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?
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.
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.
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.
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
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