Open thread 7/8/21
When I was a kid and saw Busby Berkeley’s movies on TV, these overhead “kaleidoscope” shots always enthralled me:
The New Neo
A blog about political change, among other things
When I was a kid and saw Busby Berkeley’s movies on TV, these overhead “kaleidoscope” shots always enthralled me:
Back in the days of steam television the June Taylor Dancers would open the Jackie Gleason Show with a dance number which always featured a “kaleidoscope”.
https://www.realclearinvestigations.com/articles/2021/07/07/naming_the_capitol_cop_who_killed_jan_6_rioter_ashli_babbitt_779601.html
Real Clear Investigations has now publicly named the Capitol Police Officer who shot and killed Ashli Babbitt. His name is Michael L. Byrd.
A while ago there was a claim that the shooter is/was Nancy Pelosi’s personal bodyguard. This gives the rumor more credibility now that he’s been identified as a member of security for House Members. It would also explain the extreme secrecy around his identity.
Where Japanese Lesbians go when they die:
https://youtu.be/ZftuIvFB1I0
Ladies and Gentlemen, the Takarazuka Revue!
Busby Berkeley clip mentions his WWI productions. Wonder if he got started with things like these?
https://i.pinimg.com/474x/ea/79/cb/ea79cb7272ef777ec4cf4f3846704fce.jpg
There was a short-lived craze for forced perspective photos of multitudes of Doughboys.
Strange, how that Busby image makes me think of a virus these days…
What is the state of dance these days?
Sure, there’s ballet, modern dance and I guess some musicals these days. Plus music videos. But not so much in TV or movies now.
What are all those hungry-to-make-it kids we saw lined up to audition in “Chorus Line” doing these days?
The movie Hail Ceasar! had an aquatic ballet sequence, with a Jonah and the Whale theme. Scarlett Johansson played the Esther Williams role.
Dance Thread!
Rita Hayworth through the ages – and the poster included a list of all the clips!
BTW, the music is Bee Gees singing “Stayin’ Alive.”
Twofer!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mz3CPzdCDws
I love these dance mash-ups, where you would think the routines were choreographed to the new music! The people who do these have infinite patience for going through old movies and finding the right clips to cut.
Bonus – reaction video compilation for BGs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_jFGUuNWNQA
“there’s no way this is white people!”
“this song was in all the brother movies!”
Hello. Does anyone have a link to a reliable translation of Xi Jinping’s big speech last week? I thought it might be worth going over.
(By ‘reliable,’ I mean e.g. not sanitized or smoothed over to make it sound more pacific than it in fact was, like the Palestinians have been known to do with some of their leaders’ more bellicose rants – one version for Western consumption in English, while the real red meat is only found in the Arabic original.)
Most people who are interested in old movies are familiar with this classic clip of Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert hitchhiking in It Happened One Night (1934).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ar-hnj5Zsk4
I had never seen the whole film until this week and did not know that the film was considered to be the first very successful screwball comedy or that it swept all five of the top Academy Awards.
Even more fascinating is that aside from its writers and probably some Columbia studio exec. nobody involved in its production liked it or thought it would be successful. When Colbert finished filming she told a friend that she had just finished the worst film she had ever made.
IMDB Trivia
It was only after the film finished showing in the primary theaters and was released into the secondary theaters that it took off.
I love this cultural tidbit.
Loved the Rita Hayworth video, AesopFan. I think I’ve only seen three out of that list.
I loved those old Busby Berkeley movies. I forget just when I first found them; I think I was in my ’30s. I have DVDs.
TommyJay – that clip reminded me of an episode from college that I haven’t thought of in years, but in retrospect was a harbinger of the vast majority of “studies” proving something that everyone with any sense knows is true.
A female friend (back when there were only 2 sexes) was in a psychology class and everyone had to do “research,” so she teamed up with some other students to study hitchhiking, to wit, what kind of thumber was most like to get picked up.
