The other night I watched the first two films in the original Planet of the Apes series for the first time in years. They provided some interesting points. If you haven’t seen the films, this is unsurprisingly littered with spoilers both large and small.
1. Charlton Heston has too many teeth.
It’s distracting. In a world of apes where all the humans have tanned and dirty faces, the man with two gleaming white bars attached to his jaw sticks out more than a little. Of course, this problem is in no way unique to PotA – It’s a character trait that seems to have followed Mr. Heston through all of his films, gnashing through that fourth wall while simultaneously chewing on the scenery.
2. Both the 1968 & 2001 versions are just as liberal in their use of the source material.
Originally, I thought the 2001 Burton remake was the more faithful to the novel. In retrospect, this was mainly due to the combination of the way Burton ended his version & my own failing memory of the ’68 film. Having recently read the book and now watched both the ’68 and ’01 versions I think it’s probably safe to say they both ‘adapt’ the story equally loosely, though Burton appeared to be trying (not necessarily succeeding) to retain more of the original plot and characterisation of the novel.
Incidentally, one of the main contention points (of many) about the 2001 film was that the ending didn’t make sense. With the exception of Thade, the Burton ending is almost identical to the final narrated scenes of the book. Earth and Soror (aka. the Planet of the Apes) were always intended to be parallels of each other, not the same planet at different times. Schaffners ’68 version created the ‘this planet is actually future Earth’ story and wrote their own final twist to tie it together. Bear in mind that they had Rod Serling as one of the screenwriters. It was inevitable.
4. Roddy McDowall
He’s not in Beneath the Planet of the Apes. That’s why it’s not as good.
He’s in all the others though, so that’s ok.
5. Nova is completely superfluous.
Somewhere, I hope, there’s a stack of film reels containing cut scenes from PotA. Half of them are entitled, “Nova and Taylor interact, progressing plot + developing both characters.” The other half are entitled, “Zira and Taylor interact, progressing plot + developing both characters.” As it stands, the version of Nova on film is little more than Taylor’s mute (implied) sex slave. In the first film, Taylor shows little in the way of true affection for her beyond basic ‘this is mine’ actions, and Nova’s social and emotional output is almost as muted as her voice. The character doesn’t really improve with BtPotA. 90% of Nova’s role in the second film is as a plot skipper, created to avoid having to repeat the first two acts of the first film for Brent. The other 10% is trying to retroactively create the relationship with Taylor that should have been present in the first film. It’s not until Nova’s death that Taylor shows that she meant everything to him. The problem is that by that late stage of proceedings, it’s a struggle to believe him.
6. Zira’s First Impression of Brent.
[Brent appears from behind curtain in Zira & Cornelius' home]
Dr. Zira : Taylor?
That was my first impression when I saw him too. James Franciscus has a passing resemblance to Heston, but when introduced to the viewer immediately after a pseudo-flashback featuring Heston’s Taylor, and appearing in similar circumstances to Taylor’s arrival, my first thought was that he was meant to be a re-cast Taylor, recreating scenes from the first film. He had to verbally introduce himself to a dying man before I realised he was meant to be someone else entirely.
7. Ghouls are awesome.
Looking back, there is an ever-so-slight chance that the post-apocalyptic ghouls who make painful noises may have been a subconscious influence on me. Not visually.
9. Ghoul prayers and hymns are awesome.
Mendez: May the Blessings of the Bomb Almighty, and the Fellowship of the Holy Fallout, descend upon us all. This day and forever more.
Congregation: [singing] Amen!
10. Never trust a post-apocalyptic ‘civilisation’ that lives underground.
(see also: A Boy And His Dog, Logan’s Run etc.)
Above ground, you can always rely on the predictability of the local anarchist state city or the hostility of the nearest communist nomadic tribe. Down below, it’s anyone’s guess as to how people behave, and BtPotA is no exception. Taking a contrasting stance to the simian mantra of ‘Ape shall never kill ape’, the mutant cult use their psychokinetic powers in sadistic fashion. Initially manifesting visual deterrents such as walls of flame, earthquakes and torture, they also appear to take a perverse pleasure in their ‘peaceful’ actions that involve either audio torture that’s not too dissimilar to modern ‘non-lethal’ ultrasound weapons, or simply making people kill each other against their will. Oh yeah, and they worship a doomsday device as their god. There’s a bit more explanation and background to the cult, but that’ll have to wait a few films…
]]>
Early Listening Equipment (Museum “Waalsdorp”)
The Gamage Ltd Sound Locator No 1 Mk1 (Museum “Waalsdorp”)
Greatstone Sound Mirrors (Atlas Obscura)
A Short History of Acoustic Locators (Kircher Society via. WayBack Machine)
Acoustic Location & Sound Mirrors (Museum of Retrotech via. WayBack Machine)
A (partially) hypothetical conversation:
Q: If punks were so non-conformist, why were all the iconic punk frontmen clean-shaven and short haired?
A: It wasn’t rebellion for the sake of it. It began as a musical rebellion against stagnant pop and prog rock. Prog was, of course, made of hair. In the late 70s, your dad probably had collar-length hair and an embarrassing beard. Short hair and a shaved face was more of a statement then than you realise. Besides, Lemmy had enough hair to make up for the rest of the punk kids.
Q: Lemmy? Motörhead weren’t a punk band.
A: …
Mainly culled from things I’ve linked to elsewhere to prompt me to look into them further.
“Neo-Tribalism is the ideology that human beings have evolved to live in a tribal, as opposed to a mass, modern society, and thus cannot achieve genuine happiness until some semblance of tribal lifestyles has been re-created or re-embraced.”
