More DSO

We've been back for a week now and routines have been going well.  Deb is hard at it on a new film, my piano practice has resumed and I've even been gifted with two clear nights for observing.  This time of year it's mostly galaxy viewing and I've seen some beauties lately.  I'm also at work on the London blog, with 3 posts up already and many more on the way.  A two week visit seems just right for us.  It was long enough to feel part of the great city again, and by the end we had pretty well worn ourselves out.

 

There are three films to report.  My book reviews will return in late May or early June.  But first, we watched another Detroit Symphony Live broadcast last night.  While there was no Mahler on the program, we did get Handel, Bach and Haydn.  After the Fireworks music I got to hear my favourite Brandenburg Concerto (#3), all all-string work featuring some of the best counterpoint ever written.  There is no 2nd movement, but the lead violinist improvised a bit before the cadence leading to the 3rd movement.  It was a superb performance.  These almost weekly broadcasts are free and can be watched on Youtube or the DSO website.  If on the website and you set up a free account you gain access to the DSO performance library, going back several years.  We will use this library when our Mahler project lifts off (see previous blog entry) as four of the 9 symphonies are available by the DSO.

 

Next came my favourite Haydn Symphony, #104, his last.  This work is truly a summation of all that Haydn stands for:  brilliant writing, engaging themes, all new material, four terrific varied movements and his characteristic optimism.  While nearly any one of the 104 symphonies could easily fill this list of achievements, 104 seems to do everything just a bit better than any of the others.  This was a performance to treasure, as conducted by Dame Jane Glover, a Baroque music specialist.  Hopefully these performances will be included in the DSO library.

 

While in London we usually have early nights.  For the first week we didn't turn on the telly, but we did the second week.  It was pretty grim offerings without any ad-free channels available.  However, Deb was able to get us into our Criterion account on her tablet and we watched a movie on the hotel TV screen.  I call it wizardry, but Deb seemed to pull it off easily.  The Heroic Trio is the first of a two part series.  From 1993 and directed by Johnnie To, he gives us a Hong Kong trio of female super heroines to treasure.  We have Thief Catcher, Wonder Woman and Invisible Girl battling bad guys everywhere they trod.  The action is practically nonstop and silly, but the stunts are quite amazing.  A baby snatching eunuch is terrorizing the city, but the gals at first are all opposed and fighting each other until they finally unite to defeat the evil in their midst.

 

Showing on Criterion. 

 

The 2nd film in the series is Executioners, also from 1993 and directed by To.  The same gals are back, but this film is quite different.  There is a level of violence more intense than the previous film, some of it so over the top as to be highly questionable and not inspiring a lot of confidence in the sanity of the director.  This one is set after a nuclear war.  The search for clean water is on, with the bad guys controlling the supply and constantly raising prices.  While the first film was enjoyable on a comic book level, this one wasn't.  Too much gratuitous violence spoils the recipe for a good campy film.  Many of the jokes fall flat as a result.  The stunts are as good as ever and the gals dish out the kicks and punches and receive it right back.  If you liked the first film you might consider giving this one a miss.

 

Now showing on Criterion. 

 

Lucia is a collection of three short films by Cuban director Humberto Solas from 1968.  Like many serious Criterion films this one comes with extras: a short intro by Martin Scorcese and a documentary about the film featuring interviews with the director and actors.  Here is the Criterion blurb:

 

A breathtaking vision of Cuban revolutionary history wrought with white-hot intensity by Humberto Solás, this operatic epic tells the story of a changing country through the eyes of three women, each named Lucía. In 1895, she is a tragic noblewoman who inadvertently betrays her country for love during the war of independence. In 1932, she is the daughter of a bourgeois family drawn into the workers’ uprising against the dictatorship of Gerardo Machado. And in the postrevolutionary 1960s, she is a newlywed farm girl fighting against patriarchal oppression. A formally dazzling landmark of postcolonial cinema, LUCÍA is both a senses-stunning visual experience and a fiercely feminist portrait of a society journeying toward liberation.

 

The first two films are quite good.  The photography is outstanding, especially when scenes of chaos are being depicted.  Battle scenes, the raping of several nuns and scenes of a crazy woman in the village (whom we learn was one of the nuns) are all handled with masterly acumen.  The end of the first film, when Lucia realizes she has betrayed her brother, she goes mad and seeks revenge on her false lover.  Once her madness is made manifest the director uses overexposure of film to enhance the effect.  It is brilliant (no pun intended)!  The third film is very hard to swallow, as the director tries to break the ice with his countrymen's overbearing machismo.  He chooses one of the worst characters in cinematic history who isn't by definition a criminal.  Lucia, as his new bride, is kept locked indoors whether he is there or out working.  She wants to work (as the revolution dictates she should) but he refuses to let her out of the house.  She finally rebels but doesn't seem to get very far.  This is supposedly a light-hearted film, but it is anything but.

