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Post by tannis on Aug 11, 2009 18:27:10 GMT
HR Giger did all the Alien concept drawings and Alien costume construction. The space-jockey himself was derived from a production sketch that Ridley Scott took a shine to. The space-jockey embodies H.R. Giger's favourite themes: death, sex and disgust, with bones becoming melded to technology. He seems to be some sort of gunner or telescope operator. In addition, the fuselage of the 'cannon' is not only phallic but directing out from the space-jockey's hip area; we seem to come across the huge creature in a Pompeii-like moment of lonely sexual activity, frozen by the advent of the xenomorph that has burst out of its chest. The crew discover him and he looks like he's part of the chair. He and the chair seem fused together where you don't know where the Jockey starts and his chair stops. Like the Alien that you see later, the Space Jockey looks like a living thing with mechanical elements that has been dead for a very long time. His chest is burst open from the inside. Later the crew will understand why. Giger molded the Jockey and his chair and most of the background of the set out of a mailable plastic and used real bones and car parts to give it all his trade mark Bio Mechanical look. Giger airbrushed the entire "space jockey" set by hand. HR Giger working on the Space Jockey see more: ALIEN MONTH vaultofthebankrobber.blogspot.com/2009_05_01_archive.html THE SPACE-JOCKEYwww.denofgeek.com/movies/259949/the_plotobstacles_to_an_alien_prequel.html
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Post by tannis on Sept 17, 2009 5:27:07 GMT
On the other hand, in "Cloudbusting," the side's final cut, a father is warmly remembered. The song is based on A Book of Dreams by Freudian theorist Wilhelm Reich's son Peter. In his later years, Wilhelm Reich grew obsessed with the notion that the Earth is governed by a delicate balance of energies, and he developed a device called an "accumulator" to realign the natural forces at Organon [sic], his Maine home. One of the accumulator's purported abilities was the capacity to make rain. Young Peter was deeply involved in his father's projects, and in his book he recalls the events that led to his father's arrest and imprisonment for fraudulent practices.
The close emotional bond shared by father and son is conveyed by Kate Bush through the warm strings that continue throughout "Cloudbusting." When examined on its own, "Cloudbusting" is an interesting narrative, but when viewed in the context of the rest of Hounds the song seems full of omens and allusions. Anyone familiar with Peter Reich's book who listens to Hounds will be struck by the similarity in structure between side 2, "The Ninth Wave," and A Book of Dreams. In the book Peter is hospitalized and wavers between consciousness and dreaming. While awake he lives in the present, but when he is unconscious he is a child. As in the eternal dreamtime, the past and present are blurred, all part of one reality. Kate, and Peter Reich, is able to keep the dead father alive: "But everytime is rains / You're here in my head / Like the sun coming out / I just know that something good is going to happen."
In several ways, "Cloudbusting" previews "The Ninth Wave," the mini-concept album that occupies side 2 of Hounds. "The Ninth Wave" finds Kate Bush adrift in the water, battling to stay awake and avoid drowning. Through the night Bush slips in and out of consciousness, much as Peter Reich does in his book. As with the eternal dreamtime, the past and future exist as elements of the present, in this case through hallucinations and dreams. It is undoubtedly significant that side 1 ends with Bush making rain in "Cloudbusting," an act in which the waters are at her mercy. In contrast, Bush is at the whim of the drowning pool on side 2, as if her rain making got out of hand.
On Record, Simon Frith and Andrew Goodwin (1990, pp.460-461).
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Post by tannis on Mar 20, 2010 15:27:15 GMT
Let's — oh, anything, daddy, so long as it's you and me...It's you and me Daddy... It's you and me... Daddy... It's you and me... Daddy...Kate Bush Cloudbusting www.youtube.com/watch?v=IRHA9W-zExQ 3:06...I AM the Most Wise Baviaan, saying in most wise tones, 'Let us melt into the landscape — just us two by our lones.' People have come — in a carriage — calling. But Mummy is there.... Yes, I can go if you take me — Nurse says she don't care. Let's go up to the pig-sties and sit on the farmyard rails! Let's say things to the bunnies, and watch 'em skitter their tails! Let's — oh, anything, daddy, so long as it's you and me, And going truly exploring, and not being in till tea! Here's your boots (I've brought 'em), and here's your cap and stick, And here's your pipe and tobacco. Oh, come along out of it — quick.
This is Wise Baviaan, the dog-headed Baboon, Who is Quite the Wisest Animal in All South Africa. I have drawn him from a statue that I made up out of my own head, and I have written his name on his belt and on his shoulder and on the thing he is sitting on. I have written it in what is not called Coptic and Hierogliphic and Cuneiformic and Bengalic and Burmic and Hebric, all because he is so wise. He is not beautiful, but he is very wise; and I should like to paint him with paint-box colours, but I am not allowed. The umbrella-ish thing about his head is his Conventional Mane. ~ How The Leopard Got His Spots, Rudyard Kipling (1902)
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