AV Geeks 16mm 2-7-2024

for for hello everybody I'm skip Alzheimer and welcome to the a Geeks lunchtime streaming show I'm back um happy to be back almost done with this medical thing that's going on um tomorrow by this time I'll be clear it'll be great so excited anyways uh apologize for the well apologize Monday's uh Balloon Fest was actually for me uh fascinating to watch um because we have so much diverse balloon footage it was uh really all over the place and I saw stuff that I in films I haven't seen before so I'm I'm trying to hunt down the films um to figure out where they came from uh these were all sourced from our stock footage site uh and they were all tagged by people and include films that I haven't seen and we haven't shown so that was kind of exciting um then yesterday uh I just I hadn't slept well so um I basically showed a film about sleeping and then a bunch of uh NyQuil commercials early NyQuil commercials um The Glorious narcotic that uh nursed us through um nights of flu and colds uh let's see so we've got set up it is Black History Month and so I've been trying to show archival films that have to talk about historical uh significance uh in Black uh culture and contributions uh this one is called Henry Brown farmer uh and it's made I believe during the war effort excuse me anyways enjoy [Music] these are Americans on their way to the Battlefront of democracy fighting men dedicating their lives to securing a better world for all soldiers of America but we have another Army the men in plants and factories producing weapons for our fighting forces in an Ever growing flood our soldiers of production and behind all these stand the broad Rich Acres of America and the men who grow our food produce vital raw materials and give their sons that this land May remain free this is the story of one such American Farmer [Music] this is farmer Henry Brown age 38 father of three children farming 40 acres this year Henry Brown is growing more more on his farm than ever before and to get their work done These Fine summer days he and his family have to be up with the sun this is Young Henry doing the milking this year for the first time they have a cow and young Henry is raising the CF as his own this is going to be the best CF in the [Music] county milk for breakfast and eggs too sisters raising 20 hens most all good layers those that aren't good layers will make good eaters she says last year there was just the same old cornbread and fat pack for breakfast filled you up all right but didn't really build strong healthy bodies young Henry grows like Johnson grass but even so he's already begun to fill out father's got plenty to do today day not that every farmer doesn't always have plenty of work but this year it's different different because this year it isn't just cotton and corn the government man said we needed more fats and oils to Make Up For What the Japs got so Farmer Brown thought if peanuts were really needed he'd try 15 Acres of them sort of figure too it would be good for a man to try his hand at a new kind of crop yes a good farmer with respect for his land and the job it has to do last fall he put lime and phosphate on 28 because of the poorest part of his farm and now both he and his country will benefit from the better crop you'll Harvest if there wear the holes Henry figures on making a really fine crop of peanuts before going out to help for the cotton shopping mother tends her garden a bit there's not much here that will be sold but there's a lot here that will be eaten this summer and some that's going to be put away for next winter no sir the Browns won't be depending on a grocery store they'll leave canned things for people in cities who just can't grow their own [Music] vegetables sister is a pretty good farmer too she certainly works hard tending her chickens must be worth the trouble though because she's got a mighty healthy [Music] flock [Music] 40 acres of land not particularly good land either a bond that isn't big or even new and no tractor just a team of mules an understanding of the earth and things that grow and long hours of hard work for everyone doesn't seem like much but these are the sort of things that make a farmer like putting a new board on the barn when it's needed and saving those burlap fertilizer bags last fall now we need them badly and we're glad they weren't thrown away and because his farm machinery was greased and put under cover when not in use it will probably last for the duration and that's important because as long as our factories are turning out tanks and guns we just have to make everything last even the land oh yes the land can be wasted if Farmer Brown hadn't planted those peanuts and rows following the Contours of the slope rain could wash away both his crop and his land and right now this land of Farmer Brown and all the other Farmers is mighty important to our country because we need more peanuts for oil more long staple cotton more food so it's up to everyone to make the most of every acre of land and every bushel of seed that goes into it [Music] Saturday afternoon of course this is the day Farmers go to town sister sell some eggs and mother and father marker and like to visit with friends but even so it's rather early guess it must be something special today [Music] a [Music] aren't they going to stop are they going right on through town what's this all about