Scoreboard: Winter 1, Lone Mtn Homestead 0

It was a brutal end to a warm and sunny and lovely late autumn.  But Saturday, Nov. 12th brought the dreaded reality to life.  Winter is never far away in November.  We had plunging temps and high winds, lasting through Sunday, Nov. 20th.  What we did not receive was the 5' to 6' of snow some lucky places did during that hellish time.  Mostly New York state, but also a good part of Ontario near Niagara Falls.  We did get one blast of snow one night, which sent the noisy snow plows out to do their thing.  But it has warmed up again, and it's sunny once more, and the winds have dropped, and our snow is gone.  Thanks be given.

 

Needless to say we did not do very much during the winter blast.  Amanda visited twice, and we had one outing by car to a nearby cafe and a few shops (and a distillery).  But we cancelled our bus trip to Windsor, not having much ambition to be at a bus stop when it's cold and windy.  Amanda has been promoted to Head of Publishing at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto.  Best of all, she gets to work from home 90 % of the time, permanently.  So she was able to work at her mom's house in the mornings, and hang out in the afternoon and evenings.

 

I did catch up on my reading during the cold spell, and am now reading a book off my shelf.  More on that topic at the end of the month.

 

In viewing news, we have continued to watch, in rotation, three Wondrium courses, and three series on Prime.  We have another series in the waiting room, called English, when we finish one of our Prime series.  We also have a stack of courses in the Wondrium queue, too.  So we limit ourselves to three TV series at a time, and three courses.  The current courses are a history of piano literature from Bach onwards, a series called Science Fiction as Philosophy, and another about ancient astronomy, with a worldwide scope.  The prime series are Tales From the Loop, Night Sky, and The Wheel of Time.  There is another series of interest showing on AMC+, Interview With A Vampire,which we will likely watch soon, too.

 

In movie news, we watched Prater, Ulrike Ottinger's 2007 documentary on the bizarre Viennese amusement park.  It is quite good, and it follows the history from its founding to the present day.  The entire park was destroyed by bombing by the Nazis in WW II, as foreigners worked there, and Jewish people.  There never seems to be any good news that comes out of the devastation wrought by the Nazis (yet still people follow and idolize them).

 

Showing on Criterion till Nov. 30th/22 

 

Lastly came Neon Bible, a Terrence Davies film from 1995.  Set in America's south, it is the story of a young boy growing up in a small town in the 50s.  Based on a novel written by a 16 year old boy, but withheld from publication by his mother for many years, the movie to me was a total failure.  The character of the young boy was so bland, and the film so saturated with terrible music (played and sung loudly and for lengthy periods) that we nearly quit  watching it.  The last half hour was a bit better, with less music and more story, and the boy began to finally show some emotion.  But many of the scenes go on far too long, and they don't seem to advance the plot or deepen it.  There are, however, a few fine moments, mostly dealing with the relationship between the boy and his outgoing aunt.  Overall, though, it was not enjoyable to watch.

Showing on Criterion till Nov. 30th/22 

 

In lieu of an astronomy night grumbling, I present a painting now in Detroit at the Van Gogh exhibit.  We are hoping to visit once more in early to med December, before the holiday rush.

 

Starry Night Over The Rhone, by Vincent Van Gogh, 1888.  From Musee d'Orsay, Paris.  Now on display in Detroit.  Note the prominent Big Dipper. 

 

Mapman Mike

 

 

First Bus Trip

As reported a few weeks ago, we now have a bus stop in front of our house.  Bus 625 only runs 3X each day, so it is a woeful service by any urban standard.  But I can catch a bus at 2:35, which gets me into a Windsor bus station around 3 pm.  With my valid transfer I can hop on a choice of 5 city buses.  I went to an area near the train station, and managed to visit a cafe, and then a brew pub.  Chance Coffee is a pretty cool place to hang out and have an espresso.  We often buy their coffee beans for home use.  It was a short walk from the bus stop from my transfer ride on the #2 Crosstown bus.  That ride took about 30 minutes.  So for less than $4 I can get to anywhere in Windsor from our house.  After the cafe I visited the nearby Chapter Two Brewery, and enjoyed a flight of samples that included their Belgian ale, a pumpkin brew, a Scottish ale, and a heavy porter to finish up.  I had about an hour to spend at the pub, and then it was back to the bus stop that would take me back to the Amherstburg bus.  Another 30 minute ride, then a short outdoor wait for Bus 625.  The 6 pm bus is the last call from Windsor, and if it is missed then a very expensive taxi ride will ensue.  The route is still very new, and the driver blew past my stop across the street from our house.  He managed to stop (after I hollered at him from the back) about 100 meters past it.  It was dark and he said he didn't see it.  I'll be better prepared next time.

This was a solo trip.  Deb stayed home to continue work on putting some of her mother's jewellery up for sale.  In addition, she was my back up for today in case I missed my bus connection.  But all went well, and she will likely come next time.  Amanda L is due in the Burg next week, so we might go with her.  There are closer areas to visit with good pubs and cafes that will allow more time in Windsor.  Today I thought I'd try a far area to see how things would work out. 

In film news, we watched one of four episodes of a documentary by Ulrike Ottinger called In Chamisso's Shadow.  Each episode is 3 1/4 hrs long!  I would never last the full 13 hours, though we both did enjoy the first part.  It is slow moving, with stunning Alaskan photography, some interviews with locals, and lots of reading from explorers' logbooks from the 18th and 19th C.  If the series wasn't leaving Criterion Nov. 30th I'd be tempted to watch the next part.  There is a large ferry that travels from island to island in the American Aleutians Islands in the summer, making 6 round trip voyages.  In Part 1 we get to go on one of the voyages, and this was a really fun part of the film.

Showing on Criterion until Nov. 30th. 

That was one half of my film festival.  For the 2nd half I chose two short films.  The first was Whipsaw, from 1935 and directed by Sam Wood.  Starring Myrna Loy and Spencer Tracy, it's a pretty light affair but fun nonetheless.  Tracy is a federal agent trying to track down a crack jewel thief, and Loy is his connection to the criminal.  Of course they end up falling in love--doesn't everyone?  And yes, they do get married, as if you had to ask.

Showing on Criterion until Nov. 30th. 

My last festival pick was a children's movie, Owd Bob, from 1998.  Filled with predictable children's book tropes (American boy loses parents in car accident, so visits grandfather on a farm in the Isle of Man; he is mean, nasty, and impossible to get along with; young neighbour girl loses her mother to cancer; grandfather does not want boy to associate with girl because of history with that family from long ago; good dog gets blamed for killing sheep, while bad dog enjoys a good meal of sheep neck; boy sees bad dog do the crime, but no one believes him).  But have no fear, since everything comes out right in the end.  Not my most favourite recent film view.  The acting is quite good, and the setting is lovely (especially the tram ride to the village near the farm), but the story is so routine and predictable that I was quite turned off.  Viewers get to see sheep dogs in action, over and over.

Showing until Nov. 30th on Criterion. 

Finally it was Deb's turn.  We tried to watch a brand new film about Weird Al, but after several minutes we both found it unwatchable.  Dreadful, dreary, and way too full of itself.  So she picked another.  We watched Shining Victory from 1941, and The Dark Corner from 1946.  The first is about a research psychiatrist attempting chemotherapy on disturbed patients at a private clinic in Scotland.  Of course there is romance involved, too, but things don't end so splendidly in this feature.  Quite watchable.  The second film was a Noir.  You can tell it's a Noir because William Bendix plays a heavy.  Lucille Ball adds a nice touch to this tale of a private eye being framed for a murder.  This was our 2nd viewing, but it had been a really long time.  Wait till you see the "Raphael" and the "Donatello" in the gallery.  Above average for the genre, and worth watching.

Showing on Criterion until Nov. 30th. 

Now showing on Criterion. 

