Summer Solstice Day

It began sunny and cool and ended rainy and cool.  So no visible sunset, though we marked it yesterday.  We were never able to see the summer solstice sunset from our house before, but we can now thanks to a new home being built across the street.  We knew it would rain, so we watched it set on the 20th.  And we can also see the winter solstice sunset and sunrise from home, too.  Trees block our summer sunrise.  Not that we'd be up for it at that time anyway.

We took a summer day trip to Leamington, a nearby community swimming in Mexicans and Mexican culture.  This is due to the many migrant workers who live and work in that area.  We smacked into a downtown Mexican festival today, too.  It was loud and very busy.  We began at Seacliff Park, a sprawling park that slopes down to Lake Erie, our ocean substitute around here.  We had a picnic lunch under a large maple tree.  We also went wandering down to the beach for a stroll.

 

It was sunny on our arrival at the park.

 

Clouds were moving in from the south, however, and it would rain by evening. 

 

Our summer has been cool so far with daytime highs only in the 70s.  I think we have switched climates with London, UK, which is beginning to swelter. Our AC hardly comes on and we've had windows open a lot.  No complaints here, but Europe is baking during the onslaught of tourist season.  Good luck with that.

 

After lunch we went downtown where the Mexican Festival was in full swing, right outside the pub/brewery where we wanted to spend an hour.  Despite a very loud Mexican band playing right outside we managed to find a somewhat quiet table indoors.  We have re-instituted Sunday board game day.  Last Sunday I had won a decisive victory in Tokaido Road.  Today Deb scored a victory with our game of Trails.  We ordered a pint each of local beer and got down to business.  Afterwards we strolled past the wailing band and made our way to a favourite cafe downtown.

 

Inside Cured Brewpub looking out onto the street festival.

 

They had a very good stout on tap, as well as a French something which was also tip top.

 

Two hikers battled it out with a game of Trails.  I lost.  I'll never hike again.

 

Leamington street festival featured a Mexican band. 

 

Jessica R. is a former student of ours from APS, and was and is one of the sweetest of sweethearts.  When her dad died she received an inheritance and decided to open a cafe/bakery/restaurant in downtown Leamington.  This was only our second visit.  She makes world class baklavas and is a first rate barista.  We had a wonderful visit with her and came home with some tasty pastries.

 

Our all-day celebration continued when we got home, with a bit more ale, some gummies and even some Pernod.  We watched Eno, a 2024 documentary about Brian Eno, one of our favourite musicians.  It began showing on Criterion this week and is directed by Gary Hustwit.  To fans the film isn't that revelatory, and it only briefly explores a small portion of his output.  While it was fun to watch, I would rather listen to 80 minutes of his music than watch it again.

 

Now showing on Criterion. 

 

We finished up by listening to Max Richter's brilliant and captivating recomposition of Vivaldi's Summer Concerto.  Somewhere in there we also pulled out the new Tarot cards for this cross-quarter season, which will last us until August 2nd when the next one begins.  We choose our cards for the year on Samhain, then take them out at the appropriate time.  We had interesting results today.  We hadn't seen the cards since last October and didn't know which ones were coming out today.  I have a perfect summer card to think about now, whilst Deb pulled a winter solstice one.  Quite fascinating in their opposite attraction.  This is the time of year when northern hemisphere winter begins to approach once again.  But in the meantime let's enjoy a bit of summer.

 

Our card choices are not meant to be predictions of what may happen.  Rather they are used as something to focus on and think about during the six weeks they are out and showing.  Lots of Freudian stuff here, too.  Great fun!  We use the Arthurian Tarot deck, which we really love, but I also relate our choices to the Rider deck, which we also own.  

 

Deb's card on the left and mine on the right.  Plenty to think about here. 

 

Earlier in the week we watched another film, as well as completed Season One of Professor T. The Belgian TV series ended with a bang (literally) as one of the main characters was shot and will be paralyzed from the waist down, while the Prof himself checked into a mental hospital.  Each and every episode (13) of the season ends with an emotional volcano, something to consider if you get upset easily during tough situations.  It has proved to be a fascinating series and we look forward to two more seasons.

 

The film was Remote Control, a SF film directed by Jeff Lieberman from 1988.  It spoofs 1950s b & w SF films, taking one of them (created by the director to look like such) as a means for aliens to get inside our heads and make us kill each other.  It is more action/adventure film than SF, but it is well done and quite funny in places.  I would definitely recommend it to fans of classic SF movies.

 

A fun SF film now showing on Criterion. 

 

That is all for now.  Happy Summer!