 

Now showing on Criterion as part of Martin Scorcese's 

World Cinema Project.  All films in this series are worth watching. 

 

Mapman Mike 

 

 

 

Black Mirror (1) Review: Piano Repertoire 8 Week Update

 A lot happens between posts, most of which does not get reported.  We added one more cold day, bringing our season total to 51.  Hopefully that is all behind us now.  We had some snowdrops blooming on the 28th of February.  Their numbers are increasing daily.  Crocuses and daffs are also on the rise.  Astronomy season has begun once again, after a three month hiatus.  Rain and clouds are in the forecast.  Sigh.  Deb also had her second and final iron transfusion.  It seems to be working and she is hard at work on her most recent short film.

 

We finished watching season one of Mlle. Holmes, a French series in 6 parts.  Four of the programs weren't too bad.  The worst one was the finale, called (of course) The Final Problem.  It was almost unwatchable, as a woman who had competently solved crimes for five weeks suddenly falls apart completely when she realizes that Mlle. Moriarty is framing her for shooting her grandfather.  The frame up is so bad and amateurish that sixth graders I have known could have easily got out of being blamed.  Supposedly part of a crime fighting police team, she goes it all alone, as so many TV character tropes do.  She hides evidence, she loses her ability to think, and she acts completely selfishly.  Of course she has no Sherlock blood in her veins; only Moriarty's and her mother's, after they had a brief affair.  Or something.  Moriarty would be ashamed of her.  Anyway, it was a bad way to finish the season.  Not to mention that she commits murder at the end.  Grandpa wakes up at the conclusion, after being in a coma throughout the entire episode, unable to tell anyone who shot him.  No trope there.

 

In addition to being hard at work watching the final ten episodes of Foundation, we watched a new film by a favourite (up till now) director.  Dracula is a 2025 film by director Radu Jude, who turns his creative block towards AI, chatting with it about the Dracula myth and letting AI come up with its own version of it.  Thus it is a series of short films connected by the director's chats with AI, and loosely connected to the Dracula myth.  The main story that seems to run through this very long film (170 minutes) is quite good.  A sort of Dracula low budget stage event sees Dracula and the girl he seduces performing in front of a group of tourists in Romania.  At the end of the play the audience gets to chase them around the village with long wooden stakes, after giving the villains a one minute start.  Other shorter films are less and less successful, finally becoming too comically raunchy to even sit through unless the viewer has a bad fever and is mildly hallucinating.  Anyone who has used AI for creative purposes has a fair idea of how badly things can turn out.  While the film has some terrific scenes, it also has far too many which are beneath most intelligent people's dignity to view.  I can recommend the first half, though it contains an overlong love story that ends in a bizarre enough way.  Another later story concerns the first Dracula novel published in Romania.  The movie goes downhill the longer one watches.  See it at your own peril.

 

Radu Jude and AI take on the undying legend.  

Showing on Mubi. 

 

Moving on to PC gaming, we replayed Black Mirror, a horror adventure game published by The Adventure Company in October 2003.  I first played it in December of 2005, though it took me four months to get through it (25 hours of playtime).  I remembered almost nothing of the game, other than it rained a lot, so this was like playing it for the first time.  Deb and I played it together.  Even so, we needed to look up some things.  More on that later.

 

Overall Black Mirror remains a pretty decent game.  It spawned two sequels (both played) and a new and updated version of this first game, still awaiting me in my Steam library.  Samuel Gordon returns to his ancestral home (Black Mirror Castle) upon the suicide death of William Gordon, his grandfather.  He soon becomes embroiled in a family curse, and works to solve a great mystery surrounding William's death.  The story is okay, at least until it is revealed who the killer is.  That revelation defies all logic.

 

The game plays out in six chapters.  Locations are gradually added as the game progresses, but it begins inside the castle and on the grounds.  There are several people to speak with, and many rooms to explore.  The first two chapters include the nearby village and a church.  Chapter 3 takes players to another ancestral home in Wales.  This chapter is like a game unto itself.  Chapter 4 adds underground locations including beneath the church and Black Mirror Castle itself, as well as an old mine.  Next come many chilling visits to the morgue, an ancient stone ring and a lighthouse.  Many locations are seen in late autumn daylight and during night and dark thunderstorms. I was correct; it does rain a lot in this game.  And yet Samuel never wears a hat or carries an umbrella--perhaps he is crazy).  Presentation is via an enhanced slideshow format, where Samuel walks across the view.  Sometimes the on-screen scenario can be extended by walking further or to one side.  Let's look at some images now.

 

 

Black Mirror Castle. 

 

The main entrance hall within the castle. 

 

The castle greenhouse.

 

Churchyard cemetery.  There are several cemeteries in this game.

 

Entrance gate to the house in Wales. 

  

The local map showing all locations (except Wales).  Once acquired players can click on the map and transport there. 

 

The very creepy Morgue.