Yesterday I got my 4th booster shot for Co-vid.  It was the Pfizer bi-valent shot.  Despite a sore arm where the needle went in, I had no problem this time around.  Deb got her flu shot yesterday, and in two weeks will get her 5th booster.  We should be all caught up until spring.  If we do travel then (hopefully!!!), we will likely seek out another booster shot.

Our nearly perfect autumn weather is about to come to a crashing end this Friday.  Winter temps arrive Saturday, and it appears they will stick around.  More news as it happens.

Mapman Mike

 

 

 

Recent Film Viewing

 I'll begin with the most recent screening.  everything is from the Criterion Channel unless otherwise stated.  Because of clear nights last weekend, and Samhain on Monday, my film festival choices did not begin until today.  I have chosen to watch Chamisso's Shadow, a 13 hour documentary by Elrike Ottinger from 2016.  My festival allotment allows me to watch half of it, anyway.  It is a record of the Aleutian Islands and their inhabitants, as well as historical voyages of discovery there that were made in the 19th C.  So far we have only watched 30 minutes, but it seems quite fascinating and worthwhile.  More on that at a later date.

Before that we watched yet another oddball but highly worthwhile vampire film called Vampire's Kiss, from 1988.  Starring Nicholas Cage and Jennifer Beals, it chronicles the decline and fall of a New York publisher who is bitten by a vampire.  Beals is sexy and very scary as the vampire, and Cage is unbelievable as the man driven crazy by it all.  Highly recommended, we had never heard of this film before.

Showing on Criterion.

Before that came Madame X: An Absolute Ruler, from 1977 and directed by Ulrike Ottinger.  This Dadaist film started out quite promising, as women around the world answer a summons to join with the Chinese junk the Chinese Orlando, captained by a ruthless woman who is after gold, love, and adventure.  It's all highly stylized, and soon wears out its welcome once the women are aboard.  At 2 1/2 hrs running time, the film could be greatly improved by hacking off about 45 minutes.  It was a chore to get through, but we made it.  Tabea Blumenschein plays the animated ship's figurehead, as well as Madame X.

Showing on Criterion Channel. 

Turning now to two of Deb's recent choices, we watched Christopher Gans's 2014 Beauty and the Beast.  It is an extravagant retelling of the story, and it does pay hommage to the much preferred version by Cocteau.  The special effects are the best part of this film, which had its tedious moments.  There are some lovely scenes, however, and overall it is a pretty good effort.  The beast make-up was fine, and the story remains somewhat true to its origins, at least the pared down Beaumont version.  The addition of the thieves was not needed, however.

Now showing on Criterion. 

Wood and Water is from 2021, and has received positive reviews.  I found it empty, bland, and banal.  A widow gets together at the seashore with her three children every summer, but for the 3rd year in a row her son does not make the journey from Hong Kong.  She goes to see him instead, and finds herself adrift in the urban environment.  It is a gentle film, but I find that the woman, who is the centre of it, might as well be a piece of cardboard.  There is no expression to her face, her voice is a near monotone, and her character has no interests except for her children, especially her son.  The one original and effective film technique shows her driving from her home in the Black Forest of Germany, presumable on her way to the airport to travel to Hong Kong.  She enters a long tunnel with her car.  The shot goes on for a very long time, but by the end the tunnel has transitioned to tall buildings in Hong Kong, and we are suddenly there.  Certainly a nice way to travel, if it worked that way.

Now showing on Criterion. 

Finishing up, we watched Pierre Etaix's first feature film, called The Suitor, from 1963.  A combination of Buster Keaton, Charlie Chaplin, Jacques Tati, and his own spin on things, Etaix is a comic genius ready for rediscovery.  We have enjoyed virtually everything we have seen by him, and there are still a few treasures awaiting our viewing.  In this film, our hero (always played by Etaix) seeks matrimony, and goes after various women with hopes of landing one of them.  Very funny, very creative, and with a great sense of timing.  Recommended.

Now showing on Criterion. 

