Five Bullets 9.29.23
Giant Squids, The Meters & more
Good morning and happy Friday everyone!
Welcome back to Circles in Space.
“With its untold depths, couldn't the sea keep alive such huge specimens of life from another age, this sea that never changes while the land masses undergo almost continuous alteration? Couldn't the heart of the ocean hide the last–remaining varieties of these titanic species, for whom years are centuries and centuries millennia?”
- Jules Verne 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
Today’s bullets:
Blogs: If you haven’t heard, blogging is back! Christina Loff writes “If the early 2000s was the golden age of blogging, then the 2020s welcome its renaissance, and it’s happening on Substack.” If you’re reading this in your email, I encourage you to check out Substack.com or the app to discover some amazing writers! A few of my favorites:
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Movies: The Maltese Falcon 1941 starring Humphrey Bogart and Mary Astor is a classic noir film. Private detective Sam Spade (Bogart) is hired by Brigid O'Shaughnessy (Astor) to investigate her sister’s disappearance but the assignment quickly turns into a dangerous search for a priceless artifact, a falcon gifted from the Knights Templar of Malta to the King of Spain. The film is based on Dashiell Hammett’s novel. Bogart always seems to play the same type of rough and dry detective and after watching the film I wondered - is Humphrey Bogart a ‘good’ actor?
Music: Last weekend I saw George Porter Jr., bassist of the legendary funk band The Meters, perform with an all-star lineup of musicians from bands Lettuce and Soulive with Alecia Chakour (Tedeschi Trucks Band) providing additional vocals. Porter Jr. covered classic Meters tunes including People Say, Fire on the Bayou, Sophisticated Cissy & more for a night of face-melting funk. Listen to the full set here or if you’re new to The Meters, check out their 1969 self-titled debut album to funkify your life.
Plumbing: A Man Called Fran, John Jeremiah Sullivan’s humorous essay about “something plumbing-related that happened at my house”.
Science:
“A fully grown giant squid is classified as the largest invertebrate on Earth, with tentacles sometimes as long as a city bus and eyes the size of human heads. Yet no scientist has ever examined a live specimen - or seen one swimming the sea.”
- David Grann
Like the giant squid which attacked the Nautilus in Jules Verne’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, tales of these giant sea monsters have been told for ages but little is actually known about them. In The Squid Hunter, David Grann (Killers of the Flower Moon, The Wager) chronicles marine biologist Steve O’Shea’s search for the elusive giant squid Architeuthis on a twenty-foot boat during a vicious cyclone.
Wow, I'm fascinated by the legend of the giant sea monsters. I would also like to recommend Rejuvenation by The Meters from 1974! It includes classic Meters tunes like 'Just Kissed My Baby' and 'People Say.'