alt.movies.silent - Low activity, Usenet
gerry
activity site. Some days this December there were no new postings.
Still, someone at Google Groups must have raised the requirements for
Medium activity. How else do you explain how rec.arts.movies.past-
films got demoted to Low activity, even with the number of daily
postings at that newsgroup.
Maybe some potential posters are taking the silent in this newsgroup's
name literally. There seems to be an overall decline in postings at
all newsgroups. What to do, play a Wii game, spend time at a
newsgroup just lurking or wait for the Goracle's prediction of
worldwide meltdown to come true? Apparently one and two for most
people and three for brokers with billions in bogus Gore carbon
credits that they can sell to you at a hefty discount.
Too bad Bernie Madoff did not sell carbon credits instead of running a
Ponzi scheme. Carbon credit salesperson Madoff
could have been in Copenhagen chumming it up with President Obama last
week instead of Ponzi schemer Madoff, now a long term guest of the
Bureau of Prisons at its North Carolina "graybar" hotel.
---
Past movies.
Low activity, Usenet
alt.movies.silent
Shhhhhhhhhhh!
Low activity, Usenet
Old Movie Fan
that haven't (like the old movie group), are filled with very little
that is what I would call worth reading.
Only two of us even posted about about the recent premiere of "Miss
Mend." But I'm not surprised. There have been many interesting films
seen on TCM where no one bothers to comment on.
I could write all about the many interesting & unusual films I've seen
this year, and I've posted about more than half of them during the year.
Usually, there's no response.
I'm also wondering why those who post about low activity, usually
aren't doing any other posting?
How about you Gerry? What films have you been watching? If I've seen
it, you'll get a reply from me.
Rich Wagner
StormChaser
I don't think AMS can be used as a barometer to measure
interest in the silent era.
I have seen high view counts of silent movie clips on
youtube.
The name Valentino is still associated with romance.
Is it in the genes for writers today to write various
versions of the Laurel and Hardy dynamic?
Drew Barrymore recently cited Buster Keaton
as her favorite movie comic.
Gens X, Y, and Z are aware (who comes after Z?).
rod...@mont-alto.com
>
> Too bad Bernie Madoff did not sell carbon credits instead of running a
> Ponzi scheme. Carbon credit salesperson Madoff
> could have been in Copenhagen chumming it up with President Obama last
> week instead of Ponzi schemer Madoff, now a long term guest of the
> Bureau of Prisons at its North Carolina "graybar" hotel.
A lot of the discussion has moved to other sites, partly to avoid all
the spam, and partly to avoid inane, off-topic, and inaccurate
political rants like the paragraph I quote above. At nitrateville.com
the discussion of Miss Mend was joined by more posters than here. But
if you join, do try to keep the dubious politics out of it. I also
think a global carbon tax is preferable to carbon markets, but I try
not to dwell on it here.
gerry
I have made postings here and elsewhere (but not at Nitrateville).
More power to those who make a real effort to provide editorial
comments and screening announcements here and elsewhere on a regular
basis.
Every so often, you have a hallway monitor who tries to "moderate" in
so effective a way that the person drives away posters.
There is an 8 part 1999 BBC series called Earth Story presented by
Aubrey Manning that does a great scientific job of showing how the
Earth goes through cycles. Manning is a real, unbiased scientist, not
a political scientist like Al Gore who has a side business selling
carbon credits.
For some reason, PBS never broadcast Earth Story, nor another series
presented by Manning, Landscape Mysteries. Why let facts on changes
in the environment interfere with bogus science shown in a Power Point
presentation.
When you realize that the great Lon Chaney movie West of Zanzibar
(1928) could not have been released after July 1934 because of its
rough subject matter, you should learn that censorship has a lot of
down sides. Let the public decide what they want to see. West of
Zanzibar was a big hit for MGM.
There is a story about Ned Buntline, who lived in the West of Wyatt
Earp, Wild Bill Hickok and Buffalo Bill Cody. Buntline promoted
himself as a gunslinger and his fictional exploits were written about
in "penny dreadfuls." For some reason, a temperance group hired
Buntline to give a speech on the evils of hard liquor. Buntline gave
that speech tanked, drunk as a skunk. Buntline is no different than
Gore talking about energy conservation at the same time Gore has a
mansion in Tennessee that is an energy hog on steroids.
There is an Richard Barthelmess movie, The Finger Points, that is a
fictional account of the Jake Lingle story. On the wall of the studio
newsroom set is a poster that asks "Is It Interesting?" Stating that
a posting has "dubious politics" and leaving it at that is just a dull
and pretentious comment. Why make any effort to write an interesting
reply?
Time moves on, the year comes to a close and Hollywood continues to
turn out mostly derivative movies with no originality. Good thing TCM
continues to show pre-Code Warner-First National movies. But where is
Central Park, directed by John Adolfi?
