Surgery Success

Deb's 2nd kidney stone removal surgery in 4 months finally happened today.  She was first on the table this morning in Leamington, which meant a very early start for us.  We left home at 5:45 am to get Deb there by 6:45 am.  She was out and back in the car well before 10:00 am and is currently at home, resting comfortably, as they say.  Or perhaps not so comfortably.  She has a stent in place for the next two weeks, and can't go far from home.  She has some happy pills to take for the first few days.  Her newest urologist is keen to discover the reason why these things are happening.  Not only did he zap a 1cm beastie this morning, but he also found two more in her kidney which he also removed.  So now we can concentrate on getting her RA back under control again, then worry about her lung blood clots.  Fun times.  Funny thing is she will likely be ready for a trip to London next month, but my foot is still holding me back.  I went off anti-inflammatory pills for several days to see how things were going.  I'm back on the pills today.  I've had no contact from my physician regarding the recent ultra sound results.  I guess I will have to contact him.

We finally watched the final episode of Season Three of Picard.  It's not that it's bad, but it's just the same old stuff over and over again, this time with the full old timer crew from Next Generation taking part.  There is nothing new in Star Trek, and there hasn't been for years.  In this series the big bad Borg are back, the writers seeming to forget that the first season was all Borg related, too.  With a full ending that saw the evil Borg queen combined with a good human, thus ending her days of tyranny.  No mention of any that in season 3. Sigh and ho hum.  I will spoil the ending for everyone by saying that at the very last second the good guys manage to save the Universe and everyone in it, with barely a scratch suffered.  Good job you guys.

 

We've been watching a British series called Canal Boat Diaries, where "Robbie" takes on English canals by himself for five seasons of narrow boating. Robbie is a good bloke, and his boat, the Naughty Lass--a pun on the Nautilus--has many quiet adventures on the mostly peaceful canal.  Robbie is an explorer at heart, always on the move (albeit slowly) and always looking forward to the next lock or bend in the river.  The English canal system is a true marvel of the world.  While the US also had a vast canal system, it was abandoned long ago and never rebuilt for pleasure boaters.  Ontario also has a great canal system, though I have never seen a long series about it.

 

Two recent films are up next.  To The Devil A Daughter is a suitably gory Hammer film from 1976 and directed by Peter Sykes.  It has a big name cast that includes Richard Widmark as the Van Helsingish hero, Christopher Lee as the Dracula-ish villain and Nastassja Kinski as the 17 year old nun who is at the centre of the evil plot.  She was only 15, and appears in a total nude scene near the film's end.  A number of unnecessary deaths plague the film, not to mention the nude scene.  A filmy flowing gown would have been much better (for the actress, too).  It was Dennis Wheatley's second collaboration with Hammer.

 

Now showing on Criterion as part of their Nunsploitation series. 

 

We last watched Port of Shadows in May 2014, so it was high time to see it again.  From 1938 the film was directed my Marcel Carne and stars the immutable and unflappable Jean Gabin as a soldier who has deserted.  He becomes involved with the incredibly beautiful Michele Morgan, stuck working for her lusty godfather played evilly by Michel Simon.  It's a great little film filled with small but interesting characters and situations.  The film seems to centre around a small dog that befriends Gabin when he saves it from being run over by a truck.  The dog follows him everywhere and might be the most interesting character in the film.  As soon as the dog joins him Gabin's luck turns to the better.  However, the one time that he leaves him behind is the one time that his luck runs out.  The dog returns to its shadowy life in the woods, along again.  I felt sadder for the dog than for the woman who lost Gabin to a low life cheap hoodlum.  A recommended film.

 

Leaving Criterion Sept. 30th. 

 

Mapman Mike

 

 

August 2025 Reading Summary

E C Tubb works within a formula, one that produces gems nearly every time.  In Classical era music, Sonata Form was used thousands of times by composers, and while essentially the form is the same in each piece, it still amazes us today what some of those composers could do with it.  Understand the form and you will understand the music.  Take F J Haydn, for example.  104 symphonies, dozens of string quartets, trios, etc.  He wrote hundreds of sonata form movements in his life, each one different from the rest, and each one successfully tackling a new problem.  He never seemed to tire of it, and good listeners will always be impressed by what he did accomplish.  Is E C Tubb the Haydn of the pulp SF novel?  You bet he is!

