Lammas Holiday

 This is one of three big summer festivals we celebrate.  It's a good time to celebrate all the good things that grow in our area.  Peaches and nectarines are coming forth, veggies galore, corn, wheat and of course the blueberries.  This began as a blueberry festival for us years ago, and we usually continue that tradition.  We also get new Tarot cards today, as it is a cross-quarter day, running opposite to Candlemas in early February.  Best of all we have a two day reprieve from the ongoing summer heat and humidity.  We've had nine days of 90+ F, and far more than that of 88 and 89 F. Windows are open this morning despite the traffic noise.  We will also roast some coffee beans on the back deck later, and open our new patio chairs.  The fun never stops around here, let me tell you.

 In medical news, the foot continues to heal, but slowly.  Twenty minutes of slow walking spread over an entire day causes pain and limping.  In worse news for our travel plans Deb has managed to acquire another kidney stone, this time in the opposite kidney.  She is positively thrilled about this news.  Life goes on.  No big travelling until that comes out.  There might be another chance for London in late October.

In film news we watched The Ghost Writer, a 2010 thriller directed by Roman Polanski.  A writer gets more than he bargained for when he takes over the project of a recent former Prime Minister of the UK's autobiography.  The first ghost writer was murdered.  That gives us a clue as to the new guy's intelligence.  But he gets dumber and dumber as the film goes on.  He eventually figures out who is behind horrible torture incidents that the former PM is now being blamed for.  Of course we figured out who it was a long time before that.  So he figures it out, then actually tells the person he knows what he/she did, and that he knows all about it.  And he doesn't tell anyone else, or pass on the evidence to anyone else.  Pretty smart guy, isn't he?  The ending, as a result, is a sour one.  Bad guys win, but only because of the supposed stupidity of the good guy.  Up until the final scene the movie was very well directed and somewhat plausible.  But the ending spoils things.  Would anyone actually be that stupid?  Hardly, especially if they had watched any movies in their lifetime, or read a mystery novel or two.  If you enjoy watching a pretty good film until it is spoiled in the final thirty seconds, this one is just for you.

 

The film has left Criterion. 

 

Fantastic Mr. Fox is an animated featured based on a story by Roald Dahl and directed by Wes Anderson.  This one is a winner.  From 2009 it features the voice talents of many famous actors, and it's fun guessing who they might be while watching (credits are at the end).  Mr. Fox used to run pretty wild in his younger days as a chicken thief.  But now that he is married and has a wife and cub he promises to turn over a new leaf.  However, he can't resist just one more raid.  Which turns into three more raids.  This starts the adventure that Mr. Fox would later often wish had never begun.  The script is fast, furious and funny, and things mostly move along at a merry pace.  The designs of the animals and people are more than perfect, and the animation is great fun to behold.  Highly recommended, even if, like me, you are really tired of Wes Anderson.

 

Showing on Starz. 

 

Mapman Mike

 

 

 

 

 

 

July Reading Summary

July was a fairly good month for reading.  It was too hot and humid to do much outdoors, though I did get four wonderful nights of observing with the 12" scope.  This took four nights away from my reading, but overall there were so many medical appointments between us that I got to read a lot in waiting rooms.  I continue to give Moorcock's fiction a rest, so my Avon/Equinox SF Rediscovery project only features two authors now: E C Tubb with two on-going SF series, and Kenneth Bulmer with one Fantasy series.

Seg The Bowman is from 1984 and is 142 pages long, not including the final glossary.  This completes the Pandahem Cycle Part 2 of the Dray Prescott series.   In this story we get Seg's side of the story after he and Dray were separated at the end of Volume 29.  29, 30, and 32 detail Dray's adventures, while #32 tells Seg's story.  Seg has rescued who he believes is the Queen's handmaiden, and pledges to deliver her safely back to her home.  The King and Queen were killed in the cave adventure (#28).  Seg's adventures pretty much mirror the kind of things that usually happen to Dray, and Seg is pretty much the same hero type as well.  Other than his romantic interest in Tilsi, we could pretty much substitute Dray in this adventure.  This is unfortunate.  At least the volume about Deliah's adventures provided contrast to the adventure series.  New characters are introduced, both good and bad.  There are prisons, escapes, injustices, creatures and a battle.  Two pygmy forest natives add some zest to the proceedings, as they wish to escape the jungle and assimilate into the outer world.  A good entry in the series, but there is very little that is very new.  Seg makes a landmark bow shot and marries Tilsi, who, it turns out, really was the Queen after all. 

Cover art by Ken W Kelly, from vol. 32 of the series. 

 

Jack of Swords is #14 from the Dumarest series by E C Tubb.  It is from 1976 and is 152 pages long.  I am continually amazed at how pulp writers of Tubb's quality can continually reinvent the Dumarest myth.  Take the same character, plunk him into similar situations and often facing the same type of enemy, and make it a readable offering.  Tubb and Bulmer both do it over and over, and while the stories do vary somewhat in quality, overall they maintain a high enough standard to make readers continue buying the books.  Having said that, I wish both series were over and I could get on with more literary aspects of my reading and reviewing project.  But like a comfortable bed one returns to gladly night after night, these stories continue to provide just enough interest and quality to keep readers like me going. 

In the latest adventure Dumarest is hired on as bodyguard to a merchant seeking out the Ghost Planet, called Balhadorha.  A mythical world, it offers those can find it the promise of untold riches.  As a result, a lot of rather greedy people go seeking this dangerous world.  We end up on a truly alien planet with a city that is seemingly unreachable from without its walls.  But our intrepid explorers, thanks to Dumarest's help, manage to get inside.  I love these kind of SF stories, where strange uninhabited futuristic cities from a distant past lure the explorer and reader ever deeper into its mysteries.  This one doesn't disappoint, and while it is true that a lot of what was promised could be delivered by this strange world, in the end no one risks their life to find out if true happiness ever would be achieved by partaking in the strange mist (a la H. Rider Haggard) except for one old and very sick woman who has nothing to lose.  Another decent entry in the series, though Dumarest's goal of finding out more about Earth's location comes to nothing.

