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James Hamilton, M. D.

John Maxwell

Mark Schweickart

Jack-- I was busy typing what is addressed to Dave below when your Musings popped up on the site before I finished. So these comments below are going to seem totally irrelevant to your post. Sorry about that. Maybe a simple forefinger bbbb in agreement is all I can offer.

Dave -- There was a temptation to load up the song with a lot more random Civil War photos because they are so powerful, but I chose not to do this in order to stay focused on the young man telling his story, and his object of affection. I don't know how well one's attention stays focused on what the song is saying if the story within chosen photos becomes too overpowering -- and they will, as Jim attest to.  That is why I waited until the musical break before showing a few of the Brady photos you mentioned.

I shared this next song below with Donna awhile back, since she is our resident expert on Spain, and had herself lived for a time under the Franco repression. As I recall, she seemd to like it. Its focus is the murder of the poet Frederico Garcia Lorca at the start of the Spinish Civil War, and the subsequent emotional toll on the country from living under 40 years of Franco. It is written from the point of view of someone reflecting on things during that last year of Franco's rule. Yesterday I went looking for some still images to enhance it, and had a similar problem as with the Another Yankee Soldier song-- that is, wanting to keep the audience focused on what is being said in the song, and not overload it with random images of the Spanish Civil War and its aftermath. The downside is that one may feel bored holding on an image for 20 or 30 seconds when we are more used to 5 or 10 seconds at most. But holding longer I think forces one to listen more, and since I am more interested in the song's message, I took this approach.

James Hamilton, M. D.

Janie Albright (Blank)

There are some interesting drone photos of Columbus and surrounding areas in today’s Dispatch. http://www.dispatch.com/photogallery/OH/20180716/PHOTOGALLERY/716009997/PH/1/?start=2

Kathleen Wintering (Nagy)

We sold chocolate turtles, didn`t we, to get the money for that beautiful floor? I remember one of my brothers( John) sold a huge number.And then we had to go out again and get the money for the nails if I remember right? I can remember Monsignor Spires sending us back out. Kathy Wintering.

David Mitchell

Jack,

Very interesting "Musings". I am a believer to some degree in the influence of the media on us viewers. And some of us are more "impressed" than others. It only takes a few times with our grandkids (or remembering back to our kids) to see how quicly they pick up words, phrases, and songs from their TV and TV commercial viewing. But as much as we saw Cowboy, War, and Detective movies growing up, there is something about today's TV images that I find more disturbing. My three grandkids see a ton of violence, dressed up in a new, fluffier  "uniform". I see them watching very nasty and very angry cartoons with violent ninja warrors and these weird angry unicorns - which seem to be part of a modern cartoon genre that is supposed to be much more "innocent".

Ironically, they see no "Westerns" and have no idea wht "Cowboys and Indians" are. If nothin else, we were getting some sort of hitorial images - Davy Crockett, Daniel Boone, even Rin, Tin, Tin adn the Lone Ranger were mild forms of history. But these kids are seeing more anger and meanwhile have no concept of any of these historical images. I find this really disturbing.  

To go into debat about War is so deep and involving. I would still be on the side of trying to help the oppressed. I guess it's in my DNA. It is so difficult for me to watch the newsreels from Aleppo, or the Sudan, while the "West" sits idly by. I come down on the side that belives some things are worth fighting for. 

I guess it's how that fight is waged where we have gotten into so much trouble.

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Mark,

What an interesting subject - the Spanish Civil War. Part of the legacy of Spanish Kings back through history who abused heir authority and left that culture (and most of Central and South America in a mess of division of Rich and Poor - backed strongly, of course, by the Catholic Church.) One of your slides recalls the permission Franco gave to Hitler to let his (non-existant) Air Force "practice" their bombing skills on defensless innocent Spanish towns. There is a lesser known "indie" film from 1999 called "Butterfly's Tongue" which is a wonderful, tender story set in this chaos in 1936. (I could have sworn it was just "Butterly" when we saw it at the Grandview years ago.)

WARNING: the film has a "way-over-the-top" blatant sex scene that really bothered me. It had nothing to do with the plot and addded absolutely nothing to the story. What it did accomplish was to eliminate any possibilty for me to take my two nieces (about 12 dn 14 at the time) to see a significant piece of histroy done in a very tender story.

