Training

 I am one week into my hill training for the upcoming mountain hiking.  It has been a cool week, which has helped immensely.  However, the heat will be on for the upcoming week's workouts.  I was quite stiff in the legs after Day 2 training last Saturday.  Yesterday was a longer walk, completing 3.6 miles (5.8 km).  My two longest upcoming hikes in the American west are over 8 miles in length (over 13 km), with over 3,000 vertical feet added in there of ascent.  Will I make it?  Well, past history tells me yes, as these prep workouts managed to do the job in previous years.  However, I am five years older now, and haven't been to the mountains for that long.  So don't bet too highly on my success.

 

For part of the week before my first major climb, we will be in Cincinnati, and I plan to make use of the hills in that city to add a sixth week of training.  Along the way west we will hike in the Wichita Mtns in southwest Oklahoma, then move on to Palo Duro Canyon, south of Amarillo, Texas.  A few days later is Big Climb #1.  Guadalupe Peak is the highest point in Texas, and a very challenging (for me) hike.  It is almost on the state line with New Mexico.  Then comes an even higher hike in the Manzano Mountains in New Mexico.  Then comes the biggest of them all, up to Jicarita Peak in the NM Rocky Mountains, southeast of Taos.  Then a slow recovery as we take our time (for once) driving home.  Back to the flatlands, at 570' of elevation.

 

It will be an exciting trip, with or without the climbing successes I hope to achieve.  Our stay in Albuquerque this time will be very limited.  During the ten day balloon festival (mid-October), hotel room prices are way beyond our reach.  We may spend one day there, at most.  Anyway, one week of training down, four to go at home.

 

Iaido training included a three hour session of live cutting last Sunday.  It was a spectacular day for it, cool and sunny.  Eleven members turned out to cut mostly 2 litre bottles filled with water, but I brought three soaked  and rolled wara mats to cut, one for each of the senior ranks present.  My cutting was adequate, but I do need much more practice, even with the iaito.  I have been training again for two months now, and am not feeling it yet.  Only going once per week isn't the best system, either, but that is all the time I have just now.

 

This Friday the new piano will have been in the house for 4 weeks.  I use the headphones full time, and find it does help with my concentration.  Less straying and daydreaming, more work and faster progress.  I still have a full page of memory work left on Op 10 #3, first movement, by Beethoven.  I am hoping to begin memory work on the 4th movement very soon.  I am also memorizing the Chopin Nocturne in F, Op. 15 #1.  I am slowly adding in some Alexina Louie astronomy pieces to the program, too.

 

And here is the film report!  By the way, the August reading report should come out later tomorrow.  Deb's film leaving choice was called So Late So Soon, a documentary that showed two aged married Chicago artists, and how each of the them deals with aging.  From 2020, it is certainly different in approach to most films about artists, and how it shows them living at home.  She seems to be in denial of getting older, while he becomes more and more fragile as time progresses (the film covers about five years, flashing back and forth).  Not terribly fascinating, but it is watchable.  Her arrangements of furniture and assorted items within the house are rather original and fun.

 

Leaving Criterion August 31st.  

 

It's film festival week here at the Homestead, and yours truly gets to choose.  I picked two films from the Sight and Sound top 100 list again, as we continue to get through all the ones showing on Criterion.   Tied for 67th place is 1948's The Red Shoes.  Completely restored in 2009 by Martin Scorcese's Film Foundation, this film is a sight to behold!  I had never seen the complete film before, only parts of it here and there.  A truly amazing accomplishment.  I loved how film can enhance a ballet, without totally making it into a film.  The Red Shoes ballet mixes in some cool photographic techniques with the dancing in a very creative way.  Scottish actress and dancer Shearer glows in the part of a young dancer who wants to dance more than anything else.  Too bad her husband didn't think it was such a great idea.  One of the extras that come with the film shows the restoration in progress.  The before and after scenes are almost unbelievable.  Apparently the restoration, in overall opinion, looks better than the original print would have.  I can believe it!  It is a long film, but it practically zooms past the viewer.  Don't miss! A Powell-Pressburger delight!

