February Reading

It turned into an amazing month for reading, as I got through no less than 14 books.  That's an average of two per day!  Some excellent reading in there, too, including the first two Oz books, with original illustrations.

The new month always gets started with something by Silverberg.  I have collected all 10 volumes of Silverberg's shorter fiction, and read Vol 4 last month (which is really Vol 5, as the first volume was not numbered).  It contains 14 stories from 1972-73, lasting for 411 pages.  I had read only one of them previously.  The best them is listed here: The Dybbuk of Mazel Tov IV, where a Jewish colony on another planet has to deal with the reappearance of one of their recently dead in the body of an intelligent native.  A wonderful story; Ship Sister-Star Sister is a very good story about the first starship to leave Earth for the great unknown.  It carries a female telepath, while her twin sister, also a telepath, remains on Earth.  This becomes the main way of communicating from space.  Very well done; This Is The Road is the first of two novellas in this volume, and seems to be a perfect example of what a good novella should be.  A group of four people are travelling west along a road to escape pillage and worse from invading barbarians (does this sound contemporary enough--Russia invade Ukraine as I write this).  They come up against a wall built to block the road, and must decide what to do.  An excellent story, well contained within itself; and In The House Of Double Minds, an intriguing right brain/left brain story.  This book also wins best cover on the month.

Best cover for February, art by Thomas Moronski.  He does all the covers for this series, and they are all amazing.

Next up was a very well done stand alone novel by Piers Anthony, lasting over 520 pages.  Called Tatham Mound, it is a story about a Florida Indian tribe in the mid 1550s.  Well written and well researched, the fictional story is based upon people who were actually uncovered in the excavation of a rare burial mound find in northern Florida.  This is like something Silverberg might write, or Harry Harrison.  The 20-page concluding essay by the author is also well worth reading.

Stainless Steel Visions is a collection of 13 short stories by Harry Harrison, as well as a short essay by the author on what makes a short story good, and what doesn't.  I had read many of the stories in other collections, but I will list three of the new ones that I really liked.  Toy Shop is from 1962, and is 8 pages long.  A fun tale about trying to get one's important invention noticed.  Commando Raid is from 1970, and is 14 pages long.  Were there lessons learned from the Vietnam War?  Harry Harrison learned them, but apparently not everyone who should have did. The Golden Years of the Stainless Steel Rat is from 1993.  It is 20 pages long.  A prison break is nothing unusual for slippery Jim deGriz.  But this time he springs the entire geriatric population.  The Stainless Steel Rat (and Angelina) are still in top form, despite the aging years.

I began another new series by Kenneth Bulmer, writing under the name of Bruno Krauss.  It's a series about German u boats in early WWII, before American got involved.  Their mission is to sink British ships.  It must have surprised a lot of people when they out that a British writer penned the series.  The first book is called Steel Shark.  The missions are harrowing, both for the crew of the submarine, and for the British sailors above, and we get good looks at both sides of the coin.  I have always believed that submarines attempting to sink civilian ships is a very cowardly undertaking, and the book didn't change my mind about that.  Is it a coincidence that Das Boot, the incredible movie about the same subject, came out in 1981, three years after Bulmer's series was underway?  I think not.  Though the movie is based on a 1973 novel, Bulmer's books were quite popular, especially in Germany.  I will likely read one or two more eventually, but not the entire series (8 books).

Next was a pretty terrible SF pulp novel by Tubb, from 1953.  This man could crank out incredible stories one after another, but not this time.  Maybe he had the flu when he wrote it.  The Wall is a mysterious barricade blocking access to the heart of the galaxy, where the answer to eternal youth lies.  It's an interesting enough premise, but it handled very routinely, and the book never really gets things into gear.  At least at 130 pages, it was short.

Even Jack Williamson turned out a clunker for me this month.  Beachhead is from 1992, written when Jack was 82.  It's about the first human trip to Mars.  It is actually worse than the previous pulp novel by Tubb, which I awarded two stars.  This one got one and a half.  Avoid.

After a disappointing start last month to Michael Moorcock's Elric series, the next book I read was much improved.  Written in 1989, many years after the first novel, Moorcock returned to the series to fill in some gaps of events during Elric's years of travel.  Since I am trying to read them in chronological order (not the order in which they were written), the next book was The Fortress of the Pearl.  It seems to be a compendium of styles, from Lovecraft, Dunsany, E R Eddison, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Robert E Howard, Frank Baum, and Fritz Leiber, not to mention Homer, who started it all.  They actually blend well!  My oversize version is 164 pages, but the original paperback version is 248 pages.  A really great read!

The last novel related to my Avon/Equinox authors was called Chorale, written by Barry Malzberg.  It is a weirdly structured time travel novel, where the people of the near future have to keep going back in time to make certain that important events actually happen.  While the book gets bogged down in its own philosophy (did the past really happen, or did we create it from the future), there are enough moments of brilliance to make this a compelling read.  A man is chosen to go back in time and reenact key events in the life of Beethoven, the great composer.  Quite a challenge, since the man neither speaks German, is a musician (in fact he doesn't care about music at all), and is more than slightly demented.  There are several hilarious events and moments, all dark and conspiratorial, but we do end up learning a good deal of Beethoven, and the almost hideous times in which he lived (especially regarding public health and personal grooming habits).  Definitely worth checking out, even for non musicians.