what's got sister so [Music] excited well no wonder they didn't stop in town no wonder those young are excited it's a visit to big brother who's a Cadet training with the 99th Pursuit Squadron this is something special all right why maybe there'll even be a chance to watch him [Music] fly [Music] la [Music] the [Music] fer Brown and his wife are Mighty proud of their son and so are we but we're also proud of Farmer Brown proud of him because he's doing his job an important job raising more livestock saving his land and growing more of the things we need and proud of him just for being an American that we can count on at a time when every American has an important job to do [Music] just kind of ends sorry mid sandwich um fascinating no I I'll say more about when I after this next film this is animals and how they communicate [Music] can animals talk we know they can't speak as we do but they can express their feelings in many ways the mother horse wines and the Colt follows the mayor has communicated something to the Colt by the sound of her voice animals also communicate by their actions didn't that seem to mean get up a lamb can communicate with its voice too that's a call for mother sounds help an animal communicate with others of its kind different sounds seem to mean different things the clucking of this flock is not the same as the excited clucking of this mother hen as she calls her chicks do animals know what they are communicating we cannot not be sure but we do know that animals can't survive unless they find food keep track of their young and worn one another of danger and communication helps them do these things even as it looks for food this metalark is alert for danger that sound is the call of another metal LK nearby it is not a warning sound but a nervous flicking of the tail is a warning a signal that danger is near this flashing of the tail may be seen by the bird's mate which also flies away the male red-winged blackbird sings to warn other males away from the territory he is claiming for himself and for his plain colored mate the song of the male warns other birds that this is the place this pair has selected to raise their family nesting and raising a family is one of the most important activities in the lives of birds while this female kill deer sits on her nest the male stays nearby alert for danger enemies must be kept away from the eggs and from the young birds communication is one help in the everyday struggle to stay alive to survive the parent bird calls and the chicks answer but if an enemy gets too close the motherb bird puts on a remarkable act she pretends to have a broken wing this is an unusual kind of communication her fluttering seems to show that she would be easy to catch an enemy would very likely follow trying to seize her and all the while she leads him farther and farther away from her nest and young leaving them safe from danger at a sign of danger Crows Give an alarm call other crows respond as they see the enemy a hawk hearing the alarm calls of the crows black birds and other birds join the chase to attack the hawk the hawk is finally driven off the honking of Canada geese in flight has a different purpose It is believed that the big birds communicate with one another so that they do not become separated the honking helps them keep the beautiful formation they follow during their long migration the honking geese may fly over a quiet Forest stream where beavers live beavers are quiet animals and can move through the water without making a sound but watch this one use his tail to give a danger signal at the sound other beavers in the pond dive for safety a relative of the Bieber the prairie dog also uses its tail to communicate a squeaky little bark and a flicking tail mean danger the signals are heard and seen by other prairie dogs that duck into their burrow for safety another animal of the Plains is the pronghorn antelope these analou usually live in herds when alarmed they run and display two white rump patches these white patches of hair can be seen far across the planes when other antelopes see the signal they also flash their white tail signals as they run for safety the safety of the group is important to social animals like bees the survival of the bees in the hive depends on communication in finding food rearing the young and avoiding enemies one means of communication is by The Familiar buzzing made by the wings these can change the pitch of the buzzing for instance if the buzzing at the entrance to the hive becomes very loud the bees inside seem to know that an enemy is near sometimes a bee enters the hive and brings a special message it is one of the most remarkable examples of animal community communication watch the bee in the center she is doing what is called the bee dance her little circling motions mean that she has found nectar It is believed that by her wriggling dance she can even show how far and in what direction the nectar is from The Hive as soon as the other bees get the message they will leave to find the nectar ants are social insects too but as far as we know do do not communicate by sounds when they find food or have other information to relate it appears that they communicate by touching or stroking their sensitive feelers or antenna so by the sense of touch a message is carried from one ant to another certain grasshoppers communicate by rubbing