Winter's Non-Arrival

It's more like mid-November here at the Homestead this week (and next).  No snow anywhere to speak of.  Green grass, plants still growing in the garden.  Anyway, Happy Solstice!  Our all day fire was still on for Friday, beginning at sunrise and lasting till sunset (8-5).  It's going to get warm in here, though.  We have a ton of good food laid in for the holidays, both of the snack variety and the full meal kind.  More and more plant based items appear at the grocery stores nearly every time we go there.

 

Thursday we managed another walk on the trail.  It was a crisp autumn day.  Tomorrow will be similar, but it will be a crisp winter day.  Go figure.  We also stocked up on birdseed, and Deb managed to buy paint for the room redecoration (new windows, after all) on sale for 60% off the regular price at the same store.  She is currently stripping a 5" border from around the top near the ceiling before repainting the walls and ceiling.  Wednesday was Wal-Mart day.  We usually do our shopping there when a prescription refill is needed at the pharmacy.  We were expecting horrible crowds, but it was a actually quiet and a mostly tolerable experience.  Tuesday was Deb's infusion day.  All went well.  Before that we ate at Copper Branch, a plant based restaurant with a wide and delicious menu that is about two minutes walk from Deb's doctor.  We came home with a mint chocolate nanaimo bar and a wonderful cinnamon bun.  We'll be back in two months, when her next infusion is due.

 

I am off from Iaido for a few weeks now, and even longer if the weather does turn nasty.  I plan to practice in the garage a few times, though.  I have finally relearned all of the material from black belt level.  If I can polish that up a bit, I can move on to relearn all the material for 2nd degree black belt.  Then I'll be back to where I was five years or so ago.

 

In film news, Mubi sent us a neat little retrospective of all the movies we watched last year on the channel.  There were a lot of them.  They show a short clip from each movie watched, and categorize it as drama, comedy, fantasy, etc.  We just finished watching another one from that channel.  It has been many years since we've seen The Bicycle Thieves, from 1948.  The movie still packs the same punch, about the dehumanizing of the human spirit when someone wants to work but cannot find a job.  The man in the film does find a job, but it requires a bicycle.  No bike, no job.  His bike is in the pawn shop.  His wife gathers up their sheets and then cash them in to get the bike back.  The shot of their sheets being stored is one of the most unforgettable shots in cinema history.  The first day on the job someone steals his bike.  The largest part of the movie shows him, his friends, and his little son (probably the best son any man could ever hope to have|) searching fruitlessly for the bike.  A powerful film, and still relevant today in too many parts of the world.

 

 

Leaving Mubi Dec. 31st. 

 

 Before that came Perfect Blue, an animated film from 2000 by Satoshi Kon.  A young girl leaves her budding pop singing trio to become an actress.  Another very violent animated film, this one really manipulates the viewer.  We watch many entire scenes, only to find out that the girl has either dreamed them or imagined them.  She is being stalked, too.  And there is a mass murderer on the loose.  And she gets some pretty hideous parts for her start in acting.  A bit too convoluted for my taste, and much too manipulative.

Showing on Prime Video. 

 

Before that, Deb chose two from Criterion, both films leaving this month.  The most recent view was Grand Illusion, Jean Renoir's 1937 film about WW1 prisoners of the Germans, trying constantly to escape.  Starring Jean Gabin as one of two men who finally get an opportunity to make a dash for it, the real star of the film is Erich Von Stroheim.  He is the German commandant of the prison, and proves to be, like one of the captive officers, a soldier and a gentleman.  It's strange to see a German officer portrayed as being an actual human being, instead of (as per WW2) a sadistic torturer.  His performance is flawless.  Hailed as one of the truly great films of all time, it did not seem to make it on the Sight and Sound top 100 list.  The script is amazing, as are the settings and the handling of many characters within a scene.  Still gripping from end to end.  Highly recommended.

 

 

Leaving Criterion this month. 

Last comes another gem of a film, called Summer 1993, directed by Carla Simon in 2017.  Frida is six years old (I had guessed 7, based on the actress used, who might have even been 8).  Both her parents are dead, probably from AIDS.  She is adopted into her uncle's family, her mother's brother, and raised by him and his wife.  They have a little girl already, around 3 or 4.  Frida shows no emotion at all during the film, until the very end, which must have been a challenge for the director and the little actress.  In many ways she is just a typical kid, often doing stupid and thoughtless things; however, she does have her problems.  Obviously autobiographical (there is a dedication at the end to her 2nd mother), the film can be challenging at times to watch, as there are situations that could have ended differently and more tragically.  Overall it is a very good film, with the little three year old stealing many scenes.  It also makes me happy that I don't have to deal with kids any more.

Leaving Criterion Dec. 31st. 

