“I think we’ve all broken Bill Nye — and I, for one, am
absolutely on board with his gritty new reboot,” says comedian John
Oliver after “the Science Guy” launches into a profanity-laced
demonstration of climate change, in which he literally watches the
globe go up in flames.
“I didn’t mind explaining photosynthesis to you when you were
12,” Nye tells Oliver’s HBO audience after firing up his blowtorch.
“But you’re adults now, and this is an actual crisis! Got it?”
Nye appeared yesterday on CNN’s Reliable Sources, where
moderator Brian Stelter asked him about his blowup. The CNN piece,
shown in the first video, goes straight to Bill’s line, “The
planet’s on f—— fire! You’re not children anymore!…”
Jayda Guy, aka Jayda G, a native of British Columbia, has
embraced her dual passions for science and music like few other
people in the world today. She has somehow been able to link her
experiences as a killer whale researcher to a creative mindset as a
musical DJ, singer, songwriter and producer, with a debut album
coming out this month.
The new album, “Significant Changes,” was inspired in part by
the orcas and the natural wonders of the Salish Sea, where she
conducted her studies. The album came together last year, not long
after she completed her master’s degree in resource management from
Simon Fraser University. Her research focused on the effects of
toxic chemicals on our southern resident killer whales.
“I’m trying to bring my two worlds together to bridge the
communication gap (and) engage people in a new way,” she told Andy
Malt, editor of
Complete Music Update. “I don’t know if people in the
electronic music world will want to talk about the environment, but
I think I should try! I think it’s our duty to use a platform like
this in a positive way; that’s our social responsibility.”
“Riding on a Lobster Tail” is a live show produced by
singer/songwriter/actor Angela Woodhull of Gainesville, Fla. The
program, designed to educate children, comes in two versions: a
large stage show with singers, dancers and musicians and a
one-person storytelling, sing-along show.
The story revolves around a family aboard a cruise ship who
learns about a a variety of sea creatures that they encounter.
“Queen Angelina,” as Angela is known in her stage life, tells the
story while singing about the various animals.
I discovered at least 15 songs written for the show as I
searched for music to fit with the “Water Ways” theme of this blog.
See the YouTube search page for
“Riding on a Lobster Tail.”
Amateur filmmakers have focused their talents on environmental
issues to produce some of the most creative short videos in the
eight-year history of the Eco-Comedy Video Competition.
That’s just my opinion, but I’ve been watching this competition
for years, and I know it is not easy to combine humor with a sharp
message about protecting the environment. Usually, one or two
videos stand out in the contest sponsored by The Nature Conservancy
in Maryland/DC and the Center for Environmental Filmmaking at
American University in Washington, D.C. But this year seemed to be
different.
Although the number of entries was down from last year — 30
compared to 48 — I found something unique in all the finalists as
well as the honorable mentions. I was also pleased to see an
elevation in the production quality, as well as improved acting
over what I’ve seen in the past. I could envision some of these
short pieces going forth as public service announcements on
television.
A panel of five judges selected the best videos based on the
level of humor as well as the ability to deliver a clear message
about the environment to a broad audience in three minutes or less.
The winners were announced last week as the DC Environmental Film
Festival on the American University campus.
The Grand Prize winners, Theodore Blossom and Robbie I’Anson
Price, will receive $2,000 from the Center for Environmental
Filmmaking. Their video, titled “@Humanity,” is the first on this
page. Theo, based in London, is a science communicator who presents
and produces stage shows, films and comedy. Robbie, a doctoral
student and filmmaker from Lausanne, Switzerland, studies
communication and learning in honeybees with the goal of
determining how communication can improve fitness.
The Viewers Choice Award went to a video titled “Journey to the
Future” by Stephanie Brown & Tim Allen, shown second on this
page.
Here are the YouTube links to all the videos recognized by the
judges;
Grand Prize Winner:“@Humanity” by
Theodore Blossom and Robbie Price
Classical composer Alex Shapiro, who lives on San Juan Island,
has a nice way of connecting music with her passion for the local
waters in Puget Sound.
“When I’m not crawling around the shoreline and shooting photos
of wildlife, I’m working on becoming a more adept note alignment
specialist,” she writes in her blog “Notes from the
Kelp.” “I compose music, mostly for chamber ensembles and
symphonic wind bands who kindly offer my notes to the air and
anyone within earshot.”
“Notes from the Kelp” is a nice play on words, since it is both
the name of a blog
and an album of
music, two ways of communicating with people about what Alex
calls a “heartbreakingly beautiful part of the planet.”
The first video on this page is Alex’s composition “Deep”
from “Notes from the Kelp.” When I close my eyes and listen to
this piece, I think about scuba diving along the bottom of Puget
Sound in very cold waters. In my vision, I first encounter all
sorts of bottom-dwelling organisms, such as sea pens and sea
urchins, but the music also inspires a feeling of doom, which I
associate with low-oxygen dead zones where nothing can live.
