Lamentations on Chemistry

June 22, 2008, Santa Monica, California. Comedian and satirist George Carlin died sunday evening after checking into a Santa Monica hospital complaining of chest pains. He was 71.

Carlin was a brilliant social satirist and comic. He had the ability to look at ordinary things from a different angle and see the obvious obsurdity in things most of us accept as simple background noise. This is one of the key attributes of a successful satirist and comedian.

I think it’s the duty of the comedian to find out where the line is drawn and cross it deliberately. 

The very existence of flamethrowers proves that some time, somewhere, someone said to themselves, “You know, I want to set those people over there on fire, but I’m just not close enough to get the job done.”

I went to a bookstore and asked the saleswoman, “Where’s the self-help section?” She said if she told me, it would defeat the purpose.

There’s no present. There’s only the immediate future and the recent past.

Not only do I not know what’s going on, I wouldn’t know what to do about it if I did.

-George Carlin

Carlin was a serial quipster who pushed the boundaries of social norms. His Seven Dirty Words ended up as the center of a 1978 Supreme Court ruling that affirmed the right of the state to bar ”indecent” of speech on the public airwaves.

While it is common for contemporary comedians to exploit “indecent” speech for shock value today, few seem to have the facility with language that Carlin had. He was able to reduce to a few short humorous sentences the dark uncertainties that many of us have with common subjects.  Carlin’s observations on taboo subjects put him well ahead of his time.

I viewed the new version of The Andromeda Strain recently. The miniseries is directed by brothers Ridley and Tony Scott and was broadcast on A&E. I really like and respect Michael Crichton for the book and the original movie was quite good. And, Ridley Scott is one of my favorite directors.

But this remake is a problem. The production value is excellent and the cinematography is quite inspired in a few places. I couldn’t do better than Ridley Scott, so who am I to complain? But there is the rub. While it is technically competent and visually stimulating, the storyline is a bit … well, I’ll just say it … overwrought. The updated storyline is just too bloody complex. Too many little cul-de-sacs and backstories to keep track of. It has that same manic, runaway train feel as ER. Just like Crichton’s most recent books. I can’t finish them.

Part of the problem with much of contemporary movie making is the persistance of formulaic and over used themes. Tired, threadbare archetypes of reluctant heroes, corrupt politicians, and busty nubiles who are handy with martial arts and firearms. I enjoy watching Angelina Jolie spraying machine gun fire as much as the next guy, but enough! Lets move on to something new.

Which brings me to the latest Indiana Jones movie. This movie proves that even George Lucas is subject to the Peter Principle. The storyline is a patchwork of whatever few baby-boomer oriented euphamisms that haven’t already been hijacked by the trolls at Industrial Light and Magic. It’s a contrived piece of cinema that was apparently designed by MBA’s and industrial psychologists to extract money from your debit card. (But I did enjoy some Milk Duds during the show.)

For Gawd sakes, George, go out back and dig up some of that money you have buried in the back yard and buy a better script next time.

If you appreciate the famous cantata Carmina Burana by Carl Orff, you’ll love this interpretation. It is not a small download, but it is worth it.

Enjoyed a decent local production of Guys and Dolls last night. The parts of Miss Adelaide and Sister Sarah Brown (soprano) were particularly well played. The soprano could really belt it out- It was spectacular.  I shared the table with a theatre director and a quantum physicist. Interesting mix.

Wow. I’m stunned. Mary Ann from Gilligan’s Island- a rabid, bug-eyed dope fiend. Caught with wacky tabaccy. Should’a called her Mary Jane.  Cripes, somebody call the skipper.

(Photo - Associated Press)

A little Cabernet Sauvignon, Blue Man Group, some Gilbert & Sullivan- life is good. I nearly forgot I have to go to work in the morning. Dash it all, damn and blast.

It’s Mardi Gras Baby! I’m wearing my Mardi Gras beads- Are you?

I’m halfway through Crichton’s 2006 genetics saga Next. Slogged all the way to chapter 35 of 94. I hate to say it, but I’m bored out of my skull. I ran into the same issue with his last book, State of Fear. The question is this- Should a fellow spend perfectly good heartbeats in finishing the book, or move on to a better read? Ahh, I’m moving on.

Next reads like a made-for-TV drama. Thin character development and short chapters are ideal for the 12-minutes-of-ads-per-half-hour-of-programming world of television. Between chapters I fully expect to see a testimonial about erectile dysfunction or a teaser for a NASCAR race pageant. The chapters are so short and the narrative jumps around so much that it becomes difficult to keep track of what each character is doing. It is attention deficit narrative- ADN.

Crichton has become a TV writer and to expect anything different seems unrealistic. I’m sure it’s a good living. Hmmm, I wonder if he is on strike…?

I keep hoping for another Andromeda Strain and we keep getting ER. 

The AMC channel on cable is running a series called Breaking Bad. It is about a high school chemistry teacher who, for various reasons, begins to make high quality methamphetamine with a former student. It is actually quite interesting to watch. Never before have I seen so many details of chemical synthesis on an entertainment tv program.

The 2nd episode portrays a lecture on chirality to a chemistry class. The technical details seem well researched and the dramatic situations are unexpected and novel. I have to say that it is quite well done.

The teacher is a kind of anti-hero. We can identify with him to a point. But where we depart from him is where he breaks bad. The scenes of a chemist working in a respirator and tighty-whities may frighten some viewers. Caution is advised.

Just back from seeing the movie Cloverfield. Holy cow! Fast and intense flick. Not for dates.  Ninety five minutes of home video. NYC trashed by another dyspeptic monster. Creature feature. Angry shrimp-grass hopper hybrids the size of golden retreivers. Rather well done in my estimation. Best seen on a theater screen.  Not for little kids- it’ll scare the doo-doo out of them.

Sunday morning and the poker is in the fire. Gotta love these 6 day per week jobs.

Enroute to other things (ETOT) I blundered into the website of Professor Irwin Corey. This guy dates from way back on the timeline.

Professor Corey is credited with numerous quips, among them-

“If we don’t change direction soon, we’ll end up where we’re going.”

“Wherever you go, there you are.”

“You can get further with a kind word and a gun than you can with just a kind word.”

Corey’s schtick is parody of the egghead elite. He portrays a kind of daffy, absent-minded professor who is forever stuck in lecture mode. He stitches together impressive sounding language into a maze of dead ends leading to a hilarious rhapsody of non sequiturs.

There is probably no relation to the other professor Corey at Harvard.