 

Mapman Mike

News Fit To Print

 It's been a pretty calm week around the Homestead, and we are both hoping for more of the same.  Weather continues to be autumnal, and it's one of the greenest holiday periods we've ever seen.  We had a lot of rain on Christmas Day, spoiling my chance for an afternoon of hiking at Point Pelee National Park.  Deb wanted to spend a longer time with her mom on Saturday, so I had plans for a shorter visit, and then to go hiking.  Instead, I came home for a few hours, then drove back to pick up Deb in Kingsville.  Today it is bright and sunny.  Of course.

I spoke with my parents at length both on Christmas Eve and Christmas night.  They are both fine and doing quite well, though Dad is still barely mobile due to a bad knee.  As our local Covid cases surge, it looks like we will be hunkered down in January.  It's usually a good month for such activity anyway.  And of course it has been continually cloudy at night, so astronomy has been a no go.  At least I've been practicing piano regularly, and doing a lot of reading.  I usually read about 2 1/2 hours each day, and practice piano about 1 1/2 hours each day.  The exercise program continues as well, around 2 1/2 hours per week, until more is needed.

The shipping channels over here are as busy as ever, but the northern locks will likely close soon.  I have seen shipping continue year round once or twice, and this might be another year for it.  The Amherstburg coast guard ice breaker is in place, but there is no ice in sight yet.  I read a fun article yesterday, on the Accu Weather website, about the tradition of wanting a "white" Christmas, referring to fresh, fluffy snow on the ground.  I always wondered who to blame for such nonsense, and it seems I now have my target in sight.  It likely all started with Charles Dickens, but since then it's gotten way out of hand.  Kind of like ground hog day.  People seem starved for any time of "tradition", rather than trying to establish their own, or observe the real ones that have been around for millennia, such as the solstices.  It's a funny world peopled by funny people.

Our own Solstice Day celebration was a blast.  It was just barely cold enough to warrant an indoor wood fire, though it was of shorter duration than other years.  We sampled the first disc (of four) of Philip Glass' Music In Twelve Parts, and then listened to the CD called Glassworks, and another one called Philip Glass-Piano Works, performed by Vikingur Olafsson.  He is a favourite pianist whom we heard perform in London several years ago.  I already chose a piece from this collection to perform on my next next recital (probably late 2022).  And tonight we will give Einstein on the Beach a go.  We purchased a Blue Ray disc of the opera in early December, from Germany, and it arrived Dec. 22nd.

Just as the pandemic was getting underway in the late winter of 2020, we had booked flights to San Diego.  We had to cancel at the last minute, as Deb wasn't feeling well.  That week the disease exploded in California, so it's just as well we didn't travel then.  We had full insurance to cancel (through Orbitz) and got a full refund on our flight, hotel, and car.  So imagine my surprise when I looked at our Orbitz account recently and found out that we each have $373 in Delta flight credits, good until December 2022.  I don't know if it's a mistake, or why they are there.  We were refunded by the insurance company, and yet the flights are still available to us.  Hopefully we will get a chance to use these credits in 2022.

Other than movie talk, that's all the news for now.  So, on to movies. 

My two choices last week were Heaven Can Wait, directed by Lubitsch and from 1943, and Belladonna of Sadness, an animated feature from 1973 Japan.  Of the two, I preferred the Lubitsch, a gentle comedy about a man dying, meeting the devil, and telling him his life story, before being sentenced.  It was in colour, and had some wonderful lines.

Showing on Criterion until Friday night.

Belladonna is an adult animated feature, purportedly taking place in medieval times.  On her wedding day, a young woman is raped by the lord of the manor and his friends.  The movie is graphically sexual, though largely through symbolic images, and violent.  It doesn't pull any punches, as the woman survives and slowly becomes corrupted by vengeance.  The film is sometimes hard to watch because of flickering imagery, and should have come with an epilepsy warning.  Some of the animation techniques created some truly beautiful and stunning imagery, often seemingly at odds with the unrelenting horror of the material.  A very strange film from the psychedelic era.

Showing on Criterion through Friday.  

Deb's two choices were also from the Leaving Dec. 31st film list, and just as opposite one another as my two choices.  First up was The Mummy, from 1932, starring Boris Karloff as the reactivated man in love with his princess.  It is remarkable how easily he adjusted to life in 20th C. Cairo, after having been asleep since around 1700 B C.  He also has a very stylish apartment, with an indoor pool of water that gets remarkably good reception on various live channels, as well as ones from thousands of years ago.  Some creepy moments, but mostly still fun, in a dusty sort of way.

One of the great movie posters of the 30s!  Showing until Friday on Criterion. 

Eat A Bowl of Tea is from 1989, by director Wang Wang.  Based on a novel by Louis Chu, the setting is 1949 New York, just as the American government is finally allowing Chinese immigrants to return to China and bring women and families back to live.  With the current local population totally male, a young man makes the journey back to China, finds a bride, and returns with her to new York.  Dad immediately wants a grandson, but there is trouble on the horizon, as the son cannot seem to consummate the marriage.  Mostly a funny glance back at a very weird time, there is enough drama to satisfy those without a sense of humour.  Well acted, especially by the old timers.

Showing on Criterion until Friday. 

Mapman Mike