Swithin
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Posts posted by Swithin
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I think I agree with some of what everyone of the recent posters has said. But I would like someone (other than myself -- I've done it already) to address the way a slew of photographs can derail a conversation. It happens with some regularity, and I think it has become a problem for me, because a good conversation gets sidetracked by the art show, even when the photos are meant to illustrate the topic.
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I agree with you, and I think I understand your point. One just has to take care, because one person's tangent is another one's logical related segue -- that's the way people communicate. There is too much potential for bullying, if we take this too far and try to control the conversation. If someone posted a thread about the 1949 Little Women, and I responded that I preferred the 1933 version, there would be someone who would say, "Stick to the subject, which is the 1949 version!" You may think I'm exaggerating, but it would happen.
But I meant what I wrote about the photos. I really do feel that conversations get hijacked when (even related) photos are added, and then it becomes a sort of art show, and the discussion is lost.
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But sir -- as I've said to LZ, humor is very subjective. You say you don't like it (humor) here but that you don't care, yet you have "disdain" for it. How can one not like and have disdain for something that one doesn't care about? I find that amusing, and pleasantly so. So thank you.
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Miss W., I think you've hit on an interesting point. I don't always respond to your posts, because I tend to agree with them and generally couldn't phrase the same issue better. I think one tends to respond to posts that one doesn't agree with. Maybe we should keep a better balance, and then the disagreements wouldn't seem so prominent!
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LZ, humor is very subjective. It's hard to generalize about what it is; one needs to be careful.
But for me, the real conversation killer is the use of photos in a thread which is not primarily a photo thread. (Top Billed's character actor thread is, for me, an example of a photo thread where I love to see the photos). But when one is involved in an interesting discussion thread, and suddenly someone posts a whole stream of (usually relevant) photos, which pushes the text to other pages, that is a real problem for me, no matter how lovely and apt the photos/posters are.
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Dr. Vitus Werdegast -- Bela Lugosi in *The Black Cat* (1934)
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I fear that my use of the George Brent metaphor did not have the intended result. I haven't been in that George Brent thread. I mentioned George Brent here as an allusion to his role in *Dark Victory* , where he played a doctor who has a file on Bette Davis, stamped "prognosis negative." I only mentioned the rear end thing in passing, because it seems to be such a popular thread at the moment. But what I was saying was that, despite all these flame throwings, this board will continue to flourish, and that the prognosis is definitely NOT negative.
I had assumed that every classic film fan would get the George Brent/prognosis negative reference without my having to spell out the name of the movie!
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To answer your question, you may a play on "Veni, vidi, vici," a famous quote attributed to Julius Caesar. But I think the "here be dragons" warning should apply, not to levity, but to smugness and excessive self-importance. Those are the attributes that I find most scary and inflammatory.
There's a British expression I like alot: "SOHF." Stands for "Sense of Humour Failure." Too many people (in this world) suffer from that!
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That was very funny, Meingast. I mean the Genghis Khan/Julius Caesar references. But you didn't begin with a "levity alert," so I'll have to report you.
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Since this thread seems to have been hanging around near the top for a while, I looked in. I don't understand the acrimony that crops up from time to time, but I think having no sense of humor is conducive to creating an acrimonious climate. If you take everything SO seriously, you may therefore be too quick to become offended by differening opinions.
I think you should lighten up. You seem to have set yourself up as the judge of what "adds to the discussion" and what is a "non-sequitor." But I think we need to keep in mind that we all have opinions, and that one person's addition to the discussion is another person's "belch." It may be those who don't recognize that who are creating the climate of intolerance that leads to the problems here.
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In one post, you are complaining about PMs; in your most recent post, you seem to want an entire thread to be PM! Perhaps you don't realize that any member of this board has the right to enter any thread at any time, and post a comment. According to the site's rules, of course.
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Looks like Ingrid Bergman.
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I haven't quite grasped this thread, I've just gone through a few posts. Though I am curious as to the various cabals that exist. Kyle, names, please! Whom do you suspect?
LZ, I understand your point. I sometimes get frustrated when a thread gets off the subject. But you use "real life" as an example. A "real-life" conversation doesn't always stay on the straight and narrow of the topic. One thing leads to another, to another, etc., and hopefully it's all in the realm of the general subject.
There are some posters who get nasty, but I think we're very far from the point where George Brent (with or without his rear end) would stamp "prognosis negative" on this site!
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Thanks, good stuff, I hadn't checked the schedule. I see *One More River* is on as well, a very disturbing film. And my favorite film of all time: *Anthony Adverse *as well as another favorite, *Sunrise*.
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Adela Quested -- Judy Davis in A Passage to India
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Maria -- Anita Louise in *Anthony Adverse*
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I agree with you Joel. As a New Yorker, I remember the smell of 9/11. That awful smell of burning that traveled all over the City. All the major networks covered the memorials. Even NBC -- they covered it on MSNBC, all morning on Tuesday. If we need a respite, we need to be able to turn to another channel that we love. And by the way I find it deeply offensive that one poster suggested that TCM should have shown war films!
On 9/11/2001, the networks covered the tragedy. Channel 13, our local PBS station, showed cartoons instead, to try to make children feel comfortable.
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I'm not a big Fields fan, but I love The Old Fashioned Way and Million Dollar Legs. The former mostly for the hilarious "Gathering Up the Shells at the Seashore" scene with Jan Duggan as Cleopatra Pepperday, singing to an exasperated Fields as The Great McGonigle; and the latter for Lyda Roberti at Mata Machree.
Here's Jan Duggan and her song, starts at the six-minute point in this clip:
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Absolutely memorable. Haunting, deeply moving.
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*The Light that Failed* is sort of on YouTube in installments, but that's no way to watch it. It's a somber, beautiful movie, with my favorite opening of all time; and also, in the midst of all the somber-ness, one of the funniest lines in any movie, ever, in a conversation between Walter Huston and Dudley Digges.
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Speaking of Ronald Colman, if I had one film to pick that I would like to see on TCM, it is *The Light that Failed*. I don't think it's ever been on, and it's one of my favorite movies.
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Every other station seems to show Mel Brooks films, I don't need to turn to TCM to see them. The only rarity among Brooks films seems to be my favorite, The Twelve Chairs. Brooks is very much in the public eye, partly because of his continuing work, his theater work, etc. He's well enough covered, IMHO, so that TCM doesn't have to take up space/time with his films. And we could get into the "classic" argument again, but I think the major point is that TCM doesn't need to show films that are readily -- if not constantly -- available on other stations.
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Father Xavier -- Henry O'Neill in *Anthony Adverse* (1936)
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Two charmers on your list: Six of a Kind; and Miss Susie Slagle's. Many more to ad -- of course one can't be sure what has never been shown -- but There's Magic in Music aka The Hard-Boiled Canary is one I'd like to see.
Your Thoughts About Forum Flamewars
in General Discussions
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I see your point. There's a thread around -- I've gone into it a couple of times -- called The Art of Alfred Hitchcock. I fled -- each time I've gone there, it seemed to be a bunch of posters talking about their family problems, personal issues, little to do with Hitchcock, at least during my chance encounters there. That is frustrating, when you have such a great subject.