---
(snip) The Gores used about 191,000 kilowatt hours in 2006, according
to bills reviewed by The Associated Press spanning the period from
Feb. 3, 2006, to Jan. 5. That is far more than the typical Nashville
household, which uses about 15,600 kilowatt-hours per year.
His Nashville home is more than four times larger than the average new
American home built last year — about 2,400 square feet, according to
the National Association of Home Builders.
Last August alone, Gore burned through 22,619 kWh—guzzling more than
twice the electricity in one month, according to the Tennessee Center
For Policy Research's release.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/02/28/politics/main2522844.shtml
That is more than an average American family uses in an entire year.
rod...@mont-alto.com
You made my point about dubious political arguments far better than I
did, by attacking the man and not the science. Al Gore's energy usage
has nothing whatever to do with his science, for which he gives full
credit to the actual scientists who did the work, and about which
there is no serious debate. (Other than, of course, from those who
argue that global climate change can't possibly be happening because
Al Gore is fat and has a big house).
Though I haven't seen Earth Story, it does look like a great series.
And, being a history of the Earth, I'm sure that Manning says that the
atmosphere has changed in the past, there's no argument about that.
But I doubt that a reputable scientist like Aubrey Manning would say
that this kind of change has happened at this pace before, because it
hasn't; or that current climate change isn't caused by human-induced
carbon emissions, because the overwhelming scientific evidence shows
that it is. If you can give me an actual quote in context, from Aubrey
Manning, where he denies that man-made climate change is happening,
I'll be very impressed.
But I'm not going to convince you in this forum, you will certainly
never convince me by criticizing Al Gore's house, and neither side of
this argument has anything to do with silent films. Political rants
and ad-hominem attacks poison this forum and make it unpleasant to
read, and not a nice place to hang out.
Since the topic of this thread is about the low traffic on this
newsgroup, one answer is that people have a choice of where to discuss
silent films, and they'll tend to go to where interesting discussions
on silent films are happening, and avoid places choked with non-
germane political diatribes, people advertising bootleg DVDs of last
month's movies, and the like.
Old Movie Fan
perhaps you should limit your text to the topic.
For example, I'd enjoy having you explain this ugly story so perhaps I
might enjoy it the next time it turns up on TCM. It's about the most
hateful film that I have ever seen.
I've watched it at least twice all the way through but never saw it as
a worthwhile picture. I consider myself a Chaney fan.
Maybe you could change my mind if you don't continue to mix in unwanted
subjects as you have done so far.
Rich Wagner
Kingo Gondo
"gerry" <2ger...@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:c5347a5f-7c6d-42e4...@j14g2000yqm.googlegroups.com...
What a tard--you supply much of the answer you seek.
I post a lot more to ramp-f than ams, but I cannot stand dealing with
cretins in either place who feel the need to inject their politics into
virtually every thread they post to. Who gives a damn what you think of
Obama or Sarah Palin or global warming or abortion or anything else of that
type? There are 80 jillion other places where you can tell the
world--on-topic-- about your profound insights on such matters; why do you
feel compelled to excrete them here as well? Is it any wonder that many
prefer moderated websites instead of the freedom they have on Usenet, when
bozos like you abuse that freedom regularly? Bulletin to Gerry--there are
probably 500,000 websites or blogs where people who share your politics say
the exact same things you do, only better. You are hopelessly redundant (and
therefore deadly boring).
But putting aside your sad example, it is also the case that many, many
people have lost Usenet access through their internet provider, leaving only
Google Groups. GG is a nice archive, but it is a LOUSY format for day-to-day
posting. If I had to rely on it alone I'd post a lot less, too. Fortunately
Earthlink is one of the few ISPs that still toss in Usenet. But if they cut
it loose, I'd have to think long and hard about paying for a stand alone
news server, especially given the quality of posts from people like you (see
the paragraph immediately above).
gerry
At least we are getting activity at this newsgroup. As for West of
Zanzibar, it is an ugly story, as you correctly observe. But the
Belgian Congo then was a very ugly place, a real Heart of Darkness.
Two days ago, ABC World News had a story on the dramatic decline of
the hippo population in the now People's Republic of the Congo, from
30,000 over three decades ago to 800. Part of the problem is that the
few remaining hippos have gotten smart and stay across the border in
Uganda, to avoid being gunned down by hungry Congolese. The Congo
then and now was not a nice place. So, West of Zanzibar was made as a
not very nice movie with a great performance by Lon Chaney.
There is a 2006 History Channel documentary "Little Ice Age | Big
Chill" that describes how around 1350 the climate suddenly changed in
Europe. In France, according to this documentary, the first sign of
change was almost continuous rain for two weeks, wrecking farmed
crops. There the weather turned cold, marking the end of the warm
period that had lasted since Roman times and leading to mass
starvation of French peasants. This climate change did not take place
in decades, it happened in months and at a time when there were no
cars, just wood fires for heating homes.
The problem for some people is why let facts stand in the way of
perceived beliefs. Check out the UK newspapers for better reporting
on the global warming theory, positive and negative.
