#The Wake of William Orr
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#OTD in 1820 – Death of physician, poet, educator and political radical, William Drennan, one of the chief architects of the Society of United Irishmen.
William Drennan’s poetic output included some powerful and moving pieces. He is chiefly remembered today for “Erin” written in 1800, in which he penned the first reference in print to Ireland as “The Emerald Isle”:
“Nor one feeling of vengeance presume to defile
The cause, or the men, of the Emerald Isle.”
Drennan came to national attention with the publication in 1784 and 1785 of his Letters of…
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#1798 United Irishmen Rebellion#Belfast#Clifton Street#Dublin Society of United Irishmen#educationalist#Erin#Henry Joy McCracken#Manifesto#physician#Poet#political radical#Society of United Irishmen#The Emerald Isle#The Wake of William Orr#Theobold Wolf Tone#William Drennan
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A classic science fiction novel by one of the greatest writers of the genre, set in a future world where one man's dreams control the fate of humanity.
In a future world racked by violence and environmental catastrophes, George Orr wakes up one day to discover that his dreams have the ability to alter reality. He seeks help from Dr. William Haber, a psychiatrist who immediately grasps the power George wields. Soon George must preserve reality itself as Dr. Haber becomes adept at manipulating George's dreams for his own purposes.
#book: the lathe of heaven#author: ursula k. le guin#genre: sci fi#genre: fantasy#genre: dystopian#year: 1970s
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The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K. Le Guin
A classic science fiction novel by one of the greatest writers of the genre, set in a future world where one man's dreams control the fate of humanity.
In a future world racked by violence and environmental catastrophes, George Orr wakes up one day to discover that his dreams have the ability to alter reality. He seeks help from Dr. William Haber, a psychiatrist who immediately grasps the power George wields. Soon George must preserve reality itself as Dr. Haber becomes adept at manipulating George's dreams for his own purposes.
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Ursula K. Le Guin - The Lathe of Heaven (1971)
I’ve been reading a lot about the future lately and unfortunately things don’t exactly look fantastic for us homo sapiens as a species.
TLDR summary: once companies are able to replace human workers with machine robots and algorithms, it’s over for us as human workers because why wouldn't they want to make the cash money savings, and even with the universal basic income they only want to introduce so we don’t hunt down the 0.001% of business owners that will remain, social mobility will be eviscerated and we will live in a feudal society. Except at least in a feudal society the monarchs needed the labour of the plebs to get resources. We’ll basically be surplus to the requirements of the people on the top of the ladder. Economies will crash, because a healthy economy needs the workers to have enough purchasing power to support other industries. There’s a huge argument in this book FOR the eradication of crony capitalism and the reversal of all cuts to government services, arts bodies, etc because the more secure our jobs and the better wages the average person is able to earn, the more wealth inside the community generally BUT NOBODY WANTS TO TELL YOU ABOUT THAT WEARING THEIR CHINOS AND RM WILLIAMS BOOTS DEBATING WITH YOU ABOUT THE ECONOMY ONLINE FROM EITHER SIDE OF THE SPECTRUM. Sorry for getting heated.
And this book
In one word: terrifying. Like the atomic bomb dance, Bostrom sees a super intelligence as an inevitability, and argues we need to get there before threatening foreign powers get there first. He thinks we will inevitably (without presenting evidence as to why) be ruled by a superintelligence under a one world government, but basically acknowledges that a truly super superintelligence would be much smarter than its controllers, would know how to spread its tentacles through everything and basically achieve world domination over us poor human beings, the children playing with blocks who accidentally press the wrong buttons and eviscerate ourselves.
Bro, I just want to be Amish.
Like, seriously, sometimes i think about the future and find comfort in the idea of becoming Amish, or joining a Monastery, or moving to Pete Evan’s commune in the NSW hinterlands.
I am more serious than you’ll ever know.
Because right now our species is fxxxing around with some stuff that we have the technical knowledge to understand, without countering that arrogance with an understanding of the soul.
And Urusla K Le Guin knows that, and has been knowing that for a long time. And that’s why this book is a cautionary tale that I think is more applicable now, than ever before.
So, The Lathe of Heaven is about this guy who has dreams that change the world. He’ll go to sleep, the world will be one way, he’ll have a dream and wake up to find that the events of his dream have changed reality completely.
Understandably, this makes him terrified of sleep.
