There Goes June

Staying home for us is fun, luckily.  We will be doing a lot more of it, as we watch the country just across the border from us collapse in on itself, as if being devoured by a black hole.  What a fiasco.  I wonder what they really thought they would get when Trump was elected?  A majority knew, but that doesn't count in American voting.  Even if Trump loses in November, that country will be a complete mess for many years.  I only hope I live long enough to return to New Mexico, even briefly, to say goodbye.  Of course, with Canada so dependent on US trade, our country is being dragged down, too.  We have already lost about 30 per cent of our retirement investments.  Can't wait for the next update.

The piano pieces are all memorized, though not yet ready for their close up.  A few could be played in public, but another month of letting the pieces sink in a little deeper won't hurt them.  Perhaps by August we will feel like inviting a few people at a time over to the Homestead.  Not yet.  Deb is concluding her recent Yorick series 2.5, as she works on the 7th and final episode.  More awards keep coming in for her films, too.  Three recently.

We have not only resumed playing Middle Earth The Wizards collectible card game, but we have finally taken steps to move on to the next level, playing the Lidless Eye.  This series came out in 1997, and we purchased three starter decks, but never took up the game.  Instead of playing with a company of heroes led by a wizard, in Lidless Eye you play as a Ringwraith, trying to amass points for Sauron.  And a Ringwraith deck can be played against a wizard deck, so it really opens up the possibilities.  We have ordered a batch of decks from the Netherlands, and booster packs.  In the meantime we are using our own three decks to learn the rules.  We also are playing Wizards, and will finish up our current tournament before embarking on our new journey in card playing.

We received just over 2" of rain, as a giant storm system passed through on Friday. We will survive for a time.  But no rain is in the 10 day forecast, so there will be plenty of sun, and a possible 7-day run of temps in the low 90s (33 C), beginning tomorrow.

In film news, Deb's choice last week was a sleeper called The Daytrippers, from 1997.  A family heads to NYC from New Jersey when the husband of the oldest daughter is suspected of cheating on her.  With Dad driving and loudmouth mom in control, the family sets out.  The younger sister and her boyfriend are also in the station wagon, as their adventures finally lead them to a major showdown, with the cheating husband, and with themselves.  Well written and well acted, this is a film definitely worth catching.

 Now showing on Criterion.

My weekend end-of-the-month film festival focused on Fassbinder's three earliest films, in order, all from 1969.  The first one, Love Is Colder Than Death, is bleak and quite uninteresting.  The story zeroes in on Franz, a petty but violent criminal, and his girl, Joanna.  Fassbinder plays Franz, and Hanna Schygulla Joanna.  The film features an experimentally slow pace, white walls, and close-cropped editing of inactive scenes.  It takes its lead from Godard's Breathless, but does the complete opposite.  It was fun to see where it all began.  Fassbinder, who only lived to age 37, left an astonishing amount of work behind.  He came from a theatrical background, and used his theatre cast for all his early films.  He appears in all three of these.

 Love Is Colder Than Death, Fassbinder's first feature film.

Now showing on Criterion.

The 2nd film, Katzelmacher (Troublemaker), is a little more watchable.  It focuses on a group of 21 yr old males and females, who could be a German adult version of the gang from Charles Schultz' Peanuts.  There is a lot of humour in this one, subtle and dark.  A Greek immigrant comes to Munich for a higher paying job, and rents a room in the neighbourhood (played by Fassbinder).  The neighbourhood slugs, in true anti-immigrant fashion, reject him, and spread rumours about him and the woman who rents out his room.  All of them, that is, except the character played by Schygulla, who thinks he is a really nice guy.  German New Wave cinema is not the same as other waves from different countries.  Fassbinder hits home, but I wonder how many Germans actually recognized themselves in his films.

 Now showing on Criterion.