the edges of their wings together watch The Wing action like many insects the male grasshopper uses communication to find a mate the booming sound of this male Grouse is also used to attract a mate the female grouse goes about quietly to attract her attention the male puts on a SP spectacular show this is an example of courtship [Music] display if another male comes near the Grouse will strut off and try to drive him [Music] away all these actions and sounds are a kind of communication among both males and females as they go through courtship on the Prairies in the spring [Music] certain water Birds too go through unusual actions during courtship these large diving birds Western grebs do a water dance in the spring here a male and a female do a kind of water bance play all this is a kind of communication in this way the birds find mates which makes possible new families among the domestic birds that put on courtship displays is the peacock as in most species of birds the female is usually quiet but the male peacock puts on a splendid show giving his call and spreading his huge tail like a fan of Jewel likee [Music] colors the male's actions finally begin to attract his [Music] mate eventually the female will build a nest and the pair will have a family in rearing the young finding food and warning one another of danger these birds will communicate in different ways ways that we have seen help animals to [Music] survive yeah it was nice um yeah so that previous film uh Harry Brown farmer uh was narrated by Canada Lee who was a a popular black actor who um did some performances with Orson wells's um theater troop I think he was in Native Sun um and kind of influenced a whole generation of black actors and of course he was blacklisted um as a communist and unfortunately died before he was able to do a hearing to try to clear his name but um yeah know interesting film and you know history oh history all right so behind me behind me see I'm all out of practice here uh I have a film scanner set up and so we're going to watch a film uh this is part of a series by uh BFA uh about music and they have all different types of films about music and this one's called discovery of Melody and Harmony enjoy there I who could me my and every tear would turn a joh has [Music] for I on butm K who could play me my and every tear would turn [Music] a thank you m Susan the songs that we have just sung from early America will help us understand many new things about music one important part of music is the melody who can sing the first part of The Melody of Johnny has gone for a soldier William William I'll give you the beginning note I said on butter good when just saying beginning Johnny has gone for a soldier and this is what the notes look like he just say Melody moves in repeats steps and skips listen as I play repeats steps and skips see if you can hear these repeats steps and skips as I play the beginning of the melody today we're going to use the repeated notes on a spinning song singing Boom Da Boom you sing with me daom very good the sound of the Boom Da Boom Da in the song represent the sound of the petal moving the spinning wheel Boom Da Boom Da Boom Da Boom Da Boom Da Boom Da Boom Da the nonsense words that you will sing are nonsense words that the women sang while they worked at the spinning wheel Now sing the Boom Da Boom booma as I sing The Melody of Sarah [Music] SP [Music] very good now let's take a look at the melody of sondo notice that this melody like Johnny has gone for a soldier also moves in steps skips and repeats who can find the repeated notes debie on the spa spa in the beginning of Sarah good and how do these notes move Kenny skip good Kenny here the notes move in skips and here they move in steps be sure to notice the repeat sign that tells us to go back and sing it again let's all sing the beginning of Saras Bond together Sarah Sarah sah Sarah sah sah very good now few minutes ago you added a note when I sang The Melody to make the sound of the pedal for the spinning wheel here we have the added notes of the Boom Da Boom Da with the melody what are the notes of the Boom Da booma doing Danny they're repeating they're repeating good who would like to come up and play the repeated notes on the bells Mike show us how you would play this not Mike you play the repeated note while the class sings The [Applause] Melody good Mike Mike has just added something new to our Melody remember when we add other notes to the melody we call this harmony remember that Melody moves in steps skips and repeats Harmony also moves in steps skips and repeats now let's sing the melody and Harmony and listen to how they sound together you are let's see Susan Terry Danny Kenny and Larry sing on the booma booma and the rest of us will sing the melody singing Sarah SP s [Music] s the kind of Harmony that you just sang is called a death C a discant can be repeated notes such as you just sang on The Boom Da booma or an added Melody above or below the main Melody we're also in the same song going to add another kind of Harmony a more difficult kind and this kind of Harmony is going to be like the wheel the first kind was like the p this kind is going to be like the wheel it's going to go from low to high down to low to high and back down to low again just like the Turning of a spinning wheel the melody like the harmony also moves up and down let's look