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

 

 

First Bus Trip

As reported a few weeks ago, we now have a bus stop in front of our house.  Bus 625 only runs 3X each day, so it is a woeful service by any urban standard.  But I can catch a bus at 2:35, which gets me into a Windsor bus station around 3 pm.  With my valid transfer I can hop on a choice of 5 city buses.  I went to an area near the train station, and managed to visit a cafe, and then a brew pub.  Chance Coffee is a pretty cool place to hang out and have an espresso.  We often buy their coffee beans for home use.  It was a short walk from the bus stop from my transfer ride on the #2 Crosstown bus.  That ride took about 30 minutes.  So for less than $4 I can get to anywhere in Windsor from our house.  After the cafe I visited the nearby Chapter Two Brewery, and enjoyed a flight of samples that included their Belgian ale, a pumpkin brew, a Scottish ale, and a heavy porter to finish up.  I had about an hour to spend at the pub, and then it was back to the bus stop that would take me back to the Amherstburg bus.  Another 30 minute ride, then a short outdoor wait for Bus 625.  The 6 pm bus is the last call from Windsor, and if it is missed then a very expensive taxi ride will ensue.  The route is still very new, and the driver blew past my stop across the street from our house.  He managed to stop (after I hollered at him from the back) about 100 meters past it.  It was dark and he said he didn't see it.  I'll be better prepared next time.

This was a solo trip.  Deb stayed home to continue work on putting some of her mother's jewellery up for sale.  In addition, she was my back up for today in case I missed my bus connection.  But all went well, and she will likely come next time.  Amanda L is due in the Burg next week, so we might go with her.  There are closer areas to visit with good pubs and cafes that will allow more time in Windsor.  Today I thought I'd try a far area to see how things would work out. 

In film news, we watched one of four episodes of a documentary by Ulrike Ottinger called In Chamisso's Shadow.  Each episode is 3 1/4 hrs long!  I would never last the full 13 hours, though we both did enjoy the first part.  It is slow moving, with stunning Alaskan photography, some interviews with locals, and lots of reading from explorers' logbooks from the 18th and 19th C.  If the series wasn't leaving Criterion Nov. 30th I'd be tempted to watch the next part.  There is a large ferry that travels from island to island in the American Aleutians Islands in the summer, making 6 round trip voyages.  In Part 1 we get to go on one of the voyages, and this was a really fun part of the film.

Showing on Criterion until Nov. 30th. 

That was one half of my film festival.  For the 2nd half I chose two short films.  The first was Whipsaw, from 1935 and directed by Sam Wood.  Starring Myrna Loy and Spencer Tracy, it's a pretty light affair but fun nonetheless.  Tracy is a federal agent trying to track down a crack jewel thief, and Loy is his connection to the criminal.  Of course they end up falling in love--doesn't everyone?  And yes, they do get married, as if you had to ask.

Showing on Criterion until Nov. 30th. 

My last festival pick was a children's movie, Owd Bob, from 1998.  Filled with predictable children's book tropes (American boy loses parents in car accident, so visits grandfather on a farm in the Isle of Man; he is mean, nasty, and impossible to get along with; young neighbour girl loses her mother to cancer; grandfather does not want boy to associate with girl because of history with that family from long ago; good dog gets blamed for killing sheep, while bad dog enjoys a good meal of sheep neck; boy sees bad dog do the crime, but no one believes him).  But have no fear, since everything comes out right in the end.  Not my most favourite recent film view.  The acting is quite good, and the setting is lovely (especially the tram ride to the village near the farm), but the story is so routine and predictable that I was quite turned off.  Viewers get to see sheep dogs in action, over and over.

Showing until Nov. 30th on Criterion. 