 

Mapman Mike 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 

Vernal Equinox

We celebrated last Thursday's Vernal Equinox with an afternoon/evening party, and except for two medical appointments for Deb it was a very fun day.  One of those was simply an ultrasound scan of bladder and kidneys, with results expected tomorrow.  It is a very uncomfortable test; I had one the week before.  You have to drink a lot water beforehand, and then hold everything in until the scan is finished.  Not much fun.  Then Deb had a physio appointment, and she made a great connection with her therapist, who gave her exercises to do at home.  All in all Deb has been progressing well of late.

 

One of the things we do at Equinox is draw new Tarot cards for the following six weeks.  Deb was able to get rid of her burning house card, which she has had since Dec. 21st.  Was it a coincidence that she was so sick all that time?  And my card, which was a cloudy, snowy, gloomy landscape, is now one that shows clear skies and a giant comet passing overhead.  It is called The Star, and is one of the major arcana.  Deb's new card is also a major arcana, called Sovereignty.  We both scored well!

 

Deb's new Tarot card for the cycle up to April 30th. 

 

As to my card, it has already brought me a usable and quite fabulous clear night for astronomy.   Saturday night for the first usable night I have had since November 7th.  Put that in your pipe and smoke it, ye unbelievers.  I put in 4 hours at the eyepiece, and it was like a dream come true.  Winter constellations are passing quickly from view, but I managed to catch a few major objects before spring ones take over.  I observed from 9 pm till 1 am.  It was very chilly and damp by then (24 F), so I packed it in.  I've been working on my notes all day Sunday and I am not quite finished yet.

 

Another tradition on Equinox is to take down our winter art from the walls and replace with appropriate Spring art.  We now have Deb's large painting of Knight Peak on the wall, and a beautiful framed print of a rabbit that I bought in NM many moons ago.  I chose Parsifal, Wagner's final completed opera, for our day of listening.  The opera is about 4 hrs. and 20' of music, taking up 4 CDs.  We started to listen a week before, during our March full moon party, and managed to finish it on Equinox.  Themes from the opera continue to run through our heads.  Over the past year we have been listening to the complete Wagner opera canon, and we only have Twilight of The Gods left.  Once we hear it, it will be my 4th (?) time through the entire Ring cycle.

 

In TV news, we completed the final season of Star Trek: Next Generation, and have moved on to Picard, Season 2.   Both Wesley Crusher and Q figure big in the final season, so be warned.  And Q has now returned in Season 2 of Picard.  There's just no getting rid of the guy, and this theme continues to show the paucity of creative SF writing on TV.

 

We watched a rather uninteresting 4-part series on Britbox of Agatha Christie's Ordeal By Innocence.  Virtually every character is unlikable, including the woman murdered.  She is especially unlikable.  So if the murdered person is a piece of rot, and the other characters are totally unlikable, what is there to make one enjoy watching?  From 2018 it stars Bill Nighy and a bunch of other people.  Not recommended, though the TV series likely has very little to do with Christie's novel.

 

Now we come to one of the best films either of us has ever seen.  Read that last sentence again before continuing.  The film is called Grand Theft Hamlet.  Conceived and filmed during Covid lockdowns, the filmmakers attempt to perform the full play Hamlet inside the crazy and violent world of Grand Theft Auto.  The film is so brilliant that it is difficult to find accolades that do it justice.  From 2024 (UK) it was directed by Pinny Grylls and Sam Crane, a husband and wife team who go through a marriage crisis at how much time he is spending inside the game world.  So many hilarious things happen during the attempt to gather actors and audience that the film can justifiably be called a comedy.  At the same time there are moments of great poignancy, and greater truths emerge from the most unlikely scenes.  One of the most remarkable and offbeat ideas to ever get put on film, the handling is just as good.  Highly highly highly recommended!!

 

Now showing on Mubi. 

 

Lastly comes a very strange Russian horror film from 1967, directed by brothers from Kazakhstan.  It is called Viy.  A young seminary student is on his way home for holiday when he is accosted and captured by a very hideous witch.  She jumps on his back and makes him bear her through the sky.  When they land he beats her to death with his staff in a panic of horror.  The rest of the film reveals how the witch, now as a young and very beautiful woman, gets her revenge on her killer.  It is a short film (78') but very effective.  The excellent score is by Karen Khatachurian, nephew to the great Aram.  It is based on a story by Gogol.  Natalya Varley plays the witch to perfection. The effects are mostly very good, especially on the 1st and 2nd night that the young monk must keep vigil over the witch's body.  The film would likely terrify a class of 5th Graders.   Makes me wish I was still a teacher.  Highly recommended.

 

Leaving Criterion March 31st. 

 

Mapman Mike