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Subject: "The Art of Noise in Concert, 2410.02.14" Archived thread - Read only
 
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Gryphonadmin
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Jun-10-13, 05:44 PM (EDT)
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"The Art of Noise in Concert, 2410.02.14"
 
   [The earlier version of this song has appeared on this board before. This version appears, as the metacitation below indicates, in DSMP 5: Operation WINTERFEST. Of particular note is the pause at the end of the last chorus. --G.]


No one would have believed, in the last years of the 19th century, that human affairs were being watched by intelligences which inhabited the timeless worlds of space. No one could have dreamed we were being scrutinized, as someone with a microscope studies creatures that swarm and multiply in a drop of water. Few men even considered the possibility of life on other planets; and yet, across the gulf of space, minds immeasurably superior to ours regarded this Earth with envious eyes, and slowly and surely they drew their plans against us.

At midnight on the twelfth of August, a huge mass of luminous gas erupted from Mars and sped towards Earth. I made contact with Ogilvy, the astronomer, and we hurried to his observatory.

Across two hundred million miles of void, invisibly hurtling towards us, came the first of the missiles which were to bring such calamity to Earth. As we watched, there was another jet of gas. It was another missile, starting on its way.

And that's how it was for the next ten nights. A flare spurting out from Mars, bright green, drawing a green mist behind it: a beautiful, but somehow disturbing, sight. Ogilvy assured us we were in no danger. Perhaps a huge volcanic explosion was in progress, but he was convinced there could be no life on that remote, forbidding planet.

"The chances of anything coming from Mars
Are a million to one," he said
"The chances of anything coming from Mars
Are a million to one"
But still they come

Then came the night the first missile approached Earth. Hundreds saw it, but thought it was an ordinary falling star. Some say it traveled with a hissing sound, some that it landed with a green flash. However, next day there was a huge crater in the middle of Horsell Common, and Ogilvy came to examine what lay there: a cylinder, thirty yards across, glowing hot, and with faint sounds of movement coming from within.

Suddenly the top began moving - rotating - unscrewing, and Ogilvy feared there was a man inside trying to escape. He rushed to the cylinder, but the intense heat stopped him before he could burn himself on the still-glowing metal.

"The chances of anything coming from Mars
Are a million to one," he said
"The chances of anything coming from Mars
Are a million to one"
But still they come

Yes, the chances of anything coming from Mars
Are a million to one, he said
"The chances of anything coming from Mars
Are a million to one"
But still...

... they come!

- The Art of Noise & the BBC Æthereophonic Orchestra feat. Miss Rose Tyler
"Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War of the Worlds: The Eve of the War"
Operation WINTERFEST: Live on Jeraddo, 2410.02.14

[ Jeff Wayne et al.
"The Eve of the War"
Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War of the Worlds: The New Generation (2012) ]


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  Subject     Author     Message Date     ID  
  RE: The Art of Noise in Concert, 2410.02.14 Mercutio Jun-11-13 1
     RE: The Art of Noise in Concert, 2410.02.14 Gryphonadmin Jun-11-13 2
         RE: The Art of Noise in Concert, 2410.02.14 Mercutio Jun-11-13 3
             RE: The Art of Noise in Concert, 2410.02.14 Gryphonadmin Jun-11-13 4
                 RE: The Art of Noise in Concert, 2410.02.14 Mercutio Jun-11-13 5

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Mercutio
Member since May-26-13
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Jun-11-13, 04:14 AM (EDT)
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1. "RE: The Art of Noise in Concert, 2410.02.14"
In response to message #0
 
   One has to wonder what the native Martians think of the Earthers continuing fascination, even four centuries later, of the entirely absurd idea, so popular in the two centuries prior to their first contact, that the Martians are just WAITING for an excuse to jet off to Earth with their tripods and heat-rays to conquer it.

