Posted by Eldon Carlson, dave_ec@hotmail.com, on 8/31/03

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I feel like I'm doing a comedy sketch . . . Have you
noticed how much time-lapse photography has made its way
into TV commercials and other TV spots, especially where
the clouds are on stimulants but everything else is in real
time? What's with that?

Are there any Raymore & Flanagan or Circuit City
commercials, and countless others, that don't sneak in at
least one clip of fast-motion clouds? Actually I've been
pondering this phenomenon since its inception around the
year 2000, and two metaphors have emerged. First off, who
doesn't associate dark, foreboding, fast-motion storm
clouds with super-hero cartoons, especially during the
climax scene when the villain has the upper hand, of
course, to the menacing accompaniment of minor organ
chords? Secondly, we've been conditioned by TV news
broadcasts to associate fast-motion clouds with the NEXRAD
weather radar of the TV weather forecasts. And so you can't
possibly miss the connection, that is, assuming your
curiosity has already been peaked by oddly behaving clouds
in TV commercials, the spot that introduces the weather
report often shows a clip of clouds racing to beat the
band, with this clip repeated throughout the broadcast as a
coming attraction.

To have such staying power (three years is an eon in
advertising) this image must either have a strong
psychological component, or alternately, the media is
hinting at some program of truly vast proportions. I'd be
tempted to go with the psychological angle if it weren't
for the little I've gleaned of the coincidental rollout in
1999 of the surveillance applications of Synthetic Aperture
Radar (SAR) disguised as weather radar and built into a
surprising number of props, and almost all helicopters and
commercial airliners. My understanding for the media's
silence is the nature of the targets being tracked by this
airborne version of weather radar which are released
pedophiles and suspected terrorists. The media may not be
talking, but they can't help hinting. When I've been in a
similar position myself where I'm about to explode because
I can't talk about inside information, I've gotten some
measure of relief by hinting that I know something I can't
say, which transfers to others at least a portion of that
unbearable inner tension. Then again, what if they're
hinting about little green aliens with almond-shaped eyes?

dave_ec@hotmail.com

Fast-motion Clouds on TV, 8/31/03, by Eldon Carlson.

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