May 30, 2004
Mars: Fascination Present, Anxieties Past
NASA's Spirit and Opportunity rovers continue to be our avatars on Mars.
WNYC's Radio Lab delves into fantasias of anxiety focused on the Red Planet. Listen to the original 1938 broadcast of the radio drama "The War of the Worlds" by Orson Welles' Mercury Theatre, which caused panics when listeners thought they were listening to news of a real invasion, re-enactments of listener reactions from the 1938 and subsequent scares, and even parts of Jeff Wayne's groovy 1978 WotW rock opera!
The poster illustration above is from the classic 1958 film version of War of the Worlds, produced by science fiction disaster master George Pal in glorious Technicolor.
Science fiction author, digital rights activist and boingboing.net contributor Cory Doctorow just read Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars Trilogy.
Here's an ultimate WotW fan site.
Of course, there's always the 1898 novel that started it all: The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells.
May 22, 2004
Pet Architecture: PATH station, two
Back at the WTC PATH station a week ago. This time, I rode in from Jersey City, my first time taking the trip around The Bathtub; I described the experience on Worldchanging while posting about last week's New York Times Magazine feature on four alternate designs for Ground Zero.
The construction I saw a few weeks ago is complete. Here is the small result. No clear indication to me of what this building is meant for.
A side view, looking into the PATH terminal. The terminal has an invitingly raw feel, as if you're looking into the substructure of the city (which is only appropriate, given the giant skyscraper foundation sitting just outside) as well as the grandure of a large open space within a built setting.
Here's how this structure is situated in relation to the PATH terminal pet architecture I noted on April 18.
May 13, 2004
Abu Ghraib apologists: Just shut up!
As I am more or less inarticulate with dismay on the Iraq war disaster, the video horror, the photos (well, you could get me going on issues involving representation of the Other, the weird tourist-photo, trophy-wielding iconography of the images, but that is all intellectual distancing, isn't it), it is fortunate that more expressive, more practiced, and much better known writers are saying things I'd like to say.
Such as Neal Pollack in The Stranger:
Now, my friends, I give you the elected vice president of the United States, Joseph Lieberman:
"Those who were responsible for killing 3,000 Americans on September 11, 2001, never apologized. Those who have killed hundreds of Americans in uniform in Iraq working to liberate Iraq and protect our security have never apologized. And those who murdered and burned and humiliated four Americans in Falluja a while ago never received an apology from anybody."
Oh, Senator Lieberman. How do I tell thee to shut up? Let me count the ways. First, not a single person currently in Iraq, despite what the orangutan masses might think, had anything to do with 9/11, with the possible exception of Ahmad Chalabi. Second, do soldiers on either side of an armed conflict have to apologize for killing one another? If that's the case, then we've got a lot of condolence notes to send out. The third point you made is a nonsense verse, so we'll let it pass. But overall, Senator, you've lost your Joementum, and with it your public-speaking privileges.
Senator Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut, shut up!
(With thanks to marjorie)
Breastfeeding Offends Ferragamo
New York City, for all it's self-aware transgressiveness, has a remarkable streak of parochialism. This is probably all about keeping tourists on Fifth Avenue comfy and ready to spend—I'm sure Ferragamo would like to clothe as many breasts as possible. From boingboing:
An artwork (video) by my friend Amy Jenkins, featuring her daughter breastfeeding and falling asleep, [SecretMuseum note: wearing adorable Ferragamo shoes called "Audrey," which is also the name of the artist's daughter] has been called "distasteful" and removed from an exhibition at Salvatore Ferragamo's 5th Avenue store. (Ferragamo originally invited Amy to create the piece for their store's art gallery on the second floor.)...Amy would love to show this piece elsewhere, unfortunately it was made specially for their 42" widescreen monitor (a costly item that she doesn't own!) Her hope is that "The Audrey Samsara" will soon be shown at a more open-minded venue.
May 12, 2004
Eco Disaster Porn: Let's Go!
Although I enjoy the curmudgeonly rants of environmentalists like Bill McKibben, I'm still pleased with the green crowd's creative response to The Day After Tomorrow.
In case you're not caught up on the pop culture media press, TDAT is an upcoming disaster film. Rapid climate change, indeed! In TDAT, during a few short epic Hollywood weeks, tornados destroy Los Angeles (the Hollywood sign is turned into toothpicks, natch), a tidal wave engulfs New York, the temperature drops, and then a hell of a lot of snow falls, leading to scenes like this one:
Our heros exploring what I presume to be the 42nd Street Library, which is done up like the dacha in Dr. Zhivago.
I was resistant at first. I had to set aside my irritation at New York getting destroyed, AGAIN, in the movies. This is a Roland Emmerich film, and he took entirely too much glee in populating New York City with nebbishy stereotypes in Independence Day, and then let aliens destroy The Big Apple.
I got over it. New York City always gets it in the movies. And, despite 9/11, we almost never get it in real life, compared to London, Baghdad, Sarjevo, Moscow, or Dublin.
The destruction of New York City is THE universal cinema cliche for "death of The Cosmopolis by mega-event." May the Statue of Liberty live on for decades more as our time's Ozymandian symbol of the folly of human endeavor.
Then, a few folks, such as my Worldchanging editor Alex Steffen, raised a call to actively use the film to raise consciousness about climate change.
