It's not been a great summer for being outdoors. Lots of heat, lots of humidity, and sometimes entire days of rain. But today (Saturday) was a beautiful day, mostly sunny with temps in the mid 70s, and a healthy breeze blowing. Outside of a trip to Detroit much earlier in the summer, this was our first major outing. Chatham is the largest city near Windsor on the Canadian side, with a population of around 45,000 people. Like many small cities, the high street and downtown area seem to be struggling. But it still makes as good destination for an afternoon's ramble. On route we tried stopping in Comber, a s small farming community that boasts a wonderful new bakery. As we pulled off the freeway and began heading towards town, the main road was blocked off. It was the weekend of the annual "Comber Fair," and the tractor parade was in progress. Yikes! A quick turn around and we continued on our way to Chatham. Imagine the thrill of watching 50 or so big farm tractors parading along the main street. It chills me right out.
Our first official stop in town was a store called Birdie's Nest. It features furniture and decorative arts from Mexico, India, and East Asia. There were a few big items we would have been happy to purchase, and the sale prices were more than reasonable. Instead we left with a scented candle. The big spenders had arrived! The VW bus bar was a highlight!
Chatham.
We had lunch at the only brewery in town. Sons of Kent has beer that rates pretty low on the scale of fine ales. We ate lunch there and shared a flight. They had no dark ales at all. Like many such unenlightened businesses, they don't realize that people like stouts any time of year. The pub is like a big barn, but at least it was not filled with TVs showing sports.
Next came a flea market store that looked about average size on the outside, but on the inside seemed to go for miles. We spent an hour there, coming out with only a purchased shirt (Deb). We walked deep into the downtown area and located a large gaming cafe and booksotre, with some delicious vegan desserts. They must have had around 500 board games that can be played on site. We found two that looked really interesting: Tang Garden, and Reign of Cthulhu are two very different games from each other, but both can be played by two players, and Tang by 1. During the Pandemic a number of companies came out with one and two player games, and the Reign of was one of them.
If the weather cooperates we will visit Detroit again next Friday.
In film watching news there are a few to report. Montedoro is an Italian film from 2015, the true story of a woman (the filmmaker) returning to her home village after being uprooted as a child and sold into adoption to a couple from New York. As a film it is quite terrible, with virtually no story, no characters who make any sense, no charisma, and no real reason to watch. The only redeeming feature is some of the photography. Montedoro was a hilltop village built from stone, and was a thriving community until a landslide wiped out much of the town. It is now abandoned (except when filmmakers get person to go traipsing over the place). It is in a lovely and very isolated spot. The filmmaker can't decide whether she wants to create a coffee table book of very pretty images, or a film that will (supposedly) tug at our heartstrings. Some gratuitous scenes that could easily have been left out (and should have been) include an animal slaughter, a nude scene, and a whole bunch of scenes at the end (a funeral procession with a child's coffin) that make absolutely no sense, except perhaps to the filmmaker. Best avoided. My choice, my bad.
I did considerably better with my second choice, The Blazing Sun. It is a 1954 b & w Egyptian film directed by the prolific Youssef Chahine. The main reason to watch is Omar Sharif, who landed his first starring role here. It is an old school melodrama, but quite hard hitting, with the climactic gunfight and hand to hand battle filmed at Karnak. Impressive stuff. Omar is one handsome dude, and handles his complex role quite well. He ended up marrying the lead actress, Fatan Hamama, after the film. They required special permission to kiss on screen. We will likely be watching many more of Chahine's films, old ones and newer. Criterion has about 20 of them streaming now.
For her first choice, Deb selected four short films leaving Mubi soon. Only one really stood out, a film called A Short Story. Directed by Bi Gan, it is from 2022 and tells an original folk-like tale about a cat seeking the world's most precious thing. Only 15 minutes long, it is a wonderfully imagined and executed film, with credits nearly as long as the film itself. With humour and great visuals, this is a winning little film.
Tomorrow is a big day for Aragorn Observatory--I will go to Randy G.'s for assistance in cleaning the 12" telescope mirror. It has been several years since the last scrubbing. We'll see how that goes.
Mapman Mike
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