A film by Peter Mack that tells the story of how the tears of a hippopotamus brought water to a village. It turns out to be an advertisement for a rolling water drum that actually looks like a brilliant invention. The girl’s English is some of the most beautifully spoken English I’ve ever heard. I think that the way she says ‘cry’ is particularly lovely.
Author Archives: Editor
Arizona State Government Starts Terror Campaign Against Non-Whites
Cancel your trip to the Grand Canyon. In fact, if you’re in Arizona right now, get the hell out as quickly as you can. The state of Arizona has passed a measure, signed into law by its governor, Jan Brewer, that requires police to determine the immigration status of anyone they suspect of being in the U.S. illegally. All immigrants will be required to carry their proof of legal immigration on their person at all times. This means that a police officer standing on a street corner drinking a cup of coffee can spot a person across the street and decide, based on anything the officer chooses (skin tone, for example) that the person might be an illegal immigrant. The officer can then walk across the street, say he suspects the person of ‘loitering,’ and demand proof of their legal status in the United States. If that person cannot produce the paperwork, the officer can arrest them. The loitering thing is key because the Arizona law supposedly requires that the police be investigating some possible infraction before they can ask for proof of legal immigration. But a cop can find almost any reason to suspect almost anyone of some minor infraction like ‘loitering.’ I loiter all the time.
Arizona, by enacting such a law, has aligned itself with similar laws in Nazi Germany, the former Soviet Union, apartheid South Africa, and the post-slavery American South which used ‘vagrancy’ laws to arrest black people who could not prove that they were employed. Apparently, the majority of residents in Arizona approve of the new law. By definition, Arizona becomes Bigot Land. One of the most important protections offered by a free democracy is the protection against unreasonable search and seizure. No police officer anywhere in the United States can simply demand that a person produce papers proving their legal status. But they can in Arizona as soon as this law goes into effect sometime in the next few months.
Nobel Peace Prize winner, Desmond Tutu says:
I am saddened today at the prospect of a young Hispanic immigrant in Arizona going to the grocery store and forgetting to bring her passport and immigration documents with her. I cannot be dispassionate about the fact that the very act of her being in the grocery store will soon be a crime in the state she lives in. Or that, should a policeman hear her accent and form a “reasonable suspicion” that she is an illegal immigrant, she can — and will — be taken into custody until someone sorts it out, while her children are at home waiting for their dinner.
Film: Subway Cosmos
Subway Cosmos is a film by Brad L. Cooper. It was shot in Tokyo. I like the way the filmmaker moves through the world observing things and filming what interests him. His shots of people through glass are fantastic. Here’s another film he did called Tsukiji about a fish market in Tokyo.
Russian Animation: Goodnight Children
This is the opening and closing animation for a children’s television show in Russia. It was made by Yuri Norstein who works primarily with pieces of painted paper that he moves to create stop-motion animations unlike any others in the world. This is a beautiful piece that captures the storybook imagination perfectly. It looks damned close to being 3-dimensional. But don’t be fooled – Pixar can’t do this. Only Norstein can. He does it with his fingers. Incredible and brilliant and exquisite.
Shakespeare Animated: The Winter’s Tale
Shakespeare: The Animated Tales was a BBC television series of the 1990s that produced 30-minute versions of Shakespeare’s plays with animation done by well-known Russian animators at the Christmasfilms studio. This version of The Winter’s Tale is Shakespeare’s dark comedy about a king’s jealousy run wild. This little animated version is loaded with gorgeous wintry scenes.
Click the continue reading link for parts 2 and 3.
Shakespeare Animated: The Tempest
Shakespeare: The Animated Tales was a BBC television series of the 1990s that produced 30-minute versions of Shakespeare’s plays with animation done by well-known Russian animators at the Christmasfilms studio. This version of The Tempest from 1992 is a masterpiece. It’s simply one of the best film adaptations of Shakespeare I’ve ever seen. The island setting is wonderfully romantic and diffused. The characters are unbelievably expressive in movement. The voice work is superb. Though the script is pared down to 30 minutes, it preserves the essential fun of Shakespeare’s magical work.
Click the continue reading link for parts 2 and 3.
Russian Feature Animation: The Lost Letter
Here’s a 1945 Russian animated feature about a Cossack who is traveling to deliver a letter to the Tsarina in St. Petersburg. The letter is stolen by a devil and the Cossack goes into hell to retrieve it. It’s a dark and beautiful film with a good sense of humor and wonderful character animation. The backgrounds are mysterious and I have seldom seen nighttime so perfectly depicted. It’s based on a story by Nikolai Gogol and was directed by the Brumberg sisters and Lamis Bredis.
Click the Continue reading link for parts 2, 3, and 4.
I found this at Cartoon Brew
Storybook: Chubby’s Mommy
Short Story: In the Shade of the Allan Gardens Greenhouse
By Mike Sauve
In the Shade of the Allan Gardens Greenhouse
In the late 19th century George Street “caught the refined tone”* of Toronto’s noblest family mansions on neighboring Jarvis Street. Today it rots and rages with the bitter pulse of strong beer and crack cocaine. Inside Seton House, called Satan House by those in the know, live 600 homeless men. It’s an alternate universe created by the synthetic horror of cheap crack and all the foul additives irresponsibly mixed in. It’s the most dangerous street in Toronto according to police.
So many are high the air is charged with bizarre energy, almost always negative, excluding those heart-wrenching seconds after a crack-blast when euphoric peace blooms for a few seconds before vanishing like it was never there.
