Well, once again I tried to catch up on the classics only to see it all end in despair. -SIGH- I got my TV working using HiDef finally after 3 years of having a big-screen without a tuner to drive the signal.
So after getting the DirecTV HD receiver (with the dvr - it's no TiVo sadly) I started cruising the channels looking for stuff to see with HD resolution. And what should I find but 2001: A Space Odyssey.
"Hmmm, 2001. I haven't seen that since I was just a kid," I thought to myself. "I bet that would look sweet on HD." So I recorded it and watched about 20 minutes of it on Sunday and then sat down last night and finished it over some popcorn.
And somewhere on the other side of the world Arthur C. Clarke, age 90, picked up his list of people who had not seen his movie in HD, put a tick by my name, and died content that he'd given my eyes something to do while my mouth chewed puffed corn.
What can I seriously say about Clarke and his work? A few things:
1) I have only read one of his short stories, but I remember liking it.
2) I enjoyed 2001 and despite the psychedelic ending think it is still one of the best hard sci-fi movies ever made.
3) I absolutely adored Arthur C. Clarke's Mysterious World and Arthur C. Clarke's Mysterious Universe.
The quote from Clarke (possibly) that I always hear is that "sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." That's good. Not sure if he originated it, but I like it.
He also said of UFOs: "They tell us absolutely nothing about intelligence elsewhere in the universe, but they do prove how rare it is on Earth." Amusing.
The coincidence of my having just finished watching 2001 only to discover that he died less than 24 hours later is disappointing. I was thinking of writing him, and hear that he did answer e-mails regularly. Not so now, I suppose. Not so now.
X-Ray Delta One, end transmission. Over and out.
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