"Cloisonné" necklace

Today's piece isn't actual cloisonné, but it was inspired by it.
Cloisonné is an ancient technique in which metal strips or wire are attached to a metal baseplate and shape compartments ("cloisons" in French). At first gems were used to fill up the gaps created, later enamel which was also colorful, but not as expensive.
I remember having been fascinated by cloisonné pieces even as a child. I don't do metalwork, though, and have never worked with enamels.

Some of my ideas come out of the blue. I like to see what's in my current "workbox" - I really should empty the last one because I'm sure I'll discover some surprises in there - and then work from that.
This time I found a leftover irregular triangle of beading foundation and a cut length of a narrow faux suede ribbon which I had shortly contemplated to use in my Big Hug necklace.
It was probably the flat look that made me think of the metal strips in cloisonné and wonder what it would look like if I glued (oooh, ambitious) the ribbon to the foundation, not flat down, but on the edge which allowed curves. Then I would fill the gaps up with bead embroidery.
Of course it would have been interesting to make an actual pattern like in real cloisonné, but the ribbon was too thick for that. It took me a good while just to get that closed "circle" done. Apart from that, though, the glueing went amazingly well.

At first I started filling the empty spaces with rows following the course of the ribbon, but like in the "Big Hug" I quickly noticed that I didn't like that look.
So I ripped the rows out and did it bead by bead instead which worked much better for the narrow spots.
Also, the original plan had been to use each color once and make the focal really colorful. Had I really thought about it beforehand and not wanted to use the ribbon that was already cut, however, I would have used black instead of the blue. Again I started ripping out and limited myself to random placement of green and blue tones instead. Of course a combination of green and blue always evokes ocean feelings for me and the ribbon enhanced that coral reef vibe for me, so I had to fight the urge to use pearls as well.
I think that just would have been too much.

Next decision - a rope.
I really love the look of a three bead Herringbone twist rope in contrasting colors and chose a dark rainbow green, a metallic blue with a hint of mint, and a beautiful dark blue.
Can you imagine just a bunch of ropes like these in different colors and length around your neck?

I had big fun playing with this one and almost wish I had the patience to try another piece with black ribbon this time, but while my hands need a break, my brain is already on the way to the next WIP in my workbox which has been waiting in there for far too long because I can't decide on the way I want to put the focal on!
What do you say - drop with the tip up or down?

Random Saturday - How could you?

We spent almost 34 years together.
I thought you were the one constant in my life.
You would always be there for me.
I counted on you day and night.
True, you weren't bright enough for everyone, but you were for me.
Then you left me, though, without a warning.
You were just gone and left me behind, in the dark.
I guess I should have been prepared that this would happen eventually, but I felt preparing would have looked as if I didn't trust you.
And then I just couldn't turn you on anymore one day.

We had a good run together, though, didn't we?
Farewell, little fluorescent tube. I'll miss you.

Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot - Week 139

Welcome to the Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot!
My posts for the link up will go live on Thursdays at 9:30 p.m. EDT or, if you live in the future like I do, on Fridays at 3:30 a.m. CE(S)T.

Veganuary ... dry January ... no buy January ... how is your January going? Are you doing any of those challenges?

How about you? Ready for the weekend?

As part of the reboot, we will be featuring a different blog every week.
How about stopping by and saying hello? Let them know we sent you.

This week our spotlight is on Esme Salon.

Esme from Esme Salon says "Welcome, I'm so glad you're here, and I hope you will find some wonderful homemade, tried and tested recipes from around the world to make at home.
My goal is to provide the best homemade recipes that are healthy for all families to enjoy. I also endeavor to showcase and share other bloggers and promote them on my Blog.
I grew up loving to bake and cook, as I watched my Mom so lovingly prepare meal after meal for the family and all our friends.
Furthermore, I am in Vancouver, B.C. Canada, since 1997, but originally from a then small village called Somerset West, just outside of Cape Town, in South Africa."

