November 2025 Reading Summary

I read ten books in November, two from my Avon/Equinox authors and the rest from my vast collection of fiction from Delphi Classics on Kindle. 

 

 

In the 1985 Storm Over Valia (#35 in the Dray Prescott series) Bulmer lets us in on what has been happening with Dray's #1 son.  We have heard a bit about his doings, but he has never had his own volume until now.  Drak is attempting to rid the mainland of Valia of traitorous enemies.  It takes several battles and reinforcements before he is able to turn the tide in his favour, but then he is kidnapped by the enemy.  #35 in the Dray Prescott series is filled with the usual amount of fighting, carousing, intrigue, humour and outrageous incidents, even though Dray is not present.  While he has been battling the witches' plagues, we learn what else has been going on in other parts of Kregen.  While Drak is a mere shadow of his father, he hasn't had the same amount of time to have his character developed.   Drak shares plot time with Silda, daughter of Dray Prescott's best friend.  Silda is a Sister of the Rose, highly trained in all manner of combat, and she gets a good chunk of the story to herself and her deeds, too.  In fact, she is a more interesting character than Drak.  This is a good entry in the series, allowing the readers to gain a more multi-dimensional view of what exactly is going on.

 

 

It's unfortunate that Tubb is an artful dodger.  In his Dumarest series Tubb never allows his hero to get near the original Earth, as if a change of direction for the series would be detrimental.  And in his Cap Kennedy series Tubb never allows us to stay long enough to learn more about the Zheltyanians, that ancient race that has left traces of itself across the galaxy.  I think most readers would like to see Dumarest getting closer and closer to Earth, and they would also like to see Cap learning more about the mysterious old ones.  But each time they make a discovery, it has to be destroyed for reasons to do with the main story plot.  In Spawn of Laban (1974; 127 pages), Cap and his team have to deal with giant insects, scorpions and spiders that will be used to devastate Earth in the near future.  A twisted professor is mixed up in the plot, and perhaps his lovely daughter.  It's a good story, except for the blowing up of the Zheltyana artifacts which are destroyed at the end.  It appears that giant wasps are using one of their ancient structures as a nest.  So much for getting clues from there.  Many of Tubb's stories would make fantastic movies, and this is one of them.  Any filmmakers out there listening?

 

Cover by Jack Gaughan. 

 

Turning now to Delphi Classics on Kindle, I began the month with an end of the world story by Arthur Conan Doyle.  The Poison Belt is from 1913 and undoubtedly influenced writers like John Chrisopher.  However, Doyle's story is somewhat spoiled by a chicken-out ending, where everyone wakes up next morning as suddenly as they had passed out and were presumed dead the previous day.  This is a Professor Challenger story (The Lost World), and the same team is together again as a poisoned bit of ether seems to have crossed Earth's path.  They survive the night with oxygen, and the best part of the story has them heading for London next day in a motor car to see the devastation.  And while the ending is a cop out, there has been great devastation as a result of people passing out amidst their duties.  There are train wrecks, shipwrecks, completely burned cities and other disasters.  So Earth does not get a get out of jail free card without considerable bumps and bruises.  If you like the stories of Christopher then you will certainly like this one, from one of the great storytellers.

An interior illustration for Doyle's story. 

 

 

Edgar Wallace wrote a few books featuring a London detective from Scotland Yard. the first of these novels is The Nine Bears from 1910. A group of men attempt to manipulate the stock market, causing a major London bank to fail if their plot succeeds. T. S. Smith has his hands full in this cracking crime thriller that has a global reach, including a climax at sea. Wallace writes well and craftily, setting up the capture of the group and their leader time and again, only to be foiled and outwitted. There is a master criminal mind behind the whole thing, and even the best at Scotland yard seems to be no match. My Delphi edition had colour plates of a few scenes. Highly readable, with the bad guys finally done in in the end.

 

 
Next up was T. S. Eliot's The Waste Land, from 1922. This is only the 2nd time I've read this work, and the only time I had a clue as to what is about. My Delphi Classics edition includes the author's notes. The title and much of the mood of the text refers to Jessie Weston's book From Ritual To Romance, about the Grail legend. Eliot claims he was thinking a lot about the Fisher King, his wounded condition and how the landscape reflected that condition. Other influences include Dante, Ovid and Chaucer. The poem is divided into 5 segments, with the 4th being my personal favourite. However, I also love the opening to the 3rd part, and a part of the 5th. 

 

The river's tent is broken: the last fingers of leaf

Clutch and sink into the wet bank. The wind

Crosses the brown land, unheard. The nymphs are departed.

 

Sweet Thames, run softly till I end my song. 

 

And.... 

In this decayed hole among the mountains
  In the faint moonlight, the grass is singing
  Over the tumbled graves, about the chapel
  There is the empty chapel, only the wind’s home.
  It has no windows, and the door swings,
  Dry bones can harm no one.

 

Jacques Futrelle (real name John Futrell) was an American writer who wrote mystery and crime novels.  He was a passenger on the Titanic and died as a result of the sinking.  I read his first novel, The Chase of the Golden Plate from 1906.  The author sets up a man as being just about as guilty a person could be of committing a crime, with all evidence pointing to him ass the culprit.  Of course the man is innocent, and the reader must read on to find out how the author gets him off the hook.  Some of the tactics used are a bit much, such as the girl who is engaged to be married to him, and with whom she is eloping the very night of the robbery, does not recognize the fact that she is with someone else.  She thinks it is her lover the whole time.  Hmmmn.  Week, he did have a face mask on.  In the story we are introduced to The Thinking Machine, Futrelle's version of Sherlock Holmes.  He is a man who uses only logic to solve crimes.  It was an okay read, but not the kind of crime novel that I am a big fan of.

