Catching Up With News

I finally saw my own family doctor on Thursday.  More x-rays, some blood work and an upcoming ultrasound for my nearly broken foot.  There is still some pain, and Dr. P thinks it might be related to a tendon injury rather than a broken bone.  Whatever it is it's messing up my walking program after five years of daily exercise, and remains a major obstacle to our late September travel plans.  At the moment I could not deal with airports, train stations, etc, and of course I am unable to restart my training program.  I might try to ride my bike this week, though the weather has been so hot and humid I much prefer indoor exercise.

 

Earlier in the week Deb saw her kidney doctor for a followup, only to discover that she has another stone, this time in the opposite kidney.  He wants a CT scan, which will take a long time.  Deb wasn't too pleased to hear that news.  Her new drug for morning stiffness, hip, shoulder and neck pain seems to be working wonders.  She is just beginning her second week of a four week course of the drug.  So far the results have been great!

 

On Friday we spent much of the day in Windsor.  It was sunny and 89 F and very humid.  Deb had her annual mammogram and I had my foot x-rayed again.  Those appointments were at 10:30 am.  We had appointments downtown for our new passports, so we had a lot of time to kill.  We had tea and coffee at Chance, actually sitting outside in the shade.  We went for lunch, then to City Market for a walk (very slow walk for me), then down to the river for a while.  Our passports are now being processed and we should receive them in about 10 business days.  By then we should know if we are able to book flights, or postpone them until my foot heals.

 

A viking cruise ship is parked in Detroit for the day.  View is from Windsor. 

 

We also stopped in at Chapter Two and shared an ale flight.  So nice to see Ginger on the menu, and at very low alcohol. 

 

In film news there are three and a half to report.  World of Glory is the half, a short from 1991 by Swedish director Roy Andersson.  This film probably has the most shocking opening to any film we have seen.  From the Mubi website: 

 

A prelude to the director’s acclaimed studies of human alienation, this magnificent short from Swedish master Roy Andersson is shattering yet darkly ironic. Unfurling in drab domestic and public spaces, World of Glory lays bare the grotesque numbness of a man’s life, and modern society at large.

 

I'm not certain I would totally agree with that blurb, but the film is unique and startling, to say the least.  Heads will shake after watching this.  Mine did.

 

 Leaving Mubi soon. 

 

Deb paired that with a short feature film called Incredible But True.  It is a French film from 2022 directed by Quentin Dupieux, also showing on Mubi (and leaving soon).  Mubi's blurb again:

 

Descending into a bizarro world of electric genitals and elastic time, French jokester Quentin Dupieux devises newfangled, side-splitting methods for well-off egotists to keep up appearances. Suspend disbelief: this wild-eyed pursuit of eternal youth and virility is absurdly funny—and incisive too. 

 

A couple buy an older home and discover that it has some magical and fantastical qualities.  As it involves becoming younger, it is the middle-aged wife who soon becomes addicted to its power.  Meanwhile, the man's boss happens to live a few doors down and they get together for a dinner.  The boss tells them about his new electronic penis (from Japan) and all the marvellous things it can do.  This has to be one of the funniest quartet dinner party scenes I have ever seen.  An absurdist film with elements of Dada (black ants), it is highly amusing.  Recommended.  I will look out for the director in the future.

 

Leaving Mubi soon. 

 

We also watched the first two movies of the most recent Planet of the Apes series.  Rise of the Planet of the Apes is from 2011, and Dawn of the Planet of the Apes is from 2014.  A third and fourth film are available to us; we'll see.  For now we have had enough of apes versus humans.  The first film is the best of the two, showing how medical research into a cure for Alzheimer's Disease goes awry, not only giving incredible intelligence to the chimps used for research, but causing a devastating virus that soon wipes out most of the humans on Earth.  The second film begins ten years later.  The action is set in San Francisco, a nice change, and it allows the apes to escape the city and dwell in a large forest.  The effects are nothing short of spectacular and totally amazing, and the character of Caesar, the lead chimp, is realistic and totally believable.  He is given not only intelligence, but sensitivity and a moral sense (apes must not kill apes).  Of course everything is ruined in the first film by bad humans, and in the second by bad humans and a bad ape.  Bad things tend to ruin everything for everyone, as if we need to be reminded.  The films are definitely good, but there is lot of violence, much of it using machine guns.  And the old trope of having two males fight it out as the climax of the second film (even though they are apes) keeps the tradition alive.  The first film is certainly well worth seeing; the second one not so much.  And I have a feeling that the third one will be nothing but more gunfire and sadistic humans killing lots of apes.

 

 

Both films (and the 3rd one) are showing on Starz. 

 

Yet another sale on Steam saw me acquire more railroad lines.  I now run trains in England, Germany, Switzerland and the USA.  Since each locomotive is quite different, especially between countries, I am always in a panicked learning mode.  I was hauling a mile-long freight train yesterday, realizing near the end that the brakes were not working!  So I had my first runaway train.  It did not end well.  Since then I learned what I did wrong.  Sometimes the trains are set up and ready to drive; others times not so.  This was one of those not so times.  I had three locomotives at the front of the train and two in the rear.  They were not speaking to each other, and needed to be properly linked.  Problem two was with the brake setting, which hadn't been done properly.  I needed to go into the on-board computer (I didn't even know you could do that) on the lead locomotive and change to settings.  I reran the service and aced it.  Live and learn (though I would have died in that first one).

 

Leaving Brighton running a service to Lewes.

 

Evening on the Goblin Line, London.

 

Pulling away from Victoria Station on the way to Brighton. 

 

Mapman Mike

 

 

 

 

 

First Bus Trip

As reported a few weeks ago, we now have a bus stop in front of our house.  Bus 625 only runs 3X each day, so it is a woeful service by any urban standard.  But I can catch a bus at 2:35, which gets me into a Windsor bus station around 3 pm.  With my valid transfer I can hop on a choice of 5 city buses.  I went to an area near the train station, and managed to visit a cafe, and then a brew pub.  Chance Coffee is a pretty cool place to hang out and have an espresso.  We often buy their coffee beans for home use.  It was a short walk from the bus stop from my transfer ride on the #2 Crosstown bus.  That ride took about 30 minutes.  So for less than $4 I can get to anywhere in Windsor from our house.  After the cafe I visited the nearby Chapter Two Brewery, and enjoyed a flight of samples that included their Belgian ale, a pumpkin brew, a Scottish ale, and a heavy porter to finish up.  I had about an hour to spend at the pub, and then it was back to the bus stop that would take me back to the Amherstburg bus.  Another 30 minute ride, then a short outdoor wait for Bus 625.  The 6 pm bus is the last call from Windsor, and if it is missed then a very expensive taxi ride will ensue.  The route is still very new, and the driver blew past my stop across the street from our house.  He managed to stop (after I hollered at him from the back) about 100 meters past it.  It was dark and he said he didn't see it.  I'll be better prepared next time.

This was a solo trip.  Deb stayed home to continue work on putting some of her mother's jewellery up for sale.  In addition, she was my back up for today in case I missed my bus connection.  But all went well, and she will likely come next time.  Amanda L is due in the Burg next week, so we might go with her.  There are closer areas to visit with good pubs and cafes that will allow more time in Windsor.  Today I thought I'd try a far area to see how things would work out. 

In film news, we watched one of four episodes of a documentary by Ulrike Ottinger called In Chamisso's Shadow.  Each episode is 3 1/4 hrs long!  I would never last the full 13 hours, though we both did enjoy the first part.  It is slow moving, with stunning Alaskan photography, some interviews with locals, and lots of reading from explorers' logbooks from the 18th and 19th C.  If the series wasn't leaving Criterion Nov. 30th I'd be tempted to watch the next part.  There is a large ferry that travels from island to island in the American Aleutians Islands in the summer, making 6 round trip voyages.  In Part 1 we get to go on one of the voyages, and this was a really fun part of the film.

Showing on Criterion until Nov. 30th. 

That was one half of my film festival.  For the 2nd half I chose two short films.  The first was Whipsaw, from 1935 and directed by Sam Wood.  Starring Myrna Loy and Spencer Tracy, it's a pretty light affair but fun nonetheless.  Tracy is a federal agent trying to track down a crack jewel thief, and Loy is his connection to the criminal.  Of course they end up falling in love--doesn't everyone?  And yes, they do get married, as if you had to ask.

Showing on Criterion until Nov. 30th. 

My last festival pick was a children's movie, Owd Bob, from 1998.  Filled with predictable children's book tropes (American boy loses parents in car accident, so visits grandfather on a farm in the Isle of Man; he is mean, nasty, and impossible to get along with; young neighbour girl loses her mother to cancer; grandfather does not want boy to associate with girl because of history with that family from long ago; good dog gets blamed for killing sheep, while bad dog enjoys a good meal of sheep neck; boy sees bad dog do the crime, but no one believes him).  But have no fear, since everything comes out right in the end.  Not my most favourite recent film view.  The acting is quite good, and the setting is lovely (especially the tram ride to the village near the farm), but the story is so routine and predictable that I was quite turned off.  Viewers get to see sheep dogs in action, over and over.

Showing until Nov. 30th on Criterion. 

Finally it was Deb's turn.  We tried to watch a brand new film about Weird Al, but after several minutes we both found it unwatchable.  Dreadful, dreary, and way too full of itself.  So she picked another.  We watched Shining Victory from 1941, and The Dark Corner from 1946.  The first is about a research psychiatrist attempting chemotherapy on disturbed patients at a private clinic in Scotland.  Of course there is romance involved, too, but things don't end so splendidly in this feature.  Quite watchable.  The second film was a Noir.  You can tell it's a Noir because William Bendix plays a heavy.  Lucille Ball adds a nice touch to this tale of a private eye being framed for a murder.  This was our 2nd viewing, but it had been a really long time.  Wait till you see the "Raphael" and the "Donatello" in the gallery.  Above average for the genre, and worth watching.

Showing on Criterion until Nov. 30th. 

Now showing on Criterion. 

Yesterday I got my 4th booster shot for Co-vid.  It was the Pfizer bi-valent shot.  Despite a sore arm where the needle went in, I had no problem this time around.  Deb got her flu shot yesterday, and in two weeks will get her 5th booster.  We should be all caught up until spring.  If we do travel then (hopefully!!!), we will likely seek out another booster shot.

Our nearly perfect autumn weather is about to come to a crashing end this Friday.  Winter temps arrive Saturday, and it appears they will stick around.  More news as it happens.

Mapman Mike