21 March 2015

Birthdays
Scott Eastwood b. 1986 (Texas Chainsaw 3D)
Sonequa Martin-Green b. 1985 (The Walking Dead, Once Upon a Time)
Honorine Bell b. 1981 (A Guy, A Girl, A Space Helmet, The Thirst: Blood War, )
Sam Troughton b. 1977 (AVP: Alien vs. Predator)
Joseph Mawle b. 1974 (Sense8, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, The Awakening, Game of Thrones, Merlin[2009])
Laura Allen b. 1974 (Clown, Ravenswood, Awake, From Within, The 4400)
Vanessa Branch b. 1973 (Pirates of the Caribbean, Lost, The Invisible Man [TV], Star Trek: Voyager, The Cell)
Jaye Davidson b. 1968 (Stargate)
Karyn Kusama b. 1968 (director, Jennifer’s Body, Aeon Flux)
Greg Ellis b. 1968 (The Hobbit, Touch, Pirates of the Caribbean, Star Trek [2009], Knight Rider [2008], Beowulf, Megiddo: The Omega Code 2, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Brimstone, The X-Files)
Lara Lamberti b. 1967 (Aenigma, Red Sonja)
Phillip Troy Linger b. 1964 (The Hunger Games)
Matthew Broderick b. 1962 (The Stepford Wives [2004], Inspector Gadget, Godzilla [1998], Project X, Faerie Tale Theatre, WarGames, Ladyhawke)
Kathryn Greenwood b. 1962 (Wonderfalls, Kids in the Hall: Brain Candy, RoboCop [TV], Maniac Mansion)
Kassie Wesley DePaiva b. 1961 (Time Trax, Evil Dead II)
Sabrina Le Beauf b. 1958 (Star Trek: The Next Generation)
Gary Oldman b. 1958 (Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, RoboCop, The Dark Knight Rises, Harry Potter, The Dark Knight, Batman Begins, Lost in Space [movie], The Fifth Element, Dracula)
Timothy Dalton b. 1944 (Penny Dreadful, Doctor Who, Hercules [2005 TV], Tales from the Crypt, Flash Gordon)
Lorene Yarnell Jansson b. 1944 died 29 July 2010 (Spaceballs, Wonder Woman)
Alex Courtney b. 1940 (Programmed to Kill, The Bionic Woman)
Kathleen Widdoes b. 1939 (The Invaders, Way Out)
Roger Hammond b. 1936 died 8 November 2012 (Bedazzled [2000], A Christmas Carol [1999], Ghostbusters of East Finchley, Morons from Outer Space, Doctor Who, Queen Kong)
Al Williamson b. 1931 died 12 June 2010 (illustrator, Flash Gordon)
James Coco b. 1930 died 25 February 1987 (The Stepford Children, Twilight Zone [1985], The Ray Bradbury Theatre, Alice in Wonderland [1983])
Cliff Norton b. 1918 died 25 January 2003 (Tabitha, Kolchak: The Night Stalker, Bewitched, I Dream of Jeannie, Mr. Terrific, It’s About Time, The Munsters, My Favorite Martian, My Living Doll)
Peter Bull b. 1912 died 20 May 1984 (Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland [1972], The 3 Worlds of Gulliver, A Christmas Carol [1951], The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus [1947])
Gustav Frohlich b. 1902 died 22 December 1987 (Metropolis)

Notes from the birthday list.
1. The Picture Slot. In previous years, the Picture Slot went to Joseph Mawle as Benjen Stark from Game of Thrones and Gary Oldman from Harry Potter. Even with these two removed, there are plenty of good choices for iconic, including Timothy Dalton from Flash Gordon, Matthew Broderick from WarGames, Jaye Davidson from Stargate, or an illustration by the late great Al Williamson. But I decided on the late Lorene Yarnell, the woman who was inside the Dot Matrix robot in Spaceballs. I was not aware she was dead.

2. Spot the Canadian! If you know your 20th Century Canadian genre productions, today's solo Canuck should not be tough to find.

3. Nepotism FTW. Scott Eastwood started his career using his mother's name Reeves, but he's pretty much got his dad's face. He's Clint Eastwood's son.

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

Movie released
Divergent released, 2014  
 

Predictor: Hempstead Washburne 1852-1918, mayor of Chicago, asked to predict the world of 1993 in honor of the 1893 Columbian Exhibition

Prediction: The political condition of the United States in 1993 will be very similar to that of the present. Railroads and telegraphs will be under public control. We will still be on the gold standard. Corporations will tend towards more perfect centralization, until the monopolies become so obnoxious that they will be regulated by federal and local statutes. The accumulation of wealth will continue, but laws will be enacted to regulate the amount of wealth that can be inherited. The laboring classes shall organize and become a large part of the middle class. It is not improbable that women will obtain the franchise in many states.

Reality: Washburne starts by saying it's business as usual, then proceeds to predict a much more liberal form of government than the one that was in place in 1893, with women's suffrage, successful labor unions, trust busting government and taxes that discourage a permanent class of inherited wealth. It is interesting to note that besides the gold standard and women's suffrage, Washburne's topics are still a big part of the liberal-conservative debate even 122 years later.

As for facial hair, it's a bold mustache, but the rest is pretty tame. He kind of looks like the actor Bruce McGill, doesn't he?

Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!

I'm not keen on repeating myself this year on choices for the Picture Slot, but tomorrow looks like one of those days.

Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!
 

19 February 2015

Birthdays
Victoria Justice b. 1993 (The Boy Who Cried Werewolf, The Troop)
Kalli Thorne b. 1992 (Chillerama)
Aree Davis b. 1991 (The Haunted Mansion, Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue)
Luke Pasqualino b. 1989 (Snowpiercer, Battlestar Galactica: Blood & Chrome)
Sam Reid b. 1987 (Astronaut Wives Club)
Ophelia Lovibond b. 1986 (Guardians of the Galaxy, Thor: The Dark World)
Haylie Duff b. 1985 (Addams Family Reunion)
Arielle Kebbel b. 1985 (The After, The Vampire Diaries, True Blood, Vampires, Suck, The Grudge 2, Aquamarine)
Josh Trank b. 1985 (director, Chronicle, Fantastic Four [2015])
Brian Kubach b. 1983 (Piranha 3D, Wizards of Waverly Place)
Mika Nakashima b. 1983 (Resident Evil)
Daniel Spink b. 1979 (The Butterfly Effect 1 & 3)
Caroline Chikezie b. 1974 (Supernatural, Torchwood, Eragon, AEon Flux)
Bellamy Young b. 1970 (Last Day on Earth, Supernatural, Knight Rider [2009], The X Files)
Benicio Del Toro b. 1967 (Guardians of the Galaxy, Thor: The Dark World, The Wolfman, Sin City, Tales from the Crypt)
Justine Bateman b. 1966 (Lois & Clark, Tales from the Darkside)
Kathleen Beller b. 1965 (Time Trackers, The Sword and the Sorcerer, The Six Million Dollar Man)
Jessica Tuck b. 1963 (Grimm, True Blood, Super 8, FlashForward, Surface, Batman Forever, Lois & Clark, The Visitor [1997 TV])
Ray Winstone b. 1957 (Snow White and the Huntsman, Elfie Hopkins: Cannibal Hunter, Hugo, Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief, The Devil’s Tomb, Beowulf, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Ghostbusters of East Finchley, Space Precinct)
Jeff Daniels b. 1955 (Looper, My Favorite Martian [1999], Pleasantville, Grand Tour: Disaster in Time, The Butcher’s Wife, Arachnophobia, Purple Rose of Cairo)
Stephen Nichols b. 1951 (Witchboard, House [1986], Wizards and Warriors)
Big John Studd b. 1948 died 20 March 1995 (Hyperspace, Beauty and the Beast)
John Bloom b. 1944 died 15 January 1999 (Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, Harry and the Hendersons, The Hills Have Eyes II, Dracula vs. Frankenstein, The Incredible 2-Headed Transplant)
Gwen Taylor b. 1939 (Space: 1999)
David Margulies b. 1937 (Ghostbusters I and II, Tales from the Darkside)
John Frankenheimer b. 1930 died 6 July 2002 (director, The Island of Dr. Moreau [1996], Prophecy, Seconds)
Lee Marvin b. 1924 died 29 August 1987 (Twilight Zone)

Notes from the birthday list.
1. The Picture Slot. In previous years, the Picture Slot had Lee Marvin from The Twilight Zone and Jessica Tuck from True Blood. Possible choices for today include Jeff Daniels from Pleasantville or The Purple Rose of Cairo or Ray Winstone from Beowulf, but instead I chose Benicio Del Toro from Guardians of the Galaxy. Before Guardians, I don't consider any of his roles iconic, but this movie is not just a hit, I think it will continue to be remembered fondly, unlike some movies about transforming robots I could mention.

2. Nepotism FTW, sorta. Haylie Duff is the older sister of Hilary Duff. Hilary Duff's career was at its high point with Lizzie McGuire over a decade ago.

3. No Canadians and just barely Star Trek. No actors on our list were born in Canada today and there is just one Star Trek credit, the late John Bloom in Star Trek VI. Bloom was a very tall guy, well over seven foot, and worked as an accountant until low budget filmmaker Al Adamson talked him into playing Frankenstein's Monster in Dracula vs. Frankenstein. He died at the age of 54; dying at relatively young ages is not uncommon for the very tall. 

