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[Ginny]

I have totally vegged today, which is what I needed after 2 days of being "on."  As soon as CASTLE ends, I'm going to bed.

'night!

[FJL]

Looks ominous, Laura, I don't know that I'd be steady enough to take a photo.  or is it not as rough as it looks?

[FJL]

Sending closing vibes to Jrand.  Even though he can't hear them, still sending them his way and knowing they'll get there.

[Jennifer]

Has anyone here ever tried the loaning option on amazon.com for ebooks?

I guess it's sort of like a library where you can loan certain pre-approved ebooks to one person for 14 days.

My sister just got the kindle app and there is one ebook that i know she would love. And i just happened to notice the "loan" icon at the top of page. I didn't even realize that the loan icon would tell me which ebooks were available for loaning. I guess I cannot read the loaned ebook for the 14 days (but i've already read it).

I will be interested to see how it works.

[John G.]

Been a long day. The filming took about three hours more than was scheduled. I probably sounded like an idiot, expounding on duck fat fries, and chicken and waffles made in duck fat, and sliders griddled in duck fat. But they won't use but a second if anything. Still, the folks at the filming were all fun to hang around with, so it made the 95 in the shade nice.

[John G.]

Popped in "Malcom X" tonight. I won't be able to watch all of it tonight, but I still love the musical number toward the beginning of the movie. Very exciting. Great camera work and the music is wonderful I wish Spike Lee had made "Rent" as he had wanted or some more musicals.

[Laura]

Looks ominous, Laura, I don't know that I'd be steady enough to take a photo.  or is it not as rough as it looks?

It wasn't windy much when I took the first two photos. The second it was. But not like a hurricane or tornado. It's just dirty wind.

The danger is if you are driving and you lose visibility.There's a section on the freeway from Tucson to Phoenix that is notorious for accidents during dust storms. I am always a bit nervous during that part of the drive!

[FJL]

Popped in "Malcom X" tonight. I won't be able to watch all of it tonight, but I still love the musical number toward the beginning of the movie. Very exciting. Great camera work and the music is wonderful I wish Spike Lee had made "Rent" as he had wanted or some more musicals.

JohnG. did you know that Spike Lee is staging the Mike Tyson show on Broadway this summer?

[John G.]

Yeah, FJL. And Spike couldn't even get a distributor for his last movie. Sad.

[John G.]

Laura, the storm photos were powerful and beautiful.

[John G.]

That's it for me. Night, all.

[George]

Tonight, I saw an outdoor production of "Hamlet" that a couple of my friends were in.  The show itself was pretty good.  They were practically yelling at times to be heard over some of the traffic, but there were trees all around, so that helped.  The mosquitoes were out, but they didn't bother me too much. 

[George]

The worst part was the chair that I brought...it's made of plastic and was comfortable, but it was very slick.  The hill was at enough of an angle that I couldn't stay on the darned chair.  Trying to stay on was not very comfortable.  For about the last half hour, I stood and watched.  That helped.

[bk]

Re: NORTH BY NORTHWEST

With the possible exception of THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH (remake), this is my favorite Hitchcock movie.

The screenplay is terrific, and I've often used it as a example of perfect story structure in writing classes that I've taught.

However, I do think that the script has one major (non-fatal) flaw.

At the end of the first act, right after the murder in the United Nations building, the scene cuts to Washington where Leo G. Carroll explains virtually the entire plot of the movie to the audience. 

Not only does this stop the forward action of the story, but it answers too many of the audience's questions too soon.

I know that this is a classic and I really do love the movie, but I would have preferred learning this information along with Cary Grant, perhaps later in the film when he encounters Carroll at Mount Rushmore.

A basic rule of good screenwriting: Delay exposition as long as possible.

I don't find that a flaw at all and without it I think the audience would become irritated and delaying it till the point you say would interrupt there in a much more disruptive fashion.  By giving us the information early Hitchcock sticks to his usual dictum - delaying equals surprise, giving it early equals suspense.  He does the same thing in Vertigo, where he gives away the twist thirty minutes before the end of the film.

It works much better in VERTIGO...primarily because you are half expecting some sort of twist...and it comes  much later in the movie.

In NBNW, the revelation comes much too early.  "Twists" work much better toward the end of a film.

But, as I said, I still love the movie.

But North by Northwest is not a twist - that's the whole point.  It's an explanation of the odd events up to that point and I think that it's in the perfect place for its storytelling.  We already know that Grant is not Kaplan - we just don't know the why of what's happening.  Knowing the why makes what follows much more fun.  I think Mr. Lehman and Mr. Hitchcock knew exactly what they were doing.

We can both make a valid case as to whether the information should or should not have been revealed at that point in the picture.

However, the way it was revealed was, in my opinion, terrible.  Lehman and Hitchcock certainly could have come up with a far more interesting way to give the audience that exposition.

Terrible for you - I happen to love it - it pretends to be nothing other than it is, and it's witty and has Leo G. Carroll at his best. 

[bk]

Where in tarnation WAS everyone today?  You'd think it was a Saturday or the dog days of summer or something.