the new and the old "Cosmos"

As an atheist and a red, the closest thing to "sacred" for me is Carl Saqan's 1980 PBS series "Cosmos." If I had to pick the "Communist Manifesto" or "Cosmos," I'd probably go for Sagan, that's how much the series, and the book it's based on, means to me. Sagan died of cancer here in Seattle a while back, but his contributions are greater than the sum of his days on earth.

Now FOX, of all places, is advertising that there is going to be a new 13 part "Cosmos" series. I'd automatically dismiss this as a horrible co-optation except that Sagan's widow, who co-wrote the original series with him, is co-author and executive producer for the new series. I'm heavily skeptical but kinda excited at the same time. 

At any rate, nothing like the advent of a new version of the "Cosmos" series to revisit the original. I direct your attention to an episode of "Indymedia Presents" I devoted to a review of the series a few years ago. It had been posted to the web back then, but when I went to find it for this email, I noticed it had been pulled down for copyright issues. Yeah, I used a fair amount of the series for the review, but under fair use rules, I should have been able to use it for the purposes of the critique. Whatever. I'm reposting it to Vimeo right now, so the following link should get you there. Whether you never got to see the series, or can't remember just how incredibly cool it is, or you do but would like a booster shot of Carl to the vein, I encourage you to spend the time to be inspired by the guy I I lauded so heavily in the opening paragraph of this email. The video is 28 minutes long.

The original series was a low-budget creation done only moments before the advent of computerized graphics, editing, etc. It's sort of fun to see how they pulled it off back in the day. For me, much of the wonder of the original series was in the stories Sagan told of the history of science, and the absolute joy Carl Sagan took in our collective efforts to know everything. Best of all was his willingness to be political. The "Cosmos" series can shape a person's world view, in a really good way. If you watch my video review, I guarantee you'll be eager to watch the original series, and curious about the new one.

I'm trying to stir up interest in viewing the original series in the comfort of my neighbor's home, one episode at a time, with discussion to follow, sort of like a book club. The first screening will be Monday, Feb 10, at 7pm. We'll start on time, the episode lasts an hour, and we'll have conversation for an hour afterward, then call it a victory for the people. If there is enough interest, we'll make arrangements at that time for screening the rest of the original series. If you'd like to participate, reply to me, and I'll give you the address etc. 

Naturally, we'll also talk Monday about the possibility of collective viewing of the new series.

Randy

To go to my video review of the original series:

https://vimeo.com/86173806