The Not Broken Foot, Part 1

Though it still hurts a lot after nearly three weeks of the injury, I found out today that there are no broken bones in my foot.  Not sure what it is.  Bruised bone?  Damaged tendon?  I see my own physician in two weeks.

In local news, our old backyard deck has been removed.  A new frame will be constructed Monday, and hopefully the new deck laid down soon after that.

Two photos of where our back deck used to be.  Most of the posts had rotted and need to be replaced, adding to the cost. 

 

In piano news, Jim P. is coming by Saturday afternoon to play some pieces.  I will perform a few of the harpsichord works I have been practicing.  I am approaching ten weeks since I began a new program.  I can more or less play a few of them, including two Scarlatti sonatas and one of the Scriabin,and a couple of Couperin pieces, too.  The Etude by Philip Glass is playable also.  I recently began the final work on the program, a Debussy prelude.  I have played it before, though it will still be a few weeks before it sounds like it.

 

In Train Sim World news I now own 30 different services, with several of them linked together to make longer runs.  Steam had a sale where many of them were 75-90% off, so I basically stole them.  I have only played ten so far, some of them just once.  I have a lifetime of train driving ahead of me.

 

The ruins of Berhamstead Castle lie just beside the station.

 

Driving the Bakerloo Line through Wembley.

 

An evening run from Euston to Milton Keynes. 

 

In film news there are two to report.  Never Open That Door is from 1952, another Argentinian noir based on two stories by Cornell Woolrich.  The first one is about a young woman who commits suicide because of her gambling debts and her brother's attempt to avenge her.  The second one sees a man return to his mother's house years later, a criminal on the run.  Both story endings rely heavily on irony.  Effectively photographed and directed, the film is nowhere near as good as If I Should Die... (see previous blog).

 

Leaving Criterion July 31st.
 

 Sicario is a fast paced thriller directed by Denis Villeneuve from 2015.  It deals with the problems encountered by law enforcement at the US/Mexican border, specifically in Arizona.  We also get grim glimpses of life in Ciudad Juarez, the large Mexican city across from El Paso TX.  It stars Emily Blunt as an FBI agent brought along on a bizarre and violent CIA mission to capture a major drug lord.  She is there merely as a legal proceeding, as the CIA cannot act within the USA without such an agent on board.  While she agrees to join the mission she doesn't really have an understanding as to what it will entail.  She ends up being pretty naive and a bit too much on the side of morality to do much of anything during the mission.  Lots of twists in the plot and when we finally do realize just how the CIA works, and with whom, it is more than a bit eye opening.  An excellent film, though violent and almost a horror film in places.

 

Showing on Prime. 

 

Mapman Mike

 

 

 

2024: A Glance Back

It was a year of loss and gain.  Wars and terrorism continue to plague mostly innocent civilians, including a horrendous Christmas market attack in Europe, and, only 3 hours into the new year, another similar one in New Orleans.  One of the biggest losses for the world in general is probably seeing Trump 6 days from the White House, winning the US election and leaving much of the civilized world aghast at what is to come.  There is no doubt that 2025 will be an interesting year, if more than a bit depressing.  It will be another year of horrible climate news, as lives and property continue to take a beating from nature's warnings that we seem not to heed.  Though there are few complaints here at the Homestead, places we love and care about are suffering badly.  The UK really took a series of hits from the climate this year, as did the US, Spain, South America, and many other locations.  California had record fires yet again, and the year turned out to be the world's warmest on record.  What is Trump's answer to all this?  Drill baby, drill.  Pump even more oil out of the ground and send it into the atmosphere.  Many times I am glad to be an old duffer; sitting around and watching the planet die will not occupy me for too many more years, at least.

 

Between Deb and I we lost 3 family members this year.  My dad passed away in March, Deb's sister during the summer, and a well-like uncle, my mother's brother, died this autumn.  I have one remaining aunt, and my mother and brother surviving me (and two lovely nieces).  Deb has one older sister still chugging along.  And while my overall health has been okay and I continue to stay fit, my bout with kidney stones really knocked me for a loop.  Hope that never happens again.  And Deb's health has hit a few bumps in the road as well.  Most telling is her inability to hike up mountains, due to some mystery condition yet to be determined.

 

R to L: Dad, Mom, Stephen, Mapman.  Probably late 1970s.  Taken at the Miller house on Lake Ramsay. 

 

R to L:  My grandfather Whitehead, born in Newcastle.  He lived till 96.  Uncle Jimmy, died at 33 in a car accident.   Recently deceased Uncle Bill.  An unknown spirit hovers behind Uncle Bill.  Don't remember noticing that before.  This was Jimmy's wedding to Ida (1974?). 

