Click images for desktop size: "Lawrence" by James Christensen In my mad yard work I've discovered an insidious monster.
They call it Virginia Creeper, like Rondo Hatton in "The Creeper" the name does nothing to imply the horror that exists in its little green fronds and tendrils.
It has taken over a large portion of the yard and threatens to keep moving forward. It has pulled an pound branch off of an oak tree! I've cleared about 700 square feet of the stuff and gotten an 8 x 8 stack about 6 feet high!
A couple of shrubs have started to resuscitate. The creeper had choked out all light.
I was getting frustrated when I pulled up one 80 yard vine and discovered it had set up roots about every 6 inches of its length!
I went and looked it up on the web and found at Dave's Garden that the stuff is also poisonous and related to poison ivy!
When I was young and fit I once stood in the middle of a big patch of poison ivy and never had an itch or a problem. I wasn't sure how my chemically altered body would respond. Fortunately I still seem to be not allergic to much of anything.
Other than the new concern about getting toxiced out I didn't hear a single decent song on the iPod . . .

When the rain started I bought my ebike inside to over haul it.
I still haven't found the short . . . but I enjoy taking things apart and then trying to put them back together . . .
While I was working on the bike I put King Vidor's "Our Daily Bread" on for noise and company. The movie started with a prologue shot in 1983 (The movie is from 1934).
"Our Daily Bread" is a classic film that is still highly relevant and entertaining. Its a depression era film about the depression. Its also the greatest testament ever to the lost political ideology of populism.

Click images for desktop size: "Windy Day" by Lawn Elf The plot is simple. A young urban couple, busted by the vicious economy, are given use of a farm by an unscrupulous rich uncle.
The couple struggle to make a go of it. They seem doomed to fail when a truckload of people breaks down in front of them. The driver knows farming and the two families work together with a bit more success. Soon more and more of the homeless families spawned by the uncaring government find their way to the farm and soon their is an entire self sufficient community working together, struggling together happily as they manage to stay alive.
When the uncle reneges on his offer to give the couple the farm the bank demands $500.00 or they intend to foreclose, even though its apparent that the farm is worthless.
One of the drifters, an escaped convict who has been acting as the community's police department, gets another member of the community to take him into the sheriff so the community can collect the $500 reward on his head. Collect the reward so that the families, the children can continue to survive.
The rest of the movie is the great drama of trying to get in their first crop.
Vidor's genius is that his montages and simple story telling technique makes us care and thrill when the community working as a whole gets the irrigation channel dug and then harvest their first crop and bake their first loaf of bread!
It is thrilling to the point of tears of joy.
In depression America the film was a hit. Not as big a hit as the delightful escapist fare of Astaire and Rogers but a stunning success.
Now what was interesting is that when Vidor came up with the idea for "Our Daily Bread" he pitched the movie to Irving Thalberg at MGM. Thalberg thought it was a great idea for a movie but not the sort of thing MGM wanted to put out.
I never knew this, but to make the movie Vidor took out a 2nd and 3rd mortgage on his house! He staked his and his families entire future on making his little movie about baking a loaf of bread.
Wow.
It explains the cast of serviceable but unknown actors. It also explains why Vidor hired the best writers for dialogue he could find (Jospeh Mankowitz).
"Our Daily Bread" is easily acknowledged as one of the greatest films ever made, but to think of a successful guy risking everything, his money, his reputation, his heart and dreams on this simple story is staggering to me. Its humbling and inspiring.
Dreams don't mean much unless we have the urgency to see them made flesh.

Oh, I didn't blind myself pulling up Virginia Creeper . . . It was close at times but I endured.