Chimes at Midnight (2024)
15 comments
·February 9, 2025CoffeeOnWrite
pkkim
You may be interested to know that the author of Even Cowgirls Get the Blues has just recently passed away.
robinhouston
I am amused by the way the author gives such detailed directions for “an enterprising trespasser” to pay an unauthorised visit to the Clock.
It’s also a clever device to make the account of the author’s visit more vivid, because I as the reader imagine making the journey myself.
(But I do think it would be a fun adventure to try to follow the directions.)
tbolt
Only half way through but damn what a good read.
m463
I thought it said "Crimes at Midnight"
mrbluecoat
> Once you manage to bypass the gate — which is illegal but not difficult
Yeah, I just finished reading the DOGE teen article; bypassing legal due process seems to be the theme this week...
data_ders
Heavy recommend the biography of Stewart Brand that’s quoted throughout!
thesuperhacker
What is happening at midnight?
robinhouston
The title is referencing a ’60s movie, I think. Nothing particular is happening at midnight, as far as I know.
robterrell
"Chimes at Midnight" is a clever Orson Welles film that combines all of the Falstaff scenes from the various Shakespeare plays that he appears in.
ndesaulniers
Thanks! I just thought it was a song from Atlanta based metal band Mastodon.
jfengel
The movie is based on a Shakespeare play, Henry IV part 1.
All that happens at midnight is that the clock rings, which is pretty late if you're in the 16th century. The scene is two old men reminiscing about their wild youth:
"We have heard the chimes at midnight"
"That we have, that we have, that we have"
zabzonk
Anecdote: In Lincoln UK, the cathedral chimes are not rung after (or immediately before) 11 PM. Mythically, this is because Michael Todd, who played Guy Gibson, the leader of the Dambuster raid in the post-war film, found them too disturbing, at the White Hart hotel, next to the cathedral, when he was filming.
As someone who lives in Lincoln, in the hearing of the bells I quite like it, but I'm not so close that it keeps me awake!
defrost
It'll be Sunday lunch time in New York City @ midnight here.
null
I actually didn’t realize till reading this article that The Long Now was so closely tied to Singularity theory.
The clock being deep in a cave reminds me of the clockworks in Even Cowgirls Get The Blues. The clockworks are more of an entropy amplifier than what we think of as a timekeeping device, which I guess is the point of the metaphor, in a way. The clockworks embody eastern philosophy and humility and Bezos’ clock embodies manifest destiny and arrogance?