A Brief Catching Up

It was a doozy of a cold, and I still have that cotton in my brain feeling two weeks later.  My last cold was in December 2018, after returning from a sleepless but fun week in Vienna.  Deb's last cold was literally decades ago.  Her overcharged immune system has protected her till now.  She is a few days behind me in her recovery, but doing well.  We have both been sleeping a lot.  Whenever I try to read, I fall asleep, so along with the travelling we did my October reading list will be on the short side.  Deb's wrist seems to be healing well, with 3 weeks left to wear the cast.  And her lung is slowly healing, too, with far fewer painful episodes.  All will be well again someday soon.

 

We were away for 8 days instead of 17, so the piano program didn't suffer too much.  I did light practice during the worst of my cold.  Things are still a bit wobbly, but memorization of the Beethoven proceeds apace.  I resumed some light physical exercise a week ago, including a few outdoor walks, some yard work, and cutting the grass.  So only 50 more weeks until I get another chance at hiking in New Mexico.  5 of those 8 days we had were lots of fun; the last 3 not so much.

 

I have been working on the trip blog, and have the Cincinnati portion published.  Look on the American Midwest blog link, upper left on this page.  I am currently working on the second part, and might publish it by tomorrow.  I did get some really good photos, even in Oklahoma.  I haven't printed any yet, but soon.  

 

In film news, some really good ones on which to report.  But first, Deb's SF film is being shown this weekend in Manchester at their incredible SF festival.  Her film was one of only 6 chosen from a thousand entries that will be shown during the main event, and is in competition.  This looks like such a fun event, and we would love to attend, perhaps next year.

 

Mandalay is from 1934, and directed by Michael Curtiz.  Quite a good picture, when a woman dumped by her criminal lover has to fend for herself, taking an unpleasant job as a night club hostess in SE Asia.  She meets an alcoholic doctor and they seem to hit it off, until lover boy returns, expecting the woman to help him out.  Kay Francis is a knockout beauty in this short feature.

 

Leaving Criterion Oct. 31st. 

 

The Coconuts is from 1929, and is the first appearance on screen of the Marx Brothers.  While they are very funny, and their routines are well timed (the auction scene is one of their funniest), the movie screeches to a halt far too many times for some very lame songs, sung very lamely by others.  Harpo's harp solo, on the other hand, is very good, as is Chico's piano solo.  Fast forward during the other songs and all will be well.

Leaving Criterion Oct. 31st. 

 

Genghis Cohn is one of dozens of BBC films and filmed plays that were released as a multi-season anthology series called Screen Two.  Prime seems to have picked up a half dozen or so of these films.  This one is exceptionally good.  From 1994, it features a Jewish comedian who is murdered by the Nazis in a mass killing of Jews during the war.  His ghost comes back to haunt the commandant in charge of the killings, until he gets his sweet revenge.  This could easily have been a horror story, or a really heavy drama.  But it is actually more of a comedy!  And it has some very funny moments, too.  A real sleeper gem, and worth seeing more than once. 

 

Now showing on Prime. 

 

Another Screen Two BBC presentation on Prime was called Small Faces, from 1996.  It takes place in Glasgow in 1968, with a young boy growing up amidst the violence and despair of life in a poor inner city.  It was well acted, but the story it told could have happened anywhere, including Milan or St. Louis.  Not really that memorable, unless, perhaps, viewers grew up in Glasgow in 1968.

Now showing on Prime. 

 

Legend of the Red Dragon is a Chinese kung fu film from 2002.  Despite the violence, it is mostly a comedy, as a small team of do gooders, led by Jet Li, takes on the evil folk in charge of the country.  More a display of insane acrobatics than martial arts, it also features an invincible bad guy, who literally cannot be stopped.  He drives an all-silver steam powered racing car!  This one also features a group of young boys, including the hero's son.  Five of the boys have part of a treasure map tattooed on their backs, which the bad guys are after.  A very silly way to spend two hours.

 

Starring Jet Li, and showing on Prime. 

 

Next came a mind bending SF film, which seems to really be a play that was filmed.  Jerome Bixby's The Man From Earth is from 2007.  From the description on Prime: An impromptu goodbye party for Professor John Oldman becomes a mysterious interrogation after the retiring scholar reveals to his colleagues he has a longer and stranger past than they can imagine.  Well scripted and very well acted, this is one of those rare, highly intelligent scripts that tell truths most people do not wish to hear about.  The expose of Christian religion (having all been taken from earlier mythologies from other parts of the world) could have been written by Joseph Campbell.  This is a very highly recommended film, with a few surprises at the very end.  There is a sequel which it seems it might be better to avoid.  We'll see.

Now showing on Prime. 

 

Mapman Mike

 

 

 

In The Good Old Summertime

 If only summer could be like today.  Sun, clouds, and a high around 19C.  Glorious!  But rare.  We've already had more than a month of summer heat, and July is still far off.  Not to mention the rain.  Monday night's storms dumped 2.1" of rain in the rain gauge.  Even so, I managed to cut the far back lawn today.  No damage here, but more lightning than one would normally see in an entire year.

For Solstice we didn't do much this year.  No day trip, nothing too special.  Lots of great music inside, and a wonderful Leffe Brown Ale.  We were able to sit out back for an hour, admiring the wall of green that encloses us there, and we saw a gorgeous sunset, literally covering 180 degrees of the sky. Aside from that, it was pretty quiet.  Until the storms began, at 9 pm.

 

View from our back deck.  We are surrounded by a wall of green.

 

Summer Solstice sunset, from our front window.  This sunset went through several phases, including having the entire sky lit up at one point. 