He overdoses on a drug that stops you from dreaming and has to go to a therapist, who convinces him that he thinks he is insane. BUT - the therapist actually believes him - and sees a way to harness this power for his own benefit. Soon, the therapist is manipulating his dreams for his own benefit. The therapist first improves his own material position, then sets himself about using the dreams to bring about desirable outcomes for humanity like world peace. Only, things always have sneaky little inadvertent outcomes, don’t they?
Problem --> solution --> solution creates bigger problem - the summary of many of humanity’s efforts to “fix” the world so far
He wants to eliminate racism, so everyone’s skin becomes grey and the beautiful diversity of different cultures on the planets is lost.
An attempt to solve “overpopulation” reduces the population via devastating plague (lil too close for comfort in our current times)
And, desiring world peace, he inadvertently creates an alien invasion on the moon, which unites the people of earth against this existential threat.
(side note - the aliens are truly my favourite characters in the book. LOVE them.)
Says George Orr the protagonist, witnessing the problem after problem caused by his therapist’s ignorant, egotistical efforts to play God and fix things that are not his to solve:
“To be God you have to know what you’re doing. And to do any good at all, just believing you’re right and your motives are good isn’t enough. You have to … be in touch. “
IMO the true mysteries of the world are the sacred knowledge of the people who knew how to live in harmony with the earth’s natural processes.
And i really hope our scientists and tech barons realise that before we’re all left behind.
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Facebook post (2020-06-20T11:04:38.000Z)
This is HILARIOUS!!! DONT CHEAT!!!! I want to see if I come up for anyone. Make sure you follow the directions at the bottom. You don't pick the names, Facebook does. 😆😜🤷♀️ I'm on Vacation ☀️👙🏝🍹 My vacation buddy: Vicky Lynn Stevens Moncrief Spends every day at the nudist beach: Samantha Angelina Franzi Breaks the beer mug on the bar: David Brink Drinks all the cocktails: Donald Mitchell Chats up the bar staff: Cheryl Tinsley Gets arrested for skinny dipping: Gerald Cernak Belts out a tune: Diane Bell Breaks the karaoke machine: Bryan Hecksher Races to the nearest bar: William Richard Harrison Eats all the food: Eric Orr Falls off a donkey: Frank J. Glab Gets sunburned on the 1st day: Gary A. Wasdin Won’t leave the ice cream shop: Tammy Weber Acts like a diva: Nicole Azzara Henshaw Misses their flight home: Tony Mills Steals all the inflatables: Stacy DiPasquale Jams their finger in a bottle of Corona: Jason Alcorn Gets stung by a jelly fish: Richard Grant Muir Catches the bride's bouquet: Charles Cole Throws everyone’s towels in the pool: Jeff Tiritilli Archer Wakes everyone up "singing" at 3am: Kael Walker Slaps the bartender's rear: Seymour Chilton Pooped on by a seagull: Paul Charles Comes first in the talent show: Donna Van Blarcom Crane Gets drunk and gets a tattoo: Jack Thompson Pours a huge bucket of water over everyone: Paul J Karlik Pees in the pool: Kelly Powell Kubicz Dances in the street while singing: Dawn Molina-Mumford Keeps calling everyone "Supergirl”: Kristine Knowlton 1. Copy-paste and delete the names... 2. After each statement, type @ and the first letter of the statement (eg : My vacation buddy = @M) 3. You'll see the name of one of your friends! 4. If one is already used, take the next one! 5. Don’t cheat!
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Revitalizing a Michigan Midcentury Marvel
Brian Kelly for The Wall Street Journal
Shane Pliska lives in a glass house. He wakes at dawn and spends hours gazing out of his windows at a forest and a pond. Snapping turtles lay eggs on his yard, and fawns sleep right below his deck. But this isn’t Walden Pond. It’s a suburban cul-de-sac in Bloomfield Hills, Mich.
“It’s changed my life,” says Mr. Pliska, 38, president of a family-owned plant and interior-landscaping company. “It gives me clarity of mind.”
When Mr. Pliska first saw the house in 2012, he was living nearby in a condo building. But he knew he wanted to live somewhere connected to nature. A decision by his condo board to install a bright-blue awning—giving it the look of an IHOP restaurant—motivated his move.
The renovation included replacing cork flooring with slate in the conversation pit. A sheepskin rug keeps the space cozy when it’s cold outside.
Brian Kelly for The Wall Street Journal
The house, which was built in 1956, wasn’t for sale. So he asked a real-estate agent to keep a close watch. When the home was listed—and marketed as a teardown—Mr. Pliska immediately offered $5,000 over the asking price and bought it in 2012 for $230,000.