 

 

Next came a collection of stories by Gogol, an 1835 set of four tales collectively called Mirgorod.

"The Old Fashioned Farmer" is a tribute of sorts to the author's grandparents.  Minute descriptions of the house interior, exterior and lands surrounding it are given, painting a wonderful picture of a Ukraine ("Little Russia") homestead at the time.  Despite being silently robbed by the workers and overseer, as the old farmer no longer tends to the farm himself, they still get by without enough to keep them happy in their older years.  Not so much a story as a celebration of a way of life.

 

"Taras Bulba" is the tale of a Cossack's life back in the good old days.  It was a manly man's world, leaving wives and young children behind to live in a large permanent encampment upon the steppes of central Asia.  Everything you have wanted to know about Cossack's is here, and perhaps everything you did not want to know.  I would equate the true Cossack to its modern equivalent of the football (soccer in North America) hooligan, out looking for trouble for no real reason other than to prove 'manhood.'  In the famous story, which is quite a long one, Taras introduces his two sons to the life of a Cossack.  The eldest lad takes to it quite well, but the youngest is a bit soft on the emotional side and ends up falling in love with a beautiful woman.  Silly lad.  Several films were made from the story, including a famous Hollywood one.

 

"Viy" is a supernatural horror tale, one of the best!  A young seminary student, a philosopher, has a life or death meeting and struggle with an evil witch.  When he bests her and she dies his troubles begin.  This is a such a great story that I hesitate to give any of the plot away.  Last March we watched the 1967 Russian film version, which, as it turns out, closely follows the story and has incredible effects for the time. (see my review from the March 23rd/25 blog).  A must to read for horror fans. 

 

"The Tale of How Ivan Ivanovich Quarreled With Ivan Nikiforovich" is a tragic/comedy story about two very close friends who have a serious falling out and are unable to reconcile.  The story follows the men as their differences escalate into a court drama, and shows the negative effects it has on their aging and quality of life.  Told with humour, it is a good story that would also make a good film.

 

 

Carson McCullins' Clock Without Hands (pub. 1961) is the 2nd story by her I have read.  The lives of four male characters intertwine much like themes in polyphonic music, though decidedly in a minor key.  J.T. Malone is a small town pharmacist in southern Georgia, a man who failed to pass his second year of medical school.  Now 40, he blames Jewish students for his failure.  He soon finds out that he has leukemia and has just over one year to live.  One of his close friends is Judge Clane, a widower whose lawyer son committed suicide many years earlier.  The judge is a southern bigot, and his big scheme to become even richer than he is, is to get the federal government to redeem confederate money.  The time is the early 1950s.  The judge weighs over 300 pounds and has type two diabetes.  He hires Sherman, a blue-eyed young Black man, to help him administer his shots and to be his personal secretary, writing the letters dictated by the judge.  Sherman's blue eyes attract the judge's grandson, Jester, a homosexual young man yet to act on his leanings.  Sherman can also sing really well, and play piano.  The relationship between Sherman and Jester, between Sherman and the judge, and between Jester and his grandfather form the basis of the book, with Mr. Malone and his terminal illness providing a 4th narrative line.  They keeps the book interesting from start to finish.  There are a lot of f-bombs dropped during the tale, as well as liberal use of the n-word.  This is the deep south of the the 1950s, and it isn't a pretty place for Black folk.  But it's a time of change, too, and more Blacks are speaking up for their constitutional rights, though few are receiving them.  Malone himself is the main 'clock without hands', a man who cannot find himself in life until he is upon his death bed.  But none of the characters really know or understand what they are doing.  The judge fights for whites, in the end separating himself from Sherman.  His son who died by suicide had attempted to defend an innocent black man accused of raping a white woman, and this really put a chasm between the father son relationship.  The same thing happens with Jester, the judge's grandson.  Once Jester figures out what his grandfather really stands for, he rejects him and goes his own way.  Sherman finally finds a cause and a reason to stand up for himself and his race, but it is a useless sacrifice.  Though depressing in many ways (as a piece of music in the minor key can be), it is nothing but an honest glimpse at life in those "good ol' days" white Americans like to think about, the golden age of the 1950s.  I didn't like the book quite as much as The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter, though I am left with similar feelings after reading Clock.  Definitely a book worth reading, as this woman is a terrific writer.

