Friday, February 07, 2025

Post 721 - A Retired Pharmacist Won't Abandon Science or Common Sense

An online posting from a former student set me off a bit...she was thinking how all the recent excisions at a Federal Level recently were a good way to just save some money.  I countered that it was only going to make Russian dictator Putin happy.  She didn't understand why... So...


"In addressing how the complete dissolution of USAID can be something to make the dictator Vladimir Putin happy, we have to cut through the reams of misinformation that is coming from the current white house.  I checked backward from your reposted source - a football coach, I believe (I’m afraid I find most combative athletics only practice for our youth to become cannon-fodder ready, so I don’t really pay attention to them, as you may already know), and from that coach to the 27 year old press secretary -- whose prior experience has been an intern under the first installation of Donald and apparently as the cheerleader to introduce him at rallies, judging how she handles her conferences.  She seems perky, properly scrubbed, and blond enough to provide the expected depth of information one would expect from her, and her recompense of $180K/year (an estimate) certainly can provide enough pin money to supplement her husband’s real estate investments, since he is eligible for social security in just another seven years, if it should exist by that time.

"I scanned the sheet generated for Ms. Leavitt to read outside the white house, and from which Mr. Steele created his online content, and found it a rather twisted collection of misdirections and flat-out lies.  And since she has yet to provide the promised basis for the statements when asked, I can only put her recitation in the same category of Donald’s promise of providing an alternative to the ACA (Affordable Care Act) in “two weeks” – over four years ago.  

"I can tell you that the USAID program provides assistance around the world to areas in crisis, facing devastating illnesses, in a manner that gives the US at least some face-to-face presence where we’re not always expected to be – the agency has been providing HIV-AIDS support where the disease threatens to mutate into less-treatable forms, and has been boot-on-the-ground in Uganda when the latest Ebola strain emerged.   If we weren’t there, the diseases could likely explode, and like the consequences of CoVid-19, we would be left flat-footed and unprepared should the infection make it to the US.

"Speaking of which, the CDC’s China-based monitoring crew was slashed by Donald during his first occupation of the white house, by 2/3.  This didn’t help much with gathering info on the coronavirus strain when it started to appear on the west coast.  Ultimately, it killed my physician in Battle Creek and nearly 300 in my new county of residence.  Misinformation from the white house then didn’t help matters very much.  But I digress.

"When, and not if (as Donald is using his self-created chaos to achieve his personal destructive needs), the USAID is decimated, more people will perish, and someone - dare I say Vladimir Putin? Yes, I dare  - would be thrilled to insert himself to show how he and not the “big bad United States” can help out the third world.  

"In the meanwhile, the CDC and FDA are also being muffled - to the point where my weekly updates on influenza and drug recalls has been eliminated.  So your pharmacists will now have to wait for weeks, perhaps months, for the same information from the drug companies, or the demographics from the WHO (World Health Organization) from whom Donald has also separated us.  You may recall my classroom discussions how the “good old days” of unregulated drugs brought us “Terpin Hydrate with Heroin” and the Sulfanilamide deaths in the 1930s before the FDA was provided with some teeth.  

"And who will benefit from “all this saved money” with the obliteration of drug regulation, food inspections, nursing home monitoring, and water safety programs?  The billionaires.  They’ll get the tax cuts.  We’ll get the luxury of giving our children a future of drinking sludge and breathing soot.

"I’m sorry to be a bit of a downer here - I’d much rather be discussing this monstrously cool dip recipe  using red lentils and tahini, but I am truly concerned that this is all just the tip of a teetering iceberg.  I have family and friends in the LGBTQ community, and I have friends who have become generous and welcoming foster and adoptive parents -- children who may face ICE raids.

"And through it all, I keep hearing the words of a crusading rabbi from Nazareth, who said, “In as much as you did it to one of the least of these, my brethren, you did it to me.”  (His buddy Matt wrote a letter about it someplace.)"  So when I hear statements supporting dismissal of the "least of these," I am hard pressed to categorize them as 'christian.'"




Post 720 - Chatting Among Animators Last Night

And the conversation slipped to humorous matters on February 6:

OK, we got to talking about classic comedians last night at the ASIFA coffee, after musing about "just what isn't funny," and the names Harry Langdon and Pierre Etaix percolated up (and I'm afraid, I was the main instigator).  Langdon has gotten a bum rap in the opinion of yr hmbl typst, perpetuated by Walter Kerr in his otherwise amazing 1970s book, The Silent Clowns.  The lack of access to his films has seemed to support the allegation over the years, but his complete silent output has been made available on DVD, and online.  It proves otherwise.  In fact, I contend he was the silent era's equivalent to Andy Kaufman, because, when left to his own devices, he could be utterly surreal.  It didn't hurt that he was also an accomplished cartoonist.

