Stairway to Sirius: Dream of Californicating

 

When I wrote about my struggle with conscious and unconscious symbolism the other day, it was based on the season finale of the Showtime series Californication. The series itself is a little farkakte, a little Star Trek-ie, in that the 40-somethings running around present-day LA doing the old 70s hedonism bit doesn't really ring true.

Stairway to Sirius: From Oslo to Oannes

OSLO - Obama's speech at the Nobel ceremony really caught my attention, in that it wasn't a peace speech at all. It was an apology-for-war speech.

Seen From Space: Burj Dubai, the 17 Skyscraper

 

Well, well, well...it appears Dubai is down but not out. The unveiling (as it were) of the new Burj Dubai tower was heralded by yet another seen-from-space fireworks display (which again, was incomprehensible to anyone looking at it from ground level as the video shows) as well as the same climaxing-obelisk fireworks we saw in Asia on the New Year.

 

The Secret Sun Best of the Zeros: Music

 

 And now, for my favorite albums of this godforsaken decade. A diverse sampling, all united in principle by attention paid to the pleasure of sound and music as an end unto itself. Most of it lies squarely in the psychedelic realm, meaning psychedelia as a principle and not a retro style. 

 

Entrainment Tonight: On to the Next One

When you sift through all of the strange symbolism manifesting itself in the culture you have to ask yourself two questions- what does it mean and who put it there? At this stage in the game, intentional symbolism in movies, videos, games, etc. isn't really very interesting to me, in and of itself.

The (Not So) Obligatory Avatar Post

I went to see Avatar at the same theater I saw The Day the Earth Stood Still. It's at the gateway of the New Jersey Skylands, in a once-enormous mall that has metastisized to an almost parodic size.

The Secret Sun Best of the Zeros: The Books

The 90s were the decade of my great romance with books. There were so many life-changing titles that came out I can't begin to name them all. Certainly a lot of the work of Graham Hancock is up there, but a very large iceberg lies beneath it. I'd venture to say that most of my favorite non-fiction books were published during that decade.