Notices by St John's Evil Twin (stjohn@mulligrubs.me), page 18
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St John's Evil Twin (stjohn@mulligrubs.me)'s status on Tuesday, 28-Nov-2017 23:39:14 EST 
St John's Evil Twin
@ajroach42 Oh Keaton's stunt work is unparalleled. Lloyd may have done some impressive trick shots, but Keaton was there sitting on train wheels and having bits of building fall on him. The man was a genius.
I was always a big fan of "It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World", but I think I loved it even more when I realized Buster Keaton was in it. That and "Sunset Boulevard", where he has a cameo as one of the "waxworks" from the 20s. -
St John's Evil Twin (stjohn@mulligrubs.me)'s status on Tuesday, 28-Nov-2017 23:02:10 EST
St John's Evil Twin
@ajroach42 Oh you saw that new "Lost World" release! Wasn't it great? There was some really beautiful cinematography (and color work) in those dinosaur shots.
I'll have to rewatch "The General", I think. I remember liking it, but only realized in hindsight how clever it was. It's one of those Keaton movies where he sets up a scenario and works through every variation on it. Who thought you could get *so* much mileage out of a train chase?
Thanks for the tips — you seem to have excellent taste, so I'm looking forward to a few weeks of good movies 😀 -
St John's Evil Twin (stjohn@mulligrubs.me)'s status on Tuesday, 28-Nov-2017 22:59:25 EST
St John's Evil Twin
@ajroach42 Gotcha, silent "Ben Hur". I promise I won't hold Marion Davies against it! I've heard good things, but I just haven't got around to it yet.
Yessss, Douglas Fairbanks was such a magnetic actor. He could fill the screen no matter what he was doing. "The Mark of Zorro" is a joy from start to finish. I like a good bit of Keaton as well, but my pick for silent comedian is always going to be Harold Lloyd. I loved him from the first time I saw "Safety Last". Keaton has a scientifically devious and precise way of setting up a scenario (building a house, a train chase, etc.) and working through everything that can go wrong with it. But Lloyd — for me, Lloyd always did comedy about everyday things. Trying to keep your new suit clean at a county fair, hiding from the landlord, trying to fit in, holding down a job… I love escapism, but if someone can be brilliant within the bounds of everyday life then it's almost more impressive.
Thanks for the links! I'll check them out when I'm done with this Davies movie — and I'm dead keen to check out your Mastodon holiday extravaganza too.
For animated crickets, have you seen "The Cameraman's Revenge"?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U424m8utJnA
It's a lovely little short. Then I'd have to add Fritz Lang's "Spies" (the first 60 seconds of that movie are better than any new movie that's come out in the last ten years). And there's a weird and wonderful, intense and hilarious Russian/French one called "The Burning Crucible".
http://moviessilently.com/2014/06/22/the-burning-crucible-1923-a-silent-film-review/
Gah, so many great movies. It's a shame they don't get much attention today. A lot of people who do "best movies of all time" lists seem to think cinema began in 1960. Or even 1980. -
St John's Evil Twin (stjohn@mulligrubs.me)'s status on Tuesday, 28-Nov-2017 22:29:53 EST
St John's Evil Twin
@ajroach42 Yes! That bloody hairdo!
I'm watching "Buried Treasure" (1921), starring the eminently forgettable Marion Davies. I like to fund silent movie Kickstarters because it's exciting to see a movie hauled out of the vaults for the first time in decades, but I swear if I see another Marion Davies movie I'm going to scream.
Do you have any favorites? I'm always keen on good recommendations. -
St John's Evil Twin (stjohn@mulligrubs.me)'s status on Tuesday, 28-Nov-2017 21:38:12 EST
St John's Evil Twin
God help me if white people in silent movies don't all look the same. I can't tell them apart half the time. It's especially true of the women, who I gather were all selected by a specific standard of beauty and were then made-up in the style of the time and dressed in the same sorts of clothes. I can't tell people apart in real life — how am I supposed to recognize anyone in this army of clones? -
St John's Evil Twin (stjohn@mulligrubs.me)'s status on Monday, 27-Nov-2017 00:19:39 EST
St John's Evil Twin
Last day of a four-day weekend like
♲ @Abecedarian: Newest Entries: Restoring the Lost Sense
From Pick Me Up, 1891.
