He and Melies were reacting to the early realist filmmakers. The Lumiere Brothers, who were the first to project images onto a screen, believed that film should be used to show the world as it is and called their films "realitès". Chomon and Meliés were expressionistic, using film as a means of exploring the extremes of what they could do even in those early days. The Americans upon first seeing projected images in 1896 saw a new way of narrative story telling and the result was the explosion of the film industry in the US utilizing techniques from both European schools. Americans love a good story.
Melies was into science fiction and created a wonderful and break-through film about space travel and going to the moon. And the Lumiere brothers made a film about a train pulling into the station that scared people so much that they dived under their seats.
I looked at Martie and signed up but I can't buy anything currently. I have a full pantry, a full freezer, gifts for my soon-coming grandson and a firm commitment to buy nothing in April. Martie looks great and I probably will use it next month. I will recommend it to my adult kids because it does have lots of good deals.
As for Better Homes & Gardens, phssss. I am done taking home making advice from others. I love what I love and have what I can afford.
"My home doesn’t look messy, it is messy, and you’ll pry my open shelves and my green and orange living room out of my cold dead hands."
Thank you for bravely standing up for messy housekeepers everywhere! My wife and I also treasure our open shelves and dust-catching knickknacks. Green and orange living rooms are definitely coming back in style any year now, but we favor beige carpets because they best memorialize our cat's frequent little "accidents." Never forget that extreme neatness is really just latent OCD....
I remember the first time I read DFW's cruise line article, and how the clicks of recognition came crowding up so fast that it might have been a Geiger counter at Chernobyl in my hands and not a trade paperback. He expressed for me, with much more grace and eloquence, my own set of mind. And this was without any first-hand experience of the phenomena he discusses. This is not something that happens often.
I think the spectacle of those terrorized Third world serfs anxiously waiting on the self-satisfied winners of the worldwide genetic lottery, the mechanized servility of it all, would certainly lead me to thoughts of throwing myself off the ship. Bloody revolutions have been sparked by far less stark dichotomies.
Between DFW and a crazy overtip lady, the Tabs are unusual today.
Wallace was a pretty horrible misogynist IRL. Or at least he had trouble accepting women's agency for their decisions about relationships. Problematic.
Crazy tip lady should eat a salted bag of dicks and NOT tip to get even.
It would be doing a disservice to Wonketteers were I to neglect to make the following promotion:
Anyone who read that piece about the lady tipping over $1K because she thought she was about to be Raptured up (and then demanding it back when she wasn't) would be delighted/appalled to learn what these Rapturists really believe. And the best way to learn that, w/ laffs aplenty, is in this book:
Regarding the rural-urban divide, I live in Chicago but most of my work takes place in rural Illinois, and lots of rural people do not trust urban people or government of any kind. Half the mayors are part time and have other jobs to pay the bills. Most of the farmers are part time and have other jobs to pay the bills. So A LOT of my work is just building trust. I show up. I keep showing up. I spend money. I listen. I talk baseball with good ol’ boys. It’s time consuming but I refuse to believe that folks are unreachable.
bless you and MAN that's a lot of driving for social harmony (we seldom leave the city though we just drove to CO for a ski trip. IL is fucking huge...)
The Dworkin piece…oof. I’ve been telling my husband that sometimes, lately, when some dumb fucking guy on tv airily insists that it’s “not that big of a deal” if a woman has to travel hundreds of miles for an abortion (or any of the misogynist claptrap that is so de rigeur), I (quite literally involuntarily) imagine a bat swinging at his skull and the resulting mess.
I am not a violent person, so I compose myself and remind my primal brain that this probably isn’t a great solution to our problems. But I think of all the advice and scolding girls get, growing up:
“Don’t walk in that part of town alone.”
“Carry your keys between your knuckles.”
“Why were you wearing so much makeup/allowing the fact that you have breasts to be known?”
And I realize that I’ve been set up for this war since the beginning of my days, and now it’s spiraling toward me imagining that taking out one of these fucking pieces of trash might be worth it. Maybe it would save even one woman/girl.
