SansFin

> {quote:title=Hibi wrote:}{quote} > I guess the railway gets a lot of usage during those periods. Are you from there? The tram is always much used. The Soviet did not encourage ownership of private cars and tramways were built to compensate for their lack. Many people can not justify a car even today. Odessa was always my home. We moved to Russia for my father's work when I was a child and we moved back as quickly as we could. I was stationed in many places when I was in the military and I returned at every opportunity.

> {quote:title=fxreyman wrote:}{quote} > Sans provided proof that TCM has always showed more older films than newer films. He ... His count ... I know I am not a typical American girly-girl and yet it should be "she" and "her". > As far as Coca Cola is concerned, they did change it's branding after many years. ??The Real Thing?: Nominal Price Rigidity of the Nickel Coke, 1886-1959?, Daniel Levy and Andrew Young, Journal of Money, Credit and Banking (2004) underscores how the world is changing. What remained constant for seventy years now undergoes weekly changes. How can we expect any thing to remain the same when Coca-Cola does not? What were your comments on thread-drift?

> {quote:title=TCMfan23 wrote:}{quote} > A few days ago , i came on here to tell you my concerns and asked your thoughts on my ideas. Suddenly , i'm flamed with disagreements. The problem with people these days is no one can agree with anything. People aren't respected for what they think. You talk with anyone without having a fight or a arguement. I sincerely hope that my posts did not give the impression that I was being argumentative or putting-you-down. I did not mean them in that way. There have been many posts on this same subject since I have come to this forum. I did not consider most of them worthy of comment. I choose to comment in this thread as you are a new poster and I hope you can become a valued member of this forum. My only hope was to provide you with a new perspective and to provide that as objectively as possible. Is TCM the same as it was fifteen years ago? I believe it is not. Television stations must evolve to meet the changing needs and desires of its viewers. I am reminded of an old saying: even if you are on the right road - you will be run over if you just sit there. I believe a considerable amount of the perception that TCM is airing newer movies is that they are maintaining an average in the age of the movies they chose. By that I mean that five years ago the scheduled movies averaged x+ years old and now they are x plus 5+ years old. A new viewer could easily overlook the movies which they knew from recent sources. As time passes and the average year date of the movies increases the number of movies remembered from such sources also increases even though those movies were on those sources many years ago. -I will appreciate any person who understands this paragraph will translate it into a more understandable form.- I believe another possible reason for the perception is the interstitials. I have seen recordings of those from ten years ago. They were less garish and trendy than they are now. They felt as if they fit into the mood of a gentler time which the movies personified. Those today feel more suited to MTV. The impression that you have been ripped out of the past and dumped into a dystopian future remains with you when you use the time to check what is scheduled later in the day and your subliminal dissatisfaction taints how you analyze the schedule. I hope you will not judge the people on this forum by any comments in this thread and I hope you will understand that many people here have become sensitized to posters whose first post is a complaint. There have been many such over the years.

"What my mother believed about cooking is that if you worked hard and prospered, someone else would do it for you". Nora Ephron

"When a man is wrong and won't admit it, he always gets angry". Thomas Chandler Haliburton. Canadian Jurist. (1796-1865)

> {quote:title=MissGoddess wrote:}{quote} > I laughed so hard at how she literally drank Rock under the table, and the next day he said even his hair hurt. I laugh each time when he says what a party girl she would make in Moscow!

> {quote:title=Hibi wrote:}{quote} > Does it snow in Odessa? Or is it too warm? I'd hate to be on shoveling detail for those........ The snow is most usually light. In March there may be two inches on the ground which has not melted. It is bad when there is a great amount of snow because it is unusual and there are no preparations. This is Arkadia beach which is very popular during the summer: This is typical: This is less typical: http://youtu.be/twTPEyyzN58 This is an inane video for it is the same image for fifteen minutes. It is the only image I can find with snow on the steps:

> {quote:title=Hibi wrote:}{quote} > One gets tired just looking at them (LOL)....... There is a funicular. I thank you, FredCDobbs, for posting that picture and video. All that I could find were stills of low contrast or limited view.

