Why I Disagree with Robert Scoble on the "War on Noise"

For those who might not know, Robert Scoble is a tech blogger and writer who has worked at such places as NEC and Microsoft. He is quite good at what he does and more often than not I find myself agreeing with him. That is not the case with Mr. Scoble's latest blog post, "The war on noise," in which I find myself disagreeing with much of what he has to say.

I do have to agree with Robert Scoble that there is a good deal of noise on sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and so on (although I do disagree with Mr. Scoble that George Takei's posts are "noise"). There are those people and companies who post far too often, and who often post content that is not particularly interesting. And I do agree that such noise is only going to get worse as technology grows and changes. I also agree that we are going to have to to go to war with noise. That having been said, I disagree with Mr. Scoble's thought that Facebook does a good job of filtering noise, and I do not share his desire to have Facebook pick the 20 "best" posts to show me every time I refresh my screen.

Quite simply, I think Robert Scoble is among the very few who want Facebook to filter their posts. Most people I know, including myself, do not want Facebook to filter their news feeds. The reason is simple. Facebook does a very bad job of it. Now to a degree one does have some control over what Facebook filters on one's news feed. One can set it so that specific friends always show in one's news feed and so that every item they post is displayed in the news feed. The problem is that one cannot do the same thing with Pages. One can simply set it so that posts from a particular Page display on one's news feed. Beyond that, one is at the mercy of what Facebook decides what they think one wants to see.

This would not be so bad, but in my experience (and that of many of my friends) Facebook is pathetically bad at determining what stories would be interesting to any given individual. A perfect example of this is my brother. He liked the History Channel long ago. Every day he likes their "Today in History" post and every day he shares it. He also likes a good number of other stories posted by the History Channel. Despite this, there have been several times where the History Channel stories have not displayed in his news feed, even the "Today in History" posts. As to myself, today the top stories in my news feed were largely composed of posts I did not find that interesting and many from people with whom I interact very rarely. In fact out of the top twenty items, only two were from people with whom I interact with regularly and only one of them would I count as a "top story."

Now it is true that one can hide stories on one's news feed, but it seems to make little difference. I am not sure how Facebook determines what one's top stories are, but one would think they would take into account the friends and pages with whom one interacts the most, past posts one has liked, and past posts one has hidden. That  having been said, it seems to me that Facebook must not take any of these things into account when determining what is a "top story," otherwise the top stories on my news feed would look a lot different. I then have to conclude they are using an entirely different set of criteria to determine what is and what is not a top story. I might add that given how often they get what I would consider "top stories" wrong, the criteria they are using must be entirely the wrong criteria.

Indeed, as far social media sites I think Google+ does a much better job of filtering out noise, although even it is not ideal. On Google+ one can adjust how much one wants to see of any given circle (the various categories in which one places one's followers) in his or her stream. One can also mute users so that one never need see their posts in one's stream without simply uncircling them. And if one does not want to filter any of his or her circles at all, one has that choice. One has no such choice on Facebook.

I do agree with Robert Soble that users should be given means to regulate the amount of noise in their stream or newsfeed. I very fervently disagree with him that Facebook does a good job of filtering noise and I disagree with the idea that a social media site should automatically filter posts for users. My idea is that it is the users themselves who should set any filters they might want.  On Facebook I should be able to set it so that I see every single post from a Page, much as I am able to do with friends. On Google+ I should not only be able to decide how much of any given circle I want to see in my stream, but any given circler as well (there should be something in between "mute" and seeing everything). This would decrease the amount of noise in one's stream a good deal. I would be guaranteed of seeing every single post from, say, the Doctor Who page, but not so may from the Chrysler page (here I want to stress these are just examples--I don't think Chrysler is guilty of posting noise).

In my own experience neither the majority of my friends nor I want Facebook or another social media site to determine what we see in our feeds or streams. This is especially the case with Facebook, whose algorithm seems to be inherently flawed. Ultimately I think users should be given more control over what they see in their feeds or streams.  And in the end, if someone feels one of their friends or followers is posting much too often, there is always the option of unfriending them or uncircling them!

