Monday, January 05, 2004

It's a god-awful small affair . . .



The new Exploration Rover has landed on Mars. You can see this article.

Have you seen the pictures?

As a boy, I was fascinated by space exploration. When I started the first grade in 1963, I carried a blue metal lunchbox with a picture of an astronaut and renderings of NASA rockets. Watching Neil Armstrong walk on the moon in 1969 was remarkable to me.

My infatuation with the space program has waned dramatically in the past twenty-five years. I know now that astronauts are truck drivers for the military, and there is little government interest in scientific investigation except as it leads to military ends.

Still, it's exciting to see pictures from Mars!

Life On Mars
It's a god-awful small affair
To the girl with the mousy hair
But her mummy is yelling "No"
And her daddy has told her to go
But her friend is nowhere to be seen
Now she walks through her sunken dream
To the seat with the clearest view
And she's hooked to the silver screen
But the film is a saddening bore
For she's lived it ten times or more
She could spit in the eyes of fools
As they ask her to focus on

Sailors fighting in the dance hall
Oh man! Look at those cavemen go
It's the freakiest show
Take a look at the Lawman
Beating up the wrong guy
Oh man! Wonder if he'll ever know
He's in the best selling show
Is there life on Mars?

It's on Amerika's tortured brow
That Mickey Mouse has grown up a cow
Now the workers have struck for fame
'Cause Lennon's on sale again
See the mice in their million hordes
From Ibeza to the Norfolk Broads
Rule Britannia is out of bounds
To my mother, my dog, and clowns
But the film is a saddening bore
'Cause I wrote it ten times or more
It's about to be writ again
As I ask you to focus on

Sailors fighting in the dance hall
Oh man! Look at those cavemen go
It's the freakiest show
Take a look at the Lawman
Beating up the wrong guy
Oh man! Wonder if he'll ever know
He's in the best selling show
Is there life on Mars?
(Words and music by David Bowie)

Here is the main site for the Mars Rover.

Peace.