Movie Catch-Up

I have not observed with my telescope since early November.  Yes, it's been cloudy a lot.  Any clear nights were always either too cold, or too windy, or too cold and windy.  Usually I get a break in February, but not so this year.  With mild temperatures finally arriving and staying, it has rained and rained and rained.  Even if a clear night appeared, my viewing location would be underwater, and the evening humidity would make observing impossible.  High humidity, which our area is noted for, fogs up the secondary mirror, which transmits light to the eyepiece.  Even eyepieces can fog over.  With the moon on the ascent, there is no chance of deep sky work anyway until at least March 17th.  It's been frustrating to say the least, but I seldom miss a reading session, and my sleep pattern has been solid.  That will all get tossed once Daylight Savings Time hits, along with clear skies.

 

When one lives beside a nasty neighbour, one's  choice is to put up with it or to retaliate in some meaningful way.  Canada and Canadians have chosen the latter method, for better or for worse.  Grocery stores are now labelling items that are Canadian, and people are now ignoring American products on the shelves.  American booze is off the shelves.  And people are cancelling vacations.  I'm still not certain about any of this.  Not visiting Detroit, for example, negates any reason I might have for living where I do.  And Detroit always votes Democrat.  Should we punish Democrats?  Removing California wines from shelves means removing products from a Democratic, anti-Trump state.  Why do that?   Anyway, the battle is on, and it will be interesting to see how far this goes.  Though Canada will indeed suffer as a result of Trump's tariffs, America will be giving itself a very black eye in the process.  Stay tuned to this topic.

 

In film news there are three to report. Most recently we watched a Gene Hackman film.  The Conversation is from 1974 and was directed by Francis Ford Coppola.  Gene plays a private investigator who gets sound and photos for his clients.  His character is a loner who does not work well with others, and his job obsesses him.  His acting is very good, since the character played really has so little to work with--he's bland, boring, and one-dimensional, but somehow the actor makes him come to life.  It's quite a good film, though obviously the technology is somewhat outdated.  The pacing is also good, as very little happens in the film other than one event being replayed and replayed.  The more it's replayed the more we learn about the heart of the case itself, as does Gene's character.  In the end the character is beaten by his rival with a device that he had called "garbage" earlier in the film.  Not far from films like Blow Out and Blow Up.  Recommended.

 

Now showing on Criterion. 

 

Before that came Shockproof, a film by Douglas Sirk from 1949 and scripted by Sam Fuller.  A parole board employee (Cornel Wilde) gets involved with one of his female clients, just released from prison from her murder charge punishment.  She is still mixed up with the guy who got her to prison, and she thinks she loves him.  Cornel tries to discourage her and things heat up quickly.  She ends up shooting her boyfriend and wounding him when he tries to blackmail Cornel.  The plot is thick and the pressure heats up when Cornel and the woman run for it.  They are cornered at nearly every attempt to escape, managing to live by taking short term jobs.  The ending is a bit sugar coated for this type of film, but it's actually good to see such endings once in a while in a Noir film.

 

Leaving Criterion March 31st. 

 

Before that came another Argentinian Noir film, one of a series recently acquired by Criterion.  We will likely get through all of them.  The Black Vampire is a 1953 Argentinian remake of M, Fritz Lang's take on homicidal pedophilia.  The main bad guy even looks like Peter Lorre, and whistles the same tune while stalking.  Though a bit too much time is spent in the storm sewers of Buenos Aires, the film has its moments as the police try to find the murderer.  Despite several highly publicized killings of little girls, there are still quite a number of them running around with no supervision.  Despite the guy being completely insane, the ending is a bit of a surprise as the jury elects to hang him.  No doubt the same verdict would be reached today, at least in countries with the death penalty.  Some pretty intense scenes.  I can't think of too many reasons for recommending a film about someone who kills children, but it's definitely worth a look, even if only to compare it to the original.  In b & w.

 

Now showing on Criterion. 

 

Mapman Mike

 

 

 

February Books Read

 Mazes of Scorpio is from 1982 and is #27 in the Dray Prescott series by Kenneth Bulmer, writing as Alan Burt Akers.  It was too good to be true when, in the last volume, the evil wizard was finally killed off.  And for a painful few moments it looked as if Bulmer was going to cheat readers and revive him.  Well, thank goodness he didn't.  However, we have now met his wife, a dark witch, and their offspring, a little something or other; we're not yet exactly sure what he is, other than a hermaphrodite.  And also very evil.  Mazes is an adventure novel much in the tradition of Fritz Leiber, still the reigning King of sword and sorcery writers.  Though Bulmer doesn't do too badly, as readers of this series (and this blog) will have found out long before now.  Dray and best friend Seg go chasing after an escaped female prisoner in a flier, and they end up in Pandahem, where it appears they and their readers will spend a lot of time in the upcoming books.  The adventure really begins when they crash (a common occurrence in these novels) and find themselves in a very nasty jungle.  They make their way to a small riverside town, and join up for an expedition to find treasure.  Their adventures are non-stop, as the small group are attacked by nearly everything under the sun and from under a rock.  A lot of time is spent in an underground maze that would challenge Lara Croft to her utter limits of resources and luck.  At last, separated from Seg and the rest of the party, Dray finds himself alone, underground against all comers.  Lots of action, and a finally a bit of help from the gods that have being using Dray for their own purposes throughout the series.  And so on it goes....

 

Original printing of the novel (I read the Kindle omnibus version).

Cover art by Richard Hescox. 

 

From 1975 comes Eloise, a 150 page novel by E. C. Tubb detailing the adventures of Earl Dumarest in his fruitless and endless search for Earth.  He was born there, left as a young boy, and can't seem to find his way back.  Not only that, but no one has ever heard of Earth.  How frustrating for him.  Once in a while he picks up a clue, but not in this story, which is #12 in the series.  He and a musician friend (note the instrument depicted on the DAW cover) crash land on a barren and very snowy and cold planet.  They make their way to a city, and are rescued as they are on their last approach.  We actually have a truly SF story presented to us.   The city is some kind of forgotten experiment, a planned Utopia that has continued to exist longer than its mysterious and long-forgotten creators.  Run by a central computer with a sort of semi-humanized army of robots to control the human population, this reminds me of several stories from the Magnus Robot Fighter comic books.  No, that is not Marilyn Monroe of the cover of the DAW edition; that's Eloise, a dancer who was trapped in the city after coming to entertain the people there.  No one is allowed to leave once they arrive.  Of course, Dumarest will be the exception to that rule.

So many male heroes seem to turn out to be the same guy.  Tarzan, John Carter of Mars, Dray Prescott, Earl Dumarest, Doc Savage, Hercules, Odysseus, Elric; no wonder Michael Moorcock was able to come up with the idea of the Eternal Hero for his many novels featuring supercharged (but human) action heroes.  Interchange any he-man hero for Dumarest, or put him in any of another hero's predicaments, and Voila, the problem gets (eventually, with much strain and muscle and clever and fast thinking) solved.  It's almost miraculous.  

Anyway, Eloise falls for Dumarest and tries her darndest to hang on to him.  But alas, he is caught up in his struggle to find Earth, though we are never told why.  He has a billion other planets to explore.  A good entry in the series.  However, as Dumarest muses at the end, he regrets not getting a chance to ask the city's central computer about Earth.  It was so old that it might have known something.  But he gained nothing towards his goal in this story.  And neither do we.

 

Original printing of the novel (I read the Kindle omnibus version).

Cover art by George Barr.

 

William Morris has written some of the best fantasy novels ever created.  Many of them have already been read, and I've reviewed them on my Ballantine Fantasy blog (see left column for link).  One of his earliest novels predates his true fantasy writing, but with The Roots of the Mountains from 1889 we get as close to fantasy as regular fiction can ever get without crossing the border into it.  This is an epic tale (534 pages), and Morris's influence on Tolkien can be seen everywhere.  While this novel does not approach the author's masterpiece The Well At The World's End, it lays all the necessary groundwork.  The hero of the tale, one Face of God, declines the adventure of a journey to foreign places to gain his manhood, choosing instead to remain at home.  This in itself is anathema to a good fantasy yarn, but don't go away just yet.  As things turn out, staying home was the correct choice in this case.  The lead character can be compared to Aragorn.  The Bride, a female lead, can be compared with Eowyn, and her eventual mate can be compared with Faramir.  The evil Dusky Men are similar to orcs.  The prose is filled with poetry and song, something Tolkien also included in his epic writing.  The Dale sounds a lot like Hobbiton.  And instead of having different groups of men such as shepherds, woodsmen, hunters, etc. as Morris does, Tolkien bright in different races from mythology such as Elves, Dwarves, and Hobbits.  The climax of the book is the great battle to recover the Silver Dale from the evil dusky men, and free the slaves they have captured and abused.  But the real core of the book is in the details which the author takes painstaking care to bring to the reader.  The strength of the family, the community, and the wider world of the allies; the rituals that musts be enacted at certain times of year; the continuity of life and love; and the importance of friendship and helping those less fortunate are all important qualities stressed by Morris.  He creates a small Utopia, then presents it to us as gravely threatened, and continues on to demonstrate how the threat can be banished with good leadership and a bond between strong allies. This is a long read, and not all of it marches along smartly.  Readers need to slow down and breathe deeply of the fine, clear air within these pages.  Their reward will be a very unique book, well written, and the harbinger of even greater things to come.

 

The Adventures of Martin Hewitt is from 1896, and contains six more stories of the great detective.  Fans of Sherlock Holmes should love these stories.  This is the third volume, all written for monthly publications by Arthur Morrison before being collected into volumes and republished.  "The Affair of Mrs. Seaton's Child" is one of those cases that Hewitt was not able to solve before it was resolved, and the missing child was safely returned home.  However, he followed up afterwards and was able to solve the mystery of who took the child, how, and why.  An engaging story, though with a somewhat far-fetched premise underlying it.  "The Case of Mr. Gerald's Elopement" sees Hewitt involved with a missing husband, whom the wife accuses of having eloped with a former maid.  Hewitt solves a very peculiar case that eventually sees the husband not only located and without having eloped, but put into custody for making and selling alcohol illegally.  A tale with twists that keep up the reader's interest.  "The Case of the Dead Skipper" is a story that fits more neatly into the Homes canon, as Hewitt and a police inspector solve the mystery of the captain's death and apparent robbery.  Nothing too unusual in this one, though well told.  "The Case of the Flitterbat Lancers" is a creatively titled story about a piece of badly written music that doubles as a cipher.  And "The Case of the Late Mr. Rewse" takes Hewitt to Ireland to solve a well planned murder--or was it?  Finally comes "The Case of the Ward Lane Tabernacle," and though humourous overall, it does have a tragic ending.  The case concerns a sacred relic left to a widow by her uncle, and she believes that a certain green grocer is after it.  As usual, Hewitt confounds his client when he comes up with the solution, and this leads to a continued friendship between them.  The character of the widow is a very colourful one.  All of Morrison's Martin Hewitt tales are highly recommended.

 

Turning now to E. Nesbit, it's time for The Wouldbegoods, the 1901 sequel to 1899's The Story of the Treasure Seekers.  The book is quite long, though each of the chapters are just about the perfect length for a bedtime story if read to children by an adult.  Each chapter is more or less a separate story or adventure, though the book is continuous and events do tie in from story to story.  In my opinion there are just a few too many stories, with the children acting pretty much the same in each story.  Once again the tales are told by Oswald, the elder Bastable child.  Though cleverly written as if by a maturing child, even this gets somewhat tedious after a time, with the "author" praising himself at every turn.  And though the criticism of girls is humourous (by a young boy), it could definitely be taken wrong, even by modern readers.  In other words, by 2025 standards the sexism is quite outrageous.  However, if reading the story to modern children, it would make a good opening for discussions on the topic of what girls can and cannot do.  Overall I did enjoy the book; however, I just found it a bit too much of a good thing.

 

Another classic children's book came next, Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome.  From a much later date of 1930, we once again see a group of siblings heading off into adventure.  There are two boys and two girls, with the the eldest being a boy again.  They are spending the summer in the Lake District and they have a sailboat.  They end up spending several nights camping on an island in the lake.  They meet the rival Amazons, but soon become friends.  So there are actually four girls in the story, and two boys.  The best characters are Titty (Titania?) (such an unfortunate shortened name for present day readers--I never could have read this aloud to my fourth and fifth grade class back in the day), who is perhaps the second youngest, and Roger, the youngest.  Though there is considerable humour throughout the novel, there are also some wonderful insights into a child's thought process.  When Titty is left alone on the island overnight and has her big adventure, followed up later with a treasure hunt, we feel we have met a character with some depth.  The others, especially John, Susan and Peggy, are cardboard characters with little depth and not much to say.  I have never read the book before, but have seen several very good TV adaptations from England, so the story was familiar to me.  I think I enjoyed it a bit more than the E. Nesbit novel, above, though both show incredible imagination and insights into the golden days of childhood.  Highly recommended, and I look forward to the sequels.

 

Lastly came some short work by Edgar Allan Poe.  An unfinished plat from 1835 is called "Politian."  Essentially one act was written, from a story based on a real murder case in Kentucky.  Poe transposed the setting and time to 16th C Rome, and is written in pseudo Shakespearean prose.  Just as the story begins to get interesting, it ends suddenly.  He gave up on novels and plays based on advice from friends, and continued to write short fiction for the remainder of his life.

