Iris Murdoch, on reading and writing:

Reading and writing and the preservation of language and its forms

and the kind of eloquence and the kind of beauty which the language is capable of

is terribly important to the human beings because this is connected to thought.

 – Iris Murdoch.

Dogwood Blossoms, poem by George Marion McClellan:

Dogwood Blossoms

Poem by George Marion McClellan.

To dreamy languors and the violet mist
Of early Spring, the deep sequestered vale
Gives first her paling-blue Miamimist,
Where blithely pours the cuckoo’s annual tale
Of Summer promises and tender green,
Of a new life and beauty yet unseen.
The forest trees have yet a sighing mouth,
Where dying winds of March their branches swing,
While upward from the dreamy, sunny South,
A hand invisible leads on the Spring.
His rounds from bloom to bloom the bee begins
With flying song, and cowslip wine he sups,
Where to the warm and passing southern winds,
Azaleas gently swing their yellow cups.
Soon everywhere, with glory through and through,
The fields will spread with every brilliant hue.
But high o’er all the early floral train,
Where softness all the arching sky resumes,
The dogwood dancing to the winds’ refrain,
In stainless glory spreads its snowy blooms.

Recommended reading:

Poems by George Marion McClellan.

Video by Jack Kost.
2025.

Dogwood Blossom photographs by Jack Kost.

Sound effect credit:

Forest wind and birds

by freesound_community

from Pixabay.

National Silent Movie Day – September 29:

A Trip to the Moon a.k.a. Le Voyage dans la Lune (1902)
The Mermaid a.k.a. La sirène (1904)
The Frog a.k.a. La grenouille (1908)

Her First Biscuits (1909)

The Ocean Waif (1916)

Madame Dubarry a.k.a. Passion (1919)

The Phantom Carriage (1921)

The High Sign (1921)
Dr. Mabuse, the Gambler (1922)

The Early Bird (1925)

Variety a.k.a. Varieté, Jealousy & Vaudeville (1925)
Faust (1926)

The General (1926)

Metropolis (1927)

The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog (1927)
Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans a.k.a. Sunrise (1927)
Hotel Monterey (1972)

A Trip to the Moon a.k.a. Le Voyage dans la Lune (1902)
Directed and written by Georges Méliès. 13-minute silent movie. Inspired by the novels: From the Earth to the Moon and Around the Moon, by Jules Verne, & The First Men in the Moon, by H. G. Wells. Cast: Georges Méliès, Bleuette Bernon, François Lallement, Henri Delannoy, Jules-Eugène Legris, Victor André, Delpierre, Farjaux, Kelm, Brunnet, Ballet of the Théâtre du Châtelet, Acrobats of the Folies Bergère.

The Mermaid a.k.a. La sirène (1904)
Directed by Georges Méliès. Cast: Georges Méliès. French 4-minute silent. A magician sees a mermaid appear in what was an empty tank. Is she real, or one of his staged illusions? The zoom effect was achieved by simply moving the tank up to the camera.

The Frog a.k.a. La grenouille (1908)

3-minute silent short. Directed Segundo de Chomón. Cast: Julienne Mathieu.

Her First Biscuits (1909)

Directed by D.W. Griffith. Written by Frank E. Woods. Cast: John R. Cumpson, Florence Lawrence, Linda Arvidson, Charles Avery, Dorothy Bernard, Clara T. Bracy, Charles Craig, Flora Finch, Guy Hedlund, Anita Hendrie, Arthur V. Johnson, Marion Leonard, Jeanie Macpherson, Violet Mersereau, David Miles, Mrs. Herbert Miles, Owen Moore, George Nichols, Anthony O'Sullivan, Mary Pickford, Herbert Prior, Mack Sennett, Harry Solter, Marion Sunshine.

The Ocean Waif (1916)

Directed by Alice Guy. Written by Frederick Chapin. Cast: Carlyle Blackwell, Doris Kenyon, Edgar Norton, Fraunie Fraunholz, William Morris, Augusta Burmeister, Lyn Donelson.

