End of Beginning of Summer

June, like many months before it, has swooshed past.  If I didn't write these posts occasionally I would never remember a single thing I did.  We finally got a good soaking this morning (Saturday), which was badly needed.  This was our first major rain in many weeks,  However, we paid for it with a very warm and extremely humid day.  Tomorrow comes actual chilly air, and with it (hopefully!) clear skies.  I plan to head out tomorrow night with the scope if it is clear.  I am doing some summer observing in Hercules and Ophiuchus this year.

 

I have decided to finally attempt to perform my year-old piano program, which I began learning last July 10th.  My right ear impairment put things off a while, as did our travelling to New Orleans for a week, and then twice to Sudbury for two weeks.  Getting back into shape after several absences is very hard work.  I wish my piano technique matched my self discipline.  I've just finished Week One of three to put final touches on the pieces.  A few of them actually improved, while others actually got worse (practicing them too fast--must slow down).

 

In movie news, it's my festival weekend.  After my usual two choices I get three festival picks.  We've watched one of mine, but before discussing that we'll have a quick look at Deb's two choices, and an earlier one of mine.  French Cancan is a Jean Renoir film from 1955.  It is a nearly perfect 'entertainment' film, in bright colour and filled with music, dancing, comedy, and motion.  If one is ever to use a lighter film for having great examples of mise en scene, this would be my choice.  The staging is wonderful, with the director having to handle so many complex scenes is smaller spaces.  There are many tender scenes, but the film will likely be remembered for its flamboyant style, especially the grand finale musical Cancan number.  Great fun, and highly recommended.  Gabin is a joy to watch, and he can dance, too!

 

Now showing on Criterion. 

 

Deb's leaving choice was from Mubi, and Indian film called Trijya from 2019.  Many recent Indian films deal with individuals struggling within their meagre means to achieve some form of quality of life, though their lives are mostly pure labour with small reward, both financial and spiritual.  This film is quite different.  We follow a young man trained as a journalist languishing and wasted at a silly newspaper job in Pune.  We see him at a cafe table with a fellow worker.  He has to write the paper's horoscope column that week, as the normal guy is off.  The column becomes very popular, even though he dictated it off the top of his head.  His boss wants him to continue in the role, but he wants no such nonsense.  He ends up leaving Pune, going back and forth to visit his family, and then finally just going walkabout through rural India.  This is an extraordinary fine film, very different in its outlook from nearly every other Indian film I have seen.  Highly recommended.

 

Leaving Mubi soon.

Before that I had one more film chosen that has not been discussed here.  Ken Russell's Salome's Last Dance from 1988 is a fun-filled over the top version of Oscar Wilde's play, showing the author attending a private performance.  We first saw it in Detroit at the short-lived Tele Arts Theatre downtown.  Like Jean Renoir's film, above, this one is very colourful, quite funny, and unlike the Renoir, seriously demented.  Not for every taste, but if you like Ken Russel (we mostly do) and Oscar Wilde (for sure!), then this film will be found to be most enjoyable.  Lust as you've never seen it before!  And it's right from the Bible.  So it must be okay for families, right?

Leaving Criterion June 30th. 

 

Now we turn to our most recently watched film, a SF directed by Claire Denis.  High Life is from 2018, a French/German production.  If it wasn't for all the violence, the film would be worth watching more than once.  A crew consisting of death row inmates is sent on a suicidal mission to the nearest black hole, in an experiment to see if its energy can in any way be harnessed (I would submit that solar energy would be far more feasible and much cheaper).  Despite the stupid premise (would a government really spend billions on a space mission and then send out death row inmates to fulfill it?  I mean, there would be more than enough volunteers from society, would there not?  The hero of the tale was doing time for killing a friend who killed his dog.  Juliette Binoche plays a doctor who murdered her two children and her husband.  When the film opens the only survivors are our hero and his baby daughter.  The story of how the other crew members perished is told in flashback.  By the end of the film the baby has grown up to become a teenager who looks a lot like Juliette.  The film contains a plethora of shots of bodily fluids, another drawback to repeated viewing.  I liked the concept of the film, a man trying to raise a baby on an empty starship, heading towards a black hole.  Rather unique in my experience.  Recommended for SF fans, but watch out for the violence, which includes rape.