4. Speaking of dying young... Big John Studd might sound like a porn star, but it was the stage name of wrestler John William Minton. A few years back, I looked into the sometimes repeated statistic that the average life expectancy of pro football players was 55 years old. This claim is nonsense. On the other hand, pro wrestlers from the Steroid Era, which is the heyday of Hulk Hogan until today, have shown a tendency to die young. People who say wrestling is fake are right if their point is the winners of matches are known in advance, but the guys in the ring are doing live action stunts that can cause real injuries. The combination of performance enhancing drugs and painkillers can cause both physical problems and lead to severe depression. Other contact sports like boxing and mixed martial arts don't show problems quite as severe.

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

Predictor: Grover Cleveland, former President of the United States, speaking in 1905.

Prediction: Sensible and responsible women do not want the vote. The relative positions to be assumed by man and woman in the working out of your civilization were assigned long ago by a higher intelligence than our own.

Reality: When I went to school, we barely learned anything about the presidents who aren't on Mt. Rushmore. Cleveland was a Democrat and he had two non-consecutive terms. In his era, the Democrats were a conservative party and the Republicans had the radicals in terms of equal rights for all. He was against the temperance movement as well as the suffragettes, which isn't surprising since those two reforms went hand in hand. As a history teacher one told me, the 18th and 19th Amendments taken together were an attempt to outlaw bad husbands.

Cleveland believed in responsibility, but only up to a point. He fathered an illegitimate child. He didn't marry the woman, but he did pay child support. Like the conservatives of today, he was against the government protecting people's rights to vote, especially black people. In 1894, he signed the repeal of the Enforcement Act of 1871, which protected the voting rights of former slaves. Blacks would not have federal support of their franchise again until 1964, and it would not have happened except for Republican votes thwarting the actions of conservative Democrats of the time. Democrats as conservative as the Dixiecrat wing of my childhood are rare, and honorable Republicans are effectively extinct. In honor of Cleveland, I am using the "scumbag" label today.

Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!

We will hear from another turn of the century scumbucket, H.G. Wells.

Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!

27 September 2014

Birthdays
Lina Leandersson b. 1995 (Let the Right One In)
Thomas Mann b. 1991 (Amityville: The Awakening, Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters)
Anna Camp b.1982 (True Blood)
Kristopher Turner b. 1980 (Beauty and the Beast [2013 TV], A Little Bit Zombie, Lost Girl, 2030 CE)
Zita Görög b. 1979 (Underworld)
Travis Aaron Wade b. 1975 (Touch, Torchwood: Web of Lies, Jekyll, War of the Worlds)
Gwyneth Paltrow b. 1972 (Iron Man, The Avengers, Contagion, Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, Hook)
John Patrick White b. 1972 (Galaxy Quest, Buffy, Sabrina, the Teenage Witch, 3rd Rock from the Sun)
Amanda Detmer b. 1971 (Vampire Diaries)
Tamara Taylor b.1970 (Lost, Serenity)
Patrick Muldoon b. 1968 (Spiders, Ice Spiders, Arrival II, Starship Troopers)
Christopher Cousins b. 1960 (Revolution, Awake, Supernatural, The Grudge 2 Earth vs. the Spider [2001], The Invisible Man [2001], Stargate SG-1, NightMan)
Scott Lawrence b. 1963 (Star Trek Into Darkness, The Host [U.S. 2013], American Horror Story, Avatar, Them [2007], Star Trek: Voyager, Brimstone, Timecop, Quantum Leap)
Shaun Cassidy b. 1958 (producer, Invasion, American Gothic)
Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa b. 1950 (The Man in the High Castle, Teen Wolf [2014], Mortal Kombat, Tekken, Heroes, Elektra, Planet of the Apes, Poltergeist: The Legacy, Vampires, Stargate SG-1, Sabrina, the Teenage Witch, The Phantom, Babylon 5, Space Rangers, Alien Nation, Superboy, Star Trek: The Next Generation)
Tom Braidwood b. 1948 (Alien Trespass, The X-Files, The Lone Gunmen)
David Kagen b. 1948 (Star Trek: Enterprise, Angle, Freddy’s Nightmares, Jason Lives: Friday the 13th Part VI)
A Martinez b. 1948 (Curse of Chucky, Mega Python vs. Gatoroid, Welcome to Paradox, Not of This World [1991 TV], The Incredible Hulk, Exo-Man, The Sixth Sense [1972 TV])
Meat Loaf b. 1947 (BloodRayne, Wishcraft, Tales from the Crypt, Americathon, Rocky Horror Picture Show)
Liz Torres b. 1947 (Futurestates, Quantum Leap, Alien Nation [TV])
Denis Lawson b. 1947 (Jekyll, Star Wars: Episodes IV, V and VI, Dinosaur)
Wilford Brimley b. 1934 (Progeny, Mutant Species, Cocoon I and II, Ewoks: The Battle for Endor, The Thing [1982])
Greg Morris b. 1933 died 27 August 1996 (Superboy, War of the Worlds [TV series], Wonder Woman, The Six Million Dollar Man, Twilight Zone)
Will Sampson b. 1933 died 3 June 1987 (Poltergeist II: The Other Side)
Roger C. Carmel b. 1932 died 11 November 1986 (Star Trek, My Living Doll, The Munsters)