After reading my required 8 books in my ongoing project (see separate website for the Avon/Equinox series), I turned my attention to unrelated books from my "miscellaneous" shelf.  I managed to read six, including two by female writers.  First came Patricia Highsmith's The Price of Salt, an incredible and memorable tale of a young woman meeting an older woman and falling in love with her.  They end up going on a road trip together across the US.  Written in 1952, this is probably the best book I read all month (a tie with one other--see further down).  Exceptionally well written, and we also got to watch the 2013 film, called Carol, based on the book.

The Dragon Scroll, by Irina K Parker is part of a very long series of murder/mystery books taking place in 11 C Japan.  I read several many years ago.  Though this one was written later, it is the first of the books chronologically, and I have had it on my shelf for many years.  The parts about Japanese society, customs, and life styles are well researched and form the main interest for reading these books, much in the same way that Pat McIntosh writes her mysteries in medieval Glasgow. The book was okay, but as per most modern mystery stories, there are simply too many murders for one book.  Find something else to keep a reader's interest, instead of continually murdering someone else.

I dipped into my vast library of Delphi Classics on Kindle for the next four books.  First of these was called Toppleton's Client, by J K Bangs, his second novel.  Written in 1893, it is a very funny tale about a one man trying to help a spirit regain his body, which was stolen by another spirit 30 years earlier.  Extremely well written, and the premise is given sufficient time and breadth to develop before we really get into the nitty gritty of things.  The ending was actually a surprise, but perfect for the story.  Not only are Americans lampooned, but the British who receive them are raked over the coals as well.  Courts and lawyers are not spared either, but it's never nasty, only fun.

Next came a serious work, A Man From The North, by Arnold Bennett.  Partly autobiographical, it's about a man coming to London from a smaller city, and hoping to become a writer.  He takes a room, gets a clerk's job, and occasionally sends in an article or short story to a publisher.  They are always rejected.  The story follows him for years, and was a surprisingly good read.  The author allows us good access to the man's inner thoughts, and his constricted lifestyle, with occasional episodes of hope, keep us reading on page after page.  He has no real friends, seems unable to meet women, and has no sense of true ambition to work at being a writer.  However, he has a strong sense that he is far above his fellow men, despite his lack of success with women and with writing books.  If he didn't have his strong ego he would undoubtedly fall apart quickly.  The book could also be called Ambitious Hopes Meet Reality.  Highly recommended.

I finished off the short month by reading the first two Oz books.  I have read The Wonderful Wizard of Oz before, but only in a text version.  This time I had access to all of the original art that accompanied the story.  There is so much to love about this book, and it certainly remains as relevant today--to kids and adults--as when it was first written in 1900.  There is wonderful satire, brilliantly imaginative locations, characters, and adventures, and a total sense that somehow this is all real, somewhere.  A must read, for everyone.

  

Dorothy, with her green spectacles, meets the Wizard of Oz.

Echoing the adventures of Homer's Ulysses, our four heroes become bogged down in a field of poppies that make two of them very sleepy.

Never having read The Marvelous Land of Oz, the 2nd book in the series, I pressed on.  Though not as good in many ways as the first book, the 1904 sequel has its own rough charm.  The humour is back, and a different artist takes over.  The Scarecrow is chased off his Emerald City Throne by a band of girls with knitting needles, and sets off westward to find the Tin Man and get his help.  The girls chip off all the precious stones from the walls of the Emerald City, force the men to do all the home labour, and the women relax and make fudge.  After an unsuccessful attempt to get his throne back, the Scarecrow and friends set out to get Glinda's help.  New characters in book two are Jack Pumpkinhead, H M Wogglebug, T. E., a bad witch, a sawhorse, and a flying thing made from palm leaves and two sofas, and a boy who turns out to be a girl.  All the greatest fun one could ever have, so read it soon.

Two illustrations from The Marvelous Land of Oz, Book 2 in the series. 

Mapman Mike

 

 

A Taste of Spring

It does appear that Feb. 28th will be our last wintry day, though we have had a few severe days lately.  But the cold spells have become shorter and less intense, and the thaw days warmer and more frequent.  Starting Tuesday we should be in the clear, with room for occasional setbacks.

I have only been reporting lately on movies with some special interest, ignoring several that might have been worth seeing but not talking about.  We are amidst the end of month film festival, my choices this month.  I have chosen two Czech New Wave films, and two by Guillermo del Toro, a short and a feature, both with Criterion produced extras.

Before that we watched two of Deb's choices, showing on the Roku channel.  The first was Farinelli, a 1994 film about the famous 18th C castrato and his composer brother.  While much of the film is a delicious soap opera with outlandish period costumes, the best parts show action inside the opera halls, with singing.  The great Handel is in the plot, which gets stirred nicely from time to time.  The interior of period opera houses is shown in jaw dropping splendour, and the performances are first rate.  Costumes are out of this world, giving a pretty strong hint of what great 18th C opera was all about--the spectacle.  Of course Farinelli's singing changed a lot of that, as people came out to hear him sing (along with the costumes and outlandish stage sets).  Definitely worth a look for lovers of Baroque opera.

