A recent post at MetaFilter contained some some of the painstakingly beautiful time-lapse photography I’ve ever seen. Not only that, but all of it is available for download as high-res, super-well-compressed QuickTime movies. Way to go internet! (Of course, just because they’re well compressed, doesn’t mean they’re “small” =) Enjoy…
So… I know they’re huge, but go ahead and download them anyway, dammit! That’s what broadband is there for! You don’t even really need sound to enjoy these; in fact, the second one doesn’t even have a soundtrack. (However, the music attached to the other two is definitely worth listening to…)
It’s strange, I know that the millions of lights on display in these clips are symbolic of all kinds of ecological and systemic overload, but seeing them like this, removed from all the honking and jackhammering and smog and engines revving and people blasting farty-sounding-bass in their cars, makes these cities look so fantastic that it almost makes me forget about the environmental disaster that we’re allgedly hurtling towards.
Like The Velvet Underground said:
Ride into the sun
Where everything seems so pretty
When you’re lonely and tired of the city
Remember it’s a flower made out of clayTo the city…
Where everything seems so ugly
When you’re sitting at home in self pity
Remember you’re just one more person
Who is living there
the music for the first video is from ‘gattaca’