A Birthday/Equinox Celebration and a Full Moon

I guess the big news for the week is that I am back practicing Iaido once more.  I attend class on Sunday evenings, and I was suffering from it all day Monday and Tuesday.  Hopefully things will improve over time, but my upper front thighs took quite a punishment.  Kneeling is too difficult as I am still having a problem with my big toe, the one I injured in June of 2025.  So all my katas are standing ones for now.  By Winter Solstice I hope to have at least returned to black belt level (Shodan).  After that we will have to see.

 

Another birthday and Equinox has rolled around.  Frodo, Bilbo and I are getting on in years and the big adventures are fewer and further between.  I continue to write up my notes (blog) on the most recent London journey.  I now have six of them published with perhaps three more to follow soon.  I am glad that we returned strongly to cultural doings this time.  I am really missing cultural events in Detroit these days, so London helped fill in that hunger quite a bit.

 

Last night was a bright and large full moon, our second party in five days.  We even had our first fire of the season last night.  We had a game of Akrotiri.  It is a two person game where players must excavate Minoan temples on various Greek islands.  Boats are involved and resources must be gathered, then sold for funds to excavate.  We were amidst the game last night when a tsunami struck, wiping out most of our islands and temples (a glass of ale went whooshing over the game board).  Alas for the lost temples and lost ale.

 

In film news there are three to report, one from Criterion and two from Kino.  First the Criterion  film, which is leaving Sept 30th.  Shanghai Blues is a Chinese tribute to Hollywood's 1930s screwball comedies.  From 1984 it was directed by Tsui Hark, familiar to us through several Criterion films.  It begins on the eve of the Japanese invasion of China and then jumps to 10 years later.  While much of the film is just too silly, a few gags work well.  It is a colourful film with lavish costumes and innovative lighting.  There are many scenes filled with active characters that must have required much planning and discipline from the cast and crew.  While not a film I am likely to rewatch, it was worth a sit through.

 

Leaving Criterion Sept 30th. 

 

The two Kino films were a documentary and an early version of "slow cinema."  Hieronymus Bosch: Touched By The Devil chronicles the job of Bosch scholars in the early stages of mounting a major exhibition of the artist's work in his hometown of Den Bosch.  We travel to Spain, Venice and the US as the group redefines which works were painted by the master and which by the workshop.  This is a really deep dive into some of the artist's major works and is a highly recommended film for art lovers and students.  From 2017 it was directed by Pieter Van Huystee. 

 

A Kino Lorber film, showing on their streaming channel. 

 

Goodbye, Dragon Inn is a Taiwanese film directed by Tsai Ming-liang.  Here is the blurb from the film website:  In Tsai Ming-liang’s minimalist film, the Fu-Ho Grand, a movie palace in Taipei, is closing its doors. Its valedictory screening, King Hu’s 1967 wuxia epic “Dragon Inn”, plays to a motley smattering of spectators, including two stars of Hu’s original opus, Miao Tien and Shih Chun, who watch their younger selves with tears in their eyes. 

This is a wonderfully strange oddball of a film.  Part comedy and part tragedy, we watch the final showing of a film before the theatre closes permanently.  About half a dozen people are at the screening on a rainy tropical night in Taipei.  Only two employees remain, a partially handicapped young woman who sells tickets, cleans bathrooms, washes floors and then cleans the actual theatre seating area after the show.  There is also the projectionist.  We have seen and enjoyed the film that shows in the background throughout (Dragon Inn), and two of its aged stars are in the audience, along with the adorable grandson of one of them.  In the audience is a gay tourist from Japan, a few other gay men, and a woman who cracks and eats nuts while watching and also doubles as the in-house ghost.

 

There are many long static shots, with a pair of them lasting two minutes each.  Each composition is carefully chosen, but it is the actual movie palace itself that becomes the main attraction here.  We see into its closets, hallways, foyer, main auditorium, bathrooms, projection room, stairways and even the outdoor entrance.  This is one of the better "slow cinema" films I have seen.  Recommended.

 

Now showing on the Kino channel. 

 

In gaming news we are making progress in Syberia, the original version of the first game (there is a remake).  We have advanced to Barrockstadt, the first stop along the way.  The game suffers from too many silly diversions in its attempt to create length.  Players always want to get back on the train and move along, but it takes several hours of doing tasks before that can happen.  Still, it's a fun game and Kate Walker makes a good heroine. The game runs perfectly on Steam.

 

On our way at last! 

 

University entrance at Barrockstadt. 

