April 2024 Books Read

 There were nine days of travel last month, which seriously cut into my reading time.  The long eclipse day and the week in Sudbury cut my reading time down by nearly a third.  Though I did manage some reading in Sudbury on our week long visit, it wasn't anywhere near the usual time allowed for such pursuits.  Two of the books read last month were 500 pagers, also limiting the number of books read.

I have finally run out of SF from Robert Silverberg.  This month I dove into his recently republished crime and sex novels.  Though pretty mild by today's standard best sellers, in the 1960s he chose to use a different name on those book covers.  From 1960 and republished in 2022, even more of Silverberg's early output is now making its way into mainstream publishing.  I have the Kindle edition of The Hot Beat, now published under his own name.  The story is short, though there are 25 chapters.  A news reporter and a former girlfriend of a suspected killer try to prove his innocence.  The police don't care; they have a suspect in custody and he looks guilty to them.  Though not up to top notch crime writing standards set by Hammett and Chandler, the book gets to the nitty gritty aspects of sordid lifestyles.  The girl, Terry, gets pawed by creeps, and we get a queasy enough feeling when it happens.  The suspect is a former popular big band leader who hits the skids via alcoholism.  Two people put him at the scene of the crime.  The novel is preceded by a short intro by Silverberg, who seems as amazed as this reader regarding the republication of his crime stories.  In addition, there are three short stories included.

 

Jailbait Girl is from 1959.  Sorry readers, but the girl is 23.  She has a scam going with her boyfriend.  After finding guys to seduce her, the two crooks return later, she dressed as a high school girl, to extort money.  They score four times, but the fifth time turns out quite different.

 

The Drunken Sailor is from 1958.  A young sailor looking for his first time with a woman is sold out by a buddy, who has a scam going with the girl who does the trick.

 

Naked In The Lake is from 1958.  A murder story with an ironic twist at the end, like most of these tales.  A man kills his pregnant lover, but his wife manages to outdo him without violence.

 

I own the Kindle edition. 

 

From 1976 comes the 157 page on-going troubles of Dray Prescott, titled Captive Scorpio.  Dray goes off in search of a daughter he has never seen, who is living with scoundrels and trouble makers.  Imagine his surprise when he does encounter her (see cover art, below).  Of course she hates him; he is a coward, etc.  He ends up having to leave her among the group of traitors planning his death and that of the Emperor.  Meanwhile, back in the capital city, the Emperor's armies have been tricked and defeated.  The evil Wizard of Loh, 'Phu-si-Yantong' is behind the attacks on Vallia, and there seems little that can be done to stop him.  In the shocking finale, another very important person close to Dray and Deliah is killed, forever altering the leadership and destiny of Vallia.  Along with the shocking revelation regarding Dray's daughter, and the death mentioned just above, it is obvious that Bulmer is taking his series very seriously.  None of these happenings were expected, and end up shocking the reader, who expects most things to continue on as as before.  Nope.  A very good entry in the series. 

 

Cover by Josh Kirby. 

 

From 1973 comes Monster of Metalaze, a 125 page pulp SF novel from one of the best of the trade.  This time around Cap Kennedy works with a (male) team on the planet Metelaze to stop the government there from completing a series of towers that are supposed to give limitless energy to the planet.  It's obvious to the Terrans that the towers will kill all life on the planet when turned on.  To find out what is going on, Cap gets himself into the planet's dictator's good side, eventually becoming his body guard.  Assisted by a professor, a large and very strong man, and a person who is able to blend in anywhere like a chameleon, they go to work to find out the truth.  The story jumps back and forth between the various Terran operatives, and becomes quite complex at times.  Once the truth is known, the political ruling council has to be convinced they are in danger.  Some suspect it, but others support the dictator in everything.  To add to the confusion, a fake religious leader out for power is harnessing his followers to overthrow the present system so he can take over.  It's all very messy, and not a terribly satisfying read.

 

From 2013 comes the 482 page 3rd part of Moorock's epic series detailing the life and adventures of Colonal Pyat, Jerusalem Commands.  The events now take place between 1925 and 1929.  At some point in this wonderful series I suspected that I would begin to tire of Pyat, and that process is now well underway.  I am reading the volumes too close together, so I will rest Pyat for a while, and possibly even rest Moorcock for a time.  Pyat is the cocaine sniffing Cossack from Kiev who continually denies his Jewishness.  His rants against Moslems and what they ultimately represent to the world are pretty much non-stop, as are his rants against Jews.  Sometimes his insights are quite enlightening, and at other times one wonders why there isn't a fatwah laid upon the author.  I guess not many people have read it or drawn undue attention to these books.