“Unexpectedly,” the 20-something gal (who was only a middling looker) outdid the hippie, the uniformed ROTC dude, and all the other guys.
That was also back in the days when drivers getting mugged by a hidden hit-team was unheard of, so more people were willing to stop; and the guys were on-hand if the driver got fresh (she never actually got in the cars).
Tommy Jay, if I remember correctly, Gable was assigned to this film as punishment for some sort of insubordination. It turned out not to be so punishing for him after all.
Meanwhile, in the year 2021:
Musical Number courtesy of the Chicago Gay Men’s Chorus: “We’re Coming for Your Children”
https://gab.com/alane69/posts/106546660290505668
Well thanks, I guess, for letting us know in advance.
Zaphod, San Francisco.
Oops. Thanks. Still in a.m. Zombie mode here.
Hilariously, some Evil Nazi Right Wingers have been crowdsourcing / checking public records on the choir members’ backgrounds and have already found 5, possibly 6 convicted child sex offenders.
When I was a kid there was a former Hollywood bit player who was locally famous in Canada and S.E Michigan for being a proud has-been, good humored raconteur, and daily afternoon TV movie host. His, was the go to-show for kids on sick days from school or on those intolerably hot mid-afternoons in the summer – if that is, you could catch a John Wayne western or an old gangster film. If you saw Bette Davis’ face, then you knew to immediately find something else to occupy your time.
He was full of those anecdotes such as you recounted.
I saw a few minutes of that same movie not too long ago, and stopped startled at a table scene in which there was [as I recall] some relative close-up, yet deep field of focus camera work that I didn’t think they could pull off when that film was made. Not an extreme close up of a face, mind you, but of the table setting and those at it.
I imagine there must have been some technological advance in cameras during the mid to late 30’s, because “A” release films from the “Majors” from, say, ’38 on, look distinctly different; at least to me. No doubt the Internet would be my friend in this regard.
Though, I have to say that some of the early sound films can look pretty impressive when a good copy is found and restored.
@DNW:
“I saw a few minutes of that same movie not too long ago, and stopped startled at a table scene in which there was [as I recall] some relative close-up, yet deep field of focus camera work that I didn’t think they could pull off when that film was made. Not an extreme close up of a face, mind you, but of the table setting and those at it.”
Haven’t checked the footage, but couldn’t they have just stopped aperture right down and slammed on more studio lighting to achieve the desired hyperfocal magic? Besides likely a wide-angle lens used for a table setting –> if sufficiently wide it becomes hard *not* to be in focus from (say) 1m -> Infinity.
But makes me wonder if anyone ever used view camera tricks / tilt-shift lens Scheimpflug Principle hackery in *cinematography* — it’s nothing special for product / landscape / architectural still photographers.
Yes, probably. But as you imply, given the film speeds of the day, it would not be a simple matter of slowing the shutter as you would have with a Speed Graphic 4×5. One would naturally suppose that much more lighting would be necessary.
I’ll look it up and see how much I have imagined, versus actually remembering.
@DNW:
Were there any people in the scene?
What we ‘see’ and what was filmed can differ. Could have used forced perspective to achieve insane apparent depth of field — e.g. no reason that every plate or knife or fork on table should be similar size.
cf. Tricky sidewalk art, WWI crowd pictures like the one I linked near top off thread, etc.
I’ve dabbled in amateur still photography just enough to grasp that proper management of lighting >= composition >>>>>>> expensive cameras and lenses.
Needless to say I learned this in reverse. Apparently that’s one trait baked into my DNA.
I cannot find a film clip of high enough quality to either confirm or dis-confirm what I have been alleging.
The best I can do is this low angle screen capture [from a movie site] which is not large enough to establish that Gable’s profile, much less the coffee pot, is in unexpectedly good focus along with Colbert.
https://1001movienights.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/it-happened-one-night-it-happened-one-night-15329300-461-346.jpg
Gotta leave this camera technology topic for the moment unfortunately; as it is one that interests me quite a bit.