Here’s what Alex writes about “Deep”: “Sometimes I make the
mistake of believing that I’m not being unless I’m
doing and moving. This piece was my challenge to
myself to be still and present. And in doing so, I’ve never
been as much before. Like the sea, my truth lies below,
and I am happiest when I am immersed.”
The second video shows clarinetist Jeff Gallagher performing
Alex’s “Water
Crossing” during a concert in Santa Cruz, Calif., in 2016. Alex
writes about what she was thinking during the composition process
in the “Recordings”
section of her website. She describes a mythical voyage in a canoe
that turns into a sailboat. Dolphins dance ahead of the boat before
it returns to the safety of shore.
I have spent some time lately perusing this “Recordings”
page for a smorgasbord of music and observations on life. It’s
here you can find a list of Alex’s musical contributions, listen to
recordings and read about her music.
I first learned about Alex and her work from the third video on
this page. It was created as a promotion for the University of
Washington, yet Alex finds a way to talk about the importance of
science and how her music is like scientific exploration. The San
Juan Islands, where she lives, has always been an important place
to study sea life and shoreline dynamics — and it’s not just
because the islands are home to the UW’s Friday Harbor
Laboratories.
Alex has been traveling a lot lately and working on various
projects, as she freely describes on her Facebook page. Also, as
it turns out, she is moving from the home on San Juan Island that
she has written so passionately about. But she’s not going far,
since her new home is another waterfront location on San Juan
Island. I look forward to further notes from the kelp.
Have you had a chance to see the new television program “At
Home with Amy Sedaris” on the Tru TV network?
It’s a parody of the many do-it-yourself shows that demonstrate
cooking, craft-making and interior design. For me, the series
started a little slow with subtle conversational comedy about
cooking and bathing. But then the shows began embracing more and
more physical humor while taking on some ridiculous plots.
Amy is surprisingly good at pratfalls, as shown in the latest
holiday episode, in which she gets physically attacked by a haunted
nutcracker. That segment follows the snowman sketch shown in the
video on this page. The episode also includes visits from ghosts
that remind Amy of her past life, followed by the Christmas morning
piece shown on this page.
I wasn’t sure how this comedy would connect with this blog’s
water theme before the connection was made for me in an episode in
which Amy visits the outdoors, which is actually where water
originates before it gets piped indoors.
This particular show opens with a scene that includes Amy going
outside for her morning exercise routine. She appears to be naked
with appropriate pixilation, but that’s all part of the humor. She
accidentally locks herself out of her house without any clothes, as
she begins to plan for a dinner party that very night.
“Wait a minute,” she says. “Why do I need to get into my house
to prepare for a dinner party? Everything I could possibly need the
forest will provide.”
She borrows clothes from a female scarecrow. It turns out that
the scarecrow is the girlfriend of Sully, one of the woodsy experts
who helps Amy gather food for the party. But we soon learn that
food is not Amy’s top priority.
“Imagine you are lost in the wilderness and have a party to
throw in a few hours,” she says. “What would you do first? Build a
shelter? Find water? Start a fire? For me, it’s make a
back-scratcher. I got strands of hay from that scarecrow in my
shirt, and it’s killing me.”
If the typical episode pokes fun at homemaking shows, this
woodsy outing sheds new light on all those reality shows in which
ordinary people go into the wilderness and attempt to survive with
virtually nothing coming from civilized society.
“Did you ever eat a cattail?” Sully asks Amy while discussing
food options.
“I didn’t know they were edible!” Amy says with surprise.
“They’re not,” says Sully, “but when you’re hungry, you lower
the bar.”
Amy proceeds to get her mushroom species mixed up and goes on a
psychedelic trip. When she regains her senses, her friend Ruth
shows her how to make a centerpiece from simple items collected in
the woods — such as trash.
Sully returns with a hollowed-out gourd and shows her how to
boil water by dropping hot stones into the water-filled
container.
“Well, what can you do with hot water?” Amy wonders.
“All kinds of things,” Sully says. “You can make soup or tea —
or just let it cool down and heat it up again. That’s my
favorite.”
Amy, a longtime writer and actor in films and TV, seems
perfectly suited to this off-beat comedy. She began her career with
“Second City” and “Annoyance Theatre” comedy troupes in Chicago.
She wrote and performed in two shows, “Exit 57” and “Strangers with
Candy,” on the Comedy Central TV network. She has made guest
appearances on numerous TV shows and is popular on late-night talk
shows.
In 2009, Sedaris narrated the PBS special “Make ‘Em Laugh: The
Funny Business of America,” a serious documentary about comedy.
Since then, she has done voices for cartoon characters, performed
in commercials and played characters in several TV shows, including
“The Heart, She Holler” and “Alpha House.”
