Phlogiston

Anyone interested in how I like to start my day each day may be interested in this little home movie: in iPod/iTunes format, in Quicktime format, or in Windows Media format.

Okay, that’s actually Boards of Canada’s video for their single Dayvan Cowboy. The first part of the video features archive footage of Joseph Kittinger’s record-breaking 1960 skydive from an altitude of 31,300m (outer space, basically). Apparently the footage I sent them of my skydive from the Moon was considered just showing off. In a feat that makes Chuck Yeager’s antics in The Right Stuff seem tame, Kittinger donned a pressure suit, took a helium balloon virtually into orbit, and then did what any right-thinking man would do: leapt off. He was in droguefall for four and a half minutes and reached a speed of 714mph.

Boards of Canada, so named for their love of documentaries by the National Film Board of Canada (each to their own, I guess), are actually an Edinburgh outfit and have been going since 1987. I’m slightly surprised to have only just heard of them.

Thanks to Chris for sending me the link to the video in the first place.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 14th, 2006 at 4:26 pm and is filed under Music. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.