November 1, 2018
Thursday - Windsor International Film Festival (WIFF) I saw Giant Little Ones and The Silent Revolution. Later I drove Mum to her hair appointment and Dad to his bank. Reading By Myself and Then Some by Lauren Bacall, an autobiography, She was 20 when she married 45-year-old Humphrey Bogart. Friday - WIFF, saw Promise at Dawn, then drove Ellie to and from her bridge club. The week prior Ellie and partner had highest duplicate bridge score in her North America club syndicate (all clubs play same hands) ![]()
Saturday - Turkey dinner at the church and we took John Feore with us - his Mum had recently passed and he now lives alone (across the street). Mum won some Tupperware in a draw. I composed music I called Freedom in sympathy with the thousands marching toward the US border.
Sunday - To church, raked leaves, the Detroit Lions lost, added music to video Freedom and posted on Youtube, started watching last season of House of Cards (HOC episodes 1 & 2) Monday, November 5 I drove Mun to her nail appointment, picked up wine, cleaned basement, laundry, hung Xmas lights in the backyard, helped with Elf the Musical loading of the set into the truck - we need a bigger truck. Tuesday - American election, Democrats retake the House. Holly and Kim arrive, steak and shrimp dinner. Wednesday - Holly, and Kim move automatic payments from Dad’s to Mum’s account. I drive Karen to the doctor. Rake leaves. Salmon dinner, watch episodes 3 and 4 of House of Cards. Dow up 545 points. Thursday - Holly, and Kim depart for Brampton and I drive Mum to her hair appointment and bag more leaves. Pickup 2 home movies which had been converted and saved to DVD, they were originally the old cassette style. Hardy Boy book - number 32, The Crisscross Shadow arrived in the mail. It's a brown cover with orange endpapers but no dust jacket ($25). Shooting in California kills 12 and major wildfires there too. Watch episodes 5, 6 and 7 of House of Cards.
Thought
It seems to me that prior to the industrial revolution (think 1700s and before) almost everyone, whether a shoemaker, weaver, blacksmith, potter - everyone - was an artist. There would have been great satisfaction in daily work and much less stress. Also, everyone would have been involved in food production as the only time farming was needed was during the planting and harvest. The rest of the time people would have been involved in their “art”. ![]()
Friday - Drove Ellie to her bridge club. Found out the file format of converted DVDs will not load into movie editing programs so purchased a license ($65) to convert these new files and it’s a slow process. It will allow me to load and edit in my movie program. Watched the last episode of season 6 of House of Cards. It was a terrible ending and there are a number of hanging chads. They should have had some fun - Claire could have started a limited nuclear war, Annette (Diane Lane) could have join forces with Claire and then have the baby born with just the two of them in the Oval Office and it’s “Rosemary’s Baby”. - the last scene being the two woman look down at the newborn, then back to the camera and their eyes are all black - yes it’s the end of the world as we know it.
Saturday - I was supposed to help load in the set for Elf, but I’ve decided to leave that to younger people - there comes a time when you need to step back. Drove Mum and Dad to Delores Campeau’s 90th birthday party at Beach Grove Golf and Country Club. Then to Walmart for some flannel sheets and some pants for Dad. Dropped off some dry cleaning, then more DVDs for conversion and then when back to pick Mum and Dad up. Met briefly with the Campeau kids. Sunday - Took Dad to church for the Remembrance Day service and Rev, Frank was very good - he had been a military chaplain for a time. Mum stayed in bed. Dan Reaume stopped by to tell us Peg Morlan had died. She was Philip Reaume’s second wife, though they never married. Somewhat of a lazy day, shopped food, laundry, hobbies. Detroit Lions lost. 31 dead in California wildfires with 200 still missing - I fear for the families. Monday, November 12 My high school chum, Cam Falls dropped in for a quick visit. He’d been in town (from Lake Tahoe) for his niece Mandy’s daughter’s wedding. I bought a new portable heater for the basement. Peter still not back from Brampton via the Philippines. Started tech week for Windsor Light Musical Theatre’s Elf - I’m assistant on mics. We got our first snowfall. Dow Jones drops 600 points. Tuesday - Drove Mum and Dad to the dentist, who took an hour just to look at Dad’s tooth. Backstory - the dentist wanted to pull a tooth (trip 1) of Dad’s but didn’t feel she could so sent him to a specialist. It was done in the hospital (trip 2) but bled so much (he’s on blood thinners) that he had to return (trip 3) to the hospital for a stitch. A few days later he went to the specialist (trip 4) in Tecumseh (not close) so he could see how things were healing - seemed ok. Then a week later we had to return again to the specialist (trip 5) so he could look again - this time a bit of bone was found and removed. So a week later we had to go to this dentist (trip 6) to see how it was healing. This 95-year-old man has had to make 6 trips because of a single pulled tooth! - the trips will kill him. Peter returned from his 4-week adventure in the Philippines. I continue with Elf rehearsals and last night we started with the mics. Finished book - The Inner Voice of Love by Henri Nouwen 1998. Wednesday - A bit of a lazy day. Added more outside Christmas lights in the backyard. Took Mum to the bank, did laundry. Uncle Frank (Armstrong - husband of my Mum’s sister Denise) died this day. We will not be going to the funeral as it is a 9-hour drive both ways - Mum and Dad are no longer up for that, and honestly, neither am I. My sisters Holly and Mary will attend as representatives of the family. ![]()
Thursday - Took Mum and Dad to see their investment counselor - Pam. I think she is very good. It was the first snow, which was early in the season, that accumulated, though later in the day melted away. I was feeling tired as tech week (rehearsal for the musical Elf) continues.
Friday - tired from the late nights of the tech week rehearsals. Took it easy most of the day and then opening night. A full house and an appreciative crowd, but some of the bloom is off the rose for me. Backstage is becoming a job, and the pay is terrible. Saturday - Up early for Sally Feore’s 10 o'clock funeral. Said hi to Colm, John, Roary, Sheila and Brian. Had a nice chat with Donna Feore, Colm’s wife and Stratford’s leading musical director/choreographer. There was no after meet and greet. The second performance of Elf with two missing crew - was actually easier to move around. We started a conversation backstage regarding the current complement of crew are all getting older and there are no new faces to replace us. We lost Roger M and perhaps now Larry and Norm, John B has stopped, Al was not at this show and probably done and Fil K is working with other projects and not always available. Sunday - Afternoon performance and the end of the week - finally. The show is going well and Ryan the lead is very good. Tired so off to bed early. Peter had a cold which I avoided. My sisters Holly and Mary drove to North Bay on Saturday to attend the visitation of Uncle Frank (Armstrong). As of this day, there are 1,000 people still missing from the City of Paradise fire. Thought I have a feeling that the body has its own mind, separate from our “known” minds. Of course, we call it the autonomic nervous system - that which runs the body functions, but I think it is more complicated than that. I think my body is prepared to go into action again tonight from 6 - 11 which is show time, even though my mind tells the body this will not be the case, the body is not so easily convinced. ![]()
Monday, November 19
Sister Cathy and husband Norm arrived from Ohio around noon. Cathy took Mum and Dad for hearing tests. Both have significant hearing loss but only Mum signed up for the hearing aids. I took Norm out to the Lee Valley store, and we stopped by the Hobby Shop but they didn’t carry the train track he was looking for. Peter had a bad cold so I barbequed shrimp. The meal was OK. Tuesday - Cathy and Norm left around 11:00 and I took Dad to his eye doctor for injections. I’d transferred the appointment to the “fridge schedule” a day early, but they took Dad anyway. We don’t know if these treatments do anything. I stopped at the Goodwill and a book entitled Great Lakes Shipwrecks and Survivals was sitting not in the huge book section, but by itself way out near the front door - of course I thought it was there waiting for me, so had to buy it. (I collect books on sailing and general boating experiences) Wednesday - Cold weather moves in and my walk was bone chilling. Purchased and installed a new toilet seat in the basement! Various chores - deposited dead batteries and bought yearly daytime planners at Staples, stopped at the LCBO (liquor store), Shoppers Drug Mart for bandages as Dad tends to bleed easily (his watch cut his wrist) and other supplies. Watched Episode 1 Season 3 - The Last Kingdom (well paced). Thursday - Worked on editing movies in the movie maker program. Drove Mum to hair appointment, dropped off a cheque at pool cleaners, Detroit Lions lose, (season over), and worked on a model. I watched the Netflix family movie Christmas Chronicles and it was ok. It has great production values and Kurt Russell is very funny. Of course, we always have to have a dead loved one (in this case a father) to pull on the heartstrings. Friday - Back into the theatre to start the last weekend of Elf. ![]()
Saturday - This was the hell day for the show as expected - we did two performances with just a two-hour break from curtain to curtain. I was in place to start microphones at 12 noon, I left the theatre at 11 that night. We had some issues with the lead mic, but it was our own fault and was fixed. This 11-hour shift is just too much for me and I’m sure there are a number of senior crew (which are in the majority) who feel the same way. The management at WLMT must begin to consider this when putting money in the cash register on the backs of senior (and I emphasize the word) volunteers. Ohio State ran over Michigan NCAA.
Sunday - Final show of the run of Elf. We had some mic problems near the end of the first act - the sweat has built up by then. These problems could be easily solved but the Board (at WLMT) does not have a wide enough vision. Mum and Dad were in the audience so I took them home after and decided not to participate in the load-out, as stated earlier, I’m getting too old for that much work. Calgary beat Ottawa in the Grey Cup, but instead I watched episodes 2 and 3 of The Last Kingdom. I’m not finding it as good as the first two seasons but will continue. I won an auction on eBay for 3 1940’s Hardy Boy books - I watched it down to the wire as there was another bidder. It’s kind of fun. Total cost including shipping was $24 Cdn (I ship to my sister's in Ohio which saves a lot and will have Mum and Dad get them when they go for Christmas) ![]()
Monday, November 26
Hearing Aid Day - The show (Elf) is over and I usually need 3 days to recover. Took Mum to get her hearing aids that morning. The medical building where the devices are sold was filled with sick people. Alexandra and Mallory gave us the hearing aids - Alexandra talks way too much. It was a cold wintery day and the garden may not get completely put to bed this year. GM announced the closing of 5 plants - one in Oshawa where almost 3,000 people will lose their jobs. Watched episodes 4 and 5 of The Last Kingdom and it’s getting better - what a cliffhanger at the end of episode 5! Note: In each scene with Thea Sofie Loch Naess as Skade in The Last Kingdom, I see Judy Robinson as played by Marta Kristen in the original Lost in Space. Tuesday - Bell Day - It was the morning of Dylan. Dylan was from Bell TV (etc) and he redid our tv, phone and internet to fiber. He had to run a line from the hydro pole in the backyard. He arrived at 8:15 and left around 1:00. Cold weather seems to have settled in. Episodes 6 and 7 of The Last Kingdom watched. Wednesday - Dad’s 95th Birthday. It was all to be a surprise and we pulled it off. The plans were for the four of us to go out for dinner. The surprise started with Holly, Kim and Mary arriving around 4:30. We faked a call to a non-existent restaurant to add more to the dinner reservation. The next part was having Dianne and Al Suren arrive at 5:30 with Chinese food. They did and brought along Suzanne Alexia (her husband who recently passed was Al’s business partner). Kim and I quickly added leaves to the table and set it for 10. It was a great party which ended around 9:00. I forgot to take pictures! Thursday - Holly, Kim and Mary departed for home (Toronto area) around 10:00 am and Brenda, who cleans the house twice a month arrived soon after. Drove Mum to her hair appointment and returned to find next door neighbours Jane and Phil Boots having a drink with Dad. They stayed for about two hours. Was a bit of a lazy day, doing laundry, working on a jigsaw puzzle and a music composition. Was a very busy week considering I usually use it to recuperate from the live performances (Elf). ![]()
Finished Lauren Bacall's autobiography, All By Myself and Then Some - 509 pages of small type and narrow leading (space between lines) - it was a long book. Her early years as a clothing model whose photograph made it to the cover of Harper's Bazaar Magazine which was seen by the wife of a Hollywood producer who signed her and had her make her acting debut opposite Humphrey Bogart in To Have and Have Not by Ernest Hemingway - are interesting. At 20 she married 45 year old Bogart and was soon throwing dinner parties for Spencer Tracy, Katherine Hepburn, Frank Sinatra, David Niven. Gregory Peck, Elizabeth Taylor - the list of names of the rich a famous is very long. - she collected famous people. By age 30 she had two children and Bogart was dead. She married Jason Robards but was divorced after another child by 40. Both husbands were raging alcoholics who could disappear for days. She never remarried but infers a number of affairs. The first 200 or so pages are interesting, the last 100 are boring. She comes off as superficial, interested in antiques, homes, and people but only if they were famous. She died in 2014 age 89.