Pyat is an entertaining person, very full of himself, and his fictional memoirs are among the best travel writing ever laid down on paper.  This time we begin in the USA, slowly making our way to New York from Los Angeles and back again, with many adventures in between.  Pyat is a 1920s silent movie star, as is his best friend Mrs. Cornelius (mother of Jerry).  With his beloved Esme, they embark on a ship to Egypt (from LA) to make a desert epic film.  The journey is long but great fun to read.  Filming doesn't end up going so well in Egypt, and Pyat and Esme become sex slaves, forced to make pornographic films.  Mrs. Cornelius, who knew better and gave fair warning, leaves the country unhindered.  Poor Pyat.  He goes through a living hell, and doesn't talk much about the details.  These are left to the readers' imaginations.  Esme is now taken fgrom him, never to be seen again.  Then it's finally an escape into the desert, followed by a balloon ride to Morocco.  In Morocco Pyat slowly recovers from his nightmare in Egypt, but again gets into deep trouble, becoming a captive of the rich Arabic leader of Marrakech.  Escape finally comes, but not in the expected way.

The book is often tiring to read, though admittedly it is very good.  I recommend taking a lot of time to read these novels.  I have been gobbling them.  Pyat's Egypt experience is certainly a low point, but there are many high points to balance things out.  Whether amidst a bustling city or stranded in the middle of the Sahara Desert, Moorcock always uses just the right words to get the mood and the atmosphere down perfectly.  Highly recommended series.

 

#6 in the Lone Wolf Series, Chicago Slaughter, is from 1974 (Malzberg was writing one of these per month) and it is 165 pages long.  The tone of these books is shifting.  Wulf is now sick and tired of killing, and the killings that he does undertake get more and more difficult.  He is on his way to Chicago with his now famous briefcase of pure cut heroin.  He wants to turn it into the DA there, where a grand jury is trying to get to the bottom of the country's drug problem.  But as the story moves along, sometimes over familiar ground and sometimes not, Wulf begins to realize that the system is rotten from top to bottom.  The Chicago DA gets his orders from that city's drug kingpin.  Wulf goes through an amazing thought process at one point where he realizes that even the Vietnam war is being fought so that the supply of drugs from Asia can continue, rather than be stopped in its tracks by the Communists.  And closer to home it appears that the CIA wants the drug trade to continue, though reasons for that are obscure.  Williams, his one time partner on the NYPD, is badly knifed on an undercover operation, and spends much of the book in hospital.  But he finally wakes up to the fact that Wulf has been right all along--the system is rotten, and it's rigged.  Today we might ask "So what else is new?"  There is a short postlude by the author at the novel's completion.

 

On to Delphi Classics, beginning with the continuation of the complete works of Virginia Woolf.  Night and Day was published in 1919, four years after her first novel, The Voyage Out (See January 2023 Books Read entry).  Lasting for 579 painful pages, the 2nd novel is a huge disappointment.  It's a love story involving two couples and an odd person out that takes place mostly in London, though it is a cardboard London, a city we get no feel for.  Had there been some humour involved it might have been a less painful read, but alas, it is all so serious.  Katherine, daughter of a prestigious family, becomes engaged to William, whom she does not love.  She loves Ralph.  When William takes notice of her younger cousin Cassandra, the engagement is called off.  But no one tells her father.  Ralph proposes to Mary, but she realizes that he is in love with Katherine, and refuses him.  It is all so dreadfully boring.  The 'young' people (the youngest is 22, the others 25 or over) act like tongue tied high school students when they encounter one another.  No one seems to know anything about love and what it truly is.  The only non-hopeless person is Mary.  She works at a society trying to garner the vote for women (but after a while she doesn't work there).  The novel seems truly endless, but I stuck it out, being stubborn enough.  It sounds like something Woolf might have written for close friends to hear it read to them.  In most articles about her writing, Day and Night isn't even mentioned.  I wonder why.  I think she was trying to achieve a prose version of something vaguely Shakespearean.  Or not.