 

 

Next came a collection of eight stories of childhood by Kenneth Grahame.  Dream Days was first published in 1888, and illustrated by Maxfield Parrish in a 1902 edition (the one I read).  Of the eight stories four of them are excellent, with one of these being among the best things ever written regarding childhood.  It is a follow up collection to his remarkable Golden Days of 1885.  My four favourite stories are "Mutabile Semper," where our young hero meets a new girl his age and what befalls their brief affair.  Funny and poignant at the same time with an irresistible point of view.  "The Magic Ring" opens with a warning to adults to be careful what they say aloud when children are present, illustrating perfectly how a broken promise can affect a child.  Again our hero becomes momentarily infatuated with not one, but two different females as he unexpectedly is brought to see the circus, after finding out that he would not be going with his parents after all.  We get to experience the lowest and highest points of childhood in one short story.  "The Reluctant Dragon" is one of the most famous stories of all time, and certainly worth reading.  Filled with dry humour and life lessons for accepting others as they are, the tale is a story within a story.  Two of the children, our young hero and his youngest sister, follow what they imagine might be dragon tracks in the snow.  It eventually leads them to the garden of a well known local man who works in the circus.  Once he discovers their mission, he offers to walk them back home, as it is now dark and very chilly.  Along the way he is prompted to tell a story, and out comes the tale of the reluctant dragon.  A beautiful package, indeed.  The final story of the set is the best of them all.  "A Departure" is the story of how the children parted with their toys once they had officially, though not emotionally, out grown them.  As they are packaged up to be delivered to a sick children's hospital, the two youngest, observed by the eldest, undertake to save at least a few of the precious and once-loved toys and give them immortality.  Very touching and moving if read by anyone that had well loved toys as a child.  Like the previous Golden Age stories, this set is indispensable reading.

 

One of ten plates included in my Kindle Delphi Classics edition of Dream Days.

The Man In The Moon watches as the children say good bye to a few of their old toys.
 

 

 

I finished up the month with a detective story by Anna Katherine Green.  XYZ--A Detective Story is a very readable novella about a detective hunting down a gang of counterfeiters, but inadvertently getting mixed up in another crime instead.  From 1883, the story involves a father estranged from one of his sons, and the efforts the other brother and a sister make to reunite the family.  When the father is murdered, however, the detective,thanks to several mix ups and misunderstandings, is right on the scene, and it doesn't take him long to collar the criminal.  Easy to read and quite a fun story.

 

Mapman Mike 

 

 

 

Welcome To January

The saga of my foot injury continues.  Lately I have had two nuclear medicine tests.  The first was a bone scan, which required a shot of radioactive dye.  Three hours later I had to return to the hospital for the actual scan.  This follows two sets of x-rays (negative results) and an ultra-sound on the injured foot, which did show some activity going on in there.  The bone scan revealed that no tendons were affected, but perhaps there was an infection.  Which brings me to my 2nd nuclear test, a white blood test.  Blood work at 8 am at the hospital.  Return two hours later for the dye injection.  Return three hours later for the scan.  Await the results.  On it goes.  My limping has mostly gone away except when walking on cement, though I still have a very slow pace.

In weather news, winter has arrived quite suddenly.  Howling winds, falling temperatures and blowing snow give clues that Autumn has left the building.  Ironically it was an unprecedented November heat wave in the American Midwest last week that caused this very early polar vortex to come crashing down upon us.  The heat worked itself all the way up to the far north and disturbed the cold air circulation, thus inviting to come south for a visit.  As bad as it is right now, things will worsen over the weekend.  There are indoor plans here at the Homestead.

 

In movie news we completed a six part French-Belgian SF series called Transfers.  In the near or distant future one's consciousness can be transferred to a different body, thus enabling a type of everlasting life.  Now outlawed, organized crime has a strong foothold in getting new bodies for rich customers.  The media has turned ordinary people against all transfers, and they are hounded, rounded up and kept in special encampments.  Sound a bit too familiar?  A married and quite peaceful woodworker dies on a family vacation and wakes up in the body of a one time ruthless cop who hunts transfers with great relish and lots of violence.  Sound a bit too familiar?  Adding some interest to the plot is the fact that religion plays a major part in society, and while seeming to be against transfers, they do get major funding from questionable sources.  Adding some stupidity to the plot, a dangerous escaped transfer is hunting down the cops that killed his family.  Can you guess who that cop was?  If you guessed it was the peaceful woodworker now in that dead cop's body, then you guessed correctly.  This transfer who is out for revenge is himself being hunted high and low by the police, so he takes the body of a 12 year old girl.  A really strong one, apparently, and one who shoots really well with a gun.  Anyway, we watched it.  Wouldn't watch it again.  There was no season two.

 

A six part series showing on PBS Masterpiece. 

 

We are amidst a mini-film festival watching films by the Hong Kong director Johnny To.  We began with one of his best films, a 2003 film called PTU (Police Tactical Unit).  A plain clothes officer loses his gun when he slips and falls in a back alley while tracking some some hoodlums.  When he wakes up his gun is missing.  The patrol sergeant agrees to help him find it, but they must do it by sunrise.  The entire film takes place over one long night of chaos and suspense.  With a good solid plot, likeable characters (especially the cop with the missing gun), great location shooting, neon galore and a lot of humour and irony, this is a must see film.  Most enjoyable.  His movies are leaving Criterion Nov. 30th.  We have already seen three, with at least one more to go.

 

Leaving Criterion Nov. 30th. 

