Every One

photog Movie Reviews, Reviews , , , ,

This is a great time of the year.  I allow myself to watch the various holiday movies whenever the mood strikes me.  I’ve already watched four versions of, “A Christmas Carol” this week and I’m bound to add materially to that number very soon.

Now, in my opinion, the top three versions are the 1938 MGM version with Reginald Owen as Scrooge; the 1951 English production with Alastair Sim as the miser and finally the 1984 version starring George C. Scott as the awful old man.  Each one has its strengths and weaknesses.  But each one manages to provide the catharsis that is the reason for the story.  We get to see Scrooge start out as the victim of a father who blames his son for his wife’s death in childbirth and then the son becomes this misanthrope who punishes everyone around him for revenge.

And along the way we get to see the beauty and joy that Scrooge’s friends and relatives create during their Christmas celebrations; Bob Cratchit and his poor family gather around the tiny Christmas dinner that Scrooge’s pathetic wages afford and rejoice at their day of celebration and family warmth.  Scrooge’s nephew; Fred entertains his friends and even manages to toast Scrooge’s health despite his knowledge that the old man despises him for his generosity and kindness.

As ever I find the 1984 version has the best Jacob Marley scenes.  The 1951 film does the best job chronicling Scrooge’s career with Fezziwig and his subsequent turn toward miserly misanthropy.  And in this presentation, it strays into territory not covered in Dickens’ story.  A subplot emerges where Scrooge’s beloved sister Fan dies after giving birth to her son Fred.  This is given as the origin of Scrooge’s hatred for Fred.  But in the film the Ghost of Christmas Past allows Scrooge to hear his sister’s dying words.  She begs Scrooge to take care of her boy (Fred).  Hearing these words that he’d missed in real-life, Scrooge is wracked with guilt and remorse.

The 1938 version, I believe, has the best portrayal of the Cratchit family.  And in point of fact the actor who plays Bob Cratchit, Gene Lockhart has his real-life wife playing Mrs. Cratchit and his real-life daughter; June Lockhart as one of the younger Cratchit children.  Now, when I say best portrayal, I’m not implying that the acting is better than in the other two versions.  In fact, I think the other two versions have fine actors and stay much closer to Dickens’ text.  But the longer screen time given to the Cratchit family in this version provides a warmer feeling and gladdens the heart of the viewer to watch it.

So then, who is the best Scrooge?  Well, I can’t answer that.  The best I can do is to bring it down to a choice between Alistair Sim and George C. Scott.  And choosing between them is only a matter of what mood I find myself in that day.  I will add that of late I think the George C. Scott mood finds me more often but I have to say at this time of the rolling year I want to have all three DVDs available for whatever mood I find myself in.

And as Tiny Tim observed, “God bless us, everyone.”

The Crisis of Modernity

photog Current Events, photog's Corner

If you’ve been around for seventy years or so you know that the way we live in these United States has been in constant flux for almost your whole life.  But if you think about it didn’t start there.  In fact, when was the last time that life was wholly stable in form and detail?  Well in some backwater areas of the world it’s probably much as it ever was.  But for Europeans you might have to go all the way back to the mid-1200s.  Back before the age of sea exploration.  So, feudalism basically.

And what was going on back then?  I guess most of our ancestors were serfs living and working on the lands controlled by the aristocracy.  So, was that better or worse than today?  Well, I guess modernity has a bunch of advantages over the 1200s.  Today you mostly get to keep your teeth into at least your middle age.  And you actually get to live probably into your seventies.  And your children mostly won’t die at birth.  And you aren’t illiterate and you can call Pizza Hut on your cell phone and have dinner delivered (assuming you have a job, which isn’t that sure anymore).

But I think the question can still be asked, “Are we living in a better world than pre-renaissance Europe?”  If I were to give an opinion, I’d say yes.  But not because of the material progress that we have to show.  But because I think there is the chance that we might be closer to some kind of breakthrough.

And what I mean by a breakthrough is an analysis about what represents human happiness and how to maximize it.  “Okay,” you’ll say, “but what do you mean by human happiness?”  And that is a fair question.  Because human happiness is hard to define.  I don’t mean that we figure out a way to have the larges tnumber of people hooked up to a dilute fentanyl drip all the time.  What I mean is we should figure out what human beings are meant to be doing with their lives.

If I were to guess I’d say the optimal human activity is learning how to interact with other humans in such a way that everyone feels like their getting something out of the deal.  So, let’s say you’re a pretty good carpenter.  Okay maybe life would be optimal if you could get paid a decent wage to make chairs or tables or porch decks.  And maybe someone else would want to be a Walmart shelf stocker.  Sure, he’s not as bright as the carpenter, but he’s hard-working and cooperative and he’s not really interested in owning all the latest “stuff.”  So, the idea is that somehow all this “AI stuff” really does pan out and we figure a way to systematize the whole human race so that we can keep this whole multi-billion human juggling act in the air without needing a war or a revolution or a great depression.  Now that might be something to brag about.

Of course, this is all a pipe dream but if you think about it, that’s what all of the geniuses have been talking about for the last couple of hundred years.  That’s the French Revolution and the Russian Revolution and Mamdani and all the rest of the people who get all stirred up.  Now, we all know that socialism doesn’t work.  But maybe that’s because it’s run by socialists.  What if HAL9000 ran it?

Okay, never mind.  We know how that ends, “I’m sorry Dave, I can’t let you back in the door.  Have a nice day!”

Longhorn Beetle Macro Focus Stack

photog Photo Study, Photography , , , ,

So you take the Sony A7IV camera with the latest firmware update and you attach the Sony 90mm f/2.8 Macro G Lens and set the camera for focus bracketing using the small interval focus change and a hundred exposures with an f/8 aperture and ISO 100 quality and you get 100 files that look this bad:

Then you put the 100 files through a photo editor to get the exposure just right and process them in another piece of software that combines them into a focus stack and get this:

And if you crop that stack photo you’ll find quite a lot of detail:

Admittedly, this isn’t the loveliest insect photo on record but you have to admit it has a lot of detail.