August-September Books Read

 Because of travel I was unable to report on August as a standalone month.  I write this blog entry as I go along, writing a short review after reading the next book.  However, it doesn't get published until the end of the month.

  

Scorpio Drums (1992) by Kenneth Bulmer is 235 pages long and continues the decline of the great series.  The first part of the book isn't too bad, as Dray and company descend upon a city hidden by a dense jungle.  They find the citizens frozen in time, in the midst of their daily and ceremonial activities.  They have been frozen for almost 300 years.  What a great story opportunity.  I became excited.  But then the book degenerated into yet another underground maze, with traps, fierce animals and, lastly, a tribe that worships a sacred fire.  Dray is after a collection of special rubies, wanted badly by yet another evil wizard.  Yawn.  So we wander below ground for over a hundred pages.  Dray becomes a slave again, then a sacrificial victim.  When it all becomes too much for him (seeing Deliah in combat to the death) he goes wild.  The evil wizard snatches the ruby we have been searching for through the entire book and disappears with it.  End of this story.  Still several more to get through.

** stars. 

 

The Children of Captain Grant by Jules Verne (also called In Search of the Castaways, a much better title) was published in 1867 and translated a year later.  It consists of three books that tell of an around the world adventure of the Scottish ship Duncan, led by Lord Glenarvan as they search for a missing boat captain, father to two children.  The expedition spends one of the books in South America, another in Australia, and the third in New Zealand.  It is a boys' adventure story, though with a lot of geography lessons thrown in.  The two females don't do much except not complain, and suffer with dignity in silence during the hardships.  The 12 year old son of the missing Captain Grant, however, is involved in several heroic deeds.  This is not my favourite Verne novel, and a lot of it is very slow going, especially the first book in Patagonia.  In a remarkable stroke of good luck, after nearly everything has gone wrong many times, everything works out fine.  The captain is rescued, the bad guy is left on a deserted island, and apparently everyone lives happily ever after.  The events and geography are perfectly integrated with known facts at the time, including war with the Maori in New Zealand and the fact that they were cannibals.  For its time, this would have been an example of "true adventure" story.  Worth reading, but certainly not essential Verne.  *** stars.

 

Hurricane-check.

 

A shipwreck-check.

 

The boy carried off by a giant bird--hmm, slightly unusual.  

All illustrations by Edouard Riou. 

 

Next up was a true classic of SF literature--The Invisible Man by H. G. Wells from 1897.  Wells does everything he can to make this story work, as he thinks of everything that might happen to give away the man.  Footprints in the snow, digestive issues, bleeding from wounds, jostled in crowds, hit from behind by vehicles.  The scientist who makes himself invisible is a very ornery and selfish man, and while at first we are sympathetic to him, once we hear his manifesto we can't wait for him to be caught.  What imaginative person has not wanted to be invisible at times?  However, once we see all the traps that can catch a person in such a state, it does not seem quite so wonderful an idea.  Wells has taken a universal wish and made it come true, for better and for worse.  The formula is still out there somewhere, written into three books that have now been missing for a very long time.  Perhaps they will turn up someday.  Perhaps they already have.  **** stars.  Recommended.

 

Original cover, and still the best one. 

 

A Woman of No Importance is a play by Oscar Wilde, first performed in 1893.  This has to be one of the drollest plays ever written.  The theatre director where Wilde's previous success had run (Lady Windemere's Fan) wanted another comedy, and he wanted it quickly.  Wilde obliged with this work, certainly not his best though filled with more witticisms than any large joke book.  A man discovers his son, whom he had abandoned along with the mother, and offers him a job as his private secretary.  Once the truth finally spills out, however, the father has to face up to the consequences of his previous inaction.  A serious play though filled with wit.  It's all too offhand for my taste, but I guess that is the point--society people are ultimately empty and worthless.  *** stars.

 

Mrs. Dalloway is the novel that put Virginia Woolf on the literary map, and kept her there.  Published in 1925 this novel, more than any earlier work, shows just what Woolf was capable of.  It uses as its framework a day in the life of Clarissa Dalloway, an upper class woman who lives to give parties.  We first meet Clarissa as she heads to the flower shop in the early morning to order flowers for her evening party.  We spend a day with her and people she knows, getting inside their heads in turn and sorting through their thoughts.  The story never dwells on any one person, but moves from person to person throughout the book.  Central to the story is Peter Walsh, just back from 5 years in Italy (1918-23).  He had been in love with Clarissa, and though they had got on well and were great friends, she choose Richard for her husband instead.  He is still in love with Clarissa, at least in some ways, even though he recognizes her for what she really is.  Also central to the story is Septimus, a war veteran suffering terribly from PTSD, which was not known about then.  His wife Lucretia (Reiza), an Italian woman he married in Italy after the war, is greatly troubled by his worsening mental state.  Dr. Holmes, a GP, is worse than useless to her and Septimus.  Dr. Bradshaw recognizes the soldier's condition but requires him to be institutionalized and separated from his wife.  Elizabeth is Clarissa and Richard's teenage daughter, just beginning to awaken to life and its possibilities.  All of these characters and more we learn much about during the novel.  While it might seem that the book is Joyce light, it is highly readable and not difficult to follow or understand.  It remains one of the better stream of consciousness novels to this day. **** stars.

 

Foundation and Empire is from 1952, Asimov's 2nd Foundation novel.  The book details the falling of the first Foundation, as well as the further disintegration of the Empire.  The Mule now takes front stage, and we don't discover who he/it is until the end of the novel.  I enjoyed this one more than the first volume, mostly because the characters seem a bit more interesting and more developed, and are given a bit more to do.  Seldon's predictions have broken down, unable to predict the Mule and what he has done to disrupt the plan.  Or has the plan broken down.  Harry Seldon knew something was going to happen, or else why would he have set up a 2nd Foundation.  This one is so secretive that no one knows its location or status.  Can it take on the Mule?  Should it take on the Mule?  We'll have to wait till next month to find out the big mystery.  A good read.  *** 1/2 stars.

 

Children of the Ritz is a 1927 novel by Cornell Woolrich, his 2nd.  While not a great piece of literature, it is a readable tale of an 18 year old spoiled rich girl who falls for the new family chauffeur.  They end up running away to be married.  He has recently won $50,000.00 at the racetrack, and their marriage gets off to a good start.  However, the young woman cannot give up the lifestyle she had when living with her family, who are now bankrupt.  She spends and spends, goes out dancing with friends and meets and falls for another rich man.  I kept waiting for something major to happen, for instance a murder.  But not much happens except for the marriage failing, the girl running back to her family (who now have money again), and the happy couple getting back together again at the end.  The chauffeur's family, especially his mom, will remind readers of Michael Moorcock's Jerry Cornelius and family.  Jerry's mom is very much like the one Woolrich gives us.  Worth a quick read, but not a recommendation.  ** 1/2 stars.

 

The Crooked Hinge is a 1938 murder/mystery novel from 1938 by the great John Dickson Carr.  In my teens I read everything I could by Carr, and my local library had many of his novels in paperback edition.  I collected him for years, too.  I haven't read a Carr novel in perhaps 30 years, but I'm happy to be back.  The author was greatly influenced by Chesterton, especially his Father Brown stories.  This is a fairly convoluted tale of murder, reminding me of the very first Father Brown story.  Amateur sleuths would have no way of solving this murder, even if the correct criminal was suspected (I suspected the correct person but had no idea how it was done).  This story involves witchcraft, automatons, the sinking of the Titanic and a lot of people.  Of course wheezing Dr. Fell solves the crime, but it takes a 22 page chapter at the end to explain it all to us.  A bit too far fetched for this reader.  Forgetting about the mystery component, however, it is a heck of a good novel.  It is perfect for a TV script.  *** stars.  Reviewed September 15th/26

 

Yeats' New Poems was published in 1938, the same year as Carr's mystery.  I particularly liked "The Three Bushes", a Pre-Raphaelite work of significance.  Is is about three memorial bushes planted for three deceased people.  Many of the poems refer to Irish history and characters who influenced it.  I really liked "The Ghost of Roger Casement," which reads like lyrics from a Pogues song.  And "The Municipal Gallery Revisited" seems to sum up much of the work in this collection, being a thoughtful ode to Irish struggles and personal friendships made along the way.

 

Don Delillo's White Noise is a novel from 1985. I think I've read it before, though I have no written account of it anywhere.  It's a book that often appears on "must read" lists, so I began reading, as usual, wanting to like the novel.  But part way in I found that I didn't really like it very much.  I found much of the writing glib, uninspired, too matter-of-fact and quite emotionless.  However, as I read on I would come across a line or paragraph that was truly well written.  I slowly began to like it, in places.  Then major events occur and the book begins to soar.  So I ended up liking it quite a bit.  Grocery stores feature widely in the story, places of sanity and where many of the characters often meet by chance.  This reminded me of Ballard's use of multi-storey car parks.  In fact, there is more than a hint of Ballard in Delillo's writing and style.  Even more of other writers also appear, including Barry Malzberg, Woody Allen, Dave Barry and even John Sladek.  A few quotes will give some idea of the style and quality of writing.

