Scotland in Art: Bridges - Esther

I hate to sound like a hater, but I am not a fan of bridges. Bridges of ALL KINDS freak me out. I CAN look at them, although I intensely dislike the look of suspension bridges & any huge bridge, since they remind me of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge Disaster. I’m sure you know it. The one where the bridge sways & twists until it eventually collapses (killing one dog). I saw the film clip of that as a child & I’m sure that’s where my gephyrophobia began. Hailed as the third longest suspension bridge in the world, it collapsed four months after opening. Not good odds. I had a little look at the clip in advance of writing this & I can confirm that I nearly brought up my breakfast. It’s a hideous feeling & I now have a splitting headache. One description mentioned the deck OSCILLATING. Shiver.

& I know that bridge was in the US but it was caused by HIGH WINDS. Scotland gets high winds! & it looks similar to bridges in Scotland. So the Forth bridges – road & rail respectively – make me think of that & I’ve had to use them a lot. They’ve opened up another road bridge & the old one is still there. It makes you wonder WHAT WAS WRONG WITH THE OLD ONE.

Looking at even the NEW (1887) Tay Bridge (because the old one COLLAPSED IN HIGH WINDS), it seems too long. I know: physics. But it doesn’t seem right or that it’ll work. How can it hold anything? Plus, the stumps of the original bridge can still be seen poking out of the water as a constant REMINDER of the folly of your journey. AND they had to “strengthen” the current one in 2003…WHY WAS THAT NECESSARY?

To me, this is all barely a phobia. It’s a perfectly sensible, reasonable survival plan. It’s my brain saying a big old nope to something I know is unsafe.

I’ve overcome it to an extent, otherwise I’d fail to get anywhere. After all, Scotland is littered with bridges, simply because it is littered with tributaries, rivers, streams, falls, lochs, canals, firths, harbours, inlets, ponds, reservoirs & springs. Sadly bridges are a way of getting from A to B in the quickest way possible. Personally, I’d happily add on an extra hour or two to my journey to go ROUND bodies of water. It’s the 21st Century: I have books & an iPod. But no no, everyone insists that longer travel is BAD FOR THE ENVIRONMENT or something, so we all have to take the quicker route. The route over the bridges.

You’ll appreciate then, that I’m incredibly brave facing up to this week’s artworks. 

Cross that bridge when I come to it? Okay, but don’t make me look down.

Tay Bridge Disaster (19th Century)

Exactly my point.

Castle Bridge, Scotland (1937), Francis Ferdinand Maurice Cook (1907-1978)

At least this seems more sturdy & isn’t too long. It’s a short dash over Castle Bridge. Cook’s quick brush strokes denote a rushing stream, so it’s just as well. The exact location is unclear & this is the case with many landscape (including bridge) artworks based in Scotland. 

River Landscape With a Bridge (19th Century), Unknown 

When the concept & then taste for landscapes as pleasing visual images took hold (as opposed to frightening & impenetrable terrains) artists were quick to make the most of it. Anyone with a decent eye & a way with a pencil could knock out an image that may or may not sell – you might be drawing for your own pleasure. In this way, we have been left hundreds of drawings & paintings by unknown artists. Forgotten things left in attics or cupboards or old boxes that hadn’t seen the light of day until someone was throwing things out; then they thought the local museum might like to have it. It’s a sensitive drawing of another unnamed spot & I’m sure someone would recognise it. Unless of course the bridge has since COLLAPSED. 

Forth Bridge, Scotland for Holidays Railway  - BR (British Rail) (1952), Terence Cuneo (1907-1996)

An almost bearable view of the Forth Rail Bridge & an accomplished painting. But to me it looks complicated & industrial & full of holes. It’s no doubt supposed to engender confidence & encourage us to get up & go. “Come to Scotland!” it says. “It’ll be fun!” it says. It doesn’t point out the GAPS, which you can see whilst you’re actually on the bridge.

Winter at Bantaskine Bridge (1980), Alexander Robertson (1916-1992)

Robertson’s is a much more tranquil scene & it looks so still, it’s as if Falkirk’s Union Canal beneath has frozen. It’s a very simple & recognisable portrayal of a bridge that still stands today after over 200 years. 

