TWANG! SUNSET

Hank B. Marvin: Waterloo Sunset (Link)

Hank B. Marvin: Summer Guitar (Link)

 

Nice to read during the long car ride yesterday that Hank B. Marvin had added Waterloo Sunset to his repertoire.  The Summer Guitar track is fun also.  Impossible not to smile thinking of Hank.  I'm so sorry I misplaced the Twang! tribute album with all those great, heartfelt "thanks, Hank" performances by Neil Young & Randy Bachman, Andy Summers, Ritchie Blackmore, Steve Stevens, etc.  Who could that be outside the PSCHS window behind Jane at the Christmas show?  It's still hot but we're on the verge of another season. As HAL 9000 put it (so well), I can feel it, Dave.

Neil Young and Randy Bachman: Spring Is Nearly Here (Twang! lp Link)

City Lights of the Universe

If an alien civilization builds brightly-lit cities like those shown in this artist's conception, future generations of telescopes might allow us to detect them. This would offer a new method of searching for extraterrestrial intelligence elsewhere in our Galaxy. Photo: David A. Aguilar (CfA).

WASHINGTON, DC.- In the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, astronomers have hunted for radio signals and ultra-short laser pulses. In a new paper, Avi Loeb (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics) and Edwin Turner (Princeton University) suggest a new technique for finding aliens: look for their city lights.

"Looking for alien cities would be a long shot, but wouldn't require extra resources. And if we succeed, it would change our perception of our place in the universe," said Loeb. 

As with other SETI methods, they rely on the assumption that aliens would use Earth-like technologies. This is reasonable because any intelligent life that evolved in the light from its nearest star is likely to have artificial illumination that switches on during the hours of darkness. 

How easy would it be to spot a city on a distant planet? Clearly, this light will have to be distinguished from the glare from the parent star. Loeb and Turner suggest looking at the change in light from an exoplanet as it moves around its star.

As the planet orbits, it goes through phases similar to those of the Moon. When it's in a dark phase, more artificial light from the night side would be visible from Earth than reflected light from the day side. So the total flux from a planet with city lighting will vary in a way that is measurably different from a planet that has no artificial lights. 

Spotting this tiny signal would require future generations of telescopes. However, the technique could be tested closer to home, using objects at the edge of our solar system. 

Loeb and Turner calculate that today's best telescopes ought to be able to see the light generated by a Tokyo-sized metropolis at the distance of the Kuiper Belt - the region occupied by Pluto, Eris, and thousands of smaller icy bodies. So if there are any cities out there, we ought to be able to see them now. By looking, astronomers can hone the technique and be ready to apply it when the first Earth-sized worlds are found around distant stars in our galaxy.

"It's very unlikely that there are alien cities on the edge of our solar system, but the principle of science is to find a method to check," Turner said. "Before Galileo, it was conventional wisdom that heavier objects fall faster than light objects, but he tested the belief and found they actually fall at the same rate." 

As our technology has moved from radio and TV broadcasts to cable and fiber optics, we have become less detectable to aliens. If the same is true of extraterrestrial civilizations, then artificial lights might be the best way to spot them from afar. 

Loeb and Turner's work has been submitted to the journal Astrobiology and is available at arxiv.org.

  

Suspended Animation (Japan and Libya)

Elisabeth Sladen (as Sarah) shows the effects of suspended animation in Doctor Who 

       The tragic, still unfolding events in Japan and Libya have awoken in me a curious and disturbing sense of suspended animation., i.e., the slowing of life processes by external means without termination.

        It seems so strange  -- the protracted and seemingly endless alternation of unverifiable, unreliable and  unsustained "good news" and "bad news" from Japan, dispensed and rotated through half, quarter -- even shorter -- cycles.  Things must seem twice as incoherent over there  -- unless they're receiving different and more consistent information than we are here -- and they are as unaware of our alternate universe as we surely are of theirs.

  

Jupiter Mission:  2001, A Space Odyssey


        Libya, a completely different situation and one suffused with an obvious (except in the sense of being easily understood) political superstratum, is scarcely more coherent and confuses both spatial/political (right and left) and compass directions. (Civil wars are like that.)   Please note that this is not a political posting expressing a personal conclusion or point of view on these matters.  However, for an opinion/analysis of a person on the right (Caroline Glick of the Jerusalem Post),  click here.   To read a "left" alternative view (from Michael Kinsley in the Los Angeles Times), click here.   Both writers are knowledgeable and thoughtful.  Neither paints anything like a happy, contented picture.

        While both catastrophes are still "current events", they now each seem to have gone on for so long without obvious milestones or signposts that I feel myself cryonically frozen in a permanent fuzzy present tense with no expectation of any future arrival at any point of entry or safe harbor.

Where my knowledge of suspended animation first began.


