Waiter! There’s a Gas Giant in my Orchestra!
So one of my favorite composers is Gustav Holst, and like many people (I’m assuming), I was introduced to his music via The Planets. We played the Jupiter movement in high school because the grade above us had chosen it as their senior song* to be played at their graduation and it was one of my favorite songs I’d ever played.
Anyway, I have three different recordings of Jupiter because they’re all a little different and I like each of them for various reasons. However, I just found a new version that I really dig. Check it:
I’ve never heard a performance of this song where you can hear the French horns so clearly in that tiny little section from 1:58 to 2:03. That’s such a miniscule part of this song but it’s so dynamic and cool and different that I absolutely love it.
Anyway.
*And what was our senior song, you ask? The goddamn Pirates of the Caribbean theme.** Some of us petitioned for Holst’s Mars movement, but we were outvoted. Freaking Johnny Depp.
**It’s a good theme, but it ain’t no Jupiter.
WHO NEEDS STRINGS
Love it.
This brings me back to high school when our band played an arrangement of this song for the class of 2005 graduation ceremony (our 2006 class got something much less cool; I think it was a Pirates of the Caribbean medley, ‘cause that was super popular back then).
I wish I would have kept the sheet music. The 3rd clarinet part was super cool.
(Also, sorry not sorry for all the music posts lately. Blame the Sennheisers.)
HOLY HEAVENLY BODIES, BATMAN
Everybody stop what you’re doing and listen to this right now:
This is one of my favorite songs in the solar system (HA! Get it?) and this arrangement is phenomenal. The slow section from 3:17 to 5:25 is just…nnnnnnf. Beautiful. If that doesn’t hurt your soul (in a good way), I’m pretty sure you’re dead.
Edit: Apparently, Holst originally scored all the planets (except for Neptune) for piano duet. Interesting.
TWSB: You Missed a (Big) Spot
Jupiter news!
So we all know the giant red spot on the giant, fast-rotating planet, right?
Of course we do! But do we know why it’s red?
For a long time, the main theory has been that the spot is red because the giant storm creating it is churning up reddish chemicals from beneath Jupiter’s clouds and bringing them to the surface for us to see.
But a new theory states that the redness of the massive swirling isn’t due to chemicals from beneath the clouds but rather due to chemical reactions with sunlight. Work by Kevin Bains, Bob Carlson, and Tom Momary, scientists based at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, state that based on data collected from both laboratory experiments and Cassini’s flyby of the planet in 2000, they suspect that the red tint is due to the effects of ultraviolet light on ammonia and acetylene, the gases in the uppermost portion of the storm.
Baines states that if this is the case, then the spot is probably pretty dull in color beneath its uppermost clouds. According to the older theory, if the reddish chemicals are indeed coming from beneath the clouds, then the spot would be red all the way through. Baines and the others are currently doing more testing/simulations to try to gain evidence about what color lies beneath the red.
As for why the great red spot is, well, the only great red spot on the planet, Baines suggests it’s because it’s a very tall storm—much taller than any other—and thus is more likely to get “sunburnt.”
Sleep Deprivation Makes Me Cooooool.
Theory: Cinnamon Toast Crunch is Cap’n Crunch’s estranged son who, rebelling aginst his father’s wishes that he join the Navy, took up a life of stripping. His real name’s like Gary or something and “Cinnamon Toast” is just his stage name.
I’d like to know how that went down when Cap’n Crunch found out.
Like one day The Cap’n comes home from a long day of Crunchatizing and finds li’l Gary taking off all his cinnamon in a bowl of milk to the tune of “You Sexy Thing.”
“Dad! I uh…what are you doing home so early?”
“Son, what are you doing?”
“I, uh…just…”
“Get out of the milk, son.”
“But da—”
“Get out of the milk.”
Completely unrelated:
TWSB: Death By Jupiter
Kind of a cop-out science blog entry, but what’re you going to do, eh? I haven’t had much time to actually research science articles.
