The Bonus Army

For Memorial Day here is video about the Bonus Army, just to remember that veterans have not always be treated that good by the U.S. Government.

Maryland State Dessert

A video about the Maryland State Dessert, the Smith Island Cake.

Drawing Readers

From the Guardian, a video of illustrator Quentin Blake drawing readers. Blake has illustrated several Roald Dahl books, including Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

Quentin Blake's pen portraits of Hay festival booklovers

The Walter Sondheim Fountain

Below is a video from the Baltimore Sun of the Walter Sondheim Fountain. The fountain, installed at the Inner Harbor for about a year, has become a big success.

[Added 9/24/10: I can tell from the searches that some some people who find this page are looking for the location of the Fountain. It is located at the Baltimore Inner Harbor, between the Baltimore Visitors Center and the Maryland Science Center. The location marked with a black x on the map below.]

The Red Rose Girls - the Musical

There is a Broadway musical in development about the Red Rose Girls. This seems like fodder for a great musical. I just wonder how much of their art work will be incorporated into the show. Here is a video about the Girls that the producers have created.

The Red Rose Girls

Baroness Blixen recites "The King's Letter"

In this two part video, from late in her life, Karen Blixen (Isak Dinesen) tells "The King's Letter", a story published in the book Shadows on the Grass. Here is a 1961 review of that book from Time Magazine.

In addition to being one of the greatest short story writers of all time, she was probably the last living writer with premodern sensibilities. Living until 1962, she was something of an ambassador from the past to the present.

The video starts with a famous photograph from her 1959 trip to the United States. The luncheon pictured was hosted by Carson McCullers so the Baroness could me Marilyn Monroe.

Fran Lebowitz: Reflections on Austen

Reading, Writing and Beatrice & Virgil

An interview with Yann Martel on Q TV. Among other things he discusses Life of Pi and Beatrice & Virgil.

Norman Foster's architecture

From the Guardian a set of pictures of work by the architect, Norman Foster. Included in the set is the picture below of the Robert and Arlene Kogod Courtyard inside the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC. This is one of my favorite spaces in Washington. A great place to go no matter what the weather is like outside.

The art of Norman Foster's architecture

LOC & Twitter

A video from http://www.walletpop.com about the Library of Congress' acquisition of the entire twitterverse.

Leonard Knight & Salvation Mountain

A video about Leonard Knight and Salvation Mountain. Knight is one of the subjects of the film God's Architects which I discussed in one of my previous posts.

Before he had the Mountain, Knight had a hot air balloon with his message on it. That balloon is now in the American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore.

The Godfather

How Andrea Palladio (1508-80) influenced the design of the White House, the New York Stock Exchange, and other American landmarks.

The picture below is one I took of the model of the Supreme Court Building at the National Botanical Garden.

From slate.com a slide show by Witold Rybczynski

Mount St. Helens - 30 Years Later

Mount St. Helens blow up 30 years ago today. Here are some pictures from boston.com.

Mount St. Helens, 30 years ago

History of the Toilet

An extract from Bill Bryson's book At Home: A Short History of Private Life. Here he discusses history of the toilet, staircases and lawns.

Bill Bryson: the history of the toilet

Jones Falls River Valley

Some photographs I took today of the Jones Falls River Valley. This river/stream is the reason that Baltimore is where it is. In the early 1800's mills on the Jones Falls were the largest source of flour in the United States. Toward the middle 1800's the mills shifted to textile production, becoming the largest source of cotton duck in the world. All the mills are now closed, and this is what has been left behind.

All of the pictures are from today, except the first two that show where the Jones Falls empties into the Inner Harbor.

Jones Falls River Valley

Mounted Officers @ the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial

Here are a couple pictures I took this evening at the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial in DC. There was a big memorial service tonight for National Police Week.

National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial - 5/13/2010

Van Gogh in Polo

Self portrait of Vincent Van Gogh in 2070 Polo Shirts.

