The coldest days of winter have begun, and will last until Thursday. Daily highs are far below freezing, with today's high reaching 13 F, and tomorrow's only 9 F. Tomorrow I am out for a haircut (badly needed) and a check up with Dr. Ling for my hearing and Meniere's progress. Dr. Ling is a pianist and we usually talk more about piano than medicine. He is also a very talented artist. No more outings this week, except perhaps for a birdseed run. I go through a lot when it's this cold, feeding the critters 3x a day.
Deb enjoyed a low key birthday. It's usually very cold on her day, and often snowing. This year it was only very cold. We played a game of Tokaido, one of our favourite board games, and baked a ginger birthday cake. We also watched a movie, chosen by Deb. So a quiet day, but pleasant enough. I have reloaded a PC game that we had made progress on but never finished, due to a very confusing amount of options on how to proceed. It just became too frustrating. So we will replay it with a walk-through, though when we come to a puzzle we will try to solve it ourselves. J.U.L.I.A. of The Stars is a very ambitious game, and the player is expected to explore a number of hostile planets and solve the mystery of what happened to a scientific expedition, who have all died and/or disappeared. More on this game later.
Deb's fantasy film choice was a children's movie from Czechoslovakia called Three Wishes For Cinderella, from 1973. In colour and starring a very pretty and bright-eyed Libuše Šafránková (1953-2021) as Cinderella, the story is a Christmas movie favourite in its home country. Playfully adapting the famous fairy tale, the girl is given three wishes through some magic given to her by a fatherly employee of the mean spirited step mother. She is a spunky thing, and doesn't give in easily. Her best friend is a white horse given to her by her deceased father, which she is forbidden to ride, or even visit in the stable. But she rides. A lot. Not the kind of film kids these days would appreciate, it does have considerable charm, mostly due to the main actress herself.
Also from 1973 comes Baba Yaga, a very different type of fantasy film. Guido Crepax was an Italian comic artist noted for his creation of Valentina. Valentina is a fashion photographer in Milan who gets mixed up with an older lesbian, played horribly by Carroll Baker. Valentina is prone to having S & M dreams, so sometimes we are not certain if what is happening on screen is a dream or not, until it is over. Isabelle De Funès plays the troubled Valentina, and she certainly resembles the comic book heroine. She is aided eventually by a boyfriend. A strange little film, though pretty tame by today's standards. There is a very creepy doll that occasionally comes to life to kill people. All of the Crepax comics are available for viewing (free) at readcomiconline.li.
Mapman Mike
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