"Metzengerstein" is a fantasy horror tale that involves two feuding families.  It was Poe's first published fiction and is from 1832.  It involves a tapestry with a horse in it, and the decadent lifestyle of a very young man.  The story makes little sense, but it does show that early on Poe was obsessed with certain themes, such as violent death and ironic justice being meted out to those in need of it.

"The Duc de L'Omelette" is the first of Poe's somewhat silly series of tales, and not a very good one.

"A Tale of Jersusalem" Tells of an incident at the walls of that city in the times of Roman invasion.

"Loss of Breath" tells of a man who, while raging at his wife, has his breath stolen.  Though he continues to live, he becomes more or less a silent zombie, unable to communicate with other living people.  By chance he meets the man who stole his breath in an undertaker's place, and manages to get it returned.  Another so called humourous tale that does have its moments.

"Bon-Bon" is from 1932, and is just what it claims.  Bon-Bon is the finest chef in Rouen, and also a self-taught philosopher.  His encounter with the devil goes quite well, he thinks.  Or did it?  More dark humour from Poe.

"MS. Found In A Bottle" is from 1933, and is one of Poe's more famous tales.  A sailor and his ship are carried to the far south after being caught in a fierce gale.  Only he and one another man survive the ordeal.  However, there is worse to come.  A ghost ship crewed by elderly sailors smashes the original ship to pieces, and the lone survivor, the writer of the manuscript, ends up on board.  A decent story with a most unhappy ending.

"The Assignation" is an extremely well-written tale that reminded me sometimes of the writing of E.R. Eddison,and even Michael Moorcock, in his European fiction.  The story is set in Venice and concerns two lovers who will never be together in this world, so they plan to meet in the next one.  A very memorable tale.

"Berenice" tells of a man driven mad who extracts the teeth from his dying wife.  Don't ask.  The story, even in its revised edition, takes too long to get going and the reader must wade through a lot of prose before getting to its core.

"Morella" is classic Poe.  A woman dies, leaving a daughter behind with the man who is her father.  An eerie tale, though somewhat confusing.  The daughter ends up actually being the mother, reincarnated, though by the time it happens it is hardly a surprise to the reader.

 

See you next month.  And keep reading!

 

Mapman Mike

It's (Mostly) Over

Winter, that is.  Early Spring was a week late, but it arrived after a very cold and snowy February  There were 19 days where the temperature did not rise above 32 F.  That is a very unusual statistic for the Homestead and vicinity for such a short month.  But our snow vanished almost overnight as very mild temps and a lot of rain arrived suddenly.

 

Board gaming continues, mostly Sunday afternoons.  We bought a new expansion (#8) for Carcassonne and just learned how to use it this week.  It's called "Bridges, Castles, and Bazaars."  It was worth getting, and adds some new and fun elements to the game without over-complicating it. 

 

I've also added a new dimension to my weekly skating time.  Another old timer who skates there usually brings his hockey stick and a puck, and last week he brought me a hockey stick, too.  So for the first time in many decades, yours truly was passing the puck and shooting on goal.  As a result I skated faster and burned a few more calories, and have a sore shoulder from using the stick.  Deb walks at the indoor track at the same time, while the central area of her track is being used by model airplane pilots.  This past week she helped untangle a few crashes on her journey.

 

In piano news, the recital program is shaping up.  It should be ready in about three weeks to begin playing for friends.  Some more work on the Haydn sonata and on the Glass Etude is still needed, but it's nearly there.  I go tomorrow morning for my 2nd lesson with Philip A.

 

Today was election day in Ontario, a province of Canada with 16 million people.  The ruling Conservative party is supposed to win a majority.  We voted this morning.  With 8 names on the ballot splitting the vote, there doesn't seem to be any way of defeating the ruling party.  Last time only 22% of voters turned out, but I think that should be significantly higher this time.  Polls are open till 9 pm, so results won't likely be final until tomorrow.

 

In film news there are three to report.  Most recently we watched Kenneth Branagh's production of Much Ado About Nothing, from 1993.  The film mostly works, though it's very unconvincing at the end when the young woman who was wrongly accused of sleeping around forgives her intended and all is well.  More likely there would be a lawsuit and the two would never have married.  The acting and locations are great, and there are some very funny moments dealing with Benedick (Branagh) and Beatrice (Emma Thompson) becoming a couple.  There is palpable energy from the cast, and the movie can easily be recommended.

 

Leaving Prime tomorrow.
  

Before that came Topaz, a Hitchcock spy thriller from 1969.  A cold war story set in the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis, a French diplomat is entrusted with the job of going to Cuba and finding evidence of what the Russians were up to.  With the usual plot twists and turns, this turned into a pretty good film.  With real Cuban locations and a cast of minor but very good actors.  Watch for the director playing a man in a wheelchair, then getting up and walking out of the frame.  Recommended.

 

Leaving Criterion tomorrow. 

 

Before that came The Consequences of Love, a 2004 film directed by Paolo Sorrentino and starring Toni Servillo.  He plays a very unlikable character, a man who has been forced into a position of helping the Mafia launder money into Swiss bank accounts.  He is very private and unpersonable, seldom taking note of others around him.  He uses heroin one time each week, on Wednesdays at 10 am.  He used to be an investor, and was trusted with Mafia millions.  When his advice lost them most of their money, he then appeared on their payroll.  He lives in a hotel near the Alps, in Lugano.  He manages to fall for a young barmaid at the hotel (played by the very fetching Olivia Magnani, granddaughter of the great Anna), but doesn't really know how to woo.  When she fails to show up for a promised rendezvous on his birthday, he decides to pack it in.  He refuses to deliver the money that week (millions in cash in a suitcase), and does not tell where the money is.  He is given several chances to tell, but instead ends it all.  The final scene might answer a lot of Jimmy Hoffa questions, as he is put to death by the Mafia in a traditional manner.  It is a somewhat troubling film, though bold enough in tackling the issues it deals with.  However, I did enjoy it, especially as his story comes out piece by piece, and we realize the position he is in.  Stuck, in other words.  Recommended, though far beneath the director's masterpiece film, The Great Beauty.

 

Now showing on Criterion. 

 

Coming very soon:  the February reading summary!

 

Mapman Mike

 

 

 

Getting Through It

It's Friday afternoon, it's sunny and 32 F, and I have a fine ale in my hands.  Hello weekend!  Even when one is retired it's always worth celebrating the weekend.  Force of habit, maybe.  Our snow began to melt today, and that should accelerate through next week, when it might rain once again.  Even though winter only overextended its stay by a week, it has been a fairly brutal month for winter temps and weather.  We made out better than just about anyone else, though, so not many complaints from here.  However, we will be faced with yet another $300 heating bill for the month.