Grand Illusion

A.O. Scott's review of the 1937 Jean Renoir film, Grand Illusion. I saw this several years ago in the theater, but I might have to get it again from Netflix.

Night Catches Us & Chang

Last night I did get in to see Night Catches Us. I had of video with the writer/director of this movie in my post yesterday. I went to see the movie because Anthony Mackie from The Hurt Locker was in it. So is Kerry Washington. It is set in Philadelphia 1976, when the Anthony Mackie character returns home after having been away for several years. Both Mackie and Washington's characters were members of the Black Panthers, and the are both dealing with the consequences of what happened when they were members of the group.

There are no weak parts to this movie. The acting is all great, including the young girl who plays Washington's daughter. The cinematography and the sound track also stands out. It is set for theatrical release later this year. My only apprehension is that the pace my be a little slow for a commercially released movie, but we will have to see what happens.

Every year the Film Festival has a silent film with live orchestration by the Alloy Orchestra. This year's film was the 1927 Chang: A Drama of the Wilderness, a movie I had not heard of before. It was made by the same team that created King Kong six years later. Filmed in what is now Thailand, the story depicts a family homesteading in the Jungle, facing all the dangers of the wild, including leopards, tigers and ultimately a large herd of elephants. How could a movie fail if it has cute child and wild animals with all their cute babies.

Here is a clip of the beginning of the film, although I do not think the sound track on this clip is the Alloy Orchestra's. The entire movie is available on Netflix.



I am not going to see anymore films. Instead I have decided to go to Center Stage tonight to see their final performance of Ma Rainey's Black Bottom.

And Everything Is Going Fine

I have seen two more movies today. Mama, a Russian film, about a mother and her morbidly obese son. Each scene was one shot filmed with an unmoving camera, with the characters walking into and out of the scene. Also no dialog. It is an interesting idea, but it did not work.

I also saw And Everything Is Going Fine
, a documentary directed by Steven Soderberg about Spalding Gray. It consists of just footage from Gray's movies, monologues and interviews, cover his life up to about two years before his suicide. No one else appears in the film, except a couple scenes where he is with his father, and some with his children. Gray's widow hosted the film, and answered question after it was over. She said that they started with about 120 hours of film. I mainly went to see the film because it was directed by Soderberg, and he did a great job editing all the original footage down to a coherent film. I think it is to get a theatrical release this fall.

Music by Prudence

I saw two of the movies I said this morning that I was going to see. Night Catches Us was sold out, but I have a ticket now to see it Saturday night. Of the other two I liked God's Architects the best. It covers five different men who are divinely inspired to build or sculpt. All five were incredibly fascinating.

I saw two more movies this evening. James Franco's Saturday Night was a documentary that covers the process of creating an episode of
Saturday Night Live, during a week in December when John Malkovich was host. It was interesting to see the behind the scenes that goes on to creating a show.

These best of the movies I was tonight was the Oscar winning short documentary, Music by Prudence. This is one of those stories that is so compelling that it would be hard to make a bad movie about it. After the movie the main character, Prudence Mabhena, came on stage and sang several songs and answered questions. She has an amazing voice, and was so charismatic. It is hard to image that someone who has been through what she has, could overcome it to achieve what she has. Here is a clip of the director discussing the film.



Here is aa Al Jazeera report on Prudence's return to Zimbabwe after the film won the Oscar.

Maryland Film Festival

The films I am planning to see today at the Maryland Film Festival.

God's Architects



Night Catches Us



General Orders No. 9

The Wedding Horse

Every Thanksgiving Bailey White reads one of her short stories on NPR. This years story, The Wedding Horse, was probably one of her best.

The Wedding Horse

R.I.P. Lynn Redgrave

Lynn Redgrave's death must be hard for Vanessa, to loose her brother, sister and a daughter in a little over a year. The Guardian Film blog has a summary of Lynn Redgrave's career, with clips from some of here movies.

Lynn Redgrave: a life in clips