18 August 2015

Birthdays
Max Charles b. 2003 (The Strain, Constantine, White Space, The Amazing Spider-Man 1 & 2, True Blood)
Maia Mitchell b. 1993 (After the Dark)
Richard Harmon b. 1991 (The Age of Adaline, Continuum, The 100, Fringe, Caprica, Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief, Smallville, Flash Gordon [TV], Jeremiah)
Mika Boorem b. 1987 (Mighty Joe Young, Jack Frost, Sabrina, The Teenage Witch)
Katie Lyons b. 1981 (The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus)
Rhonda Dent b. 1978 (Helix, Almost Human, Supernatural, The 4400, Insecticidal)
Mizuo Peck b. 1977 (Night at the Museum, Witchblade)
Malcolm-Jamal Warner b. 1970 (American Horror Story, Jeremiah, Sliders)
Edward Norton b. 1969 (Birdman, The Invention of Lying, The Incredible Hulk)
Christian Slater b. 1969 (Hot Tub Time Machine 2, Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles, Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, Tales from the Darkside: The Movie, Beyond the Stars)
Brian Bendis b. 1967 (writer, Jessica Jones, Powers, Spider-Man, Spider-Woman)
Sarita Choudhury b. 1966 (The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1, Midnight’s Children, Lady in the Water)
Jorgen Langhelle b. 1965 (The Thing)
Craig Bierko b. 1964 (The Thirteenth Floor, Red Dwarf [TV Movie])
Adam Storke b. 1962 (The Invisible Man [TV], Prey, Death Becomes Her, Lifepod)
Glenn Plummer b. 1961 (Monsters in the Woods, Vegas Vampires, Saw II, The Day After Tomorrow, Stephen King’s Dead Zone, Strange Days, Beauty and the Beast [TV])
Michael McCleery b. 1959 (Alien Space Avenger)
Reg E. Cathey b. 1958 (Fantastic Four, Grimm, Tank Girl, The Mask, Star Trek: Next Generation)
Madeleine Stowe b. 1958 (Impostor, Twelve Monkeys, The Amazing Spider-Man)
Dennis Leary b. 1957 (Amazing Spider-Man 1 and 2, Small Soldiers, Demolition Man)
Sergio Castellitto b. 1953 (The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian)
Patrick Swayze b. 1952 died 14 September 2009 (George and the Dragon, Donnie Darko, Tall Tale, Ghost, Amazing Stories)
Teri McMinn b. 1951 (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre)
Shirley Prestia b. 1947 died 6 October 2011 (Sabrina, the Teenage Witch, Charmed, Babylon 5, Species, ALF)
Martin Mull b. 1943 (Eastwick, Sabrina, the Teenage Witch, Lois & Clark, Wonder Woman)
Robert Redford b. 1936 (Captain America: The Winter Soldier, The Twilight Zone)
Gail Fisher b. 1935 died 2 December 2000 (Knight Rider)
Roman Polanski b. 1933 (director, Rosemary’s Baby, The Fearless Vampire Killers)
Anna Navarro b. 1933 died 27 December 2006 (Last Action Hero, Galactica 1980, Son of Sinbad, The Adventures of Hajji Baba)
Grant Williams b. 1931 died 28 July 1985 (Brain of Blood, The Outer Limits, The Munsters, The Monolith Monsters, The Incredible Shrinking Man)
Joan Taylor b. 1929 died 4 March 2012 (Men Into Space, 20 Million Miles to Earth, Earth vs. Flying Saucers)
Brian W. Aldiss b. 1925 (author, The Year Before Yesterday, Enigma; screenwriter, Brothers of the Head, A.I. Artificial Intelligence, Frankenstein Unbound)
Shelley Winters b. 1920 died 14 January 2006 (Purple People Eater, Alice in Wonderland [1985], Pete’s Dragon, Batman)
Don Keefer 1916 died 7 September 2014 (Lois & Clark, Creepshow, Time Express, The Incredible Hulk, Sleeper, Star Trek, Bewitched, The Munsters, My Favorite Martian, ‘Way Out, Twilight Zone)

Notes from the birthday list.
1. The Picture Slot. Robert Redford and Grant Williams have been in the Picture Slot previously, and when Don Keefer died last year, I had a picture of him from It's a Good Life, one of the iconic Twilight Zone episodes. If I go with the no repeat rule, Patrick Swayze from Ghost is likely the most iconic picture I can use.