 

Original 1976 cover by Tom Barber.

I read the Kindle edition. 

 

Once again I am giving Michael Moorcock a miss this month, so it's now on to the Delphi Classics!  First up was Sherwood Anderson's 3rd novel, called Poor White. From 1920 it is a long and somewhat meandering look at the late coming industrial revolution to the quiet towns and byways of middle America.  With the railroads well in place, industry was confined to the major cities for many years.  Bidwell was a typical quiet Ohio town until Hugh McVey arrived.  McVey grew up poor along the Mississippi River in Missouri south of St. Louis, with a drunk for a father.  Hugh was a dreamer and destined to sleep his life away and become nothing more than another poor white without a dream to follow.  But he is given a job at a small railroad depot and taken in by the husband and wife who manage it.  The wife eventually educates Hugh so he can read and write, and instills in him a work ethic that goes against his nature.  He struggles to keep focused on getting ahead.  When the couple move away Hugh takes over the station, eventually moving on to Bidwell in the northeast of his home.

A newer long segment then introduces us to Clara Butterworth, whose father believes himself to be a big man in Bidwell.  He and Clara do not get along and she eventually completes three years of college in Columbus, where her mind is expanded, especially by a female friend she makes there.  When she returns to Bidwell things are stirring, and industry has finally arrived.  Hugh has turned out to be an inventor, and his patents soon make him a wealthy man.  His painful shyness, however, will not allow him to make any male friends, and he cannot even look at a woman, let along speak to her.  

Later episodes deal with the strange marriage between Hugh and Clara, until at last she gains an understanding of him and he learns to trust her.  More than anything this is a story of industry coming to sleepy parts of the Midwest.  Farms and orchards disappear to make way for factories, and by the end of the novel there are motor cars speeding along the dirt roads.  The author has a true grasp of the situation and how it affected small towns, turning them almost overnight into powerhouses of industry and innovation, with Ohio at the centre of much of it.  The novel is a good read, despite the frustratingly shy and insecure character of Hugh.  At least we get a break from him as Anderson explores many other characters in his story besides Hugh and Clara.  America was just beginning its great love affair with "progress" and industry and power, at the cost of Nature and Humanity, as Anderson so deftly illustrates.

 

J K Bangs' Mr. Bonaparte of Corsica is from 1895.  Try to imagine if Dave Barry or some such funny man had written a general biography of Napoleon.  Bang's finds humour everywhere, and does historically cover all the main events of Bonaparte's very eventful life.  While the humour is often dry and relies heavily on puns, it is still quite readable and seems very modern.  I would not wish to use quotes in a scholarly paper, but it makes for fun history reading aimed at the general public.  If one knew nothing about Napoleon before reading this book, one can come away with important dates and events secure, at least.  The rest is pure stand up comedy.

 

J. M. Barrie's When A Man's Single was first published in 1888.  All the ingredients of a late Victorian novel are here.  A handsome and ambitious small village Scotsman wishes to become a reporter.  Angus meets Mary and his life turns upside down.  She is a sizable station above him in British class life.  She loves Angus but is destined to marry a baronet whom she does not love.  A wilful father will not have things turn out differently for his only daughter.  Angus moves to London after hearing of Mary's engagement (which never happened), and after months of hard work gets himself a position in Fleet Street.  Will Mary have him now?  Will her father give way?  Does anyone really care?  Well, actually, yes.  Barrie is fast becoming a very good writer, and his characters are often unique (Mary's older brother, for one).  His pages have humour, despite a very tragic opening chapter (Mary's younger brother, for example).  As it it is not a long novel (one volume instead of the expected three) I can recommend it.  After reading the opening chapter I was reminded of a longer musical piece by The Chieftains called "The Lost Child."  If you've never heard it, give it a listen.

 

 The Gates of Wrath is a novel by Arnold Bennett from 1903.  It is a tale of crime and passion and madness, quite a fun read for the most part.  A widower, her older male friend and her 18 year old daughter (also a widower) scheme to steal a fortune from a young man, left to him by his father but as yet unknown to him.  First, the young one marries him.  Then they get him to make out a will leaving everything to her.  Then they tell him about his inheritance, expecting him to be overjoyed.  Afterwards, they plan to kill him.  The plotters remind me a lot of Boris and Natasha from the Rocky and Bullwinkle Show.  Each time they begin to enact their dastardly plans, they are foiled in one way or another.  Firstly, the young man already knows about his inheritance but has no wish to claim it.  Secondly, the young woman falls in love with him, eventually spilling the beans about her evil mother and her plot.  It is a short novel but certainly readable.  Some fun steam train passages, too.

 

Algernon Blackwood's The Education of Uncle Paul is from 1903.  It comes close to being a truly great novel.  Uncle Paul is a strange man, almost as strange as his young niece Nixie (she is 9 or 10).  Together they explore a wonderful world of imagination, mostly through interactions with Nature. The book will immediately remind readers of the works of Arthur Machen, whom Blackwood greatly admired.  Paul River is 44 years old, and left England at an early age, eventually becoming a person who scouts the deep woods of Minnesota and Canada for good hardwood trees to harvest.  He has formed a deep bond with Nature, though the book never deals with how many trees he has caused to be exterminated.  He is comfortable living off the land, and is often gone for weeks via canoe on his scouting missions.