Marsha from Marsha in the Middle started blogging in 2021 as an exercise in increasing her neuroplasticity. Oh, who are we kidding? Marsha started blogging because she loves clothes, and she loves to talk or, in this case, write!

Melynda from Scratch Made Food! & DIY Homemade Household - The name says it all, we homestead in East Texas, with three generations sharing this land. I cook and bake from scratch, between gardening and running after the chickens, and knitting!

Lisa from Boondock Ramblings shares about the fiction she writes and reads, her faith, homeschooling, photography and more.

Cat from Cat's Wire has what she calls a jumping spider brain. She has many interests and will blog about whatever catches her attention - crafts, books, old movies, collectibles or random things.

Rena from Fine Whatever Blog writes about style, midlife, and the "fine whatever" moments that make life both meaningful and fun. Since 2015, she's been celebrating creativity, confidence, and finding joy in the everyday.


Here are some of my picks from last week's link up.

When life gives you lemons, make lemonade - Jeanne shows us her lemon tree.

Sally tells us something about snow from a Southern US perspective.

Have a look at Natasha's marshmallow snowmen. Aren't they cute?

Paula shares some great tips with us on how to keep pets safe during winter.


Let's link up!

Guidelines:
This link party is for blog posts only. All other links will be deleted.
Please link only blog posts you created yourself. Please link directly to the URL of your blog post and not the main address of your blog.
Please do not link to videos, sales ads, or social media links such as YouTube videos/shorts, Instagram or Facebook reels, TikTok videos, or any other social media based content.
Please do visit other blogs and give the gift of a comment. 

Notice:
By linking with Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot, you assert that the content is your own property and give us permission to share said content if your post or blog is showcased.
We welcome unlimited, family friendly content. This can include opinion pieces, recipes, travel recaps, fashion ideas, crafts, thrifting, lifestyle, book reviews or discussions, photography, art, and so much more!
Thank you for linking up with us!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Silent movies - En ny hat till Madammen

About 35 years ago, the ex suggested that we should take Danish lessons. For different reasons, most of them outside our control, we only managed about four lessons. So I still know how to say that the room is big and that I come from Germany, but that's about it.
I can tell you, however, that today's film from 1906 is called "En ny hat till Madammen" which translates to "A New Hat for the Madam". There are not even title cards, so it was no problem to follow this short made by Danish film pioneer Viggo Larsen.

Madame is choosing a hat and it's big!

It may look like it, but this is no cheese.
It's the hatbox and hubby just had to
yank out part of the window frame to
get it through the window at all.
That's what I call a supportive husband.

After Madam has been "attacking"
some people with her new hat and
has trouble handling both the hat and
her hobble skirt, but hasn't been able
to board a taxi, hubby buys her
a little wagon for easier transport.

Their friends think it's a marvelous
idea and join them.

Oops. It might be more difficult than
they had expected after all.

Teatime ends in a duel because the
hat knocked off the cap of the military
guy on the left and he hit back.

Oh no! Hubby got wounded! At least
the hat makes a useful stretcher.

It's only a flesh wound (any Python fans?).
Nevertheless, after kissing his wife hubby
is begging her to get rid of the hat.

Once again I learned something new.
Denmark was one of the big shots in early film history, both commercially and historically. It had stars like Asta Nielsen who were internationally famous.
From about 1910 to 1914 when the First World War broke out - the Golden Age of Danish silent films - the Danish film industry was even a world leader before Hollywood took over.

The website "Danish Silent Film" launched by the Danish Film Institute aims at making more than 400 works from the country's silent film history freely available online, with the addition of "posters, photos, thematic articles, scripts and contemporary reviews".

Back to our short, though.
At first look it may seem like it's just a silly little slapstick comedy, but it very efficiently pokes fun at the fashion fads of the time while hinting at them possibly being dangerous - huge hats and hobble skirts (the latter actually caused accidents, even fatal ones).
And it's not only the ladies who are affected by the madness of an absurd fashion, but also the men. A duel over a hat? I'm still amazed how quickly one of the men at the tea produces a saber for the husband to use.