His 3rd film, Gods of the Plague, is a sequel to his first one, with the character of Franz reappearing as he gets out of jail, but played by a different actor.  Joanna (Schygulla, looking radiant) is left behind by Franz this time, and she gets her revenge.  This film is very different from his first two, being much more cinematic.  There are aerial shots, we get out in the countryside (the lunch time fight at the farm is truly hilarious), and sets are loaded with detail, a far cry from the first films.  Fassbinder makes a brief appearance, a la Hitchcock, as a purveyor of pornographic magazines, eventually buying one.  The only lower life form than Franz in the film is the cop who is out to get him.

 Now showing on Criterion, Fassbinder's third film.

We have watched the first episode of Berlin Alexanderplatz, and will watch two more episodes starting tonight.  More on that tomorrow, as well as a recap of my June reading.  Come back soon.

Mapman Mike

My Trip To Accra

Accra is the capital city of Ghana, on the coast of the Atlantic Ocean.  It's a 13 hour journey from Detroit, with a change of planes in New York.  Quite doable.  Why Accra?  Why not?  Anyway, I've been spending time there recently, poking around shops, restaurants (there are some very good vegan ones), museums, markets, and art galleries.  I chose a decent hotel, selected a good room, then headed out to explore.  All thanks to Google Maps.  It's actually a pretty fun way to travel, at least these days.  One can even get to street level for much of the city, and march up and down the avenues.  Many stores and all museums have good websites, and restaurants often have up to date menus.  There are a ton of photos to look at, too, if desired.  I'm not sure where I will visit next.  Abidjan is not far away, so I may go there for awhile. Enjoy the ocean breeze for awhile.

 Western-influenced side of Accra.

 A somewhat more African side of Accra. 

Train journeys are also fun on Google Maps and/or Google Earth.  In fact, if there is train service between Accra and Abidjan, that is how I might travel there.  And I won't have to wear a mask!

In Tarot card news, my new card for the first half of the summer is....

 ...a winter card!  As I mentioned in the previous post, I seem to have a reverse affinity with Summer Solstice, which usually brings me a winter dream or two.  My very barren summer card this time around shows a standing stone in the midst of a snowstorm.  Now what kind of summer do you think I might have?  Well, I should mention here that Essex County, where I live, is now the only place in Canada still in Stage 1 shutdown.  Even Toronto got moved ahead to Stage 2.  Not us.  There are some problems with migrant workers from Mexico.  They live in totally crap conditions, and if one of them gets sick, they all do.  Well, a whole bunch of them are currently sick.  Federal government investigators are visiting and reporting.  Hopefully something will finally be done about the living conditions of these essential workers, not to mention their wages.  In the meantime, we are still stuck at home, except for grocery store runs and, tomorrow, a visit to a doctor for Deb.  So as far as getting outside, my summer seems pretty bleak at the moment.  No Windsor, let alone Detroit.

We received a badly needed 0.6" rain overnight, the first drop we've had in 21 days.  Things are bone dry and cracked here, but the green has suddenly returned.

I am starting on my 3rd week of a basic indoor fitness program, which includes treadmill walking, some very light weights, and some tummy work, to flatten the curve, so to speak.  After four weeks I'll decide how to continue the program, and continue to wonder if there will be any hiking this year at all.  Indoor summer training is good.  No sunblock, no flies, no traffic, no heat, no humidity. 

In movie news, Deb's weekend choice was the 1958 Italian comedy caper Big Deal On Madonna Street, starring many good people, including a small role for Claudia Cardinale.  Gassman is in it, Marcello, and some great situations, as a group of total losers, who will do anything but work for a living, set out to rob the safe of a pawn broker.  Everything that could go wrong does, but I doubt if these crooks expected anything less.  The way Gassman finally gets a job at the end is hilarious, though seeing the honest boy who loves Claudia selling popcorn and candy at the cinema is just really sad.

Big Deal On Madonna Street, now showing on Criterion.  

Film festival weekend is nearly upon us.  I have chosen Berlin Alexanderplatz.  We will watch the first segment tonight and see if we want to commit to the whole project.

Mapman Mike

Summer Solstice

A strange thing happens to me near or on every Summer Solstice.  I have a winter dream, with snow.  This year was no exception.  On Friday night I dreamt that I was driving in towards Windsor with my cousin Cathy.  It was June but we'd had a rare significant snowfall the day before Solstice.  It wasn't sticking much on the ground, but it was thick in all of the trees.  So the tradition continues.  Perhaps I'm really Australian, or Patagonian, since it is winter there just now.

