The Oakland Press has complete list of Oakland County holiday weekend events. To get to The Oakland Press On Line Edition just click on the Oakland Press Box in the right hand column on this page. Enter "Memorial day activities" or whatever in the search engine. It works for the current edition as well as archived editions.The Bloomfield Patch also has a good listing of Parades as well. Just click on "Looking For a parade" at the top of this page.
The Baldwin Library and City Hall are closed through Monday but you can always checks out electronic books from Baldwin if you have a card.Click here to use the Baldwin Library via your computer.
Even if you don't have a card, free books are available for download from the Baldwin Library. There are lots of public domain titles to choose from. Just go the click on the red Baldwin Link above and look for the box on your right
What do we recommend ? Well for Midwest Americana for a themed Memorial Day weekend how about Booth Tarkington's "The Magnificent Ambersons." Booth was a native of Indianapolis Indiana. Some consider the movie adaption of his book could have been the second greatest movie ever made. Unfortunately everyone agrees the movie was hacked to death by Hollywood and all that remains are the pieces.
Clicking on the above title in red will get you the first five minutes of the movie. It's rather intriguing but please don't ruin your weekend chasing all over town looking for the rest of the film. Others have tried but no one has ever succeeded. The library is closed. Red Box and Block Buster can't help. It is on TCM, Turner Classic Movies however. The 88 minute truncated version that is.
The book and the time period (the 1890's)fascinated Orson Welles the Director of Citizen Kane who was determined to make it his second movie. There is a bit of a parallel between Welles' demise and that of the Ambersons's motor car venture in the last days of the horse. Knowing that will help you'll catch the allusion of a world going faster in the opening clip."The faster we are carried the less time we have to spare" the narrator says. Whether that is an Orson Welles sardonic ad lib or Booth Tarkington's own words, you'll have to read the book to find out.
Many a director has said he would put the Magnificent Ambersons back together again but it hasn't happened.
93 years ago the book won a Pulitzer Prize. Orson Wells is said to have carried the novel around with him. Back then things moved at slower pace. People would, on a public holiday, take in parade or listen to a concert at the band stand In those days books were bound in cloth and easy to conceal while hiding in a hammock from the wife and her list of chores. Now the book is free but you have read it on your computer or print your own. The former requires batteries or a long power cord which will lead the wife right to you. A book might throw her off her guard and prompt the question "What in the world are you reading ?" There is something peaceful and restful about a person reading while swaying back and forth between two trees. The scene says do not disturb.Try it.It may work.
A computer is just bad news as in "Are you on that computer again ?" There is work to be done. Dirt be moved and weeds to be pulled. In an instant Memorial Day has become Labor Day. A short summer to say the least. Have we reached that threshold where we have to run fast to stay where we are ?
The Baldwin Library and City Hall are closed through Monday but you can always checks out electronic books from Baldwin if you have a card.Click here to use the Baldwin Library via your computer.
Even if you don't have a card, free books are available for download from the Baldwin Library. There are lots of public domain titles to choose from. Just go the click on the red Baldwin Link above and look for the box on your right What do we recommend ? Well for Midwest Americana for a themed Memorial Day weekend how about Booth Tarkington's "The Magnificent Ambersons." Booth was a native of Indianapolis Indiana. Some consider the movie adaption of his book could have been the second greatest movie ever made. Unfortunately everyone agrees the movie was hacked to death by Hollywood and all that remains are the pieces.
The Magnificent Ambersons Opening Narration |
The book and the time period (the 1890's)fascinated Orson Welles the Director of Citizen Kane who was determined to make it his second movie. There is a bit of a parallel between Welles' demise and that of the Ambersons's motor car venture in the last days of the horse. Knowing that will help you'll catch the allusion of a world going faster in the opening clip."The faster we are carried the less time we have to spare" the narrator says. Whether that is an Orson Welles sardonic ad lib or Booth Tarkington's own words, you'll have to read the book to find out.
Many a director has said he would put the Magnificent Ambersons back together again but it hasn't happened.
A computer is just bad news as in "Are you on that computer again ?" There is work to be done. Dirt be moved and weeds to be pulled. In an instant Memorial Day has become Labor Day. A short summer to say the least. Have we reached that threshold where we have to run fast to stay where we are ?
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