18 April 2015

 Birthdays
Mia Stallard b. 1996 (Paul, The Eye, Undead of Alive: A Zombedy)
Chloe Bennet b. 1992 (Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.)
Britt Robertson b. 1990 (Tomorrowland, Under the Dome, Power Rangers Time Force)
Rosie Huntington-Whiteley b. 1987 (Transformers: Dark of the Moon, Mad Max: Fury Road [2015])
Laura Mennell b. 1980 (Haven, Alphas, Smallville, Supernatural, Fringe, Eureka, Watchmen, Flash Gordon [TV], Fallen, The 4400, Stargate: Atlantis, Andromeda, Millennium)
Ethan Cohn b. 1979 (Intelligence, The Amazing Spider-Man, Alice in Wonderland [2010], Heroes, Lady in the Water)
Bryce Johnson b. 1977 (Supernatural)
Melissa Joan Hart b. 1976 (Sabrina, the Teenage Witch)
Martin Papazian b. 1976 (The Amazing Spider-Man, Bats: Human Harvest, Supernatural, The Island, Charmed)
Sean Maguire b. 1976 (Once Upon a Time, Krod Mandoon and the Flaming Sword of Fire, Prince Charming)
Edgar Wright b. 1974 (director, The World’s End, Shaun of the Dead)
Eli Roth b. 1972 (Clown, Piranha 3D, Southland Tales, Citizen Toxie: The Toxic Avenger IV, The Lost World: Jurassic Park)
David Tennant b. 1971 (Doctor Who, Fright Night, The Sarah Jane Adventures, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, The Quatermass Experiment [2005])
David Hewlett b. 1968 (Time Machine: Rise of the Morlocks, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Stargate, Splice, Mutant X, Cube, Forever Knight, My Secret Identity)
Luis Albert Acevedo b. 1968 (From Dusk Till Dawn [TV], The Invisible Man [2002])
Maria Bello b. 1967 (Demonic, Touch, The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor)
Camille Coduri b. 1965 (Doctor Who)
Eric McCormack b. 1963 (Alien Trespass, The Andromeda Strain, Free Enterprise, Highlander [TV], The Lost World)
Benedict Taylor b. 1960 (Star Wars: Episode I, The Watcher in the Woods)
Karen Mayo-Chandler b. 1958 died 11 July 2006 (Dark Planet, 976-Evil II, Explorers)
Melody Thomas Scott b. 1956 (Piranha, The Fury, The Car)
Eric Roberts b. 1956 (Sharktopus, Heroes, Pandemic, Witchblade, The Dark Knight, Doctor Who, so much low budget crap I can’t even count it all)
Rick Moranis b. 1953 (Honey, I Shrunk the Kids and sequels, Spaceballs, Ghostbusters, Little Shop of Horrors)
James Woods b. 1947 (Coma [2012 TV], Vampires [1998], Contact, Cat’s Eye, Videodrome)
Cindy Pickett b. 1947 (Star Trek Equinox: The Night of Time, Sleepwalkers, DeepStar Six, Amerika)
Robert Hooks b. 1937 (M.A.N.T.I.S., The Flash, V [1985], Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, Time Express)
Arlene Martel b. 1936 died 12 August 2014 (Battlestar Galactica [1978], Dracula’s Dog, The Six Million Dollar Man, Bewitched, Star Trek, I Dream of Jeannie, My Favorite Martian, The Outer Limits, Twilight Zone)
James Drury b. 1934 (Men Into Space, Forbidden Planet)
Clive Revill b. 1930 (Lois & Clark, Dracula: Dead and Loving It, Babylon 5, Star Trek: The Next Generation, C.H.U.D. II, Rumplestiltskin, Twilight Zone [1986], Wizards and Warriors, Death Ray 2000, The Empire Strikes Back, One of Our Dinosaurs is Missing, The Little Prince, The Legend of Hell House)
Gunter Meisner b. 1926 died 5 December 1994 (Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, The Boys from Brazil)
Bob Hastings b. 1925 died 30 June 2014 (The Greatest American Hero, The Munsters’ Revenge, The Incredible Hulk, Wonder Woman, The Amazing Spider-Man [TV], Kolchak: The Night Stalker, I Dream of Jeannie, The Bamboo Saucer, Batman [TV], The Munsters, Twilight Zone, Moon Pilot, Atom Squad, Captain Video and his Video Rangers)
Nigel Kneale b. 1922 died 29 October 2006 (author, Quatermass)
Frank R. Paul b. 1884 died 29 June 1963 (artist)
Noble Johnson b. 1881 died 9 January 1978 (Lost Horizon, She, The Son of Kong, King Kong, The Mummy, The Mysterious Dr. Fu Manchu, The Thief of Bagdad)