A collection of poems and a play by Yeats came next.  The play and poetry were first published together in 1892.  The play was revised and published separately later, as was the poetry, under the title The Rose.  The play, a mystical one, is called The Countess Cathleen.  I really liked three of the poems, one of which is probably his most famous one.  "The Lake Isle of Innisfree" was written in 1888, and served the poet's needs much as Knight Peak in NM does for us--somewhere spiritual and pleasant to think about during the duress of living and working day to day.  "When You Are Old" and "A Dream of Death" are also quite remarkable works.  As to the play, it is in five scenes, and according to Yeats should take about an hour to perform.  A woman gives up her land, house, and gold to feed the poor and starving of Ireland by selling her soul to agents of Satan.  At the end, the angels find a loophole in the bargain and manage to save her soul.  Not exactly an engrossing bit of theatre.  However, it was part of the search for something home-grown in Ireland.

Lastly came Sherwood Anderson's 2nd novel.  Marching Men is from 1917, and follows the fortunes and misfortunes of the son of a Pennsylvania coal mining family, as he escapes the small dreary town where he was raised and goes out into the world (Chicago) in search of something bigger and better.  This is one of fiction's strangest characters, and one of the strangest novels I have ever read. Nearly as strange as Vita Sackville-West's 2nd novel (see January books read blog).  I won't say much about this book (stop me if I do), but Mr. McGregor has some serious social issues to deal with.  His attempt to bring order to a chaotic world by having men march around after work is, of course, symbolic.  They do that sort of thing in China, perhaps, but it would never catch on over here.  The brotherhood of men is a widely misunderstood concept, and Anderson realizes this.  But his shallow attempt of proving it likely turned off most readers (at least I would hope).  Today we have sporting events and Taylor Swift concerts to unite people.  The college football stadium in Ann Arbor Michigan holds over 100,000 people, and autumn football weekends are always sold out.  That is just one example.  Books like Harry Potter have united millions of people in ways Anderson could never have dreamed about.  A professional symphony orchestra is probably the best example of a finely tuned brotherhood, uniting with one goal in mind.  Though a mighty strange book by almost any standard, it is at least capable of starting discussion about topics most writers never touch.

Mapman Mike

 

 

 

Film Festival Weekend

April 27th and we are getting June weather.  The heat is on this coming week, and I don't mean the furnace.  Very warm temps and humidity have arrived a month early.  No surprise there, after this past year of record temps in these parts.  The grass received its first cut of the season yesterday, after the tractor was returned to us following its annual oil change and tune up.  And I got my teeth cleaned!  Let's see, what else happened yesterday.  Ah, we had a small natural gas leak fixed, and the gas was off much of the day.  And the new beer fridge was delivered, and is up and running in the basement.  But there is still a lingering smell of gas in the basement.  Just waiting a few minutes before going to check it again.

 

For travel buffs, I have finally completed my road trip blog on our recent trip to the deep south.  Find the road trip blog in the upper left margin, and scroll down towards part 1 (it's in 5 parts).

 

It's my turn for the film festival this month.  Each month one of us gets to pick three extra films to watch.  Combined with the two regular choices we each get in turn, that makes five in a row for me every two months (and for Deb).  At least one of the films must be chosen from the 'leaving soon' list, either from Mubi or from Criterion.  The others can come from anywhere.  So far we have completed watching three of my five choices.  Most recently we re-watched The Tale of Zatoichi #1 in the terrific samurai series from Japan starring Shintaro Katsu as the blind swordsman.  This first film, in widescreen b & w, contains all of the ingredients of the films that would follow in the series, though the pacing is much slower and more meditative here.  Ichi does not kill a mass of warriors, either.  He dispatches two who are sent to kill him for hearing a conversation, and he kills another master swordsman at the very end.  At this point he is bothered by killing, finding it a huge waste of human life.  Though we have seen this film at least four times now, there is always something new to discover or appreciate.  Highly recommended series, best watched in order.

 

Always showing on Criterion. 