 

A road trip find from last October, this tasty dark ale is from

Indiana.  On my desk as I type! 

 

There just may be a few people left in the civilized world that have not yet woken to the fact that the world has changed drastically in the last month, all thanks to one or two people.  In fact, it has been turned upside down.  In fact, it will likely never be the same.  After all, who can ever trust a country again that blames Ukraine for starting a war with Russia?  And then goes on to ask Putin what he would like to have in return for stopping his self defence actions.  Who can trust a country that wants to take over Greenland, Canada, and the Panama Canal, by force if necessary, but likely through extreme economic pressure?  We won't even get into the effects these same two people will have on fighting climate change.  Never mind tariffs and firing workers by the thousands in order to save money to give back to the rich in tax breaks.  Never mind stopping government scientists from reporting on climate change.  The USA is now too inconsistent to really ever fully be trusted again.  Sure, in four years all this may be washed away by a democratic victory, but what about four years after that?  It's certainly time to find some new friends and allies, and avoid the roller coaster politics of present day America.  And speaking of fired US government workers, slightly more than half of them must have voted for the current ruler.  How did that work out for you?  Still a fan?  I wonder how long before Taiwan "attacks" China and starts that war.

 

In a continuing effort to improve my piano program, I had a lesson today with Philip A., getting through most of the pieces in a 90 minute lesson.  I will return to his home next Friday for a follow-up.  There were helpful comments regarding the Bach pieces as well as the Haydn Sonata.  So, much more work lies ahead in the coming week. 

 

In Homestead news, we had our third and final new outside door installed yesterday.  That completes the doors and windows project, which has cost us mucho dinares.  this door is the main one we use, and leads from the garage into the house.  It took nearly four hours for two workers to remove the old door and frame and put in the new one.

 

The old door had very poor insulating ability and 

was long overdue for replacement. 

 

The new door from house to garage.

  In movie news, there are three to report.  Most recently we began viewing a small series of Film Noir from Argentina, directed by Fernando Ayala.  The Bitter Stems is from 1956, and might better be named Bitter Irony.  Two new friends work a scam to raise money by offering a correspondence course in journalism.  It works out well, but it is agreed that most of the profits will go to the partner who wants to bring his family across to escape from hard times in Europe.  Then the other man becomes suspicious and does not believe there really is a family.  So he kills his partner.  Guess what?  He does have a family after all.  Oh well.  We can get through this.  He buries the man in his garden.  More complications arise, and near the end of the film it appears that the body is about to be discovered.  So the killer kills himself.  Guess what?  The body isn't discovered after all.  Oh well.  It might be a bit more difficult to get through this mistake.  Filmed in b & w, it offers a totally different take on Film Noir.  Several more of the director's recently restored films lie ahead.

 

Several of the director's films are showing on Criterion. 

 

Before that came Don't Bother To Knock, a drama starring Marilyn Monroe as a recently cured psychotic who is not so cured after all.  Her nervous uncle (Elisha Cook, Jr.) operates an elevator in a swanky hotel, and gets her a job babysitting a young girl for the night.  She doesn't do so well.  She makes contact with Richard Widmark across the way and invites him over.  Before the night is done the child ends up bound and gagged and nearly pushed out the window by her babysitter (probably not that an uncommon outcome now that I think of it).  Elisha Cook gets hit over the head by her with a very heavy ashtray, and then locked in a closet.  Monroe is pretty convincing as a person slipping quickly into a state that is not compatible with your average babysitter's personality.  Richard Widmark has left his girlfriend with cold feelings for him until she sees him trying to help Monroe get through her bad times.  Then she falls for him again, but in a more solid fashion.  It is not likely that the child's mother will ever go out for dinner and dancing again, or that the child will ever want to play any games with little friends that involve being tied up.

 

Child and babysitter come to some form of agreement.  Leaving Criterion Feb. 28th. 

 

Life Is Cheap But Toilet Paper Is Expensive is a bomb of a film by Wayne Wang, a director who has been reliable up till now.  A low level mafia guy brings a briefcase to Hong Kong and has some difficulty delivering it.  In the meantime he has a fling with the big boss's girlfriend.  The film is nearly plotless and without direction, but it is filmed in Hong Kong.  The best scene is a long foot chase down the mountain from the scenic lookout all the way down to water level, when the briefcase is stolen by two thieves up top.  The camera work is really good here and many parts involve through real crowds.  We descend staircase after staircase, all in one long shot, with the camera running along with the three actors.  Sadly most of the film is pure trash, though there are a few intentional laughs along the way.  Best avoided.

 

Leaving Criterion Feb. 28th. 

 

Mapman Mike

 

 

 

 

 

 

It's A F*x^#!* Winter Wonderland

February 15th is when it all ends here at the Homestead.  Except it didn't this time.  Usually we have mild temps and rain by now.  Since we've moved to this address (1989?), winter has been extended only once before.  So twice in 35 years isn't too bad, I guess.  We had some snow Wednesday overnight and again last night.  There is now about 6" of the stuff on the ground.  My daily exercise program, which usually consists of treadmill walking, stretching, etc., has now shifted to "cross-training," i.e. shovelling.  Our driveway is about 70' long, and the county snowplows leave a nice big and heavy snowbank at the foot of it.  So Thursday was a shovelling day, and today is another one.  Today's snow is heavier, though, so I am taking things in short bursts.  I've been out twice already, with perhaps two more sessions to go.

 

Speaking of sessions, astronomy was set to resume this coming Tuesday.  But take a look at these temps (in F) for the upcoming week.  Add wind to that forecast, and it's going to be another indoor week.  And being away from a city, we are usually a few degrees colder than Detroit (which comes in handy in the summer, but not in the winter).

 

 

Here are a few snapshots looking out the back door this morning.

 

That is a lilac bush.

 

A few backyard shots.  It took until mid-February, but we finally have some snow. 

 

Last week we finally finished playing all of the board games I had laid out to play on the Christmas holidays.  The final game in that stack is called Teotihuacan.  The game is loosely based on sacred rites used to build and decorate a large main temple in the prehistoric city.  We visited the actual city of Teotihuacan in the early 80s, and not only had experiences that were transcendent, but we also got the worst sunburns of our lives.  Anyway, the game is a very complex one to set up.  There are three rounds to play, so we played one round each day, leaving the table set up.  And since it took a previous day to set up the game, it actually took us four days to play.  Of course this can all be done in one long day, taking about 4-5 hours from opening the box to closing it again with everything back inside.  It's quite a fun game, so we don't mind playing once in a while, despite all the hassles of setting it up and relearning the rules.