I was skeptical at first. Not because of the bad science, but because it's a Roland Emmerich film. The guy made bombastic hash of one of the best all time science fiction novels, and classic sf films, War of the Worlds.
However, finally, I come down on the side of TDAT. Why?
Because it is tiring to be so earnest that one can't simply enjoy pop culture. Roland Emmerich hacked H.G. Wells to pieces artistically, and all I got was this aesthetic headache.
While I worked at Greenpeace in DC, in '89-90, The Hunt For Red October came out. Most of the office went to see it opening night, organized by the Nuclear Free Seas campaign staff. Why? Because it was FUN. We laughed, a few of us groaned over Sean Connery's Scottish Russian accent, we had drinks afterwards.
One of our more wonky campaign issues made it to the big screen, in a completely glossy, over-the-top, Hollywood extravaganza, with handsome actors and high technology. Life was good.
So, now, activists have the same opportunity to see themselves moved from the fringe to the center on a complex issue, thanks to American big-budget movie excess. In their dead serious ways, NRDC gets it, Rainforest Action Network gets it, Worldwatch gets it.
Greenpeace, unsurprisingly, takes an especially media-rich approach.
And in delicious irony, this movie is financed by Fox, the Official Vertically Integrated Transnational Media Empire of the Bush Administration. Apparently Fox was not prepared for the uses that enviros would make of this movie in the face of Bush's stolid, anti-science, ideologically-driven refusal to act on climate change.
It comes out May 28. Let's go to the movies!
May 09, 2004
Peter Jackson and Ray Harryhausen
After seeing Jason and the Argonauts last Thursday, Margaret and I were discussing the demise of Dynamation-style effects—that is, aside from the occasional homage to Jason's fighting skeletons, such as Sam Raimi's Army of Darkness, and the second Spy Kids movie (I only saw the preview, I swear).
We agreed, though, that Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings Ents were quite Harryhausenesque. Was this intentional?
Today I googled up the following from a post-Fellowship intervew with Jackson:
I've had a lifelong passion to make a fantasy adventure film, because when I was younger I loved Ray Harryhausen's movies, as well as stuff like Jason and the Argonauts, and the original King Kong. I've always had a desire to make one of those fantasy adventure type films, and they don't do those movies much any more.
Peculiarly satisfying to think that Jackson, inspired by Harryhausen, has carried on the latter's visual style in the movies, and now is remaking King Kong—which was the movie that inspired Harryhausen to go into special effects.
I have a soft spot for the scenes in The Two Towers where the Ents destroy Isengard–really, they are right out of a playbook for Glen Canyon monkeywrenchers.
May 07, 2004
All this for $10.00
Last night: Complete, unabashed fun. Margaret and I attended a showing of a restored print of the stop-motion (or Dynamation) classic, Jason and the Argonauts at the Walter Reade, with an appearance by the special effects master, Ray Harryhausen.
It was astonishing to be in an auditorium full of other people who love this stuff as much as I do—that old science fiction/fantasy persecution complex, I guess—and satisfying to give Mr. Harryhausen the standing ovations he has earned.
I imagined I could feel the relief as each of us sank into our seats to watch this battered classic with a combination of childhood nostalgia and adult appreciation of craft. I'm not wistful about my childhood; I remember how I escaped into movies like Jason. It felt the same way last night, ducking out for a few hours from the U.S. political mess, the post 9/11 city, and the hardships of the economic bust, into this charming, dated fantasy land.
(Having attended a preview of Troy earlier in the week, I will say that male pulchritude in the B movies has really improved since the mid-60's.)
Harryhausen gave a Q&A after the screening, mentioning that he'd been talking with Peter Jackson about the latter's King Kong remake. He was gracious, saying that he was sure Jackson would bring a unique, talented and worthy vision to the endeavor. Still, he observed, "there's only one Kong. You can't remake innocence."
Harryhausen showed off two original Dynamation models: one of the fighting skeletons from Jason ("That's a Spanish pickle fork. The original sword got lost."), and Medusa from Clash of the Titans. Happy sighs from the audience.
To my left, a young hip creative type in muttonchops and his girlfriend were curled up together, beaming. He'd gotten a question in early on.
Ending the Q&A, Richard Pena, Program Director of the Film Society of Lincoln Center, introduced Kathryn Crosby, sitting in the audience towards the back of the auditorium. More delight and applause. As Kathryn Grant, she played Princess Parisa in The 7th Voyage of Sinbad, spending most of the movie shrunk down to Barbie-doll size. She looked great. As the event broke up, she made her way down to the stage, where she chatted with Harryhausen and helped him wrap up Medusa.
If you missed this, there's another chance: Harryhausen and Jason will appear again in the NYC area, on Friday May 14, as part of the 3rd Annual Sci Fi & Fantasy Film Weekend at Loew's Jersey City.
Worldchanging update
Here are some of my recent entries on Worldchanging:
They're Young, They're Hip, They...Garden
Wedding Bell Greens: Highly amusing for those who've known me for a long time--I'm not a wedding afficionado. It was all about finding an excuse to use that image! And it got lots of comments, so clearly folks enjoyed it.
Independent Journalism: Back to Iraq 3.0
Underground Literature--free books in the Mexico City subway
Fresh Kills: An Unnatural Context