Summer Solstice Day

It began sunny and cool and ended rainy and cool.  So no visible sunset, though we marked it yesterday.  We were never able to see the summer solstice sunset from our house before, but we can now thanks to a new home being built across the street.  We knew it would rain, so we watched it set on the 20th.  And we can also see the winter solstice sunset and sunrise from home, too.  Trees block our summer sunrise.  Not that we'd be up for it at that time anyway.

We took a summer day trip to Leamington, a nearby community swimming in Mexicans and Mexican culture.  This is due to the many migrant workers who live and work in that area.  We smacked into a downtown Mexican festival today, too.  It was loud and very busy.  We began at Seacliff Park, a sprawling park that slopes down to Lake Erie, our ocean substitute around here.  We had a picnic lunch under a large maple tree.  We also went wandering down to the beach for a stroll.

 

It was sunny on our arrival at the park.

 

Clouds were moving in from the south, however, and it would rain by evening. 

 

Our summer has been cool so far with daytime highs only in the 70s.  I think we have switched climates with London, UK, which is beginning to swelter. Our AC hardly comes on and we've had windows open a lot.  No complaints here, but Europe is baking during the onslaught of tourist season.  Good luck with that.

 

After lunch we went downtown where the Mexican Festival was in full swing, right outside the pub/brewery where we wanted to spend an hour.  Despite a very loud Mexican band playing right outside we managed to find a somewhat quiet table indoors.  We have re-instituted Sunday board game day.  Last Sunday I had won a decisive victory in Tokaido Road.  Today Deb scored a victory with our game of Trails.  We ordered a pint each of local beer and got down to business.  Afterwards we strolled past the wailing band and made our way to a favourite cafe downtown.

 

Inside Cured Brewpub looking out onto the street festival.

 

They had a very good stout on tap, as well as a French something which was also tip top.

 

Two hikers battled it out with a game of Trails.  I lost.  I'll never hike again.

 

Leamington street festival featured a Mexican band. 

 

Jessica R. is a former student of ours from APS, and was and is one of the sweetest of sweethearts.  When her dad died she received an inheritance and decided to open a cafe/bakery/restaurant in downtown Leamington.  This was only our second visit.  She makes world class baklavas and is a first rate barista.  We had a wonderful visit with her and came home with some tasty pastries.

 

Our all-day celebration continued when we got home, with a bit more ale, some gummies and even some Pernod.  We watched Eno, a 2024 documentary about Brian Eno, one of our favourite musicians.  It began showing on Criterion this week and is directed by Gary Hustwit.  To fans the film isn't that revelatory, and it only briefly explores a small portion of his output.  While it was fun to watch, I would rather listen to 80 minutes of his music than watch it again.

 

Now showing on Criterion. 

 

We finished up by listening to Max Richter's brilliant and captivating recomposition of Vivaldi's Summer Concerto.  Somewhere in there we also pulled out the new Tarot cards for this cross-quarter season, which will last us until August 2nd when the next one begins.  We choose our cards for the year on Samhain, then take them out at the appropriate time.  We had interesting results today.  We hadn't seen the cards since last October and didn't know which ones were coming out today.  I have a perfect summer card to think about now, whilst Deb pulled a winter solstice one.  Quite fascinating in their opposite attraction.  This is the time of year when northern hemisphere winter begins to approach once again.  But in the meantime let's enjoy a bit of summer.

 

Our card choices are not meant to be predictions of what may happen.  Rather they are used as something to focus on and think about during the six weeks they are out and showing.  Lots of Freudian stuff here, too.  Great fun!  We use the Arthurian Tarot deck, which we really love, but I also relate our choices to the Rider deck, which we also own.  

 

Deb's card on the left and mine on the right.  Plenty to think about here. 

 

Earlier in the week we watched another film, as well as completed Season One of Professor T. The Belgian TV series ended with a bang (literally) as one of the main characters was shot and will be paralyzed from the waist down, while the Prof himself checked into a mental hospital.  Each and every episode (13) of the season ends with an emotional volcano, something to consider if you get upset easily during tough situations.  It has proved to be a fascinating series and we look forward to two more seasons.

 

The film was Remote Control, a SF film directed by Jeff Lieberman from 1988.  It spoofs 1950s b & w SF films, taking one of them (created by the director to look like such) as a means for aliens to get inside our heads and make us kill each other.  It is more action/adventure film than SF, but it is well done and quite funny in places.  I would definitely recommend it to fans of classic SF movies.

 

A fun SF film now showing on Criterion. 

 

That is all for now.  Happy Summer!

 

Mapman Mike 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 

Piano Pieces Six Months In

We had a really great Sawhain party last night here at the Homestead, with two attending.  Good food, some music, a wood fire.  Can't be beat.  Then came the new Celtic year Tarot readings.  We have our new year cards, as well as selections for each cross quarter.  Readings are usually based on awareness, what might be possible to strive for, as well as guidance toward any goals selected.  I'll publish my year card shortly, but it is a Grail card and I am quite pleased with it, and it will remind me to keep to the true path again this year. 

 

We took our annual pilgrimage to a cemetery this afternoon.  We started out at a new cafe for us in beautiful downtown Harrow, a small farming town several miles southeast of the Homestead.  From there we moved on to Colchester, pretty much the most southerly mainland community in Canada.  There is a small cemetery there atop a bluff overlooking Lake Erie, and they have some pretty old tombstones, as well as plenty of trees and a very lovely small chapel.  Here are some recent pics, including some from today's walk.

 

 Mural on a cafe wall, downtown Amherstburg, from the previous Sunday.  Deb orders some caffeine. The sun glass images refer to an amusement park that once dominated the summer scene in Amherstburg, but is now long gone and replaced by.... an exclusive housing project.

  King's Navy Yard Park, downtown Amherstburg, facing the Detroit River as it opens into Lake Erie.

Navy Yard Park.  All three above images were taken last weekend. 

 Colchester Beach and Harbour, overlooking Lake Erie today. 

 A lonely looking Colchester Beach.

 

 A pair of birch trees in full autumn splendour. 

 

 

 Umbrella in hand, Deb walks towards a bench overlooking the lake. 

 

 Lake Erie with small light to guide boats into the harbour. 

 

 The Colchester Cemetery and small on-site chapel. 

 

 

 Colchester cemetery, with Lake Erie in the background. 

 

In piano news, as reported in today's title I have been chopping away at my newest repertoire now for six months.  There have been interruptions in the practice routine, of course, with two trips to Sudbury, one to Toronto, and various medical days.  But things are chugging along, and I hope to be ready in six weeks.  I played through the whole program this morning and it went rather well.  Soon I will take it on the road and place the pieces on the beloved Fazioli piano of Dr. Seski, if he is kind enough to once again allow me to do so.  After tweaking that a bit I will move on to play in for Jim P. in Chatham, on his 9' Steinway.  After that it should be time to invite some friends over to hear the program.  I have cut way back on the memorization this time, and will use music for the entire first half (all harpsichord) and for the final two pieces on the second half (Philip Glass pieces).

 

In movie news there are two to report.  Invention is a film that defines the term "quirky", and thus attracts our attention and interest.  From 2024 and directed by Courtney Stephens we watch a young woman come to terms with her father's death.  He was a doctor who was heavily into quack medicine, and the only thing he left her was the patent to his invention.  The invention is an enigma, and is supposed to induce a type of trance healing that calms the mind and soothes the body.  She hardly knew her father, but comes to learn things about him as she navigates life after his death.  It's a very personal film, but manages to express a lot through its often narrow focus.  The daughter meets with people who knew her father, and very few of them have flattering views to report, other than he was very smart.  His progress with his machine was hampered by his conspiracy beliefs, as he trusted no one to help him get it to market.  As a result the entire project crashed and burned.  Is the patent a valuable thing?  Should she pursue it further, for her father's sake and her own?  Though she is quite stoic throughout much of the movie, her emotions finally get the better of her, helping her in her decision of what to do with this thing.  The film is as odd as they come, a good enough reason to recommend it.  But it's quite transfixing to watch, too, as we explore the background of this near genius man who attempted, and failed, to get rich while helping others.

 

 A quirky but fascinating film now showing on Mubi. 

 

We also watched Ken Russell's 1980 filming of Altered States, from a novel by Paddy Chayefsky (Deb is currently reading the novel; I will, too).  Though we have seen the film many times, it's one we like to return to every few years.  Both the novel and the film are loosely based on actual experiments done on people in isolation tanks, though things carry a bit further than those experiments ever did.  With effects trying to compete with 2001: A Space Odyssey (they don't), and a story that more or less goes wildly off the rails, it's still a film that we are drawn to, mostly because William Hurt's character is willing to sacrifice everything for his search for what's out there.  Despite being a complete fool, one has to admire the guy for pushing things to the absolute limit.  An intellectual science fiction film is still a very rare thing, and though this film goes well beyond what is even remotely possible in the physical sense, we still know so little about what is inside our minds that all of the evolutionary retrograding that happens physically and emotionally to Hurt could possibly happen, at least within our own minds.  Always an experience to watch, this is a film I recommend highly to SF fans.

 

 

 The film has recently left the Criterion Channel.

 

 

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

 

A Frigid Wonderland

Our intense cold spell has gotten more intense.  Yesterday and today are the coldest days so far.  It was 9 F when I went out to feed the birds at 10:30 am, though sunny and not windy.  Yesterday I went to Kingsville with Deb, in need of more bird seed.  We have been going through a lot of the stuff of late, including for several ducks who stop by after sunset each night.  I went to Lakeside Park to read.  It was so warm in the car just from sunlight that I had to open windows.  I went for a ten minute stroll and took some photos, too.  You lucky readers will get to see them in a moment.  We went out a second time last night for groceries.  We have been shopping the local stores at 8 pm lately, along with only three or four other customers.  It's a great time to go pick up food.