Notes on the birthday list.
1. The Picture Slot. Last year it was Gwyneth, the only A list movie star here. If I was going for iconic, Meat Loaf in Rocky Horror, Denis Lawson from Star Wars (Wedge makes it through all three films, rare among the minor characters) or Roger C. Carmel in Star Trek would be my first three choices, but instead of going with movies and TV from my youth, the picture is of Lina Leandersson from the 2008 Swedish vampire movie Let the Right One In. It's not the first Vampire As Good Guy film by a long shot, but it does have a very different look and feel compared to American movies. If you haven't seen it and don't mind some gory scenes, I can recommend it.

2. A Martinez? Shouldn't he be The Martinez by now? A Martinez, no period after the initial was born Adolph Martinez in 1948. He used that name in his first film credit and never again.

Hey, Mr. and Mrs. Martinez in 1948? Too soon.

3. Teen scream Shaun Cassidy? Really? I was not aware Shaun Cassidy made the transition to producer. Good on him.

4. Another Philip K. Dick project? imdb.com lists The Man in the High Castle as pre-production and it should be released in 2015. It's an interesting story and I hope it gets made.

5. Die young much? Wait... he's dead?And a bonus: The Guy at the Door. We have three deceased actors on the list and none of them lived long enough to collect Social Security. It had registered in my mind that Will Sampson and Roger C. Carmel were dead, but somehow I forgot about Greg Morris. Also, while it's not true on every birthday list, all the dead today were born before everybody living. I call the oldest living person on a list like this The Guy (or Gal) at the Door, who in this case is Wilford Brimley, overweight, diabetic and celebrating his 79th birthday today. C'est la vie, said the old folks, it goes to show you never can tell.

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

Movies released
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 released, 2013  
 

Predictor: John J. Ingalls (1833-1900), predicting the world of 1993 in honor of the 1893 Columbian Exhibition in Chicago

Predictions: Man will conquer the atmosphere. Traveling from New York to San Francisco or New York to London will take less take less than twelve hours, making the railway and steamship obsolete. Personal dirigibles will be commonplace. Electricity will be the motive power for these aerial cars and they will be made of aluminum or some other light metal.

The telephone will supplant the telegraph and calling from Boston to Moscow will be done as readily as we now call between neighboring cities. The dwindling power of the telegraph and railroad barons will obviate the need to nationalize these businesses.

Domestic life will become easier with ready access to electricity and women will elevate her political and social status from subordinate to men to equality.

Wealth will accumulate, business will combine and the gulf between rich and poor will be more profound. The attempts to correct this by statue are doomed to fail.

Our greatest city in 1993 will be Chicago, not only the greatest in the nation but the world.

Reality: Okay, the facial hair and clothes, pure 19th Century. If his wire-rims were pince-nez, he would have had the trifecta.

As for the predictions, it was bold in 1893 to say air travel would be so dominant and the telephone was going to be useful worldwide. Of course, we don't have personal dirigibles and electricity is not the motive power of flying machines. But he writes "aerial cars"! Longtime readers will know I give points for that, even though they don't actually... well, you know... exist.

Equality of the sexes is not complete, but women do have the vote and electrically powered modern conveniences do make life much easier than it was in 1893.

As for wealth accumulating, it can be curbed by a progressive tax code and income inequality was much lower for most of the 20th Century than it was in The Gilded Age. But of course, Republicans and their wise stewardship of the economy have made us realize that a prosperous middle class is one of those luxuries we just couldn't afford.

And he ends by sucking up to Chicago. Meh.

Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!

Nuclear war! Hunh! Good God, y'all! What is it good for?

Well, it does give me something to write about on Sunday mornings. And we actually haven't had one since WW II ended, so that's another positive point.

Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!

