AV Geeks 16mm Lunch 8-19-2025

Hello everybody. I'm Skip Alzheimer. Welcome to the AV Geeks Lunchtime streaming show where we watch old 16mimeter films. And I'm sorry, yesterday was horrible. It was a bad day. It was literally a crappy day. Um, and it just cast uh a bad vibe over everything I did yesterday. Um, which is why I was so frustrated with my um software dropping frames and having to deal with a plumber and all of this stuff. It's horrible. So, thank you for your patience yesterday. So, as a test, I have been running streaming uh for more than an hour and a half, and I have not dropped any frames. So, this is just something I'm going to keep an eye on. Uh I'm not at the archive right now. Uh so, maybe that was a factor. Who knows? But I'm I'm investigating because what's important to me is when I show you the films, I want you to see the films as close to the original as possible and not having this stuttery pausing imagery. Um, anyways, I don't know if I've shown this film, like it's not on my list of films I've shown, but it it definitely looks familiar and it's crazy. So here's ah we humans enjoy [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Have you watched? Huh? [Music] Yummy. me [Applause] Okay. touching. Come to [Applause] me. [Music] I take what you [Music] >> go. Oh, [Music] give me [Music] [Music] Are you okay? Good. [Music] Oh my god. [Music] You Foreign speech. Foreign speech. Foreign speech. [Music] human. [Music] about [Music] Can you give me [Music] my [ __ ] I can't be Okay. What happened? [Music] She [Music] want Watch out. That was a head scratcher. um those Germans and their nutty fables. Uh yeah. Um [Music] and I don't if they were speaking English, I don't know if it would have made that much more sense. I I'm not sure. Who who knows? But one thing I know is that uh Peter Thomas shows up all the time in films that we have uh and show here at our streaming show. Peter Thomas of course the narrator who uh later in life did uh Forensic Files talked about blood spatters um and also was sampled for that Paul Hardcastle song 19. uh he shows up lots of times. And here's a film from my collection that I haven't shown on here um that I used to show all the time when I was doing show film shows and he narrated this one too. So this is explosives tools of progress. Enjoy. Just bring your wires over by the drill. Now back two ft that way. We're all ready. Let's clear them out. >> Okay. Let her go. Startled? I thought so. Perfectly natural human reflex. Somebody's blasting. It's a sound you hear all over the country today. The sound of progress. Want to see what we mean? [Music] Well, first, an explosive is a very powerful tool. Without this tool, you wouldn't have oh, electric power, dish racks, moon rockets, or potato peelers. Sure, back in history, men raised pyramids, dug coal and iron. But think of the cost. And without explosives, we'd still be there. Start with this excavation. Manhattan Island is founded on solid rock. So, historically, explosives have been an essential tool in the city's growth. Turn of the century. They helped tunnel the world's first great subway system. The descendants of these workers live in buildings taller than their grandfathers would have believed possible. [Music] That trap rock island supports the skyscrapers, but their basements have to be blasted out of it. The last shot here took place an hour ago, and the crumbled rock is being mucked out and hauled away. The next one goes before the end of the day. And before then, other blasts will be set off in lots of places for lots of different reasons. [Music] In 3 years, a 47story building will stand in this growing crater, and plenty of others are rising around it. [Music] Explosives. Where next? [Music] Some 3,000 miles across the country, the Columbia River runs between the scrub wastelands and granite hills of eastern Washington to harness its flow for irrigation, flood control, and the generation of electricity. Construction was begun in 1933 on one of the mightiest structures ever built by the hand of man. Completed in 1941, it stretches 4,300 ft across the gorge and towers 550 ft above the boiling waters below. [Music] Grand Kulie Dam. Hundreds of tons of explosives were expended on that site. Now, years later, work begins again on a project to widen the gorge and extend the dam for a third power station. This time, 36 million tons of granite will be excavated in the first two stages alone. Explosives are still the only remotely conceivable tool for this job. Shots of the magnitude set off here usually take place twice when the area is clear of men and machines. The next one is set for 6:00 and those huge electric shovels are digging out rubble from the last shot in 25 ton bites. It might not look necessary, but the blasting operation here will be just as precisely controlled as it is in the middle of Manhattan. The dam and its generating station are still operating, producing power at full capacity. And the weward chunk of rock in that electrical equipment below or a shock to the dam itself could have very serious consequences. [Music] If you want to get to the Pacific Ocean from the Atlantic by sailing east, there's a way to do it. The solution to this geographic riddle occupied the considerable energies of our 25th president and in 7 years required 61 million pounds of explosives to blast a big ditch across the ismas of Panama. 