The Kidney Stone Odyssey, Season Two Episode 2

Not my kidney stone; Deb's.  During the past week we have spent many hours in different ER departments.  The upshot is that after Deb's CT scan a very large and unmoving stone was found.  It will have to come out the hard way; through surgery, like her previous one in April.  This stone is even larger, however.  Next move is an appointment with a urologist next Thursday.  Presumably we will be given a date for the surgery at that time.  No one can say what is causing this.  We know it isn't diet related.  At least I have been able to read a lot this week, sitting around waiting in hospitals.

In news regarding my foot, it seems to have reached a point where it is 70% healed but refuses to progress further.  I can walk on it for about ten minutes at a time, with some pain and occasional limping.  Right now it feels like a sprained big toe, which is an improvement on how it felt even a  month ago. 

 

So much for health news; more later no doubt.   In film news there are a couple at least.  A really decent Lovecraft film is difficult to come by.  However, Deb found an indie version of The Call of Cthulhu.  It is from 2005, a silent film that reminds us of what Guy Maddin could have become, instead of continuing to head down his mostly dead end road.  Cthulhu was directed by Sean Leman, and is distributed by the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society.  Although only 47 minutes long it took about two years to film.  Deb found it on one of her indie film channels, but it might be available on Youtube.  If so, don't wait.  This is a great little film, the best Lovecraft film ever made.

 

Find this if you can!  Try Youtube. 

 

Another oddball film, this time from Criterion is Neptune Frost, a US/Rwanda film from 2021 and directed by Saul Williams and Anisia Uzeyman.  Besides being too long and not making much sense, there are still some interesting moments and a few good musical moments.  Here is the blurb from Criterion:

 

...this visually wondrous sci-fi punk musical takes place in the hilltops of Burundi, where a group of escaped coltan miners form an anticolonialist hacker collective. From their camp in an otherworldly e-waste dump, they attempt a takeover of the authoritarian regime exploiting the region's natural resources—and its people. Set between states of being—past and present, dream and waking life, colonized and free, male and female, memory and prescience—Neptune Frost is an invigorating and empowering direct download to the cerebral cortex and a call to reclaim technology for progressive political ends. 

 

Don't believe too much of the above, but as I said there are some fun moments.  I can't really recommend the film, but if you do sit through it you will be impressed by some of the clothes, hair and attitudes of the people.  The philosophy and ideas being put forth sound a lot like first or second year university thinking.  The message is not clearly brought forth, either, simple as it is.  It is a bit like talking about cooking up a great meal and serving it, only when the food arrives what you have in front of you is a pork chop and a baked potato.  A bit less theatrical imagery and silliness might have brought the message out.  However, the best thing about the film is the theatrical imagery and silliness.  Certainly one of a kind. 

 

In train news I am now driving three different routes in Scotland, as well as about half a dozen each in Germany and England, as well as one (so far) in Switzerland.  Though I find the driving relaxing in many ways, it is always an intense experience, especially if on a timetable.  A driver can't take his mind or his eye off of what he is doing, or a major event will occur.  It's scary to think how much we rely on such drivers for our safe journeys, not to mention airline pilots.  Train Sim World 5, though, is a blast.  I can drive the trains, ride as a passenger, or be a conductor.  I am not interested in being a conductor.  You can also walk around stations fixing things, planting flowers, or setting up bicycle and/or first aid posts.  The trains depart and arrive as you walk around the different stations.  It's easy to "teleport" from station to station, too.  Or you can just jump on a train going your way.  I'll report soon on my favourite routes.

 

I'm currently driving this train towards North Queensferry Station crossing the Forth Bridge.  I can control the weather, too, so I will post some foggy images later on. 

 

Mapman Mike
 

 

Summer Heat Is Back

We had a few days of relief, with highs only in the high 70s and low 80s.  But the heat is back again and will get worse over the weekend.  Deb is not enjoying her latest kidney stone.  It is causing a good deal of discomfort.  Her family doctor called her twice today, but he didn't even know about the kidney stone at first.  So Dr. Shen is back on the case again.  I wish he was my doctor.

Lately I've been practicing piano, reading, driving trains, looking at maps, getting my astronomy notes organized and up to date (with Deb's help), and watching films and various TV series.  At lunch we usually watch shorter series, such as Corner Gas, The Addams Family (the original b&w TV series), Monty Python's Flying Circus and, possibly best of them all, Star Trek: Lower Decks.  We only have one final episode of that series remaining to watch.  It is easily my favourite Star Trek series.  We are also watching a short series on riding some of the UK's coastal railways, hosted by Julie Walters.  On The Learning Channel (Great Courses) we just finished a 24 part lecture series on the history of railroads, and are currently amidst another fine one on great churches of the world.