at the melody notice the way the melody Skips from low to high and moves down to low low to high and back down to low again just the way the spinning wheel moves now I'll sing the melody and show you how it moves with my hand now you sing The Melody with me and show me how the melody moves with your hands [Music] notice the other notes with the melody remember added notes to the melody are called Marita Harmony Harmony right this kind of Harmony is called thirds when we go from a space to a line to a space we count 1 2 3 that is a third let me play a third on the bells for you let's make the sound of a third Harmony singer [Music] sing Melody singers good notice how the harmony moves in the same direction as the melody much of the harmony is in thirds 1 2 3 and notice that these two notes these two notes here all the way across they're the same space aren't they so they're all thirds they all move in the same direction don't they until we get here and then what happens to the harmony something youve already learned about in harmony as well as Melody Mike repeat yes repeat so once we find that note we just stay there until we finally move back up now follow along as I sing the harmony for you a say now you sing it with [Music] me very good does anybody notice what we do here on this part of the song something that we did on the beginning of the song sign that tells us to do something Christine repeat repeat at the very end we have a repeat sign and that means go back until we see a repeat sign going in the other direction and here it is now let's sing the melody and Harmony together then we'll go back and sing it a second time because of the repeat sign Harmon singers here your first tun not [Music] [Music] [Music] fing good now let's sing this song from the very beginning with a Sarah sung by the melody singers and the sound of the spinning wheel going boom da boom da those people that are singing the sound of the spinning wheel will go right on with the harmony and the people singing The Melody will go right on with the melody are you all ready starting out with a [Music] very good now let's look at the notes of another song from early America one that we already know When Johnny Comes Marching Home here are the notes of The Melody of When Johnny Comes Marching Home let's see if we can remember some of the things we have learned about Melody today who can tell us how these notes move Terry and repeat repeats right how do these notes move Larry skips skips very good and how do these notes move steps by step good remember that the notes of the melody move by repeats skips and steps now let's sing The Melody of When Johnny Comes Marching homeing over again we'll give him ay welcome then the men will Che the boys will shout how did I add the harmony while you sing The Melody of When Johnny Comes Marching Home Barbara you play the auto heart with auto harp good remember how many other ways we added the harmony today what was one way Danny um well on Sarah B we sang desat by singing Boom Da Boom Da singing a des can of Boom Da Boom Da Boom Da very good remember how some of you sang Boom daom daom Da Boom while the rest of you [Music] sing what was another way we added Harmony Christine we sang notes in thirds in SAS sponder good Christine remember a third sounds like this the second part of Sarah sponda had mostly Harmony in [Music] thirds let's finish our lesson by singing When Johnny Comes Marching Home and this time we'll add Bells Auto harp and rhythm [Music] [Applause] [Music] instruments [Music] Jimmy wants to be a scientist someday and he likes to go exploring along the shores of the lake where he lives he collects Stones as a hobby strangest of all are small Stone discs which have a hole through the center Jimmy has learned that these discs were once the stem-like part of a simple animal that lived in an ancient sea millions of years ago resembling a flower this animal was one of many forms of prehistoric life scientists can show us what these forms looked like from evidence they have found for instance this prehistoric kind of crustation is called called a trilobit geologists have found the remains of this ancient type of animal in the form of stone casts which are one type of fossil fossils are part of the prehistoric evidence that has helped geologists reconstruct prehistoric times from their studies of other kinds of evidence in the Earth's crust many scientists estimate that the Earth is 2 or more billion years old this time of about 2 billion years scientists have divided into five great periods of time called geologic eras during the first billion years the aroic era continents and seas were forming in the next half billion years the protozoic era simple forms of plants and animals appeared in the Seas the Paleozoic Era of 300 million years was an age of underwater animals including fishes then came became the Mesozoic Era 125 million years during which reptils dominated the Earth today we live in the cazo era which began 60 million years ago during this time appeared mammals including man let's begin with the archeozoic era about 2 billion years ago during the first billion years continents and seas were forming and and since that time the Earth has been continually changing there were periods when mountains were built up from the Seas by volcanic action sometimes whole mountain ranges were built by volcanic