A Free Soul

Watching "A Free Soul", with Norma Sheaer, Clark Gable and Lionel Barrymore. 1931, pre-code movie. Gangster being represented by an attorney whose flapper daughter falls for him.  Pre-code is that time between sound 1929 and mid-1934. The Motion Picture Production Code sensorship guidelines usually labeled "Hays Code".

So films with sexual innuendo, miscenegation, profanity, illegal drug use, promiscuity, prostitution, infidelity, abortion, intense violence and homosexuality. So it was difficult to regulate and there were many instances of dispute. A lot of film was damaged by going through and altering them, but some studio heads ordered items to be destroyed but many weren't.

Clark has some great phrases and Norma Shearer is amazing in her slinky silk dresses. Definitely sensorship worthy. I caught an expression he uses in mixed company:

So I looked up the word Picayune. It is a Spanish from Spain reference to blindfolding. But it was so obscure in the dialogue it prompting me to look it up. 

So here we are on Inauguration Day, January 20th, 2017. Those pre-code days are circling back. In a time where press and journalism is seen as out of bonds. People's personal freedoms are being sequestered. The extreme right is coming into play. What we are allowed to know, to see, to hear and how we should feel is being dictated again. This time in the way of news. The Picayune.

The First Amendment of the United States Constitution states:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

This is our first amendment. This was important enough to our forefathers they drafted it immediately.  I think that this couples well with:

The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. § 552, is a federal freedom of information law that allows for the full or partial disclosure of previously unreleased information and documents controlled by the United States government. The Act defines agency records subject to disclosure, outlines mandatory disclosure procedures and grants nine exemptions to the statute.^[1][2] This amendment was signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson, despite his misgivings,^[3][4] on July 4, 1966, and went into effect the following year.^[5]

It is what it is and either we put our heads in the sand or we follow our convictions. Awe and inspired the Women's March follows. There isn't a thing in our makeup that allows up to return to those days where codes dictated what our heart and minds are allowed to witness.

We do see the past and find we are not returning there. As the weekend brings peaceful protest amazing creativity and eloquent speeches, I look at our lot in life and find that we are bound for positive change. It is chalenging to us to bare witness to injustice but now i sense those voices are met with other voices. One becomes two, then three and four. This becomes the force that calls for notice.

Go Away 2016

2016 started off pretty rugged. My father in law had passed away suddenly and threw everything in a whirl wind of upheaval. Then after the initial shock, paperwork mania etc.. things sort of settled. We managed to get a lot done personally. I guess personal progress no matter how small or unprofitable, is really substantial as well. Its the details, the drive, the sincerity that i think that's really what matters.

Got our new green house and built that, more planting beds, a cement pad storage shed, a new 57 travel trailer, new chicken coop straight from overseas, bunch of small work on the house. Moved out of a defunct store, did a few shows, continued to sell like a mad woman, purging, demoed a closet, redid our room, had numerous trees cut for us and our neighbor, got composting going. Moved, gave away, organized piles of wood  to make room for trailer, old chick coop (now our animal products storage) and jungle gym (construction materials holder). It sounds easy but everything had to be moved, cleared or cleaned, built, etc... lots of trips to our transfer site (dump). Lots of work. Some the tree rounds were more then I can lift.

So when I looked out on my world from the shed we built, I am satisfied. We do have more to do. Roof the garden shed, create more growing boxes, deck redo, fence redo, kitchen redo. It all is sitting there on the todo list. It is a lot but it also is so little compared to where I was. 

A couple of weeks in and so much is in the works and shifting. Not all laid out in a perfect manner but getting together a schedule. Need to uncluttered the clutter and bring some clarity to storage. Would love to just unload stuff but not sure I want the financial loss. 

Thursday morning and the potential for a large two day snow event may bring some time my way to get inventory done, rearrange the sheds and move on into the year. I think the potential for working on things in a more purposeful way is a rewarding outcome, but at the same time it had been difficult considering the things brewing in the world.

You got about working, planning, scheduling and then you her something and just want to quit. Things that make sense and should happen, aren't. The most asinine things are said, done, etc...and you cant process it adequately. It derails you. So I am trying to be informed but not derailed. But that is so difficult!

So today is a day to look beyond that.