Tuesday, March 12, 2019

They Don't Make 'Em Like They Used To

It has been a strange day.  It is overcast and dismal here, so unlike yesterday when the world was sunny and brilliant blue, today is a day for indoors.

So I got my cup of coffee this morning and checked out the internet.  I clicked on a link - The Archive, and, through there went to this story about "Mad Jack" Churchill, which instantly intrigued me.  I began to see if there were any life stories about him.  You see, he captured 42 Germans in WWII with a broadsword.  You read that right, and if you click the link above you can read the story for yourself.  Then I went to Wikipedia - and I began to read his life story, but stopped as soon as I saw that "Mad Jack" Churchill, in 1924, had a bit part in the silent film, "The Thief of Baghdad."

So after I read that "Mad Jack" Churchill had also been a male model when he was young and needed to see photos of said model:

I wondered about the last name.  There is a far more famous Churchill (Winston, of course), which, it turns out, WAS NOT Jack's brother. The picture above certainly shows a better looking man than Winston's brother Jack (yes, Winston had a younger brother, Jack)!  I will definitely be doing more research on Jack Churchill (not Winston's brother), including trying to find books about him, internet articles, etc.

The real reason for this post today?  Well, the title tells you a little.  Since Jack had a bit part in the silent film, "The Thief of Baghdad", I wanted to watch the movie to see if I could find him;  to see if his part was not so tiny as to be unidentifiable.  For me, it was.  For a true researcher, with untold hours and a huge screen, perhaps they could find him. 

In any case, the FABULOUS film, "The Thief of Baghdad", distracted me enough for me to watch it's entire 2 hours and 28 minutes.  That is what "they don't make like they used to" - films.  Well, perhaps they do sometimes, but usually it is a foreign film, or an indie film, not popular and not well known.  "The Thief of Baghdad" was a blockbuster in it's time and evidently, the favorite movie of it's star, Douglas Fairbanks.

Watch the trailer above to see what I am rhapsodizing about.

The film is magic.  Douglas Fairbanks is magic.  The epic size of the sets are over the top and remind me of the flights of imagination I experienced while being read to as a child.  They are luminous, impressive, wonderful.

And yes, there are special effects.  And I loved them.  Douglas Fairbanks has to charge through fire, ride a magic white horse through the sky and, the best, at the end, ride the Magic Carpet through the city of Baghdad and off to the sunset with his love, the Princess.  The monsters that Fairbanks has to kill are pretty convincing for 1924, and I love his invisibility cloak.

The music in the background, as for all silent films, sets the mood for each scene.  The magnificent music of "Scheherazade"  by Rimsky-Korsikov is the basis of the sound track, which adds to the feeling of a lovely, exciting and above all, wildly romantic story.

I had read that Douglas Fairbanks was quite the swashbuckler, kept himself in shape and loved to do his own stunts, but I had never watched one of his films.  His acting was transcendent.  Yes, one must overact in silent films, but it made the entire presentation a ballet.  His grace, his movements were so fluid.  The underwater scene is not done closeup like the special effects in modern films, but it is from a distance so that you see the entire set and all the many actors on all their levels, as the Thief swims to his destiny.  It is enchanting and I found myself wondering how they did that particular part.

I got tears in my eyes when the Thief first meets the Princess and he realizes he cannot be carefree anymore.  I laughed when the princess wakes from her death, and about four dancing girls appear next to her bed in belly dancer array, smiling and waving their hands.  The actors' faces were so emotive and at the same time subtle.

I have to admit I love silent films.  They embody a type of story telling that no longer exists, a mime almost by the actors to get the pathos of the story across.  The days of huge stage sets and sets being built out in the California countryside, along with thousands and thousands of extras are rare, if not passed completely.  I encourage you to watch "The Thief of Baghdad", any Charlie Chaplin silent film you can, and study the look of the women, their hair, their radiance;  the men, the look of bygone days.  I can't do these experiences justice.  They open a door to a world long past, they are as relevant today, if not more, than ever.  

In our world today, weary with evil, death and human misery, we need beauty, magic, a story well told with a brilliant ending.  We don't need to be reminded that life is blood and guts and no one gets out alive, although there is a place for truth telling in films absolutely. 

If you long for beauty, magic and goodness, then watch this film in its' entirety - take an afternoon to be carried away to a wonderful land.

I'll be back after I find out more about the original point of my searches today - "Mad Jack" Churchill.

Saturday, March 9, 2019

Discouragement Undone

Since moving to a northern climate after almost 40 years in a tropical one, I have enjoyed a lot of the cold, but I have had a good dose of SADD this past winter.  I am listless, just don't care about household tasks, and the world outside my window continues to look bleaker and more dark every day, between the actual dreary, leafless, brown weather and the actual state of the world.

I have always had a fascination for history, for some reason, the particularly violent 20th century histories of WWI, WWII, the Russian Revolution, etc.  I have indulged that fascination and have read countless books, both personal memoirs and standard history books about the above subjects.  All that lead-in to say that the times we are living in look a lot like pre-any of the above.  If I were young, I would rise to the occasion, but I am in my 60's and not the healthiest of people.  I tried becoming somewhat prepared for disaster in Florida when I lived there, but my efforts at gardening were a bust, and I gave up.  

I seem to have an unfortunate bent towards give-up-ness.  I didn't think I was like that, but I surprise myself in a bad way.  I find it hard to really care about anything, and going to sleep at night is my favorite time.  I can put down the unused fighting gloves I've been listlessly waving around and stop pretending and just go to sleep.