 

The game is afoot!  In this case, Teotihuacan. 

 

The real thing.  We are sitting atop the Pyramid of the Moon, with the main (highest) pyramid at the left.  We climbed it, too.  There was a kid at the top selling coca cola. 

 

Last Friday I went and ran through most of my piano pieces in Chatham.  Jim P. has an 8'11 3/4" Steinway (9'), and having played it once before I was eager to do it again.  Jim is a piano teacher and a truly great player.  He tackles some of the biggest pieces in the repertoire, and pulls them off incredibly well.  Over two hours I ran through my program for him and he in turn played some amazing pieces for me.  These included Ravel's Jeux D'Eau, one of Bach's very difficult toccatas (E Minor), and the solo piano version Gershwin's Rhapsody In Blue.  So that was a very fun afternoon!  As my program is nearing completion, it's time now to take it to Philip A., my teacher, for some final polishing and criticizing.  I'm still on the fence over performing the Bach and Couperin on harpsichord or piano.

 

In film news there is only one to report.  Mel Brooks has directed some of the silliest films to ever appear on the screen.  Spaceballs is his 1987 send up of Star Wars.  There are many jokes that fall flat, but when he hits a ringer it makes the whole thing worth watching.  And there are several ringers.  Rick Moranis is too perfect as Dark Helmet, and John Candy as the doggy friend Barf.  We hadn't seen this film for decades.  Highly recommended for SF fans who realize how deeply Star Wars itself set back the SF genre.  

Now showing on Amazon Prime video. 

 

Mapman Mike

 
 

 

 

More Winter

If you want to know what it is like to live next to Mordor and Sauron, just ask President Zelensky of the Ukraine.  If you want to know what it's like to live next to an insane Saruman from Orthanc, ask any Canadian, especially one living near that crumbling empire (that is Michigan in the photo below, across the river from our Homestead).  We continue to gaze at the downfall of a once great country, with jaws suitably dropping, heads shaking slowly, and eyes rolling.

 

This is turning into a long and cold winter here in the southernmost county in Canada, which is fairly unusual.  Things often wrap up by mid-February, but the forecast looks much grimmer for next week and beyond.  Still no snow to speak of here, with about 1/2" falling yesterday, out of an expected 2-4".  However, our first major winter storm is predicted for Wednesday.  Stay tuned to this station for updates.  The river is iced over, though ice breakers are keeping the shipping lane open for the occasional tanker that passes by.  Temps remain below average for this time of year,. and skies have been mostly grey.  No snowshoeing again this year, due to lack of snow.  And it's been too cold and/or windy for any astronomy outings.  So indoor activities continue to rule our lives.

 

The Detroit River is frozen up this year.  The open shipping lane can be seen in the background, near the buoy.  That buoy has a name; Ballard! 

 

I've talked with my mother (she lives in Sudbury) several times this week.  Last Monday she had all her top teeth removed, and several from the bottom, and now has dentures.  At any age that would be a tough climb back, but at nearly 96, I find it hard to fathom.  She has had a rough week, and her gums are still very tender.  Thinking of you, mom.  Hope you feel better soon.  She sees her denturist again on Thursday for a check up.  Needless to say it's been very cold and somewhat snowy in the north.

 

In film watching news, there were a couple I missed last time, so this blog will deal with four films, from the most recently viewed to oldest viewed. 

Momma's Man is from 2008 and was directed by Azazel Jacobs.  A married man now living in California with his wife and baby visits his parents back in New York, in the loft where he grew up.  The mother and father are played by the director's real parents, and they are quite amazing.  Their loft, where the man grew up, is a maze of corridors lined with high shelves filled with old junk.  His old bedroom is in a cubby hole reached via ladder, while they sleep on the main floor amidst their collected goods.  The poster shows a very funny scene where the three of them are in bed watching Monsieur Verdoux, a later Chaplin film.  The man/boy realizes that he does not wish to return to California, and ends up staying with his parents trying to recapture the security, innocence and good times of his youth.  He tries connecting with a few old friends.  He tries falling down a large flight of stairs.  He does not return his wife's increasingly frantic and desperate phone calls.  In short, he cannot face being an adult and having responsibilities.  As a person he is a zero on a rating scale of ten.  Though a very slowly paced film, its message is a clear one.  Realizing how many young men and women still live with their parents today is a shocking statistic, though this time it is only temporary.  After eventually sitting on his mother's knee and have a good cry, he is finally ready to resume adulthood and returns to California.  Not a bad film, if you have the patience to put up with this guy.

 

The film is leaving Criterion Feb. 28th. 

 

Ten Cents A Dance is from 1931, irected by Lionel Barrymore and stars Barbara Stanwyck as a dance hostess at a busy club.  She ends up marrying a louse and sticks by him faithfully until he makes the ultimate mistake, by accusing her of sleeping with a rich guy to get money he so badly needed.  That was the final straw, and he gets both barrels of her wrath and she finally leaves him.  Ms. Stanwyck is terrific as the big hearted girl who only wants to break free from her life of aching feet, but pulls no punches when her character is attacked.  With a happy ending (for her and the man who truly loves her), this is a likeable picture where the wormy guy gets his comeuppance, and the decent guy gets the more than decent girl.

 

Leaving Criterion Feb 28th. 

 

The animated version of The Addams Family is from 2019 and, as expected, is flashy, very fast paced, and extremely violent.  The violence is likely more intense than the early Bugs Bunny and Road Runner cartoons, but seldom as funny.  In its attempt to be subversive, it pretty much follows the lead of most animated films today.  Children are heroes, adults are either evil or not up to the task at hand, and anything to do with white suburbia is bad and must be eliminated or controlled.  There are some prized moments in the film, and the character of Lurch is particularly well done.  The voice of Uncle Fester is close to the original actor's, and the end credits feature the original TV series song.  Not a classic by any means, but it goes by so fast that it isn't hard to watch.

 

Now showing on Prime. 

 

Archie Mayo directed one of our favourite films, called Petrified Forest.  We turn now to his 1942 Moontide, in its way nearly as odd and offbeat as that other film.  Jean Gabin stars as an aimless sailor, mostly out for a good time, and a man who drinks far too much and too often.  He saves a young Ida Lupino from drowning, and they become a couple.  They work at selling bait out of an old shack, and are befriended by Claude Rains, a nightwatchman.  Gabin, Lupino, and Rains make a great trio.  The seaside locations and foggy nights make for a great setting, along with the bare bones bait shop shack where the couple live.  Gabin's evil and jealous sailor friend does everything he can to separate the couple and get Gabin away to another port.  When he steps way over the line, Gabin goes after him.  Moody and often unpredictable, the film was a neat little find, a true sleeper and worth seeking.  But see Petrified Forest first!

