Solved!
As many of you probably know from reading my blog, I’m not a movie person. But of the few movies I do like, most of them are space movies. More specifically, space disaster movies.*
I like space. I like disasters (both real-life and fictional). But I think the main draw for this particular genre is the fact that many of them have astounding soundtracks where there is at least one song that results in an unavoidable and severe emotional reaction (usually crying).
Examples (I’ve posted a lot of these before but I DON’T CARE):
Interstellar – No Time for Caution (Hans Zimmer)
The buildup to 2:36 is wonderful and the payoff is so good. I’m pretty sure I damaged my hearing by cranking this up too loud the first few times I listened to it.
Gravity – Shenzou (Steven Price)
I’m posting the clip of the movie where this song is heard because it syncs so beautifully with the amazing imagery in that scene. That breakup of the craft at 1:30. That shot of all the pieces entering the atmosphere at 2:46. The smoke and alarms at 3:00. I re-watched this scene for this blog post for the first time in like three years and I’m freaking sobbing over it, haha.
Armageddon – Launch (Trevor Rabin)
Did Michael Bay fit as many explosions into this movie as was physically possible for its run time? Yes. But the soundtrack is still great.
Mission to Mars – Toward the Unknown (Ennio Morricone)
This movie was…strange. But this even stranger song really fit the scene it was part of and is this weird combination of futuristic and retro (in my opinion).
And the big hitters:
Sunshine – Adagio in D Minor AND Capa’s Last Transmission Home (John Murphy)
Didn’t know this movie existed until I heard Adagio in some YouTube vid, looked up the song, and found this movie. The whole soundtrack is wonderful.
Apollo 13 – The Launch (James Horner)
I know, I know, I know. Every single year I post about this song. But this is honestly one of my favorite pieces of music to ever exist. That heartbeat of silence at the crescendo of music just after 6:17 gives me literal goosebumps every single time.
*Actually, I can’t think of a single movie set in space that does not involve a disaster…but then again, my knowledge about movies is almost nonexistent. Can anyone think of any?
Piiiigs….aannnddd….spaaaaaaace!
Yes, I know it’s “pigs in space”…bear with me here.
Two videos from two opposite sides of the YouTubes.
Video 1: Piiiigs
I’d buy 80 of these things if this was how the actual infomercial had aired, haha.
Video 2: Spaaaaaaace
This is, on some level, art. I’m sure of it.
It’s also really soothing, actually (especially the sounds), except for when the balloon pops at 1:52:15 and the garlic bread re-enacts that spinning scene from “Gravity.”
Wonderful Noise
Holy crapples. If you haven’t watched Gravity yet, you need to do so, even if it’s just for the scene that goes along with this amazing song:
Or just for that song alone.
TWSB: Canada – A Weighty Issue (Or “massy,” rather; shut up, it’s a pun)
Canada: being the nonconformist country since 1867.
For over 40 years scientists have been trying to figure out why parts of Canada—specifically the Hudson Bay area—experience lower gravitational pull than other parts of the world.
Yeah, seriously.
Freaking Canada.
There are two theories that have been put forth to explain this phenomenon. The first has to do with the convection currents of the earth’s magma. Scientists who support this theory think that convection beneath the Hudson Bay area is causing the continental plate there to be dragged down, thus decreasing mass and, subsequently, decreasing gravity.
The second theory has to do with the old Laurentide Ice Sheet. This ice sheet covered much of Canada and the northern US way back when glaciers ruled the world. The ice was about 2 miles thick in most sections (perspective: the Antarctic ice sheet covering the continent can be as thick as 3 miles) and thus was super heavy and weighed down that part of the earth, displacing the mass underneath it.
This ice sheet melted over the course of 10,000 years, but the earth that had been beneath it is still “rebounding”—that is, it is still quite a large depression that is slowly rising back up to what would be a normal level if the ice sheet had never been there. Because this depression still exists, that is the cause of the lower amount of gravity in that region of the planet.
Apparently, it turns out that both theories are correct. There’s mega convection going on beneath the earth’s surface under the Hudson Bay, but there’s also been a measured effect of the earth rebounding from the glacier. Though this rebound will take about 5,000 more years, the change that is occurring is prominent enough to be observed—the sea level, which is rising in other parts of the world, is noticeably dropping along Hudson Bay.
So yeah. Convection + Ice Age influence = Canada’s weird.
Cool, huh?
Today’s song: I Turn My Camera On by Spoon
Eigenblogger 