Conclusion

After sitting here with my hands on my temples for several minutes I can only conclude one thing. That I am still made out of solid matter. I do not expect to win any high profile grants or awards from this. The path of science is not always glamorous.

The pair

This scene illustrates what made Laurel and Hardy as a comedy team, their knowing approach to very human misunderstandings. It also implicitly shows how what you can get away with in comedy, at least for the broader market, changes with time. The scene is set at a veterans' home, and Ollie thinks that Stan has lost a leg. The film, Block Heads, was released about a year before World War II. During or just after the war, something like this might have been a harder sell.

Sightseeing in the city

The paintings of Brett Amory seem destined to settle deep in the memory, and have a quality of having been dragged from there.

Amory is said to have developed his style by painting from cell phone photos. That's something of a surprise. His work doesn't have the kind of flat ephemerality I'd associate with quickie digital photography. Even viewing it on a computer screen, where everything is made up of pixels by definition, these paintings feel real: real people in real places undergoing real weather, frequently kind of harsh. One point of comparison is Edward Hopper, but more in love with mildew.

Coming attractions

I have another art post coming up pretty soon. It should be pretty interesting, or so I hope. I just have to make sure I have the picture files. Doesn't take long to download them, of course. I just didn't know if I already had them or not. My tendency is to just grab stuff under its original file name and store it wherever, which can make things hard to find.

Anyway, should be in a couple of days. Hope you like.

Still

It's been very quiet around here lately. I wonder where everyone is. Simplest explanation is that they're quiet people, I guess. Which is good late at night. Sometimes you wonder, though.

Saying "when"

Back when movie theatres were the only way to see movies - with the exception of a few select oldies shown on broadcast TV - you weren't quite obligated to stick it out, but inertia would demand it in most cases. Walking out means committing to making a statement, even if you know it's no good demanding a refund.

Cable, VCR/DVDs, streaming... These all add more options, and thus make it easier to skip out.

So what was the last movie you bailed on before you got to the end?

For me it's an unusual answer. The Drive by Night couldn't quite hold my interest. Oh, it sounded promising. An early film noir or proto-noir about the trucking industry, directed by Raoul Walsh, who made the excellent Jimmy Cagney gangster flick White Heat. Plus it had Humphrey Bogart in the cast. What could go wrong?

Don't get it twisted. Bogie is very good. But he's not the star. George Raft is. And Raft's character is too pure and noble to make for an interesting story. The whole thing goes slack.

But yeah, if I were watching it in a revival house, I probably would have stayed until the end.

So

It's better to be an active participant in life, rather than passively wait. I know this. It's very much an effort, though. And it's an effort to think of ways to push forward. Still, I'm going out there.

No nature scene here, because I can't think of one that wouldn't be horribly cliched.