 

I continue to be impressed by Train Sim World 7.  I've added a new English route which I will play soon.  Today I'm in Dresden, running a high speed train towards Leipzig.  After Equinox the landscape on all routes changed to Autumn.  Pretty neat.  A new feature is live weather, where I get the actual weather where I am driving.  Here are a few recent photos of some of my journeys.

 

A rainy day, leaving from Dresden. 

 

Trans Pennine route towards Manchester.

 

A sunny day on the Great Western Railway. 

 

I won't post here any more until I complete the London blog entries.  But I will be back with more fascinating coverage of life at Lone Mtn. Homestead soon.

 

Mapman Mike 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Highway To Heaven and Three Films

The busy four lane road in front of our house is a decommissioned provincial highway, now a county road.  Every once in a while, when the old pavement is cracked beyond repair, they repave it.  Step one is to reduce traffic to one lane in each direction.  Then they rebuild the storm sewers.  Then they wait for the paving company to have some time to do it.  That takes a couple of weeks.  Finally comes stage three, when the old pavement is literally melted where it stands and taken away in dump trucks.  Stage four is the actual repaving, followed by painting the lines, then removing the traffic cones.  The whole thing took about a month.  Today we have new pavement in front of our house, up to about a mile further towards Windsor.

 

This vast and noisy machine heats and strip off the old pavement, which is then hauled away for reuse.

 

In front is the old pavement; left behind is the base of the road.

 

Dump trucks pour hot asphalt into a "Roadtec" conveyor system, which loads up the paving machine.

Two paving machines worked in tandem to cover both northbound lanes today.  A few days ago they did the southbound lanes.

Dump trucks full of hot asphalt are lined up down the road, waiting their turn.

 

The conveyor loads one of the machines with fresh tar.

 

Rolling machines flatten out the new pavement.  The road should fully open later today.
 

As you can see, the excitement never stops around the old Homestead.  Passing ships, birds at the feeder, grass growing--it's all here!

 

We have loaded a new (for us) PC game called 80 Days.  Fogg and Passpartout set out from London and have 80 days to encircle the globe (or maybe 81).  This is a simple 2D adventure game with a steampunk twist, and it is proving to be entertaining and challenging.  The game as designed has virtually limitless replay possibilities, as they are nearly endless ways of traveling, each with their own twist.  The following postcard shows us at our most recent destination.

 

It is currently Day 37 of our 80-day voyage, and we are in Madras.  We have a good supply of funds, but we still have a very long way to go.  Beating the game isn't really the main idea of playing, however.  It's fun to visit the places, talk to different people, and enjoy the hilarious side adventures.  At one point we were clobbered by a nun and taken hostage to their nunnery.  We have promised to assist them in a particular scheme of theirs in exchange for our freedom. 

 

We are playing on Steam, which carries reviews of the game by all of the previous players.  Here is one review (complete) that cinched it for us and got us to play.  "Spent 37 days dying in the North Pole because two gay lovers were sabotaging our vehicle because we weren't communists. 10/10"  With a review like that how can one go wrong?  This is a very promising game so far.

 

Turning to films, we have the usual mix of weird things we watch and enjoy.  Including Deb's films (ha ha).  I got to see the first complete (non-sound) version of her latest film.  It is visually stunning and spellbinding and original and should make quite a splash at selected film festivals.  She is now working on details and will soon be adding sound.  Deb's website is at upper left in my margin.  Here you can keep up with all her latest creations.

 

We watched an oldie directed by Robert Altman.  A Wedding from 1978 is not the usual film title that interests us.  Altman tackles a wedding between a rich American family's daughter and a mafioso's son.  It is lavish and expensive, and the film opens in the church.  Lots of people on the groom's side, and virtually no one on the bride's side.  Altman's comedy is sometimes subtle and sometimes not.  The old bishop is a family friend and has been called out of retirement to perform the ceremony.  There are some very funny scenes here.  The reception is at the mafia homestead, and a host of Altman's favourite actors are given recurring scenes, some funny and some not.  Carol Burnett gets a lead role, getting hustled by a huge man who wants her to be his own.  It is Carol's daughter who is getting married.  There is an eccentric aunt who is anxiously awaiting the arrival of her very large gift.  When it finally arrives she gathers everyone together for the unveiling of a portrait of the bride--a nude!  Geraldine Chaplin is the organizer of events.  Also starring Mia Farrow as the bride's nympho younger sister, Desi Arnaz, Jr, Vittorio Gassman and Lillian Gish.  Actually well worth watching.

 

Streaming now on Criterion. 

 

The Pervert's Guide To Ideology is a terrific documentary from 2013, narrated by the funny and zesty Slavoj Zizek.  He uses scenes from films to illustrate the use and misuse of the term ideology, showing what it is and what it isn't.  As he talks about a particular film and shows clips, he will insert himself into the location and continue his lecture as if he is on the actual movie set.  His accent is pretty thick and it can be tricky to understand him at times, but what he says is always worth listening to.  Also mixed in are news clips from demonstrations, riots and political propaganda events.  Directed by Sophie Fiennes, this is a must see film for philosophy students and film students, or people like us who are both.  Highly recommended, and worth more than one viewing.

 

Now streaming on Kino. 

 

Most recently we watched Saturday Fiction, a Chinese film directed by Lou Ye from 2019 that started out quite promising but then degenerated into a massive shoot-em-up, where virtually all the lead characters die.  The story takes place in Shanghai a week before Pearl Harbour is attacked, and continues up to the very day.  What we get is a spy story mixed in with preparing a political play for live performance.  The two mesh well up to a point, until the film just breaks itself apart with mindless violence.  Good acting, and the b & w film is beautifully photographed.  In the end, though, it was disappointing.  There is also an awful lot of cigarette smoking.  How many films have started out great and ended badly?  Too many to count.  Are you listening Wim Wenders?

 

Streaming on Criterion until midnight July 31st. 

 

Mapman Mike 

 

 

 

 

Once Upon A Time That Never Was

I've been busy lately, driving trains.  Train Sim 5 is pretty cool and lots of fun.  My runs for Southeastern and Thameslink between Dartford and Gillingham, Faversham and Rainham now run pretty much on time.  I'm providing "good service" now, as they say.  I'm still trying to get the hang of the high speed run between St. Pancras and Ashford International.  Once they are going those trains are hard to stop.  So far my top speed has been about 205 kph.  Different viewpoints are allowed during the journey, and I can even watch my train zoom past from any location.  So if I haven't blogged too much lately, it's because I have such a busy timetable to keep.  Deb and I had once built a small HO layout with a desert setting, and I would run trains there.  But this is much more realistic.  In fact it's quite scary how realistic it all is.  There is a very slow speed limit in and around Rochester station, especially crossing the rail bridge over the River Medway.  But in the background once can see Rochester Castle and the cathedral.  Great fun!

In film news, Deb has just released her latest short film.  It's a music video called "The Once Upon a Time that Never Was", and it has just received its first (of many, no doubt) film festival acceptances.  The singer is from Argentina, and has an incredible voice.  The film features Deb's usual assortment of stunning and very original visuals.

 

Deb's latest short film.  It can be found on her website (see upper left margin here). 

 

In film watching news, there are several to report.  Beginning with the earliest viewings, Deb chose two films from Criterion.  One of my choices was also from Criterion.  The Cry of Granuile had a promising premise, but the film ended up just getting muddied, muddled, and muffled.  From 2022 Irish director Donal Foreman, the film attempts to link an Irish-American woman filmmaker researching an Irish legend for a possible film, with the local scenery and folk that she encounters.  However, things just go astray, and the film ends up being about nothing, really.  Any truths behind the legend of Granuile (a 16th C. pirate queen) are unreachable, and the female filmmaker ends up using completely fictional stories about her from modern times.  The main reason to watch the film is for some very fine landscape photography.

 

Leaving Criterion May 31st. 

 

Demon Pond is a  Japanese fantasy film from 1979, and can be called the Japanese version of The Last Wave.  A village stricken by drought is fed up with a local custom of ringing a ceremonial bell 3x daily so that the village never floods.  Legends say that a nearby pond contains a demon that is pacified by the bell, and that if the bell is not rung the demon will escape the pond and flood the land.  With some usual bad choices made, the pond eventually does flood, and a catastrophe ensues.  A second plot concerns a man on holiday out exploring the countryside.  He encounters a long lost friend who had up and disappeared one day many years ago.  He is the current bell ringer, along with his enchanted female companion.  Her part is played by Tamasaburo Bando, a male Kabuki actor known for his female roles.  A very odd film and no doubt rarely shown until now, this is certainly one to look out for.  It is showing on Criterion.

 

Now showing on Criterion. 

 

Dario Argento's Deep Red is from 1975, and is almost a very good film.  David Hemmings plays a jazz pianist who witnesses a murder and then becomes involved in solving it.  The first half of the film is a masterpiece of composition, setting, and atmosphere.  The second half is filled with animal torture and more graphic violence than probably any other film from the 1970s.  While this kind of violence usually works fine in a manga, on the screen it becomes a bit much, even laughable at times.  And it quickly becomes apparent that the murderer (not revealed until near the end) would have been incapable of getting to most of the places where he/she does the killings.  And then getting in quietly and in perfect position to commit the murders, one time with a three foot robot!  How did they get behind that curtain?  How did they get to the mansion, and the school?  Anyway, the first half of the film is great, and likely, if the director had not been so warped, could have been a decent and perhaps masterpiece murder-mystery.  But then he would have only been half as famous.  Leaving Criterion May 31st.

 

David Hemmings makes all the usual horror movie mistakes, and the director puts in all of the expected horror movie tropes.

 

The weather so far in 2025 has been mostly uncooperative towards amateur astronomers.  Tonight looks hopeful; so have many other nights, until the time actually arrives, as do the clouds.  But I am eternally hopeful!

 

Mapman Mike.

 

 

 

Kidney Update and a Return of Heat

The crisis seems to have passed early in the week, though I have experienced pain today, the first since last Monday.  It would seem that there were three stones: a big one and two smaller ones.  Or the main stone broke into 3 pieces.  Whatever, I hope it is over, though there may be another small stone to come.  It all comes down to drinking more water.  Simple, isn't it?  There is no way to describe pain like that.  It is off the chart.  I am back to piano practice and exercising, and all normal duties.  In two weeks I begin the mountain hiking training program, designed for flatlanders who have little recourse to higher elevations.  And the new astronomy session begins in about three days time.  We had to cancel our visit to Sudbury last week, so it is now postponed indefinitely.

We have begun watching a newer series called The Peripheral, based on a novel by William Gibson.  After two episodes it seems promising, and isn't any more violent or sadistic than Star Trek Discovery.  It is showing on Prime.  More later.

 

In film news there are four to report.  Cairo Station is a hard hitting Egyptian film from 1958, directed by Youssef Chahine.  The film is centred around a vast train station in Cairo, with several stories intertwining, along with the mostly lowlife characters.  A newspaper agent takes pity on a crippled man and gives him a job selling papers.  But the man is obsessed with girly mags and is in love with one of the girls that sells pop (without a license) on trains.  The story seems to follow the old trope of bad body/bad mind.  Another story concerns a man trying to organize the porters into a union.  The men are run by a tyrant now, who takes most of their income for allowing them to work there.  The film becomes increasingly tense as the crippled man really goes off the rails, becoming violent and totally insane.  Quite a good film, the first to make the director well known outside of his home country.

 

Showing on Criterion. 

 

Deb then picked a silly movie, a Chines kung fu comedy called Dirty Ho, from 1979.  As much a modern dance film as it is kung fu, many of the routines are totally amazing.  In one of them, the hero (Prince #11), manipulates a young female musician against an enemy, making it seem like she knows kung fu.  He manipulates her arms, legs, head, and feet against an opponent in an astonishing sequence worth many viewings.  It must have taken hours of rehearsal!  In another he fights on one leg, as he has been wounded.  More jaw-dropping routines!  The film is quite funny, too, but as usual the final fight scene just goes on way too long.  As a result, the film ends very abruptly, and we never get to see the real villain (Prince #4) punished.  We can assume it is coming, however.  Fun and very colourful.  Quite a high budget film.

Now showing on Mubi.

 

Next came Breaking the Waves, a very strange film from Lars von Trier from 1996.  In many ways it is a terrific film, and the actress Emily Watson is absolutely riveting in her role as a child-like young woman who marries a rugged man that works on oil rigs.  Filmed in Scotland, the photography and landscapes are most impressive.  She lives in an isolated community, and the religious elders hold sway over much of the doings.  Women have no say in religious matters, and are not allowed to speak in church or to attend funerals.  Bess, the young woman, talks to God out loud, and he answers her in her voice, lowered in pitch.  After a week together after marriage, he has to return to the rig, and will be gone two months.  This sets off a breakdown in Bess, who loves her man dearly.  When she tells God that she wants him home, he obliges.  Her husband returns with a serious head injury incurred on the rig, and is a paraplegic.  Essentially a bizarre soap opera, Bess becomes more and more unhinged as the story progresses.  The most bizarre part of the film is the ending, where we find out (spoiler alert) that yes, God really was listening to her and replying.  The ending turns the film into a religious fantasy that must have sent pleasurable shivers to everyone who talks to God.  After all, observing the world as it is we know that prayer works just fine, doesn't it?  And of course sympathetic magic.  Or maybe for you but not for someone else?  An unsettling film that is very well done, though the ending is just too ridiculous to take seriously.

Leaving Mubi soon. 

 

Lastly comes a fairy tale called Innocence, a French film from 2004 directed by Lucile Hadžihalilović.  This is a highly unusual, very poetic, and very special treat.  Though vastly different from Spirit of the Beehive and Picnic At Hanging Rock, they share some kind of common ground with Innocents.  A secluded and walled boarding school for young girls aged about 5 or 6 to 10 or 11 becomes one of the most fascinating experiments in education that this viewer has ever seen.  Part idyllic and part prison, the girls are well cared for.  Their method of arriving at the school at the youngest age, and departing it when at their oldest, is as mysterious and secretive as their program of learning.  All of the children (25 of them in five houses, surrounding the central building) study ballet, and presumably core subjects.  They have free time, mostly spent outdoors and they are largely unsupervised on the vast grounds.  The photography is stunning, and some twilight and evening shots are among the most effective I have ever seen.  The girls mostly get along, and wear hair ribbons denoting their Year (RoyGBiv, with red being the youngest and violet the oldest).  The two hour film is paced slowly.  The opening scene is a minor miracle of openings, and the ending is a perfect one.  The film is based on a novella from 1903 called Mine-Haha, Or The Bodily Education of Young Girls, by Frank Wedekind.  The film is unforgettable, and it's amazing that the director could pull it off so masterfully.  Not to be missed.

Leaving Mubi soon. 

 

Mapman Mike

 

February Dark Skies

 Usable dark night nights in February in this part of Canada are extremely rare.  If it is clear, it's usually far too cold to be standing outside with a telescope.  From where I observe there is no warm room.  The car can't be used, as the turbulence from the heat of the engine would cause poor seeing conditions in the local air  Images would "swim" in the eyepiece.  This is why telescopes cannot be mounted on rooftops of heated buildings.  I have a threshold working temperature and I can't go much below that.  It was clear Saturday night and part of Sunday night, and the temperatures were within my range of tolerance!  February skies are spectacular due to their extreme darkness when there is no snow on the ground.  Orion is high up and an unforgettable sight.  Among other reasons, this is a great time of year to observe.  Those lucky people in southern climates.

Sunday night at 8:15 pm I happened to look up from the eyepiece and noticed a cloud bank coming in from the east.  I figured I had perhaps ten or fifteen minutes of clear sky remaining before I had to shut down.  It was 26 degrees F, which just happened to be the dew point temperature.  By 8:20 I was completely immersed in dense fog.  It had been fog, not clouds, approaching, and it came almost lightning fast.  By 8:30 I had packed up and was commencing my long drive home, at a much slower speed than usual.  I have never encountered an instant fog like that before.  At least I managed about 90 minutes of observing before it arrived.

In film news, there are three to report, two of them my picks and one of Deb's.  Most recently we watched Arab Blues, a 2019 French/Turkish film that is supposed to take place in Tunisia.  Here are two blurbs from the Mubi website about the film: 

Selma has returned to Tunis and wants to open up a psychotherapy practice. As she settles in, she’s faced with increasing complications. There isn’t just the matter of finding patients, but she also needs to navigate a confusing bureaucratic circus to get the right papers to run her practice.

A charming fish-out-of-water comedy, this debut feature places local cultural anxieties on the therapist’s couch. Starring an effortlessly charismatic Golshifteh Farahani, Arab Blues affectionately maps the social landscapes of post-revolution Tunisia with wit, warmth, and a keen eye for the absurd.

 

We last saw Ms Farahani as the housewife of the bus driver in Jim Jarmusch's Paterson.  She is perfect in the role of the therapist who begins to help so many people in her area.  She seems to weather all of the setbacks and hostilities, but even she has her breaking point.  There is a lot of not too subtle criticism of the country's bureaucracy (it was not filmed in Tunisia, needless to say), but even so, she wants to live there.  She recognizes the needs of the people (they are just people, after all) and is trained to help them.  Her young cousin and a friendly by the book cop offer some contrast to the main theme of the film.  Well worth seeking out, as I am sure a lot of Arabic women already have.

 

Leaving Mubi Feb. 7th. 

