The New Year

Hmm.  2024 somehow doesn't seem so new.  Major earthquake on the 1st day, with a weirdly connected plane crash.  Increased bombing of Ukraine.  Increased bombing of Gaza.  Major wind storm and flooding in the UK.  A devastating bombing in Iran.  And I still can't seem to memorize piano pieces very well.  So, not such a great beginning to a new year.  But it can only get better.  Right?

 

On Wednesday Deb and I had our first major outing of the year.  Not exactly a cultural experience, as we were both due for blood work.  We are able to book precise appointments in Kingsville, so that is where we go.  Afterwards we went to a newish cafe downtown Kingsville, enjoying the espresso and vegan cookies a lot.  Then it was back home.  But wait!  The day holds yet another outing.  Tonight is the regular late evening weekly trip to the grocery store.  Wednesday nights seem to be quiet nights for shopping, with hardly anyone else in the store.  And best of all, we usually get right up to a cashier.  Tonight, like most of the days in the past two weeks, was cloudy, dull, damp, and drizzly.  It's been getting a bit colder each day, though, and we are finally just about right on the seasonal norm. 

 

We celebrated New Year's Eve at 7 pm along with London, UK, greatly enjoying the very impressive fireworks display from the London Eye.  For us there was champagne, a wood fire, snackies, and Act 111 of Siegfried.  I actually managed to stay up till midnight, though I don't know why I bothered.  Deb cashed in a bit earlier.

 

In film news, I have one choice remaining of my five picks.  Mostly recently we watched a fairly dismal film based on a book by E. Nesbit I just read.  The Treasure Seekers is from 1996, while the book is from 1899.  The film boasts some choice adult actors, such as Ian Richardson, who is wasted as a Scrooge type money lender, Peter Capaldi as the editor of a major newspaper, and Nigel Davenport as a banker.  Keira Knightley has a small role as a princess.  The book and the film have little in common.  In fact, the book as written is quite unfilmable without using voice over narration, which it doesn't use.  The plot of both the film and the book is a cliched look at a family down severely in finances, which somehow miraculously regains their status at the end.  No, it isn't the plot that makes the novel successful, but the manner in which it is written by one of the five children.  And the two best chapters are completely left out, where they create a newspaper to sell, and when they try to sell mail order sherry.  Major characters are also left out, replaced by others.  While the film isn't a total mess, it does not do any justice whatsoever to Nesbit's novel.  So read the book and skip this movie.

 

We found this film on Youtube. 

 

Before that came Brotherhood of the Wolf, a strange flic from 2001 that mixes French period drama, horror, fantasy, and kung fu.  Very loosely based on true events from the 1700s, it's about a series of gruesome countryside murders that are blamed on some kind of rogue wolf.  The King sends an investigator, and he brings his companion with him, supposedly a Mohawk Indian (Mani).  Mani is the film's most interesting character, yet he is killed off with still an hour of running time to go.  So it's not so great a movie after that.  The fight scenes are pure Hong Kong theatre, as an unlimited amount of bad guys constantly appear, no matter how many are killed or maimed by the good guys.  The Jim Henson workshop animated the ridiculous monster creature, who is tamed by the main guy (who is easy to guess despite the mask), and only kills women and children. Some great costumes on the ladies, and some atmospheric scenes, make this one recommended, but with caution due to an awful lot of violence and blood.  The wolves turn out to be good guys in the end.  Yay!

Now showing on Shudder. 

 

Unfaithfully Yours is comedy written and directed by Preston Sturges from 1948.  A renowned conductor has undying faith in his wife, until he doesn't.  And when he doesn't, he quickly goes off the rails.  Once he is convinced that his wife has cheated on him with his handsome male secretary, his life unravels depicted in a series of fantasies he has while conducting a live symphony concert.  With music to fit the actions in his fantasies by Rossini and Wagner, and later Tchaikovsky, the movie becomes very much a Looney Tunes cartoon.  After the concert he tries to reenact the main fantasy, where he kills his wife with his straight razor, then manages to smoothly frame her lover, who is given the death penalty in his dream world.  But the real life version doesn't go nearly as smoothly as the fantasy, and he ends up wrecking his house in the process of trying to arrange it the way he envisioned it.  Rex Harrison is the mad conductor, and Linda Darnell is the innocent wife.  Definitely worth a look.  His performance is stellar.

 

It's run on Criterion has ended. 

 

We are currently viewing my final pick, a Chinese martial arts film.  Until next time. 

 

Mapman Mike

 

 

 

 

Clear Slies and Galaxies

 I have no idea exactly how many galaxies I have seen, though from time to time I do total my list, which exceeds two thousand.  That's a lot of galaxies, but a mere drop in the bucket as to what can be seen from dark skies.  Last night I logged another dozen or so, including Messier 87, an impressive bit of distant light if ever there was.  I began to be interested in astronomy in November 1968, one month before Apollo 8 would circle the moon with three astronauts and return safely to Earth.  In July 1969 astronauts first landed safely and walked on the moon.  So it can be said that my life as an amateur astronomer has the Apollo program to thank for it.  Newcomers are always astounded when they have their first look at the moon through a telescope.  It is the ideal place to begin the hobby, even with a pair of binoculars, as I did as a teenager.  Of course as time goes on and interest deepens, the moon becomes a bit of a curse, as its light drowns out the fainter, more elusive targets one can see with a telescope.

My first telescope was a plastic model of the Hale 100" telescope, with a mirror of just under 3".  It was in bad shape when I got my hands on it, and its tiny plastic eyepiece confirmed it as a toy, not a scientific instrument.  But it worked, and I got closer to the moon then I ever thought possible.  In 1971, with my interest growing, my parents bought me a Tasco 4.5" reflector.  It was like getting a full drum set, only much quieter.  I was in heaven (literally and emotionally), and my observing became a clear night event, though not during Sudbury's merciless winters.

Somehow during university we managed to scrape together funds for an 8" reflector.  This has larger eyepieces, making observing much easier on the eyes during extended sessions, and gathered 4x the light of my previous scope.  I was now in the big leagues, part of the dream team of amateur astronomers.  During university years, and then teaching years, astronomy became mostly a summer thing, as it involves staying up quite late.  Over the years I hauled the scope to school and gave several classes of students and their parents glimpses of some of the sky's major sights, such as the moon, Jupiter, Saturn, and some of the brighter deep sky objects.

I finally upgraded again in 2013, purchasing as 12" reflector that fits neatly into our vehicle and can be set up in about ten minutes in a dark sky site.  I've had to travel farther and farther to reach dark skies, and someday soon I hope to live somewhere I can see a dark sky from my back yard.  At that point I would likely move up to an even bigger scope, such as an 18".  Among astronomers this is called aperture fever, and is quite common.  No cure has ever been found.

Anyway, last night I had a most enjoyable observing session, my first for this month.  With luck the weather will hold and I will get one more chance on Friday. 

In movie news, I am behind again on my reporting.   After my Czech festival, I got to have my 2 normal weekly choices.  I chose another Zatoichi movie, #19, called Samaritan Zatoichi.  He helps those less fortunate and kills a bunch of bad guys.  One would have hoped that by now a new kind of story might have been chosen, but no, it's more of the same.  Like that Peanuts cartoon when Lucy holds the football for Charlie Brown to kick.  Hope springs eternal, but all for naught.

 

Now showing on Criterion. 

 

I followed up with a very short film directed by Preston Sturges, a comedy from 1940 called Christmas In July.  A man is tricked into thinking he has won a coffee slogan contest, and the prize of $25,000.  The trick is so convincing that even the company president is fooled, and hands over the check.  Fun times ensue as (of course) a major spending spree ensues. 

Showing until May 31st on Criterion. 

 

Deb choose a film by Canadian wacko man Guy Maddin.  The Green Fog is an hommage to all of the films set in San Francisco, and there are a whole lot of them.  He takes clips from the films, often removing the sound and replaying tiny snippets many times over, and attempts to fashion a short feature (61 minutes) from it.  Fun to watch at first, I quickly grew tired.  Perhaps as a 20 minute film short it might have been more successful.  Even as a film and TV buff, recognizing most of the characters and many of the films, I still lost interest after a time.  No real attempt was made to fashion a story from the clips, and my mind had really nothing to grab hold of, except image after image.  The added music is quite good.  I class it as a very interesting, though failed, experiment.  What younger viewers would think of it, who have not been exposed to classic films, I know not.

 

Now showing on Criterion.
 

Deb's going away choice has to be one of the best films ever made.  The 1970 The Railway Children is about the most perfect film for children ever made, and eminently rewatchable countless times.  I have seen it at least three times now, and enjoy it more each time.  Jenny Agutter was brilliantly directed by Lionel Jeffries, giving a tour de force performance as the oldest child of three, having to cope while their father is wrongfully imprisoned.  Her acting is understated and restrained, but her emotions come through perfectly.  Superb acting by the mother, too, and the other two children, and Bernard Cribbins, as the station porter.  A truly enchanting film, and highly recommended.  The pace of the film certainly harkens back to a different era of movie making, as well as the subject matter.

