Out Standing In My Field

Yes, it's astronomy season again.  Reading and sleeping have gone by the wayside.  This past week saw 5 clear nights in a row.  I was able to use three of them, as I need a day in between to recover from late nights.  Also, it is a 50 minute drive each way, which can be tiring.  But I have satellite radio and usually listen to NPR, CBC, or BBC World, so the time passes relatively quickly.  I might snag one more night before the moon is too bright.  Although we have a clubhouse and observatory slightly closer to home, the light pollution is so bad there now that I seldom even consider going there.  Instead, I park my self between two giant windmills on a narrow dirt road amidst soybean fields.  When harvest comes around I have to scoot elsewhere, or be blinded by combine lights.  No one has ever bothered me out there, not even the coyotes that often howl as they pass by.  I recently cleaned the mirror and reset it in its casing.  It made a huge difference this week to my observing program, too.  The mirror eventually gets coated by dust and loses some of its ability to gather light, so periodic cleaning is necessary.

 

As I said above, my reading time goes out the window during a run of clear nights like this.  At night I am under the stars, and my afternoon reading time is usually spent napping.  So I am still reading the first book, a non fiction by Silverberg. 

 

In other news, film festival weekend has arrived, and is now being spread over two weekends.  As things work out I get five choices in a row.  We began with a strange little 1960 Italian film starring Marcello called Il bell'Antonio, about a handsome man who attracts women to him.  He thinks he will never marry until he sees a photo of his supposed intended, played by Claudia Cardinale (21 years old in the picture).  He falls madly in love for the first time in his life and the wedding takes place.  However, because he is really in love with her, he is unable to consummate the marriage.  No problems with flirts and whores and even the maid, but not his wife.  This is really an oddball film, attacking society, the church, and marriage itself.  To Marcello, making love to his young wife would be like making it with a real angel.  He is unable to get past his sexual block when with her.  Of course annulment comes soon afterwards, and he is ridiculed.  There are several lighter moments, too, and the film was shot mostly in Sicily.  Well worth a look, especially the restored version.

 

Now showing on Criterion. 

 

One of the house rules for film selection is that at least one choice must come from the "leaving soon" selection on either Mubi or Criterion.  I chose a 1943 comedy directed by George Stevens called The More The Merrier, starring Joel McCrea, Jean Arthur, and Charles Coburn.  Not only is there a shortage of men in wartime Washington, D.C., but a critical shortage of housing, too.  The film has a lot of fun with both shortages when Jean Arthur sublets a bedroom in her apartment.  Watch how Coburn walks past the long line of people waiting outside to interview for the room at 5 pm, and takes the place for himself.  Today, exactly the same gag could be done with people staring at their phones as they wait; in 1943 they are all standing there reading their newspapers.  This is one of many funny gags.  Coburn's missing pants provide another.  Coburn then ends up letting half of his bedroom to McCrea.  Quite a fun picture.

 

Leaving Criterion Sept. 30th. 

 

Lastly came out first viewing of Blow Up in five or six years.  Criterion just got it, along with La Dolce Vita (see next blog).  Antonioni created a cultural icon with his 1966 film, still one of the best looks at swinging London ever put on film.  Though the main story about a photographer that unwittingly captures a murder on film is still the central element, there are so many distractive scenes and sidelines that one always discovers something new.  Such scenes include, but are not limited to, the visit to the old pawnshop and the purchase of a giant propeller, the sexually playful scenes with the young girls who want to be models (Jane Birkin is the blonde; she was 20 but could easily pass for 16), and the brilliant Yardbirds club scene.  These all contribute hugely to the overall effect of the film, though not directly involved in the plot.  Because of being over budget many scenes relating to the plot and its explanation were left out.  Thank goodness.  The film is a masterpiece as it stands.  One of my favourite films of all time.  Can you hear the tennis ball at the very end of the film?

 

Now showing on Criterion in a beautiful restored print. 

