TCM Top Five & Work Wednesday

Pony Bridge on Route 66 in Oklahoma. Built in 1936, it is actually now endangered, slated to be destroyed for some ugly modern thing.

I’d been in the middle of putting this post together Monday when I flipped on the news to see what had happened in Oklahoma, so you probably can understand my uncertainty about posting this. Nor was I sure whether or not putting this up would seem disrespectful. But my girlfriend in Nashville, who writes the Stuff Heard On The Bus blog, suggested that this might be a good distraction and relief for those of us overwhelmed and heartsore because of the coverage. So here it is. All of the photos here are from Oklahoma, too. It is just one of the finest states in the nation.

That said, the people of Oklahoma desperately need our help. They’re strong folks, some of the best in America, and as I said to an Okie the other night, Oklahomans give real meaning to “the heartland of America”— they’re genial, generous, and courageous, even in the face of horrors such as the tornado. They are our HEARTland, in every sense of the word. So please, please—I know the economy is horrid right now and that we’re all strapped, but even a few dollars will go a long way.

Please Donate to Oklahoma Tornado Relief Here (Salvation Army)

News 9 Oklahoma is accepting donations as well, click or text FOOD to 32333 to donate $10

Brandi, a native Oklahoman, also has a good list of ways you can help Sooners affected by the tornado; a couple of jewelry artists have beautiful work and I think I may be picking one of these up for myself. And I will be happy to donate 50% of each sale between now and June 20 to the Salvation Army’s relief efforts, and 100% of each Oklahoma-related photo from my shop. Keep in mind, I’ve a LOT of photos of Oklahoma from my Route 66 trip; if it isn’t in my shop but you’ve seen it on (the new, uglier) Flickr and would like a copy, please send me an email (Jen *at* LibertyImagesPhotography.com) and I’ll order what you like. Please just understand that special orders will take about 14 days from order to your receipt (I do not drop-ship, but inspect, sign & send a COA with each photo, as they’re all limited-edition), especially when there’s a great amount of demand, but I’ll hustle things out the door for you as quickly as I can! Recently purchased software allows me to sell some large photos, too—I sent out a 20×30 of a Thunderbird back in April and it was…well, I was pleased with it. So now is a great time to pick up a limited-edition photo from my shop and do a lot of good, too!

The Entire Primetime Lineup—Spotlight On Harold Lloyd
Beginning at 8PM Thursday, May 23

TCM makes one pick (multiple picks, really) very easy, because tomorrow night it’s all Harold Lloyd, all the time (okay, ’til 6AM Friday morning), beginning with Safety Last! (1923) at 8PM.

At Afton Station in Afton, Oklahoma.

Now, yes, these are all silent films, and I know silents can be a hard sell—even Robert Osborne has noted he’s not their biggest fan. And on one hand, I understand: for one thing, most of us are forced to multitask, and tend to work and half-listen, half-watch movies and television programs. Silent films require almost full attention (though this makes them good viewing if you’re working on embroidery or knitting or something of that nature) even with their sometimes slow storytelling.

But these are silent comedies, for the most part, and Harold Lloyd comedies at that. It’s difficult to get my husband to watch silent films, but he enjoys Buster Keaton films and the bits of Lloyd films we’ve seen; I think this is a good way to introduce someone to silent films and how they work, especially considering the, ah, adventurous nature of Lloyd’s famous stunts. These are made all the more impressive and thrilling when the viewer learns Lloyd was missing the thumb and index finger of his right hand, thanks to a prop explosion in 1919. Hanging from girders and clocks and grabbing onto moving trains was quite a feat if you ask me, though Lloyd doesn’t seem to have said much about it.

Safety Last! is probably one of Lloyd’s most famed films, thanks to the iconic image of the bespectacled-and-behatted Lloyd clinging to the hands of a clock, far above the city streets. TCM follows this up with quite a few shorts, then funny college football flick The Freshman (1925) at 11PM, more shorts, and wussy-boy-has-to-prove-himself Cinderella-ish story The Kid Brother (1927) at 1:45AM. No Speedy, but this is a fine linup indeed!

Listen, I can’t just pick one, and I’ve also not seen many of the shorts; Lloyd, unlike Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin, didn’t want his films released for television (TCM not coming into existence during his lifetime), and his shorts didn’t get much play either. Therefore his work is not as well-known as that of the others, and silents are, again, often a hard sell. But if you want to see one of the biggest movie stars, and one of the best comedians, try and catch a few of the shorts and at least one of the delightful Lloyd features.