For Colbert fans who are also interested culture clashes, resentments, and in how other races have sometimes viewed whites/Europeans when they “had the hammer”, I’d recommend the film; “Three Came Home”. It is on YouTube.
DNW:
Those old B&Ws were something.
When Mel Brooks was making “Young Frankenstein” in 1971 he wanted that old look. He had to knock on a lot of doors and pull some old guys out of retirement to get that skill set.
–“Young Frankenstein” — Frau Blucher / Horses
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bps5hJ5DQDw
That kills me everytime!
I missed in the deep focus shots in It Happened One Night, though I did notice it in a different film recently which was made in the late 40’s or 50’s. I assumed it was intensely bright studio lights and a small aperture that did it.
Brian DePalma is slightly famous for using a split diopter lens, screwed into the filter ring of a conventional camera lens. Sort of like lined bifocals. The trick is to hide the blurry line in the scene so you don’t see it. The films Carrie and Blow Out used it. Hitchcock built a stage telephone and revolver 5 times life size for the ending of Spellbound because he couldn’t get the focus correct otherwise.
@DNW:
Some pretty sharp lines on the back wall and couldn’t use very wide angle lens trickery with human faces in the frame — especially with one off towards a corner. Occam said they stopped right down and trucked in more Kliegs.
Rear of set might have been closer than we perceive it to be.
There’s probably a cinematography forum or blog somewhere where this scene has been analysed to death in the way that IPA-Drinking Soy-faced Latter Day Kubrick Know-it-alls like to do. It’s a bit like typography — once someone goes down the rabbit hole, it’s endless. I’ve never had that thing with cinema, but it must be quite fascinating.
Knew nothing about Frank Capra. Turns out he had a degree in Chemical Engineering from Caltech. The maths and the engineering training would have been useful in the golden age of talkies when new ideas and techniques were popping up daily.
@TommyJay:
Great DePalma and Hitchcock details!
Re: San FranciscoGay Men’s Chorus…Techlead…
Zaphod:
I confess I was surprised when gays went from “We just want to marry the person we love, heart heart” in a blink to “Bake us a cake or we’ll sue you into oblivion.” I knew a lot of lovely gays in San Francisco … or so I thought.
Sorta related. Here’s today’s ‘Tube from Techlead. He’s an ex-Google/Facebook engineer, who usually talks about the latest tech and crypto with a devilish Asian deadpan humor. This amuses me and helps me track what the young’uns are up to in tech.
However today, he presented a shockingly personal story about when his psycho ex-wife got him arrested for domestic violence, while he was having dinner with their son, and he was taken to jail, stripped naked for a drug search and spent the evening and much of the night sharing an open toilet with a bunch of other guys of questionable character.
He believes his wife was coached to get favorable terms in the upcoming surprise divorce,
I see more of these stories now. It seems more women are taking the vindictive payout route. I’m sure you aren’t surprised. Still, Techlead…
–“I WENT TO JAIL… It’s over. (as a Millionaire)”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oMif2tJs5q8
Cleaning House, China Style:
https://palladiummag.com/2021/06/23/ketamine-and-the-return-of-the-party-state/
It’s a long read, but a worthwhile one.
The trick is to stop thinking about *everything* in terms of Murrica! and China’s foreign policy shenanigans. Concentrate instead on the bit about a Government’s actions taken to maintain power and control actually being aligned with improving the general populations’ well-being. At least for a time.
Now ask yourself, when in living memory has *your* Government’s utility function maximisation strategy been in any way aligned with your own personal happiness or personal security.
Yeah.
This is not about China Being Right. This is about holding up a mirror.
@huxley:
Techlead is hilarious. As in a hilariously autistic loser. His personal life is just one colossal train wreck. I do feel sorry for him. Really clueless though.