Now showing on Criterion. 

 

The film festival continues today with Tarkovsky's Andrei Rublev, and a whole slew of extras that come with it on Criterion.  And tune in tomorrow, when the subject will be books read in August.

 

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

Catching Up

Today I enjoyed my first full 2-hr. piano practice since my eye problems last weekend.  The pieces are so large and require so much stretching that I have to go easy again for a few days.  I am still trying to meet my memorization deadline of having four pieces in my head by next Wednesday.  I plan to add two more pieces to memory in August.

It has been 8 weeks since Deb's surgery.  There is still 4X that left to go, and her healing should be well advanced.  About the time my piano program is memorized.  She returns to physio on Thursday.  We both saw doctors last week: I saw my M.D. and Optometrist on Monday, then my Optometrist again on Thursday.  I am taking drops for another five days in the right eye.  Deb had a regular check-in with her new M.D.  We both seem happy with our G.P.s, and I've always liked my optometrist.

I'll try to do a quick film watching catch up here.  We are currently amidst our fourth weekend film festival since signing on to the Criterion Channel.  This time around we are watching a trio of b & w films from the 30s, directed by Alexander Korda.  More on those at the end of the weekend.

Recently seen films include The Garden of Women, directed by Keisuke Kinoshita, a very long movie b & w film from 1954.  It started out as a bit of a soap opera in an all-girls' college dormitory, but it soon evolved into something much better.

 Garden of Women, a Japanese film from 1954. 

The main conflict of the film is between the girls, who want freedom to live.  The school keeps them locked up, their mail is read in-going and out-going, they cannot study after lights out, and having a boyfriend is definitely out.  At times the film is hard to watch, as some faces need serious slapping.  The film ends with a girl's suicide, with each side blaming the other.  In my opinion neither the students nor the staff could really be wholly blamed for her death, as she was quite mad all along.  A good film, and definitely worth a watch, despite the long running time.

The Hitch-Hiker is a silly noir film from 1953, directed and co-written by Ida Lupino.  An escaped murder hitch hikes to escape, killing as he goes.  For some reason he kidnaps two able-bodied men, but doesn't kill them.  Instead, he keeps them at gunpoint for several days.  they seem neither able to take advantage of him, nor escape, and it just gets dumber and dumber as the film boils itself away into the desert.

 From 1953 and now showing on Criterion.  This was the only American noir film directed by a woman.  

The locales and cinematography are excellent.  There is a lone Mexican policeman that is tracking the three men, and of course all the way through the film the viewer assumes that he will die in a gunfight at the end.  However, the ending is pretty good, and definitely seems to have a woman's touch and instinct.  The last five minutes are probably the best part of the movie.

Lastly comes a really strange and wonderful film called A Canterbury Tale.  From 1944, it was written, produced, and directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger.

A memorable British film from 1944. 

Sheila Sim is probably the freshest face and most "girl next door" film actress you could ever set your eyes upon.  A stage actress, this was her first film role.  Also giving a quite astounding performance is Sgt. John Sweet, US Army, starring as Bob Johnson, from Oregon.  A small group of people come to know one another during war time in the village of Chillingbourne, along the Pilgrim's Road to nearby Canterbury.  That is the main plot, and it works quite well.  There is a silly sub-plot about the glue man, who pours glue on village women's hair if they are out after dark, in a twisted effort to keep them away from nearby soldiers, who are encamped nearby.  We see rural England at its best, and we do eventually get to Canterbury and the cathedral.

 A still from the film, a key scene featuring Sheila Sim and Eric Portman.

There are a number of short films attached to the Criterion presentation, including long interviews both with Ms Sim and John Sweet.  There is also the amazing documentary called "Listen To Britain," made during the war, showing scenes and presenting sounds from Britain in the 1940s.  Quite remarkable.  The film is definitely worth a view, especially if you are watching the British version.  We got to see parts of the American version, with a different beginning and ending, as well as shorter cuts in some of the scenes.  Skip the American version if possible.

Mapman Mike