Late August

Late August and well through September is peak hurricane season.  With a doozy of a storm currently winding its way through Louisiana and Arkansas, and heat and humidity at its peak here in Essex County, you know summer is on its way out, but not like a lamb.  We are due for storms, too, courtesy of Laura.  It is pushing up Gulf moisture and very high temps and tropical humidity.  We had a bit of rain yesterday, and are due for a lot more over the next two days.  With our gardens turning into jungles, cooler weather over the weekend might actually see us out there getting some clearing up done.

Yesterday we were gone for just over an hour.  Deb had her 2nd haircut since lockdown, and afterwards we got groceries.  When we arrived home, our main intersection was clogged with emergency vehicles due to a motorcycle accident.  And our neighbour came by to tell us one of our trees had fallen across our creek.  We stay home for six months and nothing happens, but just leave for an hour.... 

In movie news, Deb's choice last weekend was a new film, screened directly to Criterion.  Called Zombi Child (a take on Jimi Hendrix's Voodoo Child?), the film is from 2019.  It sounded promising, but it was actually pretty boring.  Too many stories and time jumps were happening, as we went continually from Haiti in the 1960s to Paris of today to Haiti of today.  Not really worth viewing, it did put me in the mood for the best zombie picture every made, I Walked With a Zombie.  Though I have seen it recently, I feel the need to see it again.

Now showing on Criterion.

I chose a b & w film by Douglas Sirk from 1946, called A Scandal In Paris, starring George Sanders.  "If you talk of art," said Sirk, "I consider this my best picture."  Based on the memoirs of Francois Eugene Vidocq, a thief who becomes the chief of the Paris police, it is mostly a comedy, though the ending is quite dramatic.  The sets and costumes are fun, and Sanders is infallible in the lead role.  Tres amusant.

One of only 2 Sirk films now showing on Criterion.

The DIA has one of the world's best collections of German Expressionist art, thanks to its German director in the 1930s, and the Nazi obsession with labelling much of the art produced in Germany at the time as "decadent."  In an earlier post I highlighted one of Kirchner's calm landscape masterpieces, called Winter Landscape In Moonlight.  This time we'll take a quick peek at a more agitated landscape work, a print made by gouging the design directly from a piece of wood.

Road In The Taurus Mountains, from 1916, contains an abstract energy that is hard to define, but easy to relate to. There is a road.  There are trees, mountains, and clouds, too. though not the kind accepted by Nazi censors.  There is a wonderful edginess to the work, and an unsettling quality that seems to suit the term "expressionist" to a tee.  Not often on display, it is worth catching when it is.

Road In The Taurus Mountains, 1916, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner (German, 1880-1938).

Woodcut printed in black on wove paper, 18" x 13".

I am enamoured with the works of this artist, and will highlight more of his works in the future.

This has been quite a day of writing.  it began with a review of the most recent SF book I finished reading, a time travel one by Silverberg.  Then it was time to work on my article for Aurora, our astronomy club newsletter.  Lastly, a new blog entry.  I hope someone is reading these from time to time, or at least scrolling through some lovely images.  Until we meet again...

Mapman Mike

Summer Solstice

A strange thing happens to me near or on every Summer Solstice.  I have a winter dream, with snow.  This year was no exception.  On Friday night I dreamt that I was driving in towards Windsor with my cousin Cathy.  It was June but we'd had a rare significant snowfall the day before Solstice.  It wasn't sticking much on the ground, but it was thick in all of the trees.  So the tradition continues.  Perhaps I'm really Australian, or Patagonian, since it is winter there just now.

Winter Solstice is a celebration of the return of the light, so sunrise is the best time to welcome back the Sun.  At Summer Solstice, it is about celebrating the long hours of daylight, so necessary to grow successful crops.  But at the same time, it is about mourning the approach of darker days.  So sunset is the suitable time to celebrate this holiday.  It is highly doubtful that prehistoric humans celebrated either event.  For one thing, clear skies are needed for about ten days in a row, 5 preceding and 5 following the Solstice.  For another thing, one would need a clear horizon.  But since vast forests covered the lands, not to mention hills and mountains, it would be almost impossible to actually see the sunset or sunrise as we do today, looking across vast treeless fields.  

Our cottage on Lake Penage, west of Sudbury, is a good example of this.  From about the age of ten until about 40, all the days, months, and years spent there I was not able to see an actual sunrise or sunset, due to the trees and hills.  The Egyptians could, however, from their desert location.  And they had reason to keep watch on this event, as it heralded the annual flooding of the Nile.  Even so, the actual event was only marked, and not celebrated.  Stonehenge?  No way, Jose.  What about all those perfectly aligned stones?  Well, there are so many of them, in a rough circle, that a few are bound to line up with quite a few things, through pure chance.  But with no need to mark the Solstices or Equinoxes, why would prehistoric humans even bother?  They were much more concerned with the cross-quarter days, such as Imbolg, Lammas, Beltane, and Samhain, all to do with their animals and crops.

Here is a painting from the DIA I have chosen to represent Solstice.  Of course it is a winter one, because from this moment on, that is the direction we are heading.  From an astronomy perspective, beginning next month I'll be able to start observing earlier in the evening, instead of waiting until almost midnight for dark skies.

 Winter Landscape in Moonlight, 1919, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, German 1880-1938.

Oil on canvas, 47.5" x 47.5". 

This beautiful and powerful painting has been in the collection of the DIA since 1940, having been previously in the collection of the director at that time, William Valentiner, who fled Germany with it in the 1930s.  Thanks to Dr. Valentiner, Detroit has one of the world's largest and best collections of German Expressionist art.  He was also responsible for snagging our Bruegel painting, as well as one of the finest Rembrandt pictures in America.  This winter one is a large picture, well over a metre square, and has an immediate impact on the viewer.  Most art museums have very few great winter pictures on display.  For some reason this one always cheers me up, showing a secluded alpine valley magically transformed by strange clouds filtering the moonlight.  We peer over the mountains and down into the valley like some all-seeing god, dazzled by winter's power and the magic it can create.  Nature overwhelms the human-built cabins, but also seems to accept them as part of the landscape.  One of my favourite pictures!

My movie pick last week was from 1998.  Down In The Delta is the only film directed by Maya Angelou, though she did not write it.  A quiet drama of black family roots, struggles, and values, the picture is filled with warmth, and some really fine acting.  Its restrained emotions and carefully chosen dialogue and situations will appeal to almost all viewers of family drama.  Definitely worth a look.  Filmed mostly in Toronto, and just outside of it.

 Now showing on Criterion Channel.  

Our county, Essex, is still under stage 1 stay at home orders, though Sudbury and most of Ontario has entered stage 2.  My parents are able to go out again, and the stores and malls are open.  I talked to Dad today, and they are both doing really well, which is always a relief to hear.  They are very happy things are finally returning to some kind of normal.  We will find out Monday if we can enter stage 2 down here, and when.  Still several cases each day locally, though.

With Deb's suppressed immune system, we are not going anywhere soon, anyway.  Definitely no travelling this year.  The land border to the US remains closed until at least July 21st, but that will likely be extended again, at least until the US comes to grips with its rising numbers of Covid 19 cases.  No Canadians want Americans coming over here just now, and very few are in a rush to go over there, either.  Our mailbox, which we haven't used now in over 3 months, will see its contract expire.  We have no idea when it will be safe (for us) to cross the border again.

Mapman Mike