 

Planet of Dread is from 1974 and is a skimpy 126 pages long (many Haydn Symphonies are quite short).  Cap Kennedy and his crew are the Doc Savage gang of outer space.  In each novel they are given one major problem to solve, which usually breaks down into several smaller ones.  The writing is so fast paced and the novel so short that there is usually no time for a coda; this book ends about one second after the climax.  When paid by the word, Tubb made certain he did not write beyond the limit.  I doubt Haydn would have been so strict, but then he is an artist, albeit one with a very strong work ethic.  Had Tubb been paid for another page of writing he likely would have ended the novel in a less breathless fashion. 

Cap is on hand for the signing of a contract between a newly adopted planet and the Earth syndicate.  An assassination attempt goes wrong and one of Cap's men is injured to near death.  Known medicine cannot help him, and Cap decides to transport him to the planet of the title.  There, almost anything can be cured, but there is a catch.  Cap must undergo something similar to the trials of Hercules in order to help his friend receive the care he needs.  This takes up a large part of the novel, after which we finally get back to the problem at hand; namely, why was an assassination attempt made and who made it.  The final part of the book deals with the original problem, and it is a slam bang finish to an action-packed story.  I'm not certain if this is Tubb at his best, but it's head and shoulders above so many other pulp writers.  I would love to have discovered what he could have done with a longer novel.  Perhaps, like Haydn, he preferred to be terse, leaving the epics for the Beethovens and Mahlers of the world.

 

I have seldom been disappointed by the Dray Prescott series written by Kenneth Bulmer.  However, this novel managed to do it.  From 1985, Werewolves of Kregen is well named.  It lasts for 127 pages, much shorter than most in this series.  I was so relieved when several volumes ago an all-powerful evil wizard, who could do anything to anybody anytime he wanted, was finally killed off.  It was no use.  Now his even more evil son and mother are at work.  I certainly don't mind seeing wizards (and witches) in heroic fantasy, but to make them able to do just about anything to the good guys, while their own wizards watch helplessly, gets very tiresome very quickly.  And so, in the first of what will likely be several novels, it begins.  The evil ones turn Dray Prescott's private guards into werewolves.  I won't bother to explain the elaborate process which causes such a thing, as it is much too far-fetched.  It's easier to simply believe in werewolves than in the method chosen by the evil ones.  Werewolves run around killing girls (mostly) and eating them.  This happens again and again until the dimwitted good guys figure out a way to stop them.  For the first time in a while I am not looking forward to the next book in this series. 

 

On to the Delphi Classics collection.  Next up was Enid Blyton's Five Run Away Together, from 1944.  Being a child in southern England during the blitz could not have been much fun.  Enid did her part by writing several stories to help take young minds off the realities of bombs falling where they lived.  Many children were shipped north, either to relatives or families willing to take them in during the war.  C. S. Lewis built his entire Narnia series around a group of children escaping London during the war, escaping into Narnia through an old wardrobe.  Blyton's young heroes and heroines have no war to contend with.  But their summer holiday is nearly ruined when George's mother gets very ill suddenly and is taken to hospital.  They are left in the care of an evil housekeeper, her husband, their halfwit son and a smelly dog.  Things don't go well.  Blyton allows the oldest boy, Julian, to stand up to the cruelties heaped upon the children and their dog.  George, whose house it is, decides to run away until her mother returns home.  The others agree to go with her.  They return to the little island where their first adventure took place (this is their third).  George/Georgina is an interesting character, one familiar to anyone who grew up with a lot of friends.  She is a girl who wants to be a boy.  She dresses like one, acts like one, and hates anyone who calls her Georgina.  I wonder if Blyton knew what she was doing here, and how she would have felt about allowing her character to trans to a male?  It is exactly what the many Georgina/Georges of the world need to do.  Knowing a bit about the author, she would have been horrified with the very thought.  Instead, she more likely believed it was cute in a young girl and that she would outgrow such feelings and eventually welcome motherhood and all the rest.  But her mistake was in making George such a strong character; there is no mother to be in George.  Her teen and adult life will always be one of conflict, self-doubt, and likely great emotional upheaval.  Poor George.

 

Original cover art. 

