Iron Time

For reasons not yet completely understood Deb has been losing iron from her blood at an alarming rate.  At first it was gradual, but then it seemed to accelerate over the past two months, to the point where she can't do much for very long.  To say she is frustrated would be an understatement.  Thursday she received the first of two massive iron infusions.  She gets another one next week, then sees her specialist in April.  So this can take a long time to work.  Her levels of hemoglobin are correspondingly low, and with the added iron should eventually re-balance itself.  In the meantime we wait. And wait.  We're hoping for some improvement this week.  We'll see.

 

We finished watching Season Two of Foundation, loosely based on Asimov's first book in the series.  There are ten more episodes to go.  Maybe next week.  I am getting tired of the same characters, who die and then seem somehow to return to life.  We have also been watching a French TV series from 2023 called Mademoiselle Holmes.  She is supposedly the great granddaughter of Sherlock, and lives with her grandfather in a French chateau near Nantes.  She works in the city as a policewoman, and has a young intern doctor with her (her Watson).  In the third episode it appears that it is more likely that she is a descendant of Moriarty (her dad) and Holmes (her mom).  Not much is explained yet in the major arc, but in the meantime she is building a reputation in the department as a crime solver.  She is hyperactive, has some emotional and mental problems (she usually takes meds), and plays fiddle in the style of Brittany folk music.  So far it's an engaging series and she is likable to a certain extent (like Holmes).  It is showing on PBS Masterpiece.

 

The first season is streaming on PBS Masterpiece. 

 

In film news there are two to report.  The Fan is Otto Preminger's 1949 filming of Lady Windermere's Fan.  It was Oscar Wilde's first great stage success and he was asked for more of the same afterwards.  Jean Crain plays the young newlywed who thinks her husband (Richard Greene) is having an affair with an older woman of somewhat ill repute.  Madelaine Carroll, in her final role, plays the older woman who carries with her a great secret.  George Sanders is a character who is also in love with the married Crain, and almost gets to steal her from her husband.  The director adds a framing device, beginning and ending the story is contemporary post-war London, and it does the play no harm.  Sanders gets some of the best lines, but he seems to hurry through them without much emphasis.  Still, this is a decent film though I would much rather see it performed live in a theater.

 

Now showing on Criterion. 

 

TNT Jackson is from 1974, a kung fu film starring black actors, but it takes place in Hong Kong.  Starring Millie Milan as a gal looking to avenge the murder of her brother, and Rudy Ray Moore as the guy she is looking for.  Mostly action with a bit of dialogue, as least the film is fast paced.  There is at least one good scene with a carnival taking place.  At one point a group of dancers and revelers is lured into a police station, where Ms. Jackson is being held.  In the ensuing chaos she is freed.  The entire carnival sequence is quite well done.  From our Mill Creek Entertainment DVD collection, called "Drive-in Classics."  Not much of a classic, though.

 

From one of our 50 Movie DVD boxed sets. 

 

We continue making progress with Black Mirror, an older PC game we are now playing off of Steam.  I have been getting rid of my DVD games as they come up on Steam.  They run better and look better, though I am still keeping discs that have not yet appeared on Steam.  I continue driving trains, adding Austria to my ever-growing list of countries.  I'm behind in my screenshots, so here are a few from my many services undertaken.

     

Approaching Meissen Station, Germany.

 

London Overground, dusk.

 

London Overground, dusk.

 

Along the Rhine, Germany.

 

Hauling tanker cars in California. 

 

