Late August

Late August and well through September is peak hurricane season.  With a doozy of a storm currently winding its way through Louisiana and Arkansas, and heat and humidity at its peak here in Essex County, you know summer is on its way out, but not like a lamb.  We are due for storms, too, courtesy of Laura.  It is pushing up Gulf moisture and very high temps and tropical humidity.  We had a bit of rain yesterday, and are due for a lot more over the next two days.  With our gardens turning into jungles, cooler weather over the weekend might actually see us out there getting some clearing up done.

Yesterday we were gone for just over an hour.  Deb had her 2nd haircut since lockdown, and afterwards we got groceries.  When we arrived home, our main intersection was clogged with emergency vehicles due to a motorcycle accident.  And our neighbour came by to tell us one of our trees had fallen across our creek.  We stay home for six months and nothing happens, but just leave for an hour.... 

In movie news, Deb's choice last weekend was a new film, screened directly to Criterion.  Called Zombi Child (a take on Jimi Hendrix's Voodoo Child?), the film is from 2019.  It sounded promising, but it was actually pretty boring.  Too many stories and time jumps were happening, as we went continually from Haiti in the 1960s to Paris of today to Haiti of today.  Not really worth viewing, it did put me in the mood for the best zombie picture every made, I Walked With a Zombie.  Though I have seen it recently, I feel the need to see it again.

Now showing on Criterion.

I chose a b & w film by Douglas Sirk from 1946, called A Scandal In Paris, starring George Sanders.  "If you talk of art," said Sirk, "I consider this my best picture."  Based on the memoirs of Francois Eugene Vidocq, a thief who becomes the chief of the Paris police, it is mostly a comedy, though the ending is quite dramatic.  The sets and costumes are fun, and Sanders is infallible in the lead role.  Tres amusant.

One of only 2 Sirk films now showing on Criterion.

The DIA has one of the world's best collections of German Expressionist art, thanks to its German director in the 1930s, and the Nazi obsession with labelling much of the art produced in Germany at the time as "decadent."  In an earlier post I highlighted one of Kirchner's calm landscape masterpieces, called Winter Landscape In Moonlight.  This time we'll take a quick peek at a more agitated landscape work, a print made by gouging the design directly from a piece of wood.

Road In The Taurus Mountains, from 1916, contains an abstract energy that is hard to define, but easy to relate to. There is a road.  There are trees, mountains, and clouds, too. though not the kind accepted by Nazi censors.  There is a wonderful edginess to the work, and an unsettling quality that seems to suit the term "expressionist" to a tee.  Not often on display, it is worth catching when it is.

Road In The Taurus Mountains, 1916, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner (German, 1880-1938).

Woodcut printed in black on wove paper, 18" x 13".

I am enamoured with the works of this artist, and will highlight more of his works in the future.

This has been quite a day of writing.  it began with a review of the most recent SF book I finished reading, a time travel one by Silverberg.  Then it was time to work on my article for Aurora, our astronomy club newsletter.  Lastly, a new blog entry.  I hope someone is reading these from time to time, or at least scrolling through some lovely images.  Until we meet again...

Mapman Mike