Per capita our little county has the highest rate of Covid infection in Canada, though still behind California, Arizona, and the UK. Our hospitals have had to send patients to hospitals far and wide, as they are beyond full. The nursing home death numbers have become outrageous, and the vaccine roll out is not going very well. We've been staying home for 10 months now, remaining firmly grounded and not acting any crazier than normal. Deb's newest films are being accepted into festivals, and of course winning prizes. She is now at work on Yorick Season 3, with a little help from yours truly, who did the voice over of the narrator.
I am just beginning to wrap my poor little head around the Beethoven CD collection recently purchased. The listening program is still pleasantly mired in his earliest works, written mostly for friends and social gatherings in Bonn, his birth city which he left at age 22. With multiple recordings of many of the later pieces by different artists/orchestras, this is a project that will carry on long past the 250th anniversary of his birth. And so, what did we do after purchasing 123 Beethoven CDs? We bought the Bach set of 222 CDs.
We got the last edition of the set available in Canada (with free shipping!). It was very expensive, but much less money than spending a holiday weekend in Cleveland or Cincinnati or Chicago. The box is twice the size of the enormous Beethoven one, and twice as heavy. We've already started into it, in a less formal way than the Beethoven project. We are starting with the "Over 50 CDs of alternate recordings..." The first thing we heard was a recording of the Brandenburg Concerto #1 from 1935, recorded at Abbey Road Studio, London! There will likely be some Bach heard in our house everyday for the next year at least. Fun times!
Our most recent film watched was Bill Forsythe's Housekeeping, a film from 1987 we have seen and enjoyed on two previous occasions. It had been many years, but the 3rd viewing was just as entrancing as the first two. Great story, great acting, and filmed in beautiful British Columbia. It is leaving Criterion at the end of the month. There is a really haunting quality about this film, as it explores the relationship between a shy teenage outcast and her freestyle but caring aunt. Highly recommended viewing, and more than once.
Time for a painting from the DIA. Today its a landscape (aren't they all?) by Jan Weenix, called Italian Peasants Among Ruins. The painting shows northern European viewers not only how ancient and beautiful and pleasant Italy is, but also how those peasants down there lead nearly ideal lives. Mothers and babies are healthy and well-fed, and foreign travellers stop to chat with the friendly locals. Imagine living in Holland and seeing such images of sunny hills and ancient ruins. Imagine living in Essex County in January, just as flat as Holland and much colder, and seeing such an image. I can almost imagine such a thing.
Italian Peasants Among Ruins, Jan Weenix, Dutch, 1621-1659, ca 1649. Oil on canvas, 26" x 31.5". Collection of the Detroit Institute of Arts.
Signing off till next time. Hope you are enjoying the American insurrectionists getting caught one by one as much as I am. Hopefully you-know-who is next.
Mapman Mike
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