 

2024 was farewell to Deb's oldest sister, Sharon.  Left of her is Lois, Deb's mom, and Deb.
 

And now from the front.  Likely taken in the mid to late 90s (?).   We were on a local winery tour.

But we continued to travel!  After six long years we finally returned to New Mexico, and enjoyed one fine hike in the Manzano Mountains.  More visits are in the planning stages.  We undertook two road trips (not counting two trips to Sudbury), one to the deep south and one to the west.  Our first trip to New Orleans saw us visit four new states together, including Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida.  We hit the state highpoint in those states, as well as visited some major archaeological sights.  In addition we had time to see some New Orleans attractions.  We flew to New Orleans and rented a car, thus creating a road trip as well as a visit to a major new city.  Our western trip saw us conclude a trip began in 2023.  We had to abort that trip when Deb took a bad fall in Oklahoma, with an already broken wrist.  But 2024 allowed us to complete the journey, which saw the Texas highpoint also summited.  Our return to New Mexico was taken as a good omen.

 

Our road trip from New Orleans took us to Montgomery, AL, the true beginning of the civil rights movement in the US.  This statue commemorates Rosa Parks' famous bus ride. 

 

The GPS route of my climb atop Guadalupe Mountain.  It is the highest point in Texas, and one of the biggest hikes I have ever undertaken.
 

Aside from returning to New Mexico again in 2025, we hope to get back to London UK and Vienna at least one more time in the near future, and possibly undertake a visit to a major new (for us) European city, such as Berlin.  We have access to direct flights from Detroit to several other seductive sounding cities as well. 

 

Meanwhile there are two movies to mention, both of them SF.  The Quatermass Experiment is a 2005 tv bit of flotsam from the UK that should never have been made.  Why follow a 1950s SF story so closely in 2005?  The story of Britain's first manned mission to outer space makes no sense today.  We've been there for nearly 70 years now, and this creaky rehash of a strange life form overtaking the mission and causing havoc on board and back home, works only as a 1950s story.  If it's supposed to be the 1950s, then we were fooled.  Quatermass stories are a favourite of mine, and I much rather would have had a new story rather than this dated rehash.  David Tenant and Adrian Dunbar do there best, but the actor that plays Quatermass (Jason Flemyng) is flat and hardly credible as the great man.  Probably best avoided.

Showing on Prime.

 

Turning to Arrival, from 2016, we come across a major SF film that had somehow escaped our view until now.  It is showing on Paramount, to which we recently subscribed.  This, my friends, is one of the top first contact movies ever made, and is possibly the best one.  When 12 gigantic starships land on Earth at different locations, the world is turned upside down.  Directed by Denis Villenueve from a story by Ted Chiang, this one pushed all the right buttons for great SF viewing.  Louis Banks is played by Amy Adams, a linguist tasked by the US military to communicate with the giant and mysterious heptapods.  While I have read better novels of first contact throughout my Avon/Equinox SF Rediscovery series, it is hard to find a better film on the subject.  Watch as Louise learns how to deal with the present by learning an alien language that allows her to see into her future actions.  A totally remarkable and unmissable film, and worth more than a single viewing.

Streaming on MGM.

 

Wishing anyone who stops by here a very prosperous and Happy 2025!  Good luck with that--I think you will need it.

 

Mapman Mike 

A Week In Sudbury Ontario

It has been many years since I have stayed 7 nights in Sudbury.  I was born there, living at home until age 22, when I married Deb and we moved to Windsor to attend university.  We used to come home for about six weeks in the summer, staying mostly at the family camp on Lake Penage.  But since the camp was sold many years go, we have only been back for shorter visits, to Sudbury itself at the family home.

 

The occasion this time was to spend time with Mom, helping her to go through Dad's belongings.  Most went to charity, though I came home with a few nice shirts, a cozy new bathrobe, a few books and records, and a sport jacket.  Mom is doing pretty well, though I doubt she has had much time to process Dad's passing.  Cards and flowers and visitors have kept her occupied.  Her sister will come and visit her at the end of April.  Mom will be 95 in one month, and still climbs three flights of stairs at home and does laundry, some cooking, and many other things.  We took her grocery shopping one day (she still insists on buying her own food), and to church for a mass that was said in my father's name.

 

Mom lives in the upstairs of a large 3-unit apartment building which she owns.  My brother Steve and his wife and daughter live below her.  The basement apartment has been a bar and TV room for a long time now.  Steve and his wife went for a week long cruise from Miami, so we came up north to stay with mom.  The weather was quite beastly a few days, so it was mostly an inside visit.  I read, we watched a lot of TV, went through Dad's things, looked at old family photos, and just talked.  Mom and Deb are both early risers, so they had conversations in the morning while I slept on.  A few days were quite nice, and Deb and I managed some hilly walks, mostly to a vegan cafe and bakery.

