playing the album for a friend who asked if it was a greatest hits compilation.  For those of us who were listening to the radio in 1972 (a mere 41 years ago) the songs are that familiar and that good.

Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!

Yet another bold prediction with a cool illustration from Popular Mechanics.

Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!