The home, a 1,890-square-foot glass-and-wood rectangular box on 1.3 acres, was designed by Edwin William de Cossy, a former instructor at Yale University who had studied under Paul Rudolph, known for his Brutalist style. The cost of construction at the time: $30,000.
To better understand the architect’s vision, Mr. Pliska traveled by train to Connecticut to meet Mr. de Cossy, who was wearing a tie and white racing gloves when he picked him up at the New Canaan train station in a vintage black Mercedes. Over lunch, Mr. de Cossy explained that the style of the house was partly influenced by his work on modern homes in Florida in the 1950s and partly by the time he’d spent hanging out with Philip Johnson at his Glass House in New Canaan. “It’s a dream site,” says Mr. de Cossy, 89, adding that he built it originally for his brother-in-law, Leo Calhoun, who owned a Ford dealership outside Detroit.
Mr. Pliska lived in the house without changing anything for about two years. Then one stormy night, he heard a loud boom and felt shaking as a giant oak tree punctured his flat roof. The redwood roof beams saved the house from complete collapse.
A modern Italian Scavalini kitchen inside Shane Pliska’s home in Bloomfield Hills, Mich.
Brian Kelly for The Wall Street Journal
“It was in a pretty sad state,” says Roman Bonislawski, the co-owner of Birmingham, Mich.-based architectural firm Ron & Roman who led the $300,000 renovation, which took two years to complete. The project includes new windows, replacing the cork flooring with slate in the living-room conversation pit, redoing the bathrooms and bumping out the master bedroom to add a small balcony. Mr. Pliska picked a modern Italian Scavalini kitchen (paying a discounted $35,000 because it was a floor model) with reflective avocado-green glass cabinets and put in new decks made of composite materials in front and out back.
What didn’t change was Mr. de Cossy’s fundamental design. The house is raised on a pedestal with redwood beams that cantilever out from below on all four sides and on top to hold up the roof, giving it a floating illusion. All the rooms are visible from the exterior except the bathrooms, one of which is enclosed by the kitchen wall and the other by the fireplace chimney.
After graduating from Emerson College and working briefly in film in Los Angeles, Mr. Pliska moved home in 2004 and six years later took over as president of Planterra, a business founded by his father, Larry.
The younger Mr. Pliska oversaw the building of a new glass-enclosed headquarters with a plant-adorned courtyard that doubles as a wedding-venue business. “He really changed things,” says Larry Pliska, 72, who still works there.
Mr. Pliska eschews curtains. He wakes at dawn and spends hours gazing out his windows at a forest and a pond.
Brian Kelly for The Wall Street Journal
Shane Pliska’s neighborhood has also changed: It was once a laboratory for modern design, inspired by the nearby art academy Cranbrook, which owns the Eliel Saarinen Art Deco-style Saarinen House. Now, existing houses are torn down to make way for large new structures that Mr. Pliska calls “Barbie castles.”
Still, some Midcentury Modern homeowners there have tried to preserve an element of the past, gathering regularly for cocktails to admire each other’s architecture and discuss design. Neighbor Nancy Lockhart says one thing about Mr. Pliska’s house remains unchanged: A feral tabby cat cared for by the former owner, an artist named Fern Tate, still sleeps under the house and roams the neighborhood. They take turns feeding the cat, which they named Fern.
———
An Architect’s Comeback
In the early 1950s, fresh out of the army with no college education, Edwin William de Cossy started designing modern homes in St. Petersburg, Fla. His work caught the eye of Paul Rudolph, who became one of the central figures of postwar American architecture, and the two began collaborating.
Mr. de Cossy earned a degree in architecture from Yale University in 1957, where he later became an instructor. As a principal with Douglas Orr, de Cossy, Winder & Associates, Mr. de Cossy designed a number of significant buildings, including the Knights of Columbus Museum in New Haven.
Mr. de Cossy’s career lagged until 1975, when he resurfaced as a builder of wooden sailboats. He had a comeback five years ago, designing several homes, and is now retired, currently building a 20-foot cruising sailboat with his daughter in North Branford, Conn.
The post Revitalizing a Michigan Midcentury Marvel appeared first on Real Estate News & Insights | realtor.com®.
