The WhimWham

OK, I have to gush. The last episode of Futurama was extraordinary, even by the show’s own standards. The sixth season has just gotten better and better recently, and this is the best episode yet.

But what’s so great about it? Ken Keeler, who has a doctorate in mathematics (and is probably the most responsible for the show after Matt Groening and David X. Cohen), wrote and apparently proved a new theorem in group theory in order to solve the main problem posed by the episode’s plot. Yes, I’m serious.

Even better, the proof itself is very clearly (but briefly) shown in the episode itself.

The last time I studied group theory was almost ten years ago, so I need to brush-up on it in order to fully understand the proof, but even if the idea is more-or-less trivial, it’s still incredible to see in an animated comedy show.

This should, at the very least, exonerate Keeler in the minds of many Comic Book Guys, since he also wrote the much loathed episode “The Principal and the Pauper” for The Simpsons… 13 years ago.

Being born in 1978, I’m pretty much a child of the ’80s. I grew up with the radio playing at every opportunity, loved going to the movies and couldn’t get enough of Star Wars, He-Man and The Muppet Show. (Yes, there was bleed-through from the ’70s, as you’ll soon discover.)

Each week, I’m going to make an effort to present the pop-culture events of a very specific period of time in the ’80s. Today, it’s summer ’79/’80, as seen Down Under.

This was the period when Bon Scott, the lead singer for AC/DC, died of alcohol poisoning; it was also the period when Kingswood Country debuted on Australian TV…

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I’ve been lukewarm on the new Futurama—there’s been a couple of good episodes, some mediocre ones and some really bad ones as well. But the last episode (“The Late Philip J. Fry”) was outstanding.

Why? Oh, let me count the ways…

• it actually addresses real questions in cosmology and metaphysics
• it references everything in science fiction from the writings of H.G. Wells to the films of James Cameron
• it has moments of tenderness and pathos, as well as soul-crushing despair
• it acknowledges past continuity in funny, relevant ways

And finally, there’s a hilarious parody of Zager & Evans’ “In the Year 2525″ that is a work of genius.

The team behind the show’s original run obviously haven’t lost their touch. (The new writers, on the other hand…) This episode is probably in the top 10 for me, and while it isn’t as mind-bending as “Roswell That Ends Well” or as heartbreaking as “Jurassic Bark”, it recaptures the essence of those episodes. At its best, Futurama was (and is) possibly the best comedy, the best science fiction and the best animated show to ever hit TV screens.

Here’s a clip from “The Late Philip J. Fry”:

In June, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers released their 12th studio album, Mojo. I’m a huge Heartbreakers fan and have been for many years, and this album is a real treat.

It’s not as accessible as Petty’s solo Highway Companion from 2006, nor as exhilarating as last year’s Live Anthology, but Mojo is a slow-burner that reveals itself over many listens. First and foremost, it’s a blues experiment: Petty has always been a roots rocker, and this is roots rock taken to its logical conclusion. In a way, it’s the flip-side of the country-inflected Mudcrutch from 2008.

If you’re new to Petty, try his Greatest Hits as a sampler, or Wildflowers if you want a studio album. If you’re more adventurous, pick up The Live Anthology to hear the Heartbreakers at their best.

But if you want to hear veterans shunning autotune and current fads, you can’t beat Mojo.

Here’s a sample…

Yesterday I finally saw Inception, the new non-Batman film by Christopher Nolan.

And it was phenomenal.

I wouldn’t even dream of writing a proper review of this film until I’d seen it at least once more, though twice more would be better. It’s dense and complex and soulful and eye-popping, all in glorious 2D. It’s a heist movie set in a labyrinthine series of dreamscapes.

It’s certainly not The Matrix—in my opinion, it’s about ten times better than that film and about 1000 times better than its sequels. The cast is uniformly excellent, the ideas are fresh and original and it’s happier to trust its audience to figure things out rather than delivering exposition by the spoonful. It truly is a unique cinematic experience.

The best way to describe it is an Escher print come to life.

Here’s the trailer: