Our new normal is working out fine for us. Our once per week grocery shopping trips have (so far) being easy and hassle free. We are out for walk in the neighbourhood almost every day, though tomorrow's exercise will be dedicated to cleaning up the yard, after a winter of winds. The last few days have been gorgeous; sunny and very mild, with little wind. Our next outing will be Tuesday, when Deb goes for her infusion. I will drop her off instead of accompany her, and I will try for groceries at a nearby large supermarket. My strategy is simple; if it isn't busy, I go inside and shop. If the parking lot is full, I give it a miss. Tonight will be the 2nd clear night in a row, giving us an opportunity to see Venus passing in front of the Pleiades star cluster just after sundown. Anyone with binoculars can see this very cool event, as the sky's best and brightest star cluster meets the brightest object in the sky, not counting the Moon and the Sun. Last night Venus was just on the edge of the cluster; tonight it will lie amidst it.
We watched two movies this past week, one dismal and one very good. The dismal one was Lindsay Anderson's Britannia Hospital, which was agonizing to sit through. Nothing comes out right in this look at a troubled time in England, as people protested their hospitals being used by the rich, who were given special treatment (which they paid for), while the regular citizens had a 2nd class service. A worthy cause for a film, perhaps, but it proves to be disastrous. Filled with fine actors and actresses, the entire project seems destined for rubbish heap after about 30 minutes. It continues to writhe in agony (or was that me) for a further 90 minutes.
Much better was Allison's Anders' first big solo feature, a neat little indie film called Gas Food Lodging. Filmed in Deming, NM (we recognized many of the landscape features), it's about a mother trying to raise two teenage daughters in a small town that serves mostly as an Interstate stop. Mom is a waitress at a truck stop diner, living in a depressing trailer park with two teenagers. The oldest one is hell bent on self destruction, while the younger (sensitively played by Fairuza Balk) is still searching for her place in the scheme of things. No pretensions here of trying to solve major world problems, just a harsh and close up look at a small family, with the mom trying her best to hold things together. Highly recommended.
This film has aged very badly. If it ever did have significance, it was lost a long time ago.
A must to avoid. Now showing on Criterion Channel.
A small treasure of a movie, and recommended highly.
Now showing on Criterion Channel.
In art news, with Spring and flowers bursting forth everywhere we turn, it is now safe to think of summer, and visiting the farm. Which farm? Why Glebe Farm, in England, of course. Constable's painting recalls the work of Dutch masters, but he also predates the Barbizon School by many years, which also influenced the impressionists. One of two Constable paintings in Detroit, this one is a favourite, and is usually on display. The sky bursts with everyday drama, and the air seems thick and heavy with the scent of greenery and humidity.
The Glebe Farm, Dedham, 1827. John Constable, English (1776-1837). Oil on canvas, 18" x 23.5". Collection Detroit Institute of Arts. A calming image in a troubled time.
Detail of left side, above. The artist did 4 versions,
another of which is in Tate Britain.
another of which is in Tate Britain.
Detail of the farm.
Detail of lower right side, above. Notice the impressionistic brush strokes!
Practicing is going well, and the listening program is still going great guns (Haydn #98 coming up next). I was called upon to use my powerful, manly voice to be the narrator in Deb's current short film, a retelling of the Poe story Masque of the Red Death. I'm sure it will lead to no end of requests from other filmmakers. But I will continue to be very selective in my choice of narrated films. I have (literally, really and truly) played Hamlet in Stratford Upon Avon, doing his voice for a movie Deb made that was screened there. So I have some legitimate credits to my name.
Though piano practice itself is going well, memorization of pieces is quite another matter. Instead of my billions of healthy synapses snapping to attention when needed and getting the job done, I have been trying to pour notes into a head containing a substance reminiscent of porridge that has been left to cool in the pot too long. It is an agonizing task to memorize new pieces. Very slow and anything but steady, but it goes on.
I now have less than 100 pages left in Spinrad's Mexica, his detailed and well researched account of how Cortes managed to conquer Tenochtitlan. It wasn't as easy as school books would have you think, but it still was a remarkable achievement. Sometimes the book is a bit of a slog, but most parts read well, and the narrative is always clear and unfuddled. The descriptions of what the city looked like, its size, its vast population, and how it totally awed the Europeans, is worth reading the book for in itself. Having visited the existing ruins a few times, and seen the progress of recent archaeological digs, I would like to return once more to see these things again. The National Museum of Anthropology remains one of the finest museums I have ever visited.
Mapman Mike
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