31 May 2014

Birthdays
Richard Riddell b. 1984 (Penny Dreadful, The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus, Krod Mandoon and the Flaming Sword of Fire, Merlin)
Colin Farrell b. 1976 (Total Recall [2012], The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, Fright Night, Minority Report, Daredevil)
Lea Thompson b. 1961 (Left Behind, Back to the Future, SpaceCamp, Howard the Duck)
Chris Elliott b. 1960 (Sabrina, The Teenage Witch, Groundhog Day, The Abyss, Hyperspace)
Tommy Hinkley b. 1960 (Angel, The Little Vampire, Star Trek: Generations, Watchers II, Something is Out There, The Terror Within)
Kyle Secor b. 1957 (American Horror Story, A Wrinkle in Time [TV], Eerie, Indiana)
Nikolai Sotirov b. 1956 (The Legend of Hercules [2014], Annihilation Earth, Star Runners, Boogeyman 3, Shark Attack 3: Megalodon, Dracula Rising)
Gregory Harrison b. 1950 (Galaxy Beat, Logan’s Run [TV], Wonder Woman)
Tom Berenger b. 1949 (Inception, Nightmares & Dreamscapes)
Jim Hutton b. 1934 died 2 June 1979 (Twilight Zone)
Clint Eastwood b. 1930 (Space Cowboys, Firefox, Tarantula, Revenge of the Creature)
Menahem Golan b. 1929 (producer, American Cyborg: Steel Warrior, Prison Planet, Captain America [1990], Night of the Living Dead [1990], Cyborg, Doin’ Time on Planet Earth, Journey to the Center of the Earth [1988], Alien from L.A., Masters of the Universe, Superman IV: The Quest for Peace, Beauty and the Beast, Invaders from Mars, America 3000, Lifeforce)
Denholm Elliot b. 1922 died 6 October 1992 (Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Underworld [1985], Raiders of the Lost Ark, The Boys from Brazil, The House That Dripped Blood, Mystery and Imagination [TV], The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde)
Don Ameche b. 1908 died 6 December 1993 (Cocoon, Harry and the Hendersons)
Madge Blake b. 1899 died 19 February 1969 (Batman, Bewitched, The Addams Family)
George R. Stewart b. 1895 died 22 August 1980 (author, Earth Abides)

Madge Blake, Aunt Harriet from Batman, gets the nod in The Picture Slot today, yet another sign that this blog is written by a geezer. (I have to say, the room is certainly spacious enough for a stately manor, but couldn't a millionaire afford to by nicer furniture?) While Clint Eastwood is the biggest star on the list, his roles in the early sci-fi films are so short that if you blink you'll miss him. I also picked around in Menahem Golan's list of films. I wasn't aware that Superman IV was produced by Golan, since I didn't watch after the second one. It gives an idea of how far the franchise had fallen.

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

Predictor: author George Alfred Townsend (1841-1914), in honor of the 1893 Columbian Exhibition

Prediction: Federalism must prevail. The citizens of wayward and poorer states will come in like the prodigal son. Excessive wealth ought to be taxed in its full proportion, but not more. For if you remove the stimulus of wealth, America is nothing.

We must nourish our peasantry, including our eight million blacks, for an empire without servants might almost be without homes or utensils.

Women's great triumph will be not to need the ballot, since their husbands already have the franchise. Perhaps old maids might be allowed to vote.

The federal government ought to be a strong power in our railways and ought to own the telegraphs. The world is interested in our becoming not a Christian so much as a humane and scientific empire.

Reality: Um... white male privilege much, George? Reading about four paragraphs is enough to make a person of nearly any political persuasion want to sock him in the nose.

Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!

Keeping an eye on a sports prediction made earlier this year.

Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!
 

11 May 2014

 Birthdays
Cory Monteith b. 1982 died 13 July 2013 (Flash Gordon [TV], Kyle XY [TV], Kraken: Tentacles of the Deep, Stargate SG-1, Smallville, Supernatural)
Jonathan Jackson b. 1982 (The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Tuck Everlasting)
Brian Caspe b. 1975 (Wanted, Hellboy, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen)
Nicky Katt b. 1970 (Grindhouse, Sin City, Batman & Robin, Kindred: The Embraced, Strange Days, Knight Rider 2010, Martians Go Home, V, Gremlins, Voyagers!)
Jeffrey Donovan b. 1968 (Threshold, Witchblade, Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2, Millennium)
Tim Blake Nelson b. 1964 (The Fantastic Four [2015], The Incredible Hulk, The Astronaut Farmer, Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed, Minority Report)
Natasha Richardson b. 1963 died 18 March 2009 (The Handmaid’s Tale, Gothic)
Vince Grant b. 1961 (Seeking a Friend for the End of the World, Touch, Star Trek: Enterprise, Timequest, Brave New World, Dracula: Dead and Loving It)
Shohreh Aghdashloo b. 1952 (Grimm, FlashForward, X-Men: The Last Stand)
Frances Fisher b. 1952 (Resurrection, Touch, Torchwood, Eureka, The X-Files, Attack of the 50 Ft. Woman [1993])
Pam Ferris b. 1948 (Children of Men, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban)
Doug McClure b. 1935 died 5 February 1995 (Out of this World, Superboy, Automan, Manimal, Firebird 2015 AD, Humanoids from the Deep, Warlords of the Deep, At the Earth’s Core, Twilight Zone)
Bernard Fox b. 1927 (The Mummy, Bewitched, I Dream of Jeannie)
Denver Pyle b. 1920 died 25 December 1997 (Escape from Witch Mountain, Return to Witch Mountain, The Twilight Zone, Commando Cody)
Doodles Weaver b. 1911 died 17 January 1983 (Earthbound, Bigfoot, Land of the Giants, Batman, The 30 Foot Bride of Candy Rock, Superman [1948])

The thing that jumps out at me on this is how many people died young on this list, most notably Cory Monteith and Natasha Richardson, but also Doug McClure, not to be confused with Troy McClure, the voice of infomercials on The Simpsons, voiced originally by the late Phil Hartman. With all this random death wandering around, I decided to give the Picture Slot to Bernard Fox, best known in genre as Dr. Bombay from Bewitched. Yes, Dr. Bombay is still alive! Yay! (Bewitched is yet another show where nearly everyone is gone.)