When his sister's husband dies, who was also Paul's best friend back in England, he decides to return to England and spend some time with her.  He takes a one year leave from his job and as his ship approaches the old world he realizes how unfit he is to live in such a modern world.  The house is surrounded by a small woodland, however, and Paul soon immerses himself in the surrounding lands.  His companion on his voyage of discovery is Nixie, oldest child of four in the household, and a kindred spirit to his own.

While some deep and penetrating discoveries are made, the book overdoes things somewhat in the final section, going a little bit too far into the realm of the unknown.  While the ending is comforting and would appeal perhaps to older children, as this is mainly a novel for adults I find the final portion of the book too over the top.  It no longer seems like a novel but someone's own spiritual experience embellished with a lot of tinkling laughter and dancing lights.  However, I do recommend the book, as it is unique in my experience.  One man's search for truth and enlightenment through Nature and childhood experience makes for reading that doesn't come around very often.

 

Damon Knight's In Search of Wonder (1956, 1967, 1996) is not only the best book of SF criticism I have ever read, but the best book of literary criticism I have ever read.  He essentially founded SF criticism with this epic book, which is over 450 pages long.  While it most thoroughly covers the 1950s, the updated editions bring things a little closer to most people's foggy remembrances of some of their first SF reading material.  All the great writers are here, and they often get skewered nearly as much as the true junk writers.  While there is a lot of things I disagree with, I find Knight so clear and concise and thorough that he is often hard to argue with.

This is the book of criticism that Michael Moorcock did such a hack job with, those his field was Fantasy.  Often Moorcock's writing made no sense, and more often than not he did not present any sort of case.  It wasn't a book of criticism, but a book of his likes and dislikes.  Quite a different thing than Damon Knight's masterpiece here.

There are 33 chapters, and I think I found something to enjoy in each of them.  The "Chuckleheads" chapters are priceless, as some of the writing being skewered is just so bad that it hurts.  Besides tackling individual authors, I found his most fun chapters to be on Symbolism (a truly outrageous bit of writing!), and a chapter dealing really well with the question of What Is Science Fiction, Anyway?  The book ends with a chapter on how to write SF.  There is also an extensive bibliography.  I should have read this book for the first time 40 years ago, but I'm glad I finally discovered it (thank you to James Blish).  I cannot recommend this book highly enough to old school SF fans.  It was a great way to finish off the month.

 

Catching Up With News

I finally saw my own family doctor on Thursday.  More x-rays, some blood work and an upcoming ultrasound for my nearly broken foot.  There is still some pain, and Dr. P thinks it might be related to a tendon injury rather than a broken bone.  Whatever it is it's messing up my walking program after five years of daily exercise, and remains a major obstacle to our late September travel plans.  At the moment I could not deal with airports, train stations, etc, and of course I am unable to restart my training program.  I might try to ride my bike this week, though the weather has been so hot and humid I much prefer indoor exercise.

 

Earlier in the week Deb saw her kidney doctor for a followup, only to discover that she has another stone, this time in the opposite kidney.  He wants a CT scan, which will take a long time.  Deb wasn't too pleased to hear that news.  Her new drug for morning stiffness, hip, shoulder and neck pain seems to be working wonders.  She is just beginning her second week of a four week course of the drug.  So far the results have been great!

 

On Friday we spent much of the day in Windsor.  It was sunny and 89 F and very humid.  Deb had her annual mammogram and I had my foot x-rayed again.  Those appointments were at 10:30 am.  We had appointments downtown for our new passports, so we had a lot of time to kill.  We had tea and coffee at Chance, actually sitting outside in the shade.  We went for lunch, then to City Market for a walk (very slow walk for me), then down to the river for a while.  Our passports are now being processed and we should receive them in about 10 business days.  By then we should know if we are able to book flights, or postpone them until my foot heals.

 

A viking cruise ship is parked in Detroit for the day.  View is from Windsor. 

 

We also stopped in at Chapter Two and shared an ale flight.  So nice to see Ginger on the menu, and at very low alcohol. 

 

In film news there are three and a half to report.  World of Glory is the half, a short from 1991 by Swedish director Roy Andersson.  This film probably has the most shocking opening to any film we have seen.  From the Mubi website: 

 

A prelude to the director’s acclaimed studies of human alienation, this magnificent short from Swedish master Roy Andersson is shattering yet darkly ironic. Unfurling in drab domestic and public spaces, World of Glory lays bare the grotesque numbness of a man’s life, and modern society at large.

 

I'm not certain I would totally agree with that blurb, but the film is unique and startling, to say the least.  Heads will shake after watching this.  Mine did.

 

 Leaving Mubi soon. 

 

Deb paired that with a short feature film called Incredible But True.  It is a French film from 2022 directed by Quentin Dupieux, also showing on Mubi (and leaving soon).  Mubi's blurb again:

 

Descending into a bizarro world of electric genitals and elastic time, French jokester Quentin Dupieux devises newfangled, side-splitting methods for well-off egotists to keep up appearances. Suspend disbelief: this wild-eyed pursuit of eternal youth and virility is absurdly funny—and incisive too. 

 

A couple buy an older home and discover that it has some magical and fantastical qualities.  As it involves becoming younger, it is the middle-aged wife who soon becomes addicted to its power.  Meanwhile, the man's boss happens to live a few doors down and they get together for a dinner.  The boss tells them about his new electronic penis (from Japan) and all the marvellous things it can do.  This has to be one of the funniest quartet dinner party scenes I have ever seen.  An absurdist film with elements of Dada (black ants), it is highly amusing.  Recommended.  I will look out for the director in the future.

 

Leaving Mubi soon. 

