“Magnificent Desolation.”
from here.
So, as I’ve been yammering on about the moon periodically for the past few weeks, it was really all leading up to two things. One of those things is…
Tomorrow is the 40th anniversary of the launch of the first mission to the moon that involved man walking on the moon (the actual moon walk was on July 20th/21st, 1969).
Of course, the moon thing was set off famously by JFK in 1961 with his promise/challenge to the country: “I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth.”
But why did we choose to go to the moon and do “the other thing?” Because:
And we did it.
Or, we faked it. And if we did, then kudos to whoever masterminded that. Not bad at all. I mean, it’d be terrible and shattering to learn that we never actually escaped our atmosphere and set human foot on a celestial body, and stood amongst the “magnificent desolation” there on the moon, as Buzz Aldrin put it, but bravo to whoever made us feel like we did.
from here.
Anyway, I’m sure there’ll be more to say about the moon and the moon walk and space and art and other various wankery in the next few days, but as of tomorrow, I’ll just say, it’ll be forty years since we lift our foot off this rock to take that one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind. Commence with the American Porn…
