Movies and Spirograph Creations

 I will soon be embarking on my second astronomy observing session of this lunar cycle.  Last Saturday was also clear, and also very warm and fairly humid.  Tonight will be even warmer (mid 70s) and slightly more humid due to heavy rain yesterday (not here, but out in the county).  Summer observing is as bit of a pain, due to the very late hours necessary to obtain a dark sky.  I skipped out on a previous night, but will take this one.

 

In piano news I am now 3 weeks into my newest pieces.  A fuller report will come after one more week, but things are beginning to move forward.  Only one piece remains stagnant, the Bach 3-part invention.  But it will come, with time.

 

In Spirograph news, I am still learning what the different wheels can do for me.  Some have very similar patterns with only subtle differences, while others change the landscape totally.  I now have a set of ten coloured pens and a set of 24 markers.  The markers have two ends, a sort of paint brush on one end and a very fine tip on the other.  I will display more of the creations here soon.

 

First try at a central addition; not quite centred.

Central spire is now truly central.

Still lots to learn.  I am colouring with crude markers in these images, just trying out colour schemes.
 

We are halfway through Deb's movie picks, which this week includes her festival choices.  We have two Polish films remaining to view.  My final choice before Deb took over was another Screen One selection from BBC.  Called Meat, it is from 1994 and stars a very young Johnny Lee Miller.  He is just released from juvenile prison for a series of b & es, scraping the bottom of the barrel for jobs.  He washes dishes somewhere for a while, then moves on to a waiter in a rundown cafe.  If you don't think that London has seedy areas, this film may convince you otherwise.  "Charlie" soon becomes involved with a young female prostitute, getting her pregnant.  When she is hit by a car she loses the baby and he deserts her, becoming a male prostitute.  Rather a nasty story (Danny Boyle) directed by John Madden.  If you want to be depressed and angry, then this film is for you.  Not so much for me.

 

Now showing on Prime, Meat starring Johnny Lee Miller. 

 

The next four choices are Deb's, two of which we have just seen.  They both were viewed on Criterion.  Drive My Car is a Japanese film from 2021 directed by Ryusuke Hamaguchi.  It's a long film (3 hours), and not all of it works.  Driving around in a car for much of a Japanese film is a new experience for this viewer.  Still, it is compelling to watch, even though we are often on bland freeways and long tunnels.  It is presented in nine languages and adapted from Haruki Murakami stories—about an experimental staging of an Anton Chekhov play.  It might have helped considerably if I knew Uncle Vanya well, but I don't know it at all.  I found much of the film cold and emotionless, even when the characters were revealing the most horrendous tragedies that had happened to them.  The two main characters are the male theatre director and former actor.  He recently lost his wife to a brain hemorrhage, and earlier a young daughter to pneumonia.  He is assigned a female driver when he comes to Hiroshima to direct the play, a young woman with her own cruel history.  By the end the two of them have become friends, in a father/daughter way.  His own daughter would have been her age if she had survived.  I didn't find the play readings at all inspiring, the director insisting on low emotional involvement, but then demanding that the actors literally become the part they have been assigned.  It's like telling musicians to play without emotion, but also to put themselves totally inside the piece.  The play relates directly to the lives of some of the people involved, but that could also be said of any truly good play being performed.  Despite the torn up lives (one of the actors is removed from the play and charged with killing a man in a fight), the film remains calm and cool, without hardly anyone smiling or showing anger.  We do see some tears near the end, though.  Deb liked the film much more than I did, though I didn't really mind watching it.  But I won't be running out and buying a copy of the play anytime soon.  And I was not a fan of actors speaking different languages (including sign), forcing the audience to read the play on a subtitled screen behind and above the actors.  An interesting idea, perhaps, but one that viewers would tire of quickly.

Leaving Criterion August 31st. 

 

Will-o'-the-Wisp is a Portuguese film from 2022, taking place about 50 years later.  A young prince wishes to be a firefighter, and joins a local brigade.  When his father dies he has to give up his dream and assume the role destiny has laid out for him.  The gay sex and nudity is way overdone, taking up about half of the film.  More penises per minute than any other film, it might even be in the Guinness Book of Records by now.  There is one decent scene, when the brigade does an ensemble dance in the nearly empty fire station.  The rest is mostly gay sex, with a fado song thrown in at the end during a funeral.  The first part had some clever 4th wall scenes of the royal family at the dinner table.  It is a very short film.

 

Leaving Criterion Aug. 31st. 