Prayers For Oklahoma

Please Donate to Oklahoma Tornado Relief Here (Salvation Army)

News 9 Oklahoma is accepting donations as well, click or text FOOD to 32333 to donate $10

I’ve been outside much of the day and am just hearing about the mile-wide probable EF4 tornado that sent 160-200MPH winds through Oklahoma City for almost an hour today. This is unimaginable to me. Photos already coming out from Oklahoma City and Moore show piles of cars, smashed buildings, bizarrely naked plains that were once neighborhoods. The word “devastation” does not really seem big enough. You can see a time-lapse video of the tornado’s progression here. It is astounding. We are hearing reporters and locals break up in tears as they talk to local and national news anchors. And if you’ve seen some photos and footage, you’re probably feeling the same way.

Frighteningly, storms capable of producing tornadoes continue to roll east, across portions of Texas, Oklahoma, and Missouri—all three states dear to my heart for many reasons, not least because they’re all Route 66 states. This is the heartland indeed—and the people in these places are just so wonderful.

Looking at the radar right now, there are the blotches of deep red, orange, and hot pink that so unnerve anyone familiar with radar, and the band is rolling right up the 66 corridor. I’ve all sorts of friends here and days like this leave me physically ill with worry, as I’m sure they do so many of you.

Folks on Twitter are telling me that the debris ball dragging along with the tornado is suspected to have been two miles wide. At least two schools have collapsed, with children still inside, because of these storms. As you can imagine, many are still trapped.

Monday Escape: Garden Assistant

Usually I  don’t use our quick visual breaks from the horror of Mondays to share little vignettes from my own life, but this is worthy of an exception (I hope):

 

Ben was out helping me do some gardening again today, though he wasn’t very happy when we were surprised by a downpour (which explains why I’ve no photos from today’s work to share!). Said downpour included a few rumbles of thunder as well, and collies are notoriously afraid of thunderstorms. Even so, Ben bravely insisted upon staying with me despite the rain—hey, I was already dirty, so why stop working just because of some falling water?

I didn’t get everything on my morning to-do list checked off, but it’s okay; the porch is now decked out with colourful blooms and seedlings (it will shock no one to learn I’m going with a red, white, and blue porch colour scheme this year), and put the lovely, fire-sale-price plants picked up from the Lowe’s Sad Plant Rack into the pollinator’s garden: a forget-me-not ($1), which is not native but sends bumblebees into paroxysms of joy, and two verbena ($5 apiece, but they’re gallon plants). I found a few viburnum as well, but those can reach 10′x10′, and there’s not enough room in my pollinator garden for that; that said, it was only $3, and I’m trying to think of a front-yard place for it! They all looked so pathetic I doubt people are snapping them up. We’ll see.

That I’m having to buy plants at all frustrates me, but most unfortunately, the soil I used for some of my winter-sowing containers was contaminated with weed seed. I’m keeping an eye on said containers, but…alas! Still, thanks to the Lowe’s Sad Plant Rack and plain old bullheadedness, I think the pollinator’s garden will be pretty well filled-in by the end of the year.

Have a great Monday!

The end of the paper map? Surely not!

 

You can probably imagine this road-tripper’s response to a recently-discovered story about the death of a map shop in Indianapolis. After running their shop for almost 30 years, Tim and Dayle Gravenstreter ran the Odyssey Map Store, where shoppers could browse through maps numbering in the thousands that would guide travellers through hundreds of countries around the world.

“I’ve met so many wonderful people,” Dayle Gravenstreter told me one autumn afternoon before they shuttered their doors for good. “African cab drivers who point out where they’re from on the map, a lot of military families, people going into the Peace Corps,” she said. “Everyone has a story and I’ve enjoyed listening to them all.”

There’s something about maps that appeals to us—the promise of discovery, of places to roam. Now, of course, we seem to see maps most often as decor, as any two-minute to Pinterest will testify. Though most folks rarely use a paper map anymore, preferring instead the guidance of a GPS, we can’t seem to resist their allure.

Your GPS has NO idea where this is.

Of course, that preference for new technology has led to the shuttering of Odyssey:

Customers planning major family trips had been the core of Odyssey’s business, but in its last remaining years, those people stayed home to do their research on the computer. Map collectors became the primary base, but antique globes and reproductions of 17th-century seafarers maps couldn’t keep the doors open. Dayle pulled one of the reproductions from the shelf, lovingly pointing out specific details, like the scary-looking sea monster trolling the southern Atlantic Ocean. Besides the map’s aesthetic appearance, she just likes the feel of it in her hands.

