A Fresh Start

 Not in my lifetime (getting to be a significant amount of time) has there been such worldwide relief expressed at the swearing in of a new US president.  It was as if the entire world took a collective deep breath and sigh when Joe Biden and Kamala Harris were sworn in to the oval office.  Although the time span of any democratic leader is short (maximum of 8 years in the US for presidents), the last four years have seemed interminably long.  The fact that we came close to having another four years with the same president in power was almost too much to think about.  As bad a disaster as the previous term was, I cannot imagine what another would have done, not only to America, but to the rest of the world.  And it's fantastic to see President Biden getting down to work, even on inauguration day!  So much to do, and so little time.

Canada, like other countries, has been walking a tightrope for the last four years.  The US is our leading trading partner, and all has not been going that well.  Of course with Alberta's dashed hopes of a dirty, stinking oil sands pipeline being built to serve the US energy needs, there will be economic fallout here.  Too bad, really, but what choice is there?  If now is not the time to minimize the use of oil and gas, then when?

Our little county continues to be ravaged by Covid, and the vaccine roll out has dried up for a while, too.  Timing couldn't be worse for stopping the production of the vaccine.  None at all is arriving in Canada next week.  And the one after that?  Who can say?  And as Israel, a country that leads in the vaccine race, has discovered, one dose does not offer enough protection.  If fact, if offers almost none.  So until the second dose gets working we are still on our own, taking Vitamin D (we take 4400 mg daily), staying home, wearing a mask when out, and washing our hands a lot.  Even my parents (91 and 89) have no idea when they will receive their first dose.

Turning now to Brexit (very briefly), it would appear that there are a few flies in the ointment, so to speak.  Not terribly surprising, really.  The last minute rush to "make a deal" has backfired in a number of areas, and the slight inconveniences expected at switchover seem to be slightly more than that, and growing every day.  With one dangerous and incompetent world leader gone, perhaps it's time to send another one on his way.

In weather news, there isn't any.  Our deep winter (January 10th to February 14th) has not arrived, nor does it appear that it will.  Our temps (today excepted) have managed to go above or reach 0C nearly every day, with no polar vortex in sight over the upcoming two week forecast.  Our six week much dreaded winter is now half over.  There is no cold air, and there is no snow.  The Detroit River has no ice, and the sun is now returning north at a good clip.  Here is an image of last night's stunning sunset, as seen from our front porch.

I haven't blogged here in a while.  We have been busy!  Thanks to Caroline, our London bestie, we heard a recent all Bach recital by one of my favourite pianists, Andras Schiff.  Presented in Wigmore Hall (with no audience), his playing was, as usual, a revelation.  To hear the inner voices of Bach's music so clearly played, and to hear an entire Bach recital (from memory!) performed so flawlessly and seemingly effortlessly, was a real joy to experience.  The concert is still on Youtube.  Afterwards, the only thing I could say was, "Gee, I wish I could play the piano."  And I wasn't kidding.  I checked my new Bach 333 set, happy to discover that there are several key recordings by Schiff on the discs.

We had an in-house birthday party for Deb on Monday.  However, we got a take away lunch from The Plant Base, a tiny but fabulous vegan place here in A'burg.  Their utterly decadent and sensuous vegan cheesecakes served as the birthday cake.  Usually it is snowy and cold on her day.  Sure enough, at 10 pm it began to snow a little.  Last year we were home that day, too, but shovelling our way out of a good sized snow storm.  There was no wood fire, but lots of listening, movie watching, and a round of Carcasonne (Mage and Witch), which I lost handily.

I promise to return very soon with an update of movies watched, and more art from the DIA!

Mapman Mike

Murderers, Guns, Brexit, Climate Change, Kurosawa

As I write this at 5 pm, it appears that the two teenage Canadian murderers on the lam have been found, or at least their bodies.  No doubt done in by the flies, which can drive a person completely insane within minutes.  I am hardly qualified to get inside the head of someone who wilfully murders without motive, but killing strangers has always been a rare thing.  Like child abuse, it is usually done by someone who knows the victim.  There are very few random murders of strangers in Detroit, but there are plenty of murders.  Sometimes crossfire will kill an unintended victim, too.  Having been to Detroit hundreds of times, though mostly in better areas, we haven't even seen a gun yet.  Odds are we won't, but one never knows.  America is one of the more dangerous countries on the planet.  The price of freedom?  It is a rather high price.

Trump has split the US politically more than anyone else in my lifetime.  So have guns.  And so Brexit has split the UK more than any other event in my lifetime.  The world seems to be heading for an either/or showdown, which will result in more violence, more protests, and more damage to human relations.  This is not a world that is ready for any sort of peace.  And so it is a world that will never be able to agree on methods to control climate change, or stem the flow of greenhouse gasses.  And some people wonder why we did not wish to have children.  This crisis of humanity has been a long time in the making.  I see no hope for a solution.  As one country enables a liberal and Earth-loving leader, another one enables a right wing denier.  This is not balance, but catastrophe.  Deb and I should be able to live out our days on the planet, but adaptations are already required.  How many people/countries will be able to adapt?  We watch our Detroit River and surrounding Great Lakes at record high levels, with flooding a daily event.  Our backyard creek, which is supposed to flow into the major river, cannot.  Instead, the Detroit River now flows into our backyard.

As Kurosawa notes, in his weird, epic film "Dodes'ka-den" (the sound of a trolley moving along the tracks), poverty will never go away, and will only increase.  Climate change and violence always hit the lowest income earners the hardest, as they have less leeway and wiggle room than anyone else.  As a result, they are in the line of fire more often than anyone else.  

Kurosawa's first colour film is from 1970, and he uses colour in unique ways.  The film would have been too unrelentingly depressing in black and white, though perhaps some scenes would have worked better this way.  A small village built upon a landfill on the outside of the world, it would seem, is inhabited by a collection of rough living people living around a fresh water tap.  Shelters are made from old gasoline tins, a car, and scrap of all kinds.  The film is episodic, and examines several lives a bit at a time.  I have seen the film before, but remembered almost nothing about it, which is rather strange.  It is a memorable film, firstly for its use of colour, and secondly for its unrelenting look at the lowest class of humanity, those just barely able to scrounge a life from their surroundings.  Of course watching a depressing film makes one reflect on any manner of depressing events going on around the world at the time, so forgive me my first few paragraphs of this blog.  Of course everything will work out okay.  Brexit will be wonderful, as will another four years of Trump, and an upcoming Conservative government in Canada.  At least two murderers have been brought to a form of justice.

 Dodes'ka-den. 

In other cheerful news, typical of Detroit, the largest downtown skyscraper project has suddenly been greatly reduced in scope.  From 912 feet, it is now way, way down.  No one yet knows how low, but I'm guessing that leasing hasn't gone well.  Oh well--I always said that I wouldn't care about any new buildings downtown, as long as the major existing skyscrapers were fixed up and occupied.  At least that part has come true.  And downtown has never been more lively or beautiful since we moved here in 1976, so I am not going to complain about the height of a new scyscraper being reduced.  Detroit day was moved till tomorrow.  Looking forward to it, as usual.

Mapman Mike