AV Geeks Lunch 12-24-2020

[Music] guess what max said max's sister ruby what said max it's christmas eve max and you know who's coming who santa claus is coming that's who when tonight max he's coming tonight where spit max [Music] santa claus is coming right down our chimney into our living room how that's enough questions max [Music] you have to go to sleep fast before santa claus comes but max wanted to stay up to see santa claus no max [Music] nobody ever sees santa claus [Music] why because but max didn't believe a word ruby said so he sneaked downstairs [Music] and waited for santa claus max waited a long time [Music] [Applause] suddenly zoom santa jumped down the chimney into the living [Applause] room don't look max why because nobody is supposed to see me why because everyone is supposed to be asleep in bed but max peaked at santa anyway [Music] guess what max what [Music] it's time for me to go away and you to go to sleep why [Music] because [Music] ruby came downstairs what happened max who were you talking to where did you get that hat max why is your blanket so humpy and bulgy [Music] because [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] um [Music] hello everybody welcome what is this going on hey um merry christmas eve everyone um i'm skip alzheimer welcome to the av geeks lunchtime streaming show i'm gonna show a little bit of christmas content today but uh saving a lot of it for tomorrow um and i'll talk more about what's going to happen tomorrow i'm not going to be curating it it's going to be my blender it's going to curate the show so there's that um what i got for you i got a lot of stuff a lot of stuff um so we watch old 16 millimeter films and from the av geeks uh archive of 16 millimeter and uh i've been showing films a part of a series called magic moments from encyclopedia britannica that were made in the late 60s and early 70s and they were a sharp departure from the traditional encyclopedia britannica films which were just dry narration over lots of shots of whatever they were talking about these were younger filmmakers um who were inspired by things like what was happening in experimental cinema what was happening in foreign new wave cinema and drugs um so they're they're really kind of jarring if you compare the two uh but uh this is a film called what's happening enjoy [Music] [Music] uh [Music] [Music] wow [Music] [Music] oh [Music] oh [Music] on the top of me [Music] um [Music] [Music] oh she's no it's not that hit tv show um what's happening between raj and rerun and dwayne and um what was the sister the sister's name yeah i'm sure some of you know it but um no this was this predates it um and this film was made uh whenever you saw that weird like that's generally when the the teacher would stop the projector and say okay so what's happening and then like all the kids would in the class are supposed to chime in with what's going on um a lot of fun so um i know it's a little late in the game but maybe you haven't gotten your christmas tree yet we wish you a happy christmas with the perfect tree for christmas a real old-fashioned christmas with a beautiful tree the snow kissed plantation grown christmas tree is exclusive at cabell's and 7-eleven stores compare it with any other tree and you'll see a startling difference luxuriously full beautifully shaped these trees are carefully pruned and trimmed each year of their growth don't buy a tree until you've seen the world's most beautiful christmas trees the snow kiss tree you'll find them at 7 11 or at apple minute markets the perfect tree for christmas at your christmas tree stores [Music] it was the night before christmas when all through the house not a creature was stirring not even a mouse the stockings were hung by the chimney with care in hopes that saint nicholas soon would be there the children were nestled all snug in their beds while visions of sugar plums danced in their heads and mama in her kerchief and i in my cap had just settled our brains for a long winter's nap when out on the lawn there arose such a clatter i sprang from my bed to see what was the matter away to the window i flew like a flash tore open the shutters and threw up the sand the moon on the breast of the new fallen snow gave the luster of midday to objects below [Music] when what to my wondering eyes should appear for the miniature sleigh and eight tiny reindeer [Music] with a little old driver so lively and quick i knew in a moment it must be saint nick more rapid than eagles his coursers they came and he whistled and shouted and called them by name now dasher now dancer now prancer and vixen or incumbent on cupid or donder and clifton to the top of the porch to the top of the wall now cast away passed away away all [Music] as dry leaves that before the wild hurricane fly when they meet an obstacle mount to the sky so up to the house top the coursers they flew with a sleigh full of toys and saint nicholas too [Music] and then in a twinkling i heard on the roof the prancing and drawing of each little hook as i drew in my head and was turning around town the chimney saint nicholas came with a bound he was dressed all in fur from his head to his foot and his clothes were all tarnished with ashes and soot a bundle of toys he had flung on his back and he looked like a peddler just opening his pack his eyes how they twinkled his dimples how merry his cheeks were like roses his nose like a cherry his drone little mouth was drawn up like a bow and the beard on his chin was as white as the snow oh the stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth and the smoke had encircled his head like a wreath he had a broad face and a little round belly that shook when he laughed like a bowl full of jelly he was