News Roundup

 July is turning out to be rather humid, and rather warm.  Not a lot of rain here at the Homestead, but some surrounding areas have been drenched several times.  We have had no pleasure outings in quite some time.  However, the July piano performance group met last Sunday evening.  There were seven of us playing.  Paula and I played a duet.  She went on to play two pieces, Chopin and Oscar Peterson, but I had nothing prepared yet for solo repertoire.  We are tackling another duet for August's meet up.  I may relearn a short piece by Mendelssohn, a Venetian Gondola Song.

 

The piano group, minus one.  L to R: Dr. Rob Seski (Fazioli owner), Jim Prosser (new member), me, Paula, Dr. Francis Ling (my Meniere's m.d.), and Dr. Robert Biswas.  Standing is Alde, who hosted the event his month.  Photo taken by his wife.  We actually sat outside on the deck.  The piano studio is adjacent, so with door and window open, performers went inside and played.  Alde had a TV monitor mounted outside so we could watch, and a video camera inside focused on the piano.

 

My own repertoire is now entering its second month of practice.  I am (slowly) memorizing the first movement of Beethoven's Op. 10 #3.  I can (mostly) play the 2nd and 3rd movements with music, but the 4th has a long way to go.  It has some very tricky and fast finger work, not my main strength as a pianist (if I even have a main strength).  The Bach Prelude and Fugue (Bk. 2, Eb+) is grinding along, with weekly improvement.  It should be playable in another month.  The Chopin Nocturne Op 15 #1 is still in a very early stage.  The middle section is a virtuoso fast section with some painful wrist work to master.  The slower first and last parts are almost within sight reading range, and pose no technical problems, though the long musical lines require skillful shaping.  Someday, hopefully.  Next month's duet has been started, too, a ragtime piece by George Gershwin, which Paula and I have played before.

The floor in the music room has now been completely redone.  Deb laid down peel and stick tiles after we removed the old carpet, then she continued on and did all the trim.  Right now the old U1 Yamaha is sitting on top of cardboard so as not to scratch the new flooring, while the harpsichord currently has pride of place atop an area rug in the centre of the room.  The new piano will go there (in three weeks!!).  We do not yet know where the harpsichord will go.

My third Iaido class was Monday, so I had outings both Sunday night and Monday night.  Training is going well, and I am working on relearning my techniques below the black belt level first.  Wednesday I was back into Windsor for my annual ear check up with Dr. Ling.  Dr. Ling is also one of our monthly piano performers.  As usual at my appointment we talked mostly about piano.  My hearing test showed normal hearing.  He did say that as far as recovery from Meniere's attacks go, I am one of the lucky ones.  Quite often people do not recover much of their hearing after severe attacks.  I have been attack free for almost three years now.  I still carry my meds with me whenever I leave the house, however.  Caffeine might have been a trigger for my onsets.  Since reducing my intake of the drug, things have been going well.

And now I turn to film watching news.  We began a new mini-series showing on AMC+.  It is called New Gold Mountain, released in 2022 from Australia.  A gold rush in Australia brings about a thousand Chinese gold miners to town.  Culture clash, racism, murder, and suspense seem to mix well so far.  We have watched two episodes of five.  More to come this weekend.  Deb chose the first two episodes as her main film choice.

A five episode mini-series showing on AMC+. 

 

Her leaving this month choice was another Anthony Mann directed western with James Stewart called The Man From Laramie.   Stewart goes hunting the person or persons who sold high powered repeating rifles to the Apache, who in turn killed his brother.  From 1955, it was all filmed in New Mexico, in locations that are totally unfamiliar to western movie fans.  We did recognize some of the distant mountain shapes.  A psychological character study as much as anything else.

 

Leaving Criterion July 31st. 

