akril15 (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} akril15) wrote,@ 2008-01-02 13:46:00 |
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Retro sci-fi and elusive birds
Retro science fiction is just full of surprises. Case in point: Clifford D. Simak's Strangers in the Universe (published 1957). It's a collection of short stories, one of which tells of the strange tribes of the planet Zan, known collectively as the Google race (their name is italicized throughout the story).
Tee-hee.
And I've recently made a pleasant discovery related to ZBS. In their audio drama Dreams of the Amazon, there's a lot of ambiance that was recorded on-location in the rain forests of Brazil. Occasionally, an ominous, ethereal groaning sound is heard, and a couple of characters remark that the tribes of the region say that that is the sound of "a restless spirit with one eye" looking for a body to inhabit. Later we learn that it's really just "a little bird with a big voice".
However, that bird is never identified, and for years, I wondered what sort of bird would make a sound like that. Thanks to the BBC's "The Life of Birds" series, I've finally been able to not only learn the bird's name, but see it vocalizing (using a pouch on its throat). This animal is so elusive that until the late 90s, it was never even filmed. Behold, the capuchinbird.
Retro science fiction is just full of surprises. Case in point: Clifford D. Simak's Strangers in the Universe (published 1957). It's a collection of short stories, one of which tells of the strange tribes of the planet Zan, known collectively as the Google race (their name is italicized throughout the story).
Tee-hee.
And I've recently made a pleasant discovery related to ZBS. In their audio drama Dreams of the Amazon, there's a lot of ambiance that was recorded on-location in the rain forests of Brazil. Occasionally, an ominous, ethereal groaning sound is heard, and a couple of characters remark that the tribes of the region say that that is the sound of "a restless spirit with one eye" looking for a body to inhabit. Later we learn that it's really just "a little bird with a big voice".
However, that bird is never identified, and for years, I wondered what sort of bird would make a sound like that. Thanks to the BBC's "The Life of Birds" series, I've finally been able to not only learn the bird's name, but see it vocalizing (using a pouch on its throat). This animal is so elusive that until the late 90s, it was never even filmed. Behold, the capuchinbird.
