Saturday, September 22, 2012

Save the Classics!

Today I was scrolling through Tumblr, wasting time as usual, when a very important matter popped up: that of which films to add to the National Film Registry to safely preserve.  I've seen clips of Ginger Rogers talking about how many films have been lost and the necessary steps should be taken to ensure that the classics always live on.  I agree and feel strongly about this.  That's why I payed special attention to the following post:
JUST PUT YOUR LIPS TOGETHER AND BLOW: hornbecks: 2012 National Film Registry Nominations Closing...


Attention old Hollywood bloggers and film lovers of all stripes—
The Library of Congress is accepting nominations for the National Film Registry until September 28, 2012. Every year, Librarian of Congress James H. Billington, in collaboration with film experts and the National Film Preservation Board, selects up to 25 films for inclusion in the Registry, which will ensure that the movies will live on in a government archive, maintained by a team committed to ensuring that movies deemed “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant” live on.
You can submit up to fifty nominations to the Library staff by sending an email to dross@loc.gov or by mail at:
National Film Registry
Library of Congress
Packard Campus for Audio Visual Conservation
19053 Mt. Pony Road
Culpeper, VA 22701
Attn: Donna Ross
Include the title and year of release for each of the films you would like to nominate, and be sure to number the list.
You may vote for any movie made in or before 2002, but it’s the oldest fims that are in the most danger. Here is a list of classics that have not yet been archived. These include
  • Gilda
  • The Sheik
  • A Day at the Races
  • Girl Shy
  • The Mummy (1932)
  • To Have and Have Not
  • Design for Living
  • Inherit the Wind
  • The Gay Divorcee
  • Steamboat Bill, Jr.
  • You Can’t Take It with You
  • She Wore a Yellow Ribbon
  • Pride of the Yankees
  • Random Harvest
  • Strangers on a Train
  • The Postman Always Rings Twice
  • The Razor’s Edge
  • Rebecca
as well as iconic animated films like Cinderella, Dumbo, Rabbit of Sevilleand Duck Dodgers in the 24 1/2 Century. These movies will, eventually, crumble to ash if serious action is not taken now.
If you want to advocate for these movies, you have to vote. Make sure to send in your nominations by the deadline, and then you’ll know that youstood for a film, even if you stand alone. You’ll have voiced the dire necessity of preserving our history, our heritage, the work of the people we love—and that’s what really matters.

There are tons of movies on this list, ranging from 1890-2002.  I wrote down 8 pages worth of movies I intend to send in an email about.  Movies such as the above, as well as After the Thin Man, Mary Poppins, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Grease, Dirty Dancing, Titanic (97), Little Women, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, The Breakfast Club, Since You Went Away, The Princess Bride, Arsenic and Old Lace, Auntie Mame, The Blob, and tons of others made up the entire list.  It's extremely depressing to me to think that all of these great movies could essentially become destroyed if the proper precautions are not taken.  I know only 50 movies are to be sent in, and I know that I wrote down over 50.  However, I intend to send in as many emails from different addresses as I can to ensure that people in the future can still enjoy what we do today.  These films are classics for a reason, and they need to be preserved.  
So I ask that you please take 30 minutes or so to read the list and send in your votes because our films won't  last forever and it's up to us to make sure that they do.
*REMEBER: You MUST send in your emails by SEPTMEBER 28TH, 2012.
Thanks guys.