 

We also watched the first two movies of the most recent Planet of the Apes series.  Rise of the Planet of the Apes is from 2011, and Dawn of the Planet of the Apes is from 2014.  A third and fourth film are available to us; we'll see.  For now we have had enough of apes versus humans.  The first film is the best of the two, showing how medical research into a cure for Alzheimer's Disease goes awry, not only giving incredible intelligence to the chimps used for research, but causing a devastating virus that soon wipes out most of the humans on Earth.  The second film begins ten years later.  The action is set in San Francisco, a nice change, and it allows the apes to escape the city and dwell in a large forest.  The effects are nothing short of spectacular and totally amazing, and the character of Caesar, the lead chimp, is realistic and totally believable.  He is given not only intelligence, but sensitivity and a moral sense (apes must not kill apes).  Of course everything is ruined in the first film by bad humans, and in the second by bad humans and a bad ape.  Bad things tend to ruin everything for everyone, as if we need to be reminded.  The films are definitely good, but there is lot of violence, much of it using machine guns.  And the old trope of having two males fight it out as the climax of the second film (even though they are apes) keeps the tradition alive.  The first film is certainly well worth seeing; the second one not so much.  And I have a feeling that the third one will be nothing but more gunfire and sadistic humans killing lots of apes.

 

 

Both films (and the 3rd one) are showing on Starz. 

 

Yet another sale on Steam saw me acquire more railroad lines.  I now run trains in England, Germany, Switzerland and the USA.  Since each locomotive is quite different, especially between countries, I am always in a panicked learning mode.  I was hauling a mile-long freight train yesterday, realizing near the end that the brakes were not working!  So I had my first runaway train.  It did not end well.  Since then I learned what I did wrong.  Sometimes the trains are set up and ready to drive; others times not so.  This was one of those not so times.  I had three locomotives at the front of the train and two in the rear.  They were not speaking to each other, and needed to be properly linked.  Problem two was with the brake setting, which hadn't been done properly.  I needed to go into the on-board computer (I didn't even know you could do that) on the lead locomotive and change to settings.  I reran the service and aced it.  Live and learn (though I would have died in that first one).

 

Leaving Brighton running a service to Lewes.

 

Evening on the Goblin Line, London.

 

Pulling away from Victoria Station on the way to Brighton. 

 

Mapman Mike

 

 

 

 

 

The New Deck, Plus Ten Weeks For New Pieces

It took three workers a week to complete, but the new deck is now live and ready for parties, albeit small ones.  We shrank the space by about 20%, though it is still plenty of space for us.  Our old outdoor table is still serviceable, but we now need new chairs.  The first outdoor coffee roasting should happen later today or tomorrow!  We need to do some landscaping on three of the sides, beginning today.

Step One--remove the old deck and replace the support posts.  Six new ones had to be cemented in place.

 

Step Two:  Build a frame.  A really solid frame.

 

Step Three:  Add the deck composite boards, some stairs,

and a railing.  Next up is some landscaping.  A roof is coming, too! 

 

In health news Deb visited her new rheumatologist on Thursday.  Deb's morning stiffness is back with a vengeance, along with persistent pain in hips, neck, and shoulders.  For now she is trying some steroids, and even after one dose things are improving.  Two doses down now (of 28).  Update to follow.  And then there is my foot.  I finally get to see my doctor next week.  There is still swelling and pain, and my walking is limited to very slow paces for about ten minutes.  No airports for me as yet, let alone walking holidays.  I am not limping as much.  There is hope.

 

In piano news I am now ten weeks into my newest program.  The first half consists of two Scarlatti sonatas and five pieces by Couperin, all performed on the Roland harpsichord.   Last weekend Jim P. came by to share some of his pieces (Bach Partita and Chopin Ballade), and I managed to mostly get through my Scarlatti and Couperin.  So things are progressing.  The second half of my program consists of three preludes (Op. 11) by Scriabin.  One of those is memorized, a second is playable with music, and the third is a work in progress.  After that comes the very lively set of Romanian Folk Dances by Bartok.  There are six in the suite.  The final two go at a break-neck speed, so there is still work to do there, but all six are playable.  Next comes a Debussy Prelude.  It is three pages long and I can now play two of them reasonably well; the last page is in progress.  Finally comes another Philip Glass Etude, which is now fully playable.  Memorization and seasoning are the goals for the near future.  Deb is continuing to work on most of my older repertoire that we had recorded in the 1990s.  Some of it had degraded a lot (cassette tapes), but much was saved thanks to Deb and some software she purchased.

 

In film news there are three to report.  Scarecrow is a 1973 film starring Al Pacino and Gene Hackman and directed by Jerry Schatzburg.  It's a film that might have achieved cult status, though Hackman's character is a difficult one with which to sympathize or identify.  The two men meet on a lonely desert highway in California.  Hackman is just out of prison and Pacino has been working on ships for five years.  Hackman has a plan to open a car wash in Pittsburgh, while Pacino, who fled his pregnant wife, is on his way to Detroit to see her and his child.  They have had no contact over the years, though Pacino has been sending money.  He doesn't even know if his kid is male or female.  They hitchhike together and form a partnership, riding freight trains on their eastward journey.  Their adventures are usually intensified by Hackman's bad temper and violent outbursts.  They end up in jail for 30 days for their part in a fight, with Pacino beaten up badly in prison for refusing to have sex with another inmate.  Eventually they reach Detroit, and the Belle Isle Fountain features in the climactic scene.  Hackman portrays a very prickly character, with not much to like about him.  Pacino, on the other hand, plays a character who wants to get his life together and seems to have grown up a lot over the past five years.  While an interesting film in many ways, it is not required viewing by any means.  The tragic ending doesn't help. 