 

That was my leaving soon choice.  My regular choice was Jacques Tati's 1967 epic comedy Playtime.  This is a hit and miss film, but when it hits, it is quite hilarious.  Tati, however, had the same thing to say about modern times, and he says it over and over.  Architecture, travel posters, American tourist groups, Paris traffic, and all night restaurants get sent up in this perhaps overlong film.  The night at the restaurant is way too long, and sometimes seems to happen in real time.  When the dawn finally comes, viewers are no doubt relieved.  One of the scenes (among many) I really enjoyed was when the high energy jazz group in the restaurant calls it quits due to parts of the ceiling falling on them and their equipment.  Suddenly there is dead silence, and the entire film comes to a standstill.  Then an American woman volunteers to play piano, and she begins by playing slow and soft music.  The film changes gears completely, all within the space of a minute or two, and it comes off brilliantly.  Filmed in widescreen format, one must watch all parts of the screen at times, since the main action in centre may not be the intended focus of attention.  Viewers can miss many jokes by not glancing off to a side.  Definitely worth catching, but it is not my favourite Tati film.  Criterion has a 6 minute intro given by Terry Jones!

Now showing on Criterion. 

 

 Going back a week now, Deb's final film festival choice was The Day The Earth Caught Fire, a Val Guest British film from 1961.  Atomic bomb tests cause the Earth's axis to tilt at a steeper angle, and that seems to throw things out of whack.  We get to watch cynical reporters try to come to grips with events, which in include strange fog, hurricanes, catastrophic fires, earthquakes, and ultimate doom for the planet.  Sound familiar?  Climate change at its most dramatic.  The film suffers from really bad science (an eclipse that comes days too soon) and one of the cheapest endings one could imagine.  Does the Earth survive or doesn't it?  They won't tell us.  Boo.  Still worth watching for SF classic film fans, this was a restored print.

Now showing on Criterion. 

 

Mapman Mike

 

 

 

 

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

Lone Mtn Film Festival Results

It's been a week.  We are now through most of it, with only grocery shopping tonight, and Deb to physio today.  Yesterday we were early for her 8:30 am appointment at the Met hospital in Windsor, to see if her wrist had healed.  The good news is that yes, it has healed, and she no longer wears her cast. The bad news is that just over two weeks ago, the five hospitals in Windsor and surrounding areas were hacked by dark web ransom pirates.  Needless to say no money was paid out, but all computer systems are down and will have to be rebuilt from scratch.  Cancer treatments had to be scrubbed, but have slowly resumed.  So everything is currently being done on paper, including registration, diagnosis, etc.  So it took a long time for Deb to see the doctor giving her the all clear.

Monday she went for the x-ray in nearby Lasalle.  That went very quickly.  Later that morning we got our Covid boosters in Amherstburg.  That also went quickly.  Afterwards, we had another financial meeting at our bank, as we are transferring our mutual fund assets there from Primerica.  Now all of our assets will be in one place.  Until they are hacked, and we lose everything.  On Tuesday Deb got her new orthotics.  Right afterwards we went for a long walk, and they seemed to work fine for her feet.  So all is slowly becoming well and back to normal.  Next week is Deb's flu shot, and also I have a doctor appointment.  So a relatively light week ahead for us.

In film news, there are several to report.  My festival choices this month were all unrelated to each other, as no theme was chosen.  First up was number #59 on the most recent Sight and Sound top 100 movies choice.  Sans Soleil is from 1983.  Here is the blurb from Criterion, where it is showing:

Chris Marker, filmmaker, poet, novelist, photographer, editor, and now videographer and digital multimedia artist, has been challenging moviegoers, philosophers, and himself for years with his complex queries about time, memory, and the rapid advancement of life on this planet. SANS SOLEIL is his mind-bending free-form travelogue that journeys from Africa to Japan. 

Here is a quote from the director, from Wikipedia:

"On a more matter-of-fact level, I could tell you that the film intended to be, and is nothing more than, a home movie. I really think that my main talent has been to find people to pay for my home movies. Were I born rich, I guess I would have made more or less the same films, at least the traveling kind, but nobody would have heard of them except my friends and visitors."^[3] 

 

The film reminds me of something stoned people might have gone to see in the 60s or early 70s.  On certain types of drugs, the film might appear to be deep and philosophical.  But without drugs, it is actually pretty empty, perplexing, incoherent, and sometimes downright confusing.  There are so many better documentaries out there, it is hard to believe that this one has pulled the wool over so many eyes.  What most viewers take for depth is really a mostly empty look at somebody's home movies.  The gratuitous scene of a hunter killing a giraffe is inexcusable, another reason not to watch this mess of a film.

 

Now showing on Criterion.