 

Showing on Criterion until May 31st.  

 

Lastly, on to this week's main pic for yours truly.  We watched Irma Vep (1996), a bizarre French film about French film.  It stars Maggie Cheung as a Hong Kong actress playing the role of a latex-suited vampire, supposedly a remake of an early silent film.  The film is in French, but as Maggie doesn't speak it, there is also a lot of English.  Although the film purports to be about a lot of things, with some random film conversation thrown in the mix, I think it is mostly about a film director wanting to see Maggie wearing the latex suit.  She does look rather sexy in it, I must admit.  Though we do get a sense of behind the scenes sniping, the overall lack of good organization in making a French film, and the fact that French film actors are not treated as stars, the camera is on Maggie so much that it turns out to be a film mostly about her and her good looks.  Not a bad film by any means, but not a great one, either.

 

Now showing on Criterion.
 

This Mapman Mike signing off for now.

 

 

 

March Reading

 I lost seven days of reading in March, due to an unprecedented series of clear nights during the monthly astronomy session.  It wore me to the ground, and I ended up traveling just over 500 miles altogether.  But what a month for observing!  The April session begins on the next clear night, and I am excited to get back to my galaxy observing project.  Despite the loss of a week, I still managed to get through much of my usual amount of reading, including ten books related to the Avon/Equinox series, and one by a non-related author, along with another 4 hours of volume 2 of 1001 Arabian Nights.  Here is last month's line-up:

 

As usual, Robert Silverberg lead things off.  I read To Live Again, a novel from 1969.  The novel (including an intro by the author) seems to fulfill J G Ballard's wish of having SF look inward rather than outward.  Silverberg looks inward in a very unique way: in the future it is possible to have your mind and personality preserved on tape.  Only the very rich can afford such a thing, and updates are suggested every six months.  Once you die, your memories etc. can then be purchased by another rich person.  Impressed into the single mind comes a complementary personality, making inner dialogues possible between the person and their acquired persona, and the person gains the life experiences of their intimate companion.  Not only this, but more than one persona can be added if desired.  I like the idea, and the writing, a lot, even though the complications of such tomfoolery could never really be fathomed.  *** 1/2 stars.

 

Next, I began yet another series by Piers Anthony, called Incarnations of Immortality.  The first novel is called On A Pale Horse, and the novel finds a man suddenly faced with becoming the figure of Death, and having to carry out his day to day duties and responsibilities.  There is a lot of humour, but also some interesting moral decision-making that must be done.  While the book is long, it is followed by a 22 page essay by the author that proves to be every bit as entertaining as the story.  I liked the story, though there were some weaker moments.  The next installment deals with the figure of Time.  *** stars.  

 

One of the best books in the actual Avon/Equinox series is #23, Bring The Jubilee, by Ward Moore.  It is a brilliant book dealing with time travel and the American Civil War, published in 1955.  It would be difficult not to admit the influence of that book on Harry Harrison, in his time travel/Civil War effort called A Rebel In Time.  While I much preferred the Moore novel, the Harrison one has its good points, too.  For one thing, the hero is black.  Imagine being black and educated today and being sent back to the American south in 1859.  Good luck with that.  So Harrison opens a brand new area with his confrontation of racial issues in America.  His writing is always so smooth and stylish, the book reads well and easily, and is hard to put down once begun.  *** stars.

 

From 1971 comes a novel as quirky as its title, The Electric Sword Swallowers (which I cannot fathom).  Nor does the cover byline "Every man his own Napoleon" make any sense, either. This is one of the oddest stories I have ever read, and I've read many odd ones.  In essence, the emperor of a planet (a self-proclaimed Napoleon), reenacts famous battles.  This particular story deals with the Battle of Waterloo at its climax.  Intelligent robots with some human DNA are utilized in the battle, thousands of them.  A group of reformers want to oust him, and use the robots for greater good and profit.  Our hero, Ferdie Foxlee, is hired as a top technician, after barely escaping two previous jobs.

The story begins as a comedy farce, but grows more serious as it goes on.  Some good points are raised throughout the story about revolutions, war, and the inhuman use of robots that are partially intelligent, and can act and feel on their own.  It's the kind of story one comes across more often in Ace Doubles than any other publisher, and I doubt any other publisher would have printed this as is.  Bulmer knows his military history, and he knows his emperors, too.  While I am not a fan of military history (or military anything), I found the book to be highly readable, and so original in concept that I enjoyed reading it a lot.  The ending is also very well handled, as the planet finds a worthy purpose after all, rather than just being a fun place to reenact battles.