 

Leaving Mubi soon.  

 

I'll be back very soon with the June reading summary.  I am just finishing up a novel.

 

Mapman Mike

 

 

Back In the Saddle

With 4 of the last 5 nights being clear and excellent for observing, things have grown slack around the Homestead.  No piano practice, very little reading.  The exercise program is keeping up, however, and my astronomy notes are done.  But I am only half done my Ozark trip blog, which will take precedence (along with piano practice) until clear skies return.  Very few movies have been watched, too.  We've also had a bunch of errands to take care of, such as doing our 2023 taxes (on Easter Sunday), getting Lois' taxes into the tax person, medical appointments for Deb, a new computer for Deb, etc.  On top of everything, the weather suddenly turned into June this week, with highs above 80 on some days.  It's still very warm, and will be until Sunday.

In film news, there are a few to report.  We watched the original Ghost In The Shell, the influential anime from 1995.  We might have seen it before, but neither of us remembered having seeing it.  The visual backgrounds are great, heavily inspired by the film version of Blade Runner.  A newer Ghost is in the queue for next week!  It was enjoyable, well paced, and with decent music, too.

Now showing on Mubi. 

My leaving choice was El Dorado XXI from 2016, an unusual documentary about a large community of miners, male and female, searching for gold while living in the Andes at 18,000'.  It is the world's highest permanent community.  One shot near the beginning lasts nearly an hour, as we watch miners come and go on a hilly street, dusk turning slowly into night.  Needless to say, this is a very slow moving film, even after the hour is up.  Not for everyone, but I feel as if I have been there (and don't wish to return).  It looks like the ultimate in dreary living, especially as the gold ran out long ago.  But still they come.

Leaving Mubi tonight. 

Deb's choice (still finishing up her end of March festival pics) included a Douglas Sirk melodrama from 1957 called The Tarnished Angels.  Starring Rock Hudson and Dorothy Malone, you get what you pay for;  B & W Cinemascope based on William Faulkner's novel "Pylon," and we see some great stunt flying races mixed in with the human drama.  Robert Stack is the pilot, Dorothy is his wife (whom he all but ignores), and Hudson is the man who falls in love with Dorothy.  Stack finally falls in love with his wife (and young boy), but alas, that last air race proves too much for the old jalopy he was using.  Too late, too late.  A decent enough film, with some good acting.  Faulkner reportedly liked it a lot.

Now showing on Criterion. 

Claire Denis is a director whom we both have come to like, but Deb walked out on The Intruder, a film from 2005.  Then she came back and stayed till the end.  This is not really a bad film; it is a terrible film.  It's about a lonely man (for good reason--he is a total creep) who needs a new heart (in more ways than one), and is in search of his long lost son.  Only it takes most of the movie to figure out that much.  Awful story telling, it feels as if this film was made day by day, under the influence of having no good ideas to present, and nothing important to say.  I kept watching, hoping for some kind of revelation or importance or thoughtful idea.  But there is nothing but emptiness in all directions, along with really bad story telling.  And a central character who is quite revolting.  Who could ask for more from a film?

The Intruder is showing on Criterion. Give it a miss.

That's all for now, until I get my trip blog done.  I am hoping to get Part 3 up sometime this weekend.

Mapman Mike

 

 

 

Storm Update

Even though the most severe warnings are now down for our area, it is still very cold (4 F) and very windy.  There has been a constant roar of wind through the trees, heard easily from inside.  Our power has remained on (so far), and the water pipes haven't frozen (yet).  The boiler has been up to the task of keeping the house at 67 F.  Our generator is standing by, as is the wood pellet stove (if the furnace conks out), and a stack of firewood is ready for action if the power goes out and the generator won't start.  I've been doing three bird feedings per day, the only time I am outside.  It takes two to three minutes, and by the time I am inside again I am nearly frozen.  The river was ice free on Thursday, but is now thick with the stuff.  Shipping on the Great Lakes has come to a halt until the gales die down a bit.  Lake Huron was recording 25' waves yesterday.