        On a much more trivial level, a similar sensation of suspended animation arises from experiencing the continuing, practically incessant television appearances of former Pennsylvania governor Ed Rendell, former Tennessee U.S. representative Harold Ford, and former Newsweek magazine editor Jon Meacham (the man who single-handedly wrecked Newsweek, in business since 1933, by making it unreadable, uninteresting and actually physically unpleasant to the touch) on various news shows where they each discourse interminably about subjects they know very little about.  At least Rendell is in his element here -- turn on the switch and he just Goes, kind of like Jane's brilliant Kung-Fu Hamster.  The other two just emit wheezy sounds. 

Unrelenting blowhard, former Pennsylvania governor Ed Rendell, who will speak at any length on any topic.

Former U.S. representative from Memphis, Tennessee, Harold Ford -- icy opportunist and "higher office political hopeful" turned soggy pundit and  "investment banker"/Rolodex whore.  Encountering him on a Manhattan street is scary -- is he a revenant or an extra-terrestrial visitor from an ongoing real-life "V" invasion?  And why is he making that face?

Jon Meacham -- he actually destroyed Newsweek magazine all by himself.  By making its appeal more "selective", he completely eviscerated it so quickly that he should receive the Admiral Graf Spee Award for speedy scuttling.  A cure for insomnia in human form, being subjected to Meacham's Hamlet-like soliloquies is clearly collective karmic payback for some mysterious wrong thing each of us did to someone sometime somewhere.  For what it's worth, I'm so sorry.  As Linda Blair once said so memorably: "Mother, make it stop." 

Kung-Fu Hamster -- in Todd Rundgren's words, A Wizard, A True Star.  

Click on link above and here to see hamster in action.

Two Trifles: Dessert(s) And A Movie

         

A "magnificent trifle"
 

    
     Webster's defines "trifle" in first postion as: "something of little value, substance, or importance" which, Sabbath issues of salvation (assuming they're relevant to the reader) aside, means that trifles and Sundays should go together well. After the week I've had (and I expect you may have had), I need a break from the consequential.

       Accordingly,  I have two trifles to suggest for consideration this morning, both of which I think are worth the time.

The first  is another sort of trifle, a beautiful, delicious and civilizing one, which is the English dessert conceived in the eighteenth century by the pioneering English cookery writer, Hannah Glasse (1708-1770) and described (by M.F.K. Fisher this time) as "a monumental chilled pudding made from sponge cake, macaroons, jam, brandy or whatever liquor seems indicated, custards, whipped cream....."

Nigella Lawson's Chocolate Trifle

Alan Davidson, the Scottish diplomat and cookery writer best known for his contributions to the literature of fish cookery (and a writer who can be read for pleasure at any time by any reader for his prose, encyclopedic knowledge and insight) dedicated his last book as an author to the trifle.  Published in 2001 by his Prospect Books, "Trifle" (co-authored with his protege Helen Saberi) is a beautiful small volume that predictably might be considered the last and best word on the subject.

Trifle Belle-Helene 

Two wonderful trifle recipes follow:

Sweet chestnut trifle

 

Serves 6-8 

Pears:

300ml water

125g caster sugar

1 vanilla pod, slit, or 1 tsp vanilla extract

2 Comice pears

4 tbsp Armagnac

Trifle:

100g amaretti

1 x 435g tin unsweetened chestnut purée

3 medium organic eggs, separated

50g caster sugar

150g trifle sponges

Cocoa for dusting

Marrons glacé or crystallised ginger 

To poach the pears, place the water, sugar and vanilla pod or extract in a small saucepan and bring to the boil, stirring until the sugar dissolves. Peel and halve the pears, submerge them, cut side up, in the syrup. Cover with a circle of baking paper and poach over a low heat until they are tender. 

Cool them in the syrup, then remove and drain thoroughly on a double layer of kitchen paper. Quarter, core and finely slice. Mix 5 tbsp of the syrup with the armagnac. Break the amaretti into a shallow bowl and pour half this solution over them. 

To prepare the chestnut cream, whizz the chestnut purée in a food processor until smooth and creamy, then incorporate the egg yolks. Transfer to a large bowl. In another bowl, whisk the egg whites until they hold their shape, then gradually sprinkle over the sugar, whisking well with each addition until you have a glossy meringue. Fold this into the chestnut purée in three goes.

