London Weather Arrives In Amherstburg

Indeed it has.  After finally crawling out of the deep freeze, temps have rebounded to around 50 F, and not even going below freezing during the night.  One week ago it was certain death to be outside for any length of time, while today we managed a drizzly and warm long walk outdoors.  It felt like our past walks did in London during the month of November.  No snow or cold forecast through next week.  The coast guard ice breakers have been busy, however.  Last Thursday night the river was ice free, but by Saturday morning it was jammed up tight.  Early in the week a strong south wind drove the ice up into the shipping channel in the Detroit River, and several ships got stuck.  Everything is finally moving normally today, as the ice is rotting quickly now.  It's been an interesting week of weather; we no longer have any snow left.  

I am just finishing up my 14th novel for December.  It's been a good month for reading, with the usual amount of gems being stumbled across.  My next blog entry, likely the first one of 2023, will deal with material read in December.  Piano pieces continue to improve, though some of them very slowly.  I am once again trying to form a group of dedicated pianists to meet informally in the new year to try out pieces for one another.  Some of my audience these days is not that literate musically, though they do love and appreciate hearing classical pieces.  It's a different experience to play in front of colleagues, and in some ways more rewarding.  So we'll see if anything comes of that.  I am playing around with the idea of working on a major Beethoven Sonata, too, once the current set of pieces has been mastered and performed.  At first it would take up all of my daily two hour practice sessions, so it is a major commitment.

In viewing news, there are four films to report.  The first one is Isle of the Dead, from 1945 and starring Boris Karloff.  A small group of people have to quarantine on Bocklin's famous island, due to an outbreak of plague.  Superstition battles science, with Karloff siding with superstition.  The film has a creepy atmosphere and good cast, and the writing is fairly intelligent.  Black and white has never looked better, either.

Showing on Criterion for two more days. 

Ghostbusters Afterlife was released in 2021, and is great fun to watch, especially for fans of the original movies.  The granddaughter of one of the originals takes up arms against evil spirits in this very funny and somewhat scary hommage to Harold Ramis.  She is 12, and is aided by Podcast, who is also 12.  big brother also helps out, and his female friend.  By the end, the original boys are back for the final showdown.  Not to be missed!

 

Streaming on Prime Video.    

 

We rewatched Gattaca, a SF film from 1997.  We had not seen it in many years.  Ethan Hawke plays the part of an in-valid, someone who had a natural birth with no genetic interference.  He wants to become an astronaut, which is impossible under current rules, restricting upper level tasks to valids, those who have a much more perfect genetic makeup.  Lots of ethical questions arise from this film, and it was well worth seeing over again.

Now streaming on CTV. 

 

Next came Tokyo Story, from 1953 and directed by Yasujiro Ozu.  It is rated as #4 on the recent Sight and Sound best movies poll.  It is one very good film.  The story is very simple; elderly mom and dad visit two of their children in Tokyo.  The man is a doctor and the woman is a hair dresser.  Both are married, and the doctor has two boys.  Also there is a daughter in law, whose husband (youngest son) was killed in the war.  As it turns out, the two Tokyo children have no time to spare for the visitors, so the daughter in law takes them around Tokyo.  Upon returning to their hometown after their Tokyo adventure, mom becomes ill and dies.  Again, after the funeral no one has much time to spare for dad except youngest daughter, a teacher who lives at home, and the daughter in law.  Another son, a railroad worker, is also a busy guy.  Probably the best picture ever made about a typical family, this one happens to take place in post war Japan but could just as easily be transplanted to anywhere.  The themes, problems, and issues are all the same.  Everyone is busy with their lives once leaving home.  The acting is superb, the camera work outstanding, and the simple story will leave viewers with lingering memories for a long time to come.

 

Now streaming on Criterion.

 

We are currently amidst my Ozu 3-film festival.  The next two are earlier works from the 30s, one a silent film.  More later.

 

Mapman Mike

 

 

Storm Update

Even though the most severe warnings are now down for our area, it is still very cold (4 F) and very windy.  There has been a constant roar of wind through the trees, heard easily from inside.  Our power has remained on (so far), and the water pipes haven't frozen (yet).  The boiler has been up to the task of keeping the house at 67 F.  Our generator is standing by, as is the wood pellet stove (if the furnace conks out), and a stack of firewood is ready for action if the power goes out and the generator won't start.  I've been doing three bird feedings per day, the only time I am outside.  It takes two to three minutes, and by the time I am inside again I am nearly frozen.  The river was ice free on Thursday, but is now thick with the stuff.  Shipping on the Great Lakes has come to a halt until the gales die down a bit.  Lake Huron was recording 25' waves yesterday.

 

We were spared the predicted snow amounts.  We got 1"-2" of snow, instead of the predicted 6"-10".  Squalls with whiteout conditions still hit us from time to time.  The main highway to Toronto has been shut down since yesterday, and likely will stay closed until the wind subsides, sometime Sunday.  Our roads seem mostly clear, but drifting is a continuous problem.  There is way more traffic today, people zipping past like there is nothing wrong.  Good luck with that.  Hope you don't have a breakdown or an accident.  Most people here do not have winter tires, either.  Believe it.

 

We recently watched the first three episodes of an older British TV series called The Edwardians.  The first one was about Rolls and Royce, and how they got started in the business.  That episode was in colour; the remainder are in b & w.  It was quite good, and also tells the story of why unions were required to break the power of virtual slave-driving business owners.  There are no unions here, the workers have a 70 hour work week (usually extended with many extra hours), and the boss (Royce) is a workaholic jerk.  However, he did get things done.  The second episode was even better, about a British MP named Horatio Bottomley, who also started the publication "John Bull," influential in its own peculiar way at the time.  The third episode was about E. Nesbit, the author, known today mostly for her children's stories.  However, the story focused not on her writing, but on her personal life, which was rather grim, to say the least.  But there was nothing about her being a leader in children's realistic fiction, and in creating the modern children's fantasy novel, where children of the day acquired a magical possession, or traveled to magical worlds.  This episode should have been much more focused on her writing to be successful.  

