Wednesday, November 5, 2025

Born on this day – Joel McCrea:


Joel McCrea


Actor

November 5, 1905 – October 20, 1990

Credits:

Mustang Country (1976); The Young Rounders (1971); Cry Blood, Apache (1970); Ride the High Country (1962); The Crowning Experience (1960); Wichita Town (1959–1960); The Gunfight at Dodge City (1959); Fort Massacre (1958); Cattle Empire (1958); The Tall Stranger (1957); Gunsight Ridge (1957); Trooper Hook (1957); The Oklahoman (1957); The First Texan (1956); Wichita (1955); Stranger on Horseback (1955); Black Horse Canyon (1954); Border River (1954); Shoot First (1953); The Lone Hand (1953); The San Francisco Story (1952); Cattle Drive (1951); Hollywood Story (1951); Frenchie (1950); Saddle Tramp (1950); Stars in My Crown (1950); The Outriders (1950); Colorado Territory (1949); South of St. Louis (1949); Four Faces West (1948); Ramrod (1947); The Virginian (1946); The Unseen (1945); The Great Moment (1944); Buffalo Bill (1944); The More the Merrier (1943); The Palm Beach Story (1942); Sullivan's Travels (1941); The Great Man's Lady (1941); Reaching for the Sun (1941); Foreign Correspondent (1940); Primrose Path (1940); He Married His Wife (1940); Espionage Agent (1939); They Shall Have Music (1939); Union Pacific (1939); Youth Takes a Fling (1938); Three Blind Mice (1938); Wells Fargo (1937); Dead End (1937); Woman Chases Man (1937); Internes Can't Take Money (1937); Banjo on My Knee (1936); Come and Get It (1936); Adventure in Manhattan (1936); Two in a Crowd (1936); These Three (1936); Splendor (1935); Barbary Coast (1935); Woman Wanted (1935); Our Little Girl (1935); Private Worlds (1935); The Richest Girl in the World (1934); Half a Sinner (1934); Gambling Lady (1934); Chance at Heaven (1933); One Man's Journey (1933); Bed of Roses (1933); The Silver Cord (1933); Scarlet River (1933); Rockabye (1932); The Sport Parade (1932); The Most Dangerous Game (1932); Bird of Paradise (1932); The Lost Squadron (1932); Business and Pleasure (1932); Girls About Town (1931); The Common Law (1931); Born to Love (1931); Kept Husbands (1931); Once a Sinner (1931); Lightnin' (1930); The Silver Horde (1930); Framed (1930); Dynamite (1929); So This Is College (1929); The Single Standard (1929); The Jazz Age (1929); The Five O'Clock Girl (1928); The Divine Lady (1928); Freedom of the Press (1928); Dead Man's Curve (1928); The Enemy (1927); The Fair Co-Ed (1927); Torrent (1926); A Self-Made Failure (1924); Penrod and Sam (1923).

Born on this day – Etta Moten:


Etta Moten


Actress

Contralto vocalist

November 5, 1901 – January 2, 2004

Credits:

Stage:

Fast and Furious (1931); Lysistrata (1946); Porgy and Bess (1943); Zombie (1932).

Movies and television:

A Day at the Races (1937); Amanda (1949); Bombshell (1933); Born to Sing (1942); Flying Down to Rio (1933); Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933); Ladies They Talk About (1933); Operator 13 (1934); Professional Sweetheart (1933); Two Dollars and A Dream: The Story of Madame C.J. Walker (1989); The Green Pastures (1936).

Born on this day – Jessie Ralph:


Jessie Ralph


Actress

November 5, 1864 – May 30, 1944

Credits:

They Met in Bombay (1941); The Lady from Cheyenne (1941); The Bank Dick (1940); I Want a Divorce (1940); Girl from Avenue A (1940); I Can't Give You Anything But Love, Baby (1940); Star Dust (1940); The Blue Bird (1940); Drums Along the Mohawk (1939); Mickey the Kid (1939); The Kid from Texas (1939); Cafe Society (1939); St. Louis Blues (1939); Four Girls in White (1939); Port of Seven Seas (1938); Hold That Kiss (1938); Love Is a Headache (1938); Double Wedding (1937); The Last of Mrs. Cheyney (1937); The Good Earth (1937); After the Thin Man (1936); Camille (1936); Walking on Air (1936); Bunker Bean (1936); San Francisco (1936); The Unguarded Hour (1936); Little Lord Fauntleroy (1936); Yellow Dust (1936); The Garden Murder Case (1936); Captain Blood (1935); I Found Stella Parish (1935); Metropolitan (1935); I Live My Life (1935); Jalna (1935); Paris in Spring (1935); Mark of the Vampire (1935); Les Misérables (1935); Vanessa, Her Love Story (1935); Enchanted April (1935); David Copperfield (1935); Evelyn Prentice (1934); We Live Again (1934); One Night of Love (1934); The Affairs of Cellini (1934); Murder at the Vanities (1934); Coming Out Party (1934); Nana (1934); Ann Carver's Profession (1933); Cocktail Hour (1933); Elmer, the Great (1933); Child of Manhattan (1933); Such a Little Queen (1921); The Madonna of the Slums (1919); New York (1916); Mary's Lamb (1915); The Galloper (1915); A Ringer for Max (1915).

Recommended reading - The Movie Art of Syd Mead: Visual Futurist (2017):


The Movie Art of Syd Mead: Visual Futurist

By Syd Mead.

Published by Titan Books.
Published 2017.
Illustrated edition.
Hardcover.
ISBN-10: 1785651188
ISBN-13: 978-1785651182

Description:

Syd Mead is one of the most accomplished and widely respected artists and industrial designers alive today. His career boasts an incredible array of projects from designing cars to drafting architectural renderings, but he is most famous for his work as a concept artist on some of the most visually arresting films in the history of cinema. Since working on Star Trek: The Motion Picture in 1978 as a production illustrator Syd Mead has always aimed to render “reality ahead of schedule,” creating evocative designs that marry believable content with a neofuturistic form. It is this ability to predict technological potential that has helped Mead create such a distinctive and influential aesthetic. From his work with Ridley Scott on Blade Runner, to his striking designs for the light cycles in Tron, to his imposing concept art for the U.S.S. Sulaco in James Cameron’s Aliens, Syd Mead has played a pivotal role in shaping cinema’s vision of the future.

The Movie Art of Syd Mead: Visual Futurist represents the most extensive collection of Mead’s visionary work ever printed, compiling hundreds of images, sketches and concept arts from a career spanning almost 40 years, many of which have never been seen in print before. Each entry provides a unique insight into the processes involved in Mead’s practice as well as illuminating the behind-the-scenes work involved in creating a fully realized, cinematic depiction of the future. With such a plethora of images from the many genre-defining films Mead has worked on, this is essential reading for film fans, artists and futurologists alike.

Recommended reading - The Machine Stops (1909):


The Machine Stops

By E. M. Forster.

Science Fiction short story.
Published by Suzeteo Enterprises.
First published 1909.
Hardcover.
ISBN-10: 1645941566
ISBN-13: 9781645941569

Description:

In our modern era, we like to congratulate ourselves for our sophistication, knowing that we have doubtless created a world that our feckless ancestors could never have imagined. Actually reading the works of those ancestors would disabuse us of any such notion, and E. M. Forster's The Machine Stops is a case in point. Not only does it seem that Forster has contemplated the ubiquitous 'Zoom' call, but he correctly sensed the deadening of the soul that would accompany the faux-mastery of Nature, expressing itself through technology.

In The Machine Stops the height of mankind's advances was The Machine, and it cared for every aspect of human experience, and anticipated every human need, until such time that there was nothing left for humans to do except eat, and, if the algorithm approved, procreate; and when the algorithm decided Euthanasia was due, then Euthanasia was happily accepted. The Machine was not just the pinnacle of human ingenuity, it was Progress Incarnate. And then... the Machine Stopped. Today, we hail our own progress, technological and societal. If our machine stops, what then? Do we really suppose it is eternal?

Amy Waldman, on writing:


History is the history of human behavior, and human behavior is the raw material of fiction.
Most people recognize that novelists do research to get the facts right - how a glove factory works, for example, or how courtesans in imperial Japan dressed.

- Amy Waldman.

Tuesday, November 4, 2025

On this day in music history - This House Is Not for Sale, by Bon Jovi (2016):


This House Is Not for Sale

Album by Bon Jovi,
released November 4, 2016.

Track list:

This House Is Not for Sale; Living with the Ghost; Knockout; Labor of Love; Born Again Tomorrow; Roller Coaster; New Year’s Day; The Devil’s in the Temple; Scars on This Guitar; God Bless This Mess; Reunion; Come on Up to Our House.