 

The household has a few channels that we don't buy, so we were able to catch up on some Star Trek series, and watch all 4 new Doctor Who specials, starring David Tenant and Catherine Tate.  there are in the first 3 specials; the 4th one stars the newest Doctor, played by Ncuti Gatwa.  While all four episodes were fun, they were pretty much even in quality, with nothing too exceptional.  It was nice to see Mel Bush back in action.  She was a companion to two much earlier doctors, and could scream mightily on command.

 

We watched the first episode of Picard, a series about the retired Star Fleet admiral.  it seems like he will soon be back in action.  We will likely subscribe to Paramount for a few months in order to watch the rest.  And we have now seen six episodes of Star Trek Discovery, finding it worth a look, too.  I watched the first two episodes on our flight to and from New Orleans last month, rewatching them on Mom's giant screen so Deb could see them, too.  We also watched the first episode of the most recent Lost In Space series, from 2018.  It looks promising, but as it is on Disney, we will not be seeing more until another visit to Sudbury. 

 

And finally we were able to watch Dune, the first half of the epic film directed by Denis Villeneuve, from 2021.  The director and writer were obviously heavily influenced by the exploits of T. E. Lawrence, and the film by David Lean.  The movie ends just as Jessica and Paul are being tried by the Fremen, to see whether they will live or die.  It is a good film, but not a great one.  Of course there is a lot of exposition, and comes pretty close to echoing Herbert's great SF novel.  But everything is so compressed that it is difficult to get a sense of epic.  Perhaps watching both halves together would be better, but even with this film we had to break it up over two evenings.  Fans of Herbert shouldn't have too much to complain about, and there is some hope that the second book might be filmed, too.  Now we just have to try and see Dune Part Two.

 

We watched this in Sudbury on CTV SF Channel. 

 

We have done so much travelling lately, especially driving.  Our New Orleans road trip in late March was followed by a long day trip to Ohio for the eclipse.  Then came Sudbury, which is 470 miles each way.  So for now we are done with major trips.  It's been interesting trying to maintain a full piano program during this time.  Today's practice has been a bit mechanical.

I'll finish up with another picture of Dad....

Dad in Greece. 

 

Mapman Mike

 

Astronomy Season

So far this session I have enjoyed one clear night.  A very chilly clear night.  My lonely sight near giant windmills had snow and ice on the ground.  On arrival just after sundown it was 25 F.  Upon leaving around 11:30 pm it was 21 F.  I usually use a small computer to locate fainter objects that are difficult to find by just "pointing," but it was too cold for the little 9v battery that powers it.  So I went back to my primitive observing days and "pointed."  I didn't do too badly, either.  I am currently observing the tail end of winter constellations.  The spring ones are well up by the time I pull out.  I am on the fringe of the Milky Way in Canis Major and Puppis, both low lying constellations from northern latitudes.  But talk about stars!  When observing galaxies, the observer is usually looking away from the Milky Way, into deep space.  But when looking towards the Milky Way (summer and winter, mostly), the observer peers into the star fields and clusters that make up our galaxy.  So Tuesday night was all about observing star clusters.  I managed to log 13 new ones for me, including a deep southern globular cluster in Puppis that I never thought I would see so clearly.  It was a spectacularly clear night.

It is now cloud, rain, and snow season once again, but Sunday night looks promising (but cold). 

Deb has been sorting through our vast comic book collection from the 70s and 80s.  She is preparing to sell them off tomorrow.  We'll see how that goes.  Had the mice not chewed a good many of them, and water not damaged many others, we might have made a sweet bundle from the sale.

Deb's newest film is now out there, as it begins to enter festivals.  And there has already been an acceptance, from Atomacon in North Charleston, South Carolina.  It's a major SF event that also has a SF film festival.  The short (12') animated film takes a short story I wrote many years ago, updates and improves it, and has the look of a graphic novel.  We are both hoping it will be widely accepted by certain kinds of film festivals, and we seem to be off to a good start (if you wish to see the film, go to Deb's website (see link at upper left).  Near the top of her "films" page is a link to Will Ye No Come Back Again).

