Errata is a web journal written by Robert Davis who has neither spent a night in a ghost town nor pulled a turnip from the earth. He doesn't even know if turnips grow in the ground. Perhaps on trees, like candy corn. Therefore, Errata is a non-commercial project.

Observation #1: It may be appropriate, when leaving a movie theater, to say "mysterious."

Observation #2: It may be appropriate, when leaving a movie theater, to say "mysterious" at the top of your lungs. Bring your eyebrows together before you say it. Effective!

Observation #3: Same for books. Even at libraries.

There is a prize for people who correctly guess the thing about Metropolis, Nevada.

Except where the text specifically states otherwise, Errata's vagaries are indicated vaguely and its authors are indistinct in the traditional way of the Internet, except where the authors lay claim to their work. In some cases Robert Davis lays claim to work that is not his own but has been abandoned like so many ghost towns. Except where held presently, fistfuls of dirt are suspended via dispersal, or dispersed via suspension (in the air), and thus their dissolution is their transcendence, or their transcendence is their dissolution. And yet our eyes tear, and our vision is impaired, demonstrating for the umpteenth time that one entity's gain is another's fit of sneezes. Except where indicated, storms shall outlive the clay upon which they rain, unless storms are improperly delimited by their clouds, which dissolve, rather than by their inevitable return. Thus the clay loses, unless the clay is said to own the storm, to use it to make itself heavy, to make itself cling to white garments, refuse dispersal, cake upon the facades of abandoned buildings, and sit like Man [sic] upon the earth where it is pelted by a storm that it owns. In which case the clay still loses, if you ask us.

Some of the above is legally binding and should be considered a mental contract between Errata and those upon whom it acts. The bit about the prize should be considered an overstatement insofar as prizes differ from dirt and prize dispersal differs from dirt dispersal. Please recall that ownership is a weight and, therefore, hope that you do not win the prize.

One day Errata or its representatives will call upon you for a favor. It is expected that you will hop-to without delay.

You may contact Robert Davis by email unless it's about the rock that was thrown in anger. The rock is more properly called a clod. Why do you continue to raise the topic?

28 January 2004

Salt of the Earth

Speaking of truly independent cinema, look no further than filmjourney.org this week for an excellent example, described in a post about a forgotten but relevant piece of American movie history.

I hadn't heard of Salt of the Earth, but after reading Doug's post I immediately looked it up at Netflix. It wasn't there. I've been doing an experiment, lately. If something isn't at Netflix, where I usually rent my DVDs, I look it up at GreenCine, a similar service to which some people are defecting for a better selection. I've never rented anything from GreenCine, and so far, not being a huge fan of anime, I haven't seen a big difference in selection. But here's one: they have Salt of the Earth.

I believe this experiment is easier to perform for someone who's already a member of Netflix; last I checked, Netflix doesn't allow non-members to search their database.

In the pre-DVD, pre-home-delivery days, I'd use San Francisco's Le Video as a nearly sure-fire way to find fringe videos. But their DVD collection is spotty.

Posted by davis | Link

Reader Comments

February 5, 2004, 01:39 PM

craigary

here are some more (I believe) that GC has that NF doesn't. They're also nice about requests. Human beings!

http://www.greencine.com/static/eclection.jsp

February 5, 2004, 01:54 PM

davis

Hey thanks for the list, although it's a bit suspect, since I've rented von Trier's Medea from Netflix.

I'm keeping my own list so I can decide which service works for me. A few on the list so far: Scarface (Hawks), The Blue Angel, Mr. Arkadin, The Trial (Welles), Sunrise (although it's quite difficult to tell what version of Sunrise GreenCine has if you're not familiar with the covers).

I've thought about doing a joint thing — a 2-out plan from Netflix and 3-out from GreenCine. Probably not worth it, expecially if I can't find many/any items that Netflix has that GreenCine doesn't.

I'm not a big fan of humans, though. Thanks for the warning.

(kidding)

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