chubby and plump a right jolly old elf and i laughed when i saw him in spite of myself a wink of his eye and a twist of his head soon gave me to know i had nothing to [Music] dread he spoke not a word but went straight to his work and filled all the stockings then turned with a jerk [Music] so [Music] and laying his finger aside of his nose and giving a nod up the chimney heroes [Music] he sprang to his sleigh to his team gave a whistle and away they all flew like the down of the pistol my but i heard him explain and we drove out of sight happy christmas to all and to all a good night [Music] oh castle films um that was the uh film distribution company that marketed specifically to uh people who had projectors so it was uh marketing to basically you could go to your local camera store that you had your 16 millimeter or eight millimeter film processed at and you could order um these films and um they were some some films were made specifically for castle films but a lot of them were repurposed were they licensed from animators animation studios and they would cut them down many of them are silent many of them are snippets from feature films um and so they are not rare there are some that are probably rare especially ones that are color but there's so many of these and you know if you go to an antique store you see one a little tiny you know wc fields uh eight millimeter film selling for fifty dollars don't buy it it's not worth it um it's interesting i have people over the years who've approached me and said hey i have this box of our home movies and in it is this laurel and hardy film and i'm wondering does this have any value and i'm like that doesn't have any value but your home movies do those are very valuable because those are cultural documents not only of your family but of how we used to live so that's it's kind of weird that people don't think that way but they assume they're like oh it's this little tiny mickey mouse cartoon like well no it's not rare all right um this is a promotional film so you can guess what it's for it's the land of everyday miracles to most people perhaps miracles are a message of spiritual a miracle is any feat or occurrence so unusual as to seem miraculous [Music] a wonderful thing a marvel our lives are filled with miracles and so many are they that in this land of ours miracles have become commonplace the miracles of nature are all around us in rocks hewn through centuries by wind and rain in cascading cataracts rook from caverns below in the awesome beauty of a canyon in the majesty of a thundering waterfall these wonders of natural phenomena were here before us in three centuries of occupation upon this continent what has man are cut to match their being he has written words simple in themselves but whose wondrous meaning shaped the miracles of nature into a nation and more forged the dignity of man's individual freedom thereby creating a nation which in due process of its inspired heritage has become a land of everyday miracles but in the beginning man-made miracles were born of necessity as the early colonials started their new lives with little more than raw courage bare hands shelter clothing and food wherever present problems the daily confronted the pioneer family and news of the young country had spread around the world immigrants were swarming to our shores seeking a haven of shelter and a rebirth of oak this fusion of diverse races religions and creeds was a mighty force of purpose inspired by a determination to live in peace and to prosper under the blessings of liberty but a lesson always before us had been learned in other lands since the beginning of man hunger and ever-present famine had been accepted conditions among a large percentage of the peoples of the world full of the challenge in america seemingly evident that to remain strong we must grow things an expanding nation could eat to the west there were millions of miles of uncharted wilderness unmarked by wheel or plow it would be a miracle indeed if the valleys and the plains and the desert could produce an abundance for the ever-expanding migration to the shores of america staunch hearts and strong arms made steady inroads into the sea impregnable wilderness as the land was so painstakingly clear [Music] the earth was turned and precious seeds entrusted to the care of the virgin soil to these pioneer families the first meager harvest was a thankful and blessed miracle for the staff of life was literally earned by the sweat of their brows give us this day our daily bread yes the early families of america learned that much of the land was fertile and the rewards of their labors were security and abundance [Music] thus they settled farther and farther from the centers of population but other sections of the fast-growing nation would have to depend on the new farmers for produce and we were beginning to realize that this was indeed a big country of great distances thus came about the early miracles of transportation the lumbering conestoga wagons carried freight and food and assorted articles of daily use halfway across the nation rivers and canals became highways of commerce a miracle of its day was the pony express which carried the united states mail in a fast and often dangerous fashion and wonder of wonders was the great iron horse chugging and puffing and grinding wheels heralded a new era that lessened the distance between farms and cities and welded the daily lives of all our citizens more closely together [Music] and the ingenuity of people nurtured in freedom began to contribute other miracles to the development of the country charles newbold patented the iron plow which lengthened the furrows across the plains and the prairies eli whitney and with the seeds