280 million cubic yards. And we're back again for more. Today, the size of the vessels and the volume of traffic have made it necessary to widen the cut. But here the blasting materials must function underwater as well as in the dry earth and rock. No big uncontrolled bang here either. The vital commerce of ships must continue to pass while the work goes on. Two shots were set for today and the underwater debris from the first is already being brought up. The second follows within a few hours. [Music] Three separate projects. Panama, Grand Kulie, and New York. Each one an example of the hundreds of tasks performed by industrial explosives. And each one presenting a different problem to the engineers who will use them today. The first step in any blasting project is drilling. Hole location, depth, and the overall drilling pattern for each shot are but a few of the expert calculations made in the course of the job by geologists, civil engineers, surveyors, and explosives engineers. What's the most productive way to keep the shovels working? A delicate relationship exists between the explosives used and the capacity of the earth moving equipment. The rock must be broken into fragments neither too small nor too large. It must be easy to get at and available for loading at the right time. [Music] At Grand Kulie alone, $12 million worth of heavy equipment must be kept operating at peak efficiency. [Music] [Music] The flat surface of this white new cliff face is the result of a precision blasting technique called pre-splitting. When these drill holes are finished and the charge is detonated, another section will be sheared away cleanly and smoothly. Out on the level surface of the cut, another formation of drilling rigs clatters away, each with its own attendant like giant mosquitoes fastened to the rock. 40 ft down for each bore hole. This final series of holes in the pattern must be ready for today's shot. No time for a broken shaft or a dull bit. [Music] Next, the most important ingredient of all, the explosives themselves must be readily available to the blasting crew. This storage magazine in New Jersey is within an hour's drive of the New York site. It is isolated, fire, and bullet resistant, and kept securely locked. Blasting caps are stored separately from the explosive materials themselves, and both are transported in compliance with the laws and regulations of the state of New Jersey and the federal department of transportation. Safety is the word in the vocabulary of explosives. Even the truck itself is thoroughly checked before it starts its drive to the excavation site. It is only common sense to treat a tool of this potential power with care and respect. But common sense isn't enough. The men involved in the storage, transportation, and use of commercial explosives observe standards of safety and apply operating procedures developed over a century of industry experience. Most of these self-developed procedures have been written directly into the safety regulations and laws for this vital industry. The effects of each blast are closely examined. Here at Grand Culie, a decibel counter and a seismograph monitor the shots. Sound and shock waves are recorded to ensure that noise levels and ground vibrations stay within established limits. [Music] At a major project like Grand Culie or the canal, the various explosive ingredients are often stored individually and mixed together on the job site. One of the blasting agents used at Kulie is a mixture of ammonium nitrate and a fuel oil. This explosives engineer supervising the loading might have used the same material in mining, quarrying, road construction, and flood control. here as in New Jersey, separate storage for blasting caps, and they're carried to the loading site in a smaller truck. [Music] Explosives have not only become more sophisticated over the years, they've become safer. These ammonium nitrate pills are only used as an explosive after they've been mixed with other ingredients, loaded and primed. [Music] At the canal, another type of explosive is required. The problems of underwater blasting are solved by using a water gel or slurry here, pumped into plastic