 

The second film we watched by To was far less enjoyable.  Breaking News is from 2004, and despite its opening 7 minute tracking shot during an all out gunfight between five cool bad guys and a hundred inept cops,  Somehow the police only manage to hit one of them, despite the fact that they are standing out in the open firing at the police.  Anyway, four of them escape and lead the Keystone Cops of Hong Kong on a continuous merry chase.  The characters are all pure cardboard, and more bullets are fired in this movie than in all of WW II.  The premise of the film is that as the events are filmed live for TV news, the police have the upper hand since they control what can be said about their efforts to capture the bad guys.  However, the cool crooks, who barely sweat despite being surrounded by a thousand or so police, turn the tables.  They take hostages and use their computer to let the media know that things aren't quite the way the police make them out to be.  The film would likely make a very good graphic novel, but as a film it doesn't really work that well.  There are too many coincidences and lucky breaks for the crooks, who seem to have a secret Lara Croft bag of unlimited ammunition and grenades.  Not really a great film unless you like lots of fairly mindless shooting.

 

Leaving Criterion Nov. 30th. 

 

Coming in between the two above films in quality is Election from 2005.  The film digs deep into the mythos of the Hong Kong Triad (Mafia) and the tradition from whence it came and how that tradition is maintained in the present day through a strict code of brotherhood. With a hothead upstart not caring at all about tradition, when it is time to elect a new godfather he will do anything to become the next one.  Though his rival won the election (he will be head man for two years), the young punk commits kidnapping, murder, bribery and direct confrontation to gain his foothold in the upper echelons of power.  The older and wiser (but no less cruel and bloodthirsty when needed) man who won the election decides he will make things work according to tradition, no matter what it takes.  There isn't a lot of shooting, and there are some much better characters here.  There is some stomach wrenching violence, however, and some characters switch allegiance so that it's hard to maintain who is on who's side some of the time.  The violence is often comic book variety, such as having a man's head smashed with a large rock over and over again about ten times.  Yet when we see his face afterwards there is but a trickle of blood around his mouth.  Slower paced, this is a chess match pitting tradition against modernization.  A pretty decent film overall.

 

Leaving Criterion Nov. 30th. 

 

From the freezing corner of the southern-most county in Canada, see you next time.

 

Mapman Mike 

 

P.S.  Watch here soon for the upcoming November reading summary. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TV Upgrade

While bigger isn't always better, sometimes it is just what the tech doctor ordered.  We left our 40" TV behind and went for a 55" one.  I wanted a 50" since we watch in a fairly small room, but the larger one was considerably cheaper.  In addition to a better picture and a considerably enlarged one, Deb has hooked two good speakers into it for movie quality sound.  I've moved my chair back a wee bit and so far I am loving the new TV.  What have we been watching?  Movies, some smaller series, and we have added a new channel.  Through Amazon's early Black Friday sale we have subscribed to Apple TV for 6 months, giving access to a number of shows we have an interest in.  We just started with that channel today, so give me some time to report on it.  One of the many series I am interested in is a version of Asimov's Foundation SF novel series.  More to come.

 

Our "new" computer is still at the factory getting repaired.  It's been away nearly twice as long as we have had it at home, with no end in sight.  They had to wipe all our data as the OS was corrupt, in addition to a number of other problems not of our doing.  This was a very expensive computer that was to be better to play PC games on.  So far we haven't got much for our money.   In movie news there are several to report.

 

Most recently was a horror film with John Carradine called Blood Legacy from 1971.  The actor starred in 47 films in the 1970s alone, many of them low budget horror movies.  This one is featured on one of my DVD collections, which I have been ignoring until recently.  Before things like Prime Video, Mubi and Criterion streaming channels arrived, people used to watch DVDs with movies on them.  For real.  I bought several collections of 50-movie packs back in the day, but we stopped watching them when we got Roku etc.  The print is terrible, as is the sound.  But it's a somewhat fun look at the usual murder plot--an insane family of four siblings have to remain in their house overnight before they get their just rewards from their just-deceased father.  The just rewards include death by axe, electrocution, bee stings and piranhas in an aquarium.  Out of about a dozen characters in the film only one survives.  To see the film once is plenty enough for us.

 

From our 50 pack DVD collection "Legends of Horror." 

 

Robert Altman's 1990 film Vincent and Theo has some very fine photography that recreates rooms and landscapes where the artist Van Gogh painted.  Tim Roth as Van Gogh is quite something else, reminding me as much of Shane McGowan than of Vincent.  Theo is played by Paul Rhys.  The actors seem to lack chemistry, and many of their scenes together just become too flat, despite all the shouting and histrionics that occur.  Both brothers seem quite mad, and they died not too far apart in time.  The film is overlong and seems to waste time confusing viewers with chronologies and overlapping dialogue.  Many people who watch the film would have no idea of dates when certain events were happening, or of how Vincent's paintings changed so dramatically in his final two or three years.  The final shot of the two grave markers side by side (Theo had syphilus) gives us end dates, but nothing else is dated.  Gaughin, who briefly befriended Vincent comes in and out of the picture at different times.  Despite an honest effort I was not terribly impressed with the movie.  It looked pretty nice on our new TV, though.

 

Leaving Criterion Nov. 30th. 