Monday, September 10, 2012

The "To-Do" List

Dun dun dun.
(This is me writing my list.)
No, really, lists are good for everyone.  A habit I picked up form The Princess Diaries.  <3
  • finish Insurgent
  • Actually write my admired person speech out about Rosie.  I may know way too much information to be considered a normal amount, but that does NOT mean I can get up in front of everyone and make sense.
  • study for my camera test tomorrow
  • change the layout of my Tumblr page (Though I am NOT happy with it...  >:/)
  • add tags to all my posts on this blog
  • organize my picture folders some more
  • completely update my CH Movies Seen slideshow
  • finish watching No Man of Her Own
  • finish watching Parnell because I just remembered today that I never did
  • get some actual, good sleep
  • CLEAN.  MY.  PIGSTY.  room.
  • sort my clothes and get rid of the old ones
  • order some new CH movies/CDs/autobios
  • charge my iPod
  • make an attempt to keep my bed made (though there's almost absolutely no point because I'm one of THOSE sleepers.  You know: the kind that twist, toss, and turn in their sleep and end up kicking their sheet to the end of the bed and throwing their Harry Potter squishy doll on the floor and completely turn my bed spread around and yeah...)
  • organize my school binder
  • PRACTICE MY CLARINET
  • organize my bookshelf
  • write.  and just write.  on actual paper.
  • clear off my desk
  • cross off the days on my calendar, which is on said desk, covered with papers and such
  • throw out all these gift cards that probably only have 30 cents left on them
  • GET TO SELLING THOSE UGLY OLD TWILIGHT THINGS.  That obsession is LONG over, B.
  • tape up some things and take down others (from the walls)
  • answer Ashley's Tumblr messages
  • clean up this "mess" I've been leaving behind over behind the scenes at Film-Classics.  (Don't tell anyone, but all the ILL episodes I've unlocked have yet to be relocked.  But not for long!  (I hope.))  (And I got the Films section clean up, too!  :D)
  • write my letter to Rosie for Nat's latest blog-a-thon
  • get a life
Awful long list...better get started.
~Off to write a stuffy essay that won't help me much, then study for a test that hopefully will be easy to pass.
Oh.  And make tomorrow's lunch.

P.S.  We had our first history test last week and there was a question on there whose answer is quite honestly obvious: True or False: Queen Elizabeth I divorced her 3rd husband. 
Quite obviously false.  My reasoning for it being so quitely obvious?  SHE WAS THE VIRGIN QUEEN.  SHE NEVER MARRIED.  
Why does no one seem to know this but ME?!  (And my 6th grade brother.  But he doesn't count.)  Not even my dad, my history buff father, knew that.  Who else did they think VIRGINia was named after, if not for the VIRGIN QUEEN?!
GAH.  THE WORLD IS COMING TO AN END.

Sunday, September 9, 2012

"How To Avoid Sleep" by Bailey

Yes.  It's 10:50 on a Sunday night and I have school at 8 tomorrow morning.  Which requires getting up at no later than 6:45 to shower.  We can see how well I am at putting off certain things I really need (SLEEEEP).
Last week (actually, exactly 9 days ago), I was finally able to get my hands on a copy of Divergent by Veronica Roth.  If you've never read this book or the series at all, get out of here.

Okay, now come back.

Really, you're very lucky because I have been constantly attacked by FEELS (feelings, for those of you who do not kill countless brain cells on Tumblr) these past days.  I read Divergent in 7 hours last Friday and I now have about 100 pages left of Insurgent.  Wow.  I.  CAN'T.  TAKE.  IT.  I never thought anyone could be as cute as Lucy and Ricky/Lucy and Desi.  And then I found Nick and Nora Charles and they almost were.  And then there's Juliet and Shawn/Maggie and James.  Do you know how many FEELS that is?  On top of it all, I now have Fourtris (the main ship for the Divergent trilogy) to cut my heart in half.  And Insurgent is NOT.  HELPING.
In other news, reading Veronica Roth's blog is "inspiring" me to write.  So instead of paying attention in Algebra like I should tomorrow, I will write.  Because that's what I do.  Because that's how that little bump on my right ring finger came about.  That's right.  While normal people (or maybe that's just Jo March) have ink or lead or something on their hands, I have a bump.  No, it's not a wart.  I don't get warts.  I've had this thing for YEARS.  See, when I write, I hold my utensil with my thumb, pointer, and middle fingers and rest it on the side of my ring finger.  Now maybe a normal person would not have a problem with this.  But I write fast and I write hard.  The utensil pushes up against my ring finger, thus creating my little writing bump.
And that is my main writer's trademark.
Plus, has anyone ever (at least slightly) studied handwriting analysis?  I find it so fascinating.  I always like looking at my handwriting and how I form letters and words.

Cool picture of the day:
(Taken from judyforever)
~B.
(P.S.  And, yes.  I am now trying out the first initial sign off thing.  I need a change in my name life.  You can't really get many nicknames from Bailey, and, though I've recently been contemplating Bai, that name has long been strictly reserved to cousins and other family members.  And even then I hardly ever liked it.)