Mapman Mike

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sorrentino's Latest Film

 Once in a blue moon a film comes along that truly deserves the term masterpiece.  I used that word to describe the director's earlier film The Great Beauty, which I claim is a sequel to La Dolce Vita.  His latest film is the 2025 La Grazia, starring Toni Servillo as an aged Italian president serving out the final days of his six year term, and Anna Ferzetti as his daughter and aide.  The film is sublime and so far from what most people would imagine a major motion picture to be.  Servillo is at his best as a man questioning his own worth and his ability to make difficult decisions.  On his mind are two pardons for murderers, and a bill he must sign before it becomes law on euthanasia for humans.  The film is both deep and accessible.  At times the president is a pig-headed man who can't seem to move a step in any direction.  For years he has been emotionally paralyzed following the death of his wife, whom he adored.  However, he had learned that she had been unfaithful to him one time, and he has created a private hell for himself trying to discover who that person was.  Beautifully photographed, we were both surprised by the use of rap music in the film, by a director known for his esoteric taste in film music.  However, the judicious use of rap somehow aids the film and the incongruity of an old man rapping is a gem of a moment in this film filled with gem-like moments.  The scenes with the dying horse ("Elvis") are very painful to watch, and we wonder just how cruel the president can possibly be.  But once the horse dies he has changed; he is now able to clearly make his important decisions.  Especially since he now knows who slept with his wife.  This is a film worth many viewings.  Unmissable.

 

Showing on Mubi and looking great on our 55" screen. 

Another film, though not a rival to La Grazia, is an Indian film from 2024 called All We Imagine As Light.  Directed by Payal Kapadia, the story is set at first in Mumbai.  We follow two nurses, a younger one and a more experienced one, as well as the female commissary cook who they befriend.  There are hospital scenes and street scenes, with the latter having a documentary effect in their starkness and chaos.  The youngest nurse is in love with a Muslim boy, while her parents are sending her photos of eligible men that she should marry.  She cannot even broach the subject with them of her Muslim boyfriend, and the film boldly goes where virtually no other Indian film has dared, up to the point where they make love (in one of the most tasteful love scenes ever filmed).  The older nurse is tied into an arranged marriage.  Her husband works in Germany and hasn't even called her in over ten years.  He does send her a rice cooker, though, but with no message.  She gets up enough courage to call him, but an answering machine with a woman's voice is her only contact, and she quickly hangs up.  The older lady is being chased from her home by developers who want to put up a large condo and not compensate her.  She moves back to her ocean-side village, and the two nurses accompany her.  It isn't until we get to the beach that things finally heat up plot-wise.  All three women have made bold decisions in the end, giving their own interests and well-being top priority.  Beautifully filmed and very well acted, the film is definitely worth seeking.  No violence, no guns, no murders, no drugs and no weak female characters.  And prodding the Romeo and Juliet theme with a Hindu girl and a Muslim boy is taking things pretty far in the India of today.  Overall quite well done.

 

Now showing on Criterion. 

 

In weather news, Spring is here!  At least for a while.  Snow is melting and temps are bouncing up to where they should be and above.  Though it's been a terribly cold winter (we've had 49 days where the temp did not rise above freezing; most of those days it didn't even get close), we have had plenty of sun.  We've seen many beautiful sunsets as we watch the northern march of the sun towards its Equinox position.  Whereas the UK has had quite mild temps by comparison, they have had so much rain in places that they haven't seen the sun in weeks.  I'll take the cold.  Especially since we have had barely any snow.  And New Mexico and many western US mountain states have had virtually none this year.  That is really bad news, as the water reservoirs out west all depend on snowpack, and there isn't any.  Even Florida is now in a drought situation!  That's quite a climate hoax someone is perpetuating.

 

In health news Deb continues to crash towards bottom.  Her infusion won't take place until next Thursday.  Her blood work results from Thursday show a steady decline.  She is very tired most of the time, and can not even stand up without having breathing problems.  And on we go....

 

Mapman Mike 

 

 

 

Piano Repertoire

 February is off to a brutally cold start, though we are still very limited in the amount of snow we have received this year.  I'm sure that will arrive later in the month.  Still, we are hopeful that things will begin to end by the middle of the month.  It went briefly above freezing yesterday, before crashing to today's brutal tempts.  46 days so far with no rise above freezing, and several more in a row coming up this weekend.  Even if we did have a lot of snow it would be too cold to snowshoe.

 

I have a new family doctor, since my doctor moved away.  He is very thorough.  He sent me for a heart stress test and it went well yesterday.  Everything seems to be working as it should.  Huzzah!  Deb is urgently awaiting an iron transfusion, one of two that she needs asap.  We are still waiting for an appointment, hopefully early in the coming week.  She is very tired and run down and her breathing worsens weekly.  She is able to work on her film, but far less intensely than before.  Fingers crossed.

 

In gaming news we are currently playing two games on PC.  TR-49 is a brand new game where the player has to get a very old computer working again.  It has jumbled a lot of books and information and we are supposed to unscramble things.  We have uncovered about a fifth of what we need to do.  It's quite interesting in some ways, and quite boring in others.  There is no travel--you sit in front of an old computer (the Bletchley one, lying forgotten and disused) and do research.  The other game is the original Black Mirror from 2003.  I played it many years ago and am replaying it now.  There are two sequels which are also quite good, and a remaster of the one I'm now playing which I also look forward to trying.  This is Deb's first time, though she undoubtedly helped me with some puzzles in my original playthrough.

 

This is how the screen looks in TR-49.  Our score is at the top right.  Notes are kept by the game automatically (below right).  We are down in a basement, possibly inside the machine.  A man is upstairs telling us to work fast and urgently.  It's mostly all a great mystery to the player so far.

 

A screenshot from Black Mirror showing the great manor house where much of the game is played. 

 

In movie news there are three to report.  One is a really terrible SF film from our DVD collection called The Creeping Terror from 1964.  It's a low budget brain killer.  Instead of trying to survive watching the film as delivered, we chose to watch it on MST-3K, with Mike and the bots joking as the film proceeds.  A spaceship crashes and an alien comes out and begins eating people.  The people never run away, and sometimes have to insert themselves into the creature.  It is too ridiculous.  However, the MST episode is very funny and makes even this film quite palatable.

 

From our DVD collection.  Do not watch the original version; instead, watch the MST-3K episode, from Season Six. 

 

Days of Being Wild is a 1990 film by Wong Kar-Wai.  A selfish and spoiled young man uses women until he tires of them and then moves on, often leaving them emotionally scarred.  Though far from being a great film, it does introduce a lot of the director's signature themes, which are developed more maturely in his later films.  The young man is searching for his birth mother (not too diligently) while living with the woman who adopted him.  A local policeman gives the viewer some hope that something decent may yet come from a relationship he had with one of the young man's cast away girlfriends, though the film ends before a true ending is revealed.  Odd and disjointed at times, and the young man is a true piece of turd, so the film isn't that pleasurable to watch.

 

Showing on Criterion. 

 

Misericordia, a French, Portuguese, Spanish film from 2024 is even less fun to watch.  A young man returns to the tiny French village where he grew up to attend the funeral of a man whom he once worked for in the village bakery.  His arrival sparks jealousy in the dead man's son, who wants him to leave right after the funeral.  For no apparent reason the young man stays on, and is then accused by the son of trying to bed his mother.  They have several fights, and in their final one in a remote part of the forest the young man who returned kills the son in a fit of rage.  He buries the body and his worries commence.  The film might have had some credibility without a murder.  But of course there is a murder.  Why?  Can no one make a film without a major crime in it anymore?  The police know he did it but can't prove it.  The local priest knows he did it and helps him cover up the crime, even moving the body from the forest to the church cemetery in the middle of the night.  How this film ever made it to Cannes and Tiff is beyond me.  It's a below average crime film with some not very impressive acting.  The scenery, however, is lush and gorgeous, mid-autumn in the mountains.  The wide screen aspect works well outdoors, but the many indoor shots look quite silly.  Not recommended.

 

Showing on Criterion.  Give it a miss. 

 

I have now put in four intense weeks of practice on the newest piano repertoire.  It sounds like I'm still at the sight reading level.  Progress is grim.  42 hours practice and not really much to show for it.  I can barely play any of the pieces.  It's always so disheartening at the beginning.  In four more weeks I hope to have made at least a dent in the pieces.  The first half features three works by my favourite composer, Bach.  Two Part Invention in D Major will open the program, a fairly dense and very contrapuntal piece, and not as easy as it looks.  That is followed by the Prelude and Fugue in D Major from Book 1 of Bach's Well Tempered Clavier.  The Prelude is a jaunty number that gives the right hand a decent workout, with both hands jumping in for the finale.  The Fugue is a little French Overture, one of the composer's least learned fugues.  It promises to be a fun piece, and shouldn't be too difficult to learn.  We'll see.  All of the Bach is now being played (slowly) hands together, after many hours of hands separate practice.

 

Next comes a sonata by another top favourite composer of mine, Haydn.  It is a miniature piece in three movements, with the first being a theme and variations.  There is nothing too difficult here, and I am hoping it will sound okay in four more weeks.  The second movement is a very short minuet (without trio!), and the third is a rousing finale, a crowd pleaser if there ever was one.  It is the most concentrated and brief version of sonata form I have ever encountered.  I will finish the half with a bagatelle by Beethoven, Op. 119 #1 in g minor.  This is a favourite of mine and I haven't played it in many years.  I have yet to begin this piece.

 

The second half opens with three (more) preludes from Op 11 by Scriabin, #s 4, 5 and 6.  I have yet to begin work on #6, the most difficult one. The first two are slow and the third is madcap fast, in octaves.  Next comes a Chopin nocturne, the most difficult piece on the program.  The Op 27 Nocturnes are among the finest things he ever wrote.  I played #1 years ago and thought I might learn it again, as it is my favourite Chopin piece.  But I decided to give #2 a try.  I can barely play the thing hands separately right now.  This one will require much more time per day than I have been giving it so far.  I likely made a mistake in choosing this one.  Time will tell.

 

I will finish the program with a rousing etude by MacDowell called March Wind.  It's a very effective showpiece, one I have played before.  But I am excited to play it on the grand now!  I'll report back in a month on my progress, if any. 

 

Mapman Mike 

 

 

 

 
 

MYST III: EXILE, A Look Back

As of January 31st our cold weather days have now increased to a season total of 40.  On those days the temperature did not reach 0 C or 32 F.  On many of those days the temp did not even come close to reaching that level.  So it's been very cold, though the winds seem to have died down.  The next ten days are supposed to continue cold, so we should reach 50 with no trouble at all.  Around here winter usually dies around the 14th of February--we are hoping it does.

Today is a full moon day, and tomorrow is Candlemas.  So many holidays and festivals around here!  Brigid comes out tomorrow to do her part in encouraging Spring to appear, though we can't get her fresh flowers until Tuesday.  We will also reveal our new cross-quarter Tarot card.  Deb continues work on her newest film, while her last one just chalked up an award in Toronto for best micro-short (She Makes A Moving Picture).  Yay Deb!  Next week will mark one month on my newest piano pieces, so I will talk about them then.

 

There are two films to report, one good and one bad.  The bad one was the 1969 b & w horror film It's Alive, starring Tommy Kirk as a dynamite carrying paleontologist, one of four people who get caught and trapped by a crazy man.  This is one of the all time bad horror films, with a monster (It) so badly done that it almost makes the film worthwhile to watch.  Apparently millions of years ago there were lots of these creatures, but hardly any nowadays.  The dynamite gets used at the end, and two out of five people and one It come out alive.  We barely came out alive ourselves.  At any time the prisoners could have walked out of the cave they are trapped in, but I guess it was just too much effort.  It features one of the most unpleasant husbands in the history of cinema.  What a relief when he is finally fed to the monster.

 

From our DVD collection. 

 

The good film was Suddenly Last Summer, a 1969 b & w film directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz and starring Elizabeth Taylor, Katherine Hepburn and Montgomery Clift.  A one act play by Tennessee Williams was greatly expanded by Gore Vidal.  Taylor is a supposedly violent and crazy young woman being helped by Clift as her doctor.  Hepburn is her looney aunt who wants a lobotomy performed on Taylor, which is Clift's specialty.  This is high drama, and Taylor acquits herself well.  Hepburn chews up every scene she is in, and Clift just rolls along with the punches.  This marks the second film in a row with Taylor that I have liked her in her role.  The ending is a bit over the top.  What inspired the writer to come up with it?  I am curious.  Not a film to inspire one's love of humanity.

 

We watched a great print of it on Criterion. 

 

Turning now to Myst III Exile, I would like to share some thoughts on this game that emerged in 2001.  First the bad news.  The game is old.  It is rendered in 16 bit colour and appears at a resolution of 640 x 480.  Wow.  That means it will not run on most newer PCs.  However, the game is available cheaply on Steam, and this time we played it there rather than using the CDs.  It originally came on 4 discs, with switching required throughout the game.  I first played the game in July and August of 2001, spending 30 hours wandering the various landscapes.  I was impressed overall, though the game had some problems with sound and the mouse.  At the time I did not realize that there was a 5th ending, a happy one for all.  Imagine doing hours and hours and hours of work to find that there are no less than 4 bad endings and only one good (very tricky) one.  Nice reward for all the work.  Idiots!  On the good side, the static slideshow was gone.  Now players could turn 360 degrees and see things in all direction.  Heaven!

 

I played it again in 2015 on XP and it worked fine.  I finally discovered that 5th ending.

 

Now for the 2026 play, my 3rd time through the game.  It really needs an update.  The Steam version is the original, and it seems odd to see the low resolution, especially after playing so many new games recently.  Even so, it's still quite a pretty game to look at.  We played it together, though we needed lots of help.  The only way to truly understand what the hell is going on and why is to use the Prima Official Strategy Guide, which we kept handy and used liberally.  There are five worlds that require puzzles to be solved to advance the story.

 

The game opens on Tomahna, the house of Atrus and Catherine and Yeesha that we will see more of in Myst IV.  However, we are quickly taken to J'nanin, the world that is central to the game.  For most of the images below I have cropped out the bottom of the screen, which shows the inventory items, mostly books.  The game play screen is 640 x 480, more square than these cropped images.

 

J'nanin, where the puzzle solving begins.

 

Heading down into the crater towards that amazing little building within it.  Inside is an important elevator puzzle, as well as an office and desk that must be studied closely.  Here is the only bed in the game; a hammock in the office.  Deb and I took turns sleeping on it while we rested from our journeys.
 

None of these worlds were meant for anything except to train Atrus' two criminal sons how to manipulate worlds and get along together to solve problems.  I wish the Myst stories had left those two alone, already imprisoned by Atrus at the end of Myst.  We now have to deal with a man driven mad by the cruelty of those two boys.  Saveedro, played with full force and intensity by Brad Dourif (Wormtongue in LOR), is rightly upset with Atrus for not keeping a close rein on the boys, and the game is all about his seeking revenge.  He has been separated from his wife and kids for twenty years, and is now a raving madman.  

 

Anyway, there are three main puzzles to solve in J'nanin, also referred to as the lesson age.  The solving of each puzzle gains the player a different world to explore.  There is also a minor puzzle to solve beneath the main elevator, found in the art nouveau house shown above.  The elevator gains the player access to the main tusk summit, which has solutions to each of the three main puzzles.  There are also three smaller tusks, with a major problem to solve for each.  We got through J'nanin without much trouble.  One of the puzzles I really liked was the light puzzle, shining from one lamp to another across the small island.  It's also a great island to walk in, as the player can make a complete circuit of the island without backtracking.  It is a death-defying walk and quite exhilarating!

 

The first world we traveled to from J'nanin was Voltaic, the energy age.  The puzzles here are also mostly solved by a bit of poking and exploring, though the three-storey steam pipe one is tedious and overly complicated.  Especially since Saveedro has damaged part of it, as he has in each world.  The puzzles would be difficult enough, but by damaging them things can quickly go from bad to worse for players.

 

Players first appear on a tiny islet in Voltaic.

 

Voltaic is the energy world.  Water power and steam power must be engaged in order to progress here.

 

Catwalks, both high and low, an elevator, underground caverns and above ground caverns, along with an airship ride, are some of the highlights of this very scenic age.  Once things are up and running, there are some great sound effects.  This helps immersion in the game, as the music, for the most part, is quite lame by Myst and Riven standards.  Once the age has been completed players are rewarded by a scenic airship ride through the canyon.  We get to take a sheet of paper with us which has a mysterious symbol written on it.  Back to J'nanin via a handy linking book, and on to the next world.

 

Amateria, the age of dynamic forces, is still my favourite of the worlds of Myst III, though the puzzles are virtually impossible without spending a lifetime of trial and error.  The small island can also be walked in a circle, with indoor and outdoor scenery of a spellbinding quality.  The sky was unbelievably dramatic, with lightning, thunder and some of the best dark clouds and lighting to this day.  Even in 2026 I still love just walking around that place.  Its Chinese themed architecture works perfectly against the drama of the overall atmosphere.

