Our Weekly Snowstorm

Seems to be a thing on Fridays lately.  Though we are supposed to get around 5" of snow today, we've only had a little over 2" so far.  Not complaining, as it's been a relatively good winter.  Detroit (and we are not very far away) had its 7th warmest winter since records began.  What we have had, instead of cold temps and large snowfalls, is a lot of extreme wind.  But our house is gradually becoming more and more immune to such nonsense.  Two more windows to add next year, and we will be almost weatherproof for the coldest and windiest days.

Tonight (Friday) my piano professor, Philip Adamson, will complete his performance of all 32 Beethoven sonatas, a multi-year project that he began in March of 2016.  Shut down by Covid for 2 years, he is at last about to finish it up.  If our weather gets no worse we should be able to attend.  My own piano practice continues to go pretty well.  My memorization part is complete, though weak in several spots.  Another few weeks should do it.  In listening news, we are now into the late Beethoven piano sonatas, as we inch our way towards completion of that major listening project--everything Beethoven ever wrote.

Last Monday we celebrated the March full moon.  The opera for this month was Schumann's Faust, conducted by Benjamin Britten!  Some of those records we have are real treasures!  We enjoyed a nearly perfect wood fire, as we continue to burn off fallen wood from our property from many years ago.  We already have about a ten year supply, which will be added to greatly once Nathan the tree guy cleans up our yard from last month's ice storm.  On March 21st we will reduce the use of our furnace for day time heating, switching over to the wood pellet stove.  At night the furnace will still run on a low setting, and upon awakening we will heat the house to 68 F, then switch it off for the day.  Even though it's been a mild winter, it is costing us about $8 per day to heat the house, due to the high price of natural gas.  An $8 bag of pellets, by comparison, would last at least two days, and probably more.

On Wednesday we made our long delayed trip to Detroit.  Our main objective was to purchase a new US cell phone.  We already have a terrific US phone plan, and the phone works perfectly from our house, too.  Once away from the river there is no service, but we can see the cell tower across the river from our yard, so it works perfectly here for texting, phone calls, and data.  Anyway, we got a really good phone for $50 US, and were able to transfer our Detroit phone number to it without any hassle.  We pay $21 every three months for unlimited texts, calls, and some data.  The best part of the deal is that everything not used that month rolls over and accumulates.  So we have tons of data saved up from Covid days, and virtually unlimited text and calling.

We also managed to get to one of my favourite brewery taprooms in Detroit, which now shares space with our favourite bakery/cafe.  Jolly Pumpkin Brewery (photo below) has allowed Avalon Bakery to share its space.  The cafe closes at 3 pm.  We were able to share some beer, and then have coffee and cookies.  Talk about one stop shopping at its finest!!

Inside Jolly Pumpkin, facing the taps.  They now share their space with Avalon. 

 

In film news Deb has started work on her next film, a very short one (under a minute) about a small rock floating through space.  Yep; the main character in her next film is a rock.  Watch for it soon.  Tomorrow I will record part of a Schumann piano piece that she needs for it.

In film watching news, there are several to report.  My leaving March 31st choice from Criterion was the 1979 Nosferatu The Vampyre, directed by Herzog.  This might be the fourth time for us, but it has been a while.  Despite the trop ending, and the ridiculous look of the Count (harkening back to the silent version of the film), there are still some very fine moments in this film, especially the arrival at the castle, and the arrival of the Count's ship.  The ending is bothersome, because Lucy, who is the bravest person one could ever imagine, dies for nothing.  And the character of Van Helsing is totally useless, too, until the very end.  With some minor adjustments this could have been a definitive filming of the novel, but alas, it isn't.  Lots of very cute rats eating whatever it is they put down for them.

Showing on Criterion until March 31st. 

 

Deb's leaving choice was Q: The Winged Serpent, a horror film from 1982 about a dragon-like bird spreading death and panic in a very sunny and cheerful New York City.  Michael Moriarty gives the performance of his life as a demented small time crook who discovers the nest.  He steals virtually every scene he is in.  Also stars David Carradine as the detective trying to put a stop to the killings.  It's all a bit silly, but fun nonetheless.

 

Leaving Criterion March 31st. 

 

For her main choice, Deb picked four Buster Keaton shorts, each about 20-23 minutes long.  From 1920 came One Week and Neighbours.  Though both have incredible scenes and are quite funny, One Week is by far the better film.  A man and woman build a house from a kit in one week, though things don't go quite as the plans show.  The best part of neighbours has Buster trying to get across to his girlfriends house across the yard, in many ingenious ways.  The most incredible version of this is the piggyback method, where no less than three people are carried across the yard and into matching windows.  Keaton had a thing for window opening, and a version of his famous falling wall scene is in One Week.

From 1921 came Hard Luck, with its focus on suicide attempts, none of which are successful.  Like the old Looney Tunes cartoons, there were things done back in the day that could never be done today (and pass for humour).  Again, there are some very funny and original moments in the film.  From 1922 came The Electric House.  Through a diploma mix-up, Buster is chosen to install electricity and numerous gadgets to a large house (he really has a degree in Botany).  We have an escalator, a toy train that delivers food to the table from the kitchen, a dishwasher, a pool table, and many other ingenious things that make this film fun to watch.

All four (and dozens more) now showing on Criterion. 

 

Mapman Mike