The Ice Storm

It's been awhile since we have had a major ice storm.  Wednesday morning it was rain mixed with sleet.  This went on all day.  It then got a degree or two colder, and the sleet became steadier.  It continued, and by early afternoon trees, branches, and hydro wires were coming down everywhere.  We listened to the county fire channel, to the hundreds of call-outs.  Our power went off and then back on again quickly several times during that day and night.  It would often flicker.  But miraculously, it remained on for us.  Not so lucky were many other people in Windsor and Essex County.  The hydro outage map still shows dozens of local outages, including several schools.  Here is the outage map from Wednesday evening.  The numbers indicate how many separate outages there were, not the number of customers affected.  Each outage affected a few or dozens of homes and businesses  The chart does not cover Windsor or Lasalle, which have different power companies.  It also doesn't cover Detroit, but all these areas got hit hard.

By that evening all trees and wires were thickly coated in ice, and the problem continued to worsen.  Our evergreen trees were sagging piteously, as were our long-lived cedars.  There was nothing one could do.  Touch a branch to shake off the ice and the branch would snap off.  I stayed awake till 1:30 am, and the fire calls never slowed down.

Next morning I went for a brief damage check, but it was still too dangerous to be around the trees, as branches were still crashing down.  The temperature was hovering near but below freezing, so nothing was melting yet.  Our tree damage was significant, and will cost somewhere around $3000 for the cleanup.  One of our trees went into the neighbour's yard, as did many huge branches in a different neighbour's yard.  Sigh.

Sure looks pretty, doesn't it?  But standing amidst natural devastation of our trees, it didn't appear so to me at the time.

Our evergreens suffered a lot.  They aren't supposed to look like this.  In the top picture you can see where part of a deciduous tree broke off.  These are quick snaps, because it was still dangerous to be outside.
 

 

Some clean up required.

This last photo was taken around 5 pm Thursday, when the ice had finally all melted. 

Later on Thursday it began to warm up.  The sun even came out.  Have you ever tried to contact a tree service after a big storm?  Nathan is supposed to stop by tomorrow for a look.  Methinks he will have other errands to run.

At least nothing hit the house, or any neighbour's house.  And our power remained on, even though we can handle a failure for a certain amount of time.  But today at noon (Friday), power is still out in dozens of areas, and will remain so for a long time.  Michigan is saying Sunday will see 95% restored.  No such estimate here, but hopefully sooner.  Anyway, that's the Homestead news for now.  On to films....

Deb has finished the main work on her latest film, and has put up a trailer on her webpage (link at left).  I began writing a SF short story many years ago, called "Will Ye No Come Back Again?" based on a Scottish song we have heard played on bagpipes.  It's about a lone technician stuck on a hostile planet, way up high in the mountains and surrounded by telecommunication towers.  I never finished the story, but after Deb expressed interest in making an animated film about it, I finally finished the story.  Then we completely rewrote it.  A voice actor was hired, as was a bagpipe player.  Now she is working on tuning up some of the scenes, as well as working on getting the soundtrack ready for professional equalizing.  In about six weeks the short film might be ready to go live.  Here is the poster...

 

Coming soon to film festivals worldwide.

Deb's film choice for leaving Criterion Feb. 28th was a beautifully done documentary about Hans and Margaret Rey.  Called Monkey Business: The Adventures of Curious George's Creators.  From 2017, it continues the trend of recent docs to be among the most creative films being made today.  The Rey's story is a long and fascinating one, and it is told with the help of animating the two people, inserting them into newsreel footage of the day, and bringing them from Hamburg to Paris to Lisbon to Brazil and finally to New York.  They left Hamburg in 1933 as the Nazis came to power (they were Jewish), and fled Paris on bicycles just ahead of the Nazi invasion of that city.  With them they carried their manuscript of the first George book.  Not only did they create the several George books, but Hans was also an amateur astronomer, and created the indispensable book called The Stars: A New Way To See Them, which is in our astronomy library.  An excellent film, and highly recommended.

Showing on Criterion till Feb. 28th. 