Revitalizing a Michigan Midcentury Marvel
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Revitalizing a Michigan Midcentury Marvel
Brian Kelly for The Wall Street Journal
Shane Pliska lives in a glass house. He wakes at dawn and spends hours gazing out of his windows at a forest and a pond. Snapping turtles lay eggs on his yard, and fawns sleep right below his deck. But this isn’t Walden Pond. It’s a suburban cul-de-sac in Bloomfield Hills, Mich.
“It’s changed my life,” says Mr. Pliska, 38, president of a family-owned plant and interior-landscaping company. “It gives me clarity of mind.”
When Mr. Pliska first saw the house in 2012, he was living nearby in a condo building. But he knew he wanted to live somewhere connected to nature. A decision by his condo board to install a bright-blue awning—giving it the look of an IHOP restaurant—motivated his move.
The renovation included replacing cork flooring with slate in the conversation pit. A sheepskin rug keeps the space cozy when it’s cold outside.
Brian Kelly for The Wall Street Journal
The house, which was built in 1956, wasn’t for sale. So he asked a real-estate agent to keep a close watch. When the home was listed—and marketed as a teardown—Mr. Pliska immediately offered $5,000 over the asking price and bought it in 2012 for $230,000.
The home, a 1,890-square-foot glass-and-wood rectangular box on 1.3 acres, was designed by Edwin William de Cossy, a former instructor at Yale University who had studied under Paul Rudolph, known for his Brutalist style. The cost of construction at the time: $30,000.
To better understand the architect’s vision, Mr. Pliska traveled by train to Connecticut to meet Mr. de Cossy, who was wearing a tie and white racing gloves when he picked him up at the New Canaan train station in a vintage black Mercedes. Over lunch, Mr. de Cossy explained that the style of the house was partly influenced by his work on modern homes in Florida in the 1950s and partly by the time he’d spent hanging out with Philip Johnson at his Glass House in New Canaan. “It’s a dream site,” says Mr. de Cossy, 89, adding that he built it originally for his brother-in-law, Leo Calhoun, who owned a Ford dealership outside Detroit.
Mr. Pliska lived in the house without changing anything for about two years. Then one stormy night, he heard a loud boom and felt shaking as a giant oak tree punctured his flat roof. The redwood roof beams saved the house from complete collapse.
A modern Italian Scavalini kitchen inside Shane Pliska’s home in Bloomfield Hills, Mich.
Brian Kelly for The Wall Street Journal
“It was in a pretty sad state,” says Roman Bonislawski, the co-owner of Birmingham, Mich.-based architectural firm Ron & Roman who led the $300,000 renovation, which took two years to complete. The project includes new windows, replacing the cork flooring with slate in the living-room conversation pit, redoing the bathrooms and bumping out the master bedroom to add a small balcony. Mr. Pliska picked a modern Italian Scavalini kitchen (paying a discounted $35,000 because it was a floor model) with reflective avocado-green glass cabinets and put in new decks made of composite materials in front and out back.
What didn’t change was Mr. de Cossy’s fundamental design. The house is raised on a pedestal with redwood beams that cantilever out from below on all four sides and on top to hold up the roof, giving it a floating illusion. All the rooms are visible from the exterior except the bathrooms, one of which is enclosed by the kitchen wall and the other by the fireplace chimney.
After graduating from Emerson College and working briefly in film in Los Angeles, Mr. Pliska moved home in 2004 and six years later took over as president of Planterra, a business founded by his father, Larry.
The younger Mr. Pliska oversaw the building of a new glass-enclosed headquarters with a plant-adorned courtyard that doubles as a wedding-venue business. “He really changed things,” says Larry Pliska, 72, who still works there.
Mr. Pliska eschews curtains. He wakes at dawn and spends hours gazing out his windows at a forest and a pond.
Brian Kelly for The Wall Street Journal
Shane Pliska’s neighborhood has also changed: It was once a laboratory for modern design, inspired by the nearby art academy Cranbrook, which owns the Eliel Saarinen Art Deco-style Saarinen House. Now, existing houses are torn down to make way for large new structures that Mr. Pliska calls “Barbie castles.”
Still, some Midcentury Modern homeowners there have tried to preserve an element of the past, gathering regularly for cocktails to admire each other’s architecture and discuss design. Neighbor Nancy Lockhart says one thing about Mr. Pliska’s house remains unchanged: A feral tabby cat cared for by the former owner, an artist named Fern Tate, still sleeps under the house and roams the neighborhood. They take turns feeding the cat, which they named Fern.
