45 years of marriage on Saturday. The weather will be very warm and humid, like it was on that Saturday in 1976. We were married in a small church by the lake, and the party was at the camp afterwards, with swimming and sauna. The bride was blushing and exceedingly beautiful, and she still is. Why she has stayed with me for 45 years I cannot fathom. But here we are. It's also a full moon tomorrow, and that means a party on top of the party. The opera of the month is Wagner's Lohengrin. The main food dish is homemade vegan lasagna. There will also be vegan chocolate cheesecake and ice cream.
The sun continues to retreat southwards, shortening our evenings and mornings. We still have heat and humidity, though, until at least the end of august. A little more than 4 weeks and it will be Equinox. The summer is passing quickly, and soon I will be recalled to astronomy nights. Without those nights this summer I have been mostly home, practicing piano, listening to music, watching films, and reading. I continue to intensely study my New Mexico topographic map collection, which is exhaustive. However, the program is not supported anymore, and someday a new computer of ours will fail to run it, which is what happened to my National Geographic collection of maps on CD. So I will have to hang on to an older computer until I die.
Next week I begin my piano performances, in the hopes of playing the program a few times for individual or paired listeners. My friend and colleague Paula is stopping by here Monday evening to listen, and to perform a few things she has been working on. Depending how that one goes, we'll see about doing it a few more times, including at Lois' long term care home in Kingsville.
A few things to report on in film viewing. Deb's leaving August 31st choice for last weekend was a 1952 Fritz Lang film called Clash By Night. Starring Barbara Stanwyck as a woman returned from the big city to her hometown (Monterrey, CA), she eventually settles down with a simple but loving fisherman, raising a baby and keeping a home. However, along comes a lit match in the form of Robert Ryan, and she is soon having a torrid affair with him and planning to leave town with him and her baby. So much for settling down. Some people have it, and some don't. Did I mention I haven't been going out much lately? And have little to no desire to do so? Settling down is just right for this blogger at the present time. Marilyn Monroe does a great job in her role as the 20 year old lover of Stanwyck's younger brother, and is supportive of the older woman, no matter how bad her choices seem.
Leaving Criterion August 31st.
My main choice for this week was Zatoichi Meets The One-Armed Swordsman, #22 in the seemingly endless series of movies about the blind samurai bad guy who is really a good guy. This one stars a Chinese kung fu dude, and provides a relief from the virtually repeating formula the movies have always had. Had this one had a better ending, it could have been a classic. But it ends exactly the same way as all his movies end; Zatoichi fights the main guest character and kills him. For this movie especially, this was a really bad choice, and spoils the entire film. Though he often gets it wrong, this time was a major blunder. Only 6 more movies to go (and I already know the plot and outcome of all of them, even though I haven't seen them yet).
Samurai meets Hong Kong style fighting, on Criterion.
My going away choice proved to be a somewhat better film, Fellini's Nights of Cabiria. The version we watched was fully restored in 2019, and the print is flawless, as it always is on Criterion. Giulietta Masina is the entire film, her facial expressions and body language speaking volumes, even as her mouth rattles on and on. She takes nothing from no one, and yet is so easily duped into falling for the man of her dreams and having all her money stolen, not once but twice. She is a woman who deserves the best, but only gets leftovers from the garbage can of life. The environs of Rome never look stranger than in Fellini and Antonioni films, and this one is no exception. But there is a bus stop! it's very odd, but I have no memory of ever having seen this film before, though its simple story is age old. Highlights include Cabiria's night with a real movie star, and her early morning encounter with a good samaritan who brings blankets and food to poor people living in volcanic tube caves.
Leaving Criterion August 31st.
Lastly we turn to art from the DIA, a return to a print by Bruegel many who was inspired by this super creative genius. I think my love of detail in paintings comes from my piano background, which requires that not only every note by clear and in its proper place and frame of mind, but also all the extras there are besides notes in a piece of music. There are dozens of markings above and below notes, as well as in between the two staves. So looking at details in detail is something I do without even blinking an eye. Bruegel takes the prize when it comes to details in art. This print is as detailed, if not more, than Hunters In the Snow. I wish I had a poster-sized image of it to hang.
Rustic Solitude, Jan Duetecum, Dutch after Bruegel the Elder, between 1555 and 1558. Black ink etching on laid paper, 13" x 17". Collection Detroit Institute of Arts.
Detail of lower central area.
Mapman Mike
No comments:
Post a Comment