 

From Chapter 11: "Television is just another name for junk mail."

From Chapter 14: "Only a catastrophe gets our attention.  We want them, we need them, we depend on them.  As long as they happen somewhere else." 

From Chapter 19: "Bee [one of the hero's daughters] was small-featured except for her eyes, which seemed to contain two forms of life, the subject matter and its hidden implications."

From Chapter 22: There were two new developments at the supermarket, a butcher's corner and a bakery, and the oven aroma of bread and cake combined with the sight of a bloodstained man pounding at strips of living veal was pretty exciting for us all."

From Chapter 22:  (again in the grocery store) "Products from twenty countries.  It's like being at some cross-roads of the ancient world, a Persian bazaar or boom town on the Tigris."

From Chapter 27 (about a younger daughter): "She had a history of being devout in her victimhood."

From Chapter 37: "Would you prefer to know the exact date and time of your death?"  "Absolutely not.  It's bad enough to fear the unknown.  Faced with the unknown, we can pretend it isn't there.  Exact dates would drive many to suicide, if only to beat the system." 

From Chapter 40 (regarding his youngest child): "He walked the tricycle down the steps, guiding it with a duteous and unsentimental hand, letting it bump right along, as if it were an odd-shaped little sibling, not necessarily cherished."

 

I would recommend the book.  If readers don't like the first 50 pages or so, try to stick with it.  It gets better and better. *** 1/2 stars.  

 

I read the Kindle edition. 

 

Nightwood by Djuna Barnes was next, published in 1936.  There is a preface from 2006 by Jeanette Winterson, and an introduction by T. S. Elliot from 1937.  The book comes highly recommended, but after reading it I know that it is not for me.  The main characters are Robin, a woman who stirs the pot and is more or less the center of things; her spurned lover Felix, who has a son by her before they separate; Nora, a female spurned lover; Robin's newest lover Jenny; and the doctor, a man who talks incessantly and when in a conversation can never give a true answer at any time.  All the characters are mad, with Nora driven insane by her love for Robin and Robin herself so unsure of who or what she is that she is likely the craziest of them all.  The alcoholic impoverished doctor is insane, but we don't find out why until near the end.  Jenny is also mad about Robin and when Robin drifts away from her she is not far behind Nora in her obsession.  Felix wanders Europe with his handicapped son, totally adrift with no hope of ever being grounded.

Each character is introduced with a very long description before they have said or done anything.  While the book is quite readable it seldom makes sense.  Since crazy people are talking most of the time (the book is extremely heavy on dialogue), I suppose it is not meant to make much sense.  Descriptions tend to be on the bizarre side, not helping readers to picture what is meant but being quite descriptive nonetheless.  For instance: "In her face was the tense expression of an organism surviving in an alien element."  Or a more general example: "The French are dishevelled and wise; the American tries to approximate it with drink."  Try this one:  "There is no truth...you have dressed the unknowable in the garments of the known."  I like that one a lot.  One final word of wisdom from the author (usually it is the doctor speaking these sideways truths):  "...be careful whom you love--for a lover who dies, no matter how forgotten, will take somewhat of you to the grave."

A good read overall, but not an easy one.  I won't recommend it as it is not what I am searching for in a book, but give it a try if you want a bit of a challenge, or if you are pining away about a lost lover.  Good luck.  *** stars. 

 

I finished up with  another section of essays (three) by Stephen Jay Gould.  The book is called Leonardo's Mountain of Clams and The Diet of Worms, his tenth collection of essays on evolution.  Section IV of the book is called "History and Tolerance."  The first essay (the 11th of the book so far) is called "A Cerion For Christopher" and is a very readable account of Columbus' first landing in 1492, on the Bahamas.  This is one of the best essays on first contact I have ever read and can highly recommend it.  The next essay is called "The Dodo in the Caucus Race," and explains the demise of the giant flightless bird and how people at the time blamed its stupidity for becoming extinct.  This is eye-opening writing and a must for any student of science.  The final essay discusses Martin Luther's defense of his version of Christianity, as well as the way religion has led to so much violence and hatred.  Two sections and eight more essays remain.  So far this is easily his best collection, though they are all five star books.

 

Mapman Mike 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Birthday/Equinox Celebration and a Full Moon

I guess the big news for the week is that I am back practicing Iaido once more.  I attend class on Sunday evenings, and I was suffering from it all day Monday and Tuesday.  Hopefully things will improve over time, but my upper front thighs took quite a punishment.  Kneeling is too difficult as I am still having a problem with my big toe, the one I injured in June of 2025.  So all my katas are standing ones for now.  By Winter Solstice I hope to have at least returned to black belt level (Shodan).  After that we will have to see.

