So I was reading the Times this morning and this caught my attention. Yesterday I wrote about The Wild Boys of the Road and thanks so much for the thoughtful comments on that posting. Leaving kids on their own to fend for themselves is terribly sad. Good lord, I’m a full grown adult and I suck at it.
I couldn’t think of many films yesterday dealing with the plight of children, I don’t know why I didn’t think of Slumdog Millionaire but that’s a good one reflecting street life of children in Mumbai.
This film obviously was very popular. I think that this film could possibly be made in every country. Isn’t that horrible. I mean think about it, they could do an 8 Mile Millionaire and a Katrina Millionaire. I don’t think it would be that difficult to find true stories of children living on the streets across America due to financial distress and broken families.

Anyway, the article in the NY Times about the problems with youth prisons in New York is barbaric. Just so terribly sad. What’s worse, is that this is an old problem.

I wrote a bit about The Godless Girl, but I think it deserves revisiting for a different reason other than religion. The Godless Girl is famous for exposing the reform school system in the United States. Just like the New York Times article, the Los Angeles Times did a report in 1927 about Queen Silver, who was a child prodigy orator that ran an Atheistic Society for whom the film was based.

The two lead character’s in the film both end up in reformatories due to an accident from a death resulting from a conflict between the Christian and Atheistic Societies. The Aetheistic Girl and the Christian Boy are both sent to a Juvenile Reformatory. The conditions depicted in the Juvenile Reformatory were based on six months of extensive research done by Cecil B. DeMille. What is particularly cool about this is that he hired a girl to go undercover and do time in the Juvenile Reform system and the conditions were reflected in the film.

“According to journalist Dorothy Donnell, director Cecil B. DeMille spent eight months and $200,000 on research before the production began. This included the enrolling of a young male informant into a boy’s reform school and a female informant into a girl’s school. Two large scrapbooks were kept in DeMille’s archive, containing sworn testimonials by many former inmates, with graphic descriptions of the brutalities they endured. Donnell later said, “I have seen these books, and read in them things so revolting that they will probably never be printed.”"

Anyway, read the article Task Force Finds Crisis in New York’s Juvenile Prison System and see the films.

The New York Times is reporting the financial distress of the Dubai Sovereign Fund. I gotta say, I’m a little surprised.  About a year ago, I was expecting the financial center of the world to shift from New York to the Middle East or China. I think I’ve been leaning towards China, but I was really expecting the Middle East, especially Dubai to show a bit more longevity.  I’m by no means an economist, but thinking about it now, it makes sense. The growth was too quick. Unsustainable as they like to say. Ok, so what about China? Well…we owe them a serious amount of money.

So they seem to be able to call the shots, right? Well, I guess not? Because somehow and I’m not sure how this all works out…but we are all in the same boat it seems. Somehow…we’re all screwed.

Somehow, we’re all in the movie One Way Passage. Think of An Affair to Remember or Sleepless in Seattle without the happy ending or fabulous reunion. I take that back. This reunion is fantastic.

So a couple meets on a ship and fall in love, but they both are going down. He’s a convict and she’s dying. GREAT STUFF!! After they set up a tradition of glass breaking when they are together and they are torn apart by sickness and prison:

They had agreed to meet again on New Year’s Eve, a month later. At the appointed time and place, a bartender is startled when two glasses on the bar break, then vanish.-Wikipedia

So since the world is it’s own version of One Way Passage there must be a way for us to break the glass. Even if we can’t make it to the party together, we should agree to leave something for the future, even if it is without our presence.

So I read an article in the Times today about the ”U.S. Debt. Bomb.

“What a good country or a good squirrel should be doing is stashing away nuts for the winter. The United States is not only not saving nuts, it’s eating the ones left over from the last winter.” -WILLIAM H. GROSS

Ok, I’m bummed, how about you? I mean I was so looking forward to going Christmas Shopping on Friday. But that’s not going to happen now because the financial world is going to blow up.

