![]() Ollinger does Miller one better in the clip for ‘Leave The Key’, and as he performs, he is actually on fire. The group’s namesake Professor Julius Sumner Miller was well known for practical demonstrations of eye-catching physical phenomena, and an image of the man himself features on the cover art for ‘Try It Out’. While the album sounds familiar, it’s far from a throwback, with Ollinger’s lyrics and irreverent perspective enough by themselves to keep the songs fresh. The raw roughness of ‘Try It Out’ comes from the fact that the band cut the record in a four-day burst of explosive energy in world renowned OCL Studios, followed by legendary punk rocker Stephen Egerton of the Descendents and ALL putting his talents into mastering the album. They put these values into practice whenever they plug into an amp, and they do it in the most entertaining way possible. The five members of JSM are legends of the Calgary musical subculture, and additionally perform as show bookers, punk promoters, and tireless advocates of off-the-wall and idiosyncratic local sounds. ‘Lose The Key’ isn’t the only fiery track from JSM in fact their fourth album, ‘Try It Out’, is wholly flammable, packed with songs each as outspoken and unsparing as the next. “A whole world of tears could not douse out these flames.” He feels somewhat like a human flame thrower, he’s howling, raging, almost as if he feels the very heat nipping at his toes. In the first verse of ‘Leave The Key’, Ollinger sets the scene by imagining setting himself on fire. It seems he had an impact in Canada too, and he lives on in the name of incendiary punk band Julius Sumner Miller, from Calgary, whose new single, ‘Leave The Key’, is a rough, raw and somewhat menacing track, with a music video to match – frontman Darren Ollinger sets himself alight in the clip. ![]() Sumner Miller was well known for his catchphrase 'Why is it so?’ and the distinctive way he said it entered the vernacular, but his program is titled Why It Is So (see clip one).If you were an Australian growing up in the 1960s and 1970s, you’ll instantly recognise the name of Julius Sumner Miller, the wild haired, somewhat crotchety professor who brought the wonder of science to generations through his TV show, ‘Why Is It So?’, then to further generations with his science-based ads for Cadbury Dairy Milk Chocolate in the 1980s. Through practical experiments and with his own unique style of commentary, Sumner Miller tried to show how nature behaves and, by asking rather than answering questions, aimed to provoke scientific thought and imagination in his audience. Content was based on questions drawn from the natural world. Some I thought out – not too well, to be sure – but I was learning to think.Įach ten-minute episode comprised a lesson in some aspect of ‘quantum physics today’. To some I got the answers in dialogue with my Mama and my Papa and with my teachers. ![]() What is the Earth made of? Why is the sky blue? Why is the sunset red? How does a bird soar? Why does a brook gurgle? How does an earthworm crawl? Why is a dewdrop round? Why does corn pop? Why does a wood fire crackle? And a thousand like questions. Writing on his own early childhood and its influence on his philosophy Sumner Miller explains:Īll of a half-century ago – when I was a little boy on the farm in my native New England – I remember asking all kinds of questions. Or, more simply in my own phrase, 'Why is it so?’ To stir your imagination, awaken your interest, arouse your curiosity, enliven your spirit – all with the purpose of bringing you to ask, as young Maxwell put it, 'What’s the go of it?’ – or, as Kepler had it, 'Why things are as they are and not otherwise’. In the preface to his book, Millergrams (1966), a collection of questions and answers originally published in The Australian newspaper, Sumner Miller expresses his core aspiration for his audience: His infectious enthusiasm, animated delivery, wild expressive eyebrows and eccentric turn of phrase meant that science could be fun and entertaining as well as educational. For over two decades, from 1963 to 1986, Sumner Miller and his silent laboratory assistant ‘Mr Anderson’ entertained a surprisingly large ABC television audience in a series of lectures and demonstrations dedicated to questions of physical science. ![]() Why It Is So, which was recorded live from the Physics Department of the University of Sydney, featured the iconic Professor Julius Sumner Miller, a professor of Physics from El Camino College, California. ![]()
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