Recently passed. Sally Feore (neighbor and mother of famed actor Colm Feore), Dick Johnston, Peg Morland, Frank Armstrong (my uncle), Florence Raisbeck (65 - principle at Theatre Alive, I worked their last show - Les Miserables), Jo-Ann Terry - schoolmate (64)
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WIFF 2018 As a volunteer at the Capitol Theatre (Windsor Ontario), I can work as many movies as I want. I can usually only do 2 or 3 a day as I find it too much sitting. ![]() Monday Oct 29 The Fireflies Are Gone (2018) Set in a small harbor town in Quebec, Léo (Karelle Tremblay) is a likable kid who finds herself at that infuriating moment in a young person’s life when one thinks they know everything but is taken seriously by nobody. It’s summer and the end of classes in an old industrial city at the edge of a bay. Fireflies focuses on the relationships Léo has with the various father figures in her life: her biological dad, her mom’s new boyfriend, and her new guitar teacher Steve (Pierre-Luc Brillant), an affable metal-head twice her age who still lives in his mother’s basement. For me this is an art film - no real plot, it’s not going anywhere fast. It’s all about character development, but how much can happen in a few weeks. A young woman dealing with issues which she will probably look back on and admit they were a bit silly. For me the ending is ambiguous. Subtitles 5.5/10 trailer ![]() Le Brio (2017) Neïla Salah (Camellia Jordana) is an Arab girl who grew up in the projects of Paris. She was accepted at the prestigious Paris Assas Law School and is on her way to finally fulfil her big dream of becoming a lawyer. On her first day, Neïla arrives late for the lecture of Professor Pierre Mazard (Daniel Auteuil), who is known for his provocative behavior and his verbal tirades. In his not so politically correct way, he immediately berates the young student in front of the whole class with a racist rant that quickly goes viral. As a result, Mazard is given a choice by the university administration: either he leaves the university or he smoothes the waves by coaching Neila for a prestigious rhetoric competition to demonstrate that he’s not a complete bigot. Neïla is far from enthusiastic about the unexpected commitment. And yet, over time, they manage to look behind each other’s brittle facade and discover that there is a lot to learn from one another. This film has structure, the pace is good and it has an ambiguous (was he fired?) but happy ending. Subtitles 6.8/10 trailer ![]() Tuesday Oct 30 American Animals 2018 In 2004, three Kentucky college students — and one dropout — staged perhaps the most stunningly inept art heist in the history of art heists. Spencer (Barry Keoghan) and Warren (Evan Peters), two friends from the middle-class suburbs of Lexington, Kentucky, are determined to lead lives that are out of the ordinary. Taking their cues from heist movies, they plan the brazen theft of some of the world’s most valuable books from the special collections room of Spencer’s college library. Enlisting two more friends, Eric (Jared Abrahamson) and Chas (Blake Jenner), the gang meticulously plots the theft and subsequent fence of the stolen works. A fascinating and effective marriage of documentary interview techniques with slick, stylish, fictional filmmaking, director Bart Layton’s unique heist drama American Animals delivers plenty of thrills and high spots while demanding that the viewer acknowledge and wrestle with the narrative’s true story roots from the opening frame. This has the feel of a thriller and a documentary at the same time. Some very interesting film/editing techniques. Keeps your attention - pretty good 7.5/10 trailer ![]() Tenderness (2017) Back from the hospital where he has been treated after a heart attack, Lorenzo (Renato Carpentieri) is on his way upstairs to his top-floor apartment in Naples when he meets Michela (Micaela Ramazzotti). The charming young woman, who has just moved to the facing apartment, has forgotten her keys. Cynical and grumpy, the retired lawyer who has been living estranged from his family and the rest of the world, would normally leave her to her fate but he mellows under her spontaneous charm. He helps her, gradually becoming friends not only with her but with her husband Fabio (Elio Germani) and their children. But there are hints that all is not fine and things go very wrong. A man who can’t or won’t love his family but decides to shower it upon strangers. Is it real? There is something very wrong with the premise of this film. How can such an intelligent, sophisticated and nice man be so miserable to his wife (in the past) and his two adult children? Doesn’t ring true. 2 screenings 5.9/10 trailer ![]() Wednesday Oct 31 Girls of the Sun (2018) my favorite Girls of the Sun follows an impassioned war correspondent, Mathilde (Emmanuelle Bercot), into the Daesh