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Mar. 10th, 2012 11:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gwydion* With all this talk about Cony, I am surprised no one is mentioning the Republican politicians who were praising him and his army last year for all the good work they have been doing spreading Christianity in Africa, presumably by kidnapping children and making them kill their families along with the usual rape, torture, and murder. No, one apologized for that one either.
* We are causing Earthquakes in Ohio. Also, they still haven't cleaned up that tar sands oil spill from two years ago: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/#46688861
* More on the California Forced Sterilization thing: http://cnn.com/video/?/video/us/2012/03/10/pkg-cohen-eugenics-reparations.cnn
Yes, the guy featured here is white, but in most places the majority of victims were people of colour. In my region, forced sterilization was part of a pattern of government ordered and sanctioned slow genocide against native Americans, along with things like kidnapping children to boarding schools and other child theft. It was used against the poor, the mentally ill, and the disabled, the intellectually challenged, but the biggest impact was on communities of colour. I will keep linking these forced sterilization items when I see them because people keep telling me I'm making this stuff up, that it's urban legend, that I'm paranoid because I get twitchy whenever people start talking eugenics for the disabled, intellectually challenged, mentally ill. It comes up way more often than you'd think. Yes, I voluntarily opted out of the gene pool because I didn't want to pass what I have on, but it's a huge distinction between personally deciding not to reproduce, and rounding up groups of people to have the choice taken from them. I do not trust my government to make these decisions and the evidence that things like skin colour and poverty were enough excuse in the past does not reassure me.
* "Put a face with the name:" http://thefoxxypoet.tumblr.com/post/19068733741/put-a-face-with-the-name
* I'm taking it easy this weekend in the hopes that whatever we caught will stay at the mostly functional level.
* I rewatched the Lon Chaney Sr. Phantom. I've not only seen it several times growing up, but I once saw it in an actual movie theater. (When I was a kid there was a godaweful forth run theater in walking distance from our house. It was called the Waverly, but we referred to it as the Armpit. The seats were torn, the floor filthy enough your feet would stick if you kept the still. It was robbed so often, they moved the box office inside, where it only got robbed at gun point occasionally. It had been gorgeous once, and had all this beautiful moulding with was chipped, peeling, and rotting away, with chunks outright missing. By night you could see drug deals and hand jobs going on in the darker corners. It was not a nice place and I never let my sister out of my sight in there. They were randomly closed for lack of funds. They only cost two dollars, and did not check ages for R-rated films, which was a boon to me as a child.) They also did these matinees that were right out of a baby boomer's childhood. Seriously, you paid your two dollars and you got a vintage newsreel, an animated feature, and an old film, things like Zorro or Vincent Price's House of Wax. On one of these occasions, I got to see the silent Phantom of the Opera on the big screen.
This is the first time I've seen it as an adult as far as I can remember though. It was genuinely fascinating. I loved how cleverly they used the limits of the form to create a dreamlike effect. The opening ballet looks a little like it's performed by ghosts or characters in a dream. I love all the shots of the ballerinas dashing about backstage with dance like choreography afterwards. The deliberate artificiality makes it seem like something out of fairy land. A lot of the film is like that visually, the aging of the film actually heightens the liminal effect, and while they couldn't anticipate that, I'm pretty sure they did anticipate the way the flickering would do eery things with the lighting. The technicolour sequences with the Masque of the Red Death startled me just as much as they did the first time, all that vivid red appearing after one's become used to all black and white is a shock to the system even if you are anticipating it. It's still beautiful, and the knowledge that pretty much everyone involved is dead and the fragility of the film makes it more beautiful 87 years later. I do still think the end drags a bit, and as it turns out, the studio made them go back and shoot more chase sequence things. I am now wondering if the original cut might have been more effective, especially given the deliberately abrupt ending. Something faster and more brutal might have suited.
I keep wondering what it must have been like for the first audience. It's impossible to capture the startle the first audience must have felt at the unmasking. Similarly, how startling were the masque sequences to an audience not much used to colour in film. Was it as unearthly to an audience raised on silent film as it is to someone like me who grew up with them mixed in with mostly talkies.
* Squirrel and I after the Lockout trailer at yesterday's movie:
Me: It's Die Hard in Space.
Squirrel: Eh. They should have gotten Snake Plissken.
Me: I heard he was dead.
* I thought Reality TV was extremely cynical before now, but that new Fashion Show one is taking it to a whole new level. The selling point is "the winners will be in stores the next day for you to buy!" *shudder* That's right, the entire reality show is just an infomercial hoping people aren't bright enough to notice they are watching an infomercial. It makes me sad they are likely correct.
* Re: Leverage: I'm in favor of setting things were they are shot. It bugs me when the local accents don't match, and I love it when they do. (The extras in the Wire with the serious Baltimore accents always fill me with glee). It seems to me that it's better to take advantage of local color and landmarks rather than disguising them, and I think it would be more fun if our tv and film industries were more distributed. I am sick of everything looking like Los Angelos and environs. I am sick of all New york, LA, and Maimi settings. I know Leverage and Fringe are meant to be Boston, but they were neither of them convincing, what with the lack of Boston accents and specific settings. Why not Law and Order: Detroit? Why not CSI: Seattle? Why not Leverage in Portland?
