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| Our Link to the Past |
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| Our Link to the Past |
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Turtle Tchotchke Tuesday
A little bronze turtle left by Santa.
The card Santa left with it tells us it is by Joseph Addotta. An elf?
Sunday, January 22, 2012
Robert Nelson
Robert Nelson died recently. He was an experimental filmmaker.
I hadn't heard of Robert Nelson but I had seen a few of his films in college.
I was a member of the Tech Weathermen. The club had nothing to do with the Weather Underground. The Tech Weathermen was formed by my friend Walter Kubilius mostly to put on film festivals. It had some beer busts, too, I think.
Walter would program the little festivals with experimental films, safety films, pornographic films and certainly other interesting genres (I wish I had a better memory).
Walter included some of Robert Nelson's films in these programs. I had only vague memories of these films.
One that is on YouTube is "Oh Dem Watermelons." (WARNING: If you would be offended by a scene featuring a naked woman and a watermelon, don't click on that link!) My memory of that film was simply the last scene with the watermelon chasing the people up Lombard Street. (That scene involves the same technique we used in my own "Silly Backward Antics" video.) The music is by Stephen Foster and Steve Reich who has gone on to become an influential composer. Thank you, YouTube, for letting me relive that film.
The other Robert Nelson film Walter showed us was "Hot Leatherette." I seem to recall its big scene was a loop of a pickup rolling down a cliff. Over and over and over. If anyone can point me to a video of this film I'd be forever grateful.
For your convenience, here is "Oh Dem Watermelons" (but if you're interested in seeing it you've probably already watched it when you clicked on the link above):
There are a few other films I remember from the Tech Weathermen Film Festivals. One was "Tale of a Tailgate." This was a safety film from the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory (I think it was still called that then). It taught us that we need to aware that equipment can malfunction and we should always prepare for the worst. We got to see someone operating the hydraulics that lift a truck's liftgate. In the film something goes horribly wrong and the lift falls and lands on the operator's foot. That's bad. He should have stood more to the side so that such a malfunction wouldn't result in tragedy. We got to see the failure from several different angles and in slow motion. Gripping!
The movie that still gives me nightmares was one where I was in charge of running the projector. Some of the films were 16mm. Those were shown with projectors in the theater's projection booth. Some were 8mm films. We set up projectors in the middle of the theater for those. I got to run the 8mm projector for one of the pornographic films. The film featured a woman being man's best friend's best friend. And we're not talking just in the style of South Park's "Red Rocket" episode. No, she really put her teeth into her role. Well, maybe not her teeth but something quite close.
The film broke before the climax of the movie. There were boos. I don't know how a stoned person sitting in the dark could thread the film through the projector and get it going again while being booed but I managed. It broke again. Again, I managed to get it going, boos and all. After it broke a third time we gave up on that film. I am so glad I didn't have to see the end of that one.
I wish I had a better memory. I'd like to remember what other movies I got to see in these little festivals (except for those that give me nightmares).
I'm glad I had enough of a recollection of Robert Nelson's movies to search for them after YouTube came along. Now if only someone would post "Hot Leatherette."
By the way, I am a member of the Weather Underground these days! My home weather station uploads its data to their site and they let the world know what the weather is at my house. You might have noticed their weather widget at the top left corner of this blog.
I hadn't heard of Robert Nelson but I had seen a few of his films in college.
I was a member of the Tech Weathermen. The club had nothing to do with the Weather Underground. The Tech Weathermen was formed by my friend Walter Kubilius mostly to put on film festivals. It had some beer busts, too, I think.
Walter would program the little festivals with experimental films, safety films, pornographic films and certainly other interesting genres (I wish I had a better memory).
Walter included some of Robert Nelson's films in these programs. I had only vague memories of these films.
One that is on YouTube is "Oh Dem Watermelons." (WARNING: If you would be offended by a scene featuring a naked woman and a watermelon, don't click on that link!) My memory of that film was simply the last scene with the watermelon chasing the people up Lombard Street. (That scene involves the same technique we used in my own "Silly Backward Antics" video.) The music is by Stephen Foster and Steve Reich who has gone on to become an influential composer. Thank you, YouTube, for letting me relive that film.
The other Robert Nelson film Walter showed us was "Hot Leatherette." I seem to recall its big scene was a loop of a pickup rolling down a cliff. Over and over and over. If anyone can point me to a video of this film I'd be forever grateful.
For your convenience, here is "Oh Dem Watermelons" (but if you're interested in seeing it you've probably already watched it when you clicked on the link above):
There are a few other films I remember from the Tech Weathermen Film Festivals. One was "Tale of a Tailgate." This was a safety film from the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory (I think it was still called that then). It taught us that we need to aware that equipment can malfunction and we should always prepare for the worst. We got to see someone operating the hydraulics that lift a truck's liftgate. In the film something goes horribly wrong and the lift falls and lands on the operator's foot. That's bad. He should have stood more to the side so that such a malfunction wouldn't result in tragedy. We got to see the failure from several different angles and in slow motion. Gripping!