mechanically removed from the cotton fiber new horizons were opened to the planters of the south and cyrus mccormick a blacksmith's son invented a reaping machine which would one day cut paths of plenty through seas of grave and samuel morse developed the first practical telegraph and the words clicked like magic through strands of wire passing almost without notice at the time was the discovery of a rich mineral beneath the earth when colonel drake drilled a well in pennsylvania but a miracle that is today is commonplace as the rising sun occurred in boston when a man conceived the idea of transmitting the human voice by electrical waves mr watson come in here i want you these words of alexander graham bell mocked the invention of the telephone mr bell i heard every word you said distinctly and about the same time another man who had been to school only three months in his entire life announced from his laboratory in menlo park new jersey that he could now reproduce the human voice from a cylinder made largely of wax soon after thomas alva edison perfected the incandescent lamp and the age of light was to come to cities and villages and farms let's take a look at america in the few years before the turn of the century the gasoline-driven automobile made its appearance and these documentary pictures reveal an historic moment on the bleak sand dunes of kitty hawk when the wright brothers launched their plane into flight when the gay nineties burst upon us we adjudged this nation to be a land of abundant plenty it was a time of bicycles built for more than two of good fellowship and good food but a disturbing contrast had appeared in this land now populated from shore to shore and border to border in a nation of ever-growing abundance there was a hidden hunger strange that people who had food to eat were starving but there were newer and greater miracles to come paradoxically enough their beginning was not within the confines of our shores but across the sea where a french herd brought into unrealized yet practical application the invisible world that lay beneath the lens of his microscope and again on the opposite side of the globe the island of java where a dutch physician named eichmann contributed to a miracle that was another link in a chain of events which accumulatively were to bring about a miracle closely akin to life my experiment is now proven correct when the chickens eat the brown rice they remain healthy but when the chickens eat the white rice they are sick some of them are dead then it is something that they eat that makes them sick no no it is something they don't eat mysterious element lacking in the food was necessary to sustain life that is what eichmann began to realize some years later that specific life-giving substance was isolated and identified dr casimir funk was the first to give the mysterious food elements a name vita means life and the word amine is a chemical term i will call it vitamin but the problem was to isolate identify and reproduce it synthetically so that substantial amounts could be manufactured for the greatest use and benefit it was an american chemist robert williams who achieved this goal in columbia university after 30 years of research inspired by dr edward bright vetter but how do you know that synthetic b1 is the same as natural vitamins by feeding it to animals and pigeons the reaction is identical well aren't there plenty of vitamins in what we there would be if they weren't largely milled out of grains or boiled out of vegetables you see we hope to put vitamins back in at first it was difficult for us to realize the magnitude of william's contribution but the lesson was before us in some sections of our country where there was food in abundance malnutrition had settled among the people like a plague for more than a century in wide productive areas the land itself was slowly dying our farmers had planted the same crops the health of the populace had suffered with the sameness of diet a miracle of scientific planning as well as long hours of toil for the farmer the story of soil conservation is a great victory against the unrelenting force of nature whose rain and winds had for centuries dissipated the land irrigation reclaimed vast arid areas to fertility as the dammed up waters from snow-crested peaks were released to the thirsty earth early miracles of the plow of the threshing machine had left an impressive legacy in the shape of ingenious and efficient machines that widened the scope of man's endeavor and made the farmer one of the biggest businessmen in the country the grain once so prayerfully planted had become a rich golden carpet over the endless plains [Music] and so we enter a modern age with modern miracles [Music] but who can say even in these amazing 20th century times what constitutes a miracle is it the millions of automobiles that fill our streets with traffic the miracle was as profound when the horseless carriage first chugged up the street is it the sleek streamliner streaking westward 100 miles an hour the pony express was an equal miracle in its day but the modern airplane has pierced the wall of sound traveling faster than sound itself and yet who can say it is a greater miracle than the cumbersome wings that first lifted man's skyway and do you remember the pioneer woman in the crude log cabin she would be amazed to know that the staff of life is today enriched by the miracle of vitamins while the milk we drink is protected by the miracle of pasteurization yes in those two words enriched and pasteurization we find the sources of two of the most helpful and helpful miracles in our everyday lives miracles that can be traced back through the years to the discoveries of louis pasteur father of fermentology and