 

Mapman Mike

A Yamaha Avantgrand N3X

In piano news, we bought a piano.  Our house is too small for even a 5' grand piano.  As things stand, my Yamaha U1 blasts out the tones throughout the house.  There is no hiding.  So buying a grand piano would make the noise level even more absurd.  Headphones are not an option.  I have had two uprights in my time, and two digital pianos.  Yamaha has an exclusive line of three pianos that actually have Yamaha keys and authentic action, combined with the best in digitally sampled sounds.  The top model is the N3X, which we committed to purchasing last Wednesday, and will be delivered in early August.  D & S Pianos near London, ON will also take the U1 as a trade in.  Being a floor model we also got 15% off the sizable price tag.  We have put a down payment on it; the rest is due upon delivery.  We just happened to have a savings account all prepared to handle this huge expense.  My original U1 cost me around $8000 back in the late 90s, probably similar after inflation to what we will pay for the N3; the harpsichord was $5500, shipped here from California many years ago.

The new piano, coming soon.

The keys and action are identical to Yamaha acoustic grand pianos.  When I test played it it felt exactly like Paula's piano, a 5' Yamaha grand. 

There are several advantages to having this piano.  For one thing, the volume is adjustable, and the lid can be kept down when practicing.  For another thing, headphones can be used.  Deb can have some peace and quiet while I rampage through Beethoven and Bartok.  For another thing, it will fit in our house, in the music room.  And no tuning is ever required.  It has five built in grand piano sounds, and several other voices.  I may no longer even need the Roland harpsichord.

In other news, Happy Summer to all my northern hemisphere readers (there seem to be many these days, and from many far flung lands) and Happy Winter to those south of the equator!  We took a day trip on the Solstice to try out some pianos, and ended up liking one of them very much (see photos, above).  The night before I was out with the telescope, my last session of deep sky work during this lunar phase.  Observations will recommence sometime around 6th or 7th of July.

Deb's latest SF film continues to garner awards and acceptances.  The latest award is so new that we don't even know what it is for, other than she won a category.  See her web page using the link in the upper left margin of this blog.

There are two movies to report on, rather different from each other.  The first was an Anthony Mann directed western starring James Stewart as a bounty hunter chasing after murderer Robert Ryan.  The Naked Spur is from 1953. The main attraction in the film is the incredibly beautiful Colorado mountain locations and scenery.  On a big screen this must be overwhelming!  The story is a pretty basic western formula, with the murder of a dozen or so Natives, and Stewart and small company bringing the bad guy back to Kansas to face justice.  Forget the story and enjoy the colourful and free trip to Colorado!

Leaving Criterion June 30th. 

Next came a film showing on Mubi called The Topology Of Sirens.  From 2021, this film wins an Enigma award from us here at the Homestead.  A young woman appears at her aunt's house (we presume the aunt has died) and begins to discover strange little cassette tapes with strange music and environmental sounds on them.  One discovery leads to another, and as she explores a strange world of images and sounds we are left to wonder what the hell is going on.  Whatever is going on doesn't much affect the enjoyment of this puzzling but strangely beautiful film.  I wish I could have met her aunt.  A recommended film.

Now showing on Mubi. 

Mapman Mike

 

 

 

 

Getting Caught Up

Summer heat blasted us until Sept. 21st, which was last Wed.  It was 87 F.  then someone literally pulled the switch to "Autumn" setting.  Boom.  Sept. 22nd it was 20 F cooler, and it has stayed that way, and will stay that way.  A really, really strange entry into fall, and exactly in tune with the calendar.  That never happens here.  Summer usually lingers into Thanksgiving weekend, the 2nd weekend in October.  We watched the house temperature drop all weekend, from 77 F Thursday afternoon (lingering heat in the house from the day before) to today, when it is 67 F inside, and a lot colder outside.

Our Equinox celebration went on for a few days, as it was a clear sky on the Thursday.  We changed our artwork around to autumn pictures, and changed the fireplace lights.  We took our final Tarot cards of the Celtic year, and finished up Wagner's Die Walkure.  It such an emotionally powerful opera, and the orchestration is among the heaviest ever written to accompany singers.  What a blast!  We also are continuing some readings from Tolkien's Book of Lost Tales 1, which contain the earliest versions of many of the stories from Silmarillion.