Audio Podcast Novel: Robinson Crusoe (Part 10)
DOWNLOAD ROBINSON CRUSOE – PART 10
Our lone character, Robinson Crusoe, succeeds in raising his herd of goats and learns to use them for meat, milk and cheese. But his shocking discovery on a beach shakes his foundation and fills him with dread.
Subscribe to audio with iTunes
Read by Alessandro Cima
Illustration is by NC Wyeth (1920)
Crusoe makes a shocking discovery
All audio stories are Copyright © Candlelight Stories, Inc., All Rights Reserved. Do not distribute copies of our MP3 audio or video stories. They are for your personal use. If you choose to burn our MP3 stories onto a personal CD, do not make copies of the CD or distribute them to other people. Also, do not sell CDs containing our audio stories. All audio stories are copyrighted by Candlelight Stories, Inc.
Podcast Novel: Pirate Jack (Chapter 18)
This book contains pirate battles, violence and death. Please use your judgment before playing for very young children.
Here’s a free podcast of our fantastic pirate adventure novel written for young readers. It’s got hidden scrolls, time travel, ships, battles, navigation, gold, islands, jungles and helicopters in it.
You can purchase the paperback from Barnes & Noble (Price: $11.95)
You can also get it on Scribd.com as a download for just $1.99
Description:
Young Jack Spencer sees his father’s boat-building business destroyed by a powerful land developer. Then Jack unearths three ancient scrolls that propel him on a dangerous adventure through time in search of a pirate treasure.
When Jack finds himself aboard the pirate ship Revenge with Captain Jameson’s crew, he enters a life or death world of ship battles, jungle islands, prison escapes, gold, and treachery.
Set during the golden age of Caribbean piracy, Pirate Jack combines rollicking adventure with the moving story of a boy’s love for his father and a courageous effort to save a way of life.
Get all the chapters of the book podcast here.
You’ll find regular podcasts of all the chapters over the next couple of months. Subscribe to our feed.
This book is read by the author.
All audio stories are Copyright © Candlelight Stories, Inc., All Rights Reserved.
Audio Podcast Novel: Pinocchio (Chapter 8)
DOWNLOAD PINOCCHIO – CHAPTER 8
Per l’Italia! More of our story!
This is one of the great gifts from Italy to the children of the world. Carlo Collodi’s 1883 masterpiece, The Adventures of Pinocchio, is the story of the wooden marionette who desperately wants to be a real boy. His adventures are full of mischief, wonder, sadness, joy, treachery, danger and all the exuberant life of a real Italian boy. This is the English translation by Carol Della Chiesa.
Subscribe to audio with iTunes
Reading and illustration by Alessandro Cima
All audio stories are Copyright © Candlelight Stories, Inc., All Rights Reserved. Do not distribute copies of our MP3 audio or video stories. They are for your personal use. If you choose to burn our MP3 stories onto a personal CD, do not make copies of the CD or distribute them to other people. Also, do not sell CDs containing our audio stories. All audio stories are copyrighted by Candlelight Stories, Inc.
Audio Podcast Novel: Pinocchio (Chapter 7)
DOWNLOAD PINOCCHIO – CHAPTER 7
Per l’Italia! More of our story!
This is one of the great gifts from Italy to the children of the world. Carlo Collodi’s 1883 masterpiece, The Adventures of Pinocchio, is the story of the wooden marionette who desperately wants to be a real boy. His adventures are full of mischief, wonder, sadness, joy, treachery, danger and all the exuberant life of a real Italian boy. This is the English translation by Carol Della Chiesa.
Subscribe to audio with iTunes
Reading and illustration by Alessandro Cima
All audio stories are Copyright © Candlelight Stories, Inc., All Rights Reserved. Do not distribute copies of our MP3 audio or video stories. They are for your personal use. If you choose to burn our MP3 stories onto a personal CD, do not make copies of the CD or distribute them to other people. Also, do not sell CDs containing our audio stories. All audio stories are copyrighted by Candlelight Stories, Inc.
1927 ‘Metropolis’ with 25 Minutes of Lost Footage
The TCM Classic Film Festival in Los Angeles is hosting the North American premiere of Fritz Lang’s 1927 science fiction classic, Metropolis, with 25 minutes of newly discovered footage.
Metropolis is the story of a mechanized future city with rulers who live atop high towers and masses of slave workers that operate the giant machines below. A rebellion is incited when a robot version of a young woman who works to help the poor is set out to inflame the oppressed workers. The setting of the film is just astounding and has not been matched for beauty by any film since. This is one of the great classics of world cinema and finding 25 minutes of lost footage is incredible. Several years ago, I went to the Egyptian Theater in Hollywood to see a newly restored version that had still photos inserted where footage was missing. I suspect that many of those missing scenes are now included!
The film was discovered in a museum storage room in Argentina. So not only did Argentina hide escaped Nazis, but it has also been hiding a German science fiction treasure… unwittingly of course. And if you look at Metropolis carefully, you can see the Nazis coming. The film is permeated with it. If you don’t believe me, consider that the screenwriter, Thea von Harbou did in fact become a Nazi. Another Fritz Lang classic, Spies, is so riddled with antisemitism that it is almost impossible to watch. So there it is. Great classic yes, but also profoundly threatening.
Here’s the Los Angeles Times article about the restoration.
Here’s a link to the prior restoration: Metropolis (Restored Authorized Edition)
Film: Rockbois Documentary
Ryan Dooley, street artist, made this little documentary about his group of painter friends working in Italy. They are painters who paint on walls. They have nothing to do with what we know as ‘taggers,’ who are simply imbeciles who like to write their names on things. Painters are people who make art. This group seems to find walls in Italy that need some paint applied. It’s beautiful.