 

In film news, there are a few to report.  Alec Guinness: A Class Act is a 2025 documentary that features interviews with a wide variety of people that knew and loved him.  Included is a granddaughter who greatly resembles him.  There are dozens of clips from his films, including Star Wars, of course.  Actors, directors and friends all speak well of this peerless actor.  My favourite films of his are the ones made under tight budgets with Ealing Studios, a few of which are still among the greatest films ever made.  It is currently showing on Acorn TV.  A don't miss film for fans.

 

Now showing on Acorn TV in Canada. 

  

Ladies Paradise is a dreary 1930 French film directed by Julian Duvivier.  It tells a weepy story about the growth of great department stores at the expense of the little shopkeeper.  One stubborn old coot, a tailor, refuses to sell his property for an expansion of a department store, despite the fact that he has already lost all his customers and his building is crumbling around him as he looks on.  He eventually goes nuts and decides that a wild shooting spree is in order.  He is soon afterwards hit and killed by a passing truck (delivering for the big department store across the street).  His niece, who came to him for a job, instead takes one at the department store as a model and has a romance with the boss.  The film echoes themes found in really bad novels.  Despite the crude and rather tiresome story, the camera work is very sophisticated and experimental.  I hope that was the main reason for the restoration.

 

Leaving Criterion August 31st. 

 

Ripley's Game is from 2002 and was directed by Liliana Cavani.  John Malkovich makes a believable and totally incredible Ripley, and the story seems to follow Highsmith closer than other versions.  Tom Ripley is living the high life in an Italian mansion.  He has a young and beautiful girlfriend or wife who is a performer on the harpsichord.  At the beginning Ripley shows his ability to be both savvy and ruthless, as he pulls off a great phony art sale, murders two people and outwits his partner in crime.  This partner is the wrench in the works, eventually causing Tom no end of problems.  Though we have seen Tom in his mansion, we now see how much work he has to undertake to maintain his lifestyle.  When a dying neighbour insults him at a party Tom gets his revenge by sending him to his previous partner, who is looking for an innocent person to carry out an assassination or two.  The first one goes well, but the second one, on a train, really goes off the rails.  By this time Ripley has taken to the dying man and offers valuable assistance, both on the train and later.  The final scenes, as all of the scenes in this tautly directed film, are suspenseful and exciting, showing Tom Ripley at his best (worst).  He is not a man to mess with.  Though the end is tragic and will affect Tom, he is able to carry on afterwards, even making it on time to his girlfriend's big recital.  A solid film all around, and recommend both for Malkovich and Highsmith fans.

 

Leaving Criterion August 31st. 

 

Lastly comes a Hong Kong martial arts film called The 36th Chamber of Shaolin.  From 1978 the story follows a young boy who wishes not only to train in kung fu, but to bring the art to the masses so they can revolt against the oppressors (the Tartars in this film).  Unusual for its class of film, this one spends most of the time showing the boy in training, and how his mind and body are prepared.  Though no doubt the training has some bit of reality to it, a lot of what is put on screen is quite laughable, as anyone undertaking such training would die long before they completed the course.  Just one example is the head banging training, but there are others.  Anyhoo, the boy turns out to be a superstar and completes all 35 training programs.  Then he asks his masters if he can open a 36th program.  He wants to train lay people.  The monks aren't too happy with this idea.  The choreographed fights are, as usual, pretty boring.  Most martial arts fights would last under a minute, but Hong Kong ones go on and on and on (and on).  And, as per usual, the bad guy is just as good, somehow, as the hero.  That is, until that final punch, kick, or head butt.  If the training had been a bit more sensible and not so sadistic this might have been a good film.  As a person who has had training in judo, karate, and iaido, I know from personal experience that the body takes enough punishment without having to add any more.

 

Now playing on Mubi. 

 

I have to add a few more train pics from some of my recent services.....  Here are some night shots.

 

A quiet evening on the London Overground service.

 

California desert.  Passenger service to LA.

 

Passenger service to LA.

 

London Overground.
 