 

Next up was a series of short films watched on Mubi.  I came across an early David Lynch film, 30' in length, starring Harry Dean Stanton.  So I chose it and decided to fill in the time of one full length feature with other shorts.  The Cowboy and the Frenchman is from 1988, and has to be one of the worst films we have ever seen.  It is pointless, humourless, and completely unredeeming.  Deb tried watching some of the director's early animation attempts, and pronounced them to abysmal to continue.  Avoid this short film, or watch it at your own peril.

 

David Lynch at his worst, now on Mubi.

Green Vinyl is from 2004, a short Brazilian fantasy film about a little girl left home alone by her working mother.  She is told not to play a certain green children's record, and the girl promises not to listen.  Of course as soon as mother leaves, she plays the record.  Mother comes home that night with an arm missing.  And so on.  Truly bizarre and unsettling, it is still a fun film to watch.  It blows Lynch out of the water, anyway.

 

Now showing on Mubi.

 

All The Crows In The World is a Hong Kong short from 2021.  It won the Palme D'Or at Cannes for best short.  A young woman goes to a party filled with middle aged, sexist men.  This is a very fun film, with lots of off kilter attitude and bizarre situations.  She ends up making friends with the one man who does not come on to her.  But he ends up being gay.  So much for male heterosexuals; this film tears them apart, with glee.  Recommended.

 

Showing on Mubi.

Ein Sof is a Mexican film from 2021.  It is 4 minutes long.  It purports to be an avant garde film, but it's just a 4 minute music video with some very strange fashions.  Even so, it is still better than the Lynch film.

 

Showing on Mubi.

Less and Less is a short film from France from 2010.  It follows the history of coin operated machines in Paris from the 60s and onward.  Tres amusant.  The one and only bagel dispensing machine is a highlight.

We finished with a Woody Allen feature film from 2014 called Magic In The Moonlight.  An arrogant magician is taken down a peg or three by his old friend, and along the way he falls in love with a young medium.  At first he is fooled into believing that she is the real thing, despite his attempts to prove her a fake.  An okay film, but nothing terribly special here, though we do get to see an elephant disappear from the stage.  Costumes and period cars (1920s) are also very good.

Now showing on Prime. 

 

And one last image before signing off for today--this is a weather map of the area just north of us from yesterday.  I think every possible form of precipitation is shown in one area of Michigan and Ontario:  green, yellow, and red for rain; pink and purple for ice storm; and blue for snow.  Very pretty.  The deep red shows heavy rain and possible hail.  I wonder how they enjoyed their day in those areas.

 

We are south of Detroit and west of Kingsville. 

 

Mapman Mike

 

 

 

 

 

 

Eastshade: A Game For PC

Gaming has fallen by the wayside around here in the past several months.  No board or card games, and no computer gaming, other than to wander around old stand-bys like Myst, Riven, and Uru.  I got bogged down in Botanicula, where I completed certain goals but the game never let me advance.  So we loaded Eastshade, a game built for people who loved Myst.  One wanders around a truly beautiful landscape as a painter, often selling art for cash or favours, without fear of dying.  Goals are clearly laid out, the inventory menu is clear and easy to use, and the scenery is breathtaking.  There are seaside landscapes to explore, and villages, hilltops, forests, rivers, and mountains.  Days are sunny, with an eclipse each day that changes the light and mood.  Nights are cold, and you have to have shelter by the time it is dark, or else have a glass of mead with you as you wander about.  Best of all, the items players need to gather are easy to find and clearly differentiated from the surrounding flora and fauna.  Walking here is very restful.  Here are a few screenshots.

4 screenshots from Eastshade, a game for PC.  After painting a picture, it can be exported to your desktop. 

 

Last Friday was the third gathering of the newly formed Windsor/Essex piano performance fellowship.  We met at Paula's home and studio.  Four turned out this time, the largest gathering so far.  There are seven of us now, including three doctors.  Next meeting is at Dr. Rob's home, where we will get to play on his Fazioli piano!!!!!!!!!  Everyone is looking forward to that!!!!!!

 

Astronomy begins this week, and with the start time bumped up to around 10 pm, my entire schedule will be thrown off again when a clear spell arrives.  Thursday morning our tree person will be here to clean up storm damage from February, and of course it looks to be clear Wednesday night.  Not much sleep ahead, I am afraid.  It also bumps heavily into my reading time.  But I love being out at night with the telescope.  There is nothing quite like it.

 

My April film festival finished up with another Japanese film directed by Kenji Mizoguchi.  Sansho The Bailiff is from 1954, and ranks 75th on the Sight and Sound best 100 films list.  It is a retelling of an old oral folktale about slavery in medieval Japan, and is quite a dark film.  Well acted for the most part, and beautifully photographed again, the film would seem to have much to say to most of civilization, even today.  While it's discouraging to see so few kind males in the film (they are all brutes), most of the women are portrayed with greater sensitivity and positive human-like qualities.  Definitely a recommended film to watch (our 2nd time, at least), but doubtful as to whether or not it would make our top 100 film list.