 

We were spared the predicted snow amounts.  We got 1"-2" of snow, instead of the predicted 6"-10".  Squalls with whiteout conditions still hit us from time to time.  The main highway to Toronto has been shut down since yesterday, and likely will stay closed until the wind subsides, sometime Sunday.  Our roads seem mostly clear, but drifting is a continuous problem.  There is way more traffic today, people zipping past like there is nothing wrong.  Good luck with that.  Hope you don't have a breakdown or an accident.  Most people here do not have winter tires, either.  Believe it.

 

We recently watched the first three episodes of an older British TV series called The Edwardians.  The first one was about Rolls and Royce, and how they got started in the business.  That episode was in colour; the remainder are in b & w.  It was quite good, and also tells the story of why unions were required to break the power of virtual slave-driving business owners.  There are no unions here, the workers have a 70 hour work week (usually extended with many extra hours), and the boss (Royce) is a workaholic jerk.  However, he did get things done.  The second episode was even better, about a British MP named Horatio Bottomley, who also started the publication "John Bull," influential in its own peculiar way at the time.  The third episode was about E. Nesbit, the author, known today mostly for her children's stories.  However, the story focused not on her writing, but on her personal life, which was rather grim, to say the least.  But there was nothing about her being a leader in children's realistic fiction, and in creating the modern children's fantasy novel, where children of the day acquired a magical possession, or traveled to magical worlds.  This episode should have been much more focused on her writing to be successful.  

 

In other watching news, we viewed the 3rd and final film Criterion has on streaming file directed by Claire Denis.  Called White Material, it is from 2009.  It comes with two short features, one a discussion of the movie with the director, and the other a tiny documentary about Denis attending a disastrous (because of technical difficulties) local celebrity opening of the film in Yaounde, Cameroon.  The film follows a family of five (mostly the white woman who heads it) as they try to salvage their coffee crop amidst an armed rebellion and insurrection.  What could go wrong?  Well nothing, if she had taken her husband's and French official's advice to get the hell out, now.  But she stays, and the expected happens, like a slow motion train wreck.  While the story telling is a bit off- putting at times, jumping in time and from character to character, overall it is an effective film and well worth seeing.  Written by a black woman and using a largely black crew and actors (her camera man was white), the film makes several points about learning things the hard way, ignoring risks until it is too late, and even bringing up children.

 

Now showing on Criterion. 

 

My leaving choice for the week was The Hidden, a SF/cop movie from 1987.  An evil escaped alien that looks like a giant slug gets inside people and makes them do bad things, like kill people, drive fast, and steal things.  A good alien in the body of a dead FBI agent's body tries to kill it.  He partners with a cop and they end up chasing the alien all around the city, as it takes over different bodies, including a female pole dancer, a police lieutenant, and a presidential candidate.  Lots of dark humour, hundreds of ineffectual bullets, a fast pace, and some grossness add up to a fun film for adventure fans.  Hal Clement wrote a two-novel series with a very similar theme, called Needle (1949), and Through The Eye of a Needle (1978).

Leaving Criterion Dec. 31st/22 

 

More news as it happens. 

 

Mapman Mike

 

Still Dodging Winter Storms

So far we continue to dodge winter bullets.  The big storm that just passed us was a rain event, whereas further north it is currently an ice, sleet, and snow one.  Score one for the Homestead!  Our temps are chilly, and it is very damp, but we have been getting above freezing during daytime hours consistently so far (today we are way above freezing, till tomorrow).  As long as daytime highs rise above freezing, I don't complain very much.  However, next week and lasting almost to the New Year we are supposed to get a true blast of Siberian air, with temps remaining well below freezing for 8-10 days.  I strongly dislike those days, though my brother in Sudbury, by contrast, is cheering on the snow and cold so he can drive around in the bush on his snowmobile.  Whatever floats one's boat.  I prefer a mostly brown winter, though it was nice to see photos of Britain with people out enjoying the snow on their sleds, skis, and making snowmen in their yards.  It rarely snows in London, and it never lasts, but it did snow this past week, with the usual transport chaos that ensues.  We have not had sunshine here now for almost two weeks, and the astronomy forecast for the next two weeks is a grim one.