*** stars.   

 

Beyond Capella by John Rackham was the unrelated book for the month, an anti-war space adventure from 1971.  Though very sexist for today's reader (what SF wasn't from earlier days?), Rackham at least tackles the issue of women in space and women in combat.  He also tackles other major issues such as the morality and wastefulness of war, computers replacing humans, and even alcohol on board ship (no one smokes on board in this book, either).  *** 1/2 stars.

Fifty Days To Doom is by E. E. Tubb, a 71 page pulp novella from 1954 that I quite enjoyed.  It marks the third anti-war book in a row that I read in March.  Tubb's novella has a lot in common with Rackham's novel, from 1971.  Both feature a man who is caught up in a senseless war, and wants nothing more than peace.  Again it always amazes me how so much story can be crammed into such a small number of pages.  *** stars.

The Moon Children by Jack Williamson was the first of three jackpot winners for the month, a novel so astoundingly good that I know I will read it again soon.  Unfortunately, my copy is water damaged, so I will have to order a new one.  The 1971-72 tale starts out a bit like Wyndom's Midwich Cuckoos, and also features some John Christopher inspired passages.  But the direction that Williamson takes with this story of three alien children born to human mothers is completely original and totally fascinating, and remains one of the best SF novels I have ever read.  Very highly recommended.  ****+ stars.

I finished up Moorcock's Swords trilogy, the adventures of Corum.  The King Of Swords is an excellent finish to a great series, despite the 2nd book being much less interesting than were books one and three.  Definitely worth checking out.  All three books are quite short.  **** stars.  

 

I finally got to read some of the short stories by J. G. Ballard, a multi-month project that will see me finish reading all of his fiction.  Having heard rave reviews of his short works, especially the early material, I opened the first page of the first story with high expectations.  My expectations were blown clear out of the water.  I had time to read 13 stories, some of them novelettes, all his short writing from 1956 through 1960.  I will merely list the names of the stories that are among the best fiction ever written.  Prima Belladonna; Escapement; The Concentration City; Venus Smiles; The Waiting Grounds; Chronopolis.  Absolutely astounding stuff!!

Barry Malzberg, a favourite author of mine, wrote under more than a dozen names, in all genres of fiction.  Under the name of Howard Lee, he wrote the first of four novels based on episodes of Kung Fu, starring David Carradine.  The first novel is called The Way of the Tiger, The Sign of the Dragon, and brought back a lot of memories.  The flashbacks to the monastery are very well handled, and I would never have suspected that the smooth writing style was a work by Malzberg.  A 2021 reboot of the series is planned, starring a female (of course; who else) Caine.

Lastly came the third incredible discovery of the month (Williamson and Ballard being the other two), The Seedling Stars by James Blish.  Consisting of three novelettes and a short story, we get the complete history of how humans adapted to life on other planets, rather than selecting to colonize only Earth-like planets.  At times I felt that I was reading the very best work of Hal Clement.  Written in the mid-50s for pulp magazines, and then rewritten for paperback publication, this is an incredible series of loosely linked stories that I wish contained many more episodes.  Fabulous reading.  **** stars.

And now a very short film summary from the past week.  Deb's three film festival choices were unrelated, beginning with the 1934 Imitation of Life, a film ahead of its time, but considerably behind by now.  Imagine sitting in a theatre in 1934 and watching a film about a black girl who can pass for white, and rejecting her black mother and her black roots.  Still quite watchable, though some moments are painfully melodramatic.  The ending was changed from the book, which did not impress the author.

Now showing on Criterion.

 

Imitation of Life, 1934.

Walk On The Wild Side is from 1962, starring a very handsome Laurence Harvey, along with Capucine, Jane Fonda, and Barbara Stanwyck.  The New Orleans setting tells the simple story of a Texas man coming in search of a woman with whom he fell in love with three years earlier.  But the woman has changed a lot since their last meeting.  Filmed in beautiful black and white, the film is good, but suffers from I call the cliched Hollywood ending, in this case not the happy one.

 

Now showing on Criterion. 

Lastly came a Preston Sturgess comedy starring a young Henry Fonda and Barbara Stanwyck, along with just about every comic actor in the movie business in 1941.  While the film has a good first half, it falls flat in the second due to overuse of very silly slapstick comedy, which does not suit Fonda at all (nor would it suit anyone else).  There is some really good writing in the first half, but not much in the second.  The story ends up going in circles, too.  The real joy is seeing Stanwyck scintillate in the role of a card sharp, and in watching the many character actors in their small roles.  It gets tiresome watching Fonda play the part of a buffoon, often expressionless.

Half good, half bad.  Now showing on Criterion.  

 

Mapman Mike