Notes from the birthday list.
1. The Picture Slot. In previous years, the Picture Slot belonged to David Tennant and artwork be Frank R. Paul. We also have two people who have had Never to be Forgotten posts, Bob Hastings and Arlene Martel. Other iconic choices include Rick Moranis from Spaceballs or Ghostbusters, Laura Mennel from Alphas, Melissa Joan Hart as Sabrina or maybe James Woods simply because of recognition value, but instead I went Whedonverse nerd and chose Chloe Bennett from Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. I wasn't aware that her earlier career was as a Chinese language pop princess. I am clearly not in the demographic.

2. Nepotism FTW. Should siblings count as nepotism? If one is way more famous than the other, like Sylvester and Frank Stallone, I would say yes. On the other hand, Eric Roberts was in the business before his sister Julia, and while she is an A-list star, Eric Roberts currently has 378 credits on imdb.com, which is an insane number.

He has more credits listed as "completed" but still not released than other people on today's list have credits. 

He has more credits than John Carradine did in his entire career.

I brought this up last year on his birthday and I still can't quite wrap my head around it.

3. Three Canadians, one pre-spotted for your convenience. Eric McCormack from Will & Grace is Canadian, though his credit list doesn't make that clear. There are two other Canadians that I think folks should be able to spot, so I will leave it as an exercise to the reader to find them.

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

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

Prediction: The standard work week in 1976 will be 30 hours.

Reality: Yeah, um... no.

Meet Morris L. Ernst, our latest regular. Most of his predictions are based on this first incorrect prediction, contemplating how Americans will use all this newly earned free time. Mr. Ernst is a snob and a scold and believes society as a whole will do Good Things with the extra ten hours a week, not Bad Things. We will learn more about his definitions of Good and Bad in the months to come. Suffice it to say, I don't think Ernst and I would have been pals.

The top of his resume looks pretty good to a lefty like me, as Ernst is the founder of the American Civil Liberties Union. The thing is, the ACLU was a much tamer organization at the beginning that it turned out to be after Ernst gave up the reins. He was a hob-nobber in Manhattan society and pals with J. Edgar Hoover, the number one reason I don't think much of him. Ernst was of the opinion that people and not groups had civil liberties, so he never defended Communists and did his best to make sure they weren't even members of the ACLU. This is a far cry from the organization that defended the rights of neo-Nazis to march in Skokie, Illinois. He did defend James Joyce's Ulysses from charges of obscenity, but this would fall under his view of Good Things. If the ACLU had stayed as staid as Ernst, they never would have defended Hustler against Jerry Falwell, a case that went to the Supreme Court and was decided 8-0 in favor of the magazine.

So I welcome Mr. Ernst to the fold of predictors. On my spectrum of Bad Predictors and Good Predictors, he's much closer to FroMo-2030 than to the sainted John Elfreth Watkins, but he should be good for a few laughs in the following months.

Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!

A preview of the ESPN expert predictions for the first round of the NBA playoffs.

Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!

