Sesameqatsi?
– August 4, 2008Posted in: Animation, glass-philip, Sesame Street, Television
Books To Jump Up and Down Over
The Call by Yannick Murphy: The always interesting author of Here They Come and Signed, Mata Hari returns with a novel that whips up a worldview from a rather quirky set of limitations: namely, the call logs that a veterinarian maintains as his son is unexpectedly put into a coma and an unforgiving economy denies him work. What emerges is a surprisingly optimistic, often funny, and very moving account on how one family uses acceptance and forgiveness as a way to atone for hard knocks. (Bat Segundo interview with Murphy)
Birds of Paradise by Diana Abu-Jaber: Forget Franzen and Eugenides. If you're looking for a social novel that counts, Diana Abu-Jaber is the author you're looking for. Building from the free-form exploration of consciousness and identity in Crescent and the gripping procedural structure of Origin, Abu-Jaber's latest novel is her finest, equally fluent with gutterpunk culture and smarmy real estate men. It has been suggested by The Washington Post's Ron Charles that you will likely gain some pounds while reading this novel. This is certainly true. Abu-Jaber's description of food is so precise that it often made me want to do more cooking. But I very much admired the way in which Abu-Jaber presents all her characters as unwitting victims of rough capitalism, which permits them some dignity even as they perform terrible acts.
The Last of the Live Nude Girls by Sheila McClear: This memoir isn't so much about the decline of the Times Square peepshow, as it is about one young woman's efforts to pull herself up by by her bootstraps when presented with few economic options. Filled with self-introspective candor and a quiet dignity, McClear's story is one that might befall any of us in these volatile times. While McClear does get back on her feet, her book leads one contemplating the terrible fates of other young women now moving to New York and falling into deadlier vocations. (Bat Segundo interview with McClear)
Whoa. That was such a flashback! I really remember that clip, and I was fascinated by it as a child. Maybe that’s why I often study to new-age type music!
Do you think that kind of work would still engage kids today?
I know! I had no idea that Philip Glass had contributed to “Sesame Street,” if only because I didn’t know who he was at the time. But this clip worked its way into my craw too. Years later, when I was around ten or eleven, I’d catch some really cool film on television with similar music that I would later discover to be “Koyaanisqatsi.” Henson and company knew exactly what they were doing in commissioning these films. (Remember, he also made “Time Piece” and “The Cube.”) And I believe that current television might likewise be served in commissioning experimental and avant-garde filmmakers to use their talents for similar good.
what is this some sort of coded Masonic transmission?