battleground of northwestern Iraqi Kurdistan, where she is embedded with a unit of female peshmerga fighters. Led by Bahar (Golshifteh Farahani), the unit is made up of women formerly held captive, many as sex slaves, by Daesh following the massacre of their husbands and the kidnapping of their children. She consistently chooses to highlight the camaraderie shared by the female fighters over the violence they inflict; her characters are soldiers, yes, but they are also women, and people, first. This is based on actual events. A very powerful, moving and disturbing film. 8.5/10 trailer ![]() Sink or Swim (2018) - best feel good movie Directed by Gilles Lellouche and starring some of France’s best male actors (Guillaume Canet, Mathieu Amalric and Jean-Hugues Anglade) wearing Speedos, Sink or Swim is pure feel-good entertainment. A group of depressed middle-aged men addresses their collective midlife crisis when they learn of the existence of a team of male synchronized swimmers at their local pool. They get to know each other in depth, exposing their flaws in the privacy of the changing rooms or in the bar after training in the pool, before setting themselves an overambitious objective: representing France in the world championships in Norway. On the way, they rediscover a little self-esteem and a lot about themselves and each other. An uplifting if an improbable film, it will leave you smiling. 2 screenings 8/10 trailer ![]() Thursday Nov 1 Giant Little Ones (2018) Franky, the film’s hero, is under more pressure than most. His life was altered when his father (Kyle MacLachlan) left his mother (Maria Bello) for a man. Franky is left confused and angry toward his father for breaking up the family. Franky Winter (Josh Wiggins) and Ballas Kohl (Darren Mann) have been best friends since childhood. They are high school royalty: handsome, stars of the swim team and popular with girls. They live a perfect teenage life – until the night of Franky’s epic 17th birthday party, when Franky and Ballas are involved in an unexpected incident that changes their lives forever. Giant Little Ones is a heartfelt and intimate coming-of-age story about friendship, self-discovery and the power of love without labels. Franky and his friends are forced to decide what kind of people they want to be. A sensitive and touching look at that point in adolescence when freedom is both intoxicating and terrifying. The theatre was filled with high school students - a perfect film for them. Me, not so much. 2 screenings English 6.8/10 trailer ![]() The Silent Revolution (2018) This multiple award-winning film is set in 1956 Stalinstadt, five years before the Berlin Wall went up, at a time when it was still possible for East Germans to travel to the West provided they had good reasons. Students Kurt (Tom Gramenz) and Theo (Leonard Scheicher) head West to put flowers on Kurt’s grandfather’s grave. While there they sneak into a cinema. A newsreel of the ongoing uprising in Budapest offers a very different take than the propaganda at home. Returning to school inspired by the thought of a Soviet-bloc nation rising up against the occupier, they convince their classmates to hold a minute’s silence in class for the victims of the Hungarian struggle. Neither the boys, their parents, nor the school’s administration are prepared for the reactions that their expression of solidarity unleashes. The school principal tries to dismiss the incident as juvenile mischief and deal with it internally, but the pupils find themselves snared in the political machinery of a state determined to make an example of them. Good film - German with subtitles - 1 screening only 7/10 trailer ![]() Friday Promise at Dawn (2018) Prior to the screening the question to the audience of how many movies have you seen - and one person had seen 26! - that’s like 6 movies a day - 12+ hours each of the first 4 days French writer and diplomat, Romain Gary, lived an extraordinary life—a decorated military officer and two time winner of the Prix Goncourt (France’s highest literary award). Gary’s book, Promise at Dawn, published in 1960, is a work of fiction inspired by his own life. In this sensational film adaptation, Charlotte Gainsbourg and Pierre Niney star in the story of a man driven to greatness while in search of maternal approval. Gary owed his drive and ambition to his mother Nina. It was his overwhelming love of his endearing and eccentric mother that made him one of the major novelists of the twentieth century, to live a life full of twists, passions and mysteries. But this boundless maternal love was also his burden for life. French with subtitles. 1 screening only 6.8/10 trailer |
AuthorI believe we are what we think. What we think depends on what we feed our brains. This is a partial record of what my brain has been eating. Archives
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