 

To escape from the old mine we must shoot and kill a wolf (boo, hiss) in a timed sequence set up to make players fail. 

 

My favourite screenshot, taken beneath the parish church. 

 

Same cemetery as above, at night.  There are at least four in the game.

 

The final problem, so to speak.  This is close to the end of the game, in Chapter Six. 

 

As the images hopefully demonstrate, I have no quibbles with the graphics.  Again played in 640 x 480, Steam has done a good job of keeping this old game looking good.  Not having to constantly switch CDs is a good thing, too.  Anyway, the body count continues to mount during the game.  In addition to William and the wolf, the castle gardener is murdered, a young boy (boo, hiss), Samuel's uncle and his cousin (?) James.  Besides a few too many murders, what else is there to dislike about the game?

 

Well, there are very few actual puzzles.  Assemble a torn photo, unscramble some riddles, solve a 4 x 4 sliding puzzle, figure out how to open a jewel box with a puzzle along with a few other examples, this game is mostly about pixel hunting.  Hot spots appear red when the cursor is placed on them.  Very often spots that have been checked 101 times and not shown up will turn red later, after a certain conversation or action has taken place.  Inventory can become crowded at times.  Worst of all, some hot spots must be left clicked and right clicked, or else.  Yes, players can "die" in this game.  After Samuel gets killed a few times by a wolf, and his head sliced off, it is a good thing to save often.  This brings me to my main complaint.  If you don't save often you get a much more immersive experience in the game.  But if you don't save often and you die (not if but when) then a lot of replaying must take place.  If you do save often, you totally lose the immersive experience of being in the game.  Developers never really get this.  It seems a necessity to kill the player many times, to prove how stupid players are and how clever the developers are.

 

Things I liked were the fact that Samuel would not leave a place if there was still more to do there.  That was very handy.  And many of the map locations could not be visited if they were no longer needed.  Very helpful.  Sadly, however, the game lacked flow.  As soon as one puzzle was solved, one thought that the way ahead would be clear for a time.  Usually another obstacle was encountered almost immediately.  And now we come to the game's conclusion.  Once we know who the killer is, we also realize that it would be virtually impossible for that person to have committed all the crimes.  For so many reasons (no blood anywhere on him, for one).  Perhaps this will be explained better in the second game, which I've also played but forgotten.

 

I can recommend the game, though it falls beneath most games where players cannot die.  Good graphics and highly atmospheric locations, a decent enough story (until the end).  But beware that right click option. We played for a total of 24 hours, taking solutions where needed and seemingly stuck.

 

In piano news, the first 8 weeks are usually crucial to further development.  Practice is very slow, as the pianist attempts to teach his body what to do when and where.  Being a naturally slow learner, 8 weeks usually doesn't get me very far.  However, I can now play the Invention in D by Bach, and the Haydn sonata (a small one, albeit) is coming along nicely.  I have even began to memorize it.  The Bach Prelude in D from Book 1 is still very slow going.  Though mostly a piece for right hand, it has more tricky places than a typical mine field.  The fugue, though, is progressing well.  It should be ready to play in another four weeks.  I have yet to begin the final piece on the first half, a short work by Beethoven.

 

The second half of the program is dominated by a very difficult Chopin Nocturne, Op. 27 #2.  I nearly gave up during week 5, and I might still pack it in.  Despite getting 40' a day to itself, it still sounds like I am sight reading it.  If after another four weeks it is still going nowhere, I will switch it off for a different piece.  The pieces by Scriabin range in difficulty from fairly easy to quite difficult, are developing as expected.  One of them is fully playable while the other two slowly improve each week.  Lastly comes a difficult piece that I learned several years ago, March Wind by MacDowell.  It is coming back to me quite fast and should be memorized and playable in four weeks time.  I will report again at that time.

 

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 

 

 

 

 
 

It's A F*x^#!* Winter Wonderland

February 15th is when it all ends here at the Homestead.  Except it didn't this time.  Usually we have mild temps and rain by now.  Since we've moved to this address (1989?), winter has been extended only once before.  So twice in 35 years isn't too bad, I guess.  We had some snow Wednesday overnight and again last night.  There is now about 6" of the stuff on the ground.  My daily exercise program, which usually consists of treadmill walking, stretching, etc., has now shifted to "cross-training," i.e. shovelling.  Our driveway is about 70' long, and the county snowplows leave a nice big and heavy snowbank at the foot of it.  So Thursday was a shovelling day, and today is another one.  Today's snow is heavier, though, so I am taking things in short bursts.  I've been out twice already, with perhaps two more sessions to go.

 

Speaking of sessions, astronomy was set to resume this coming Tuesday.  But take a look at these temps (in F) for the upcoming week.  Add wind to that forecast, and it's going to be another indoor week.  And being away from a city, we are usually a few degrees colder than Detroit (which comes in handy in the summer, but not in the winter).