Mapman Mike

 

 

Catching Up Again

 We continue to try and put up railings on our new outside staircase.  We have half of the job done; the other half requires some ingenuity.  Deb thinks she is up for the challenge.  More later.  Still nothing to report on our garage foundation.  There it sits, in all its unfixed glory.  The car sits outside, which won't work well in the winter.  Speaking of winter, I finally had my winter dream, which usually occurs on or about Summer Solstice.  In this dream, there was no snow on the ground.  But everyone was talking about the big winter storm that was immanent, and would soon bury us in the white stuff.  So there; that part of my life is done with.  I remember worrying about how to get the car into the garage before the storm.

In weather news, we have had no measurable rain here at the homestead since June 14th.  The grass is brown and the earth is cracked.  We've had two close calls, but no rain here.  Next chance is tomorrow night, when storms are predicted.  We need a good inch of rain at least.  In June we had five days at over 90 F, including a 99, 97, and 94 F.

In music news, my newest piano program is up and mostly ready for performance.  I've played the Bach and Beethoven for my piano friend Paula, and they went really well on her grand piano!  I was happy, and she was amazed.  So far so good.  Now I need to play for a few people, and get on with a newer program. We continue to listen to the complete works of Beethoven here at home, as well as our entire classical record collection, over a thousand records.  We need to knock back an opera soon.  We just finished our Bach records, as well as all the Schubert string quartets.  Next up are the Schubert symphonies.  As for Beethoven, we are in the opus 70s right now, heading well into his middle period compositions.

In gaming news, I am playing Myst 5, which will complete the 8-game series, 5 Mysts and 3 Urus, most of them being played for my 2nd time.  I continue to play Botanicula, but am currently stuck trying to rescue a 3rd tyke, with two already safe with mama.  We are ready for our 2nd game of Middle Earth The Wizards card game in our new series.  And tonight we played Scrabble for the first time.  It's supposed to be a game that's good for old folks to play.  We didn't keep score, but tried to learn the rules.  We should be ready next time for the real thing.

Turning to film, there are two to report.  I chose Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy, a 2021 Japanese film by the director of Happy Hour, the 5+ hour film we watched last month.  This one featured 3 short tales, the last two being quite good, and the first just so-so.  Hamaguchi is a director to keep an eye on; we still haven't seen Drive My Car.  In the 2nd story, which is filled with irony and several risque moments, a married female adult student is enlisted by her young boyfriend to try and seduce a professor and get him fired.  She heads to his office prepared for the job, but the two of them of them hit it off rather well.  The ending is a surprise, and tragic and funny at the same time.  In the 3rd film, two women meet on the street, each thinking they know one another from high school, and strike up a conversation.  One invites the other to her house for tea, where they come to realize that they don't really know each other at all, both succumbing to mistaken identity.  Funny and touching, this is the best of the three.

Now showing on Criterion. 

My going away choice was 'Round Midnight, from 1986 and directed by Bertrand Tavernier.  From the description on Criterion....."’ROUND MIDNIGHT is a love letter from director Bertrand Tavernier to the heyday of bebop and the Black American musicians who found refuge in the smoky underground jazz clubs of 1950s Paris. In a sui generis, Oscar-nominated fusion of performer and character, legendary saxophonist Dexter Gordon plays Dale Turner, a brilliant New York jazz veteran whose music aches with beauty but whose personal life is ravaged by addiction. Searching for a fresh start in Paris, Turner strikes up an unlikely friendship with a struggling single father and ardent jazz fan (François Cluzet) who finds his life transformed as he attempts to help the self-destructive musician. Herbie Hancock’s evocative, Oscar-winning score sets the mood for this definitive jazz film, a bittersweet opus that glows with lived-in, soulful authenticity."

It's a very engaging film, with great acting and fabulous blues music.  Highly recommended.

Leaving Criterion July 31st. 

In series news, we finished up Amazon's amazing 16 part one called Undone.  A very fun and original animated series to watch, and perhaps rewatch.  And tonight we saw part 5 of 6 of Dark Winds.  The final part comes out next weekend.  And we are halfway through Name of the Rose, an 8-part series.  A newer version of The Prisoner is on deck.

In writing news, my children's vampire novel has been translated into French, and is ready to send off to Paris this week!  Fingers crossed on that one.  Thank you, Celeste!!

I'll finish up with a summer time painting from the DIA.  Western Landscape by John Mix Stanley shows me where I would love to be right now.  And if not floating down a river or crossing a lake, then at least I'd like to be sitting where the painter is, and just watching what happens.

Western Landscape, 1847-1849.  John Mix Stanley, American, 1814-1872.  Oil on canvas, mounted on Masonite.  18 1/2" x 30".  Collection Detroit Institute of Arts. 

