The Underground – Issue #21
Everything you need to know about in this weekly series: A musical talent that you need to hear, an ambitious project by NASA, a creepy alien film, more proof that monkeys are just like some of us, how to network like a pro, and why the DC Universe needs to chill out.
At Social Underground we go beyond the mainstream stuff and see what’s underneath the surface. What should we get into, listen to, read, eat or watch? If there is something in our culture that needs attention that’s our job: Show you the underground things that you need to know about: Books, music, television, movies, comedians, art, and whatever else we can find to get you into something you never knew about. That’s The Underground.
1. Jeff Buckley is the best musician and vocalist from the past 30 years that you may have missed. It’s hard to explain my fascination with Jeff Buckley. It may be that we have the same first and middle names, but it even more so is that his voice influenced some of the most recognizable singers in the industry.
The band was finding it difficult to nail this song and decided to take a break and catch a Jeff Buckley gig at Highbury. When they returned to the studio mesmerized by Buckley’s set, Yorke sang the song twice before breaking down into tears. (Via SongFacts)
Sadly, Jeff died on the evening of May 29, 1997 in Memphis, Tennessee whilst going swimming in a slack water channel off the Mississippi River. He was pulled under by a passing tugboat and was found a few days later. No drugs or alcohol were considered a part of his death after his body was found and an autopsy was done.
He died with only one critically acclaimed album titled Grace to his name. His death happened when he was working on his second album titled My Sweetheart The Drunk. If you need to know about how amazing his voice was, and how talented this man was, have a listen to the song that makes every vocalist feel inadequate:
Learn even more about Buckley from this documentary featuring Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy page, Brad Pitt, and many more:
2. NASA is launching the biggest space telescope ever made in 2018. Hubble celebrates its 25th year in space this year on the 24th of April, but NASA knows that it’s time to send a successor into orbit to take even better pictures of the cosmos.
The James Webb Space Telescope will be reportedly 100 times more powerful than Hubble, which means we will be able to look further into space that we have before. How far into space? We’re talking 220 million years after the Big Bang.
“What the Webb will really be doing is looking at the first galaxies of the Universe,” project scientist Mark Clampin told the press at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Centre in the US this week. “We will also be able, with these capabilities, to look in very dark parts of the universe where stars are being born.” (Via)
Hubble is pretty big and has shown us many beautiful images from the Universe, but let’s take a look at what the new one will look like when compared to Hubble.
The new telescope looks like it could be a planet destroying laser from a Star Wars movie. It’s nice to see NASA getting ambitious again with projects like this. I can’t wait to see all the new pictures and discovery it sends back to Earth in just a few short years. Let’s just hope that the lens on the Webb Telescope is without problems, or else we have to send people up to fix it like we had to with Hubble.
Check out this video about the new telescope with narration by Peter Cullen (Voice of Optimus Prime):
3. Area 51 is the next movie from the guy that brought you Paranormal Activity. Oren Peli, the director of the first Paranormal Activity, brought us a film that used atmosphere over gore to scare the shit out of you in theaters. That soon spiraled into sequel upon sequel of the franchise because of how cheap the movies cost to make, and audiences wanting something different in horror. Every addition to the franchise turned out to be awful, but the first is still pretty good.
Thankfully, Peli has jumped back into the director chair and is giving us his take on aliens. The movie is about a few reporters that sneak their way into Area 51 to see what’s really going on there. It’s a played out scenario, but Peli creeped me out with his past film, which used nothing but child-like fears to scare.
Check out the trailer to Area 51 below.
4. More proof that monkeys are just like humans. In the movie Scarface, Tony Montana famously said, “In this country, first you get the money, then you get the power, THEN you get the woman.” Well, in the land of monkeys, all you need is the money.
Researchers at Yale did a study on teaching monkeys to use money to buy things like grapes, jello and other things. It turns out once the monkeys learned they could buy things with the money they started paying females monkeys for sex, who in turn immediately bought some sweets with it. (Via)
It would be ridiculous if you didn’t know in your heart that money is the most evil thing on the planet. Even male monkeys can see that they can use it to buy the female monkeys for sexual reasons.
Perhaps the most distinguishing characteristic of money, after all, is its fungibility, the fact that it can be used to buy not just food but anything. During the chaos in the monkey cage, Chen saw something out of the corner of his eye that he would later try to play down but in his heart of hearts he knew to be true. What he witnessed was probably the first observed exchange of money for sex in the history of monkeykind. (Further proof that the monkeys truly understood money: the monkey who was paid for sex immediately traded the token in for a grape.) (Via)
Soon, a smarter monkey will find out how to steal the grapes. First you get the grapes, then you get the power, THEN you get the women. That monkey will be the kingpin of the grape/sex slave monkey kingdom. However, his power will overwhelm him, and a new monkey will take over the business. That would be a great movie. Get on that, Hollywood.
5. Networking is how to get you to where you want to be. Stay with me here! It’s not a big secret that people help people get jobs because they know them. I’m an obscurity because I went a different route after I graduated, but other jobs that I got were because of family and friends.
This video teaches you the quick ins and outs of networking. It reaches beyond family and friends, obviously, but it’s pretty helpful if you’re wondering what to do when you want a job.
6. Proof that the DC Universe needs to chill out with how gritty they are. Christopher Nolan could bring Batman down to Earth because Batman was just a man and his story was dark and gritty. But Nolan never actually filtered the cinematography to look like someone was blowing smoke into the camera. Batman had a tortured past, wore all black/dark blue, and beat criminals to a pulp. Superman is basically a God that wears bright red and blue spandex.
Mixing the two is basically what Pete Holmes is talking about in this skit:
This brings me to my point that the dark tone doesn’t translate as well with Superman. I enjoyed Man of Steel, but did find the colors a little off-putting. It looked as if I was watching the movie in a theater where people were still allowed to smoke cigarettes. There was a grey filter on everything. Superman would fly into the sky and it looked like a winter sky instead of a beautiful blue one.
This video furthers my point in showing that comic superhero movies that are colorful should be colorful. Look at The Avengers. Cheesy costumes and filming can work without being overtly serious.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=182&v=Du-eYiD9OfM
FOLLOW JEFF SORENSEN ON TWITTER
Jeff Sorensen is an author, writer and occasional comedian living in Detroit, Michigan. You can look for more of his work on The Huffington Post, UPROXX, BGR and by just looking up his name.
Contact: jeff@socialunderground.com