> {quote:title=TCMfan23 wrote:}{quote} > It wasn't until around 2004 / 2005 did TCM start showing 70's movies. I am sorry to say that you are mistaken in your belief. The schedule for January, 1998 is available online: http://web.archive.org/web/19980131213949/tcm.turner.com/CAL_TXT/9801/02/9801CT.htm It clearly shows that eighteen movies were from the 1970s and four were from the 1980s. I believe the schedule for November, 1995 has been removed online. If my database is correct fully 16% of the movies shown that month were from the 1960s or later.

> {quote:title=Hibi wrote:}{quote} > WOW! Impressive set of stairs....... I believe no photograph can do them justice. They are a thing which must be experienced. I laughed when I heard a line in a movie which was approx.: "I dreamed I died and I had to climb the stairs all the way up to heaven" because that is the feeling one has when standing at the bottom. I searched for an image of them as used in *Battleship Potemkin* (1935). It is sad to say I could not find a good one.

I am very happy that they have scheduled so many series movies. There are also many nice little treats scattered through the month. I see that their description for *The Saint in London* (1939) is wrong.

> {quote:title=aimalac wrote:}{quote} > I for one was quite impressed by SansFin's detective work tracking down that old schedule and the comparison with the most current schedule. I found the numbers to be quite enlightening. I thank you for those kind words. I am not deserving of the majority of the credit. Capuchin hunted old schedules available online in order to facilitate his creation of entries for the unofficial TCM Programmer's Challenges. He also created a method to translate the most vital information into a database which may be searched by many methods. I only choose the two schedules, sorted them by year and changed the list number of the movies to correspond with the change of years. I believe I spent less than half an hour because of these tools which are available to me.

I am sure many here may be tired of my enthusiasm for Odessa. I will end with the thought that I know of no other city where a public stairway has been immortalized in movie and myth. The Potemkin Stairs: More information about the stairs is at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potemkin_Stairs

> {quote:title=FredCDobbs wrote:}{quote} > These documentary and history channels now just put a couple of guys in a boat, or a car, or a truck, and they talk for an hour about fishing or driving on a bad road. I have read that both the History Channel and its sister station had a period of time when it looked as if they would not survive. Quality documentaries have high prices and few people want to watch them. It was a choice of whether the stations would become a shadow of their former selves or would disappear forever. The former course was chosen. Programs which "are for the public good" even when few people will watch them is why you have the PBS system.

> {quote:title=ugaarte wrote:}{quote} > what a Beautiful Structure that was of the Cathedral that has since, been torn down . . . how sad. I hope it will make you less sad to know that the picture I posted is of the Cathedral rebuilt. The "Orthodox Black Sea Fund" was established to rebuild it after Ukraine became an independent country again. I believe it was finished in 2010. I have not seen it since work began on the bell tower. This is how it once looked:

The earliest TCM schedule I can find online is for January, 1998 at: http://web.archive.org/web/19980131213949/tcm.turner.com/CAL_TXT/9801/02/9801CT.htm There were 379 movies and 34 scheduled specials ranging from *MGM Parade Show#6* (1955) to *Festival of Shorts* (1998). The oldest movie was *Male and Female* (1919) which was 79 years old. The newest movie was *Marie: A True Story* (1998) with Sissy Spacek which was 10 years old. Per a fast-and-dirty sorting: 1 movie of pre-1920s. 11 movies of the 1920s. 121 movies of the 1930s. 101 movies of the 1940s. 72 movies of the 1950s. 51 movies of the 1960s. 18 movies of the 1970s. 4 movies of the 1980s. The April, 2012 schedule is at: http://www.tcm.com/schedule/monthly.html There are 444 movies and 15 scheduled specials ranging from *MGM Parade Show#9* (1955) to *Peter O'Toole: Live from the TCM Classic Film Festival* (2012) The oldest movie is *A Modern Musketeer* (1917) which is 95 years old. The newest movie is *Freaked* (1993) which is 19 years old. Per a fast-and-dirty sorting: 3 movies of pre-1920s. 20 movies of the 1920s. 92 movies of the 1930s. 89 movies of the 1940s. 108 movies of the 1950s. 109 movies of the 1960s. 17 movies of the 1970s. 4 movies of the 1980s. 2 movies of the 1990s. The percentage breakdowns are: 1998: 98.6% of movies were more than 20 years old. (374) 2012: 99.7% of movies are more than 20 years old. (443) 1998: 92.6% of movies were more than 30 years old. (351) 2012: 98.8% of movies are more than 30 years old. (439) 1998: 80.2% of movies were more than 40 years old. (304) 2012: 95.9% of movies are more than 40 years old. (439) 1998: 58.5% of movies were more than 50 years old. (222) 2012: 79.0% of movies are more than 50 years old. (351) For April, 2012 TCM is airing more movies and older movies than they did in January, 1998.