Mapman Mike 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lammas Holiday

 This is one of three big summer festivals we celebrate.  It's a good time to celebrate all the good things that grow in our area.  Peaches and nectarines are coming forth, veggies galore, corn, wheat and of course the blueberries.  This began as a blueberry festival for us years ago, and we usually continue that tradition.  We also get new Tarot cards today, as it is a cross-quarter day, running opposite to Candlemas in early February.  Best of all we have a two day reprieve from the ongoing summer heat and humidity.  We've had nine days of 90+ F, and far more than that of 88 and 89 F. Windows are open this morning despite the traffic noise.  We will also roast some coffee beans on the back deck later, and open our new patio chairs.  The fun never stops around here, let me tell you.

 In medical news, the foot continues to heal, but slowly.  Twenty minutes of slow walking spread over an entire day causes pain and limping.  In worse news for our travel plans Deb has managed to acquire another kidney stone, this time in the opposite kidney.  She is positively thrilled about this news.  Life goes on.  No big travelling until that comes out.  There might be another chance for London in late October.

In film news we watched The Ghost Writer, a 2010 thriller directed by Roman Polanski.  A writer gets more than he bargained for when he takes over the project of a recent former Prime Minister of the UK's autobiography.  The first ghost writer was murdered.  That gives us a clue as to the new guy's intelligence.  But he gets dumber and dumber as the film goes on.  He eventually figures out who is behind horrible torture incidents that the former PM is now being blamed for.  Of course we figured out who it was a long time before that.  So he figures it out, then actually tells the person he knows what he/she did, and that he knows all about it.  And he doesn't tell anyone else, or pass on the evidence to anyone else.  Pretty smart guy, isn't he?  The ending, as a result, is a sour one.  Bad guys win, but only because of the supposed stupidity of the good guy.  Up until the final scene the movie was very well directed and somewhat plausible.  But the ending spoils things.  Would anyone actually be that stupid?  Hardly, especially if they had watched any movies in their lifetime, or read a mystery novel or two.  If you enjoy watching a pretty good film until it is spoiled in the final thirty seconds, this one is just for you.

 

The film has left Criterion. 

 

Fantastic Mr. Fox is an animated featured based on a story by Roald Dahl and directed by Wes Anderson.  This one is a winner.  From 2009 it features the voice talents of many famous actors, and it's fun guessing who they might be while watching (credits are at the end).  Mr. Fox used to run pretty wild in his younger days as a chicken thief.  But now that he is married and has a wife and cub he promises to turn over a new leaf.  However, he can't resist just one more raid.  Which turns into three more raids.  This starts the adventure that Mr. Fox would later often wish had never begun.  The script is fast, furious and funny, and things mostly move along at a merry pace.  The designs of the animals and people are more than perfect, and the animation is great fun to behold.  Highly recommended, even if, like me, you are really tired of Wes Anderson.

 

Showing on Starz. 

 

Mapman Mike

 

 

 

 

 

 

July Reading Summary

July was a fairly good month for reading.  It was too hot and humid to do much outdoors, though I did get four wonderful nights of observing with the 12" scope.  This took four nights away from my reading, but overall there were so many medical appointments between us that I got to read a lot in waiting rooms.  I continue to give Moorcock's fiction a rest, so my Avon/Equinox SF Rediscovery project only features two authors now: E C Tubb with two on-going SF series, and Kenneth Bulmer with one Fantasy series.

Seg The Bowman is from 1984 and is 142 pages long, not including the final glossary.  This completes the Pandahem Cycle Part 2 of the Dray Prescott series.   In this story we get Seg's side of the story after he and Dray were separated at the end of Volume 29.  29, 30, and 32 detail Dray's adventures, while #32 tells Seg's story.  Seg has rescued who he believes is the Queen's handmaiden, and pledges to deliver her safely back to her home.  The King and Queen were killed in the cave adventure (#28).  Seg's adventures pretty much mirror the kind of things that usually happen to Dray, and Seg is pretty much the same hero type as well.  Other than his romantic interest in Tilsi, we could pretty much substitute Dray in this adventure.  This is unfortunate.  At least the volume about Deliah's adventures provided contrast to the adventure series.  New characters are introduced, both good and bad.  There are prisons, escapes, injustices, creatures and a battle.  Two pygmy forest natives add some zest to the proceedings, as they wish to escape the jungle and assimilate into the outer world.  A good entry in the series, but there is very little that is very new.  Seg makes a landmark bow shot and marries Tilsi, who, it turns out, really was the Queen after all. 

Cover art by Ken W Kelly, from vol. 32 of the series. 

