dedicated to adam. and CHIPS.

“If we crave some cosmic purpose, then let us find ourselves a worthy goal.”
–Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot

This video has been making it’s rounds on the interwebs this week and I just thought it would be appropriate to remind everyone what a thoughtful, passionate and remarkable human being Carl Sagan was. I mean if autotune can get the kids to listen to anything these days it’s better this than Kanye. If you’re not familiar with his Cosmos series or his numerous books, let me share one of my favorite anecdotes about Dr. Sagan.

He chaired the NASA committee responsible for the content of the solid gold record (not sales, we’re talking Au) that accompanied the Voyager I & II probes into the depths of space containing a message from Earth. This record included greeting in 55 languages and music from Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Chuck Berry and Blind Willie Johnson among other representatives from non-western and indigenous cultures. Sagan wanted “Here Comes the Sun” from Abbey Road, but EMI said no. Also on this record is a brain scan of someone in love. For more on this, check out this episode of WNYC’s Radiolab. The probe is now well over 14 billion kilometers from the Sun. In 40,000 years it will be within 2 light years of a star in the next galaxy to us, Andromeda.

Sagan was also a great popularizer of the search for extraterrestrial life and of science in general. Sadly, he passed in 1996 and no one since has quite managed to replace his enthusiasm, love and selfless promotion of a higher understanding of life and its relationship with the universe.

reminds me of a video i saw probably 6 months ago by AKQA, another san francisco based operation. someone remind me why i left again?

microwaves sing jingle bells to you.

v?

In the curious field of taxonomy, a realm populated by a cultish lot to begin with what with them decorating their shadow world with obscure latin names for everything in creation willy-nilly, there is a curious trend. Meet Heteropoda davidbowie, a Malay spider recently discovered and named by Peter Jäger and another in a long line of marginal invertebrates, insects and oddballs named after rock idols.

From Mark Knopfler to Miles Davis, to this beautiful Myrmekiaphila neilyoungi [above] named for Neil Young, the scientists in the fields, meadows, caves and creek beds have found that these creative namesakes draw more attention to their new discoveries and to their own personal, albeit limited, scientific celebrity.

Other notables are four members of a genus of long-extinct trilobites, Mackenziurus johnnyi, Mackenziurus joeyi, Mackenziurus deedeei and Mackenziurus ceejayi named for none other than the Ramones. Frank Zappa has a species of jellyfish named for him, but takes the cake with an entire genus of fish named for him. It seems that celebrity namesakes have pervaded not only our undereducated population but the hallowed halls of science too. We’ve certainly come a long way since Linnaeus, that megalomaniac sonofabitch.

Special thanks to the budding taxonomists at Coralmorphologic in Miami for this tip.

more than just her double dare recreation, she’s got an array of somewhat morbidly fascinating and mind-fuckling work in her portfolio.

Suckers are up next. A show to end all shows.

While Cass has always been, and still is, peerless and highly revered among those “who know”, his not-so-so-new Catacombs has pushed him into a little brighter spotlight, it seems. I’m no “music writer” and I couldn’t care less if you like him or not. And, honestly? I’m pretty tired. It’s been a long day. Definitely too tired to make clever/incoherent analogies about this dude’s music. Can’t I just put the newly aquired vinyl catalog on and space out for a minute or 200? That (all those excuses for not really writing jack shit) said, how about these 3 videos? Totally amazing right?

ps: I’m sorry for dropping two consecutive posts with some derivation of the word “DEAD” in the title. I’m doing just fine, thanks. Two more videos from Catacombs: “Dreams Come True Girl” and “You Saved My Life”… Positive song names, won’t you agree?