Get your tickets! The National Science Foundation has awarded $700,000 to the Civilians, a New York theater company for a great new show on climate change. From the New York Times Arts Briefly (required reading for fly-over country):
“The Great Immensity,” with a book by Steven Cosson (“This Beautiful City”) and music and lyrics by Michael Friedman (“Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson”), tells the story of Polly, a photojournalist who disappears while working in the rain forests of Panama. The grant is a rare gift to an arts organization from the foundation, a federal agency that pays for science, engineering and mathematics research and education.
More information from Princeton:
Drawing on interviews with botanists, paleontologists, climatologists, indigenous community leaders, polar bear tour guides and trappers, “The Great Immensity” gives voice to people whose stories make the reality of the present crisis accessible in fresh and compelling ways.
Rare gift? That pretty much sums it up. I suspect Return to Almora, published by IPCC UN Climate Chief Dr. Pachauri will be green-lighted for a Broadway production soon.
Update: Appropriate citation to Tom Nelson, who was first with this good news (Sunday at 6:30)…
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There is no truth in the rumor that the CRU and Penn theater outreach troupe will be providing the cast, currently believed to comprise:
Happy – the Polar Bear – Michael E. Mann
Captain Phil – Philip Jones
Stowaway – Rajendra Pachauri
Jonah – Keith Briffa
Prompt – Ron Oxburgh, George Monbiot, Muir Russel, and Geoffrey Boulton
PR – Gavin Schmidt
@ur momisugly PaulH from Scotland
That’s very, very funny. Thanks.
Not often you get to crack a smile when the subject at hand is AGW…
Dominic
Can you imagine the return on investment they could get if they gave McIntyre and McKintrick 700K to hire a few interns to audit the temperture books? Hahaha
This seems to be another little “nudge” emanating from various Gov’t agencies, such as EPA, at the behest of those who wish to regulate every aspect of life as we know it. Some of us object. Strenuously. We see this kind of propaganda for what it is – another “nudge”. At what point do the accumulation of nudges add up to a shove, and how many shoves does it take to get folks, attention? Perhaps when the shoves are administered by a guy in a brown shirt with a bayonet attached to the end of a rifle?
JAN says:
October 4, 2010 at 10:32 am
Enneagram says:
October 4, 2010 at 9:14 am
– Can it be a comedy?
It’s a travesty.
Whichever it is, it is sure to be a tour de farce, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.
PaulH from Scotland says:
October 4, 2010 at 9:46 am
Stumbled across this wee gem today,
It’s O/T, but wanted to share.
Unfortunately I don’t know who the author is so I can’t hat-tip them.>>
Hat tip accepted, glad you enjoyed it. Wrote it for one of the 10:10 threads, don’t remember which one.
Well, I guess if this happened in the UK, we’d just whimper a bit and suck it up as usual these days.
I have hope, though, that the guys who kicked us out in 1776 might be made of sterner stuff.
Supreme court anyone?
CuriousGeorge… you’re dancing on the razor’s edge of a Godwin’s Law violation. Let’s put down our hyperbole and back away slowly…
The belief in AGW may soon pass. The New York Times, however, will still be with us, to ensure that educated idiocy remains fresh and constant.
How many actors are they going to explode?
I’m afraid you Americans are complete Amateurs when it comes to giving money for barking mad climate related arts projects.
Britain has been leading this field for 15 years and our latest candidate for the hotly contested title ‘Climate change project indistinguishable from a Monty Python sketch’ has a clear leader in a £500,000 project called “Nowhere island.” It is a lump of Norway that will be sailed round the South West of England during the Olympics to demonstrate that when it comes to wanton gullibility the British Govt has no equals;
http://www.nowhereisland.org/press/downloads/AH-Nowhereisland-Info-v2-lowres.pdf
I did protest last year to the Arts Council about this, and with Govt cut backs it may be that this pathetic project has already been given the chop. If not its time for another complaint and see what the Daily Mail makes of it.
Tonyb
@ur momisugly EthicallyCivil says:
October 4, 2010 at 12:02 pm
Ok. Scratch the last sentance, and subsitute: Perhaps when the shoves are administered by an employee of the IRS/EPA, etc. with a Notice to Appear attached to a clipboard?
@tonyb,
that is so brilliantly awful I wish I’d thought of it. I mean, from the ‘grass is always greener..’ camp of job envy, how much fun would it be to do that?
And there was me logging in complain about the 10:10 funding. P Gosselin has a list of funders on his blog: http://notrickszone.com/2010/10/03/protest-sony-and-the-1010-partners-no-pressure-to-do-so/
One of the Sponsors is the Esmee Fairburn Foundation. From their Website http://www.esmeefairbairn.org.uk: “Work we have funded” 2009 – ‘Main Development Fund’ under ‘Environment’
10:10 – £70,000
Towards the salary of the director and a contribution to core costs for a campaign to cut CO2 emissions by 10% in 2010.