Winter Solstice is a celebration of the return of the light, so sunrise is the best time to welcome back the Sun.  At Summer Solstice, it is about celebrating the long hours of daylight, so necessary to grow successful crops.  But at the same time, it is about mourning the approach of darker days.  So sunset is the suitable time to celebrate this holiday.  It is highly doubtful that prehistoric humans celebrated either event.  For one thing, clear skies are needed for about ten days in a row, 5 preceding and 5 following the Solstice.  For another thing, one would need a clear horizon.  But since vast forests covered the lands, not to mention hills and mountains, it would be almost impossible to actually see the sunset or sunrise as we do today, looking across vast treeless fields.  

Our cottage on Lake Penage, west of Sudbury, is a good example of this.  From about the age of ten until about 40, all the days, months, and years spent there I was not able to see an actual sunrise or sunset, due to the trees and hills.  The Egyptians could, however, from their desert location.  And they had reason to keep watch on this event, as it heralded the annual flooding of the Nile.  Even so, the actual event was only marked, and not celebrated.  Stonehenge?  No way, Jose.  What about all those perfectly aligned stones?  Well, there are so many of them, in a rough circle, that a few are bound to line up with quite a few things, through pure chance.  But with no need to mark the Solstices or Equinoxes, why would prehistoric humans even bother?  They were much more concerned with the cross-quarter days, such as Imbolg, Lammas, Beltane, and Samhain, all to do with their animals and crops.

Here is a painting from the DIA I have chosen to represent Solstice.  Of course it is a winter one, because from this moment on, that is the direction we are heading.  From an astronomy perspective, beginning next month I'll be able to start observing earlier in the evening, instead of waiting until almost midnight for dark skies.

 Winter Landscape in Moonlight, 1919, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, German 1880-1938.

Oil on canvas, 47.5" x 47.5". 

This beautiful and powerful painting has been in the collection of the DIA since 1940, having been previously in the collection of the director at that time, William Valentiner, who fled Germany with it in the 1930s.  Thanks to Dr. Valentiner, Detroit has one of the world's largest and best collections of German Expressionist art.  He was also responsible for snagging our Bruegel painting, as well as one of the finest Rembrandt pictures in America.  This winter one is a large picture, well over a metre square, and has an immediate impact on the viewer.  Most art museums have very few great winter pictures on display.  For some reason this one always cheers me up, showing a secluded alpine valley magically transformed by strange clouds filtering the moonlight.  We peer over the mountains and down into the valley like some all-seeing god, dazzled by winter's power and the magic it can create.  Nature overwhelms the human-built cabins, but also seems to accept them as part of the landscape.  One of my favourite pictures!

My movie pick last week was from 1998.  Down In The Delta is the only film directed by Maya Angelou, though she did not write it.  A quiet drama of black family roots, struggles, and values, the picture is filled with warmth, and some really fine acting.  Its restrained emotions and carefully chosen dialogue and situations will appeal to almost all viewers of family drama.  Definitely worth a look.  Filmed mostly in Toronto, and just outside of it.

 Now showing on Criterion Channel.  

Our county, Essex, is still under stage 1 stay at home orders, though Sudbury and most of Ontario has entered stage 2.  My parents are able to go out again, and the stores and malls are open.  I talked to Dad today, and they are both doing really well, which is always a relief to hear.  They are very happy things are finally returning to some kind of normal.  We will find out Monday if we can enter stage 2 down here, and when.  Still several cases each day locally, though.

With Deb's suppressed immune system, we are not going anywhere soon, anyway.  Definitely no travelling this year.  The land border to the US remains closed until at least July 21st, but that will likely be extended again, at least until the US comes to grips with its rising numbers of Covid 19 cases.  No Canadians want Americans coming over here just now, and very few are in a rush to go over there, either.  Our mailbox, which we haven't used now in over 3 months, will see its contract expire.  We have no idea when it will be safe (for us) to cross the border again.