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

Predictor: Thomas Dixon Jr., minister, actor, legislator and author, asked to predict the 20th Century in honor of the 1893 Columbian Exhibition in 1893.

Predictions: There will be no crowned head of the civilized world at the end of the next century... "the less government the better" is the motto of an infantile republic... the railroads and telegraphs will be owned by the state... within the next century, the saloon is certain to be outlawed... the punishment of criminals will be based more and more on the effort to reform... Our divorce laws must become more uniform... The tendency for the accumulation of wealth must continue to increase until overturned by a social revolution... Corporations will continue to grow until they dispute the authority of the state, then they shall be absorbed by the state... the condition of the laboring classes is certain to become more independent as they grow better educated... medicine will attain the dignity of a science... Woman will attain her status of equality before the law.

Reality: I am picking and choosing from a whole bunch of predictions made by Dixon over four pages of text, but I'm not distorting his message, which is very progressive. Even outlawing saloons, which seems like a bad idea now, went arm in arm with the suffrage movement. (As a history teacher I know puts it, Prohibition was an attempt to outlaw bad husbands.) He's hit or miss on his predictions: on the minus side,  there are still kings and the railroads are not owned by the government. On the positive side, medicine has improved significantly and women have many more legal rights.

All of this is prelude to the big reveal. Dixon is best known now for his 1905 book The Klansman, a pro-KKK novel that was turned into the 1915 movie Birth of a Nation. I am sure conservative writers today would love to find this guy, a bigot who in nearly all other respects toes the liberal line almost completely.

Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!

OMNI Future Almanac, mostly optimistic and largely full of crap.

Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!
  

8 February 2014 - UPDATED with Gertie the Dinosaur

 Birthdays
Dawn Olivieri b. 1981 (The Vampire Diaries, True Blood, Heroes, Stargate:Atlantis)
Jim Parrack b. 1981 (True Blood, Battle Los Angeles, Supernatural)
Seth Green b. 1974 (Buffy, The Venture Brothers, Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed, Greg the Bunny, Angel, Seaquest 2032, The X-Files, My Stepmother Is an Alien)
Mary McCormack b. 1969 (K-PAX, Deep Impact)
Larry Clarke b. 1964 (Transformers: Dark of the Moon, Lost, Buffy)
Ethan Phillips b. 1955 (True Blood, The Island, Star Trek: Enterprise, Star Trek: Voyager, Star Trek: First Contact, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Werewolf[TV], The Twilight Zone [1986], Critters)
Mary Steenburgen b. 1953 (Elf, Gulliver’s Travels, Back to the Future Part III, Time After Time)
Brooke Adams b. 1949 (The Dead Zone, Invasion of the Body Snatchers)
Roger Lloyd Pack b. 1944 died 15 January 2014 (Doctor Who, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Interview with the Vampire, U.F.O., The Magus)
Nick Nolte b. 1941 (The Spiderwick Chronicles, Hulk, Breakfast of Champions)
John Williams b. 1932 (composer, Star Wars, Minority Report, Harry Potter, A.I. Artificial Intelligence, Jurassic Park, Indiana Jones, E.T., Dracula [1979], Superman, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Land of the Giants, The Time Tunnel, Lost in Space)
Jack Larson b. 1928 (Superman Returns, Lois & Clark, Superboy, Advnetures of Superman)
Lyle Talbot b. 1902 died 2 March 1996 (Plan 9 From Outer Space, Commando Cody: Sky Marshal of the Universe, Tobor the Great)
Jules Verne b. 1828 died 24 March 1905 (author, From the Earth to the Moon, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, Journey to the Center of the Earth, In the Year 2889)

A long birthday list today and many good candidates for the Picture Slot. For iconic roles, Jack Larson as Jimmy Olsen and Ethan Phillips as Neelix would certainly qualify, but I'd say the two most influential talents on this list are those who aren't on camera, composer John Williams and author Jules Verne, whose picture you are looking at. I had forgotten that Williams did so much work for Irwin Allen early in his career, writing the themes for all of Allen's sci-fi shows except Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea. His later work, much of it with Steven Spielberg, speaks for itself.

Regular readers will know that I have often used H.G. Wells for predictions but I've never used Verne. The reason is simple. Many of his stories with dates assume that the fantastic events have already happened and his great leap into the future was to 2889, which is way too far into the future to be useful by the standards set for this blog.