 

 

Here are a few snapshots looking out the back door this morning.

 

That is a lilac bush.

 

A few backyard shots.  It took until mid-February, but we finally have some snow. 

 

Last week we finally finished playing all of the board games I had laid out to play on the Christmas holidays.  The final game in that stack is called Teotihuacan.  The game is loosely based on sacred rites used to build and decorate a large main temple in the prehistoric city.  We visited the actual city of Teotihuacan in the early 80s, and not only had experiences that were transcendent, but we also got the worst sunburns of our lives.  Anyway, the game is a very complex one to set up.  There are three rounds to play, so we played one round each day, leaving the table set up.  And since it took a previous day to set up the game, it actually took us four days to play.  Of course this can all be done in one long day, taking about 4-5 hours from opening the box to closing it again with everything back inside.  It's quite a fun game, so we don't mind playing once in a while, despite all the hassles of setting it up and relearning the rules.

 

The game is afoot!  In this case, Teotihuacan. 

 

The real thing.  We are sitting atop the Pyramid of the Moon, with the main (highest) pyramid at the left.  We climbed it, too.  There was a kid at the top selling coca cola. 

 

Last Friday I went and ran through most of my piano pieces in Chatham.  Jim P. has an 8'11 3/4" Steinway (9'), and having played it once before I was eager to do it again.  Jim is a piano teacher and a truly great player.  He tackles some of the biggest pieces in the repertoire, and pulls them off incredibly well.  Over two hours I ran through my program for him and he in turn played some amazing pieces for me.  These included Ravel's Jeux D'Eau, one of Bach's very difficult toccatas (E Minor), and the solo piano version Gershwin's Rhapsody In Blue.  So that was a very fun afternoon!  As my program is nearing completion, it's time now to take it to Philip A., my teacher, for some final polishing and criticizing.  I'm still on the fence over performing the Bach and Couperin on harpsichord or piano.

 

In film news there is only one to report.  Mel Brooks has directed some of the silliest films to ever appear on the screen.  Spaceballs is his 1987 send up of Star Wars.  There are many jokes that fall flat, but when he hits a ringer it makes the whole thing worth watching.  And there are several ringers.  Rick Moranis is too perfect as Dark Helmet, and John Candy as the doggy friend Barf.  We hadn't seen this film for decades.  Highly recommended for SF fans who realize how deeply Star Wars itself set back the SF genre.  

Now showing on Amazon Prime video. 

 

Mapman Mike

 
 

 

 

Dog Days of Summer

Though it has not been an exceptionally hot summer, there have been many uncomfortable days.  Today is one, where heat and humidity (and pollution) make it difficult to breathe outdoors.  Green things are going brown, as they often do this time of year, due to burning sun and infrequent rain.  We are considering a day trip to Detroit on Thursday.  We shall see.

6 pm Update:  We just had a deluge of rain!  Looks like grass cutting is on for tomorrow.

 

I have embarked on my 2nd week of piano on the newest pieces.  These works, two of which I have previously learned (decades ago), should come up fairly fast.  The program will open with Bach's 2-Part Invention in F Minor.  He wrote 15 of these pieces, each one in a different key.  When I graduated from university one of the first piano projects I undertook was learning all 15 inventions.  These works provide a wide variety of 2-part writing, and remain among my favouite keyboard works to this day.  The 2nd piece on the program is a big step up in difficulty, Bach's 3-Part Invention (Sinfonia) in F Minor.  Simply put, this is one of Bach's greatest works, and until now I have always put off learning it.  It is quite daunting in its minimalist manner, with three notes essentially repeating and being varied throughout the entire work.  Unlike the 2-part one in the same key, it is not really an audience pleaser.  Rather, it is a meditation for the performer.

 

Concluding the first half of the program is Haydn's Sonata in C (#35), probably his happiest and most joyful work.  It's a piece someone in the practice room at university is always learning (at least the first movement), but I have never wanted to play it until now.  It will provide the major contrast in mood between the Bach pieces, which are somber, and the 2ndf half, which are very somber.  There are three movements.  The 2nd movement is slow, very melodic, and exceedingly well written and beautiful.  The final movement is moderately quick, and quite short.

 

The 2nd half of the program contains (so far) only three works: Gnossienne #3 by Satie, Footprints in the Snow by Debussy, and Etude #20 by Philip Glass.  The Satie piece is inspired by the mythology and art of Knossos, and is slow and reflective.  The Debussy piece, like the Bach 3-Part Invention, is pure minimalism, this time toned down to mostly two notes that hold the piece together.  The Glass etude is the most difficult piece on the program, mostly due to its large stretch requirements.  It is my favourite of the 20 etudes, and I look forward to performing it.