 

In other watching news, we viewed the 3rd and final film Criterion has on streaming file directed by Claire Denis.  Called White Material, it is from 2009.  It comes with two short features, one a discussion of the movie with the director, and the other a tiny documentary about Denis attending a disastrous (because of technical difficulties) local celebrity opening of the film in Yaounde, Cameroon.  The film follows a family of five (mostly the white woman who heads it) as they try to salvage their coffee crop amidst an armed rebellion and insurrection.  What could go wrong?  Well nothing, if she had taken her husband's and French official's advice to get the hell out, now.  But she stays, and the expected happens, like a slow motion train wreck.  While the story telling is a bit off- putting at times, jumping in time and from character to character, overall it is an effective film and well worth seeing.  Written by a black woman and using a largely black crew and actors (her camera man was white), the film makes several points about learning things the hard way, ignoring risks until it is too late, and even bringing up children.

 

Now showing on Criterion. 

 

My leaving choice for the week was The Hidden, a SF/cop movie from 1987.  An evil escaped alien that looks like a giant slug gets inside people and makes them do bad things, like kill people, drive fast, and steal things.  A good alien in the body of a dead FBI agent's body tries to kill it.  He partners with a cop and they end up chasing the alien all around the city, as it takes over different bodies, including a female pole dancer, a police lieutenant, and a presidential candidate.  Lots of dark humour, hundreds of ineffectual bullets, a fast pace, and some grossness add up to a fun film for adventure fans.  Hal Clement wrote a two-novel series with a very similar theme, called Needle (1949), and Through The Eye of a Needle (1978).

Leaving Criterion Dec. 31st/22 

 

More news as it happens. 

 

Mapman Mike

 

Arctic Bomb Cyclone

10 PM Update: We had a partially sunny day today, and it went to 35 F.  And it appears to be clear this evening, though I wasn't prepared, so no observing.  Drat.

We are to receive an arctic bomb cyclone this Christmas.  I am hearing happy voices on Facebook today, exclaiming that we are going to have a white Christmas (why does Christmas have to be white? I much prefer green).  If only they knew.  It will begin as rain, then change to ice, then change to snow, and then to a blizzard.  A blizzard is a combination of thickly falling snow combined with gale force winds.  That should happen Friday night and Saturday, a time when many people will be (attempting) to travel.  On top of this will be temperatures that are not amusing in the least.  It hasn't gone above 0 C since Friday here, but that is nothing as to what is coming this weekend.  And we haven't had a sunny day in the last 16 tries.  How does a high of -8 C sound for Saturday, with strong winds?  Don't ask about the lows.  Welcome to the most southerly part of Canada in December.  So I do hope everyone enjoys their white Christmas, whether stuck at an airport or stranded on a highway, or at home with power out.  'Cuz all that whiteness is going to come with a heavy price tag.

In happier news, all continues to be well at the Homestead.  Medical appointments for Deb yesterday and on Thursday, and out tonight for the weekly grocery store run.  Randy G. is stopping by for a visit on Winter Solstice tomorrow, and Amanda sometime later in the week (weather permitting).  Piano practice is going well, with pieces about six weeks away from being presentable.  Bach and Grieg, a most unusual combination.  Deb continues to slog away at her latest film, a mini SF epic.  Our music listening program continues to be fun, as we discover LP records we have never played before, and continue with our Beethoven odyssey of hearing everything he wrote (we are just about to enter his late phase).  I haven't been writing much of late, but continue to read voraciously.  And the indoor exercise program continues, awaiting the day when I might actually hike again in far off mountains.  Sigh.

In viewing news, we have paused our viewing of English and Interview With a Vampire for a time, mostly to escape the extreme violence and blood.  We have started to watch a very old British series called The Edwardians, from way back in the early 70s.  Each full length episode tells the story of a famous person or persons from the early 1900s.  So far we are halfway through the 2nd episode.  No blood or extreme violence so far, but we did here one "damn," though the man uttering it was soundly scolded by his wife immediately afterwards.

In film news, there are two to report.  The first is a real oddball film, fun to watch, but tiring at the same time.  The Wizard of Speed And Time is from 1988, and is a frenzied attempt to show a young stop motion animator trying to sell a film project in Hollywood.  It is very funny, very clever, and very fast paced.  Though a bit too frantic for this well aged viewer, it scores a lot of points in its totally zany style.  Recommended (it's on Youtube) for stop motion film and special effects fans.

Watch it on Youtube. 

My leaving Dec. 31st choice from the Criterion streaming channel was called Love Crazy, from 1941.  It stars William Powell and Myrna Loy, and begins with them trying to celebrate their 4th anniversary ritual, backwards.  An unwelcome visit from Loy's mother interrupts the festivities, and the marriage quickly unwinds from hereon in.  A very funny picture, truly worthy of the term "screwball" comedy.  The stuck elevator scene builds to a truly funny climax, among others.

Showing on Criterion till Dec. 31st.

Deb's leaving Dec. 31st choice was a bit grimmer, the Island of Lost Souls from 1932, starring Charles Laughton as Dr. Moreau.  This is one of the best horror films to come out of a very productive decade.  It's moody, creepy, intelligent, and degenerate, and came a full decade before the Nazis did their experiments on humans.  Of course the story is far earlier, by H G Wells.  Too much ahead of its time, I'm afraid.  A masterpiece of atmospheric horror.

Leaving Criterion Dec. 31st. 

Happy Winter Solstice to all northern readers, and a very Happy Summer one to all southern ones!!  Our chopped woodpile is high and dry, and ready for action.

M.

 

 

Still Dodging Winter Storms

So far we continue to dodge winter bullets.  The big storm that just passed us was a rain event, whereas further north it is currently an ice, sleet, and snow one.  Score one for the Homestead!  Our temps are chilly, and it is very damp, but we have been getting above freezing during daytime hours consistently so far (today we are way above freezing, till tomorrow).  As long as daytime highs rise above freezing, I don't complain very much.  However, next week and lasting almost to the New Year we are supposed to get a true blast of Siberian air, with temps remaining well below freezing for 8-10 days.  I strongly dislike those days, though my brother in Sudbury, by contrast, is cheering on the snow and cold so he can drive around in the bush on his snowmobile.  Whatever floats one's boat.  I prefer a mostly brown winter, though it was nice to see photos of Britain with people out enjoying the snow on their sleds, skis, and making snowmen in their yards.  It rarely snows in London, and it never lasts, but it did snow this past week, with the usual transport chaos that ensues.  We have not had sunshine here now for almost two weeks, and the astronomy forecast for the next two weeks is a grim one.