> {quote:title=MissGoddess wrote:}{quote} > Ah! Prosit! A bottle of 26K (or is that 26,000 proof??) Bud'mo! I like my vodka as I like my men: strong and peppery and I do not think I could drink 26,000 proof! I believe that looking at the bottle would make you intoxicated!

> {quote:title=willbefree25 wrote:}{quote} >> They are required by law to listen to programming suggestions > I did not know that! Wow, they must really hate me, because I asked why I don't have WETA-UK of three, count 'em, three PBS stations, and none have answered me. That makes me special, doesn't it? I believe the law requires them to log all viewer contact and to consider the most-often suggested suggestions. I believe it does not require them to respond or to implement those suggestions. > I had fish as a kid and used to come home to find them on the floor - my fish committed suicide, what does *that* tell you? I know a person who claims his pet clam ran away from home.

I wish to thank all who have posted pictures or a song to this thread. I know few areas here well and I find it inspiring that there is much to see in many places.

I should state as a matter of full disclosure that I prefer "manly-men" also because of a sentiment best expressed in: http://www.gocomics.com/cestlavie/2004/01/24

> {quote:title=Lori3 wrote:}{quote} > I never have liked my men (My men, I sound like Mae West) sorry. I have never found the "pretty boy" look or too beautiful of a man to be all that attractive. A man who is delicately finely-featured makes me wonder if he has a boyfriend. > I like a man to look like a man who has a handsome face yes, but who face also says, "I have taken all the world has heaved at me, and I am still standing strong." I share your sentiment. A man's face should be intense and it should say: "I have seen life". I believe it should also be a warning that little girls who play with fire can have their hearts broken.

I find that Gary Merrill has nothing worth looking at from the neck up at the best of times. His face always seems like a blob to me. Unshavenliness is a slight advantage as it hides his pasty skin. I truly wish *Another Man's Poison* had been a pairing of Bette Davis and Humphrey Bogart. I love the movie as it is for only her performance.

> {quote:title=willbefree25 wrote:}{quote} > Well, I hope never to see that picture of Connery again with his, um, plaids. Are you referring to the picture I posted in another thread on this topic, sir? Why is it considered appropriate to portray women's amplitudes in any place and at any time when even the smallest portrayal of a man's longitude is considered offensive?

> {quote:title=willbefree25 wrote:}{quote} >> I believe many people would be willing to pay for such premium channels. > I already pay enough and wouldn't pay more, The average viewer is paying less than three dollars a year to TCM. >> TCM programming is first and foremost a business decision and we must respect that they are providing the best they can as it is in their best interest to do so. > No they're not. They're providing only just enough within their budget. You are correct, they are first a business. But *respect* them? Hah, I haven't respected anything since I was six years old. I believe the channel would have been dead within a year if the new owners had decreed 'just-enough-to-get-by' programming. I did not mean 'respect' as is: esteem, admire or show reverence. I meant it as: acknowledge that they are within their rights and there is not a thing we can do about it. >> Any person who wishes programming decisions to be based on other criteria should petition their local PBS station as they are the charity broadcasters. > Not really. The PBS stations don't listen anymore than Time Warner does. PBS has a mandate to accommodate the public. They are required by law to listen to programming suggestions which is more than is required of any commercial broadcaster. > So it is healthy to vent here. If not here, where? Goldfish. A scientific study has shown that yelling at pet fish has a more therapeutic effect than writing a letter. I believe it is because at the end you are distracted by their serenity and when you are finished with a letter you retain a level of frustration for you know that it will do no good. This is understood to be in the absence of readily available windmills.

> {quote:title=Bronxgirl48 wrote:}{quote} > I could love a man like that, even with the dust of 3,000 years all over him. I am reminded that bottles of fine wine are always covered with dust. It has been wisely said that men are like grapes: you must stomp on them and then keep them in the dark for a long time before they are suitable to have with dinner.