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

Movies released
Gertie the Dinosaur by Winsor McCay released 1914
The first cartoon using keyframe animation is now one hundred years old. This was a huge step forward in the technology and even without that, it's Winsor McCay, one of the great cartoonists of all time, whether moving or still. The link above gives a lot of live action lead-in to the main show, but I found it entrancing and I hope you will as well.

Predictor: Senator William A. Peffer or Kansas, giving his predictions for the 20th Century in honor of the 1893 Columbian Exposition held in Chicago.

Predictions: Men will grow wiser, better and purer in the years to come. The common weal will be the chief end of government, the ballot of the poor shall be counted and the popular will be law. Women will share with men in all the duties of citizenship, the dramshop (a.k.a. saloons) extinct and war abolished. Men will navigate the air and smoke shall be suppressed. The time of daily toils shall be shortened to four or five hours.

Reality: Well, Senator Peffer wasn't asking for much, was he? I cut several of his predictions short, but he went through the entire shopping list of populism that was found back in his day. It's no coincidence that women's suffrage, prohibition of alcohol and anti-war sentiments should all end up in the same sentence. As a historian friend of mine puts it, prohibition of alcohol was the attempt of the women's rights movement to outlaw bad husbands.

Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!

A prediction about October 2015 from this week's Wall Street Journal.

Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!
  

23 November 2013

Birthdays
Chris Hardwick b. 1971 (host, The Talking Dead)
Oded Fehr b. 1970 (Resident Evil, The Mummy, V, Charmed)
David Rappaport b. 1951 died 2 May 1990 (Time Bandits, The Wizard, The Bride)
Tom Neyman b. 1935 (Manos: The Hands of Fate)
Michael Gough b. 1916 died 17 March 2011 (Batman, Sleepy Hollow, Doctor Who, They Came From Beyond Space, Phantom of the Opera, Horror of Dracula)
John Dehner b. 1915 died 4 February 1992 (The Twilight Zone)
Boris Karloff b. 1887 died 2 February 1969 (Frankenstein, The Mummy)

An all male and all actor list today, with more folks dead than alive. I did have a brief moment of contrariness thinking I might put Tom Neyman from Manos: The Hands of Fate in the Picture Slot, what with Thanksgiving coming up and the Mystery Science Theater 3000 Turkey Day marathon being aired again, but seriously, for this first year,it has to be Karloff. It's an interesting coincidence that the actor Oded Fehr who plays the mummy in the most recent remakes shares a birthday with Karloff.

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

 The Day of the Doctor
This is the 50th anniversary of the first airing of Doctor Who and a special episode is now available, featuring the two most recent Doctors, Matt Smith and David Tennant, and also starring John Hurt as The War Doctor.

I've never been a huge fan of the show. I liked Christopher Eccleston and I like that he really doesn't want to be remembered forever as The Ninth Doctor. Still, my personal feelings aside, it is remarkable how successful this series has been and it's definitely a major part of the genre today.

Congratulations to all concerned.

 

Predictor: Miriam Leslie, author and publisher
A few words about today's predictor. Miriam Leslie had a truly remarkable career for a woman of her era. She married four times, the third time to the publisher Frank Leslie, her employer. She divorced her second husband to marry Leslie in 1874 and on their honeymoon, she met the poet Joaquin Miller and had an affair with him, the main character in his book The One Fair Woman modeled after her.

Frank Leslie went bankrupt in 1877 and died in 1880, and Miriam took over the business and brought it back to profitability, her success much admired by the financial community of the day. When she died in 1914, she willed most of her fortune to the cause of women's suffrage.

Predictions (reality in parentheses):

The world, and more especially the New World, is hastening rapidly toward iconoclasm. Monarchs who used to be worshiped or fear are now only to be laughed at. (Interesting call. It would be another twenty years until the Great War started and five bloody years later, European monarchy would be pretty much over.)

Religion is unfortunately ceasing to be a power in the world. It has become, rather, the recreation of a small portion of the people. (Maybe that was true in the circles Miriam traveled in, but I'd have to rate this a swing and a miss overall.)

Dress, formerly a species of trademark placed by the nations upon their population, is rapidly losing its individuality all over the world. (Gotta count this one as a hit.)

Language is struggling toward universality. Almost anyone can make himself understood almost anywhere. (Sure. If someone pretends they don't speak English, all you have to do is SAY IT LOUDER AND SLOWER.)

In politics the people as a controlling power are coming to the front more or less rapidly in even the oldest empires of earth. And it needs no prophet to foretell that in 1993 the world will have become equalized in every respect, even to dire monotony. (Well, I wouldn't call it monotonous, but the world of 1993 was much more level playing field than it was in 1893.)