We continue to hibernate, however, and the Homestead programs continue as before.  My time is spent practicing music and listening to it, reading, exercising (2 1/2 years strong now!!), studying maps of New Mexico, and watching films, mostly on the Criterion streaming service.  And there is the Wondrium channel, with three college lecture courses always going on here (hundreds to choose from).  We also have weekly gaming sessions, and I am trying to finish a game for PC.  I'm also replaying Riven.  We could cross to Detroit whenever we wish, but for now the urge is not there.  We are happy at home.

Deb's main film choice last week was The Third Man, a film that is fun to watch many times over.  It rates #63 on the S & S list of best movies.  It is filmed with wonky music, and a female lead that needs a good slap to get her head straightened out, but otherwise it is an excellent film, about post war Vienna and the trade in watered-down antibiotics.  Orson Welles is the villain who is responsible for the deaths and trauma of many children. An accurate depiction of post war Austria, with four countries policing the area.  Part of the film was shot at the Prater.  We recognized at least one war torn area of the city, a church we had visited.

Now showing on Criterion. 

Her leaving choice this month choice was a documentary about the Ireland troubles.  The Image You Missed is from 2018, as the young filmmaker tries to follow the trail of his father, who abandoned him and his mother when he was very young.  The documentary is a confusing mix of the son trying to understand his father's life (he was also a filmmaker, who made the important film The Patriot Game in 1979), and a brief history of Northern Ireland's struggle against the British loyalists.  It isn't really good at one or the other, but there is some truly amazing footage, with several unforgettable scenes, such as a small boy trying to find something to play with near a bombed out overturned vehicle, with barbed wire and soldiers in the background.  It did well at festivals, likely bringing unknown history to Americans.  Getting a full understanding of what was going on and why can be a tricky business, but the film does serve as a primer for the Irish troubles.

Leaving Criterion Dec. 31st. 

Following up on my last film choice, I selected Chocolat by Claire Denis, from 1988.  We have seen the film before, likely around 1988 at the Detroit Film Theater at the DIA.  I think the film has even more resonance today than it did back then, as the truth of damage done by colonialism hits a much more aware public.  Thus the film hasn't aged itself at all by telling the story of a very young girl (Denis herself) growing up in French Cameroon while under French rule.  Her relationship with the house boy is a close one, and she knows nor thinks nothing of racism.  He is her best friend, and also a teacher to her.  At least until mommy starts having strange desires for him.  The film is gentle, but it pierces the soul nonetheless.  Though the house boy (he is not a boy, but a very handsome and strong man) is treated well (they even say please and thank you to him), he is still not anywhere near being treated as well as he should be.  And the fact that he accepts his demeaning treatment and does not fight against it also shows his limited choices in life.  Of course he could rebel, but then where would he be?  A thoughtful film, and very well done. 

Now showing on Criterion. 

So far we have seen 2 1/2 episodes of English, and two of Interview With A Vampire.  Both are quite good, though violent beyond belief.  I have more and more trouble with realistic violence in contemporary cinema and series.  It seems we will never be civilized as the glorification of sudden violence is so much in demand by modern audiences.  So far in English there seem to be no decent people in America, only murderers, rapists, and greedy capitalists.  While that might or might not be a true realization, it makes for a very predictable series.  And with a modern vampire tale one might expect violence and blood, this series seems to want to outdo itself.

One of the ships I regularly watch for is called the Mesabi Miner, a massive 1,000' monolith that ends its journey in Duluth.  There is a Facebook group of Great Lakes ship enthusiasts, and the person who runs it lives in Duluth. Here is a great shot of the Miner coming into port in Duluth, with a few December kayakers watching it come in.  Due to gales on the lakes today, many ships are currently waiting in safe harbours.

A terrific shot of the Mesabi Miner arriving in Duluth, Minnesota recently.  So far this season the Miner has passed our house across from Detroit 13 times.  Those little ducks out there in the water are actually kayakers. 

Mapman Mike

 

 

 

December Blahs

The days of grey gloominess are here.  Grey in the morning, grey in the afternoon, and gloomy all the time.  For astronomy, December is the cloudiest month we have here in Essex Co., Ontario.  Despite this unwanted feature, we both managed to get good glimpses of Mars being occulted by a full moon on Wednesday night.  There were just enough breaks in the otherwise thick clouds to see bright Mars approach the moon, then pass behind it.  It was too cloudy to risk setting up a telescope, but we managed with binoculars.  We seem to have a skunk living beneath our back deck, and we kept thinking he was going to join us, but he (she?) never showed up.