Alan Davidson's Favorite Trifle

For the custard:

• 2 1/2 cups heavy cream
• 6 large egg yolks
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 2 teaspoons cornstarch
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the trifle:

• 6 to 8 Sponge Cupcakes (see recipe below)
• 1/2 cup seedless raspberry or strawberry jam
• 18 almond macaroons or Italian amaretto cookies, crumbled
• Grated zest of 1 lemon
• 2 tablespoons brandy
• 1/2 cup dry Marsala or sherry
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 2 teaspoons Drambuie liqueur or vanilla extract
• Pink crystallized rose petals, candied cherries or other garnishes

To make the custard:

Heat the cream in a small saucepan just until bubbles form around the edges. Meanwhile, beat yolks, sugar and cornstarch together until very smooth. Whisking constantly, slowly pour the hot cream into the egg mixture. Return the mixture to the saucepan, place over medium-low heat and cook, stirring constantly, until the mixture thickens just enough to coat the back of a spoon. Do not overcook or the custard will curdle. Pour it into a bowl, stir in the vanilla and set aside to cool.

To make the trifle:

Split the cupcakes horizontally and spread jam thickly on the bottom halves and reassemble them. Arrange the cupcakes in a trifle dish or glass serving dish about 6 inches wide and at least 3 inches deep. Sprinkle with the macaroons and then lemon zest. Pour in the brandy and Marsala or sherry. Pour in 2 cups of the custard. Let stand about an hour.

Whip the cream, gradually incorporating the sugar and then the Drambuie. Pile the mixture over the trifle, sprinkle with garnishes and serve.

YIELD:  8 servings

Sponge Cupcakes

Ingredients

• 4 large eggs, separated
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup sifted cake flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

Preparation

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees and line a muffin tin with baking cups. With an electric mixer, whip the egg yolks and all but 3 tablespoons of the sugar for about 5 minutes, until light and fluffy. Beat in 1 1/2 tablespoons of boiling water and the vanilla. Sift together the cake flour and salt. Fold into the yolks until just mixed.

Whip the egg whites until foamy. Slowly incorporate the remaining sugar and whip until the whites hold stiff peaks. Stir 1/3 of the whites into the yolks, then gently fold in the rest.

Fill each muffin cup about 3/4 full, and bake until the cupcakes are lightly browned and spring back when pressed lightly, 15 to 20 minutes. Cool on a rack.

YIELD:  12 cupcakes

Alan Davidson  (1924-2003)

New York City premiere, 2001: A Space Odyssey, April 3, 1968

     
     This morning's second, equally enjoyable trifle is a book I recently reacquired, but which never left my memory, called "The Making of Kubrick's 2001", which was assembled and edited by Jerome Agel and originally published as a Signet Film Series paperback in 1970.  

In this small, but substantial, volume (unlike so many paperbound books today, which cost an arm and a leg, this is actually the size of a "normal" paperback of days of yore and was cover-priced at a high-value USD $1.50), Jerome Agel, who previously "conceived and coordinated" Marshall McLuhan's enjoyable, and, for some, revelatory and life-changing "The Medium Is The Massage", and Buckminster Fuller's "I Seem To Be A Verb", fully captures in another medium the magic both of seeing and wondering about 2001, without laying a heavy author/critic trip on you.

Agel offers as much information (visual and text) about the conception, production and commercial exploitation of 2001 as any interested reader/enthusiast could possibly desire, while in the best reporter-to-reader or teacher-to-student manner, leaving the rest up to you.  There is no table of contents, no index and no need for one.  As T.E. Lawrence discoursed on this question in his Seven Pillars Of Wisdom: "Halfway through the labour of an index to this book, I recalled the practice of my ten years of study of history; I had never used the index of a book fit to read.  Who would insult his Decline and Fall, by consulting it just upon a specific point?"

I absolutely loved this book when it was published and it moved with me from apartment-to-apartment for a very long time. While researching this yesterday, I came across a contemporary reader comment from a high school student saying that when he found this book on his library shelf, he decided to skip his next two class periods because he found it so enjoyable and engrossing.  That fairly sums it up for me.

Two days ago I was speaking to a woman I know who told me that she never "got" "2001: A Space Odyssey" and disliked it.  I suppose that when I first saw it on the Cinerama screen in Manhattan as a young teenager there were things that I didn't "get" then, which subsequently became clearer.  It's a movie that takes you far from your "comfort zone", as they like to say now and, for all its many visual delights, isn't in any way a show-boat-y, special effects movie.  Space and Earth pre-history are presented in the way they are in order to create as naturalistic a background as possible to dramatize truthfully human beings' struggle to be human, to evolve and do their best (for all their imperfections and limitations) against great challenges and long odds. We recently watched a new film concerning NASA's final space shuttle mission to conduct major repairs on the Hubble telescope and were struck by the similarities in attitude and purpose between our current astronauts and Frank and Dave, 2001's human protagonists.

Two nice quotes from the book:

Andre Breton:  "Everything leads us to believe that there exists a certain point of the intelligence at which life and death, the real and the imaginary, the past and the future..........cease to be perceived as opposites."

Stanley Kubrick:  "If it can be written, or thought, it can be filmed."  

I bought my new copy of The Making of Kubrick's 2001 for about $15.00 from abe.com.

Stanley Kubrick

Arthur C. Clarke