Greetings from Laurel Canyon!
Last week I happened to catch the Nightly News. Brian Williams nonchalantly delivered a short report on the discovery of a planet he described as “Earth-like.”
Yes, outer space (along with the music business) is “the final frontier.” We now know there lies a place 3,000 trillion miles away. You don’t have to be an A&R guru to look at Planet Kepler-186f and know something is going down—way out yonder.
This week’s Idelic Hour poses a simple question, “Is anybody out there?” Seeing a photo of this familiar looking world, the thing that came to mind was the first couple of lines of the Bowie classic, “Life on Mars.”
It’s a god-awful small affair / To the girl with the mousy hair / But her mummy is yelling “No” / And her daddy has told her to go / But her friend is nowhere to be seen / Now she walks through her sunken dream / To the seat with the clearest view / And she’s hooked to the silver screen / But the film is a saddening bore / ‘Cause she’s lived it ten times or more / She could spit in the eyes of fools / As they ask her to focus on / Is there life on Mars?
I’ve always been attracted to alien-like musicians. From Bowie to Gary Numan to Bjork—cats from outer space are cool. Do we as a culture have an Alien obsession, or are we just bracing ourselves for the inevitable? This week’s Idelic hour is dedicated to who, or what, is out there on Kepler 186f.
Do you think they—or should I say it—can hear us Earthlings on Kepler ? If so, this is what a few of our cooler dwellers are thinking.
The Idelic Hit of the Week:
The Faint – Evil Voices