Our Full Moon party also featured a lively and warm wood fire n the fireplace, using up wood from a tree felling project from two years ago.  It's now ready to burn.  And we also have a brand new pile of green wood to let sit for a time.  Nathan, our tree guy, finally got back to us after about 18 months.  He and his crew came and took down a very large poplar tree in our far back yard, a tree that kept dropping enormous branches at random.  So the threat to a neighbour's garage roof is finally gone, as well as a threat to me when cutting the grass back there.  We planted the tree many years ago, a tiny sapling that grew about six feet each year, until it became a skyscraper, then a somewhat dangerous skyscraper.

Also on the party schedule was the monthly opera selection.  This time it was "The Trojans" by Berlioz, lasting for 10 sides of 5 LP records.  The story follows Aeneus from his defeat at Troy to where he was given sanctuary in Carthage.  Here he and Dido fell in love, but he ultimately had to leave her as the gods impatiently called him back to Italy.  Dido was not impressed, and placed some wonderful curses upon the hero and his country before stabbing herself to death.  Some truly great music, with the lead sung by Jon Vickers, pretty much a Canadian musical legend and hero.

In viewing news, we finally finished up the series Dark Sky.  The series purports to be SF, but the SF element is pretty thin, at least until the final episode.  Overall, things move much too slowly, and too much time is spent of details of life that could easily have been compressed to keep some kind of flow going.  The story often just stops dead in its tracks.  The series is about 75% soap opera, 22% noirish mystery, and about 3% SF.  When the SF element finally comes to the forefront, it ends.  The series was cancelled by Prime.  But we have begun to watch two newer series: The English, a western on Prime, looks quite promising (an English woman teams up with a Native scout who worked for the South during the Civil War); and Interview With the Vampire on AMC has a very good sense of the period and location where it is set, with good acting, too.

In film watching news, there are 2 to report.  Recently Sight and Sound came out with their (every ten year) list of the 100 best movies.  Criterion then grouped all of the films that made the list that they have for viewing and streaming (more than half).  So I now have a nice long list of classic and recent films to watch.  Though we have seen many of the top 100 films, there are enough that we haven't seen, or haven't seen in far too long, to keep us busy for a time.

So my first choice was Claire Denis' Beau Travail, from 1999.  It is listed as #7 on the top 100 list.  It is a film about a small group of men training in Djibouti as members of the French Foreign Legion, and about their sergeant, and about their commander.  Filmed on location in the city and in the volcanic and salt wastes of Djibouti, the film would have wide appeal.  Women would like it for all the extremely fit and handsome young men, black and white, that are featured. Gay men would like it for the same reason.  Straight men would like it for the macho qualities the film highlights.  Though I am not a woman, a gay man, or a straight man who appreciates macho qualities, I still liked it.  So there you go.  Wide appeal.  As the final credits roll, we are told that we have been listening a lot to Benjamin Britten's Billy Budd score, from his opera.  Then the connection (however loose) is made to the film's plot: a sergeant who is none too pretty in the face begins to pick on one the most handsome men in his troupe, and is eventually accused of aiding and abetting his death when he is left in the desert alone with a defective compass.  The sergeant is telling his story, about how he was removed from the Legion.  Yes, the movie is quite good, and worth more than a single viewing.  But #7?  Really?  There are two more of her films on Criterion that we might check out, too.

Now showing on Criterion. 

Next came a silly comedy starring William Powell and Myrna Loy called Double Wedding, from 1937.  Hollywood's strange fascination with weddings continues here with Powell starring as a gypsyish wanna be film director who lives in a house trailer, and Loy as a successful business woman who runs her life like clockwork and by the book.  Is there any doubt that these two will get married at the end?  Despite some very funny moments, there isn't too much here except light entertainment.  John Beal has a very funny role as a mousy man.

Leaving Criterion Dec. 31st/22. 

 

No snow as yet, and no drastic cold weather, either.  It's been seasonal, with temps below freezing at night, but rising above during the day.  Can't complain, yet...

 

Mapman Mike