...Well, Flip - Flop, You Don't Stop...I'm listening to the POTUS lie like a cheap rug on NPR; for the first time, dude's admitting that the US "is not winning the war in Iraq" (but he still can't bring himself to utter the "L" word)...where's a staged aircraft carrier when you really need one, yo? Last November proved that the three card Monte approach to the immutable truth is no longer working "Things Fall Apart", as the Chinua Achebe novel goes, and nowhere is that fact more evident than what has resulted from dude's legislative shenanigans in regards to the effects that corporate set-asides, war and our nation's junkie-like fix for crude oil has been-- a threat to every organism that gets it's nourishment from chlorophyll...don't squirm, I'm going somewhere with this, son......the other day I was reading this environmental piece in the LA Times about the politics surrounding our nation's green laws and how the recent shift in political power "*doesn't neccessarily bode well*":http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-enviro18dec18,0,4070500.story?coll=la-home-nation for the tree-hugging lot among us because this guy's approach to environmental policies and the effects of global warming reminds me of a bad disco song: Burn baby, burn... what does this have to do with music, you ask? Well, all of the above got me thinking about a piece I put up elsewhere a while back that began like this:"I just peeped a DVD of "The Day After Tomorrow" which came out last year and quickly faded from theaters. I went to see it before it disappeared but I do recall tripping off of how science shite I'd read years before had finally made it onto the big screen. The flick reminded me of articles and books that I'd read years beforehand about ice ages, paleo-anthropology...When you look at all of the empirical data we have it would seem like a no-brainer for us to start getting serious about alternative fuel sources/ using mass transit but alas, we haven't...at least not yet and still the earth gets warmer"...how is this music related, you ask? Well, the post I'm referring to above pointed to the movie Koyaanisqatsi that a hippie friend of mine turned me on to back at university. Directed by Ron Fricke and released back in 1983, about ten years prior to my introduction to it, the film is a dialogue-free, time-elapsed expository journey to locales all over the globe that are sometimes bucolic, sometimes barren but definitely reveals places buried deep in hinterlands all over the world; places that SUV's are designed to roam in but don't-- the visceral experience is sonically augmented with music composed by Philip Glass ...later the second chapter to that film, called Baraka (1993), was re-screened at the Egyptian Theater in Hollywood, so I scurried on down to check it the way it was supposed to be seen...the soundtracks in both take the whole visual experience to another level...both of these films will make you think twice about how much our use of dinosaur-juice is loosening our grasp on the evolutionary Heavyweight title and the natural resources; the things we're gonna lose that ain't ever coming back...when's the last time you seen a (real) Neanderthal...that's what I thought, yo......Love your Mother: The word "Koyaanisqatsi" is a Hopi Indian noun for "life out of balance; crazy life; life in turmoil; life disintegrating; a state of life that calls for another way of living"...I like that last one as it holds more promise than the definition before it...here's a sequence from Koyaanisqatsi:...and here's one from Baraka......Further: "*Check out that Chronicles piece here*":http://chronicridicule.blogspot.com/2005/06/koyaanisqatsi-your-future-begins-day.html
eshep says
great film. i got to see philip glass and orchestra play the score live during a showing of this film in boston. a neat experience.
but yeah, this film will surely put you in your place (i feel incredibly humbled each time i see it) and make you think of the effect that your actions have upon the environment.
sugarbaby says
I would also recommend "An Inconvenient Truth". Its all the imagery of "Koyaanisqatsi" combined with the sense of impending doom from "The Day After Tomorrow", all set to a surprisingly lively narration by Al Gore. No Philip Glass soundtrack or super-tornados tearing up L.A., but plenty of global warming factoids so you can impress your friends with your knowledge of just how screwed we are.
nicki says
More than just a reflection on the environment, I always felt incredibly small and hopelessly lost watching my fellow earthlings scurry, scurry, scurry, and consume...truly, all is out of balance, within and without.
Amazingly enough, the film gets a decent rotation on some of the cable movie channels.
mickimicki says
Sometimes your strength can be your greatest weakness. The US is just such a damn vast slab of land that people may tend to forget that there is _still_ much more, and also, that even a big country can be destroyed. And isn't it convenient that the "detrimental effects" of the fuel-gushing, air-conditioned lifestyle first showed in other parts of the planet. You see, Europe is small, and the results of our actions on the environment have often been all too obvious in our own habitat, cf the "London Fog" which was mostly coal smoke from factories after industrialisation... or the fact that 20 years ago there were no more fish in the Rhine (now there are, because actions were taken).... America had Katrina now, so possible, just possibly, more people might get some consciousness of what's going on.
Sureshot says
My only experience of Philip Glass is an Aphex Twin mix of 'Heroes' he recorded with David Bowie. This post has opened my eyes and ears to much more. Thanks for that.
Truth says
I cant believe I've never seen Koyaanisqatsi. I dont even have a good excuse as to why.
As for Baraka...everyone needs to see that film. First saw it when I 22 and a senior in college. It had a profound impact. Have it on DVD and have the soundtrack, too.
