Getting Caught Up

Summer heat blasted us until Sept. 21st, which was last Wed.  It was 87 F.  then someone literally pulled the switch to "Autumn" setting.  Boom.  Sept. 22nd it was 20 F cooler, and it has stayed that way, and will stay that way.  A really, really strange entry into fall, and exactly in tune with the calendar.  That never happens here.  Summer usually lingers into Thanksgiving weekend, the 2nd weekend in October.  We watched the house temperature drop all weekend, from 77 F Thursday afternoon (lingering heat in the house from the day before) to today, when it is 67 F inside, and a lot colder outside.

Our Equinox celebration went on for a few days, as it was a clear sky on the Thursday.  We changed our artwork around to autumn pictures, and changed the fireplace lights.  We took our final Tarot cards of the Celtic year, and finished up Wagner's Die Walkure.  It such an emotionally powerful opera, and the orchestration is among the heaviest ever written to accompany singers.  What a blast!  We also are continuing some readings from Tolkien's Book of Lost Tales 1, which contain the earliest versions of many of the stories from Silmarillion.

I share a birthday with the first day of Autumn (22nd), along with Bilbo and Frodo, so my mind always turns to Tolkien in the fall.  But for my birthday this year I bought a box set of the complete works of Haydn!  160 CDs!!  I have been gently dipping into it for the past week, and enjoying the performances immensely.  This means that I can now dispose of a huge number of LP record box sets, freeing up some space in the basement.

In the world of the mundane, I have three appointments this week, making it an unusual week for me.  Very early tomorrow morning I will bring the car to VW for some necessary work.  an hour later I have a specialist appointment regarding my injured shoulder.  I hurt it a year ago trying to pull debris from our creek, and ended up tearing a rotator cuff.  It's likely not serious enough for the surgeon to repair, but I have some questions for him.  And Friday morning it's another trip to the dentist, this time for routine cleaning and check up.

And then comes Saturday.  Philip Adamson, my occasional piano instructor, will play another all-Beethoven program, as he tries to push through to the end of performing all the sonatas.  Looking forward to my first live concert (other than my own) in years!

Meanwhile, Deb is preparing for her mother's Celebration of Life in a few weeks.  She is assembling a short film of stills that show her mom as a little girl and morphing through to recent images of her.  It's been an incredible amount of work preparing a two minute film of stills.  She will also be the main speaker.

We have been watching a lot of films (and episodes of series), I just haven't had the time the report on them.  I will list the ones I remember, with perhaps a comment or two about some of them.

Yoyo, by Pierre Etaix, is from 1965.  A funny and touching comedy of life about the son of very rich parents who suddenly lose everything and become poor.  He runs away and joins the circus.  A minor masterpiece of comedy and drama.

Milky Way, by Luis Bunuel, is from 1969.  His scathing attack on religion and dogma.

Niagara, from 1953, was directed by Henry Hathaway and stars Marilyn Monroe.  It's a tale of murder and revenge, all filmed gloriously in Niagara Falls.  Worth watching just for the scenery.

The Other Side of Hope, by Aki Kaurismaki, is from 2017.  It's a terrific minor tale of refugees in Finland trying to make a life.

Showing on Criterion. 

Swamp Water, Jean Renoir's first American picture, is from 1941.  Depraved doings in the great swamp in Georgia.  Lots of humid atmosphere.

Showing on Criterion. 

Paris Calligrammes is a film by Ulrike Ottinger, who spent the 1960s in Paris.  The film is a terrific documentary of the times and her personal experiences, and for any lovers of that great city this film is a must see.  We than looked up an early film of hers, and found Ticket of No Return from 1979.  Starring Tabea Blumenschein as the beautiful woman who goes on a holiday tour of Berlin.  She does it sumptuous evening clothes (chosen and designed by the designer/actress).  But this tour is soaked with alcohol, and mostly covers the divey bars and back streets.  Some very funny scenes and some very tragic ones, too.  Well worth gawking at.

Man of the West was directed by Anthony Mann, and is from 1958.  Gary Cooper stars as a reformed bank robber who gets caught by his old gang after a failed train robbery.  Very high drama, and many unusual scenes.