I am not planning or preparing any such thing, and I don’t think it would do much to help anyone. I’ve just noticed my mind going there.
****
That article about the book about white rage was a good read, especially the part when the writer wondered why, in all of our handwringing about how Democrats have lost this voting bloc, do we not ask, affirmatively, what Republicans actually offer them? If I say racism/misogyny, is someone going to tell me,
“C’mon, not *everything’s* about racism and/or misogyny?”
‘Cause here in America, yes, it the fuck is.
****
Random: I just watched a bug become entangled in what might be an abandoned spider web outside my kitchen window. I thought about trying to save it (though it might be a mosquito), but there was probably nothing I could do at that point. If the spider is still there, I’ll still feel bad for the little insect, but I do understand the way nature works.
If the web is empty of its proprietor, though, it just seems sad, and oddly, after all the news about all the horrible things, this tiny event might have been what tipped me over into despair and hating this mean old world this morning. Inevitably, going for a walk later and throwing some peanuts to a big black bird will make me feel better, but dang, sometimes it’s a cold place to be, here.
***
Re: stuff on shelves: I am a restless dipshit with no discernible “personal style,” so I use our little built-in cabinet to store a few tchotchkes and throw pillow covers. Every so often, I put a bunch of ‘em out because the rooms seem spare and cold, but then, after a while of watching them collect dust and feeling oppressed by their presence, I stow a bunch and enjoy a more minimalist space. Until it starts feeling spare and cold again. Works for me.
***
Thanks, Rebecca, for providing this space. I am grateful to be able to share my natterings here, whether anyone reads them/cares for them, or not. xo
Seriously, though, there's plenty that Biden wants to do or is doing for actual rural Americans- from actual farm support, to favorable trade policy, infrastructure spending, and improved health insurance.
For Trump voters who call themselves "rural" just because they live in the exurbs and drive an $80,000 truck? Nothing.
The trick is, from what I gather, to persuade the Rural American Voter that you are NOT from Big Government telling them What They Must Do and here's a handout; rather, that you are offering them the tools to do what they want to have done.
Rural Americans - the ones in towns with populations in the 1,000s and where the only sportsball things they can see in person are high school teams - tend to have a strong independent streak (they don't want to be beholden to anyone if they can avoid it) and favor local, community-based solutions.
My house looks messy because it is messy. The things mentioned in the article are Western bougie beyond belief: too many pillows! Poor furniture placement! Aargh- rooms of many colors (that my momma made for me).
I'm close to one of the top insurance professionals around and when I told him the name of PAB's bonding company, he literally had a fit of laughter before telling me that Knight Specialty is regarded as the lowest of the low in the insurance industry.
I don't know if PAB's bond can be revoked but it clearly should be, as there are basically no assets behind Knight Specialty.
"I don't know if PAB's bond can be revoked but it clearly should be, as there are basically no assets behind Knight Specialty."
It's why A.G. James asked for an investigation from the court. Apparently Knight Specialty is not licensed in New York to issue the *type* of bond they issued to Donald.
They are a "surplus lines" carrier, meaning they pay a tax for each policy written, which is supposed to go into a solvency fund that would pay any claims the bonding company cannot pay.
Surplus lines carriers are absolutely OK - many carriers would rather pay the per-policy tax than get licensed in a particular state and there's nothing wrong with that. But Knight Specialty does not have the assets needed to pay any claim and by the looks of their agreement with PAB, it's PAB on the hook and not them.
LOL. I know of a case where some people sued in civil court over some bogus claims, and then later committed a bad act against the people they'd sued. So, they were countersued for the damages they caused. BUT - we don't believe their lawyer has told them they were countersued - and that counterclaim was filed two or three months ago!
We know their lawyer was provided a copy of the counterclaim - the court system shows that the email with the claim was received AND opened. And yet, during a deposition not long ago, one of the evil perpetrators was asked if they'd been sued regarding their harmful act against the people I know, and this person said "No".
Our lawyer almost fell out of their chair but didn't inform this person that they had, in fact, been sued for a substantial amount of money - despite me passing notes to the lawyer that all said "DROP THE BOMB!"