 

In film news, here's the latest report.  Chinese Odyssey 2002 is a Chinese wuxia film, one of the best we have seen.  It is ridiculously funny, and whoever did the translations from Chinese to English did a great job.  With its cross-dressing heroine disguised as a man, the Shakespearean element is noted and admired.  A restless young emperor and his sister want to head out into the world and seek adventure, but escaping the palace and the Empress Dowager is no easy task.  Meanwhile, in a village far from the palace lives 'Bully the Kid" and his sister.  He has been away causing mischief, but has returned, much to the chagrin of the locals who fear him.  This is an irresistible film, and great fun from start to finish.  There is very little fighting, but plenty of action and laughs.  Highly recommended.  It is part of a series, but stands alone just fine.

Showing on Criterion. 

 

Death In the Garden is from 1956, an overlooked gem by Luis Bunuel.  A group of miners in South America are being bullied and run off the land by government soldiers, and a bloody and deadly dispute carries the first half of the picture.  Filmed in Eastmancolor.  There are a lot of major characters stirring up the pot, and once we know who they are they are on the run from the law.  They hijack a boat and head for the border with Brazil, and freedom from capture.  One of the men was accused of murdering a soldier, and despite his innocence he is forced to flee with his deaf-mute daughter.  Along comes the local priest, also in trouble; a rogue of an adventurer; and a local sex worker.  Their time in the jungle, once they leave their boat, is like no other walk through the jungle we have ever seen.  The ending is a surprise, along with a few other surprises along the way.  A memorable and pretty great film, actually, that virtually no one has heard of, let alone seen.  Thank you Mubi!

 

Leaving Mubi soon. 

 

In the 1970s American TV was saturated by really bad TV movies, from all genres.  Inspector Ike, from 2020, is a spoof of the Columbo type of mystery of the week TV movie.  There is bad music, bad acting, a bad plot, and the great detective Ike.  Ike is a great character, and can somehow appear at just the right moment to remove all tension from a scene, making viewers feel that they are being looked after, as well as the innocent people threatened by the murderer.  This is a laugh-out-loud film, and sure to please fans of earlier TV dramas.  Anyone feel like having some chile con carne tonight?

 

Now showing on Mubi.  This is a great poster! 

 

The Skeleton of Mrs. Morales is a Mexican film from 1960.  It has all the makings and trimmings of a cult classic, as a tormented husband finally does the deed, killing his wacko and puritanical wife.  She is surrounded by friends and a priest who believe it is she who is being tortured and beaten by her husband.  The husband is a taxidermist, and is well prepared to handle the aftermath of the killing.  Even the killing is done using a tool of the trade, so to speak.  This is definitely one of those pictures where you hope that the husband will get away with murder.  There are several very funny moments of dark humour.  One example is when the wife goes out, leaving her husband alone with the young maid.  As soon as she is gone he sneaks up to the maid's room, where she awaits him with big smiles.  Just when you think the worst of him, it turns out that he wants her to cook him a big thick steak.  His eating meat disgusts his wife, and when she is gone he can indulge in a big meal.  Another is after he has killed her and is preparing to get rid of the body.  She always insisted on him washing his hands with alcohol before he touched his food, or came near her.  At the last second he remembers her wishes and washes his hands.  In black and white, this is a one of a kind film.  Recommended for gothic horror fans.

Showing on Mubi.  It got a screening one year at Tiff! 

 

Next time, a look at the first season of Picard.  See you then.

 

Mapman Mike.

 

 

 

 

 

 

AvantGrand Baptism

Saturday evening Deb and I hosted the monthly piano player get together.  Alde was out of town, but the other regular members showed up.  The piano was given a very good workout, beginning with Paula performing a short piece by C P E Bach, and a Prelude by Gershwin.  Next up, Jim gave a truly beautiful performance of a piece by Scott Joplin, and the piano sounded amazing under his professional sounding touch.  His brother had just passed away last week, but he had been able to record the piece and play it for him beforehand.  So he played it tonight as a memorial to him.  He followed up with the Grande Waltz Brillante Op 34 in A Minor by Chopin.  He returned at the end of the night to perform the Bach Toccata in E Minor, a major work that sounded totally incredible on the piano.  I could not have been more pleased with the sound.  Next up was Dr. Seski (our Rob Sr.), who played a Chopin Waltz and a piece by Schubert, followed by Dr. Ling, who brought the last two movements of the Appassionata  by Beethoven.  After a short break, we resumed with Rob Jr, Dr. Biswas, who played the final movement of the Waldstein sonata by Beethoven.  Again, the piano really shone here (as did Robert), as volumes of layered sound poured forth from the wide awake piano towards the small but appreciative audience.  I finished up with short pieces by Bach (on harpsichord) and Mendelssohn, and two by Alexina Louie.  And so the piano had a very good workout!  Best of all, I got to sit back and hear all different kinds of music performed on it.  Our next meeting in October will be at Jim's home, in the distant city of Chatham.

