Hitchhikers and more

Yesterday was a pleasant serendipity, or synchronicity, or whatever -icity you choose. After the wishes of many people for many years, The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy movie was premiered in the U.S. I've tried to stay away from the reviews, but the general impression I get is that if you're a Hitchhiker's fan (as I am), you'll probably like it. If you're not, however, you'll wonder what the hell it's all about.

Which I suppose you could say about anyone that listened to the series in its original, radio (yes radio was the first and IMHO the best), incarnation.

But you can't have serendipity, or synchronicity, or whatever -icity you choose, without something else happening. Yesterday also I received some Royal Mail. (What a grand title.) My order from England came in. Rod Lord, the graphic artist who created the terrific graphics for the BBC television series of the same name, sells prints of the originals on his website. The TV series was done before computer graphics really came into popular use, so the BBC engaged Rod to draw these computer-graphicslike pieces on lithographic film somewhat like animation cels. They were then shown in rapid sequence to appear like a computer display. (Rod has a detailed explanation, full of graphics artist-ese, on the "background info" button on his website.) The graphics really were one of the lasting impressions one brings away from the television series.

And we now have Babel.04 and Babel.05 in my posession, waiting to be framed.

Now we just have to go see the movie.