Back from the WILD NEK ECLIPSE party. Family all came, a fun an food filled time was had, and the Main Event eclipse was awesome, and included some visible prominences. We topped off the party watching a traffic jam develop on the road by my sister's house. She lives 3 miles up a dirt road out of St. Johnsbury, (nope, cannot see Gallbladder's lawn from there) but it hooks up the other end to the interstate somehow, so when that plugged up people with GPS headed our way. The road hadn't been graded for a while, so speed bumps kept thing slow. They did get into a traffic jam at this end. Best place to see the eclipse seemed to be right where we were. Hope all were well here.
Segundo de Chomon, an early Spanish film pioneer and surrealist, is responsible for the images in today’s trippy hed gif. I wrote a bit about him here: https://open.substack.com/pub/martiniambassador/p/kiss-a-frog-weird-stuff-happens?r=angu9&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true
Super cool/interesting stuff; thanks, as always for learning me a new thing!
I knew that dropping acid first thing this morning was a good call.
Fin de siècle Kermit sure was different!
wow - I want to be that frog
This made my day!!
I absolutely LOVE that, and didn't know anything about him before this morning! Thank you.
He and Melies were reacting to the early realist filmmakers. The Lumiere Brothers, who were the first to project images onto a screen, believed that film should be used to show the world as it is and called their films "realitès". Chomon and Meliés were expressionistic, using film as a means of exploring the extremes of what they could do even in those early days. The Americans upon first seeing projected images in 1896 saw a new way of narrative story telling and the result was the explosion of the film industry in the US utilizing techniques from both European schools. Americans love a good story.
Kudos to the Internet Archive and you.
Melies was into science fiction and created a wonderful and break-through film about space travel and going to the moon. And the Lumiere brothers made a film about a train pulling into the station that scared people so much that they dived under their seats.
Between them, they invented motion pictures.
This is absolutely mesmerizing!
Absolutely ribbeting.
See wart you have started!
------------------------->>>>>
Great TABS! I think I need to score some mushrooms.
I picked the wrong week to give up mushrooms.
de Chomon was an underrated genius.
That's super cool.
Very cool, thanks for this!
Also, too, I find it completely amazing that in 1908 de Chomon was able to find those giant revolving letters that spell out "TABS."
Not enough room to use "ONGLETS."
The man was truly, truly ahead of his time.
And apparently a generous mentor too, because his successor has surpassed him.
Oh pshaw! 😚
That sequence is engaging beyond reason, fascinating and brand new to me...
Thanks!
It’s mesmerizing. Cray.
Is this a color film or is the footage colorized?
Colorized using a stencil technique that he and his wife created. He was quite creative, a pioneer in many ways. Really worth learning about, IMHO.
Yeah, I remember his name mentioned in my film history classes. I LOVE early European film. They were having so much fun!
Whee!
Going to bookmark this one!
I looked at Martie and signed up but I can't buy anything currently. I have a full pantry, a full freezer, gifts for my soon-coming grandson and a firm commitment to buy nothing in April. Martie looks great and I probably will use it next month. I will recommend it to my adult kids because it does have lots of good deals.
As for Better Homes & Gardens, phssss. I am done taking home making advice from others. I love what I love and have what I can afford.
My commodities entry now concludes. hearts
"My home doesn’t look messy, it is messy, and you’ll pry my open shelves and my green and orange living room out of my cold dead hands."
Thank you for bravely standing up for messy housekeepers everywhere! My wife and I also treasure our open shelves and dust-catching knickknacks. Green and orange living rooms are definitely coming back in style any year now, but we favor beige carpets because they best memorialize our cat's frequent little "accidents." Never forget that extreme neatness is really just latent OCD....
I think the designers who write articles about keeping your house neat have no idea how real people live. And I like my art haphazard.
I remember the first time I read DFW's cruise line article, and how the clicks of recognition came crowding up so fast that it might have been a Geiger counter at Chernobyl in my hands and not a trade paperback. He expressed for me, with much more grace and eloquence, my own set of mind. And this was without any first-hand experience of the phenomena he discusses. This is not something that happens often.
