End of Winter

Yes, it is a few weeks earlier than usual, after a winter that barely was.  By far the worst episode was the three day Christmas storm, with howling winds, supremely cold temperatures, and blowing snow.  We missed the worst of the snow, garnering only a few inches that time (while Buffalo got totally buried).  Then came a few chilly days in January, and one storm that dropped 6" of heavy, wet snow.  But as of Feb. 4th, winter has vanished, replaced by an early Spring.  Usually things begin to warm up around here by the 15th of this month.  While there is no doubt we are still in for a few bouts of cold and snow, there will be nothing prolonged at this point.

Feb. 2nd was Candlemas, and the 5th was a full moon.  The 14th is Lupercalia, so it's quite a month for celebrations.  Our full moon opera this month was Verdi's Falstaff, a hilarious romp through Shakespeare, with some of the fastest moving dialogue of any opera I have ever heard.  The recording I have features the Vienna Philharmonic conducted by Leonard Bernstein, with Dietrich Fischer Dieskau.  It is a beauty, on six LP sides.  Also featured at that party was a wonderful homemade blueberry cake, and a roaring wood fire.  It was actually too cold to have a fire on Candlemas, but there should be another one at Lupercalia time.

In two weeks our little piano performance group will be meeting again.  Since the last meeting I have revamped my practice schedule, including a hefty increase.  I now have time to work on the entire first movement of Beethoven's Sonata in D+, Op 10, #1.  And there is even a little time left over at the end to begin work on the 2nd movement, which is one of most incredible things he ever composed.  The harpsichord will be the focus of our next meeting, weather permitting.

In movie news, there are two of Deb's choices to report on.  First came A Kind of Loving, a 1962 film by John Schlesinger, and starring Alan Bates.  In stark b & w, the drama follows the relationship between a young man and woman who live and work in a smokestack town in England.  They initially fall in love, but then he grows bored with her.  When she becomes pregnant he does marry her, however, and off they go to a grey off season seashore for their honeymoon.  While their relationship might have stood a chance at being successful if they had lived alone, it turns into a nightmare when they move in with her shrewish mother.  However, by the end of the film they are about to live on their own, and trying to start over again.  An excellent film, suitably sombre, with excellent acting and intelligent script.  In many ways a very depressing film, there is some dark humour there, too.  Its honesty at depicting working class life is admirable.

 

Showing on Criterion until Feb. 28th. 

Next came one of the strangest films we have ever seen, and that is saying something. From 1926 comes A Page of Madness, a silent film that takes place entirely in a Japanese mental institution of the day, and on the grounds. A janitor tries to lead his insane wife to freedom, but to what end we don't know. The film's editing is as bizarre as the subject matter, as the camera tries to get inside the head of some of the patients. There is no dialogue at all, but the music by the Alloy Orchestra is top notch! Performed by an avante garde theatre troupe, the director was a former Kabuki actor. A very unsettling film, showing on Mubi.

A Page of Madness, showing on Mubi. 

I am attempting to revive my DIA landscape project here; bear with me, as the website is quite ridiculous now.  I'll begin with a Chinese landscape painting, an image possibly inspired by a view from a weather balloon back in the day.....  It's a painting meant for contemplation, beginning with the bottom part and gradually working one's way up to the highest temple near the top

Landscape in the Style of Juran, between 1620 and 1677.  Wang Jian, Chinese, 1598-1677. Ink and watercolor on paper.  Installed: 101 1/8 × 34 3/4 inches (256.9 × 88.3 cm) Image: 49 3/4 inches × 24 inches (126.4 × 61 cm) Mount: 99 7/8 × 30 5/8 inches (253.7 × 77.8 cm).

Detail of lower section.

Detail of middle section.

Detail of upper section.

Mapman Mike

 

 

 

A Settled Week

 Some weeks are much crazier than others, and several lately have been that way.  But this week seems a bit quieter.  My goal is to only go out of the house for necessities once per week.  Of course I seldom achieve that worthy goal, and this week is no exception.  Tuesday for groceries (one-stop shopping), and today we were out for our flu shots.  So not too extreme a week, indeed.  Of course Deb continues to visit her mom 30 minutes drive away 3 times each week, so her weeks are always busy.  This week, for example, she will be out of the house 5 of the days.  Talking with our pharmacist today while she was giving me my flu shot, she is pretty certain that the two shots of Pfizer I received (2nd dose early May) have already worn out.  The government is certainly not telling us the whole truth.  She claims that a 3rd shot will be needed, followed by a 4th one, as Pfizer is changing their formula to meet the needs of the new, more dangerous variant strains.  So we continue to behave as if we are not vaccinated.