 

Before that came a short BBC film part of their Screen Two series.  From the description on Prime:  Sin Bin stars Oscar nominee Pete Postlethwaite as a psychiatric guard at odds with a brutal system in this unflinching but darkly humorous view at humanity at its best and worst. In a prison for the criminally insane, Mitch witnesses an assault on a patient who dies 24 hours later. Compelled by his conscience to speak out, Mitch is forced to choose between self-preservation and justice.  Quite a disturbing and tension-filled little film, from a play by Catherine Johnson.  The tension builds as the union fully supports the offender.  Postlethwaite is a fine actor who can share slight nuances really well.  Recommended viewing.

 

Showing on Prime.

 

My leaving choice came first in this festival, a b & w comedy from 1941 called Here Comes Mr. Jordan.  Robert Montgomery stars as a boxer who crashed his plane on the way to a big prize fight, and is killed.  Only he wasn't.  It was a clerical error.  Or something.  He ends up having his personality placed inside another body, a man who has just been murdered.  The film was nominated for 7 Oscars (it won two--best story and best screenplay).  Mr. Jordan is a bureaucratic angel who helps the boxer get along in his new shoes.  Diverting, but not essential.

 

Leaving Criterion April 30th. 

 

Two films remaining, one of which is another BBC screen Two production, and the other the winner of the Oscar for best foreign film.  Stay tuned.  And it's almost time for the monthly books read summary, too. 

Mapman Mike

 

 

Routines Are Back

We've been home five days now, and are happily ensconced in our daily routines.  Piano practice has resumed, after travelling for 17 days in the past month.  Things weren't as ugly as expected!  The pieces are very close to being ready for the final phase before performance.  The group meets again May 5th.  After that I should be able to pick a date for a recital.  And reading took a bit of a beating for the past month, too, but I am forging ahead once again.  A new routine about to be started up is the mowing of very fast growing grass.  It has been an early spring; our white and pink lilacs are blooming already, as is the apple tree next door.

 

Last night was a Full Moon.  Though it rained all day yesterday and was very windy, it cleared up by sunset.  We saw the sun for a short while, and now the moon is up pretty high and is very bright.  We had a wood fire, made a chick pea chocolate brownie Moon Cake, and listened to Handel's Solomon, one of his finest operas.  A good time was had by all.

 

When we were in Sudbury we visited Cafe Obscura.  It used to be a cafe and film camera store.  It is no longer a cafe, but the film and cameras are still there.  I picked up some fresh 35 mm film.  Deb bought herself a super 8 movie camera.  It is in mint condition, and only cost her $20.  She has ordered film for it from Toronto, and wants try some film experiments with it to use as one of her projects.  My special little Rollei camera is now loaded with film again.  Of all the many cameras I have ever owned, that little Rollei takes the finest pictures of them all.  There is no zoom, and I have to set the exposure by hand, as they don't make the correct battery size for its light meter any longer.  Like the good old days, you have to set the focus, f-stop, and shutter speed.  Still my favourite way to take pictures, though the Polaroid camera is loads of fun, too.

 

I'm trying to collect images of my Dad for the upcoming memorial, to be shown in the background in a loop.  I have a pretty decent collection so far, and have yet to scan a bunch that I brought back from Sudbury.  

 

L to R: brother Stephen, Dad, Mom, and me, a really long time ago.  Lake Michigan in the background.  I think we were in St. Ignace MI. 

In movie news, there are a few to report.  My leaving April 30th choice came from Mubi.  The film is called Eve's Bayou, from 1997.  Filmed in Louisiana, it is a bittersweet look at one summer in the life of a family, mostly seen through the eyes of 10 year old Eve.  Her dad is an M.D., and is very unfaithful to his beautiful wife.  Eve has an older sister, 14, and a younger brother, 9.  The acting is quite good, the story seems true to life and very well told, and the setting authentic deep south bayou country.  It's seldom that such a sensitive and truthful look at a Black family that gets torn apart as a result of several things that happen.  The young girl and her aunt both have prescient powers, though nothing that finally happens in the film could have been foretold.  I was strangely attracted to this film, and would highly recommend it.  The kids in the story, especially the two girls, do a lot of growing up in a short time period.

Showing on Mubi until April 30th.