We continue to hibernate, however, and the Homestead programs continue as before.  My time is spent practicing music and listening to it, reading, exercising (2 1/2 years strong now!!), studying maps of New Mexico, and watching films, mostly on the Criterion streaming service.  And there is the Wondrium channel, with three college lecture courses always going on here (hundreds to choose from).  We also have weekly gaming sessions, and I am trying to finish a game for PC.  I'm also replaying Riven.  We could cross to Detroit whenever we wish, but for now the urge is not there.  We are happy at home.

Deb's main film choice last week was The Third Man, a film that is fun to watch many times over.  It rates #63 on the S & S list of best movies.  It is filmed with wonky music, and a female lead that needs a good slap to get her head straightened out, but otherwise it is an excellent film, about post war Vienna and the trade in watered-down antibiotics.  Orson Welles is the villain who is responsible for the deaths and trauma of many children. An accurate depiction of post war Austria, with four countries policing the area.  Part of the film was shot at the Prater.  We recognized at least one war torn area of the city, a church we had visited.

Now showing on Criterion. 

Her leaving choice this month choice was a documentary about the Ireland troubles.  The Image You Missed is from 2018, as the young filmmaker tries to follow the trail of his father, who abandoned him and his mother when he was very young.  The documentary is a confusing mix of the son trying to understand his father's life (he was also a filmmaker, who made the important film The Patriot Game in 1979), and a brief history of Northern Ireland's struggle against the British loyalists.  It isn't really good at one or the other, but there is some truly amazing footage, with several unforgettable scenes, such as a small boy trying to find something to play with near a bombed out overturned vehicle, with barbed wire and soldiers in the background.  It did well at festivals, likely bringing unknown history to Americans.  Getting a full understanding of what was going on and why can be a tricky business, but the film does serve as a primer for the Irish troubles.

Leaving Criterion Dec. 31st. 

Following up on my last film choice, I selected Chocolat by Claire Denis, from 1988.  We have seen the film before, likely around 1988 at the Detroit Film Theater at the DIA.  I think the film has even more resonance today than it did back then, as the truth of damage done by colonialism hits a much more aware public.  Thus the film hasn't aged itself at all by telling the story of a very young girl (Denis herself) growing up in French Cameroon while under French rule.  Her relationship with the house boy is a close one, and she knows nor thinks nothing of racism.  He is her best friend, and also a teacher to her.  At least until mommy starts having strange desires for him.  The film is gentle, but it pierces the soul nonetheless.  Though the house boy (he is not a boy, but a very handsome and strong man) is treated well (they even say please and thank you to him), he is still not anywhere near being treated as well as he should be.  And the fact that he accepts his demeaning treatment and does not fight against it also shows his limited choices in life.  Of course he could rebel, but then where would he be?  A thoughtful film, and very well done. 

Now showing on Criterion. 

So far we have seen 2 1/2 episodes of English, and two of Interview With A Vampire.  Both are quite good, though violent beyond belief.  I have more and more trouble with realistic violence in contemporary cinema and series.  It seems we will never be civilized as the glorification of sudden violence is so much in demand by modern audiences.  So far in English there seem to be no decent people in America, only murderers, rapists, and greedy capitalists.  While that might or might not be a true realization, it makes for a very predictable series.  And with a modern vampire tale one might expect violence and blood, this series seems to want to outdo itself.

One of the ships I regularly watch for is called the Mesabi Miner, a massive 1,000' monolith that ends its journey in Duluth.  There is a Facebook group of Great Lakes ship enthusiasts, and the person who runs it lives in Duluth. Here is a great shot of the Miner coming into port in Duluth, with a few December kayakers watching it come in.  Due to gales on the lakes today, many ships are currently waiting in safe harbours.

A terrific shot of the Mesabi Miner arriving in Duluth, Minnesota recently.  So far this season the Miner has passed our house across from Detroit 13 times.  Those little ducks out there in the water are actually kayakers. 

Mapman Mike

 

 

 

December Blahs

The days of grey gloominess are here.  Grey in the morning, grey in the afternoon, and gloomy all the time.  For astronomy, December is the cloudiest month we have here in Essex Co., Ontario.  Despite this unwanted feature, we both managed to get good glimpses of Mars being occulted by a full moon on Wednesday night.  There were just enough breaks in the otherwise thick clouds to see bright Mars approach the moon, then pass behind it.  It was too cloudy to risk setting up a telescope, but we managed with binoculars.  We seem to have a skunk living beneath our back deck, and we kept thinking he was going to join us, but he (she?) never showed up.

Our Full Moon party also featured a lively and warm wood fire n the fireplace, using up wood from a tree felling project from two years ago.  It's now ready to burn.  And we also have a brand new pile of green wood to let sit for a time.  Nathan, our tree guy, finally got back to us after about 18 months.  He and his crew came and took down a very large poplar tree in our far back yard, a tree that kept dropping enormous branches at random.  So the threat to a neighbour's garage roof is finally gone, as well as a threat to me when cutting the grass back there.  We planted the tree many years ago, a tiny sapling that grew about six feet each year, until it became a skyscraper, then a somewhat dangerous skyscraper.

Also on the party schedule was the monthly opera selection.  This time it was "The Trojans" by Berlioz, lasting for 10 sides of 5 LP records.  The story follows Aeneus from his defeat at Troy to where he was given sanctuary in Carthage.  Here he and Dido fell in love, but he ultimately had to leave her as the gods impatiently called him back to Italy.  Dido was not impressed, and placed some wonderful curses upon the hero and his country before stabbing herself to death.  Some truly great music, with the lead sung by Jon Vickers, pretty much a Canadian musical legend and hero.

In viewing news, we finally finished up the series Dark Sky.  The series purports to be SF, but the SF element is pretty thin, at least until the final episode.  Overall, things move much too slowly, and too much time is spent of details of life that could easily have been compressed to keep some kind of flow going.  The story often just stops dead in its tracks.  The series is about 75% soap opera, 22% noirish mystery, and about 3% SF.  When the SF element finally comes to the forefront, it ends.  The series was cancelled by Prime.  But we have begun to watch two newer series: The English, a western on Prime, looks quite promising (an English woman teams up with a Native scout who worked for the South during the Civil War); and Interview With the Vampire on AMC has a very good sense of the period and location where it is set, with good acting, too.

In film watching news, there are 2 to report.  Recently Sight and Sound came out with their (every ten year) list of the 100 best movies.  Criterion then grouped all of the films that made the list that they have for viewing and streaming (more than half).  So I now have a nice long list of classic and recent films to watch.  Though we have seen many of the top 100 films, there are enough that we haven't seen, or haven't seen in far too long, to keep us busy for a time.

So my first choice was Claire Denis' Beau Travail, from 1999.  It is listed as #7 on the top 100 list.  It is a film about a small group of men training in Djibouti as members of the French Foreign Legion, and about their sergeant, and about their commander.  Filmed on location in the city and in the volcanic and salt wastes of Djibouti, the film would have wide appeal.  Women would like it for all the extremely fit and handsome young men, black and white, that are featured. Gay men would like it for the same reason.  Straight men would like it for the macho qualities the film highlights.  Though I am not a woman, a gay man, or a straight man who appreciates macho qualities, I still liked it.  So there you go.  Wide appeal.  As the final credits roll, we are told that we have been listening a lot to Benjamin Britten's Billy Budd score, from his opera.  Then the connection (however loose) is made to the film's plot: a sergeant who is none too pretty in the face begins to pick on one the most handsome men in his troupe, and is eventually accused of aiding and abetting his death when he is left in the desert alone with a defective compass.  The sergeant is telling his story, about how he was removed from the Legion.  Yes, the movie is quite good, and worth more than a single viewing.  But #7?  Really?  There are two more of her films on Criterion that we might check out, too.

Now showing on Criterion. 

Next came a silly comedy starring William Powell and Myrna Loy called Double Wedding, from 1937.  Hollywood's strange fascination with weddings continues here with Powell starring as a gypsyish wanna be film director who lives in a house trailer, and Loy as a successful business woman who runs her life like clockwork and by the book.  Is there any doubt that these two will get married at the end?  Despite some very funny moments, there isn't too much here except light entertainment.  John Beal has a very funny role as a mousy man.

Leaving Criterion Dec. 31st/22. 

 

No snow as yet, and no drastic cold weather, either.  It's been seasonal, with temps below freezing at night, but rising above during the day.  Can't complain, yet...

 

Mapman Mike

 

 

Winter's Arrival, Sort Of

With the arrival of meteorological winter on December 1st we enter the dark days.  London UK is dark shortly after 4 pm, and we are dark shortly after 5 pm.  It would appear that next year this time we will be remaining on daylight savings time, which will lengthen the afternoons, but drastically shorten the mornings.  Apparently this has been attempted before in the USA and other countries, but the dark mornings became too hazardous for pedestrians, especially school children, and the move was rescinded.  So the experiment will be repeated, no doubt with similar results.

As I blog this morning the sun is shining brightly, but it is cold out there.  Our wood stove is burning merrily and the house feels toasty.  We now have three main heat sources--the furnace, the wood stove, and the fireplace.  The first two depend on electricity, however.  But we have a generator just in case, which runs the stove as long as the gasoline lasts.  We originally bought the stove after a bad ice storm several years ago.  There is no way to connect the furnace to the generator when the power is out, so we depended on the fireplace that time.  Next time, providing we can start the generator (it was overhauled last summer), we will be able to stay warm, and to heat water.

I say "next time", as I know that ice storms will become more common, rather than the old fashioned snow storms we now rarely get.  As our temperatures rise ever so slowly over time, we get more and more rain in winter, and less and less snow.  And a bit more of the in between stuff, like ice pellets.  This summer past we also bought a solar panel charger, which will charge our phones and other smaller electrical devices.  The days after a big storm are usually clear and cold here, so we should have access to sunlight.  Hopefully we will never have to try out all these ways of keeping warm, but it's good to know we are as ready as can be.

Every Sunday morning we have breakfast in the listening/living room, and select a different Bach cantata to play as we eat our servings of either pancakes/waffles/French toast.  We are now in the latter half of his 1724 pieces, and they are getting richer, bolder, and ever more beautiful.  It has been a lot of fun hearing the progress of both Bach and Beethoven as composers, as we listened to works from their youth and are now reaching their stages of full maturity.  It is a very engaging and magnificent journey! 

In viewing news, we have finally watched all 8 episodes of Wheel of Time, season one.  Based on what we have seen, there will likely not be a season two for us.  The show is very much a Tolkien ripoff, as well as 'borrowing' hunks of material from Guy Gavriel Kay.  Though so many people die in this series (including all the males of a major city), not one main character dies.  One does die, but is revived miraculously at the end, as other women stay pretty much dead around her.  The story is manipulative and tedious, basically high school stuff, though the settings, costumes, and effects are really quite good.  It is done, and we can at last move on.

Pierre Etaix's first colour feature was Le Grand Amour from 1969.  The rediscovery of his films is a major milestone, like rediscovering either Chaplin, Buster Keaton, or Jacques Tati.  Etaix is that good.  This feature is all about a married man who suddenly falls in love with his new and very young (18) secretary.  There are so many funny scenes about marriage and affairs, but it is the main dream sequence that really sets this film apart from all others.  Etaix dreams he is in bed and driving down a road.  The sequence goes on for a long time, and is rich in sight comedy and hilarious situations.  Another film not to be missed.

Now showing on Criterion. 

Next came a 70s vampire feature called Blacula.  That just about sums up the film, as we get a hip LA version of a black vampire who rediscovers a look a like of his long lost wife.  The acting is quite good, but the story is the same old one, I'm afraid.  With Gordon Pinsent, a Canadian actor, as the police lieutenant trying to stop the vampire.

Seen on Criterion, but it has now left that service. 

Lastly comes a film from Thailand called By The Time It Gets Dark.  From 2016 it is the director's 2nd film.  Here is the Criterion description of the film:

"The delicately poetic second feature by Thai director Anocha Suwichakornpong weaves together multiple stories and characters to create a portrait of a beautiful country haunted by the lingering trauma of the 1976 government-sanctioned massacre of student demonstrators in Bangkok. A shape-shifting narrative around memory, politics, and cinema, the film weaves together the stories of several characters. We meet a young waitress serving breakfast at an idyllic country café, only to later find her employed in the busy dining room of a river cruise ship. And we meet a filmmaker interviewing an older woman whose life was transformed by the political activism of her student years and the Thammasat University massacre of 1976. With her tender, unobtrusive filmmaking style, Suwichakornpong allows us to get to know these characters slowly and deeply. At the same time, we see how their country and its troubled history inform their actions and identities in ways both overt and subtle." 

