Category: People

Waka/Jawaka and The Grand Wazoo

In 1972 the musical prodigy Frank Zappa released two amazing records with two amazing title cuts. Both feature large ensembles with a big jazz band sound. This is some of the best jazz/rock fusion you’ll ever hear! Waka/Jawaka (listen) begins with an aggressive (triumphant!) brass anthem that still amazes me every time I listen to it. My favorite! The Grand Wazoo (listen) has a more laid back introduction, then proceeds through a series of jazzy improvisations. After several other notable cuts the album concludes with Blessed Relief (listen), a perfect anodyne. These albums were preceded by Hot Rats, which is a classic in its own right. It includes Peaches En Regalia (listen), probably the most famous instrumental number Zappa produced in his long, diverse career.

2009 Update: All my original links to music on YouTube have gone bad. I’ve compromised with links to 30 second samples on the Amazon site. Be aware that the Grand Wazoo sample is not representative of the track.

A Scanner Darkly by Philip K. Dick

Philip K. Dick is less well known than other science fiction authors of his generation (Asimov, Clarke, Heinlein), but today he enjoys a growing reputation as his novels are adapted to the screen. Of these, A Scanner Darkly is the most recent, the most personal, and perhaps the most important. It is a semi-autobiographical story of drug addiction, corporate greed, and universal surveillance. Several of the characters are based on real people the author knew, and the damage done by drugs is not hypothetical. The story anticipates several developments of the last twenty years: pharmaceutical companies inventing diseases to fit the drugs they produce; a surveillance society with video cameras everywhere; and human beings who are written off by the society they live in.

The 2006 movie sticks close to the original novel, deftly exploiting Dick’s dry humor and sense of the absurd. The action centers around a loose group of “friends” who all share interest in (and possibly addiction to) the ominous “substance D.” In the words of one character, “There’s no week-end warriors on the D. You’re either on it, or you haven’t tried it.”

Philip K. Dick Quotations…

Norman Borlaug and the Green Revolution

Norman Borlaug

What science gives, stupidity and geopolitics may take away. Norman Borlaug is the (largely unknown) hero of the last half of the twentieth century. He is credited with saving the lives of millions by developing high-yield crops and other agricultural innovations. He is one of only five who have won the Nobel Peace Prize, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and the Congressional Gold Medal.

But things may be changing. The recent spike in oil prices, coupled with a switch from food to fuel production is putting the world at risk. A series of food shortages and riots may presage what’s to come.

Norman Borlaug Quotes…