Leaving Criterion July 31st. 

 

Also on Criterion's leaving list for July is Insomnia, a 2002 film directed by Christopher Nolan.  I was surprised at how many tropes were used in this offbeat film about an LA detective (Al Pacino again, though considerable more aged) called to a small town in Alaska to help solve the brutal murder of a young girl.  Pacino carries a lot of baggage up north with him, and the constant summer daylight plus his guilty conscience (he framed a suspected killer back in LA and is currently being investigated for it).  Tracking the killer to a lonely cabin, he ends up shooting his detective partner by mistake in the fog.  He manages to keep himself in the clear though a bunch of silly and very phony manoeuvres planting evidence in the small town (which he doesn't really know, but apparently he does).  The real killer, chillingly played by Robin Williams, of course saw him shoot his partner (in dense fog) and is blackmailing Pacino in order to frame a young teenage boy for the murder.  On the surface this seems like a taut and suspenseful film, which it actually is at times.  But if you scratch the surface the whole thing collapses.  Too many set ups (he had a bad argument with his partner the night before he shot him; Williams is the smartest crook in the universe and always a step ahead of him.  The final straw is when he and Williams shoot each other to death at the end.  Nice and neat.  I was quite disappointed in this film, mostly in the script.  Good acting and great location shooting helps a viewer get past the silly plot turnings.

 

Leaving Criterion July 31st. 

 

An Accidental Studio is from 2019, a must-see documentary that traces the history of HandMade Films.  We have seen so many of the films, though there are still several awaiting.  Interviews with Eric Idle and George Harrison, along with many others, trace the beginnings of the studio from Life of Brian (1978) through to its closure in 2013.  So many great cult films have emerged from here, though like most such films it took years for them to find audiences.  A few films were major flops, including one starring Sean Penn and Madonna.  Haven't seen that one and hopefully never will.  It is showing on Acorn TV.  We are looking forward to watching some of the films never seen by us. Fortunately, Criterion has a good collection.

 

Now showing on Acorn TV. 

 

Mapman Mike

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

The Not Broken Foot, Part 1

Though it still hurts a lot after nearly three weeks of the injury, I found out today that there are no broken bones in my foot.  Not sure what it is.  Bruised bone?  Damaged tendon?  I see my own physician in two weeks.

In local news, our old backyard deck has been removed.  A new frame will be constructed Monday, and hopefully the new deck laid down soon after that.

Two photos of where our back deck used to be.  Most of the posts had rotted and need to be replaced, adding to the cost. 

 

In piano news, Jim P. is coming by Saturday afternoon to play some pieces.  I will perform a few of the harpsichord works I have been practicing.  I am approaching ten weeks since I began a new program.  I can more or less play a few of them, including two Scarlatti sonatas and one of the Scriabin,and a couple of Couperin pieces, too.  The Etude by Philip Glass is playable also.  I recently began the final work on the program, a Debussy prelude.  I have played it before, though it will still be a few weeks before it sounds like it.

 

In Train Sim World news I now own 30 different services, with several of them linked together to make longer runs.  Steam had a sale where many of them were 75-90% off, so I basically stole them.  I have only played ten so far, some of them just once.  I have a lifetime of train driving ahead of me.

 

The ruins of Berhamstead Castle lie just beside the station.

 

Driving the Bakerloo Line through Wembley.

 

An evening run from Euston to Milton Keynes. 

 

In film news there are two to report.  Never Open That Door is from 1952, another Argentinian noir based on two stories by Cornell Woolrich.  The first one is about a young woman who commits suicide because of her gambling debts and her brother's attempt to avenge her.  The second one sees a man return to his mother's house years later, a criminal on the run.  Both story endings rely heavily on irony.  Effectively photographed and directed, the film is nowhere near as good as If I Should Die... (see previous blog).

 

Leaving Criterion July 31st.
 

 Sicario is a fast paced thriller directed by Denis Villeneuve from 2015.  It deals with the problems encountered by law enforcement at the US/Mexican border, specifically in Arizona.  We also get grim glimpses of life in Ciudad Juarez, the large Mexican city across from El Paso TX.  It stars Emily Blunt as an FBI agent brought along on a bizarre and violent CIA mission to capture a major drug lord.  She is there merely as a legal proceeding, as the CIA cannot act within the USA without such an agent on board.  While she agrees to join the mission she doesn't really have an understanding as to what it will entail.  She ends up being pretty naive and a bit too much on the side of morality to do much of anything during the mission.  Lots of twists in the plot and when we finally do realize just how the CIA works, and with whom, it is more than a bit eye opening.  An excellent film, though violent and almost a horror film in places.

 

Showing on Prime. 

 

Mapman Mike

 

 

 

The Broken Foot Part 2

Summer continues to be hotter than normal, though after the two upcoming steamy days ahead things should return to about average for several days.  Parts of our garden have turned into instant jungle yet again.  We will try to fix that later today.  And Deb has been venturing into the basement over the past week in an effort to get rid of years of junk  In a couple of weeks it should look quite different down there!

 

In medical news I have seen a doctor about my foot and had x-rays done.  Now we wait to hear whether or not there are broken bones (there are).  Then they will tell me to ice the foot and stay off of it as much as possible (I am).  Life goes on, and my limp is becoming quite a part of me.

 

We have contracted for a new back deck.  Work on that project should commence late next week, around the time of full moon.  Not sure how long it will take, but it's a pretty small deck, so perhaps a week or so.  It will be a bit smaller than the old one, and made of composite plastic instead of wood.  It is supposed to last a lifetime and will bring up the house value, too.  Some inside projects are just around the corner, too.   Terribly exciting times around here.

