Hello to all my readers in Singapore! There are either a lot of you, or someone there is checking out the site a whole lot of times. My tracking allows me to see how many hits from different countries I get, and international readers from all over the world are my main visitors. For some reason....
It's been a very busy time of late here at the Homestead, and it will only get busier. Thankfully, no rushing was involved. To begin with, I had three clear nights last week, involving lots of driving. Only one night was hampered by smoke from western fires. The nights at the windmill site are very quiet and calm, and the skies seem to be at the very edge of the Windsor/Detroit light dome. Ideally, I would drive about 5 miles further east. But it's already too far. Last Saturday evening was also the most recent get together of our piano performance group. All seven full time members attended. They include three busy M.D.s, and four music majors. Paula and I played a Gershwin duet, and she also played a solo. But I had to leave before she played (and before I could play my solo), as it was a clear night and I needed a bit of light to set up my gear. There were three Debussy pieces on the program, include a wonderful performance of "Fireworks," from Preludes Book 2, by Jim from Chatham. There was also some Mozart (2nd and 3rd mov't of the A minor sonata), and Dr. L. played the first movement of the Appassionata by Beethoven (from memory!). We were at Dr. B's home, playing on a 6' Yamaha. The next get together is here at the Homestead, in September. A few people are anxious to try the Avant-Grand. We'll see how that goes.
I have switched Iaido nights from Mondays to Sundays. The intense mountain hiking training program begins this coming Friday, and Saturdays and Mondays will see us drive into Windsor to hike the hills at Malden Hill Park. I did not want to have to drive back for Iaido on Monday evenings, so I switched over to Sunday for Iaido. This coming Sunday is cutting practice at a private home, so there will be no regular class. Sunday mountain hiking training sessions are done at home, as are Friday ones. Thursday is a rest day. Wednesday will be cross-training, likely either yard work or biking. Tuesdays are for long hikes. Some of these can be done near here, on the rails to trails paths. So with the exercise program and Iaido, I will be driving at least 3X a week to Windsor. It is not my favourite drive, and gas prices are very high. And in two weeks, astronomy nights will rear their head once again, really complicating things.
We seem to have scored a downtown hotel in Cincinnati for the late Sept. film festival there, for two nights. Deb's film will be shown Saturday afternoon. We will be there from Friday afternoon through Sunday noon hour. When we leave Cinci we will be heading directly west for our road trip and hiking adventure, our first since 2018. We will be hiking in Oklahoma, twice in Texas, and twice in New Mexico. Two of the hikes will be among the biggest I have ever undertaken, so I am hoping the old body holds up during the training weeks ahead. If I survive the training, I should have a good chance of doing the hikes. The clock is ticking rapidly on my old, worn out body.
Turning to film, there are only 2 to report. My main selection for last week was Once Upon A Time In China, from 1991. It's a Hong Kong kung fu special, with more acrobatics per square minute of film than in any other one could imagine. Jet Li stars as the master of a kung fu shcool, trying to deal with a rival gang, as well as the colonists, mostly British and Americans. Of course the whites are the bad guys, but there are plenty of Chinese bad guys, too. Despite its humour and silly situations and almost non-stop fighting, it manages to seriously get across how the Chinese were treated by the whites at the time, both in China and abroad. Lured to America, where they were told gold could be found everywhere, the often uneducated peasants ended up with short lives ending in deep poverty and misery. There are something like five of these films in the series, but if we do watch others there will a long time period between viewings. The film was a bit over the top.
Deb's weekend leaving choice was Six Degrees of Separation, starring Donald Sutherland, Stockard Channing, and Will Smith. It's a talky tale of a disturbed young black man who forces himself upon a rich white couple by pretending he was mugged. He claims to be the son of Sidney Poitier, and is so convincing that they fall for it. Remember, this is long before e-mail and telephone scams that made us (well, most of us) much more cynical about trusting human nature. Though not a bad film, it goes on far too long. The acting is okay, but things are way overdone between the parents and their children away at college. The wife's epiphany at the end is believable, as is the ending itself. Directed by Fred Schepisi, the film dates from 1993, and is an adaptation of the play by John Guare.
Mapman Mike
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