Showing on Roku TV. 

Deb's next choice was also showing on Roku.  Called A Ghost Story (2017), it stars Rooney Mara again.  This was almost a really good movie, but sadly it lost its way in the latter half.  A young couple buy a house in the suburbs.  However, their life barely gets started before the man is killed in a car accident.  His ghost survives the ordeal, and he returns to the house.  The woman lives alone for a time before selling the house, finding a new lover, and moving on with her life.  But the ghost remains.  The ghost is one of the more interesting manifestations i have seen.  He wears a full length white sheet with two holes cut out for eyes.  The funny thing is, it works!  He is mostly passive, just standing around watching things happen.  A single Hispanic woman and her two small children move into the house.  However, he violently haunts them in a fit of rage, and they soon move out.  Next come a party crowd.  Finally, the house is demolished and the ghost is left standing in the rubble.

The camera moves very little some of the time, remaining so still that viewers become anxious and restless.  However, this mostly works.  Sometimes there is music and sometimes no sounds are heard.  Where the picture loses its way is when the ghost tries to commit suicide, by jumping off the roof of a tall building.  From that point on the film becomes not only obscure, but loses track of where it was heading.  During the party scene in the house a man talks at a table about why all human endeavour that attempts to immortalize is ultimately pointless, whether it's publishing a book, having children, or writing a great symphony.  So much time is given over to this speech, to which the ghost listens, that one assumes that it will have something to do with the remaining section of film.  So the movie is ultimately very stylish and moody, but it lets us down with its rather pointless ending, and even more pointless trip to the past. 

Showing on Roku TV. 

It's quite a gear shift to suddenly be watching The Joke, a Czech film from 1967.  In a bid to get even with one of his former university classmates who betrayed him 20 or so years ago, getting him kicked out of school and forced into the army, a man seduces his wife in the hopes of destroying him and his marriage.  Alas, the best laid plans never seem to go straight, at least in movies.  The story is told partly in flashback, as we learn what the man had to go through because of a letter he wrote to his girlfriend one summer.  She turned in the letter to the Communist Party, and the man's life and dreams were ruined from then on.  Though a very embittered man (justifiably so), by the end some of his anger has been released, and he seems about to make the most of his remaining years.  It's fascinating watching the historical scenes take place, as mindless optimism became the guiding rule for a country that thought it was marching into the future.  We get to see the past and the future (present), and neither looks particularly appealing.  If you wish to know what it really looks like to lose one's freedom, there is no better film to tell it like it is.

The Joke, directed by Jeromil Jires, from a novel by Milan Kundera.  Showing on Criterion.  

It's been a while since I featured some art from the DIA, so let's get right back to it.  There are two magnificent paintings by Frederic Church in Detroit.  This is the other one (the first is Cotopaxi).  Syria By The Sea inspires awe when viewers stand before it.  The painting is the size of a picture window, but it really feels as if the viewer is on location, standing above the sea and gazing on the ancient ruins.  The sun can be felt, too, right through one's head.  Despite it's realism, it is a very poetic picture, and the mix of poetry and a fanciful view (it's a montage of various sites, not one that was painted as is) is very convincing.  Foreground, middle ground, and background all have something significant to say,and I honestly cannot say which part of the painting I like most.  I hope someday soon to be able to stand in front of this, and other great masterpieces, again in Detroit.

Syria By The Sea, 1873.  Frederic Church, American, 1826-1900.  Oil on canvas, 56" x 85".

Detail of left side. 

Detail of centre.

Detail of foreground, centre.
 

Detail of right side. 

I'll be back in a few days with the February reading summary.  It's been a productive month for reading.

Mapman Mike

 

 

 

Book to Film

February has turned into a reading bonanza, as I am well into my 13th book for this month.  In just a few more days I will be writing my summary of books read, so don't wander far till then.  One of the books I read was called The Price of Salt, written in 1952 by Patricia Highsmith, under a pen name.  it's about two lesbian lovers, a young woman of 19 and an older women in her early thirties.  She is married but divorcing, and has a little girl.  The young one is a theatre set designer, but is working the Christmas rush at a major department store.  The book was so good that I checked on line afterwards to see if it had ever been filmed, since so many Highsmith novels have been made into films (her Ripley novels, for example).  Sure enough, it had been.  And it was showing on one of our free streaming channels!

The film is called Carol, and it stars Cate Blanchett as the older woman, and features a stunning performance by Rooney Mara as the young Therese, who falls madly in love with Carol when she first sees her as a customer in the store.  Therese herself has a boyfriend who wants her to marry him and go off to Europe.  However, her heart is not in the relationship, and once she meets Carol, all bets are off with her boyfriend.  Though the book treads carefully, and there are no explicit love scenes, the movie goes all out with a major love scene between the women (is this required in all more modern movies--can nothing be suggested anymore?).  An interesting side note--Rooney also stars in the recent remake of Nightmare Alley, directed by Del Toro.  Looking forward to seeing that soon.  Another interesting side note--Rooney started a vegan clothing line called Hiraeth Collective.

