Breathe in...hold it...and ouuuut...

November 11, 2015 2:23 PM

Watch this video where it appears that the Earth is breathing. [VVS trigger alert]
posted by pjern (10 comments total)

Hmmm. The trees are just blowing in the wind. There's only a thin layer of soil over the rocks, so not much for the roots to anchor to.
posted by bonobothegreat at 2:31 PM on November 11, 2015 [5 favorites]

"As if the earth in hot, thick pants were breathing"

......you know, it took me an embarrassing number of years to realize this line from the poem Kubla Khan was about panting like a dog, and not heavy woolen trousers.
posted by Malla at 2:37 PM on November 11, 2015 [35 favorites]

Thanks, bonobothegreat. I'd seen this a couple of days ago, and was wt-effing all over the place at the uncanniness of it. But really, all you have to do is look up at the upper part of the screen, note the branches waving, and the magic disappears.
posted by Modest House at 2:51 PM on November 11, 2015

Is it the buried giant that Ishiguro just wrote about?
posted by smrtsch at 5:20 PM on November 11, 2015

Hot, thick pants are quilted underwear. In Xanadu and elsewhere.
posted by clvrmnky at 6:11 PM on November 11, 2015 [3 favorites]

VVS trigger... very, very scary?
posted by ccaajj aka chrispy at 7:38 PM on November 11, 2015

VVS trigger... very, very scary?

Vertical Video Syndrome.
posted by pjern at 9:36 PM on November 11, 2015 [2 favorites]

But really, all you have to do is look up at the upper part of the screen, note the branches waving, and the magic disappears.

I mean, on the other hand this is a video of trees literally buckling the ground that holds them as they strain against the titanic elemental forces of wind and weather that we kind of take for granted sometimes...
posted by teponaztli at 1:44 AM on November 12, 2015 [6 favorites]

Yeah, once I figured out what was going on, I'd hardly say the magic disappeared. It's a visual reminder that in a forest, the ground itself is part of the trees, and the soil is not just dirt, but a complex structure of densely interwoven roots. Very beautiful.
posted by biogeo at 7:39 AM on November 12, 2015

Modest House: "But really, all you have to do is look up at the upper part of the screen, note the branches waving, and the magic disappears."

I'm trying, but the magic is steadfastly refusing to disappear.
posted by Bugbread at 3:39 PM on November 12, 2015