text:
Silent Film You Love?
by John Holbo on June 23, 2011
Of course, there's more to life than stuff with big words aimed at early readers. There's stuff with few words aimed at early viewers! Here's a good deal on a nice, quite comprehensive collection of the very earliest silent films, Landmarks of Early Film, Vol. 1 [amazon]. I lectured about some of this stuff in my Philosophy and Film class last semester, because I focused on sf – crossroads of speculation and spectacle. It's a common critical complaint that Lucas/Spielberg-style special effects blockbusters killed a lot that was great about American cinema, in the 1970's. Then again, film was industrial light and magic from the start, pioneered by the industrious likes of Edison and Georges Méliès (stage magician). No film could be truer to the authentic roots of the medium than whatever Michael Bay is working on right now. Probably that new Transformers movie or something. Maybe that explains why so many of these early films are boring. But in a fascinating way.
What are your favorite early/silent films? What early cinema do you really, honestly, just love to watch. No grading on a curve or so-bad-it's-good ironizing. I watched quite a bit of Charlie Chaplin, while I was reading Sunnyside. I liked it, but I didn't love it. I've posted before about loving Dreyer's Passion of Joan of Arc. I've never watched any Buster Keaton; never watched The General, for example. Should I? I love Metropolis but I recently watched Fritz Lang's Woman In The Moon and didn't really get into it. It veered between dull and draggy self-seriousness and extreme silliness. Although Fritz Rasp (a.k.a. The Thin Man, from Metropolis) was fun.
Who do you think should get the moon gold, should it exist? Defend your answer. (Maybe that inter-title should be an inspirational poster.)
{ 112 comments }
Random lurker 06.23.11 at 8:59 am
I liked a lot Nosferatu, Metropolis and A Trip to the Moon by Meliès.
If "A Trip to the Moon" is what you refer to when you say "industrial light and magic", i think that there is some difference between it and current sf blockbusters:
"A Trip to the Moon" is pure special effects, and the plot is totally unimportant an just an excuse to put some special effect on-screen; on the other hand, today blockbusters like, say, the marvel movie on Thor, have usually a really simple but emotionally charged plot, and special effects are usually used to increase the emotional effects of various scenes IMHO.
ndg 06.23.11 at 9:07 am
Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans. I am too lazy to try and verbalize why, so will instead point to this review by Roger Ebert.
Linca 06.23.11 at 9:46 am
And Der Letzte Mann by the same !
Matt 06.23.11 at 9:58 am
Dr. Mabuse the Gambler and maybe Destiny by Lang are probably my favorites though it's been so long since I've seen Destiny that I can't say for sure now. It's sort of hard to believe that a silent film as long as Dr. Mabuse could be watchable (it's something like 200 minutes) but it is- very captivating.
Ginger Yellow 06.23.11 at 10:09 am
"I've never watched any Buster Keaton; never watched The General, for example. Should I?"
Yes, yes, a thousand times yes. That was going to be the first film I named. Keaton's phsyical comedy is way better than Chaplin's, although Chaplin's films have other merits. See also Steamboat Bill Jr.
Anyway, other silent (I hesitate to call them early unless they're pre-DW Griffith, to be honest) films I love: Metropolis, The Cabinet of Dr Caligari, Nosferatu, Battleship Potemkin, Safety Last!, Modern Times (not techincally silent), Sons of the Desert.
Matt McGrattan 06.23.11 at 10:19 am
What Ginger Yellow said. Keaton is far better than Chaplin at the physical comedy. While I always felt I was missing something with Chaplin or it seemed too historically distant or strange, with Keaton it's just instantly funny, and clever. I also have quite a bit of affection for Harold Lloyd's 'Safety Last!'.
Jim 06.23.11 at 10:38 am
I saw the restored version of Franz Osten's Indian romance 'A Throw of Dice' in Trafalgar Square a few years back, and it was wonderful. And yes, Buster Keaton is hilarious, modern sensibilities and all.
John Edmond 06.23.11 at 10:40 am
Bar his earliest couple, Women in the Moon is probably the least of Lang's silent films – so still check out his other silents. Dr. Mabuse the Gambler is probably my favourite, but at 4 odd hours feel free to ignore me. Spies is probably a far better entry point, more exuberant than silly.
5 random silents:
Ozu's I Was Born, But… – A pair of brothers (and leaders of the local gang) go on strike after discovering their father humiliates himself to get ahead at work. Worth it for the dead-eyed sociopathic lil' rascals let alone seeing an Ozu film before he completely codified his approach.
Griffith's A Corner in Wheat – Another social awareness film. If I taught silent film I'd scrap showing The Birth of a Nation and instead show three hours of his earlier shorts. A Corner alone provides ample justification. Archive.org has a copy.
Sternberg's The Docks of New York – Glossy black falls in love with matte white; I'm stuck thinking of a more beautiful film.
Murnau's City Girl – The key pastoral influence on Malick, but far less silly. Worth viewing just to see what a silent in perfect condition looks like (due to the film's lack of success barely any prints were struck off the negative, careful storage did the rest). Track down the UK blu-ray release if possible (or at least have a look at it at DVD Beaver), you could take fingerprints off some of the shots.
Dovzhenko's Zvenigora – Part of his loose Ukraine folklore trilogy, all of which are equally superb. Like his fellow USSR filmmakers, Dovzhenko is a director of montage, but here editing is used to supercharge the environment with an animist spirit – in Dovzhenko's films horses are equally likely to backchat or sing as be ridden. I don't think there has been a US release, but the UK release is nice and cheap.
Tom 06.23.11 at 11:22 am
Keaton, Keaton, a thousand times, Keaton!
bob mcmanus 06.23.11 at 11:34 am
Too many to list, really. Sunrise and The General and City Lights are very near the top of the list of all-time greats. Ozu made a half dozen silent masterpieces; Naruse at least two. Silence bothers me no more than black and white .
Flesh and the Devil, It, and Pandora's Box astonished me.
But if you are talking about early silents, before 1920, I can't help you as much.
Matt 06.23.11 at 12:21 pm
Pandora's Box is really good.
roac 06.23.11 at 1:23 pm
I saw the title and said "I'll go there and put in a work for Keaton." But I'm way late for that. Nobody however seems to have mentioned Sherlock Jr., a fine example of post-modernism avant la lettre (and also funny).
Also: The Passion of Joan of Arc.
chris 06.23.11 at 1:27 pm
Who do you think should get the moon gold, should it exist?
Even if the gold were just laying in heaps on the surface of the moon, no mining required, would it be worth the effort of going there to get it and bringing it back to Earth? Space travel is hard, and Earth has gigatons of gold already.
ejh 06.23.11 at 1:35 pm
I've seen Greed just the once, but I thought it was great stuff.
rm 06.23.11 at 1:49 pm
I second the nomination of Sunrise.
With other silent films I had a reaction like yours to Chaplin — I see why this is great, but it's foreign to me. Sunrise is as good to watch as the best modernist literature of that era is to read — it's news that stays news — it's real good cinema.
Now, I don't endorse the gender essentialism of a fable in which The Woman From The City ensnares The Man with her wiles, but when she whistles you can hear her whistle in your mind, man. Every female Film Studies major I knew in college wanted to be her. The film really works.
Matt 06.23.11 at 1:52 pm
I had mixed feelings about this one. I can see the greatness of some of it, but also, the director should have been told that shots other than extreme close-ups on the actors' faces were possible. (I read that, for the time, lavish amounts of money were spent on the sets, but that they mostly went to waste, as so many of the shots are close-ups on the faces. They are great, but get to be a bit too much after a while. Or so I thought.)
ajay 06.23.11 at 2:05 pm
13: Gold is just under $50,000 a kilo at present. Taking a line from Apollo, you could probably manage a cargo carrier ascent stage that was 25% dry weight, 25% payload and 50% fuel, and descent stage is twice that. So if you want to get a tonne of gold back you need to put eleven tonnes of hardware on the surface – about the total size of the LEM. Use a low-energy Hiten-type transfer orbit and that equates to a single medium-heavy launch. Which costs roughly $50 million.
So, not quite worth it really.
alph 06.23.11 at 2:15 pm
The seven chances, by Keaton. His chases are the fastest thing that have ever been filmed. No matter how fast starships go, they will never go faster than Keaton on the handle-bars of a motorcycle (in Sherlock Jr.) or Keaton running down a slope as boulders chase him. The pure thrill of speed.
There is a scene in Seven Chances where Keaton is running from a mob; by devices and divagations he loses them, and his pace slows to an easy loping run. Suddenly the mob appears from behind, and his burst of acceleration is not only breathtaking, but hilarious as well. He makes speed funny.
Agreed about Lloyd's Safety Last, and his Speedy is good too.
Matt McIrvin 06.23.11 at 2:25 pm
Metropolis. I initially saw it in a terrible VHS dumpware release that made the story almost impossible to follow (the transfer was so bad that the picture was often impossible to interpret visually), and it seemed unbearably tedious.
Then I saw the glorious Kino restoration in a theater. This was the before the recent discovery of almost all of the missing footage, but they'd put in new title cards explaining the missing parts of the plot in detail, and the German titles were also translated in an engaging fashion. But the best thing about the Kino version was the score: for the first time in ages, they'd reunited the movie with a new recording of its original opening-night score, which turns out to be a brilliant suite of movie music.
And Metropolis turns out to be a great piece of social science fiction, capable of standing on its own without special pleading. Highly recommended.
bill.who 06.23.11 at 2:29 pm
— Keaton. Good, surprisingly honest and direct emotion. Entertaining and well structured stories and a good appreciation for the nature of the medium.
— Battleship Potemkin etc.
— I'm surprised that I have not seen any mention of Man with a Camera yet. It's not narrative but has its own charm and beauty and is a reminder of how very varied silent films were.
— I think that Mark of Zorro might be worthwhile, but it has been while, and I suspect that I'm grading on curve.
— Completely wrong, of course, but I always remember Alexander Nevsky as a silent with a really good score.
Alan 06.23.11 at 2:32 pm
I only read this in one source years ago, but it was claimed that Lang's Woman in the Moon invented the countdown, which later became standard part of V-2 launch operations. If true then that would be cool.
Dave Maier 06.23.11 at 2:34 pm
Sunrise is breathtaking. I also like Dovzhenko's Earth, which was not at all what I expected.
bob mcmanus 06.23.11 at 2:46 pm
15: Chaplin—I see why this is great, but it's foreign to me.
This is a good thing.
There is something about that generation of actors that appeals to me, modern yet with the memories of the pre-modern. They just seem slightly different, a little freer and less inhibited. Like pre-WWII athletes.
I have been trying to express the impressions the great silent stars made on me. Clara Bow was "just folks," but also her charisma seem more amplified to me than the stars of the 30s. I maybe am just imagining I am seeing the effects of industrialised cinema, commodified society.
Or what Gloria said in Sunset
sbk 06.23.11 at 2:50 pm
It's impossible for me to imagine that you would not love either The General or Sherlock Jr, given all existing evidence of your tastes. When I was 20 or so I also remember really enjoying Eisenstein's Strike (1925, apparently), but it's possible that the intervening decade would change my assessment. For big dumb entertainment, Murnau's Faust had its moments…but like an earlier commenter, I can't help much with pre-1920 stuff. I am sure "Greed" is good (yes, yes), but my memory is of turning it off halfway through: that might have been one of those ill-advised attempts to start watching a film at midnight, though. Turns out you will not make it through Andrei Rublev that way.
Gene O'Grady 06.23.11 at 2:54 pm
Avoiding films already mentioned, The Wind and the Lillian Gish versions of The Scarlet Letter and La Boheme (although it's been a long time since I saw the latter).
It makes an enormous difference how and where you see silent film. Romola on a wide screen with excellent live accompaniment is exciting, on (a not very high quality) VHS tape on my TV not so much.
Also, early Clara Bow, not great movies but she's wonderful to watch in things like The Plastic Age.
I have been trying to express the impressions the great silent stars made on me. Clara Bow was "just folks," but also her charisma seem more amplified to me than the stars of the 30s.
I wonder if this is because they're silent – so you're focussing much more on their faces and their expressions than you would if the plot were also being conveyed through the soundtrack. Also, camerawork is much simpler – fewer pans or zooms or crane shots – so there's less movement except for people moving and facial expressions changing.
Matt@ 16: De gustibus. Tight focus on faces throughout was a very deliberate aesthetic decision by Dreyer. (Refusing to let any of the actors wear makeup was a big part of it.)
I saw it, BTW, with the Richard Einhorn oratorio Voices of Light, written to be performed as a score to the film. Quite an experience — although the visibility of the performers (Anonymous Four and the Fairfax Choral Society) was arguably a distraction..
Modulo Myself 06.23.11 at 3:42 pm
Les Vampires is about as true to the spirit of serials and French subversion as one can get.
The Modesto Kid 06.23.11 at 3:56 pm
Passion of Joan of Arc is great, as is Dreyer's later film Day of Wrath (which is I guess too much later to be considered an "early film", but still.
yeliabmit 06.23.11 at 3:58 pm
For any Keaton fans who haven't seen it: The Railrodder. Neither black and white nor silent, but a lot of fun.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EiqqxyZeDXo
I first saw this when I was seven, shown on movie day, and it made a lasting impression on me concerning both visual comedy and my idea of Canada. I don't suppose that 7 year olds get shown short films in class once a month anymore.
@roac — the Criterion DVD of Joan of Arc has "Voices of Light" on it as an option.
bob mcmanus, I take away a similar impression from the first fifteen years or so of recorded pop music. The Victrola era, I guess, when a lot of people were being recorded (on wax cylinders I don't think they got much beyond established stage pros, but I could be wrong) but when everyone had learned music and formed their tastes in the pre-recording era.
I started to like that stuff because I wondered why I could read Modernist literature and find it comparatively contemporary and fresh, but find music from that era ancient-sounding. I started to change how I listened.
I thought mit had mis-typed "Railroader," but no, the title is actually "The Railrodder." I will watch it.
mcsmack 06.23.11 at 4:23 pm
@10 I saw 'Sunrise' as a kid and it had this huge effect on me. I'd love to see it again. I remember it as sublimely beautiful and I now wonder if it is maudlin. But perhaps not.
Ivan the Terrible. Most of my silent movie watching happened as a child though so I'm not to be trusted on this.
Henri Vieuxtemps 06.23.11 at 4:36 pm
Ivan the Terrible is silent? I don't think so.
Massilian 06.23.11 at 4:42 pm
To complete the classics quoted above, I'd like to add a few french silent movies.
The extraordinary NAPOLEON of Abel Gance, projected on three screens. Abel Gance was a Coppola before Coppola.
Zero de conduite, by Jean Vigo is the father of Truffaut "Les 400 coups" .
Fantomas and it's 4 sequels by Louis Feuillade are still fun to watch, but can't compete with the modern tempo and fx of present day action packed blockbusters.
I'd like also to mention the films of Pierre Etaix shot in the 60's but mostly silent as most of Jacques Tati (Well not exactly silent, sounds play a great role, but not spech). Etaix was a great admirer of the slapstick artists, Buster Keaton of course but also the french director and actor Max Linder.
I'm waiting to see "The Artist" by Michel Hazanavicius a silent movie presented at the Cannes film festival in 2011 and much appraised, yet to be released in october.
Keith 06.23.11 at 4:53 pm
Metropolis is one of my favorites. I was watching the restored version recently and surprised that the nearly-complete cut of the film comes in at two and a half hours, which is almost Beysian in it's excess, but still enjoyable. It also hit home that Metropolis is by no means a subtle movie. We modern audiences demand subtly and complexity to our films but Metropolis beats you over the head with the themes in a way that few films do. The closest modern example that comes to mind is Moulin Rouge.
A close second is Guy Madden's Dracula: Pages form a Virgin's Diary. He does the Dracula ballet as a silent film, complete with elaborate, Expressionist sets and different color filters (and even spot colors: the lining of Dracula's cape is always blood red, even in the sepia or blue scenes). It really plays up the sexual politics that are subtext in the book and Bela Lugosi film version. Plus it's just a beautiful fucking ballet.
Jared 06.23.11 at 5:01 pm
I second Dovzhenko's Earth, and let's not forget Vertov and Pudovkin. And as everyone has noted, Keaton is fantastic. Like Chaplin he mixes slapstick and pathos, but in a different combination.
I prefer the Lubitsch silents to his talkies. Lady Windermere's Fan and The Marriage Circle are fantastic. And so is Vidor's The Crowd.
For experimental silents (surrealism and cubism mostly) see Kino's "Avant-Garde: Experimental Cinema."
Modulo Myself @27:
Is there an American edition of Les Vampires? I've been looking high and low for one and all I can find is a low rez version on YouTube.
HP 06.23.11 at 5:27 pm
Ditto on the Kino Metropolis with the reconstructed original score.
I've had more than one silent movie completely ruined by inappropriate music on the DVD. (Note to DVD packagers: Great as Jelly Roll Morton is, he does not belong on a silent film soundtrack. Not at all. That goes double for films made before 1920.)
Is there no love on this thread for Lon Chaney? There's a scene early in Phantom of the Opera where he first appears to Christine only as the shadow of his hands on the wall, and it's one of the most astonishing performances I've ever seen.
I'm also fond of Barrymore's Jekyll and Hyde.
The Kino version of _Earth_ (or at least one version) also has _The End of St. Petersburg_ and _Chess Fever_ (about obsessed chess players) by Pudovkin on it. Both are pretty interesting. There's a horrible scene in _The End of St. Petersburg_ of a horse dying that I'll never forget.
I raved about Keaton's speed and athleticism earlier, but forgot to mention his face. One of the silliest falsehoods in film history is the claim that Keaton was a stoneface. In fact, his face is infinitely expressive, endlessly varied.
One way of noting this is that he is the clear model for the contemporary film actor who best carries on the silent-film tradition, namely Gromit the dog. Pretty much Gromit's entire repertoire of expressions comes from Keaton.
George 06.23.11 at 6:03 pm
Napoléon, by Abel Gance. Very watchable on its own merits, and rather stirring in a Heinleinian sort of way…a guilty pleasure.
Tom Hurka 06.23.11 at 6:05 pm
I second (or third) Keaton's Seven Chances. Pretty nondescript for the first 3/4 and then a chase scene to end all chase scenes for the last 1/4. Just spectacular. Saw it with my son — Silent Sundays at the local rep cinema — and then had to see it again.
The Railrodder is National Film Board from the 1960s, when Keaton was old and largely forgotten. But Stoneface with wrinkles is the best Stoneface.
"Is there no love on this thread for Lon Chaney?"
There is love. I prefer him with a little less makeup etc where you can see what a great actor he was.
Just this week, I was researching Bluebird Photoplays, which was early Universal's (1915-1925) quality line and extremely popular and influential in Japan, and came across a site discussing some early Lon Chaney and Rex Ingram films.
I was going to mention Thompson and Bordwell, who are into early silents, but I presume there are lots of sites out there.
Jim Flannery 06.23.11 at 6:43 pm
Second Les Vampires. Also A Page of Madness. Ménilmontant. Man with a Movie Camera. The Barrymore Don Juan. Underworld. The Unknown. Where to stop …
Ian Woodke 06.23.11 at 6:56 pm
Keaton, Eisenstein, Vertov, Dovzhenko, and Murnau are my favorite silent directors. I'd check out the major works from them.
js. 06.23.11 at 6:59 pm
Seconding (or fifthing or something): Les Vampires — it's really really amazing. Fast paced and fun to watch, visually stunning (great use of filters, among other things), really can't say enough good things about it.
Sunrise and Pandora's Box are also really brilliant (as several people have mentioned).
To mention one film no one else seems to have (surprisingly): Battleship Potemkin — thought this would be a relatively obvious one. Yes, maybe a few of the scenes don't hold up as well, but the Odessa Steps sequence just by itself is worth most films ever made (also, for people who haven't seen the film, it's worth noting that the sequence is much longer than you might imagine it being — it was certainly much longer than I'd expected it to be).
js.
Alph said:
[Keaton] is the clear model for the contemporary film actor who best carries on the silent-film tradition, namely Gromit the dog. Pretty much Gromit's entire repertoire of expressions comes from Keaton.
Interesting, esp. when one realizes (as I did not at first) that Gromit has no mouth. So he's basically forced to be a silent-film character. (Or a character in a Harlan Ellison story.)
gocart mozart 06.23.11 at 7:26 pm
I have to echo others with "Watch Buster Keaton fer chrissakes!" Also, Battleship Potemkin (saw it in a college history class) The '80's movie 'The Untouchables" stole the "baby carriage rolling down the steps" scene almost frame for frame from Potemkin. Visually it was way ahead of its time.
How about a Tom Mix movie. I say this only because I am distantly related, 5th cousin 3 times removed I think.
Frank in midtown 06.23.11 at 7:27 pm
per Chris and Ajay it's a military expedition then!
Chess Fever
http://video.google.it/videoplay?docid=3727820471573567512&q=chess#
Sam Hankins 06.23.11 at 7:46 pm
"Nanook of the North" was pretty special to me when I was a kid; haven't seen it since. Nanook's director, Robert Flaherty, made a gorgeous melodrama, "White Shadows in the South Seas" which is notable for being filmed on location in Tahiti and presents a rather powerful indictment of Western exploitation of the serene Pacific Islanders. It's very beautiful to look at.
Fargo North, Decoder 06.23.11 at 7:50 pm
Douglas Fairbanks! His Thief of Baghdad is wonderful–thrilling, magical, and more than a little sexy.
For what it's worth I found Battleship Potemkin dull and Metropolis overpraised, but it's about forty years since I've seen them. Much prefer contemporary Hollywood studio stuff. On the other hand, Sunrise is every bit as good as they say. To some extent the usual impression of silent film is based on the 1916-1925 period, whereas in the last few years in movies like Sunrise and The Wind (or Hitchcock's English comedy The Farmer's Wife, a much lesser movie) they seemed to be moving toward a new film grammar that was liberated from the sometimes oppressive titles.
Since someone mentioned Nanook of the North, I should say I always get a thrill out of the much earlier Land of the War Canoes (the least offensive of its titles), directed I believe by the photographer E S Curtis.
Am I the only one to prefer Harold Lloyd to Keaton? Very fond of Girl Shy, partly because I'm fond of aborted wedding films, a genre that apparently died with The Graduate. On Keaton, I have a standard humorous argument with my kids on whether the most famous movie ever shot in Cottage Grove was The General or Animal House. At least Belushi and friends refrained from starting a forest fire like Keaton did.
Harold Lloyd is well worth watching also.
musical mountaineer 06.23.11 at 8:31 pm
I see one mention of Jean Vigo on this thread, but nothing about L'Atalante (1934). I'd have expected everyone to pile on. If nothing else L'Atalante is the best date movie ever, approaching the best date movie theoretically possible.
ben w 06.23.11 at 8:34 pm
Well, it's not an early film, but it is silent: I really like Dracula: Pages from the Virgin's Diary.
Actually early silent films I esteem: Hamlet with Asta Nielsen; The Cottage on Dartmoor (a silent film in which the characters attend a talkie, which is depicted in the film itself!); He Who Gets Slapped (possibly simply owing to the circumstances in which I saw it, crouched on the floor of a restaurant in Chicago with music provided by Califone); The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, and, like everyone else, Sunrise.
Not Nosferatu, though. I've seen it multiple times and each time I discovered anew what henceforth I hope to remember: it's kind of boring.
I've only seen the beginning of Girl Shy but the scenes anticipating the seduction [initially written, incorrectly but somewhat happily, "sexuction"] techniques crowd are funny.
On review, "sexuction" is a horribly unattractive word.
As opposed to "-unction" and "-auction".
I have nothing against Harold Lloyd. But when his on-screen persona is put next to that of Keaton or Chaplin, he comes across as somehow lightweight.
I seem to recall reading somewhere that Lloyd's character was one of the models for Maxwell Smart. I'm not sure how that could be verified or disproven. But their method of eye-widening double-take is surely similar.
"Sir, thus it is," said Dr. Johnson, "this is the proportion. As Maxwell Smart is to Gromit, so is the proportion of an Harold Lloyd to a Buster Keaton".
andrew 06.23.11 at 9:30 pm
I've never really been able to get into most of the feature-length (by today's standards) silents – mostly I watch them for historical reasons, or in the hopes of being surprised – but Keaton and Lloyd's shorts are pretty good. There some Keaton on the Internet Archive, like One Week, here. Overall, I really prefer Lloyd to Keaton and Chaplin.
I second the recommendation of The Crowd. One of the few full silents I really have enjoyed.
Oh, The Unknown is that Lon Chaney film with [spoilers omitted]. I really like that one too. Although his one talkie where he plays a ventriloquist pretending to be an old woman who sells parrots is my favorite of the Chaney films I've seen (admittedly, not many).
Brainz 06.23.11 at 10:33 pm
Les Vampires is full of amazing images. It's also how I learned that I wasn't stuck with the piano music on the DVD — I recommend early PJ Harvey as the soundtrack. Polly Jean makes a great Irma Vep.
Tony Lynch 06.23.11 at 11:29 pm
Chaplin hated his movie "The Circus" – he doesn't even mention it in his autobiography – but the hall of mirrors scene still send me into hysterics.
Ben Alpers 06.23.11 at 11:30 pm
Among the silent films I simply love (most of which have already been mentioned) are…
Murnau's Sunrise and The Last Laugh
Vidor's The Crowd (this hasn't been mentioned yet but is wonderful)
Pabst's Pandora's Box
also Vertov's Man with a Movie Camera
All are wonderful movies and great works of art.
I have in the past taught some of the early Griffiths. A Corner on Wheat is terrific and teaches well. But I particularly like showing The Lonedale Operator (1911) and The Girl and Her Trust (1912) (the latter is available at archive.org and on various DVDs; the former in the Treasures from American Film Archives DVD set). The second is essentially a remake of the first. And it's fascinating to see how Griffith had complicated his filmic language over the year that separated them (Griffith was directed something like eighty films a year at the time).
bill.who 06.23.11 at 11:39 pm
Jared's comment about Lubitsch and Vidor reminded me of another favorite. King Vidor's "The Big Parade" has an emotional directness and a great feeling of honesty that almost subvert the movie as entertainment. I suspect that subversion was intentional.
maidhc 06.24.11 at 2:09 am
Yes, Keaton, all of Keaton. Laurel and Hardy.
Caligari and Potemkin must be seen because they are real pioneering works. The same is true of Birth of a Nation, despite its subject matter. But I rather liked a couple of the films Griffith made as an apology for BoaN — Intolerance (especially if you're a Grateful Dead fan) and Broken Blossoms. Way Down East has the classic ice floe sequence in it that should be seen. I haven't seen Orphans of the Storm, but with the Gish sisters in it, it could be promising.
I rather like Max Linder, who was a big influence on Chaplin. His films really give you the feeling of a by-gone age. He was the first to do the mirror scene that the Marx Brothers used later. Unfortunately real success eluded him. He was too racy for America; apparently he was very popular in Russia. Lupino Lane was another under-rated comedian.
I love Winsor McCay's animations, most of which are based on his Dreams of the Rarebit Fiend comic strip. You can see a number of scenes there that were copied in later films (particularly King Kong).
Most of Lon Chaney's films are good — Phantom of the Opera and Hunchback of Notre Dame are ones where he set the bar for later versions. Nosferatu is another horror film worth watching, although I find it uneven.
Thief of Baghdad I saw with full live orchestral accompaniment, and that was really something. Wings has its moments, but The Big Parade is better. Robert Flaherty's films are interesting, but a lot of the action seems to have been staged. Anything directed by von Stroheim. The Last Laugh (a favourite of Roger Ebert). The Crowd.
You are going to be busy for a long time if you follow everyone's recommendations, but you will see some great films.
jeems 06.24.11 at 2:25 am
the silents and the talkies are two differant mediums. comparing them is pointless. i am a HUGE fan of silents and i love watching them. yes, the acting might be hammy but they are almost like moving paintings.
Gene O'Grady 06.24.11 at 3:00 am
Note that in Lon Chaney's very last film (I think he was dying of cancer at 47) he plays a character called Mrs. O'Grady. No relation. And not germane to this discussion because it is also his only talking film.
I didn't mention Way Down East because most versions represent the quite unintelligent truncation when it was rereleased in the thirties, and even the academically correct version is frustratingly incomplete. Of course the incomplete (I believe that's now true rather just lost) silent film I really want to see is the 1925 Great Gatsby, partly for interest and partly to get a sense of pre-canonical Fitzgerald.
Nababov 06.24.11 at 4:13 am
Erotikon's got some hot dance sequences in it.
Pinky Tan 06.24.11 at 4:25 am
The only silent films I remember watching are the ones by Charlie Chaplin… cant forget that classic slapstick comedy.
Lemuel Pitkin 06.24.11 at 7:23 am
Man With a Movie Camera as several people have mentioned.
Blue Angel as, surprisingly, no one has.
R.Mutt 06.24.11 at 9:43 am
Blue Angel is a talkie.
Massilian 06.24.11 at 10:16 am
L'Atalante by Jean Vigo is NOT a silent movie ! It was Vigo's last film and was released in 1934. But I agree it is a very good movie, one of Michel Simon's best act.
Lemuel Pitkin 06.24.11 at 10:39 am
R. Mutt- you're right. Funny I remembered it being silent.
chris y 06.24.11 at 10:52 am
Un chien andalou.
I'll get me coat.
R.Mutt 06.24.11 at 11:07 am
* Lon Chaney is amazing in The Unknown as a criminal with double thumbs who has his arms amputated to win the love of Joan Crawford.
* The Alps are very beautiful in the melodrama Visages d'enfants.
* A Page of Madness is the Japanese Caligari.
* In The Mysterious Lady Garbo is breathtaking.
* Asta Nielsen as Hamlet.
* Rudolph Valentino: The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse
* Others have already mentioned The Man with The Camera, but there are more good city symphonies: A propos de Nice, Berlin: Symphony of a Great City…
* Many recommended Murnau, but somehow everybody forgot Tabu.
* Frank Borzage's great trilogy Seventh Heaven, Street Angel and Lucky Star.
AntiAlias 06.24.11 at 12:16 pm
Buñuel's L' âge d'or, all the way.
Funny I remembered it being silent.
One thing I find interesting about a number of early "talking" movies is that people talk in them _a lot_ less than in modern films, and have less background sound, too. This is so with Lang's early "talking" movies- M, The Testament of Dr. Mabuse, films like Ecstasy, and so on. One I watched recently (I can't remember which it was now) had no talking for 20 minutes or so, including places where you'd expect it, making me think it was a silent movie. Maybe it was expensive and difficult, and people didn't expect much talking yet.
Lee A. Arnold 06.24.11 at 2:11 pm
I like Chaplin, but I love Buster Keaton. Chaplin has more sentiment, but Keaton's gags take more ingenious advantage of camera and frame. This combines with his great acrobatic talent to make a new sort of character in a slightly different physical universe. He is funny, but I just find him to be dazzling. The effect is enhanced by watching the 16 frames per second at 24 fps, a sort of happy accident in the history of film projection. (By contrast, some of Chaplin's emotional scenes, such as the end of City Lights, might work better at original speed.)
My favorites are Seven Chances, Steamboat Bill, Jr., and The General. There are some great shorts. There is an early short, I think it is called "One Week", in which Keaton and his new bride are pushing their new house on rollers across train tracks, and a train just misses them. I won't give you the end of the gag. Dazzling. I want to live in a Buster Keaton world!
Carl Dreyer's "Vampyr" is one of the most atmospheric things you'll ever see. His "The Passion of Joan of Arc" deserves all its praise. It is an exhausting thing to watch, but exhausting in the best way.