In piano news, the new program is bubbling along nicely.  Two short Bach Preludes start things off, followed by Beethoven's Variations Op 34, then comes a Mendelssohn Song Without Words, a Schubert Impromtu, a Chopin Nocturne, and a concert waltz by Scott Joplin.  I am hoping that everything is in good shape by Winter Solstice.

In literature news, I continue to acquire Delphi complete works of authors on my Kindle.  I have added two female writers.  Kate Chopin wrote mostly short stories of Creole life in and around New Orleans, and I look forward very soon to reading some of those.  Anna Katherine Green gave us the modern detective story much as we find it today, and her work inspired the likes of Arthur Conan Doyle.  I am also looking forward to reading some of her novels and shorter fiction.  Last week I added Robert Chambers, an author I first encountered when reading the Ballantine Fantasy Series.  Some of his shorter fiction was included by Lin Carter, and I found it to be extremely well done.  I now have his complete works, ready to read.  When I listed previous authors I already have in a previous post, I may have neglected to mention P. D. Wodehouse.  While his complete works will not be available in Canada until 2026, I have a version that includes more of his works than I could possibly read in my remaining lifetime.

I just finished a terrific book by Michael Moorcock, and am currently starting another by Barry Malzberg.  After that comes some more Blish short stories, and then I will read stories from my complete collection of Lord Dunsany, followed by some by Kate Chopin.  Good reading times are here for a long while.

There are only two movies to report on today.  After Life is a Japanese fantasy film from 1998, showing us the mundane routines and bureaucracy that goes on after people die.  They report to an old building complex where several employees greet and interview them.  The dead people must come up with one single memory that they want to live with for eternity.  When chosen, that event is recreated and filmed, and then the dead are sent on their way.  A strange film, not difficult to watch, but not very mysterious, either.  It just seems to be a continuation of the mundane existence that many of the dead people have lived with already.  Some find it easy to find their happy moment, while others struggle or even fail.  This is the kind of story that might have made a great short story or novella, but as a two hour movie, it seems a bit overdrawn.

Showing on Criterion. 

Zatoichi In Desperation is from 1972, and is the strangest of the series so far.  It shows an even more ruthless and savage side of Japan than we have seen up to now, with brutality unrivalled since the middle ages.  Except for Zatoichi's killing of nearly everyone at the end (as per usual), this film shows the guilty parties getting away with murder and harassment of the innocent over and over again.  One thread of the film shows Zatoichi completely unaware of several atrocities, as he turns his attention to trying to save a prostitute, one who is conspiring against him the whole time.  And viewers will likely never forget scenes showing the village idiot.  Believing in the kind of brutality pictured is not very difficult these days, as such things continue to go on in country after country (Canada had its notorious religious schools for its Native children up until 1996, and much of the water Native peoples need for drinking today is poisoned by mining).  There is no doubt that medieval cruelties continue nearly everywhere to this day.  That doesn't make them any easier to watch in a film.  Only one more film in this series remains to be seen.

A brutal film in the series, showing on Criterion.

In music listening news, we continue to listen to our entire LP collection, still getting through Baroque music, but also continuing with the Classical period as well.  And of course the Beethoven project, our main listening effort, continues as well.  We are currently immersed in his Op 18 Quartets, with #5 up next.  And yesterday being a full moon party, we listened to Puccini's Turandot, a fabulous recording by Karajan and the Vienna Philharmonic, with Placido Domingo singing his heart out as Calaf, the man who loves to solve riddles and win a princess.  Though it is a simple but very weird story, the music is terrific!  It was too warm to have an indoor fire yesterday, but it's turned colder today.  We made a four-star apple moon cake, with enough baked to freeze half of it.

Up tonight in film watching is a 2006 film from Chad, called Daratt.  Come back later in the week to find out how the viewing went.  My film festival selections come up at the end of October, where I will continue with the Czech New Wave series.  Signing off for now, I remain

Mapman Mike