Showing for free on Roku Channel. 

Since rediscovering the family colour slides from the late 50s and early 60s, I have been having a lot of fun scanning them and sending some off to close relatives.  Almost as interesting as seeing the people, is observing the background furnishings, and surrounding landscapes of Sudbury and Lake Penage, where we built a bush canp in 1962.  Lake Penage was also the location of our wedding.

Very few people know of my early start in the entertainment business.  Actually, I have been on television five times, all in Sudbury.  Here is my first appearance, wearing a dark blazer, on a local country music show.  I am supposed to be clapping rhythmically along with the music (this was live TV), but I took time out to wave to one of my off camera fans. 

Besides my TV entertainment friends, I was known to hang out with bishops, too.  I had plans around this time to be Pope someday.  However, plans change.  I never even became an altar boy.

Deb, in an early photo from the cafe at the Detroit Institute of Arts.  Gorgeous critter (and she still is). 

Piano practice continues to go really well, and most things are falling into place nicely.  The Beethoven Variations Op 34 is the first major work by the composer I have done in many years.  Instead, I have been on a Haydn spree, and will likely return to that composer once the next recital is done.  I am aiming for late March/early April for a performance date.  Last October I ended up playing four times, which is great practice, and might do that again this time, if people are still uneasy about gathering indoors.  I thought performing with a mask might prove tricky, but it was no problem.

Mapman Mike

 
 

 

 

More Winter Pictures

I went to Kingsville again Saturday, as Deb needed assistance with a new and bigger table for her mother.  It was delivered, and I headed down to Lakeside Park to read, as well as take a short walk.  It was a sub-arctic day, with blasting winds and very cold temps.  Overnight the winds had been wild, and though they were calming down somewhat, I didn't stay out long.

An unnamed creek exits into Lake Erie, with a lot of ducks hanging about.

 Similar shot towards Lake Erie.

Two images of snow dunes, caused by fresh snow and high winds.

Snow dune #2.

 

The park is on a bluff overlooking Lake Erie.  There is open water farther out, looking south towards Ohio. 

There is one movie to report.  We watched Ken Russell's The Music Lovers, from 1971.  It is an over the top look at the life of Tchaikovsky, starring Richard Chamberlain and Glenda Jackson.  It is colourful, and it does have some basic biographical things correct, and there is a lot of the composer's music in it.  So worth a look for Russell fans, and other strange people.

Showing until Feb. 28th on Criterion. 

 

We watched an amazing concert last night, the DSO live from Orchestra Hall.  The main work was the Beethoven 7th Symphony, and they played the pants off of it.  If only the composer could be alive (and not deaf) to hear such a performance.  Next Saturday (8 pm EST) is the Mahler 1st, another top favourite work.  Our current conductor is likely the best one the orchestra has ever had (and we have been around for at least 7 of the permanent conductors).  The rapport with the orchestra is the finest anyone could wish for, and his conducting manner and technique are too perfect.  The concerts are broadcast free.  Go to DSO Live From Orchestra Hall to watch (and listen).

 

As of March 1st Canadians who are vaccinated will be able to return from the US without having to get a Covid test again.  The rule was reinstated a few months ago, and is finally lifting.  I really hope I can get over there for a day.  It will be two years on March 10th since I have visited.  I think I am finally ready to go.  Most places, such as museums and concert halls over there, still have mask requirements, thankfully. If I go over, you will read about it here, first.

 

Mapman Mike

 

The Great Beauty

 Since I last blogged we have had two snowstorms and one large rainstorm.  The first storm left about 2" of fresh white snow.  That was obliterated by an overnight rain storm that dropped 0.8" of rain.  It melted all the snow, and filled up our creek very quickly.  Then came the 2nd snowstorm, leaving about 6" of fresh white stuff on the Homestead.  Our neighbour Kim plowed us out both times, and we are eternally grateful to him.  In between all this, we celebrated the return of the light on Wednesday night, along with the full moon.  There was a fire, an opera, a great plant based pizza, cherry pie with vegan cherry ice cream, and so much more.  It hit 50 F that day, but we knew about the next upcoming snow storm, so the celebration was a bit tongue in cheek.  We are back to full winter for a few days, but by Sunday the long awaited warming trend will finally begin.  Can't wait.

The shipping lane is still open, and we get one or two ships a day passing by, with a coast guard ice breaker.  When I awoke this morning (to all that blindingly bright new snow) I saw a ship passing, and stood and watched it for several minutes.  Once outside I spent about 15 minutes (instead of hours) shoveling the parts Kim couldn't get to with his plow.  Tonight we have a wind warning.  What a world.

The opera choice this month was Tamerlane, by Handel.  Filled with choice arias, especially for soprano, this is now my favourite Handel opera, even though we still have much of act 3 to get through today.  The opera is on 8 LP sides, and is nearly 3 1/2 hours long.  In reading news, I finished up my 8 Avon/Equinox novels for the month, and am now in free choice mode.  I am starting out with a little known novel by Patricia Highsmith.  I am trying hard to include female writers each month, since the Avon/Equinox series was all male.  Last month I read novels by Sherri Tepper and Ursula LeGuin.  This month, if time allows, I will read Highsmith and Anne Hillerman.

In film news, there is one to report.  Before re-discovering The Great Beauty, my favourite film of all time was a tie between Antonioni's L'Aventura and Fellini's La Dolce Vita.  My new favourite is called The Great Beauty, directed by Paolo Sorrentino.  If it seems odd that all three of my top films are Italian, I would agree.  But I have many films in my top list that aren't Italian (but I also have a few more that are).  We had seen Sorrentino's film in June of 2016, having rented it from Netflix back in our Detroit mailbox days.  At that time I had written glowingly of it, and from time to time since then I had flashbacks of some of the scenes.  When I finally decided that I had to see it again, I had forgotten the name and had no way of locating it.  However, I knew I had blogged about it at the time.  So I began rereading all my old blogs, from 2009.  Finally I came to 2016, then to June, and then....Success!!  Next I looked up the title on Criterion.  Success!!  And it came with four extras, including a lengthy interview with the director.  It is a long film, but exceedingly worth seeing.  If possible, try to see it all at one sitting.  I have never seen it on a big screen, but would make the effort to do so if it ever reappears.  One of the best films ever made, and easily the best film ever made about a city (Rome).  It is from 2013.  Sadly, none of the director's other films are currently showing on Criterion.  Toni Servillo is so perfect in the title role of a writer reaching his 65th birthday.  It took two viewings for Deb to be convinced, but I was sold the first time, back in 2016.

One of the finest films ever made.  Now showing on Criterion. 

More later.

Mapman Mike

 

Breaking Winter's Back

 Despite the relatively long winters in most of Canada, our area is always the first to see the signs of Spring.  While we aren't seeing them yet, it won't be long now.  Almost like clockwork, mid-February is the time when winter's back is broken.  This year it looks as if it will hit on February 16thm which is also the next full moon.  There will be a large celebration that day and night at the Homestead!  We are in another massive cold spell, and we won't go above the freezing mark until Wednesday, but at least we can see the light now.  Much of our snow is gone, having vanished during our mild day this past week, which also saw a lot of rain fall here.

As I write, the police are trying to evict the Trumpian Canadians holding the international bridge to the USA hostage (they are waving signs that say, among other things "Trump 2024").  There is little to no sympathy for these poor lost souls among Canadians, most of whom are vaccinated and loyal to wearing masks for now, and everyone just wants them to go home and have a life.  Hoping they do.

In movie news, the only film of interest lately has been Stevie, starring Glenda Jackson as poetess Stevie Smith.  The production is first rate, and its mixture of theatre and film techniques works miracles for the lucky viewer.  Jackson is truly wonderful to watch, as is Mona Washburn as the old aunt who lives with her.  Highly recommended, and this was our first viewing.

Leaving Criterion February 28th/22 

In other film news, I have been trying to find out the name of a movie we saw a few years ago.  I distinctly remember several scenes from it, but Deb had no memory.  I knew that I had blogged about it, but when?  I finally located the blog, from June of 2016.  The problem was that all the images from that year's blog did not transfer to blogger.  So I could not see the damn poster.  But I finally found out the title.  It is called The Great Beauty, and I found it on Criterion!!!  So my next week choice is made.  It's been six years since I have seen this fabulous film, and I can't wait to see it again. 

The scanning of old family slides continues to be a lot of fun, putting me back into contact with cousins and family friends.  I include a few more precious moments for perusal.

Left to right: Mapman himself, my late Uncle Jimmy, and cousin Judith.  Taken around 1956 at Lake Penage, where Jimmy lived and my grandparents ran a marina and tourist camp.

The family Christmas photo, around 1960.  I got some rockets!

Part of my 4th or 5th grade class graduation.  I am 4th down, right side, in a dark suit.

That's all the news for now.  Check back soon for more fascinating blogging.

Mapman Mike

 

February: The Longest Month

By the time February rolls around, most people in northern climates have had their fill of winter.  Count me as one of them.  Certainly winter has a charm, and I would not really wish to live anywhere without it.  New Mexico would be perfect, since one could live in the desert and watch the mountains fill with snow.  The ski hills are fabulous, so if one desired it, a weekend of winter activities could easily be arranged.  Then back to the desert.  In summer the opposite would happen; much more time would be spent in the higher altitudes.  In our area, winter overstays its welcome about now.  The pure white snow of last week is now drab and turning gray and brown.  And now for some winter pictures.

The first one was taken in 1972, and shows my brother Steve at the end of our driveway, after a typical Sudbury snowstorm.  The next two images are from last Saturday, and the last ones are from today, at the park in Kingsville again, and then at the Jack Miner Bird Sanctuary just outside Kingsville.  Jack Miner is a local hero, and was the first person to band geese and study their migration habits.  He was a hunter at first, until he noticed that a goose would never mate again if its mate was killed.  From then on he became a great conservation promoter, and the site in Kingsville lives on as his legacy.

Another blast from the past from my slide scanning project.  It's 1972 in Sudbury.  Need I say more?

Shipping continues on the Detroit River, but at a much reduced pace.  Each ship is accompanied by an ice cutter.  Even so, two ships have had to be freed from the ice recently.  This is a small oil tanker heading to Sarnia, seen from the cemetery across the road from the Homestead.

Compare this post-storm view of the Homestead with the one shown here on January 18th.  The fact that snow remains on our rooftop indicates that our attic insulation is working well. 

The creek at Lakeside Park, Kingsville.  There is very little open water anywhere right now.

 

The creek at Lakeside Park empties into Lake Erie.

 

Canada geese await dinner at part of the Jack Miner Bird Sanctuary, Kingsville. It is an incredibly loud place to visit. 

 

As mentioned in my last post, we have been watching lots of films, as per usual, but I haven't been reporting on them.  We recently saw some great short films, including Kapaemahu, a Hawaiian film telling the story of one of their legends.  Brilliantly done,  and well worth seeking out.  We also saw a two part short film series by Lotte Reiniger called Dr. Doolittle.  Her work, featuring meticulous cut out shadow figures, is always among the best animation ever created, and this story is no exception.  We also got to see her Aladdin, another minor gem of creation, and Papageno, with music by Mozart, the very best.

 

Now showing on Criterion.

 

Scene from Lotte Reinger's Dr. Doolittle in Africa. 

Also of note was a major Cinemascope production starring Harry Belafonte called Island In The Sun.  Filmed in Bermuda, it is one of the most beautiful and colourful films I have ever seen.  It tackles the theme of British colonial racism head on, and Belafonte is excellent in the role of a hometown boy running for the legislature against plantation owner James Mason.  Also starring Joan Collins, who isn't half bad at all in this role as sister to Mason.  The shooting locations are truly wonderful, and the wide screen forces viewers to scan back and forth across the picture frame to see everything.  While the drama itself is okay as far as Hollywood stories go, the real star here is the island and the way it has been captured on film.  Recommended if you have a large screen.

Now showing on Criterion, with an all star cast and among the best location scenery ever filmed. 

 

Until next time.

 

Mapman Mike

 

 

 
 

 

Snowbound

 We did not get the 12" to 18" predicted, thankfully.  We got our usual snowstorm, totaling around 6" at the Homestead.  It rained Tuesday night and Wednesday morning, before turning to very wet snow around noon.  The temps were still high enough that the snow did not begin to accumulate until much later in the day.  It snowed from around noon Wed. to midnight Thursday, however, and that does tend to add up. In the good old days we would have had to shovel our driveway and two turn around lots, as well as the sidewalk in front of our property.  With no students arriving anymore, we only need the one turn around (for us).  The town now does the sidewalk with a small tractor plow and salter, and my big-hearted backyard neighbour does our driveway.  I only had to do some cleanup, as well as the front steps and mailbox area.  Best snowstorm we ever had!

It's been plenty cold since our 24 hour warmup on Tuesday and part of Wednesday, and very bright.  Candlemas celebrations took place during the snowstorm, with a lovely wood fire.  Our Brigid figure is out, surrounded by fresh flowers, and will hopefully succeed in breaking winter's back by the middle of the month.

My February reading is well underway, with the first three authors producing very long books: Silverberg with Vol 4 of his collected shorter fiction; and massive novels by Piers Anthony and then Harry Harrison.  I'm just starting in on the 500+ page novel by Anthony.  Being a very short month, it is doubtful if I'll get to read any outside books this time.

I have finally restarted a long delayed major project.  I am in possession of thousands of 35 mm colour slides, both from my family and from my mother's sister's family.  I now have a very handy slide scanner, and have begun to transfer the images to computer.  One example below, from around 1961 or 62.  The project will never be finished, but so far it has been a lot of fun reliving old memories.  I have been sending some of the images to cousins and my brother privately on Facebook.

Himself as a cub scout.  Actually, our early 1960s living room is far more fascinating than I am.  I had forgotten about our goldfish.  For people born too late to know, those three small dials on the b & w TV were for brightness, horizontal tuning, and vertical tuning.  Those were the days....

 

And speaking of funky interiors from the early 60s, here is a photo of my grandmother (my mom's mom) in the living room of mom's sister.  Most photos I am working with were taken in Sudbury.

 

My grandmother.  Curtains were the in thing!  And the colour orange, of course.

 

And one final family photo for today.  Taken at Lake Penage in the summer of 1976, here is Deb as the beautiful bride, with her mom and dad.  Lois is still alive and at a care home in nearby Kingsville.  She made Deb's dress.

Deb in 1976 with her father and mother.  Deb has two older sisters, and was the last one out the door, so to speak.  After the wedding we headed to university in Windsor, and have remained in the area since then. 

 

Just the tip of the iceberg in my discoveries.  Many more already scanned, and a nearly infinite number of slides remaining.  I don't scan all of them, but cull them with the use of a slide viewer.  Some are near duplicates so I discard the others after choosing the best one or two; some are poorly exposed and don't scan well; others are of no family interest.  Even so, a lot of scanning is still going to happen.  I've scanned about 65 so far.

 

In other news, there isn't very much to report.  However, my mother is having some serious right eye problems, and has to go to Toronto in mid-February for treatment.  More on that as the story develops.  Her required treatment is not available in Sudbury.

 

Though we have seen many good films lately, I am taking a break from reporting on them for now.   Reading, practicing, and scanning slides are taking up my time nicely.  I am also still playing some fabulous computer games, and recently finished one called Goetia.  The game was nearly impossible to figure out, but just wandering around old houses, haunted forests, and cemeteries and underground crypts was fun in itself.  Deb and I are currently playing Samarost 2, a very fun and funny game from the creator of Machinarium.  And I continue on my 2nd time time through Kentucky Route 0, and am about to begin my 3rd time through Dear Esther.  So many truly amazing and wonderful games out there today.

 

Mapman Mike

 

January Reading Summary

We are currently in line for the first big snowstorm of the season.  It appears we will take a direct hit, and up to 18" of snow is predicted on Wed. and Thursday.  Not my favourite thing to report, especially as it has been such a dry winter so far.

Our county is in the direct path of the worst of the snow.  It is going to be very unpleasant. 

This past month I seemed to have a lot of very long books in the queue.  I managed to get through my 8 Avon/Equinox authors by the 19th, and then continued on to read three others, as well as a chapter of the Beethoven biography by Swafford.

As usual, the month got started with Silverberg.  I read his Dying Inside, from 1972.  Silverberg continues to have problems with his writing, and it is not difficult to see why he lost so many of his readers in the early 70s.  His lead character is quite awful, being morally suspect, unimaginative, and quite boring.  He also continues to write poorly regarding female characters.  He mustn't have known very many women.  They are either far background characters, or mere sexual objects there only for the pleasure of men.  This time he does insert an important female character, but she is not treated as such.  The novel is about a man born with the gift, or curse, of being able to read other people's minds, even those of animals.  What he chooses to do with his powers is what really drags down the novel.  He becomes a mere voyeur, probing unsuspecting people's minds to get his thrills.  We are supposed to sympathize with him when his powers wane and then fade out.  Not recommended.

Next up was volume four in a fairly interesting series by Piers Anthony.  Wielding a Red Sword puts Mars, Incarnation of War, into the crosshairs, and the story is actually pretty good.  For one thing, the page count is shorter than most of Anthony's later novels, and this helps keep the story uppermost.  Anthony tends to wander off into infinite explanations of why things happen, and as a result his story is often bloated by a hundred pages or more of needless trivia.  This time he sticks closer to the tale at hand, as Mars has to visit Hell to rescue someone, and then find a way to escape.  There is some good imagery and pacing, making this a successful entry in his Incarnations Of Immortality series (8 books, I believe).

Next up was The Hammer and the Cross, a gargantuan epic novel by Harrison from 1993.  It deals with 8th and 9th C. England, and imagines the vikings ruling the land.  It is alternate history at its finest, and only veers off from fact very, very slowly.  In fact, it is difficult to say exactly when the fantasy element enters the story.  I am a sucker for a good Viking story, and this is a great one, ranking up there with those told by H Rider Haggard and E R Eddison.  There are actually three groups battling it out.  The Vikings have split into two camps, one being your basic rape and pillage gang, and the other, far more interesting, being a splinter group that follows old Nordic religious beliefs.  Of course there are the Roman Catholics opposing all heretics, but it would appear that they are going to lose out in this series.  Yes, it is a series, with three giant books in all.  Can't wait to get at the 2nd one in a few more days!

Following on the heels of the Viking saga came a dashing and daring pirate novel, the 2nd and final one of a series written by Kenneth Bulmer.  Captain Shark: Jaws of Death takes up where the previous novel left off, and the swashbuckling action comes fast and furious.  There is a very funny episode when the captain, dragged overboard and presumed drowned by his crew, finds them again months later drinking in a tavern.  He disguises himself as a man back from the grave and enters the tavern.  One of the best scenes Bulmer ever created!  Good jolly fun.

The inexhaustible source of stories written by E C Tubb continued last month, with I Fight For Mars, another 1950s pulp novel that is much better than its title.  This story brings back memories of Quatermass and the Pit at times, and I continue to enjoy reading Tubb's SF.

Once again Frederik Pohl and Jack Williamson team up for a fine novel.  The Singers of Time is from 1991, and was pretty long (I consider books with small printing over 300 pages to be pretty long--this one was 340).  There is a lot to like about this story of the future.  Earth has been invaded by merchant aliens resembling turtles.  They trade their technological advances for Earth's raw materials.  They have eliminated war on Earth, and seem to be able to bargain for anything they want, since humans are hungry for technology.  Before too long we have left Earth and are traveling in space and time.  There are many unusual features to this story, not the least of which is that the humans are constantly bickering and fighting among themselves.  I feel the story is missing something that would have made it even better, and by the end I found myself wishing there would be a sequel (I don't think there ever was).  The book is good enough to recommend, and the wrap around cover wins best cover for January.

