settima

USA

Space Is the Place (John Coney, 1974)

Jan

5

Space Shuttle

Space Is the Place (1974)

Ra's arrival. DP: Seth Hill.

A film about space travel on the day Nixon announced the Space Shuttle program in 1972.

“I came from a dream that the Black man dreamed long ago. I’m actually a presence sent to you by your ancestors.”

Sun Ra

St. Louis Blues (Dudley Murphy, 1929)

Dec

20

Walter “Wolfman” Washington – 1943

St. Louis Blues (1929)

Bessie “the Empress of Blues” Smith, singing her blues away. DP: Walter Strenge .

Featuring rhythm and blues, funk or blues, for Walter “Wolfman” Washington's birthday (1943)

“I hate to see the evening' sun go down I hate to see the evening' sun go down It makes me think I'm on my last go 'round

Feeling' tomorrow like I feel today Feeling' tomorrow like I feel today I'll pack my grip and make my getaway”

Saint Louis woman with her diamond rings Pulls that man around by her apron strings Wasn't for powder and the store-bought hair The man I love wouldn't go nowhere, nowhere

I got them Saint Louis Blues; just as blue as I can be He's got a heart like a rock cast in the sea Or else he wouldn't have gone so far from me”

– Bessie Smith, St. Louis Blues (W. C. Handy)

Lolita (Stanley Kubrick, 1962)

Dec

18

Daniel LaRusso's birthday

Lolita (1962)

Lolita (Sue Lyon) twirling her hoola hoop in the yard in front of Prof. Humbert Humbert (James Mason). He pretends to read but is mostly ogling her.. DP: Oswald Morris .

A backyard, deck or fences for Daniel LaRusso's (the Karate Kid kid who, as part of his martial arts training, endlessly paints fences) birthday.

“What drives me insane is the twofold nature of this nymphet, of every nymphet perhaps, this mixture in my Lolita of tender, dreamy childishness and a kind of eerie vulgarity. I know it is madness to keep this journal, but it gives me a strange thrill to do so. And only a loving wife could decipher my microscopic script.”

– Prof. Humbert Humbert

Lonely Are the Brave (David Miller, 1962)

Dec

15

bread

Lonely Are the Brave (1962)

Jerry Bondi (Gena Rowlands) kneads dough. DP: Philip H. Lathrop.

“I don't need a card to figure out who I am. I already know.”

– Jack Burns

The Monkey Talks (Raoul Walsh, 1927)

Dec

14

Monkey Day

The Monkey Talks (1927)

Jocko (Jacques Lerner) in embrace with his Olivette (Olive Borden). Amazingly, Lerner does not wear a mask; it's all the work of makeup craftsman Jack Pierce. DP: L. William O'Connell.

A monkey for (unofficial) Monkey Day.

 

Speedy (Ted Wilde, 1928)

Dec

7

National Cotton Candy Day

Speedy (1928)
Speedy (1928)

Harold 'Speedy' Swift (Harold Lloyd ) and his gal Jane (Ann Christy) enjoy big bags of cotton candy at the fair. DP: Walter Lundin .

Cotton candy for (National) Cotton Candy Day. Gifs via Little Horror Shop on Tumblr.

“When a boy loses his job, buys a new suit and takes a girl to Coney Island, he's either insane or in love – – and there's not much difference.”

– title card

Sioux Ghost Dance (William K.L. Dickson + William Heise 1894)

Dec

1

Hornbill Festival

Sioux Ghost Dance (1894)

A Sioux troupe – these particular people were part of Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show – perform a Ghost Dance in #ThomasEdison's Black Maria studio in New Jersey. DP: William Heise.

Indigenous dance for Hornbill Festival, Nagaland.

Murder by Contract (Irving Lerner, 1958)

Nov

29

candy

Murder by Contract (1958)

In a small movie theatre, a guy in a suit (Phillip Pine) stuffs his face with something from a small brown paper bag. Behind him are the Hollywood idea of an “elderly” woman (Janet Brandt) and a man with a moustache (Albert Cavens), Right next to snack man, a fellow with his hat pulled deeply over his face (Herschel Bernardi) takes a nap.. DP: Lucien Ballard.

“The way i see it, Harry, everybody lives off everybody else.”

– Claude

The End (Christopher Maclaine, 1953)

Nov

13

ice cream

The End (1953)

A man suggestively licks an ice cream cone. DP: Jordan Belson.

Legacy of Satan (Gerard Damiano, 1972/74)

Oct

31

cherry pie

Legacy of Satan (1974)

A lady cuts her left index finger with a knife. Nearby a plate with bloodred cherry pie. DP: João Fernandes.