We are now deep into our final week of trail hiking preparations.  The mountains are calling, and we are nearly ready to heed those calls.  We have been fortunate in having a cool, mostly sunny month in which to prepare for the big times.  Our trip will have a prelude, as we head to Cincinnati (by invitation) to attend the film festival there next weekend.  Following that event, our vehicle will point west for several driving days.  Excitement is mounting here at the Homestead.

There are two films to report on today.  The first was Deb's main choice, a strange little film called The Eight Mountains.  It is about a lot of things, but mostly about a strong friendship between two men.  They met at age 12, one of them a mountain-raised lad, and the other visiting the Italian Alps for a month in the summer.  Filmed in 4:3 by choice (obviously), it seems to suit the film, which requires close framing some of the time.  The mountain scenery is splendid, and the film does well with the emotional bond between the two lead actors.  This could, in fact, have been a really great film.  However, the insertion of at least 6 folk guitar ballads (sung in English!) during the film is so in your face and poorly chosen, that I would have walked out of the theatre had I seen it there.  As it was, we had the mute on for at least 20 minutes of running time.  Luckily it is sub-titled, or we would have missed some of the dialogue.  Watch at your own risk to your ears.

Now showing on Criterion, with extras. 

 

My main film choice for the week was another strange little film, this one from Portugal.  Filmed in b & w, Tabu is from 2012.  It is actually two shorter films, split in the middle by a changing story arc.  The first part takes place in Lisbon.  A woman who lives next door is the only friend that a lonely and very elderly woman has.  The old woman has a live-in housekeeper.  The first story is about the woman who is the friend, but we follow the elderly woman until she finally passes away.  As she is dying she hands her friend a crumpled piece of paper with a man's name and address on it.  She wants to see this man before she dies.  Despite doing her best to find the person (he is in a nursing home), the older woman dies before they can meet up.  He does attend her funeral, and afterwards goes to a cafe with the friend, and her in-home caretaker.  There he begins to tell the story of the deceased woman, and the movie switches now to Africa, namely a plantation in Mozambique.  This is the better half of the movie, and takes place in the early sixties.  There is intrusive music here, but it is fit to purpose, as we watch a Portuguese rock and roll band perform and hang out, helping us date the time that events are happening in the flashback story.  We never return to the cafe, and the film ends when the African part of the story ends.  Of course the old man telling the story and the elderly woman who just died were lovers in Africa, even as she was married to someone else and pregnant with her daughter.  A tragedy finally separates the pair, and they are destined never to meet again.  Quite a good film, and recommended.  There is a crocodile.

 

Leaving Mubi in 3 days. 

 

That's all for now.  Iaido tonight, and back to hill walking tomorrow. 

Mapman Mike

 

 

 

Roger Corman and Poe

We are just about to begin our third week of training, as those sizable western mountains loom closer and closer to us.  Will I be ready to climb some really big mountains in three weeks?  Nope.  Not a chance.  During our 2nd week of training we had to make some switches, mostly due to extreme heat and humidity.  Our long walk Tuesday was shortened not by the weather, though, but by swarms of very hungry mosquitoes on the path.  We fled, resorting to treadmill work at home instead, in a nice and cool basement.  And because of recent rains (it never stops around here) we had to move our cross training day to today.  Cross training day means yard cleanup, mostly weeding.  We have seen an enormous increase this year in poison ivy, and for the 2nd summer in a row my skin has made contact with the nasty plant.  It caught me at the edge of the glove on my right wrist this time, a very narrow strip about 1/4" wide and about 1" long.  The skin turns bright red, and some of it boils.  The itch goes bone deep.  But this year I tried a new medication, and it works really well.  My symptoms began Sunday night, and are still going as of today (Friday).  But the ointment really works, and I can sleep in heavenly peace.  Unlike last year's batch, which was more widespread.  Anyway, back to yard work later today.

 

In piano news, I have slowly begun to use more and more features of my new Yamaha Avantgrand piano.  I am just starting to use the recording feature now, and have already used the transposition feature and a different scale tuning to help simulate the sound of Baroque keyboard music on its harpsichord setting.  I should have 4 short pieces to perform at our next gathering, on the 23rd.  I practice exclusively with headphones now, and really like it a lot.

 

In music listening news, we are finally getting serious with the 222 Bach CDs.  We are currently getting through the organ music.  And on Sunday mornings we continue to listen to a different Cantata each week.  It will take some time.  We are also deeply into the Haydn box set, too.  We are now on our 3rd go around of the complete (104) Haydn symphonies.  This CD set was recorded in the Haydn room at Esterhazy, where all the concerts were originally presented.  And we continue to get through the LP record collection, weaning as we go.  We are currently listening to all of the Liszt records.