bags. [Music] Explosive makers don't sell bricks dumped on the job site and left to the builder. Over the years, the explosives industry has developed the knowhow on the special uses of its products and up-to-date technical information about them is made widely available. Even in the jungles of Panama, this truck is delivering a modern explosive product into the hands of qualified technicians. The same type of explosive is used at Grand Culie for drill holes into which groundwater has seeped or in irregular holes drilled through pockets of softer rock. The gel flows in and completely fills the hole. [Music] The ingredients are suspended in water to produce a high density, high energy, semifluid explosive that can be pumped into any size bore hole. Hand loading holes with dynamite here could take days. [Music] ammonium nitrate fuel oil mix at Grand Kulie, water gel at Kulie in the canal, and more conventional dynamite from storage in New Jersey. All must be available at the proper time and in sufficient amounts for the loading crews and the three shots at the end of the day. So far, you can begin to see three big reasons why explosives are so vital to our standard of life. A fourth example might be the highway this truck travels on. Passenger cars, semis, good humor wagons, motorcycles, all pass smoothly and quickly over this road and the thousands of miles of interstate highways constructed with the aid of explosives. [Music] What's this domestic scene got to do with it all? Well, highways, dams, canals, and skyscrapers are unmistakable symbols of the part played by explosives in our lives. Other contributions are a little less apparent. It's a bit like the house that Jack built, or in this case, the meal that Jill cooked. This is the blast that mined the ore, to forged the steel, that shaped the knife, to peel the Well, the rhyme goes on and on. But these kitchen utensils are made readily and cheaply available to all because of explosives. These irrigation ditches dug with explosive charges carry water to growing vegetables. [Music] And explosives help pipe that water into the sink, which is itself made of, you see what we mean? Salt for seasoning was mined with explosives, marble for the coffee table. And even further removed, the plastics and synthetics you use derive chemically from things like coal mined by guess what? And natural gas. The same gas that heats the oven, that bakes the bread, and the pie is carried in pipelines put in trenches dug with. This kind of game can be extended indefinitely, even to such highly sophisticated uses as the precise explosive charges used to separate rocket stages in our reach for the stars. [Music] [Music] At Grand Culie, the drilling is finished, the blasting area cleared of equipment, and the holes ready for loading. Each hole is rechecked for water content, depth, and location. [Music] In fact, the engineer keeps an extensive biography of their individual peculiarities. [Music] Precision and control. No fly rock in the transformer yard. No cracks in the dam. First, the primer charge is lowered to the bottom. But each hole will not be set off at the same time for a very important reason. The numbers on these detonating cords refer to the exact number of milliseconds of delay between the detonation of each hole starting from zero. Primer set and the holes are ready for loading. In New York, it's already begun. But here the blasting material selected is dynamite. And here electrical initiation [Music] several sticks of dynamite and then the primer is placed further up the hole. Sand is used to seal off the top. [Music] loading at Grand Cooling. The water gel goes first. A job like this used to take more time and more hands. Bulk loaded explosives pumped right from the truck means speed and simplified handling. And that means economy and safety. [Music] The rest of the hole is filled up with the prepared ammonium nitrate. mix. [Music] At Grand Culie, the job situation calls for non-electric initiation, and the arteries of detonating cord connecting each hole explode at 4 m a second. Remember those cords with the numbers on them? Well, the engineers intend to shape their rock pile. The center goes up first, and into that space, the sides fall. Like lifting the roof up and collapsing the walls. You build a pyramid, easier to get at. [Music] New York, Grand Culie, and Panama. Loading here is almost finished. Water gel is pumped into the onshore holes [Music] and frogmen assist in loading and priming the wet half. [Music] But in New York, there's one final step. Blasts taking place in populated areas are controlled not only by the kind and amount of explosives used, but by laying on huge wire rope mats to contain all flying debris. [Music] at every site. The whistle clears the area and hours of careful