This full moon is known as The Coconut Cream Pie Moon. We always bake a moon cake/pie on the full moon, and this time around a lovely vegan cream pie is chilling in the fridge, along with a can of coconut milk whipped cream. Later, there will be a wood fire, and throughout the day we will be listening to the opera of the month. This time it is a late work by the Czech composer Janacek, called Katya Kabanova. It's based on a Russian play called The Thunderstorm, by Ostrovsky (1823-1886). The opera premiered in 1921, and is considered one of Janacek's finest works. We shall see.
In weather news, it only took two days for most of our snow to leave us. From midnight Tuesday until Thursday morning, about 90% of the snow had melted, leaving us with only the piles where we had shovelled it. Tuesday and Wednesday saw sunshine and temps near 50 F, and that is all it took. We can see our snowdrop buds, and they are ready to bloom. Huzzah!
In health news, Deb's mom is back home from her 3-week hospital stay, and seems happy to be there. If we are ever able to travel again, family obligations will be our first project, including trips to Sudbury and Lindsay. We are still getting new Co-vid cases daily, and people are still dying in hospital from it. Where are the vaccinations, you may ask? Well, beginning Monday, the over 80s finally get their chance. Our turn? Possibly July.
In movie news, my regular weekly pick was Ali: Fear Eats The Soul, from 1974 and directed by Fassbinder. It is his version of Douglas Sirk's 1955 All That Heaven Allows, in which an older rich woman falls in love with a young gardener, shocking the community to its foundations. In the unforgettable German version, an older widow drops in to a bar one day, curious by the kind of music she hears when passing. Inside she meets Ali, a worker from Morocco, and the two hit it off. Their realistic trials and tribulations are beautifully and sensitively handled, and the movie does end on a somewhat positive note. I really admire the way Fassbinder handles the couple's eventual acceptance by the community. The racist grocer wants her business back, so becomes nice to her again. Her son needs her to babysit, so he becomes nice to her again. Her racist and nosy neighbour needs to borrow some of her locker storage space, and becomes nice to her again. And so on. A highly recommended film.
My choice for leaving Feb. 28th was a film from 1930 called Holiday, about a man about to marry a very rich woman. Her father runs her life and everything around him, and intends to do the same for his new son-in-law. But the son-in-law wants nothing to do with it, and is more attracted to the older sister. The sister is wonderfully played by Ann Harding, whose performance reminds me a bit of Bette Davis in Petrified Forest. There are some amazingly good scenes, including the party within a party, held upstairs in the old playroom. Well worth a look.
For her final film choice of February (my film festival is also this weekend), Deb picked My Brilliant Career, directed by Gillian Armstrong and starring Judy Davis and Sam Neil. A fun look at growing up female, intelligent, plain, but with the highest of aspirations, in the Australian outback. The lead performances are outstanding, and the story, simple as it is, is well told. My question is this: is publishing a book a better result than a happy life with someone you love? And is it not possible, somehow, to do both?
I have chosen the next 3 Zatoichi films for the festival. More on those later.
And from the DIA (which has remained open for much of the pandemic, but, alas, not the border to the USA) comes a painting by George Morland, one of two which the museum owns. It shows the encampment of a Gypsy family in the wilderness, blending Dutch, Flemish, French, and British traditions in an eye-catching way. I use to walk by these paintings on a regular basis, but it is now coming up to one year since I have visited the museum and Detroit. And speaking of camping in the wilderness, when will that happen again?
Thanks for stopping by. Enjoy the full moon! Spring astronomy begins March 2nd around here. Hopefully I will be busy.
Mapman Mike
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