Though it is beautiful to watch, I found it quite confusing, and not nearly clear enough in dealing with the violence of the mid 70s.  It just flows (not seamlessly) from one story or character to another, almost in mid-stream, and leaves the story being watched as unfinished.  Which leads me to wonder if this could have been more successful as a formal small group of short films, which it essentially is, but without the form.  Definitely aimed at the festival circuit.

Now showing on Criterion.

And lastly, another Van Gogh painting currently visiting Detroit.  This is a favourite of ours from the Art Institute of Chicago.  Nice to have it in town.

The Bedroom, from 1889.  Showing in Detroit, visiting from Chicago.  Van Gogh. 

Mapman Mike

 

 

November Books Read

Before my usual end of the month book summary, let me begin by saying that there is great joy at this momentous time at Lone Mtn. Homestead.  What, you may ask, has caused such feelings among the inhabitants?  Our wood pellet stove is back in action, and things couldn't be toastier.  It would appear that a seized exhaust fan motor was causing our problem, and a few squirts of oil later we were back in business.  Today is quite cold, and the wind is howling.  However, inside it's Pina Colada time, and Hawaiian shirt day!  Woo hoo!  Bring on your worst, Monsieur Bonhomme.  We laugh at your pitiful attempts to chill our blood.  At least as long as the exhaust fan keeps working.

In reading news, I got through the usual 8 books related to the Avon/Equinox SF authors, and managed to read 5 unrelated books.  So a lucky 13 for this past month.  First up came Robert Silverberg's At Winter's End, truly one of his very best efforts.  Expanded into an epic novel in 1988, this 404 page novel has been waiting a long time for me.  Appearing first as a novella in Asimov's Science Fiction pulp magazine, this is truly an epic journey.  Ever since reading Olaf Stapeldon's First and Last Men, I have thought often of someone trying to write a tiny piece of that story of humankind that Stapledon simply did not have time for.  In his far reaching history of humans Stapledon blew many people's minds, and it would appear that Silverberg, among many others including myself, was one of them.  At first it would seem that his leap of imagination into the far future of a very different Earth was so far fetched as to almost be completely off the rails.  But putting things into a Stapledon perspective, what we have here is simply a tale of Earth 700,000 years after a meteor bombardment ended all life and froze the planet solid.  A really brilliant story, which I awarded a full four stars.  Another book in this series awaits me, I am happy to say.

Cover of the month by Michael Whelan.  It shows the first emergence of people living underground for 700,000 years, after the ice age finally begins to end. The detail here is commendable, and shows that the artist carefully read at least this far into the novel.

Many of Piers Anthony's early short stories are quite good, though as time goes on they become more and more unreadable.  Anthonology is a collection of short stories from the years 1963-1985.  Though none of the stories are truly classic, several are quite good.  "The Life of the Stripe," about an army promotion stripe, is one of the best, as is "Quinquepedalian," a dinosaur tale that seems heavily influenced by the movie Gorgo. There are enough good stories in the first half, but by the second half of this group I did not like a single one.

It is with great sadness that I now report on the final novel by Harry Harrison, one of the top writers of highly entertaining SF and fantasy.  His Stainless Steel Rat series alone would make him well loved and famous, but nearly everything he wrote is first class writing.  It became such a pleasure, after reading something by Piers Anthony, to next come across a book by Harrison, which would always revive my spirits immensely.  Harrison's final book is the 11th in the much loved series, and is called The Stainless Steel Rat Returns.  Slippery Jim deGriz and his charming (and deadly) wife Angelina come out of retirement for one last heroic mission, and I will be ever thankful that they did.  The plot means nothing, as it is always a fight against evil.  But the characters are everything, and the humour.  Not the best in the series, it is still top quality and great fun to read.

I began a new Dray Prescott series by Kenneth Bulmer (alias Alan Burt Akers), the Havilfar Cycle I.  The first book is called Manhounds of Antares, and it revived my interest in this massive pulp fantasy series.  Bulmer is back on his game.  Things continue to look up for this series, which I had nearly given up on.  I had left it alone for a year before deciding to come back.  I'm glad I did.  The book seems under control, and the story takes its time to develop.  The first few chapters resume the story from where it left off, and after a few hair raising adventures--all minor stuff for Dray--he is happily married to his beloved Delia. They spend a happy year together, and twins are born to the couple, a boy and a girl.  But soon afterwards, Dray is called away by the Overlords to fulfill a mission.  Let the adventure begin!

E. C Tubb's 2nd book of his Dumarest saga is called Derai, which is the name of a woman that our hero has to guard on her return journey to her home planet.  Not nearly as good as the first book in the series, it nonetheless checks a lot of the boxes required for a successful pulp SF novel.  But this novel seems more like a sketch than a finished story.  It could really have used a rewrite, or perhaps two of them.  I hope that Tubb gets back on track for book 3.  I have six of the series books from Kindle, but I won't go much beyond those unless the writing quality remains consistently high.

Next I read the 2nd half of the massive hardcover book by Jack Williamson, Book 3 of The Collected Stories.  The best of the remaining stories had to be "Galactic Circle," a novella from 1935 that once again shows the influence of Olaf Stapledon (see the Silverberg story, above).  A large group of people make a very unique voyage to the edge of the universe and beyond. The science given behind such a journey is more than a little hazy, but at least the author attempts to explain how it works.  It is part adventure story and part romance, and there are a few more major characters than usual in this kind of tale.  This one was fun to read.  The remaining stories are pretty much formula 1930s pulp magazine stuff, which if you've read hundreds of them already, the rest are pretty much the same.

Michael Moorcock's The End of All Songs is the 3rd and concluding (for now) story in a trilogy featuring life millions of years in the future (influenced again by guess who?), and starring Jherek Carnelian and his beloved Amelia Underwood.  The first two books I found a bit taxing to read, as Jherek's innocence of how things work in earlier times is quite exasperating.  However, in the third book (also the longest of the three), he hits a home run, making all my suffering during the first two books more than worthwhile.  I awarded this novel the coveted 4+ stars, the highest rating I give.  I don't recommend only reading this book--just be assured as you read the first two that it is all going to be worth your time.  The philosophy, poetry, and earnest discussions that permeate this volume create a work that holds fascination beyond its mere words, and beyond what this reviewer could ever convey here.  A must read.

Last (and never least) comes a work by Barry Malzberg and Bill Pronzini called Prose Bowl.  Imagine if there were no major sporting events as we know them (I am writing this during World Cup 2022 frenzy), but instead, amidst tens of thousands of live fans, and millions of viewers back home, two pulp writers battled it out midfield, writing a novel in competition in real time.  At the coin toss, the winner gets first pick of two themes that have been selected at random, while the loser takes the 2nd choice.  And they're off!  With a half time show and intense press interest, the Prose Bowl is the culminating competition for the two writers who remain after all the preliminary rounds.  By making it into a competition sport, the authors elevate pulp writing into a mass cultural event.  It is a brilliant concept, very funny, and an easy read.  Recommended to anyone who has read a lot of pulp fiction.

Turning now to books off the shelf, and from my vast Kindle collection, I began with the very first novel by Guy Gavriel Kay.  So far I have read his most recent novel, A Brightness Long Ago, from 2018, one of the best fantasy novels ever written.  And now I have read his first one, called The Summer Tree, from 1984.  It is the first in a trilogy (of course) called the Fionavar Tapestry.  The book shows heavy influences from Tolkien.  There are orc-like critters, a Mount Doom stand in, critters like Elves, and there be Dwarves.  There is a Sauron look alike, etc, etc. But no Hobbits.  Instead, we have five humans from our own time, transported (like the children in the C. S. Lewis Narnia series) to this other world.  Though Tolkien is often scolded for not having more strong women in his books, in my opinion he more than made up for this shortcoming with his creation of Eowyn.  I believe that she is possibly the best female fantasy character ever created by a male writer.  As for the two girls from C. S. Lewis' Narnia series, the less said the better.  Kay includes more women, and gives some of them incredible power.  But more doesn't necessarily mean better.  To me, none of the female characters met so far come near the greatness of Eowyn, or, for that matter, the lead females in E R Eddison's Zimiamvian trilogy.  So while the book is very derivative of Tolkien, so is most of the rest of fantasy writing, especially from the late 70s onward.  Having said this, there are glimpses of Kay's originality in virtually every page, and his incredible way of handling complex characters.  I am looking forward to reading book 2 next month.

Switching now to my collection of Delphi Classics on Kindle, I began with William Morris' 1888 A Dream of John Ball.  Morris has a unique way of looking back to the 1381 Peasants' Revolt in England, and in a supposed dream he travels back in time and meets John Ball, the doomed leader of the revolt.  In addition to hearing Ball give speeches to his loyal followers, we attend a preliminary skirmish, and then spend a good deal of time hearing the writer tell Ball of future times, and how he influenced people hundreds of years later.  Though the book obviously has a limited readership today, I found it quite fascinating, with a commendable look back at an event in medieval history of which I knew next to nothing.

Arthur Morrison is a writer I collected because of his short detective stories written for Strand Magazine, after the death of Sherlock Holmes at Reichenback Falls.  Many critics and readers assumed that the stories of one Martin Hewlitt, private detective, were in fact written by Conan Doyle.  I read his first collection, from 1894, entitled Martin Hewlitt, Investigator.  Containing seven stories, all of above average quality, it can quickly be ascertained by astute readers that this is not Doyle writing them.  Though the cases themselves often reflect ones similar to many of Holmes' cases, the character of Hewlitt is pretty straight forward compared to that of Holmes.  Though the mysteries written by Doyle are intriguing to be sure, it is the character of Holmes, and his relationship with Watson, that readers most enjoy.  Hewlitt has no Watson per se, and seems to have a higher opinion of the police that Doyle's characters.  None of the stories stand high above another here, but they are all satisfying and fun to read.

Next came a collection of 7 short stories by E Nesbit, known mostly for her wonderful children's stories.  Something Wrong was published in 1893, and contains some pretty hard hitting tales of violence and abominable behaviour.  Though all of the stories are excellent and extremely well written, one of them really stands out for me.  "Tim" is the name of a dog that performs tricks for a brutal master who takes a show on the road featuring Tim, a cat, a rat, and a few mice.  Told from Tim's perspective, this is likely the most heart breaking story I have ever read.  It made me immediately want to go out and adopt a dog and call him Tim, and pour all the love into him that I could. And perhaps a cat, a rat, and a few mice, too.

Next came an early work by P D Wodehouse.  The Pot Hunters is from 1902, and was the author's first published novel.  It's a light-hearted and pretty funny tale of adventure and misdeeds at St Austin's, a boys boarding school in England.  Written no doubt for such an audience, it would undoubtedly be enjoyed by high school aged boys from the time.  Though mostly built around indoor and outdoor sporting events, there is enough good story remaining to entertain even those not partial so sports.  There are a few passages that presage the great wit that was to descend upon the world during the author's mature period of writing.  Certainly not required reading for Wodehouse fans, it's still fun to see where it all began.

Lastly came Edgar Allen Poe's only completed novel, The Narrative of A. Gordon Pym From Nantucket, from 1838.  It is mostly a harrowing sea faring adventure, with murder, mutiny, starvation, cannibalism, and other fun adventures uppermost in the plot.  Part fantasy and part true life adventure, the hero, near the end of the story and after too many near death experiences, goes on a search for the south pole with a captain and crew that eventually rescued him from shipwreck.  I've come to the conclusion that in seafaring fiction, there is never a normal voyage.  Only the worst voyage ever experienced makes it to the pages.  The main fantasy elements emerge in the final third of the book, when, at 84 degrees south latitude, warm seas, islands with plants and animals, and tens of thousands of hostile natives are encountered, that we leave the realm of the possible.  What is most bewildering is that the person writing the memoirs (Mr. Pym) dies suddenly after writing 25 chapters, with about three remaining to write.  So we never hear the end of the tale.  This is a quite hilarious ending, and must have enraged many readers at the time, as it no doubt still does.  The book influenced Jules Verne, among others, though it was not a well liked book in its day.  For Poe fans only.

Mapman Mike

 

 

Rain Has Arrived

It's been raining all day Sunday, something we needed badly 5 months ago.  But it has finally rained and broken the jinx.  We will have had about 1" of rain when it is all over, the most rain we have had since early June.  And it's been a mild week, and I was able to snag two perfect nights for deep sky astronomy!  November and December are our two cloudiest months, so if I get even one good night between those months I am surprised.  Of course these are not normal times for climate;  we've had plenty of sunshine this month, and mild air.  Looking ahead, Dec. 1st returns us to the world of more normal weather.

