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 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 

Apollo Missions

Way back in 1968 I first got interested in astronomy.  I began with binocular observations of the moon in late November.  In December, Apollo 8 and 3 astronauts successfully orbited the moon and returned safely.  The next craft to go that way would be Apollo 11, followed by #12-17.  Those of us lucky to be alive during those heady days all have our own memories, and we continue to treasure them.  Sometime in the late 1980s I got interested in Brian Eno's ambient music, including one of my favourite albums, called Apollo.  The music is all instrumental, and was used as background for a film of the same name.  The original film, which I was never able to track down, had no speaking, just images and music.

That film was re-imagined, reworked, and renamed in the late 1980s.  This time around dialogue was added to the images, but only voices of Apollo astronauts, mission control, and John F. Kennedy.  Al Reinert, the director, got cooperation from NASA, and Criterion bought the rights to it.  I didn't even realize the film was showing on Criterion until I bought an updated and expanded version of the CD by Eno, but the CD notes talked a lot about the movie, and lo and behold, I instantly put it into the queue and it has now been watched and loved.

What Reinert did was assemble NASA footage from the archives, much of it never seen before, and make the lunar missions into one big mission, showing scenes even from earlier Gemini flights.  It becomes one brilliant film, and instead of focusing on science, he lets the astronauts, in their own words, describe their feelings and response to what they were doing.  Thus we get a totally different take on the Apollo missions, much more spiritual and aesthetic than the science ones we were given back in the day.  We see candid moments aboard the spacecraft never seen before, and we follow along from the Earth to the Moon on a voyage of discovery that has yet to be surpassed in human history. 

 Along with the feature come 4 extras, filling in even more information that the movie could not show.  For example, the movie has no talking heads, but the extra features do interview many of the astronauts years later.  A short feature talks with Alan Bean, who became an amazing artist upon his return (he died in 2018).  The whole collection is available for purchase on DVD, and looks like something I will purchase if it leaves Criterion before I can watch it again a few more times.  If you do not subscribe to Criterion Channel already, you should.  This is only one reason out of about 2,000 to do so.  And if the Apollo lunar missions seem a bit unexciting to you, or you don't really know that much about them, then you need to watch this film.

A don't miss film now showing on Criterion.  

 

My 2nd film choice was selected from the list of movies leaving December 31st. Ernst Lubitsch's Trouble In Paradise is the best 1930s sophisticated comedy even filmed. From 1932, it is rich with visual humour and very funny dialogue, and features some very good acting.  It begins in an operatic Venice, where someone is singing O Solo Mio.  It turns out to be a garbage barge man.  If you have ever been curious about pre-code Hollywood movies, and how totally amazing they could be, you only have to watch this one (in a pristine print, thanks Criterion).  Unforgettable, and eminently rewatchable.  There is another film by Lubitsch I will try to screen before it disappears in the new year.

                                    Now showing on Criterion Channel, and not to be missed!

We are enjoying an extension of Autumn this week, and I hope to complete my epic walk from A'burg to Essex tomorrow.  I only have just over 6 km left to do.  It's supposed to be mild with only a slight chance of rain.

In CV 19 news, our schools will be closing at the end of Friday.  Our county now appears to be the worst in Canada.  Certainly not my doing.  Tomorrow it will likely be announced that we will be returning to full lockdown, starting Monday.  Couldn't happen to a nicer bunch of idiots.

Mapman Mike