Finally it was Deb's turn.  We tried to watch a brand new film about Weird Al, but after several minutes we both found it unwatchable.  Dreadful, dreary, and way too full of itself.  So she picked another.  We watched Shining Victory from 1941, and The Dark Corner from 1946.  The first is about a research psychiatrist attempting chemotherapy on disturbed patients at a private clinic in Scotland.  Of course there is romance involved, too, but things don't end so splendidly in this feature.  Quite watchable.  The second film was a Noir.  You can tell it's a Noir because William Bendix plays a heavy.  Lucille Ball adds a nice touch to this tale of a private eye being framed for a murder.  This was our 2nd viewing, but it had been a really long time.  Wait till you see the "Raphael" and the "Donatello" in the gallery.  Above average for the genre, and worth watching.

Showing on Criterion until Nov. 30th. 

Now showing on Criterion. 

Yesterday I got my 4th booster shot for Co-vid.  It was the Pfizer bi-valent shot.  Despite a sore arm where the needle went in, I had no problem this time around.  Deb got her flu shot yesterday, and in two weeks will get her 5th booster.  We should be all caught up until spring.  If we do travel then (hopefully!!!), we will likely seek out another booster shot.

Our nearly perfect autumn weather is about to come to a crashing end this Friday.  Winter temps arrive Saturday, and it appears they will stick around.  More news as it happens.

Mapman Mike

 

 

 

Recent Film Viewing

 I'll begin with the most recent screening.  everything is from the Criterion Channel unless otherwise stated.  Because of clear nights last weekend, and Samhain on Monday, my film festival choices did not begin until today.  I have chosen to watch Chamisso's Shadow, a 13 hour documentary by Elrike Ottinger from 2016.  My festival allotment allows me to watch half of it, anyway.  It is a record of the Aleutian Islands and their inhabitants, as well as historical voyages of discovery there that were made in the 19th C.  So far we have only watched 30 minutes, but it seems quite fascinating and worthwhile.  More on that at a later date.

Before that we watched yet another oddball but highly worthwhile vampire film called Vampire's Kiss, from 1988.  Starring Nicholas Cage and Jennifer Beals, it chronicles the decline and fall of a New York publisher who is bitten by a vampire.  Beals is sexy and very scary as the vampire, and Cage is unbelievable as the man driven crazy by it all.  Highly recommended, we had never heard of this film before.

Showing on Criterion.

Before that came Madame X: An Absolute Ruler, from 1977 and directed by Ulrike Ottinger.  This Dadaist film started out quite promising, as women around the world answer a summons to join with the Chinese junk the Chinese Orlando, captained by a ruthless woman who is after gold, love, and adventure.  It's all highly stylized, and soon wears out its welcome once the women are aboard.  At 2 1/2 hrs running time, the film could be greatly improved by hacking off about 45 minutes.  It was a chore to get through, but we made it.  Tabea Blumenschein plays the animated ship's figurehead, as well as Madame X.

Showing on Criterion Channel. 

Turning now to two of Deb's recent choices, we watched Christopher Gans's 2014 Beauty and the Beast.  It is an extravagant retelling of the story, and it does pay hommage to the much preferred version by Cocteau.  The special effects are the best part of this film, which had its tedious moments.  There are some lovely scenes, however, and overall it is a pretty good effort.  The beast make-up was fine, and the story remains somewhat true to its origins, at least the pared down Beaumont version.  The addition of the thieves was not needed, however.

Now showing on Criterion. 

Wood and Water is from 2021, and has received positive reviews.  I found it empty, bland, and banal.  A widow gets together at the seashore with her three children every summer, but for the 3rd year in a row her son does not make the journey from Hong Kong.  She goes to see him instead, and finds herself adrift in the urban environment.  It is a gentle film, but I find that the woman, who is the centre of it, might as well be a piece of cardboard.  There is no expression to her face, her voice is a near monotone, and her character has no interests except for her children, especially her son.  The one original and effective film technique shows her driving from her home in the Black Forest of Germany, presumable on her way to the airport to travel to Hong Kong.  She enters a long tunnel with her car.  The shot goes on for a very long time, but by the end the tunnel has transitioned to tall buildings in Hong Kong, and we are suddenly there.  Certainly a nice way to travel, if it worked that way.

Now showing on Criterion. 