This post is not meant to discourage anyone.  On the contrary, I know where my hope lies.  It lies in Jesus Christ and in His Word.  My husband and I have found a wonderful church in Boise, which we could never really claim in Florida.  The pastor/teacher is absolutely teaching the word "line upon line, precept upon precept".  What a blessing that has been for both of us!!

And the point for this post?  Two of my favorite blogs.  The first one, "5 Acres and a Dream" is a preparedness blog, but a very gentle and honest one.  No ads, except for very inexpensive personally publisdhed written material by the blog author herself, and a very realistic picture of what it takes to be self sufficient in these days, at least as much as possible.  She does not paint a picture of impossible to fulfill, 100% freedom from the grid, but a story of their everyday life and best of all, everything she has learned in detail about soil, preparing for weather of various kinds, substitutions for things that might not be purchase-able in the future.  

Today's post was very realistic.  Leigh talks about the "what-if" worst scenario, and recognizes that even in a world where one is prepared, if everyone else is hungry and hasn't a clue how to take care of themselves, as well as having no sense of morality as in past times of emergency (like the Depression), it is going to be a bad time for everyone, including the prepared.

Make sure you also read the comments to her post for today, Saturday, March 9, 2019.  These are realistic people, who, even so, are not giving up.  Leigh is a Christian as are many of those in "let's get off grid" mode, so what her preparations don't cover, her faith does.

After reading her post, I could only agree with her assessment of the times.....and despair.  That is not Leigh's fault - she is only speaking the truth and continuing on the path she and her husband have chosen.  The despair is my fault, although it is very hard to watch a country that you have loved and enjoyed a wonderful life in, to disintegrate into chaos, hate and violence.   Leigh only speaks the truth, and not in excited "let's fight" language, but in a matter of fact way.  What she describes I have read about in hundreds of books, and the detail I have absorbed doesn't allow my imagination to fool me in any way about the times to which we are headed.

Until I came to my most favorite blog of all, "Coffee Tea Books & Me".  This is a person, Brenda, who, under the burdens of her life, does not give up. Every week she posts on pantry preparation, and not the huge pantry of an "off the grid" person.  She does what she can with what she has, AND, the creme de la creme:  She provides Christian encouragement to her readers, which are numerous, in the form of pointing the way to us who despair, pointing to the Word of God, pointing to Christ.  

So this day that started out so dark for me has been more than salvaged by Brenda's post of today, which reminded me that God has it all under control, including me, and that I need to buck up and get moving no matter how I feel, to do those things I can do today.  I am not to worry about tomorrow, but do what I can today and not allow myself to become discouraged and give up.

Thank you to both of my favorite blogs!! 

Saturday, January 19, 2019

Operation Paperclip by Annie Jacobsen

The book is an extremely well documented story of the US Government recruitment, protection and employment of many documented Nazi SS "scientist" war criminals immediately after WWII.  It is a sordid story in my opinion, and a clue to how desperate the US was to grab as many supposed top scientists from Hitler's destroyed Reich before the Soviet Union could get them.  Of course, "Operation Paperclip", as it was called, was classified information and kept hidden from the public.  To this day, my husband, who is a fan of the Space Race, thinks Werner Von Braun is beyond reproach.

I will be eager to find out about declassification of additional records of Operation Paperclip. The author's coverage is not necessarily in order of occurrence, and seems to jump around alot, which makes it a bit harder to follow. However, the information is so powerful, it doesn't matter.  This is well worth a read to any history buff. 

Having been born in 1956 and brought up in the early 60's, I remember how America was portrayed (and still is for the most part) as the noble fighter against Nazi (and Japanese) atrocities. America was the liberator. I believe the government, ever bigger after WWII, and the new CIA, have sullied the memory of the countless heroic American soldiers who believed they were fighting for true freedom and against evil, and gave their lives for that idea. The Greatest Generation remains just that, but their government betrayed them in the post war Cold War world.

The "scientists" (many of whom were more like mad scientists) who were recruited by the US after WWII from the Nazi ranks were desperate and would say and do anything to save their skins and so they lied constantly, taking advantage of naive and gullible Americans. The surviving scientists of the Hitler regime, many or most having been in the SS (damning enough already), which ran the notorious concentration camps, were desired by a panic stricken US government which, stupidly trusted the Soviets as an ally in WWII. There were at least two great generals that I know of that wanted to stop Communism during and after WWII. One was General Patton, whose death remains very suspicious and who wanted to drive right through Berlin into Eastern Europe and defeat the "Russian bastards." The other was MacArthur, who was removed from power (and was admittedly a brilliant, but odd man) after offering to push through North Korea into China and defeat the Communists, giving Chang Kai-Shek the chance to take over and make China into a Western friendly nation. If these men had been allowed to do the right thing at the right time, in my opinion, perhaps the US would not have sold its' soul and reputation saving Nazi scientists in order to hurry up and fight against our former "ally". I do not know how a different scenario would have worked out, whether the use of nuclear weapons to destroy the Chinese Communists (which is what MacArthur proposed, but then he wanted the US to support Chang Kai-Shek long before the advent of nuclear weapons) would have led to an even more frightening world or not. One thing I do know - there is right and there is wrong. It was wrong to use the services of men who had committed atrocities on human beings just because we allowed ourselves to be lulled by "Uncle Joe" Stalin, as FDR called him.

Here is the link to the book on Amazon - Operation Paperclip by Annie Jacobsen (published in 2014).