 

Ernest Bramah's The Secret of the League is from 1907 and is a very lengthy read.  It is a political thriller likely of no interest to anyone anymore and might be better off forgotten.  Or perhaps not.  In a make believe England sometime after the millenium (1900), the socialist party in power have given away nearly everything to the lower working classes, who only continue to support them as long as they keep receiving.  This is quickly impoverishing the nation, and the capitalist party wishes to end things and get the country back on its won two feet.  Much of the novel is about how they went about preparing, planning and executing their large scale derring do take over.  While this is fun to read and fascinating itself, what the book really accomplishes for a more modern reader (say about the year 2025) is to instruct him in socialism's beginnings in England, how it spread like a disease, and why it needs to be tempered with some form of reality.  While most of us know that today's capitalism not only exploits many workers, it is also destroying the very planet itself.  Any form of lifestyle that depends for its very existence on continuous growth is bound to eventually hit a wall; a big impenetrable one.  By the end of Brahma's book a thoughtful reader will be doing a lot of thinking.  Communism is a dead end, as is capitalism (though at least with the latter we can all die with champagne in our glasses).  Trying to find the workable balance somewhere between the extremes is the only way to survive our own greed, stupidity and arrogance.  One little SF note: in Bramah's England flight is just getting off the ground.  Not with airplanes, mind you, but with wings!  A nice little twist indeed.

 

The hero arrives to save the girl after a brutal wintry flight. From Bramah.

 

Thuvia, Maid of Mars is Edgar Rice Burroughs' fourth Martian novel.  It is from 1920.  Thuvia, a maid of Mars (and, of course, a princess), gets kidnapped by a bad guy who lusts after her.  John Carter's son (a prince, by chance) goes after him, as he is in love with Thuvia.  It's the oldest story ever told, and Burroughs gives it the works.  If you ever have a bad day, try comparing yours to that of Carthoris, John Carter's son (always put the horis ahead of the Cart).  First his princess is kidnapped.  Then suspicion falls on him.  He rushes off to save her, but someone has sabotaged his airboat,  He has to walk really far, fight some monsters, outwit two magicians, fight some more monsters, find the princess, lose her again, fight some six-armed huge green warriors.  All this before breakfast.  Edgar Rice Burroughs opened the door to so many different authors of SF and fantasy that his influence on future writers can be no less than that of Tolkien.  The Dray Prescott series by Kenneth Bulmer (see above) is one example.  Michael Moorcock's Martian trilogy is another.  I will always love reading Burroughs, even if all his heroines act exactly the same way (they are haughty and somewhat cruel to the good guy who loves her), and even if all his heroes are pretty similar, too.  Bring on #5, The Chessmen of Mars!

 

Cover of 1969 edition by Bob Abbett. There are about a thousand covers of this title, one of Burrough's most popular stories.  I own the edition above, but read it on Delphi Classics. As can be seen, there is not a lot of need for clothing on Mars.  Boxer shorts for him, and a bikini with fetching cape for her.  Add weapons for him and jewellery for her.

 

 We now take a hard right turn.  Sir Richard Burton's Personal Pilgrimage to Al Madinah and Meccah was first published in three volumes in 1855.  I am reading the fourth edition, with updated forewords, in the Delphi Classics collection.  Burton undertook the Haj in 1853.  The first book mostly deals with the time he spent in Cairo, Suez and Al Medinah.  At nearly 500 pages, I will wait for another time to continue the journey.  Try to imagine a non-believer British white man trying to pass himself off as an Arabic-speaking believer making the great pilgrimage to Mecca.  For one thing he would have to be awfully good with the language.  For another, his skin could have to be rather tanned.  If the truth had ever come out on the journey, he likely would have been stoned and beaten to death.  But he pulled it off.  Arriving first in Alexandria, he takes the persona of a Persian doctor.  By the time he has arrived in Cairo (on the little steamer "The Little Asthmatic") his friends have convinced him to try something else, as Persians were treated badly by Arabs and Egyptians.  So he changes into an Afghani doctor (more language skills necessary).  We get wonderful descriptions all along the journey of people and places, and the many small situations that arise.  Finally departing for Suez we cross the Sinai and spend time at the dismal settlement (pre-canal days).  From there we move on to Al Medinah, where a considerable part of the first book (about half) takes place.  It is fun comparing his stops with modern day Google Earth and Maps, to see how much things have changed (highways for one thing, instead of camel routes).  Places he visited on excursions from Al-Medinah, for example, are now well within the city.  I found the book quite fascinating, and look forward to reading its continuation in the future.