preparation are over. [Music] Those [Music] three shots today set off thousands of pounds of explosives. And they did their jobs quickly, safely, and economically. Man has moved rock, mined coal, and iron ore, and dug ditches with pick and shovel or his bare hands. In some parts of the world, he still does, but with explosives, the right kind, at the right time, and in the right place. His constructive energies can be multiplied a thousandfold. When the work here is finished, Grand Cooling will be one of the largest hydroelect electrical generating systems in the world. So, next time you hear, you'll probably still jump, but when you think about it, you'll recognize it is the sound of progress. [Music] Wow. Yeah. So, Peter Thomas and a bunch of production library music and explosions. What else? What else would you want? Really amazing. Um, and I'm amazed I hadn't shown it because I had shown the other film that was uh spliced to it on a real uh Don't Touch, which is a film about blasting caps, warning kids not to play with them. Um, I've shown that many times on the show because it's so great and they use a lot of production music in that. It's it's ludicrous how much they use in that. Okay. So, um we've shown other films in this series and um I found some more. Uh this is uh youth and world culture and it follows different kids or teenagers or young adults uh in different parts of the world and shows them learning and uh perfecting a craft. Uh and there's a slight narrative in it. Um, and one of them I showed Johannes a silver smith from Ethiopia I put online and um his family reached out to me which was amazing and they were able to identify other people in the film and uh that was really awesome. Okay, so this one is um Amy the photographer and I think she's in the United States or in Canada. Enjoy. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] My name is Amy Hobby and I'm 13 years old. For almost 3 years now, I've been learning about hard edge photography, which is a whole new way of seeing lines, shadows, and patterns in the world around me. [Music] I live with my father, mother, and younger brother in the southeast corner of the United States in the town of Winter Park, Florida. Winter Park is near Disney World, a very big and famous amusement park. [Music] My brother Jr. comes with me sometimes when I go to take pictures. And although he's a little impatient, mostly he's pretty helpful. >> Hurry up. >> What we call hard edge photography is very different from ordinary photography. We concentrate on shapes and forms and the shadows that they cast. I try to take photographs that show people how to see different patterns in the objects that are in front of us all the time. [Music] [Music] here. [Music] [Music] I think they're going to St. Augustine on the 18th, I believe. >> Hi. >> Hi, Amy. The kids just walked in. Can I call you back a little later? My mom's the president of an international museum association and dad's a lawyer. He's also an excellent hardedge photographer and has been the main influence on my work. >> Rockets. >> Yeah, the teacups made me dizzy. >> Did you get any good shots while you were there? >> Yes, I took some. I got some good ones. >> Hey, do you want some shortcake? >> Sure. >> I'll have some after I go develop the film. >> I want to see your film when you finish it, Amy. >> Okay. [Music] The first step in developing my pictures is unloading the film into a light proof container. This must be done in complete darkness. When the film is in the canister, it's safe to turn the lights back on. The chemicals I use to develop the film must be measured precisely. If the film sits in these chemicals too long, it can be ruined. So, I time the whole operation carefully. [Music] The Disney World negatives look pretty good, but it's hard to tell until I make a contact sheet of small sample prints. Photographic paper gets ruined if it's exposed to normal light. So, I use safe lights until the picture is developed. The paper is first exposed to a measured amount of light. Shawn through the negative. Then a series of chemical baths cause the picture to appear. First there's developer. Then stop bath to stop the developing. Then fixer which preserves the picture. And finally we wash the print with water. For me, this is the most exciting part. I love watching the pictures slowly take shape on the white paper. [Music] This is part of a sculpture I found outside a hotel near New Orlando. And I had to crawl inside a huge metal sculpture to get this shot. [Music] Here's a stairway with the shadow of the railing falling across it [Music] and the shadow of my brother's head as he walked around an old fort. [Music] Hey, Dad. I got the contacts from Disney. >> My father and I enter our photographs in several art