We are currently experiencing very high humidity levels, along with very warm temperatures. The past few days have been the most uncomfortable of the summer, but lucky for us a breeze is off the river and aimed towards our house, keeping our yard considerably cooler than a Wal Mart parking lot. Violent storms have been predicted over the past few days, but all have missed our location. More of them are on the way.
In travel news, Americans are now allowed into Canada by land if they are fully vaccinated and have a recent negative Covid test to show. However, Canadians cannot yet travel to the US, except via air. Weird. With the explosion of new variant cases over there, we are not very interested in visiting anyway, at the moment.
In movie news, I have Deb's two weekend picks to report on. And there should be time at the end to get back to another work of art from the DIA. First up was a feature animation, one that promised much but in the end was somewhat disappointing. From 2007, the film had very physically unappealing characters, a very simplistic story, and a lot of falling to the ground from great heights. As a cat person, I can say that there are far too many distressing cat sounds in the film, too, enough to greatly alarm any cats withing listening distance. The premise of the story is a little boy exploring a big city at night, and finding out what goes on. As Deb said, this would have been enough to base the entire film on, but instead we get a weak story about a shadow that is taking over the world, and only the little boy can save them by facing his fear of the dark blah blah blah. Some very stunning visuals, and definitely worth watching. But a masterpiece of animation it is not. There is borrowing from Disney, Tim Burton, and Japanese animation.
For her leaving August 31st choice she picked a Chaplin short, and a one hour documentary on Eric Campbell. Eric played the villain in many Chaplin short films, and hailed from Scotland. His life was cut short by a drunken driving car accident. The Chaplin short chosen was The Cure, about a sanitarium with water than heals. It is a very funny film, one of Chaplin's best, with the main laughs coming from a revolving front door at the hotel, as well as Eric Campbell's unwanted amorous advances on a young woman. The massage scene is also a classic. Lots of Chaplin is leaving this month, so we will likely watch more. Deb also squeezed in a short by Georges Melies, the early French animator. We watched The Diabolic Tenant, a minor masterpiece of stop motion filming and bizarre storytelling. Again, a lot of these are leaving this month, so will likely watch a few more.
Turning finally to art from the DIA, it's always great fun to discover a wonderful artist one has never heard about before. The DIA has 8 prints by Anthonie Waterloo, a Dutch artist (1610-1690) with an amazing sense of depth, line, and shadow. It wasn't easy to choose just one of his works from the museum's print and drawing collection, but here it is. I love how he allows the eye a chance to escape from all of the intense foreground detail, by providing a partial vista on the left side.
Mapman Mike
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