Pierre Etaix was a writer for the French auteur Jacques Tati (Mon Oncle, Les Vacances de Mssr Hulot, Playtime, Trafic) who was a fierce fan of Keaton and later, of Jerry Lewis (The unfinished Lewis "worst film" of The Day the Clown Cried is floating around in truncated form, but it may have benefited by the addition of Pierre Etaix, if such was a possibility).  Anyway - Etaix's films were self-funded, suffering the fate of those of Tati's - when one of them didn't cover costs, the creditors swept in and took possession of the assets - the films - put up as collateral.  As a result, the Etaix gems, and they truly are gems, were unseen in the US until the last decade.  My widdle head went kerBOOM when I came upon them on Turner Classics, and I immediately ordered the whole set, and then sent Etaix a gushing fan letter - only to have it returned a month later because...he had DIED.  It gave me flashbacks to trying to contact Harold Lloyd as a tween in the early 1970s or Tati as a semi-adult in the 1980s.  Anyway, here are some links to the films associated with this rambling note (thank the coffee, the 20 degrees with 30mph winds outdoors, and a dog not letting me out of her sight until she gets fed for contributing to this extensive bit of typing).  SO - if you're interested, here's a way to kill some time!

Harry Langdon:
Three's a Crowd - 15 minutes in inspired a similar scene in "Seule Tod" by yr hmbl typst - this film has him trying for "pathos" in between moments of nitrate decomposition:
(warning - there is an unfortunate moment of "blackface" amid the ruins of this movie)

The Chaser - 56 minutes into it is the most bizarre "seduction" ever put to film.  This was his final feature for Warner's to be released - they never released his completed feature after this one, and it is now considered among the "lost films."

If you want to see how a career can be demolished by alcohol, check out the 1935 feature from Columbia, Atlantic Adventure.  He plays a reporter's sidekick, "Snappy," and he is impaired on-screen to a greater degree than Barrymore managed in Grand Hotel. 

And now, for Pierre Etaix:
Rupture - 1961 - the consequences of writing to a girlfriend who is no longer friendly - the sounds were recorded in post-production, often provided by Etaix himself because the studio foley man wanted to stick to stock noises.  It's an otherwise silent one-reeler, deliciously fatalistic.

Happy Anniversary - 1962
Reminiscent of One Week, a young married couple is thwarted in their celebration by the lack of parking.

Yoyo - excerpt - 1965

And the infamous The Day the Clown Cried - a 30 minute assembly of clips, uncovered by David Thrasher during the evening's discussions:
 
Harry Langdon Posed in Classic Photo Print (8 x 10)
A still from "Three's Company" - the creative sequence using the doll as surrogate for Langdon is hampered by severe nitrate decomposition, but you get the idea...

Wednesday, February 05, 2025

Post 719 - 2025's IAD Poster Released!



Lucija Mrzljak created this year's IAD Poster.  She is a Croatian animation film director based in Estonia, teaching at the Estonian Academy of Fine Arts.
Since 2016, Lucija directed several acclaimed animated short films, produced at the Eesti Joonisfilm studio in Tallinn and Adriatic Animation studio in Zagreb. Film "Eeva" (2022) premiered at the Berlinale 2023 and went on to be screened and awarded at numerous film festivals, earning a place on the shortlist for the 2024 Academy Awards and Emile Awards for best character and background design.
In addition to her film work, Lucija collaborated with Oscar-winning musician Glen Hansard in 2019, directing the music video for "The Closing Door." In 2024 she worked with a renowned Estonian musician Mari Kalkun directing a music video for her song Maaimä (Mother Earth).
As an illustration artist Lucija has published several children’s books and created posters for many film festivals.

Her project "statement":
"For my ASIFA World Animation Day poster, I embraced a classical approach, working with graphite and colour pencil on paper to create a tangible, hand-drawn aesthetic. The central inspiration behind the poster is the concept of animation as "light in the dark," a creative force that illuminates and brings life to the unseen. I also drew inspiration from the visionary pioneers of animation, such as Émile Reynaud, Eadweard Muybridge, Joseph Plateau, and Simon Stampfer.  The poster pays homage to their legacy while celebrating the timeless artistry of animation.  Animation continues to evolve as a powerful medium for storytelling and self-expression, inspiring new generations to push creative boundaries and keep the light shining."
 


Sunday, February 02, 2025

Post 718 - February Sketch Dump #1

 Some more doodling while the TV was barking...or was it the dog?

"All the best people" (I think he's somewhat human, if humane isn't his best feature)

Background for Sfumato #5

Pencil, ink, and blue pencil test

Confused Canine

A joyful blue boy

Just screwing around

Still lurking about

Studies using the "green pencil drawer" in the studio

All images (c) MMXXV (2025) Jim Middleton, The Animating Apothecary