pasteurization the inspiration of his research still burns brightly in america the story of enrichment which really had its beginning at columbia university where dr williams finally isolated vitamin b1 came into full being in our nation's capital the daily paper brings news of all the world washing machines typewriters the radio [Music] motion pictures [Music] miracles undreamed of by the pioneer americans are everyday events in our life and has the ingenuity of man surpassed the miracles that were awaiting us when our country was a virgin wilderness it is certain that no modern day miracle can be likened to the inspired principles which our nation was founded then the truth is self-evident it is the heritage of freedom and free enterprise that has made possible the continuing miracle we have kept faith with our forefathers we worship as we please we speak as we please we have freedom from one we are the best fed the healthiest nation of people on the earth cognizant of our past blessings we dedicate ourselves to the church to america the beautiful america the boutique the america we love land of everyday miracles [Music] i love every inch of her prairie land each stove on her mountain side i love every drop of the water clear that flows in her rivers wide i love every tree [Music] every blade of grass within colombia's gates [Music] bye [Music] so is it just a promotional film for america i i feel like there's got to be another sponsor in there um but i have not found any documentation that shows me uh what that is uh it was made by warner brothers it was a technicolor short of which i have not a technicolor version it's um it's a color version it's obviously faded some but um generally there's something someone sponsored this and it has that feel i mean it's possible that warner brothers just did it as a short just a patriotic short to say how great america was but man it just has a feeling like it's like the united states chamber of commerce or the american enterprise foundation you know one of these free enterprise um entities but um it is lilly white i mean people have pointed out it is super white in there um yeah uh so as a counterpoint to this uh let's not really counterpoint but it is something that's like our country is so great it's the land of everyday miracles so of course after you graduate from high school you should be okay with being drafted to defend the nation so here is coronet film that was shown to young men in uh the 50s to prepare them for being drafted or for enlisting in service uh which was something that was happening a lot during the uh korean and vietnam war so here we go nation to defend [Music] well there it is the nation to defend our nation yours and mine at least this is a part of it there's more a lot more it's a big nation this country of ours from the rocky coast of new england to the shores of california three thousand miles of america i'm interested in this america i've got a stake in this country of ours just as you have i could be one of your neighbors in a small town or one of the big city people you know maybe the fellow who sat next to you at the game on saturday or i could just as well be sitting with you in the audience because you see i want to look at these things with you and talk about these things with you today a lot of you are thinking about the day you'll be called into the armed forces called to serve your nation and if necessary to defend it you think of the friends you'll have to leave the sacrifices you'll have to make and finally when the time comes to go maybe you'll think what is it that needs defending why does it have to be defended i think we know the answers i think we know that what we have is worth defending we hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights that among these are life liberty and the pursuit of happiness that's part of our nation those are principles we've defended ever since the declaration was written and for the support of this declaration with a firm reliance on the protection of divine providence we mutually pledge to each other our lives our fortunes and our sacred honor know what that means sure you do these men were setting up a new government a new nation they knew they must not fail and to make it work they were going to give all their money and their lives everything they had if necessary everything they had sometimes we forget the work and the danger these men went through to found our nation they were men of peace citizens much like us but when they realized that their rights were in danger when they could no longer negotiate with the enemy they left their fields their homes everything they had to defend the kind of life they believed in unitary of those men stand your ground don't fire unless fired upon but if they mean to have a war let it begin here and so for the new nation they fought and for the ideas that nation stood for they fought in the towns they fought in the fields sometimes women joined in the defense of their homes and families these were difficult years years of suffering and toil yet the patriots stood together in their common cause some of the patriots like george washington gave years of devoted service and leadership to the nation some like i am solomon gave their fortunes to the nation many like nathan hale gave their lives and still more many more gave years of military service in the defense of their country their country was a little group of 13 colonies and yet because they defended it that country survived grew into the great nation that you and i live in today that nation has always been devoted to peace but all through our history have been times when there was no peace when differences could not be compromised when the last resort was to fight