What's out there?

The Cloud Appreciation Society
This is a fantastic site. I've not joined it even though I constantly take photos of clouds. For example, here is one from my flickr account:

I don't know why I like them so much but there's something to staring up at the sky and working out it is not an illusion: there are things up there. Just as there are stars up there. Just as there are bacteria in the upper atmosphere.

When you think of space, what do you imagine? Vast cold regions or grumpy starchy aliens with bumpy heads? The second, it has to be understood, is not real. Those are the equivalent of Marco Polo's Blemmyae, i.e., humans with faces in their chests, or the viking seamonsters at the edge of the world. What is out there? We don't know -

Wild Blue Yonder (imdb)

This science fiction film by Werner Herzog concerns two missions: the now-over and slightly disappointing attempt by Andromedeans from the planet 'Wild Blue Yonder' to settle in a new home (Earth) and the current mission to find a new home by human beings (which turns out to be Wild Blue Yonder). So....that's the story. But the story seems to be barely the point.

The film has no special effects. It has documentary footage and a grey-haired, cold-looking Brad Dourif, standing in the middle of nowhere, kicking irritably at dirt. He narrates over the stock footage as if he referring to what we are seeing: astronauts travelling through wormholes in space; exploring an alien planet and the site of an intergalactic business venture. Except....we're not. This is just stock footage.

Anyway, I enjoyed it. It's funny, especially Dourif's reaction to what he's telling us but also the interviews with mathematicians which....are they deliberate or set up?

This is what it reminded me of: when I was a kid in my garden, the tree in the corner was a landed rocket, the bird table was an ancient ruin, the bushes were where monsters lived. This film requires using your own imagination.

But I reckon some people will think it's rubbish. And I wouldn't hold it against them.

*I do not have a credit or a debit card, due to my British bank refusing to upgrade my account from basic - and this because I've only lived here, paid taxes, that sort of thing for two years. I don't want a credit card anyway. I need to study not play computer games or ski down a Slovenian slope. But a debit card would be nice, just so I don't have to take out £10 every time I want to buy a tin of tomatoes.