Huge headgear wasn't limited to women's hats. Men wore really high top hats, for example. They were not as wide, granted, and didn't diminish exotic bird populations the way the huge hats embellished with feathers did (still a danger today, by the way).
Also don't forget about the elaborate wigs people used to wear in the olden days, both women and men.
The First World War was just one reason for those fashions to disappear as women were needed in the war effort and clothing became more practical.

As someone who has never been fashoniable and prefers comfort over looks in her own clothing, I had a good laugh at this film. Absolutely a recommendation from me!


Sources:

1. Website "Danish Silent Film"
2. Fritzi Kramer: A New Hat for the Madam (1906) - A Silent Film Review. On: Movies Silently, August 1, 2022

How and why did you start watching silent movies?

This was a question asked in a comment a while ago, and I had to think about how it actually started.
On March 11, 2025, I wrote my first silent movie post and ever since I have one every Thursday. To be honest, I was surprised about that myself - and hadn't even assigned a day to the "series" in the first post - and I would be lying if I said it was always easy.

"Wanna watch a silent movie with me?"
"Oh boy, looks like he's a weird one.
Good looking, but weird."

Sometimes I had to resort to presenting shorts simply because I didn't prepare ahead and then didn't find the time or, even more important, the concentration to do a long one (expect a short next week as I'm back to work tomorrow, by the way).
That doesn't just have to do with the runtime of a movie, however, but also with the way I write those blog posts. I know I'm not a gifted writer to start with and on top of that I sometimes have writer's block. Yes, for a "simple" blog post that not many of my readers are interested much in, anyway.

In March, I wrote about my attention span and how I wanted to work on improving it again after a friend had said that movies had become much too long for her attention span.
I had done a "Little Lord Fauntleroy" marathon with different adaptations for Christmas and couldn't make myself watching the silent one with Mary Pickford. That gave me the idea.
"You need a lot of attention for a silent movie and some are really long, too.
So I thought that could actually work quite well as a part of my "training". I'll be watching silent movies and writing about them here."

"You still haven't watched my movie.
Do it quickly or you're gonna get it."

Little did I know then that I wouldn't just watch movies, but also read blog posts and reviews and even some academic articles which didn't always make it easier for me to get to the actual writing in time.
Little did I also know that I would really enjoy jumping around like that, so much in fact that I now started reading biographies and treated myself to a fat book (second-hand at a great price) on the history of silent films in the US (which I haven't dared to start yet, though).

The question remains how I even got the idea to use silent movies for this "project"?
I also wrote in March "Watching silent movies has never been easy for me although I grew up with them. No, I'm not that old, they were re-runs on TV, thank you very much." Thinking about it, that's probably not completely true. I doubt I really ever watched a whole film, but snippets in the compilation shows broadcast on weekends, for example Bob Monkhouse's "Mad Movies" which actually had a narration.

So my first real watch was probably the night before my English-"Abi" (the final exam in my "Abitur" before I left school). My plan had been a last moment vocabulary cram, but instead we watched "Phantom of the Opera" with Lon Chaney and we laughed so hard at some of the scenes.
Years later, I had a classic horror phase - Dracula, Phantom, Nosferatu, Frankenstein, etc. - and suddenly loved the film.

"So you thought we were funny, did
you?" "Actually, Nosferatu, I thought
you were creepy as heck. Still do."

Even more years later, the TV channel ARTE, which I have mentioned before, showed several silent movies. I recorded a few of them and watched them in installments. Then the hard drive on my TV broke, interrupting my efforts abruptly. I had never finished the almost three hour long "Die Frau im Mond" by Fritz Lang and couldn't get myself to pick it up again (on YouTube, for example).
Film documentaries are my favorites on ARTE. History, life stories, reviews. Mostly classic and black and white, though. I have always loved old movies.
One of those documentaries was about Douglas Fairbanks and it was really interesting.

Now I'm going to blame Lisa from Boondock Ramblings for the final kick (along with Pickford of course).
When I joined her in the "Winter of Fairbanks" watching movies with Douglas Fairbanks Jr., I remembered that I had been wanting to see his dad's movies for so long now.
His "Thief of Bagdad" was the one to start my project, and if you have been following my posts at all, you may have noticed that I have a soft spot for him.

"Girl, you would have fangirled over me so hard
in the 20s. Come on, admit it." "Yup, I would have.
Especially when you laughed, you rogue. Even
if your son looked much better."

Well, there you have it. That's how I came to bore you with a silent movie post each week.
I don't regret a thing. There are more of us out there than you may want to believe 🙃

10 on the 10th - Things I won't do this year

The 10 on the 10th are back!
When I read Marsha's prompt, however, my first thought was that this could prove to be more difficult than I could handle. Let me explain why.
I could, for example, list things like "I won't be eating as much carbs as last year.". Sounds like a resolution, doesn't it? Resolutions can be worded either way, "I want to buy less ...." or "I don't want to buy as much ...". I don't do resolutions, so those things are out.
Let's try something else. "I probably won't be visiting a museum this year." Hm. "I probably won't be taking a class in person this year." Like that I'm either going to depress myself by listing things that I would like to do, but can't anymore, or I'm going to sound incredibly negative, whiny, and annoying.

So what are my options?
Marsha replied to my comment "Have fun with all the wild and weird things you won't do." Oh Marsha, a challenge, eh?

This year, I probably won't ...

1. ... participate in a winter expedition.

Picture via pxhere

 
Yeah. No. You gotta be kidding me, people, look at that. Haven't you seen "The Gold Rush"? Shoes, I'm just saying shoes!
Seriously, though. I really don't like snow and I could happily live completely without it.

2. ... go deep sea diving.

Picture via pxhere

Do you know what those helmets do to your hair? 😜
I love watching documentaries about the ocean, but whenever I was at a beach and saw the vastness of the ocean, I felt strangely overwhelmed. Calling it thalassophobia would probably be too much, but I never went into the ocean further than ankle deep.

3. ... climb Mount Everest.

None of the translation apps have Yeti on their list and what other reason should I even have to climb up there?
Ok, so these days I have problems with a simple hill, but I don't have that gene of needing great adventure in my life, either. I'm fine with tiny adventures.

4. ... read "Ulysses" by James Joyce.

Can you believe a family member once suggested a read along and discussion of "Ulysses"?
If you read it, good for you, but my ten brain cells founded a union and threatened to quit. Can't have that.
There are things I don't need to have done to prove myself. Struggling through "Ulysses" is one of them.

5. ... go to a rave.

Picture via pxhere

I can hear and feel this picture and both isn't good for me.
Of course I wasn't even a fan of discos when I was young. Can you tell I was never a dancer? 😂
I managed one dancing class (thanks to peer pressure and I didn't enjoy it), but while I like to move with a rhythm and occasionally danced with some of my cats, I preferred doing so in the privacy of my home or from a chair.

6. ... eat snails.

A friend of mine, a polymer clay
artist, made this little beauty for me.

Too bad I'm a vegetarian, isn't it?
I have never been a very adventurous eater even before I was. I wouldn't want to try ants in chocolate or mealworms. How about you?
I did try my rabbits' vitamin pellets once, though, to see why they were SO crazy for them. Kind of dry. I guess you had to be a bunny to appreciate it.

7. ... keep my cats, but foster a bunch of dogs instead.

"Could someone make her stop
talking, please? Can she get any
more embarrassing?"

Ok, you didn't believe that, did you? Neither did my cats.
I really love dogs, but I would be a terrible dog mom because I'm notoriously bad at setting limits, so I would probably be eaten up in the first week or dragged into the streets.
Once I told friends that I would gladly babysit their two smaller dogs for a few hours in their own home, but that I had to draw the line at taking them for a walk.

8. ... take up playing the violin again.

No one, absolutely no one, would want that. It just has been too long.
I played the violin for about 5 1/2 years until I was 16. I wasn't bad, but I don't think I was good, either. My heart wasn't really in it and the violin hadn't been my own choice (long story).
I tried again in my 20s, but unsurprisingly, my motivation was even less.

9. ... become a 3-star chef.

Picture via pxhere

More like -10. I just don't find any joy in cooking or baking and love everyone dearly who does it for me.
There was quite a short phase when the ex and I moved in together and it felt that cooking was just a part of it. I even tried out things then.
I would happily blame my lack of motivation on the ex and his love for his mother's food which I could never match (I liked it, too), but that just wouldn't be true. I simply don't like to cook, no matter how good recipes sound to me.

10. ... write the great German novel.

Picture via pxhere
(a recipe, not a novel, I just liked the picture)

Maybe next year ... 😉
I never had the ambition to write a book and I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have the patience to do it. I told myself stories on walks back home, for example after the violin lesson when I had missed the bus, to make them less boring, but never wrote any of them down.

That was really random and completely unplanned, but in the end you learned a bit about me after all. Not sure you wanted to learn it, but there you are.
It's practically a miracle I made it to 10!

Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot - Week 138

Welcome to the Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot!
My posts for the link up will go live on Thursdays at 9:30 p.m. EDT or, if you live in the future like I do, on Fridays at 3:30 a.m. CE(S)T.

I can't believe that my long winter vacation is almost over. Next week it's back to work and my motivation is quite low. I'd rather stay in hibernation for a bit longer ...

Picture by Sandra Seitamaa on Unsplash

How about you? Are you ready for the weekend?

As part of the reboot, we will be featuring a different blog every week.
How about stopping by and saying hello? Let them know we sent you.

This week our spotlight is on Melody Jacob.

Melody says "My name is Melody Jacob, and I am a travel and lifestyle blogger in Scotland, United Kingdom. ... I take trips at least one to two times every week to nature reserves, castles, hiking spots, tourist attractions, and other places that catch my interest.
I love being in nature because it is the balm of the soul. I also love looking good, which is why I share my style preferences on the blog. I share tips on mental wellness too, and I am discovering more practical approaches as I travel and explore every day."

Marsha from Marsha in the Middle started blogging in 2021 as an exercise in increasing her neuroplasticity. Oh, who are we kidding? Marsha started blogging because she loves clothes, and she loves to talk or, in this case, write!

Melynda from Scratch Made Food! & DIY Homemade Household - The name says it all, we homestead in East Texas, with three generations sharing this land. I cook and bake from scratch, between gardening and running after the chickens, and knitting!

Lisa from Boondock Ramblings shares about the fiction she writes and reads, her faith, homeschooling, photography and more.

Cat from Cat's Wire has what she calls a jumping spider brain. She has many interests and will blog about whatever catches her attention - crafts, books, old movies, collectibles or random things.

Rena from Fine Whatever Blog writes about style, midlife, and the "fine whatever" moments that make life both meaningful and fun. Since 2015, she's been celebrating creativity, confidence, and finding joy in the everyday.


Here are some of my picks from last week's link up.

Nancy's vegan minestrone looks so good!

We don't have cardinals over here, so I always enjoy pictures others share like Linda does here.

Wendy is sharing a recipe for whole wheat muffins which you can turn into pumpkin pie, apple pie or banana bread muffins.


Let's link up!

Guidelines:
This link party is for blog posts only. All other links will be deleted.
Please link only blog posts you created yourself. Please link directly to the URL of your blog post and not the main address of your blog.
Please do not link to videos, sales ads, or social media links such as YouTube videos/shorts, Instagram or Facebook reels, TikTok videos, or any other social media based content.
Please do visit other blogs and give the gift of a comment. 

Notice:
By linking with Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot, you assert that the content is your own property and give us permission to share said content if your post or blog is showcased.
We welcome unlimited, family friendly content. This can include opinion pieces, recipes, travel recaps, fashion ideas, crafts, thrifting, lifestyle, book reviews or discussions, photography, art, and so much more!
Thank you for linking up with us!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Silent movies - The Gold Rush

We don't have weather quite that extreme here right now, but it is still winter and the beginning of the year, so I brought you a film today which is set in the snow of the Klondike region and has a famous New Year's Eve dinner scene. It's of course Charlie Chaplin's The Gold Rush from 1925. Or 1942? Let's see.

