What's everyone up to right now?

[fredd bear]

 I recently bought a Lenovo Laptop---have had a Lenovo tablet for about 4 years, and it's still fine; I paid $299.00, new.

How long has your battery lasted?  Can laptop batteries usually be replaced? Do you know broad price range?

Battery has lasted since I got it on my 27th birthday, 2 years, 3 months, and 4 days ago. Yes, they can usually be replaced, and, indeed, this is the first laptop I've had where you couldn't just slide the battery in and out and have to disassemble the bottom panel. That said, they seem to be interchangeable (at least for any given model). The one Dad ordered to replace my ailing battery was $43, if I heard him correctly.

Also, on a non-tech-related note, I just finished watching the 1936 film Fury. It's a very fascinating film, Fritz Lang's first movie after he fled Europe to avoid the Nazis and went to Hollywood. It's a film about lynching, based on a true story I described elsewhere, and I can only assume that it was daring to make a movie about lynching at the time, especially basing a movie on a real-life lynching that happened three years before its release, and it could have very well been even more daring if MGM didn't insist Lang tone down his original scenario: originally Spencer Tracy's character was meant to be black [there are some minor black characters in the finished film, and though their dialect could be a bit questionable, I suspect this may have been a coup on Lang's part, especially given how squeamish the major studios were about representation at the time (see the case of the 1945 version of Brewster's Millions that got banned in Memphis for treating a black supporting actor too well)], he was supposed to actually be guilty of the crime he was being lynched for [A nod to Lang's previous masterpiece M, where a guilty child-killer ends up the most sympathetic character and barely avoids getting lynched by a crowd of criminals], and when he finally revealed he was alive all along, he was originally meant to be give a fiery indictment of mob violence but became a simple confession that he fucked up.

Lang thought the decision to make Spencer Tracy's character innocent undermined the film's moral credibility; he said that statements about the immorality about the death penalty only worked if you said even guilty people didn't deserve to be executed. Well, at least the moral ambiguity inherent in the premise (a man who survived a lynching faking his death to put the people who tried to kill him on trial) was at least interesting. And, for all its flaws, it's still a film that resonates to this day, and, honestly, if you've heard me talk about the Social Media Hive Minds here, you can probably guess why I think that.

 Fascinating, haven't seen it, but will have a look for it. Thanks.

Recently got hold of the best available version of 'Metropolis" ,which is is OK, would love to see the full original version

Also recently found "Birth Of A Nation" (both versions0 The silent film is an education about attitudes at the time. IE Whites in blackface playing blacks. This at the timer when lynchings were still very much a part of living in the deep south.

Also have "Intolerance' on DVD, from the cheap bin, for  $2 This version lets you watch the films as it was released, or as two films, ancient and modern times . I've also had some luck finding obscure films on Ebay for a few dollars.

I looked up battery prices on Ebay; they vary from about $23 to about $50. I have a techie  friend who helps me with any hardware updates. I have a slight hand tremor, and tend to break delicate things. Computers are very unforgiving when you break  even quite small pieces. 

[Rev. Rye]

Recently got hold of the best available version of 'Metropolis" ,which is is OK, would love to see the full original version

Also recently found "Birth Of A Nation" (both versions0 The silent film is an education about attitudes at the time. IE Whites in blackface playing blacks. This at the timer when lynchings were still very much a part of living in the deep south.

Also have "Intolerance' on DVD, from the cheap bin, for  $2 This version lets you watch the films as it was released, or as two films, ancient and modern times . I've also had some luck finding obscure films on Ebay for a few dollars.

I looked up battery prices on Ebay; they vary from about $23 to about $50. I have a techie  friend who helps me with any hardware updates. I have a slight hand tremor, and tend to break delicate things. Computers are very unforgiving when you break  even quite small pieces. 

That said, they did find the complete version of Metropolis and Kino released it on DVD and Blu-Ray in 2010. That said, it's clear when the extra scenes were cut in, because they're a lot grainier, and, that said, there were even brief parts where it was so deteriorated that they had to just describe what was happening.

Also, the way you describe it, the version of Intolerance DVD you got was the Cohen Media 2-Disc version. Where the fuck did you find a copy of that one for $2? And when will they upgrade Broken Blossoms?

[Angrboda]

Having a beer. I just got in, and it's now midnight. Morning coffee, two hours at the gym, a quick lunch, three hours running errands with ILS, then a quick bite for supper, then back to the store for the item they left off my pickup order, then a two hour interfaith discussion about the purpose of life, then back to the store to load up on soup because it was on sale, and finally home for good. I was falling asleep during the discussion, but I seem to have found my second wind.