———
An Architect’s Comeback
In the early 1950s, fresh out of the army with no college education, Edwin William de Cossy started designing modern homes in St. Petersburg, Fla. His work caught the eye of Paul Rudolph, who became one of the central figures of postwar American architecture, and the two began collaborating.
Mr. de Cossy earned a degree in architecture from Yale University in 1957, where he later became an instructor. As a principal with Douglas Orr, de Cossy, Winder & Associates, Mr. de Cossy designed a number of significant buildings, including the Knights of Columbus Museum in New Haven.
Mr. de Cossy’s career lagged until 1975, when he resurfaced as a builder of wooden sailboats. He had a comeback five years ago, designing several homes, and is now retired, currently building a 20-foot cruising sailboat with his daughter in North Branford, Conn.
The post Revitalizing a Michigan Midcentury Marvel appeared first on Real Estate News & Insights | realtor.com®.
from DIYS https://ift.tt/2DrnN7x
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New Post has been published on http://www.classicfilmfreak.com/2017/08/10/big-sleep-1946-starring-humphrey-bogart-lauren-bacall/
The Big Sleep (1946) starring Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall
“Let me do the talking, angel. I don’t know yet what I’m going to tell them. It’ll be pretty close to the truth.”-Philip Marlowe
Seven bodies! At least that’s the rumored total in Raymond Chandler’s novel The Big Sleep. When William Faulkner and Leigh Brackett were working on the film’s screenplay and couldn’t discern who had murdered one character, they called the author. Chandler told them his identity was in the book, to read it. After checking his own novel, Chandler called back sometime later and told the writers that he didn’t know, that they could designate the killer as they liked.
The two screenwriters, even with the talents of a third, Jules Furthman, remained confused by the already confusing first novel of Chandler, and generally retained that murkiness, which might be one of the film’s charms. The Big Sleep is the best of the few detective films Warner Bros. made after The Maltese Falcon during the 1940s. If not plot, then, the big pluses include the tight direction of Howard Hawks, the sharp-edged dialogue—there’s a lot of talking—and the romantic repartee between its two stars, Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall.
Despite Bacall’s come-hither, deep-voiced overtures to her leading man, anyone who has seen the first scene will be astounded by the schoolgirl teasings, no less provocative, of Martha Vickers as a precocious nymph, Bacall’s sister in the film, and wonder why she’s not seen more.
In fact, Vickers’ sexy chemistry was so threatening to the studio’s new discovery—this only Bacall’s fourth film after her sensational début in To Have and Have Not (1944)—that most of the younger (by about eight months) star’s scenes were cut. A major overhaul of Bacall’s part by the studio and director ensued, with reshoots, new scenes and added sexual innuendos between her and Bogart.
Filming was further complicated by the tension of Bogart’s impending divorce from his third wife and the affair he was conducting on the set with Bacall. Rumor had it that Bacall was so nervous over the divorce, and, from some sources, that the actor was still debating whether to proceed with the divorce, that during filming her hands shook when she poured a drink or lighted a cigarette.
Bacall had written in her autobiography, By Myself, that, despite the anxiety over the divorce, much fun was had on the set, which prompted a cautionary memo from studio head Jack L. Warner. And when the most famous of the screenwriters, William Faulkner, author of The Sound and the Fury and other stories of the South, asked Hawks if he could write “from home,” since the studio atmosphere unnerved him, Hawks okayed the request, assuming the writer meant his office at the studio. The director was quite displeased when he learned that Faulkner was writing from“home” all right—in Oxford, Mississippi.
Some brave souls have tried to condense the impenetrable plot into a nutshell, though, at best, it’s of minimum importance. Let’s see, how does it go, or appears to go. . . .
Private detective Philip Marlowe (Bogart) visits a decaying old man, General Sternwood (Charles Waldron, who died before the film was released), who sits, wheelchair-bound, shawl-enshrouded, in his putrefying greenhouse. (In the 1978 remake, James Stewart’s portrayal of the role seems more a copy of Waldron’s performance than any original approach of his own.) The dialogue in this one scene, and coming so early in the film, can be seen as setting the ethical tone of the movie and the nature of the characters, the private eye included.
The General says to Marlowe:
“You may smoke, too. I can still enjoy the smell of it. Hum, nice state of affairs when a man has to indulge his vices by proxy. You’re looking, sir, at a very dull survival of a very gaudy life—crippled, paralyzed in both legs, barely I eat and my sleep is so near waking it’s hardly worth the name. I seem to exist largely on heat, like a newborn spider.”
