We've been back from London now for 3 weeks. All 8 blog posts have been published and in some cases revised. As memories of London fade a bit, thoughts turn to a Sudbury jaunt. My mom has been in the hospital for several days after hurting her back. She is in a senior rehab wing now and undergoing daily physio. She expects to be released Wednesday if all goes well. So we will likely drive up for a visit. Despite its northern climate, Sudbury is expecting a brutally hot week coming up. We used to drive straight up in one day, but the past several visits have seen us stay overnight in the Collingwood area, then continuing on next day to Sudbury.
I spent my first 22 years in Sudbury, including elementary school, high school(s) and college. Deb lived there for about 9 years. We met in high school, got married when she graduated from Gr. 13 and headed off to Windsor together to attend university, she as a fine arts major and me for music. We were married at Lake Penage in the summer of 1976, meaning our 50th anniversary is coming up soon. I'll probably still have a nap that day. But we will try to do something special.
In music news, Deb has completed a project I have long wanted done. I have cassette tape recordings of my piano playing dating back to 1974ish, when I attended Cambrian College as a music major. These tapes were in various states of deterioration. In addition, I had 9 professionally done cassette tapes of my concerts from 1994-1999. She has managed to clean them up, remaster and digitize them, and despite some wobbly bits due to tape issues, I now have a nearly complete record of my piano recordings. And there are lots of them. Nothing too recent, but now with my new piano recording pieces is so easy I will likely recommence. If I find a way to put them on-line I will post about it here.
In movie news there are two to report, as well as an interesting Belgian TV series. First the movies, both of them watched on Criterion. Killer Nun (you heard that correctly) is from 1979, an Italian picture directed by Giulio Berruti and starring Anita Ekberg. She plays the role of a well established nun in a convent who is starting to lose her marbles due to a drug habit. The film makes it appear that whenever she gets high she brutally kills someone in the convent. However, experienced viewers of Giallo films will immediately recognize the real killer, a nun made psycho by her grandfather's sexual abuse of her as a child, followed by no one believing her. Not a great film, but there are some very disturbing and sadistic murders. Lots of nudity.
Even weirder was Behind Convent Walls, a 1978 Italian film directed by Walerian Boroczyk. This is essentially a porno film (with murders) trying hard to be an art film, but not really succeeding at either. It's pretty boring ,though some of the sex scenes may pop your eyes out. Full nudity, generous use of dildoes and a few murders can't save this picture which really spins its wheels and goes nowhere. I did enjoy the final scenes with a bishop trying to restore order among a flock of hysterical nuns. The film makes me glad that convents have walls.
Lastly comes a great TV series from Belgium that we have been watching. Professor T (2015-18) is a middle aged man, highly intelligent, autistic (high functioning) and with a totally obsessive compulsion disorder. Apparently the federal police detectives are incapable of solving any serious crimes in Belgian. This is lucky for viewers, since they must rely a lot on the professor to solve them. In addition to finding criminals who have murdered, the professor lectures law and criminology students at university. His classes are always highly attended and great fun (also very instructive). The director sometimes inserts random fantasies the professor has, almost reminding us of the Dennis Potter shows. These fantasies are sometimes quite bewildering, but are often very, very funny. We have watched 6 episodes so far. I hope there are many more. The Brits copied it and did their own version, which we have not seen. Highly recommended.
Mapman Mike
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