 

Jack of Swords is #14 from the Dumarest series by E C Tubb.  It is from 1976 and is 152 pages long.  I am continually amazed at how pulp writers of Tubb's quality can continually reinvent the Dumarest myth.  Take the same character, plunk him into similar situations and often facing the same type of enemy, and make it a readable offering.  Tubb and Bulmer both do it over and over, and while the stories do vary somewhat in quality, overall they maintain a high enough standard to make readers continue buying the books.  Having said that, I wish both series were over and I could get on with more literary aspects of my reading and reviewing project.  But like a comfortable bed one returns to gladly night after night, these stories continue to provide just enough interest and quality to keep readers like me going. 

In the latest adventure Dumarest is hired on as bodyguard to a merchant seeking out the Ghost Planet, called Balhadorha.  A mythical world, it offers those can find it the promise of untold riches.  As a result, a lot of rather greedy people go seeking this dangerous world.  We end up on a truly alien planet with a city that is seemingly unreachable from without its walls.  But our intrepid explorers, thanks to Dumarest's help, manage to get inside.  I love these kind of SF stories, where strange uninhabited futuristic cities from a distant past lure the explorer and reader ever deeper into its mysteries.  This one doesn't disappoint, and while it is true that a lot of what was promised could be delivered by this strange world, in the end no one risks their life to find out if true happiness ever would be achieved by partaking in the strange mist (a la H. Rider Haggard) except for one old and very sick woman who has nothing to lose.  Another decent entry in the series, though Dumarest's goal of finding out more about Earth's location comes to nothing.

 

Original 1976 cover by Tom Barber.

I read the Kindle edition. 

 

Once again I am giving Michael Moorcock a miss this month, so it's now on to the Delphi Classics!  First up was Sherwood Anderson's 3rd novel, called Poor White. From 1920 it is a long and somewhat meandering look at the late coming industrial revolution to the quiet towns and byways of middle America.  With the railroads well in place, industry was confined to the major cities for many years.  Bidwell was a typical quiet Ohio town until Hugh McVey arrived.  McVey grew up poor along the Mississippi River in Missouri south of St. Louis, with a drunk for a father.  Hugh was a dreamer and destined to sleep his life away and become nothing more than another poor white without a dream to follow.  But he is given a job at a small railroad depot and taken in by the husband and wife who manage it.  The wife eventually educates Hugh so he can read and write, and instills in him a work ethic that goes against his nature.  He struggles to keep focused on getting ahead.  When the couple move away Hugh takes over the station, eventually moving on to Bidwell in the northeast of his home.

A newer long segment then introduces us to Clara Butterworth, whose father believes himself to be a big man in Bidwell.  He and Clara do not get along and she eventually completes three years of college in Columbus, where her mind is expanded, especially by a female friend she makes there.  When she returns to Bidwell things are stirring, and industry has finally arrived.  Hugh has turned out to be an inventor, and his patents soon make him a wealthy man.  His painful shyness, however, will not allow him to make any male friends, and he cannot even look at a woman, let along speak to her.  

Later episodes deal with the strange marriage between Hugh and Clara, until at last she gains an understanding of him and he learns to trust her.  More than anything this is a story of industry coming to sleepy parts of the Midwest.  Farms and orchards disappear to make way for factories, and by the end of the novel there are motor cars speeding along the dirt roads.  The author has a true grasp of the situation and how it affected small towns, turning them almost overnight into powerhouses of industry and innovation, with Ohio at the centre of much of it.  The novel is a good read, despite the frustratingly shy and insecure character of Hugh.  At least we get a break from him as Anderson explores many other characters in his story besides Hugh and Clara.  America was just beginning its great love affair with "progress" and industry and power, at the cost of Nature and Humanity, as Anderson so deftly illustrates.

 

J K Bangs' Mr. Bonaparte of Corsica is from 1895.  Try to imagine if Dave Barry or some such funny man had written a general biography of Napoleon.  Bang's finds humour everywhere, and does historically cover all the main events of Bonaparte's very eventful life.  While the humour is often dry and relies heavily on puns, it is still quite readable and seems very modern.  I would not wish to use quotes in a scholarly paper, but it makes for fun history reading aimed at the general public.  If one knew nothing about Napoleon before reading this book, one can come away with important dates and events secure, at least.  The rest is pure stand up comedy.

