It must be good being Yoshimi P-We. It seems to me that she's had a pretty great year, what with her Boredoms gig at All Tomorrow's Parties in New York, her ambitious sounding project aboard a Russian ferry, soundtracking this past summer's solar eclipse off the southern coast of Japan, two releases on the side: Bar-Cozmik (as Yoshimio) and Tingaruda (as OLAibi), not to mention the big fat recent new release from my favorite branch of the Yoshimi tree -- the all-girl, always exciting OOIOO. Amidst all this artistic activity, Yoshimi also gave birth to her second child this year. No wonder Wayne Coyne named a record after her. 

When OOIOO released Taiga a few years back I fancied that listening to it was a lot like journeying into an hour long, aural tour de la nature -- a sonogram for one of those excellent macrocosmic David Attenborough documentaries where frozen, aurora-enshrouded forests of the North exist minutes from warmer climes where glacier-fueled rivers rush chuckling over rock and mud towards temperate seas. What stellar programming like Planet Earth does for your eyes in the comfort of your home, extraordinary sounds like that of OOIOO do for your ears within the infinite expanse of your mind. This may come across as cheesy (only the easiest cheese, please), but it reminds me of something Obi-Wan Kenobi explained to Luke as he struggled to find his bearings with the Force: "your eyes can deceive you; don't trust them...stretch out with your feelings." Listening to OOIOO, for me, is like letting the Force flow through you, no blast shield required.

The Discovery channel has recently been showing the nature documentary Planet Earth. I have become a bit obsessed with this show and have watched most of the episodes. For those of you who have missed it, or those without cable...the series will be released on DVD this tuesday 4/24.  This series was first broadcast on the BBC in the UK in March of last year. It was narrated by the great David Attenborough. This DVD release includes the original David Attenborough narration. For the Discovery channel U.S. broadcast the narration was replaced by Sigourney Weaver. Some nature "Attenborough" purists are very upset about this change. I think Sigourney's voice is perfect and she does a great job. This series is absolutely amazing. The shots captured will seriously take your breath away. The show is also broadcast for High Definition. In addition, the DVD will be issued as a Blu-Ray and HD DVD. It is seriously making me consider get a High Definition TV and DVD player. But even for those of us that still have the basic set up, the show is worth investing in.

These shows were the kind of shows broadcast on PBS in the 80s. My dad watched these shows quite frequently and I was often forced to watch them as well. Although, I quickly became interested in the shows as I realized how awesome they were. This was a world you could not quite see at your local zoo. It was amazing to see these environments that I would never see up close and personal. The earth we live on is so vast and interesting. The animals on it so intricately connected. But most of all, what made me obsessed with these shows, was the narration by the great David Attenborough. There is something about his voice that draws you in to the world he is describing. He often was actually there in the shots interacting with the environment and animals. In this recent series, there is no interaction. It is simply beautiful shots on land and in water with perfect narration.