“At Home with Amy Sedaris,” which airs each Tuesday evening, can
be replayed
online at Tru TV if you have the appropriate cable or satellite
TV subscriptions.
So far, the show has gotten some positive reactions. In an
early review for Vox, Caroline Franke noted that Amy loves to
make people feel at home before pulling the rug out from under them
with a burst of laughter.
“If anything,” Franke writes, “Sedaris finding a way to build a
TV show around her slightly deranged interpretation of domestic
expertise feels long overdue. ‘At Home’ is the perfect mashup of
these sensibilities, letting her entertain comedians, characters,
and her famous friends alike with a delighted smile even as she
perverts tradition.”
“The Richest,” which
bills itself as the “world’s most entertaining website,” often
features celebrity gossip along with plenty of freakish people,
animals and events. Sometimes the website tries to be helpful with
videos such as
“10 awesome school hacks every student should know.”
In short, it is a three-ring circus with thousands of different
acts.
For amusement, I pulled up some water-related videos, which you
can watch on this page or link to YouTube:
“The Richest” is owned by Valnet, Inc., based in St. Laurent,
Quebec, Canada. The company operates 10 similar websites containing
well-hyped stories on just about every topic, including :
“The web has a become a streamlined environment where
operational excellence wins, and we have embraced this new reality
to its fullest,” declares a statement on the Valnet website.
The company boasts of 80 million users with 52 million of them
from the U.S., all producing 800 million page views a month. The
managers are searching for web content producers, freelance writers
and future staffers to build and manage its web production. See the
webpage “Careers.”
Ray Troll and the Ratfish Wranglers, one of the most amusing
bands in the Pacific Northwest, is touring Western Washington this
month, with stops in Port Townsend, Gig Harbor and Seattle.
Two years ago, when writing about how fishermen can save
rockfish from barotrauma, I featured a video by Ray and the band in
Water Ways (June 22, 2015). This video includes a rockfish
puppet and an original rap song by Ray Troll and Russell Wodehouse
telling all about the problem.
Besides music, Ray is well known for his “fin art,” which is
mostly about fish of all kinds, especially salmon. Ray prides
himself on the realistic images of fish, produced with scientific
precision, which he combines with humor to create some edgy
posters.
“Have you ever experienced water falling from the sky? … And
how would you describe that experience?”
These questions are thrown out to people in the first episode of
“The Adventures of Tracy & Felt,” in which a young woman and an
octopus explore the wonders of rain. In the second episode, they
explore the wonders of tides.
These videos make for an amusing approach to science education,
and it was nice to learn that this project is based in Puget Sound
with origins on Whidbey Island. The videos were shown at this
year’s Celluloid
Bainbridge Film Festival.
The producer of the series, Elizabeth
Schiffler, describes the development of this video series and
the strange relationship between a human and an octopus with
ongoing references to alien life forms:
“The Adventures of Tracy & Felt was born out of a desire to work
with talented young Washington filmmakers, writers, and artists to
ground work in the location we love and learn from,” she wrote.
“Developed on Whidbey Island, we challenged ourselves to create a
story full of laughs (mostly our own) and exploring the magical and
not-too-distant world of science and nature.”
Unlike other simple videos engaged in the explanation of
science, these stories do not take a straight line to describing
natural phenomena. Instead, Tracy and Felt take a roundabout path,
engaging in questions that most people take for granted, such as
the experience of rain. How about this question from the second
video: “Have you noticed how the ocean has been crawling up and
down the beach the past few days?”
Thanks to John F. Williams of Still Hope Productions for
letting me know about these videos.
It begins with secret formulas for bubble solution, takes off
with personal creativity and becomes an entertaining show with
smoke, lights and music. They call it bubble art.
The first video shows Melody Yang, who has been performing
bubble art since the age of 3 as the youngest member of the
performing Yang family. Her father, Fan Yang, studied the science
of bubbles and found new ways to blow bubbles to create works of
art. He started the troupe called the Gazillion Bubble Show, which
performs in New York City. Check out other
videos from the show.
For his continually expanding and multiplying bubbles, Fan
claims to have broken the Guinness Book of World Records 16 times.
I found him as the current record holder of the longest bubble
wall, nearly 167 feet long. See
Guinness World Records website.
Melody has now followed in the footsteps of her parents, uncle
and brother. She has performed on television in Italy, Greece,
France and the U.S., including an appearance on the Queen Latifah
Show.
Su started working with bubbles in 2011 and has become a
celebrity in Taiwan and other areas in Asia. He calls his show
“Be Fantasy: The Joy
of Bubble.”
One more bubble artist is Javier Urbina, a Spanish actor,
director and theater producer known as
“The Lord of the Bubbles.” Since 2014, he has performed more
than 250 bubble shows in Spain and Mexico.