24 June 2014

Birthdays
Kaitlin Cullum b. 1986 (Galaxy Quest)
Lotte Verbeek b. 1982 (Outlander [TV])
Sarai Givaty b. 1982 (The Legend of Hercules)
Joanna Kulig b. 1982 (Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters)
Minka Kelly b. 1980 (Almost Human)
Liane Balaban b. 1980 (Supernatural, Alphas)
Carla Gallo b. 1975 (Carnivale)
Iain Glen b. 1961 (Game of Thrones, Kick-Ass 2, Doctor Who, Resident Evil, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider)
Dan Gilroy b. 1959 (writer, Stan Lee’s Annihilator, Real Steel, Freejack)
Tommy ‘Tiny’ Lister b. 1958 (The Lazarus Papers, Super Capers: The Origins of Ed and the Missing Bullion, Monster Ark, The Dark Knight, Saul of the Mole Men, Vegas Vampires, Dracula 3000, Star Trek: Enterprise, The Fifth Element, The Meteor Man, Universal Soldier)
Joe Penny b. 1956 (Reign of the Gargoyles, Threshold, The Twilight Zone [1986], Tucker’s Witch)
Michael Reid MacKay b. 1953 (X-Men 2, Batman & Robin, Sleepwalkers, The Monster Squad)
Mercedes Lackey b. 1950 (author, Valdemar, The Ship Who Searched)
Nancy Allen b. 1950 (My Apocalypse, RoboCop, Poltergeist III, The Philadelphia Experiment, Strange Invaders, Carrie)
Peter Weller b. 1947 (Star Trek Into Darkness, Fringe, Star Trek: Enterprise, Odyssey 5, Dark Prince: The True Story of Dracula, Screamers, RoboCop. Leviathan, Buckaroo Banzai)
Paul L. Smith b. 1936 died 25 April 2012 (Gor, Haunted Honeymoon, Red Sonja, Dune, Wonder Woman)
Jack Carter b. 1923 (3rd Rock from the Sun, Time Trax, Lois & Clark, They Came From Outer Space, Arena, Amazing Stories, Alligator, Beyond Westworld, I Dream of Jeannie, Batman, Tales of Tomorrow)
Sir Fred Hoyle b. 1915 died 20 August 2001 (scientist/author, A for Andromeda, The Molecule Men)

Two surprises in my research today. Paul L. Smith is dead and Jack Carter is alive. I was also thinking Carter wouldn't have any genre credits when I went to his imdb.com page, but obviously I was wrong.

And to the Picture Slot choice. Everyone less than 40 years old is female and fabulous, but they have one or maybe two genre roles. Nancy Allen could also qualify for Pretty Girl = Picture Slot, but her best known role is in RoboCop, so Peter Weller has her trumped and he was the Picture Slot last year. When I did my first research, I had Iain Glenn's birthday wrong, so he's had a Picture Slot as well. Wanting to show someone new, I considered Paul L. Smith from Dune as Beast Rabban, but instead went with the Number One Oh That Guy on our list, the former wrestler Tiny Lister, here seen in his role as the president in The Fifth Element. For me, he's at the "Hey, It's Abe Vigoda!" level of fame, but your mileage may vary.

One last note: Sir Fred Hoyle was an astrophysicist, the father of our regular predictor Geoffrey Hoyle. The elder Hoyle is given credit for coining the term "big bang", though he didn't accept the theory and used it derisively. Now it's the dominant paradigm in physics, but the term used to deride it is the name everyone calls it, whether a proponent or a detractor.

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

Movies released 
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen released 2009
Spaceballs released 1987

Predictor: Geoffrey Hoyle form his 1972 children's book 2010: Living in the Future, illustrations by Daniel Sinker

Prediction: Your school classes finish every day at one o’clock. After lunch it is time to meet friends at the Sports and Social Center. You can travel by electric car or in a bus. The bus services are very good and run twenty-four hours a day. You can go anywhere in the town and know there will always be a bus back. With very little traffic on the roads it is safe for children to travel by themselves.

There is no fare to pay on the bus.

Reality: Two words.

Fukkin' commie!

Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!

The regular weekly schedule gets a three day break as we celebrate a future that is now just around the corner.

Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!

1 March 2013

Birthdays
Zach Snyder b. 1966

His best known movie is 300, which does not count as a genre film, but Watchmen, Sucker Punch and the soon to be released Man of Steel certainly do.
 

In the Year 2000!

Prediction: Fleets of blimp trolleys will take vacationers on summer vacations to the North Pole

Predictor: postcards printed in 1900 by Hildebrands German Chocolates

Reality: The reality is I love the German chocolate postcards. I'll be sorry when they are all used up. I have plenty of material for the predictions, but these illustrations are really keen. I'm especially fond of the two by two nature of the critters looking up at the blimps, the polar bears, walruses, seals, even two of the three dogs near the Eskimos in the foreground. North Pole = Eden, not a visual metaphor you see every day.

Oh, wait... "reality" is supposed to be where I say if the prediction is any good, not give a little art critique.  Oops, my bad. 

The prediction is weak. There is some tourism to polar regions, cruise ships and the like, but blimps flying in close formation is just asking for Hindenburg size disasters. The winds can be vicious near the poles in any season.

Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE! Here's two words I don't get to type often enough. Sonny Chiba! And, oh yeah, we all die in a plague in 1982.

 Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!