 

Finally, one of the most enjoyable books I have read in a long time came along, rather unexpectedly.  Heart's Desire is from 1905 and is one of Emmerson Hough's least known and appreciated works.  The title refers to the name of a tiny settlement in New Mexico, years after the Civil War.  The real town was White Oaks, now a mining ghost town.   The settlement is portrayed as Eden, a paradise with no need of doctors, lawmen, the railroad (which is coming soon), or even women.  It's a community of men who escaped from the East, usually because of female troubles.  The book is filled with cowboy wisdom and cowboy folly, and many of the speech mannerisms are quite priceless.  For instance, from one of the characters: "Somethin' better git did, and it better git did blame soon."  Each chapter is often its own story within the main story arc.  Much of the time not much happens.  It's like everyone is asleep, and it will take the intrusion of the railroad to awaken them.  Hough lived in White Oaks for a time, and is a fascinating character himself, easily worth a major biography.  He was a conservationist, among other things, and instrumental in getting the National Park system started, as well as making poaching in the park illegal.  This is American West storytelling at its finest.  Moments of this novel will stay with me a very long time.

 

Mapman Mike 

 

 

 

Piano Repertoire at 4 Months

While the rest of you have been enjoying summer holidays, I continue to chug away at my newest piano program.  The first half is pretty much ready to go, though nothing is currently memorized.  I spent so much time memorizing the first two Scarlatti pieces and only managed to get 1 1/2 of them done.  So I gave up, as I needed to spend more time on the bigger pieces on the second half.  So I am now memorizing the 3 Preludes by Scriabin (nearly there), the 6 Bartok Roumanian Dances (getting there), and the Debussy Prelude (getting there.)  I don't think I will memorized the Glass Etude, as much as I would like to.  We'll see.  Usually anywhere from 10 to 14 months for me to prepare a program.  Because I have previously learned the Bartok, Debussy, and one of the Scarlatti, this program will likely come in at the lower end of that schedule.  So perhaps a performance for small groups at the end of December/early January.  Of course if we go off somewhere for two weeks, that will likely be further bumped back a month.

Deb has been invited to a film festival in Toronto near the end of September.  She is often invited to festivals; there are many people out there who would like to meet her.  However, we usually can't go.  The US and Europe are the two most frequent places.  She will have three different films showing in England soon, including London.  The Toronto Animation Festival (from Wild Sound) is a one night event.  The event is also held in LA.  Deb has been featured here before, and won a notable prize.  This year we stand a good chance of being able to attend, and perhaps meet up there with Dino and Katherine, and Amanda and Bill.  We have to try to hold off on the medical appointments.  See Deb's website for more info, or Google the festival itself.

 

As far as travel goes, it's mostly my foot that is holding us back.  I hope to hear something this coming week, as I had ultra-sound done last Thursday.  We get the pictures next day, and a few things are highlighted on the image we got.  Being a long weekend here (back to school on Tuesday) I won't hear anything until Tuesday at the earliest.  The foot no longer hurts all the time.  It only hurts now when I use it.  Slow progress.

 

Deb has a long haul to go with her RA meds.  She is now back full time on a new drug, similar to methotrexate.  She takes a pill before bed every night, and in 6-8 weeks it should begin to work.  Or not, when Plan B comes into effect (new drug).  Right now her worst symptoms are morning stiffness (extreme) and pain in most joints.  She can't take anti-inflammatory drugs as they interfere with another drug she is taking for a different problem.  And it's surgery week for her kidney stone, too.   Lots of fun times and wild partying ahead.  Speaking of partying, this weekend is our traditional harvest festival here at the Homestead.  Local produce peaks at this time of year: fruits such as peaches, pears, nectarines, watermelon, cantaloupe and blueberries are cheap and plentiful.  Veggies such as corn, tomatoes, zucchini, peppers and onions are all local and filling the markets.  It's the time of year we really don't have to depend on US produce.  We've been doing our best to buy Canadian, and this is the best time for that.

 

In movie news there are two to report. The Whisperer in Darkness is another Lovecraft film from 2011 by the same team that brought the wonderful The Call of Cthulhu from 2005.  While that film was short and very effective, Whisperer suffers from being much too long (nearly two hours), as well as going far from the original short story.  There is also some bad acting, and has a lead character that is about as ineffective as one could ever be.  The ending more or less ruins the film, though it lost our interest well before that.  It is often very slow moving, and any horror elements mostly have to do with human evil rather than any alien beings.  The original story, as the title implies, deals with the sounds heard during a man's visit to a lonely New England farmhouse, and the shadowy figures seen in glances.  While this element is part of the film, it goes past that goal into too much detail about the beings.  Adding evil humans dumbs down the story, making it too similar to just about any other mad scientist film.  Disappointing.

 

Both Lovecraft films are showing on Tubi (with commercial breaks).  They may also be available on Youtube. 