Here's the "trailor" from that film. I remember so clearly, the last scene, the sad parting of the two characters of the film, while the town priest stands by on the side of the police!

James Hamilton, M. D.

Intermission: Dinnertime for Dap

 Mom was too tired after a day of foraging to stand up so little Dap had to work harder for dinner.

O.K. now we can get back to the history lessons of some wars and the songs that they inspired (good stuff, Mark!).

(One of the tricks to photographing wildlife is patience. If one waits and observes long enough, something interesting usually happens.)

Jim

David Mitchell

We have mentioned movies several times on this Forum. I just saw a cool post on Facebook from Marry Ann Nolan about one of my (and my dad's) all-time favorite films - "The Quiet Man" with John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara (oh, and little Barry Fitzgerald, who steals many of the scenes he's in). I think it would be fun to go back and ask what were some of your favorite films from our era. Feel free to keep them just within our era, but also anything before or after that brings back some special memory, or has intersting meaning to you. Our time included one of my all-time faves, Laurence of Arabia (Peter O'Toole is about as good as it gets) , To Kill A Mockingbird,  And one I had a very special date for - "Doctor Zivago".

(I'm a big fan of older Black and White classic films with Bette Davis (maybe best ever!), Greer Garson, Peter O'Toole, Humphrey Bogart, Gregory Peck, and that crowd. And Katherine Hepburn is about as good as ever was, and Greer Garson never made a bad picture   --- also love Paul Newman and James Dean in Giant! And I thought ElizabethTaylor was the most gorgeous creature on the planet) - that is until I saw Julie Christie in Dr. Zivago - meoow!) 

I have another personal favorite (in the musical genre) but I am looking for a photo to go with it so I'll wait on that one.

Although it was a year after our gradutation, I still think of "The Graduate" as one of our own special films. And a year later also, I fell in love with "Cool Hand Luke"  which was the subject of much speculation that it was about Christ (including a sermon one Sunday at OLP from Father Fortkamp). I have seen it again lately and found the ending so depressing that I question why I liked it so much. But I still love the first part of the film.

If a movie had some connection with you and a specail "date" or someone connected to our class. Let's hear your memories.

Michael McLeod

Dave:

First - Be nice to talk once I let the Ken Burns Vietnam doc settle in. At the moment I'm just sitting here watching my body vibrate from it. One thing I know right off the bat that I will do is to put Tim OBrien's The Things They Carried on the syllabus of my personal essay writing class.

The first thing that comes to mind about signficant movies is one that I watched with a nun somehow sitting next to me at the Clinton at High St and EN Broadway as a grade schooler. The Ten Commandments. Talk about the fear of God. I'm sure I was an especially good catholic boy for at least the next 24 hours.

David Mitchell

Mike,

Weren't we all, after that? I still can't figure out how Moses' hair turned white so fast? 

There is rumored to be a flaw in the scene where they were all out there by the thousands getting ready to leave Egypt. It was a huge crowd of "extras" and Cecil B. DeMille said they could only afford to do the scene in one "take", so it had to be right. The rumor is that somewhere in that crowd, a guy is selling pop corn, or hot dogs, or something like that.  

Michael McLeod

True story, Dave. DeMille being a stickler for detail, the hot dogs were Hebrew National.

Lawrence Foster

Dave,

Ah, movies!  Over the years I have found that the visual story telling of movies will sometimes take me to the actual books themsevles.  Dr. Zhivago was, and still is, an amazing story.  I think I saw it 2-3 times during the months that it played during senior year.  It might have run at Hunt's Cinestage downtown, does that sound right?  It was such an impressive story for me that I read the novel three times over the next dozen years or so.  The first time I read it I was in the army and one of the fellows asked me about it.  I gave him a 3 or 4 sentence summary and he said he was looking for something better to read.  I just smiled and said one of the other guys had gotten Playboy a couple days before and he went to see if he could borrow it.

Another movie that started me on a series of books by one author was the 1995 BBC production (5 -6 hours) of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice.  Since then I have read all her books and seen many different movie versions of each of them.

But I also like some science fiction and some fantasy fiction.  Dune (1984) was pretty true to the novel even though they had to shorten it.  Others in this genre include The Labyrinth, The Dark Crystal, Lord of the Rings, Hobbit,  and The Narnia movies that I still enjoy watching.