Finishing up, we watched Pierre Etaix's first feature film, called The Suitor, from 1963.  A combination of Buster Keaton, Charlie Chaplin, Jacques Tati, and his own spin on things, Etaix is a comic genius ready for rediscovery.  We have enjoyed virtually everything we have seen by him, and there are still a few treasures awaiting our viewing.  In this film, our hero (always played by Etaix) seeks matrimony, and goes after various women with hopes of landing one of them.  Very funny, very creative, and with a great sense of timing.  Recommended.

Now showing on Criterion. 

Mapman Mike

 

 

 

October Books Read

With five clear nights in October used for observing with my telescope, I basically lost 5 days/nights of reading.  My daytime reading is used to write up observing notes and prepare for the upcoming night.  My nighttime reading is...well, spent at the telescope eyepiece.  I still managed to read 10 1/2 books, so all is not lost, and a few were quite long.

The month began with a Robert Silverberg book.  I am now reading novels and stories he wrote in and around his gigantic Majipoor series, but not related to those books.  So his writing has matured and really developed.  Even so, his short time travel novel Project Pendulum might not appeal to all readers of such stories.  His concept involves wending twins forward and backward in time simultaneously, in a sort of Powers of Ten manner.  One brother goes forward 5 minutes in time, while the other goes back 5 minutes.  The next jump is 50 minutes, then 500 minutes, etc.  The final jump takes them 950 million years from their starting time!  At the end of the book, they begin their trip homeward.  It's a very strange idea, and though the book, like the time jumps, begins slowly, it gradually gathers momentum and interest the further the brothers travel in time.  I enjoyed the book, and it would make a fantastic basis for a TV series.

Next came a dreary fantasy novel by Piers Anthony and Mercedes Lackey called If I Pay Thee Not In Gold.  This is the type of book I try to avoid at all costs.  Based on an idea by Anthony, it was penned by Mercedes Lackey.  Then Anthony went over it with a fine tooth comb, adding ten thousand words.  The first two hundred pages take place in a city ruled by women, who make slaves of the men.  Women can conjure magic, but men can't.  That part is never really explained very well.  The Queen is a bitch and tries to kill the young girl, Xylina, who shows much prowess in magic.  She tries to kill her over and over again, but somehow always fails.  This is too bad, since the story could have ended much sooner.  From 1993, this 398 page waste of time is one of the most boring books I have ever read.

Harry Harrison finishes his USA versus England trilogy with Stars and Stripes Triumphant.  It's a delicious series to read (and the third book is no exception), except by the English.  But Harrison, who lives in Dublin, is writing here for the Irish and the Scottish reader, as well as other countries colonized by England back in the good old days.  It really is a fun series, and looking at England's standing in the world at the present moment, it resembles the situation where England ends up at the end of the series.

Bulmer's Fox #8: Battle Smoke keeps up the humour and adventure in his epic sea going series,with Lieutenant Fox spending time back in Limehouse, London, with his family.  But he is itching to get back to sea, and after some local exploits, off he goes, finally aboard a class 1 battle ship, under Captain Staunton again.  this means that Fox is virtually in charge of everything aboard the ship, a de facto captain in all but name.  The climax is another great sea battle, this time between four English ships and seven French and Spanish ones.  With an incapacitated admiral aboard, Fox takes command of the fleet and leads the charge!  Great stuff for sea loving adventure fans.

I finally began E C Tubb's mammoth series featuring the adventures of Dumarest.  The Dumarest Sagas contains about 36 novels, and I am now underway.  The first book, published in 1967 as one half of an Ace Double, is called The Winds of Gath.  The lead character is a space wanderer and adventure seeker, and through mischance he ends up on a planet from which it is virtually impossible to leave.  He undergoes some hardships, but gets a big break when he defeats a strongman in an entertainment battle.  He earns a ticket off the planet.  But many more adventures await him on Gath, in itself a totally fascinating planet.  I like how the story stayed focussed on the one planet, and seems to cover nearly every aspect of its (limited) possibilities.  Very well written, and a very promising start to the series.

I am reading three huge volumes of stories by Jack Williamson.  Wizard's Isle contains 16 stories by the author, published between 1933 and 1937.  I read half of this vast volume last month, and will read the rest of it in November.  Lots of fun stories about mad scientists, and good people who just won't listen to reason.  The Wand of Doom has a nice bayou atmosphere to it, and The Plutonian Terror is a good horror story with a neat surprise ending.  Using an original pulp magazine cover as its cover for the this hardbound volume, I have awarded the prestigious Cover of the Month to this book.

SF cover of the month for October 2022.  

Next came Michael Moorcock's 2nd book in his Dancers At The End Of Time series.  Called The Hollow Lands, it is from 1974, and takes up where volume one left off.  Jherek Carnelian is still in search of his time lost lover, Mrs. Underwood.  He is able to return to her time in London, and finds his way to her house.  Before that are some truly bizarre adventures involving a robot nanny and a homicidal alien, he meets up with H G Wells in London and is soon off on more hilarious adventures.  The entire London adventure reminds me somewhat of a Carry On movie.  Overall the book is quite readable.  If you don't like something you are reading, it will soon change to something else, so carry on....

Lastly came a long volume of 37 short stories by Barry Malzberg.  There is a wide range of tales here, some SF and some not, some almost beyond classifying.  A Galaxy Called Rome is the novelette version of his novel Galaxies (see above).  It is a brilliant concept, about a story that a writer might or might not actually write, but if he did write it this is what he would do, and what he would include.  Very well done.  Agony Column is a very funny, but very devastating, story that contains nothing but various letters written by a Mr. Martin Miller, and the various replies he gets, mostly form letters.  A real gem!  Corridors is about Ruthven, an older, tired SF writer from the pulp days.  He has finally had some financial success, but it came too late to help with the bitterness he feels about his life and his writing.  This is a very moving tale about the "golden" days of SF pulp writing, and its effect on one writer.  Recommended.  A valuable collection for fans of this highly underrated writer.

Next came a book off the dwindling book shelf, and two Kindle books from my nearly endless Delphi collection.  With The Tale Teller, Anne Hillerman comes closest so far to equaling her father's writing.  This is her best book of the series, in which Joe Leaphorn returns to action, after she nearly killed him off in her first book.  Intertwined with the mystery story is more Navajo lore, including things about the Long Walk they were forced to undertake when the US government forced them off their sacred lands.  Tony and Anne Hillerman are both recognized by the Navajo as true friends, and in a book like this it is easy to see why.  Highly recommended, and the empty landscapes of Arizona and New Mexico resonate strongly in this novel.

Next came a short novel by one of my favourite Ballantine Adult Fantasy authors, George Meredith.  His first novel was The Shaving of Shagput, an Orientalist fantasy that I read and reviewed on my Ballantine blog page.  His second novel is called Farina, written in 1857, a year after Shagput.  It is in every sense a minor effort, though still fun to read.  It is a medieval fantasy that takes place in Germany, and concerns the beautiful daughter of a merchant who is the centre of attention of most young men in the vicinity.  It has humour, an easy-going story, and some supernatural events.  It is a bit of a let down after Shagput, but then that book is unique in the literature to begin with.  I look forward to his third novel, and didn't mind reading this one.

A. Merritt is one of the great fantasy writers from the late teens and early twenties, influenced by H Rider Haggard and Edgar Rice Burroughs, who in turn went on to influence a whole generation of writers, including H P Lovecraft.  His first novel was The Moon Pool, from 1919.  I had never read this one before, and while I found the fantasy element imaginative and somewhat engrossing, his writing style is quite poor.  Expanded from two novellas, the book often bogs down in descriptive detail.  When there is action, the book is fun to read.  When the descriptions go on for page after page, not so much fun.  The climax is exciting, and the ending is well thought out.  There is considerable humour, too, as Larry O'Keefe, an Irish American and the adventure hero of the story, woos Lakla, handmaiden of the Silent Ones.  The story begins at the ruins of Nan Madol, off the island of Pohnpei, in Micronesia.  It is narrated by Dr. Goodwin, who sets out to investigate the disappearance of a good friend and his family.  I really liked the gradual development of the story and the action,which eventually leads to a massive underground kingdom.

Mapman Mike

 

 

Detroit Day (of the Dead) With Deb

It's been more than 2 1/2 years since Deb had been to Detroit, her last visit being early March, 2019.  It turned into an incredible day all round.  More on that in a few minutes.  First, let me back up a day or three.  Friday and Saturday nights turned into observing extravaganzas, with beautifully clear skies for observing distant galaxies!  Because of the brightening moon the sessions are over now till mid November, but I managed to get out there 5 times in October!  Both of those nights turned very foggy, with Saturday's drive home a white knuckle affair.  Friday night, once in bed, we were plagued with ships sailing past, blasting their foghorns every minute or so.  So not much sleep on Friday night.  

On Saturday night, I managed to drive into a ditch as I was turning around at my lonely windmill site.  My windows were fogged over, and I thought I was on the road, but soon found out I wasn't.  I waited two hours and fifty minutes, but a tow truck finally arrived.  It took but a moment to pull me out, but I got to bed Saturday morning (Sunday, actually) at 4:30 am. 

Monday was Samhain, and we had our usual great party for two, with food, music, wood fire, tarot card readings for the upcoming year, etc.  I went outside and took some photos.  It has turned very warm again, but  the fog was still around all day.

A bit of Lothlorien at Lone Mountain Homestead. 

Across from the Homestead is a Native Peoples Cemetery. 

The Algoma Harvester heads upriver in the fog, with the bow about to pass the buoy at Ballard Reef.  His fog horn blast echoed afterwards for nearly a minute.

Tuesday was Detroit Day, and we made the most of it.  We renewed our membership at the DIA. $80 gets both of us free admission for a year, and two tickets to any exhibit that requires a fee.  So today we got in to the museum (total cost $28 for two), and saw the Van Gogh exhibit (total cost for two $48).  So it would have cost $76.  I'd say membership is a bargain, and it also gives you a discount at the cafe and book store/gift shop.  We walked in hoping to see this year's Offrenda exhibit, but tickets for available for immediate entry into the Van Gogh exhibit!!  In we went.  The exhibit features Van Gogh paintings from New York, Paris, London, Berlin, Amsterdam, Chicago, Copenhagen, etc etc.  It really is a mind blowing exhibit, originally meant to come in 2020.  Covid shut down that idea, but somehow the dream was kept alive, and two years later it finally came to fruition.  There are simply too many highlights to mention but a few.  A self portrait from the Wadsworth Athenium was a highlight, as well as the Cincinnati landscape, familiar to us.  Also familiar and excellent works from Cleveland, Chicago, and Toledo were there, and Kansas City, too.  There were several works from the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, and also from the Musee D'Orsay in Paris.  From London came works from the Courthauld and the National Gallery (both also old friends).  The final painting in the exhibit was Starry Night Over The Rhone, a truly magnificent painting and a major highlight of the show.  All five of Detroit's paintings were in as well.

We headed out for a walk afterwards, stopping for lunch and ale at Hopcat, then visiting two bookstores (Deb bought "On Tyranny: 20 Lessons From the 20th C., by Timothy Snyder) before heading back to the museum for the annual Offrendas exhibit.  Detroit has a large Mexican population, and this annual exhibit (we last saw the one in 2019) helps the community celebrate the Day of the Dead.

 

Four Offrendas from the 2022 exhibit at the DIA. 

It was a totally sunny day, with no clouds in the sky.  It was 70 F!  We went for coffee, and then to a comic and board game store (par excellence).  We bought a little game called Trails, which we will try out next Monday.  Then there was one more stop for ale at Batch Brewery (they had cask ale!!!!) before heading home.  A really fun time was head by all!

It was a spectacular autumn day in Detroit.

End of the good times.  Batch Brewery.

Mapman Mike