earthquake

As it turns out, and as I had anticipated, my mother, her boyfriend, and my grandparents all had no recollection of seeing the movie.  My family has never been terribly into television or movies.  Anyway, I called my aunt and uncle, thinking perhaps I would have more luck there.  Neither remembered the movie that well...they blamed it on something like a lot of pot smoking happening in the seventies...dead brain cells...being in college...that sort of thing.  At first, my aunt thought she remembered the earthquake of 72, when her brother, who lived in San Francisco, was visiting her.  They were watching a Phillies game and the earthquake struck, the news of which interrupted the game, and memories of seeing a bridge out and cars driving off the edge...something about a cow.  Anyway, as my uncle corrected, she was actually remembering the earthquake of 89, and the cow was in a wildfire, not the earthquake.  So I really have nothing to say about the film itself, except that over the course of 40 years, memories certainly do fade.

early film

Abel Gance was an actor in the early 1900s, and later became a director.  He made several films throughout his career, but only a few were taken seriously.  He had a reputation for being an extreme experimentalist, and many of his techniques would become staples in the industry.  His epic film Napoleon is his most notable accomplishment, considered a complete compilation of silent movie techniques, new and old.  He employed  close-ups and tracking shots (sometimes he mounted cameras onto horses or swings), and even shot some scenes in color, though these were omitted from the final version because he felt it might distract the audience.  It would be at least a decade before color films rose to popularity.  The most incredible feature about Napoleon was the way it was projected.  He created a panoramic view by using three screens and three projectors to show the film.  This technique would become extremely popular during the 1950s.
As a magician, Georges Melies was interested in special effects and camera tricks.  He liked to make objects appear and disappear, transform and morph.  Aside from pioneering many special effect techniques, Melies was the first to film fiction, rather than simply capture real life.  He is credited with the discovery of slow motion, fade-out and double exposure, among others that are standard in film today.  Something I found interesting was that by 1915, competition in the industry he had created destroyed his company and film career until 1930, when his films unexpectedly came into the light again, and he was given due credit for his work.

jazz, blackface, and the stock market crash

What an exciting assignment, to research the origin of the word jazz.  I love both words and jazz,  and never thought about the origin of the word jazz itself, really had no idea what it was.  A truly fascinating summary can be found here: http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-jaz1.htm, but to pick out the high points in my own voice, basically the first use of the word jazz (as is the case with a lot of slang) is quite debatable.  Rumors lie anywhere from a nickname for any of a slew of particular musicians named Jasper, Chas, Jasbo, and Mr. Razz, to a term in baseball that refers to a player's pep.  Within websites across the internet, different origins are speculated, but most reference the first printed use of the word in The San Francisco Bulletin in 1913 in an article about baseball, and in particular, ET Gleeson.  Basically, jazz began as a blanket term for vigor, spirit, vitality, energy, and on and on in that vein.  I guess it was like that word you search for when you lose your vocabulary in the midst of a conversation.

I really prefer not to comment in depth about blackface.  It's something I've studied before (2  years at Temple University; they require "race" classes), and something that can obviously be a sensitive topic.  At any rate, I feel that blackface is truly one of those "period" things, albeit a rather extensive period of time.  That is, it certainly fits the era in which it was not only acceptable, but quite popular.  In our modern time of equality and sensitivity, such behavior would not likely be tolerated, were it not appropriately in jest...although I guess in a way, that's exactly what it was in it's heyday.  I found interesting that virtually all of my research turned up information that was extremely impersonal, just recalling facts with no emotion.

Moving on...the stock market crash of 1929.  There's one of those things I've heard about forever, but don't really know a whole lot about.  In fact, I don't really know much about the stock market at all, so this was interesting research considering we are in the midst of an economic downslide.  As far as causes go, from what I understand (which is not much), the stock market had been growing in popularity in the years leading up to 1929, and people saw it as a good way to make money rather easily.  So because more people were buying stocks, stock prices were going up, and that made it look like it was a good investment, so even more people jumped in on the action.  But then, too many people were buying stock all at once and the market grew confused, or something.  Somehow, in a way that doesn't really make sense to me, stock prices went down, or maybe were lower than they were supposed to be, and people were scared and started selling their stocks.  Then a bunch of bank guys tried to fix it, so they poured a bunch of money into the market, but it wasn't enough to stop the decline.  And then everything went to shit, from what I understand, for a good ten years.  Ah, economic crisis....and something about history repeating itself.  Or is it not repeating itself.  I liked thinking about jazz better than thinking about this.

Madama Butterfly

I came across this fantastic adaptation of Madama Butterfly (Aria).  It is a short stop motion animation, and needs to be seen! It is amazing!  Go to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E387c5RAhK4&feature=related 

I must say, I am loving this opera thing.  It's something I never paid any attention to before, so I am excited to indulge in something new.  I suppose I could do without so much shrill singing at one time, but I am thoroughly enjoying this immersion into a different sort of culture.  And, despite the warning about length, I absolutely adore Wagner as a composer, and would love to watch one of his operas start to finish.