 

I also have some problems with the second film we recently watched.  The Blue Caftan is a France/Morocco film from 2022.  It is a quiet and sensitive film about a childless tailor and his wife, who run a small shop.  He works by hand and refuses to use a machine.  As a result they don't make much money, as it takes so long to complete a project, and they work a lot of overtime.  Though he loves his wife, his is gay and gets his jollies down at the local bathhouse.  A young (handsome) man apprentices with him, and of course they are attracted to one another.  Low and behold the wife has terminal cancer.  Even though her slow death is treated with dignity and great sensitivity (she has good moments right up till the end), and even though her husband makes a great sacrifice in the end (the caftan in question), the cynical part of me still sees her death as an excuse for the two men to now spend a life together.  We learn that his childhood was unhappy; his mother died giving birth to him and his father never forgave him.  Rather than give him a chance to be fatherly to the young apprentice, it is made obvious that their relationship will be a sexual one.  The film could easily have been made with no homosexual element whatsoever, and come out even stronger at the end.  Another scene that could have been left out was their encounter on the street with a policeman.  After this scene I kept expecting the man to be arrested for being gay, but nothing ever came of it.  Why include it?  The film runs two hours as it is, and is extremely slow moving.  The saddest part of the film, however, just might be the fact that so many traditional ways of doing things, especially in the crafts field, continue to disappear.  People want things instantly; waiting six months for a new caftan just doesn't cut it any more.  Even sadder is that most people (me included) cannot tell the difference between hand made things and one that are machine made.  This is a good film, despite the questions I have about certain elements.

 

The film has now left Criterion. 

 

And now for a few of those highly anticipated train sim world pics....

 

Crossing the Firth Bridge at sunset.

 

A bit further north on the same service. 

 

And a new route for me, a narrow gauge traction service high in the Swiss Alps. 

 

Come back tomorrow for the month of August reading summary.

 

Mapman Mike 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Golden Cities, Far

Today's title comes from a collection of stories in a volume edited for the Ballantine Adult Fantasy Series by Lin Carter.  I am now in the process of breaking up that series.  Some books are too old and in poor shape to keep, others I just don't want any more and they will go for trade, and a few, like the about titled volume, will remain for now on my bookshelf.  Since moving to Essex County in 1976 (Aug. 21st was our 49th anniversary; we moved down here one week after our wedding) we have always called Detroit our main home away from home, and for many years lived within sight of it.  When we lived in the Town of Essex we used to come to Detroit nearly every weekend, staying Friday and Saturday nights at the Millner Hotel for $20 a night (Can.) with breakfast!  Halfway between Essex and Windsor the road climbs over a bridge and the Detroit skyline would be briefly visible.  It was Deb who first used the phrase in today's title for how we felt leaving behind our apartment and school teaching lives behind us and entering a world, for us, like Camelot.  It was a time when Detroit wasn't yet its cool self of today, but for urban explorers it still had plenty of cool to spare.

Detroit.
 

Since those heady days of youth we have come to visit and know many of the world's great cities, including archaeological ones, but there are always those I had hoped to visit but now never will.  Not because I'm too old for that sort of thing, or unable financially to do so, but because these cities are currently lost to the world at large and will likely remain so long past my last breath.  Of course Kiev would be one of those cities, lost to a generation to a senseless war.  Another exotic locale that is currently in a hopeless state (for the same reason) is Khartoum.  There is so much history there, and as it was the centre of British colonialism, along with Egypt, there was a very good archaeological museum.  I say was, because the National Museum in Khartoum met the same fate as the one in Bagdad; it was completely looted and stripped of its priceless treasures and their context.  Civil war continues top tear apart the county.  there is really nothing left in Sudan to fight over, yet the bloodshed continues.  

 

Kiev. 

 

Khartoum. 

 

The most exotic city I would have loved to have visited was Mandalay.  There are two reasons why that would have never happened.  First of all, the country of Burma (Myanmar) is virtually closed to outsiders thanks to the usual military dictatorship.  Secondly, a life changing earthquake last year totally destroyed most of the golden temples that made the city what it really was.  C'est la vie.

 

Mandalay. 

 

In movie news there are two to report.  We have also been watching Picard: Series 3, and are 7 episodes in with three remaining.  They have already used virtually every TV SF trope, so I'm curious as to how they will fill air time till the end.