Modern Tribalism “We set out on a crusade to document, to learn and hopefully to inspire. We treated our interviewees as the wise elders who would guide us on our way, and the modern tribalists as our fellow warriors — unenlightened but pure of heart. What we learned about ourselves in the process is as important as what we have brought to the screen. The result is a film that is part ethnographic field study and part rite of passage, set to the hum of technolgy and the beat of a tribal drum.”
“Dunbar’s number is a theoretical cognitive limit to the number of people with whom one can maintain stable social relationships. These are relationships in which an individual knows who each person is, and how each person relates to every other person. Proponents assert that numbers larger than this generally require more restricted rules, laws, and enforced norms to maintain a stable, cohesive group. No precise value has been proposed for Dunbar’s number, but a commonly cited approximation is 150.”
Deadly Vibrations. A Brief History of Sonic Warfare “Human beings respond to certain categories of sound in a number of complex ways involving auditory perception and psycho-physiological response mechanisms rendered through the brain. Certain species of sound above (ultrasound) or below (infrasound) the levels of human auditory perception would theoretically prove most effective within the crucible of warfare.”
Sonic Warfare “Goodman concludes with speculations on the not yet heard—the concept of unsound, which relates to both the peripheries of auditory perception and the unactualized nexus of rhythms and frequencies within audible bandwidths.” Also, blog site instigated by the book release.
“London Necropolis Railway Station was a special railway station constructed by the London Necropolis Company for funeral trains, specifically to serve their Brookwood Cemetery.”
The Cemetery Railway “Radio 4 broadcast a thirty minute documentary “One Way to the Necropolis” on the cemetery railway on Monday 7th February 2005 at 8.30pm.” - Wouldn’t mind hearing that.
London’s Necropolis Train “LNC justified the higher fares it charged for First Class coffin accommodation by pointing to the higher degree of decoration provided on its First Class coffin cell doors and the greater degree of care which First Class coffins were given at both ends of the journey”
I don’t think I had even listened to Les Paul musically until I heard one of the old Les Paul Shows on archive.org. I knew of him because he had his name on guitars, obviously, but through my own background I was well aware of how he was also the innovator of recording techniques that paved the way for how we listen to music now. Until digital recording came along we were using versions of the techniques developed by Les Paul, and even now we’re doing the same thing but in modified ways. Multitrack recording, overdubbing, tape delay – he was at the forefront.
Les Paul & Mary Ford - BrasilLes Paul & Mary Ford - Lover
“Thou still unravish’d bride of quietness,Thou foster-child of silence and slow time,
Sylvan historian, who canst thus express
A flowery tale more sweetly than our rhyme:
What leaf-fring’d legend haunts about thy shape
Of deities or mortals, or of both,
In Tempe or the dales of Arcady?
What men or gods are these? What maidens loth?
What mad pursuit? What struggle to escape?
What pipes and timbrels? What wild ecstasy?“
Ode On A Grecian Urn [extract] – John Keats (1795 – 1821)
If Keats were alive today, it is unlikely he would revel in conjuring out the imagery contained in contemporary dishware. Sadly, our pallid Ikean pastel washes will never compare to the intricate tales that would unfold from a simple combination of glazed clay and paint. With this void of inspiration apparent, Keats and others like him would need to uncover a new muse. An inspirational outlet with a comparably contrasting combination of simplicity and intricacy. A source of endless joy to behold for all. For them, and for you, I would recommend Kieronononon.
Entitled Three Man Party, Kierononononon’s latest work is one of the greatest examples of post-modern auditory expressionism imaginable to contemporary mankind. Where the Ancient Greeks would use mere clay as their base, Kieronononononon lay down a backbeat to rattle the Parthenon. In place of the intricately painted strokes there are soaring guitar lines and the potter’s indistinct caricatures replaced by bowel-threatening sub frequencies. Where the Grecian urn would tell just one tale of amazement, Kierononononononon tell several.
Six, to be precise.
From the moment the disjointed percussion of opening track, …And You’re Not James Bond Either, coasts into the consciousness of the listener it is already clear that this work possesses a quality far surpassing that expected of ordinary musicians. As the sounds of the rest of the troupe roll in, a deep sense of euphoria can be felt as the voice of Goatboy enters your ears, gleefully stylised as if being re-broadcast from the halcyon fields themselves.
*cough*
Apparently I’m not allowed to write a proper review.
Anyway, the new EP is pretty good.
Decent production, well structured & whether you particularly like the music or not, it’s genuinely interesting to listen to.
If I was going to give it some kind of arbitrary rating so that you can judge it by my opinion then I’d give it some stars out of a few. There’s some trendy buzz words like mathcore or artrock that you might find useful if you rely on genre specifications to define your tastes, similarly there’s probably some comparison to established artists like Mike Patton & Mr. Bungle to be made if you’re too cautious of trying something new.
Whatever you might think from that, it’s worth the three quid they’re asking for the CD.
Check out the video to …Eventually He Did from the EP.
Three Man Party by Kieronononon
It’s only £3. You can get it at the Roxxor2 Shop by clicking right here.
Other things you should look at and listen to:
The Prodigy - Invaders Must Die
The Prodigy & Last.fm have just started a new approach to the whole album preview thing. They’ve got the whole album up and streaming, but each track is interspersed with the band talking about the track that’s playing. It’s actually quite interesting. Helps with identifying some of the samples too.
Last.fm : Invaders Must Die + Band Commentary
It’s a ‘unique’ way of playing cassette tapes (and floppy disks) on a record turntable.
Digital Needle – A Virtual Gramophone