 

My two clear nights, Wednesday and Friday last, were both very different.  Wednesday was quite damp (and chilly), and I ended up driving home through some very atmospheric fog for a time.  Friday night was dry as can be.  Both nights were good for observing distant and faint galaxies, though I always pepper my sessions with a few show pieces, to place things into perspective.  I have been working late autumn skies the past few years in the constellation Cetus (The Whale).  It covers a vast area of sky, much of it low on my horizon, making it very challenging to see faint objects.  But my windmill site is perfect for this sort of thing, with dark skies pretty much down to the horizon.  I just finished writing up my field notes today.  Hopefully I will get a night or two in December, but being realistic, I am probably done now till March.  My warm clothing is good for several hours at temps down as far as 25 F, with little to no breeze.  It got down to 29 F Friday night, but I had no problems.  Dressing for cold weather is quite different when you are going to spend that time standing or sitting in one place.  One has to dress for temps about 20 F below what they actually are to remain warm.

 

Practicing is going well, though I have been off a bit in my schedule this past week.  All of the pieces are playable, though not yet ready for any type of performance.  They are, however, ready for a lesson from Philip, if I can squeeze one in there before the holidays.  It is a lot of fun to play so much Bach, more than I have ever done at once before (7 pieces).  I have always loved to play Bach, and I am getting a good workout this time around.  I haven't played any Grieg since about 1974/75, so it was about time I took on a series of his Lyric Pieces.  The influence of Bach (and others) can be seen and heard throughout these pieces.

 

Our nightly listening program continues to progress, always in three directions.  We are continuing our complete Beethoven project, and have nearly completed his middle period works.  We are also alternating Haydn's Paris Symphonies with Schumann's complete piano music as the 2nd part of our program.  The third part consists of playing through all of our Baroque LP records.  This used to be a favourite time for the cats, too, who are always sorely missed.

 

Turning to viewing news, we have finished watching the 8 episode season of Tales From the Loop.  The series is uneven in quality, but when it's good, it is really good.  Our favourites were episode 1 (which we are going to rewatch now), episode 5, and episode 7.  The final episode was really good, but relied on a poor choice of plot interference to kill off one of the characters.  There were so many better ways this could have been done.  The series has links to each episode through characters, especially a young boy, Cole, though each story is pretty much independent.  The series leaves a lot of mysteries untouched, including what research goes on at the Loop itself.  No season two has been announced, but it would be a shame if no others were ever made.

 

Three movies from Criterion we watched were The Daughter of Dawn from 1920, Deep Cover from 1992, and The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter, from 1968.  Daughter is a recent rediscovery of a silent film made entirely with a cast of Native Americans, and tells a story of trouble between the Kiowa and Comanche tribes.  Entirely filmed in Oklahoma, it is the only film that shows Plains Indians in the true plains where they lived.

 

Now showing on Criterion. 

 

Deep Cover features Jeff Goldblum and Lawrence Fishburne in a stylish noir.  Fishburne plays an undercover cop trying to take down some drug middlemen, as he is told not to touch the top echelon.  But he goes all the way up, and a good script and some fine acting make the time fly past.

Showing on Criterion for three more days. 

 

The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter is a touching and sad film from the deep south starring Alan Arkin as a deaf mute.  To be near a deaf mute friend who has become institutionalized, who is also mentally challenged, he moves towns and takes a room with a family suffering through its own hardships.  A teenage girl at first abhors the thought of a "dummy" living in their house, but soon becomes enamoured with him, and comes to love him as a dear friend.  She wants to become a classical pianist, and loves music.  He buys her records and she tries to describe music to him as it happens.  Their friendship becomes very touching.  The book by Carson McCullers is something I would like to track down via Kindle, and read soon.  Painful at times, mostly due to white against black racism.  A very good film, and highly recommended.

 

Showing on Criterion for 3 more days. 

 

I'll finish up with another great Van Gogh painting visiting Detroit during its unparalleled exhibit.  This is one of several works sent to Detroit by the Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam.  Thank you Amsterdam!

One of two Sowers in the Detroit exhibit, this one from Amsterdam's Van Gogh Museum.

 

I'll be back in a few days with the November reading summary. 

Mapman Mike.

 

 

Scoreboard: Winter 1, Lone Mtn Homestead 0

It was a brutal end to a warm and sunny and lovely late autumn.  But Saturday, Nov. 12th brought the dreaded reality to life.  Winter is never far away in November.  We had plunging temps and high winds, lasting through Sunday, Nov. 20th.  What we did not receive was the 5' to 6' of snow some lucky places did during that hellish time.  Mostly New York state, but also a good part of Ontario near Niagara Falls.  We did get one blast of snow one night, which sent the noisy snow plows out to do their thing.  But it has warmed up again, and it's sunny once more, and the winds have dropped, and our snow is gone.  Thanks be given.

 

Needless to say we did not do very much during the winter blast.  Amanda visited twice, and we had one outing by car to a nearby cafe and a few shops (and a distillery).  But we cancelled our bus trip to Windsor, not having much ambition to be at a bus stop when it's cold and windy.  Amanda has been promoted to Head of Publishing at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto.  Best of all, she gets to work from home 90 % of the time, permanently.  So she was able to work at her mom's house in the mornings, and hang out in the afternoon and evenings.

 

I did catch up on my reading during the cold spell, and am now reading a book off my shelf.  More on that topic at the end of the month.

 

In viewing news, we have continued to watch, in rotation, three Wondrium courses, and three series on Prime.  We have another series in the waiting room, called English, when we finish one of our Prime series.  We also have a stack of courses in the Wondrium queue, too.  So we limit ourselves to three TV series at a time, and three courses.  The current courses are a history of piano literature from Bach onwards, a series called Science Fiction as Philosophy, and another about ancient astronomy, with a worldwide scope.  The prime series are Tales From the Loop, Night Sky, and The Wheel of Time.  There is another series of interest showing on AMC+, Interview With A Vampire,which we will likely watch soon, too.

 

In movie news, we watched Prater, Ulrike Ottinger's 2007 documentary on the bizarre Viennese amusement park.  It is quite good, and it follows the history from its founding to the present day.  The entire park was destroyed by bombing by the Nazis in WW II, as foreigners worked there, and Jewish people.  There never seems to be any good news that comes out of the devastation wrought by the Nazis (yet still people follow and idolize them).