 

Mapman Mike

 

 

 

Ides of August

Our weekly Detroit visit was a short one, without actually any stops in Detroit.  We had two pick ups at the Dearborn mailbox, had lunch in  Dearborn, and came home.  However, the outbound voyage to the mailbox was a bit surreal, as we kept hitting obstacles that consumed a lot of time.  Construction in Windsor made the journey to the bridge quite long.  The customs line were much longer than normal to get into the US.  And an accident on the main freeway into Dearborn saw us trapped on the highway in nearly stalled traffic for a time.  A truck had overturned just up ahead.  The highway was gridlocked for over six hours.  It had just happened when we got stuck.  We managed to finally get off at our exit, which was somewhat busier than usual.

Lunch was at La Shish, where we shared an order of rice/almond salad (the best there is!) and a side of baba ganoush.  It comes with lots of freshly baked pita bread and two kinds of dips, a spicy tomato one, and whipped garlic, which comes out looking like butter.  Our lunch for two cost $22, including tip (we only drank water), and we brought home enough for our dinner.  In Windsor we stopped at Fred's Farm Fresh Market for a peach pie.  It was full moon night, so we needed something round to eat.  We never saw the moon due to heavy rain, but the pie was soon eclipsed by about 1/4.

Speaking of rain, it had been very, very dry around here, even though ditches are still flooded and our creek is still flowing backwards.  When we got back from Detroit at 3 pm I checked the rain gauge, as the ground seemed a bit damp.  It contained 0.7" of rain!  We had missed the biggest deluge of the summer while we were away.  But then an even bigger rain storm hit us dead on around 9 pm, which is about the time I was supposed to put out the recycling and garbage for Friday's pick up.  We received another 1.3", totally 2" for the day.  Not bad!  However, this is very localized rainfall, and most places did not receive any.  We got lucky.

This morning, the door guys are back, taking out and reinstalling our door.  Two weeks ago they were just finishing up when a heavy tool was dropped onto the new footplate, denting it severely.  Today everything has to come out, an new silver footplate installed, and then everything reinstalled.  I don't think they made any money on this sale.

In movie news, we watched a very long samurai film over Monday and Tuesday evenings, and a different kind of movie last night (Thursday).  Bandits Versus Samurai Squadron is showing on Criterion, while Mrs. Dalloway is showing on Amazon Prime.  Both movies started out as books, though the body count is much higher in the samurai film.  Bandits is a wide screen colour extravaganza, with some of the bloodiest stab wounds I have ever seen.  The plot is a little hard to grasp at the beginning, as there are two bandit gangs, and they are both robbing the same house on the same night.  They are rudely interrupted by the official police squadron.  So all of the main characters (about ten) are introduced within five minutes.  After a while things begin to make sense.  The opening scene when the squadron arrives on horseback, in the house, must have been quite the scene to film.  It is stunningly effective.  We have seen an anime series (on Prime) about this same squadron, from the same series of books.  Bloody, but some great sword work.  Also, the final castle scenes show one of the most stunning interior art and design I have ever come across in a movie.  Watch the final half hour to see it.

Bandits versus the Samurai Squadron, an epic film of love, violence, and lovely interiors.

Mrs. Dalloway is a late 1990s film from a novel by Virginia Woolf, starring Vanessa Redgrave along with much of the British acting guild.  So many characters recognized from so many other series and films.  But it is Vanessa's film, as she spends a day preparing for a large party she is giving that evening, and reminiscing about her coming of age years.  The setting is 1922, and intertwined with the party story is one about a young man suffering from what was then known as shell shock.  Shell shock was not something people took seriously, unless it affected one of their own.  There was no treatment, and sufferers were often left to their own devices.  If they attempted or threatened suicide, they were forcibly required to live in sanatoriums, or rest homes, to suffer in quieter surroundings.

 Showing on Amazon Prime.

    

It is a mostly gentle film, though there are some biting comments on British society of the time.  The costuming and interiors are of course perfect, and Ms. Redgrave sparkles as the hostess who fears that her party will fail miserably, but carries on with raised chin.  It's fun seeing many of the party goers as their younger selves in many scenes, (different actors, of course), and how they have changed and aged and matured, and mostly grown apart.  Live or die friendships at one age often become distant acquaintances in later life, and this movie handles that aspect quite well.  With top notch acting and some attempt at depth, the movie is quite enjoyable to watch.

Mapman Mike