 

Pedicab Driver is a 1989 Hong Kong martial arts film that purports to be a comedy.  Directed by Sammo Hung, it does have some hilarious scenes and quips.  The hero is a very chunky pedicab driver who is also a very skilled martial arts master.  He must have inspired many large size Chinese to take up martial arts.  He can really move, even with sped up camera shots.  The downside is that this is one of the most violent, bloody and sadistic movies to come out of Hong Kong during its heyday.  Much of the comedy is ruined and forgotten by the unbelievable violence.  Still worth a look just to watch Sammo (director and star), who is very camera-genic.

 

Another Asian film, this time from Korea, is Green Fish from 1997 and directed by Lee Chang-dong.  This one, which won first director awards in Korea at the time, seems to be somewhat overrated.  It is an uneven film that follows the haphazard life of a rather dimwitted fellow just released from his required time in the army.  I'm not sure what he learned there doing his time, but he certainly did not learn any fighting skills.  He returns to his family home, now surrounded by high rise apartments.  He has three brothers, one of whom has untreated spasticity, a sister and a mother.  His dream is to open a restaurant run by the family, but after coming to the aid of a young woman on a train his life takes a sharp turn.  Because the man seems to have a rather low I.Q., his inevitable doom is foretold many times during the film.  While there are some beautiful and very effective camera shots, and while the man's family is a believable group of misfits, overall the film tends to drag and lead viewers to many dead ends.  The title comes from a memory of childhood that the man holds dear.  Not recommended, and it is almost two hours long.

 

Finally, in health news Deb has a surgery date for her kidney stone removal.  She also sees her rheumatologist this week.  Deb has been flaring lately and needs to resume some type of RA meds.  And my foot stubbornly refuses to heal.  I am limited to short times of slow walking, something I am finding increasingly frustrating.  I go for ultrasound later this week.

 

Mapman Mike. 

 

The Kidney Stone Odyssey, Season Two Episode 2

Not my kidney stone; Deb's.  During the past week we have spent many hours in different ER departments.  The upshot is that after Deb's CT scan a very large and unmoving stone was found.  It will have to come out the hard way; through surgery, like her previous one in April.  This stone is even larger, however.  Next move is an appointment with a urologist next Thursday.  Presumably we will be given a date for the surgery at that time.  No one can say what is causing this.  We know it isn't diet related.  At least I have been able to read a lot this week, sitting around waiting in hospitals.

In news regarding my foot, it seems to have reached a point where it is 70% healed but refuses to progress further.  I can walk on it for about ten minutes at a time, with some pain and occasional limping.  Right now it feels like a sprained big toe, which is an improvement on how it felt even a  month ago. 

 

So much for health news; more later no doubt.   In film news there are a couple at least.  A really decent Lovecraft film is difficult to come by.  However, Deb found an indie version of The Call of Cthulhu.  It is from 2005, a silent film that reminds us of what Guy Maddin could have become, instead of continuing to head down his mostly dead end road.  Cthulhu was directed by Sean Leman, and is distributed by the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society.  Although only 47 minutes long it took about two years to film.  Deb found it on one of her indie film channels, but it might be available on Youtube.  If so, don't wait.  This is a great little film, the best Lovecraft film ever made.

 

Find this if you can!  Try Youtube. 

 

Another oddball film, this time from Criterion is Neptune Frost, a US/Rwanda film from 2021 and directed by Saul Williams and Anisia Uzeyman.  Besides being too long and not making much sense, there are still some interesting moments and a few good musical moments.  Here is the blurb from Criterion:

 

...this visually wondrous sci-fi punk musical takes place in the hilltops of Burundi, where a group of escaped coltan miners form an anticolonialist hacker collective. From their camp in an otherworldly e-waste dump, they attempt a takeover of the authoritarian regime exploiting the region's natural resources—and its people. Set between states of being—past and present, dream and waking life, colonized and free, male and female, memory and prescience—Neptune Frost is an invigorating and empowering direct download to the cerebral cortex and a call to reclaim technology for progressive political ends. 

 

Don't believe too much of the above, but as I said there are some fun moments.  I can't really recommend the film, but if you do sit through it you will be impressed by some of the clothes, hair and attitudes of the people.  The philosophy and ideas being put forth sound a lot like first or second year university thinking.  The message is not clearly brought forth, either, simple as it is.  It is a bit like talking about cooking up a great meal and serving it, only when the food arrives what you have in front of you is a pork chop and a baked potato.  A bit less theatrical imagery and silliness might have brought the message out.  However, the best thing about the film is the theatrical imagery and silliness.  Certainly one of a kind. 