Hedy Lamarr at 99

It was 99 years ago today that Hedy Lamarr was born. She is one of my favourite actresses of all time, and not simply because she was incredibly beautiful. Although her acting talent was often underestimated while she was still alive, Miss Lamarr was actually a rather versatile actress. Although she was often cast as exotic seductresses during her career, she could play other roles as well. She played a Ziegfeld girl in the movie of the same name from 1941 and did so quite convincingly. She also played Lily Dalbray, the beautiful spy and love interest in the Bob Hope movie My Favourite Spy. While Hollywood would cast her in only a few certain types of role, she was in enough different types of films to prove that she could perform comedy and drama equally well.

Of course, as many people know, Hedy Lamarr was not simply a beautiful woman (she was called "The Most Beautiful Woman in the World" during her career for a reason) or a great actress. She was also an inventor. With composer George Antheil she developed a "secret communication system" that was the direct ancestor of today's spread spectrum devices, from mobile phones to GPS. Given how significant the idea of frequency hopping or spread spectrum technology would be to life in the late 20th and early 21st Centuries, Hedy Lamarr's importance to modern society cannot be underestimated. In addition to her invention of frequency hopping, Hedy Lamarr also invented a cube that when dropped into a glass of water would become a cola drink; an attachment to tissue boxes to hold used tissues; a new sort of traffic light; and, also with George Antheil, an anti-aircraft shell fixed with a proximity fuse that would use radar to detect the target and detonate at a predetermined distance away.

As if being the most beautiful woman in the world, a great actress, and an inventor whose invention literally changed the world was not enough, Hedy Lamarr was also the inspiration for the Batman villain Catwoman. Catwoman was essentially a combination of Hedy Lamarr, Bob Kane's cousin Ruth Steel, and a dash of Jean Harlow. That having been said, looking at early illustrations of Catwoman, it would seem that the influence of Hedy Lamarr dominated the character.

Hedy Lamarr was simply an incredible woman. She was remarkably beautiful and also extremely intelligent. While there were many beautiful actresses throughout the Golden Age of Hollywood, none of them were quite as singular as Hedy Lamarr.

NaNoWriMo 2012

If you are wondering why I have not been posting much of late, it is because I am once more participating in National Novel Writing Month or NaNoWriMo for short. For those of you who don't know, NaNoWriMo is essentially a month long, writing event in which participants try to write a 50,000 word novel in only the thirty days of November. While it is still called "National Novel Writing Month," it has truly become an international event. Many people from many nations now participate.

NaNoWriMo was started in July 1999 by writer Chris Baty and its first year only had twenty participants, all of them in the San Francisco area. It has grown in leaps and bounds since that time. By 2000 it had its own website and had grown to 140 participants. NaNoWriMo really took off in 2001. That year they had expected only 150 participants. Instead they had 5000. What is even more surprising is that at that time NaNoWriMo did not yet have an automated system through which people could register. Every registration had to be done by hand! It has since grown even more, with 59,703 people participating in 2005 and 101,767 in 2006.

At any rate, until 30 November I am going to be working on my novel of the moment. Between that and my other writing, blog posts might be a little sparse here. Rest assured, I will make at least three posts a week as usual!

Clive Dunn Passes On

Clive Dunn, perhaps best known for playing Lance Corporal Jones on Dad's Army, died today, 7 November 2012. He was 92 years old

Clive Dunn was born 9 January 1920 in London. He attended Sevenoaks School in Kent. At 16 he left school to seek a career in acting. He studied acting at  Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts, in London. Before he had even left school, however, he had made his film debut in an uncredited bit part in Boys Will Be Boys in 1935. He would also play bit parts in Good Morning, Boys (1937) and A Yank at Oxford (1938). With World War II Mr. Dunn volunteered for the Volunteer Ambulance Service. In 1940 he was drafted into the British Army. He served in the 4th Hussars in Greece. Eventually he was captured by the German Army. He spent the remainder of World War II as a prisoner. After being liberated, he remained with the British Army until 1947.

In 1949 Clive Dunn returned to film with The Hasty Heart. He then appeared in the film Boys in Brown (1949); however, it would be on television where Mr. Dunn would spend most of his career. He made his television debut on an episode of  Five Children and It in 1951. During the Fifties he would be a regular on Happy Holidays, The Tony Hancock Show, and After Hours. He also appeared on the shows The Railway Children, Studio E, Musical Playhouse, and The Dickie Henderson Half-Hour. He appeared in the film Hot Money Girl (1959).