I also love Hubbard's "Mysterious Island" though that might not qualify as a silent film, because Barrymore does speak a line and music was appended to later prints.
I think that Lon Chaney, Sr. is one of the best actors there is. When I watch silent film, I'm mindful of what pioneers those people were. I believe that for most of the silent era, the convention was very nearly to film a stage play, so I keep that in mind when I watch early films.
R.Mutt 06.24.11 at 3:33 pm
Buñuel's L' âge d'or, all the way.
Technically, another talkie. Some scenes still use inter-titles, but there are nice dialogues too. ("What joy! What joy in having killed our children!")
annie 06.24.11 at 4:01 pm
SusanC 06.24.11 at 4:06 pm
I'm a big fan of German expressionism, in film and other media.
So it's not surprising that I'd recommend:
G. W. Pabst Pandora's Box
F. W. Murnau Nosferatu
Fritz Lang Metropolis
.. all of which have already been mentioned.
Diary of a Lost Girl, the other G. W. Pabst/Louise Brooks collaboration, is pretty good too.
John Holbo 06.24.11 at 4:11 pm
Fun thread! But will no one confess to being bored silly by silent film? C'mon, you can't ALL love it.
Jim Harrison 06.24.11 at 4:28 pm
I'm not a big fan of silent movies, though I believe my indifference to them has more to do with unfamiliarity than anything else. I do know they can be extraordinarily powerful. After watching Napoleon by Abel Glance at the grand old Castro Theater in San Francisco many years ago, I was ready to invade Northern Italy.
David Frye 06.24.11 at 5:03 pm
I see a couple of comments have recommended Harold Lloyd already. I'd second that, though I've only managed to see one of his flicks. Among the great silent US (-filmed) comics, Keaton is as great as they say, and most of his films are pretty watchable and technically advanced for their time, though the plot tends to drag, and you're always waiting impatiently for Keaton to get back on the screen. (The General is great as a movie of its era, but its pro-Confederate p.o.v. kinda creeps me out.) Chaplin is both funny and brilliant in bursts, but he also has a ponderous tone and Dickensian sentimentality that threaten to overwhelm each movie. I happened across Lloyd's The Freshman in my public library and found it unexpectedly hilarious and as fresh as the day it was made. If you like that sort of comedy, that is.
I'm probably the exception, but contrary to Mr. Holbo's last post I really do love silent movies and find almost anything made in the last twenty years with its slickness, quick cuts, and glorification of the rich and cool to be totally boring.
I come pretty close to being bored silly by silents sometimes. At least, I find they often test my attention span, which is probably why I prefer the comedy shorts.
On talkies that seem like silents, there are a number of transitional films that seem to have been shot originally as silents but then re-done – dubbed and re-edited, sometimes with scenes re-shot for speech – as talkies. Harold Lloyd's Welcome Danger and Capra's Younger Generation are both like this. I'm sure there are many more.
Thanks for the Keaton suggestions, all; we're going to watch The General and Steamboat Bill, Jr. this evening.
phosphorious 06.24.11 at 6:10 pm
"Fun thread! But will no one confess to being bored silly by silent film? C'mon, you can't ALL love it."
I didn't want to be "that guy," but since you insist. . .
I don't really like silent film, and the ones I do like (Lang's Mabuse, anything by Keaton) I like for their genre value (crime/detective, comedy) rather than as "silent."
I would argue that sound replaced silent in a way that color did NOT replace black and white. As jeems notes above, silents and talkies are two very different kinds of things.
And talkies are better. Discuss.
Not only are there silents that were redone as talkies, but Hitchcock's Blackmail was made as the first English talkie and then redone as a silent since most theatres weren't equipped for talkies. The version I have seen is in fact a composite; weird effect when the talking starts one or two reels in. Plus the lead actress (Any Ondry, married to Max Schmeling if anyone is interested) couldn't speak English without a thick accent, so someone else did the speaking. Shades of the Lillian Gish Scarlet Letter, where the costar and director were Swedish.
The General and Steamboat Bill, Jr.
(…or possibly Go West and Steamboat Bill, Jr.)
Maybe it was expensive and difficult, and people didn't expect much talking yet.
Yes. The equipment was bulky and difficult to set up (cameras weren't really soundproof yet, etc.) , so there was a big loss in the ability to move the camera expressively — what really stands out in the early talkies is how static they are visually compared to the late silents, which had developed a whole language of camera movements that had to be put on the shelf for years; so sometimes the dialog was still stinted in the interest of looking like something more than a filmed play. (Hint: if you're finding a mid-20s film boring, watch the camerawork!)
Also, sound came late to Japan, so their late silent period (into the 30s) skipped that regression and kept developing otherwise … that stuff is amazing.* And more "modern" acting styles came much earlier to Japanese silents; pretty much anything from the 20s feels much more naturalistic than the US work of the time.
*For folks in the Bay Area: Ozu's 1933 Dragnet Girl is at Pacific Film Archive at 7pm today (Friday 24th). GO!
92 is exactly right.
For something different, people might rent or look for Mizoguchi's Water Magician or Orizuru Osen. These DVD's included Benshi narration. I loved it.
As the film industry and art form developed in Japan, the presence of a benshi came to be part of the film. Benshi not only read the interstitials on silent films, and voiced all on-screen characters—perhaps most significantly for filmmakers, benshi would also add their own commentary, explaining what was happening in a shot or describing what had happened in confusing edits or sudden transitions. Some benshi were known to interpret and add to a script, for example reciting poetry to accompany a moving visual.
When you watch Dragnet Girl tonight, or I Was Born…But, or Apart Fron You remember the directors knew the benshi would be there, although the relationship did get complicated, e.g., the long takes might have developed to give benshi room to talk, and quick cutting made their jobs more difficult.
Ben Alpers 06.24.11 at 9:06 pm
That certainly describes the very early semi-talkies like The Jazz Singer (in fact, Sunrise, which is of course a silent, was also one of the first films originally released with a synced musical soundtrack).
But it doesn't describe the early Lang sound films. Lang was the last major German director to film with sound. M, his first sound film, came out four years into the sound era. And while in certain ways it's very like a silent film (in that it doesn't have a lot of dialogue) it is incredibly creative in its use of sound. In a sense, Lang waited to film with sound until he had come up with something interesting to do with this new technology.
It would be interesting to have a thread devoted to early sound films that we love. Though, at the end of the day, most of my favorite films are from the sound era, these early sound films are, on the whole, harder to like than the silent classics. The sound revolution happened very fast and filmmakers didn' t really know what to do with sound or how to adapt to the often cumbersome equipment that went along with it. Early on in the sound era, cameras had to be encased in huge bubbles designed to insulate the microphone from the camera noise. While many of the great late silents we've been discussing featured incredibly mobile cameras (think of the Lady from the City's night walk in Sunrise or the Coney Island sequence from The Crowd), early sound films were incredibly static.
And only a few filmmakers came up with really creative ways to use sound in these early years. Lang is one of them. Another one is René Clair, whose early musical comedies Sous le toits de Paris (1930), Le Million (1931) and À nous la liberté (1931) still hold up pretty well. (Here's the opening sequence of Le Million)
93: It's called the "Talking Silents" collection, you can search at Amazon. The benshi narration is in Japanese with English subtitles, more lively and emotional, and frankly more intelligent and artistic than I was expecting.
There are questions about the inexplicable shots of objects and "pillow shots" in movies by Ozu and Naruse that might be answered by getting our hands on a benshi script. Watch Dragnet Girl with that in mind.
Ginger Yellow 06.24.11 at 10:25 pm
The equipment was bulky and difficult to set up (cameras weren't really soundproof yet, etc.) , so there was a big loss in the ability to move the camera expressively—what really stands out in the early talkies is how static they are visually compared to the late silents,
Part of it, as you say, was the lack of soundproofing. Part of it was also the poor microphone technology. A fun game with early talkies is "spot the hiding place for the mike".
But will no one confess to being bored silly by silent film?
Well, I'm pretty discriminating as to what I'll watch, and I'll admit to paying close attention to the length of the film in most cases. (Mabuse is a clear exception, though I did watch it over a couple of nights.)
Thanks also to several people for the information on the early talking films. Very interesting.
J Edgar 06.25.11 at 5:10 am
I landed in the middle of the comments, and before I got to the original post, I was thinking of Woman in the Moon as a silent movie ahead of its' time with clever concepts. Like Metropolis, there are little theatrical touches throughout (a lot of corn, also). And it was visionary in the rocket launch sequence. The up-right rocket is carried on a giant tractor from the hanger to a launch site, there is a count down, and it is a multi-stage rocket. And when they are orbiting the moon they watch the craters roll below them, a lot like the Apollo movies – until you realize that it is a actual roll of painted crater images that is rotating beneath the camera.
Woman in the Moon does not touch the emotions, but it did not need sound to be a great film. I was fortune to see a beautiful loaned German print at the Castro Theater, with organ accompaniment.
andrew 06.25.11 at 5:22 am
I remember reading somewhere, maybe even on Wikipedia, that Mamoulian reportedly said that he would move the camera anyway, sound problems notwithstanding, because he thought the audience would be so interested in the visual that they would forgive the momentary drop in sound. I don't know how that worked out in practice, but his films really are more dynamic than many others.
How are people defining early sound? I haven't been keeping close track, but it seems like I've seen very few pre-1931 talkies, and quite a few more from 1931-1933 (mostly I try to catch them on TCM, if I can). I actually quite like the uneven, experimental aesthetic of early 1930s films, which isn't quite the same as saying that I love many of those films, just that I seem to be more forgiving of their quirks. This may be as much about pacing, editing and plot as it is about sound and camerawork, though. Admittedly, once I decided to try to watch more early sound films regardless of plot, I started to come across a lot more dull, plodding, stationary films.
gocart mozart 06.25.11 at 6:17 am
Harold Lloyd's "Safety Last"- 1923 [only 7.5 min. ]
Benjamin Christensen's silent Häxan (1922) was remade in 1965 with a voice-over track by William Burroughs. Witchcraft Through the Ages
Platonist 06.25.11 at 2:32 pm
Keaton is essential but very, very overrated. For comedy, I prefer Harold Lloyd. "The Freshman" is a favorite. Chaplin is a god, but not of laughs, but melancholy beauty. He's closer to, say, Billy Wilder's The Apartment than conventional comedy. Gold Rush, City Lights, Modern Times are all superb. Monsieur Verdoux is an overlooked existentialist classic.
I think in silent films the official must-sees are usually inferior to other films by the same director. So watch not that, but this:
Not Keaton's The General, but Sherlock Jr, Our Hospitality, or Steamboat Bill
Not Pabst's Pandora's Box, but Diary of a Lost Girl or Joyless Street
Not Eisenstein's Battleship Potemkin, but October or Strike
Murnau, Sunrise: Song of Two humans, no question
Vertov, Man With a Movie Camera (absolutely astonishing, miles ahead of contemporary film)
Vigo's l'Atalante (wonderful, wonderful)
King Vidor's The Crowd
There are many wonderful, nearly forgotten Swedish silent films, especially by Sjostrom (including The Wind which stars Lillian Gish) and Mauritz Stiller (Gosta Berlings Saga, starring a young Greta Garbo).
For lighter stuff, with fun special effects:
Haxan: Witchcraft throughout the ages.
Thief of Bagdad.
Absolutely everything by Melies, including of course Voyage to the Moon.
As for the notion of being bored by silent films, this is misguided in so many ways. First, it makes as much senses as finding sound films non-boring *as a class*. It's just too broad. Second, it's a lot like great literature–there are boring bits that can be essential to the appreciation of the whole. Finally, it's usually the viewer's fault. We've been trained to look at movies as virtual theater, so we get bored because we're looking for the wrong things (this is often true of graphic novels, too). Watch silent films with your eyes primarily, like you'd look at a painting or a photograph or a landscape. They're boring like the Grand Canyon is boring.
"I had mixed feelings about this one. I can see the greatness of some of it, but also, the director should have been told that shots other than extreme close-ups on the actors' faces were possible."
In a run of the mill film, I'd understand this sentiment, but who would want this mad, gorgeous, intense, unique film to look like every other? It's powerful precisely because the camera never lets up the intensity, never gives you a break from face to face, eye to eye contact with the living, sweating, pore-marked human beings who will kill or be killed. Absolutely no way could it have been filmed differently.
Plus, you get to see Antonin Artaud act! How is that not the best thing ever?
Almost forgot, in the fun effects category: The Adventures of Prince Achmed.
An animated film based on Arabian nights and made from cut paper silhouettes, it's surely to appeal to Holbo's love of retro graphic illustration. I also suspect it's the inspiration for the recent popular Sita Sings the Blues.
About the closeups in Passion of Joan of Arc, I saw that movie in 1966 and the faces of the female lead whose name I forget and Artaud are still vivid in my mind. So no complaints here.
Also, The Wind is not a Swedish film even if it had a Swedish director and male lead. It was sponsored by Gish and Irving Thalberg, made by a major US studio, and filmed near Bakersfield.
The commentary track on the Kino Joan disc has some information about the close-ups, which are of course striking for the lack of make-up. Dreyer had access to some new film stock that allowed for the no-makeup approach. Apparently before this point heavy make-up was required because the film wouldn't register certain tones. I don't know exactly how that makes sense but apparently it would have been impossible to make a film that looked like "Joan" before it was made, because the bare skin would have looked bizarre rather than naturalistic.
Harold 06.26.11 at 1:40 am
The Thief of Bagdad and Napoleon. Though I haven't seen many of the other worthy ones mentioned here. I also loved Mamoulian's early sound "Love Me Tonight". I also loved Mel Brooks' "Silent Movie" in which only Marcel Marceau spoke.
I should add that I hadn't a clue who Artaud was when I saw the film; didn't find out until my Seneca seminar six years later. But I remembered the face.
David Frye 06.26.11 at 11:35 am
Since writing my post above, I've actually seen one more silent flick: an early Hitchcock movie, "The Manxman" (1929). This was Hitchcock's last fully silent movie, of at least six that he directed. (His next film, "Blackmail," also 1929, was shot silent and then turned into a talkie, sort of like the recent movies that have been 3-D'd after the fact.) Curious film. You can definitely tell it's a Hitchcock — and you can also tell that Hitchcock was straining after the suspense and plot pacing that he only really achieved with the talkies. Like "Joan of Arc" (as remarked in comments above), its "naturalistic" closeups of the actors' faces make it seem much more modern than earlier silent films, and you can tell that the film stock is much better than what had been available only a few years earlier. (One of the three lead actors in The Manxman, a veteran of the silent screen, still seems to be wearing the face paint, which makes him look like he stepped out of a 1920 film into one from the 30's…)
But the bottom line on "The Manxman" is that, good as it is, by the last hour I turned to the one saving grace of silent films: when you get bored with the pacing, you can hold down the fast forward button and still get the entire story in 1/3 the time!
Tony Lynch 06.27.11 at 5:52 am
If this isn't sublimely funny, then nothing is. Chaplin & Keaton together in Limelight:


text:
Original Pax 1 Vaporizer Review
Mighty vs Volcano
Crafty Vaporizer Review
Pax Vaporizer vs Volcano
Mighty Vaporizer vs Plenty Vaporizer
How To Spot A Fake Pax Vaporizer
Best Desktop
All Portables
Extreme V-Tower Vaporizer Review
By VapeGuide • 6 years ago
V Tower Review
The V-Tower Extreme by Arizer is a digital desktop vaporizer with a range of features and a lower price than its successor, the Extreme Q, but given that it's been around for a while, just how viable of an option is it in today's highly competitive vaporizer market? That's the question we're going to be answering in this review so if you're interested in learning just how well it stacks up against the competition, you'll want to continue reading this review.
Novice vapers rejoice, this vape is designed for you. If you're just getting into the world of vaping, you might be looking for something simple and that's just what this is. But while some simple vapes forgo digital temperature controls in favor of analog systems, the reality is that digital temperature controls like that which is offered by this particular vape are actually easier to use. With its precision temperature controls, which consist of up and down arrows accompanied by an LCD display, you can easily adjust the temperature in increments of one degree to reach the exact vaping temperature of your choosing. For us, we tend to prefer to use it around the 400-degree marker, but we suggest you play around with the settings in order to find the one that works best for you. And if you're wondering if it operates in Celsius as well as Fahrenheit, the answer is yes.
While the dual-wall, stainless steel enclosure that is the body of the Tower stays cool to the touch, it's worth noting that the glass components can and will get hot so it's best to allow them time to cool before touching them.
The entire device, which is crafted from only high-quality materials, weighs in at just 428 grams and measures just 170 millimeters tall. And with a base diameter of just 166 millimeters, you shouldn't have any problem finding some space on a desk or table to plop it down and begin vaping.
As far as delivery options are concerned, the V Tower only offers one option: the whip. For those who are unfamiliar with this classic approach to vapor delivery, the whip entails a tube or hose that is used to carry vapor from the oven to the user. The Extreme Q, also made by Arizer, offers an additional mode of delivery made famous by the Volcano Vaporizer and that's the bag, which is also known as a balloon. While we haven't been terribly impressed with the Q's bag delivery method, we do enjoy the whip delivery modes of both the V-Tower and the Extreme Q.
The ceramic heating element contained within the V-Tower heats up quickly and does well to maintain a consistent vaping temperature. In order to maintain the set temperature which a high level of consistency and accuracy, it relies on not one, but three heat sensors that are used to determine the actual temperature of the heating element. And between all this, the vapor that it helps produce is some of the best we've come across. It's not only relatively thick and visible, but it's also tasty.
In order to use it, simply turn it on, select your desired vaping temperature, and wait for it to heat up. Once it's reached the temperature you've selected, go ahead and attach the whip. After taking a few hits, we suggest giving your ground blends a quick stir before you continue vaping.
The V-Tower comes with everything you need — short of the dried blends you'll be vaping unless you're cool with using the sample aromatic botanicals that they include with it — to get started. This includes a power adapter, glass cyclone bowl, glass aromatherapy dish, glass stirring tool, a 3-foot silicone whip, spare dome screen, and a manual.
While its construction is solid, Arizer still makes it a point to cover it under its manufacturer's warranty so you can rest assured that they'll take care of you if there's something wrong with your purchase. The warranty coverage entails a lifetime warranty on the heating element and a limited 3-year warranty that covers defects in workmanship and materials. The one aspect that is not covered by their warranty is the glass.
With its digital temperature controls, you can set the V-Tower's vaporizing temperature anywhere from 122 degrees Fahrenheit to 500 degrees Fahrenheit. This is, for those who don't realize it, a very wide temperature range that exceeds that of most vaporizers we've encountered.
When this vape first came out, it was a wonderful addition to the vaporizers that were on the market at the time. But since its release, quite a few superior vaporizers have hit the shelves, however, this does not mean that the V-Tower isn't still one of the best vaporizers for the money because it is. Its low price tag makes it highly competitive and its vapor quality puts it up there with the best of them. If you're looking for a nice vape, the V-Tower has got you covered. But if you ask us, its successor, the Extreme Q, is a better option. It offers everything the Tower offers and more. As a result, we recommend buying the Extreme Q vaporizer instead. But if you're content with its limitations and don't care for the extra features offered by the Q, there's no reason why you shouldn't buy this vape. If you are going to buy it, we suggest you buy it from this authorized Arizer dealer.
The Breakdown | Extreme V-Tower Vaporizer Review
The V-Tower, like every Arizer vaporizer we've come across, is not only well made and reliable, but fun to use. While it's not quite as good as the company's Extreme Q, it's still a solid vape for a good price.
Click Here to Check Price
Vapor Quality 7
Appearance 6
Arizer Vaporizers Digital Vaporizer Reviews Tower Vape Tower Vaporizer Reviews V Tower Vaporizer
Arizer Solo Review
Extreme Q Review
Mighty Vaporizer Review
Volcano Digit Vaporizer Review
DISCLOSURE: To cover the costs of independent research and reviews, VapeGuide is paid a small referral fee if you purchase through our links. This is fully absorbed by the retailer and in no way raises your cost. We strive to provide objective information that will encourage our readers to trust our opinions and return to this site for future vaping research and purchases. We can continue only due to your purchases through our links, and are grateful for your support.
© VAPEGUIDE.COM 2020 - All Rights Reserved.
Vaporizer News