festivals every year, and the one in St. Augustine later this month is the most important. The whole family is excited about it, and we all get involved in choosing prints. >> Well, that's the best show. Dad is the expert on the different effects that can be achieved in the dark room. Mom has a good eye for design. Even Jr. helps us choose. >> At first, we used to listen to him mostly out of politeness, but now that he knows what's what, he makes some good suggestions. >> Oh, he's had a stroke of genius here. >> That's the best one. >> So far, I've won awards at several festivals, but this is the first time I've been invited to St. Augustine. Dad won an award there last year, but he says not to get my hopes up because the competition there is very tough. I got interested in hard edge photography by hanging around with my dad. He started doing it 5 years ago and right away his photos started winning awards at art competitions in magazines. [Music] [Music] Even though we're both hardedge photographers, we see things differently. Sometimes I think my dad helps me too much and I have to try hard to keep my work independent from his. >> Well, I definitely like this one. I'm going to crop it here and here. >> Amy, I think it's time we got you that new camera we've been talking about. >> Really? [Music] [Music] It's already got the long lens on it. >> I've been saving up for a new camera for almost a year now. But dad didn't want me to have fancy equipment until I had mastered the basics. >> Dad, I really like this camera. [Applause] [Music] I used to be good at gymnastics, but a couple of years ago, my legs were broken in a car accident. I've just started learning to dive again, and I'm not all that good at it yet, but I can feel it getting better. [Music] Way up. [Applause] This is better. [Music] Maybe it might be from this side, you know, down like maybe down back over here and pointing up into it and getting more than one slab at a time. >> A sculpture like this is the raw material for our work. And there are a thousand pictures here for us to find. Each time I find one, I feel like I'm exploring my ability to see. And it's exhilarating to see things now I never saw before. [Music] What do you want to do with this print, Amy? >> I'm going to dodge it a bit in this area and then I'm going to burn in the edges a little. >> I'll turn off the light. >> Okay. >> What kind of film you using, Amy? >> Code of color, too. >> Well, that would be 30 magenta and 40 on yellow. At the St. Augustine Festival, ribbons will be awarded for a whole exhibit. So, I'll need three or four good color prints and six or eight black and white photographs to make a strong presentation. >> It's almost done. >> Good. You want me to help you, Amy? Here. >> Hey, I think that's going to make a nice show print. >> So do I. That's super. How about this way instead of that way? >> Yeah, that's pretty nice. >> Dad, I think with this next print, I like to crop it along this line here. I like to bring the orange color up a bit. [Music] Hey, [Music] doo la. [Music] There's only a couple of days left before we go to the festival, and I still need one more good color print for my exhibit. [Music] I don't think it's as exciting as this one. [Music] >> The show. Hey, look at here. Amy's been goofing around again. >> Amy's. >> Now, it's time to make the final choice of prints that Dad and I will take to the show. Later, the prints will be mounted, retouched, and signed before they're ready to be framed. I think you can reduce the color of this and keep this dark. >> I don't like the way that's crooked there. >> Well, we could straighten that up. Twist the whole picture. [Music] >> Hey, that's pretty nice. >> If we touch it up, it'll look even better. Just get just get a frame for it. We'll be all set. [Music] The judges at St. Augustine will be able to spot any tiny defects on my prints, so I must touch them up with paint that's carefully matched the shade of the background. [Music] Here. Put it down. >> What does that look like? >> Looks pretty good. >> I'm getting excited about St. Augustine. Dad and I have to leave right after supper so we can be there early tomorrow morning to get our stand set up in time for the judging which starts at 900 a.m. >> Come on, Amy. We got to get moving. You got it. All right, leave. There we go. [Music] Okay, that's finished. Let's get moving. Bye, brother. >> Byebye. [Music] Bye. [Music] Shout your joy and let the weather again. One of the highlights of the festival is the parade where the people dress up like the Spaniards who founded St. Augustine 400 years ago. [Music] >> The parade ends up in the harbor where the ships of the fishing fleet are blessed for good luck. [Music] God shall thy every fall. Confirm thy soul in self control. Thy liberty