Madame Dubarry a.k.a. Passion (1919)

Directed by Ernst Lubitsch. Written by Norbert Falk / Fred Orbing, Hanns Kräly. Music by William Axt, Hans Jönsson, David Mendoza, Alexander Schirmann, Rudolf Wohlschläger. Cast: Pola Negri, Emil Jannings, Harry Liedtke, Eduard von Winterstein, Reinhold Schünzel, Else Berna, Fred Immler, Gustav Czimeg, Karl Platen, Bernhard Goetzke, Magnus Stifter, Paul Biensfeldt, Willy Kaiser-Heyl, Alexander Ekert, Robert Sortsch-Pla, Marga Köhler, Paul Wegener, Sibylla Blei, Victor Janson.

The Phantom Carriage (1921)

a.k.a. The Stroke of Midnight & Thy Soul Shall Bear Witness!. Directed and written by Victor Sjöström. Based on the novel Thy Soul Shall Bear Witness!, original Swedish title: Körkarlen, by Selma Lagerlöf. Music by Eric Westberg. Cast: Victor Sjöström, Hilda Borgström, Tore Svennberg, Astrid Holm, Concordia Selander, Lisa Lundholm, Tor Weijden, Einar Axelsson, Olof Ås, Nils Aréhn, Simon Lindstrand, Nils Elffors, Algot Gunnarsson, Hildur Lithman, Josua Bengtson, Emmy Albiin, Helga Brofeldt, Mona Geijer-Falkner, Signe Wirff, Anna-Lisa Baude, Arthur Natorp, Carl Harald, Fridolf Rhudin, Elof Ahrle, Julia Cæsar, Edvin Adolphson, John Ekman.

The High Sign (1921)
21-minute short movie. Directed and written by Edward F. Cline & Buster Keaton. Cast: Buster Keaton, Bartine Burkett, Charles Dorety, Ingram B. Pickett, Joe Roberts, Al St. John.

Dr. Mabuse, the Gambler (1922)

Directed by Fritz Lang. Written by Thea von Harbou, Fritz Lang. Based on the novel Mr. Tot aĉetas mil okulojn / Mr. Tot Buys A Thousand Eyes by Jean Forge. Cast: Rudolf Klein-Rogge, Aud Egede-Nissen, Gertrude Welcker, Alfred Abel, Bernhard Goetzke, Paul Richter, Robert Forster-Larrinaga, Hans Adalbert Schlettow, Georg John, Károly / Karl Huszar, Grete Berger, Julius Falkenstein, Lydia Potechina, Julius E. Herrmann, Max Adalbert, Anita Berber, Paul Biensfeldt, Gustav Botz, Julietta Brandt, Lil Dagover, Heinrich Gotho, Leonhard Haskel, Erner Huebsch, Gottfried Huppertz, Hans Junkermann, Adolf Klein, Erich Pabst, Edgar Pauly, Karl Platen, Auguste Prasch-Grevenberg, Adele Sandrock, Willy Schmidt-Gentner, Hans Sternberg, Olaf Storm, Oscar Stribolt, Erich Walter.

The Early Bird (1925)

Directed by Charles Hines. Written by Argyle Campbell, Richard M. Friel, Victor Grandin, Ralph Spence. Cast: Johnny Hines, Sigrid Holmquist, Wyndham Standing, Edmund Breese, Maude Turner Gordon, Bradley Barker, Flora Finch, Jack De Lacey.

Variety a.k.a. Varieté, Jealousy & Vaudeville (1925)

Directed and written by Ewald André Dupont. Based on the novel The Oath of Stephan Huller by Felix Holländer. Music by Stephen Horne, Sheldon Mirowitz, Erno Rapee. Cast: Emil Jannings, Maly Delschaft, Lya De Putti, Warwick Ward, Alice Hechy, Georg John, Kurt Gerron, Paul Rehkopf, Charles Lincoln, Georg Baselt, Trude Hesterberg, Werner Krauss, The Flying Codonas, Alex Hyde and His Original New York Jazz Orchestra, Enrico Rastelli, Gerhard Bienert, Etelka Maquita.

Faust (1926)

Directed by F.W. Murnau. Written by Gerhart Hauptmann, Hans Kyser, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Based on the play Faust by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Cast: Gösta Ekman, Emil Jannings, Camilla Horn, Frida Richard, William Dieterle, Yvette Guilbert, Eric Barclay, Hanna Ralph, Werner Fuetterer, Hans Brausewetter, Lothar Müthel, Hans Rameau, Hertha von Walther, Emmy Wyda.