The era of woman as a power has commenced. (Not unlike her prediction about the waning of monarchy, it was still more than a generation away, but she certainly saw the direction things were going. You might well say "D'uh!", but you might recall the humorist Bill Nye saying women's suffrage would never happen.)

The "servant problem" is an imminent one, for no one is found to dispute that anarchy in domestic matters is the near result of the present attitude of the domestic official. (Ah, yes, the servant problem. Those lazy, thieving laggards who make life hell for the rich. Not that big a deal now, though I guess it's pretty annoying when they go to the gossip rags and your personal life becomes everybody's bidness.

Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!

On Ray Bradbury's Mars we are up to April 2003, and kids will be kids, having fun, roughhousing and laughing, destroying ancient ruins the Martians left behind.

Join us then... IN THE FUTURE! 

2 November 2013

Birthdays
Brandon Soo Hoo b. 1995 (G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, Ender’s Game)
Jon M. Chu b. 1979 (director, G.I. Joe: Retaliation)
Whit Hertford b. 1978 (Twilight Zone, Poltergiest II, Jurassic Park)
Michael Bailey Smith b. 1957 (The Hills Have Eyes, Men in Black II, Charmed, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The X-Files, Star Trek: Voyager, The Fantastic Four)
Dale Brown b. 1956 (writer, Sky Masters, Day of the Cheetah, Shadow Command)
Lois McMaster Bujold b. 1949
(won 1989 Nebula for Falling Free)
(won 1991 Hugo for The Vor Game)
(won 1992 Hugo for Barrayar)
(won 1995 Hugo for Mirror Dance)
(won 2004 Hugo and Nebula for Paladin of Souls)
Jerry Wasserman b. 1945 (I, Robot, Watchmen, Supernatural, Dark Angel, The X-Files)
Steve Ditko b. 1927 (artist, Spider-Man, Dr, Strange)
Warren Stevens b. 1919 died 27 March 2012 (Forbidden Planet, Star Trek, Land of the Giants, The Outer Limits, Twilight Zone)

The writers and graphic artist on today's birthday list are better known than the actors in general. Dale Brown writes military techno-thrillers, often setting the action in the near future, Steve Ditko was an important artist from the very beginning of Marvel Comics and Lois McMaster Bujold has more Nebulas and Hugos for novels than Heinlein got in his career.

As for the actors, Brandon Soo Hoo and Whit Hertford started as child actors, Michael Bailey Smith often plays monsters under a lot of make-up, Jerry Wasserman has a very long career guest starring on TV shows, a tough way to make a living, which also describes most of the late Warren Stevens' career, who gets the Picture Slot for the role of the alien Rojan on the original Star Trek series.

Many happy returns of the birthday to all the living on our list.

Movies released
Wreck-It Ralph released, 2012
Monsters, Inc. released, 2001
 

Predictor: Edgar Wilson "Bill" Nye, comic writer, founder of the Laramie Boomerang, columnist for the New York World, making predictions about the 20th Century in honor of the 1893 Columbian Exhibition held in Chicago.

Predictions (realities in parentheses):

Politically, there will be a lot less money expended in electing officials. (Strike one, Mr. Nye.)

The government should own both railways and telegraphs. (Some railways, no telegraphs.)

I see no reason to hope that money will not accumulate in the hands of a few in the future, even more than in the past. (A tough sentence to diagram, but he gets the modern situation right. Wealth accumulation is getting to be more uneven, though in the middle of the 20th Century, this prediction would have to be considered incorrect.)

The laboring classes will always be oppressed. (Things definitely got better for workers after 1893, with the end of child labor, the 40 hour work week, workplace safety laws, etc. That said, there are a lot of working people who are getting stiffed, as the whole debate about fast food workers shows today.)

Our soil, with improved agricultural methods, should grow enough for an increased population. (Good call. Of course, in 1893, Mr. Nye would have been hard pressed to see how much population growth was coming.)

American literature, I hope, will be more realistic in 100 years. (Once again, Mr. Nye gets it right.)

Music and drama will have grown rapidly. (Another good call.)

Women will never want the right of suffrage. (Oooh, and things were going so well.)

I look to the perfection of the flying machine. (In 1893, this is a bold prediction.)

Our greatest city will be on the present site of Chicago. (Sucking up to the hosts doesn't make this one right.)

As for the most honored American in 1993, the people will not have forgotten George Washington. (Not a bad call, though Lincoln and Jefferson give him a run for his money.)

And I am also putting up a delicate little tribute to myself in the way of a mausoleum, which will keep me as green in the memory of those from whom I am liable to be snatched away at any moment. (Nye died in 1896 from meningitis at the age of 45. Dying so young, his catalog of books is not extensive and no book of his is as well remembered as Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn or Ambrose Bierce's The Devil's Dictionary, humorists who were his contemporaries. Sorry, Mr. Nye.)

Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!

Ray Bradbury tells us how things are progressing up on Mars in 2002.

Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!