My film choices for the past week began with the newest film by Park Chan-Wook.  From 2022, it is called Decision To Leave, and is a tribute to the Noir films of the 40s.  here is a short synopsis from Mubi: "From a mountain peak in South Korea, a man plummets to his death. Did he jump, or was he pushed? When detective Hae-joon arrives on the scene, he begins to suspect the dead man’s wife Seo-rae. But as he digs deeper into the investigation, he finds himself trapped in a web of deception and desire.  Here also is their take on the film: In this seductively twisted, modern romantic thriller, obsession is taken to wondrous and vertiginous extremes. Without a doubt one of the most electrifying minds working in cinema today, Park Chan-wook won the Best Director award at Cannes for his sumptuous, Hitchcockian masterwork.  There certainly is a lot of Hitchcock here, but also many other influences from crime film dramas.  But mostly, it is a highly original film, using new ways to tell stories, such as the insertion of dream-like memories and expectations to fill in the plot.  This film also has a lot of comedic touches, along with beautifully cinematic photography (the night scene with snow falling as human ashes are scattered; the seaside finale; and of course the vertiginous mountaintop scenes all stand out).  And the foot chase scene is one of the best in cinema.  The film needs more than a single viewing to catch all of the subtleties.  Highly recommended.

Now showing on Mubi. 

My leaving choice was a 1938 comedy film directed by Ernest Lubitsch called Bluebeard's Eighth Wife, and stars Gary Cooper and Claudette Colbert.  David Niven has a very funny small role.  The film is a woman's answer to Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew, as Colbert sets out to teach Cooper a lesson.  He is a multi-millionaire who has been married 7 times and divorced. When she agrees to marry him, she does not know this about his background.  Some very funny moments in a fast paced film.  Cooper's using the Shakespeare play for guidance in taming his wife is hilarious, as is the extended double scene with the private detective.

Showing on Criterion until Feb. 28th. 

Mapman Mike

 

 

 

 

There Be Flowers

Our snowdrops have emerged, and the crocuses are shoosting (to quote Lisa Douglas) upwards.  Spring is springing.  Love is in the air, and the birds begin to sing differently now.  Reading poetry suddenly seems like a great idea.  Sunday waffles taste even better today, though a crappy movie is still a crappy movie.  More on that later.

We've had six clear nights so far this astronomy session.  I managed to observe during three of them; the others were unusable due to wind speed.  However, my last outing was on the chilly side of things.  When I arrived to set up, the temp was 18 F.  Much warmer at home, near the river and in towns, but out in the middle of a damp farmer's field, well...  No wind, but it was still mighty cold air entering my lungs.  When I left, it was 16 F.  The main problem in those kinds of temps is fingers; how to write with three pairs of gloves on, for example.  Of course I use hand warmers, too, but I need some flexibility in changing eyepieces and scribbling notes.  My notes from that Friday night are a tad difficult to read.  Anyway, I lasted nearly 3 hours in the arctic chilliness, but I had an amazing time with winter star clusters and nebulae, and many colourful binary and triple star systems.  My usual threshold is 25 F; below that I stay home.  But spring madness drove me forth on that night.

Our upcoming road trip (still quite a while away) will not include New Mexico.  At first I was puzzled by this; why was I not yearning to get back to the desert?  Usually when March is approaching I begin to smell the dust and cacti, and feel the spring winds blowing the hair right off my head.  But not this year.  Why not?  The desert is a place for us to run to when things are confusing and getting too wild and out of control.  Like in our previous life as teachers.  Or when we were heavy duty travelers, as before the pandemic.  Or even when we made weekly trips to Detroit, and sometimes more often than that.  When we are surrounded by lots of people for long periods of time, then we feel the need to escape to the solitude and silence of the NM desert and mountains.  We rarely encounter other people when we are out in the landscape there, and we return filled with a new kind of resilience; we feel a buffer between us and the world for a time.  But since we are living a rather spartan and hermetic existence these days, there is no great need to escape anything.  We are still loving our mostly stay-at-home lifestyle, and don't even feel strong urges to cross over to Detroit.  However, I do feel it is time for the node to expand, and so a week or so of driving around (not too far from home) and exploring new places is in order.  Some new and/or seldom visited art museums and new archeological sites await us.  When the urge to visit NM arises, it will be swiftly followed up.

Next topic is a landscape painting from the DIA, an absolute favourite of ours.  Hercules Seghers' paintings are rarer than Bruegel's, and Detroit's painting is only attributed to the master (there are not enough figures in the painting, so some do not accept it as being by him).  It's as close to a Bruegel landscape painting as you can get, and reminds me a bit of the one in San Diego.  The Detroit painting releases its full charm when the gallery is very empty and quiet.  The picture is like a scene from the background of a Bruegel painting, a small detail made large.

Detail of left side.

Detail of right side.

River Landscape, 17th C, attrib. to Hercules Seghers (1589-1640).  Dutch.  Oil on canvas; 16" x 25" unframed.  Collection Detroit Institute of Arts.  