http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/oneletterwords/abecedarian?a=fSj3Qzuzsz8:WSvtZj0qupE:yIl2AUoC8zA http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/oneletterwords/abecedarian?a=fSj3Qzuzsz8:WSvtZj0qupE:V_sGLiPBpWU http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/oneletterwords/abecedarian?a=fSj3Qzuzsz8:WSvtZj0qupE:7Q72WNTAKBA http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/oneletterwords/abecedarian?a=fSj3Qzuzsz8:WSvtZj0qupE:cGdyc7Q-1BI http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/oneletterwords/abecedarian?a=fSj3Qzuzsz8:WSvtZj0qupE:QXVau8BzmBE -
St John's Evil Twin (stjohn@mulligrubs.me)'s status on Thursday, 23-Nov-2017 11:48:37 EST
St John's Evil Twin
Brain: Why don't you post something on the one day of the year no-one will be online.
Me: YES.
I did a thing! Went round photographing stone animals in San Francisco. Full blog post here (Stone Wildlife of San Francisco https://www.fuzzjunket.com/stone-wildlife-of-san-francisco/), but here were some of my favorites.
https://mulligrubs.me/photos/stjohn/image/842e3a93d4581c14e20d7c06c328d967
https://mulligrubs.me/photos/stjohn/image/e12c6e1ca0117433da7a49a16d50e56f
https://mulligrubs.me/photos/stjohn/image/e946cd514298759d24fe785d3152f28d
https://mulligrubs.me/photos/stjohn/image/b3466bc4c129c0cc5899dfa5d5df1af3
#photography #filmphotography #SanFrancisco -
St John's Evil Twin (stjohn@mulligrubs.me)'s status on Thursday, 23-Nov-2017 10:09:19 EST
St John's Evil Twin
@Morgan I think it's inevitable at this point. We've defended net neutrality again and again, but there's too much money in it for corporations to let it go. I'm with you. Let 'em turn the Internet into a swamp — I want to see what comes next. -
St John's Evil Twin (stjohn@mulligrubs.me)'s status on Sunday, 19-Nov-2017 12:03:11 EST
St John's Evil Twin
@Are0h That uh, that got a bit personal there. I wasn't having a go at you, and there was no need to take the "if you don't like it here then go home" attitude. -
St John's Evil Twin (stjohn@mulligrubs.me)'s status on Sunday, 19-Nov-2017 11:47:25 EST
St John's Evil Twin
@Are0h Then I think it comes down to a personal preference. I wouldn't like to see the legitimate web apps disappear, but I would rather that happen than lose my privacy and have my computer constantly hamstrung by loading unnecessary assets.
Painting the situation as a simple choice between the two would be reductive and I'm not attempting to do that — there is a very happy middle ground. The fact is not only that people don't take that middle ground, but it is actually against their interests to do so because of the advertising and data-mining revenue they (or the company hosting their site) would lose. Google, Twitter, and Facebook would never build a better site because of the enormous amount of money it would lose them. -
St John's Evil Twin (stjohn@mulligrubs.me)'s status on Sunday, 19-Nov-2017 11:22:01 EST
St John's Evil Twin
@Are0h I wouldn't advocate getting rid of all web apps. Web apps are wonderful, where appropriate, but they're wildly overused and unnecessary most of the time. You can try an experiment — switch off JS in your browser and see how many sites still work. You'd be amazed at the number of articles and blog posts that just never load.
Why can't I read a simple article or blog post without running someone's code? *That* is something that really should be as simple as serving up documents, but all of a sudden I have to run a whole in-browser application just to read what's basically text. -
Bob Mottram (bob@social.freedombone.net)'s status on Sunday, 19-Nov-2017 09:59:28 EST 
Bob Mottram
What About The Rights of the Next Generation? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gcukVYGm5mg -
St John's Evil Twin (stjohn@mulligrubs.me)'s status on Sunday, 19-Nov-2017 11:12:53 EST
St John's Evil Twin
@Are0h I've definitely gone the other way, not so much in terms of tools but in terms of the design of my personal sites. I keep asking what else I can take away. So far I've got rid of all the JavaScript and embedded fonts. I even ported my site to Gopher just for the fun of it, and man would I love to see the Web lose all of the overcomplicated cruft and just serve up documents again. I don't want to be a user, I just want to be a reader. -
St John's Evil Twin (stjohn@mulligrubs.me)'s status on Saturday, 18-Nov-2017 18:14:50 EST
St John's Evil Twin
"Stop Eating Animals"
https://mulligrubs.me/photos/stjohn/image/df2c0e3dc5dbdfbfa01bed5f03ecf5fb
#photography #filmphotography #Berkeley
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