I share a birthday with the first day of Autumn (22nd), along with Bilbo and Frodo, so my mind always turns to Tolkien in the fall.  But for my birthday this year I bought a box set of the complete works of Haydn!  160 CDs!!  I have been gently dipping into it for the past week, and enjoying the performances immensely.  This means that I can now dispose of a huge number of LP record box sets, freeing up some space in the basement.

In the world of the mundane, I have three appointments this week, making it an unusual week for me.  Very early tomorrow morning I will bring the car to VW for some necessary work.  an hour later I have a specialist appointment regarding my injured shoulder.  I hurt it a year ago trying to pull debris from our creek, and ended up tearing a rotator cuff.  It's likely not serious enough for the surgeon to repair, but I have some questions for him.  And Friday morning it's another trip to the dentist, this time for routine cleaning and check up.

And then comes Saturday.  Philip Adamson, my occasional piano instructor, will play another all-Beethoven program, as he tries to push through to the end of performing all the sonatas.  Looking forward to my first live concert (other than my own) in years!

Meanwhile, Deb is preparing for her mother's Celebration of Life in a few weeks.  She is assembling a short film of stills that show her mom as a little girl and morphing through to recent images of her.  It's been an incredible amount of work preparing a two minute film of stills.  She will also be the main speaker.

We have been watching a lot of films (and episodes of series), I just haven't had the time the report on them.  I will list the ones I remember, with perhaps a comment or two about some of them.

Yoyo, by Pierre Etaix, is from 1965.  A funny and touching comedy of life about the son of very rich parents who suddenly lose everything and become poor.  He runs away and joins the circus.  A minor masterpiece of comedy and drama.

Milky Way, by Luis Bunuel, is from 1969.  His scathing attack on religion and dogma.

Niagara, from 1953, was directed by Henry Hathaway and stars Marilyn Monroe.  It's a tale of murder and revenge, all filmed gloriously in Niagara Falls.  Worth watching just for the scenery.

The Other Side of Hope, by Aki Kaurismaki, is from 2017.  It's a terrific minor tale of refugees in Finland trying to make a life.

Showing on Criterion. 

Swamp Water, Jean Renoir's first American picture, is from 1941.  Depraved doings in the great swamp in Georgia.  Lots of humid atmosphere.

Showing on Criterion. 

Paris Calligrammes is a film by Ulrike Ottinger, who spent the 1960s in Paris.  The film is a terrific documentary of the times and her personal experiences, and for any lovers of that great city this film is a must see.  We than looked up an early film of hers, and found Ticket of No Return from 1979.  Starring Tabea Blumenschein as the beautiful woman who goes on a holiday tour of Berlin.  She does it sumptuous evening clothes (chosen and designed by the designer/actress).  But this tour is soaked with alcohol, and mostly covers the divey bars and back streets.  Some very funny scenes and some very tragic ones, too.  Well worth gawking at.

Man of the West was directed by Anthony Mann, and is from 1958.  Gary Cooper stars as a reformed bank robber who gets caught by his old gang after a failed train robbery.  Very high drama, and many unusual scenes.

Deb chose some films from Prime to watch.  One was The Duke, a small but very fun film from 2021, about a man who plots to steal a painting from the National Gallery.  He plans to hold it hostage until the government agrees to pay for the TV licenses (a British thing) of seniors and veterans.  Highly entertaining, as it is whenever the little guy wins against the big guy.  Based on a true story.  The Man Who Knew Infinity is another excellent story based on a real person.  Released in 2016 it tells the mostly unhappy story of a brilliant mathematician from India who is brought to England to work.  He has to overcome incessant racism and professional ridicule, but with the help of Jeremy Irons and Stephen Fry, his short life is rewarded with several professional and mathematical victories.  Hard hitting but excellent film.

Lastly (but not leastly) is The Illusionist, a film from 2006.  It's turn of the century Vienna, and this story is about a great magician who performs there, but is soon censored by the local police and government.  He meets a young woman whom he knew as a child, who is far beyond his meager station in life.  They fall in love all over again.  This is a pretty decent film, and very easy to watch.  Can the little guy overcome the big guy?  You won't know until the very end.  Recommended.

Showing on Prime. 

Mapman Mike