The Music Of Sinister

Go On, Test My Assertion

Pick any Hollywood film from the Thirties through to the Fifties, and if the scene is intended to convey Suspense, Drama and especially Evil Lurking Just Around The Corner - as Evil is wont to do - then you can bet most of their soundtracks will feature an oboe solo.  Art?

The Devil's Didgeridoo

     I'm pretty sure this rule holds true for all of futurologist Gerry Anderson's classic series as well, but frankly I don't have time to crawl through a million Youtube clips.  Let's just take it as a given and move on.
     Now, the reason I bring this instrument up is because I was banging on about an electronic guidance system that Perfidious Albion cooked up during the Second Unpleasantness, called - Oboe.  It allowed precision bombing at night or during bad weather, or both.  Art?

There's bound to be an Oboe in that lot somewhere -

     No need to go into details.
     And there I was, completing a Codeword earlier this afternoon, and what crops up?  No!  Not "Syzygy" - though they did have "Obloquy" in one I did yesterday:  "Oboe".  Art?

The hideous evidence

     This isn't the only time today that the Coincidence Hydra has dined on my behind (which must be especially succulent and savoury in nature), because there was a post on the Space Opera Facebook thread where Wil Wheaton commented on another's Twitter feed - some nonsense about shuttles and the 'Enterprise'.
     Surprise!  I had just been reading about a zombie Wil Wheaton in "Dead Eyes Open", a pretty good zombie comic, full of interesting ideas, even if the artwork was a bit crude at times.  Art?

Thus

     Ironically enough, I remember reading the synopsis on TV Tropes, long before reading the comic.     Don't go away!  For the coincidences have not yet ended.  Were that they had, my nethers are looking like an overused chopping-board.

Hey!  always time and room for a Dickens reference
(A rather strained pun is going to emerge on FB)

     Back to the Space Opera FB page, and a denizen there asked if anyone knew of any television programs or films that featured non-human inhabitants, with no reference to Earth at all.  Preferably with a space opera theme, although not essential.
     Conrad leapt boldly into the fray, naming that quintessentially British television show, "The Clangers".  Art?

A Clanger (port) and the Soup  Dragon (starboard)

     The Clangers live on a small moon that is always being hit by bits of space junk, so they live in holes in the ground, which they cover with metal hatches (see above).  These make a distinctive "CLANG" when they close.
     The Soup Dragon is in charge of a - er - how do I put it? - a soup well, from which it doles out soup to the Clangers.  Presumably all small moons have a core of vegetable soup.  Or something.  Ministrone?     My South Canadian compatriot had never heard of them, and intends to check them out.  Well worth it - the program wons scads of awards and appeals to all ages.*
     The coincidence about this one is a rather sad one.  Peter Firmin, the designer, illustrator and model-maker behind the series, died today. Art?

Peter with friends

     "The Clangers" was only one of a stable of children's programs going back years, all of which were much-loved.  A solid body of work: we salute you, sir.
     Remembering the Clangers has put me in such a good mood that I shall merely give the motley a clip round the ear and a cup of tea, though it will have to empty the teapot later.

More Of Space Opera!

I have just finished reading "Triplanetary" by E.E. "Doc and don't you EVER forget it" Smith, which is just about the touchstone for space opera as far as sci-fi is concerned.
     However!  All is not how it seems.  
     Here an aside.  Art?

Snorkers!**
(Sausages to you)

     This will all make sense on Facebook, I assure you.
     The version I read was the one originally published in pulp sci-fi magazines back in 1934 and 1935, run together as a single volume on Project Gutenberg as it's long out of copyright.
     This is not the same as the actual novel "Triplanetary", which Doc created after writing other Lensman stories later in the Thirties; he went back and added a lot more introductory material, creating new characters at different points in human history, and the 1934/5 pulp story is the concluding part of the novel.  Art?


     Above port - the free version I read; above starboard - the full version I shall have to pay to read!



*  Factoid: the South Canadian version is narrated by - William Shatner, whom we featured earlier today NOT ANOTHER ****** COINCIDENCE!
**  I nicked this from "The Cruel Sea"