Too many connections

[essentialsaltes]

For a blast of pleasant nostalgia, I Netflixed Connections.

It's a little eerie that the first thing James Burke does is hop in an elevator and go to the top of the World Trade Center. He goes on to try to scare the crap out of us about how the sudden withdrawal of technology can kill us all. He focuses on the Northeast Blackout of 1965 that 25 million people in the dark for hours. One particular item that is dramatized is Scandinavian Airlines flight 911 as it comes in on its landing approach just as radar, communication and all the lights go out. Not just at the airport, but the lights all over Manhattan, toward which island the plane, having passed the airport, was presently hurtling. The end of the sequence is right at the start of Youtube's part 3 of the episode.
Anyway, by the end of the episode, we're watching Arabs practicing falconry before getting into their BMWs and Cadillacs, outfitted with 1970s style carphones, while Burke monologues from the Kuwait Towers.

Better than that retard Nostradamus if you ask me.

Comments

[sjo.livejournal.com]

"that retard Nostradamus"

Best descriptive ever.

Be prepared for Sarah Palin to get all up in your grill! ;-)

[essentialsaltes.livejournal.com]

I seriously considered a different word, and then I remembered seeing people getting all butthurt over 'moron,' because of the way it was coined to refer to retards.

This PC stuff is totally gay!

[hagdirt.livejournal.com]

In order to not offend, I am replacing my use of "retard" with the word "asshat."

Meanwhile, I maintain that "douche" is probably the most awesome insult ever, since both forms refer to something that's at best useless and at worst toxic, and that has been heavily marketed to women as a solution to problems they don't have.

[rsheslin.livejournal.com]

[Like]

[(Anonymous)]

I loved this show and was lucky enough to hear James Burke speak in Phoenix many years ago. My favorite episode is the one that starts on the battlefield at Hastings (of particular interest to me) and follows its connections to telecommunications.

Donovan

[nephthys510.livejournal.com]

YAY!!! Another Connections fan. I own the Connections video game. I should break it out and see it if will run on my current laptop.

[essentialsaltes.livejournal.com]

No wai!

[nephthys510.livejournal.com]

WAI!

[nephthys510.livejournal.com]

Are you familiar with The Day the Universe Changed? Also fabulous.

[essentialsaltes.livejournal.com]

you betcha.

[boymaenad.livejournal.com]

love love connections & universe... I have a torrent of the latter around, if either of you is interested.

actually, a little looking finds it on the 'net. but I have the files, in case this doesn't work, or something. I don't know how easily available the series is, in "real life". :)

http://www.monova.org/download/414935/2008-07-13/8bbe883f9b1ebbcb029ae8160c6621072748ebf1/The%20Day%20The%20Universe%20Changed%20by%20James%20Burke.torrent

[marlo.livejournal.com]

I fucking love that show. It's especially good when you're baked (not something I do anymore, but I used to) because you're like, "Wow, that's so deep! EVERYTHING IS CONNECTED, MAN!"