Well, a snake skin in the garden, anyway. Quite a large fox snake, as is likely, and probably catching as many mice as our cats used to do. Yesterday was grass cutting day, the fourth one of the year. Hopefully I didn't run over the snake out there. It is humid and starting (today) to get warm, heading towards our second major heat event of the season. As a result, the grass grows alarmingly fast. And thick.
As I write this, about a thousand (no exaggeration) motorcycles (many of them very noisy) are passing by the Homestead, on an official "ride." Likely for charity, but I am not a fan of noisy bikes. Wouldn't it be nice if instead of riding around the county, polluting with noise and their dirty engines, they did a 5 km walk instead? Not the biker way, I'm afraid.
I have just started reading my final book for May, and will soon be summing up for the month. It's also the time for a yearly summing up, as my legendary Avon/Equinox project began six years ago on June 1st. The reading blog should appear next here, at everyone's favourite blog.
In film news, Deb's festival weekend is underway. Besides her two regular choices, she gets three additional films to screen for her audience (of two). Or, as in the case this month, one very long film. More on that one later. The first of two films directed by women was called The Wonders, a truly strange Italian and German film from 2014. A fierce man lords it over his all female family (wife and four daughters, the two youngest being virtually wild animals), as they are almost like slaves to his bee keeping business. The 2nd oldest daughter is who the film is really about. She is around 14, and beginning to realize the limitations of her life, and the fact that the family is destitute and in need of cash. She enters the family into a contest, without her father's permission, one of those indescribable Italian TV events that is in search of some of the Wonders of rural Italy. One industrious family will be chosen as the winner, and given a large cash prize. It's a very good film, definitely recommended, with some funny scenes mixed in with all the drama (where the family sleeps at night, for example).
Next up was a Brazilian film from 2015, directed by Anna Muylaert. Called The Second Mother, it is about an older woman, the housekeeper for a wealthy Sao Paulo family in the leafy suburbs. Her day to day existence, living with the family, is told in a detailed but not tedious fashion. She is very close to the boy, whom she has raised and grown to love as a son. The father is an effete artist, the mother is an "influencer", and the son is a student trying to get into college. Val, the housekeeper, is perfectly played by Regina Case, who must have been a housekeeper in a previous life. She is the star of the film, and she is in nearly every scene. She has a teenage daughter, around 17 or 18, from whom she is estranged. When the daughter comes to live with her, and realizes the subservient role she plays in life, she is morally outraged. They quarrel often. the movie could be classed as a comedy/drama, as Val's musings and daily trials are sometimes amusing. Sometimes the viewer wants to punch the "influencer" in the head. Again, a very good film and well worth watching. Deb scores two points for her choices.
Returning to landscape (mostly) art from the DIA, Culebra Cut is a fine example of late American Impressionism. From 1913 and painted by Jonas Lie, it is a stunning rendition of the building of the Panama Canal. Sending a strong statement of humans overcoming natural obstacles, it is filled with both the power of humans and of nature. As steam and smoke rise from the vast worksite, the perspective of distance makes those powerful steam engines seem small and insignificant compared to the vast walls of the hillsides, and the huge expanse of sky. This is one of my favourite Impressionist paintings, American or French.
Book summary for May coming soon, along with a major announcement of my next major reading project. Stayed tuned to this blog.
Mapman Mike
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