 

Turning now to films, all of the Corman/Poe films are leaving Criterion this month.  We hope to get through most of them by then.  First up was the best of the set, Masque of the Red Death.  From 1964, we saw it in a beautiful print.  Jane Asher's hair never looked so red!  Price is not too hammy in this one, and his presence in nearly every scene holds the picture together quite well.  Skip Martin is also very good as Hop Toad, who seeks a terrible vengeance on a thoughtless aristocrat.  Hazel Court has a bad dream, and brands herself with an upside down crucifix.  Shares of red paint went up quite a bit that year, too.  Atmospheric, and undoubtedly influenced by earlier Hammer horror efforts.  A classic that still holds up well today.  Nicholas Roeg did the photography!

 

Leaving Criterion Sept. 30th. 

 

Next came a much earlier picture, Corman's The House of Usher. Though atmospheric, this film does not entirely succeed.  For one thing, there are only four characters, and it is filmed almost like a play.  In parts it is very slow moving.  By taking a short story and dragging it out to feature length, too much depends on the acting.  Aside from Price, who is great in the role of big brother not wanting his young sister to leave home (incest being a taboo subject not only in Poe's time, but also Corman's), the other actors barely manage to make it to the adequate stage of acting.  Definitely watch this one, but not right after Masque.

 

Leaving Criterion Sept. 30th.  

 

Leaving Corman and Poe for a time (they will be back here soon), but staying withing the realm of fantasy and horror, comes a neat little independent film by Hal Hartley.  His 2001 feature is called No Such Thing, and is a modern version of Beauty and the Beast, or Beowulf if you prefer, with a difference.  A monster that has lived forever and cannot be killed, lives a lonely existence in remote coastal Iceland.  A young woman goes in search of her fiancee, who was believed killed by the monster.  Their first meeting is a bit rough, but they gradually come to respect and like each other.  Robert John Burke plays the most memorable monster in our recent film watching experience.  Sarah Polley plays the fearless and enterprising young woman (looking much like a schoolgirl most of the time, but not always).  Helen Mirren plays a news editor for a shlocky New York news service, and Julie Cristie (!) plays a doctor that helps Beatrice (Sara P.) recover from an accident.  While parts of the film are quite hammy (Mirren's role as editor, a mad scientist who may be able to kill the monster, and a sadistic research scientist), others are humourous and serious as needed.  Though the film overall is very good, there are some scenes that could have been excluded or improved, such as the Willy Wonka-like press interview, Beatrice's nights long sex rampages, and the entire plane crash thing.  The monster torture scenes and beatings are a bit overdone, too.  I would have spent more time and energy on the relationship between the monster and the young woman.  Highly recommended, but uneven.

 

Now showing on Criterion. 

 

Mapman Mike

 

 

 

Doings and Happenings

It's been mostly a bust for astronomy, despite several clear nights.  Wildfire smoke continues to turn our skies milky in the daytime, and less than black at night.  I have managed two outings, both hampered by the amount of particulates in the air.  That's two months running now for smoke in our skies.  After talking with my parents recently, it's worse in Sudbury.

I took a week off from strenuous piano practice, following my program on the 10th.  I also took a week off from blogging.  But this week it's back to a full time work schedule, with a few new pieces added to the heap.  For now I will try for 2 1/2 hours per day, with a day off in there somewhere each week.  The Beethoven Sonata (Op. 10 #3) takes up the bulk of my time, but the Bach Prelude and Fugue (Book 2, Eb+) and Chopin Nocturne take up an hour.  I am also working with Paula on an (easy) piano duet for our next group gathering.  As for the Beethoven, I am now attempting to memorize the first movement.

Sunday we resumed work on the yard, mostly strenuous clearing out of weeds, and overgrowth from ivy and shrubs.  Only three large bags went out to the curb this time, but it's a start.  There has been some rain, but not very much.  We are not (yet) in another drought situation, but it won't take long.  The smoky skies have been keeping down the temperatures to the low 80s so far.  I guess one good thing came out of the smoke filled skies.  Plus some very red sunsets.

And last night I returned to Iaido training!  I thought today I would be in much worse shape, but aside from some stiffness in the hips, I don't feel too bad.  Relearning the basic katas will take a few weeks.  I hope to continue training over the summer, counting it as my cross training fitness day.  Being fit for three years now is paying off in having more energy overall, and recovering more quickly from strenuous activity.  Iaido also helps me with concentration, something I badly need to play piano successfully.  I have not trained in at least five years.  But last night felt good.  It was time to return, at least for the summer.  I was only able to dress in the hakama with help from Deb and the internet.

In movies news, there is only one film to report that I mostly enjoyed.   The Misfits is from 1961, directed by John Huston, screenplay by Arthur Miller, and starring everyone.  The film appears to be about Marilyn Monroe herself, who soars to new heights in this movie.  She plays a woman who has just divorced, and who teams up with three very different men (played by Clark Gable, Eli Wallach, and Montgomery Clift).  Highly watchable, though the wild mustang scenes might be too much for some people.  But therein lies the catch:  while Marilyn cannot stand to think of the wild horses being captured (they are to be sold for dog food), she is more than willing to take the wildness from Gable's lifestyle (it was time, anyway) and tame him.  The movie does feature several scenes, some of them eye popping, demonstrating Marilyn's sexual attraction to men (the famous bar scene where she bats a ball on a small paddle board over and over, to name one).  But her acting easily transcends those moments.  At times in control, at times totally vulnerable, at times womanly, and at times like a young girl, she attains depths in this film that must have made other actresses add another reason to hate her.  A very unusual Hollywood film, and not to be missed.

