One of the best TV series is a made in Russia supernatural detective series called Detective Anna. From 2016, there are 56 episodes, consisting of a 26 2-part series. That season ended in a bit of a cliffhanger. Today I was browsing Prime and saw a second season! I have been on the lookout for such a thing for many years now, so it must have been added to their lineup relatively recently. Season 2 is from 2021, and consists of 40 fifty minute episodes, or 20 two part ones. Wasting no time, we watched the first 2 episodes today. Good stuff! Resuming a series with original characters after five years can be quite a tough challenge, but the writer brilliantly takes up the story 5 years later! Anna has trained in Paris to become a doctor. Her friend and lover the detective mysterious went underground for five years, and she thought he was dead. It all takes place in a provincial city some distance from Petersburg, around the turn of the 19th C. The costumes are unbelievably good, as are most stories. The acting is first rate. The series is subtitled. So happy to see this series back for more!
In more good news, I got my 1980s Schwinn 18 speed bicycle back from the shop today. It underwent a complete tune up, with new tires, tubes, cables, and it received a top to bottom cleaning. A shout out to Flow Cafe and Bikes in Amherstburg!! Here are a few pics of the little beauty.
The top photo is from the bike shop; the middle one was taken once we got it home; the last one shows a detail of the handlebars. More coming later.
In travel news, we have planned our next voyage. Last year we finally returned to travel, something we used to do several times per year. Last Spring we undertook a road trip from Detroit to Little Rock, exploring some state high points and some Native American archaeological sites. In the autumn we attempted a return to the mountains of New Mexico, getting as far as SW Oklahoma before having to cancel due to Deb's hiking accident. For our upcoming trip, it is still mostly a road trip, and the focus is again on state high points and archaeology. In mid-March we will fly into New Orleans, our first airport experience since late 2019. We will fly home a week later. In between we will drive to two major archaeological sites in the deep south, as well as tackling up to four more state high points. We are excited, but also a bit nervous about being in crowded conditions. Last autumn, after attending a crowded film festival for three days, we both came down with terrific colds, which lasted about 9 days. So airports and flying do not exactly excite us. Had we driven down there the trip would have to have been at least 4-5 days longer. A full report will be made as soon as we are home, probably on the Road Trips blog.
There are two movies to report, both of them Deb's choices. First came a documentary on Angela Carter. Angela Carter: Of Wolves and Women is a one hour BBC production from 2018, and includes interviews with Margaret Atwood and Salman Rushdie, among others. She died in her 50s from lung cancer. I've only read one of her books, but have seen two films based on her writings. We are both interested in reading more of her stuff now.
We watched this documentary on Youtube.
Penda's Fen is from 1974, and is also a BBC production. This is a very strange little film about a teenage boy who can't seem to find himself just yet. He is a loner, a misfit, deeply religious (his father is a parson), and incapable of action of any sort when it is needed. On his 18th birthday his parents inform him that he is adopted. While the news could have shattered the boy, it actually makes him stronger, as he comes to realize that he now has no idea of his genetic makeup, and thus of his possibilities in life. He is intelligent and imaginative, and in love with the music of Elgar. He has troubling dreams of demons and angels, and hallucinations of same. In one scene he imagines that he meets an elderly Elgar, and learns first hand the secret of the composer's Enigma Variations. Like the boy, the film can't seem to really find itself, and wanders around in the muck a lot of the time. Is it a horror story? A rite of passage? A critique of the underpinnings of English society? A search for truth in religion? To some it might seem profound, but to seasoned viewers it just seems lost in the search for truth. The boy's father, the parson, turns out to be the most interesting character in the film, a man who is far from being religious in the traditional sense. The boy himself is not very likeable, as he does not have a defining character yet. Definitely worth a look.
We watched this little oddity on Youtube.
I forgot to mention that we have had two days in a row where we exceeded 60 F. In Canada, in winter. We have flowers ready to bloom. Cooler weather will begin returning tomorrow, but nothing very scary. We had about 9 days of very cold air in January, and then it was gone. The winter that wasn't. However, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island were buried alive last week, with over a meter of snow in many places. Yikes!
Mapman Mike
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