Loving the alien

[brainpanhandler]

Lost in Space- Aimee Mann

the sound of saturn’s rings

Does Pluto count?

[compared2what?]

Anything Disney counts as interplanetary. I had never heard that Aimee Mann song, which was lovely. I think, though I should listen to it again, that she is using the metaphor to call attention to her own un-occupancy of interpersonal, rather than interplanetary, spaces. (ie -- it's about lost time, it's about inner space, it's about her dissociation from the human race).

I only listened to it once because I was thinking (or feeling, or whatever it is you do when taking in music) hmm, that guitar-sound, again, as on the Magnolia soundtrack, is so very much in the style of George Harrison, and that's unusual -- he was a great player, but not an influential one. I also heard Sgt. Pepper's influences but not Pet Sounds influences, and thus wondered whether Jon Brion had gotten tired of producing it halfway through.

Upon looking up the credits, I saw that the producer (and I assume the Harrison-esque guitarist) is Michael Lockwood, Lisa Marie Presley's husband, who is, needless to say, like her, a member of the Church I am going to refer to as: Blhalahblhblahyadayadentvbhfiogy.

So then I freaked out, because I just could not bear it if all the dominoes in that line of artists (OMG! Michael Penn? Sean Penn? Fiona Apple? Who can I trust???) began knocking each other into a cult. Especially if it meant I might have to reconsider the movies of Mr. PTA (the young prodidg-ay, comin' straight outta the Valley, so you better make way), which have extra-special personal meaning to me. So I had to go search all databases for signs of covert membership, which I didn't find. Of course. You almost never do.

Um....I'm sorry. Did you say something? I got lost in space.

[compared2what?]

Okay. I am now back in the conventional space-time continuum.

What are our parameters here on the interplanetary art thread?

I'm now in the middle of an intensive unscheduled course of Total Bowie Immersion, for which I totally blame you. Although I have taken that course electively a number of times over the years, and don't doubt that if you had not triggered it, sooner or later something else would have. I've also had Kubrick on my mind, actually, because I felt his spirit in so much of There Will Be Blood, and...I'm not cinephiliac enough to notice the allusions one movie is making to another movie, typically, unless they're really there. So I feel fairly confident in saying it had some conscious allusions to Kubrick.

But only fairly. After seeing it, I went to see if the internet could enlighten me on the matter, and was surprised that there was quite a bit of discussion board consensus that the ending was an obvious reference to A Clockwork Orange. Mostly because I had thought the ending was an obvious reference to 2001. And you can't get more interplanetary than that, so for the purposes of this thread, I am going to continue thinking it.

Those Saturn sounds were very trippy. It was like listening to God playing the theramin. Or maybe like waking up to find a day that broke up your mind and destroyed your notion of circular time. On the basis of the loose association that provides, I am going to posit the provisional premise that all interplanetary art is at least in part an exploration of whether the eye in the sky is evil or beneficent. I'm not sure I believe in it, but it's a starting point. Also an excuse to shove this onto the syllabus:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDm3qoDaGo8

Hey! The fan whose hands the devil engaged in idly putting together the video for the album track did me the favor of putting a planet image in there. Thanks, idle fan!

And, although there is almost certainly an earlier reference somewhere, I always think of this as the official opening theme for the All-American cheery, brisk All-American futurism part of the contemporary space age in popular culture. So I'm adding it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOIIaGoGqHY

Hm. I've loved that song long, but never given it a moment's thought until just now. I guess the Tornadoes are counting on the Hollywood Western git-along, hee-ya, whip-crackin' rhythm to evoke "frontier," but listening to it in the here and now, it's a little eerie how much the rest of it sounds like their main influences were music-hall organ-via-Michael-Penn (via-the-Beatles) marries to the as-yet unheard the sounds of Saturn. Wormholes. The only explanation.

And, of course:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D67kmFzSh_o

and:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhSYbRiYwTY

Wow. I wonder what prompted the pre-lapsarian playfulness to evaporate so totally in such a short amount of time. Though it's nice to see the mime training get a little work out in the first one. But seriously. The arorangement changes, and that's really all that does, except EVERYTHING.

I can't remember what commercial used the familiar version -- I think maybe Schweppes Ginger Ale -- but I do remember thinking: Why are they advertising their soda-pop with a song that could not be more drenched in suicidality and alienation? My point being: The first and original rendition doesn't have that vibe at all. The reverse, I'd say.

I'd also like to note for the record that in about a year "Space Oddity" will have been in a dead heat with "Satisfaction" for: Best song by a British artist of the '60s that refers to men's shirts in a commercial context for three decades. If it's still undecided in 2019, I say they have to go into sudden death overtime. Which used to be called suicide overtime, although I haven't heard that used in a long, long while.

I have one more Bowie entry that I think is essential. But I'll save it for later, and toss this into the mix:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSNvdLpLx-0

Because it naturally leads to this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_ifm_Vg5uY

And that's what I hope my interplanetary travel feels like, if I ever do any.

I actually saw them on that tour. At the Spectrum, in Philly. Because that's just how tragically old I am.

[brainpanhandler]

I think, though I should listen to it again, that she is using the metaphor to call attention to her own un-occupancy of interpersonal, rather than interplanetary, spaces. (ie -- it's about lost time, it's about inner space, it's about her dissociation from the human race).