 

Another birthday and Equinox has rolled around.  Frodo, Bilbo and I are getting on in years and the big adventures are fewer and further between.  I continue to write up my notes (blog) on the most recent London journey.  I now have six of them published with perhaps three more to follow soon.  I am glad that we returned strongly to cultural doings this time.  I am really missing cultural events in Detroit these days, so London helped fill in that hunger quite a bit.

 

Last night was a bright and large full moon, our second party in five days.  We even had our first fire of the season last night.  We had a game of Akrotiri.  It is a two person game where players must excavate Minoan temples on various Greek islands.  Boats are involved and resources must be gathered, then sold for funds to excavate.  We were amidst the game last night when a tsunami struck, wiping out most of our islands and temples (a glass of ale went whooshing over the game board).  Alas for the lost temples and lost ale.

 

In film news there are three to report, one from Criterion and two from Kino.  First the Criterion  film, which is leaving Sept 30th.  Shanghai Blues is a Chinese tribute to Hollywood's 1930s screwball comedies.  From 1984 it was directed by Tsui Hark, familiar to us through several Criterion films.  It begins on the eve of the Japanese invasion of China and then jumps to 10 years later.  While much of the film is just too silly, a few gags work well.  It is a colourful film with lavish costumes and innovative lighting.  There are many scenes filled with active characters that must have required much planning and discipline from the cast and crew.  While not a film I am likely to rewatch, it was worth a sit through.

 

Leaving Criterion Sept 30th. 

 

The two Kino films were a documentary and an early version of "slow cinema."  Hieronymus Bosch: Touched By The Devil chronicles the job of Bosch scholars in the early stages of mounting a major exhibition of the artist's work in his hometown of Den Bosch.  We travel to Spain, Venice and the US as the group redefines which works were painted by the master and which by the workshop.  This is a really deep dive into some of the artist's major works and is a highly recommended film for art lovers and students.  From 2017 it was directed by Pieter Van Huystee. 

 

A Kino Lorber film, showing on their streaming channel. 

 

Goodbye, Dragon Inn is a Taiwanese film directed by Tsai Ming-liang.  Here is the blurb from the film website:  In Tsai Ming-liang’s minimalist film, the Fu-Ho Grand, a movie palace in Taipei, is closing its doors. Its valedictory screening, King Hu’s 1967 wuxia epic “Dragon Inn”, plays to a motley smattering of spectators, including two stars of Hu’s original opus, Miao Tien and Shih Chun, who watch their younger selves with tears in their eyes. 

This is a wonderfully strange oddball of a film.  Part comedy and part tragedy, we watch the final showing of a film before the theatre closes permanently.  About half a dozen people are at the screening on a rainy tropical night in Taipei.  Only two employees remain, a partially handicapped young woman who sells tickets, cleans bathrooms, washes floors and then cleans the actual theatre seating area after the show.  There is also the projectionist.  We have seen and enjoyed the film that shows in the background throughout (Dragon Inn), and two of its aged stars are in the audience, along with the adorable grandson of one of them.  In the audience is a gay tourist from Japan, a few other gay men, and a woman who cracks and eats nuts while watching and also doubles as the in-house ghost.

 

There are many long static shots, with a pair of them lasting two minutes each.  Each composition is carefully chosen, but it is the actual movie palace itself that becomes the main attraction here.  We see into its closets, hallways, foyer, main auditorium, bathrooms, projection room, stairways and even the outdoor entrance.  This is one of the better "slow cinema" films I have seen.  Recommended.

 

Now showing on the Kino channel. 

 

In gaming news we are making progress in Syberia, the original version of the first game (there is a remake).  We have advanced to Barrockstadt, the first stop along the way.  The game suffers from too many silly diversions in its attempt to create length.  Players always want to get back on the train and move along, but it takes several hours of doing tasks before that can happen.  Still, it's a fun game and Kate Walker makes a good heroine. The game runs perfectly on Steam.

 

On our way at last! 

 

University entrance at Barrockstadt. 

 

I continue to be impressed by Train Sim World 7.  I've added a new English route which I will play soon.  Today I'm in Dresden, running a high speed train towards Leipzig.  After Equinox the landscape on all routes changed to Autumn.  Pretty neat.  A new feature is live weather, where I get the actual weather where I am driving.  Here are a few recent photos of some of my journeys.

 

A rainy day, leaving from Dresden. 

 

Trans Pennine route towards Manchester.

 

A sunny day on the Great Western Railway. 

 

I won't post here any more until I complete the London blog entries.  But I will be back with more fascinating coverage of life at Lone Mtn. Homestead soon.

 

Mapman Mike 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PC Gaming and Train Sim World 7

 Each year in late summer Train Sim World comes out with a newer and better version of itself.  I entered the game at its 5th iteration, and I now have installed the 7th.  It took 27 hours to download, amid thunderstorms and power interruptions.  Nevertheless it seems to run fine, with smoothness and more intense graphics.  I just did a run from Doncaster to Peterborough driving a high speed train for 80 miles.  A good test, methinks.  All systems go.

 

A screen capture of my run from Doncaster to Peterborough this evening.  That's me driving! 

 

We also recently installed the original 2002 version of Syberia.  We have never replayed it up till now.  It is still a great looking game and I can't wait to get deeper into the story.  There is a new jazzed up version of the first game, but so far I feel no need to purchase it.  The old one is still quite presentable, especially on our super monitor. 

 

Kate Walker begins to solve the mystery of Hans Vorlberg and his automatons in Syberia.  There are now 4 games with that title, the 1st and 4th being the two best. 

 

I have also written up three parts to my London blog (see link in upper left margin), hoping to begin a fourth very soon.  Feel free to begin scrolling, or wait for all of it to be finished.  That should take about another week.  It was one week ago today that we staggered in the door at 10 pm, just back from London.  It's been a busy week of catching up.  My piano pieces are now, after a week of practice, about where they were when we left for London on the 26th of August.  Now to advance them towards concert level.

 

In movie news there are two to report, both from the "leaving this month" list on Criterion.  First up was Straight Time from 1978, with Dustin Hoffman playing a guy fresh out of jail, having done 6 years for armed robbery.  He wants to go straight, but his overly strict parole officer drives him over the edge.  He becomes much worse than he ever was, though he is grounded somewhat by Theresa Russell, looking vulnerable and about 19 years old.  He meets her when he is job searching, and she falls for him in a bad way.  Also starring Harry Dean Stanton and Gary Busey.  Hoffman studied his role with Edward Bunker, an ex-con who wrote No Beast So Fierce about his struggles with the system after getting paroled.  This is an excellent film, and surprisingly still relevant.  Highly recommended.

 

Leaving Criterion Sept. 30th. 

 

Next came a big budget Hollywood film rendered in CinemaScope and with De Luxe colour.  The Long Hot Summer is from 1958 and directed by Martin Ritt, from a novel by Faulkner.  It stars Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward, Orson Welles, Tony Franciosa, Lee Remick and Angela Lansbury.  Newman plays Ben Quick, son of an infamous arsonist.  Welles is the overbearing patriarch of a Mississippi plantation, with a gutless son (Franciosa) and a daughter who he wants to see married (Woodward).  While Welles might get more lines (though some are difficult to understand), and Newman gets star billing, it is Woodward's performance that really scores points here.  No wonder Newman married her soon after filming!  She is totally amazing as the school teacher daughter raised by a seemingly uncaring father.  Franciosa is also good in his role as the son who is being eclipsed by the outsider (Newman) in his father's eyes, and Lee Remick sparkles as his young and immature bride.  A recommended film.

 

Leaving Criterion Sept. 30th. 

 

Mapman Mike

 

 

 

 

More Travel

We are just back from another 2 week visit to London and vicinity.  While I had expected to be in Vienna in October, I gladly settled for London in late August and early September.  One of the reasons for the early travel (it was still high tourist season when we arrived) was because a film of Deb's was showing at a film festival that she has always wanted to visit.  The Women Over 50 had selected a film of hers for the fifth time, so we finally made the journey to Lewes to experience the event.  We had visited The Depot Cinema informally in May.  Deb came home with a runner up certificate for She Makes a Moving Picture, which received high praise from the judges.  The festival was a full one day affair, divided into blocks.  I attended the first block, where Deb's film screened, then literally headed into the hills for some spectacular downs walking.  Deb spent the entire day at the festival.

 

Another reason for our London trip was to continue our walking segments of the London Loop and the Capital Ring.  As in May, we completed one Loop segment and two Ring segments.  While only two Ring segments remain to complete, we still have four more of the longer Loop segments to do.  We also increased our cultural doings quite a bit this time, after a very slack attempt last May.  We visited the National Gallery, Apsley House, Courthauld Gallery, Guildhall, Temple and three Roman ruins within London.  In Eynsford we visited a Roman ruin and a castle ruin, while in Lewes I visited the ruins of a large priory.  We even saw several Banksy works of art, one of them in situ still and the others on pub walls.  Of course we managed to squeeze in a few pub visits as well, even discovering a new fabulous oasis for craft real ales.  

 

It was an exhausting trip with no days off, though a few times we returned early to the hotel for a quiet evening lying on a bed, feeling our feet tingling from much walking.  We flew with Air Canada from Windsor, leaving on a Wednesday and returning exactly two weeks later.  All flights went well except our final journey home from Toronto to Windsor, which ran just over two hours late.  Our final day was a 22 hour marathon of a very long bus ride and the two flights home.  Much more about the trip will be forthcoming over the next two weeks on the Travels Abroad blog, link in upper left margin.  We managed to meet with Caroline once; our second visit was cancelled due to bad weather and some transport problems for Caroline.

 

First photo of the trip, as we set out from Highgate on segment 12 of the Capital Ring.  Sadly we never got to try the whiskey.  This billboard was on the side of the Boogaloo Pub (not visited).

 

There are hardly any red box telephones remaining in London.  These are set up as an art display outside Smithfields Market. 

 

One of our relaxing evenings at the hotel we managed to watch a Criterion movie offering via Deb's phone and tablet.  She made it magically appear on the hotel TV and we lay in bed and watched the remarkable Ashes and Diamonds, a Polish film from 1958 directed by Andrzej Wadja.  Somehow,this masterpiece had slipped past us until now.  It is a totally amazing film from start to finish, with many moments of brilliance and genius.  The plot has to do with the assassination attempt on a pro-Russian (communist) speaker coming to a small town to try and convince the workers to join the communist party.  Opposition party members first fail in their attempt, killing two innocent men instead by mistake.  The film has plenty of tension and release, as the main assassin character falls in love with a barmaid at his hotel and nearly pulls out of the attempt.  This is a riveting film from start to finish, with superb writing and excellent photography supporting the good acting.  Highly recommended!

 

Now showing on Criterion.  The poster is a tribute to the film's best shot,

an upside down Christ on the cross.  

 

Thursday night, amidst loads of laundry, we watched an oddball film, deemed a "sunshine noir" by Criterion.  Violent Saturday is a 1955 film directed by Richard Fleischer and starring Victor Mature, Richard Egan, Ernest Borgnine, Lee Marvin and several other recognizable character actors.  The action takes place in a small Arizona town (filmed in Bisbee, AZ, a place we have visited a few times).  The film is ostensibly about a bank heist to be undertaken by three out-of-town criminals, but it also partly a Douglas Sirk melodrama about various inhabitants of the mining town.  So, a film that is a cross between a soap opera and crime drama.  Results are mixed, but as it is filmed in Cinemascope with De Luxe colour, the film is always great to watch.  Mature plays the hero who stands up to the criminals, getting shot himself and rescued at the last moment by Borgnine, who plays a pitchfork wielding peace loving Amish farmer who is pushed over the edge by the criminals.  He gets no credit at the end for his heroic and life saving action.  Definitely worth watching, especially on a 50" TV screen in a small room.

 

Leaving Criterion Sept. 30th. 

 

I'll be back with trip updates soon.  Check back in a few days.

 

Mapman Mike 

 

 

 
 

 

 

Movie Catch Up

As reported earlier, there are two Sherlock Holmes features and two silent films that we have recently viewed. The Holmes movies are showing on Prime, and were part of a planned series that never got further than these two offerings.  The Sign of Four is from 1983 and stars Ian Richardson and David Healy as the dynamic duo.  They both seem effective, and seemed chosen to resemble Rathbone and his Watson.  But Healy doesn't play the fool nearly as overboard as Nigel Bruce, and the paring works well here.  The story has a few discrepancies with the Homes canon, but not enough to raise eyebrows very high at all.  There are a few good scenes, and a few bad ones.  The Andaman native aspect is overplayed, and the two brothers who inherit a treasure from their father (but don't know where it is) are nothing too special.  The best scene is an extended one with Toby leading the chase as he sniffs out the creosote, with Holmes and Watson catching up on the case details as they go.  Worth a look for Holmes fans.

 

Showing on Prime Video. 

 

The same Holmes and Watson are back in the 1983 Hound of the Baskervilles.  This is one of those stories that fans of Holmes know down to the last detail.  Again we have a pretty decent attempt at bringing the tale to life, though there are a few changes once again.  Brian Blessed (over) plays the red herring.  In fact, everyone seems suspicious in this version and if you didn't know who the bad guy was you might never guess.  Stapleton is well played by Nicholas Clay (who also appears in the Brett series, as the doctor in The Resident Patient) (and Lancelot in Boorman's Excalibur).  Again this version is worth watching.  Holmes smiles and laughs a lot, and his sense of humour makes him seem a bit more human than many other players of the character.  Well worth watching, and reading, of course.  One of the best mystery stories ever written.

 

Now showing on Prime Video. 

 

Next were two very different silent films that we watched on Criterion.  Here is the channel's blurb:

 

WITHIN OUR GATES (1920) is the earliest surviving feature film by an African American director. It was Oscar Micheaux’s second film (after 1919’s THE HOMESTEADER, now lost), centering on an idealistic young woman named Sylvia Landry (Evelyn Preer, one of the first great stars of the race film) who attempts to raise money for an elementary school for black children. In the course of navigating the racial politics of both the black and white communities, Sylvia’s past is revealed in a series of flashbacks that contain the film’s most notorious sequence: the lynching of her parents by a white mob. Micheaux’s staging of the scene is startling in its bluntness and speaks volumes about the director’s fearlessness and willingness to address taboo subject matter. The film touches upon other themes that would recur throughout the controversial filmmaker’s career, such as the promise of rural life vs. the corrupting influence of the city, and the use of religion as a means of misleading the black community. 

 

Of interest mainly to film historians, especially of early Black American cinema, it features overacting and repetitive scenes.  It does have its chilling moments, however, and does not spare the Black man in its condemnation, even though it is the whites who are at the heart of this tragedy.

 

Streaming on Criterion. 

 

Lastly comes a very intense film from Sweden, starring and directed by Victor Sjostrom.  The Phantom Carriage is from 1921 and is quite sophisticated for its time.  A young Salvation army woman tries to save the soul of a local villain, but he is having none of it.  The carriage in question is driven by Death's servant, who must spend one year collecting bodies from where they died.  There are many striking scenes, including a drowning victim picked up by the carriage in the ocean moments after he dies.  More intense than A Christmas Carol, there is a resemblance between the two films in theme and in its use of ghosts and past events to get its point across.  Recommended.  Bergman was heavily influenced by this film, and the actor/director of it stars in the leading role in Bergman's Wild Strawberries.

 

Mapman Mike 

 

 

 

A Big Anniversary

Last Friday was our 50th wedding anniversary.  We spent a quiet day at home but plan to party hearty in a few weeks.  My surprise present to Deb will be revealed at that time.  In the meantime, here is a photo from the big day.  We were married at Our Lady of The Pines, a small church on Lake Penage.

 

The bridal party and family leave the church.  We were heading for boats to take us back to the camp.  For our honeymoon Deb and I took over the family camp for a week, doing canoe day trips and enjoying the late August weather with swimming and saunas.  We would leave for university very soon. 

 

Sunday was board game day.  We played a round of BBC's Doctor Who game, the classic doctor version.

 

Today's board game.  The player must protect locations with various versions of the Doctor, along with his companion allies.  The player must also try to attack the sites of his opponent with Daleks, Cybermen, Silurians, the Master and so on.  It is really a card game, not a board game. 

 

In other gaming news, PC related, I'm getting the hang of Tomb Raider 1.  My reaction times are improving, as is my swimming technique.  Still lots to work on, though.

 

All of the locations are based on actual archeological material, including the incredible dolphin pool.
 From the updated version of TR 1.

 

I'm also replaying Realmyst, and though the game itself is over I continue wandering around taking photos, waiting for the light to change and the day/night cycle.

 

Moonrise in Channelwood, Realmyst.

 

In this world, Selenitic, a number of sound puzzles must be solved.  Realmyst. 

 

Train Sim World continues to occupy a lot of my time.  So far I am driving trains on 35 different routes in several different countries.  I still have many routes I have not yet used. I add a new one about once per month.  Each route has 8-10 locomotives, each with their own timetable.  Even one route could keep me busy for a year.  I am now driving over 50 different types of locomotives.  Could I really drive them on real trains?  Yup, if I had the master key and reverser handle.  No problem!

 

Hauling freight in Montana.  American freight routes are the most challenging.

 

Hauling freight through the Austrian Alps.

 

Running a passenger service on the Ilse of Wight. 

 

We have played 80 Days twice now, winning one and losing one (each by a single day).  We will play a 3rd time soon, but not to win.  It's more fun just exploring and taking bizarre routes around the world.  This is a fun game, but if taken too seriously can lead to much frustration.  Just enjoy the journey!

 

 2 screenshots from 80 Days PC game. 

 

I'll be back soon with a 4-movie update: two Sherlock Holmes films and two silent pictures. 

