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
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