The Fredösphere

I watched Koyaanisqatsi straight through for the first time Monday night, because Alex Ross said we had to.  I won't attempt to add much to what has already been said about it, except to marvel and the accomplishment.  As my friend Victor observed, the making of the film was such a drawn-out affair that the hair styles change from scene to scene.

Not that human figures are a major presence.  Indeed, when you finally see your first real live person, it is a bit of a shock.  Later, the teeming masses do take over, and of course man's handiwork, and its effect on the globe, is the whole point of the film.

I was surprised by the extent to which the scenes of industrial metastasis did not horrify me.  Maybe I'm just older and mellower, but those vast ponds filled with sickly liquid seemed to have a weird beauty.  Is it liberal of me to see the good side in anything, even chemical wastes?  Wait, don't answer that; I don't want to know.  Nevertheless, we see the danger in this kind of film making:  to aim a camera at something is to declare it a work of art.  It's a bit like Milton's dilemma in Paradise Lost.  If you devote a few thousand lines of poetry to the story of Satan, your readers will start feeling sympathy for him.  Or it's like what happens when the newspapers spill gallons of ink over the latest serial killer:  soon the fiend starts getting offers of marriage.

Speaking of Alex Ross (whose summer blogging hiatus has ended):  check out this unclear self-portrait from his post of August 18.  The very disturbing news is that, as best I can make out, he and have near-identical faces.  Folks, this is a disaster.  Once before I met someone who sorta, kinda resembled me, and the resulting metaphysical vertigo took days to dissipate.  (The only thing worse would be to run into someone with the same name.  Since my middle name is Gero -- yes, Gero -- it ain't gonna happen.)

Sorry Alex, but this space-time continuum is not big enough for the two of us.  One of us is simply going to have to take one for the team.  I have something to live for; how about you?  I suggest you put something by Puccini on the stereo as you contemplate your next move.