pink floyd play the moon
December 28th, 2008 • posts i've written
Seven seconds after I was born, the space shuttle Columbia lifted off on its first operational mission. My middle name, Allen, comes from Joe Allen, a member of the four man crew. My mother remembers staring at the television set above her hospital bed, seeing the name, and hoping for a worthwhile life for her second son.
Space travel is getting lame. I don’t mean the purpose or the value of the thing, please send me to Mars, but how we talk about space travel and how we experience it is definitely lame. When was the last time you paid any attention to a mission that didn’t end in the loss of human life? This could be the most important scientific work of any generation, yet it’s lack of any unique or engaging qualities could mean the end of interest, the end of funding, and the end to our very existence.
Nasa, you need more than a new website (it’s a nice site though, kudos). You need relevance again, you need a heroic vision, and you need to cultivate your die-hard fans better than you have been. Private enterprise is threatening your livelihood. Do you really want to let Branson win this one?
During the Apollo 11 moon landing, the BBC asked Pink Floyd to come on set and record a free-form improvisational track while images of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin bouncing around on the surface of the moon were broadcast to millions of homes in Europe. Space flight has certainly lost some of its cool.
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