The movie that still gives me nightmares was one where I was in charge of running the projector. Some of the films were 16mm. Those were shown with projectors in the theater's projection booth. Some were 8mm films. We set up projectors in the middle of the theater for those. I got to run the 8mm projector for one of the pornographic films. The film featured a woman being man's best friend's best friend. And we're not talking just in the style of South Park's "Red Rocket" episode. No, she really put her teeth into her role. Well, maybe not her teeth but something quite close.
The film broke before the climax of the movie. There were boos. I don't know how a stoned person sitting in the dark could thread the film through the projector and get it going again while being booed but I managed. It broke again. Again, I managed to get it going, boos and all. After it broke a third time we gave up on that film. I am so glad I didn't have to see the end of that one.
I wish I had a better memory. I'd like to remember what other movies I got to see in these little festivals (except for those that give me nightmares).
I'm glad I had enough of a recollection of Robert Nelson's movies to search for them after YouTube came along. Now if only someone would post "Hot Leatherette."
By the way, I am a member of the Weather Underground these days! My home weather station uploads its data to their site and they let the world know what the weather is at my house. You might have noticed their weather widget at the top left corner of this blog.
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
Copyright Magic
Who among us hasn't posted some material that we don't own the copyright of?
I've been living in fear of the lawyers because of one of my YouTube videos.
I uploaded the Magic Meryle segment of the Rosie O'Donnell show to YouTube. I worried that I'd be hearing from Oprah's lawyers about that. I thought about making the Privacy setting of the video so that only people with the link to it could see the video. If I did that it could be seen from my blog but it wouldn't show up in searches of YouTube. Maybe Oprah wouldn't notice it and would leave me alone. But with that setting Magic Meryle wouldn't get the exposure that she deserves.
So I got brave and made it Public so people searching for her would be able to enjoy it. I figured that at worst I'd be asked to remove it.
It appears I didn't need to be worried.
I recently got an email from Meryle. She had no luck watching videos on Rosie's web site. So she sent a message to Oprah's company telling them that the videos weren't working for her at either the Carlsbad or the Oceanside libraries. She also pointed out that they had misspelled her name. She told them that she was looking forward to watching the videos.
She forwarded their reply to me.
They told her that they had corrected the spelling of her name. They said that they had tested the videos on different computers and that they work for them and that the problem might be with her connection.
They then told her that she can watch her episode on YouTube and linked her to the video that I had uploaded!
It looks like I can sleep at night now.
Until SOPA/PIPA passes. Then I'll be off to jail.
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
Turtle Tchotchke Tuesday
A set of measuring cups in the shapes of turtle shells. They stack on top of the turtle's body.
These were a Christmas present from Ray and Cathy.
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
Turtle Tchotchke Tuesday
A candle from L'Objet (but the lid is on so you can't see the candle itself).
You might remember our L'Objet napkin rings.
Sunday, January 8, 2012
Getting juiced
For many years I've been having orange juice with my breakfast cereal. For a while I was even using the juice on my cereal. I haven't been a milk drinker for many, many years. Now I use soy milk on my cereal.
For many years I've been telling myself that orange juice from concentrate isn't much more than orange-flavored sugar water that is fortified with vitamin C.
I've been saying we should get a juicer so we can make wholesome juices that have more than just sugar and flavor in them.
A couple of months ago I was down to one can of orange juice concentrate when we went to Costco. We came home with a new six pack of OJ.
A week later we went to Costco again. I don't remember why we needed to make a return trip in such a short time. We came home with Jack LaLanne's Power Juicer Deluxe. Impulse shopping at Costco is so easy (and fun!).
We have a new gadget! We've used it every day since then!
Carrots. Celery. Apples. Ginger. Pineapple. Pears.
Wholesome juices!
Here is this morning's juice. One glass has been made and one has its raw ingredients still to be processed.
Here are its insides after everything has gone through.
The spinning blade grates the vegetables and fruit into very tiny shreds and the juice is spun through the filter. The pulp works its way to the top of the filter and is flung toward the collection bin. A lot gets stuck in the chute along the way.
The recipe book suggests that we collect the pulp and make tasty treats like muffins. We just compost it. Even if the muffins were good for us there is no way that we could eat enough to use much of the pulp.
Since we've started using the juicer I haven't mixed up a can of orange juice.
What do I do with all that OJ?
For many years I've been telling myself that orange juice from concentrate isn't much more than orange-flavored sugar water that is fortified with vitamin C.
I've been saying we should get a juicer so we can make wholesome juices that have more than just sugar and flavor in them.
A couple of months ago I was down to one can of orange juice concentrate when we went to Costco. We came home with a new six pack of OJ.
A week later we went to Costco again. I don't remember why we needed to make a return trip in such a short time. We came home with Jack LaLanne's Power Juicer Deluxe. Impulse shopping at Costco is so easy (and fun!).
We have a new gadget! We've used it every day since then!
Carrots. Celery. Apples. Ginger. Pineapple. Pears.
Wholesome juices!
Here is this morning's juice. One glass has been made and one has its raw ingredients still to be processed.
Here are its insides after everything has gone through.
The recipe book suggests that we collect the pulp and make tasty treats like muffins. We just compost it. Even if the muffins were good for us there is no way that we could eat enough to use much of the pulp.
Since we've started using the juicer I haven't mixed up a can of orange juice.
What do I do with all that OJ?
Tuesday, January 3, 2012
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