I just saw the movie Men In Black 3 and I liked it. It's funny how many rappers became actors. I guess rap is essentially storytelling, it sure ain't singing, and acting is essentially storytelling so it's a natural fit.
Will Smith has been called the first Post Racial Actor meaning that he can play a role written for a person other than strictly a black man. The story of Men In Black 3 involves him traveling back in time to the year 1969. I thought this would be ripe for comparing the racial attitudes of the Sixties against today but surprisingly there was no racial comment whatsoever. In one scene he returns the Black Power fist salute to some Black Panthers at a party but that was it.
What I did notice was that this particular movie had a character who helped illustrate what Quantum Physics calls Parallel Universes or Alternative Realities. This is a fantasy Sci Fi film but even so the concept was presented as if a reality, which science is just now starting to believe. Once again artists are leading the way and opening the minds of the public to things ordinary people, non artists, cannot even imagine. This is the true value of artists, not just entertainment but in fact, enlightenment.
An even earlier example of the Parallel Universe / Alternate Reality concept presented as entertainment is the Firesign Theater’s record Don’t Crush That Dwarf, Hand Me The Pliers which The New Rolling Stone Record Guide called "the greatest comedy album ever made". In it a young man, seemingly a stoner, stays up all night channel surfing on his TV. Every show he watches, every old comedy, old war movie, early morning religious program, variety show, game show and even commercials somehow relate directly to him. All the shows he watches combine to tell the story of his life and when the morning finally comes he is an old man.
Will Smith has been called the first Post Racial Actor meaning that he can play a role written for a person other than strictly a black man. The story of Men In Black 3 involves him traveling back in time to the year 1969. I thought this would be ripe for comparing the racial attitudes of the Sixties against today but surprisingly there was no racial comment whatsoever. In one scene he returns the Black Power fist salute to some Black Panthers at a party but that was it.
What I did notice was that this particular movie had a character who helped illustrate what Quantum Physics calls Parallel Universes or Alternative Realities. This is a fantasy Sci Fi film but even so the concept was presented as if a reality, which science is just now starting to believe. Once again artists are leading the way and opening the minds of the public to things ordinary people, non artists, cannot even imagine. This is the true value of artists, not just entertainment but in fact, enlightenment.
An even earlier example of the Parallel Universe / Alternate Reality concept presented as entertainment is the Firesign Theater’s record Don’t Crush That Dwarf, Hand Me The Pliers which The New Rolling Stone Record Guide called "the greatest comedy album ever made". In it a young man, seemingly a stoner, stays up all night channel surfing on his TV. Every show he watches, every old comedy, old war movie, early morning religious program, variety show, game show and even commercials somehow relate directly to him. All the shows he watches combine to tell the story of his life and when the morning finally comes he is an old man.
Peter Bergman of the Firesign Theater died last March and I wonder if he or any of the other Firesigns ever realized just how ahead of their time they really were? Back then if someone put forth the proposition of something like Alternative Realities or Parallel Universes they weren't considered geniuses, a head of their times, just heads stoned on something. Who’s laughing now?
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