Werner Herzog Reads Where's Waldo

This is fake--it's a parody of how Werner Herzog sounds, and what he says when he narrates his documentaries. The humor is an acquired taste of sorts, but I could listen to this sort of thing for hours. It's seriously thoughtful, funny, absurd and hypnotic all at once.

Also, Encounters at the End of the World (trailer below) is a really good documentary by the actual Werner Herzog. Its subject is Antarctica--the people, creatures and landscapes there. Beautiful and interspersed with moments of dry humor and bizarre interjections. Classic.

<>

Space and Time

I just watched An Adventure in Space and Time, the dramatic recreation of the birth of the Doctor Who television program in the 60's. I'd been meaning to check it out for awhile, and it was just as good as I'd heard. A very lovely, moving and inspiring trip back in time...

More broadly, this is an exciting time for a science fiction fan. Besides the obvious pick of the upcoming next Doctor Who series with Peter Capaldi, there are also the actor-connections of Karen Gillian in Guardians of the Galaxy and Matt Smith in the on-the-horizon Terminator: Genesis.

Beyond Doctor Who, there is of course Star Wars: Episode VII, which has begun filming and about which there was a new casting announcement today, that Lupita Nyong'o and Gwendoline Christie have both been brought on board to join the growing ensemble of actors both new and old. I almost cannot believe that this film is really happening, and while it's impossible to not be a bit afraid, there is plenty of reason to be both optimistic and excited.

In particular with regard to the latest news, it's great to have more significant female characters in Star Wars. Many of the books and The Clone Wars show have featured as much, but the films have of course been a bit...lacking, thus far.

Also, there are upcoming 2014 films such as Edge of Tomorrow (looks like a good bet), Jupiter Ascending (looks sketchy, to be honest, but I'm hoping for the best) and Christopher Nolan's Interstellar. Ridley Scott is another director with some sci-fi allegedly in the works, in the form of rumored sequels to Blade Runner and Prometheus, as well as an adaption of the literary classic The Forever War--which I've never read, but which sounds interesting.

But that's not all. James Cameron has three sequels to Avatar on the way, new Battlestar Galactica film content is possibly under development and Roland Emmerich is working on two sequels to Independence Day and future Stargate films. I really love the original Stargate, so that last bit has me very excited.

Finally, I would probably be remiss if I didn't say something about the Star Trek franchise. I'll admit that I'm unusually pessimistic about the forthcoming third film in the rebooted big-screen series. I was very disappointed with Star Trek Into Darkness, and the fact that Roberto Orci, one of that film's writers, has been selected as the director...not what I was hoping for, to say the least.

But anyway, there's a lot to feel good about, out there. I really hope that Star Trek makes it back to the small screen at some point in the near future. Like Doctor Who, television is where Trek truly belongs.

Here's a parting quote, from a 'doctor' somebody, a long time ago:

"Our lives are different from anybody else’s. That’s the exciting thing. Nobody in the universe can do what we’re doing."

<> 

Music Video

This is just one of the best feeling audiovisual things I've experienced lately. Full spectrum gorgeous. I didn't used to have much interest in Justin Timberlake, but a couple of his songs have really meant something to me in the last six months or so.

And I totally want to be him in the performance above, on that stage with that band. Good energy going on, there.

Zepparella "When the Levee Breaks" Video

So, this is not new, but I just came across it today. It's a cover of Led Zeppelin's "When the Levee Breaks" by Zepparella. I know that there are plenty of Zep cover bands out there, and this is not the only all-female one, but this might be the most that I have ever enjoyed seeing one of them perform:

Sure, other bands might be a lot wilder, with mismatched outfits and under-some-influence antics. But I like this take very much. It has a sleekness to it that keeps locked dead-on to the pulse of the song. The lead vocalist knows exactly what she's doing, and you can hear every instrument. Very cool.


While I'm at it, though, the other Zep cover performance that I really enjoyed (and I'll be honest, I haven't seen that many) was on American Idol a few years back. No, it wasn't Adam Lambert. It was Elise Testone, doing "Whole Lotta Love."

Like this:

Someone made a comment at the time, and I completely agreed, that Elise could be Robert Plant's niece. She absolutely sings the heck out of this song, up one side and down the other. The raspy vocals, the unusual runs and the best crazy-yet-listenable scream that I've ever heard anyone pull off. This song is about attitude as much as anything else, and she nails it.