In the Sixties Clive Dunn was a regular on Bootsie and Snudge. It was in 1968 that he was cast as doddering, seventy year old Lance Corporal Jones on Dad's Army. He was also a regular on Orlando. He appeared on such shows as First Night, Room at the Bottom, HMS Paradise, No Hiding Place, and The Avengers. He appeared in the films What a Whopper (1961), She'll Have to Go (1962), The Fast Lady (1962) , The Mouse on the Moon (1963), You Must Be Joking! (1965), The Mini-Mob (1967), Just Like a Woman (1967), 30 Is a Dangerous Age, Cynthia (1968), The Bliss of Mrs. Blossom (1968), Sophie's Place (1969), and The Magic Christian (1969).

In the Seventies Clive Dunn was a regular on the shows My Old Man and Granddad. He appeared on such shows as Full House, Sez Les, and Metal Mickey. He appeaerd in the films Dad's Army (1971), and The Fiendish Plot of Dr. Fu Manchu.

Clive Dunn was an extremely talented actor, particularly skilled at playing old men. He was actually one of the youngest members of the cast of Dad's Army (he was only 48 when he was cast as Lance Corporal Jones), but he played the oldest character on the show. He also played older characters on Bootsie and Snudge, My Old Man, and Granddad. Clive Dunn was also very gifted when it came to comedy. Jonesie was easily the funniest character on Dad's Army, turning the phrases "Don't panic!" and "They don’t like it up ’em!" into national catchphrases. When it came to actors in situation comedies, Clive Dunn was one of the best.

An Ann Miller Halloween

Ann Miller was not simply one of Hollywood's great musical actresses during its Golden Age. Beautiful and gifted with an incredible figure (including perhaps the best legs in motion pictures besides Cyd Chairsse), she was also a wildly popular pin up during World War II. Several pin up pictures were taken of Miss Miller over the years, including pictures that seemed to cover every American holiday. Indeed, over the years a number of Halloween themed photos were taken of the legendary singer and dancer.

As a special treat this Halloween, then, I offer you several Halloween pin ups of the beautiful Ann Miller.

Happy Halloween!

The Seventh Victim: Val Lewton's Diabolic Horror

It was in the Forties that legendary producer Val Lewton was named the head of a unit at RKO charged with making low budget horror movies. These films would not only prove to be enormously successful at the box office, but most of them are regarded highly today. The horror movies of Val Lewton relied on the power of suggestion and atmosphere to create a sense of terror, in stark opposition to most horror movies of the time, which relied on more sensationalistic means to create frights. While Val Lewton would quite rightfully become famous for the use of suggestion in his horror movies, what is sometimes overlooked is that he often dealt with subject matter that had been left uncovered by other horror movie makers.

One need only look at Val Lewton's filmography to find films whose subject matter might be cliché now, but were quite novel in the Forties.  I Walked with a Zombie (1943) dealt with the then little explored subjects of voodoo and zombies. Bedlam (1946) dealt with the horrors of an 18th Century insane asylum. The Ghost Ship (1943) dealt with the time honoured trope of ghosts, but placed them aboard a ship. Of Val Lewton's films, The Seventh Victim (1943) numbers among the most original. While Satanists would become a horror movie cliché since the release of Rosemary's Baby (1968), they were virtually unknown in movies prior to the release of that film. Before The Seventh Victim, there were very few films that had dealt with devil worship (the most famous perhaps being Universal's 1934 film The Black Cat).  After The Seventh Victim, but before Rosemary's Baby, films dealing with Satanism tend to be equally few in number. With The Seventh Victim, then, Val Lewton once more explored a topic rarely covered by horror movies before.

Of course, The Seventh Victim would be historic in other ways beyond being among the first horror movies to deal with Satanism. Jacques Tourneur, who had directed Val Lewton's first three horror movies (Cat People, I Walked With a Zombie, and The Leopard Man), had been promoted at RKO, so Mr. Lewton could no longer call upon his services. Val Lewton then appointed Mark Robson, who had served as the editor on his first three horror movies, as the director of The Seventh Victim. The Seventh Victim then marked Mark Robson's directorial debut. The Seventh Victim would also mark the film debut of actress Kim Hunter, who played the lead role in the film.