He tells Marlowe that he’s being blackmailed, again, and asks him to check on the gambling debts his younger daughter, Carmen (Vickers), owes to a book dealer named Geiger (Theodore von Eltz). (Carmen is a nymphomaniac in Chandler’s novel, but the Hollywood censors would permit no more than what is seen; any inferences otherwise must be the viewer’s own.)
As Marlowe is leaving, the butler (Charles D. Brown) tells him Mrs. Vivian Rutledge (Bacall) would like to see him. In trying to feel him out, she confides that she believes her father has asked him to search for his friend Sean Regan, who has been missing for a month.
Next scene, Marlowe visits Geiger’s rare bookstore (a source for pornography in Chandler’s novel). With the front of his hat turned up, he assumes a clipped speech and eccentric manner, asking for specific editions of two books. The proprietor (Sonia Darrin) says she doesn’t have them.
He then goes across the street to another book store run by a proprietress (Dorothy Malone) who comes on to Marlowe, and he to her. He asks her for the same editions of the books and she rightly tells him there are none. “The girl in Geiger’s bookstore,” he says, “didn’t know that.”
He asks her if she knows Geiger on sight, she describes him down to his glass eye and he requests she let him know when he comes out of the bookstore. (The three-and-a-half-minute scene is one of the best in the film, and, interesting, like Marlowe’s scene with Sternwood, it exudes rapport and chemistry without Bacall.)
When Geiger does emerge, Marlowe follows him to a house. Hearing a woman’s scream and a gunshot, he enters to find a dead Geiger, a drugged Carmen and a hidden camera, without any film. After taking Carmen home, he returns to the house, only to find . . . the body is gone.
It’s just the beginning, and from here on it’s nothing but a convoluted, indecipherable mess, first and most prominent, murder, then gambling, blackmail, car chases (not the apoplectic ones of today), love triangles, red herrings, organized crime, subtle suggestions of pornography and general mayhem.
Although no threat to the overwhelming charisma between Bogart and Bacall, the dialogue has its own fascination, often poetic and occasionally unforgettable, however “written” it may sometimes sound. This is true of General Sternwood’s lines in his one scene and in some of Marlowe’s, particularly this retort during his first scene with Vivian, when she says she deplores his manners:
“And I’m not crazy about yours. I didn’t ask to see you. I don’t mind if you don’t like my manners. I don’t like them myself. They are pretty bad. I grieve over them on long, winter evenings. I don’t mind you ritzing me or drinking your lunch out of a bottle, but don’t waste your time trying to cross-examine me.”
These lines, some given at a fast, breathless pace, are reminiscent of a Bogart scene in The Maltese Falcon—the address to the district attorney about “the only chance I’ve got of catching them [the murderers], and tying them up, and bringing them in, is by staying as far away as possible from you and the police . . . ”
The most famous dialogue exchange, with its sexual innuendos, is between Bogart and Bacall, sitting across from each other at a nightclub table:
“Speaking of horses,” she says, “I like to play them myself. But I like to see them work out a little first, see if they’re front runners or come from behind, find out what their hole card is, what makes them run. . . . I’d say you don’t like to be rated. You like to get out in front, open up a little lead, take a little breather in the backstretch and then come home free.”
“You don’t like to be rated yourself,” he says.
“I haven’t met any one yet who can do it. Any suggestions?”
“Well, I can’t tell till I’ve seen you over a distance of ground. You’ve got a touch of class, but I don’t know how far you can go.”
“A lot depends on who’s in the saddle.”
This scene doesn’t need, and doesn’t receive, any underpinning music. Max Steiner’s musical score is one of his more problematic, containing both the strong and weak points of his style. The main title is something of a nondescript blur, noisy and tuneless, serving, if nothing else, as a foretaste of the impervious plot and unsavory characters.
In the insouciant motif for Philip Marlowe, Steiner captures the detective’s sluggish, yet quixotic nature, which serves to brighten the predominantly dark music. The slowly ascending notes at the start of the main love theme suggest, perhaps—assuming Steiner’s thinking was this nuanced—the hostile beginning of Marlowe and Vivian’s relationship, the rest of the theme infused with a kind of smothered passion their love would become by the end.
In scoring for two similar settings, it is interesting to compare the disparate approaches to the greenhouse scene, with all its tropical trees and ferns, and Violet Venable’s (Katharine Hepburn) jungle garden in Suddenly, Last Summer (1959). For whatever the reason, Steiner elects to ignore representing the humid atmosphere General Sternwood has prepared for his orchids, while composers Malcolm Arnold and Buxton Orr convey almost breathable damp and mildew for Violet’s steamy surroundings.