 

Deb's leaving choice also came from Mubi.  Blind Spot is a German film from 1981, directed by Claudia Von Alemann.  A woman leaves her young daughter and husband in Germany and travels alone to Lyon, where she tries to get beneath history and find some unknown and unsuspected truths about a 19th female workers' crusader.  She spends hours in a lonely and nearly empty city walking and visiting places where her historical heroine might have lived and walked.  She knows the facts of her life and her work, but wishes to somehow get beyond these to more inner truths.  She records sounds that might also have been heard at the time.  It is a search doomed to failure, something she finally comes to terms with at the very end.  The early morning summer street shots of an empty Lyon and its buildings, streets, and river would easily fill a very good photography book.  It is a meditative film to watch, but one keeps hoping that the woman might be able to better articulate what it is she wants to find.  She never really does, as she doesn't really know what she is doing, either.  What the film does show is how dry and lifeless a history of a person can be, even a fairly interesting person.  It often takes imagination to bring that person into full bloom, and only then can we truly imagine their experiences and their daily lives.  This woman seems to lack imagination.  Also, she wears the same expression all the way through the film, a neutral one best described as "beige."  It is a good film, though, with many memorable scenes, especially in the restaurant. 

 

Leaving Mubi April 30th. 

 

Lastly comes a nautical noir film from 1950 and directed by Michael Curtiz.  Called The Breaking Point, it stars John Garfield and Patricia Neal.  With his fishing boat excursion business doing poorly, Garfield takes an offer from the devil to transport some Chinese immigrants from Mexico to the US.  It doesn't go very well at all, leaving him even more desperate.  Next time he agrees to take four violent robbers out to a waiting boat.  They shoot his best friend as they cast off just after their robbery and throw him overboard.  Garfield is a war vet, and ends up taking them all on once aboard the boat and near Catalina Island.  A tense movie, and never has a man made so many poor choices and lived to tell the tale.  His relationship with Neal, a barfly, and his wife, a treasure, are quite interesting.  Similar in some ways to Key Largo, this one does go off in a few new directions.  Worth watching for.

Now showing on Criterion. 

 

I have managed to publish the first four entries from our deep south road trip last month.  The final segment, dealing with New Orleans proper, should be up tomorrow.  Look on my Road Trip blog page (left margin).

 

Mapman Mike

 

 

A Week In Sudbury Ontario

It has been many years since I have stayed 7 nights in Sudbury.  I was born there, living at home until age 22, when I married Deb and we moved to Windsor to attend university.  We used to come home for about six weeks in the summer, staying mostly at the family camp on Lake Penage.  But since the camp was sold many years go, we have only been back for shorter visits, to Sudbury itself at the family home.

 

The occasion this time was to spend time with Mom, helping her to go through Dad's belongings.  Most went to charity, though I came home with a few nice shirts, a cozy new bathrobe, a few books and records, and a sport jacket.  Mom is doing pretty well, though I doubt she has had much time to process Dad's passing.  Cards and flowers and visitors have kept her occupied.  Her sister will come and visit her at the end of April.  Mom will be 95 in one month, and still climbs three flights of stairs at home and does laundry, some cooking, and many other things.  We took her grocery shopping one day (she still insists on buying her own food), and to church for a mass that was said in my father's name.

 

Mom lives in the upstairs of a large 3-unit apartment building which she owns.  My brother Steve and his wife and daughter live below her.  The basement apartment has been a bar and TV room for a long time now.  Steve and his wife went for a week long cruise from Miami, so we came up north to stay with mom.  The weather was quite beastly a few days, so it was mostly an inside visit.  I read, we watched a lot of TV, went through Dad's things, looked at old family photos, and just talked.  Mom and Deb are both early risers, so they had conversations in the morning while I slept on.  A few days were quite nice, and Deb and I managed some hilly walks, mostly to a vegan cafe and bakery.

 

The household has a few channels that we don't buy, so we were able to catch up on some Star Trek series, and watch all 4 new Doctor Who specials, starring David Tenant and Catherine Tate.  there are in the first 3 specials; the 4th one stars the newest Doctor, played by Ncuti Gatwa.  While all four episodes were fun, they were pretty much even in quality, with nothing too exceptional.  It was nice to see Mel Bush back in action.  She was a companion to two much earlier doctors, and could scream mightily on command.