Deb chose some films from Prime to watch.  One was The Duke, a small but very fun film from 2021, about a man who plots to steal a painting from the National Gallery.  He plans to hold it hostage until the government agrees to pay for the TV licenses (a British thing) of seniors and veterans.  Highly entertaining, as it is whenever the little guy wins against the big guy.  Based on a true story.  The Man Who Knew Infinity is another excellent story based on a real person.  Released in 2016 it tells the mostly unhappy story of a brilliant mathematician from India who is brought to England to work.  He has to overcome incessant racism and professional ridicule, but with the help of Jeremy Irons and Stephen Fry, his short life is rewarded with several professional and mathematical victories.  Hard hitting but excellent film.

Lastly (but not leastly) is The Illusionist, a film from 2006.  It's turn of the century Vienna, and this story is about a great magician who performs there, but is soon censored by the local police and government.  He meets a young woman whom he knew as a child, who is far beyond his meager station in life.  They fall in love all over again.  This is a pretty decent film, and very easy to watch.  Can the little guy overcome the big guy?  You won't know until the very end.  Recommended.

Showing on Prime. 

Mapman Mike

 

 

Routine Existence

It's been two and a half years now of mostly indoor living, the longest period of daily routine I have ever imagined possible for me.  Now I know that I would have been a good candidate for a Mars journey.  A typical day includes two hours of piano practice, at a pretty intense level.  Then there is about 3 hours of reading, half an hour of exercise (more on yard work days), some map gazing, and of course movie watching.  But I did something this week that I haven't done in quite a while; I prepped some astronomy work, as observations will resume next weekend, weather permitting.  I am very excited about getting back to dark night skies, and since last night was a full moon (complete with party and opera!), it will take about a week for dark skies to return for a sufficient length of time to make my 50 minute journey worthwhile.

This month's opera was Die Walkure, the 2nd of Wagner's Ring trilogy, and certainly one of the most powerful and finest operas ever written.  I possess the complete set (4 actually, with the prelude opera) conducted by George Solti, with the Vienna Philharmonic, seen as pretty much the finest recordings of the Ring ever made.  We heard five sides of records (of ten), and will finish the opera on Equinox, the 22nd of September.  At that time we'll also read some more of Tolkien's Lost Tales aloud.  And perhaps, but not likely, have our first wood fire of the season.  So there are enough pagan holidays in the year to break up the routines a little bit.

But last week we really blew a hole in our routines.  We went on a picnic!  I'm certain National Geographic Magazine will be interested once I send them the details.  Each year since retiring we have headed out on the first or second day of school resuming to the shore of Lake Erie and had a picnic.  It's usually a sunny, warm day, with plenty of bees in attendance.  This year was no different.  For Deb, who hasn't been to Sudbury with me since before the Pandemic, or to Detroit, it was a big outing!  We enjoyed a walk near the lake, then afterwards went downtown Amherstburg to a real, actual cafe.

Lake Erie, with distant freighter and duck.

Lake Erie and geese.

Walking the greenway near Amherstburg. 

One of Deb's films is showing at a festival in Cleveland, only 3 hours drive from Detroit.  She would like to go, but it's the same old story.  Most people likely won't be wearing masks, and will be sitting too close together for a long period of time.  So we almost had a major overnight trip, but probably not.  As a consolation prize we will spend a long day in Ann Arbor, visiting their museums (art and archeology), book and record stores, etc.  Hopefully Tuesday.

Glancing at the news lately, it would appear that the Queen has passed away.  In fact, I see nothing but this news.  In the same week the UK gets a new Prime Minister and a new King.  I saw the Queen once, on her visit to Sudbury in 1957 (?).  I was four years old, but remember it quite clearly.  She did look up at our balcony and wave to our party as she drove past.  So I guess you could say that we were pretty close, if not best friends.  Why she was visiting such a dreary northern mining town is beyond me, but I know that our mines worked flat out during the war, greatly aiding the ally cause (after we stopped selling our goods to Germany, that is--gotta love capitalism).

It's still super dry around here, but still the weeds grow (if not much else).  The corn near us in the county is quite short and sickly looking, probably not a good thing.  70% chance of rain again this weekend.  When it does come, there is very little of it, enough to wet the surface.  The trees must be getting thirsty.  And the heat is still around, though the nights are cooler now, at least.

Coming next: viewing news update.

Mapman Mike