From one trickster-hero (Figaro) to another (Raven) in Raven Steals the Daylight (“Animated Tales of the World,” 2001), a Prometheus-like myth from the Northwest Coast Indians:
Archive | August, 2019
SciFi SongFest, Songs 117-120
Four songs about diabolical masterminds and sinister manipulators:
117. Deltron 3030, “Mastermind” (2000):
118. Pat Benatar, “Evil Genius” (1981):
119. Leslie Fish, “Teacher, Teacher” (1983):
120. Pink Floyd, “Another Brick in the Wall” (1979):
And as a bonus – the Doctor trolling his schoolteacher friend with the same tune:
Middelboe Chronicles, Part 44: The Barber of Seville
From one tale of a barber, in King March, to another tale of a barber, in Rossini’s opera The Barber of Seville (Operavox, 1995).
The animation’s opening scene, with a figure on his knees laying out the stage, seems to be a nod to the opening scene of a different Figaro opera, Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro. (Both operas are drawn from a trilogy of plays by Beaumarchais.)
SciFi SongFest, Songs 115-116
Two songs about UFOs:
115. Parliament, “Unfunky UFO” (1975):
116. Sufjan Stevens, “Concerning the UFO Sighting Near Highland, Illinois” (2005):
Middelboe Chronicles, Part 43: King March
From foxes’ dumplings to asses’ ears: King March (“Animated Tales of the World,” 2002), a Welsh version of the second-best-known Greek legend about King Midas (the first best-known being the one about the golden touch).
The original Midas appears to have been a real person, the first of three historical kings of that name in Phrygia (in Anatolia, in present-day Turkey), and asses’ ears were for some reason part of the actual official insignia of some of the royal houses of Bronze Age Anatolia. This story (Folktale Type 782) may thus have originated in Anatolia, as a just-so-story to explain the origin of the insignia, and then traveled both westward (to Greece, and thence northwest to Wales, Ireland, and elsewhere) and eastward (as versions of the story are also found in, inter alia, Central Asia, India, and Korea), getting associated with various different kings. (Phrygia was also quite wealthy, which probably explains the other Midas myth, about the golden touch.)
The King March/Mark in the Welsh version is often identified with the still better known King March/Mark who was the husband of Iseult/Isolde, who famously fell in love with Tristan/Tristram (supposedly because of a love potion, but perhaps because she found his ears less daunting than her husband’s).
SciFi SongFest, Songs 113-114
Two songs about taking space travel to the farthest limits:
113. Pink Floyd, “Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun” (1968):
114. Julia Ecklar & Anne Prather, “Pushin’ the Speed of Light” (1983):