Mapman Mike

 

 

 

Lone Mountain Homestead Bus Stop

 After more than 30 years of living here without any public transport, we now have a (very) limited service between Windsor and Amherstburg.  And there is a bus stop right outside our door.  When the service first began in September, the nearest stop was 1.2 miles away, making it pretty useless for us.  That's 2 1/2 miles of walking if the service was used.  But it's local election season, and we had a visitor stop by the house one day a few weeks back, representing someone running for reelection.  He asked me if there was anything troubling me that the mayor could fix (why do they only ask during election season?).  So I told him the bus stop was too far away to be useful.  He said he'd mention it to the mayor.  A few days later Deb and I went out for a walk, and Deb spotted the new bus stop sign on a pole about 50 feet from our property.  It's a temporary one, but it's posted on Google Maps!  When the permanent one is up, I'll be sure to take a photo.  We plan on taking the service into Windsor soon.  I will report on that, too.

In viewing news, we have watched the final (8th) episode of Rings of Power.  Some big revelations were made, and we finally got to see some rings being fashioned.  The three Elven rings look pretty sweet.  Our Middle Earth Collectible Card Game has all the correct information about the rings, too.  The Elven rings are very difficult to use in the game, as the character and ring must be in your play deck, and hopefully pop out when needed.  But now I am more interested in using them, so we'll see.  Overall, the series is quite splendid.  The story is not as much fun (or familiar) as the main Tolkien books, but it has built an incredibly complex base from which to expand, and is also laying down strong foundations for the Third Age.  We will likely rewatch the series, perhaps near Winter Solstice, and then maybe again next summer, before Season Two is released.  Yes, it's that good.

In cinema viewing, there are two to report.  We watched a short film by Ulrike Ottinger called Laocoon and Sons.  It's a strictly avante garde film from 1975, a throwback to some of the best Dada film work.  Somehow, though often ridiculous, the film works, and is fun to watch.  It's only 48 minutes long, and that certainly helps.  She seems to be a very interesting director, and we will watch more of her films in the future.  We also watched a short documentary, an interview with the director.  This is the third film of hers we have seen.

Now showing on the Criterion Channel.  

 

Next up was a documentary about Dennis Hopper, called Along For The Ride.  From 2016, it is directed by Nick Ebeling, and is hosted by Hopper's best friend and aide, Satya de la Manitou.  It's a fascinating film about a man who is very hard to categorize and pin down.  He doesn't fit in any of the boxes.  He was an actor (method), director, editor, photographer, and a very troubled person.  Drugs and alcohol were a large part of his existence, but he did manage some incredible performances and films, including Easy Rider, Mad Dog Morgan, and two films with Wim Wenders, in one of which he played Tom Ripley, from Highsmith's novel "Ripley's Game," and the other one where he plays Death.  Definitely worth watching.

Showing on Criterion until Oct. 31st. 

 

Mapman Mike

Getting Caught Up

Summer heat blasted us until Sept. 21st, which was last Wed.  It was 87 F.  then someone literally pulled the switch to "Autumn" setting.  Boom.  Sept. 22nd it was 20 F cooler, and it has stayed that way, and will stay that way.  A really, really strange entry into fall, and exactly in tune with the calendar.  That never happens here.  Summer usually lingers into Thanksgiving weekend, the 2nd weekend in October.  We watched the house temperature drop all weekend, from 77 F Thursday afternoon (lingering heat in the house from the day before) to today, when it is 67 F inside, and a lot colder outside.

Our Equinox celebration went on for a few days, as it was a clear sky on the Thursday.  We changed our artwork around to autumn pictures, and changed the fireplace lights.  We took our final Tarot cards of the Celtic year, and finished up Wagner's Die Walkure.  It such an emotionally powerful opera, and the orchestration is among the heaviest ever written to accompany singers.  What a blast!  We also are continuing some readings from Tolkien's Book of Lost Tales 1, which contain the earliest versions of many of the stories from Silmarillion.

I share a birthday with the first day of Autumn (22nd), along with Bilbo and Frodo, so my mind always turns to Tolkien in the fall.  But for my birthday this year I bought a box set of the complete works of Haydn!  160 CDs!!  I have been gently dipping into it for the past week, and enjoying the performances immensely.  This means that I can now dispose of a huge number of LP record box sets, freeing up some space in the basement.

