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 It's quite a good film, though obviously the technology is somewhat outdated.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.
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.
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.
Mapman Mike