Lake Erie from the bluff overlooking Lakeside Park, Kingsville.  There is still open water a ways out there, by the shoreline areas are solidly frozen.  There is still some shipping going on, but always accompanied now by a coast guard ice breaker. 

 

Critter footprints on Lake Erie.

More footprints in the snow.

 

A small stream (what New Mexicans would call a river) winds through the park before emptying into Lake Erie.

Open water is becoming scarce.

 

A very chilly babbling brook.  Lakeside Park, Kingsville. 

 

In movie news, there are two films to report.  Peter Weir's Year Of Living Dangerously (1982) doesn't seem to have much of a punch anymore.  The world seems to be coming under right wing dictatorship more and more, and the leaders seem to get more and more cruel.  Taking place in the mid 1960s in Java, Mel Gibson is helped to get a big story by Billy, brilliantly played by Linda Hunt (who won an Oscar for her role).  Gibson falls in love with (a seemingly anorexic) Sigourney Weaver, and the plot thickens.  It is a good movie, and it does try to highlight the problem of starvation in a country run by a dictator.  However, it just seems to be lacking something essential.  It's aim is good, the target is worthwhile, so maybe it's lacking something in plot and execution.  Not having read the novel perhaps doesn't help my judgement.

Showing on Criterion until Jan. 31st. 

 

We also watched a creaky 1960s b & w Sherlock Holmes film starring Christopher Lee.  Filmed in Berlin and dubbed, it's still a pretty good entry, and Lee isn't bad as Holmes.  Moriarty steals an Egyptian necklace said to once have belonged to Cleopatra, and Holmes must put a stop to this nonsense.  Sherlock Holmes and The Deadly Necklace was directed by Terrance Fisher, of Hammer fame.   From 1962, it's worth catching if you can.  We found it on the Roku TV channel, which now has about 7 billion things on it I would love to watch.  With a decent Watson, a good Moriarty, and some atmospheric settings, it was worth seeing.

 

We found this 1962 feature on the Roku TV channel. 

 

Mapman Mike

 

 

 

The Longest Day

Today, Sunday, was the final day of Spring.  However, we have already had more than a month of summer and summer temps.  There is no shortage of rain here, but hot temps have been persistent.  A week of cool weather is forecast, however, and we are looking forward to it.  The weeds are taller than we are, and all gardens need attention badly.  In a 15 minute blitz yesterday we filled two huge lawn waste bags.  We need a few hours of that to get the yard back to where we can say we are in control.

We are celebrating Solstice on Monday, the first full day of summer.  Not much planned in the way of special activities.  We might take a drive, but probably won't.  The garage needs a bit of paint, and a door salesman is coming tomorrow morning at 10 am.

Last Thursday I went to Kingsville, dropping Deb off at her mom's LTC home, and then going to Lakeside Park again to read for a few hours.  It was a beautiful day, with a cool breeze off Lake Erie.  That has been my only non-essential outing of late.

 

Lake Erie, on a very pleasant late spring afternoon.  The baby geese were all gone.

Looking south across Lake Erie from Lakeside Park, Kingsville.

 In movie news, I am behind again in my exclusive reporting.  Deb's going away pick from last weekend was Shaft's Big Score, from 1972.  Richard Roundtree is back, but the Isaac Hayes score and song are not, nor is the white police lieutenant.  Nowhere near as engaging as the first Shaft film, this one does have a pretty exciting finale, with a helicopter kamikaze pilot chasing Shaft through some docklands scenery that is rather death-defying.  However, it isn't really worth the time to watch it.

Showing on Criterion until June 30th.    

Next came my choices from last week.  From the main list I chose Zatoichi Meets Yojimbo, from 1970.  With a title like that, and Toshiro Mifune reprising his role, what could go wrong?  A masterpiece, right?  The first thing to go wrong was the very lame script, one of the worst of any samurai film ever seen.  It plodded along as if it had all the time in the world, and as if it didn't matter what was in the script, because with the two lead actors, what could go wrong?  Well, those two great actors had absolutely no chemistry in this movie.  Their scenes together are among the least memorable of the film.  A huge disappointment!

Now showing on Criterion.

 My going away film was Bertrand Tavernier's A Sunday In The Country, from 1984.  A sweet film, it can be added to the list of decent films that have virtually nothing earth-shattering that happens in them.  These almost Zen-like films are among my favourite kind.  In this one, an elderly painter in turn-of-the-century France welcomes his son and his wife and their three children for their weekly Sunday visit.  The younger daughter also arrives, but unexpectedly.  She visits her father less often, but she is his favourite.  A lovely film.

Leaving Criterion June 30th. 

Last Friday Jenn G. visited.  We got caught up during her nice long outdoor visit, and we shared 5 different ales.  There was food all day, too!  She is off to B.C. for six weeks at the end of June, returning mid-August.  That was our first social event since last autumn!  We are in constant touch on Messenger, and she watches Criterion!  I'm hoping to get her subscribed to the upcoming DSO season, too, where we could meet several times next year for ale, food, and music.  However, it was just announced that the border with the US will remained closed at least through July 22nd.  I'd say it's just about time to reopen.

Mapman Mike