 

Mapman Mike 

 

 

 

 
 

 

 

Mid-August Briefing

Congratulations to England, which is finally getting some rain!  Maybe someday we'll get some here at the Homestead, too. The heat has been turned down a notch, but the humidity continues unabated.  As does the poor air quality as a result.  The air is often dead still.  A ten minute walk outside is like taking a bath.  Temps are in the mid to low 80s most days, and we have had some clouds.  But we need rain quite badly here.  The ground is cracked and very dry and nothing is growing unless it gets watered a lot.  There are both floods and fires not far from us, but we seem to be taking the middle ground.  So far our 30 year old air conditioner has been up to the challenge.  However, we keep the house at 77 F so as not to overtax it.  We needed a new dehumidifier for the basement, it's been running constantly and I've been dumping bucket after bucket of water.  Looking forward to autumn.  Summer is not a nice season in this area.

Piano pieces are coming along.  I nearly have all three Scriabin pieces memorized (along with one Bach, a Haydn sonata, March Wind, and one of two Glass pieces.  I will soon begin memorizing the 2nd Glass piece.  Not being memorized this time is the Bach Prelude and Fugue and the Chopin Nocturne, the latter still giving me pains as I try to master this incredible piece of very difficult music (Op 28 #2).

 

Deb has been switching most of her films to her Youtube channel, as well as fixing up an older film which she was never happy with.  We continue to view commercial films, so here's what we've been up to lately.

 

First, two from Kino Films Collection.  Regular readers of this blog will already know that we watch some pretty strange and weirdly wonderful films, so when I announce that we have watched a really strange one, I usually mean just that.  Legend of the Mountain is a fantasy/horror film from 1979 and directed by King Hu.  With a running time of over 3 hours and the film often moving quite slowly, this one takes a commitment to get through.  A traveling scholar is given an assignment, namely to copy an old manuscript with magical powers within its words.  The scholar is a bit of a goofy character.  Filmed in Taiwan, the landscape scenery is absolutely wonderful, and the fact that it is a wide screen movie helps a lot.  The scholar gets mixed up with a group of ghosts, most of them wanting to get their paws on the documents, which might help them gain more power.  There is no kung fu in the film, though there is some flying and a lot of disappearing.  Replacing kung fu are magic drums, and the good versus evil ones dual via drums.  The smoke and fog machine gets a good workout, and the settings inside and outside of old abandoned monasteries are quite eye-catching.   If you are looking for a weird Chinese movie that is actually quite watchable, this just might be it.  Mildly recommended, especially if you are tired of kung fu films.  Make sure you are watching the full version, all 3 hrs and 12' worth.

 

From Kino Films and showing on Amazon Prime. 

 

Also from Kino is another decently strange offering.  Paul Auster wrote, produced and directed The Inner Life of Martin Frost and it was released in 2007.  Auster's novels are not likely to appeal to a wide audience.  I have read his New York Trilogy and have mixed feelings, though I did really enjoy the first in the series.  It is unlikely that this film will have wide appeal, though I did, for the most part, like it.  A writer stays at a friend's secluded house while away, and hopes to recover from just having finished his most recent novel.  He awakens after his first night to find a young woman in bed beside him.  They gradually get to know one another, but she is not who whom she said she was.  Even so, Martin falls for her and they are soon in love.  He is suddenly alert and writing again.  The mysterious plot doesn't really thicken, but it remains quite mysterious throughout.  The film is only 90 minutes, though parts of it drag a bit.  The couple are separated when she is called back from whence she came, but there seems to be a way around their dilemma.  The film has a good beginning and a good ending, so it's more than halfway successful already.  Some of the middle bits seemed a bit padded, as if trying to stretch out a short story.  The film is very theatrical and should appeal to folks who like stage performances.  Recommended, though not highly.

 

Now showing on Kino Films. 

 

The remaining film was watched on the Criterion Channel.  Rams is a documentary from 2018 and directed by Gary Hustwit.  It chronicles the works of lead designer at Braun Dieter Rams.  Neither of us had heard of this man, but we were both fascinated by this film and the super super cool stuff that he designed.  Many of his designs out-Bauhaus the Bauhaus, though that school was certainly a major influence.  Record players, radios, shelving units, chairs... just about any kind of utensil one could think of was beautifully designed and expertly crafted during his time at Braun.  His lean design look matches his philosophy.  Nothing should be made that isn't simple and direct in appearance, and nothing extra should be added.  Not only that, but the item should be built to last and be easy to repair.  Not too many things manufactured today have that kind of outlook.  A truly wonderful film about a very brilliant (and useful!) man.  His ten principles of design are still studied by design students today.  Highly recommended.

 

Now streaming on Criterion. 

 

Mapman Mike