Guy must be great at what he does work-wise — has obviously had great financial and career success. But very much one-dimensional in his abilities.
This may come as a total surprise to you, me being the Resident Forum Idealist Naif and Unicorn Petting Zoo Habitué, but I frequent Red Pill / Black Pill circles and have few illusions about what the female of the species is capable of. Every now and then I’ll come across yet another reference to Techlead online with some newbie asking ‘Is this guy Deadpanning it about his Ex?’
First heard the SF Gay Men’s Chorus back in the 80s when Australian national broadcaster’s classical FM network used to make sure to always have one track of theirs in their Sunday afternoon miscellany program — which in those days I listened to because included A Prairie Home Companion. Compere of said show (AU, not Keillor) unsurprisingly did not survive long enough to benefit from cocktail therapies. From what I recall, it was all a bit more arch and played straight back then. Now they’re really balls to the wall cruising for a bruising.
Apparently there’s a thing called the Duluth Model for Domestic Violence — adopted in many jurisdictions now. Basically a fill in the blanks plan for woman to win at Divorce Court. Whole corrupt industry has grown up to service it.
Frank Luntz is far from my favorite pollster. But since he’s predicting the same s***storm that Woke theology has wreaked in the US will come to the UK next year, then, I thought I’d share his observations.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9770649/How-Left-bullied-Britain-going-woke.html
We’ve seen this, we know this. But what to do?
What I want to see disclosed and analyised are the comparative polling data, US vs UK.
Then, maybe, we can talk and strategize.
Right?
@TJ:
Polling data doesn’t mean anything. The UK Establishment has vast arsenal of legal and extra-legal tools for shutting down the Right for being ‘Extremists’ — as you know you can get arrested for reading excerpts from Winston Churchill in public today.
The Conservative Party of course conserves nothing. And how could it preserve Britishness. Have you seen a photo of their front bench lately?
There’s little point strategising at national election levels. People who are trying to do something like Mark Collett and Laura Towler are Unpersons in the UK and likely to end up behind bars in the near future. Current approach seems to be to try to build local communities and work from there. Very long hard slog ahead of them.
Techlead is hilarious. As in a hilariously autistic loser.
Zaphod:
I’m pretty much Techlead without a stable family and perhaps not as high an IQ.
If I had looked like a better catch — taller, more confident, etc. — I would probably have been married and divorced similarly. I count that as my luck. God knows, my mother was not so kind to my father. I’ve read my share of red pill stuff. It resonates.
Today Techlead got to me viscerally.
During the Obama years I was visiting my sister for Christmas, as I had since the late 70s. During the evening news I made some mildly critical comments about Obama to my sister’s mother-in-law, who was elderly and on the way out. Still she made polite, old-school, “that’s interesting,” liberal responses. I wasn’t drunk, I wasn’t pounding the table nor pulling a revolver to punctuate what I said.
Next thing I knew my sister’s lesbian, ex-SDS partner was accusing me of endangering her mother’s life and I was required to leave the house ASAP in the middle of Christmas vacation. I retreated to the basement, but that that was not good enough either for Ms. SDS. I was required to acknowledge I needed to be punished then return chastened to the realm of Good People.
I managed a last-minute redeye ticket on New Year’s Eve and got the hell out of there. I’ve not been back since, which hurts my sister terribly, but I’m not entirely stupid.
My instinct is never to be under my sister’s partner’s roof again. Maybe I’m being paranoid, probably so. But I’m a conservative white male. Can I ever trust Ms. SDS not to wreak some Domestic Violence charge on me?
@Huxley:
I had the ‘good fortune’ to go spectacularly bust in my late 20s and then painfully claw some of it back later. Seeing how the fairer sex behaved on the up, the down, and after the re-up kind of clued me in. Later on, the Big Bad Internet completed my radicalisation.
You definitely did the right thing, no matter how painful. Her having been SDS means you know she’s capable of anything so it’s best not to take a chance.
