Open Thread - Thurs 19 Dec 2024 - Saturnalia is soon!
Saturnalia is Soon!
Last Sunday I watched a movie! Me! I really, really enjoyed it, which shocked the heck out of me. And, it is a Christmas movie, although that really didn't occur to me when I watched it. I wasn't paying attention to that aspect. Yea, there was a Santa in it but it was more the social and cultural stuff the movie discussed that struck me.
The movie is called 'It Happened on Fifth Avenue'. It was filmed/released in 1947. Yes, it's in black and white. It's a comedy. No, I didn't recognize any of the stars' names, except Alan Hale, Jr (Hi, Skipper!), although I recognized a face or two. You can watch it, or download it, on the internet archive.
Mom (Mary), Jim, Trudy, Dad (Michael J. O'Connor): image from the Movie Database
The plot: A hobo goes into a seasonally vacant mansion in New York owned by the second richest man in the world (Michael J. O'Connor). He ends up letting in other poor people; a guy named Jim Bullock, who is an army veteran, and other army veterans and their families who have no housing due to a housing crisis. They are all poor and had all served in WWII. The daughter of the rich man, Trudy, shows up, and joins the people living in her home, pretending to be down on her luck as well. These people do nothing bad to the home and care for it well. She ends up falling in love with Jim. Her dad (Michael/Mike) shows up and she convinces him to fake being homeless as well. She calls her mom (Mary) in to help. Her parents are divorced because all her dad cares about is money. Her mom's wonderful! Jim and the other army vets are raising money, from the poor, to buy an old army base in New York to provide homes for the poor veterans and so on. Lots of ins and outs, but basically it ends like we want it to end, Jim and Trudy together, Trudy's parents back together, and the army base turned into homes for the poor.
The social commentary on rich versus poor made by the film, especially one of the end scenes when Trudy's dad along with the army veterans throws fruit at his assistant when that assistant comes to boost them out of their homes on the old army base, was awesome! It made me remember, we've done all this before, and made me realize, we are gonna haveta get more forceful to get things done again. TPTB will only back down if forced, or if smart (right, FDR?).
I don't know why, because this is more the 'Holiday Season' (Saturnalia is in a few days!) than a political awareness or learning season, but I have been learning a lot about old political heroes and their fights in the last couple of days. I'll let everyone know some of those learning dives when I get done with them 
.
Ohh and no, I haven't gotten a new TV and I didn't watch the movie on the internet. I saw it while visiting my father at his dementia care home. My dad, myself, and a few of the other residents sat in the TV room and enjoyed the movie.
Anyway, thanks for reading. Here's the open thread - remember, everything is interesting if you dive deep enough, so tell us about where you're diving!
Comments
Happy Thursday!
Hope everything is going well for everyone in the holiday season! What's up? Whatcha doing? What's in your minds today?
Have a great Thursday and post what you are thinking. We wanna hear it!
If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so
Heya
.
Your movie sounds like an interesting
treatment of class issues post WW2.
Historians treat that period as a wondrous
boom time (for the economy) but social
upheavals are rarely mentioned.
Thanks for sharing it Sima!
question everything
Vintage film
.
This one deals with loss.
question everything
Good morning...
Sounds like a fun film. I'm amazed at all the good movies on YT. Most are old and B&W but entertaining.
Winter arrives this weekend. Hope you all enjoy the season. Thanks for the OT!
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
between two worlds
Take two
question everything
I hate it to be torn between two worlds - I always was, but
never wanted it. I even don't remember why and how it happened. oh, well, shit happens, just a bit too often.
Wishing everyone here all the best, health, peace, love and friendship.
I love this place and I think I will love it for good.
https://www.euronews.com/live
many of us are torn between two wolds
,
,
multi-polared
magnetic repulsion
glad you are still kicking
Q
question everything
Aren't most of you in the US? Which two worlds are you torn
between? Sorry for being slow to comprehend what you mean. I am pretty tired of life. So, I apologize.
https://www.euronews.com/live
an easy way to put it
.
.
there are ideals
counter-balancing
practical purpose
question everything
I recall being fond of these old bw films
As a youngun, I was mesmerized by the boobtube, but later I felt as if the acting and scripts, in general, were somehow better than the later productions of the film industry. That's an entirely subjective perception. I know a lot of the b&w productions of the "John Wayne" variety were by and large pure propaganda, and that I was unwittingly unduly influenced by them.
A new movie produced in South Korea is Harbin, about the assassination of former Resident General, Ito Hirobumi by national hero/ independence fighter Ahn Jung-geun. It's perfectly timed for release imo, given the current political circumstances, and the new right's huge effort to rewrite and suppress Korean history, especially that of the independence movement during the colonial period imposed by imperial Japan. The historical drama is scheduled for theater release in SK on Dec 24.
'Harbin' cast and director chart legacy of Korean independence hero
Pic below of Ahn Jung-geun, left, and his victim Ito Hirobumi:
(Source- KBS 1 History Journal, ep. 199) Ito was assassinated by Korean patriot Ahn Jung-geun, October 26, 1909 in Harbin, China.
This is from one of Ahn's pieces of calligraphy according to the Wikipedia-
Thanks for the OT Sima!
語必忠信 行必正直
Good stuff soryang
.
.
一日不讀書口中生荊棘
same goes with writing
to keep the thorns out
question everything
Well, I finally got here. Only took 5 & 1/2 hours.
I saw that film a few times as a kid, would probably have a much idfferent perspective today, and possibly different today from last week.
Yesterday la58 (iirc) recommended aeon to QMS, and since I have stumbled across specific pages/articles that I liked before, I loaded up the site. (aeon.com) There I quickly found an article titled The Order of Anarchyhttps://aeon.co/essays/what-san-francisco-carpooling-tells-us-about-anar..., which talks initially about a Berkeley "organic" ride-share system, for rides from Berkeley to SF's financial district. I actually remember it well. It evolved on its own, out of nowhere, as a win-win for drivers and riders due to the peculiarities of the bridge toll system.
The author expands from there, referencing several works of a particular anarchist writer/advocate. What he speaks to isn't "overthrow the state" anarchy, nor "anarchist party/organization" anarchy, but the anarchy that just grows out of the right circumstances, a self-organizing phenomena where people, independent of governments or formal organizations evolve solutions to issues or ways to exploit opportunities. Unorganized self-rule that does not tend to become Lord of the Flies The Berkeley free ride-share phenomenon still thrives and will so long as the circumstances favor it and the law allows it. There is a lesson there.
The funny thing is, when I read the summary of the plot of It Happened on 5th Avenue above I suddenly saw the shadows and outlines of some such unorganized self-rule that became formalized and yet grew out of anarchic beginnings. There is much we can all learn and understand about the possibilities of success through "relative autonomy from the state". For starts, there is a booklist embedded in the aeon article, starting with James C Scott’s The Art of Not Being Governed , which I just might have to procure and read.
If it isn't obvious, I recommend the article.
be well and have a good one
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
yeah, it is a good site
.
many good ideas to use
for future essays
question everything
If I would question everything, there would be no time
to think about the answers. Why should I question then in the first place. Sorry for beiing ... nasty.
https://www.euronews.com/live
The solution
-
is generally simpler than the question.
IMO
question everything
Good afternoon, Sima!
I much prefer old movies over the newbies. I only watch a movie on rare occasions, typically when traveling. It is interesting that families and family values depicted after WWII look nothing like those in modern movies, or even modern advertisements.
I hope your Dad is faring well. Great that you can be around for him.
I will close the office for several days over Christmas and again at New Year. A short trip is planned, just to see what the beach in MS is like.
Thanks for the OT, chica.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981