Okay, yes, that happened one time. One time! But you know what, they learned their lesson. Why would they even WANT Earth these days? Honestly, the place is shit. Sarmak require truly heroic medical intervention to live in that disease-ridden atmosphere, the Reds don't care, the Tharks view a planet that is largely artificial even in its so-called remaining "wild" areas as the next best thing to hell, and the Malacandri are at home basically anywhere that isn't actively on fire, so they don't care either. And that's without the entirely fucked-up political situation thrown in on top.

The Martians don't want your women OR your water. It was five hundred years ago, let it go.

-Merc
Keep Rat

(Oh, and Earth gravity is also totally lame. Martians weigh more than twice their usual weight there! You guys SUCK.)


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Gryphonadmin
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Jun-11-13, 01:21 PM (EDT)
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2. "RE: The Art of Noise in Concert, 2410.02.14"
In response to message #1
 
   >One has to wonder what the native Martians think of the Earthers
>continuing fascination, even four centuries later, of the entirely
>absurd idea, so popular in the two centuries prior to their first
>contact, that the Martians are just WAITING for an excuse to jet off
>to Earth with their tripods and heat-rays to conquer it.

Er, The War of the Worlds is a historical document. Saying its continued popularity in the 25th century indicates that people think the Martians are still "waiting for an excuse" is like saying neo-Classical architecture indicates that modern architects are ancient Greeks.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.


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Mercutio
Member since May-26-13
942 posts
Jun-11-13, 01:36 PM (EDT)
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3. "RE: The Art of Noise in Concert, 2410.02.14"
In response to message #2
 
  
>Er, The War of the Worlds is a historical document. Saying its
>continued popularity in the 25th century indicates that people think
>the Martians are still "waiting for an excuse" is like saying
>neo-Classical architecture indicates that modern architects are
>ancient Greeks.

This is an artifact of me posting here BEFORE I'd read Operation WINTERFEST, which was rather dumb. I had thought that Art of Noise had randomly written a song about the five-hundred-years-gone Martian invasion (I'm continually unsure what songs in their repertoire are covers and which are not) when in fact they're simply playing from a very old rock opera.

And then I compounded my error by assuming that in the UF universe, much like in our universe, the 19th and 20th centuries were filled with all kinds of stories and tropes about Martian invasions (which you'd imagine would, in fact, make native Martians a little annoyed) when the more logical assumption is that those stories never actually even occurred in UF.

Basically, I should not try to be funny, and especially not at four in the morning. That's on me.

-Merc
Keep Rat


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Gryphonadmin
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Jun-11-13, 01:56 PM (EDT)
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4. "RE: The Art of Noise in Concert, 2410.02.14"
In response to message #3
 
   >And then I compounded my error by assuming that in the UF universe,
>much like in our universe, the 19th and 20th centuries were filled
>with all kinds of stories and tropes about Martian invasions (which
>you'd imagine would, in fact, make native Martians a little annoyed)
>when the more logical assumption is that those stories never actually
>even occurred in UF.

Actually, one rather imagines they were, in sort of the same way that the pop culture of the late 20th century had a lot of Nazis in it. Heck, there was another Earth-Mars war in the early 21st century, though, to be fair, we invaded them that time. A lot of the same framework is there, so to speak, but the cultural context is different.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.


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Mercutio
Member since May-26-13
942 posts
Jun-11-13, 03:53 PM (EDT)
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5. "RE: The Art of Noise in Concert, 2410.02.14"
In response to message #4
 
  
>Actually, one rather imagines they were, in sort of the same way that
>the pop culture of the late 20th century had a lot of Nazis in it.
>Heck, there was another Earth-Mars war in the early 21st century,
>though, to be fair, we invaded them that time. A lot of the same
>framework is there, so to speak, but the cultural context is
>different.

That actually makes me imagine that a lot of those "Mars Attacks" stories would have, around about the mid-21st century, gone through the same transition that old school "cowboys and indians" stories have here in the real world; i.e "Oh, yeah, those stories are SHOCKINGLY racist. They're an important part of the cultural canon but you'd never, ever try and make one today."

-Merc
Keep Rat


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