LOUISE BROOKS & ZIYO: Puszka Pandory / Die Büchse der Pandora / Pandora's Box

LOUISE BROOKS & ZIYO: Puszka Pandory / Die Büchse der Pandora / Pandora's Box

louise brooks ~ girlfriend in a coma

louise brooks ~ girlfriend in a coma

Lulu Pandora's Box ❤ Lovefool ❤

Lulu Pandora's Box ❤Lovefool❤

Harvest Rain ~ "Drowsy Stare"

Harvest Rain ~ "Drowsy Stare"

Louise Brooks vs Pictureplane's "Goth Star"

Louise Brooks vs Pictureplane's "Goth Star"

OMD "Pandora's Box" (2010 Video Remix)

OMD "Pandora's Box" (2010 Video Remix)

Silent film star Baby Peggy

By the time Baby Peggy's film career was coming to an end, Louise Brooks' film career was just getting started. Today, Diana Serra Cary (who in the 1920's was known as Baby Peggy), is considered the last surviving major silent film star.

On Sunday, August 7th at 2 pm, Cary will be speaking at the San Francisco Public Library. "An Afternoon with Silent Film Star 'Baby Peggy" will feature a Baby Peggy short film (courtesy of the actress), an on-stage conversation, and a book signing. A little more info about the event can be found on the SFPL website and on its Facebook page.

The library is expecting a good crowd. If you plan on attending, be sure and check out the various silent film exhibits on display around the library. More info on these exhibits can also be found at on the SFPL website. The exhibits run through August 28.

Earlier that same day, at 1 pm, there will be a 30 minute informal guided tour of one of the exhibits, "Reading the Stars," with exhibit organizers Thomas Gladysz, Christy Pascoe and Donna Hill. A little more info at the tour can be had at http://events.sfgate.com/san-francisco-ca/events/show/196140225-guided-tour-of-reading-the-stars-exhibit

"Reading the Stars" features rare vintage books relating to silent films stars such as Louise Brooks, Rudolph Valentino, Douglas Fairbanks,  Buster Keaton, Mary Pickford, Eric von Stroheim, William S. Hart, Sessue Hayakawa and of course Baby Peggy.

Mocny Czlowiek (1929)

Lately, I have been smitten by a 1929 silent Polish film called Mocny Czlowiek (A Strong Man). Like Poland itself, which was situated between two dominating powers, Germany and Russia, this extraordinary Polish production shows both German and Russian influence - but remains an especially fine cinematic production. Embedded below is a 3 minute "run through" of the film to a contemporary Polish musical soundtrack.

If you like what you see, and I think you will, follow this YouTube link to watch the entire 78 minute film on YouTube. It is available there in nine parts.

Amy Winehouse, in memorium

UPDATE: In its July 27th article, "A Bad Girl With a Touch of Genius," the New York Times wrote "Like much else about her, the visual persona Ms. Winehouse concocted over her brief career fused instinct with cunning. She was a 5-foot-3 almanac of visual reference. . . . a lineage of bad girls extending from Cleopatra to Louise Brooks’s Lulu to Salt-n-Pepa, irresistible man traps who always seem to come to the same unfortunate end."