Saturday, July 31, 2010
New library furniture!
Thursday was spent cleaning out the back room upstairs and when Dad got home, he carried chairs down stairs and moved all kinds of lamps and end tables. By the time we all quit and went upstairs to watch a show before bed, there was only one chair and the sleeper sofa left to sit on! So yesterday, at noon, the delivery people came and two young men carried both big pieces of furniture right up the stairs and had them in place in half an hour! We couldn't have been more thrilled. So Sarah and I pushed everything around until it was right where we wanted it and then we sat upthere on the new furniture and watched some "Big Valley" episodes.
Thursday, July 8, 2010
Fasten Your Seabelts . . . Miss Bette Davis on the Big Screen
"Fasten your seatbelts. It's going to be a bumpy night." When Bette Davis said this line, the whole theatre erupted in applause! It was very cool. It was fun to listen to all the different laughs, gasps, etc. You could tell that most people had never seen it before. Especially during the big scene at the end where Addison Dewitt tells Eve that he knows all about her, people were shocked. It was fun to experience an audience of people viewing a film for the first time.
One great part of the film happens very early on when Gary Merrill delivers a very good "soliloquy" about how people should not be snobbish about their preferred form of entertainment. It still holds true today. When Bette Davis talks about being a woman is another great part. This scene is when Margo and Karen are sitting in the car, after running out of gasoline. In the film, it is Winter and they are freezing. When they filmed it, it was early Summer and, with the heat and the lights, it was over 100 degrees in the sound stage while they were acting this scene! Another great scene is when the four friends are in the Cub Room and Bill and Margo announce their upcoming wedding. The film is cast superbly and everyone works so well with each other.
Thelma Ritter is one of my personal favorites, although her character in "Eve" is more of a plot device than an actual role. She is essential to the story in the fact that she is the one who sees through Eve from the very beginning, while the principle characters are too caught up in the sentiment of Eve's story. She is so good, and what an actress. My favorite part of the film is the scene between Margo and Birdie when Margo finally realizes that Birdie is right about Eve. Eve leaves the room, Bette Davis looks over at Thelma Ritter, who backs up out the door - not saying a word - just looking at her from across the room, and the scene ends with Bette Davis sitting in bed. Not a word is spoken by either of them, yet you know the whole conversation that just passed between the two characters. Fabulous acting and Thelma Ritter has no trouble keeping up with Bette Davis. Sadly, after the main characters have been alerted to Eve's real intentions, her character is dropped and Birdie makes an understated exit with a sable coat. Another great Thelma Ritter film is "Rear Window", where she has a very similar role and great lines.
"All About Eve" was nominated for fourteen Academy Awards, a record that hasn't been beaten since, and won six of them, including Best Picture! Considered one of Bette Davis' best roles, she was not, however, the first choice for the role of Margo Channing. Susan Hayward and Barbara Stanwyck were considered, but the studio actually signed Claudette Colbert to play it. However, while filming a different movie, she sustained a back injury that caused her to give up the role. Then producer Darryl Zanuck went personally to Bette Davis with a script, and asked her to play Margo.
This was definitely one of the best films so far on the big screen, right up there with "Singin' in the Rain". Bette Davis was made to be seen on the big screen. It was a very enjoyable way to end such a hot day! Since it started at 7:30pm, we didn't get home until after 11, but it is worth being a little tired this morning. What fun! This is definitely getting a page in my scrapbook.
Sunday, July 4, 2010
Eulogy for Old-Fashioned Book Sales
We used to fill our van with full boxes of books, bringing home a thousand or two at a time to keep or trade. It would take us weeks to clean, sort, and put away all of our new "gems". Now at a really good booksale we might get a box or two and a hundred books is a huge addition. A lot of times we are replacing beat up copies with nicer ones, or getting a second copy of a book that we each would like for our kids.
America: Why I Love Her
You ask me why I love her? Well, give me time, and I'll explain...
Have you seen a Kansas sunset or an Arizona rain?
Have you drifted on a bayou down Louisiana way?
Have you watched the cold fog drifting over San Francisco Bay?
Have you heard a Bobwhite calling in the Carolina pines?
Or heard the bellow of a diesel in the Appalachia mines?
Does the call of Niagara thrill you when you hear her waters roar?
Do you look with awe and wonder at a Massachusetts shore...
Where men who braved a hard new world, first stepped on Plymouth Rock?
And do you think of them when you stroll along a New York City dock?
Have you seen a snowflake drifting in the Rockies...way up high?
Have you seen the sun come blazing down from a bright Nevada sky?
Do you hail to the Columbia as she rushes to the sea...
Or bow your head at Gettysburg...in our struggle to be free?
Have you seen the mighty Tetons? ...Have you watched an eagle soar?
Have you seen the Mississippi roll along Missouri's shore?
Have you felt a chill at Michigan, when on a winters day,
Her waters rage along the shore in a thunderous display?
Does the word "Aloha"... make you warm?
Do you stare in disbelief When you see the surf come roaring in at Waimea reef?
From Alaska's gold to the Everglades...from the Rio Grande to Maine...
My heart cries out... my pulse runs fast at the might of her domain.
You ask me why I love her?... I've a million reasons why.
My beautiful America... beneath Gods' wide, wide sky.
Saturday, July 3, 2010
Mom and I enjoy a perfect Summer day!
It was a wonderful day. Slow, calm, relaxing, and very satisfying. We actually got eight loads washed and dried on the line. We did leave some white articles out for the night and through Friday so that the sun could bleach them nice and white.
In the morning, I stayed in bed for a while and finished my new book that I had gotten at CHEO, "The Lost Clue" by Mrs. O.F. Walton. It was a very fun British story from 1907. The two main characters (Kenneth and Marjorie) were very nice and you genuinely liked them both right from the beginning. It is the traditional old-fashioned mystery story of humble boy finding out that he is really the son of a nobleman. The main Christian message throughout is how to have a positive attitude through tough times in life. There was a really nice poem that is based on Psalm 27:14 towards the end of the story, when the hero is really discouraged.
Tell God in prayer
What is thy hidden grief;
Thy secret care.
Yet, if no answer come;
Pray on and wait:
God's time is always best;
Never too late.
To part with a funny episode . . . when we get home at night we always let Dad go into the house ad turn on the outside light before we girls get out of the car (that is one city trait that has not faded through the years!). He did, and we all got out but as I was walking towards the side walk there was the loudest rustling in the yew bushes under the kitchen window. You should have seen the three of us beat a fast retreat and jump back into the car. Dad had to come back out and rattle the bushes to be sure that our unwanted guest had retreated himself! We all had a good laugh about it when we got into the house.
"Wait on the LORD: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the LORD." - Psalm 27:14
A very cool t-shirt!
Thank a teacher.
If you can read this
In English,
Thank a veteran.
“We can’t all be heroes. Some of us have to stand on the curb and clap as they go by.” - Will Rogers