In the world of the mundane, I have three appointments this week, making it an unusual week for me.  Very early tomorrow morning I will bring the car to VW for some necessary work.  an hour later I have a specialist appointment regarding my injured shoulder.  I hurt it a year ago trying to pull debris from our creek, and ended up tearing a rotator cuff.  It's likely not serious enough for the surgeon to repair, but I have some questions for him.  And Friday morning it's another trip to the dentist, this time for routine cleaning and check up.

And then comes Saturday.  Philip Adamson, my occasional piano instructor, will play another all-Beethoven program, as he tries to push through to the end of performing all the sonatas.  Looking forward to my first live concert (other than my own) in years!

Meanwhile, Deb is preparing for her mother's Celebration of Life in a few weeks.  She is assembling a short film of stills that show her mom as a little girl and morphing through to recent images of her.  It's been an incredible amount of work preparing a two minute film of stills.  She will also be the main speaker.

We have been watching a lot of films (and episodes of series), I just haven't had the time the report on them.  I will list the ones I remember, with perhaps a comment or two about some of them.

Yoyo, by Pierre Etaix, is from 1965.  A funny and touching comedy of life about the son of very rich parents who suddenly lose everything and become poor.  He runs away and joins the circus.  A minor masterpiece of comedy and drama.

Milky Way, by Luis Bunuel, is from 1969.  His scathing attack on religion and dogma.

Niagara, from 1953, was directed by Henry Hathaway and stars Marilyn Monroe.  It's a tale of murder and revenge, all filmed gloriously in Niagara Falls.  Worth watching just for the scenery.

The Other Side of Hope, by Aki Kaurismaki, is from 2017.  It's a terrific minor tale of refugees in Finland trying to make a life.

Showing on Criterion. 

Swamp Water, Jean Renoir's first American picture, is from 1941.  Depraved doings in the great swamp in Georgia.  Lots of humid atmosphere.

Showing on Criterion. 

Paris Calligrammes is a film by Ulrike Ottinger, who spent the 1960s in Paris.  The film is a terrific documentary of the times and her personal experiences, and for any lovers of that great city this film is a must see.  We than looked up an early film of hers, and found Ticket of No Return from 1979.  Starring Tabea Blumenschein as the beautiful woman who goes on a holiday tour of Berlin.  She does it sumptuous evening clothes (chosen and designed by the designer/actress).  But this tour is soaked with alcohol, and mostly covers the divey bars and back streets.  Some very funny scenes and some very tragic ones, too.  Well worth gawking at.

Man of the West was directed by Anthony Mann, and is from 1958.  Gary Cooper stars as a reformed bank robber who gets caught by his old gang after a failed train robbery.  Very high drama, and many unusual scenes.

Deb chose some films from Prime to watch.  One was The Duke, a small but very fun film from 2021, about a man who plots to steal a painting from the National Gallery.  He plans to hold it hostage until the government agrees to pay for the TV licenses (a British thing) of seniors and veterans.  Highly entertaining, as it is whenever the little guy wins against the big guy.  Based on a true story.  The Man Who Knew Infinity is another excellent story based on a real person.  Released in 2016 it tells the mostly unhappy story of a brilliant mathematician from India who is brought to England to work.  He has to overcome incessant racism and professional ridicule, but with the help of Jeremy Irons and Stephen Fry, his short life is rewarded with several professional and mathematical victories.  Hard hitting but excellent film.

Lastly (but not leastly) is The Illusionist, a film from 2006.  It's turn of the century Vienna, and this story is about a great magician who performs there, but is soon censored by the local police and government.  He meets a young woman whom he knew as a child, who is far beyond his meager station in life.  They fall in love all over again.  This is a pretty decent film, and very easy to watch.  Can the little guy overcome the big guy?  You won't know until the very end.  Recommended.

Showing on Prime. 

Mapman Mike