Actually I watched two versions for this post both of which I hadn't known before.
The original from 1925 is longer and silent with intertitles, the recut from 1942 has some changes and instead of intertitles there is a musical score and a narration done by Chaplin himself.

As usual, I'll start with the plot (and spoilers).

Along with hundreds of others, the Lone Prospector (Chaplin's Little Tramp character) makes his way to the Klondike to find gold.

Surprised by a blizzard, he ends up in the cabin of Black Larsen, a wanted criminal, and soon they get joined by Big Jim, another prospector who has just found a big gold deposit. Larsen tries to get rid of them in vain.

When they run out of food and draw cards to determine who has to go out in the blizzard to find some, Black Larsen loses. Out there, he comes across the tent of two policemen looking for him and kills them.
Meanwhile, the little fellow and Big Jim go crazy with hunger. They eat one of the little fellow's shoes, but Big Jim gets delirious and thinks his friend is a chicken. Just in time a bear marches in and they have enough to eat.

Licorice and hard candy, just in
case you wondered like me 😉

When the blizzard is over, they part ways. The little fellow heads to the next gold boom town, Big Jim to his claim. There, however, Black Larsen, is waiting. He strikes Jim down with a shovel and makes off with part of the gold, but falls to his death in an avalanche.

In the town's dance hall, the little fellow falls in love with Georgia. In order to annoy Jack who makes aggressive advances towards her, Georgia asks the little fellow for a dance.

When they happen to meet again at a cabin nearby which he's watching for the owner, Georgia flirts with the little fellow and then invites herself and her friends for dinner on New Year's Eve.

The little fellow shovels snow to get the money for the dinner. He decorates everything nicely and falls asleep waiting for the ladies dreaming about the fun and laughter when he does his bread roll dance for them.

When he wakes up all alone, however, he goes to the dance hall where everyone is celebrating. Disappointed, he goes for a walk in the snow, so when Georgia comes to the cabin with Jack after remembering the invitation, he's not there.

Meanwhile, Big Jim has made it to town. Unfortunately, he doesn't remember the location of his mountain of gold after Black Larsen hit him with the shovel. So when he sees the little fellow at the dance hall, he drags him off to help him.
They find the cabin, but during the night it slides downhill in another blizzard and after half of it ends up hanging over a cliff, it's rocking dangerously.

They make it out just in time before the cabin falls into the depth.

As luck would have it, though, Jim's gold deposit is in that spot and they both end up as millionaires.
When they take a ship back home, reporters ask the little fellow for a picture in his old prospector clothes. Falling down some stairs because the photographer tells him to step back, he lands right next to Georgia who's also on the way back, looking quite disillusioned. She thinks he's a stowaway and tries to hide him. Her surprise and joy is big when not only the captain announces him to be a multi-millionaire, but also when the little fellow tells the reporter she's his bride.

Let's get to the plot differences first.

In the 1925 original, Georgia refuses Jack's kiss after they find the cabin empty but decorated, but later writes him a letter apologizing and telling him she loves him. Jack shows the letter to the others at his table laughing at it, then he has the letter taken to the little fellow just to spite Georgia. So when the little fellow tells Georgia he got her note, kisses her hand and promises her to make good before being dragged away by Big Jim, she is clearly confused what's going on. Only when she is afraid for him on the ship because she thinks he'll be put into irons, you can tell she has really feelings for him.

In the 1942 version, however, the note goes directly to the little fellow and only says that she wants to apologize and explain about New Year's Eve and there isn't a mention of a relationship between Jack and her.

The ending is also a bit different, in the original you see the little fellow and Georgia in a long kiss, in the recut they just climb the stairs arm in arm.