 

Showing on Criterion till Nov. 30th/22 

 

Lastly came Neon Bible, a Terrence Davies film from 1995.  Set in America's south, it is the story of a young boy growing up in a small town in the 50s.  Based on a novel written by a 16 year old boy, but withheld from publication by his mother for many years, the movie to me was a total failure.  The character of the young boy was so bland, and the film so saturated with terrible music (played and sung loudly and for lengthy periods) that we nearly quit  watching it.  The last half hour was a bit better, with less music and more story, and the boy began to finally show some emotion.  But many of the scenes go on far too long, and they don't seem to advance the plot or deepen it.  There are, however, a few fine moments, mostly dealing with the relationship between the boy and his outgoing aunt.  Overall, though, it was not enjoyable to watch.

Showing on Criterion till Nov. 30th/22 

 

In lieu of an astronomy night grumbling, I present a painting now in Detroit at the Van Gogh exhibit.  We are hoping to visit once more in early to med December, before the holiday rush.

 

Starry Night Over The Rhone, by Vincent Van Gogh, 1888.  From Musee d'Orsay, Paris.  Now on display in Detroit.  Note the prominent Big Dipper. 

 

Mapman Mike

 

 

An Early Winter

Last Friday we completed our series of walks on the local rails to trails trail. It was 65 F, and we were in summer jackets. The two weeks before had been lovely weather, too, often getting into the 70s. Then came Saturday (the 12th). Suddenly the temperature was 33 F, and it snowed all day. We were outside trying to plant our spring bulbs, and it was not fun. It has been cold for a week now, and we are heading into the worst of it over the next three days. Monday it is supposed to moderate. I sure as hell hope so.

We had a bus trip to Windsor planned with Amanda for this past Wednesday, but due to a stiff breeze and freezing temps, we cancelled. Instead, we had a long afternoon wood fire here at home, with music, food, drinks, and such. We have recently spent two long afternoons with Amanda as our guest (once with her mom), and hope to see her at least once more before she heads back to Toronto. Parts of New York, including Buffalo, are just entering into a three day snow event that will dump 3-4 of snow. Incredibly cold winds are blowing off the lakes, which are still warm, picking up huge amounts of moisture, and dumping it on land. Our boiler is on its serious heat setting, and it will remain that way until Nature shows some mercy. We are getting the high winds, but not much snow. Parts of Michigan along lake Michigan, and parts of Ontario along Lake Huron, are saying goodbye to a brown landscape, and hello to a white one.

Winter is often tolerable in this part of the world when the winds aren't roaring. Calm, cold winter days and nights are among some of the finest one can ever experience. But add a howling wind and blowing, drifting snow, and hell hath no fury like it. I've had two outings today to feed the birds. It's garbage night, so I will be heading out once more in an hour or two.

In film news, some good things to report. Before I begin, I will say that I am becoming more and more impressed with how documentaries are being presented. They are evolving works of great entertainment, besides their usual function of educating us philistines about things we should know about but don't. A few good ones will be briefly mentioned in a moment.
Denis Villeneuve's 1998 August 32nd on Earth is an early film by the director of the new Dune film. It's a difficult movie to categorize, or even summarize. It's a somewhat puzzling and unsatisfying look at two close friends, a man and a woman. She is a type of supermodel who has just quit her job. He is an unsettled man with a girlfriend, whom we never really see. The retired model (who never wears any makeup in her scenes, and dresses quite blandly, but we see magazine covers of her in full model mode) contacts her male friend. She tells him that she wants a baby, and that she wants him to do the job. No strings attached. She will go off with baby, and he never need see her again. He jokingly says that he will do it, but only in the desert. They fly from Montreal, where they live, to Utah, and are soon immersed in an otherworldly land of nothingness. Not exactly fun to watch, but curious viewers might be kept watching. Not for all tastes, certainly. The ending was a disappointment.

Showing on Criterion.

Manhattan Melodrama from 1934 is just that. Starring William Powell, Clark Gable, and Myra Loy, it is a watchable old thing that tells the story of two friends who grow up on different sides of the tracks. One becomes a gangster, and the other the district attorney for New York, and then governor of that state. The acting is good, of course, and the story not as predictable as it sounds. The character played by Gable (the gangster) is likable to the end, and he plays him well.  One of the better endings of an early film.

 

Leaving Criterion Nov. 30th. 

 

Next followed two quite brilliant docs.  Terrence Davies ode to growing up in Liverpool is called Of Time and the City, from 2008.  It is a fascinating and very moving experience to watch this film about a city that virtually never makes it to the big screen.  There are many indelible images used, including plenty of children playing and surviving the bleakness of their surroundings in blissful unawareness.  Davies narrates with his own writing, and also with quotes form Joyce and T. S. Eliot, among others.  The images and the reading go beautifully together.  I can relate, having grown up in a dirty and very smelly mining town in Northern Ontario, though at the time it was simply my home, where I came from, and who I was.  Anyone from out of town who said anything bad about it was off my friendship list for life.  Mind you, I was allowed to say things about it, but not people from elsewhere.  This is a different kind of documentary film, and we enjoyed it a lot.  We have seen one other drama by Davies, and there is another in the queue.

Showing until Nov. 30th on Criterion. 

 

Searching For Mr. Rugoff is a documentary from 2019, about a film promoter who influenced American cinema tastes and helped (inadvertently) kick start the American independent film movement.  Rugoff owned and operated a cinema chain with 5 or 6 new York City theatres, and began bringing over European films by Godard, Truffaut, Wertmuller, etc.  He is a hard man to describe.  He wasn't well liked by most people who knew him, being a tyrant.  But he changed cinema newspaper and radio adds, and developed American's taste for non-Hollywood films.  He is a man virtually no one remembers or has heard of today, so this film should go a long way to correcting that.  This is a truly fascinating film about a very influential man who just disappeared off the radar once he lost his business.  A must-see for fans of cinema.

 

Now showing on Criterion. 

 

I'll conclude with one more film, halfway between a drama and a documentary.  Chan Is Missing is from 1982, directed by Wayne Wang.  We have now seen a few other films by Mr. Wang, who tells stories of Chinatown, San Francisco.  In this one we get behind the scene glimpses of life there (in b&w) under the guise of a search for a missing person by a friend.  The story doesn't mean that much, other than what it tells us about Chinese Americans.  Sometimes it is very funny, and other times it is dramatic.  Not entirely successful, at least it is very short.  Chan becomes the symbol of a search for a true Chinese American.

Chan Is Missing is showing on Criterion. 

 

We are currently watching a documentary by Ulrike Ottinger, about a bizarre Viennese amusement park.  More on that later.

 

Mapman Mike