Speakers / Silents

Thursday, 10 February 2011

Several months ago, someone from our apartment complex put an old stereo and some speakers down by the trash. They didn’t put them in the trash, just next to it…as if to say, “hey, we don’t want this stuff anymore, but maybe someone can get some use out of it.”

So, I took the stereo to work that morning and tried to see what worked. Well, nothing, really. Not the tape deck, not the CD player. The radio appeared fine, but we already have two radios in the lab. So, I took the stereo down to our electronics recycle bin.

However, I put the speakers on Craig’s List. I sold them today for $10. I know, it’s awesome.

Friday, 11 February 2011

This evening, I showed Owen a few old films. And by “old,” I mean “as old as possible.”  We watched a few one shot films from Paris and London. These were recorded in the 1890s.

We also watched The Great Train Robbery. I gave Owen a big preface in which I explained that this was the most popular film of 1903, that it was among the first films to feature cuts (as opposed to just a camera sitting on a tripod the whole time), it was among the first films with a storyline, possibly the first western, and that this was probably the longest movie most people had ever seen up to this point. I explained that it was a silent film – why that was and what it meant. I showed him what a film reel case looked like and explained how films were really on film at that time, and not digital. I explained that cuts really were physical cuts made to the spool of film.

Owen enjoyed the film and said he wanted to see more action films like that. He talked a lot during the movie, but that’s okay in a silent film.

I next showed him a couple of Billy Whiskers films. These are among the rarest films I own. Unfortunately, I don’t know a whole about the series. In fact, all I can provide here is a link to IMDB, which doesn’t offer a whole lot of insight, either: CLICK THIS. I’m not sure if these gems from 1920 are even on the internet anywhere.

Anyway…

Owen got very upset at the film in which Billy saves a baby from a burning building. Of course, the movie had a happy ending, but Owen was very nervous that a baby would be trapped in a burning building. After he got off my lap to go brush his teeth before bed, he came back crying and told Jennifer that it made him worried about Isla – that we might forget her in the event of a fire.

Jennifer reassured him that such a thing would never happen – we would definitely grab Isla and get her out of a dangerous situation like that. I explained to Owen that most movies have some sort of peril like that so that we get caught up in the plot and the action (yes, I referenced Star Wars…again), and that the footage of the baby might have been filmed miles away from where a house – specially built just for the movie – was set on fire and filmed.

I didn’t think a 1920’s silent film about Billy whiskers would cause anxiety…but I guess I should never underestimate Owen.