“I like to see things on paper, to get that larger view that you can’t get from a GPS screen,” she said.

Dayle lamented that many younger people might never know the pleasing heft of an atlas or the musty smell of an old glove box map; that old technology is no match for the instant gratification of a Garmin’s lifeless drone telling you where to turn.

Dayle and the article’s author, Rob Annis, are correct. Having a paper map or atlas will not only serve you well if you end up in a dead zone (or if there’s a cataclysm of some sort), but the old-school explorer version gives you a big picture. Though we do have a GPS, for the road trips we take, we never use the darned thing; it’s paper maps, map books, and atlases all the way unless we need to find gasoline or coffee Right Now. Besides, it’s just plain fun to pull over, spread the map against the dashboard, and figure out which way to get where we’re going.

TCM Top 5 & Work Wednesday

There are quite a few excellent films coming up, which is a good thing as we’re expecting rain for the next six or seven straight days (it’s fine, I’ve tomatoes, peas, green beans, and other goodies going in the garden and have planted a few more plants in the pollinator’s garden, too) here in central Ohio! Best of all, TCM is screening the little-known but exceptional The Mortal Storm on Monday, birthday of my favourite actor, Jimmy Stewart. For something more lighthearted but still affecting, though, we have Kerr and Mitchum just before prime time Saturday night.

Also, for the past week I’ve been sharing photos I took at the Dublin Cemetery here in Columbus on Flickr, so you all get to enjoy those as well.

Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison 1957
6PM Saturday, May 18

Well, yours truly will be watching Orb win the next leg of the Triple Crown, but if Thoroughbred racing isn’t your scene, Heaven Knows is an endearing, funny, and rather lovely film about a nun (Deborah Kerr) and US Marine (Robert Mitchum) who end up stranded on an island; the sister was abandoned by the local priest and the other had died, and the Marine, shipwrecked after his submarine was destroyed by the enemy. Before they complete their escape raft to Fiji, the Japanese arrive, The odd pair scramble to survive during the occupation, and living in a cave together as they must, they get to know each other quite well indeed.

Gentle and pious Sister Angela is still more than young enough and attractive, nor has she taken her final vows; the handsome Corporal Allison young and a leatherneck indeed, but truly chivalrous and gallant, protecting Sister Angela and providing her what he can, even at risk of his life. There’s a fight, machismo, a marriage proposal, illness, grave danger, and a decision. One of director John Houston’s very best films, this is a character study, as his best films usually were—and he couldn’t have picked better actors, either. Kerr and Mitchum are perfect in their roles, utterly believable—and as someone has said about their multiple films together, Mitchum gave Kerr sex appeal and Kerr gave Mitchum class.

This is actually filmed in DeLuxe, not Technicolor, but I think it’s lovely all the same in that regard; the island is beautiful, and Houston makes sure we know this.

My grandfather was stationed in the South Pacific during the war, so perhaps it’s between that family history and the obvious fact that it’s a tropical island that makes this a wintertime favourite of mine—but it’s good to watch all year ’round.

Also worth watching: The Virgin Queen 1955, 4:15PM; Bride of Frankenstein 1935, 8PM; The Private Life of Henry VIII 1933, 9:30PM.

Here Comes Mr. Jordan
10AM Sunday, May 19

It’s very hard not to like this film, a fantasy-drama-comedy about a boxer who is accidentally allowed by an angel to die before his time. This mistake is corrected by angel Mr. Jordan (Claude Rains), who must find the boxer a new body to live in until his time does come. Joe’s return to earthly life, however, is complicated when he’s first placed in the body of a wealthy man, Bruce Farnsworth, whose nasty wife and her lover want him dead, and make a couple of attempts at ensuring that happens. To top off these hijinks, Joe’s former manager (hilariously played by James Gleason) is drafted for Joe’s comeback—in the rotund body of the tycoon–and a pretty, sweet-natured young woman seeking Farnsworth’s help for her father.

Farfetched? Yup. But the film’s terrific screenplay and laugh-out-loud funny and clever dialogue make Here Comes Mr. Jordan work very well—as do the fine performances, particularly from Robert Montgomery (Joe), James Gleason, and of course Claude Rains.