Haha, Jupiter would eat us alive. Comments from others:
“Glad I’m not the only one that found Jupiter fucking terrifying.”
“if jupiter was that close we should all shit our pants in terror every morning”
“That was damn scary, the idea that if we were that close we would be sucked into Jupiter almost made me shit bricks.”
“Jupiter actually made my heart jump a bit.”
“Jupiter shows up- HOLY FUCK.”
“In Soviet Jupiter, Earth orbits you”
Does |0| = −459.67?
So as you (probably don’t) know, one of my favorite composers is Gustav Holst. My favorite song of his is Jupiter, from the Planets suite. I’ve had my copy of it for about six years now.
Today, while backing up my thesis in case of catastrophic multi-hard drive failure, rather than digging through my music library to find Jupiter, I decided to search for it on YouTube instead so I could catch a quick listen.
This recording absolutely blew my mind. It is approximately 6,000 times better than the recording I’ve got of it:
Highlights:
– I’ve never heard French horns that sounded that good.
– If any musician in the orchestra made a mistake, I sure as hell didn’t catch it. Flawless.
– 3:07 = unadulterated beauty.
– I love how the conductor stops conducting at 3:47 and just emotes. The musicians know what to do.
I swear I was exposed to this song once when I was very little, ‘cause it speaks to my soul. It’s very familiar to me.
Anyway.
So today was also supposed to be “no dairy for a week starting today” day, but I remembered that fact just as I had dumped a buttload of cheese on my pasta for dinner. And because I’m not one to waste time picking individual chunks of feta out of a steaming pot of penne and broccoli, I decided to wait until next week.
Because starting in the middle of the week would be wrong.
Yeah.
Just go listen to Jupiter again. It’s far better than paying attention to my blather.
TWSB: Yay, Jupiter’s going to be able to hold its pants up again!
(Obligatory belt joke taken care of)
This photo shows a picture of Jupiter’s SEB (Southern Equatorial Belt) returning after its disappearance was noticed last May. This picture and others capture plumes of energy breaking through the cloud tops.
So pretty soon, say scientists, Jupiter will return to looking like we’re used to seeing it.
Haha, I know this This Week’s Science Blog is short, but I’ve been wondering when the band would return since I became aware of it being gone.
Today’s song: Nocturne by Nomo
Jupiter is changing, as are the Internet Giants
Part I. Jupiter
OH CRAP!
Apparently this is a fairly frequent thing, but I don’t ever remember hearing anything about it before.
Part II. The internet
What is this, the Information Age Paradigm Shift into Tab Land? Or are all the big websites having a mid-digital-age crisis and wanting facelifts?
What is the big deal with tabs, anyway? Seriously. I don’t see their appeal. Now Wikipedia has jumped on the “let’s change shit up for no reason” bandwagon and added that overplayed “we’re modern now!” tab-and-pointless-fading-color-crap to their site. They also decided to move their search box across the page.
Somebody needs to explain to me why this is all happening at once.
Haha, maybe there’s some sort of cosmic connection between Jupiter losing a stripe and the big players of the Tubes deciding to change things up.
Like Google’s head scientist (because you know they’ve got some sort of “Google Jupiter” machines flying around in the ammonia clouds taking pictures) goes into a board meeting and says to their head designer: “Um, sir…it appears we’ve got some shocking news from Jupiter.”
Head Designer: “What is it, Doctor?”
Head Scientist: “Well, it appears that the SEB has gone missing from our view.”
Head Designer: “So?”
Head Scientist: “That means that the largest planet in our solar system has just changed its layout!”
Head Designer: “OH CRAP! We’d better get on that NOW! INFORM WIKIPEDIA, THIS SHIT’S GOING TO GO DOWN FAST!!”
Etc., etc.
Hahaha, I know it’s not a big deal. I just like to bitch about it. I just don’t see a valid reason for it, especially for it all happening at once.
Also, for whatever the hell reason, today we switched to Leibniz’ notation in calculus. Not that I’m complaining.
Today’s song: Parlez Vous Francais? by Art vs. Science
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