Friday Night Videos

Ever since I became interested in tiki I've had a deep fascination with the music associated with it. Moving beyond exotica and hapa haole, I've been exploring more and more lately the music of indigenous peoples from the Pacific, who take their traditional sounds and instruments, fusing them with modern instruments and expressions for distinctive, contemporary sound. Matato'a is one of those groups--a band from Rapa Nui (also known as Easter Island). Their video for the song "Here Ma'ohi" is awash with their culture and landscape. It's kind of astonishing to watch. Really, how many bands get to perform alongside giant Moai statues carved by their ancestors?

Previously on Friday Night Videos... Hall and Oates.

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Lunar eclipse 2022

The last lunar eclipse I had clear skies for came back in 2014. I did a bit of astrophotography for that one, and managed to put together a crude animation of the event. It didn't turn out great, because I had no plan going in, but was a neat proof of concept. For the 2022 eclipse, which May 15, I planned to do better.

Except that I forgot about it completely, until Lisa stuck her head into my office and asked if I was interested in watching the eclipse, which had already begun. Argh! There wasn't time to set up my telescope (762mm focal length!) and calibrate its equitorial tracking, which meant I would not be repeating the animation trick this time around. So instead I settled for using my Canon FD 500mm f/8 reflex lens (converted to EOS mount by yours truly) on my tripod-mounted 7D. The results of this setup were... okay. Adjusting the camera on the tripod was a real pain. You forget just how convenient an equatorial mount is for making tiny observational adjustments until you don't have it. The 500mm lens I used is, in fact, a small telescope. Emphasis on small. Still, it performed as well as can be expected and respectably documented the event. Next time, though, I'm going to plan better...

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Friday Night Videos

"Adult Education" is one of Hall & Oates' odder hits. There's a cynicism to it, the staccato beats of the lyrics hinting at something ominous, or at least stressful, lurking around the corner. It's very much in the vein of high-school-as-a-horror-story done with Buffy the Vampire Slayer, save for the lack of supernatural elements. Or is it? I'm not so sure after watching the deeply weird video. What the heck is going on here? It starts off with something of an Indiana Jones vibe, but then takes a left turn into some occult ceremony with a mostly naked couple being blessed with what looks to be an Aztek paper weight. And John Oates is really, really pissed off about something. Was he angry because he didn't get to be one of the naked people? Is that why he's not wearing a shirt? I honestly have no idea.

Previously on Friday Night Videos... Jefferson Airplane.

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Friday Night Videos

I can never quite get over just how astonishingly good Jefferson Airplane was. That gets overlooked in light of the fact that Jefferson Airplane wasn't as good but had significantly more success on the charts, and then Starship, which was insanely successful from a commercial standpoint but is considered artistically disposable today. But it's easy to remember how powerful Airplane was when revisiting past performances, like this one of "High Flyin' Bird" and "Today."

Previously on Friday Night Videos... Prince.

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