Nick Sagan Online

A Glorious Dawn

So, yeah, my dad put out a new music video.

John Boswell over at Colorpulse Music is a mad genius, sampling both Cosmos and Stephen Hawking's Universe series into three minutes and thirty-four seconds of pure, concentrated awesomeness:

 

Love it, love it, love it.  Dad would have loved it, too.

Nine Inch Nails To Mars

To the surprise of absolutely no one, I'm a fan of the band Nine Inch Nails. How devoted a fan am I? Devoted enough to name a hereditary degenerative neurological disorder after the lead singer.

For reals.

In the Star Trek: TNG episode, "Bloodlines", I gave Patrick Stewart a possible son, then messed the poor kid up with Forrester-Trent syndrome. The Forrester part of the name is a tip of the hat to the late Larry Forrester, who wrote the episode that "Bloodlines" served as a sequel to, and the Trent part is a shoutout to NIИ frontman Trent Reznor.

So... NIИ fan? Check. Astronomy buff? Check. If you're either or both of these things, you really ought to see this NASA Mars mission animation that's been set to a Nine Inch Nails song. It's powerful, and you might be surprised at how well the music and images serve each other.

Amália Rodrigues

In anticipation of next week's trip to Lisbon, I've been listening to a lot of Portuguese music. The rock and roll isn't bad, but the fado is just amazing. If you're not familiar with fado, it's a style of traditional folk music that started in the 1820's. It's often called the "Portuguese blues" because it's so mournful, but to my ear it's less bluesy and more in line with flamenco and torch songs.

Fado is intertwined with a concept called saudade, which doesn't translate easily into English, but might best be decribed as "longing" or "anguish."

Now I don't play music to feel happy. If the Beach Boys are picking up good vibrations, that's fine for them, but leave me out of it. I listen to music to feel myself crackling with aggression, or to have my heart torn out. Fado falls into the second category for me.

If you're interested, I'd like to recommend Amália Rodrigues, the "Queen of Fado."

Amália was one of Portugal's most popular singers, an international star throughout the 1950's and 60's. Her voice is phenomenal, so rich and soulful, commanding attention over lilting, delicate music. Though some of her songs are too folksy for me or otherwise not to my taste, when she goes for "haunting" or "passionate," she absolutely hits it.

I've been playing these five over and over:

Abandono
Cansaço
Coimbra
Estranha Forma de Vida
Fria Claridade

They're all wonderful, but Abandono ("Abandonment") is the one I like best. You can get that one off iTunes or the Art of Amália Rodrigues, Volume 2 CD.