                                                                        Detail of above.

Detail of above. 

Mapman Mike

 

 

Film Talk

I tend to get behind in my film reporting.  These are not designed to be reviews, but rather reminders to myself of what we have watched in the past.  They can also serve as recommendations (or not) to casual readers, who might have access to a weird film collection and availability.  Our usual source for films is Criterion channel, but we also watch a few on Roku and Prime.  It's hard to describe the pleasure we get from having access to Criterion movies.  It's like a dream come true. We can interrupt the stream at any time, and continue watching at any time.  There are no commercials.

I have five films to report on this time, the first one being Deb's film festival choice, the next two being my regular weekly choices, and the last two being Deb's regular selections.  Usually during the monthly film festival weekend, whoever gets their turn can choose up to three films, with extras if available.  Or one very long film.  Deb choice a Japanese film from 2015 called Happy Hour, directed by Ryusuke Hamaguchi.  Its running time is five hours and 17 minutes, and is a rather slowly paced film that centers itself around four women in their thirties who are friends and like to hang out together.  Two of them have friends since junior high school.  We gradually get to know each of the women quite well, as well as becoming involved in their family and love lives.  It's difficult to describe what the film is about, though lack of communication is a big part of it, especially between men and women.  It is a truly wonderful film, and well worth watching.  Be warned, however, that there are some very slow parts, such as the strange workshop the women attend, and the book reading.  But both of these parts have major roles in how the women are affected by these inclusions.  Sit back with a pot of green tea and get comfortable.  Most enjoyable.

Now showing on Criterion.  Bring a pillow and blanket. 

I continued with a woman's theme (Viridiana, Veronika Voss, Danzon, The Wonders, and The Second Mother) that seems so popular at the Homestead lately.  My main choice was The Perfect Candidate, a Saudi film from 2019 directed by Haifaa al-Mansour (WADJDA).  This is a fascinating film about a female doctor working in a small ER clinic, having to deal with poor road conditions leading to the hospital.  She wants to get the road paved, but to no avail.  She ends up running for city council in order to get the job done, which leads to all kinds of conflicts, especially with men.  There is a sub story that is nearly as interesting, about her late mother who was a singer at weddings, and her father, who still sings and performs traditional music.  The film reminds western viewers how much they have to learn about other cultures and places before any kind of understanding can take place.  Another highly watchable film, and recommended.

Now showing on Criterion. 

My going away choice this week was an odd little film from India, in 1973.  Called Duvidha, it is a simple film telling a story or legend from Rajasthan.  A ghost comes down from a tree, after falling in love with a passing bride.  When her husband leaves her at home alone while he goes off to trade for 5 years, the ghost takes his form and moves in with her.  They fall in love, but when the husband returns, all does not go well for them.  There is some lovely photography, and freeze frame is used quite a bit.  The story is very much like something one would read from The Arabian Nights tales.  I don't know where else a viewer might find this film, which leaves Criterion at the end of the month.  Perhaps on line, in a grainy version.

Leaving Criterion June 30th. 

Back to Deb's choices, and finally leaving women out of it, came Forbidden Dream, a Korean film from 2019.  It takes place in the 15th C, and loosely based on actual characters and what befell them.  One of the two main characters is a slave, an older man who has a genius for inventing.  the other character is the Emperor of the province in Korea, which is subject to Ming, China.  Through their shared love of astronomy, they become fast friends, and the inventions come non stop from the slave, now elevated to scientist 5th class.  Though the movie is filled with intrigue, it is slowly paced and a wonderful achievement in film making in this day.  Costumes, interiors, and the scientific instruments themselves are rendered to perfection, and the two lead actors easily carry the film despite not much happening.  These slowly paced films are such gems to find.  This is a great one, and well worth seeking.  (*Footnote:  Polaris (the North Star), is not the brightest star in the sky.  Not even close).

Now showing on the Roku channel.  There are commercials, but very few and far between. 

Lastly comes Margin, a short film from 2007 about taking a passenger boat (2 days, 3 nights) up the Amazon, from the border with Brazil and Columbia as far as Iquitos, Peru.  We stay on board the boat all times, and meet some of the travelers, including two Japanese men who seem to be in love with Columbia and the river.  Directed by Maya Da-rin, it runs just 55'.  Along the way, very old historical b & w footage is used, from earlier voyages along the same path.  Easy to watch, and quite fascinating.  The title refers to the land area closest to the river, where most of the people dwell.  It could also refer to the fact that this is not a deep film, but a simple journey undertaken and filmed.

 

Showing on Criterion until June 30th. 

Mapman Mike