I just finished watching the original pilot episode of Firefly (entitled "Serenity") on the first DVD (via Netflix).

How gratifying to see a Science Fiction series about which all the superlatives are true.

Much more later...

Posted by: JohnL at 11:57 PM | Comments (9) | Add Comment
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Thought I'd put this up while we're on the subject of Neuromancer.

William Gibson's coinage of the word "cyberspace" and his ultra-hip future-pop-culture style led to the description of a lot of fiction in the 80s and 90s as "cyberpunk." There was even a temporary streak of some musical acts that were described as cyberpunk. Most of it noise, which didn't tolerate multiple listenings.

I recently put together a play list of some familiar and not-so-familiar songs, which created a Neuromancer-y vibe for me. I dubbed this playlist "Wintermute" in iTunes. None of these are cyberpunk, though I might call a couple "cybergoth." I think the CD makes for a good walking soundtrack (playing time: almost exactly 1:15).

Presentation Format: Song - Artist - Album (Notes)

• Above - Blue Man Group - The Complex (dulcimer, synthesizer, drums, PVC pipes, and a rock group, layered like a frothy parfait to cleanse the mental palate)


• The Model - Kraftwerk - Man Machine (kinda makes me envision Molly)


• Down in the Park - Foo Fighters - Songs In The Key Of X: Music From And Inspired By The X-Files (awesome cover of the Gary Numan original)


• 3 Libras - A Perfect Circle - Mer de Noms (these lyrics are evocative of Molly, too)


• Whip It - Devo - Whip It (Heh. More Molly?)


• Judith - A Perfect Circle - Mer de Noms (gothic metal, though the lyrics aren't relevant to Neuromancer)


• Closer - Nine Inch Nails - The Downward Spiral (Ahem. More Molly?)


• The Current - Blue Man Group - The Complex (the trip into cyberspace/inner space begins)


• Perfect Drug - Nine Inch Nails - Lost Highway Soundtrack (did someone say "trip"?)


• Trip Like I Do - Filter/Crystal Method - Trip Like I Do (Yes. Someone did say "trip.")


• Blue (Remix) - A Perfect Circle - Weak and Powerless CD Single


• I Like To Score - Moby - I Like To Score


• Imagine - A Perfect Circle - eMOTIVe (better than the Lennon original, IMHO)


• We Are All Made of Stars - Moby - We Are All Made of Stars pt. 1 (I love this song. Always reminds me of the excellent star stuff episode of Carl Sagan's Cosmos.


• I Feel Love - Blue Man Group/Venus Hum - The Complex (I actually liked the Donna Summer original, one of the few examples of really good disco. This version kicks it up a notch. And, to restate a theme. . . Molly?)


• Ordinary World - Duran Duran - Duran Duran 2 (The Wedding Album) (a gentle landing from the trip)


• Astradyne - Ultravox - Vienna (one of my very favorite instrumentals of all time, and a traditional album closer for mix CDs of mine)

There are probably hundreds of other combinations of songs that would evoke the cool, grungy, electronic, trippy world of Neuromancer, so let me know what your playlist would be...

Posted by: JohnL at 11:32 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Life imitates art. Or, art anticipates life. Or something like that.

First, a picture:

Next, a [lengthy] quote from the 1984 book, Neuromancer by William Gibson:

"The matrix has its roots in primitive arcade games," said the voice-over, "in early graphics programs and military experimentation with cranial jacks." On the Sony, a two-dimensional space war faded behind a forest of mathematically generated ferns, demonstrating the special possibilities of logarithmic spirals; cold blue military footage burned through, lab animals wired into test systems, helmets feeding into fire control circuits of tanks and war planes. "Cyberspace. A consensual hallucination experienced daily by billions of legitimate operators, in every nation, by children being taught mathematical concepts . . . A graphic representation of data abstracted from the banks of every computer in the human system. Unthinkable complexity. Lines of light ranged in the nonspace of the mind, clusters and constellations of data. Like city lights, receding . . . ."

...

And in the bloodlit dark behind his eyes, silver phosphenes boiling in from the edge of space, hypnagogic images jerking past like film compiled from random frames. Symbols, figures, faces, a blurred, fragmented mandala of visual information.

Please, he prayed, now--

A gray disk, the color of Chiba sky.

Now--

Disk beginning to rotate, faster, becoming a sphere of paler gray. Expanding--

And flowed, flowered for him, fluid neon origami trick, the unfolding of his distanceless home, his country, transparent 3D chessboard extending to infinity. Inner eye opening to the stepped scarlet pyramid of the Eastern Seaboard Fission Authority burning beyond the green cubes of Mitsubishi Bank of America, and high and very far away he saw the spiral arms of military systems, forever beyond his reach.

Finally, the explanation. (Via BoingBoing).

Posted by: JohnL at 10:08 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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When a place gets crowded enough to require ID's, social collapse is not far away. It is time to go elsewhere. The best thing about space travel is that it made it possible to go elsewhere.

- Lazarus Long in Time Enough for Love.

Posted by: JohnL at 08:44 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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