Something/Someone Old

My Something Old this week is Reed Flute Cave in China.

Microsoft, I presume in order to make me use Bing (their search engine), provides me with pop-up screens on various topics every time I boot up my computer. I'd be a lot more irritated if a lot of the pop-ups weren't genuinely interesting. That's how I found out about Reed Flute Cave.

Descend into Reed Flute Cave for sublime scenes over 180 million years in the making. A surreal collection of stalactites and stalagmites crowd a nearly 800-foot-long cave that’s been drawing sightseers for a very long time indeed. Inscriptions dating from 1,200 years ago in the Tang dynasty adorn the walls (we’d call that ‘graffiti’ now).

I love ancient graffiti. It punctures the idea that we often have that ancient peoples always spoke and wrote in the language of their mythologists and epic poets (which are often how we know them and their cultures).

As for the cave itself, it is gorgeous. I admire limestone caves like Reed Flute Cave very much--from a distance. Here in Florida, there are beautiful limestone caves all over the place, mostly underwater. It must be a hell of a blast to do cave-diving, and see places so few people have seen, but there's no way my claustrophobia could manage it--and anyway, my fearfulness in this instance is somewhat rational, as several people die in Florida cave-diving yearly.

Reed Flute Cave, being large, apparently stable and not underwater, is one I might visit if I ever were in China.

Something New

Recently I've been watching a series on Netflix called "The 3%." I don't know that I'd exactly recommend it, as it's dark and is obviously making a statement about our so-called meritocracy and what its logical extreme would be--so only watch it if you're in a mood to deal with those issues. That said, it's quite compelling, if you're willing to deal with the darkness of the subject matter and the occasional disturbing scene.

Here's the basic plot: in a dystopian future, an offshore paradise (supposedly, I haven't seen it yet) has been created on an island, where everyone has plenty and lives in comfort. But only 3% of the population gets to go there. The other 97% lives in squalor, poverty, and danger. Only "the best" 3% gets to escape these awful conditions.

In order to figure out who is the best 3%, at the age of twenty all citizens go through something called "the process" where they are put through a series of tests, which screen for everything from social acuity to spatial sense to strength of will to the willingness to ask for help. Many of the tests are pretty horrible, as you might imagine. In a particularly pointed gesture, the first test is an interview, where one of the test administrators asks you questions and judges you by unknown standards, and then determines (somehow) that you deserve to move forward--or not. They never explain why. (Sound familiar?)

One of the most interesting things about this series is how earnest (though terrible and cruel) the administrators of "the process" are. They aren't going through the motions. They really believe in what they're doing. It makes it a more intriguing story (and lessens its versimilitude, I believe).

Needless to say, there are those that object to this state of affairs, a revolutionary group known as "the cause."

I haven't gotten all the way through season 1 yet, but I'm finding this interesting. I'll keep y'all posted on how it turns out. The quality of the series, not spoilers.

The series was created by Pedro Aguilera and stars Joao Miguel and Bianca Comparato. But my favorite by far is Vaneza Oliveira, who plays Joana. Very good actor!

Something Borrowed

Apparently a Swedish pop-punk band did a cover of "I Want You Back," the Jackson Five's big 1969 hit:

This is Abandoned By Bears' version of "I Want You Back:"

Here's the original:

I hate to say I still prefer the 1969 version. It always was a little odd that Michael Jackson who looks like he couldn't have been older than ten, was singing this song (I just checked, and actually, he was 11), but he had such a great voice.

Here's Lake Street Dive doing a different, more bluesy, and much slower take on the song:

This one, by Shione Yukawa (I think in Japan, it would be Yukawa Shione) is rather surreal:

Something Blue

This is the Matanuska Glacier, from the inside:

Holy shit, it's 27 miles long by 4 miles wide. I had no idea (you can't tell from the photograph!)
It's what is known as a "valley glacier," which seems to mean that it's a slow-moving river of ice moving through a pre-existing valley.

This is what it looks like in toto:

And this is where it is, for those who want to and can hike it!

How are y'all today?