 

Turning now to film viewing news, there are several to report.  I ended up choosing two shorter films as my main weekly selection.  The first one was La Ricotta, a 35 minute film from 1963 directed by Pasolini.  In it, Orson Welles is directing a film about the crucifixion.  A very unique look at a director's job, with some very funny moments, with just as many head shaking ones.  Of course Pasolini was charged with offending religion, and had to pay a fine to avoid jail.  I followed up with A Well Spent Life, a 44 minute film from 1971 directed by Les Blank.  Mance Lipscomb was an aging blues singer and guitarist in the deep south of Texas, and this documentary film listens to his words of wisdom and his music, and explores his surroundings.  In the old style doc, it is still fun to watch.  The deep south does not get any deeper than this.  Mance died in 1976.

A Scene from "La Ricotta."  Leaving Mubi soon.

 

Now showing on Criterion. 

 

My leaving Criterion choice for last week was another film by French director Claude Sautet.  Max and the Junkmen is from 1971, and tells the story of an unusual police inspector trying to trap a gang of petty thieves in a bank heist.  He is frustrated because he cannot catch a professional gang, so he thinks that by setting up some amateurs for failure he can frighten the pros.  What is unusual about this cop is that he has a private income from his parents, who own a vineyard.  And apparently no other case load.  In the end, he traps himself as much as he traps the criminals.  Sautet's films seem to be very unusual ways to tell traditional stories, and are quite watchable.  Both recently viewed films have had surprise endings, too.  Romy Schneider plays an unusual prostitute, looking gorgeous in every scene.

Leaving Criterion Feb. 28th. 

 

Deb's main film pic for the weekend is called Impromtu, from 1991.  It stars some big names, and purports to be about Georges Sand, Frans Liszt, Chopin, and Delacroix.  Judy Davis plays a very self possessed Georges, and Hugh Grant is wonderful as a sickly and effeminate Chopin.  There is very little about Sand or her novels, but she wears some great suits, and her haircut is perfect, too.  There is much great music, mostly by Chopin, incredible sets and costumes all around, and lots of bustling about and quick repartee.  But all in all the film is quite empty, more like what an aristocrat might think it was like to be such artists.  Lovely to look at and at times to listen to, it is not something that music, literature, or art students must see.

 

 

Now showing on the Roku Channel. 

 

Mapman Mike

 

 

 

Four Flics and Two Astronomy Nights

We actually had four clear nights in a row, but the first two were windy and cold.  However, Sunday and Monday were perfect for observing, and so I headed out both nights for rare February sessions.  Winter constellations can be seen late at night in late autumn, or early in Spring skies.  But the best time to view them is in the winter.  Double and triple star systems, galaxies, clusters, and nebula popped into my viewfinder one after another, and even though the nights were cold and a wee bit breezy, I was able to log six hours of observing over two nights, in relative comfort.  I am currently working in Perseus and Canis Major.  So much to see, so little time.

 

We are making tentative plans for an upcoming road trip.  Not as far as New Mexico, but it will include some prehistoric archeological sites that are new to us, as well as a new art museum for us, and a major one not visited for too many years.  Details forthcoming in later posts.

 

In other news, there has been zero progress in dispersing Deb's mom's estate, as we still await needed documents from the bank.  The lawyer is ready, we are ready, but nothing is happening.  It's been months now, and nothing.  Very discouraging.  Almost as if the bank wanted to keep the money.

 

In movie news, there are some of mine and some of Deb's to report.  Melo is a film by Alain Resnais from 1986, based directly on a 1929 play by Henri Berstein.  A supposedly happily married couple play dinner host to a touring violinist, an old friend of the husband.  Before long the violinist and friend's wife are having an affair, one which totally unhinges the woman whenever he has to go on tour.  Iffy theatre at best, there isn't much here from which to make a film.  The two lovers act like high school kids most of the time, and quickly become very tiring.  An effort to get through.

 

Showing on Mubi, but leaving soon. 

 

Les Choses de la Vie is from 1970, directed by Claude Sautet and starring Nichel Piccoli and Romy Schneider.  This is a pretty fine example of cinematic story telling, based around a car accident that the lead actor has.  Told in real time and by flashback, we piece together the entire day of and aftermath of the single car wreck.  The accident itself is incredibly well filmed, and the semi-conscious thoughts of the dying man are perfectly captured by the camera.  There is probably more cigarette smoking in this film than in any other movie we have seen.  Recommended viewing.

Showing on Criterion until February 28th. 

 

Turning to Deb's two choices, first up was The Secret of Roan Innish, a 1994 film directed by John Sayles.  Using Irish seaside folklore as its base, the story is a perfect one for kids and for adults to watch.  No guns, no violence, no car chases, and it's slowly paced.  Come to think of it, kids would probably get bored, as would adults.  Unless they were avid and passionate readers.  Anyway, the story is fun, and the little actress is perfect in her role as a city girl visiting her seaside grandparents for the summer (over 1,000 girls were screened for the part).  Lovingly filmed in Ireland and filled with Irish music, the film is a sensitive one and overall very beautifully done.