 

Leaving Criterion February 28th. 

 

Mapman Mike

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

February Blahs.

We were promised spring-like weather this week.  Ha, I say.  Not so fast.  Suddenly one awakens one morning and the ten day forecast has mysteriously been changed.  Cold.  Ice and freezing rain.  A snowstorm.  More cold.  Meteorologist paychecks are still drawn, despite the forecast being conveniently rearranged at the last minute.

Regardless of Spring or Winter, indoor activities continue here at the Homestead.  Deb continues to befuddle medical science, but she is still breathing, eating, and walking around.  I had my teeth cleaned last week, and I have now been ice skating 5 times without falling down.  There is also an indoor walking track where I skate, so Deb was able to do some laps there while I prepared for my winter olympics debut.

 

I have been thinking a lot about last October's hiking trip, especially the big hike to the Texas highpoint atop Guadalupe Peak.  Here are a few photos, previously unpublished, of that hike.  Looking at mountain hiking photos later on, I am always astounded that I was actually there.  Sometimes the hikes are so strenuous that memory of many views is completely obliterated, so that without photos much of the grandeur is not only forgotten, but personally disbelieved.  But the photos do testify that yes, I was certainly "there."

 

Even if I had only hiked to this point, the rewards were more than generous.  But this was still early on in my trek to the summit. 

Two panorama shots (six photos in all) giving nearly 360 degree views from the top of Guadalupe Peak.  Clicking on the photos should give a larger image. 

 

At least until astronomy weather returns I have taken up my pencil drawing hobby again.  I am just working with the basic shapes for now; squares, rectangles, cones and so forth.  But soon I shall be drawing elephants!  Watch for it here.  I am still making my way through the Spirograph set, still learning what each wheel combination can do.  The basic set gives hundreds of geometric designs, many of them worth colouring, but some time later, combinations of combinations will give a nearly infinite amount of possibilities.  Here are a few I created and like.

 

This one is pretty trippy.  I was getting nervous near the end, as the pencil had slipped on earlier attempts to complete this.

 

Some Spirograph work from previous sessions. The numbers refer to which wheels 

were used, and in which position.

 

In reading news, I am on my fourth and final Avon/Equinox authors' book for the month, after which I can resume free style reading.  Next up is a long novel by William Morris, a fantasy sequel to his House Of The Wolfings, which I read about a year ago.  It will be a long novel, and will likely take up much of my remaining February reading time.

 

In film news, we watched a strange little number from West Africa (Ivory Coast) called In The Name of Christ.  From 1993, it is about a man who craves power over other people, setting himself up as the cousin of Christ.  Using religion for one's own personal gain is hardly a new concept, but for western viewers this will be a refreshingly different take on a man who demands reverence and worship from his beguiled followers.  I could do without the pig slaughtering scene, and the one with a drowning chicken.  Christianity meets local pagan cults in one of its nearly limitless possibilities.  Parts are hard to watch, and despite being billed as a comedy by Mubi, it is hardly such.

 

Now showing on Mubi. 

 

Mapman Mike

 

 

 

January 2025 Reading Summary

 

With Allies of Antares (1981) now behind me I am halfway through the Dray Prescott series by Kenneth Bulmer, writing as Alan Burke Akers.  Yikes!  At about 150 pages per book, I have read nearly 4000 pages so far.  That's much more than Tolkien wrote of Middle Earth (how I wish there were more!).  In the last book Dray's Vallians had finally defeated the hated enemy that had invaded and spoiled their country.  That war was all thanks to a nasty empress.  Now that she and her evil wizard are both dead, a true king is being raised in her stead, with the full support of Vallia and her allies.  But a rogue band of enemy soldiers will not bow to the new king and are set on destruction of all Vallians, and wish to usurp the throne with their own ninny king.

The book opens with the comical equivalent of Tolkien's long chapter "The Council of Elrond," as a massive peace conference is underway.  The opening paragraph of the novel is a classic one, and sets the tone for the impossibility of the task at hand.  Dray tries to keep out of it, as he gets too easily frustrated.  He is a warrior and not so much a diplomat.  The novel details the roundabout and dangerous way that events take before things are finally settled.  There are several exciting chapters filled with action, including the assassination attempt on the new King in the public baths, and of course the climactic battle scene.  All along Dray has been passing himself off as one of the enemy, so the book is filled with surprised friends of his who did not know he was Emperor of Vallia.  A lot of politics gets settled here, as well as battle outcomes.

Dray has become a very engaging hero, somewhat like his Mr. Fox from his sea adventure books (see below).  His relationships with his sons and daughters have mostly been clarified.  Some of the disguises he had to use in earlier volumes made them think he was a coward and an enemy, but that has mostly been cleared up.  With one exception.  He still has a rogue daughter out there somewhere who is out to kill him due to more misunderstandings.  So the adventures will continue for another 26 books.  See you then!

 

Who needs an author's name on a book cover.
 

 From 1974 comes The Gholan Gate, the 7th book in the Cap Kennedy series by E. C. Tubb.  It's 124 pages can be read at one sitting.  Throughout the special agent series we have heard of the Zheltyana, an extinct civilization that spread throughout the galaxy perhaps a million years ago.  One of Cap's team, the old professor, has made a special study of any traces left behind from these people.  At last we discover one of those artifacts.  The Gholan Gate is likely one of these leftovers from a vastly superior race.  The gate, once entered, can make a person's wishes and beliefs come true.  If someone, for instance, fantasized about living in Camelot, then that fantasy would be recreated by the mind's link to the powers of the gate.  No one knows what the purpose of the gate originally was, but now it is being used by a sinister religious cult to recruit assassins.  Potential victims are led to the gate, and allowed to experience it several times.  They are told that if they commit their assassination they will be allowed to remain permanently within the world of the gate.  It's up to Cap and his team of three assistants (the old professor, a strongman, and a chameleon-like person) to put a stop to things.  Of course that means destroying the gate and the cult, something that the professor is against.  A good entry in the series, but with a very abrupt ending (it's all about word count in pulp fiction). 

This is very little of Phoenix, and certainly no inferno in Malzberg's next book in a series about a lone vigilante taking on the drug empire.  The denouement takes place outside of Mexico City.   The 12th book in the Burt Wulf series is from 1975 and is 165 pages long.  Called Phoenix Inferno I admit to be getting quite sick of Wulf, and I'm sure Malzberg was, too.  The series was supposed to be ten books, but that got pushed to fourteen.  Two more to go.  We don't get as much about Wulf in this book as in many of the other ones, though his sad story does get retold in some detail, with a few new nuggets added.  A lot of the book gets into the heads of the men Wulf is after, notably Carlin, who has control of the heroin scene in the southwest US.  Carlin's fear gets the better of him when he learns that Wulf is again on the prowl, and he sends men out to hunt him down.  But he knows that will never stop Wulf, and he panics.  He murders his girlfriend and one of two bodyguards he keeps at his house, then heads for Mexico City, thinking he will be well looked after there by his supplier friends.  Malzberg is quite the expert at describing people going insane, and the way they rationalize their outrageous actions.  This is another good entry in the series, especially the part where Wulf buddies up with one of the failed assassins sent out to get him.  His sympathy for the two bodyguards of the Mexico City boss also pays off, and provides an unusual moment in the story.