The General (1926)

Directed by Clyde Bruckman, Buster Keaton. Written by Buster Keaton, Clyde Bruckman, Al Boasberg, Charles Smith. Based on the 1889 memoir The Great Locomotive Chase and the book Daring and Suffering: a History of the Great Railroad Adventure by William Pittenger. Music in later versions by Carl Davis, Robert Israel, Konrad Elfers. Cast: Buster Keaton, Marion Mack, Glen Cavender, Jim Farley, Frederick Vroom, Frank Barnes, Charles Smith, Joe Keaton, Mike Donlin, Tom Nawn, Henry Baird, Joe Bricher, Jimmy Bryant, Sergeant Bukowski, C.C. Cruson, Jack Dempster, Keith Fennell, Budd Fine, Eddie Foster, Ronald Gilstrap, Frank Hagney, Ray Hanford, Jack Hanlon, Al Hanson, Anthony Harvey, Edward Hearn, Hilliard Karr, Elgin Lessley, Louis Lewyn, Jackie Lowe, Billy Lynn, Ross McCutcheon, Tom Moran, Charles Phillips, Red Rial, Al St. John, Harold Terry, Ray Thomas, Red Thompson, James Walsh, Kenneth Hawley Ward, Ford West, John Wilson, Jean Woodward.

Metropolis (1927)

Directed by Fritz Lang. Written by Thea von Harbou and Fritz Lang. Based on the novel by Thea von Harbou. Music by Gottfried Huppertz. Cast: Alfred Abel, Gustav Fröhlich, Rudolf Klein-Rogge, Fritz Rasp, Theodor Loos, Erwin Biswanger, Heinrich George, Brigitte Helm, Fritz Alberti, Grete Berger, Olly Boeheim, Max Dietze, Ellen Frey, Beatrice Garga, Heinrich Gotho, Dolly Grey, Anny Hintze, Gottfried Huppertz, Georg John, Walter Kuehle, Vera Kálmán, Margarete Lanner, Rose Lichtenstein, Hanns Leo Reich, Arthur Reinhardt, Curt Siodmak, Henrietta Siodmak, Olaf Storm, Erwin Vater, Rolf von Goth, Helen von Münchhofen, Helene Weigel, Hilde Woitscheff.

The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog (1927)

Directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Written by Eliot Stannard, Alfred Hitchcock and Marie Belloc Lowndes. Based on the novel The Lodger by Marie Belloc Lowndes. Music by Ashley Irwin (for the 1999 release). Cast: Marie Ault, Arthur Chesney, June Tripp, Malcolm Keen, Ivor Novello, Wallace Bosco, Daisy Campbell, Maudie Dunham, Reginald Gardiner, Eve Gray, Alfred Hitchcock, Alma Reville.

Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans a.k.a. Sunrise (1927)

Directed by F.W. Murnau. Written by Carl Mayer, Hermann Sudermann, Katherine Hilliker and H.H. Caldwell. Based on the short story The Excursion to Tilsit by Hermann Sudermann. Music by R.H. Bassett, Carli Elinor, Erno Rapee, Hugo Riesenfeld, Willy Schmidt-Gentner. Funeral March of a Marionette by Charles Gounod. A minor prelude by Frédéric Chopin. Cast: George O’Brien, Janet Gaynor, Margaret Livingston, Bodil Rosing, J. Farrell MacDonald, Ralph Sipperly, Jane Winton, Arthur Housman, Eddie Boland, Herman Bing, Sidney Bracey, Gino Corrado, Vondell Darr, Sally Eilers, Gibson Gowland, Fletcher Henderson, Leon Janney, Thomas Jefferson, Bob Kortman, F.W. Murnau, Barry Norton, Robert Parrish, Sally Phipps, Tempe Pigott, Harry Semels, Phillips Smalley, Leo White, Clarence Wilson.

Hotel Monterey (1972)

Silent documentary directed and written by Chantal Akerman. Released at the Venice Biennale in Italy on September 4, 1975. Filmed in 1972.

National Coffee Day - September 29: