It's cold enough for winter, but at least it's sunny and virtually snowless out there, beyond the coziness of Lone Mountain Homestead. We have very few plans for the holidays, other than the usual: reading, practicing piano (one of us; the other one is making an animated film), watching films, hoping for clear nights with usable temperatures, and doing some gaming. The exception is this Friday, when we will visit Detroit. There is a fun film event at the DIA that day that we would like to attend.
In local news we enjoyed, as usual, our Winter Solstice party for two. This is our longest event of the year, and it runs from about 7:30 am until around 10 pm. This year we not only saw the sunrise (it is reborn!) but also the sunset. That is a rare happening here at this cloudy time of year.
At sunrise we first noticed it on the top of our tallest tree, a white pine we planted many years ago. The pine cones sparkled with a golden hue as if they were lights on the tree. We had put up our indoor decorations the night before. Besides an all-day wood fire in our living room fireplace there was good food and drink aplenty. And there was Wagner. This year we chose the next opera on our to-do list. Wagner only wrote one comic opera, the same one that is his only opera with no supernatural elements to the story. Die Mastersinger von Nurnberg also happens to be his longest opera, and the only one of which we have no recording on the premises. Spotify to the rescue! We were able to listen to all 4 CDS by playing it on the computer, with blue tooth relaying the sound to our stereo speaker system. It took us most of the day to get through its 4 1/2 hours. It is a very funny opera, and great fun to listen to. Deb had downloaded a pdf English translation and we were able to follow along. The opera has much to say about music and, of course, a united Germany and its old traditions.
I mentioned gaming a ways back. We began our 11 days of gaming with two games of Carcassonne. First game just a regular game, which Deb won handily. Then we played adding the Robbers to the scenario. I won, just. We will need to play the playoff game soon. Today (Sunday) we will play Middle Earth: The Wizards collectible card game, also part of a series. We also made some progress on Tengami, our current PC game. And I am nearly finished with Road To India, a mystery adventure game. A problem arose where the game crashed just at the end of a movie, as the next section tried to load. I finally had to download a saved game file so that I could restart my play once the game had loaded properly. But they worked fine, and I should, hopefully, be able to complete the game.
We sat here and listened to opera.
The Federal Bering had been in Detroit. This is a salty, and during the year it travels to Europe, the Mediterranean, and South America. Good by Bering until next year.
On the subject of opera for a few moments longer, we got to see Maria, a 2024 film starring Angelina Jolie as Maria Callas, the Greek opera singing sensation. Somehow Mubi got hold of it, even before it is being released worldwide. We get to see the final week of Callas's life, her downward trend accelerated by drug addiction and depression. She was also addicted to being admired, and needed to be noticed wherever she went. Through flashbacks we get to see other key moments in her life. She began singing in childhood, and was traumatized by the abuse of soldiers who not only used her for sex, but made her sing first. While her older sister was able to "close the door" on this sad episode of their lives, Maria was never able to. Her affair with Onassis is given a lot of coverage, as well as her attempt to return to the stage. Having lost a lot of weight quickly in later life, it likely affected her ability to sing. Jolie does some of the singing herself, though the greatest moments are lip synced with Callas performing. She is capable in the role, though she is unable to garner much sympathy from viewers for her character. Callas was not really a very nice person. At least today we can still enjoy her many recordings, including some done in her prime. Recommended for music fans, but not for Tomb Raider fans, unless they love opera.
We also watched My Blueberry Nights, a romantic comedy from 2007. Hong Kong director Wong Kar-Wai made his first English film about two people who meet, then separate for a year, and then get back together. He runs a small cafe in New York, while she has just learned that her boyfriend has dumped her for another girl. She goes often to the cafe (pie and ice cream) and they talk. She feels that she has to leave, and heads to Memphis, then out west and on to Nevada, before finally returning to the cafe in the final scene. She writes him letters, but never leaves an address, so he is unable to find her. Her adventures on the road as a waitress in different locations make up the bulk of the movie. Highly recommended, with good writing and acting.
Mapman Mike
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