Lost Art of Silent Films

When I was a child, it was tradition for my family to visit “Ike’s Chicken Shack” on Lake Traverse in Minnesota every Mother’s Day. The restaurant was so busy that families had to take a number and wait to eat. Therefore, entertainment was provided. Inside the entrance, to the left, in a large dark room,  there was a theater screen, popcorn, and rows of seats. Classical music played in the background as Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy appeared on the screen creating havoc with their on-screen antics.  I was captivated. Not one word was spoken and yet I understood completely. So began an appreciation for the art of the silent film.

In case you are unfamiliar with silent films, they were moving pictures (movies) without sound, made popular from around 1900 through the late 1920’s.  “Talkies” or movies with sound, had not yet been invented.  The first movie released with sound was the The Jazz Singer in 1927.

In silent films, actors had to play out the scene using only their bodies and their faces  to make the audience understand what was happening on the screen.  Background music was provided during the film, originally performed by a live orchestra, or in smaller venues, an organ or piano.

The invention of moving pictures was the craze of its day. The stars of  silent films were the first Hollywood celebrities. They could make you laugh out loud or cry in anguish, all without saying a word. Actors such as Gloria Swanson, Mary Pickford, Greta Garbo, and Douglas Fairbanks brought out the drama and emotion in a scene.  Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy made the audience roar with laughter with their pratfalls and comedic timing. There were actors willing to do very dangerous stunts like Buster Keaton, nicknamed Buster by Harry Houdini himself, riding the front of a moving train engine in Steamboat Bill, Jr. (1928) and Harold Lloyd who, in the unforgettable scene from  Safety Last (1923), perilously dangled high above the street from the hand of a clock. And, there was Rudolph Valentino, arguably the very first male sex symbol, known for movies such as The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (1921) and The Sheik (1921) whose untimely death in 1926 at age 31 caused near hysteria and garnered a funeral attendance of over 100,000 people.

Rudolph Valentino

Silent films are a lost art and the actors were masters of their craft. They were pioneers that left their legacy on the screen in black and white, for the world to watch, but no one to hear.

 

Quote of the Day:

“Writing your own story is a bit like drilling your own teeth.’

– Gloria Swanson

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Rose By Any Other Name

There are so many beautiful ways to express one simple observation: a beautiful red rose (English), una hermosa rosa roja (Spanish), une belle rose rouge (French). What if you could express your thoughts, feelings, ideas, and observations in more than one language. What if you could pick up a magazine or watch a television program in another language and understand the ideas and concepts expressed?  Think of the whole new world that would open up to you simply by learning to understand and speak a new language.

Learning a new language opens up a beautiful new world, like eating a luscious  French desert for the first time. It lingers on the tongue and it’s an experience you cannot know until you try it. Learning a new language not only allows you to understand the ideas of others but it also allows you to express your observations and ideas in whole new ways. For example, in English there is essentially only one word for the white stuff that comes down from the sky in winter.  It’s called snow.  But did you know that the Inuit people native to North America have more than 50 words in their native language to describe different kinds of snow.  How amazing is that!  Learning a new language opens up a whole new world to the person willing to try.  It provides you with new ways of communicating your observations, feelings, emotions, and ideas back to the world.

What if you were on the trip of a life time to beautiful South Africa and when your travel guide spoke to you in Afrikaans, you understood every word! Think of  all the wonderful ideas and stories you could take home with you at the end of that trip simply because you understood and could communicate with the people around you. Learning a language can be a glorious adventure that allows you to communicate in new ways and with people.

Some might say it’s too hard.  If you think it’s too hard, think about how you learned to speak your native language?  You heard it, you practiced it by using it to communicate with those around you, and you’ve had time.  There is no rush to learn a new language.  Take your time and enjoy the process.  Learn to speak it one word at a time. The internet is loaded with free translation sites and language learning sites. Youtube.com has hundreds of language learning videos on its site.  Look up one word each day.  And practice.  For example, place a sticky note with the word “café” written on it on the cabinet where you keep the coffee cups. “Café” is the Spanish word for coffee.  Every time you get a cup for coffee, practice saying the word. That’s all it takes to begin to learn a new language.  You may even become hooked and not only become bilingual, but multilingual! How exciting would that be!

Language is fun and creative and expressive.  Allowing yourself to open up and learn a new language brings new experiences, new ideas, and maybe even new people into your life that you never thought possible.

 

Quote for the Day:

“If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head.  If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart.”