 

Now showing on Criterion. 

 

Now that the festival choices were complete (3 films along with 10 short docs accompanying them), I still had my two regular choices remaining.  One choice can be from any source, while the 2nd choice must come from the leaving soon list from either Criterion or Mubi.  My first pic was a truly crazy animated feature called Mind Game, from 2004.  From Japan and directed by Masaaki Juasa, it is a mix of styles and techniques.  This would be a good contender for the animated equivalent of "Everything, Everywhere, All At Once," only it came out 17 years ago, and it works for animation.  The story is simple; a group of three people (a guy, his girlfriend, and her sister) run from the yakuza after killing one of their hit men.  Their speeding car goes off a bridge and they are swallowed by a whale.  Inside the whale, an old man is living comfortably, after having been caught 30 years earlier.  This is one of the wackiest features ever made, and often very funny.  Often you just sit back and watch some of the weirdest imagery and nonsense flash before your eyes.  Needless to say, the credits are long for this one.  Highly recommended.

 

Mind Game is showing on Mubi. 

 

More movie news next time.  Next time may be delayed by clear skies.

 

Mapman Mike

 

 

 

 

Back In the Saddle

With 4 of the last 5 nights being clear and excellent for observing, things have grown slack around the Homestead.  No piano practice, very little reading.  The exercise program is keeping up, however, and my astronomy notes are done.  But I am only half done my Ozark trip blog, which will take precedence (along with piano practice) until clear skies return.  Very few movies have been watched, too.  We've also had a bunch of errands to take care of, such as doing our 2023 taxes (on Easter Sunday), getting Lois' taxes into the tax person, medical appointments for Deb, a new computer for Deb, etc.  On top of everything, the weather suddenly turned into June this week, with highs above 80 on some days.  It's still very warm, and will be until Sunday.

In film news, there are a few to report.  We watched the original Ghost In The Shell, the influential anime from 1995.  We might have seen it before, but neither of us remembered having seeing it.  The visual backgrounds are great, heavily inspired by the film version of Blade Runner.  A newer Ghost is in the queue for next week!  It was enjoyable, well paced, and with decent music, too.

Now showing on Mubi. 

My leaving choice was El Dorado XXI from 2016, an unusual documentary about a large community of miners, male and female, searching for gold while living in the Andes at 18,000'.  It is the world's highest permanent community.  One shot near the beginning lasts nearly an hour, as we watch miners come and go on a hilly street, dusk turning slowly into night.  Needless to say, this is a very slow moving film, even after the hour is up.  Not for everyone, but I feel as if I have been there (and don't wish to return).  It looks like the ultimate in dreary living, especially as the gold ran out long ago.  But still they come.

Leaving Mubi tonight. 

Deb's choice (still finishing up her end of March festival pics) included a Douglas Sirk melodrama from 1957 called The Tarnished Angels.  Starring Rock Hudson and Dorothy Malone, you get what you pay for;  B & W Cinemascope based on William Faulkner's novel "Pylon," and we see some great stunt flying races mixed in with the human drama.  Robert Stack is the pilot, Dorothy is his wife (whom he all but ignores), and Hudson is the man who falls in love with Dorothy.  Stack finally falls in love with his wife (and young boy), but alas, that last air race proves too much for the old jalopy he was using.  Too late, too late.  A decent enough film, with some good acting.  Faulkner reportedly liked it a lot.

Now showing on Criterion. 

Claire Denis is a director whom we both have come to like, but Deb walked out on The Intruder, a film from 2005.  Then she came back and stayed till the end.  This is not really a bad film; it is a terrible film.  It's about a lonely man (for good reason--he is a total creep) who needs a new heart (in more ways than one), and is in search of his long lost son.  Only it takes most of the movie to figure out that much.  Awful story telling, it feels as if this film was made day by day, under the influence of having no good ideas to present, and nothing important to say.  I kept watching, hoping for some kind of revelation or importance or thoughtful idea.  But there is nothing but emptiness in all directions, along with really bad story telling.  And a central character who is quite revolting.  Who could ask for more from a film?

The Intruder is showing on Criterion. Give it a miss.

That's all for now, until I get my trip blog done.  I am hoping to get Part 3 up sometime this weekend.

Mapman Mike