In film news, possibly the stupidest film to ever win a major Oscar managed to win an Oscar.  As I said in an earlier blog, the movie seems perfect for its time.  Everyone everywhere wants everything, and they want it now.  The breakneck pace of the film is also indicative as to what social media and instant gratification has done to the human brain (so far).  It can (and will) get worse, especially when the slew of copy cat films begin to emerge.  I might have been the only person on the planet in the 1970s who thought that Star Wars was the worst SF movie I'd ever seen (my opinion hasn't changed much).  So I might also be the only person on the planet (though Deb agrees with me) who thinks that the 2023 Oscar winner is a load of virtually worthless celluloid.

At the opposite end of the film spectrum from the 2023 Oscar winner is a film we recently saw by Jim Jarmusch, and both loved.  Take this review as the kind of movie that I think people really ought to be watching.  Paterson, from 2016, is a quiet film where not much happens.  It's about a man named Paterson who is a bus driver in Paterson, NJ.  We follow him and his wonderfully quirky wife through one week of their day to day existence.  It will be a rewarding week in many ways, mostly for viewers.  Paterson (the bus driver) is also a poet, and his mind is constantly turning over words and phrases as he goes through his day.  They live in a small house and own a small dog.  Every evening Paterson takes the dog for a walk, leaving the dog outside a neighbourhood bar as he sips his nightly glass of beer.

Besides the man, the wife, and the dog, we get to know the bartender, a few of the customers, and two people interested in poetry that briefly encounter Paterson.  There is only one dramatic moment in the whole movie, and it is brief and thankfully resolves calmly.  Even when the bus breaks down with passengers, it is a quiet event, though the director gets some mileage from it.  With just the right amount of humour, love, passion, and memorable moments, this film should have won even more awards than it did.  The dog did win the Palme Dog at Cannes, anyway.  A true sleeper film, it should not be missed by any cinema lover.

Now showing on Mubi, and worth several viewings. 

My leaving choice for the week was Maelstrom, a film by Denis Villeneuve from 2000.  Entertaining if somewhat forgettable, it follows a troubled young woman through several catastrophic events that occur almost simultaneously:  she has an abortion and it truly bothers her, she loses her job, and she kills a man in a hit and run accident while drunk driving.  With three strikes like that against you, it's tough to go on.  She meets the son of the man she killed, and things get even more complex.  His earlier film, August 32nd on Earth was also a challenge to watch, though it did have its rewards, like this film.  Not for everyone, but a credible film nonetheless.  However, coming right after the Jarmusch feature, well, it just doesn't stand up.

Leaving Criterion March 31st. 

Deb's main film choice last weekend was Oliver Sacks: His Own Life, a fascinating look into the famous author and neurologist, with plenty of film devoted to him speaking in his last year of life.  He brought the subject into the 21st C, and though he was ridiculed and ignored for much of his life, he now has a worldwide following and a legacy that has led many into the field for themselves.  His  observations and insight into the human mind, especially as it relates to Alzheimer's, Tourette, and other almost untouchable problems of the mind have advanced the cause several degrees.  His life was very troubled.  As a gay doctor he was unable to fulfill any kind of relationship on peril of being jailed until his later years, and his treatments and written studies were rejected by the medical community.  The documentary is a pretty straight forward one, but fairly representative of a helpful life lived to its fullest.  Highly recommended.  We have only read his music book Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain.  I will be adding to that list very soon.

From 2019, now showing on Mubi.

Finishing up Deb's weekend choices was Guy Madin's film of the Winnipeg Ballet's version of Dracula, Pages From a Virgin's Diary.  From 2002 it has a running time of less than 75 minutes, but seems way longer.  It is not that riveting to watch on the screen, despite many cinematic techniques at work.  I'm not sure I would have even enjoyed the actual ballet.  Let's just say that it's a story that has been done before, and though to my knowledge it has never been danced till now, that might just be a good thing.  Not the way to start getting into Guy's films.  In b & w, with colour accents (such as blood).

Leaving Criterion March 31st. 

Mapman Mike

 

 

 

 

An Early Winter

Last Friday we completed our series of walks on the local rails to trails trail. It was 65 F, and we were in summer jackets. The two weeks before had been lovely weather, too, often getting into the 70s. Then came Saturday (the 12th). Suddenly the temperature was 33 F, and it snowed all day. We were outside trying to plant our spring bulbs, and it was not fun. It has been cold for a week now, and we are heading into the worst of it over the next three days. Monday it is supposed to moderate. I sure as hell hope so.

We had a bus trip to Windsor planned with Amanda for this past Wednesday, but due to a stiff breeze and freezing temps, we cancelled. Instead, we had a long afternoon wood fire here at home, with music, food, drinks, and such. We have recently spent two long afternoons with Amanda as our guest (once with her mom), and hope to see her at least once more before she heads back to Toronto. Parts of New York, including Buffalo, are just entering into a three day snow event that will dump 3-4 of snow. Incredibly cold winds are blowing off the lakes, which are still warm, picking up huge amounts of moisture, and dumping it on land. Our boiler is on its serious heat setting, and it will remain that way until Nature shows some mercy. We are getting the high winds, but not much snow. Parts of Michigan along lake Michigan, and parts of Ontario along Lake Huron, are saying goodbye to a brown landscape, and hello to a white one.