 

Two films from Mubi finish up this part of the blog.  First came a restored version of a b & w trashy film from 1967.  Shanty Tramp, directed by Joseph G. Prieto is the cautionary tale of something or other, so beware.  There are lessons to be learned, I'm almost certain.  A sleazy dark-haired bimbo has a bit of a rep around her small town, as does her drunkard Pa.  In fact, all the girls seem rather slimy in this town, and that's not even beginning to talk about the guys.  Watching the lead actress "dance" at a cafe is truly something to behold.  Nothing so undancey has ever before appeared on camera.  It's heartbreaking to see a girl try to dance for a camera who just can't move in any coordinated fashion whatsoever.  It's also painful to watch her seduce a young black man, then turn on him when Pa catches them lying naked together (a shocking scene for 1967, especially in the American south).  He ends up dead, like a lot of other characters in the film.  What is most shocking is that there were three remaining prints of the film that survived the ages and enabled it to be restored.  I can't imagine being the guy who proposed the restoration of this film in the first place.  A one of a kind film, with a very loud preacher and too much "Saints Go Marching In" music.

 

Restored version now showing on Mubi. 

 

Intimate Confession of a Chinese Courtesan (1971) makes an interesting pairing with the above film.  Not that the quality of the films can be compared, but both feature women of questionable character as leads, but understandably so.  This film is stylish and beautifully filmed, and might be one of the first female revenge films, a genre that still lives on happily today.  A young woman is kidnapped and forcibly brought to a brothel.  It takes some taming, but once she sees there is no escape she switches tactics and goes along with the game.  She is raped by four piggish and powerful men (no way!), and silently swears revenge.  She makes a (male) friend within the brothel and together they make a failed attempt at escape.  When he is killed she is determined to exact justice on the entire brothel.  Filled with lavish sets and beautiful costumes, there is also a lot of swordplay and kung fu action scenes.  Definitely worth checking out.  Nothing like this will ever come out of China again, and no doubt it is banned there as well.  Nudity, violence, lesbian kissing and rape scenes (tastefully edited, of course).  Of course it stars Lily Ho.  Go figure.

 

Leaving Mubi Nov. 30th.

 

Cover of the DVD. 

 

Mapman Mike

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Visit

Last week we were paid a visit by my mother, her sister (my aunt) Pauline and my cousin Cathy (Pauline's daughter) here in A'burg.  They arrived Tuesday the 11th and stayed until Thursday morning, when they headed back to Toronto.  My mother is heading home (Sudbury) today, after her week long voyage.  Not too shabby for 96.  Pauline is 2 years younger than Mom, and Cathy is 2 years younger than me.  They stayed at a funky hotel in A'burg called Stry (spelled correctly--for the missing 'O' visit the adjoining bar), and visited here at the Homestead on all three days.  We enjoyed a day out in the county on Wednesday, visiting a market/store, a winery and our favourite off the map cafe (14th Coffee).  We ate out in downtown A'burg, enjoying food at Salty Dog one night and then at Artisan Grill next night.  Lunch in Harrow on Wednesday was at a place called George's Eatery.  All restaurants had delicious vegan options for Deb and I.  One dark and chilly night we wandered into Navy Yard Park to see the holiday light display, still being put up at that time.  It was a really fun visit.  Mom hadn't been down here for 12 years!

 

The day before they arrived we had our first taste of snow.  It was gone by the time they arrived on Tuesday. 

 

Deb, Mom, Cathy and Pauline.

 

Same as above, with me replacing Cathy.      

 

We don't get much family company where we live, so it was great to have a chance to spend time with our closest relatives.  Pauline and Mom are the lone survivors of 7 kids that my grandparents had. 

 

In shipping news there are 5 ships that I follow regularly on-line, watching for their passing from our windows.  This weekend 3 of them passed by (2 are currently with tourists in the Antarctic).  The CSL Laurentien passed southbound on Friday, likely its last voyage of the season.  Likewise the mighty Mesabi Miner.  Both ships were heavily laden and moving slowly.  The globe-trotting Federal Bering passed northbound during the night.  I took photos of the first two, and will watch for the Bering on its southbound journey later in the month.  We currently have an extra gap allowing us to see more of the river, as an old house was torn down across the street and a new one is quickly rising.

 

The 700' Laurentien passes our house southbound.  View from our veranda.  A new house is being built across the street.

 

Riding low, the 1000' ore carrier Mesabi Miner heads towards Toledo after a busy non-stop shipping season. 

 

In movie news there are two to report.  Robert Altman's 1979 A Perfect Couple is a comedy romance.  A couple meet via a video dating service and undergo a very rocky relationship.  She is a singer in a large rock band and he is the manager of an antique shop.  The movie consists of many songs by the band, though fortunately they are mostly okay.  The band is run by a patriarchal and bossy singer, while the man's family is led by a dictatorial father.  The humour is often strained, and the young actress who plays the lead obviously suffers from anorexia off screen.  It is painful to watch her when she removes some of her clothing.  She died of cancer in 2013.  It's a strange movie, with the lead actor (Paul Dooley) being quite pushy and obnoxious in getting her to date him after they have broken off.  Definitely a movie of its time.

 

Leaving Criterion Nov. 30th. 

 

Hitchcock's silent 1928film A Farmer's Wife could have been directed by almost anyone at the time, and was likely one of his pictures he was contracted to make.  From a 1916 stage play by Eden Phillpotts, it is a romantic comedy that sees a widowed farmer seek a new wife.  With the help of his young and beautiful housekeeper (try and guess who he ends up marrying) he creates a list of eligible women and tries to propose to them.  One by one he is rejected.  At first he is furious when they refuse him, but he gradually learns to expect no for an answer.  A few outdoor scenes enliven the many indoor shots.  The comedy is a bit broad for modern tastes, but there are some nuances that show that some care was taken in the filming.  A shot of several hundred hunting dogs crossing a small bridge is unexpected, especially as we see the view from an angle where only their tails show.  Overlong (107 minutes), we did make it to the end, but not in one go.

