many happy returns

[dhsu@SUN.COM (David Hsu)]

Greetings again, all.  And special thanks to Tracy and Andrew for
making the Santa Cruz bash such a success.
	
At long last I've started acquiring copies of the official videos
on laserdisc for careful perusal.  Those discs at the party, Corey,
were Andrew's, not mine, and our gratitude should be rightfully be
his.  At any rate, I present installment #1 of Dave's Excessively
Trivial Observations On Kate's Video's.

_Cloudbusting_
  I think it's clear that Peter does see Wilhelm pointing at the hill
from within the car; he begins gesturing even as Peter runs into the
road not 5 feet after the car passes, and continues as it disappears
around the bend.
  There _is_ a partial excuse for the rapid jet contrail in one time-
lapse scene, and it can be found on page 20 of the Obelisk edition
"Book of Dreams".  Peter describes how the Air Force would fly overhead
to indicate where there were high concentrations of DOR to be found,
and that DOR caused their exhaust streams to dissipate rapidly.  However,
the long, wide, straight cloud farther to the right looks like a second,
older contrail and it dissipates only slightly.  Perhaps the cloudbuster
has already been applied there.
  In a rare lapse of continuity, we see the sun overhead in the path of
the cloudbuster.  Both before and after, we see the sun near the horizon.
  Note that Kate is actually wearing women's clothing throughout the
video; the shirts and sweaters all button on the left side.
  Reich's office contains an unusual assortment of paraphenalia for a
psychoanalyst, but consistent with his interest in pseudo-biochemistry.
The glassware is typical for a chemist, but he also has two microscopes
and a small centrifuge on the bench.  The walls sport anatomical
diagrams, and he is growing at least one vine-like plant in a long glass
column (but not hydroponically...it grows in dirt).
  There are two old (non-glowing) yo-yo's in the in tray on his desk.
  Reich picks up a paper from the lower right of his desk, studies it,
then crumples and discards it.  There are only three words on it, barely
visible; viewed with a mirror I think they say "My Final Paper".  IED -
you have a CAV copy, perhaps you can read it more clearly.
  Although the car leaving the farmhouse is clearly right-hand-drive,
later we see that it sports a license plate the correct size and shape
for an American one.

_Breathing_
  Well *I* think the sun-people scene represents a birth into the post-
nuclear world, whose twin suns represent the H-bomb blast as well as
the sun itself.  After all, the narration does refer to the initial
flash as "brighter than even the sun".  And of course, Kate approaches
them wearing the umbilical-cord suit while they dangle a bunny-suit of
the type we see everyone wearing at the end.  But hey, who expects
clear and exquisite imagery in a Keef video?

_Running Up That Hill_
  Where did they get the Kate picture on the masks?  She looks like a
refugee from an old Vidal Sassoon commercial :-)

_Experiment IV_
  If you hadn't noticed, we never see the interior of the shop from the
storefront.  The store itself therefore would seem to be part of the
set, and not the location.
  Not only is the shopkeeper counting out his fresh copies of Kate's
newest single, but a copy is already stuck to an interior pillar of
the shop at the left.
  Dr. Coe enters the shop at exactly 12 noon, according to the wall
clock above the real entrance.
  As we noted before, the officer has a folder labeled "The Whole Story"
before him, and another labeled "Experiment V" facing Dr. Coe.
  The microphones at the foot of the bed in the delivery room are not
connected to anything yet.
  Where do the flying papers come from when the device shatters the
control booth window?
  Dr. Coe must be left-handed; his watch is visible as he reaches for
the main switch.  It appears to read 5:20, which would be consistent
with the Venetian-blind shadows throughout the rest of the video.

Boy, I can't wait to get ahold of the Single File.

yours for more pabulum,

-dave