 

In film news, Deb's recent poster for her newest film just won an award for best poster!  Just a Peek has also been entered in several film competitions, mostly European.  Check Deb's website (left margin here) or her Imdb page for the latest.

 

Deb's award winning poster for her most recent film. 

 

In film watching news I have two to report.  Most recently was another Argentinian noir from the 50s.  If I Should Die Before I Wake is from 1952 and is based on a story by Cornell Woolrich.  It's a hard hitting little number about a serial killer of little schoolgirls.  The young male friend of the first girl killed is wracked with terror, as he has promised the girl not to tell anyone that she has been taking candy from a man.  When she turns up dead he nearly goes crazy.  Two years later a similar thing happens to another young female friend of his.  He acts on his own to try and save her, since the adults in his life (parents and teachers) won't even listen to what he wants to say.  A well done film, with a very bizarre fairy tale dream-like opening scene.  Recommended.

 

Now showing on Criterion until July 31st.  The only available print was restored by UCLA film labs.  The original negative was too far gone. 

 

Before that came The Truman Show, a film starring Jim Carrey that is not only watchable, but enjoyable too.  Directed by Peter Weir and from 1998, it chronicles the televised life of Truman Burbank, albeit unbeknownst to him.  As much SF as comedy-thriller, parts of it reminded me of The Prisoner TV series.  Raised in an idyllic small town, Truman works as an insurance salesman.  Since his birth (shown live on TV) all aspects of his life have been televised non-stop 24 hours a day 7 days a week.  By all appearances it's been a pretty boring show up until now.  When happily married Truman meets another woman who tries to warn him of what is going on the film gradually picks up steam.  It seems everyone, even his best friend, is in on the scheme.  A fun film, with many laugh out loud parts.  Carrey's restrained performance is a revelation, and some of his fans hated him in this role.  Recommended.

 

Now showing on Paramount Plus. 

 

A recent sale on Steam has seen my train sim world family grow a lot.  I now have 14 different train systems to run, including two London Overground routes and the full Bakerloo tube line!  Here are a few pics from some of my recent journeys. 

 

Hauling freight on an early morning run across the California desert.

 

Driving a commuter train from downtown LA to distant mountain cities.

 

Trying out some image blurring on the line between Euston and Milton Keynes.

 

This is a new line running from Mainz to Koblenz along the Rhine.  I am driving a tourist train on a Rhine castle tour in winter.

 

Running an express service towards Mainz from Koblenz. 

 

Mapman Mike

 

 

 

  

June Reading Summary

Bulmer's Dray Prescott adventures just go on and on.  At least they are quite entertaining.  #31 in the series is called Masks of Scorpio, from 1984.  Dray has been reunited with his wayward daughter, and they are beginning to have father/daughter adventures on the planet Kregen.  The masks of the title refer to masks worn by the religious cult that Dray and Pompino are trying to eliminate, as well as masks worn by others who oppose the religion.  Once again Dray saves a little girl from sacrifice, and another temple gets burned.  But Dray gets sidetracked as Pandahem gathers a fleet and prepares to attack Vallia.  Dray and his daughter musts somehow stop the fleet before it gets started. 

Each novel contains at least a dozen separate adventures, along with plenty of camaraderie among Dray's followers, both men and women.  There is intrigue, savage fighting, and plenty of eating and drinking and even some singing.  The adventures continue and I couldn't be happier.

 

E C Tubb's Cap Kennedy #9 Earth Enslaved is from 1974 and is 128 pages long.  It's not really Earth, and it's not really enslaved.  But I quibble.  My main concern here is a male SF writer who, for most of his prolific writing career, has been a sexist beast (as opposed to a sexy beast, which I am).  In this story of an alternate Earth captured by aliens, woman are dominant and men are meek and subserviant.  Fine.  We've seen this a hundred times before in pulp SF, especially in Edgar Rice Burroughs' writing.  Here is my peeve with Tubb.  When all is saved and getting back to normal, Cap Kennedy (the strong and very manly type) tells the main effeminate male hero from this alternate Earth that it's time that men and women become equal partners, rather than have one sex dominate the other.  Certainly a very admirable statement from Cap (and Tubb).  The only problem is that Cap is returning to his own universe now, probably the most sexist one ever invented by any pulp writer.  I mean it's 1974 as he writes, and women have nothing but minor and subservient roles in all of Tubb's stories.  Cap works with an all-male team, led by an all-male administration, in a pretty much all-male dominated stories.  So where is the equal partnership that Cap was encouraging others to take up?  Or was it merely that he couldn't stand to see women bossing men?  Pray, readers, do not preacheth unless one practiceth. 

 

Moving on now to three novels in the Kindle Delphi Classics series, I begin with Oscar Wilde's first comedy play.  Lady Windemere's Fan is from 1891 and was a big hit in London when it came out.  The theatre manager asked for more, and Wilde was able to oblige him.  Though silly and perhaps even a bit fluffy, the play is often outrageously funny, with one liners popping up from stage left and stage right in often unexpected ways.  Sometimes they go by so quickly that one barely has time to laugh.  At least reading the play one can put aside the book for a moment or two before continuing (and with Kindle, proceed to highlight relevant sections).  One of Wilde's most memorable lines occurs in Act 3: "We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars."  Not just funny, but truly profound!  Also from Act 3:  "There's nothing in the world like the devotion of a married woman.  It's a thing no married man knows anything about."  One final example, from Act 1: "I think that life is far too important a thing ever to talk seriously about."  I could quote pages of this stuff.  Priceless.  The plot concerns a woman who believes that her husband is being unfaithful to her, and though she never learns the complete truth (which I find quite sad), everything ends well.

