I Evolve

At the turn of the year I put up a couple of posts up about science, knowledge etc and how I was really into it and was gonna ride the brainiac wave to grey matter expansion.

Did not happen then but since August I have been getting back into the ring, buying New Scientist, ordering Richard Dawkins literature from play.com and watching Carl Sagan on youtube. I also need to ask Shatbass for a lend of Sagen's book, Cosmos, which he reviewed a few months ago.

Anyway here is a transdimensionally beautiful look at how all life on Earth evolving from space dust. This is super-chilled. Check out youtube for more.

Htrae Tenalp

Everybody knows that nature rocks. Everybody knows that over the last few years the BBC has produced some stunning documentaries about the natural world and millions of species that inhabit it. Planet Earth and Blue Planet are just two examples of programmes that were as fascinating as they were accessible.

So having read some of the hype for their new headline nature series, Lost Land Of The Volcano, I started to prepare the edge of my seat. The premise was simple. A bunch of scientists go into an unchartered jungle within a dormant volcano in New Guinea. Within the jungle they were to find kangaroos in trees, frogs with fangs, giant rats and tiny parrots.

WTF!!! After fifteen minutes of the show there no sign of any animal. Instead it was awash with dramatic scores, swooshing helicopters and all the scientists pushing and shoving to get on screen. This sadly continued for the whole hour.

There was Professor Abs who used any excuse to take his shirt of and show a ridiculously action-man moulded torso. A cameraman who took his role too literally and filmed himself constantly. An insane sounding Scottish insect expert who came across like a Super Gran desparate for validation. All wanting to be stars. All wanting to be a 21st Century David Attenborough. It was like variety show for phd's.

Of course the real stars are always the animal and plant life. And that's what Attenborough understood. When he was narrating or presenting he always made sure that he informed the viewer without becoming the central figure. That was for the swimming monkey, the lizard with no eyes, the buffalo gobbling alligator and the Lake Congo midgies.

Lost Land Of The Volcano was in reality the reverse of The Planet Earth series. For 45 mins it was the wonder of the natural world. Then we got a interesting fifteen minute insight to how the captured some of the most amazing clips. Lost Land Of The Volcano had a similar ratio but in favour of the fame hungry scientists.

What we really need is a new show. Cloning Attenborough.

Holy Irony

Hahahaha. Oh man, sitting her watching Rambo III. Seen it before but it just gets funnier.

Even before America and Britland invaded Afghanistan in 2001 the third installment of Rambo was an ironic classic. Its insane vision of demonic commies, peace lovin' holy warriors and American rightousness is only topped with the number of women and children getting killed and times Rambo blows up very big things with very small things.

But now thanks to the Allied invasion of Afghanistan there is a delicious layer of irony in each act and word spoken. The Russians are reminded at every turn abotu how the Afghans will not accept foreign invaders and how all previous occupiers have been driven out. One American snarls to a commie "We've had our Vietnam." 15 years later and it's back baby!!

Aw, cynical? Yes, but just love watching Rambo teach the rebels how to fight with American made weapons. Just like the CIA did in the 1980s. I wonder if the Taliban like this film. They must pish themselves.

Anyway, back to film. Go Rambo Go. Do it for the mothers of the fallen, do it for the fathers of the poppie fields, do it for that Afghan boy in the village whose parents were killed a year and that made him speak with an American accent.

And if that was not enough, check out the revised synopsis for Rambo V.

Replacing the mundane original storyline of "Veteran John Rambo battles his way through human traffickers and drug lords to save a young girl kidnapped", is the stripped down genius off "a U.S. Military installation that is doing experiments on elite soldiers as part of some sort of program where they're attempting to tap into that SAVAGERY that we have deeply embedded into us. The plan is create brilliantly instinctual killer soldiers that have no qualms about taking life. They were children trained from the time they were infants to kill. The experiment is a success but then goes wrong, after the soldiers escape. Rambo is brought in with a Black Ops squad to hunt, capture or kill the genetically-altered-blood thirsty-super soldier." Ta aldo

Mayer Hawthorne

Blog world is pretty much bulging with chat about Mayer Hawthorne and his old soul/new soul album, A Strange Arrangement. This singer-songwriter-multi-intrumentalist-chic-nerd is garnering (is that a word??) a lot of hype, much praise, many plaudits and desrved respect.

First up I want to say that some of his tracks have already become classics on Pontiac Towers. If my Cowon could sing then it would probably pour out Maybe So, Maybe No. Hawthorne has managed to do that which seems near impossible for so many artists. To make soul that feels like a timeless 1969 classic even though it's only newborn. Too many new sould attempts sound to clean and polished and thoroughly 21st Century to feel nostalgic and original. While listening to Hawthorne you cannot help but remember Marvin Gaye, The Modulations or Donny Hathaway.

However, I do feel that managing that level of quality over a whole album to be near impossible and some of Hawthorne's output suffers from issues I mentioned above. Just a little neat and tidy for my liking. But hey, I aint no soul legend and so it's just my novice opinion.

I have included below his two best tracks so far. Just Ain't Gonna Work Out is a sweet as soul honey ballad with simple b&w video. Up second is the more upbeat head-nodder Maybe So, Maybe No, which has an epic video which makes you want to just run outside, sing to passers by and jump on some sort of transport be it bus, bmx or unicycle.

Mayer Hawthorne - Just Ain't Gonna Work Out



Mayer Hawthorne - Maybe So, Maybe No

Mayer Hawthorne "Maybe So, Maybe No" from Okayplayer on Vimeo.

Sister...

Mrs Pontiac is currently watching the 25 Most Stylish Transformations on E! Entertainment. One of the talking heads just said the word 'sister.' Now this may be only something that makes me giggle but whenever I hear anyone say this word seriously it jusy makes me think of Luke and Darth Vader's cockfight at the end of Return Of The Jedi.

Vader is trying to get his son to crack and Luke's feeble mind betrays the secret that Lea is his sister and Vader's daughter. Vader through the the legendery tones of James Earl Jones seizes on this and says, 'Siiiiiissterrrrrrr' and since then whenever I hear the word, that scene pops into my head. Check it out below from 2.40 to 2.55. Thanks as usual for youtube providing the clip below.