Once Upon A Time That Never Was

I've been busy lately, driving trains.  Train Sim 5 is pretty cool and lots of fun.  My runs for Southeastern and Thameslink between Dartford and Gillingham, Faversham and Rainham now run pretty much on time.  I'm providing "good service" now, as they say.  I'm still trying to get the hang of the high speed run between St. Pancras and Ashford International.  Once they are going those trains are hard to stop.  So far my top speed has been about 205 kph.  Different viewpoints are allowed during the journey, and I can even watch my train zoom past from any location.  So if I haven't blogged too much lately, it's because I have such a busy timetable to keep.  Deb and I had once built a small HO layout with a desert setting, and I would run trains there.  But this is much more realistic.  In fact it's quite scary how realistic it all is.  There is a very slow speed limit in and around Rochester station, especially crossing the rail bridge over the River Medway.  But in the background once can see Rochester Castle and the cathedral.  Great fun!

In film news, Deb has just released her latest short film.  It's a music video called "The Once Upon a Time that Never Was", and it has just received its first (of many, no doubt) film festival acceptances.  The singer is from Argentina, and has an incredible voice.  The film features Deb's usual assortment of stunning and very original visuals.

 

Deb's latest short film.  It can be found on her website (see upper left margin here). 

 

In film watching news, there are several to report.  Beginning with the earliest viewings, Deb chose two films from Criterion.  One of my choices was also from Criterion.  The Cry of Granuile had a promising premise, but the film ended up just getting muddied, muddled, and muffled.  From 2022 Irish director Donal Foreman, the film attempts to link an Irish-American woman filmmaker researching an Irish legend for a possible film, with the local scenery and folk that she encounters.  However, things just go astray, and the film ends up being about nothing, really.  Any truths behind the legend of Granuile (a 16th C. pirate queen) are unreachable, and the female filmmaker ends up using completely fictional stories about her from modern times.  The main reason to watch the film is for some very fine landscape photography.

 

Leaving Criterion May 31st. 

 

Demon Pond is a  Japanese fantasy film from 1979, and can be called the Japanese version of The Last Wave.  A village stricken by drought is fed up with a local custom of ringing a ceremonial bell 3x daily so that the village never floods.  Legends say that a nearby pond contains a demon that is pacified by the bell, and that if the bell is not rung the demon will escape the pond and flood the land.  With some usual bad choices made, the pond eventually does flood, and a catastrophe ensues.  A second plot concerns a man on holiday out exploring the countryside.  He encounters a long lost friend who had up and disappeared one day many years ago.  He is the current bell ringer, along with his enchanted female companion.  Her part is played by Tamasaburo Bando, a male Kabuki actor known for his female roles.  A very odd film and no doubt rarely shown until now, this is certainly one to look out for.  It is showing on Criterion.

 

Now showing on Criterion. 

 

Dario Argento's Deep Red is from 1975, and is almost a very good film.  David Hemmings plays a jazz pianist who witnesses a murder and then becomes involved in solving it.  The first half of the film is a masterpiece of composition, setting, and atmosphere.  The second half is filled with animal torture and more graphic violence than probably any other film from the 1970s.  While this kind of violence usually works fine in a manga, on the screen it becomes a bit much, even laughable at times.  And it quickly becomes apparent that the murderer (not revealed until near the end) would have been incapable of getting to most of the places where he/she does the killings.  And then getting in quietly and in perfect position to commit the murders, one time with a three foot robot!  How did they get behind that curtain?  How did they get to the mansion, and the school?  Anyway, the first half of the film is great, and likely, if the director had not been so warped, could have been a decent and perhaps masterpiece murder-mystery.  But then he would have only been half as famous.  Leaving Criterion May 31st.

 

David Hemmings makes all the usual horror movie mistakes, and the director puts in all of the expected horror movie tropes.

 

The weather so far in 2025 has been mostly uncooperative towards amateur astronomers.  Tonight looks hopeful; so have many other nights, until the time actually arrives, as do the clouds.  But I am eternally hopeful!

 

Mapman Mike.

 

 

 

Gr. 8 Graduation, 1967

Deb came across this priceless photo in the upstairs closet this week, as she was (unsuccessfully) searching for an older art work of hers.  My Catholic school Gr. 8 graduation!  I'm actually on Facebook with two of my old classmates!  Vittorio P. back row, 3rd from left, became a Toronto area narcotics officer, and collapsed suddenly at his home on Christmas morning, 1990, as he was opening presents with his family.  He died the next day, of mysterious causes.  At 37.  Vittorio was a good guy, serious, and kept to himself a lot.  Very tragic.

Yes, I'm, in there. 

 

Deb had her teeth cleaned and x-rayed on Thursday.  Prices have gone up a lot since last year.  No surprise there.  It was sunny and very mild (52 F), so we went downtown for lunch afterwards.  As usual, I sat in the car and read while she was inside the dentist's office.  There is a brewery nearby, so I stopped in and purchased a few cans of ale, too.

 

Last Monday we had our first snow event.  By bedtime it was coming down hard, and no sooner had my head hit the pillow than the snowplow began its ritual passing.  From a snowstorm to sun and mild weather; I think it's going to be a somewhat unusual winter.  Of course the snow is now long gone.  It's interesting to watch the birds in full panic mode during the first snowstorm.  All their ground food disappears, and if they are yearlings they have no idea what is going on.  So I put out extra food that day, as it was also windy and very cold.

