The Underground — Issue #73
Everything you need to know about in this weekly series: A potential ninth planet could be lurking beyond Neptune, the return of Radiohead, a compilation album of some of the darkest films in recent memory, making the decision to stay in or leave a relationship, and a look back at Ancient Egypt.
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. The probability of a ninth planet is huge. For as long as I have been reading up on space, I’ve always heard about the mysterious Planet X AKA the 10th planet in the solar system. Since Pluto doesn’t qualify as a planet anymore due to it failing to hit all the qualifications, it’s just the hypothetical ninth planet now.
The past few years have increasingly shown evidence that a ninth planet could be out there. It’s just that the orbit is probably around 20,000 years around the Sun. The evidence for this planet existing is the influence on the orbits of the dwarf planets that are found out there.
Estimates put the size of the planet at around 10 times the size of Earth. That would make it quite a bit bigger than Pluto. Caltech is pretty confident that the planet is out there, and I think it would be wise to point more telescopes to the sky to try and find this mysterious planet. Think of it: A planet 10 times the size of Earth with a wide orbit around the Sun that is just out there and we know nothing about it? That’s pretty creepy.
Let the crew at Caltech explain the possibilities of the ninth planet existing below.
2. Radiohead has returned with their ninth album A Moon Shaped Pool. The last time Radiohead came out with a new album was with King of Limbs in early 2011. That was over 5 years ago. 5 years of Radiohead being out of the music scene. Usually an absence like that would cause fans to start forgetting, but not Radiohead fans. No, Radiohead fans will continue to speculate about the next album right when a new one is released.
Just this past week, Radiohead dropped a surprise new song on the internet called Burn The Witch. As per usual, this was a song that was hinted at as far back as 2003’s Hail To The Thief. So the moment it hit, fans were excited. The hype train started rolling.
Since Radiohead has had many surprises before, fans started to speculate that the band would drop the album on Friday, May 6th. They do stuff like this which helps erase that long wait for when other bands throw a single out there, and then they say the album won’t be out for 3 months. So, the 6th came, but an album didn’t, but a new song did called Daydreaming.
What’s amazing about this video besides the mesmerizing song is the fact that it’s directed my Paul Thomas Anderson. He just directed instant classics like There Will Be Blood, Boogie Nights, and The Master. So when he takes on a project, he goes deep. Below is a video that looks like it costs a fortune in locations alone.
All of that being said, the album is pure Radiohead. I got it when it was released May 8th at 2PM EST. It’s amazing how a band can put out an album so radically different every single time and blow me and music fans away. If Radiohead were to disband today, they will be disbanding on a masterpiece.
You can head on over to their website and buy A Moon Shaped Pool in its various forms right now. If the site has trouble loading, it’s because traffic is overtaking it.
3. Some of the darkest films made in recent memory that you need to see. Every film on this list is a movie I’ve seen. Every movie on this list is a film that will stick in my long-term memory for the rest of my life. I’ve mentioned it before, but The Hunt is a horror film for the innocent. If you’re a man and you want to be terrified of children for the rest of your life, watch that movie.
I’ve also seen the movie The Pianist and Schindler’s List a minimum of a dozen times each. I know that sounds insane, but I find it fascinating that humans can harm each other to such a degree where it becomes a sport to kill. Took me a few watches to realize “Oh, oh man, his entire family is killed. All that struggle to survive was pointless in the long run.”
If you want to see some really good movies that will really question your humanity, flip through the album below and get to watching. You won’t regret it. Well, you might, but it depends how much punishment your emotions can take.
4. Should you stay in the relationship you’re in or bail? Chances are that you’ve been in a relationship with someone. Chances are that you’ve been in many relationships before. Some long, some short, some you weren’t sure you were in relationships, and some you don’t even want to talk about.
The hardest part about being in a relationship is when the doubts come in as to whether you should stay in it or not. Your partner could be completely happy, but you could be miserable. You want to break it off, but you don’t want to hurt them. Maybe you’re 3 years into the relationship, living together, sharing a bank account, and figure that you’re just stuck. I’ve seen it happen. People settle because “everyone else is doing it, might as well do it too.”
The video below goes into detail about this very thing. Don’t waste your life deciding to pull off the band-aid. And, if they dump you, then you know it wasn’t going to work since they didn’t feel the same way. Hard to get over, but you will eventually.
Check out the video below to see if you should stay or go.
5. A look back at Ancient Egypt and its amazing structures and history. Before Ancient Aliens completely sh*t on history with wild speculation about aliens building astonishing structures that they can’t explain. That show is seriously racist: White people arrived in Egypt and they saw all of these pyramids built thousands of years ago. They were still pouring their excrement in the streets while Egypt was way beyond them. These people aren’t white, brown people couldn’t of done this, it must have been aliens! That show is garbage.
The documentary below goes into actual history into who built all of the amazing structure you see still standing in Egypt today. It’s still so far beyond our grasp in how they managed to pull it all of that we are still discovering new things every day. These people were building dams 5,000 years ago. They moved 10,000 pound blocks without machinery. They did all of this with sheer will, invention, and uh…you know… labor.
Check out the amazing history and engineering of Ancient Egypt below. Also, it’s hosted by Robocop (Peter Weller). No aliens required.
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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