action and by other slower forces some of which pushed up rocks into great Mountain FS on the other hand forces of erosion such as running water wind rain and Ice were wearing down the mountains and other high regions the process of erosion is slow the land wears away bit by bit this process of building up and wearing down has been a continuous process even the oceans were changed in size and shape scientists think that during the latter part of the aroic era in the warm seawater that covered much of the land living matter appeared many scientists believe these earliest forms of life were tiny one- celled plants and animals something like the one-celled amoeba the long billion-year aroic era gave way to the protozoic era during this time there is evidence that there were more complicated forms of plants and animals probably similar to the tiny crustations and simple green algae we know today following the half billion years of the protozoic era came Paleozoic times at the start of this 300 milliony year era there is no evidence of life on the land but beneath the surface of the warm Seas the waters were teeming with Prehistoric plants and animals among the early Paleozoic animals were the corals like corals of our seas today they built hard external skeletons some of them lived in colonies among other forms of life in these ancient coral reefs were animals called spilop pods some of them attained a length of 50 ft and were Masters Of The Seas the prehistoric seapods were related to the octopus of present day times the octopus has no backbone and no outside shell however during Paleozoic times many spilop pods lived in elaborate shells important animals in the Seas of mid Paleozoic times were the fishes fish are vertebrates animals with backbones among the early fishes was the lungfish this present day lungfish occasionally comes up to breathe air just as these prehistoric lungfish did more suited to life on the land were air breathing amphibians living both in the water and on the land the amphibians were part of the world of plants and insects of Paleozoic times dense forests of ferns and other kinds of plants grew in the warm moist climate it is from the trees and other plants of these Paleozoic forests that we get much of the coal we use today the forests grew in great swampy lowlands and when the trees died they fell into the water and were covered with mud with the passing of millions of years they were changed into the coal we find today so this period of large coal forests is called the coal a age by the end of the coal age air breathing lizards had appeared with the coming of these reptiles the long Paleozoic Era was drawing to a close the next era the meso is often called the age of reptils it was a time of tremendous volcanic eruptions of all the life on the land the lizards were among the animals that survived the violent upheavals gradually gigantic reptiles came to dominate the Earth in the Mesozoic Era the age of reptiles we call them Dinosaurs the Latin word for terrible lizard this one had thick armor-like plates along its back and was about the size of an elephant such huge Plante eating dinosaurs were often attacked by vicious flesh eating reptils but the fierce dinosaur were not the only reptiles on the earth reptiles with great webbed Wings related to prehistoric birds were also part of the Mesozoic Era once again changes in the Earth's surface brought this period to a close with the cenic era came the age of mammals among the earliest mammals were some simple types not too different from the Hedgehogs of our present day this sloth was one of the common types of prehistoric mammals among the largest mammals of cazic times were the mastadons whose bones we still find in many parts of the earth these great elephant-like animals were among those that live during the severe climatic changes that happened during the Ice Age which began about a million years ago there were times when large portions of the earth were completely covered with glacial ice and snow living on the tundra near the edge of the ice Fields were the woolly rhinoceros and the huge mammoths the great Shaggy mammoths belonged to the elephant family they were related to the elephants on the Earth today in the same way the horses that we know today can be traced to their prehistoric ancestors small horses that roam the Earth millions of years ago the story of the horse and other mammals is only part of the evidence of prehistoric life that scientists are continually finding scientists estimate the age of the Earth at some 2 billion years or more the first Great era is called archeozoic the time of the formation of the Earth's crust in the next era the proterozoic the Waters of the earth contain simple forms of plants and animals during the Paleozoic Era animals without backbones were most important about the middle of this time fish with backbones became abundant and near the end of the era air breathing amphibians and lizards appeared giant reptiles called Dinosaurs came to dominate the Earth during the Mesozoic Era sometimes called the age of reptils and in the most recent era the scena OIC mammals appeared on the earth it was toward the end of this era during one of the warmer stages of the Ice Age that man the most highly developed mammal appeared the story of prehistoric man is the last chapter in The Long record of prehistoric [Music] times