I think the spectacle of those terrorized Third world serfs anxiously waiting on the self-satisfied winners of the worldwide genetic lottery, the mechanized servility of it all, would certainly lead me to thoughts of throwing myself off the ship. Bloody revolutions have been sparked by far less stark dichotomies.
Between DFW and a crazy overtip lady, the Tabs are unusual today.
Wallace was a pretty horrible misogynist IRL. Or at least he had trouble accepting women's agency for their decisions about relationships. Problematic.
Crazy tip lady should eat a salted bag of dicks and NOT tip to get even.
That is all.
It would be doing a disservice to Wonketteers were I to neglect to make the following promotion:
Anyone who read that piece about the lady tipping over $1K because she thought she was about to be Raptured up (and then demanding it back when she wasn't) would be delighted/appalled to learn what these Rapturists really believe. And the best way to learn that, w/ laffs aplenty, is in this book:
https://tinyurl.com/mrxbd5xc
This Morning guest destroys haters of 'woke' language in less than two minutes
https://www.thepinknews.com/2024/04/12/this-morning-ashley-james-woke-inclusive-trans/
> Ashley James 'eloquently' shut down people who take issue with the word ‘woke’ during an appearance on ITV’s This Morning.
I did not know I needed amphibian kink this morning.
https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:5gy3v7opwo3bfoa7dojkfhvp/bafkreihwnwzzksvfjr66pu7x2pz5yyawczpuxuohbns2arsji46viobz74@jpeg
https://twitter.com/jamiedupree/status/1778540592034959364
Regarding the rural-urban divide, I live in Chicago but most of my work takes place in rural Illinois, and lots of rural people do not trust urban people or government of any kind. Half the mayors are part time and have other jobs to pay the bills. Most of the farmers are part time and have other jobs to pay the bills. So A LOT of my work is just building trust. I show up. I keep showing up. I spend money. I listen. I talk baseball with good ol’ boys. It’s time consuming but I refuse to believe that folks are unreachable.
Doin' the lord's work in a secular way. Good on ya!
bless you and MAN that's a lot of driving for social harmony (we seldom leave the city though we just drove to CO for a ski trip. IL is fucking huge...)
I put 100,000 miles on my Outback in seven and a half years!
The Dworkin piece…oof. I’ve been telling my husband that sometimes, lately, when some dumb fucking guy on tv airily insists that it’s “not that big of a deal” if a woman has to travel hundreds of miles for an abortion (or any of the misogynist claptrap that is so de rigeur), I (quite literally involuntarily) imagine a bat swinging at his skull and the resulting mess.
I am not a violent person, so I compose myself and remind my primal brain that this probably isn’t a great solution to our problems. But I think of all the advice and scolding girls get, growing up:
“Don’t walk in that part of town alone.”
“Carry your keys between your knuckles.”
“Why were you wearing so much makeup/allowing the fact that you have breasts to be known?”
And I realize that I’ve been set up for this war since the beginning of my days, and now it’s spiraling toward me imagining that taking out one of these fucking pieces of trash might be worth it. Maybe it would save even one woman/girl.
I am not planning or preparing any such thing, and I don’t think it would do much to help anyone. I’ve just noticed my mind going there.
****
That article about the book about white rage was a good read, especially the part when the writer wondered why, in all of our handwringing about how Democrats have lost this voting bloc, do we not ask, affirmatively, what Republicans actually offer them? If I say racism/misogyny, is someone going to tell me,
“C’mon, not *everything’s* about racism and/or misogyny?”
‘Cause here in America, yes, it the fuck is.
****
Random: I just watched a bug become entangled in what might be an abandoned spider web outside my kitchen window. I thought about trying to save it (though it might be a mosquito), but there was probably nothing I could do at that point. If the spider is still there, I’ll still feel bad for the little insect, but I do understand the way nature works.
If the web is empty of its proprietor, though, it just seems sad, and oddly, after all the news about all the horrible things, this tiny event might have been what tipped me over into despair and hating this mean old world this morning. Inevitably, going for a walk later and throwing some peanuts to a big black bird will make me feel better, but dang, sometimes it’s a cold place to be, here.
