There It Is (Harold L. Muller, 1928): This 19-minute gem stars the great Charley Bowers, who also wrote the film and was responsible for the animated sequences. To my surprise and pleasure, Turner Classic Movies aired it late Sunday night. I had watched it once before, about a decade ago, and had despaired of ever seeing the short again -- it wasn't even included in the recent Bowers DVD set.
The plot involves a Scottish detective and a haunted house, but the plot is beside the point. Bowers was a homegrown surrealist whose films feel like lost collaborations between Buster Keaton and Jan Svankmayer; the story takes a back seat to the gags, and the gags take a back seat to sheer madness.
If you missed the broadcast, don't despair: The film is available in the new More Treasures from American Film Archives DVD set, available at better video stores and hopefully, one day, from Netflix.
Anyone who reads that passage as an invitation to the homeless hordes -- or, alternately, as a declaration that a few benches here and there will solve the homeless problem -- needs to read it again.
Also, the new print edition of Reason is out. It includes an interview with FCC chief Michael Powell conducted by Drew Clark, Nick Gillespie, and me. Available at better newsstands.