Mapman Mike 

Catching Up

It's been awhile.  Where have I been, you may ask.  Mostly out in a faraway field with my telescope.  We have had an unprecedented run of 7 clear nights in a row.  And not just clear.  Really, really, clear, and with very low (for us) humidity.  That means the skies have been very transparent, due to less moisture in the air.  And that means I haven't been sleeping nearly enough.  My drive takes 100 minutes, return, a distance of 78 miles (return).  I went out Saturday night the 13th, then again Sunday, Monday and Tuesday.  By Wednesday I could no longer function in the real world, and so I passed on going out again Wednesday night.  But Thursday I was back at it.  It will likely be clear tonight (Friday), but I am done for this session.  It doesn't get dark until 10:45 pm, so my nights have been late ones.  Today I am trying to get my body clock back into some semblance of normality.

I've also written up a lot of observing notes, though I've managed to continue with a bit of writing on Valeria 2, and even to keep up a bit of piano practice.  Reading has slowed down, but should resume again today.  And there are two more movies on which to report.  

But first, I must conclude my 5 senses project, based on last term's tarot card.  Tomorrow is the summer solstice, and new cards will be revealed.

Touchy Feely: 

Deb's lips (softer than soft)

Sun on my face

Cool water from a northern Ontario lake while swimming

Gustav the cat (softer than soft, but a bit furry, too)

A katana in one's hand.

My film choice last week was Dino Risi's Il Sorpasso, a film filled with amazing images and situations, and right up there now in my list with La Dolce Vita.  The extras with the Criterion showing well exceeded the length of the movie, and were also fun to watch.  Essentially the first road movie, it influenced an entire generation of such films, such as Easy Rider.  Italy in 1962 has never looked better.

 Now showing on Criterion Channel. 

Deb's choice was Hopscotch, a spy movie spoof from 1980 starring the unlikely pairing of Walter Matthau and Glenda Jackson.  They have amazing chemistry, and the movie is fun to watch (no extras). Matthau retires from the CIA after he is demoted, and sets about getting his revenge.  Jackson also used to work for the secret service in the past.  The movie is filled with the music of Mozart, and part of it was filmed in Salzburg.

Now showing on Criterion Channel. 

I will try and post another good painting tomorrow from the DIA for summer solstice, so come back soon.

Mapman Mike

 

June Ramblings

It's been sunny.  Very very sunny.  No serious rain here in a few weeks now, and except for the chance of severe storms later today, the outlook for a good, steady all day rain is zero.  Poor farmers.  Last year most of them couldn't plant because the fields were too flooded.  This year the planting goes perfectly, but then...

My left thumb is giving me grief again, injured during the build up to last season's concert.  If I am really careful I can get through a practice without any trouble.  But I must have overdone it yesterday, for it is very painful today.  So no morning practice, and the afternoon one will be very light, if at all.  We may be hiding in the basement, if storm predictions come true.  They sound really bad.

I have just returned from my weekly shopping expedition.  It was a two-stop run today, first for birdseed, and then on to the grocery store for food, and 6 cans of heavenly dark beer.  Imagine, my local A'burg grocery store has London pride and London Porter, from Fullers in London!  The trip was uneventful; it wasn't very busy anywhere i went, except the roads.

Earlier in the week we played a full round of Teotihuacan, City of the Dead, a vast and involving board game that has become our favourite game.  Set up takes about 30 minutes, and play lasts about two hours.  We played on Saturday evening, then continued on Sunday, then finally finished it on Monday.  It was the first time we played with the full rules, instead of starter rules.  Later this week comes the next game in our MECCG tournament.  We haven't played in a while, but the decks are ready to go.  In computer gaming news, we have finished 4/5 parts of Kentucky Route 0, and hope to continue on again to finish it.  The game is so good, and it is replayable, since the conversation trees chosen by the player are nearly infinite.  The graphics and sombre mood make the game very unique and mesmerizing.  And I am still plugging along with Return To Mysterious Island.  I am almost ready to board the Nautilus!