<>

Kurt Cobain Post

It may be cliched to write something about Kurt Cobain. However, as the first week of this April marks twenty years since his death, I feel like saying something. It's a complicated subject that has been written about extensively, but an important piece of our cultural identity. And it does mean something to me as an individual.

In 2012, I was in Seattle and visited the EMP Museum, catching the exhibit Nirvana: Taking Punk to the Masses. Later that year, while driving through Portland, OR in a rental car, the song "Lithium" started playing on the radio. It seemed very appropriate. And of course, this past year has been awash in 90's nostalgia of the most acute kind. It's all gotten me to revisiting the framework of my existence in the context of the era...

I was just a little too young to be on board for the first "Grunge" wave of the early 90's. I started getting into music in the latter half of the decade, and only really became acquainted with Seattle bands like Pearl Jam, Soundgarden and Nirvana by reading about them and then reaching backwards in time. By the time I graduated from high school, I owned three Pearl Jam albums and Soundgarden's Superunknown. But to this day, I have never owned a Nirvana album.

One of my friends in high school, not coincidentally the one who sold me my favorite electric guitar, was very much a Nirvana fan. He let me borrow Nevermind and MTV Unplugged in New York, both of which I listened to. He also had a t-shirt with a picture of Kurt Cobain performing with angelic wings behind him, similar to this:

At the time, I found the image inappropriate, or at least conceptually dissonant. Perhaps because I was going through a very religious phase in my own life and trying to be very focused on things positive, I did not see the validity in portraying a rock star, and one who had allegedly killed him self, in that light.

More broadly, I didn't relate strongly to the music of Nirvana at that point in my life. I could appreciate the technical quality and energy of their recordings and performances. But thematically, I found Kurt's songs to be angry and negative. And so many of them are. In fact, the whole Nirvana experience is tinged with something less than uplift, if you look at it from a distance. Why does it, and did it, appeal to people?

The short answer is, in a word: catharsis. It taps into something identifiable and real and calls it for what it is, and more than that is a bridge to release tension. I remember reading a comment somewhere online, a couple of years ago, in which the commentor basically said, "When I heard 'Smells Like Teen Spirit,' it was the first time that I recall ever feeling like a song connected to me and my actual life and what I was going through." It's a safe bet that that person, like most of us, couldn't make out most of the exact lyrics at first, but the power of the track is such that it really doesn't matter.

For whatever it's worth, the lyrics are more intelligible in Tori Amos' evocative cover of the song:

Anyway, fast forwarding slightly through the space time continuum, if it's not too ridiculous a thing to say, I've come to a place where I "get it." (Generally speaking with regard to Kurt Cobain/Nirvana.) The last few years of my existence have not been the easiest, to say the least. It helps to encounter something that makes you feel like you're not alone. That doesn't mean embracing the downward spiral, but feeling empowered to talk about it, to share your feelings. To be real about things.

Kurt Cobain was clearly an unhappy person, suffering on multiple levels and as the saying goes, fighting plenty of his own demons. And it seems that he lost that fight. He's not a role model; it's dangerous to put celebrities on pedestals, especially those who take their own lives, as the gears of the fame machine perversely are wont to do.

But at the same time, it's shortsighted to disregard the positives that can be derived from the experience. It's beyond cliche, having been evoked ad nauseam, to point out that Nirvana is arguably the last American rock band to have made a truly singular, lasting impact on the cultural consciousness. That's the sort of thing that nostalgists and list-makers (of which I am admittedly one) tend to bring up again and again.

More important, though, is that Nirvana helped -- along with many of their peers -- to restore faith in the ability of rock music to be meaningful on a human level. To get below the surface, to the human core of the equation. That necessarily involves painting pictures of things that aren't pretty.

I like pretty things. I like trying to twist words in elegant ways and frankly I often prefer to use euphemisms and metaphors instead of bluntly expressing ragged thoughts. That's just my vocabulary. But pretty lies can be the most ugly thing of all, because they are are fundamental trafficking in falsity. And in a way, the flip side of that rings true -- that there is a beauty in honesty, even if it is jagged or jarring.

