Dreary Days

I suppose the dreary weather is helping people to remain indoors.  It's been mostly gloomy for two weeks now, though the flowers and trees seem to like the colder weather.  Our last pleasure outing was March 10th, so we are 7 weeks into staying home.  It's been good news for the piano repertoire.  Memory work is actually a bit ahead of schedule, and most pieces should be inside my head by the end of May.  It's also good news for Deb's film making, as well as my reading and listening program.  Three astronomy nights have helped me keep my sanity, too.  With the moon waxing now, my session possibilities are nearly at an end.

We've also been getting some yard work done.  That includes getting the lawn tractor started and all three lawns cut at last.  The remains of last year's leaves got chopped up, and things are beginning to look halfway civilized.  Last Thursday we picked up our first on-line grocery order.  Though they were out of some things and substituted others, we did well enough to try it again next week.  You simply drive up to a special parking area at the store, phone them, open your trunk, and someone comes out with your groceries and puts in the vehicle.  I might get used to shopping this way in the future, too.

Deb's movie choice last week was Ball of Fire, starring Gary Cooper and Barbara Stanwyck.  From 1941 and directed by Howard Hawks, it concerns a group of professors writing an encyclopedia, and a young singer with dubious connections who assists them with the section on slang.  She brings a breath of fresh air to the study, and the 8 professors take a fancy to her.  It's a light comedy, with Gary Cooper getting to show a different side to his acting ability.  The 7 older professors are played by some of cinema's finest character actors, giving some depth to this adventure.  Miss Stanwyck gets to sing a song at the start, backed by Gene Krupa and his band.

From 1941, and showing on Criterion Channel. 

Today's artwork is a photograph from the collection of the Detroit Institute of Arts.  Here is a quote about this important photograph from their website:

“Brig upon the Water” created a sensation when it was first exhibited at the Photographic Society of London in December 1856, because it was reported to have been printed from one negative. Such an achievement was considered extraordinary, because the light sensitivity of the materials used was very uneven and typically yielded either well-defined scenes with completely washed-out skies or very dark, unreadable scenes with well-developed skies. To fuse the sky with the scene the photographer usually either in-painted clouds by hand or printed twice, using one negative for the sky and another for the scene. Perhaps Le Gray succeeded with this seascape because he kept the composition simple. Here the exposure time for the sky and water was equal, and the brig, while dark indeed, appears as an appealing silhouette."

 Brig Upon The Water, Gustave Le Gray, French (1820-1882).  Albumen print, ca. 1856.  13" x 16".

This is a stunning photo, a difficult enough subject to pull off today!  I do not remember seeing this, though I will watch for it during any upcoming photography exhibits from the collection.  There is a gallery devoted to photography at the DIA.

Detail of above.  

It's film festival weekend, my choice.  I have selected three films by Claude Autant-Lara.  More later.

Mapman Mike