The Roses of June

As I have mentioned in earlier posts, this has been a banner year for flowering shrubs.  In fact, it is the most wondrous flowering event in our 30+ years living at the Homestead.  The rose bushes are nearly falling over with blossoms, and it has been the same with all of our many flowering shrubs.  Something really clicked this spring to set off such a display of lilacs, roses, .. and .., to our benefit.  Right now the roses are peaking, and smell heavenly.

We usually get five or six blooms at a time on our bushes.  Not this year. 

The weather continues to be more like July and August, and many teachers and students can be thankful that schools are shut until September.  It would have been a brutal finish in the classroom this year.  To date I've had four fine nights this lunar cycle for observing.  Tonight is a fifth possibility, but evening storms are predicted.  We shall see.  At this time of year I have to stay up very late to get much done, as it isn't very dark until at least 10:30 pm.  The mosquitoes are out in force now, too.  And the fireflies.  Our backyard is lit up like a Christmas display after dark these past evenings.

In movie news, my two films from last week need to be mentioned.  The fun began with the next film by Fassbinder, as I make my way through every available film, all of them restored and in pristine condition.  Fear of Fear is from 1975, and deals with the mental unraveling of a young housewife just after her 2nd baby is born.  Starring Margit Carstensen, she gives a great performance of incipient madness.  after watching the film, a sad realization is that the stigma of mental illness remains at about the same level as it was in 1975.  Definitely worth catching on Criterion.

Now showing on Criterion. 

Leaving June 30th is Shaft, from 1971, starring Richard Roundtree as the hip black private detective sent to find a mobster's kidnapped daughter.  Filmed in Harlem, the street scenes are wonderful, capturing the period perfectly.  Directed by still photographer Gordon Parks, this is a very fun movie, with the "wooka-chucka" score and award winning song by Isaac Hayes.  Shaft's relationship with a white police lieutenant is priceless.

Showing on Criterion until June 30th.

Turning briefly to landscape art (to complete your day), here is a wonderful print, tiny, by one of the great masters of the genre.  Here he chooses a little fixer-upper of a place, well situated near woods and water.  The appetite for landscape art knew no limits in the 17th C., and if unable to afford a painting, then prints such as these could be had for much less money.  It's probably something I would have added coloured myself to back in the day.

 

Little Bridge, 17th C.  Etching and drypoint in black ink on laid paper.  8" x 11". Jacob van Ruisdael, Dutch (1628 or 29-1682).  Detroit Institute of Arts.

 

 

Detail of left side.

Detail of right side. 

 

Someday I may even get to see art for real again.  Until then....

 

Mapman Mike

 
 

 

 

More Movies, More Senses

The final movie in Deb's Powell/Pressburger film festival of last weekend was from 1949, and is called The Small Back Room.  A strange little film, it is set in London during the war, where a company works on building bigger and better guns to fight the Germans.  David Farrar plays a wounded engineer who works for a boss (Jack Hawkins) who is less than patriotic and more concerned with selling guns and making money, whether they work well or not.  He is also something of an expert in bomb disposal, and is called upon when the Germans begin dropping randomly placed booby trapped bombs that look quite harmless.  He has a big problem with alcohol, and craves the bottle when his wounded, amputated foot causes him lots of pain.  One of the highlights of the film is his feverish battle with a bottle of Scotch.  A very good film, and of course unusual if it came from this team.

 Now showing on Criterion. 

My choice this week was Zatoichi #10, Zatoichi's Revenge.  More corruption, and more great swordplay, as Zatoichi takes on more bad guys than Dick Tracy ever did.  A young girl and her father figure prominently in this great little story, as Zatoichi goes to visit his former massage teacher and learns that he has been murdered and robbed.  

 Zatoichi's Revenge, now showing on Criterion. 

The 5 Senses, Part 4:

Taste 

1)  Ale, e.g. a well kept pub cellar serving Fuller's ESB.

2)  A well-prepared cup of black coffee, such as Harrar.

3)  A perfectly ripe piece of fruit (peach, pear, mango, orange, lychee)

4)  Cinnamon (pastry rolls, on toast)

5)  Laphroig 10 year old single malt Scotch (this fabulous product also appears in Smell).

This list, and the others, could become very extensive.  Narrowing things down to five is quite a challenge, but a fun one.

In art news, we finally come to one of the world's greatest landscape paintings, located at the DIA.  With a collection rich in Dutch landscape art of the 17th C., an entire blog could be devoted to this subject.  In fact, I could devote quite a large article on just paintings on Jacob van Ruisdael in the museum.  I may get around to several more eventually, but let's begin with one of his greatest paintings, The Jewish Cemetery.  Based on drawings of an actual cemetery outside Amsterdam, the landscape goes far beyond what one might hope to find in the Netherlands, and shows Nature wreaking havoc on man made structures.  There is way too much symbolism here to even begin to fully understand the picture as the artist intended.  But gazing (often) at it in the museum, one is left with the feeling that nature is in control, not humans.  It's not all blasted trees and ferocious sky, however.  The bit of sunlight, the rainbow, and the water express positive sides of this feral force.  This is a picture I never tire of seeing.

The Jewish Cemetery, Jacob van Ruisdael, Dutch, 1628 or 29-1682.  Oil on canvas, 56" x 75", unframed.  Collection Detroit Institute of Arts.

 Detail of center.

 Detail of lower right.

 Detail of lower left.

Detail of left side.  

 

We have already gone out of the house more times this week than since the state of emergency, which still continues in Ontario, and we still have one more trip to go.  Wednesday was Deb's infusion day.  I went nearby to a large grocery store while she got her oil changed, so to speak.  Today we had to go to town to pick up a parcel.  Anything needing a signature will not be delivered, and has to be picked up at the post office.  While Deb did that I went to a smaller grocery store next door for some things overlooked or not in stock yesterday.  The awaiting package contained eye drops for one of the kitties, which we purchased from an on-line pharmacy.  Tomorrow we have to go to a pet store, to return food the cat won't eat, and try some other brand.  Then we finally should be done until next week.

We are still enjoying the PC game called Kentucky Route Zero, though it's more like reading a beautifully and minimally illustrated novel than playing a game.  Deb has just published the first episode in her newest Yorick the skull series, destined to become a SF classic.  And I continue to make good progress writing my 2nd Valeria novel.  We are looking forward to Friday's full moon and adjoining party, which might involve some board gaming.  It's been a while.

Mapman Mike