 

Showing on Criterion until Feb. 28th. 

 

The Automat, from 2021, is yet another example of the extremely high quality documentary films being made lately.  Directed by Lisa Hurwitz, the film features Mel Brooks as it details the rise and fall of the restaurant automat franchise in New York and Philadelphia.  Having heard of automats, and seen them in old movies, the film was a total delight to watch.  There is incredible footage and stills of the restaurants and the clientele, and the film reeks of nostalgia, making me wish these places were still around.  Lovingly made, and lots of fun to watch.  Another piece of  sideline history of New York that should not be missed.

From 2021, now showing on Mubi.

 

Mapman Mike

 

 

End of Winter

Yes, it is a few weeks earlier than usual, after a winter that barely was.  By far the worst episode was the three day Christmas storm, with howling winds, supremely cold temperatures, and blowing snow.  We missed the worst of the snow, garnering only a few inches that time (while Buffalo got totally buried).  Then came a few chilly days in January, and one storm that dropped 6" of heavy, wet snow.  But as of Feb. 4th, winter has vanished, replaced by an early Spring.  Usually things begin to warm up around here by the 15th of this month.  While there is no doubt we are still in for a few bouts of cold and snow, there will be nothing prolonged at this point.

Feb. 2nd was Candlemas, and the 5th was a full moon.  The 14th is Lupercalia, so it's quite a month for celebrations.  Our full moon opera this month was Verdi's Falstaff, a hilarious romp through Shakespeare, with some of the fastest moving dialogue of any opera I have ever heard.  The recording I have features the Vienna Philharmonic conducted by Leonard Bernstein, with Dietrich Fischer Dieskau.  It is a beauty, on six LP sides.  Also featured at that party was a wonderful homemade blueberry cake, and a roaring wood fire.  It was actually too cold to have a fire on Candlemas, but there should be another one at Lupercalia time.

In two weeks our little piano performance group will be meeting again.  Since the last meeting I have revamped my practice schedule, including a hefty increase.  I now have time to work on the entire first movement of Beethoven's Sonata in D+, Op 10, #1.  And there is even a little time left over at the end to begin work on the 2nd movement, which is one of most incredible things he ever composed.  The harpsichord will be the focus of our next meeting, weather permitting.

In movie news, there are two of Deb's choices to report on.  First came A Kind of Loving, a 1962 film by John Schlesinger, and starring Alan Bates.  In stark b & w, the drama follows the relationship between a young man and woman who live and work in a smokestack town in England.  They initially fall in love, but then he grows bored with her.  When she becomes pregnant he does marry her, however, and off they go to a grey off season seashore for their honeymoon.  While their relationship might have stood a chance at being successful if they had lived alone, it turns into a nightmare when they move in with her shrewish mother.  However, by the end of the film they are about to live on their own, and trying to start over again.  An excellent film, suitably sombre, with excellent acting and intelligent script.  In many ways a very depressing film, there is some dark humour there, too.  Its honesty at depicting working class life is admirable.

 

Showing on Criterion until Feb. 28th. 

Next came one of the strangest films we have ever seen, and that is saying something. From 1926 comes A Page of Madness, a silent film that takes place entirely in a Japanese mental institution of the day, and on the grounds. A janitor tries to lead his insane wife to freedom, but to what end we don't know. The film's editing is as bizarre as the subject matter, as the camera tries to get inside the head of some of the patients. There is no dialogue at all, but the music by the Alloy Orchestra is top notch! Performed by an avante garde theatre troupe, the director was a former Kabuki actor. A very unsettling film, showing on Mubi.

A Page of Madness, showing on Mubi. 

I am attempting to revive my DIA landscape project here; bear with me, as the website is quite ridiculous now.  I'll begin with a Chinese landscape painting, an image possibly inspired by a view from a weather balloon back in the day.....  It's a painting meant for contemplation, beginning with the bottom part and gradually working one's way up to the highest temple near the top

Landscape in the Style of Juran, between 1620 and 1677.  Wang Jian, Chinese, 1598-1677. Ink and watercolor on paper.  Installed: 101 1/8 × 34 3/4 inches (256.9 × 88.3 cm) Image: 49 3/4 inches × 24 inches (126.4 × 61 cm) Mount: 99 7/8 × 30 5/8 inches (253.7 × 77.8 cm).

Detail of lower section.

Detail of middle section.

Detail of upper section.

