Baltimore – I want to start the article with an RIP to Tim Hetherington. Tim was the director of Restrepo, a documentary about the war in Afghanistan that I reviewed a few months back in the series. Yesterday, Tim was fatally-wounded by mortar fire while reporting in Libya. Besides obviously highlighting the dangers in his profession and his subjects’ daily life, I suppose I experienced an ironic, meta moment. Might today’s Arab revolution be something of a canary (OK a big canary… er… the Big Bird?) in the coal mine for established democracies? Who knows – gas prices are high and governments are neck deep in debts real and imaginary – maybe we’re doomed to repeat the past century in this new one.
Speaking of humans and histories repeating themselves. Ever wonder why those nature shows on Discovery avoid juxtaposing people with their environment? It’s not necessarily a decision based solely on our insistence that civilization is the direct opposite of nature. Evidently, it’s a corporate decision with BBC Earth’s supremacy in mind. A decade after a string of (somewhat overtly) successful nature documentaries that broke new grounds and started Ricky’s Blu-ray consumption rampage, BBC is back again. This time to examine Homo sapiens… and not our social behavior, thank the Sovereign. Welcome to the next *Planet* series. Human Planet is an 8-part series that focuses on how we solve natural problems of food and shelter. Since we’re everywhere… the new series takes after Planet Earth, putting us in Grasslands, Desserts, Mountains, Jungles, and even cities. John Hurt takes over from David Attenborough in the narrator’s chair, and maintains an evenhanded tone throughout these showcases.
For the first time, lines of texts float across the screen at the opportune moment highlighting a particular situation as well as to subtitle conversations. If this had happened in Planet Earth during a 1080p expose of a subterranean world of mineral crystals, I’d smash my Blu-ray in a fit of rage. This is the biggest problem that I have with Human Planet – but at least the texts are useful, not plentiful. My personal favorite of the series is Rivers. Cities are born around rivers, and therefore it’s easily the most visually stunning and relevant episode. The fact that Ottawa is in this episode doesn’t hurt, either. I particularly enjoy the tone that is used throughout Human Planet. In many such documentaries, the lives of Bushmen, Maasai, Papua New Guinean, are often portrayed in an inferior light. We gawk at how backward they seem, instead of marvel at how they continue to overcome their environments without destroying it. I think my jaw needed help closing after seeing the living bridges in Meghalaya. It doesn’t go light on the technological side, either. Watching Australian cowboys round-up cattle using choppers between the trees, inches from clipping them, is just as exciting as seeing hunter stare down a pride of lions. Although all of the contents are brand new, some subjects are topical enough to get repeated exposure. For example, the river dolphins in Brazil that help herd fish is one that it shares with The Blue Planet, Planet Earth, and Life. Same can be said of others – those of you who regularly seek out documentaries have probably seen similar subjects. Still, it’s no excuse to skip Human Planet. I highly recommend watching it. Multiple times. Or at least until the Frozen Planet premieres.
Now to the music that I’ve picked up in the last month. I’m not a mathematician, nor an architect. But when two songs or pieces of music conjure the same feeling, they are in the same space for me. Especially me by Low is in the “Portishead Roads” space, one that has a tranquilizing yet sobering effect. With a persistent pacing drum that contrasts Roads’ looser background din, however, it sounds a bit more militant. I can almost feel a finger pointing at my face shouting “probably you”.
My Morning Jacket all but disappeared from my life save a poster on the wall and a few tunes in the iPhone. But apparently they were merely mustering a come back from Kentucky. The title track from their upcoming album Circuital (which you can download by signing up for free) shows just how they plan to claw their way up. It creates an open aural space for the equally spacy but curt lyrics. Starting also with drums (heavy ones that jolted my speakers), listen as the bass repeatedly climbs simple scales while the song slowly expands into a full orchestra of sounds that includes a piano line, closing on the same bass that it started from. I’m glad that I no longer have to stare at my poster and wonder where they went.
My Morning Jacket – Circuital by cooperativemusicuk