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
RaceFans > Essential F1 information > F1 biographies: Drivers and other significant figures > Who's who: M > Franck Montagny
Franck Montagny
Franck Montagny enjoyed a brief Formula 1 career that ultimately spanned just seven race starts and a best finish of 16th.
After testing for Minardi in 2002 Montagny became a test driver for Renault. He remained with the team until the end of 2005 but never got a chance at a race seat. However, four races into the 2006 F1 season Montagny got a break when Super Aguri driver Yuji Ide's superlicence was revoked and the team found itself in need of a driver.
Montagny performed as consistently well as the uncompetitive car would allow him. But he was dropped before he had the chance to race their new SA06 as a Japanese driver, Sakon Yamamoto, was put in the car to please the team's sponsors.
Montagny tested for Toyota in 2007
Montagny then signed to be the test driver for Toyota from 2007, but never returned to competition in F1. He later raced sportscars and in Champ Car, before a one-off outing in IndyCar in the Indianapolis Grand Prix with Andretti, but retired after half distance in an accident.
Later that year he joined the Andretti squad for the newly-formed Formula E championship. A last-lap collision between the two leading drivers in the season-opening race in Beijing allowed him to claim second place. A drive-through penalty at the second race in Malaysia left him 15th, but this was only the beginning of his troubles.
Following the race at the Putrajaya circuit Montagny tested positive for a cocaine derivative. As well as being disqualified from the race he was handed a two-year ban from motorsport.
Montagny effectively retired from racing following his ban and never raced competitively again. He currently works as a television analyst, bringing a high-energy and eccentric flavour of punditry to Canal+'s F1 coverage in France.


