Ok, today's BOTD looks like being a mixed bag, cos the ones who have had some influence on me died in the last few years and hence I will have to bend my rules today to show some multimedia relating to a few dead people as well. There are quite a few notable people born on this date whom I can't, unfortunately, really talk about, but deserve to be noted. One of these is Ray Bradbury.
Ray Bradbury is a giant of 20th century literature, and is part of the famed ABC of science fiction (Asimov, Bradbury and Clarke), arguably the greatest of the modern science fiction writers. He is most noted for his influential work Fahrenheit 451 and boasts among his other work The Martian Chronicles and a collaborative work that later developed into The Addams Family. He continues to garner honours for a lifetime that inspired a generation of science fiction authors and will continue to do so in the future. As recently as earlier this year, he has been awarded prestigious honours, being named a Grandmaster of the Science Fiction Poetry Association earlier in 2008. Alas, not being much of a science fiction person myself I am not qualified to describe him in great detail, but it speaks volumes about the influence of the man on all areas of modern life that even one as 'illiterate' as I would place him as the most important person in today's post.
Henri Cartier-Bresson died in 2004, the first (well, he died a year after the other, actually) of the 2 influential dead I will mention in this post. He was one of the greatest photographers of the 20th century, and is considered a pioneer, if not the pioneer, in the field of photjournalism. My first experience of his work was a collection of photos he had taken in South India that I had obtained at Alliance Francaise. The simplicity in his work that inexplicably captured the most complex of emotions and states of being, accentuated by a fascinating interplay of shadow and light, captivated me. Well known for his portraits of famous people, the man himself refused to be photographed as he found the notion of being photographed for being 'famous' a ridiculous one, and one occasion held up a sheet of paper to cover part of his face (those who know me will recognise that I do the same thing when in front of a camera, but I should point out my ideological problem with being photographed is entirely different). A master of exploting shadows, Cartier-Bresson worked primarily with black and white photography and was an influential figure in the photography cooperative that he co-founded, Magnum Photos. He died in 2004, but even from beyond the grave he continues to influence photography and to win laurels for his work.
Leni Riefenstahl (1902-2003)is the last of the 3 persons I am profiling in this post. The filmmaker is mostly remembered as the director behind Hitler's propaganda films, but it is also beyond doubt that behind that controversial persona she was a visionary auteur, best characterised by her documentary about the 1936 Berlin Olympics, Olympia. She possessed a style well ahead of her time, and the universal appeal of even her niche works (apart from the Hitler ones, of course) continues to this day. Today, I choose not to remember the woman who helped manipulate the will of people to back a genocidal dictator, but the other side of Leni Riefenstahl- the artiste with the vision, and the magical ability to bring that vision to life. Hence, a brief and wholly unrepresentative clip of Olympia follows.
Other notable living people with their birthdays today:
Honor Blackman, Actress best known for her role as Bong girl Pussy Galore
E. Annie Proulx, Author best known for Brokeback Mountain among other works
Valerie Harper, Actress
I. Lewis 'Scooter' Libby, Professional Liar, Obstructor of Justice and Creep (just search Wikipedia or YouTube...)
Chiranjeevi, Telugu actor who has achieved everlasting fame on the internet due to a Telugu version of Michael Jackson's 'Thriller' video
Steve Davis, Snooker player
Colm Feore, Actor
Tori Amos, Singer
Mats Wilander, Tennis player
Rob Witschge, Footballer
Alexander Mostovoi, Footballer
Richard Armitage, Actor (check out BBC's Robin Hood, where Armitage plays Guy de Gisbourne)
Kristen Wiig, SNL comic
Heidar Helguson, Footballer
Also, in honour of the tooltip from today's XKCD comic, HAPPY LINKSYS DAY! [this date will have to do until a proper date is finalised by Randall Munroe and the loyal readers of XKCD]
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