men who loved freedom who believed in our way of life have not hesitated to defend freedom ordinary citizens mostly young men have fought to defend the kind of america they believed in and they have done this not because they loved war but because they hated tyranny in 1917 the fight against tyranny took us far from our own shores into other lands to join with other nations who were fighting to keep our kind of freedom in 1941 we embarked on a great struggle that was fought in many different places over the globe once more american men gave everything they had for the nation once more we joined with men of other nations in the common defense of freedom once more we hope tyranny was ended we want most of all to live in peace with the other nations of the world and we have always been willing to discuss world problems and eager to find peaceful ways of settling differences but at the same time we have been on guard against tyranny any kind of tyranny we have been willing to fight aggression wherever it threatens to destroy the things we believe in things such as justice fair play the right for everyone to have an equal chance we have been willing to join men of other nations who believe in these same ideals of freedom and always as our nation has needed men men respond if it were not for men men willing to defend the nation and the ideals it represents you and i might lose all we have our freedoms our opportunities and perhaps our lives what about the future as long as we have a nation we may be called upon to defend it today tomorrow in the future george washington said to be prepared for war is one of the most effectual means of preserving the peace daniel webster said god grants liberty only to those who love it and are always ready to guard and defend it woodrow wilson said to such a task we dedicate our lives our fortunes everything that we are and everything that we have everything that we have to defend our freedom life liberty and the pursuit of happiness that's our kind of freedom remember when you are called to serve your nation your call to preserve your freedom and ensure your way of life your call to ensure your freedom to choose your religion and the kind of work you want to do to ensure your freedom of speech to ensure your right to the pursuit of happiness and you can think of more rights that you have you know what they are but wait maybe you think it's harder now than ever before the problems of today are greater than other men have had to face well listen these are the times that try men's souls the summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will in this crisis shrink from the service of his country but he that stands it now deserves the love and thanks of man and woman these words were written by thomas paine an american patriot in 1776 and ever since in the times that try men's souls men have left their homes and their families to defend the nation our nation mine and yours [Music] uh coronet does not resume any responsibility for the content um so if you get killed don't sue us and if you don't approve of our message um don't hold it against us we are just working with other entities um so i did some research i did some digging uh there's this wonderful um resource that a university put together called the media lantern which is a database of old trade journals uh of an educational screen of um film related stuff um some home amateur oriented and some of it is actually for uh like business uh industry uh journals and there's uh uh i found uh land of everyday miracles and it listed the sponsor i knew there had to be a sponsor and it probably would have listed it in the title if i had a complete print that wasn't so spicy it probably would have said warner pathe and in conjunction with uh the sponsor um because that's usually the way it rolls but i just couldn't find it uh anyways anybody want to hazard a guess hazard a guess um listed in the comments um even if you want to guess like what industry it's a company that sponsored it if you want to guess what industry it it is about i started getting a sense when they were curving what they were talking about to something very specific um but i'll let you think about that in the meantime i'd like to propose a toast uh with this film that's in my collection that was uh actually made by a friend of mine tom whiteside uh who's based in durham who's also a collector uh and also experimental filmmaker uh and he's one of the first people that gave me a chance to actually show my films as av geeks and not behind some bands and so i owe him a lot for that um this is a film where he took a whole reel of commercials and edited them in a wonderfully choppy way this is ding ding ding ladies ladies and gentlemen gentlemen everybody i'd like to propose a gentleman everybody ladies and sells i'd like to propose it ladies good life i'd like to propose gentlemen everybody good life gentlemen everybody knows i'd like to propose a good life everybody ladies i'd like to propose a good life so i'd like to propose a gentleman everybody ladies good life to the good life to the good life to the good life to the good life to the good life [Music] everybody good life ladies and gentlemen everybody i'd like to propose it ladies and good life good life folks ladies and i'd like to propose it gentlemen everybody ladies life good life through the good life through the good life to the toes to gentlemen everybody gentlemen everybody ladies to the good life good life good life so i'd like to propose it i'd like to propose it i'd like to propose a gentleman everybody everybody's going what was that uh so that was a friend of mine uh tom whiteside uh who did he basically took a reel of the same commercial and cut it up and then