 

In train news I am now driving three different routes in Scotland, as well as about half a dozen each in Germany and England, as well as one (so far) in Switzerland.  Though I find the driving relaxing in many ways, it is always an intense experience, especially if on a timetable.  A driver can't take his mind or his eye off of what he is doing, or a major event will occur.  It's scary to think how much we rely on such drivers for our safe journeys, not to mention airline pilots.  Train Sim World 5, though, is a blast.  I can drive the trains, ride as a passenger, or be a conductor.  I am not interested in being a conductor.  You can also walk around stations fixing things, planting flowers, or setting up bicycle and/or first aid posts.  The trains depart and arrive as you walk around the different stations.  It's easy to "teleport" from station to station, too.  Or you can just jump on a train going your way.  I'll report soon on my favourite routes.

 

I'm currently driving this train towards North Queensferry Station crossing the Forth Bridge.  I can control the weather, too, so I will post some foggy images later on. 

 

Mapman Mike
 

 

Summer Heat Is Back

We had a few days of relief, with highs only in the high 70s and low 80s.  But the heat is back again and will get worse over the weekend.  Deb is not enjoying her latest kidney stone.  It is causing a good deal of discomfort.  Her family doctor called her twice today, but he didn't even know about the kidney stone at first.  So Dr. Shen is back on the case again.  I wish he was my doctor.

Lately I've been practicing piano, reading, driving trains, looking at maps, getting my astronomy notes organized and up to date (with Deb's help), and watching films and various TV series.  At lunch we usually watch shorter series, such as Corner Gas, The Addams Family (the original b&w TV series), Monty Python's Flying Circus and, possibly best of them all, Star Trek: Lower Decks.  We only have one final episode of that series remaining to watch.  It is easily my favourite Star Trek series.  We are also watching a short series on riding some of the UK's coastal railways, hosted by Julie Walters.  On The Learning Channel (Great Courses) we just finished a 24 part lecture series on the history of railroads, and are currently amidst another fine one on great churches of the world.

 

In film news, there are a few to report.  Alec Guinness: A Class Act is a 2025 documentary that features interviews with a wide variety of people that knew and loved him.  Included is a granddaughter who greatly resembles him.  There are dozens of clips from his films, including Star Wars, of course.  Actors, directors and friends all speak well of this peerless actor.  My favourite films of his are the ones made under tight budgets with Ealing Studios, a few of which are still among the greatest films ever made.  It is currently showing on Acorn TV.  A don't miss film for fans.

 

Now showing on Acorn TV in Canada. 

  

Ladies Paradise is a dreary 1930 French film directed by Julian Duvivier.  It tells a weepy story about the growth of great department stores at the expense of the little shopkeeper.  One stubborn old coot, a tailor, refuses to sell his property for an expansion of a department store, despite the fact that he has already lost all his customers and his building is crumbling around him as he looks on.  He eventually goes nuts and decides that a wild shooting spree is in order.  He is soon afterwards hit and killed by a passing truck (delivering for the big department store across the street).  His niece, who came to him for a job, instead takes one at the department store as a model and has a romance with the boss.  The film echoes themes found in really bad novels.  Despite the crude and rather tiresome story, the camera work is very sophisticated and experimental.  I hope that was the main reason for the restoration.

 

Leaving Criterion August 31st. 

 

Ripley's Game is from 2002 and was directed by Liliana Cavani.  John Malkovich makes a believable and totally incredible Ripley, and the story seems to follow Highsmith closer than other versions.  Tom Ripley is living the high life in an Italian mansion.  He has a young and beautiful girlfriend or wife who is a performer on the harpsichord.  At the beginning Ripley shows his ability to be both savvy and ruthless, as he pulls off a great phony art sale, murders two people and outwits his partner in crime.  This partner is the wrench in the works, eventually causing Tom no end of problems.  Though we have seen Tom in his mansion, we now see how much work he has to undertake to maintain his lifestyle.  When a dying neighbour insults him at a party Tom gets his revenge by sending him to his previous partner, who is looking for an innocent person to carry out an assassination or two.  The first one goes well, but the second one, on a train, really goes off the rails.  By this time Ripley has taken to the dying man and offers valuable assistance, both on the train and later.  The final scenes, as all of the scenes in this tautly directed film, are suspenseful and exciting, showing Tom Ripley at his best (worst).  He is not a man to mess with.  Though the end is tragic and will affect Tom, he is able to carry on afterwards, even making it on time to his girlfriend's big recital.  A solid film all around, and recommend both for Malkovich and Highsmith fans.

