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.
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.
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.
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.
Mapman Mike
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