Deb's recent movie choice was called Where Is My Friend's House?  It is an Iranian film from 1987, and chronicles the nightmarish adventure of a small boy trying to return his schoolmate's notebook, which he has mistakenly grabbed.  Viewers will never forget his little face, as he embarks on his epic journey to the next village, a journey fully as eventful as the quest for the Holy Grail.  Most of the film, at least the first hour, is heartbreaking, as this child is put through the wringer by a village of uncaring adults, most of whom don't even hear him talking to them.  But the final half hour makes up for the rest, as the boy is befriended by an old man who attempts to help him.  My favourite kind of film is one that really gets inside an exotic place, a place which outsiders would never see, and really makes that place worth visiting and truly memorable.  Highly recommended, if you can sit through the first hour of near torture.

 Scene from the last section of the film.  

A memorable, iconic scene from the film.

Mapman Mike

More Movies, More Senses

The final movie in Deb's Powell/Pressburger film festival of last weekend was from 1949, and is called The Small Back Room.  A strange little film, it is set in London during the war, where a company works on building bigger and better guns to fight the Germans.  David Farrar plays a wounded engineer who works for a boss (Jack Hawkins) who is less than patriotic and more concerned with selling guns and making money, whether they work well or not.  He is also something of an expert in bomb disposal, and is called upon when the Germans begin dropping randomly placed booby trapped bombs that look quite harmless.  He has a big problem with alcohol, and craves the bottle when his wounded, amputated foot causes him lots of pain.  One of the highlights of the film is his feverish battle with a bottle of Scotch.  A very good film, and of course unusual if it came from this team.

 Now showing on Criterion. 

My choice this week was Zatoichi #10, Zatoichi's Revenge.  More corruption, and more great swordplay, as Zatoichi takes on more bad guys than Dick Tracy ever did.  A young girl and her father figure prominently in this great little story, as Zatoichi goes to visit his former massage teacher and learns that he has been murdered and robbed.  

 Zatoichi's Revenge, now showing on Criterion. 

The 5 Senses, Part 4:

Taste 

1)  Ale, e.g. a well kept pub cellar serving Fuller's ESB.

2)  A well-prepared cup of black coffee, such as Harrar.

3)  A perfectly ripe piece of fruit (peach, pear, mango, orange, lychee)

4)  Cinnamon (pastry rolls, on toast)

5)  Laphroig 10 year old single malt Scotch (this fabulous product also appears in Smell).

This list, and the others, could become very extensive.  Narrowing things down to five is quite a challenge, but a fun one.

In art news, we finally come to one of the world's greatest landscape paintings, located at the DIA.  With a collection rich in Dutch landscape art of the 17th C., an entire blog could be devoted to this subject.  In fact, I could devote quite a large article on just paintings on Jacob van Ruisdael in the museum.  I may get around to several more eventually, but let's begin with one of his greatest paintings, The Jewish Cemetery.  Based on drawings of an actual cemetery outside Amsterdam, the landscape goes far beyond what one might hope to find in the Netherlands, and shows Nature wreaking havoc on man made structures.  There is way too much symbolism here to even begin to fully understand the picture as the artist intended.  But gazing (often) at it in the museum, one is left with the feeling that nature is in control, not humans.  It's not all blasted trees and ferocious sky, however.  The bit of sunlight, the rainbow, and the water express positive sides of this feral force.  This is a picture I never tire of seeing.

The Jewish Cemetery, Jacob van Ruisdael, Dutch, 1628 or 29-1682.  Oil on canvas, 56" x 75", unframed.  Collection Detroit Institute of Arts.

 Detail of center.

 Detail of lower right.

 Detail of lower left.

Detail of left side.  

 

We have already gone out of the house more times this week than since the state of emergency, which still continues in Ontario, and we still have one more trip to go.  Wednesday was Deb's infusion day.  I went nearby to a large grocery store while she got her oil changed, so to speak.  Today we had to go to town to pick up a parcel.  Anything needing a signature will not be delivered, and has to be picked up at the post office.  While Deb did that I went to a smaller grocery store next door for some things overlooked or not in stock yesterday.  The awaiting package contained eye drops for one of the kitties, which we purchased from an on-line pharmacy.  Tomorrow we have to go to a pet store, to return food the cat won't eat, and try some other brand.  Then we finally should be done until next week.