 

From a DVD that we own. 

 

Mapman Mike

 

 

 
 

 

Winter Shows Its Face

It's coming. It seems to arrive each and every year.  We have had a rather pleasant autumn, if you discount the fact that we have had no rain.  This year our first glimpse of what is to come will begin arriving Sunday, and by Monday and Tuesday it will be cold.  The weather change coincides with the next astronomy session, so it will be too cold to stand in an open field with my telescope.  I had a rather splendid observing month in October, however, and made it out on five separate nights.  Even so I'd like to get out three more times before winter, so I hope the temps get seasonal again later next week.

 

I've been rereading my journals from all my previous visits to London.  The first thing that strikes me is how much energy we had back in the day.  During our March Break from teaching we would have a full day of museums, walking, pubs and navigating transport, followed by an evening concert, then at least one other pub before beginning the long trek back to our abode.  And right back at it next day, six or seven days in a row.  This is while many of our colleagues were lying around on warm and sunny beaches, blinking in the sunlight.  The weather in London was frequently cold and damp.  But what fun we had, getting to know another great city in such detail (Detroit being the other one).  We hope to return soon.  Here are some pics from our 2007 visit.

 

Outside Kensington Tube Station.

 

A London tourist shop.

 

Deb climbs stairs at Bayswater Tube station.

 

British Museum.

 

One of many pub stops during our week in London.  Rather cozy, no?

 

Downtown Shere, on a day trip away from London

.

Portobello Road, London.  Market day. 

 

In local travel news, my mother is coming to visit next week!  She will arrive Tuesday and stay until Thursday morning.  She will arrive with her sister, my Aunt Pauline, courtesy of Cathy, Pauline's daughter and my cousin.  They will stay at a small hotel in downtown Amherstburg, about 7 minutes from our house.  There won't be too much on the agenda, except lots of sitting and talking, with perhaps a visit to a local winery or three.  Needless to say that our house will get a good cleaning beforehand.

 

In movie news there are a few to report.  Hitchcock's 1934 The Man Who Knew Too Much is well worth seeing again, and of course Criterion has a pristine and restored print.  After watching the film again about a kidnapped young girl and the parents trying to do the right thing, we were treated to a 17' discourse by Guillermo del Toro, who has done this sort of thing for a number of his favourite films showing on Criterion.  Peter Lorre is terrific as the evil mastermind, who fights to the bitter end to carry out his assassination plot.  The final scene, a shoot out between police and bad guys, goes on and on and on, but is a great ending to the film.  Often these events last very briefly, or revert to negotiations.  Not this one!  Band bang bang till the end.

 

Showing on Criterion. 

 

Another film we hadn't seen in decades was All The President's Men, a 1976 film starring Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman as two newspaper men who end up bringing down Nixon as a result of the Watergate break-in, an assault by Republicans to infiltrate and wire tap Democrat headquarters in Washington.  Directed by Alan J. Pakula, the film is mostly talking.  However, the pacing is fast and the tension builds as the two men get closer and closer to the truth.  The real star here is how the workings of the press are revealed, a pretty much all-boys club of reporters and editors.  This is a don't miss film, though the ending is abrupt, possibly due to cost overruns.

 

Leaving Criterion Nov. 30th. 

 

Lastly comes Hitchcock's 1926 The Lodger.  While the story is weak (everyone seems so amazingly stupid in this silent movie) the photography is quite good, evoking German Expressionism with its shadows, odd angles and claustrophobic atmosphere.  The legendary London fog is in abundance, as are the killings.  One would think that after the 8th Tuesday night killing in a row of a blonde woman that blonde women would not go out alone at night.  Alas, but they do.  Truly blonde in all things, perhaps?  Joe the detective is as thick as a brick, and super jealous besides.  The lodger of the title is nearly as dumb as everyone else, keeping his secret until it is too late.  Why was it a secret, anyway?  At least the cliche of having the blonde heroine menaced by the serial killer is avoided, and a happy ending does ensue (except for all those blonde women).  Not one of the great silent films, but watched a lot because of who made it.  Beautifully restored and showing on Criterion.

 

Showing on Criterion. 

 

Mapman Mike

 

 

 

 
 

Piano Pieces Six Months In

We had a really great Sawhain party last night here at the Homestead, with two attending.  Good food, some music, a wood fire.  Can't be beat.  Then came the new Celtic year Tarot readings.  We have our new year cards, as well as selections for each cross quarter.  Readings are usually based on awareness, what might be possible to strive for, as well as guidance toward any goals selected.  I'll publish my year card shortly, but it is a Grail card and I am quite pleased with it, and it will remind me to keep to the true path again this year. 

 

We took our annual pilgrimage to a cemetery this afternoon.  We started out at a new cafe for us in beautiful downtown Harrow, a small farming town several miles southeast of the Homestead.  From there we moved on to Colchester, pretty much the most southerly mainland community in Canada.  There is a small cemetery there atop a bluff overlooking Lake Erie, and they have some pretty old tombstones, as well as plenty of trees and a very lovely small chapel.  Here are some recent pics, including some from today's walk.

