Winter in Sudbury, likely 1968 or 69. My brother Steve stands at the end of our driveway, which lies buried in snow. I grew up here, leaving age 22. I've been living in southwest Ontario ever since. Can you guess why? It's probably -20 or -25 C at the time.The year's TV watching was dominated by a lot of Star Trek, including the final season of Next Generation, the 3-season series Picard, and season 2 of Discovery. However, our very favourite series was Lower Decks, an animated series that is probably the best Star Trek thing ever done. There are five seasons of this must-see show.
Life in the (very) slow lane was provided by Canal Boat Diaries, and we enjoyed Monsieur Spade, a crime drama that takes place in a small town in France. We also watched the first 10 episodes of Foundation, with 20 more to go (and more on the way). We got to see all the episodes of Dr. Who with Ncuti Gatwa, finding him to be one of the better doctors of the series.
We watched a Netflix drama called House of Guinness with my mom in Sudbury. We didn't realize at the time that there was a series 2 in the planning stage, and the otherwise pretty good show ended rather stupidly. We also saw an excellent documentary series called The Victorians, a fabulous BBC series that looks at that age through its paintings.
Deb watched many series on her own, including one she would recommend called Ludwig.
In movie watching for the year, regular readers of this blog will know that we watch a lot of movies in a year. Well over a hundred. So I will list some of the best ones we saw for the first time, leaving out many old favourites that we enjoy watching again.
Ripley's Game starring John Malkovich was a highlight for me, as was Sicario by Denis Villeneuve. Both are crime thrillers at the top of their class. The Truman Show starring Jim Carrey and directed by Peter Weir was also quite amazing. An Asian film by Hou Hsiao-Hsien called The Assassin was also quite extraordinary All are highly recommended.
The top prize goes to a very strange but extremely fun to watch film called Grand Theft Hamlet. This film is a must see, not only for gamers and lovers of Shakespeare, but by just about anyone who has obsessed over something in their life. This is an eminently brilliant film, one of a kind, and one of the best things to come out of the Covid restrictions.
All films mentioned here can be searched within the blog (use the tiny search form at the top left of the blog). Other films worth mentioning and seeing were Viy, a film based on a Gogol horror story; The Tube With The Hat and Plastic Semiotica, two film shorts by Radu Jude; The Sargasso Manuscript; Demon Pond; Crazy Ray (Rene Clair); An Accidental Studio (a doc about Handmade Films); Fantastic Mr. Fox (Wes Anderson); a mid-length indie short feature called Call of Cthulhu;
All The President's Men (about Watergate); Throw Down (Johnnie To); Oh Moon, a very special Turkish film; Only The River Flows by Wei Shu Jun; and two films by Bi Gan: Kailie Blues, his first feature; and Long Day's Journey Into Night (his 2nd feature). His third feature is now out in selected theatres.
In local news, we have now had 25 days where the temperature has not risen above 0, or even to 0. However, relief is on the way, and the ten day forecast calls for more normal temps, and even a bit above on some days, so we should get above 0 C a lot in the next while. Just as we approach the time of year when it should begin to get cold, lo and behold it turns mild. We have the tiniest amount of snow, which will likely be gone on the first mild and sunny day.
Our quiet holidays have come to a quiet end. We celebrated the New Year with London UK, watching the fireworks and uncorking our champagne at 7 pm EST. Saturday night was a full moon night, so we partied some more. We finished up our PC game called Slice of Sea. While it is a fun game, there are so many areas that require remembering how to get back to them, as inventory items are scattered helter-skelter across the game, that it is best to have a walk-thru handy. Otherwise, you end up wandering through landscape after landscape trying to find your way back to where your new inventory piece fits. The art is terrific in this one, and the game is well worth playing. We are now playing Sherlock Holmes and The Hound of the Baskervilles, an old game but still quite fun. We have played about an hour so far.
We did have one social occasion during the holidays, a very welcome visit from Amanda L. She arrived with gifts of dark beer and coffee beans, so we had to admit her to the hallowed halls of the Homestead. Amanda lives in Toronto (she is from A'burg and her family still lives in the area) in a house share, and she is desperate to get her own place there. We always enjoy visits with her, and we did get to have dinner with her in Toronto on our visit there last year. I got to run through my piano program for her, which helped me a lot. I will perform it for a few friends on Saturday, before deciding whether to record the pieces or just start new ones.
Next time I'll mention some of the best books read last year. Check back soon.
Mapman Mike
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