Madcats is an independent branding agency from Kiev. We create brands that define the future of business. The peculiarity of our methodology to the maximum the team involved in the project and an integrated approach. We are the team of strategists, designers, marketers and dreamers who have come together to change for the better future of our business associates.


We are running a second Ben Nevis Helibike due to the interest shown after our first one. We get dropped off at the top of Ben Nevis and ride back down to the Wairoa Gorge including the Downhill tracks at the bottom to finish off. This is a grade 4+ ride that involves a bit of carrying and scrabbling in the middle section, but some great views and fantastic riding make it well worth the effort.


text:
ICEFLOW
Honda CRF450R 2021 – Air Filter Products
For 2021 Honda has released an all-new CRF450R, including a redesigned airbox.
Twin Air has developed a standard replacement Air Filter, Grand Prix Cover, Airbox Cover and Radiator Sleeves.
In some respects, motocross was born in the Netherlands.
It was here, in 1947, that the Dutch national motorcycle federation hosted an international "scramble" for teams from Great Britain, Belgium and the Netherlands, and called it a "moto-cross."
While the sport's popularity grew steadily over the next 25 years, one thing that remained constant was the frustration of off-road biking in the Netherlands. The lowland dunes and fields offered the perfect terrain for riding, but the stock paper air filters of the day were no match for the sandy, gritty soil. There was a paper filter with a single layer of foam, but even that didn't cut it for protection; after 30 minutes it was shot.
In 1972, the motocross world was given a historic boost by a revolutionary product: a laminated, dual-foam air filter that, when soaked in a special oil, allowed free airflow into the carburetor while keeping dirt, grime, sand and water out of it. It was effective, durable, washable and reusable. It took off, and the little start-up company that invented it, called Twin Air, hasn't stopped ever since.
Evolving continually with motorcycle design and technology, Twin Air filters and accessories have stayed ahead of the competition for half a century. Today they are available for all Motocross and ATV vehicles, and distributed worldwide. Twin Air filters are OEM-specified for 20+ motorcycle companies.
©2020 TWIN AIR USA


NicolleDiammond . CatriceTee. MalenaSun. SharmelX.
MiaLacepassionalstefyCassandraMoonMarikaSmit .johnhappybadkenw34ThinLadyBellaLATINAvsASIANBOY .RyanMichaeldeepindianholeArtyHotLATINAvsASIANBOY .TianicaRaeAvinCuteKenzie69neighci .SarahBonsAvina0DouglasPrinceMiaLace .johnhappybada0GoddessJanepassionalstefyLeticce .MAXX69SexyPexyHopa0GoddessJaneSexyPexyHop .DirtyBimboa0DouglasPrinceSexyPexyHopSofiaCharming .BrownEyedBoyxxLadyElsaHotLATINAvsASIANBOYJohnStyle .johnhappybadAvinalexacoldBellaAbella .missescaponeCuteKenzie69AriannnaMiaLace .
missescaponeDIRTY69AdrienneCoberHeyHandsome .DeliciousNightXa0DouglasPrinceAFRIDITHAxSWEETCarllaBradley .ArtyHotAshtonCrystallatinsofiasm95SarahBons .BabyBlues0525SarahBaleasianROYALQUEENSneighci .ulyanovovkaLATINAvsASIANBOYulyanovovkaLadyElsaHot .MalenaSunDivaSEXproviderFunnyKate95AngeliqueGenesis .CarllaBradleyLittleJodiePuffyMarySoovasoni .johnhappybadtsbigcockcum4uDeliciousNightXAFRIDITHAxSWEET .latinsofiasm95JeassyqueenHootNataliRyanMichael .missescaponejhorcockFetishKrystalDirtyBimbo .Maria8MariahoneydiiiamondAmeliaMatzzdeepindianhole .


ARKMODEL 1:48 Single-Pump Water Tight Cylinder Containment Kit (for German VIIC Remote Control Submarine) Dynamic Submarine Model Kit WTC for VIIC (Single pump tank) Kit. Already included servos, ESC, BCU. Sealing chamber kit (single pump cylinder) W7603GPK. This WTC is for Germany Type VIIC Submarine. It can also fit similar size, double shaft submarine hull. This WTC equipped with pump tank ballast system. The WTC has large space. Fit with T-sockets and 12-pin sockets for function update. All parts made by inject ABS plastic/nylon, easy to assemble.
Thank you and enjoy your shopping time^-^. More Videos and photos welcome to check and follow our. The item "WTC Kit Single Pump tank Water Cylinder For German U-Boat VIIC 148 Submarine" is in sale since Friday, December 15, 2017. This item is in the category "Toys & Hobbies\Radio Control & Control Line\RC Model Vehicle Parts & Accs\Other RC Parts & Accs".


The Adelaïde Oxford is a classic to get a very formal shoe, or all the opposite by ordering two-color!
Luxury is often hidden in the details, notice the rank of prominent seams along the "drop of water" apron.
Model proposed in a Goodyear construction with closed channel stitching.


Forensic Animation is a technically accurate computer-generated visualization of a complex event. A series of still images are displayed in rapid succession and gives the illusion of vehicle motion.
Generally, there are 3 types of animation: Demonstrative, Simulation, and Tutorial. Demonstrative animations visualize the expert's opinion. Simulation animations visualize "what if" scenarios based on hypothetical situations. Lastly, tutorial animations are intended to instruct or educate the jury on a specific process or scientific principle.


text:
Andrew Seal Edmond Caldwell Helen DeWitt John Guillory The Millions
Listmania vs. Lake Woebegone
October 1, 2009 by Lee
X-posted at Plasma Pool.
There is an interesting emerging conversation about The Millions' recently published "Best [Books] of the Millennium" list on a number of blogs I follow. First, Edmond Caldwell over at Contra James Wood questions the whole premise of list-making, associating such lists with the predominantly corporate character of the imprints represented on the list: "the listing and ranking game goes on–and on and on–as if all sectors of society were afflicted with a kind of mass obsessive-compulsive disorder or species of autism. "If ordered lists like this must exist," stipulates Andrew Seal – but why must they? Why should we submit to such fatalism? Where do these lists come from, whom do they benefit, and what ultimate ideological function do they serve?"
Andrew Seal, responding to Caldwell on his blog, (fatalistically?) argues that "I don't really see how I'm going to stop them [literary lists]. They have a manifest utility for a number of different types of readers: they make well-read people feel good, both by allowing them to sneer at them and by allowing them to note what a great percentage of the list they've read; they allow younger (or less well-read) readers to get a feel for which books to allocate their temporal resources toward; they allow readers with well-defined tastes to pick attention-grabbing fights; they allow readers with no well-defined tastes an opportunity to pick up one. These lists don't function as tools for generating a consensus which a critique can overturn or disrupt; they exist to attract a broad range of interests, many of which contradict one another."
An interesting debate. My eyes sort of glazed over when I read The Millions list.
I bear none of these authors any animosity as individuals — though I am frankly not always fans of their books (except for those books I am a fan of!) — but The Millions list seems to me tediously predictable on a number of levels and in ways that I find it hard to articulate. I am left with a number of questions: What's the matter with lists? If lists can be used as a bludgeon in a game of status-conscious warfare, aren't lists also a convenient time-saving device, a way of getting started exploring some intellectual or cultural domain for non-initiates? If I wanted to learn more (to pick in an innocent example) about the history of Marxism, wouldn't a list of the "best" books on the history of Marxism — organized by a trusted expert on the subject — be an excellent and useful thing? Indeed, isn't a good list a way of getting started in a cultural domain, not the final word on that domain? Is there no practice of list-making which is ideologically neutral? John Guillory has a lot to say about the ideological function of the list in the canon debate in Cultural Capital, but Helen DeWitt gives what seems to me the most lucid answer I've found to some of my questions; explaining why she refused to submit her judgments to the listmakers, she writes that "[t]he only writers who stand any chance of making it into the top 20 are going to be writers a significant number of other contributors have also noticed – which means they are wildly unlikely to come from the undeservedly neglected. They will come from the pool of writers who got promoted, who won acclaim, in other words from the much smaller pool of writers many of us have happened to hear of."
Aggregation around socially interesting "nodes" is perhaps an inevitable part of social life, but — as I've discussed elsewhere — such nodes are also deeply self-reinforcing. In artificial music markets where "consumers" can see the preferences of other "consumers," initial consumer clustering (almost at random) around certain "seeds" has a powerful effect on subsequent consumer choice. That is, if you happen by chance to take an early lead in a competitive race in an open market, social clustering around apparent "winners" will create feedback loops. The popular become more popular, and the unpopular become less popular. (Moreover, this difference in popularity isn't just a cynical consumerist copying of the tastes of the Joneses — it's not all about status anxiety — but is arguably experienced sincerely as pleasure or disgust, though this is a secondary point.) In this context, if the form of the list has an ideological function, it is to reduce thought to a sort of cant, to give an illusion of superiority of one item in a field of more or less equally good (middling) products. Genuine superiority or inferiority is exceedingly rare. Experiments that construct artificial music markets in which consumer choices are genuinely independent — where you make your own choice and issue a rating independently of others — demonstrate in general that consumers have no particular preference for one artist or another, except at the tail ends of the distribution. If you stink, you won't get very far; if you're great, you'll always do modestly better in your ratings. If you're in the middle of the stack, your fate is a crap shoot.
If we accept this admittedly speculative analysis, and are willing to apply it to our conversation about books, what do these results portend for literary lists? It seems to me that all we can say about lists is that their popularity and consistency is a symptom of a highly stratified, hierarchical culture in which truly independent thought is incredibly hard to find. Eliminating lists will not eliminate this stratification or the social forces that drive us toward some canonized set of authors. To make an unjustly bold claim, given the sketchiness of my evidence: a just distribution of attention — attention allocated in a society where highly educated individuals made genuinely autonomous value assessments, independent of marketing and spin, under conditions free of coercion — would reveal the (arguably) fundamental sameness of most literary and artistic products or at least make constructing literary lists impossible, since the autonomous judgments of a hundred judges like DeWitt would not cluster around any nodes whatsoever. These lists would look like statistical noise to us. Some small set of artists might garner slightly more attention under such conditions, others a bit less, but most would — like the children of Lake Woebegone — be equally regarded as (slightly) above average, and we would be forced at last to love all our above-average children equally.
io9 on PA


text:
package io.debezium.connector.postgresql.connection;

import java.nio.ByteBuffer;
import java.sql.ResultSet;
import java.sql.SQLException;
import java.util.Arrays;
import java.util.concurrent.TimeUnit;
import java.util.concurrent.atomic.AtomicLong;

import org.postgresql.PGConnection;
import org.postgresql.replication.LogSequenceNumber;
import org.postgresql.replication.PGReplicationStream;
import org.postgresql.replication.fluent.logical.ChainedLogicalStreamBuilder;
import org.slf4j.Logger;
import org.slf4j.LoggerFactory;

import com.google.protobuf.InvalidProtocolBufferException;

import io.debezium.config.Configuration;
import io.debezium.connector.postgresql.proto.PgProto;
import io.debezium.jdbc.JdbcConnection;
import io.debezium.jdbc.JdbcConnectionException;