 

P.D. Wodehouse wrote a series of pulp novels about life at an English boys boarding school.  The books are easily read and nearly as easily forgotten.  They mostly concern sports, either cricket or rugby or football, but these are often used as props for the character situations that arise during the story.  In this one a bad egg tries to bully his way onto the first squad of rugby, despite his being a very poor player.  He goes to extreme lengths to get his way, and it says something about the boys who endure this mischief that things get settled on their own, without teachers or headmasters.  The Golden Bat is from 1904 and can be read very quickly.  It does have some lasting value and no doubt teaches all the right things to boys who read it at the time.  Wodehouse has many humourous situations and characters in the story, but there is enough nastiness to make it seem real enough.  On the lighter side are boys who smoke in secret, and two others who secretly have pet ferrets and visit and feed them in their hideaway.  On the darker side we have study rooms being wrecked and precious photos shredded, and a boy being framed for mischief to a statue that he didn't do.  Oddly enough the book could probably still be read by high school boys and enjoyed.

 

With the 1922 Jacob's Room, Virginia Woolf begins her ascent (or descent, depending on one's view) into the hierarchy of avante garde writers.  While the novel is a far cry from Ulysses, it's also a far cry from her first two novels.  While Jacob may be the central character of the novel, much more is written about London, the English landscape, Paris, Athens, and at least a dozen other characters.  Some of these other characters are close to Jacob, such as his mother and his best friend.  But others are just on the periphery of his existence.   We seem to learn more about them than we do about Jacob.  What we do learn about Jacob comes from these side characters, who observe him and tell us snippets of information about him.

Ultimately I felt let down by the novel, though I do give the author full marks for attempting to diverge from the age-old story telling method.  While the novel isn't close to being as challenging as even a single chapter of Ulysses, I found my attention drifting quite often.  There are many fine passages to come across, but they are pretty far apart.  One of them talks about how straying for only a moment from one's path may lead to an entire new adventure.  Others are descriptions of what one might experience or feel, for instance at the Acropolis.

Overall, however, there is little to really engage a reader.  I rely on curiosity to keep me reading a book.  What might this character do next?  Or, now that this has happened, how will the character deal with the new situation?  Storytelling is probably the oldest cultural tradition we have, and it still engages most people, at least from time to time.  Throughout the book I had very little interest in Jacob, and even less in the people who knew and interacted with him.  I had nothing to grasp hold of.  Ultimately I came to the final page and was glad at my arrival.

 

Susanna Clarke's Piranesi is from 2020.  After reading the first chapter, a number of other authors popped into my head, sometimes a good thing.  Mervyn Peake, James Ballard, Iain Banks, Umberto Eco, and even Edgar Pangborn spring to mind.  Those are among my favourite authors, and while each has left their own unique literary footprint behind, they seem to share something about one's view of the world.  Clarke writes sparsely but well, though she tends to tie up too many loose ends--it would be nice to leave a few of them dangling at the end.  Her plot is concerned with "transgressive ideas", meaning those that are usually outside the limits of the modern definition of science.  The labyrinth also plays a major role in her philosophy, in this case an endless oversized house with gigantic rooms peopled with innumerable marble sculptures.  Characters are able to shift between one reality and one other one, though the author never defines exactly how this is done.  The novel is easy to read, leading us slowly and carefully through her story.  It begins like a great puzzle in which we do not have many pieces, and builds gradually until the last piece is found and put into place by the solitary main character.  Banks' The Bridge offers readers a similar experience, though much more intense and troubled, and the ending is more prosaic in its explanation.  Umberto Eco's The Island of the Day Before offers a third variation on the puzzle theme, and of course Peake's Gormenghast is probably the great grandfather of all such books.  Piranesi is an very enjoyable read, and is recommended if you like any of these others novels and authors mentioned.

 

I read the Kindle edition.
 

Cornell Woolrich was a novelist who had many of his stories and novels turned into major Hollywood films.  Cover Charge, from 1956, was his first published novel and it is quite a fun book to read.  The story begins in New York near the end of the first World War.  The first part of the book follows Alan and his climb from the gutter to considerable fame.  During the war there was a notable dearth of men, and he was soon earning a good living by working at jazz clubs as a dance partner to rich and often beautiful women.  Because of a heart defect he was ineligible for military service, though dancing all night doesn't seem to cause much of a problem.

The second part of the book follows Veronica, a woman he is destined to meet and later marry.  We first hear of her as a fifteen year old wannabe flapper.  She and Mary, a younger sister, live with their older brother and a grandmother in a rundown apartment in NYC.  She is soon living the high life, getting by on her looks and fun, outgoing personality.  The final section of the book deals with their eventual falling out, and what happened to each of the couple afterwards.

While the book has a somewhat confusing beginning, it quickly hits its stride and captures the reader, throwing him into a world of endless parties and drinking and dancing.  Woolrich is a colourful writer, and his novel includes many fine quips that reminded me often of Oscar Wilde.  When Veronica is asked for her thoughts on being a wife she replies, "It feels like when you get vaccinated," she said, "you're not sure whether it'll take or not."  Later another great one-liner pops up: "She was pure as the fallen snow, only she drifted."  A woman, describing Alan

, has this to say:  But oh, his eyes; they make you think things that you shouldn't.  they're enough to make a good girl bad and a bad girl worse."

One more quote, discussing Veronica her girlfriend at 18 years old.  "Veronica and Rosalie are of an age, between them they discuss men and women and the world in general. They are in favour of men, skeptical about women, and not particularly interested in the world in general."

I look forward to reading many more books by Woolrich.