***
Re: stuff on shelves: I am a restless dipshit with no discernible “personal style,” so I use our little built-in cabinet to store a few tchotchkes and throw pillow covers. Every so often, I put a bunch of ‘em out because the rooms seem spare and cold, but then, after a while of watching them collect dust and feeling oppressed by their presence, I stow a bunch and enjoy a more minimalist space. Until it starts feeling spare and cold again. Works for me.
***
Thanks, Rebecca, for providing this space. I am grateful to be able to share my natterings here, whether anyone reads them/cares for them, or not. xo
Which rural book? The Rural Juror?
Seriously, though, there's plenty that Biden wants to do or is doing for actual rural Americans- from actual farm support, to favorable trade policy, infrastructure spending, and improved health insurance.
For Trump voters who call themselves "rural" just because they live in the exurbs and drive an $80,000 truck? Nothing.
The trick is, from what I gather, to persuade the Rural American Voter that you are NOT from Big Government telling them What They Must Do and here's a handout; rather, that you are offering them the tools to do what they want to have done.
Rural Americans - the ones in towns with populations in the 1,000s and where the only sportsball things they can see in person are high school teams - tend to have a strong independent streak (they don't want to be beholden to anyone if they can avoid it) and favor local, community-based solutions.
So I gather....
My house looks messy because it is messy. The things mentioned in the article are Western bougie beyond belief: too many pillows! Poor furniture placement! Aargh- rooms of many colors (that my momma made for me).
I'm close to one of the top insurance professionals around and when I told him the name of PAB's bonding company, he literally had a fit of laughter before telling me that Knight Specialty is regarded as the lowest of the low in the insurance industry.
I don't know if PAB's bond can be revoked but it clearly should be, as there are basically no assets behind Knight Specialty.
"I don't know if PAB's bond can be revoked but it clearly should be, as there are basically no assets behind Knight Specialty."
It's why A.G. James asked for an investigation from the court. Apparently Knight Specialty is not licensed in New York to issue the *type* of bond they issued to Donald.
They are a "surplus lines" carrier, meaning they pay a tax for each policy written, which is supposed to go into a solvency fund that would pay any claims the bonding company cannot pay.
Surplus lines carriers are absolutely OK - many carriers would rather pay the per-policy tax than get licensed in a particular state and there's nothing wrong with that. But Knight Specialty does not have the assets needed to pay any claim and by the looks of their agreement with PAB, it's PAB on the hook and not them.
Which IS NOT a bond.
I'm still trying to find out if TFG's crack lawyers have even filed his actual appeal yet.
LOL. I know of a case where some people sued in civil court over some bogus claims, and then later committed a bad act against the people they'd sued. So, they were countersued for the damages they caused. BUT - we don't believe their lawyer has told them they were countersued - and that counterclaim was filed two or three months ago!
We know their lawyer was provided a copy of the counterclaim - the court system shows that the email with the claim was received AND opened. And yet, during a deposition not long ago, one of the evil perpetrators was asked if they'd been sued regarding their harmful act against the people I know, and this person said "No".
Our lawyer almost fell out of their chair but didn't inform this person that they had, in fact, been sued for a substantial amount of money - despite me passing notes to the lawyer that all said "DROP THE BOMB!"
Back from the WILD NEK ECLIPSE party. Family all came, a fun an food filled time was had, and the Main Event eclipse was awesome, and included some visible prominences. We topped off the party watching a traffic jam develop on the road by my sister's house. She lives 3 miles up a dirt road out of St. Johnsbury, (nope, cannot see Gallbladder's lawn from there) but it hooks up the other end to the interstate somehow, so when that plugged up people with GPS headed our way. The road hadn't been graded for a while, so speed bumps kept thing slow. They did get into a traffic jam at this end. Best place to see the eclipse seemed to be right where we were. Hope all were well here.
I think I was in the only part of NY state on the Path of Totality where it was completely overcast.
Were you close to Niagara Falls ...?
Slowly I turned.....
Nope, Rochester.
😄😄