Here’s a chart to depress you further from the New York Times:

Multimedia

Graphic

The Debt Buildup

Okay, this is all very complicated, but of course it is all very simple. Basically, we owe money. Lots. And we borrowed from other places to pay, oh….never mind… Tallulah?

Here’s a great Pre-Code film to help wrap your head around all of this.

The Cheat with Tallulah Bankhead (1931). The Shelia Variations has a spectacularly detailed description of this “EEEEFED UP” film.

Basically it is about a woman who has a gambling problem, tries to cover it up, and tries to get money business man who has a strange Japanese Fetish. Okay, the U.S. financial system may not have a Japanese fetish, but we have a very strong dependance on China’s purchasing of our debt. We have become Tallulah Bankhead at a foriegn fundraiser. And the costumes are just not as good. At least Tallulah had a glittering head dress for her international humiliation.

Don’t you think we should be more fabulous for our downfall?

So according to the New York Times is reporting that China is assuming a larger global role. Aparently, Mr. Hu was enjoying his new found ability to push back on American demands. So to cheer up Mr. Obama, here’s a little treat.

The Bitter Tea of General Yen it’s directed by Frank Capra so it’s sure to cheer him up a bit.

Oh, this is a fun one!

Because of the interracial theme of the Chinese bandit and the American missionary woman falling in love, there was a great deal of protest from some groups at the time of the films release. Joseph McBride’s Frank Capra: The Catastrophe of Success quotes Barbara Stanwyck as saying:

The women’s clubs came out very strongly against it, because the white woman was in love with the yellow man and kissed his hand. So what! I was so shocked [by the reaction]. It never occurred to me, and I don’t think it occurred to Mr. Capra when we were doing it. I accepted it, believed in it, loved it. (McBride, page 281)

Cheer up Mr. Obama! It’s not like Nixon did any better. Kick back and enjoy the show.

So the NY Times Fashion section today writes about the plight of one of my favorite species. The poor suffering white man. The Metro Sexual is finally dead.

The look of success is now one of a “Creative Professional”. More checks and gingham and less solid and stable. I remember a few years back during the dotcom era when suits just were on vacation. Bannana Republic was the new corporate casual and the client based look was gone. This was due to the decreasing interface between vendor and client, but this one is a little different. No one wants to look like a criminal.

I love it. So I’m thinking about men and style and what precode films they could watch that might sympathize with this new sterotype they have to endure. Public Enemymay be just what the fashion police ordered. How can you resist.

There is also the upcoming movie Public Enemies with Johnny Depp and Christian Bale. It’s so bad to be bad!

So I was reading the headline in the New York Times today about how GM is about to bite it. I am someone who grew up in a car manufacturing community. I saw them close their plant in the ’80s and honestly the place I grew up in is better off for it. Now I don’t think this is a universal scenario, but survival is possible.
Anyway, while you are crying on the couch from the loss of your job, pension, life, car, home…okay while you are watching a VCR in some homeless shelter with a bunch of people you don’t know, find some comfort in this classic Pre-Code film The Crowd.(directed by King Vidor and can I just say that King is a baby name that needs to make a comeback)

It is basically a great story of going to New York with hopes and dreams and…the concept that you could have a future. And way you become a drone and the machine destroys you. I haven’t seen it in a while but I think there is a great uprising and everyone is better off for having bucked the man in the end. Very profound lovely movie and I have read it is the first time a toilet has ever been filmed in American Cinema…so..you know keep your eyes peeled.

This is exciting stuff. I wonder when the first stainless steel appliances were first filmed in American cinema.

Another film I think is pretty obvious, but is appropriate for this moment is Metropolis (directed by Fritz Lang…Fritz not as fun a name as King), now for all you special effects buffs out there, I know this doesn’t look like much to you now, but I dare you to actually sit there and create all those models and drawings that they shot against now without Vectorworks. I think they were glass paintings…wait, I’ll check back later, glass painting came later. Someone let me know if I am wrong.
Anyway, Happy End of the American Dream and know that the world has turned after such tragedies and will continue to turn. You may just not get to spin around the planet with your HD Flatscreen TV.