In the 1960s high school days I liked: It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, The Longest Day, My Fair Lady, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.  And of course...West Side Story. 

Trivia Question:  The author of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang is more famous for a series of other books and a particular character in the 1950s-60s that is still being used in movies today.  Like Chitty Chitty Bang Bang the other series sometimes had cars that could convert into boats or submarines and the character had to go on dangerous missons.   The answer will be below.

Sorry I went on so long, but I had fun on this trip down memory lane! 

________________________________

The author of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang is Ian Fleming who created the character James Bond, agent 007.

David Mitchell

Mike,

I could see maybe Oscar Meyer, but surely NOT "Ball Park". That just wouldn't do.

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And Jim,

We're half expectting you to log in here with your comments about "Bambi"

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I just wonder if Tim or Mary Margaret are going to jump into this ???? 

Let me guess,  "Easy Rider" and "Bernadette of Lourdes"?   (Or maybe "Psycho" and Mary Poppins?)

And Mark, I'm betting you've got some obscure little "indie" film to share with us. Please pick something we can understand.

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P.s. I just got a funny email off the Forum from Larry Foster about some shared recollections of that hot British chick in Dr. Zivago. Seems we both share a common reverence for very fine British actresses - - - va va voom!

James Hamilton, M. D.

Dave,

Somehow I thought you might connect me to Bambi!

You mentioned Cool Hand Luke, a true classic. There seemed to be a lot of Southern prison movies and escape from prison movies in the 60's and 70's with actors like Burt Reynolds, Clint Eastwood and even Dustin Hoffman. Thinking of those brought to mind another one of my Appalachian stories. It was certainly not as dramatic but it was about a prisoner and it was set in Appalachia. So I won't give it a catchy title like The Longest Yard or Escape from Alcatraz. I'll just call it:

The Cerumen Caper.

Being the county seat, Pomeroy, Ohio was the home of the Meigs County Jail. It was not unusual for Doc Pickens to make "cell" calls when inmates had medical issues that needed attention. One March morning I went with Doc to the jail to check out a patient with difficulty hearing and some discomfort in his ear. There was only a single cell with several men occuping it. Doc asked for the man with the ear problem to step forward. One of them walked over and pressed his affected ear between the bars. An examination easily revealed that he had a cerumen impaction - a hardened, dried out wad of wax totally occluding his ear canal. Not having softening solution or a cerumen spoon available, Doc told the deputy to transport the man to his office later that day.

About mid-afternoon an officer and the prisoner arrived and the patient was escorted to an exam room while the deputy had a seat in the waiting room. It took a fair amount of time and digging but finally the impaction was able to be removed.

When we took the inmate back to the waiting area the deputy had departed, apparently on another call. He had left word with Doc's clerk that we should take the man back to the jail. (Remember, this is small town America - where is Barney Fife when you need him?!!) Since the office was full of patients, Doc gave me the keys to his Cadillac and tasked me with that mission.

Oh, did I mention that the inmate was not handcuffed?

We got inside the car and I drove out of the parking lot. At that point I realized that I did not know how to get to the jail. I looked at the man and said "Uh...which way is the jail?" "Go up to the next block and turn left", he replied.

By now a number of thoughts were going through my head and all of them were bad. "Is he going to lead me to some out-of-the-way place, jump out of the car and escape? Or maybe attack me and steal the Caddy? Or even try to kill me? I don't even know what crime he committed to land him in jail! Should I dare ask him? Is he going to take me to some destination where he has a gang of thugs waiting to spring him?"

He continued to direct me - "Straight here ... turn right up there..." etc., etc.

To my surprise and delight we did arrive at the jail. I walked him up to the main window inside the building and stated that I was returning the patient - er, I mean prisoner - as instructed.

He thanked me for the care we had given him. I breathed a sigh of relief and returned to the office. This time I remembered the way.

As I said, small town.

Jim

David Mitchell

Jim,

Now THAT  is a movie! 

Donna Kelley (Velazquez)

Jim, your story of Pomeroy, Ohio has rung a very distant bell. 