reprinted it um and when he sent it to the lab they printed it weird uh so he sent me the weird copy he has the original but um yeah it's uh it's kind of a cut up uh very similar to william espero's cut ups um and if you like this i would say investigate my other experimental filmmaker favorite person martin arnold martin arnold did some amazing films with feature films that you might recognize uh including passage a lot and then something i can't remember the other two they're um in french but anyways martin arnold so i totally recommend investigating him but let me just propose this toast uh instead of uh champagne uh here's a toast of coffee and uh thank you mike for buying us some coffee um but to um thank you for your support and your kindness and i'm hoping that 2021 is better for you and for everyone and for our loved ones and people we hate and just everything all around so to the good life which is sitting watching a screen which is what most of 2020 was sitting and watching the screen but um yes thank you mike for the coffee that's a way you can support us another way is you can just hit like just go hit like even if you hate it hit like and share it with friends and family and enemies uh and also you can go to avgeeks.com and see other things that we've done over the years i'm probably during christmas i'm not i'm not working so tomorrow as i said tomorrow is a special av geek show where it's going to be curated by our blender what this means is that our blender is going to be pulling little clips from a stock footage site that we run called archival clips what what it did is it pulled out all the clips that had the word christmas or winter or santa and it's going to mix them together and show them uh so and it's gonna do it semi-randomly for the most part so that's what tomorrow is going to be and it might be fascinating because there's gonna be some home movie footage of christmas in there uh and some other kind of schlocky christmas things but it also could be entirely maddening and excruciatingly difficult to watch so uh what is it your your mileage may vary so um i this is what i'm doing instead of i wanted to celebrate christmas celebrate christmas but i also didn't want to work on christmas so this i'm letting my blender do all the work so hopefully um you can join us tomorrow uh if not uh i will see you on monday um we'll be back doing screenings on monday and uh thank you again so much it means a great deal i was actually talking to a good friend of mine yesterday rick proudlinger who's kind of my mentor and he has a vast archive of educational industrial films and i was talking about how important this streaming thing has been for me because this is one it gives me something to look forward to every day and two it's been allowing me to kind of push myself and explore more of my collection um for you guys so it's i'm hoping that you are getting value out of this but really i'm getting a lot of value out of this and so thank you for being there for that um and i've been very i feel very lucky that i have the ability to do this and so thank you so much for your eyeballs that's what this is about putting eyeballs on it so um anyways uh maybe i you'll tune in tomorrow maybe not i don't know it's up to you but uh otherwise i will see you on monday and everybody have a good uh christmas or at least you know and if you don't celebrate christmas i understand um but have a good time have a good relaxing time uh reach out to your family your friends people are close to you your pets um even if you're not a person who observes christmas you know this is a kind of a nation mandated time that people hang out uh or you have to take time off so hopefully you can spend this time in a way that will recharge your batteries and allow you to rewind and to love each other um everybody take care everybody uh to the good life oh crap i totally forgot to tell people um who sponsored the land of everyday miracles and i just read it in the somebody um said standard oil was behind land of everyday miracles but that was not the case um i i probably lost everybody um so anyways it was standard foods standard foods and i looked up so um god i got so caught up in ding ding ding i didn't even think about it um here is uh what i found uh in the um business screen journal it is land of everyday miracles sponsor standard brands not standard food standard brands and uh and it was warner pate and standard brands um according to wikipedia was a merger of a bunch of baking companies and food companies so fleischmann's royal baking company ew gillette which was a toronto based baking company um wilder food products and chase sanborn coffee um it was by 1940 it was the number two brand of packaged goods after general foods um it bought planners it bought curtis candy um and then it merged with nabisco in 1980 so this was um standard brands so i i had a sense that um i had a sense that it was related to food specifically because they kept talking about vitamins and i kept talking about farmers um and you know they kind of sprinkled in all the innovations as far as you know the ones that we know about you know edison and morse and bell and the wright brothers and stuff like that and madame curie but they really kept talking about vitamins and they kept talking about uh you know growing food and farmers and the importance of farmers and stuff like that and that's i was like this has got to be food related in some way and i wasn't sure if it was like a fertilizer company or if it was something um but yeah there you go standard brands so anyhow um everybody have a good christmas uh and i will see you soon bye three eight seven six five four three seven six five four three eight seven six five four three