 

A group of about fifty poems by W. B Yeats was next.  The Wind Among the Reeds was published in 1899 and contains several of Yeats more notable works.   Included are "Song of the Old Mother, The Fiddler of Dooner and The Song of the Wandering Aengus.  I also much enjoyed Into The Twilight and Aedh Tells of the Perfect Beauty.  A very worthwhile collection to have sitting around the house.

 

Finally comes an epic novel by Iain Banks.  Whit is from 1995 and is yet another display of the author's ability to tell a good story well.  Banks can be frustrating times.  The novel is very slow to get started, and the first half of the book suffers terribly from story interruptus.  Isis is the name of the heroine.  She is 19, innocent and naive.  She is at the centre of a religious community founded by her grandfather, and because of her unusual birth date (Feb 29th 1976) will eventually become leader of the group.  She is sent on a journey to find her female cousin, who has left the flock.  The girl who leaves the farm is a woman by the time she returns a few days later, and she soon experiences and learns that all is not healthy at the commune.  Banks fills in so much backstory in the first half of the book that the actual story of Isis' journey to London and beyond doesn't really get much chance to develop, as it constantly interrupted by pieces of backstory.  The book was probably put down unfinished by a lot of readers, and I would not blame them.  However, I am very glad that I stuck it out, because once the story is allowed to play out it just gets better and better.  For the second time Banks has made a female character the centre of the plot and the most important person in the story.  She is a strong character in the beginning, but her strength continues to grow as she encounters information that totally upends her world.  She proves herself many times over, and comes out ahead after all.  The book has a lot of subtle humour as Isis encounters the "real" world for the first time, managing to navigate it quite well despite her initial ignorance of how things actually work beyond the commune.  A terrific book, and a long one.  But the second half flies past when Banks lets loose his writing skills and fertile imagination.  Highly recommended.

 

I read the Kindle edition. 

 

Mapman Mike

 

 

 

 

The Broken Foot, Part 1

I have had two wonderfully clear nights so far this session, and am hoping to score one more.  The first night out was last Sunday.  Sometime in the middle of that session I turned around and kicked my metal chair over.  It was closer than I thought it was.  It seemed to hit a spot on my foot that it really shouldn't have.  Years ago I broke my right foot and remember well what that felt like.  This feels pretty much the same.  It is the left foot, up near and around the big toe.  I've been gimping around on it all week, hoping that it will magically get better.  The last break took six weeks to feel better, and despite x-rays and visits to the doctor, it still took six weeks with no interference.  I will see how things are by Monday before I decide to visit my M.D.  It still hurts when I walk on it, but the non-walking pain has subsided.  Ice is helping, too.  Unfortunately this may seriously interfere with late September travel plans, which have to do with lots of walking.

 

The two astronomy sessions were epic, though the warmest on record for me.  When I began observing Sunday night it was 82 F at 10:30 pm.  When I left at 2:00 am it was 79 F.  A light breeze kept the bugs down.  I returned on Monday night for a similar experience.  It had been so hot during those two days (96 F and 98F) that the humidity had burned away, leaving me with a dry night and good sky transparency.

 

Our current passports have six months remaining, so it is time to renew them.  The process will begin very soon, or sooner.  By the time we travel to Europe there will be less than 3 months remaining on the old ones. Ten years managed to fly past us.

 

In more local news, we have had 5 days of 90 F+ so far this summer (which is one week old).  That has come with enough humidity and rain to keep everything green and jungle like, including here at the Homestead.  Here is a recent photo of our front yard day lilies (there are many in the back yard as well).

 

Our front garden day lilies seem happy enough. 

 

In movie news there are three to report.  We just finished watching a very old favourite of ours.  We sat down and turned on the live TV stream of Criterion.  We caught the last half hour of an early Renoir film.  We decided just to see what was coming on next (commercial free of course), and ended up sitting through a two hour movie.  It was Peter Weir's The Last Wave.  The more times we see this film the more we are able to pull out of it.  It is a masterpiece of cross cultural contact, as well as being carefully thought out and brilliantly executed.  It remains one of our top favourite films.

 

Showing on Criterion. 

 

 Vicky Christina Barcelona is a film written and directed by Woody Allen from 2008.  The film uses the backdrop of Barcelona for romantic comedy that seems to gloss the surface of relationships rather than try to delve into them.  It also glosses the surface of art and of the city of Barcelona itself.  In fact it is difficult to say what this film is about.  Two young woman, one of whom is recently engaged, come under the spell of a handsome Spanish painter.  One of the women ends up living with him for a time, while the other has sex with him once, despite feeling guilty about her engagement.  While clever dialogue and some half decent acting helps thing along, overall the film is a bit of a mess, as it barely skims of the surface of what a relationship is.  Of course it means something different to each person in the story, but none of this is really explored very deeply.  It is romantic, and it does have humour, but it doesn't seem to have much spark to it.  It is certainly a film I would not wish to see again.

 

Leaving Criterion June 30th. 

 

Finally came Rene Clair's 1928 silent film The Italian Straw Hat.  With a running time of nearly two hours, this is an overlong romantic adventure film.  though often very funny, it just seems to go on and on with the same joke.  For instance, the marriage ceremony is presided over by a windbag of a marriage officiant,  As he drones on and on various parts of the plot continue elsewhere, while we are also entertained by the relatives sitting through it all.  The concept is quite good and often really funny, but it carries on and on until you never want to see another marriage ceremony as long as you live.  The married woman whose hat was half eaten by a horse and her military man lover are not very good characters, and they are given way too much screen time.  Cut the film by 25-30 minutes and it might have been a masterpiece.  As it is it requires far too much patience from the viewer to sit through.

 

Showing on Criterion as part of a Rene Clair retrospective. 

 

Coming soon: June books reading summary.  See you then.

 

Mapman Mike