Tuesday, 31 May 2022

blue gardenias and palagandan salamanders

how bored was horsemouth yesterday? he mopped the kitchen floor and the downstairs hall that's how bored he was. 

in the evening horsemouth watched a film noir - the blue gardenia by fritz lang. it being fritz lang there are nice shots and nice touches. the three women live in a bungalow together - they share the rent, they offer advice and support, the men (by comparison) are wisecracking, perfidious and out for themselves. 

with the war women moved to the big cities in search of war work in the armaments factories, after the war they were displaced into telephonist and typing pool jobs. in one of the socially conscious RKO noirs, tender comrade by edward dmytryk , the girls work in an airplane  factory (rosie the riveter style). the women are seen working out that they could afford a better apartment if they pooled their rent. ginger rogers later appeared before the house unamerican activities committee saying that she had felt uncomfortable with the leftwing bias of the movie - this led to the blacklisting of the writer dalton trumbo.

the film is driven by a similar misogynist  tension as in the gialli. that the women have a measure of economic independence and control over their sex lives (and some solidarity from other women) is seen as troubling. there is the worry about the breakdown of social norms and gender roles (expressed as a concern about the 'safety' of the women). unlike the gialli the solution here is not to murder the women. 

today horsemouth goes for a coffee and to look at some art with ayesha (morning - the weather is looking better). he should get in a wander round with TG at some point. he's away to the cloud forest this evening.  

wednesday afternoon he may be finishing off some recording with howard. about half of them horsemouth thinks are done excepting a few nips and tucks. the other half he thinks need additional recording, one track he thinks is un-saveable (wondrous love). whether they have time to do that is another matter.  he's casting his thoughts about to see if there is anything they have recorded before that can be brought back. 

wednesday evening he's off for dinner with his brother's family. 

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