 

The Skraling Tree is from 2003, another Michael Moorcock fantasy featuring Elric, The Albino.  I am reminded of so many Dr. Who series that feature the Master.  After a few appearances he became nothing but a TV trope.  He would appear with new allies, a new evil plot (to take over the universe, or some such idea), and was completely invincible until the final 4 or 5 minutes of the final episode of the series.  After being defeated soundly (for the upteenth time) he would somehow escape, ready to go again in a new series.  Yawn.  And so we have Elric, Oona, and Count Bek out to save the universe yet again (or rather, all of them) from the same old bad guys we have seen in several past Elric stories.  These bad guys have been defeated so many times, but they do have stamina, since they keep reappearing like the Master, ready with a new and surefire scheme.  Yawn.  This time Moorcock tries to set his story in North America, sort of.  He does a lousy job of it.  Mixing in Indian mythology with Norse, and several layers of his own invention, the book is a sketch of a book, and nothing more.  The author doesn't bother to give us any real feel for where we are or what our heroes are doing, or are supposed to do.  We follow along as if on a journey where we not only do not know where we are or where we are going, but why we are going.  This gets old very quickly.  He tells his story from three different perspectives, adding to the confusion and overall senselessness of his tale.  Moorcock can be a very good writer, and often is.  But he can certainly turn out poor and boring work, too.  The story will appeal to people who really don't want any idea of what is happening or why.  My favourite part of the story is when an old dinosaur is located and killed; we get a sense of Moorcock's ability to really hit home with strong feelings and sympathy.  And my favourite character in the book, by far, is Bes the mastodon.  Her appearances are always welcome additions, since most of the other characters are made of pure cardboard.  Not a recommended Elric story. 

We now leave the Avon/Equinox SF Rediscovery authors and move on to the Delphi Classics series.  I keep adding authors to my collection, and this month I read a collection of early short stories by H. C. McNeile, or "Sapper" as he was often called.  We'll get to Bulldog Drummond eventually, so hang in there.  The Lieutenant and Others is from 1915 and contains a dozen stories.  Written during WWI, the first story sets the mood, offering readers a glimpse into the degradation and inhuman pastime of trench warfare.  Called "The Lieutenant: A Fortnight In France May 10-24 1915," it tells of a young man with privileges due to a rich father becoming an officer in the Great War and heading over to the trenches near Ypres.  His short-lived experiences are harrowing enough to change his entire outlook on life, and on the 14th day he is wounded and sent back home.  This is one of those stories that makes one really wonder why there are still wars.  Haven't we had enough yet?  A truly solid and very good piece of writing.  Next came a much shorter tale along the same lines, as a man visits Ypres before and after the bombardment.  Called "The End of Wipers," today it might be called The End of Kiev, or The End of Palestine, or even The End of Khartoum.  Etc.    very effective in a very short story.  Third came "The Black Sheep," about a lowlife man who enlists, but still remains a lowlife.  His end, however, is not different from any number of fine upstanding young men who also enlisted.

"James and The Land Mine" details how a soldier who doesn't care much for what is going on around him sets off a land mine charge ahead of schedule."  "The Sixth Drunk" describes an Irish soldier whose highlight of the week is his ration of rum, and how a dying colonel got that soldier's character so wrong.  "The Mine" is the story of Davy Jones, a Welsh miner tasked with building an underground cavern beneath a German trench, in order to set explosives.  A lot of the stories, such as this one and the one before, are not only poignant but quite humourous.  "Driver Robert Brown" is one of the best war stories I've ever read, about an average guy who enlists, wins no medals, but whose humanity strikes at the heart of what it means to be compassionate.  A truly wonderful tale.  "The Coward" is the type of story that most writers would foul up, as they would simply revile the character.  But McNeile gets deep, and instead of pouring scorn on the man who deserts his company as they head once again into the trenches, he gets into his head to see what exactly is going on there.  While no one can really like a coward, it helps to understand exactly where he is coming from.  This story manages to do that, in a few short pages.

"Ebeneezer The Goat" is the humourous account concerning Driver Robert Brown, whose demise occurred in the previous story.  Brown was a man who was kind to animals, and he inherited a goat.  Somehow the goat always intersected violently with the major, drawing the ire of the officer.  Brown tries to hide the goat in an underground unused mine, but this leads to the Belgians believing that the Germans are tunnelling beneath.  And so forth.  Whereas the story of Ebeneezer is humourous, "The Pepnotised Milk" is truly hilarious.  A bottle of special milk is sent to the men in the trenches, courtesy of an aunt of one of the men.  Very, very amusing.  "Will You Take Over His Horse, Sir?" is another hard hitting tale of the death of a young officer.  McNeile manages to almost casually tell stories that are truly heart-rending.  In this one the author speaks mostly to a cavalry horse that outlives his master.  Truly devastating.  "The Aftermath" is the final story, and it details what happens after a battle has been one and the clean up crew takes over.  For one thing, there are a lot of human and horse bodies and less complete remains to be buried.  Told quietly but with effect.  All in all this is a first rate collection of stories of the Great War, told in small doses that are much more effective than describing big battles.  Not a bad story in the lot, and quite a few are among the best I've ever read.  Highly recommended.

George Meredith is an author I first came across in reading and reviewing the Ballantine Adult Fantasy series (see separate blog).  He is one of the wittiest writers I have ever come across, certainly on a par with Oscar Wilde and Shaw, though his style is very different.  Readers of his 1861 novel Evan Harrington have to read a lot between the lines, and fill in some blank spaces between events.  This is a very long novel which took me 8 1/2 days to read.  I likely read it too quickly, as I am certain that a reread would showcase even more of the author's genius in dissecting the hypocrisy, contradictions and two-faced lives of the born aristocrat.  Evan is the son of a tailor, and when his father dies he must assume debts and pay them off.  His father was a wannabe gentleman, and Evan's three older sisters are trying to raise him as a gentleman.  The eldest sister, Louisa, is really the star of the show here, and Meredith throughout the narrative describes her as a military General leading her forces into battle, building allies and fighting off enemies as she tries to insert her brother into an aristocratic family (who really are not any such thing) by marrying him to the daughter.  Skirmishes, battles, setbacks and more setbacks are encountered by Louisa, yet each time she seems to emerge able to handle the new challenges ahead.  There is really no other character quite like her in literature, and though vile, untrustworthy, and scheming, she does it all for the good of her family, especially Evan.  This is a true wonder of a novel, and why it has not been adapted as a mini-series is a gross oversight that I hope someday will be rectified.  Perhaps it's still too scathing for believers in an English class system to swallow.  Highly recommended.