Mapman Mike

 

 

 

New Windows

 Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday (today) are about as cold as it ever gets down here. Tuesday morning I headed to Windsor for the first piano performance group meeting.  There are currently three of us: Alde, Nadia, and myself.  Both are teachers and piano performance majors.  The program I am working on has 7 pieces by Bach in the first half.  I played four of them on Alde's grand piano.  Next, Nadia performed a set of Beethoven variations, followed by Alde's reading of the first movement of the Waldstein Sonata, also by Beethoven.  The meeting spurred each of us to bigger and better things.  Alde wants to take a piano exam that he never took (A.R.C.T., the top exam of the Royal Conservatory); Nadia wants to get a whole program together; I have increased my practice time from about 12 hours per week to about 17 hours per week.  All of us are looking forward to our second meeting, here at the Homestead in February.  Because of the harpsichord, it could night turn into a Bach event.

The next cold day was Wednesday.  I didn't have to go out, but two new windows were installed.  We have used Centennial Windows and Doors throughout the upstairs of the house.  They are the best there is, pure and simple.  Very expensive, but one gets one's money's worth.  Their guarantee is a real guarantee.  They will even come and replace the draft stoppers beneath their doors when they wear out.  At 9:30 am, when the workers arrived, it was about 11 F outside, with a nice breeze blowing.  By the time they left at around 2 pm, it was 16 F.  Since the front door was going to be opened up so many times with the two workers coming and going, and since the furnace thermostat would be influenced by this, I shut off the boiler and turned on the wood pellet stove.  

 

The kitchen window replacement came first.  The space was wide open for less than half an hour before they plopped the new window in.  Because we kept the original wood frame, that was a much faster job than the next window.  With the wood stove chugging happily along, the downstairs was kept pretty toasty (67 F)!  Upstairs, unheated with no furnace on, we had a small electric space heater running, which kept the temp up there above 60 F.  

 

Next came the bathroom window, which was glass brick.  What a job taking that out!  It took about an hour to smash their way through it all.  Then they had to build a frame from scratch, then finally install the new window.  That bathroom got mighty chilly!  But we now have soundproof and air leakproof windows installed in 85% of the house, along with the two new doors.  Only two windows left to replace!  Once the bathroom window was in place, the wood stove was turned off and the furnace turned back on.  I was worried about the piano going out of tune, but it held up really well!  End of home improvement segment, except for a few photos.

 

The old kitchen window, showing frost buildup whenever it got cold.  Noise and air came through as well.

 

The installer at work in the kitchen.  The other guy was outside.

 

The new kitchen window.  Air tight, no frost, and almost totally soundproof. 

 

The old glass brick did not allow for any ventilation, so we had a moisture problem in the bathroom.  It also leaked cold air quite badly.

 

New bathroom window, which can open by lifting from the bottom, but it also pulls out at a slant, too, to allow for cleaning.  We can now vent the area after a hot shower.  The frame is new, too.  Airtight and soundproof.  Thank you Centennial!!

 

On to my two movie pics for the week.  First up was our fifth or sixth viewing of Peter Weir's The Last Wave, from 1977 and showing on Criterion.  There is also a ten minute short with the director talking about the film, which we had never seen before.  The film is one of the best fantasy films ever made, and though it has flaws, it also has greatness.  The plot concerns an urban tribe of Aboriginals living in Sydney and practicing tribal ritual and tribal law.  One of the tribe breaks a law, and is killed by the others.  Richard Chamberlain, a tax lawyer, ends up defending the native men against the charge of manslaughter.  But he is more than he seems; he has the power to dream of events that will happen.  The plot is great, the music is great, the photography is great, the acting is great, and the opening scene in a rural school yard is by now a classic.  Highly recommended, even if you have seen it more than once.  It's always great!

 

Now showing on Criterion. 

 

My leaving Feb. 28th choice was called Patang (Kite), an Indian film from 2012.  A minor family drama is an excuse to show the city of Ahmedabad during its annual kite festival.  With the colourful city and thousands of kites as backdrop, the plot matters little, and is pretty inconsequential.  A man and his daughter visit the city from Delhi, where his sister-in-law lives along with his mother, and his nephew.  The latter blames his uncle for the death of his father.  The young daughter has a little fling with a local boy during their two-day visit.  The nephew befriends some street urchins and tries to look after their welfare as much as he can.  The uncle, whose brother died after he left to set up business in Delhi, has purchased a new condo for the family, but they don't want it.  That's it for the plot, except for a lot of kite flying.  An easy film to watch, there are many striking city scenes.  There seems to be a lot of people in India. 

Showing on Criterion until Feb. 28th. 

 

Back with more news as it happens. 

 

Mapman Mike