[fredd bear]

Recently got hold of the best available version of 'Metropolis" ,which is is OK, would love to see the full original version

Also recently found "Birth Of A Nation" (both versions0 The silent film is an education about attitudes at the time. IE Whites in blackface playing blacks. This at the timer when lynchings were still very much a part of living in the deep south.

Also have "Intolerance' on DVD, from the cheap bin, for  $2 This version lets you watch the films as it was released, or as two films, ancient and modern times . I've also had some luck finding obscure films on Ebay for a few dollars.

I looked up battery prices on Ebay; they vary from about $23 to about $50. I have a techie  friend who helps me with any hardware updates. I have a slight hand tremor, and tend to break delicate things. Computers are very unforgiving when you break  even quite small pieces. 

That said, they did find the complete version of Metropolis and Kino released it on DVD and Blu-Ray in 2010. That said, it's clear when the extra scenes were cut in, because they're a lot grainier, and, that said, there were even brief parts where it was so deteriorated that they had to just describe what was happening.

Also, the way you describe it, the version of Intolerance DVD you got was the Cohen Media 2-Disc version. Where the fuck did you find a copy of that one for $2? And when will they upgrade Broken Blossoms?

 
 I must have bough tit over a decade ago . I'll just go and see if I can find it.----ten minutes later; found it. A single DVD,"Fully restored . Digitally Remastered" It's a pretty good copy. I think I bought it from one of those barn- like el cheapo variety stores which always smelled faintly of mould. Bargains were by no means guaranteed. Serendipity. Same place  I found my $2 copy of "To Kill A Mockingbird" --and my VHS  tapes of the original Star Trek, $2 per tape.

These days I still look at the CD bin, for Blues and Jazz. Have found some stunning stuff over the years. I like to listen to say Charlie Parker or Billie Holiday , late at night, and slowly drift off.

[Little lunch]

I just found out that Charlie Murphy died a coupla years ago. Sad.

[fredd bear]

I just found out that Charlie Murphy died a coupla years ago. Sad.

 Had no idea who that was. I thought he might have been one of those Jazz/Blues legends of whom I had never heard--instead, he was Eddie Murphy's brother?  Not much of a distinction.----

---I liked Eddie in 48 Hours.--------Then I saw his stand up 'Raw'--He came across as a crude, misogynist pig--and worst of all; not funny.. Haven't bothered to watch anything he's done since. 

---

Addendum:

Just got hold of a good copy of the1925 version of Ben Hur, with the 1931 sound track. It has some kind of colour process, early 2 colour technicolor? Hand tinting?------Free on Youtube. There are plenty of free You Tube downloaders around.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFkrfYwcK5Q

[Rev. Rye]

 Had no idea who that was. I thought he might have been one of those Jazz/Blues legends of whom I had never heard--instead, he was Eddie Murphy's brother?  Not much of a distinction.----

---I liked Eddie in 48 Hours.--------Then I saw his stand up 'Raw'--He came across as a crude, misogynist pig--and worst of all; not funny.. Haven't bothered to watch anything he's done since. 

---

Addendum:

Just got hold of a good copy of the1925 version of Ben Hur, with the 1931 sound track. It has some kind of colour process, early 2 colour technicolor? Hand tinting?------Free on Youtube. There are plenty of free You Tube downloaders around.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFkrfYwcK5Q

Here's what I will always remember Charlie Murphy for:



And, yes, he's the wigga talking about all the times he shit his pants in Iraq.

Also, Ben-Hur did have some scenes in two-strip Technicolour. Also, did you ever see King of Jazz? The single most anticipated DVD/Blu-Ray release of 2018. Well, at least it was for me.

[Angrboda]

Nothing much. Drinking a pot of decaf. My ILS worker didn't have time to cut up the lettuce for the coming two weeks like she usually does, so I'll have to see what I'm capable of in that department this week. I also have a head of cabbage that needs cutting up as well. So far I've been successfully procrastinating doing both. That and the dishes. (Hey! There's still a few clean ones!)

[*Deidre*]

So, hubby and I are trying to have a baby. That always sounds so awkward. But, that's what is new.

As for right this minute, I'm working and stopping in here. Hope everyone is doing okay.

[The Grand Nudger]

Best thing to work hard at, right thur.

The Wife and I had to..um...put in the time, for our last.  Worth it.  Mac is a baller!