Friday the 13th

 Usually a lucky day for us witches and warlocks, we'll see if the skies clear and another astronomy observing night presents itself.  I've had four nights so far in less than a week, and anticipating a 5th one.  Usually November is dark, wet, and dreary.  However, like this year, it does occasionally surprise.  I leave home around 5:15 pm and return around 11 pm, so observing at this time of year does not mess up the body clock.  However, I have to drive through some heavy traffic to get there at that time.

In other news, I saw my specialist regarding my vertigo.  He has me full time on beta-histine.  It's been a week now and it might be helping--no attacks in over 10 days now.  My recent record is 13 days, so I'm hoping to break that one.  The air pressure seems to be easing up a bit, too, and the tinnitus is reduced.  So things seems to be improving.

My days are filled with writing up my astronomy notes, maintaining my piano program, reading, and watching movies.  As usual I'm a bit behind on our movie watching, so here goes.  Deb's most recent choice was the 1974 Swallows and Amazons.  We had seen it many years ago, and tuned in to see it again.  It's amazing how slow moving this wonderful children's picture seems in 2020, with nearly all kids movies these days moving at lightning speed.  Imagine kids sitting down today and watching a movie about kids sailing around a lake, camping out without adults on an island, and exploring.  I don't think the average child of today would last 10 minutes in front of this film.  Anyway, I still liked it, and would be willing to read more by Arthur Ransome.  I have not seen a more recent film version of this book, but will watch out for it.

The 1974 version, now showing on Criterion. 

 

Deb also chose Dames, a Busby Berkeley film from 1934.  Starring Ruby Keeler, Joan Blondell, and Dick Powell, it's pretty much a snoozer until the frivolous frolicking begins.  The expense of doing those final dance numbers must have been atrociously expensive.  Girls in bed waking up, girls ironing in their undies, girls in bathtubs--good old pre-code Busby.

 

 Scene from Dames, now showing on Criterion (until November 30th).  The movement of the dancers and the set up is pure Escher. 

 

I chose a series of short films by John and Faith Hubley, which included an interview with their four children talking about growing up in the household. Two boys and tow girls, the boys being oldest were used in several of the films. Our favourite is called The Moonbird, from 1959, and features the boys (ages 6 and 3) talking and singing in an improvised story about the two of them going out at night to capture a moonbird.  We were laughing all the way through. The older boy knew the story, but the youngest just sings and talks his way to stardom in this 10 minute short film.  Another really good one is called The Hole.  In it, Dizzy Gillespie and George Matthews improvise a conversation between two labourers in NYC working down in a hole.  Again it is very funny, but also projects the fears of 1962 regarding atomic war.  Others viewed include Tender Game, Date With Dizzy, and a documentary entitled Of Stars and Men.  All are good, and the animation is very distinct and original.

 

Now showing on Criterion.  Scene from Of Stars and Men, showing the Hubley family.  

 

Scene from Moonbird.

My next choice was from 2011, called Almayer's Folly. Directed by Chantal Akerman, this is probably the best filming of a Joseph Conrad story that I've ever seen.  Set in the 1950s in Vietnam, it deals with the same colonial issues that Conrad wrote about in his first novel in 1895.  The story follows the novel closely, and Akerman dwells long on many of her fine shots, allowing the full psychological impact of the situation to sink into her characters and her viewers.  A truly amazing film, and I am sorry it's leaving on November 30th.  I will read the book soon (complete works of Conrad for $1.99, now on my Kindle reader), and would love to see the film again.  A great film!  I used to read so much Conrad back in the day, and really loved his writing.  It's been awhile.

 

 

Nina, as played by Aurora Marion, whose life is destroyed when she is taken from her wilderness home to be educated in a white boarding school.  On Criterion until the end of November. 

 

Mapman Mike

 

 

Approaching Solstice

Our sunsets are just about as far south as they go, with only a further 2 minutes to be shaved off sunset time.  By solstice we are getting about 9 hours of daylight, as opposed to the 15 we get at summer solstice.  And we've seen a few good ones from the south-facing window here at the homestead.

 Sunset showing the furthest southerly one.  The sun will continue to set at about this location for the next few weeks, before it begins its gradual return north.  View is from our south-facing window, overlooking the Native American cemetery across the road, and the Detroit River and Michigan.

 We've seen some beauties lately. 

For the 2nd half of my film choice for this week, we watched an oddball silent film by Chantal Akerman.  Hotel Monterey is the 2nd film by her we have seen.  It's an interesting experiment that requires some patience and calmness to get through, but it does ultimately offer rewards.  The camera is mostly still, showing different scenes from a NYC hotel in the 1970s.  Most of the imagery is like viewing a photo for a long period of time, sometimes several minutes.  The action sequences include riding up and down an elevator, picking up and dropping off people, and, near the conclusion of the one hour film, having the camera roll forwards and backwards as it captures various interior and exterior views.  Probably not a film people with claustrophobia would enjoy.  Many of the static compositions are highly artistic, and occasionally one thinks of Hopper's paintings.