We are still enjoying the PC game called Kentucky Route Zero, though it's more like reading a beautifully and minimally illustrated novel than playing a game.  Deb has just published the first episode in her newest Yorick the skull series, destined to become a SF classic.  And I continue to make good progress writing my 2nd Valeria novel.  We are looking forward to Friday's full moon and adjoining party, which might involve some board gaming.  It's been a while.

Mapman Mike

May Reading

I got through 10 books last month related to the Avon/Equinox project, plus one other book.  The other book was volume one of Burton's Arabian Nights.  I believe I made it the 34th night.  I was reading 30 minutes of it each time I finished a regular novel.  The footnotes are extensive, but for the most part I ignore them.  When I finish my next cycle of Avon/Equinox authors (James Blish is always last), then |I will conclude Verne's Mysterious Island.  I had never made it this far before in the Arabian Nights, and I was surprised at how many of the stories are included in Pasolini's film version.

Overlay by Barry Malzberg got things started on the right hoof in May.  It is the only SF novel I have ever read that is based on horse racing.  In fact, it's the only novel I've ever read in any genre on horse racing.  Aliens send an agent to Earth to corrupt four people whose lives centre around the races, in the hopes of conquering the world.  The plot is nearly meaningless, but Malzberg's imagination and keen ability to get inside the heads of disturbed people provides an endlessly fascinating narrative.  This is one of his strangest books, and that is saying something, believe me.

James Blish was next, rounding out yet another cycle of the Avon/Equinox authors.  The Star Dwellers is a story about the 'Angels', a mysterious alien force discovered by humans in the Coal Sack, a vast dark nebula in the Milky Way.  This is top notch SF, though I wish I could have learned even more about these mysterious creatures.  After reading the Blish novel, I read part 2 of Mysterious Island.

I began a new cycle of reading with Silverberg's Planet of Death, mentioned here only because it is probably the worst book I have ever read.  Truly ghastly, it is as if the author dug this one out of an old high school notebook and had it published to help pay the mortgage.  Imagine if someone read this as their first book by the author.

Next came Spinrad's final novel.  I only have one book of short stories of his left to read!  The People's Police is from 2017 (he might actually get to publish another one, but it had better be soon).  This one is an odd tale about being a policeman in New Orleans.  It gets heavily mixed up in voodoo, politics, and Mardi Gras.  It was quite good, and much shorter than his usual overblown epics.

Piers Anthony's Viscous Circle completes his unique and highly recommended Cluster series of five novels, supplemented by the three Tarot Books, marking one of the great SF series to ever come out (same with his Man and Manta series).  The final book delves into deep alien territory, and if you ever wondered what a utopia might really be like, the author has nailed it perfectly in this novel, one of the best of the series.  There are strong similarities between his alien beings and those created by Hal Clement.  They both offer incredibly fascinating accounts of truly strange beings.

I finished the final novel of John Christopher, completing my reading of his entire oeuvre, except for two very early books that are all but impossible to find.  Bad Dream is the author's rant against the European Union, cleverly disguised as an excellent and very intense adult novel.  You can argue the man's politics, but his writing is nearly flawless in this story.

Skyfall, by Harry Harrison, is his epic, though dated, account of a vast space project going awry, and the devastation and death that it causes.  Russia and the USA have collaborated  on a space energy project, and the launch of the first of 50 rockets to harness solar power and send it back to Earth is described.  While the politics and advanced position of women (two of the six crew are female, and one of those is black) might have been timely in 1976, remember that the first test flight of a space shuttle was in 1977.  Anyway, the story is very exciting and hard to put down once begun.  It seems to have been written with the idea of it becoming a (very expensive) disaster movie in mind.