 

 Mural on a cafe wall, downtown Amherstburg, from the previous Sunday.  Deb orders some caffeine. The sun glass images refer to an amusement park that once dominated the summer scene in Amherstburg, but is now long gone and replaced by.... an exclusive housing project.

  King's Navy Yard Park, downtown Amherstburg, facing the Detroit River as it opens into Lake Erie.

Navy Yard Park.  All three above images were taken last weekend. 

 Colchester Beach and Harbour, overlooking Lake Erie today. 

 A lonely looking Colchester Beach.

 

 A pair of birch trees in full autumn splendour. 

 

 

 Umbrella in hand, Deb walks towards a bench overlooking the lake. 

 

 Lake Erie with small light to guide boats into the harbour. 

 

 The Colchester Cemetery and small on-site chapel. 

 

 

 Colchester cemetery, with Lake Erie in the background. 

 

In piano news, as reported in today's title I have been chopping away at my newest repertoire now for six months.  There have been interruptions in the practice routine, of course, with two trips to Sudbury, one to Toronto, and various medical days.  But things are chugging along, and I hope to be ready in six weeks.  I played through the whole program this morning and it went rather well.  Soon I will take it on the road and place the pieces on the beloved Fazioli piano of Dr. Seski, if he is kind enough to once again allow me to do so.  After tweaking that a bit I will move on to play in for Jim P. in Chatham, on his 9' Steinway.  After that it should be time to invite some friends over to hear the program.  I have cut way back on the memorization this time, and will use music for the entire first half (all harpsichord) and for the final two pieces on the second half (Philip Glass pieces).

 

In movie news there are two to report.  Invention is a film that defines the term "quirky", and thus attracts our attention and interest.  From 2024 and directed by Courtney Stephens we watch a young woman come to terms with her father's death.  He was a doctor who was heavily into quack medicine, and the only thing he left her was the patent to his invention.  The invention is an enigma, and is supposed to induce a type of trance healing that calms the mind and soothes the body.  She hardly knew her father, but comes to learn things about him as she navigates life after his death.  It's a very personal film, but manages to express a lot through its often narrow focus.  The daughter meets with people who knew her father, and very few of them have flattering views to report, other than he was very smart.  His progress with his machine was hampered by his conspiracy beliefs, as he trusted no one to help him get it to market.  As a result the entire project crashed and burned.  Is the patent a valuable thing?  Should she pursue it further, for her father's sake and her own?  Though she is quite stoic throughout much of the movie, her emotions finally get the better of her, helping her in her decision of what to do with this thing.  The film is as odd as they come, a good enough reason to recommend it.  But it's quite transfixing to watch, too, as we explore the background of this near genius man who attempted, and failed, to get rich while helping others.

 

 A quirky but fascinating film now showing on Mubi. 

 

We also watched Ken Russell's 1980 filming of Altered States, from a novel by Paddy Chayefsky (Deb is currently reading the novel; I will, too).  Though we have seen the film many times, it's one we like to return to every few years.  Both the novel and the film are loosely based on actual experiments done on people in isolation tanks, though things carry a bit further than those experiments ever did.  With effects trying to compete with 2001: A Space Odyssey (they don't), and a story that more or less goes wildly off the rails, it's still a film that we are drawn to, mostly because William Hurt's character is willing to sacrifice everything for his search for what's out there.  Despite being a complete fool, one has to admire the guy for pushing things to the absolute limit.  An intellectual science fiction film is still a very rare thing, and though this film goes well beyond what is even remotely possible in the physical sense, we still know so little about what is inside our minds that all of the evolutionary retrograding that happens physically and emotionally to Hurt could possibly happen, at least within our own minds.  Always an experience to watch, this is a film I recommend highly to SF fans.

 

 

 The film has recently left the Criterion Channel.

 

 

Mapman Mike

 

 

 

 

 

October Reading Summary

 Bulmer continues to rely on witches and their curses to move the action forward in Witches of Kregen, the 34th book in the Dray Prescott fantasy series (1985), though there is a grand traditional battle as well.  The opening chapter's rain of frogs is unique in fantasy literature, as I'm sure is the attack of stinging wasps.  Other plagues are thrown at Dray until he finally agrees to meet the female witch face to face.  It appears she has a crush on him, so we'll have to see how that turns out.  All of Dray's main warrior buddies are collected in this story for the first time, so I assume that nothing mortal could stand up to them when fighting together.  Thus the need for witches and their abominable black curses.  Fair enough, I suppose.  The Star Lords summon Dray yet again, unexpectedly as usual, but there is a neat twist this time around once he has completed his task.  This event sweetens the story somewhat, distasteful as the witchcraft is becoming.  Better than the previous book by far, but still a bit sub par for the series.

Cover by James Gurney. 

 

 #15 in the Dumarest series (The Spectrum of a Forgotten Sun) sees Earl besotted by a beautiful woman.  Does she really love him, or is she working for the evil Cyclan?  We visit several new planets (this series never seems to return to previous worlds) and Earl makes more tiny bits of progress in his search for Earth and the Sun.  Tubb must have sensed his fans' frustration with the series, but he never allowed Dumarest to reach Earth.  In this reviewer's opinion this was a tragic mistake.  Finally reaching Earth did not have to be the end; a good writer could have made it into an entirely new adventure series.  But Tubb seemed blind to the possibilities as he kept cashing his paycheck for writing these books with no end.  Once again Earl has to fight in a death match while a bloodthirsty crowd watches.  This has become a cliche of the series so far, happening far too often.  While the books are still fun to read, and I am continually amazed at Tubb's ability to write good stuff, I weary of much of it.  Whereas Bulmer manages to keep my interest fairly high in his nearly endless Dray Prescott series (more fantasy than SF), Tubb can't seem to get past a certain wall, making his readers suffer.  A good entry in the series, but not the best.

