The grand finale to any month's end around here is a three-film festival, courtesy of Criterion. It's Deb's turn this month, and she has chosen 3 by Powell and Pressburger. I will report on those after we have seen them.
Last week my choice of movie was Pasolini's Canterbury Tales. It's basically a farcical comedy, and while some jokes are quite scatalogical (lots of fart jokes coming up in movies lately), others are actually pretty funny. The Charlie Chaplin tribute is very well done. While I like the movie overall, the editing seems to be a disaster, despite the director re-editing it himself twice. Still, it's fun to watch. And it's your chance to see Tom Baker naked. As Deb said afterwards, some things you just can't unsee. The finale, filmed on Mt. Etna, must be seen to be believed. Of course there were many extras to watch, too.
Just ending its run on Criterion.
Deb's film choice was a French swashbuckler from 1952 called Fanfan Le Tulip, a take off on Douglas Fairbanks movies. It stars Gerard Philipe, who makes a very good impression as such a hero. Sadly, he died at the age of 36! Co-starring is Gina Lollobrigida, who, besides showing off her charms throughout, also gets to put in a decent acting appearance.
Now showing on the Criterion Channel.
In even more exciting news, I ordered 6 new telescope eyepieces yesterday, a matched set. Instead of having to refocus each time I pop in a different eyepiece, the focus should be basically the same for all of them. It can take a long time to refocus each time. Plus, these are the highest quality eyepieces that I can afford. I mostly use basic ones now, so the images should be twice as stunning. No word on when they might arrive.
Deb is hard at work an the new Yorick mini series. 3 episodes are done so far, and they are destined to become classic ones. I was hard at work today wacking weeds with the aptly named weed wacker, and mowing the lawn with the aptly named lawn mower. Our yard goes from being bare to impenetrable jungle in about 6 days, if left unattended.
For today's exploration of the five sense, an on-going feature here at the Homestead blog, I will reveal five of my favourite smells.
Smell
1) Bakery (bread, cake, cookies)
2) Ponderosa pine (in NM, on a warm and sunny day, the tree bark smells like fresh baked vanilla cookies)
3) Coffee, freshly brewed or recently roasted. Even the green beans, unroasted, smell wonderful.
4) Wood smoke, especially pinon pine.
5) Laphroig single malt whiskey.
Next time I will detail my readings for May. It is also the end of Year 4 for my vast and unfinished Avon/Equinox reading project, so I will have something to say about that, too. Come back soon.
Mapman Mike
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