IT STILL HAPPENS
One would think that Man, with all his much-vaunted wisdom, could have solved one simple problem by this time.
It still happens ...wheels go backwards when being filmed
I will admit it has not been a problem as may years as one might think, but it has been a challenge, I would think, ever since we have
had motion pictures.
We have advanced to ”smart” highways and transportation has developed in both speed and efficiency to a degree which we never thought possible. But - when filmed - the wheels still go the wrong way.
Experts, with a look of pity in their eyes and attitude, carefully tell me it’s “an optical illusion”. They seem to think I really do feel the wheels go the wrong way them in some strange way. Everybody knows it is an illusion ...and that the spokes are turning in the right direction.
It was a point of concern for us when, as kids, we witnessed the stage coach rumbled across the sage-strewn hills. The piano player in the theater pit could back its movements with a skillful combination of crushed black and white keys and climaxing with a sharp swirl of musical dust when the stage drew up in front of the unpainted Hotel or Saloon with the brightly painted signs in black and white in generic clarity. The plot started going once more and the show went on its way.
In time, camera people earned to avoid full shots of wheel turning. They can be shown from angles or look down the axle from some impossible perch. Movie and TV crews today, have profited from the experiences of movie makers makers; and treat turning wheel with special care.
They have been aided of course, by the artistic change from wheel with large, obvious spokes, to meshed accumulations of wires or solid discs covering the offending area. If, however, you get a little glob tar or road kill on the surface of the wheel cover what happens? Right. The wheel goes the contrary direction . Or, seems to.
The problem is still with us special can have modern configurations - Vans, SUV's, RV's, OTV's and even re-created convertibles.
What other condition have we brought along with us - perhaps unwittingly? Are there conditions - “evils”, if you see them as such, which exit today which complicate our way of life today?
Foremost among such subjects is our beliefs concerning sexual orientation. We are increasingly being asked to explain why much seems, to so many, are going the wrong way.
A.L.M. July 11, 2003 [c472wds]
