- I’m taking a break from studying to write this, but I’m also watching the first episode of Game of Thrones. It’s been so well received by critics and viewers alike I figured I had to at least give it a try. I’m not too big into the medieval fantasy stuff, but it’s certainly not something I would shy away from. The first thing that struck me from the opening episode is how nice it looks, probably on account of Tim Van Patten (he directed the first 2 episodes; he’s also done a bunch of Sopranos and Boardwalk Empire) and whomever he hired as a DP. It’s a beautiful looking show, if anything else.
- An analysis of why Blue Velvet is so fascinating:
“Watched again over 25 years later, Blue Velvet looks even more bizarre than ever, a disorientating palimpsest of moods and eras and genres. It’s an intensely 80s film in many ways: MacLachlan in his white jeans and shirt looks as 80s as Michael J Fox in Back to the Future. But perhaps only the tape-deck playing In Dreams signals this period explicitly. The rest of the time it could, of course, be a Forties noir. His small town is quaintly known as Lumberton, on account of the local logging business, and perhaps we are supposed to assume the lumber is transported via the hugely wide river that we see in one shot – it looks as huge as the Charles in Boston. This little place is nonetheless sufficiently cosmopolitan to support a smart night spot called, enigmatically, The Slow Club, where a live band and singer perform ballads.”
Here’s a watercolor I found on DeviantArt of Isabella Rossellini’s character from the film:
- Unfortunately, Obama’s new budget is putting Mars exploration out of reach (far, far out of reach):
“While the overall proposal is to give NASA $17.7 billion, a decrease of 0.3 percent or $59 million less than 2012, the steepest cuts — a near 39 percent decline — hit plans for robotic exploration of Mars.
The budget did not specifically mention the ExoMars collaboration with the European Space Agency, which was to send an orbiter to the red planet in 2016 followed by a pair of rovers in 2018 ahead of plan to return samples to Earth in the 2020s.
However, scientists familiar with the proposal have said the level of financial cuts would likely spell the end of the NASA-ESA deal.
The president’s budget said that “support for robotic exploration of Mars is reduced following the launch in 2012 of the multi-billion dollars Mars Science Laboratory,” a sophisticated rover nicknamed Curiosity that should land on the red planet in August.”
- There’s an excellent collection of poetry (among other things) at Guernica. Here’s one from Daniel Bourne called “The Last Bestiary”:
When all animals have died
even the ones in booksgrow frightened, their eyes
like wormholes. Their spinesnot so much broken, but the hide
abraded and peeling. The guttersfilled with debris,
plucked feathers, old yellow tape.No one was there
to hear their last song.And in between the last pages
were two old brown leavesspeaking in a language
only other brown leaves would know.
-Sonny
