Dark Matter & Randolph Scott

Happy Late Night, my Darling,

All is quiet in Pearl's kitchen and I have been reading my Tom Van Flandern book ("Dark Matter, Missing Planets and New Comets") and though it is slow going because of all the technical astronomy talk, it is still one of the most interesting books I've ever read. I am now far into the book and he is examining the way in which moons of all the solar system planets are coated on one side, or not coated, in dark carbonaceous matter. He has calculated by the orbits and rotations of these moons, and the angles of same, where they would have been placed had a large planet exploded, that once existed in between Mars and Jupiter.

To me, it's obvious just from the asteroid belt, but he goes further to point out these coatings of dark matter, that would have sprayed the moons of the larger planets like Saturn and Jupiter in a blast wave, and to a lesser extent the inner planets Mercury and Venus. This is a book I'm gonna have to read a second time, maybe in a year or two, just for absorption of the technical jargon. But the basic concepts are mind blowing.

It was a regular day around here, no hikes or anything, but I did watch a great Western with Randolph Scott called "Comanche Station", directed by a man named Budd Boetticher. I am always on the lookout for Westerns I haven't seen and in December I found this dvd set of six Scott films, five of which are directed by Boetticher. Man, can he ever put a beautiful picture up on the screen.

The films I've watched so far (and I know that Westerns are a Guy Thing, kinda like football) have all been shot at a place in Central California called the Alabama Hills. It's like the Santa Susanas on steroids, like a moonscape of weird looking sandstone formations. I would love to see it in person. I will Mapquest it, but I think it's about 300 miles from me. So that's a road trip for the future, to see the Alabama Hills.

I saw a couple posts on FB today, one via James that he is gonna work on taking his songwriting to the next level. That is exactly what I was talking about last night, just staying focused and concentrating entirely on What You Do. Never question What You Do, and I am sure you don't. Just keep perfecting it, with laser beam focus. And not just perfecting it, but also expanding it. Picture in your mind different visual concepts, camera movements and edits.

It all starts in your head.

The next time you watch a movie, make it a point to watch what the camera is doing, what the editor is doing, and how the sound works throughout all of it. Don't over concentrate and ruin your viewing experience - watch for pleasure if you are watching a film for the first time - but just try to catch what is being done with the shot process. Watch it as a secondary thing and your eye will catch it.

I was doing this with these Randolph Scott Westerns I've been watching, directed by Budd Boetticher, and I've been going, "man, that's an incredible shot", and watching how the camera moves to first establish placement of scene, and then to accentuate and enhance the drama.

Ozu, who we watched last year at CSUN, was a master at camera placement.

Well, now if I get started I could go on and on about the subject........  :)

But you know what I mean anyway.

I also loved the post with the pic of the girl and the giant Koala or teddy bear. :):)

That's all I know for tonight, Sweet Baby. Sweet Dreams and I will see you in the morning!

I Love You.  xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):)