Winter is often tolerable in this part of the world when the winds aren't roaring. Calm, cold winter days and nights are among some of the finest one can ever experience. But add a howling wind and blowing, drifting snow, and hell hath no fury like it. I've had two outings today to feed the birds. It's garbage night, so I will be heading out once more in an hour or two.

In film news, some good things to report. Before I begin, I will say that I am becoming more and more impressed with how documentaries are being presented. They are evolving works of great entertainment, besides their usual function of educating us philistines about things we should know about but don't. A few good ones will be briefly mentioned in a moment.
Denis Villeneuve's 1998 August 32nd on Earth is an early film by the director of the new Dune film. It's a difficult movie to categorize, or even summarize. It's a somewhat puzzling and unsatisfying look at two close friends, a man and a woman. She is a type of supermodel who has just quit her job. He is an unsettled man with a girlfriend, whom we never really see. The retired model (who never wears any makeup in her scenes, and dresses quite blandly, but we see magazine covers of her in full model mode) contacts her male friend. She tells him that she wants a baby, and that she wants him to do the job. No strings attached. She will go off with baby, and he never need see her again. He jokingly says that he will do it, but only in the desert. They fly from Montreal, where they live, to Utah, and are soon immersed in an otherworldly land of nothingness. Not exactly fun to watch, but curious viewers might be kept watching. Not for all tastes, certainly. The ending was a disappointment.

Showing on Criterion.

Manhattan Melodrama from 1934 is just that. Starring William Powell, Clark Gable, and Myra Loy, it is a watchable old thing that tells the story of two friends who grow up on different sides of the tracks. One becomes a gangster, and the other the district attorney for New York, and then governor of that state. The acting is good, of course, and the story not as predictable as it sounds. The character played by Gable (the gangster) is likable to the end, and he plays him well.  One of the better endings of an early film.

 

Leaving Criterion Nov. 30th. 

 

Next followed two quite brilliant docs.  Terrence Davies ode to growing up in Liverpool is called Of Time and the City, from 2008.  It is a fascinating and very moving experience to watch this film about a city that virtually never makes it to the big screen.  There are many indelible images used, including plenty of children playing and surviving the bleakness of their surroundings in blissful unawareness.  Davies narrates with his own writing, and also with quotes form Joyce and T. S. Eliot, among others.  The images and the reading go beautifully together.  I can relate, having grown up in a dirty and very smelly mining town in Northern Ontario, though at the time it was simply my home, where I came from, and who I was.  Anyone from out of town who said anything bad about it was off my friendship list for life.  Mind you, I was allowed to say things about it, but not people from elsewhere.  This is a different kind of documentary film, and we enjoyed it a lot.  We have seen one other drama by Davies, and there is another in the queue.

Showing until Nov. 30th on Criterion. 

 

Searching For Mr. Rugoff is a documentary from 2019, about a film promoter who influenced American cinema tastes and helped (inadvertently) kick start the American independent film movement.  Rugoff owned and operated a cinema chain with 5 or 6 new York City theatres, and began bringing over European films by Godard, Truffaut, Wertmuller, etc.  He is a hard man to describe.  He wasn't well liked by most people who knew him, being a tyrant.  But he changed cinema newspaper and radio adds, and developed American's taste for non-Hollywood films.  He is a man virtually no one remembers or has heard of today, so this film should go a long way to correcting that.  This is a truly fascinating film about a very influential man who just disappeared off the radar once he lost his business.  A must-see for fans of cinema.

 

Now showing on Criterion. 

 

I'll conclude with one more film, halfway between a drama and a documentary.  Chan Is Missing is from 1982, directed by Wayne Wang.  We have now seen a few other films by Mr. Wang, who tells stories of Chinatown, San Francisco.  In this one we get behind the scene glimpses of life there (in b&w) under the guise of a search for a missing person by a friend.  The story doesn't mean that much, other than what it tells us about Chinese Americans.  Sometimes it is very funny, and other times it is dramatic.  Not entirely successful, at least it is very short.  Chan becomes the symbol of a search for a true Chinese American.

Chan Is Missing is showing on Criterion. 

 

We are currently watching a documentary by Ulrike Ottinger, about a bizarre Viennese amusement park.  More on that later.

 

Mapman Mike