NSF is wasting taxpayer dollars to support theater propaganda productions? Looks like the NEA is smarter – not a chance they would be so foolish.
How many ways can you spell [self-SNIP]!
Justified funding opportunities in Science are endless. Its a shame we can’t vote the NSF out of their positions as well in November.
…Polly disappears while in the rainforest…
Wasn’t this a South Park episode? Will Al Gore play Man-Bear -Pig?
What are friends for, if not to award grants from a government agency that supports science to a theatre group that produces propaganda for that “science.” It is great to hang out in NYC and DC. The people you meet there are so wonderful, not to mention monolithic in belief. But the best part is that they are so friendly and often open doors for their friends. Let’s all go for a lap around the reservoir!
My tax dollars should not be used to make a play, ESPECIALLY A PROPAGANDA PLAY!
You shouldn’t worry folks, it’ll probably bomb …
As a byproduct of the 10:10 stuff, we here seem to have acquired a new monniker. The Independent bashfully terms us “refuseniks” and seem to have given up (at least in this article) calling us deniers.
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/nature/climate-change-film-blows-up-in-richard-curtiss-face-2096801.html
‘it was withdrawn following complaints about its graphic scenes of exploding climate change refuseniks.’
Hmmm.
Wish I’d though of that.
However its not too late to pitch in….
Orwell – The Musical.
Set in a dystopic future, the musical explores the exploitation of malleable minds
via Malthusian techniques of brain washing and propaganda, spin and edutainment.
Andrew Lloyd Weber is writing the score, lyrics however will be provided by various
private think tanks.
As you can imagine details are sketchy, shady, disinforming, misinforming, partly-true, not true and entirely factual but misframed…however we have managed to get our hands on some early productions notes:
Lead intro – Susan Boyle: I dreamed of green, of days gone by.
I dreamed of green of days gone by,…
We marched in the streets and demanded hangings!
for the folk who just would not try,
to limited their excess Carbon cravings.
Back then milk only cost 15p,
but now the Euro’s crashed and so the carbon market,
you can’t get a pint for less than ten pound fifty,
at least the unbelievers all got shafted…
Boyle has declined to comment on when the production will go ahead.
We do know a little about the grand finale, during which Eco-criminals are marched on stage and ‘RECYCLED’, to a rousing ballad.
Lead Finale – Choir: Orwell’s that ends well.
ORWELL’s that ends well,
the streets are clean and clear,
so’s the rivers, sea and air.
ORWELL’s that ends well,
Polar bears thrive and frolic freely,
their antics quite unseemly,
as they devour limb and tendon,
never mind dear comrades,
we no longer have to defend them!
ORWELL’s that ends well,
Now the loyal rule the earth,
a playground for the most deserving,
and the rest are resting in the dirt,
some moments past were quite upsetting,
the cries and screams will linger long,
but now there’s no regretting,
cos the poles have ceased a-melting,
and the Smelt are back to Smelting.
Continues… (Notes remain confidential – until leaked, partly leaked, stolen, liberated, released)
The entire production will be performed nude in strong daylight to limit the casts carbon footprint, no electronic equipment will be used, except for the cattle prods, used to amplify the performers singing volume.
Pricing and venues to be announced, dictated, narrated, implied, injected, beamed, scanned or branded at a future date.
Make it a musical farce, please!
Theme song follows, with an appropriately ‘campy’ version…
The Great Pretenders
Gotta love this line:
You can take that any way you like …
Perhaps we should send them some real information then? I left ’em a note to come over and visit, anyways.
RitchieP;
‘it was withdrawn following complaints about its graphic scenes of exploding climate change refuseniks.’>>
I see. We’ve gone from being associated with people who deny mass murder to being associated with people who were murdered en mass. Don’t like either, but the trend is worse.
Tonyb, Verity
Esmee Fairbairn… that name rang a bell, I think I know what it is. Transition Towns! … creative responses to the “twin challenges of Peak Oil and Global Warming”… well a lot of creativity which would be good but there is sweet f*** a** when it comes to scientific checks beyond the official line – oh, and strict censorship, I cannot post contrarian views there despite my total courtesy and relevance AFAICT, and despite their claims of openness, and of course few even know I’ve been censored.
A hacker friend of mine was able to download a copy of the proof-of-concept video that was part of their preliminary NSF grant request. The lyrics are still first-draft, so they’re tentative, but it’s pretty well shot, given that the video team were working on spec. He’s generously uploaded it here: