We were given fair warning, but the wind today was nearly off the scale for us. Beginning around 7 am we were hit with a wind sheer. Deb was up and saw the full garbage can rolling down the sidewalk. It was garbage day and we had put it out last night. We never saw it again. We nearly never saw Deb again, either. She went out alone to retrieve it, but it was already gone. Then she had to fight her way back up the sidewalk against the wind, which was 60 to 70 mph. It was also sleeting. Of course I happily slept through it all, and might never have known what had happened to her had she blown away. 14 hours later and it is still howling away out there. Both Ontario and Michigan have very large number of power outages, including much of Amherstburg. So far our power hasn't even blinked.
In film news, Deb is awaiting the new music for her latest film. She has a good composer in Mexico City, a student at the university there. She has used him before and is hoping for another winning score.
UPDATE: As I was typing our power went off very suddenly. It was off for about 30 minutes. So far so good, and we are back in business. It is quite cold outside, so the house was getting chilly. The furnace does not run without electricity. But we have lots of wood stocked up and we were getting ready to light the fireplace.
In other film news, there are three that we have watched recently. Jim Jarmusch's most recent film (2025) is called Father Mother Sister Brother. It consists of three short films, all written and directed by Jarmusch. All three films are family oriented and small in scale. the first one stars Tom Waits as an old coot who lives alone and knows how to prey on his son's sympathy, wrangling lots of cash from him to keep up his secret high living life. When his son and daughter visit him he puts on an act of a man with barely a nickel to his name. The daughter is not fooled, however, and never gives him anything. The second film stars Cate Blanchett and Charlotte Rampling. Rampling is the mother, and her two daughters are coming for tea. She lives in Dublin and is a writer. The visit is awkward and as Deb says, a bit creepy. Rampling hardly looks like she was a model mother. Neither of the first two films impressed me very much. However, the third one is a winner. Fraternal twins get back together for their parents' funeral. They obviously have a deep connection, and this comes across beautifully in the film. This third one is well worth watching.
Tamal 2010: A Punk Cat In Space is from 2005, a Japanese anime flic that will have viewers saying "Huh?" for its 92 minutes running time. Here is the Criterion blurb:
[The movie] is a futuristic fever dream that flows back and forth in time, following
the adorable wide-eyed kitty Tamala on her home world of Meguro City, a
BLADE RUNNER–esque metropolis controlled by the Catty & Co.
corporation. Escaping into space, she’s waylaid by the God of Death and
crash-lands near Hate City on the Planet Q, where she meets a new
boyfriend, goes bowling and thrift shopping—and realizes she may be the
latest reincarnation of an ancient Greek cat cult with ties to the
omnipresent Catty & Co.
If that description floats your boat, then I hope you enjoy it as much as we did. Probably best seen under the influence of drugs of some kind or other, watching it straight was a weird enough experience. If nothing else, it is certainly a memorable film.
This evening we watched a Mervyn Leroy classic film from 1934 called Heat Lightning. Two sisters run a desert gas bar, the older one being the mechanic and the younger one running the cafe. Different customers stop by and pass on, but two criminals on the lam stay for a visit. The mean one knew the older sister in a different life. The younger sister is anxious to date boys. They both end up hurt badly by events that transpire. The film, a short one, begins as a comedy but soon becomes a tragedy. However, life goes on. A pretty neat film, and it would make a good double feature with the later and superior Petrified Forest. Aline MacMahon is terrific as the older sister with a past that comes back to haunt her, while Ann Dvorak plays the innocent younger sister effectively. Worth catching.
In health news, Deb's latest blood work showed very good progress. She is getting her energy back, and all seems well for now. I had my foot checked again this week, and all seems well there, too. Perhaps there will be some travel in our near future.
Mapman Mike
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