Election is Over: Huzzah!

It's been pretty quiet around the Homestead since our return from Kalamazoo.  Deb is deeply involved with her series 2 films, using brand new software.  I continue to practice piano, read, and pretend I'm an amateur astronomer.  It began clear on Sunday evening, but after 90 minutes I was forced to close down due to incoming clouds (not predicted).  It's been very cloudy since, and doesn't look promising for the rest of the session, either.  Perhaps one upcoming night, but I'll believe it when I experience it.  I literally spend more time preparing what to see than actually observing.

Our election is over and done with for now, even as Brexit and Trump doings drag on elsewhere.  We are fortunate that things, for now, continue to run somewhat smoothly and normally.  I am happy that the election phone calls will stop, and the signs will be gone from lawns.  We voted early Monday morning, getting right up to our poll with no delay.  Right afterwards we went to Tecumseh where Deb had her bi-monthly infusion.  All is well.  Next up are flu shots.

The listening program went through the 75s tonight.  Haydn's Symphony #75 was up first.  Gustav the Cat loves Haydn, as do I.  He is the perfect everyday composer, with just the right balance of art, beauty, emotion, craft, and good taste, something we should all experience every day of our lives.  Brahms' duets Op 75 were up next, four short songs based on very different poetry.  #1 was based on a very old Scottish ballad, and was a highlight, and the last, Walpurgis Night, is a classic poem and beautifully handled by Brahms as a song. Last came Britten's Op 75, written in 1965 for the 20th anniversary of the UN.  He took quotes about peace from many different sources and wrote a gentle piece for choirs and organ.

Getting back to my landscape painting project from the DIA, thoughts turn to Venice this time, and a great painting from Canaletto, who specialized in Venetian scenes.  His portrayal of the famous piazza takes some liberties with what one can see all at once, but it is an accurate description of the space before Napoleon did some renovations and alterations.

 The Piazza San Marco, Venice, ca 1736-67, Canaletto.

Oil on canvas, 29" x 47".  Detroit Institute of Arts.

 Detail of central area.  

We did conclude season one of Carnival Row.  Not much to say about it, except that the creators seemed to take their story ideas from Game of Thrones, or at least their overall outlook.  It is a dismal existence for most people, especially anyone with wings or horns.  Anyway, I survived, and am not really looking forward to Season Two, if there is one.  It's a Prime original, and if the look of the show is anything to go by, then the upcoming Tolkien production (now filming in nNew Zealand) should be at least as spectacular.

Tonight we watched Padre Padrone, a film from from 1977, by the Taviani brothers.  From an autobiography by Gavino Ledda, it was published only in 1974.  Medieval times carried on in parts of Italy well in the 20th C., and this bizarre film takes us to many places and situations we wish we had never seen nor heard of.  In that sense, it is unforgettable.  Somehow the author managed to not only survive such a brutal and empty upbringing (a lonely shepherd, terrorized and beaten by his father), but to transcend it and return to accept not what happened to him, but to acknowledge his roots in the landscape where he spent so many years.  The film won the Palme d'Or from Cannes that year.  Brutally honest and unflinching, there are moments when one wonders how Ledda managed to survive, and eventually to soar, above his upbringing.  With a father like his, who needs Satan.

 

Tonight's Criterion film. 

There are two more films available by the directors, as well as a 50 minute documentary about them.  Right now, I need some time off from the Tavianis.

Mapman Mike