August 12

Today's the birthday of the mindbending Del the Funky Homosapien, an undercelebrated artist if ever there was. His rapping demonstrates that hip-hop as an art form has not yet reached its potential (no matter how much radio music sounds like the same old...)
Here's an example which you're familiar with, if you played a lot of Tony Hawk Pro Skater 3:


He got in the game as a lyricist, writing for his cousin's group Da Lench Mob (his cousin, being Ice Cube.) In 1991, even as Dr Dre's "The Chronic" was setting the standard for hip-hop production for the next 20 years, Del's debut album "I Wish My Brother George Was Here" was charting an alternate course for hip-hop. Throughout the 90's, his audience was finding him, even as he was distancing himself from the hip-hop industry that came to be. He would eventually help start an artistic collective, the Hieroglyphs, that would be home for his music.

In 2000, he co-created Deltron 3030, a sci-fi rap opera collaboration with producer Dan the Automator.


The album featured many other artists, including British singer Damon Albarn for one track. Albarn was so inspired by the experience, he invited Del onboard to help shape the sound of his next project, the Gorillaz:

To date, it's still Del's most high-profile gig.

In 2010, he's very much the Internet-friendly independent artist; his latest album is available, among other formats, for free download off his site (for a while, anyway.)
Meanwhile, here's the song I'll be singing all day, an Arsenio Hall performance of a song he did for the Judgement Night with alt-rockers Dinosaur Jr. Here's "Missing Link":

July 25

Happy Birthday to the Prince of Darkness, Peter Suschitzky. This second-generation cinematographer (his father was camera operator for the original 'Get Carter') got his nickname for pulling off scenes such as the Luke/Vader duel in 'Empire Strikes Back':


Suschitzky's the first cinematographer I learned to associate with a film, with the help of a hundred shouting fans. His first Hollywood film was the 1975 cult classic "The Rocky Horror Picture Show", and his name in the opening credits has spawned a popular callback. He also shot a good looking film:

(This is a enjoyable shot scene, fourth wall broken and all. I'd intentionally left it off the Tim Curry tribute, but didn't realize I'd get the chance to use it again...)

His "Empire" work put him on the radar of David Cronenberg, who lost his long-time cinematographer to the 80's remake of 'The Blob'. Cronenberg tapped Suschitzky for "Dead Ringers", the beginning of a collaboration that's lasted over 20 years and 8 films. Here's a scene from the underappreciated eXsistenZ (recommended Not Safe For Work... or within an hour of eating...)


Their next team-up, a sequel to Eastern Promises, is scheduled for release in 2011. Besides Cronenberg, Suschitzky's also worked with John Boorman(Where the Heart Is), Tim Burton(Mars Attacks!) and Randall Wallace(The Man in the Iron Mask).

July 12

They say the other half of a movie is sound. Somebody who would agree is Ben Burtt, who has made some of the most memorable sounds in movies.

Those sounds include: R2-D2, the lightsaber, ET, Wall-E, and the Darth Vader breathing apparatus.
Here he is, explaining the history of the lightsaber hum:


He also returned the "Wilhelm Scream" to popularity. Here's a retrospective:


I know I haven't written a lot for Mr Burtt; I figured his work can speak for itself...

May 25

Happy Birthday, Sir Ian McKellen; your Shakespearean pedigree has elevated two of the geekiest cults into the pop culture stratosphere. You make everything sound sophisticated and haughty.

Observe these tributes:

May 17

I know practically nothing about Seoul singer Lim Jeong Hee, but this video for "Don't Go My Love" just has to be seen. There's not enough sci-fi torch songs videos out there...

Okay, so Lim's the robot. She's also a Korean pop star after years of street shows; her third album included a cameo from Outkast's Big Boi, a prelude to her search for a music career in America.

Her most recent song is a duet with Korean pop star Lee Hyun, which may mean a return to her Korean career. Which is fine by me, if it means more sci-fi torch song videos. Here's a PSA about the dangers of scarves, called "30 Minutes Ago":

April 17

Here at the Birthday Blog, we love a good fight, and one of the best cinematic fights of all time features birthday boy "Rowdy" Roddy Piper versus Keith David, in a scene from "They Live". Now, this is not one of those blood-spattered kung-fu ballets or bombastically soundtracked climactic showdowns ala Rocky. I mean, the whole motivation is Roddy's guy trying to get his friend to put on a pair of sunglasses. The original script alloted about twenty seconds for the exchange.
Piper and David began rehearsing other ideas. Three weeks later...

In an interview with Freezerbox Magazine, Piper says that the original cut of the fight scene was ten minutes long, then trimmed for economy. A masterful performance featuring one of the greatest wrestling villains of all time.

April 14

There's a scientific term called the Uncanny Valley, when something that looks like a person looks too much so for someone to be comfortable. The phrase has come up in recent years as robots get closer to looking and acting similar to people. But to get a better idea of what the Uncanny Valley is, compare the cartoon Alvin and the Chipmunks with the 'live-action' Alvin and the Chipmunks. Which one's adorable, and which one would you call an exterminator on?
Another form of entertainment that lives along the Uncanny Valley are marionettes, particularly the creations of Gerry Anderson. "Thunderbirds Are Go" is his most famous, but for several decades, Anderson's created several sci-fi shows, for kids and adults, utilizing "supermarionation". "Supermarionation" are puppets with solenoids in their jaws, so their mouths move in sync with an audio signal - such as an actor's dialogue. The result is a puppet that talks almost as expressively as a person, even if it still walks like a floating cardboard box.

So that might creep some people out.