 

Earlier Monday we had an afternoon visit from Phil, a former student from many years ago.  Phil now lives in Pennsylvania, but was here to visit his dad.  Phil has had a rough year.  His mom died in April, his wife left him in October, and his dad was recently diagnosed with cancer.  Phil runs a music podcast that deals with Irish rock, a la Pogues, called Paddyrock.  He makes a great dj, but the music is a bit too head banging for us these days.  And speaking of the Pogues, this is the day after Shane MacGowan passed away, at 65.  How he managed to live that long will always be a mystery to this blogger.  We heard the Pogues live in Detroit many years ago, but Shane had been removed from the band by then.  I would have loved to have heard him in his prime days.  As to Phil, he will return after Christmas, bringing his two youngest kids along this time.

We have also purchased our final two replacement windows, for the back TV room.  Once these are in, all the windows have been replaced since we moved in.  No more cold air leaks!  The master measurer came on Wednesday.  They will be installed Dec. 15th.

 

In movie news, I will first finish up with Deb's final two festival choices.  Her two remaining films were both Japanese, and both in the SF and fantasy genre.  First came Princess from the Moon, from 1987, and directed by Kon Ichikawa.  The story comes from an 8th C folktale, easily believable to have some truth at its root, of an alien spacecraft crashing, leaving one survivor.  She is one strange little thing, growing in a matter of days into a beautiful young woman.  The costumes in this film are to die for, with more yards of cloth used than perhaps any other period film.  After getting settled on Earth and liking her life and the people around her, her friends from beyond (the folktale says the Moon) return in a spacecraft to retrieve her.  there is no appeal, and she sadly leaves her human family behind.  This is a very fun film, and extremely beautiful to watch.  Highly recommended.

 

Princess From the Moon, now showing on Criterion. 

 

Next came a historical fantasy, based on the origins of Japanese civilization.  Again there is some mighty fine apparel in this flic, called Himiko, from 1974.  People who worship the Sun are in conflict with those who worship the Mountain.  And so it goes.  Himiko is the legendary priestess who is the only one who can get messages from the Sun, which she passes on to her people. An oddity definitely worth catching.

 

Himiko, from 1974, is now showing on Criterion. 

 

My leaving pic was Invisible to the Eye, a Turkish documentary from 2020.  Here is the summary from Mubi, where the film was showing (it's gone now).  Inspired by Eremya Çelebi Kömürciyan’s book “History of Istanbul: Istanbul in the Seventeenth Century”, Invisible to the Eye traces this particular itinerary in contemporary Istanbul and opens up an endless path into the multifaceted visual history of this long-standing city.

 

It is a dreamy look into the city's architecture and spaces and people, as readings from a 17th C traveller's description is read.  I have always been intrigued by Turkey, especially Istanbul.  Just by pure coincidence, direct flights from Detroit began last month.  If you are interested in historical views of ancient cities, you will find this film fascinating, as I did.

 

This film has just left Mubi. 

 

It's a rainy and dark Friday here at the Homestead.  The trusty wood burner is cranking out heat.  Piano social is this Sunday afternoon.  Deb is working on her new film, and getting a lot of acceptances for her most recent completed films.  All is well.

 

Mapman Mike

 

 

 

Criterion Channel Part 3

Today was sunny and mild, as we begin to dry out from all the rain of late.  We finally got into the yard and picked up all of the fallen tree branches from the autumn and winter wind storms.  We also got the lawn tractor up and running, though it needs an oil change asap.  Deb also roasted a batch of Mexican coffee beans.  

As I await a book from Amazon, my next read by J. G. Ballard, I picked off a book from my regular shelf and am just finishing up T. H. White's "The Book Of Merlyn," which is part 5 of his "Once and Future King."  I also have one essay remaining from my Bruegel download, about the exhibit we attended in Vienna last December.

It was my turn to choose a film from the Criterion Channel tonight.  I choose a 1964 Japanese Samurai film called "The Assassin."  Directed by Masahiro Shinoda, it is also known as "The Assassination.  It has a lengthy running time of 144 minutes, and was filmed in b & w wide screen format.

The music is by Toru Takemitsu, and is perfect in every way.  The cinematography is among the best I've seen, and includes a strange use of the camera in the final scenes.  The storytelling is bizarre, and could be off-putting to some viewers.  The story is told in something like jigsaw puzzle fashion, and we never get a clear picture of the main hero, or where he is heading or what he believes.  Hachiro Kiyokawa is a master swordsman, a born leader, and a good planner.  But his schemes ricochet too much for many of his close followers, who rightly wish to know what exactly he is doing.  Does Hachiro even know himself?  He seems to be an opportunist whose motives change with the wind.

 One of the beautiful interior scenes.  

 One of the incredible outdoor scenes. 

The camera work and the music are so wonderful that it is difficult to even get caught up in the plot.  I was happy just watching the next scene roll by.  This is a film that is worth watching several times.  Unfortunately, at the moment, we have a complicated set up that works, but we can't watch it on the desktop.  Still, we are watching it on our wide screen TV, and the movies look fantastic on it!

There are 65 Samurai movies listed for viewing on Criterion, and I have barely seen half of them.  Still, I hope to watch this one again.  The violence is shocking when it occurs, but overall there is much less of it than in most films of its type.  The sword work is realistic, too.  Definitely a masterpiece of cinema.  It was the director's first period film.  He obviously did his homework.

Mapman Mike