I think the first version adds a little more drama and the note seems to be giving the little fellow the motivation to go back to look for gold in order to be worthy of Georgia.
The note in the recut is a bit lukewarm and doesn't really say that much about Georgia's feelings towards him, so that makes his reaction to it look rather over the top.

To be honest, the romance is what I'm struggling with in this film, anyway. Jack is a bully and I don't understand why Georgia suddenly changes her mind about him (in the first version) and then changes her mind again, this time about the little fellow. At least she's not after his money when she tries to help him on the ship, but does she really know what she wants?
On the other hand, a happy ending usually makes me happy as well, and in this one Chaplin's Little Tramp gets a really happy one, his lady and a load of money on top.

"The Gold Rush" was Chaplin's own favorite and a critical and commercial success. It was inspired by pictures of the Klondike Gold Rush and a book about the Donner Party.
Now you may wonder what on earth could be funny about these two historical events, but Chaplin always managed to find humor in tragedy.
The film didn't make me laugh out loud, though, because I always felt that tragedy around the corner.
Take the Thanksgiving dinner with the shoe, for example. I enjoyed the way the little fellow celebrated the presentation of the "meal", but thinking about this being inspired by real events was also gruesome.

I also couldn't help wondering how cold it must have been for those dance hall girls in their beautiful but rather flimsy looking dresses, and seeing the little fellow in his usual outfit walking through the snow was funny, but also made me shiver (you may remember that I wondered about heating when I saw the huge castle in Doug Fairbanks's Robin Hood, too 😂). I just hate snow (except in pictures of lovely winter landscapes).
Of course, I was aware that those were studio scenes, but I think that rather speaks for Chaplin's talent at evoking the feeling of a harsh Klondike winter.
There were also some amazing effects, such as the rocking cabin or Black Larsen's death scene.

It's really no surprise that the movie has received such high praise and still does.
Of course, people are divided about the two versions, though.
If I had to choose, I'd take the 1925 version, but with the score of 1942. I didn't mind the narration as such, but I think Chaplin went a bit overboard with the pathos and he could have said less (maybe I'm really getting used to title cards?).

Why is there a recut, anyway?
Chaplin wanted to revive the film - as mentioned, it was his favorite - but knew that after talkies had been around for more than a decade now he couldn't just present the old version the way it was. So he tweaked and rearranged and modernized and added music and narration.
The 1925 version had entered the public domain in the USA because the copyright hadn't been renewed, but in the end it went into the trash. Only in 1993, film historians Kevin Brownlow and David Gill were appointed by Chaplin's heirs to reconstruct and restore it from available sources.

For people who shy away from completely silent movies, however, I think, the recut is a great choice. I know I have waited far too long myself, but I believe "The Gold Rush" is worth a watch by everyone who's interested in classic movies at all.

P.S. I'll deduct a point for bringing in a dog that suddenly disappears. That's too much tragedy for me.


Sources:

1. Fritzi Kramer: The Gold Rush (1925) - A Silent Film Review. On: Movies Silently, July 5, 2015
2. Jeffrey Vance: The Gold Rush. On: San Francisco Silent Film Festival, presented at the "Little Tramp at 100" event January 2014

How do you read your books?

It seems to be an endless discussion.
What does "reading a book" mean? Is listening to an audiobook even reading? Can an ebook give you the same feeling as reading a "real" book? Why do people who like print books mention the smell so often? And so on ...

First of all, this post is just about my own experience. You do your thing, I do mine, we can talk about it without judging one another, right?

The inspiration for the post was "The Case of the Silken Petticoat" by Christopher Bush.

Trying out a pen? Or was it a kid
(I have been guilty of drawing
into two books as a small kid, and I
wasn't a prodigy which could
excuse that, I can tell you.)

You may or may not know that I'm a librarian at the circulation department of a university library. I have seen books with as many marginalia as original text, books full of color (thanks to highlighting and underlining), loads of dog ears, coffee and other stains, ripped pages, but the worst was probably the acid victim (we have a chemistry faculty).
While I will never understand why people do that with books that don't belong to them, I get if people want to work with their books, add notes or highlight passages important to them - I made notes in my own copies of books we worked on in school - and I don't get grossed out by stains or foxing easily anymore unless they are really yucky or smelly.