 

For its time, Amateria was a wonder to behold.

 

I still enjoy taking leisurely walks here. 

 

As mentioned, the puzzles here are far too challenging, and with very little in the way of help as to what needs doing, this beautiful setting can quickly become a frustrating experience.  Hints and use of a walkthrough are nearly mandatory if the player wishes to exit the game in a spirit of fun and enjoyment.  Whereas the payoff in Voltaic was a ride in an airship, this time one gets to ride inside an ice sphere, whizzing through a maze of track.  It's best to save the game before the final code is inputted, so the ride can be taken again.  Back to J'nanin with another symbol on paper, and off to yet another world.

 

Edanna, the world of nature, is nearly a complete disaster, and one of the worst Myst creations to ever be thrust upon a devoted gamer of the series.  There are many physical levels to this game, but if the player doesn't begin from the uppermost level and work downward, there is no hope of success.  Should one wander down into the depths of the jungle first, nothing at all can be accomplished.  It's so easy to get lost and turned around down there that I can safely bet that many players likely abandoned the game somewhere below.  Even if by chance some puzzles are solved, you will never figure out what they mean.  Even with a walkthrough and a map from the strategy guide, good luck finding and solving everything that needs doing.  None of it makes the least bit of sense as far as teaching the boys anything about worlds or nature.  The jungle at the bottom features one necessary pathway that is virtually impossible to find.  It is easy to get turned around, and can become something of a maze, that dreaded feature of many early adventure games, beginning with the Zork text games and continuing on into visual games for far too long.  The less said about Edanna the better; use a walkthrough if you wish to remain sane.  Otherwise, expect plenty of anger issues to arise.  Upon completing this world the reward is to be picked up by a giant bird and brought up to its nest.  A third page with symbol is gained.

 

Saveedro has painted murals in most of the ages, telling of the deeds of Sirrus and Achenar, the evil sons of Atrus.  This one is located in the jungle of Edanna.

 

There are some truly beautiful areas in Edanna, especially deep below.  As to fair or logical puzzles, there are none. 

 

The final world visited before end game is Narayan, the age of balance.  Again Saveedro (who we bump into here and quite often in the game) has damaged part of the age, in this case destroying some tapestries which hold symbols related to the three we have gathered before arriving here.  Again the puzzles are complex and unnecessarily abstruse.  Part of the first main puzzle makes absolutely no sense at all.  The second one is easier, as it is simply copying symbols from an underground tapestry collection and putting them into a machine.  This world is very limited, and there is little to explore.  With only three discs, the developers were running out of room.  But seeing a gondola that will follow an airborne track leads the player to assume that he/she will soon be riding the vehicle.  Not so.  The gondola is only for Saveedro, if you make it that far in the game.  Once the second main puzzle is solved, the end game sequence begins.  Save as soon as you can.  Next come the five endings.  Choose wisely.  It doesn't matter, as the game sets up the player to lose.

 

A mysterious door in Narayan, which, unfortunately, we never get to enter.  This is a micro age, with very little to see.

 

This screenshot gives the true 640 x 480 screen dimensions of the game, with the bottom uncropped.  If the game ends properly Saveedro gets to go for a ride. 

 

Of the five possible endings, three of them end badly for the player and for Atrus.  A fourth ending ends badly for Saveedro, but okay for us.  A fifth ending, which will only possibly be found by players after all the others have been tried (I missed it entirely the first time I played and never knew of its existence), ends well for everyone.

 

The game could really use an upgrade, and I would certainly replay it then.  Though a fairly good game with lots to see and many places to wander freely, I rank it well behind Riven and a bit behind Myst.  Even so, it is one of those games I find myself thinking back to often, with that little dwelling at the crater bottom on J'nanin and the mysterious and entrancing world of Amateria.  It was hurtful not to see more of Atrus and Catherine's house, but we get the whole thing in Myst IV.

 

Happy Full Moon, and Happy Candlemas! 

 

Mapman Mike