Frontier Walker

Watch this muted with the World of Pretty Lights playlist or something similar playing in the background. (http://songza.com/listen/the-world-of-pretty-lights-songza/) Dope.  

So I started watching this with my family and it's ok. The visuals are good, but the narration is pretty cheesy most of the time, especially in the first episode (which is loosely tied together, and on the whole pretty blah). It does land on the right key at the beginning of the second episode. The prairie dog segment is hilarious, definitely worth watching. Also, I was shocked they could even film jumping spiders, because they're so tiny. But they managed, and revealed the fascinating and WEIRD lives of these spiders. I dig it. Nerding out over here. 

The narration is worth listening to for the information, if you can handle American cultural attitudes being projected onto literally everything that moves. "The home of the brave. Got to be tough to live up to the continents test and claim her as your homeland." Sometimes it works very well, sometimes it's too much. I get that they're trying to appeal more to the general public, but I don't know if all these extended metaphors are the way to go.

There are some great visuals though. I'm totally down to watch them again, but it would be really chill to watch with some electro hip-hop soul. This especially comes to mind: 

Take Me Home Remix- Pretty Lights  

There are people who belong in cities. City people. Urbanites.  There are people who belong in suburb. Suburbanites. There are country folk. And wild people  who disappear into the wilderness, go native and fade into the background landscape so they become invisible to the eyes of the human world. Then there are people like me who belong in the edge space. The frontier between here and there. But the frontier I need has retreated to  the north. I'm left to little patches of half-wild, suffocating between feeder roads and stacked houses, shopping malls and office buildings.

These spaces (empty lots, unused farmland, the untouched corners of parks) are some of the most fascinating places. A blend of worlds. They have their own unappreciated beauty. When we chase out to State and National Parks to see nature's beauty, we forget that nature isn't always grand. Nature operates equally on vast and minute scales. Our eyes our so fixed on the sunset over the mountains that we can't see the beauty around us all the time.

My goal is to capture the stunning diversity and drama of the edge spaces, and show them to you, so eventually your eyes will be trained to see them too. Then hopefully the world can take your breath away every day, like it does for me. It's the secret to my joy, and sadness. It is what makes me alive and wild.