 

Leaving Criterion August 31st. 

 

Lastly comes a Hong Kong martial arts film called The 36th Chamber of Shaolin.  From 1978 the story follows a young boy who wishes not only to train in kung fu, but to bring the art to the masses so they can revolt against the oppressors (the Tartars in this film).  Unusual for its class of film, this one spends most of the time showing the boy in training, and how his mind and body are prepared.  Though no doubt the training has some bit of reality to it, a lot of what is put on screen is quite laughable, as anyone undertaking such training would die long before they completed the course.  Just one example is the head banging training, but there are others.  Anyhoo, the boy turns out to be a superstar and completes all 35 training programs.  Then he asks his masters if he can open a 36th program.  He wants to train lay people.  The monks aren't too happy with this idea.  The choreographed fights are, as usual, pretty boring.  Most martial arts fights would last under a minute, but Hong Kong ones go on and on and on (and on).  And, as per usual, the bad guy is just as good, somehow, as the hero.  That is, until that final punch, kick, or head butt.  If the training had been a bit more sensible and not so sadistic this might have been a good film.  As a person who has had training in judo, karate, and iaido, I know from personal experience that the body takes enough punishment without having to add any more.

 

Now playing on Mubi. 

 

I have to add a few more train pics from some of my recent services.....  Here are some night shots.

 

A quiet evening on the London Overground service.

 

California desert.  Passenger service to LA.

 

Passenger service to LA.

 

London Overground.
 

Mapman Mike 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lammas Holiday

 This is one of three big summer festivals we celebrate.  It's a good time to celebrate all the good things that grow in our area.  Peaches and nectarines are coming forth, veggies galore, corn, wheat and of course the blueberries.  This began as a blueberry festival for us years ago, and we usually continue that tradition.  We also get new Tarot cards today, as it is a cross-quarter day, running opposite to Candlemas in early February.  Best of all we have a two day reprieve from the ongoing summer heat and humidity.  We've had nine days of 90+ F, and far more than that of 88 and 89 F. Windows are open this morning despite the traffic noise.  We will also roast some coffee beans on the back deck later, and open our new patio chairs.  The fun never stops around here, let me tell you.

 In medical news, the foot continues to heal, but slowly.  Twenty minutes of slow walking spread over an entire day causes pain and limping.  In worse news for our travel plans Deb has managed to acquire another kidney stone, this time in the opposite kidney.  She is positively thrilled about this news.  Life goes on.  No big travelling until that comes out.  There might be another chance for London in late October.

In film news we watched The Ghost Writer, a 2010 thriller directed by Roman Polanski.  A writer gets more than he bargained for when he takes over the project of a recent former Prime Minister of the UK's autobiography.  The first ghost writer was murdered.  That gives us a clue as to the new guy's intelligence.  But he gets dumber and dumber as the film goes on.  He eventually figures out who is behind horrible torture incidents that the former PM is now being blamed for.  Of course we figured out who it was a long time before that.  So he figures it out, then actually tells the person he knows what he/she did, and that he knows all about it.  And he doesn't tell anyone else, or pass on the evidence to anyone else.  Pretty smart guy, isn't he?  The ending, as a result, is a sour one.  Bad guys win, but only because of the supposed stupidity of the good guy.  Up until the final scene the movie was very well directed and somewhat plausible.  But the ending spoils things.  Would anyone actually be that stupid?  Hardly, especially if they had watched any movies in their lifetime, or read a mystery novel or two.  If you enjoy watching a pretty good film until it is spoiled in the final thirty seconds, this one is just for you.

 

The film has left Criterion. 

 

Fantastic Mr. Fox is an animated featured based on a story by Roald Dahl and directed by Wes Anderson.  This one is a winner.  From 2009 it features the voice talents of many famous actors, and it's fun guessing who they might be while watching (credits are at the end).  Mr. Fox used to run pretty wild in his younger days as a chicken thief.  But now that he is married and has a wife and cub he promises to turn over a new leaf.  However, he can't resist just one more raid.  Which turns into three more raids.  This starts the adventure that Mr. Fox would later often wish had never begun.  The script is fast, furious and funny, and things mostly move along at a merry pace.  The designs of the animals and people are more than perfect, and the animation is great fun to behold.  Highly recommended, even if, like me, you are really tired of Wes Anderson.

 

Showing on Starz. 

 

Mapman Mike