 

We watched the first episode of Picard, a series about the retired Star Fleet admiral.  it seems like he will soon be back in action.  We will likely subscribe to Paramount for a few months in order to watch the rest.  And we have now seen six episodes of Star Trek Discovery, finding it worth a look, too.  I watched the first two episodes on our flight to and from New Orleans last month, rewatching them on Mom's giant screen so Deb could see them, too.  We also watched the first episode of the most recent Lost In Space series, from 2018.  It looks promising, but as it is on Disney, we will not be seeing more until another visit to Sudbury. 

 

And finally we were able to watch Dune, the first half of the epic film directed by Denis Villeneuve, from 2021.  The director and writer were obviously heavily influenced by the exploits of T. E. Lawrence, and the film by David Lean.  The movie ends just as Jessica and Paul are being tried by the Fremen, to see whether they will live or die.  It is a good film, but not a great one.  Of course there is a lot of exposition, and comes pretty close to echoing Herbert's great SF novel.  But everything is so compressed that it is difficult to get a sense of epic.  Perhaps watching both halves together would be better, but even with this film we had to break it up over two evenings.  Fans of Herbert shouldn't have too much to complain about, and there is some hope that the second book might be filmed, too.  Now we just have to try and see Dune Part Two.

 

We watched this in Sudbury on CTV SF Channel. 

 

We have done so much travelling lately, especially driving.  Our New Orleans road trip in late March was followed by a long day trip to Ohio for the eclipse.  Then came Sudbury, which is 470 miles each way.  So for now we are done with major trips.  It's been interesting trying to maintain a full piano program during this time.  Today's practice has been a bit mechanical.

I'll finish up with another picture of Dad....

Dad in Greece. 

 

Mapman Mike

 

Eclipse Day

It was one of the great highlights of our adventurous lives.  We enjoyed a long stretch of totality, and came away stunned and imprinted by one of Nature's greatest spectacles.  I have written up a blog on my astronomy blog, found in the left margin under Deep Sky NGC.  There are several photos there, too.  We left home at 9:15 a.m., driving to Ohio to be in the central area of totality.  We were back home by 11:20 p.m., exhausted by the heavy traffic, but uplifted by what we had experienced.  It is unlikely we will ever see another one, but we certainly would like to.

 

We brought one of our smaller scopes to Ohio to view the eclipse.  We had a sun filter to observe with, and the glasses.  It is one of the most memorable experiences we have ever had.  Totally sublime.
 

 

We also finished playing/watching Syberia 4.  A game in 32 chapters, much of it is a movie with some puzzles thrown in.  Most of the puzzles are fun, while a very few aren't.  Overall it is a superlative game to play.  It takes place in a fictional fantasy Vienna-ish city, and the graphics are really superb.  The story, about Kate searching for her roots, is one of the very best in any game ever played.  It is by far the best of the 4 Syberia games, and is probably one of the top five games we have ever played.  If you are into PC gaming, this is one to run out and play immediately.  Benoit Sokal, the creator of the series, passed away during the making of 4.  The series seems wrapped up, and it is unlikely there will be another one.

3 screen shots from Syberia 4, a  truly amazing gaming experience. 

 

In movie news, there are two to report.  Apollo 11 is a documentary from 2019 by Todd Douglas Miller.  Using only archival footage and dialogue from the 1969 first human lunar landing mission, this story, for me, never gets old.  As the years pass and our technology zooms ahead faster than we can cope with it, it seems more and more impossible that this thing could actually have been done back then.  Five times successfully, no less.  A don't miss film, whether or not you were around for the actual mission.  One of humanity's greatest all-time achievements.

 

Leaving Mubi soon.  

 

Mambar Pierette is a 2023 film from Cameroon/Belgium, about a woman with three children trying to raise them and survive while working as a seamstress.  The father is absent and gives no support of any kind.  The film mostly takes place in her little shop, and her home.  One night both places are flooded in a bad rainstorm.  Then she is robbed of her day's earnings.  Her sewing machine breaks down.  Through all this she is stoic and calm outside, but reeling from the hardships inside.  Directed by Rosine Mbakam, somehow the film is not depressing, and becomes a fascinating window to life's hardships, and how people somehow manage to continue despite the things that come at them from all angles.  Highly recommended, the film is showing on Criterion.

Now showing on Criterion. 