 

J. M. Barrie's When A Man's Single was first published in 1888.  All the ingredients of a late Victorian novel are here.  A handsome and ambitious small village Scotsman wishes to become a reporter.  Angus meets Mary and his life turns upside down.  She is a sizable station above him in British class life.  She loves Angus but is destined to marry a baronet whom she does not love.  A wilful father will not have things turn out differently for his only daughter.  Angus moves to London after hearing of Mary's engagement (which never happened), and after months of hard work gets himself a position in Fleet Street.  Will Mary have him now?  Will her father give way?  Does anyone really care?  Well, actually, yes.  Barrie is fast becoming a very good writer, and his characters are often unique (Mary's older brother, for one).  His pages have humour, despite a very tragic opening chapter (Mary's younger brother, for example).  As it it is not a long novel (one volume instead of the expected three) I can recommend it.  After reading the opening chapter I was reminded of a longer musical piece by The Chieftains called "The Lost Child."  If you've never heard it, give it a listen.

 

 The Gates of Wrath is a novel by Arnold Bennett from 1903.  It is a tale of crime and passion and madness, quite a fun read for the most part.  A widower, her older male friend and her 18 year old daughter (also a widower) scheme to steal a fortune from a young man, left to him by his father but as yet unknown to him.  First, the young one marries him.  Then they get him to make out a will leaving everything to her.  Then they tell him about his inheritance, expecting him to be overjoyed.  Afterwards, they plan to kill him.  The plotters remind me a lot of Boris and Natasha from the Rocky and Bullwinkle Show.  Each time they begin to enact their dastardly plans, they are foiled in one way or another.  Firstly, the young man already knows about his inheritance but has no wish to claim it.  Secondly, the young woman falls in love with him, eventually spilling the beans about her evil mother and her plot.  It is a short novel but certainly readable.  Some fun steam train passages, too.

 

Algernon Blackwood's The Education of Uncle Paul is from 1903.  It comes close to being a truly great novel.  Uncle Paul is a strange man, almost as strange as his young niece Nixie (she is 9 or 10).  Together they explore a wonderful world of imagination, mostly through interactions with Nature. The book will immediately remind readers of the works of Arthur Machen, whom Blackwood greatly admired.  Paul River is 44 years old, and left England at an early age, eventually becoming a person who scouts the deep woods of Minnesota and Canada for good hardwood trees to harvest.  He has formed a deep bond with Nature, though the book never deals with how many trees he has caused to be exterminated.  He is comfortable living off the land, and is often gone for weeks via canoe on his scouting missions.

When his sister's husband dies, who was also Paul's best friend back in England, he decides to return to England and spend some time with her.  He takes a one year leave from his job and as his ship approaches the old world he realizes how unfit he is to live in such a modern world.  The house is surrounded by a small woodland, however, and Paul soon immerses himself in the surrounding lands.  His companion on his voyage of discovery is Nixie, oldest child of four in the household, and a kindred spirit to his own.

While some deep and penetrating discoveries are made, the book overdoes things somewhat in the final section, going a little bit too far into the realm of the unknown.  While the ending is comforting and would appeal perhaps to older children, as this is mainly a novel for adults I find the final portion of the book too over the top.  It no longer seems like a novel but someone's own spiritual experience embellished with a lot of tinkling laughter and dancing lights.  However, I do recommend the book, as it is unique in my experience.  One man's search for truth and enlightenment through Nature and childhood experience makes for reading that doesn't come around very often.

 

Damon Knight's In Search of Wonder (1956, 1967, 1996) is not only the best book of SF criticism I have ever read, but the best book of literary criticism I have ever read.  He essentially founded SF criticism with this epic book, which is over 450 pages long.  While it most thoroughly covers the 1950s, the updated editions bring things a little closer to most people's foggy remembrances of some of their first SF reading material.  All the great writers are here, and they often get skewered nearly as much as the true junk writers.  While there is a lot of things I disagree with, I find Knight so clear and concise and thorough that he is often hard to argue with.

This is the book of criticism that Michael Moorcock did such a hack job with, those his field was Fantasy.  Often Moorcock's writing made no sense, and more often than not he did not present any sort of case.  It wasn't a book of criticism, but a book of his likes and dislikes.  Quite a different thing than Damon Knight's masterpiece here.

There are 33 chapters, and I think I found something to enjoy in each of them.  The "Chuckleheads" chapters are priceless, as some of the writing being skewered is just so bad that it hurts.  Besides tackling individual authors, I found his most fun chapters to be on Symbolism (a truly outrageous bit of writing!), and a chapter dealing really well with the question of What Is Science Fiction, Anyway?  The book ends with a chapter on how to write SF.  There is also an extensive bibliography.  I should have read this book for the first time 40 years ago, but I'm glad I finally discovered it (thank you to James Blish).  I cannot recommend this book highly enough to old school SF fans.  It was a great way to finish off the month.