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
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