-Nelson Mandela

A Lifelong Love Affair with Gardening

Gardening is the lover that grabs a hold of you at any age and doesn’t let go.  It becomes a passion for some and  an obsession for others. There is always  a bed to weed, a flower to transplant, and a garden to design or redesign.  Gardening magazines, flower catalogs, online resources bombard the gardener with new tools, new flowers, new information.What is a gardener to do? Hold on and don’t let go. Ever!  Gardening is a marvelous creative outlet, an ever-changing artist’s canvas of color and form that  leaves you breathless and wanting more.

 

 

Peony

Daylily ‘Swirling Water’

Martha Washington Geranium

Photos by Wanette Lenling

Gardening and landscaping is a luscious art that has been enjoyed by humans for thousands of years.  One of the seven wonders of the world was The Hanging Gardens of Babylon. Even the great silent film star of the 1920’s, Rudolph Valentino, known as the Latin Lover, had a degree in landscaping. He enjoyed gardening so much that he not only designed the landscape for his home named Falcon Lair, but he helped install and maintain the plants too.

Landscapes and gardens can be created in a formal design with sheared hedges, symmetrical plantings, and monochromatic color scheme, or they can be entirely informal such as  country garden designs with no discernible form or color palette.  A gardener can also create a mixed landscape that includes not only ornamental plantings but also edibles. There are no rules in gardening.  Beauty is in the eye of the beholder as they say.

Gardening is a passion worth indulging. It is not only a creative outlet but  it’s a terrific stress reliever and a wonderful form of exercise. There is so much to learn and enjoy about gardening.  It’s a never ending love affair that will stay with you always.

Quote of the Day:

“To plant a garden is to believe in tomorrow” – Audrey Hepburn

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I recently started a new gardening blog called Simply Gardening at simplygardeningsite.wordpress.com .  It is all about the love of gardening.  If you share my passion for gardening, check it out.

 

 

Meditation. What is it and why do it?

What is meditation? Meditation is a practice of calming the brain and the body back into to its natural state of balance.  It is very similar in nature to self-hypnosis or bio-feedback. Research has suggested that even after only a short time, the practice of meditation has a positive effect on the overall health and sense of well being of an individual. And contrary to popular belief, meditation is not mystical or religious in nature.  It is a practice that is free, healthy and available to anyone at anytime.

So why do it? In one word: stress. For most people stress is a part of daily life.  Stress is not a bad word, however.  A young tree bending in the wind actually becomes stronger by enduring the stress that wind puts on it. But, there is a breaking point for a tree just as there is for a human being. An overdose of stress will break a tree just as it can break a person. For an individual, having to endure too much stress can negatively affect every aspect of that person’s life, from personal and professional relationships to overall health.  Some people self-medicate, with drugs and alcohol, while others may acquire other addictive behaviors, such as gambling or over-eating, all in an effort to relieve too much stress. Unfortunately this may  lead to more problems in the end.

What does an overload of stress  have to do with meditation?  Meditation is simply the practice of quieting the brain and the body to return to a natural balance. Think of a well cared for, well fed baby with a dry diaper.  The baby is happy and content.  That is natural balance.  Too much stress upsets this natural state of balance in the body. Meditation is a way to get it back. Meditation can be done sitting, standing, eyes closed or open, in silence or with a mantra, music or no music, with a guide or without, inside or outside, the list goes on and on.  Meditation is done best in the way that is best for the individual.  There is no right or wrong in meditation.

If you are overly stressed, give meditation a try.  Find a quiet place where you won’t be disturbed. You can do it for five minutes or for an hour or longer.  It is completely up to you.  If you have never tried meditation before, and are hesitant to try, you can find many free guided meditations online.  Experiment and find the one that is best for you. But remember, there is no wrong way to do it.  Whatever works best for you, is the right way to do it.  Give it a try, it won’t hurt and it’s free!

Quote for the Day:

“A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new.” – Albert Einstein

 

Did you ever wonder?

Did you ever wonder why? How? Who? Where? I do.  I have a desire to learn that is insistent and irrepressible.  I am constantly researching, studying, and taking notes on any number of topics. I’m driven to learn by my insatiable questioning of the world around us. I read absolutely everything, and yes, laugh if you like, that includes the label on the shampoo bottle too!

The purpose of this blog is to spread wonder about the world around us, to enlighten, inform, help, teach, and hopefully entertain about a wide range of topics. Nothing in this blog will be written with the intent to be divisive or judgmental in any way. I think there is enough of that in the world already.  I do not promise answers, only anecdotes and information and maybe, just maybe, more questions to ponder.

I am a lover of literature, philosophy, art and science.  At the end of each blog I will leave you with a quote from an amazing teacher, author, scientist, artist, or from one of the many wonderful  people in this world that life gives us the opportunity to meet and learn from.  Today I will leave you with one of my favorite quotes from a very wise man, a quote that hopefully reminds us all to be the kind of person we always wanted to be.

“What you think, you become” – Buddha