/**
 * Implementation of a {@link ReplicationConnection} for Postgresql. Note that replication connections in PG cannot execute
 * regular statements but only a limited number of replication-related commands.
 *
 * @author Horia Chiorean (hchiorea@redhat.com)
 */
public class PostgresReplicationConnection extends JdbcConnection implements ReplicationConnection {
    private static Logger LOGGER = LoggerFactory.getLogger(PostgresReplicationConnection.class);

    private final String slotName;
    private final String pluginName;
    private final boolean dropSlotOnClose;
    private final Configuration originalConfig;
    private final Integer statusUpdateIntervalMillis;

    private long defaultStartingPos;

    /**
     * Creates a new replication connection with the given params.
     *
     * @param config the JDBC configuration for the connection; may not be null
     * @param slotName the name of the DB slot for logical replication; may not be null
     * @param pluginName the name of the server side plugin used for streaming changes; may not be null;
     * @param dropSlotOnClose whether the replication slot should be dropped once the connection is closed
     * @param statusUpdateIntervalMillis the number of milli-seconds at which the replication connection should periodically send status
     * updates to the server
     */
    private PostgresReplicationConnection(Configuration config,
                                         String slotName,
                                         String pluginName,
                                         boolean dropSlotOnClose,
                                         Integer statusUpdateIntervalMillis) {
        super(config, PostgresConnection.FACTORY, null ,PostgresReplicationConnection::defaultSettings);

        this.originalConfig = config;
        this.slotName = slotName;
        this.pluginName = pluginName;
        this.dropSlotOnClose = dropSlotOnClose;
        this.statusUpdateIntervalMillis = statusUpdateIntervalMillis;

        try {
            initReplicationSlot();
        } catch (SQLException e) {
            throw new JdbcConnectionException("Cannot create replication connection", e);
        }
    }

    protected void initReplicationSlot() throws SQLException {
        ServerInfo.ReplicationSlot slotInfo;
        try (PostgresConnection connection = new PostgresConnection(originalConfig)) {
            slotInfo = connection.readReplicationSlotInfo(slotName, pluginName);
        }

        boolean shouldCreateSlot = ServerInfo.ReplicationSlot.INVALID == slotInfo;
        try {
            if (shouldCreateSlot) {
                LOGGER.debug("Creating new replication slot '{}' for plugin '{}'", slotName, pluginName);
                // there's no info for this plugin and slot so create a new slot
                pgConnection().getReplicationAPI()
                              .createReplicationSlot()
                              .logical()
                              .withSlotName(slotName)
                              .withOutputPlugin(pluginName)
                              .make();
            } else if (slotInfo.active()) {
                LOGGER.error(
                        "A logical replication slot named '{}' for plugin '{}' and database '{}' is already active on the server." +
                        "You cannot have multiple slots with the same name active for the same database",
                        slotName, pluginName, database());
                throw new IllegalStateException();
            }

            AtomicLong xlogStart = new AtomicLong();
            execute(statement -> {
                String identifySystemStatement = "IDENTIFY_SYSTEM";
                LOGGER.debug("running '{}' to validate replication connection", identifySystemStatement);
                try (ResultSet rs = statement.executeQuery(identifySystemStatement)) {
                    if (!rs.next()) {
                        throw new IllegalStateException("The DB connection is not a valid replication connection");
                    }
                    String xlogpos = rs.getString("xlogpos");
                    LOGGER.debug("received latest xlogpos '{}'", xlogpos);
                    xlogStart.compareAndSet(0, LogSequenceNumber.valueOf(xlogpos).asLong());
                }
            });

            if (shouldCreateSlot || !slotInfo.hasValidFlushedLSN()) {
                // this is a new slot or we weren't able to read a valid flush LSN pos, so we always start from the xlog pos that was reported
                this.defaultStartingPos = xlogStart.get();
            } else {
                Long latestFlushedLSN = slotInfo.latestFlushedLSN();
                this.defaultStartingPos = latestFlushedLSN < xlogStart.get() ? latestFlushedLSN : xlogStart.get();
                if (LOGGER.isDebugEnabled()) {
                    LOGGER.debug("found previous flushed LSN '{}'", ReplicationConnection.format(latestFlushedLSN));
                }
            }
        } catch (SQLException e) {
            throw new JdbcConnectionException(e);
        }
    }

    @Override
    public ReplicationStream startStreaming() throws SQLException {
        return startStreaming(defaultStartingPos);
    }

    @Override
    public ReplicationStream startStreaming(Long offset) throws SQLException {
        connect();
        if (offset == null || offset <= 0) {
            offset = defaultStartingPos;
        }
        LogSequenceNumber lsn = LogSequenceNumber.valueOf(offset);
        LOGGER.debug("starting streaming from LSN '{}'", lsn.asString());
        return createReplicationStream(lsn);
    }

    protected PGConnection pgConnection() throws SQLException {
        return (PGConnection) connection();
    }

    private ReplicationStream createReplicationStream(final LogSequenceNumber lsn) throws SQLException {
        assert lsn != null;
        ChainedLogicalStreamBuilder streamBuilder = pgConnection()
                .getReplicationAPI()
                .replicationStream()
                .logical()
                .withSlotName(slotName)
                .withStartPosition(lsn);
        if (statusUpdateIntervalMillis != null && statusUpdateIntervalMillis > 0) {
            streamBuilder.withStatusInterval(statusUpdateIntervalMillis, TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS);
        }

        PGReplicationStream stream = streamBuilder.start();
        final long lsnLong = lsn.asLong();
        return new ReplicationStream() {
            // make sure this is volatile since multiple threads may be interested in this value
            private volatile LogSequenceNumber lastReceivedLSN;

            @Override
            public PgProto.RowMessage read() throws SQLException {
                ByteBuffer read = stream.read();
                // the lsn we started from is inclusive, so we need to avoid sending back the same message twice
                if (lsnLong >= stream.getLastReceiveLSN().asLong()) {
                    return null;
                }
                return deserializeMessage(read);
            }

            @Override
            public PgProto.RowMessage readPending() throws SQLException {
                ByteBuffer read = stream.readPending();
                // the lsn we started from is inclusive, so we need to avoid sending back the same message twice
                if (read == null ||  lsnLong >= stream.getLastReceiveLSN().asLong()) {
                    return null;
                }
                return deserializeMessage(read);
            }

            private PgProto.RowMessage deserializeMessage(ByteBuffer buffer) {
                try {
                    if (!buffer.hasArray()) {
                        throw new IllegalStateException(
                                "Invalid buffer received from PG server during streaming replication");
                    }
                    byte[] source = buffer.array();
                    byte[] content = Arrays.copyOfRange(source, buffer.arrayOffset(), source.length);
                    lastReceivedLSN = stream.getLastReceiveLSN();
                    return PgProto.RowMessage.parseFrom(content);
                } catch (InvalidProtocolBufferException e) {
                    throw new RuntimeException(e);
                }
            }

            @Override
            public void close() throws SQLException {
                stream.close();
            }

            @Override
            public void flushLSN() throws SQLException {
                if (lastReceivedLSN == null) {
                    // nothing to flush yet, since we haven't read anything...
                    return;
                }
                stream.setFlushedLSN(lastReceivedLSN);
                stream.setAppliedLSN(lastReceivedLSN);
                stream.forceUpdateStatus();
            }

            @Override
            public Long lastReceivedLSN() {
                return lastReceivedLSN != null ? lastReceivedLSN.asLong() : null;
            }
        };
    }

    @Override
    public synchronized void close() {
        try {
            super.close();
        } catch (SQLException e) {
            LOGGER.error("Unexpected error while closing Postgres connection", e);
        }
        if (dropSlotOnClose) {
            // we're dropping the replication slot via a regular - i.e. not a replication - connection
            try (PostgresConnection connection = new PostgresConnection(originalConfig)) {
                connection.dropReplicationSlot(slotName);
            }
        }
    }

    protected static void defaultSettings(Configuration.Builder builder) {
        // first copy the parent's default settings...
        PostgresConnection.defaultSettings(builder);
        // then set some additional replication specific settings
        builder.with("replication", "database")
               .with("preferQueryMode", "simple"); // replication protocol only supports simple query mode
    }

    protected static class ReplicationConnectionBuilder implements Builder {

        private Configuration config;
        private String slotName = DEFAULT_SLOT_NAME;
        private String pluginName = DEFAULT_PLUGIN_NAME;
        private boolean dropSlotOnClose = DEFAULT_DROP_SLOT_ON_CLOSE;
        private Integer statusUpdateIntervalMillis;

        protected ReplicationConnectionBuilder(Configuration config) {
            assert config != null;
            this.config = config;
        }

        @Override
        public ReplicationConnectionBuilder withSlot(final String slotName) {
            assert slotName != null;
            this.slotName = slotName;
            return this;
        }

        @Override
        public ReplicationConnectionBuilder withPlugin(final String pluginName) {
            assert pluginName != null;
            this.pluginName = pluginName;
            return this;
        }

        @Override
        public ReplicationConnectionBuilder dropSlotOnClose(final boolean dropSlotOnClose) {
            this.dropSlotOnClose = dropSlotOnClose;
            return this;
        }

        @Override
        public ReplicationConnectionBuilder statusUpdateIntervalMillis(final Integer statusUpdateIntervalMillis) {
            this.statusUpdateIntervalMillis = statusUpdateIntervalMillis;
            return this;
        }

        @Override
        public ReplicationConnection build() {
            return new PostgresReplicationConnection(config, slotName, pluginName, dropSlotOnClose, statusUpdateIntervalMillis);
        }
    }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
#import "NSObject.h"