The next two paintings I will illustrate from the DIA are by Oskar Kokoschka, an Austrian expressionist painter who died in 1980.  Detroit has one of the largest collections in the world of German and Austrian expressionist art, including four paintings by Kokoschka.  The artist lived in Dresden from 1917 to 1923.  Eventually all of expressionist art was rejected by the Nazis.  Detroit had a German museum director in the early 1930s, and it was he (Valentiner) that procured many of the unwanted paintings.  The director was also responsible for the incredible coup of landing Bruegel's Wedding Dance in Detroit. 

 The Elbe Near Dresden, Oskar Kokoschka, ca. 1921.  23" x 31", oil on canvas.  Detroit Institute of Arts.  

The bright colours and the blockish buildings remind me of a child's painting.  Unlike the Rousseau painting seen previously, there are no figures present here.  The river seems to be as turbulent as the sky, and the reflections add an eye-catching accent to this strange little work.  The detail below shows the broad brushstrokes, similar to those of the late Van Gogh.

 Detail of the central area, above. 

We are just a few days from having to return our VW Tiguan, as the lease expires on the 10th of this month.  We will be down to one vehicle, the Golf wagon, which will have to take on astronomy duty from now on, as well as any upcoming cross-country drives.  We will wait and see how that works out.

M.

 

Fighting November Blahs

The doldrums arrived early this year, with our first major snowstorm about two months ahead of schedule.  The snow is gone for now, but the darkness, heavy clouds, and damp chill to the air make day to day life a tad dreary.  However, I had a beautiful clear night on Friday, and it was sunny some of that day.  It was actually the 2nd clear night of this session, but the earlier time it was way too damp and foggy to consider driving into the county (actually, into the next county) to set up.  Dampness gets on the mirrors and eyepieces, causing early shut down of operations.  It was 32 F when I arrived at 6 pm, and 28 F when I left at 9:45 pm.  The autumn stars were up upon arrival, and the winter stars were up upon departure.  I hope I can steal one more good night before the moon interferes.

Last Tuesday I gave a short talk on double stars at our monthly club meeting.  However, my laptop would not connect to the WiFi, and the main projector in the hall did not work.  That was the same day as a major power failure affected a lot of people, including Windsor and us, so that may have contributed to the problem.  Luckily, a fellow member had his laptop, and his worked.  The back up projector was crappy, though.

Yesterday, Deb had her first laser treatment of three that she will need. She certainly experienced some pain afterwards and today, but things are improving as I write.  We have pills for any occasion on hand, so her suffering was mitigated.  Once this problem is fixed, then we can move on towards getting her heart problem looked after (again).  The laser treatments are not covered by the government health plan, nor our private one.  The cost was just over $2000.  Ouch.  More pain.

I just finished an epic novel by Norman Spinrad, part of my Avon/Equinox project.  The book, which took me 9 days to read, is called "He Walked Among Us," and is one of three that he wrote trying his best to put forth solutions for saving the planet from our greed and indifference.  I am now into the Tarot series by Piers Anthony, an author that continues to hold my interest.  It ties in loosely to the "Cluster" series I am reading by him.

In movie news, we continue to watch the Zatoichi series, having just seen #4.  The first four are loosely connected, and more or less set the tone for the 26-movie series.  However, last weekend we watched the 1932 "Three Penny Opera" directed by Pabst.  It was excellent!  Brecht hated it, and many of Weil's songs were cut, but the film works beautifully.  Mackie Mackie!  I am also getting mildly interested in the work of Chantal Akerman.  More to come on her.

 Now showing on Criterion. 

In gaming news, I continue to make progress in Syberia 3 on the PC.  It is a vast game, though the bugs are annoying.  I have had to download saved games a few times now and jump ahead of a bug I could not get past.  It is visually stunning and takes place in many different locations, including a very gloomy Russian asylum in winter, a seaside town, a large ferry boat, an amusement park, subway tunnels, and now in a night time wooded winter landscape.  It is, at least, visually appealing.  We are trying to improve on the Dr. Who card game we bought in Columbus, Ohio a few years ago, and will be playing this weekend.

The listening program has expanded to include the entire record collection.  Recently, we listened to a 4-record set of music by Josquin des Prez, as well as Symphony #80 by Haydn (we're getting there), and Op 79 by Brahms (two major piano works that I MUST learn!), Britten's Op 79, a short work for chorus and orchestra, and we are continuing with the complete organ works of Buxtehude.  I will no doubt be going through several needles.

Our next Detroit day is scheduled for Monday.  I have a book waiting, and Deb wants to buy a few collector coffee spoons from an antique dealer in Dearborn, for an upcoming Yorick episode.  We will stay for lunch, and it wouldn't surprise me if I managed to have a pint in there somewhere.  Detroit had its annual Christmas lights celebration on Thursday night.  Here is a photo.  Pretty fantastic city.

Wow! 

Mapman Mike