The Big Sleep is a film where everyone except General Sternwood—perhaps he, too, if he had another scene—carries a gun, and when guns are unavailable, then fists do quite well. With the moral slant of the film, that is, with less than admirable characters and their ugly motives, it’s hard to like any of them.
Truth is, you’re not supposed to like the characters in a film noir, sympathize with them maybe.. But the actors you can like. It’s hard not to like Bogart and Bacall—not as accomplished actors, but as personalities of the screen, as stars were viewed in the ’30s and ’40. Then movie-goers didn’t go to see Philip Marlowe or Vivian Rutledge, not that any one coming out of the theater would remember her last name; they went to see Bogart and Bacall.
Bogart, like Cagney and Flynn, is a personality, a man who always, or generally always, plays himself. Bacall, who still hadn’t learned to act at the time of The Big Sleep, would have been easily overshadowed by Vickers had her original scenes been left intact, and Dorothy Malone has all the charisma and magic of Bacall, just another kind of charm.
Bosley Crowther, one of the most famous movie critics of the 1940s, warned in his New York Times review of August 24, 1946, that the film would be confusing and unsatisfying. And apparently in all sincerity, he asked, “[W]ould somebody also tell us the meaning of that title . . . ” Why, it’s what seems obvious, that which at least seven of the characters in The Big Sleep experienced . . . DEATH.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-K49CUaeto
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#OTD in 1754 – Birth of Dr. William Drennan in Belfast; physician, poet, educationalist political radical and one of the chief architects of the Society of United Irishmen.
#OTD in 1754 – Birth of Dr. William Drennan in Belfast; physician, poet, educationalist political radical and one of the chief architects of the Society of United Irishmen.
William Drennan’s poetic output included some powerful and moving pieces. He is chiefly remembered today for “Erin” written in 1800, in which he penned the first reference in print to Ireland as “The Emerald Isle”:
“Nor one feeling of vengeance presume to defile
The cause, or the men, of the Emerald Isle.”
Drennan came to national attention with the publication in 1784 and 1785 of his Letters of…
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#Belfast#Chief Architect of The United Irishmen Society#Co. Antrim#England#Ireland#physician#Poet#The Emerald Isle#The United Irishmen Rebellion#Wake of William Orr#William Drennan
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#OTD in 1820 – Death of physician, poet, educator and political radical, William Drennan, one of the chief architects of the Society of United Irishmen.
#OTD in 1820 – Death of physician, poet, educator and political radical, William Drennan, one of the chief architects of the Society of United Irishmen.
William Drennan’s poetic output included some powerful and moving pieces. He is chiefly remembered today for “Erin” written in 1800, in which he penned the first reference in print to Ireland as “The Emerald Isle”:
“Nor one feeling of vengeance presume to defile
The cause, or the men, of the Emerald Isle.”
Drennan came to national attention with the publication in 1784 and 1785 of his Letters of…
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#1798 United Irishmen Rebellion#Belfast#Clifton Street#Dublin Society of United Irishmen#educationalist#Erin#Henry Joy McCracken#Manifesto#physician#Poet#political radical#Society of United Irishmen#The Emerald Isle#The Wake of William Orr#Theobold Wolf Tone#William Drennan
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#OTD in 1820 – Death of physician, poet, educator and political radical, William Drennan, one of the chief architects of the Society of United Irishmen.
#OTD in 1820 – Death of physician, poet, educator and political radical, William Drennan, one of the chief architects of the Society of United Irishmen.
William Drennan’s poetic output included some powerful and moving pieces. He is chiefly remembered today for “Erin” written in 1800, in which he penned the first reference in print to Ireland as “The Emerald Isle”:
“Nor one feeling of vengeance presume to defile
The cause, or the men, of the Emerald Isle.”
Drennan came to national attention with the publication in 1784 and 1785 of his Letters of…
View On WordPress
#1798 United Irishmen Rebellion#Belfast#Clifton Street#Dublin Society of United Irishmen#educationalist#Erin#Henry Joy McCracken#Manifesto#physician#Poet#political radical#Society of United Irishmen#The Emerald Isle#The Wake of William Orr#Theobold Wolf Tone#William Drennan
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#OTD in 1820 – Death of physician, poet, educator and political radical, William Drennan, one of the chief architects of the Society of United Irishmen.
