Tuesday, December 10, 2013

Kora on 66th Street Subway Platform

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Kora is an African string instrument prevalent in West Africa- Mali, Senegal, Guinea and other places. I've recorded this back in October. In close proximity to Juliard, the 66th St. 1 Train station platform attracts amazing array of street musicians. This man was too good for me not to record. I just wish I had a better recording device than my 7 year old ipod with a mic attachment at hand.

Listen at:
https://soundcloud.com/floatingartist/1-train-66th-street-lincoln

High Noon in Space

Outland (1981) - Hyams
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High Noon in space. Sean Connery plays, O'Niel, a middle management type company sheriff or security officer or whathaveyou of the mining colony in Io, one of Jupiter's moon. Because he is a loudmouth, he's been getting kicked around from the both sides and ended up in the shithole like Io with his less than enthusiastic family. As a matter of fact, his family bolts in two weeks. The company station in the orbit is secretly supplying some kind of red jello type drug that makes mining workers super productive. The side effects of it is hallucination, suicidal tendencies, etc. Many heads get blown up inside spacesuits because of this. As O'Niel catches up with what's going on, the asshole general manager (Peter Boyle) scorns him on acting like a fucking hero and making trouble. He contacts the mothership and have them send some space goons. The big Casio clock ticks down from 40 hours until the goons' arrival. 40 HOURS!

It's unfathomable in this day and age to have nothing blown up or having yet another plot twist every five seconds in a big budget Hollywood action movie. Outland is refreshing in its simpleness. It builds up tediously, showcasing some good old Sci-fi FX goodness and beautiful production design. O'Niel even has enuff time to visit a titty bar and chug a coupla drinks before the showdown. I appreciate that in a movie.