I’m not quite as autistic or as smart as Techlead, but will admit to being shall we say a Late Bloomer when it comes to self-awareness and having a clue when it comes to discussing politics (not that I display any of this newfound wisdom *here*). I think my case not helped by having lived in Asia during nearly all of the last 30 years and not having been boiled slowly in the Pot of Woke. Anyway, being a bit slow about some things… took me a long time to figure out that my mentioning of commonplace facts about the world was not welcome with relatives and that I’d indelibly blotted the good behaviour copybook with these utterances. It’s sad, but simply cannot recant. Not that that would make much difference.
@Huxley:
The interesting question is has Techlead now finally Seen the Elephant or will he continue to over-analyse and focus on details rather than Big Picture? Time will tell.
The personality and skill-set which brought him wealth bears little relationship to that which is needed to manoeuvre in the world of people — many of whom are damaged, rapacious, or both. He’s got a long hard road ahead of him. The good thing is that he knows how to make money. That’s always a good start.
Can’t even play a game of golf these days without
https://www.fox5atlanta.com/news/arrest-made-in-cobb-county-country-club-triple-murder
some 3$@@#^ pops a cap in you on the Back Nine.
But at least anyone can get into any country club now 😛
There goes my chance at standup season in the Catskills. Oh well.
Zaphod:
I don’t worry about Techlead. His ex-wife is in the rearview. He’s made a decent bundle, if not the 5 mil he believes he needs to retire blissfully. He’s got a crazy-cool YouTube channel. Plus his parents are still alive. Not too shabby.
It’s clear he can learn, however Aspergy he may be. People will continue to be a problem, but as Tony Robbins once said about having reached a certain level of success — he can pull up to his problems in a limo, then deal with them.
“but as Tony Robbins once said about having reached a certain level of success — he can pull up to his problems in a limo, then deal with them.”
Sounds good to me!
Interesting riff on Tom and Daisy from Gatsby who hopped in their limo and left other people to deal with the problems.
Oh… New movie coming out soon:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karen_(film)
“Malik and Imani are a young black couple who move into a new house in the suburbs. When they arrive, they are greeted by a seemingly friendly white neighbor named Karen Drexler. However, this façade slowly reveals a bitter, jealous, angry, and racist woman who wants to remove the couple at any cost.”
Hilarious. Preening White Women thought they would come for them last. Well now it’s Last O’Clock.
https://gab.com/pen/posts/106542944575217868
“Whites engage in the NAXALT. They find one good example and erroneously project that onto the whole population.
Not-Whites do an opposite. They find one bad example and project that onto the whole population. But rather than being erroneous, they are malicious. As with Karen: one White woman acts inappropriately and now every White woman who speaks up is abused and silenced.”
Note for Boomers: NAXALT == Not All X Are Like That… But but but Muh Exception!
You may not be interested in Popular Culture, but Popular Culture and all those mysterious people who make all the funding and production decisions are most definitely Interested in You.
“I confess I was surprised when gays went from “We just want to marry the person we love, heart heart” in a blink to “Bake us a cake or we’ll sue you into oblivion.” I knew a lot of lovely gays in San Francisco … or so I thought.” – huxley
Back when the Same Sex Marriage Court Case was still undecided, I was commenting at Hot Air (under the old pre-Facebook regime). One of the SSM supporters was Jet Boy, who was generally an astute and entertaining commenter, and frequently provided insights on the SS* point of view.
His mantra was “If you don’t like gay marriages, don’t get one,” but at least he attempted to understand the opposing positions; however, he insisted that (as you say) “We just want to marry the person we love,” and all those awful things that religious conservatives were freaking out about would never happen.
After the lawsuits started taking aim at florists, bakers, wedding venues, etc. he apologized.
*As a matter of principle, I never use the debased adjective that has made it impossible to read some of the old literary classics to children, because when the stories reference happy, care-free people, the kids snicker or look embarrassed.
Sorry, not sorry.