 

Moving now to the Delphi Classics Series, I began the month with a short play by Samuel T. Coleridge called The Fall of Robespierre, written in 1794.  Co-written with Robert Southey, it was meant more for recitation than stage performance.  There seems to be little sympathy for the man who began the purge of traitors to France and ended up accusing nearly everyone of that crime.  eventually fate caught up to him, though not soon enough for many victims.  French history is filled with rogues like this who thought they were saints.  Easily read at one sitting.

 

Wilkie Collins is a favourite writer of this reader, and his 1857 epic novel The Dead Secret is a somewhat readable story with Gothic overtones.  The big secret can be guessed by most modern readers very early on.  Since the story was written as a magazine serial, it tends to go on and on.  This would fit the category of women's fiction in its day.  I was hoping for a more supernatural spin to the story, but it never came.  The ending (it is in six "books") is very drawn out and very long.  Cut by about a third this could have been a much more effective book.  Not a favourite novel of mine by this author.

 

Two illustrations from the edition that I read. 

 

Next came Typhoon, a novella by Joseph Conrad from  1902.  Like the Collins story, it was first serialized in a magazine.  Unlike the Collins tale this one is to the point, with no extra words, sentences, or chapters present. The adventure novella takes place on board a British built steamer plying the China Sea.  Good descriptions of the captain, the ship and some of her crew preface the stormy weather, and preparing us for what is to come.  On board the ship are 200 Chinese workers returning home after a 7 year stint abroad.  They are all returning with money earned and saved.  In an introduction by the author, her stresses that it wasn't the storm or the captain that he wanted to highlight, but what went on below deck during the storm involving the 200 Chinese men.  Conrad says very little about them in the story, leaving a lot to the imagination (even it was something so terrible that I would rather not imagine it).  The storm is a major one, and as usual Conrad gives vivid pictures of what the ship and crew (and passengers) are up against.  The storm is so bad that it is difficult to imagine what it would be like, but we are given a rather good idea.  Parts of the storm are so bad that it seems almost comical, or so beyond normal comprehension that one can only laugh or cry.  If there is a lesson to be learned here, it is to trust the barometer.  This captain, greatly changed by his experience, could have taken measures to avoid the storm.  However, his reasons for not dodging it are given in his own words, and, being the captain, his word is law on board the ship.  Highly recommended, especially if you have ever been in a bad storm.

 

F. Marion Crawford's novel A Roman Singer from 1884 takes readers to sunny Rome.  The story is told by Cornelio Grande, step father to young Nino Cardegna.  As a child Nino loved to sing, eventually studying with a good teacher and becoming something of a sensation as a tenor on the opera stage.  He falls in love with a German girl and courts her.  Her Prussian ex-soldier of a father totally disapproves and removes her to a secluded location far from Rome.  It's up to Cornelio to track down her whereabouts while Nino is singing in Paris and London.  The novel reads much like a Gothic opera plot, complete with dark castle in the hostile mountains of northern Italy.  While not a great novel, it certainly isn't a bad one.  There is much humour in the telling, as Cornelio is against Nino's singing as well as his courting.  A older wandering violin virtuoso, who is also a rich Russian banker, also has hopes of landing the daughter for himself, after falsely pledging to help Nino win her.  It was a fun book to read, though hardly one that I would casually recommend.  There are better ones by the author.

 

     

Lastly this month comes Lord Dunsany's 1935 novel Up In The Hills.  The entire novel is told tongue in cheek by the narrator, but is true to its source.  The novel has a totally bizarre opening, with several archaeologists from Liberia descending upon a lonely bog outside a tiny village in Ireland.  The events take place in 1922, just after the country has won its independence from England.  The Black explorers end up digging up human bones along with the pottery and spear tips that they find.  This brings out the local wise women, who put daily curses on the diggers.  This makes everyone in the village terribly afraid of the near future.  The young local lads (around 20 years of age) decided to take to the hills for a spell until the dig has ended or the curses have come true.  It doesn't take them long to become in a "war" with a neighbouring army.  Micky, the young leader of his army of 9 souls, is up against a true fighter who was renowned for fighting the British and his 100 or so lads.  But both armies are interrupted by the arrival of the more official Irish army, after reports of shots fired in the hills have come down to them.

Dunsany has an ear for how the Irish would talk, and it is both humourous and musical to read parts out loud to oneself.  Conversations, even serious ones, tend to be pretty funny in this story, especially the ones young Mickey has with his grandfather, a wise old one who advises Mickey throughout the story.  Highly readable, chalk this one up as just another truly odd story I have come across and dutifully reported to you, my readers.  Recommended, though even Dunsany fans may be surprised by this one.  Pleasantly surprised, I would hope.  I will also add that this is probably one of the most off-beat novels I have ever read.

 

Mapman Mike