Indeed, that's the whole album. I saw her when she toured for this album. I suppose it's a stretch, but that's why I named the thread as I did. Framing a picture is of course itself an expression, this and not this. I learnt that at the university of duh as well and I didn't even manage to matriculate (but I can still use big, fancy words like matriculate )

Blhalahblhblahyadayadentvbhfiogy- those sneaky bastards are everywhere. Lots of interplanetary fodder there.

I have not seen There Will Be Blood yet, but it's on my list. Lewis floored me in Gangs of New York. I did some cursory digging around. Maya Rudolph came up clean as well.

I dunno, does membership in Blhalahblhblahyadayadentvbhfiogy really have to engender distrust. I adore Sea Change by Beck

I see you've posted while I was dickin' around here...

[brainpanhandler]

but listening to it in the here and now, it's a little eerie how much the rest of it sounds like their main influences were music-hall organ-via-Michael-Penn (via-the-Beatles) marries to the as-yet unheard the sounds of Saturn. Wormholes. The only explanation.

LOL. Bingo. My thoughts exactly as I was listening to it which I did before reading your take.

"What are our parameters here on the interplanetary art thread? "

Ah shit, I dunno. It's gotta be art and there has to be some reference to a planet, even a fictional planet or a planet that's no longer an official planet will do.

[erosoplier]

Someone mention "Bowie"?

Ziggy Stardust & the Spiders from Mars - Starman (1972)

David Bowie - Five Years Live 1972

...And it was cold and it rained so I felt like an actor
And I thought of ma and I wanted to get back there
Your face, your race, the way that you talk
I kiss you, youre beautiful, I want you to walk...

[brainpanhandler]

I guess I assumed that I would be able to edit the name of the thread so I started with the tentative something or other until a more refined name suggested itself. I can't seem to find a way to edit the name of the thread. You know how to do that?

[compared2what?]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MmodvpD-Cvs

Oh my god, do I love that song. Also, I suddenly remembered the particular metaphorical tradition in space travel art that it represents.

Wikipedia informs me that it was used in a Vodaphone campaign in 2006. And I've got to say that strikes me as really bad advertising unless what you want is to so vividly remind all your potential customers how great it feels to shoot up that they forget everything they learned about the downside of addiction and spend all their money on drugs instead of your product.

But whatever. It's not my multinational telecommunications conglomerate, and if they want to throw their promotional budget away, I guess that's their affair.

[IanEye]

"What are our parameters here on the interplanetary art thread? "

Ah shit, I dunno. It's gotta be art and there has to be some reference to a planet, even a fictional planet or a planet that's no longer an official planet will do.

[compared2what?]

Erosoplier. you are a star, man. "Starman" was the song I thought was essential but felt too guilty about over-Bowie-ing to include. Plus the Mick Ronson moments in that video are so sweet they almost killed me with love.

The drum opening of "Five Years" also sends me straight to the stratosphere, but in a different way. That's, like, sacred music.

Anyway. Enough about me.

Let the children boogie, dammit.

[brainpanhandler]

Is TFC a known web acronym for too fucking cool, cos I'll get tired of typing too fucking cool on this thread.

[brainpanhandler]

"Starman" was the song I thought was essential but felt too guilty about over-Bowie-ing to include

.

Ditch that feeling C2W. You all have my implicit permission to post just about whatever you like on any thread I start.

If I could figure out how to rename this thread I'd add "or anything Bowie".

[compared2what?]

The Amazing Criswell and friend Mae West on the moon, from the June '55 issue of Spaceway Magazine, illustrating his prediction, contained therein, that they will travel there together at some point following his other prediction that she will be elected President of the United States.



Not sure whether this would have been before or after his turn in Plan 9 from Outer Space. But given the realities of Ed Wood and the rumors about Mae West, and the gender-identity aspects of some of Mr. Bowie's work, I'd say we've got a proto-template for a very rarefied sub-genre.

That that, Mr. Sinatra, you, with your exotic booze and comparatively uptight upper limit on where the air is rarefied.



Of course I'm not serious. The man was a giant among men, and even if I thought otherwise, I'd keep it to myself out of fear that he might rise from the grave and instruct his minions to teach me a lesson, before drugging me and and then dumping my unconscious form onto the steps of Our Lady of Pompeii in the small hours of the morning, so that others might learn from it on their way to work.

I love that she's wearing pearls under her spacesuit. Nice touch, Ms. West. Or, more likely: Nice touch, commercial illustrator of bizarre and formidable talent.

[Joe Hillshoist]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MmodvpD-Cvs

Oh my god, do I love that song. Also, I suddenly remembered the particular metaphorical tradition in space travel art that it represents.

Wikipedia informs me that it was used in a Vodaphone campaign in 2006. And I've got to say that strikes me as really bad advertising unless what you want is to so vividly remind all your potential customers how great it feels to shoot up that they forget everything they learned about the downside of addiction and spend all their money on drugs instead of your product.

But whatever. It's not my multinational telecommunications conglomerate, and if they want to throw their promotional budget away, I guess that's their affair.

You've got a good ear for awesome pop. I think that songs great, even posted it in the video lonks thread a little while back. In fact i think its in the top 5 pop songs ever. Whatever the real inspiration. We should all know Major Tom's a junkie by now.

[compared2what?]

Hell to the yes. I actually enthusiastically thank The Only Ones -- as well as Lou Reed for the version of "Heroin" on "Rock n Roll Animal" -- for taking me along for the ride when they're rushing on their runs, at no cost to me in terms of either money or health. It's the proverbial free ride.

And I dimly recall noticing on numerous occasions that you had some awesome taste in OG punk, yourself. Thanks for the props.