One of my uncles was a Protestant Minister who  served as a Navy Chaplain for decades. Early on in his ministry though he was sent to Pomeroy, O where he and his wife were quickly exposed to the charms of small town living. One evening there was angry knocking at their front door so my Uncle Roy went to see what the commotion was about.  Mrs. Jones, in her late 80s, was so livid she could hardly get the words out.  She sputtered on about seeing her husband's car yet again parked in front of that hussy Widow Smith's house and that he, Rev. Osborn had to do something about it.  Rather taken aback he promised to have a chat with Mr. Jones (90 yrs old).  After closing the door he turned to find my Aunt Eileen listening from the dining room. When he asked "What do you think of that?" Her quick reply was, "Very encouraging!"

Mark Schweickart

Donna -- Great story. Although I think it needs this added after the last line:

Dave -- re: Favorite movie topic -- my all time favorite is one that ironically after seeing it the first time I remember saying to myself, "I think that was the best film I have ever seen, and I definitely never want to see it again." I am, of course, referring to The Deerhunter. However, over the years I have seen it a couple of times because I got a little obsessed with how (in my humble opionion) the storm of controvery it provoked was coming from the fact that so many viewers were entirely missing the point of the film. Not too long ago, I wrote out my analysis of the film to see if I could adequately present my argument as to how to properly understand this movie that was simultaneously violently reviled and most honored (best picture 1978). My essay (about six pages) is too long to post here, so let me know if you interested (or anyone else out there) and I will email you a copy. On a lighter note, best comedy ever-- Monty Python and the Holy Grail, best musical--a tie between My Fair Lady and Singing in the Rain. Second best drama after The Deerhunter, Warren Beatty's Reds. On a more recent note--how ridiculous was it that Ken Burns' Vietnam was  snubbed by the Emmys this year, not even nominated for "Best Documentary or Non-Fiction Series." Absurd. I think the only explanation is that 1) it was so long that most Emmy voters were too lazy to watch it, and 2) it  may have been too painful to watch for many viewers. I know I gave up twice, before buckling down to finish it. So glad I did though. It was an extraordinary achievement.

James Hamilton, M. D.

Michael McLeod

Alfred Hitchcock got to me early. Not Psycho. Vertigo. I'm pretty sure I saw that first at the Clinton, too. 

David Mitchell

Mike,

I think film critics have gotten on the bandwagon with you and are now caling Verigo the best film of all time, in place of Citizen Cane, which I still find one of the most boring films ever. A little fun note on Psycho; we were visiting my dad's younger brother in L.A. in the summer of '57. We did the usual rounds, like Disneyland and Knott's Berry Farm. We aslo went to one of the big movie studios. Uncle Herb took my two older sisters into one of the actors dinning facilities and tehy met Tony Perkins in person. This was before Psycho was made but they knew him from movie magazines - remember those ladies?

They also met Cecille B. DeMille and another famous person - I forget who.

Mark,

You really struck a nerve with me!  The Deer Hunter was first Vietnam film I would allow myself to go see. I had avoided them for years. I loved and hated it - both!  It shocked me out of a nine-year peacefful "coma" and began about 30 years of my emotional "issues". Mary and I sat in the car in the parking lot in Denver after the film and I had a sort of emotional "event". I have been drawn to the three actors for years. John Savage sort of disappeared, but Walken and DeNiro still affect me greatly.

* Send me your essay.

I also loved "In The Heat of the Night". I thought the "chemistry" between Siney Poirtier and Rod Steiger was magic!

 "They call me Mister Tibbs!"

Peggy Southworth (Townley)

Mark - I would very much like to read the essay on The Deerhunter.  My email is peffjeggyt@yahoo.com

Thanks!

Peggy Southworth (Townley)

Dave - yes I remember movie magazines!  My grandmother had a little side table and lamp by her well-stuffed easy chair.  The table contained all the latest movie magazines - and a tiny bottle of smelling salts!

David Mitchell

Peggy, 

I was hoping this topic would attract more of the ladies. Any favorite movie(s)?  Or Actor/Actresses?

Peggy Southworth (Townley)

Dave - I do lean somewhat toward WWII films.  I love Schindler’s List, for example.  There are a few actors I prefer. Like you, Christopher Walken is one.  Also like Denzel Washington, Cate Blanchett, Morgan Freeman, and Robert Duvall.   Lonesome Dove and Dances With Wolves are two films I can (and do) watch over and over.   My husband and I had a beloved dog we named Woodrow- after Woodrow Call!