The Seventh Victim centred on Mary Gibson (played by Kim Hunter), who is searching for her lost sister Jacqueline Greenwich Village in New York City. It isn't long before Mary learns that her sister was involved with a cult of devil worshippers called Palladists. Not only is The Seventh Victim one of the first horror movies to deal with Satanists, then, but it is also one of the first to place them in a present day, urban setting (over twenty years before Rosemary's Baby).  Like all of Val Lewton's horror movies made at RKO, The Seventh Victim grew out of a title given to him by the studio. Val Lewton's initial idea for the film was that of orphan trying to stop a murderer before she becomes his seventh victim; however, Mr. Lewton had a change of heart and instead went with the idea of an orphan trying to save her sister from a group of Satanists. Amazingly enough, Val Lewton asked the screenplay's writer, DeWitt Bodeen, to see if they could possibly get him into a meeting of a devil worshipping society.  Even more amazingly, Mr. Bodeen found such a group located in New York City's West Side. The particular group of Satanists that Mr. Bodeen had discovered were mostly old people, reciting spells against Hitler as they crocheted and knitted. It was from this meeting that DeWitt Bodeen developed the idea of the Palladists in The Seventh Victim as ordinary people who had for whatever reason turned evil.

Here it should be pointed out that the term "Palladist" was not merely a euphemism used because it was feared the term "Satanist" might be too offensive (although in 1943 it might well have been). The term "Palladist" has its origins in rumours regarding Freemasonry in the 1890's. Léo Taxil, fuelled these rumours with a series of pamphlets in which he charged Masonic lodges with devil worship and being part of the Palladism cult. (the term Palladism coming from Pallas, a name of the Greek goddess Athena). Taxil's claims would be taken up by others. A. E. Waite (one of the two creators of the Rider-Waite Tarot card deck) claimed in Devil-Worship in France, or The Question of Lucifer, published in 1896, that a "Masonic diabolic order" known as "The Order of Palladium" was  founded in Paris on 20 May 1737. He also claimed it was broken up by law enforcement authorities after only a few years. In calling the devil worshippers in The Seventh Victim "Palladists," then, Messrs. Lewton and Bodeen were tying the movie to older urban legends of an alleged Satanist society.

 Regardless of whether the devil worshippers of The Seventh Victim were called "Palladists" or the more blatant "Satanists," the horror of The Seventh Victim is the fact that it is set in the everyday world of Greenwich Village and its villains would raise no eyebrows if one passed them on the street. Many horror movies of the Thirties and Forties were set in distant regions of Europe and often in the past at that, so that Americans watching the films could reassure themselves, "Well, that would never happen here." Set in 20th Century New York City, with Satanists who could be one's next door neighbours, The Seventh Victim offered no such reassurances.

Not only is The Seventh Victim set in present day New York City, but it turns that place into a rather terrifying, if familiar world. Indeed, the film has been counted as a film noir almost as often as it has a horror movie. Between Mark Robson's direction and Nicholas Musuraca's cinematography, the overall look of The Seventh Victim is dark, full of shadowy corners and recesses. The attitudes of the film are equally dark. Not only does an air of paranoia pervade The Seventh Victim, but it is a movie in which despair, death, and suicide are part of everyday life. This is not the stereotypical Greenwich Village in which poets, artists, and beatniks dwell. This is a Greenwich Village filled with devil worshippers and hopelessness, one where a cafe can be called "Dante's" without it seeming the least bit odd.

While I consider The Seventh Victim to be one of Val Lewton's best films and one that is very effective as a horror movie even today, the film does have its flaws. The beginning of the film moves much too swiftly and at times there are far too many characters for the viewer to easily keep track. The Seventh Victim also seems disjointed at times, to the point where the plot does not always make sense. Supposedly some scenes that would have made things much clearer were cut from the film before it was released. In Fearing the Dark: The Val Lewton Career, Edmund G. Bansak and Robert Wise theorise that the script for The Seventh Victim was written as if it was intended to be an "A" picture. Scenes were then shot and the film edited down to a more appropriate running time for a "B" movie.

