While the rest of you have been enjoying summer holidays, I continue to chug away at my newest piano program. The first half is pretty much ready to go, though nothing is currently memorized. I spent so much time memorizing the first two Scarlatti pieces and only managed to get 1 1/2 of them done. So I gave up, as I needed to spend more time on the bigger pieces on the second half. So I am now memorizing the 3 Preludes by Scriabin (nearly there), the 6 Bartok Roumanian Dances (getting there), and the Debussy Prelude (getting there.) I don't think I will memorized the Glass Etude, as much as I would like to. We'll see. Usually anywhere from 10 to 14 months for me to prepare a program. Because I have previously learned the Bartok, Debussy, and one of the Scarlatti, this program will likely come in at the lower end of that schedule. So perhaps a performance for small groups at the end of December/early January. Of course if we go off somewhere for two weeks, that will likely be further bumped back a month.
Deb has been invited to a film festival in Toronto near the end of September. She is often invited to festivals; there are many people out there who would like to meet her. However, we usually can't go. The US and Europe are the two most frequent places. She will have three different films showing in England soon, including London. The Toronto Animation Festival (from Wild Sound) is a one night event. The event is also held in LA. Deb has been featured here before, and won a notable prize. This year we stand a good chance of being able to attend, and perhaps meet up there with Dino and Katherine, and Amanda and Bill. We have to try to hold off on the medical appointments. See Deb's website for more info, or Google the festival itself.
As far as travel goes, it's mostly my foot that is holding us back. I hope to hear something this coming week, as I had ultra-sound done last Thursday. We get the pictures next day, and a few things are highlighted on the image we got. Being a long weekend here (back to school on Tuesday) I won't hear anything until Tuesday at the earliest. The foot no longer hurts all the time. It only hurts now when I use it. Slow progress.
Deb has a long haul to go with her RA meds. She is now back full time on a new drug, similar to methotrexate. She takes a pill before bed every night, and in 6-8 weeks it should begin to work. Or not, when Plan B comes into effect (new drug). Right now her worst symptoms are morning stiffness (extreme) and pain in most joints. She can't take anti-inflammatory drugs as they interfere with another drug she is taking for a different problem. And it's surgery week for her kidney stone, too. Lots of fun times and wild partying ahead. Speaking of partying, this weekend is our traditional harvest festival here at the Homestead. Local produce peaks at this time of year: fruits such as peaches, pears, nectarines, watermelon, cantaloupe and blueberries are cheap and plentiful. Veggies such as corn, tomatoes, zucchini, peppers and onions are all local and filling the markets. It's the time of year we really don't have to depend on US produce. We've been doing our best to buy Canadian, and this is the best time for that.
In movie news there are two to report. The Whisperer in Darkness is another Lovecraft film from 2011 by the same team that brought the wonderful The Call of Cthulhu from 2005. While that film was short and very effective, Whisperer suffers from being much too long (nearly two hours), as well as going far from the original short story. There is also some bad acting, and has a lead character that is about as ineffective as one could ever be. The ending more or less ruins the film, though it lost our interest well before that. It is often very slow moving, and any horror elements mostly have to do with human evil rather than any alien beings. The original story, as the title implies, deals with the sounds heard during a man's visit to a lonely New England farmhouse, and the shadowy figures seen in glances. While this element is part of the film, it goes past that goal into too much detail about the beings. Adding evil humans dumbs down the story, making it too similar to just about any other mad scientist film. Disappointing.
Both Lovecraft films are showing on Tubi (with commercial breaks). They may also be available on Youtube.
I also have some problems with the second film we recently watched. The Blue Caftan is a France/Morocco film from 2022. It is a quiet and sensitive film about a childless tailor and his wife, who run a small shop. He works by hand and refuses to use a machine. As a result they don't make much money, as it takes so long to complete a project, and they work a lot of overtime. Though he loves his wife, his is gay and gets his jollies down at the local bathhouse. A young (handsome) man apprentices with him, and of course they are attracted to one another. Low and behold the wife has terminal cancer. Even though her slow death is treated with dignity and great sensitivity (she has good moments right up till the end), and even though her husband makes a great sacrifice in the end (the caftan in question), the cynical part of me still sees her death as an excuse for the two men to now spend a life together. We learn that his childhood was unhappy; his mother died giving birth to him and his father never forgave him. Rather than give him a chance to be fatherly to the young apprentice, it is made obvious that their relationship will be a sexual one. The film could easily have been made with no homosexual element whatsoever, and come out even stronger at the end. Another scene that could have been left out was their encounter on the street with a policeman. After this scene I kept expecting the man to be arrested for being gay, but nothing ever came of it. Why include it? The film runs two hours as it is, and is extremely slow moving. The saddest part of the film, however, just might be the fact that so many traditional ways of doing things, especially in the crafts field, continue to disappear. People want things instantly; waiting six months for a new caftan just doesn't cut it any more. Even sadder is that most people (me included) cannot tell the difference between hand made things and one that are machine made. This is a good film, despite the questions I have about certain elements.
The film has now left Criterion.
And now for a few of those highly anticipated train sim world pics....
Crossing the Firth Bridge at sunset.
A bit further north on the same service.
And a new route for me, a narrow gauge traction service high in the Swiss Alps.
Come back tomorrow for the month of August reading summary.
Mapman Mike