* "Five hundred new fairytales discovered in Germany:" http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/mar/05/five-hundred-fairytales-discovered-germany
* These are lovely: http://lettersfromtitan.tumblr.com/post/19058853823/urdchama-wow-can-i-just-get-like-a-zuhair
* Bret Easton Ellis’ playlists:" http://flavorwire.com/266962/a-musical-overview-of-bret-easton-ellis-oeuvre
* We are causing Earthquakes in Ohio. Also, they still haven't cleaned up that tar sands oil spill from two years ago: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/#46688861
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
* More on the California Forced Sterilization thing: http://cnn.com/video/?/video/us/2012/03/10/pkg-cohen-eugenics-reparations.cnn
Yes, the guy featured here is white, but in most places the majority of victims were people of colour. In my region, forced sterilization was part of a pattern of government ordered and sanctioned slow genocide against native Americans, along with things like kidnapping children to boarding schools and other child theft. It was used against the poor, the mentally ill, and the disabled, the intellectually challenged, but the biggest impact was on communities of colour. I will keep linking these forced sterilization items when I see them because people keep telling me I'm making this stuff up, that it's urban legend, that I'm paranoid because I get twitchy whenever people start talking eugenics for the disabled, intellectually challenged, mentally ill. It comes up way more often than you'd think. Yes, I voluntarily opted out of the gene pool because I didn't want to pass what I have on, but it's a huge distinction between personally deciding not to reproduce, and rounding up groups of people to have the choice taken from them. I do not trust my government to make these decisions and the evidence that things like skin colour and poverty were enough excuse in the past does not reassure me.
* "Put a face with the name:" http://thefoxxypoet.tumblr.com/post/19068733741/put-a-face-with-the-name
* I'm taking it easy this weekend in the hopes that whatever we caught will stay at the mostly functional level.
* I rewatched the Lon Chaney Sr. Phantom. I've not only seen it several times growing up, but I once saw it in an actual movie theater. (When I was a kid there was a godaweful forth run theater in walking distance from our house. It was called the Waverly, but we referred to it as the Armpit. The seats were torn, the floor filthy enough your feet would stick if you kept the still. It was robbed so often, they moved the box office inside, where it only got robbed at gun point occasionally. It had been gorgeous once, and had all this beautiful moulding with was chipped, peeling, and rotting away, with chunks outright missing. By night you could see drug deals and hand jobs going on in the darker corners. It was not a nice place and I never let my sister out of my sight in there. They were randomly closed for lack of funds. They only cost two dollars, and did not check ages for R-rated films, which was a boon to me as a child.) They also did these matinees that were right out of a baby boomer's childhood. Seriously, you paid your two dollars and you got a vintage newsreel, an animated feature, and an old film, things like Zorro or Vincent Price's House of Wax. On one of these occasions, I got to see the silent Phantom of the Opera on the big screen.
This is the first time I've seen it as an adult as far as I can remember though. It was genuinely fascinating. I loved how cleverly they used the limits of the form to create a dreamlike effect. The opening ballet looks a little like it's performed by ghosts or characters in a dream. I love all the shots of the ballerinas dashing about backstage with dance like choreography afterwards. The deliberate artificiality makes it seem like something out of fairy land. A lot of the film is like that visually, the aging of the film actually heightens the liminal effect, and while they couldn't anticipate that, I'm pretty sure they did anticipate the way the flickering would do eery things with the lighting. The technicolour sequences with the Masque of the Red Death startled me just as much as they did the first time, all that vivid red appearing after one's become used to all black and white is a shock to the system even if you are anticipating it. It's still beautiful, and the knowledge that pretty much everyone involved is dead and the fragility of the film makes it more beautiful 87 years later. I do still think the end drags a bit, and as it turns out, the studio made them go back and shoot more chase sequence things. I am now wondering if the original cut might have been more effective, especially given the deliberately abrupt ending. Something faster and more brutal might have suited.
I keep wondering what it must have been like for the first audience. It's impossible to capture the startle the first audience must have felt at the unmasking. Similarly, how startling were the masque sequences to an audience not much used to colour in film. Was it as unearthly to an audience raised on silent film as it is to someone like me who grew up with them mixed in with mostly talkies.
* Squirrel and I after the Lockout trailer at yesterday's movie:
Me: It's Die Hard in Space.
Squirrel: Eh. They should have gotten Snake Plissken.
Me: I heard he was dead.
* I thought Reality TV was extremely cynical before now, but that new Fashion Show one is taking it to a whole new level. The selling point is "the winners will be in stores the next day for you to buy!" *shudder* That's right, the entire reality show is just an infomercial hoping people aren't bright enough to notice they are watching an infomercial. It makes me sad they are likely correct.
* Re: Leverage: I'm in favor of setting things were they are shot. It bugs me when the local accents don't match, and I love it when they do. (The extras in the Wire with the serious Baltimore accents always fill me with glee). It seems to me that it's better to take advantage of local color and landmarks rather than disguising them, and I think it would be more fun if our tv and film industries were more distributed. I am sick of everything looking like Los Angelos and environs. I am sick of all New york, LA, and Maimi settings. I know Leverage and Fringe are meant to be Boston, but they were neither of them convincing, what with the lack of Boston accents and specific settings. Why not Law and Order: Detroit? Why not CSI: Seattle? Why not Leverage in Portland?
* "Five hundred new fairytales discovered in Germany:" http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/mar/05/five-hundred-fairytales-discovered-germany
* These are lovely: http://lettersfromtitan.tumblr.com/post/19058853823/urdchama-wow-can-i-just-get-like-a-zuhair
* Bret Easton Ellis’ playlists:" http://flavorwire.com/266962/a-musical-overview-of-bret-easton-ellis-oeuvre