Regardless, the few shortcomings of The Seventh Victim have not prevented it from being highly regarded in certain circles, nor has it prevented it from becoming a somewhat influential film. There is a possibly apocryphal story of British filmmakers David Lean, Michael Powell, and Carol Reed watching prints of The Seventh Victim that had been shipped by convoy to war torn Britain, and even bicycling the prints to special screenings around London. There is perhaps no way of knowing if the story is true or not, but given the later careers of the three men it could well be believable. One can see possible echoes of The Seventh Victim in such films as The Third Man (1949) and Peeping Tom (1960). Even if the story is not true, it would seem that The Seventh Victim would qualify as an early film noir and perhaps had an impact on the genre. Both its plot and its atmosphere resembles such later noirs as Murder My Sweet (1944) and The Spiral Staircase (1946).

In the end The Seventh Victim should be considered one of the most important works in Val Lewton's oeuvre. It mark a most auspicious debut for Mark Robson as a director. It also presaged horror movies dealing with the occult and devil worship over twenty years before they would become so commonplace as to be cliché.  And while The Seventh Victim is undoubtedly a horror film, its style marks it as an early film noir, a genre that would become much more common in the years following World War II. Above all else, while the film does have its flaws, The Seventh Victim is not only one of Val Lewton's most effective horror movies, but also one of the most effective horror films of the Forties.

Classic Horror Movie Trailers

Although it might seem remarkable today, there was a time when making a trailer for a horror movie was a fine art. There were even times when the trailer for a particular horror movie might be better than the movie it was advertising. From the Fifties into the Seventies it was not unusual for a few directors to not only direct the film, but also to conceive and direct the trailer as well. Particularly for the B-movies of the time, trailers for horror films could be quite funny and often over the top.

Among the masters of horror movie trailers was director and producer William Castle. This should come as no surprise as William Castle was a master at promoting his movies as it was. He was well known for the various gimmicks he used to promote his films, from "Emergo" of House on Haunted Hill to the "Percepto" of The Tingler.  This talent for promotion extended to his trailers, which William Castle often introduced himself much in the same way that Alfred Hitchock introduced episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents.

Here is the classic trailer to William Castle's House on Haunted Hill.



Hyperbole played a large role in horror movie trailers, as did a sense of humour. Both can be seen in the movie X--The Man With the  X-Ray Eyes. The trailer boasts that it features Ray Milland in "his most challenging role since his Academy Award winning Lost Weekend." The film also tends to focus on some of the most unsavoury parts of the film (that is, sex and gambling). As far as actually giving the viewer an accurate portrait of X--The Man With the X-Ray Eyes, in some respects the trailer is rather poor. It is actually a rather well done, disturbing film.





Horror film trailers were still very much an art in the Seventies, as is shown by the trailer for Wes Craven's controversial film Last House on the Left (1972). Other than giving the viewer the idea that it is a horror movie, the trailer ultimately tells us very little about Last House on the Left. Instead, it emphasises how shocking the film will be, along with one of the best taglines for any movie ever, "...It's only a movie."




It must be pointed out that making trailers for horror movies was not a particularly American art. The British were capable of making great horror movie trailers as well. Indeed, much of the success of Hammer Films' The Curse of Frankenstein may have been due to its trailer. This trailer combines shocks, sex, and violence all in a little over two minutes.




Indeed, perhaps the greatest horror movie ever made was by a director of English descent. At nearly seen minutes in length, Alfred Hitchock's teaser trailer for Psycho (1960). The trailer is absolutely brilliant, with Hitchcock giving a tour of the places in the film (such as the Bates' house) and nearly giving away particulars of the film before catching himself. Of course, it is the trailer's end that makes the trailer.




I would say the Golden Age for horror movie trailers lasted from the Fifties to the Eighties, although there have been a few great trailers released since then. So far I have only listed trailers for classic films, but a few clunkers have had great trailers as well. A perfect example of this is the trailer to The Blair Witch Project. It tells us little about the movie and is very effective in building anticipation for the film. While the trailer was quite effective, however, The Blair Witch Project was itself a huge disappointment. In fact, I would actually class it as one of the worst movies of all time. I  honestly believe that the promotion for the film (including various critics raving over the film) could be counted as one of the greatest con jobs of the 20th Century. It is definitely a case of the trailer being far better than the film.



Sadly, the trailer to The Blair Witch Project has been the exception to horror movie trailers in the past thirty years. Today there is little to differentiate the standard horror movie trailer from movie trailers of other genres. Gone are the hyperbole, the frantic narration, the great taglines, and the kinetic typography. Many of the trailers of horror movies made from the Fifties to the Seventies were truly great, even when the movies might not have been.