Best SF cover for January 2022.  Art by Michael Whelan.  

I finally got around to starting on Michael Moorcock's Elric stories.  There are a lot of them.  The first was Elric of Melnibone, supposedly the author's rebellious comeback to Tolkien, whom he claims to abhor.  It's not unusual for writers to claim to dislike Tolkien, as he was so successful a writer, and so brilliant at creating a fantasy world, and still remains unequaled to this day in his field.  There are certainly some problems with his writing, but they pale in comparison to the problems of most fantasy writers, such as Robert E Howard and Edgar Rice Burroughs, who Moorcock takes his cues from.  And so there is very little that is original in this first book, from 1972.  Anyone at the time reading the Conan stories and series by Burroughs would not have seen much different in Moorcock.  However, his hero is quite different, very non heroic.  He is pale, sickly, needs magic to keep up his strength, and doesn't really want to do much about anything.  His evil cousin tries to kill him and take over his kingdom more than once, but Elric forgives him each time, and somehow manages to survive.  At least this plot device keeps the story (a rather short one, indeed) going, though it does tend to repeat itself.  This would not be a great introduction to Moorcock's writing.  Most Conan and Burroughs adventure stories are much better than this first effort.  And then there is Fritz Leiber, in a class all by himself.  

I entered a new phase of writing with Barry Malzberg, who collaborated with Bill Pronzini for several murder mystery books.  The Running of Beasts is a gripping story about a serial killer in a small summer resort community, during the off season.  Literally anyone in the town could be the murderer, and in a tour de force ending you will not know the criminal until the very last page.  The book is fast paced and mostly, if not all, believable.  Malzberg has always been the best writer about insanity that I have ever come across, and there are several such people in this story.  Overall, very well done.

That takes care of my required reading for the month.  I had time for three other books, one of them a very long and confusing, rambling tale by Sherry Tepper.  The Waters Rising is mostly one big mess, though it has a few redeeming qualities.  At slightly over 500 pages, this was a tough one to get through, and I believe that many of her readers do not make it very far.  The basic story is almost directly lifted from Tolkien's Lord of the Rings.  There is no Sauron or Mordor; however, there is The Old Dark Man and The Old Dark House.  I kid you not.  There is a journey with a fellowship.  There are no Hobbits, but there is a child of 7 or 8.  And she suddenly transforms into a 19 or 20 year old woman part way through the story.  There is a long journey, with a sort of Bree pub stop along the way (with a Bill Ferny character to go with it).  There is a monastery that serves as a Rivendell.  There is no ring bearer, but the child is a soul bearer.  And so on and so on.  The real problem with the book is the historical detail and the workings of society that the author cannot free herself from.  The actual story would take about 200 pages to tell.  The rest seems like it should be a massive (though hopefully shortened) appendix explaining how things work.  Take the monastery, for example.  We learn every single detail about how it functions, down to how the cooking is done, how tables are served, and how the dishes are done and stacked afterwards.  This is only one example among pages of them I could list.  The history of the lands is also very confusing, though it is a time of rising oceans, and the only chance people have of surviving is to turn into fish really soon.  And they do.  So go read this book if you really want to, but I suggest readers stay away.

Next up came Tales From Earthsea, by Ursula LeGuin.  There are five stories, some of them of novella length and some novelette, as well as a description of Earthsea, in which she does what Tepper should have done, taking about 30 pages to describe all manner of things about Earthsea, including history, language, magic, dragons, etc.  Though I did not like all of the stories, I really enjoyed most of them.  Having said that, I have always been somewhat unsatisfied with LeGuin's Earthsea stories.  She focuses so much on magic and wizards etc it seems as if much of the real goings on in her little universe never make it into print. A few of these stories help out somewhat in this regard, but not very much.  And while it's true that not all great writers can create something as believable as Middle Earth, or Majipoor, but if they are going to attempt such a feat they must go all the way.  LeGuin begins this process in her concluding description chapters, and in some of the stories found in this collectors' hardcover volume.  Her wonky map of Earthsea is included, something else that needs quite a bit of work.

P G Wodehouse was my sugar treat for the month.  I read Right Ho, Jeeves!, one of the funniest books I have ever read.  This was my first Jeeves and Bertie Wooster book, and hopefully it won't be my last.  The climax of the book is the ringing of the fire bell, and the events that follow.  A master craftsman of humourous writing, his characters are rich and full of fun cliches, his plots are as well woven as Shakespeare's, and his upbeat outlook on life is the icing on the cake.  Sadly, there are a few racist jokes and references amidst all the fun.  These very few parts would undoubtedly have seemed funny to some people in its day (1934), though today they remind us of our sad and woeful past.

I read Chapter 22 of Swafford's Beethoven biography, dealing mostly with his 5th and 6th Symphonies.  Our listening project currently has us attending to the three Op 31 piano sonatas, so we are still a long way from hearing those two symphonies again.

I  will be back soon with a winter storm report, and some movie posters.  Today is sunny and mild, our first day above freezing in 13 days.  After today, it's all downhill till who knows when.

Mapman Mike