With the arrival of meteorological winter on December 1st we enter the dark days. London UK is dark shortly after 4 pm, and we are dark shortly after 5 pm. It would appear that next year this time we will be remaining on daylight savings time, which will lengthen the afternoons, but drastically shorten the mornings. Apparently this has been attempted before in the USA and other countries, but the dark mornings became too hazardous for pedestrians, especially school children, and the move was rescinded. So the experiment will be repeated, no doubt with similar results.
As I blog this morning the sun is shining brightly, but it is cold out there. Our wood stove is burning merrily and the house feels toasty. We now have three main heat sources--the furnace, the wood stove, and the fireplace. The first two depend on electricity, however. But we have a generator just in case, which runs the stove as long as the gasoline lasts. We originally bought the stove after a bad ice storm several years ago. There is no way to connect the furnace to the generator when the power is out, so we depended on the fireplace that time. Next time, providing we can start the generator (it was overhauled last summer), we will be able to stay warm, and to heat water.
I say "next time", as I know that ice storms will become more common, rather than the old fashioned snow storms we now rarely get. As our temperatures rise ever so slowly over time, we get more and more rain in winter, and less and less snow. And a bit more of the in between stuff, like ice pellets. This summer past we also bought a solar panel charger, which will charge our phones and other smaller electrical devices. The days after a big storm are usually clear and cold here, so we should have access to sunlight. Hopefully we will never have to try out all these ways of keeping warm, but it's good to know we are as ready as can be.
Every Sunday morning we have breakfast in the listening/living room, and select a different Bach cantata to play as we eat our servings of either pancakes/waffles/French toast. We are now in the latter half of his 1724 pieces, and they are getting richer, bolder, and ever more beautiful. It has been a lot of fun hearing the progress of both Bach and Beethoven as composers, as we listened to works from their youth and are now reaching their stages of full maturity. It is a very engaging and magnificent journey!
In viewing news, we have finally watched all 8 episodes of Wheel of Time, season one. Based on what we have seen, there will likely not be a season two for us. The show is very much a Tolkien ripoff, as well as 'borrowing' hunks of material from Guy Gavriel Kay. Though so many people die in this series (including all the males of a major city), not one main character dies. One does die, but is revived miraculously at the end, as other women stay pretty much dead around her. The story is manipulative and tedious, basically high school stuff, though the settings, costumes, and effects are really quite good. It is done, and we can at last move on.
Pierre Etaix's first colour feature was Le Grand Amour from 1969. The rediscovery of his films is a major milestone, like rediscovering either Chaplin, Buster Keaton, or Jacques Tati. Etaix is that good. This feature is all about a married man who suddenly falls in love with his new and very young (18) secretary. There are so many funny scenes about marriage and affairs, but it is the main dream sequence that really sets this film apart from all others. Etaix dreams he is in bed and driving down a road. The sequence goes on for a long time, and is rich in sight comedy and hilarious situations. Another film not to be missed.
Next came a 70s vampire feature called Blacula. That just about sums up the film, as we get a hip LA version of a black vampire who rediscovers a look a like of his long lost wife. The acting is quite good, but the story is the same old one, I'm afraid. With Gordon Pinsent, a Canadian actor, as the police lieutenant trying to stop the vampire.
Lastly comes a film from Thailand called By The Time It Gets Dark. From 2016 it is the director's 2nd film. Here is the Criterion description of the film:
"The delicately poetic second feature by Thai director Anocha Suwichakornpong weaves together multiple stories and characters to create a portrait of a beautiful country haunted by the lingering trauma of the 1976 government-sanctioned massacre of student demonstrators in Bangkok. A shape-shifting narrative around memory, politics, and cinema, the film weaves together the stories of several characters. We meet a young waitress serving breakfast at an idyllic country café, only to later find her employed in the busy dining room of a river cruise ship. And we meet a filmmaker interviewing an older woman whose life was transformed by the political activism of her student years and the Thammasat University massacre of 1976. With her tender, unobtrusive filmmaking style, Suwichakornpong allows us to get to know these characters slowly and deeply. At the same time, we see how their country and its troubled history inform their actions and identities in ways both overt and subtle."
Though it is beautiful to watch, I found it quite confusing, and not nearly clear enough in dealing with the violence of the mid 70s. It just flows (not seamlessly) from one story or character to another, almost in mid-stream, and leaves the story being watched as unfinished. Which leads me to wonder if this could have been more successful as a formal small group of short films, which it essentially is, but without the form. Definitely aimed at the festival circuit.
And lastly, another Van Gogh painting currently visiting Detroit. This is a favourite of ours from the Art Institute of Chicago. Nice to have it in town.
Mapman Mike
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