I have had two wonderfully clear nights so far this session, and am hoping to score one more. The first night out was last Sunday. Sometime in the middle of that session I turned around and kicked my metal chair over. It was closer than I thought it was. It seemed to hit a spot on my foot that it really shouldn't have. Years ago I broke my right foot and remember well what that felt like. This feels pretty much the same. It is the left foot, up near and around the big toe. I've been gimping around on it all week, hoping that it will magically get better. The last break took six weeks to feel better, and despite x-rays and visits to the doctor, it still took six weeks with no interference. I will see how things are by Monday before I decide to visit my M.D. It still hurts when I walk on it, but the non-walking pain has subsided. Ice is helping, too. Unfortunately this may seriously interfere with late September travel plans, which have to do with lots of walking.
The two astronomy sessions were epic, though the warmest on record for me. When I began observing Sunday night it was 82 F at 10:30 pm. When I left at 2:00 am it was 79 F. A light breeze kept the bugs down. I returned on Monday night for a similar experience. It had been so hot during those two days (96 F and 98F) that the humidity had burned away, leaving me with a dry night and good sky transparency.
Our current passports have six months remaining, so it is time to renew them. The process will begin very soon, or sooner. By the time we travel to Europe there will be less than 3 months remaining on the old ones. Ten years managed to fly past us.
In more local news, we have had 5 days of 90 F+ so far this summer (which is one week old). That has come with enough humidity and rain to keep everything green and jungle like, including here at the Homestead. Here is a recent photo of our front yard day lilies (there are many in the back yard as well).
In movie news there are three to report. We just finished watching a very old favourite of ours. We sat down and turned on the live TV stream of Criterion. We caught the last half hour of an early Renoir film. We decided just to see what was coming on next (commercial free of course), and ended up sitting through a two hour movie. It was Peter Weir's The Last Wave. The more times we see this film the more we are able to pull out of it. It is a masterpiece of cross cultural contact, as well as being carefully thought out and brilliantly executed. It remains one of our top favourite films.
Vicky Christina Barcelona is a film written and directed by Woody Allen from 2008. The film uses the backdrop of Barcelona for romantic comedy that seems to gloss the surface of relationships rather than try to delve into them. It also glosses the surface of art and of the city of Barcelona itself. In fact it is difficult to say what this film is about. Two young woman, one of whom is recently engaged, come under the spell of a handsome Spanish painter. One of the women ends up living with him for a time, while the other has sex with him once, despite feeling guilty about her engagement. While clever dialogue and some half decent acting helps thing along, overall the film is a bit of a mess, as it barely skims of the surface of what a relationship is. Of course it means something different to each person in the story, but none of this is really explored very deeply. It is romantic, and it does have humour, but it doesn't seem to have much spark to it. It is certainly a film I would not wish to see again.
Finally came Rene Clair's 1928 silent film The Italian Straw Hat. With a running time of nearly two hours, this is an overlong romantic adventure film. though often very funny, it just seems to go on and on with the same joke. For instance, the marriage ceremony is presided over by a windbag of a marriage officiant, As he drones on and on various parts of the plot continue elsewhere, while we are also entertained by the relatives sitting through it all. The concept is quite good and often really funny, but it carries on and on until you never want to see another marriage ceremony as long as you live. The married woman whose hat was half eaten by a horse and her military man lover are not very good characters, and they are given way too much screen time. Cut the film by 25-30 minutes and it might have been a masterpiece. As it is it requires far too much patience from the viewer to sit through.
Coming soon: June books reading summary. See you then.
Mapman Mike
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