#OTD in 1820 – Death of physician, poet, educator and political radical, William Drennan, one of the chief architects of the Society of United Irishmen.
William Drennan’s poetic output included some powerful and moving pieces. He is chiefly remembered today for “Erin” written in 1800, in which he penned the first reference in print to Ireland as “The Emerald Isle”:
“Nor one feeling of vengeance presume to defile
The cause, or the men, of the Emerald Isle.”
Drennan came to national attention with the publication in 1784 and 1785 of his Letters of…
View On WordPress
#1798 United Irishmen Rebellion#Belfast#Clifton Street#Dublin Society of United Irishmen#educationalist#Erin#Henry Joy McCracken#Manifesto#physician#Poet#political radical#Society of United Irishmen#The Emerald Isle#The Wake of William Orr#Theobold Wolf Tone#William Drennan
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#OTD in 1754 – Birth of Dr. William Drennan in Belfast; physician, poet, educationalist political radical and one of the chief architects of the Society of United Irishmen.
#OTD in 1754 – Birth of Dr. William Drennan in Belfast; physician, poet, educationalist political radical and one of the chief architects of the Society of United Irishmen.
William Drennan’s poetic output included some powerful and moving pieces. He is chiefly remembered today for “Erin” written in 1800, in which he penned the first reference in print to Ireland as “The Emerald Isle”:
“Nor one feeling of vengeance presume to defile
The cause, or the men, of the Emerald Isle.”
Drennan came to national attention with the publication in 1784 and 1785 of his Letters of…
View On WordPress
#Belfast#Chief Architect of The United Irishmen Society#Co. Antrim#England#Ireland#physician#Poet#The Emerald Isle#The United Irishmen Rebellion#Wake of William Orr#William Drennan
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#OTD in 1754 – Birth of Dr. William Drennan in Belfast; physician, poet, educationalist political radical and one of the chief architects of the Society of United Irishmen.
#OTD in 1754 – Birth of Dr. William Drennan in Belfast; physician, poet, educationalist political radical and one of the chief architects of the Society of United Irishmen.
William Drennan’s poetic output included some powerful and moving pieces. He is chiefly remembered today for “Erin” written in 1800, in which he penned the first reference in print to Ireland as “The Emerald Isle”:
“Nor one feeling of vengeance presume to defile
The cause, or the men, of the Emerald Isle.”
Drennan came to national attention with the publication in 1784 and 1785 of his Letters of…
View On WordPress
#Belfast#Chief Architect of The United Irishmen Society#Co. Antrim#England#Ireland#physician#Poet#The Emerald Isle#The United Irishmen Rebellion#Wake of William Orr#William Drennan
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#OTD in 1754 – Birth of Dr. William Drennan in Belfast; physician, poet, educationalist political radical and one of the chief architects of the Society of United Irishmen.
#OTD in 1754 – Birth of Dr. William Drennan in Belfast; physician, poet, educationalist political radical and one of the chief architects of the Society of United Irishmen.
William Drennan’s poetic output included some powerful and moving pieces. He is chiefly remembered today for “Erin” written in 1800, in which he penned the first reference in print to Ireland as “The Emerald Isle”:
“Nor one feeling of vengeance presume to defile
The cause, or the men, of the Emerald Isle.”
Drennan came to national attention with the publication in 1784 and 1785 of his Letters of…
View On WordPress
#Belfast#Chief Architect of The United Irishmen Society#Co. Antrim#England#Ireland#physician#Poet#The Emerald Isle#The United Irishmen Rebellion#Wake of William Orr#William Drennan
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#OTD in 1820 – Death of physician, poet, educator and political radical, William Drennan, one of the chief architects of the Society of United Irishmen.
#OTD in 1820 – Death of physician, poet, educator and political radical, William Drennan, one of the chief architects of the Society of United Irishmen.
William Drennan’s poetic output included some powerful and moving pieces. He is chiefly remembered today for “Erin” written in 1800, in which he penned the first reference in print to Ireland as “The Emerald Isle”:
“Nor one feeling of vengeance presume to defile
The cause, or the men, of the Emerald Isle.”
Drennan came to national attention with the publication in 1784 and 1785 of his Letters of…
View On WordPress
#1798 United Irishmen Rebellion#Belfast#Clifton Street#Dublin Society of United Irishmen#educationalist#Erin#Henry Joy McCracken#Manifesto#physician#Poet#political radical#Society of United Irishmen#The Emerald Isle#The Wake of William Orr#Theobold Wolf Tone#William Drennan
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