Now showing on Criterion. 

Mapman Mike

 

 

Retiring the Piano Repertoire

The six Bach pieces and the Grieg Lyrical Pieces (Op 54) have been officially retired from my repertoire.  I managed to perform the first four Bach pieces back in February for the piano performance group; the last three Grieg pieces at the May gathering, and the first three Grieg pieces at the June gathering.  Yesterday I had a few close friends over to hear the entire program, the only time I got to perform all of it at one go.  Jenn came all the way from Cambridge to hear me play!  Thanks Jenn!  So now it's time to move on to some newer pieces, since I have run out of places to play my old ones.  I will resume work on the Beethoven Sonata Op. 10 #3 tomorrow, along with a little duet by Faure that Paula and I will perform at the July gathering.  The following week I will begin a new Bach prelude and fugue, and a Chopin Nocturne I haven't looked at since 1975.

I have been looking over some photos and descriptions from Caroline's train excursions that she sent us, from her first journeys within Switzerland.  She is back in London for two weeks and then setting off again to travel some German train routes.  It certainly makes me yearn for some Amtrak travel.  We have several major Amtrak trips planned, once the hiking days have ended.  Not having hiked in the mountains since 2018, I'm not even certain I can handle this autumn's planned hikes.  We shall see.  I am approaching the end of my 3rd year of continuous basic fitness, and I feel ready to take things to the next level to prepare for the hikes.  Fingers crossed and all that.  I would like to get at least one more season hiking in the mountains of New Mexico.  Five or ten would be even better.

I've just been talking with my parents in Sudbury.  Dad's eyes are getting worse, and the wildfire smoke has been quite nasty there.  Mom was coughing a lot during the phone call.  Dad has to get needles in each eye monthly now, instead of just one eye.  He can't read, and can barely watch TV.  My oldest niece was there to visit for a week.  She is a corporal in the armed forces, in the training division.  She wants to be a military police officer now.  My other niece is graduating from Gr. 8 this week, and will enter high school in September.

In other news, our two rose bushes decided to bloom this year like no other year.  We have hundreds of deep red roses, a record year of blooms.  It was similar with the lilacs this year.  There has been no rain yet, but we are promised some today.  But it's not looking good at the moment.

Two details of our rose bushes this June.

 Turning to film, there are three to report on.  The last of Deb's festival choices was another Franco-era Spanish comedy film, this one from 1953 and called Welcome Mr. Marshall.  A poverty stricken town in Spain prepares to welcome an American delegation bearing gifts.  The town goes all out, decorating itself like a town like Seville.  The humour is often subtle but very funny, and is easily on a par with the best of the British low budget comedies produced by Ealing after the war.  One of the funniest parts is the mayor's dream, coming home one night after watching an American western movie in the town hall.  Everyone in the dream (which takes place in a saloon) talks gibberish English, using words and sounds that make no sense.  The whole, quite long scene is rich and hilarious.  Of course at the end the Americans race through the village at top speed in a cavalcade, and some relief supplies arrive in a single air drop.  At the end the town carries on.  We have one more of these films to go.  Can't wait!

 

Now showing on Criterion. 

 

Next came my two regular choices for the week.  They Call me Bruce is a comedy from 1982, part of a series of films on Criterion called Asian American 80s.  The film is mostly very silly, but has moments of true hilarity.  It's a spoof on martial arts films, as a man who resembles Bruce Lee is often able to fake his way through dangerous situations by saying that his name is Bruce, and that he's Asian.  Probably a movie one should watch while high, but it's still pretty funny for straight viewers, too.  Some of the jokes don't come off well, but there are so many that one just has to wait a few moments for the next one.  The lead actor was a stand up comic, and he uses many of his jokes in the film.

Now showing on Criterion. 

 

My choice of film leaving this month was also from 1982.  Starring Jeremy Irons and directed by Jerzy Skolimowsky, Moonlighting is about four Polish workers who come to London to (illegally) renovate a flat there for their Polish boss.  Their month in London happens to coincide with the communist military clampdown within Poland, in an attempt to suppress Solidarity, though the foreman (Irons) manages to keep the news from his workers until the job is finished.  The film is mostly about the things that Irons has to do to keep his men working and fed, as he was not given enough money to live on.  They eat and sleep in the flat, using cans for pots and dishes.  In many ways it is a very sad and tragic film, though it barely touches on the exploitation of basic labourers.

 

Leaving Criterion June 30th/23. 

 

Mapman Mike