2020 Vision

Happy New Year!

Welcome to 2020, the year in which, according to Hollywood we should be racing to Mars on a desperate mission to rescue some floating M&Ms, fighting Kaiju and finding true love in our Jaegers, or hiding from dragons while teaching children about Star Wars.

I know. So disappointing when reality doesn’t match up to the movies.

I've almost finished Netflix so I’m looking forward to leaving the house and discovering some new experiences in 2020. My plans include getting to London Comic-Con and also trying some immersive science-fiction theatre – will report back if I survive. I’m also looking at all the movies coming out this year and I have no idea what to think. Ghostbusters, Top Gun and Bill and Ted are all coming back – any of which could be epic or catastrophic. On the other hand there are some originals in the line-up too, including the mysterious Chris Nolan movie Tenet, and while I don't always approve of re-makes I will probably still see the new adaptation of Dune, and I'm genuinely interested to see what Jordan Peele does with his re-imagining of Candyman.

2020 is also the 100^th anniversary of the theremin, that most science-fictiony of electronic instruments. The theremin was invented by Leon Theremin in either 1919 or 1920 – the theremin community are hedging their bets on this. I’ve continued practicing my Open Theremin, working through Carolina Eyck's book, and I’ll post some more thoughts and videos for your amusement shortly.

Limarrakis

That callous young man Paul Atreides
Always had a (blue) eye for the ladies.
Through the dunes he would ride
With a girl on each side

On his bang pimped up sandworm Mercedes.

Master Chefs of Dune

"The beginning is a very delicate time. Know then that it is the year 10191. The Known Universe is ruled by the Padishah Emperor Shaddam IV, my father. In this time, the most precious substance in the universe is the spice Melange. The spice extends life. The spice expands consciousness. The spice is vital to space travel. The Spacing Guild and its navigators, who the spice has mutated over 4,000 years, use the orange spice gas, which gives them the ability to fold space. That is, travel to any part of universe without moving.
 
"Oh, yes. I forgot to tell you — the spice exists on only one planet in the entire universe. A desolate, dry planet with vast deserts. Hidden away within the rocks of these deserts are a people known as the Fremen, who have long held a prophecy that a man would come, a messiah who would lead them to true freedom. The planet is Arrakis, also known as Dune." Princess Irulan, Dune (film adaptation, 1984)

But does spice really exist only on Arrakis? Consider the evidence.

Claire 22, from Birmingham, a finalist in the current BBC series of Masterchef: The Professionals. This aspiring chef and restauranteur, barely older than Paul Atreides when his family first relocated to Arrakis, impressed judges Greg Wallace and Michel Roux Junior with her signature dish: roasted loin of muad'dib with langoustine and lardo, potato nests, asparagus and samphire, earning her place in the final three. How to follow such an accomplished feat? As most viewers will agree, this week Claire 22 really pushed the boundary with her roasted white sandworm fillet accompanied by pine nuts, rhubarb, chervil and buttermilk.

The spice of life?

After breaking down my resistance to sagas and series in general, I was able to start reading Frank Herbert's classic novel Dune. This is epic in every possible way; characters are increasingly superhuman and settings exotic and deadly; it's a story of heroes, villains, political and personal intrigue. Plenty of authors have described alien worlds and lifeforms; the description here is unusually complete, detailed and therefore feels more plausible; at the same time the evolutionary roles and survival struggles of life forms on the planet become symbols for the human story. You don't so much read this book as dive under the surface of Dune, emerging only in response to vibrations back in the real world, or perhaps when you feel hungry.

The Dune mini-series was made for the Sci-Fi channel. The most dedicated opera fans often go to see operas with their own copies of the libretto and follow the score as they watch. I wonder if, amongst the channel's viewers are some similar-minded sci-fi fans who are watching Dune with copies of the book in their laps. The series has clearly been made for such people; while occasionally there are adaptations for the media, to my mind this is extremely faithful to the book. On a few occasions this is at the cost of dramatic effect; the attempt to stick absolutely to the book's description of Baron Harkonnen leads to an enjoyable but slightly pantomime performance byIan McNeice; in other places the coldness of other characters is slightly overplayed. By today's standards the special effects are artful but unusually low-tech with many scenes clearly using back projection effects, or very contrived camera angles - sometimes this is a good thing. In the old days, by which I mean before Industrial Light and Magic, the limits of special effects forced directors to be much more inventive, and acting was still required at times. Naturally I still enjoyed much of this series.