 

In movie news, here are Deb's two picks from last weekend.  First up was a Czech film from 1970, called Valerie and Her Week of Wonders.  A short but unforgettable film, it seems to be a cross between Alice and Nosferatu.  An innocent thirteen year girl encounters vampires in her village, and a whole lot else.  Some wonderful weirdness is on display.  Deb finds it captures some of the flavour of Eastern European folk tales quite well.  It reminds me of what a psychotronic drug trip might be like.  Enjoyable, but very strange.

Now showing on Criterion.

Her going away choice was Horse Feathers, from 1932, featuring the Marx Brothers.  While not one of their classic films, there are enough great jokes to easy keep things lively during this short film.  Lines such as "You should drill a hole in yourself and let the sap run out," and "Was that you talking just now, or the duck?"  And then there is the football game, and a few funny Groucho sung songs.  The brothers are in good form here.

Showing on Criterion until June 30th. 

 

In art news, in summer I often feature a different print by Hiroshige on our desktop everyday.  he is one of my favourite artists, and the DIA has a few choice prints by him.  Here is a beauty!  If this doesn't signify a lovely summer moment, than I have nothing else for you today.

 

View of Toto, ca 1842, Utagawa Hiroshige 1, Japanese, 1797-1858.  Woodcut printed in colour.  8" x 13.5".  Collection of the Detroit Institute of Arts.

 

Detail, left side.

Detail, right side.

Further detail, right side.
 

Mapman Mike

 

 

Summer To Winter (In One Weekend)

 Friday afternoon I undertook my epic walk, with lots of sunshine and temps in the mid 60s F.  It was a beautiful day.  But we awoke to Sunday morning to the fact that it really was late autumn!  Needless to say we stayed indoors, except to feed the birds and squirrels.

We awoke to this scene Sunday morning.  It snowed most of the day, but today it has already vanished.

And now, back to movie news.  Deb chose The Uninvited, a ghost story from 1944 starring Ray Milland, Ruth Hussey, Donald Crisp, and the radiant young Gail Russell.  One of two films we watched last week about a composer, this one decides to buy a house on the coast, along with his sister.  The house proves to be quite haunted, and is likely the first Hollywood film to treat ghosts in a serious vein.  Having said that, there are some lighter moments, too.  Watching the young Miss Russell, and then learning about her tragically short and troubled life, in the movie extra shown with the film on Criterion, was a sad thing to hear about.  Though not really a very talented actress, she had soft, beautiful eyes that drew viewers to her face each time she appeared on screen.  The film is quite good, though the ending is the usual hokey Hollywood one.  Based on a novel by Dorothy Macardle, called "Uneasy Freehold."  Worth watching out for.

 

The art studio, the most haunted room in the old house.

Gail Russell, with her dead grandfather and the ghost of her mother approaching.   

Spellbound was another pick by Deb, this one from 2002, following 8 young contestants in the annual American spelling bee. 249 kids eventually win their way to the finals in Washington, D.C., and compete for the grand prize.  The film zooms in on 8 of the contestants, which include some of the nicest kids one could ever hope to meet, along with a few strange ones.  The words these kids are asked to spell range from the impossible to ones I actually knew.  The film could also be called "How to Prepare For A Spelling Contest."

And the winner is:  2nd from right.  A pretty fine documentary, showing on Criterion until Nov. 30th.

I chose a silent film from 1919 by Maurice Tourneur, recently restored.  Called The Broken Butterfly, it was unseen for 100 years.  It is barely an hour long, and details the tragic relationship between an American composer visiting Canada to work, and the young orphan peasant girl he falls in love with.  Definitely worth seeing.  I have seen very few films from such an early time, and this one seems ahead of its time.

                        The original poster for this restored gem, now showing on Criterion.

As the feature was so short in duration, I also chose a 20' film from Cairo called The Eloquent Peasant.  The film is a dramatization of an actual papyrus scroll recorded in ancient Egypt, in which a peasant gifted with golden gab seeks justice for a wrong that has been committed against him.  From 1970, it was also recently restored.  It is a truly wonderful thing to be hooked into a film channel that shows newly restored films from around the world, many of them thanks to Martin Scorsese.

Lastly came 1933's Duck Soup, starring the Marx Brothers.  Groucho saves Freedonia from an invading army in one of the group's classic films.  There are more one-liners per minute here than in any good stand up comedy routine.  The film also contains one of the funniest comedy sketches ever filmed, as Groucho and Chico pair off as if in front of a mirror, with Chico trying to convince Groucho that he (Chico) is the reflection.  A very funny film, and this was perhaps our 10th viewing, though it has been awhile.
 

And now we will turn our serious side over to the DIA, for another work of art from my favourite and best known art collection.  The museum doesn't just hold painting, sculpture, and graphic arts, but also art from ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, Greece, Italy, Africa, early Americas, decorative art, and Oriental art, thus echoing in many ways the great Kunsthistoriches in Vienna.  For now I am mostly focussed on landscape art, but that will likely change someday, maybe.

Yves Tanguy's Shadow Country is one of a small but very select surrealist paintings from the collection.  This painting was constantly in mind as I was reading "The Drought" by J. G. Ballard a while back, and it is a work that stays with you after seeing it a few times.  Less a physical landscape and more a picture of the unconscious mind, for me it remains a key image from this fascinating artist movement.  Tanguy was a favourite artist of Ballard, too, which is not surprising.  Together they make quite a team.

 

Shadow Country, 1927, by Yves Tanguy, French (1900-1955).  Oil on canvas, 39" x 32", unframed. 

Sweet dreams!

Mapman Mike