I love print books. I love feeling the different kinds of paper. I love old books and if I had had a better experience at it during my first year of library training - which was neither my teacher's nor my own fault - I might have liked to try my hand at bookbinding.
I love marbled paper, gilt edgings and embossed book covers, sometimes with beautiful patterns. I love the uniqueness of a book and I can get excited over old journals even if they were about physics or chemistry.
And yes, I'm one of those who loves the slightly musty smell of old books, but I'm not a fan of active mold, that would be weird.
I still miss our old second-hand bookstore. The store still exists, but in a bigger space. The old one would probably be considered a fire hazard today with its narrow aisles, but for me it was like a beautiful book maze.

Over the years people have often tried to convince me to  listen to audiobooks or to read digitally. One of them was the ex who loved his audiobooks, but I got distracted way too easily (or even fell asleep, but I don't count that as a con because I have hit myself with printed books or my tablet more than once falling asleep) and he finally gave up.
A friend kept telling me that she could take hundreds of books on her vacation bringing her book reader, but I never understood why that is an advantage when I could just take one or two books along and have the perfect excuse to go to a bookstore during my vacation.

So why do I read a lot more books in electronic form now? There are several reasons.
I have sold books (not really worth the hassle for me), donated books to reading projects, and now I take books to our public book cabinet, but there are still so many in my library.
It may be an age thing that I don't really want to add that many to them anymore on a whim, but only those that I'm pretty sure I'll want to keep for some reason or other.

My solution was of course to get myself a library card which I didn't have for years because I preferred to own my books. As mentioned before, I don't get much out of the house anymore, though, and although it's embarrassing to admit, I haven't always been good at returning books on time, anyway.
So instead of borrowing print books, I'm mostly hanging out on OverDrive.

And then there's The Internet Archive where I have read quite a few books last year, among them the book by Bush.

My former boss would have
freaked out about this.
I can still hear him
"NEVER use ordinary tape
on a ripped page!!" As if
we would have dared.

I had noticed before that it felt differently to me if I read a book on The Internet Archive or on OverDrive, but I didn't try to analyze why.
This book has been the one looking the worst so far, and strangely enough that was what made me realize that if I have to read books digitally, I prefer reading digitized books over real ebooks.
It probably has to do with my being so old-fashioned in some regards. I said above that I love the uniqueness of books. Maybe you remember the post about the rose between the pages of a book? Sometimes I find myself wondering about the story of the specific copy. Why the rose? Why the scribbles in the Bush book?
Real ebooks don't give me such a feeling even if I change the font or the spacing or whatever. Accessibility, quick and easy word definitions, visual adjustments, I understand the advantages. Maybe one day, I can't do without them anymore and will be happy to have them, but that day hasn't come yet.

A friend of mine said: "I do all my reading digitally. It really started when I found it easier to focus on the words than in a  book." For me, it's the other way round. Digitized books give me at least a bit of that print book feeling which makes it easier for me to concentrate. And again - both is fine and it's great if we both get what we need to enjoy our reading!

Sometimes I miss not
having to stamp books
at work anymore 🙃

By the way, it even makes a difference for me which device I read on. I only got myself a tablet some months ago and I don't use it that often (yet?).
Having my laptop when I'm lying on my bed - where I do most of my reading these days, I don't have a couch - is often easier for me than having to hold the tablet because of my wonky thumb. Of course, I'm careful that it's not too hot.
The tablet obviously makes more sense if I already have a non-see through cat sitting or lying on my chest for some time (Gundel does it almost every day now and she doesn't care how comfortable or not it is for me which is okay because I'm here to serve my cats, their looks tell me 😂).

These days, I usually read three books at a time, by the way, a print book (still the best for me), an ebook, and a book I read to the cats which can be in print or electronic form.
That way I can pick what works best for me at that moment.

So - what's your personal reading experience and why?