I spent a couple years being really fascinated with video art and filmmaking. A lot of that was because I saw Baraka -- which opened my eyes to the possiblities of telling stories and expressing in a video format without dialogue.
Finally, another great documentary with a heavy dose of Phillip Glass is "One Day in September" - about the 1972 Munich Olympics.
ROCKNROLLPIMP1 says
i have actually seen The Day After Tomorrow,which for me is strange since i have seen maybe only 6 movies in the past two years.
i am stuck on concert performances and music docs.
kat3260 says
such a monumental topic I don't even know where to begin...I have the best of intentions, but when I really examine my behavior, it is painfully obvious that I am just as much part of the problem. I don't drive a gas-guzzling SUV, but I run up and down the roads in my Kia with the best of them. I buy disposable things and clutter up the landfills. I recycle, but not diligently. I guess it _is_ New Year's resolution time...sigh
Mike the Knife says
Quick science-drop: The director of “Koyaanisqatsi” - and its two equally provocative Phillip Glass-scored sequels, 1988’s “Powwaqatsi” (Life in Transformation) and 2002’s “Naqoyqatsi” (Life as War) - was Godfrey Reggio. I’m a major fan of all three films and the Glass soundtracks (even saw him and his group do the music live in concert) - and have the trilogy on DVD . As for Ron Fricke, he was the cinematographer and co-writer of “Koyaanisqatsi,” and followed that up by directing and editing “Baraka,” which, as Crash and others will attest, is a pretty wonderful film with many similarities to the “Qatsi” trilogy. All four of these films - and “An Inconvenient Truth” (thanx for the reminder, Sugarbaby) - are worth your time. BTW , just yesterday, I was just listening to the title track to “Liquid Days” - a Glass collaboration with David Byrne and the Roches, among others. Stunning.
Girlcrawl says
Just discovered this post, and all I can add to the superb comments above is ditto! A brilliant, spectacularly important post Crash (wish it were required MOG reading), and well-done!
...Well, Flip - Flop, You Don't Stop...I'm listening to the POTUS lie like a cheap rug on NPR; for the first time, dude's admitting that the US "is not winning the war in Iraq" (but he still can't bring himself to utter the "L" word)...where's a staged aircraft carrier when you really need one, yo? Last November proved that the three card Monte approach to the immutable truth is no longer working "Things Fall Apart", as the Chinua Achebe novel goes, and nowhere is that fact more evident than what has resulted from dude's legislative shenanigans in regards to the effects that corporate set-asides, war and our nation's junkie-like fix for crude oil has been-- a threat to every organism that gets it's nourishment from chlorophyll...don't squirm, I'm going somewhere with this, son......the other day I was reading this environmental piece in the LA Times about the politics surrounding our nation's green laws and how the recent shift in political power "*doesn't neccessarily bode well*":http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-enviro18dec18,0,4070500.story?coll=la-home-nation for the tree-hugging lot among us because this guy's approach to environmental policies and the effects of global warming reminds me of a bad disco song: Burn baby, burn... what does this have to do with music, you ask? Well, all of the above got me thinking about a piece I put up elsewhere a while back that began like this:"I just peeped a DVD of "The Day After Tomorrow" which came out last year and quickly faded from theaters. I went to see it before it disappeared but I do recall tripping off of how science shite I'd read years before had finally made it onto the big screen. The flick reminded me of articles and books that I'd read years beforehand about ice ages, paleo-anthropology...When you look at all of the empirical data we have it would seem like a no-brainer for us to start getting serious about alternative fuel sources/ using mass transit but alas, we haven't...at least not yet and still the earth gets warmer"...how is this music related, you ask? Well, the post I'm referring to above pointed to the movie Koyaanisqatsi that a hippie friend of mine turned me on to back at university. Directed by Ron Fricke and released back in 1983, about ten years prior to my introduction to it, the film is a dialogue-free, time-elapsed expository journey to locales all over the globe that are sometimes bucolic, sometimes barren but definitely reveals places buried deep in hinterlands all over the world; places that SUV's are designed to roam in but don't-- the visceral experience is sonically augmented with music composed by Philip Glass ...later the second chapter to that film, called Baraka (1993), was re-screened at the Egyptian Theater in Hollywood, so I scurried on down to check it the way it was supposed to be seen...the soundtracks in both take the whole visual experience to another level...both of these films will make you think twice about how much our use of dinosaur-juice is loosening our grasp on the evolutionary Heavyweight title and the natural resources; the things we're gonna lose that ain't ever coming back...when's the last time you seen a (real) Neanderthal...that's what I thought, yo......Love your Mother: The word "Koyaanisqatsi" is a Hopi Indian noun for "life out of balance; crazy life; life in turmoil; life disintegrating; a state of life that calls for another way of living"...I like that last one as it holds more promise than the definition before it...here's a sequence from Koyaanisqatsi:...and here's one from Baraka......Further: "*Check out that Chronicles piece here*":http://chronicridicule.blogspot.com/2005/06/koyaanisqatsi-your-future-begins-day.html
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