Recital Week

Ten months of keyboard work is coming to a focus, and this time next week I can be seriously thinking about starting all over again with different pieces.  Of the seven works of my current program, I have only studied one of them before.  The six new ones have undoubtedly created some new and interesting neuron pathways in my brain, which currently feels overworked.  I had an opportunity to run through the pieces on Saturday for Jenn, a good friend from out of town.  She is unable to make the actual recital next Saturday, as she will flying to Denver as I am performing.  But she dropped by for a visit.  Only one piece completely crashed and burned, and steps are being taken to remedy the situation.  Some of the pieces actually went rather well, or at least as planned.  Next up is a Thursday afternoon play through for two more friends unable to attend on Saturday (Saturday will be a very small audience).

After the play through for Jenn, the three of us went to Detroit for the day, our first visit in quite some time.  We tried to get some spinach pies from Dearborn Bakery, bu they were sold out.  We went to La Shish instead, for some falafel sandwiches.  Then we tried to visit a favourite Yemeni cafe.  It was so busy that we could not even get in the door.  Next up was the incredible Turkish candy store.  That visit was a success!  Treats for the concert attendees next week.  We headed into Detroit for coffee, little realizing that we would not be successful.  Astro had no parking nearby (it was drizzling and snowing, so we were not interested in walking much).  Trinosphere and Anthology closed at 4 pm (it was now 4:20 pm).  Cairo coffee was closed for a week's winter break.  And Germack, the biggest roaster in Detroit, was closing as we arrived, and they were out of coffee!!  So we headed to Brewery Faison with no caffeine in our blood.  It was Jenn's first visit, and my third.  The place was very busy. but seemed filled with young parents and toddlers.  At a brewery (no food available).  Weird.

Next, we hopped over to Windsor to a near-downtown brewery new to all of us, cleverly called Brew.   Next, we headed to our favourite vegan restaurant in Windsor.  The Garden has all manner of Asian vegan food.  It was closed permanently!  I am still in shock, and my sadness is deep.  We ended up at Pho Mango, a Thai restaurant.  After dinner, Jenn headed back east, towards Cambridge, and we headed home.  I found the performance as demanding and tiring as if I were playing for a much larger audience, and was glad to be home and resting comfortably, as they say.

In movie news, we watched The League of Gentlemen, a Basil Deardon directed film from 1960.  It's all about a group of ex-military men planning and carrying out a bank heist.  of course they are caught in the end, which really spoils the film.  And they are caught because a small boy (who should have been in school anyway) stands outside and writes down license plates in his little notebook.  Really?  That movie left a bad taste in my mouth.  In fact, I don't even see the point of making the film at all.  What good is all the planning and tension, if a screenwriter can just make up some silly excuse to get everyone caught.  The law must be upheld, and crime doesn't pay, and blah blah blah.

 A good movie with a great cast, but a really crappy ending.

At least it was a well made film.  It just had a very poor ending.  Deb's next choice (she gets four in a row this week) was much worse.  The Omega Man, starring Charlton Heston, is yet another version of the last man on Earth, after a virus has killed everyone (sort of).  Loosely based on Richard Matheson's story, this one goes off the rails in every direction.  The score is one of the worst I have ever heard, sounding like a track to a fluffy TV movie from the 70s.  The set director's idea of mayhem in the streets is to have lots of (very white) paper littered everywhere.  Chucky hogs the screen with his frequently bared chest, and his frequently bared teeth.  Of the several SF movies from the 1970s we have seen lately, this one is at the bottom of the barrel.  Give it a miss, or have popcorn ready to throw at the screen.

 It's the end of the world.  It's the 1970s.  It's Charlton Heston yet again.

What more could you not want?  

And time for another work of art from the DIA, once more from the photography collection.  Like our last photo of Egypt, this one comes from an unknown photographer, this one was published around 1868 by Adolphe Braun.  B & W landscape photography has always interested me, at least since having seen a major show of works by Ansel Adams many years ago at the DIA.  The quality of these prints is truly amazing!

 Lac Doeshi, Switzerland, 1868.  8" x 16".  Sold by Adolphe Braun, by an unknow photographer.  Collection Detroit Institue of Arts.

 Detail of left side, above.

 Detail of right side, above.

 Detail of background, above. 

No cold temps or winter storms are predicted in the 10-day forecast.  January will go out like a lamb, and February will enter in a similar fashion.  So far, so good. 

Mapman Mike

Winter Misses Again

We are now nearly halfway through January, and winter has not appeared.  It is coming, though, in about a week.  But we got the mother of all rainstorms Saturday, with almost 3" falling in our water-soaked yard.  North of us it was ice and snow.  I don't know how much snow 3" of rain would make, but it's likely a lot.  I'll take the rain, though our county is inundated.  The lakes are so high that the slightest offshore wind floods vast areas.  It turned cold today, but we still managed a walk.  Warmer temps are coming tomorrow for a few days.  But by next Sunday, if predictions hold true, winter will finally arrive here.

Piano practice is going well.  I have scheduled a pm concert on the 30th, and an evening one on February 1st.  Weather permitting, of course.  The final push will begin this week for me.  It's called getting serious.  And the week after that will be even tougher.  I wish I could play more often than once or twice each year.  But even gathering a small audience for a specific date is difficult enough.

In movie news, recent choices have included Soylent Green (mine, from 1973), and The Sweet Smell of Success (Deb's, from 1957).  Charlton Heston isn't too bad as Andy, the detective cop living in overcrowded New York City.  He lives with Sol, wonderfully played by Edward G. Robinson, an old man who remembers the good old days.  He meets the beautiful and seductive Shirley while on a case, but their relationship is different than in the book (less complex).  The book was called Make Room, Make Room, and was written in 1966 by Harry Harrison.  At least Shirley will continue to eat, as she sticks to her old job, which is living with and entertaining the new (very rich) landlord.  The very rich lack nothing, including plenty of space to live, heating and air conditioning, running water hot and cold, and food and liquor that ordinary people cannot get hold of.

Soylent Green is a new type of food.  In the book it is made from lentils and greens, but in the movie it's made from--well, watch the movie and find out for yourself.  The film holds up reasonably well, and like other 70s movies has a lot to say about the environment and what we have done to it.

 Showing in January on Criterion Channel.

The Sweet Smell of Success, from 1957, is filmed in beautiful b & w by James Wong Howe, and is directed by Alexander MacKendrick and stars Tony Curtis and Burt Lancaster.  Lancaster plays the part of a Walter Winchell persona, a gossip columnist known as J J, who has the country's ear.  Tony Curtis is his protege, a man just as slimy, who is a press agent.  The New York location shooting is still stunning, and the extreme lows these two men will go to get J J's sister away from a jazz guitarist, are hard hitting and beyond any type of moral underpinning.  They both get their comeuppance at the very end, but along the way we truly despair that such people can even exist in the same world as us.  The only people who are likely worse are political leaders and politicians.

Now showing on Criterion. 

In other news, I talked to my Mom today.  Dad is sick with a bad cold, and turned his back the wrong way.  Double jeopardy!  Hope you get well soon.  My Mom's sister, my Aunt Pauline, just completed her move from a two bedroom apartment into a senior residence, where she is down to one room.  Her brother, my Uncle Bill, already lives there.  He has contracted a bad case of shingles recently, and is suffering greatly.  He is 87.  The residence is open, and they can come and go as they please.  Meals are included, and there are many common areas.

No more news for now.  Logan's Run coming up later this week (my choice).  See you soon.

Mapman Mike