@interface PoolResource : NSObject
{
    long long currentItemPoolDiff;
    long long currentItemPoolValue;
}

@property(nonatomic) long long currentItemPoolValue; // @synthesize currentItemPoolValue;
@property(nonatomic) long long currentItemPoolDiff; // @synthesize currentItemPoolDiff;
- (id)initWith:(long long)arg1;

@end


text:
3/04/08 at 12:00 AM
It's hard to compete with Flannery O'Connor. Even if it is just a letter to a librarian, bitching about critics and lamenting the brain-dead old ladies that populate her town, as up-and-coming writers go, "O'Connor" is never a name you want to follow in a journal.
But for all the offerings of the latest Meridian, O'Connor's letter, found in a section of the UVA literary journal called "Lost Classic," sets standards of wit and intimacy with the reader that, unfortunately, many of the modern-day offerings fail to live up to in a large way. Critics of MFA programs like to point out that the piles of paper graduate writing students pump out are, if technically proficient, lacking in certain qualities of discovery and a more visceral communion with the reader. To say this a different way, a lot of writers can carry a well-observed detail for three pages without telling a goddamn story.
What most of the short stories in the latest issue of Meridian lack in character or exploration of emotion, they make up for in atmosphere and voice. This, however, is not an even trade. Daniel Hoyt's short story "Big Springs" is not quite flash fiction—it runs three-and-a-half pages—but not long enough to build any tension to play with. Like most of the fiction here, it is so aware of itself as a story that it puts the reader at such a great distance that it is hard to connect with not only the characters and the first-person narrator, but the voice and tone of the story.
"We didn't so much make love as jerry-rig it," says the narrator. "Staple it together. Spit on it and add friction." This rhetorical jump doesn't obscure the writer and inform the character; it does the opposite.
Tyler Stoddard Smith has the bad luck of having an epistolary short story appear in the same issue as the O'Connor letter. "War is a Dish Best Served Haute" is a series of letters between the head chefs of Franklin D. Roosevelt and Hitler as World War II rages on. It's the type of story that starts with a wonderful idea but goes absolutely nowhere, relying on the juxtaposition of haute cuisine talk and total war for heavily manufactured absurdity that grows old fast. The two chefs, separate characters the writer would have us believe, sound an awful lot alike in their letters.
But Maryse Meijer's story "Home" hums along with little commentary by the author, and this straight-ahead style puts the two main characters, a young woman and an older man in a confusing and semi-threatening new relationship, starkly in front of the reader. The pull of the story, and there is plenty, comes not from overt writerly devices but from the tension that Meijer is able to create with pinpoint description, the right word and the right moment and, most importantly, knowledge of and sympathy for both characters.
In an issue so prose-heavy, it's easy to overlook the poetry, so I'll do just that. But Jenny Gillespie's poem "Driving Back with No Map" bears mentioning. She wrings enormous amounts of energy and tension from short lines and breaks at both natural and surprising grammatical places. The best poems here are the quietest, like Jolee G. Passerini's "After Eleven Years."
Like most journals, there are one or two pieces that make picking up Meridian worth the effort. Meijer's story is one. David McGlynn's meditation on competitive swimming is another. The rest leaves one to wonder what the editors value in writing—the Kabuki-like plume of writers writing to write, or writers grabbing the reader by the collar with something to say.
Post visits UVA's JuicyCampus [March 3]
Corner owner confirms CVS interest [March 5]
Side effects: Cell tower emissions at Western still issue for some
By C-VILLE	Writers	| LEAVE A COMMENT
By Caroline Eastham Aesthetics seemed to have gotten more discussion than health risks when Albemarle County approved a cell tower at Western Albemarle High last fall. The tower will provide sorely needed cell service to Crozet and internet access to over 400 homes and businesses, yet some say
A green dream: City Council passes ambitious goal for carbon neutrality
By Matt	Weyrich	| LEAVE A COMMENT
The City of Charlottesville has set a plan in motion to reduce its carbon footprint—and it's not messing around. On June 24, City Council unanimously approved a proposal to curtail carbon emissions by 45 percent over the next 11 years and achieve an end goal of carbon neutrality by 2050. It's
Muzzled: Free speech wall creator shuts down
By Lisa	Provence	| LEAVE A COMMENT
During its heyday, the Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression was known for calling out censorship with its Muzzle awards and for launching the Downtown Mall's Free Speech Wall in 2006, where luminaries like John Grisham and Dahlia Lithwick turned out to chalk the first
One way: Wintergreen wants an emergency exit
By Samantha	Baars	| LEAVE A COMMENT
There's only one way in and one way out of Wintergreen, where residents and the local fire department have called for a second emergency exit for more than a decade, and where the topography is strikingly similar to that of Gatlinburg, Tennessee—the site of the November 2016 inferno that killed
Show and tell: Holsinger Portrait Project develops a more complete picture of local history with photographs of African Americans
By Erin	O'Hare	| LEAVE A COMMENT
DNA. Deoxyribonucleic acid. Two chains coiling around one another, a spiral ladder of genetic material we inherit from our parents. It informs, on a biological level, who we are—how our bodies develop, both inside and out—the strength of our heart muscles and the shape of our bones, the color
In brief: Vapers' vapors, Bird scooters scoot, (a different) Bellamy joins race, and more
It's the (new) law July 1 not only heralds the start of another hot summer, but it's also when new laws go into effect. Things you were doing legally on June 30 (ahem, 20-year-old vapers) are now against the law. And sometimes vice versa (hello, happy hour). Nicotine users: Virginia bumps the
Ground-ed: UVA considers requiring second-years to live on campus
Every college student knows it's coming. Do it right, and you're securing an enjoyable experience for two semesters of your college career. Mess it up, and you may be looking at a 12-month sentence of living with that guy who never learned how to do the dishes. Signing that first lease, even if
Going it alone: Charlottesville Tomorrow dumps Progress, broadens mission
When Charlottesville Tomorrow began in 2005, it was one of the first nonprofit, local news orgs in the country. Its mission was so narrow—land use, community design, transportation—that another local weekly called it a "growth watchdog." The online publication broadened its name recognition and
Paige's pay cut: New details on former council chief of staff's resignation
Paige Rice, the former Charlottesville chief of staff and clerk of council who was indicted on felony embezzlement charges June 7, decided to resign from her post in September because her salary was reduced just two months after she received a raise and expanded role, according to documents
Where's McFadden? Emotional plea from family of missing teen
The family of Dashad, aka Sage, Smith made a moving, at times tearful request for help in finding the man last seen with the teen missing since 2012, while urging the community to not get hung up on pronouns or the name by which Smith is identified. At a June 27 press conference,
The Power Issue: Our annual look at C'ville's movers and shakers
Our annual, and always subjective, look at the movers and shakers around town is a mix of stalwarts and surprises. Here's our take on the people shaping our city and county this year, for better or worse. We hope it gets you talking. Politics Nikuyah Walker Since Mayor Nikuyah Walker
Honored or demeaned: City Council seeks Native American advice on respecting Sacagawea
More than two hundred years after she departed North Dakota as a member of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, Sacagawea of the Shoshone tribe is at the center of controversy in Charlottesville—again. At issue is her depiction in a statue on West Main, where she crouches at the feet of Meriwether
In brief: Money flows, DP/CTom breakup, Tracci runs, and more
Funding cut loose Long-on-the-books redevelopment plans for Friendship Court, Southwood Mobile Home Park, and Crozet's town center got millions in funding last week. Southwood and Crozet Plaza each got a $3.2-million go-ahead from Albemarle's Board of Supervisors June 19, contingent upon
No free lunch: Paid parking comes to Belmont
When the ParkMobile signs went up June 15, the paid parking designation caught Belmonters by surprise. Parking can be a challenge in the neighborhood, and customers at two new restaurants, Belle Coffee & Wine and No Limits Smokehouse, had been using the adjacent lots for free. Now, they'll
Threat of ICE raids creates fear in local immigrant communities
Although President Trump walked back his order to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to conduct mass roundups of migrant families in major U.S. cities over the weekend, the delay did nothing to forestall the anxiety already created in the local immigrant community. The raids were
Building space: Women break into the skilled trades
By Carol	Diggs	| LEAVE A COMMENT
Anne Lassere is the very model of a young woman whose career is about to take off. Competent, confident, poised and well-educated, the daughter of a doctor and a lawyer, she's studied sculpture and anthropology and has lived in France, where she worked as a translator. She's recently left her
In brief: Rice reactions, RBG ruling, TJ's party over, and more
'Odd' indictment The felony embezzlement charge against former City Council clerk Paige Rice, 37, for an iPhone and Apple Watch valued at more than $500 has many scratching their heads. "It seems very unusual it got to this point without a resolution," says attorney Scott Goodman. "It seems
City ban: Prosecutor boots Queen of Virginia gaming machines
The lights flash and a series of images roll across the screen. A row of matching pictures are lined up around the board and the word "WINNER" greets players, accompanied by a cha-ching sound if they secure the top prize. No, this isn't a slot machine. In fact, according to the Virginia
Bloom time: Chris Greene Lake dodges algae so far
By Eileen Abbott In the serenity of an early June morning, while mountain mist embraces the treetops, pilot Mandy Baskin's hot air balloon gently floats above Chris Greene Lake Park, off U.S. 29 North, her favorite scenic launch site. "The water looks so clean and inviting lately. It's
'Progressive energy:' Hudson, Payne wins signal generational shift
In the end, the 57th District race pitting a millennial and a baby boomer for the open House of Delegates seat wasn't even close. Thirty-year-old Sally Hudson crushed two-term City Councilor Kathy Galvin with 66 percent of the vote in the June 11 primary. The same dynamic played out in the


May is Older Americans Month across the nation. Athens County is highlighting this celebration with the 2019 Athens County Senior Safety Day on Thursday, May 16th at the Athens County Fairgrounds, 286 West Union Street in Athens, from 10:00AM to 2:00PM. Many groups from around Athens County have been working for months to plan a fun and informational event for everyone.
Download a brochure -COMING SOON!


A group representing Massachusetts marijuana growers officially petitioned the Cannabis Control Commission last week to review and regulate the statutorily-required agreements between marijuana businesses and their host towns, and says it plans to sue the commission if it does not act.
"We see this as them kicking the can down the road, as the Joint Committee on Marijuana Policy gave them permission quite publicly this past fall," Bernard said, referring to comments from key lawmakers who said they disagreed with the CCC's interpretation of the law. "The CCC's request for clarity does nothing but let the HCA problem drag out, and a legislative fix may never come. The Commission is acting on bad advice, and it is causing them to shirk their responsibility."