**** stars.

A. Merritt's Seven Footprints To Satan is from 1927, a crime thriller that has elements of fantasy.  Arch criminal "Satan" kidnaps Kirkham and forces him to undertake a museum robbery.  Satan is a mastermind on the level of Moriarty and Fu Manchu, and his isolated mansion is a warren of secret doors, elevators, and passageways.  Through drugs he controls the minds of many henchmen, but he has also attracted many intelligent and faithful followers.   His main claim to fame is his stairway with seven steps leading up to his throne, each with a footprint on it.  One takes one's chances by choosing any four footprints to step upon.  Step on the correct ones and Satan promises happiness and riches beyond belief.  Step on the wrong ones and one might expect to do a single service for the master, or owe him a year's service, or a lifetime of service, or instant death.  What his followers don't realize is that the footprints are rigged, so that Satan chooses the outcome he desires for each person.  It's up to Kirkham and his few allies to outwit Satan and prove to his followers that he has cheated them all along.

Satan's other claim to fame is the vast number of world treasures he has stolen, keeping them in his mansion for his own pleasure.  This is a cut away from the usual master criminal.  In Kirkham's words, "It came to me that he loved beauty even more than he did power; that he considered power only as a means toward beauty.  And that, evil though he was, he knew beauty better than any one alive."  Merritt has written a pretty decent crime novel, and it was made into a film in 1929.  I will be on the lookout for it.  The novel is certainly great fun to read, certainly one of the author's better efforts.

One of many editions of this still popular novel. 

 

Kwei Quartey is a practicing M.D. who has written several mystery novels set in Ghana, mostly Accra.  His first novel is from 2009 and is called Wife of The Gods.  Not having too many scoops into central African daily life and customs, I found this book as refreshing as the Navajo mysteries of Tony Hillerman.  Like all good Hillerman mysteries, the reader walks away from the finished book with a lot more than just a solved mystery.  While Quartey does not have the skills in this first book to really draw characters well, he does have a gift for story telling, and for holding our (mostly white) hands as he leads us through the good and the bad of African life.  Wife is set mostly in a very small town several hours away from Accra, where Detective Inspector Darko Dawson lives with his wife and six year old son.  So we learn much about village life in modern day Africa, and not so much about Accra (yet).  The mystery revolves around the murder of a young female medical student in a forest, volunteering at a local Aids clinic.  We meet many characters who are suspects, as well as ones who are helpful in tracking down the real killer.  We come across superstitious belief in witches, purveyors of traditional medicines, two bully local policemen, as well as a distrust of people from the city.  The book is crammed with local colour, and was an eye opening read for me.  Darko is a flawed character, too often flying off the handle and beating arrested suspects.  But he has good friends around him, including a retired detective that inspired Darko to become one himself.  More than one murder mystery gets solved in this book, too.  Fun to read and recommended for those mystery readers who need to be somewhere besides London, New York, or LA.

 

The Moth Presents All These Wonders is the first of three hardcover collections of true stories told by various people, many of them professional writers, actors, comedians, or celebrities in other fields.  The Moth is a type of club where people meet to tell their stories to one another in many different locations across the world.  From 2017, this collection contains 45 stories told by the people that they happened to.  Each of the 45 stories is worth hearing/reading, but there will be some that really strike to certain people's hearts.  I had a number of favourites including the first story, "The Moon and The Stars Talk."  A teenage girl has her mind opened up by conversations she has with Mark, a millionaire whom her mother worked for.  In "The Girl From Beckenham," a school dropout turned hairdresser gets to leave her own mark upon the world in a very unique manner.  "God, Death, and Francis Crick" again pairs a young person with a venerable older and wise person.  "Fog of Disbelief"tells the story of a nuclear plant engineer at Fukishima, and what happened to him on that fateful day.  "Walking With RJ" tells of a mother and son relationship after he has a terrible and debilitating accident.  "Go The %&# To Sleep" tells how a dad became a professional writer after putting down his inner monologue when his young daughter takes hours to fall asleep at night.  The stories vary between almost unfathomable tragedy to hilarious comedy.  "Stumbling In The Dark" is told by John Turturro, and the relationship he has with his mother and his brother, the latter of whom lives inside an asylum.  It recounts his experience during the great blackout of 2003, which affected us here at the Homestead as well.  "On Approach To Pluto" tells the story of what a female mission specialist felt when the Pluto mission encountered severe problems just before its arrival.  The final story is "California Gothic," a very funny tale of life as a 12 year old in LA during the early 1970s.

I will be ordering the other two volumes soon.  In the meantime, the Moth website is filled with podcasts and a library of stories to hear.  I cannot recommend this book, and the website, highly enough.  It is a life changing experience to hear these stories. 

 

The Three Mulamulgars is a children's story from 1919 by Walter de la Mare.  Recommended by my friend Thierry in Paris who publishes fantasy novels at his French press Callidor, it's taken me a while to get to it, but I finally got around to reading it.  First off, let me say that this must have been a real challenge to translate into French!  There are so many nonsense words in the vocabulary that reading it in English is challenging enough.  The story of three monkey brothers leaving their homeland to follow in their father's footsteps is an epic tale of hardship in the tradition of The Hobbit and Wizard of Oz.  The journey undertaken by large-sized Thumb, skinny bones Thimble, and youngest and smallest Nod will certainly appeal to lovers of Bilbo and Dorothy.  It seems unlikely that this tale would have been as good without Baum's tales.  And it seems unlikely that Tolkien's novel would have been as good without de la Mare's classic.  Having said this, of course all three novels mentioned above are among the most original children's fantasy novels ever written.  That de la Mare's can stand up there with the best of them will be evident to anyone having read the book.  There are unforgettable adventures along the way, including meeting characters such as Andy Battle, Ghiba, and the Water Midden.  The usually warm jungle is suddenly hit with a winter that no one has ever seen, greatly complicating the expedition.  The way the author blends real geography with fantasy geography is quite a marvel, especially through the sailor Andy Battle and his songs and stories.  All in all this is one of literature's great adventure novels, suitable for young and old, and worth reading more than once.  It was a great choice for Callidor, too.

 

Cover of the Callidor Press (French) version of the novel.  Art by 

Anouk Faure.  Check out their website!   

 

Mapman Mike