Cabin in the Sky [1943]
1. She collapses into the rocking chair, her cheeks shining with tears. “Little Joe, Little Joe, Little Joe.”
2. A washing machine but no electricity to run it.
3. She snaps her fingers. “Brown! Isn’t it time for you to do your coochie dance?”
Nebraska [2013]
1. The Tom Brokaw of Billings.
2. The corner of Pilcher/Plum.
3. She stands on top of the grave and hikes her skirt. “Look what you could’ve had if you hadn’t talked about wheat.”
Diary of a Mad Housewife [1970]
1. “You’ll notice I don’t allow myself to be ruled by a tube of tobacco.”
2. “Christ, don’t you ever put any ice in this thing?”
3. “Your mother wants to throw a poodle party, not a people party.”
Coming to America [1988]
1. A tape outline of the blind man’s cane on the floor.
2. 3 grease spots left behind on the the couch.
3. “Your Highness, we haven’t gotten to that part.”
Trading Places [1983]
1. Eating salmon through the beard.
2. “Beef jerky time!”
3. Simultaneously, all the traders exit the stalls.
The Kid with a Bike [2011]
1. “Will you call me?”
“I don’t know. No.” He closes the door.
2. He stands in the corner, facing the wall, refusing to turn around.
3. “Don’t come here again,” his father tells him. Cyril leaves the wad of money on the ground and rides away on his bike.
Or at any rate, the boxes. 
A pal of mine who lives in Brooklyn recently shipped this back to me. It’s been sitting in his closet for several years now, since the last time I was able to watch it. I had to go to New York to find a working 6-plate flatbed editing table I could use. Which speaks to just how quickly this technology has been abandoned. As a college student, Columbia had four or five machines that were so much in demand they had to be booked several days in advance; now, if memory serves, they have a single, decrepit 4-plate.
So, what is a 6-plate flatbed? Basically, you have 3 “tracks” of media running in sync, with a feed reel and a takeup reel for each (thus, 6 plates). The tracks consist of 1 picture track, and 2 soundtracks. That’s right, only 2 tracks of sound. In my 16mm editing scheme that generally meant location sound on track A and sound effects/music/narration on track B. Of course, moving over to digital editing, I can basically have as many soundtracks as I want. And picture tracks too for that matter.
But the reason I need this rough cut now is to recover some missing bits of sound. Since the location sound is pretty much all on the A rolls, I’m thinking of digitizing all the A rolls. You never know what else might be missing that you don’t even yet know is missing.
Prohibition was officially repealed on December 5, 1933. I jiggered up the Babbitt Cocktail a few years ago to mark the occasion:
Babbitt Cocktail
1 1/2 oz. Death’s Door gin
3/4 oz. Old Overholt rye whiskey
3/4 oz. Carpano Antica vermouth
3/4 oz. orange juice
dash Angostura bitters
Stir with ice until very cold, then strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with orange peel.
Check out the backstory at Chicagoist.
On the Road with Duke Ellington [1974]
1. “Every night we throw a house party, and I’m the guest of honor.”
2. Duke tells Louis Armstrong, “Well, you know, I get stage fright.”
3. “He will perform the new piece only once. It will probably never be written down or recorded.” Zen.
Captain Phillips [2013]
1. He offers them a fruit plate.
2. “You’re not just a fisherman.”
3. Even when the blindfold slips, he can’t bring himself to open his eyes.