2. Spot the Canadians! Both Rhonda Dent and Richard Harmon were born in Canada and are typical of the actors who gigs in Toronto and Vancouver. This is yet another example of government intervention that works to the benefit of the people of the country.

Gosh, I wonder if people might try that in the United States someday.

3. Wait... she's dead? And her, too? There are several people on the list who died young, most notably Patrick Swayze, but there are some today who I hadn't filed in the deceased category yet. They are Shirley Prestia, one of the original members of The Groundlings, and Gail Fisher, best known for her role on Mannix.

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

Predictor: Robert A. Heinlein in the 1957 book The Door Into Summer

Prediction: The changes in the language surprised me. Take one word used in innocence. A lady present was offended and only the fact that I was a Sleeper – which I hastily explained – kept her husband from giving me a mouthful of knuckles.

The word was “kink”.

Reality: The somewhat rude meaning of kink is the most common usage today, but no one will threaten you with bodily harm for using it in mixed company. You might be referring to Ray Davies, for example, and anyone who gets into a "mouthful of knuckles" mood when The Kinks are mentioned might well find me similarly offended.
 
Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!

Is it Wednesday already? That means a visit from our sensible friend George Sutherland.
  
Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!

16 January 2015

Birthdays
Yvonne Zima b. 1989 (Iron Man 3)
Mason Gamble b. 1986 (Gattaca)
Birgitte Hjort Sorensen b. 1982 (Automata)
Aaliyah b. 1979 died 25 August 2001 (Queen of the Damned)
Nick Dash b. 1974 (R.I.P.D., Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen)
Josie Davis b. 1973 (Wizardream, The Cursed, In the Land of Merry Misfits, Mortal Kombat: Conquest, Dead at 21, Free Spirit)
Eriko Tamura b. 1973 (Reaper, Heroes, Nuclear Hurricane)
Dameon Clarke b. 1972 (Supernatural, A Scanner Darkly)
Annika Peterson b. 1972 (The Man from Earth)
Garth Ennis b. 1970 (writer, Constantine, Ghost Rider, The Punisher)
David Chokachi b. 1968 (10.0 Earthquake, Army of the Damned, Abner, the Invisible Dog, Rage of the Yeti, Bats: Human Harvest, Witchblade, Psycho Beach Party, Sabrina, the Teenage Witch)
Heather Elizabeth Parkhurst b. 1968 (Perversions of Science, Witchboard 2)
Kathy Evison b. 1963 (Highlander [TV], SeaQuest 2032)
Mark Steger b. 1962 (The Pact I & II, Mr. Jones, Heroes: Going Postal, I Am Legend, Modern Prometheus LLC, Men in Black II)
Debbie Allen b. 1950 (Quantum Leap, Alice at the Palace)
Caroline Munro b. 1949 (Vampyres, Demons 6: De Profundis, Starcrash, Space: 1999, At the Earth’s Core, The Golden Voyage of Sinbad, The Abominable Dr. Phibes, Captain Kronos – Vampire Hunter, Dracula A.D. 1972)
John Carpenter b. 1948 (director, Ghosts of Mars, Vampires, Escape from L.A., Village of the Damned, Memoirs of an Invisible Man, They Live, Prince of Darkness, Big Trouble in Little China, Starman, Christine, The Thing [1982], Escape from New York, The Fog, Halloween, Dark Star)
Kate McMullan b. 1947 (Author, Dragon Slayer’s Academy)
Keith Wayne b. 1945 died 9 September 1995 (Living Dead [2012], Night of the Living Dead)
Fred Coffin b. 1943 died 31 July 2003 (The Invisible Man [2000 TV], Zenon: Girl of the 21st Century, NightMan, The X-Files, Something is Out There, Amazing Stories, Twilight Zone [1986])
Michael Pataki b. 1938 died 15 April 2010 (Halloween 4, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Automan, The Amazing Spider-Man [1978], The Invisible Man [1975], The Bat People, Grave of the Vampire, The Sixth Sense, The Andromeda Strain, The Return of Count Yorga, Star Trek, Mr. Terrific, Batman, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, My Favorite Martian, Twilight Zone)
Susan Sontag b. 1933 died 28 December 2004 (Zelig)
Sherry Moreland b. 1922 died 24 February 1995 (Pyro… The Thing Without a Face, Adventure of Superman, Mesa of Lost Women, Rocketship X-M)
Elliot Reid b. 1920 died 21 June 2013 (Small Wonder, The Munsters, Son of Flubber, The Absent-Minded Professor)
Steve Conte b. 1920 died 1997 (The Kindred, Bewitched, Batman, The Wild World of Batwoman, Face of the Screaming Werewolf, Teenage Zombies, I Was a Teenage Werewolf)
Stirling Silliphant b. 1918 died 1996 (writer, Space, Charly, Village of the Damned )
Leslie H. Martinson b. 1915 (director, Small Wonder, Manimal, Small & Frye, The Powers of Matthew Star, Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, Wonder Woman, The Bionic Woman, The Six Million Dollar Man, The Immortal, The Green Hornet, Batman: The Movie, Topper, The Atomic Kid)
Ethel Merman b. 1908 died 15 February 1984 (Batman)
Alexander Knox b. 1907 died 25 April 1995 (Holocaust 2000, The Son of Dr. Jekyll)
Jason Johnson b. 1907 died 24 November 1977 (The Bionic Woman, Wonder Woman, The Invisible Man [1975], The Andromeda Strain, The Cape Canaveral Monsters, Twilight Zone, Adventure of Superman, Invasion of the Saucer Men)
Karl Freund b. 1890 died 3 May 1969 (cinematographer, Metropolis, Dracula, The Golem)

Notes from the birthday list.
1. The Picture Slot. Last year I used a picture of Caroline Munro and I doubt any heterosexual male could blame me. Choosing not to repeat myself, my top two picks were Aaliyah from Queen of the Damned, which I didn't see, or Michael Pataki as the Klingon who taunts Scotty into a fight in The Trouble with Tribbles, which I have seen plenty of times though not recently.

2. The Camouflaged Canadians. Alexander Knox stopped working in the mid 1980s, so he's not even available during the Golden Age of Canuck Sci-Fi. Dameon Clarke was on Supernatural, but lots of Yanks show up on that show as well. His credit list is short here because he is largely a voice actor and I only list voice work in special instances.

3. Calling Willard Scott! I often point out the people who died young on the birthday lists, morbid bastid that I am, but to the best of my knowledge, we have our first centenarian today with Leslie H. Martinson, director of lots of TV shows from the 1950s through the 1980s and a few feature films as well. Congratulations to Mr. Martinson and I wish him all the best.

4. MST3K.  The actors who appeared in movies that got the Best Brains treatment are Sherry Moreland in Rocketship X-M and Steve Conte in The Wild World of Batwoman and I Was a Teenage Werewolf, as Zombie Rotten McDonald was kind enough to correct me.

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

Predictor: H.G. Wells in his 1902 book Anticipations

Prediction: The Twentieth Century will see the effectual crowding out of most of the weaker languages--if not a positive crowding out, yet at least (as in Flanders) a supplementing of them by the superposition of one or other of a limited number of world-languages over the area in which each is spoken. This will go on not only in Europe, but with varying rates of progress and local eddies and interruptions over the whole world...

What will these aggregating world-languages be? When one comes to look closely into the question one is surprised to discover how slow the extension of English has been in the face of apparently far less convenient tongues. English still fails to replace the French language in French Canada, and its ascendancy is doubtful to-day in South Africa, after nearly a century of British dominion. It has none of the contagious quality of French, and the small class that monopolizes the direction of British affairs, and probably will monopolize it yet for several decades, has never displayed any great zeal to propagate its use.

Reality: Wells thought the odds of English becoming the dominant language in the world were low and he put the job on the Brits. He had no idea how much the 20th Century would be the American Century. English has supplanted French as the language spoken by educated people around the world.

Looking one day ahead...  INTO THE FUTURE!

Back to 1893 to get predictions from one of few women who were asked their opinions.


Join us then...  IN THE FUTURE!

17 April 2013

Birthdays
Jennifer Garner b. 1972
Henry Ian Cusick b. 1967
Sean Bean b. 1959
Kristine Sutherland b. 1955

Another interesting birthday list. If I were selecting on the basis of most important career in genre, Sean Bean from Lord of the Rings and Game of Thrones would probably get the nod, but as I often do, I'm going with The Cute Girl. Mr. Cusick's best known work in the genre is on Lost and Ms. Sutherland played Buffy's mom.

Prediction: There will be No C, X or Q in our every-day alphabet. They will be abandoned because unnecessary. Spelling by sound will have been adopted, first by the newspapers. English will be a language of condensed words expressing condensed ideas, and will be more extensively spoken than any other. Russian will rank second.

Predictor: John Elfreth Watkins in The Ladies' Home Journal published 1900

Reality: Not a sterling effort this time around. With all the changes English has been through, cleaning up spelling has not been one of them.The "condensed words and condensed ideas" is reminiscent of Orwell's Newspeak. We do abbreviate and use acronyms more than was done as hundred years ago and few modern writers show off their vocabulary like many did in the past, so he gets some partial credit there.

Putting English first in usage isn't right in terms of native speakers, as it ranks behind Mandarin and Spanish. If we include people who have English as a second language, it jumps over Spanish into second place. Putting Russian in second place was an odd choice in 1900. At that time, Russia was still ruled by the czar and was considered a backward country by European standards. Watkins doesn't elaborate on why he thought they would have a big century of growth.

Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!
 
Thursday is Arthur C. Clarke Day and I have a confession. With Heinlein and Clarke, I put a lot of their accurate stuff in early and now we are down to the scraps. The middle of the line-up this week doesn't acquit itself very well.

Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!

8 April 2013

Birthdays
Taylor Kitsch b. 1981
Katee Sackhoff b. 1980
Emma Caulfield b. 1973

Mr. Kitsch was on Friday Night Lights, but his best known work in genre is in X-Men Origins:Wolverine. He was also the lead in John Carter, a project he would likely just as soon forget. Ms. Sackoff's best known work in genre is in Battlestar Galactica. As usual, I use the cute girl = picture slot rule.

Edit: I had Emma Caulfield's birthday written down wrong. It's today and she should count as a cute girl, too. Next year, I'll have a picture of Anya from Buffy instead of Starbuck from Battlestar.



 

Prediction: 1984 will see the publication of the 11th edition of the Newspeak Dictionary

Predictor: George Orwell in 1984, published in 1949

Reality: Orwell was fascinated with language and invests a lot of thought and ink into how language would have to change in a society like Oceania. We learn about the new language Newspeak through the character Syme, played in the 1984 version of the film by James Walker. As Syme tells us, it is not so much about creating new words as it is about destroying old ones, limiting the ways that people can think by getting rid of words that express thoughts the party rejects.

1984 is not a comic novel, but Orwell throws in a few smiles along the way with his choice of words. Winston is forced to perform a morning exercise routine with an instructress monitoring his progress and that of many others through the telescreen. The exercises are called The Physical Jerks, a phrase Elvis Costello appropriated in the song Living In Paradise. Syme explains that the rhythm of Newspeak is very important, that words tend to be two or three syllables with a clipped sound. A skilled orator in Newspeak creates a rhythm that carries the listener along, with no time to think about anything else besides what is being said. Words will no longer have shades of meaning and listeners will not have time for their minds to wander.

I've read the book several times, this time around reading it on Kindle, which makes it easier to search. Early in the book, Winston uses the word thoughtcrime, which describes the great sin of Oceania, having an idea antithetical to the principles of IngSoc (Newspeak for English Socialism). Later in the book, the word crimethink is introduced, the same as thoughtcrime in meaning but with more of the clipped rhythm Orwell decides is vital. Syme explains the Newspeak word duckspeak, which can be an insult or a compliment, the way the new language makes a fluent speaker sound like a quacking duck. It is worth noting that while Orwell says Newspeak is meant to get rid of ambiguity, he still comes up with new words that have multiple meanings. Even while trying to invent a language that limits thought, Orwell himself can't help but play with the language, one of the traits that give his writing such power.

Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!

Crimethink. Try not to commit one between now and next we meet. I fully expect you to fail.

Join me then... IN THE FUTURE!