in all ring. Now see the arts and crafts festival which takes place once a year here around Easter. Usually the weekend before Easter, the various craftsman comes from all over Florida as well as the United States doing [Music] a little bit over here. Amy [Music] go. [Music] belong to me. Oh, listen to the song. I sing beneath the window along. [Music] I like going to art shows. It's fun. I meet lots of artists and see their work. And it doesn't really matter if I win or not. It's just nice that people can see my pictures. figure out what they are. >> Why do you think the food is always so bad at these art shows? >> You can eat that thing. >> How much is this one? You want to try that? >> That particularly is not my taste. There's no way that's going to go on the wall. >> There's no way. >> But they're so emotional. All we need is a little leaf floating down there. That would make that one. >> That's $40 up there. >> Quite interesting. >> Old palm old palm picture. You see >> it is >> you know the roll of paper you know you in the store. >> This year there are two judges for the competition and they are both women. I never have. >> How do you feel about color? >> I like color. Okay. I just started. It's my newest thing. And >> they will award one blue ribbon of distinction and two yellow ribbons of merit in each category. Jewelry, sculpture, pottery, painting, textiles, graphics, and photography. Close angle and try to get those brown things on the edges. And maybe a piece of building up there, but I'd get under at a good angle. [Music] boy. Thank you. Thanks. >> What did the judge ask you? >> She said, "What do you like?" >> Even though the judges were interested in my work, I don't think they liked it very much. Dad says they're more inclined to choose realistic work, not abstract photography like ours. >> Watercolor photography. >> That means she probably won't pick us up. >> Yeah. >> The judges have given you the award of distinction for your work. >> A that's super. Thank you. >> Thank you very much. [Music] Thank you. Thank you very much. [Applause] number 47. Amy, >> I'd like to present you with a word of distinction process with the value of $500 cash. >> That exciting. >> Pretty exciting. Okay, you need hold still. I want to get one more shot. Heat. Heat. [Music] Yeah. So, I uh I found the obituary for William Hobby um and it talks about his daughter and son-in-law and he passed away in I think 2022. He was 86. He was an intellectual intellectual property attorney and fine art photographer. Uh grew up in Georgia. He was in he worked for Bell Laboratories in the Naval Research Lab. Earned a law degree from George Washington University. Moved to Central Florida with his young family. He was there for 55 years. Um he started collecting prints and then he was an avid reader of non-fiction with encyclopedia like knowledge of history. Um he was an active board member of the local theater art museum. Um he survived by his sister Hela his daughter I guess his wife had passed away Amy Hobby and son-in-law Joe McGinty of New York. Oh, no. And his wife is still alive. Um, Linda Hobby and several nieces and nephews. So, uh there you go. This is uh the real deal. Um they actually do uh feature people that really existed. It's not at least in this these couple of cases um with the Ethiopian and with this American, they didn't make up any names and they're real people, real families, real crafts. So kudos. And there's more in this series that we just un we just discovered and scanned. And so I'll be showing more of these as we go along. Thanks for joining us today. I think I'm looking at OBS and I didn't drop any frames. So thumbs up. Um, so maybe going ahead, you know, maybe I'll just keep an eye on this and make sure that everything's okay so that you guys have a pleasant viewing experience uh in spite of me showing potentially really crappy films. I mean, I don't want to add the the the extra level of crappiness to uh films that are already crappy in their own right. Um, but I appreciate the donation. Uh, somebody donated $19 via the super thanks button and YouTube won't let me find who that person was um to call give them a call out, a shout out. But thank you for that. That's one way you can support us. The other way is via hitting the thumbs up button, the like button, subscribing, all these other ways you can support us. Uh, and just showing up. Uh, speaking of which, I'm doing a show at the Alamo Draft House tonight at 700 PM in Raleigh, North Carolina, and I'm showing Kids Versus Critters. So, some of the more notorious films in my collection featuring young kids and animals. Um, so hopefully I'll see you there. Uh, otherwise I'll see you tomorrow. Everybody have a great rest of your day and we love you and we'll see you soon. Bye.