Elmo Aardvark Strikes Again!

Here's another installment in the "Adventures of Elmo Aardvark" by the great cartoonist and painter Milton Knight. Enjoy!

To Be Continued?

Only time will tell! 

Movie Magic ala Georges Melies!

The Tiny Dancer (aka 'The Dancing Midget') (1902)
Starring: George Melies, an Anonymous Actor, and an Anonymous Ballerina
Director: Georges Melies
Rating: Seven of Ten Stars

A magician (Melies) conjures an assistant, eggs, and ultimately a miniature ballerina. But he's saved his greatest trick for last!

 "The Tiny Dancer" is one of the many films by stage-magician-turned-pioneering-special-effects-artist Georges Melies performs cinema-enhanced magic tricks that culminate either in a magical mishap or a visual joke of some sort. I'll not say how this one turns out, because I don't want to spoil anything.

I've said before that this type of film are among my least favorite of Melies output. That said, this one is lively and amusing enough that it kept my attention throughout. The ending also make me snicker, and I always appreciate the short films that leave me smiling (for the comedies) or squirming (for the horror films).

But why don't you check it out? It's only a couple minutes long. Let me know in the comments whether you liked it or not!

Also, if you see Elton John, recommend that he check it out, too. I think he'll love it, for obvious reasons.

Annie Wersching passes away at 45

Annie Wersching, an extremely talented character actress who's had recurring roles on several of my recent favorite television series--such as "Bosch", "The Rookie" and "Timeless"--has lost battle with cancer. She passed away, entirely too young, on January 29, 2023.

She began her career as a stage actress, but turned to television in the early 2000s and found great success. She was diagnosed with cancer in 2020, but kept her health condition private and continued to work until she completed her scenes and the story arc of the serial killer Rosalind Dyer on "The Rookie" in 2021.

We mark Wersching's passing with sadness and a small gallery of photos in her memory.

It's January...

 ... for just one more day. 

 

Well, Lois January will still be January come tomorrow. She hopes!

Musical Monday with Maggie Reilly

"Everytime We Touch" is a beautiful song with a trippy, mildly creepy video. When I first heard the song, I thought it was another team-up of Reilly and the great Mike Oldfield. When I saw the video a short time later, I WAS certain it was another team-up between Oldfield and Reilly... why else would that guitarist be in shadow like thet? I took it as confirmation of my assumption, because it felt obvious that Oldfield didn't want to steal the spotlight from her. Additionally, I made up a story about the weirdness going on in the video; maybe I'll relay it some day.

Of course, I was WRONG about this song being a team-up between Reilly and Oldfield. That's NOT him on guitar, and this is not a song from his pen, which became obvious to me as I grew up and my ear became more refined. I still like my little fantasy about Oldfield making an anonymous cameo appearance this video.

If you've never heard this song (which was a huge hit across Europe in 1992 and 1993), I hope you'll fall in love with it as I did and that you, too, will come to think of it as "the greatest Mike Oldfield song he never wrote".

By the way, I'm not the only person who made wrong assumptions about this song and who performed it. Adults and even musicians have made the same mistake, as you'll learn from looking at the comments on this video... or from just watching this really well-done cover of "Everytime we Touch" at YouTube.

It's a Mohammed Monday!

We continue our bi-weekly celebration of freedom of expression and our opposition to anyone who would threaten artists and creative people with violence.

THIS WEEK WITH JESUS AND MO

How are the dancers doing?

On International Dance Day 2022, the ballerinas ran off into the wild. We're trying to keep track of them, and we'll try to bring you updates on the last Wednesday of each month until International Dance Day 2023.

As you may recall, we were worried for the ballerinas as winter arrived. But, as it turns out, they're still doing fine! 

Some are just ignoring the cold and snow...

... and others have come back indoors...

... where most are staying close to the windows, so they know as soon as the weather's fit for them to run outside again!

Although maybe they share more in common with cats than grace and the ability to land on their feet?

Musical Monday with Zella Day

A good cover tune is one where the performer captures the essence of the song. A great cover tune is one where the artist captures the essence of the song and makes it their own in every way.

Singer Zella Day has recorded a cover of Ozzy Osbourne's "Crazy Train" that is not only great, it's FANTASTIC. What's more, it is supported by a great video that is equally effective in capturing the essence of "Crazy Train." (The only, very nitpicky complaint that I can even think to mount is that maybe it should have taken place in a train car rather than the back of an open-topped car.)

Crazy Train (2020)

Starring: Zella Day

Director: Cameron McCool

Rating: Nine of Ten Stars

Click here for a post where you can enjoy Ozzy's original "Crazy Train" song. (Scroll to the bottom.)

It's the Year of the Rabbit!

It's the start of a new week on my calendar, and it's the start of a new year on traditional Chinese calendar. Welcome to the Year of the Rabbit, everyone! We're kicking it off with some photos of the first Chinese-American movie star, Anna May Wong (a third-generation American who was born and raised in California).

 

'Troublesome Secretaries' is a goofy romantic comedy

Troublesome Secretaries (1911)
Starring: John Bunny, Mabel Normand, and Ralph Ince
Director: Ralph Ince

Rating: Seven of Ten Stars

An overprotective father (Bunny) fires his personal secretary (Ince) after he becomes romantically involved with his teenaged daughter (Normand). The girl then launches several schemes to get around her father and be reunited with her heart's desire.

"Troublesome Secretaries" is one of the few surviving films (and film fragments) featuring cinema's first international superstar, John Bunny. He was among a handful of established, well-regarded stage actors who understood and fully embraced the potential of film, and he was as important to building the emerging industry as it was to elevating his star beyond all others. 

By the time of Bunny's death in 1915, it was predicted by film fans and professional critics alike that his name and image would continue on forever in human memory thanks to film. As it turned out, Bunny and his early contribution to the art and business of filmmaking would be all but forgotten by the public at large by the dawn of the 1920s. Barely a decade after is death, most of the films in which he appeared were no longer available, because studios habitually destroyed used film prints and original negatives rather than go through the trouble and expense of storing them.

This film is typical of Bunny's emphasis on films that relied more on character interaction than slapstick, and, despite the films lightning-fast pace, viewers still get a good sense of the father's overbearing and persnickety nature, as well as his daughter's capricious and independent ways. Her boyfriend is the sort of bland male romantic lead that will dominate romantic comedies and mystery films for the next thirty years... or maybe the character got a little more personality in the missing third act of the film.

Contrary to my usual habit, I am reviewing a film that has survived to the present day without it's story intact. I have reviewed other films of which no complete copy exists (this Bessie Love vehicle comes to mind immediately), but I don't typically try to evaluate a film that's missing major chunks of important plot material... and no version of "Troublesome Secretaries" that I've seen appears to have an actual ending. But what we have of this film is still so much fun and so well-made (and even a little modern feeling) is that I still felt it's worth calling attention to. I think even viewers who typically don't like silent movies (but who enjoy sit-coms or absurd comedies) will like this one.

For regular viewers of silent movies, this film is interesting, because we get to see Mabel Normand in an early leading role and we get to see that she had radiant screen presence from the beginning. (There's also the bitter-sweet historical fact that Normand--at the beginning of her career--would follow pretty much the same trajectory as John Bunny did: She became a superstar and a household name... and was all-but-forgotten just a few years after her career ended.)