Philip Glass Is All Wet
April 27, 2006 @ 10:10 am
I was humming some Philip Glass in the shower this morning when it occurred to me how strange that was, so I started singing the theme from Koyaanisqatsi to make it even weirder.
Luckily the lyrics are easy to remember (one word, the title) and if you don't know how to pronounce it at the beginning of the movie you will by the end.
I've tried to watch this movie three times in the last two weeks but I always fall asleep before the end. That's not a slur on Glass' score - it's brilliantly hypnotic.
Here are some of my favorite scenes:
The images of fire in the movie are amazing. The symbolism of televisions exploding is somewhat heavy handed, but the slow motion of a rocket lifting off at the beginning is mesmerizing. It took me minutes to figure out what I was looking at.
Sun bathers in front of a nuclear reactor. Even solar power is nuclear power when you get right down to it. Delicious irony!
This is one of the more disturbing scenes from the movie, an old man shaving on a crowded sidewalk. Why is he doing that in public, fully dressed, without water or shaving cream? There's sadness tinged with an element of danger as the camera lingers on him.
My parents actually walked out on a Philip Glass concert in St. Louis - after an hour of the same three notes they'd had enough. During a discussion of how we buy gifts for others that we would also enjoy ourselves, my dad admitted he wouldn't have gotten me this movie for christmas if he'd known who wrote the score. But I suspect they would enjoy it if I could ever get them to watch it with me.
Replies: 5 Comments
next time please record your shower serenade. this post definitely needs a link to the audio.
jammies said on April 27, 2006 @ 12:58 pm
Actually...those nuclear reactor look an awful lot like one about 40 minutes north of San Diego. And you can indeed sunbath in front of it. There's actually a nature reserve not too far away... The tips of those things blink a fabulous red - hence their LA- SD dash nickname - the blinking boobs/nipples (depending on who's in your car....)
fripp said on April 27, 2006 @ 5:09 pm
have you seen baraka? that was my favorite of the 'series' even though it's not officially part of the series... anyway. that movie changed my life, cliched as it is to say it. and i love that your parents walked out on philip glass. someone had to. ha. awesome. i walked out on le tigre, does that count?
miranda said on April 27, 2006 @ 8:44 pm
Le Tigre definitely counts. Someone had to.
Nick Baker said on April 28, 2006 @ 4:25 pm
Finally, a non-phallic representation of nuclear power!
Nick Baker said on April 28, 2006 @ 4:25 pm