Bulmer's Hunters of Jundagai adequately keeps the Dimension series going full steam ahead, and Tubb's somewhat silly but still fun Stellar Assignment, which sees a hack writer sent to find the spoiled daughter of a rich Earth man, is also an easy read.  It's amusing to see how Tubb handles the plot, one that is very familiar to readers of pulp fiction of any genre.  This is no damsel in distress, but a very smart woman who gets what she wants.  I finished the month with the third novel in the Undersea Series by Jack Williamson and Frederik Pohl.  Undersea City was blessedly short.

I am currently reading Half Life by Hal Clement, so far an excellent journey to Titan, the largest moon of Saturn.  More next month.

I first began the Avon/Equinox reading project in June of 2016.  This completes my fourth year!  To date I have read 466 books by those 24 authors.  This past year I managed to read 121 of them, plus an additional 21 books unrelated to the series.  A few more authors were completed, so each cycle comes along faster than the old ones.  Which means I get to read unrelated books a little more often, too.

Turning to art, it's been awhile since I have included a landscape from the DIA.  Today's is one of the stranger crucifixion paintings I have ever come across.  The landscape is weird enough, and even the arrangement of the figures is more than a bit odd.  For one thing, John and Mary are given prominence, and for another, Christ is portrayed at an usual angle.  But the landscape, with a ruined city in the background, as if covered by volcanic ash, is strangely other-worldly.  And there are several visual planes through which the eye is led, all contributing to a landscape emotionally involved with the subject matter.

The Crucifixion, ca 1530.  Maerten van Heemskerck, (Netherlandish, 1498-1574).  Oil on oak panel, 15" x 14".  Collection Detroit Institute of Arts.

 Detail of John and the unusual background.  

In piano news, it is now four months since I began my newest program.  Since we have been staying home most of the time, progress has been quite rapid.  I only have three Brahms Waltzes to memorize, which should be done this month.  And of course I will need time to work up the tempos of several of the faster pieces.  But by July 1st, the program should be completely playable!

In listening news, we recently completed the 104 Haydn symphonies, and have now switched over to his 60+ string quartets.  We also completed listening to all 37 CDs of music by Benjamin Britten.  We are still working our way through Brahms, and our vast collection of LP records.  The Bach set of 223 CDs is in the Amazon wish list, possibly for next month.  Fun times!

Turning lastly to movies, we have now watched two of the three films by Michel Powell that Deb chose for her mini film festival.  The first film is from 1941, and was filmed in Canada.  Mostly anti-Nazi propaganda, it details the adventures of 6 ruthless U-boat Nazis left stranded in northern Canada when their submarine was bombed to smithereens in Hudson Bay.  The Germans are painted with a pretty broad brush, though one of them, at least, proves to be human.  A remarkable film on many counts, and one I had never even heard of, it no doubt kept many Canadians on guard for enemies on our own territory.  Lots of ruthless violence.  Lawrence Olivier as a French Canadian trapper is a weird little piece of acting.

Today it is called The 49th Parallel, and is now showing on the Criterion Channel. 

From 1947 comes Black Narcissus, a colour masterpiece from the Powell/Pressburger team.  From 1947, it concerns a small group of nuns trying to run a school and a hospital high in the mountains of India.  The seclusion and overwhelming presence of nature becomes their undoing.  Great acting, amazing sets (all filmed at Pinewood studios!), and some of the most stunning lighting and photography ever put on film, this film is worth catching if it's been awhile.  A young Jean Simmons playing an Indian teenage girl is also a totally amazing thing to see.

Now showing on the Criterion Channel.

In other news, we continue to watch America crash and burn, in more ways than one.  Not unexpected, but still sad to see.  And one of our favourite Detroit cafes has closed up shop for good, because of the virus.  We will lose plenty more wonderful small businesses, no doubt.  It is just beginning.

And Gustav the cat has been ill for two days now, a repeat of last week's ailment.  Things are not looking good, and it is proving difficult to make contact with our veterinarian.  He is comfortable, but not eating.  When a cat doesn't eat, something serious is wrong.  We have the option of taking him to Windsor to the emerg clinic, but it usually becomes a four hour wait.

Happy June.

Mapman Mike