I don't see what is wrong with off-topic information in a posting.
There is not much else going on here. Two years ago, you had a
discussion going on about the correct color scheme for the two strip
Technicolor movie Mystery of the Wax Museum. Real interesting,
especially when I found out that my laser of the movie had the correct
red/green image, unlike the version TCM broadcasts.
It is too bad that some people prefer to be hallway monitors. This
year marks the 75th anniversary of the 1934 Production Code,
administered by Code Administrator ("Hitler of Hollywood") Joe Breen,
a code that did much to wreck the vitality of Hollywood movies. No
mention of that code at this year's Academy Awards, as far as I saw.
Why bring up distasteful Hollywood history? I don't recall if I made
a posting on that anniversary here or not, but I know no one else here
did.
I think that with the few postings we get here nowadays, you should
have a Big Tent approach to postings, not a little tee pee approach. A
Big Tent approach I have, obviously, if you bother to read this
rambling posting. But, if you feel that Al Gore, like Joe Breen,
knows best, that's your opinion and you are welcome to it.
---
Oh, King Gondo, your comment about cretins is the typical low class
comment you see coming from arrogant low lives that pollute Google
Groups and who are no different that grafitti artists who tag
everything. You did not once mention anything related to movies, just
posting a retarded opinion piece to make yourself feel important. In
making your worthless and mean-spirited comments you judge no one but
yourself. So between you and me, Kingy Boy, take your totally off-
topic and miserable rants and get lost.
Kingo Gondo
REPLY:
Let me see--you posted the same thing twice; and you couldn't manage to
directly reply to my post when trying to address me.
Ah, yes--another Google Grouper at work. Good show, par for the course.
"Gerry"--your post to which I replied was about (a) the low traffic volume
in this NG (and ramp-f) and then (b) you gratuitously threw in some
political horseshit that nobody gives a damn about. NOWHERE did you mention
any film. Zero. Zip. Nada. I responded to what YOU posted, clown. If you
want responses "related to movies", then perhaps you should initiate threads
"related to movies". I know this is a cRaZy concept, but try test driving it
for awhile.
Unless, of course, you are just a troll looking for a pretext to spout your
monotonous political rants. Time will tell.
My last post in this NG, prior to having the misfortune to run into you
today, was to post the March 2010 TCM schedule for the benefit of the NG.
Amazingly, I managed to do so without having to regurgitate my political
beliefs at the same time. And you replied to that post and somehow showed
the self-discipline to do the same. Let's try working back to that, OK?
I know you can do it, Ger!
gerry
wrote:
> "gerry" <2gerry...@gmail.com> wrote in message
Have a nice day.
Donald4564
I think the reason why this group does not receive much attention is
due to threads like this one. People having a row with each other and
straying from the topic.
I have also found too that you post what you think might be something
interesting (and surprise) on topic - and no-one bothers to reply.
As to "West of Zanzibar" - I found it an interesting film. A great
performance form Lon Chaney of course. Granted the subject matter is
rather awful but then one finds a lot of the subject matter in some of
Chaney's films a bit disturbing.
Regards
Donald BInks
Ken Winokur
little activity on this newsgroup now?
Practically everybody left this newsgroup like rats from a sinking
ship. The constant bitching and backbiting really turned contributors
off. There was so much nasty antagonism that the wealth of
information was buried in a storm of crap.
And then there was the constant spam - which on at least one occasion
found ways of leaking into people's private email.
Nitrateville has attracted much of the serious discussion and posting
of shows. It's a moderated group. You can be kicked off for abusive
posts. It's unfortunate that an open newsgroup such as this attracts
so much crap that the useful information and informed opinions get
drowned out.
How's that for bitchy and backbiting?
Your pal,
Ken
Lloyd Fonvielle
As an experiment, I've started a private Facebook group to discuss
silent movies. It's called Silver Light. If you have a Facebook
account and want to participate in the experiment, search for the group
and apply for membership.
--
Mar de Cortes Baja
www.mardecortesbaja.com <http://www.mardecortesbaja.com/blog>
tmk
GoldenSilents.com. It's a moderated group, and I think that you and
Jill (the moderator) will get along just fine. You are both
extremely conservative (too much so for me!) Also, to get your
political rocks off, go to Freerepublic.com. They're RW real looney
toons there. Have fun.
bpnjensen
wrote:
> "gerry" <2gerry...@gmail.com> wrote in message
Not only that, but then she complains when people who know better than
to believe her drivel challenge her! Like it's their fault that an
argument about climate change is happening! Nobody ever brought it up
before Gerry jumped in...
This newsgroup was actually a pretty decent place once upon a time...
michaelshat
Michael here.
Does anyone know a good chiropracter in central Seattle. I've just got
a really bad neckache from using my computer too long.
Thanks, M
PS. By the way, I need somewhere on a bus route.
S D
accepting new members