The Fredösphere

I like DesignObserver, I really do, but sometimes they play to the stereotype.  Here they are, analyzing Spirograph:

The Spirograph demonstrates, if not promotes, the belief that design can be formulaic and that good design has something to do with simplicity and objectivity. However, qualitative aspects such as emotion, irrationality, and instinct are largely missing. The patterns themselves make no direct reference to a user’s nationality, ethnicity, social class, or gender. Choices are officially confined to color and template combinations.

...and inevitably, the Tet Offensive also gets a mention.  Only near the end does the essay get back on track.  I wonder what ominous visions of militarism one could see in Major Matt Mason (one of my favorite childhood toys) if one went looking?  I loved the space crawler, which one could mount atop the moon base and use as a crane (since it had a winch in its tail).  Don't make my mistake and confuse it with the crater crawler, another toy I owned but which is not of the MMMM (Major Matt Mason Mythos).  Don't forget, James Lileks has beautifully deconstructed the MMM Big Little Book.  Beat me to it--dang.

Labels: Design, sci-fi

The title says it all:  The Revolution Will Not Be Pasteurized.  (Hat tip 2Blowhards.)

Meanwhile...

Rene's Apple will have what Ann Althouse is having:

I'd rather see a show where philosophers descend on a woman with a perfect exterior and rip into her for her intellectual and spiritual failings, put her on some kind of internally transformative regime, and turn her into a human being of substance. Can we get that?

...and furthermore...

Man Babies.  Plus, have a look at Nazis on the Moon.

Labels: Culture, fun, Futurism, movie, VideoClip

I've said it before, and I become more convinced of its correctness by the day:  some of the most entertaining literature of any genre is found among the Advice to the Young Writer.  Most choice among this type is the Fiction Magazine Submission Guidelines.  Such guidelines are de facto distillations of all the entertainment value (which is to say, unintended entertainment value) of the bottom 90% of the slush pile.  These editors do the miserable work of reading the drek; we reap the rewards.

Today, I direct your attention to Clarkesworld Magazine, an online outlet for the big three--fantasy, science fiction and horror.  These are among the types of stories the editors list as "hard-sells" (as they can't quite bring themselves to state unequivocally that they will never print one of these):

stories in which a milquetoast civilian government is depicted as the sole obstacle to either catching some depraved criminal or to an uncomplicated military victory

talking cats

 talking swords

stories that depend on some vestigial belief in Judeo-Christian mythology in order to be frightening (i.e., Cain and Abel are vampires, the End Times are a' comin', Communion wine turns to Christ's literal blood and it's HIV positive [yeeee-ikes! -ed.], Satan's gonna getcha, etc.)

stories about young kids playing in some field and discovering ANYTHING. (a body, an alien craft, Excalibur, ANYTHING).

stories about the stuff we all read in Scientific American three months ago

stories where the Republicans, or Democrats, or Libertarians, or the Spartacist League, etc. take over the world and either save or ruin it

your AD&D game

"funny" stories that depend on, or even include, puns

sexy vampires, wanton werewolves, or lusty pirates

stories that take place within an artsy-fartsy bohemia as written by an author who has clearly never experienced one

The guidelines are not restricted to Thou Shalt Not invectives; here's what thou shalt include in the cover letter that accompanies your submission:

[I]f you send us a lusty pirate story and happen to BE a lusty pirate, mention that.

Dang, I could read this stuff all day.  Editors are geniuses!

Labels: Fiction

In an earlier post I commented with pleasant surprise on a Swedish composer's attempt to create an opera on a science fiction theme.  Commenters assured me this was hardly the first composer to attempt such a feat.  Daniel Wolf cited as ancient an example as Haydn, which impressed me to no end.  Those of you familiar with my Haydn animus won't be surprised my mental picture of Haydn as a space opera-tor is that of the salt vampire of Planet M-113.

Anyhoo, I'm pleased to add another work to this growing list:  Jacques Offenbach's adaptation of Jules Verne's Le Voyage dans la Lune.  Wikipedia has the details, including a wonderful photo showing costumes and a set from the original lush (but to the modern eye, goofy) production.  Kudos is due (hey!  I conjugates that verb real good!) to io9 for dredging up this information (especially considering that deep historical perspective is not what you expect from a Gawker-related site) in a terribly interesting roundup of info on Georges Méliès' groundbreaking 1902 SF film A Trip to the Moon, which itself was recycled in a trippy music video by The Smashing Pumpkins called Tonight, Tonight:



And I suppose I'll have to comment on The Man that Fell to Earth if I ever get up the courage to watch it.

Space.  And opera.  What else have I overlooked?

Labels: Composition, Culture, Futurism, movie, Opera, sci-fi, VideoClip

I am so looking forward to Prince Caspian.  First, because it's my favorite of the seven Narnia books.  Indeed, the opening sequence--when the Pevensie children dig through ruins to learn that their own castle, and even their own past lives, are now relegated to half-forgotten legends--is the spookiest, most melancholy thing I've ever read in all of fantasy literature.  It is my sword Rhindon; with it I killed the Wolf.  Ooooh, yes!

I'm also hoping this movie will not disappoint as the previous one did.  I'd like to see a little more compelling performances and a little less cringe-making dialog (but the trailer does not inspire a lot of hope along those lines).  I'd also prefer no more of the kind of scene we saw in the first movie, where Aslan comes to the underground lake, and the White Witch emerges from the water wearing little more than stiletto heels and a thick layer of gold paint, and I'm like, whoa, dude, I don't remember this being in the book.

Watch the trailer and hear our hero introduce himself:  "Ah im Printz Gespian!"  What's with the vaguely continental accent?  Is it an artifact of the trailer, or does he talk like that all the time?  Here, the ugly head of linguistic nit-picking opens its Pandora's box:  how is it that 20th century English is spoken in Narnia--over a period lasting many centuries?  Did the filmmakers decide to throw in a little weirdness in the Narnian accents to slightly cover their hienies on the issue of linguistic drift?  I really doubt it, but it's fun to imagine they did.

Labels: movie, VideoClip

Via SF Signal, it's High Noon exactly as you remember it.  Well, as I remember it anyway:



Via Ionarts (who got it from Boing Boing, who got it from Laughing Squid), it's a cat playing a theremin.  I definitely detect the influence of Messiaen, although I'm thinking not so much the Turangalîla Symphonie as some of the more pointillistic moments in Des Canyons aux Etoiles:

Labels: fun, movie, VideoClip

Frankly, if you're going to email me asking for my help and you can't even be bothered to do me the courtesy of placing your apostrophes correctly, don't expect me to call 911 for you.

Here are two excellent a cappella groups to sample.  First, via A Capella News, it's Naturally 7:



This group is so hot, they make their tour bus burst into flames.  Meanwhile, Chicago A Cappella is equally caliente--listen to samples of them singing Mata del ánima sola by Antonio Esévez, Son de la loma by Miguel Matamoros, arr. J. Castillo, and Salseo by Oscar Galian.

My hoary custom of playing Bach's St. Matthew Passion every Good Friday has gradually given way to Golijov's La Pasion Segun San Marco.  I switched because I figured the hot Latin rhythms would be more compelling to my kids ears (plus, they have enough Spanish that they can translate most of it).  What I didn't anticipate is the way the music sets their feet a-dancing.  We compromise, and I make them wait a decent interval, then let them cut loose.  Watching them dance to the Death of God is disconcerting, but their urges are innocent and I think it would be wrong to suppress them completely.

Labels: Choral, SoundClip, VideoClip, vocal