 

Lastly came a weak Noir film called My Name is Julia Ross, from 1945.  A young woman is kidnapped and gaslighted, to replace a woman who was murdered.  As a result of the murder, family funds would soon be cut off.  So a replacement is needed.  Even though the woman (played by Nina Foch) is smart and tires everything to save herself, no matter what she does (until the very end), the bad guys are always smarter and a step ahead.  I soon grew frustrated with the film, and left before the end.  Deb managed to finish it, but said it just got very ridiculous at the very end.

 

A silly and not recommended flic showing on Criterion. 

 

Mapman Mike

 

 

 

April Arrives

 

Though it's colder than it was in early March, April is here!  Birds are tweeting (the real kind of tweeting), flowers are blooming (and freezing cold), and the Great Total Eclipse of the Sun is six days away.  Our house gets a 99% eclipse, so will head south to Ohio on the day of.  Weather so far looks cloudy.  We shall see.

 

I've decided to post a picture of Dad on every blog written in April, and maybe then some.  Today's picture is from his ski trip to the French Alps.  As a travel agent he was able to score many free trips, more than he could actually take.  So he could pick and choose, and he mostly chose well.  Dad was a skier (as was I), and he had his chance at the big leagues.  On this trip he was even given a helicopter ride to the top of a mountain, skiing down with a small, select group of skiers.  How cool is that?

 

Dad (3rd from r, no hat) in the French Alps.  

 

Brother Steve and sister-in-law Lynne have a cruise booked for April, so Deb and I will visit Mom for a week while they are away.  Hopefully it will warm up some before we arrive.  Sudbury is expecting a snowstorm tonight and tomorrow.  Sudbury has at least one good brewery, a vegan restaurant, a vegan cafe/bakery, and large hills for streets that we enjoy training on.  So there will be good eating and drinking, and enough exercise to wear it all off.  The drive is long, however, and involves bypassing Toronto, always a nail-biting event.

In movie news, there are three to report since returning from New Orleans.  The Marriage Circle is a film by Ernest Lubitsch from 1924, and one that we expected much more from.  It is a melodrama about a vamp trying to seduce a respectable doctor, who is happily married to his wife.  Meanwhile, his partner is putting the moves on his happily married wife.  And so it goes.  Expecting a comedy, there are virtually no laughs here.

 

The movie has left Mubi by now. 

 

We had better luck with Black Cat, White Cat, a Yugoslavian film from 1998.  Imagine Tex Avery making a feature live action film about small time grifters and gangsters, all of them quite mad.  The characters take time to warm to, but once they are ensconced in your brain, it's time to sit back and watch the madcap adventures.  Nearly every scene is like a wild cartoon ride.  The plot, such as it is, involves a gangster wanting to see his diminutive sister married.  Also, a grandfather wants to see his grandson married.  A Shakespearean comedy of errors and mismatches follows, until, at the very end, all's well that ends well.  We nearly gave up on this film after the first fifteen minutes, but went back to it and had a great time.  The director, Emir Kursturica, won the Silver Lion in Venice for this film, a followup to one he made that won at Cannes previously.

 

The film has left Mubi by now. 

 

Lastly came a Noir from William Castle called When Strangers Marry.  From 1944 it stars Dean Jagger, Robert Mitchum, and Kay Francis, along with Commissioner Gordon from Batman, Neil Hamilton.  Mitchum stars in one of his earliest films.  He couldn't be the bad guy, because he has a cute little doggie as a pet.  Or could he?  But Dean Jagger sure looks and acts like he murdered somebody.  But did he?  Kim Hunter loves him anyway, and aids and abets his escape and hiding.  the police don't seem to mind that she did this at all.  Not one of the great 40s crime films, but the little dog is cute, and so is Kim.

 

When Strangers Marry was also released under this title.  

Leaving Criterion April 30th. 

 

In piano news, my program, mostly memorized and complete, has been put on simmer for a time.  We were away 8 days to New Orleans, and will also be away again later in the month.  There is a performance group gathering this Saturday, but I will have to miss it this time (and likely next time).  So I am just trying to maintain the program for now.  In reading news, I have began the month again with Silverberg.  I have no more of his SF to read, so have switched to his pulp crime fiction for a few books.  I also found a Kindle copy of one of his historical books, the one about the Pueblo Revolt against the Spanish in New Mexico.  More than 90% of my reading is now done on Kindle.  

 

More news as it happens.

 

Mapman Mike