Not me, nor the millions of fans that have built up over the years. Heck, watch "Team America: World Police," which is more a tribute to "Thunderbirds" than the Hollywood remake (a paycheck for Ben Kingsley, and a resume filler for Vanessa Hudgins.) Or how about this Dire Straits video for "Calling Elvis", with new and classic puppet sequences produced by Gerry Anderson:

Dire Straits - Calling Elvis

March 22

Today's William Shatner day in Trek-dom, but of course, he's much more. He's not just a cop,a negotiator, and a Starship captain; he's a philosopher. Here's a track from his last album, produced by Ben Folds, called "You'll Have Time":

March 17

Appropriate for the holiday, today's birthday toast goes to Mark Gunn, half of the quasi-legendary Brobdingnagian Bards. They're legends to you if you're familiar with the genre of music known as "filk singing", or "filking". Basically, fantasy convention sing-a-longs. The Bards haven't just played renaissance fairs, though; their Celtic-tinged flights of fancy have garnered over 5 million mp3 downloads, and earned them the house band slot at the Oscar party for Lord of the Rings: Return of the King.

Even though the Bards are history, Mark Gunn remains with an autoharp slung across his chest and a keyboard at the ready, producing five podcasts a week and recording his solo compositions.
Meanwhile, here's another look at the Bards, performing a song from my favorite episode of "Firefly"

March 15

It's a dance party on the Ides of March, courtesy of Boris Durdevic, composer/DJ of the Croatian band Colonia. Since they got Croatia in the Eurovision radar (4th place, 2000), Colonia has been one of the biggest music acts to come out of their homeland. I picked "C'est La Vie" because I hoped it was a Robbie Neville cover, but it turned out to be a Matrix-tribute music video. That's a fair trade to me...

March 6

Another ThatGuy for the birthday blog: Martin Kove. From the 80's on, he's been cinematic shorthand for 'bad news': the deputy that got on the wrong side of John Rambo in "First Blood", the lethal Cobra Kai sensai John Kreese in the "Karate Kid" series, the malevolent Mr Lee in "Shootfighter", and too many tough guys on too many TV shows. Here's a trailer for his 80's bid to action hero-dom:

He's always hinted at more: he was in the casts of Merchant-Ivory's first North American productions(no, they weren't kickboxing movies.)
Anyway, he's a working-class hero as actors go; this year alone, he has credits forthcoming in a dozen DTV projects, mostly monster movies and fight flicks. Maybe he'll get invited to the next Expendables movie...
Meanwhile, here's an 80's tv show that never got a chance; "Terminator" meets "Lilo and Stitch". Another time, another place, this could have been a 40-episode classic, minimum. Has it even ever aired on the SyFy Channel? Here's "Hard Time on Planet Earth":

March 4

So how about a birthday for David Matthews? Not Dave Matthews, the tremolous, eponymous jam bandleader of the 90's and beyond (his birthday's January 9th); David Matthews, the jazz keyboardist who made his name in the 70's with his eponymous band and/or the Manhatten Jazz Quintet, as well as jamming with folks like James Brown and Nina Simone. Nowadays, you need a friend in Japan to track down any of his music, old or new. But maybe, if you're lucky, you know a turntablist who has his 1977 Dune album, inspired by the novel and other science fiction classics like Star Wars and Silent Running. Here's the song that he felt he had to call "Sandworms":

February 29

Just because there's not a February 29 as I'm writing this doesn't mean I'm going to skip it. But it gets me wondering what do leap babies do when their birthday almost comes around? Do they get the 28th to celebrate, or the 1st? Or do they just have really big parties on the 29th?
Anyway, I'm writing about Algerian pop star Khaled, the king of Rai music. On the global stage, his music's harmless, catchy pop music with a few Western accoutrements. In the local community, his music is a political act; rai music doesn't exactly gel with Islamic fundementalists. Heck, women dancing in public doesn't go down well with right-wing Islam; you can imagine their reaction to pleas for tolerance and gender equality, in songs like "Aicha".

Meanwhile he keeps rocking his John Oates mustache, and smiling his platinum smile (he's a genius in France.) In fact, here's the most likely place that North American audiences have heard him:


Happy Birthday, Khaled. Keep on rockin' in the free world...

January 2

Okay, so today gives us a chance to reminisce about Isaac Asimov. Now, how undercelebrated can Isaac Asimov be, considering that he's one of the Big Three of Science Fiction, that he wrote about 500 novels, conceived the Three Laws of Robotics, that he has an elementary school, an asteroid, a Martian crater, and a Star Trek character named after him... really, what's been missed?
True, but today's really about an undercelebrated animated film named Gandahar, or Light Years, when it came to the US. Based on the French novel, Light Years was a sci-fi fantasy that got a boost in its pedigree when Asimov handled the translation chores. So, here's part 1, to give you a taste; it looks like a lost episode of Heavy Metal, but it's still worth a look:

Besides, it's got more blue naked chicks than "Avatar..."

September 20

Chuck and John Panozzo were two-thirds of the founding fathers of Styx. Back in high school, they formed a band with Dennis DeYoung called The Tradewinds, where Chuck played guitar, John played drums, and Dennis apparently played accordian. Eventually, they got it right (Chuck moved to bass, for one), added a few members, and became the architects of their particular brand of anthem pop that is the Styx legacy.
Styx tends to get described as Prog-Rock, but their bombast and anthems seem more like a preparation for the jukebox musicals of the 21st century. How many Styx singles are perfect Glee fodder? Heck, how much of the "Kilroy is Here" album got ripped off by "We Will Rock You"?




styx - mr roboto
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That's the Panozzo twins flanking the minister in "Heavy Metal Poisoning".
Styx finally chose the rock side of their equation, parting ways with Dennis DeYoung for good in 2001; they tour on the Heritage Circuit today. John Panozzo died in 1996 of liver complications; Chuck left the group to deal with his HIV, but returns as his health allows. The Grand Illusion remains...