While on that thought, here is a video performance that I recently came across of Kawehi performing a solo cover of "Heart Shaped Box" using looped vocals and keyboards. It's very cool:

That song itself is rather...abrasive, one might say, in its lyrical content. But it's also very powerfully expressive, not to mention a very good melodic composition, as Kawehi demonstrates through her arrangement and performance.

I feel like my focus is drifting a little bit. So, to wind myself down before I trail off onto some other tangent...

This week does have meaning to me, in ways that it would not have had in the past. I'm used to that sort of thing, in general. I often find myself liking or appreciating various things either before everyone else, or after everyone else. I'm sort of out-of-phase with mainstream humanity, or something like that. (Did I mention that I might be an alien?) It all kind of speaks to the circular nature of things, I guess.

When I think of Kurt Cobain, the first thing that comes to mind is sympathy. Was he selfish or delusional? Maybe, probably, I guess. But I've experienced enough myself to know/feel that none of us are as far from the edge as we might like to think that we are. I don't view it with cynicism. Tragedy is tragedy. And we can never know what another person is really going through. It's all very sad, in this case.

The positive takeway, and the better note to end on, is that it mattered to people's lives. And improbable though it might be, it inspired people. Not how it ended. (That should not be any sort of anything except a downbeat and a cautionary tale.) But the reason that April 1994 still resonates today is not really about a death, but about the life that preceded it. It wasn't pretty, but it mattered. It did then, and it does now.

<>

Damn it Chloe, we don't have time!

24: Live Another Day

(The new show title is very reminiscent of 'Die Another Day.' But more appealing on multiple levels.)

Kicks

There is a particular type of experience, in which you become aware of an opportunity of great interest, only too late to do anything about it. I've had such an experience before, more than once. It's kind of like amnesiatic deja vu for me, I guess, because I can't recall offhand what was involved in previous instances, but I know what I'm dealing with tonight.

I'm not really sure why, but lately I've been reading a lot of NBA (basketball) related articles, rankings and lists. Back in the 90's, I was an obsessive fan, but these days my hoops dabbling is occasional at best. Anyway though, tonight I was reading about the NBA in the 70's, which got me to thinking about the ABA (American Basketball Association) which then tripped my mind to the great Nike Roswell Rayguns commercial from 2002. The Rayguns being a fictional ABA team populated by then-current NBA players, most notably Vince "Dr. Funk" Carter. Great high-concept commercial, and being a graphic-design enthusiast, I have always loved the Rayguns' logo:

So, I did a bit of googling to see if there had ever been any Rayguns merchandise. Lo and behold, I came across this article, dated January 24, 2013. Last year, Nike released a set of Rayguns-themed retro shoes. So very recent, and yet I sensed before even checking...so far away. The market for collectible basketball shoes is insane. The going prices are certifiable, and I have yet to become wealthy. It may not have even made a difference had I not been a year too late, but I still felt like a cruelly twisted victim here.

(Just to note - I'm joking in my use of words like "cruel" and "victim" - this is intended purely in good fun. May pain is real but knowingly ridiculous.)

But because I'm a glutton for punishment, I subjected myself to an eBay search. Among many listings of unsurprisingly pricey kicks, I find these beauties:

NIKE BARKLEY POSITE MAX PRM ALL STAR 2013 RAYGUN AREA 72

That's not the actual pair listed in the item, but it's the same model. Wild, mesmerizing color scheme. There are two pairs left in my size, Buy It Now for $334.95. A sane person would shake their head and move on with practical resignation. But I actually passed a moment considering the possibility of spending money that I don't have to buy this, something that I absolutely don't need.

And here's the kicker (pun intended! as always) - I would literally wear them. Keeping a pair of great shoes locked away in a hermetically-sealed vault is counter intuitive to me. It would be like recovering the bodies of extraterrestrials from a crashed ship and storing them underground, public denials and all. These babies need to walk some streets.

I love interesting, limited-edition or deluxe things. I love aliens. And there is a nearly-forgotten part of me that never completely died, that longingly drools over cool basketball shoes. These kicks are all of those things in one, and I want them so bad that it almost hurts. That's so pathetic, but it's true. If I were a wealthy man, I would buy a pair and wear them on a UFO pilgrimage(s). Just one of those things that I would get a kick out of doing.

Also, I've been listening to Dido's No Angel album while typing this, because the song "Here With Me" was what played over the credits of the WB show Roswell. I should probably make a playlist for that UFO pilgrimage. That'd be cool.