Wilsontown Ironworks Gates (2012), P. Johnson & Company & Barry Hearse (attributed to)

Although the ironworks closed in 1842, they have been preserved as a heritage site & industrial archaeological landscape. In its day, the South Lanarkshire works was a forerunner in the development of technology & manufacture of iron. There were a series of bridges for ease of movement around the complex, as seen in the gate image.

Landscape With a Bridge (1740s), James Norie (1684-1757)

Another unnamed bridge with the sort of imaginary, dramatic & romantic Scottish landscape that Norie would produce regularly.

Dumbarton in Glassmaking Days (?), I. Clark (?)

Again, a bridge associated with industry & despite how little I’ve been able to find out about the artist & painting, we can assume it’s a 19th Century work. The glassworks in Dumbarton opened in 1777 but was most successful from 1800 to the 1830s.

Landscape With Houses & Ancient Bridge (c. 1934), John Maxwell (1905-1962)

The wonkiness of the bridge is thankfully mirrored in the wonkiness of everything else, so I’m sure it’s fine. 

Edinburgh Abstract (c. 1936-38), William George Gillies (1898-1973)

I do like the abstraction of the bridge & some recognisable features in this painting. Wobbly but in an interesting way. 

Crianlarich, Stirling (1951), Zaid Salih (1922-1986)

A wonderfully gentle, non-threatening exercise in grey & brown.

The Lass of Ballochmyle Panel (1900), Frank McNichol (active 1900)

The small sort of rickety wooden bridge that you still occasionally see over smaller bodies of water & there’s even Robert Burns sitting on the right.

Wreckage From the Tay Bridge (1880), Hugh Collins (c. 1834-1896)

There’s plenty of this sort of thing & I don’t know why it doesn’t haunt EVERYONE.

What's To Watch? - Apr 29 - Past and future remembered? Murders, hahas, spacemen and haints -- it's a mixed bag

     

This week sees two Netflix series dropping their final episodes.

     This is a move that some (many) have suggested Netflix should be taking a closer look at given their recent, bad turn of fortune. They just reported a roughly 20% drop in their subscriber base. Longer-running, exclusive-to-them series would seem to be what a streaming service should be interested in developing and protecting, yet it seems Netflix has been shifting away from long-form, serial content, choosing instead to cancel series much as the worst of the old school broadcast tv networks have often done.
     That's a large and complicated issue, though, including the nature of "exclusivity" in a world where the actual ownership is trickier than what we rubes might imagine. In general, it appears that Netflix, Amazon Prime and Hulu, at least, in general don't have the same lock on material that, say, HBO seems to with their exclusives/originals -- an arrangement that has to be costlier than ever to swing -- or, at least, that's my expectation.
     On the positive side, if they're going to bring series to a close, at least (using these two as an example) it appears they're giving enough advance notice that the shows have a chance to tie up loose ends.
      The final episodes of what is currently Netflix's longest-running series, Grace and Frankie, arrive today. I know I've at least mentioned the show several times over the past few years, going back to April two years ago, where I spent a little time in the details. This is the bulk of season seven, twelve episodes, with a ramp-up/teaser beginning to the season being the four episodes they released back in August 2021. With this final block the series will stand at 94 episodes. The show debuted back in 2015. Seven years, seven seasons, when put that way it hardly seems as if there was a pandemic wedged in there, does it?
     While the specifics shifted and were refined along the way, the cancellation in general cannot be a surprise to anyone who was following the series. Netflix announced the formal, eventual, cancellation way back in September of 2019. Pandemic protocols stretched the process out, as one would expect.
    Given the ages of the cast - Lily Tomlin's 82, Jane Fonda's 84, Sam Waterston's 81, as is Martin Sheen - as soon as the pandemic really hit (as in being declared as such) and production shut-downs began, I had concerns that it might not be coming back, intentions or no. With that in mind, to have reached a point where we're getting an ending is a victory, all the more so with an expanded final season.

     The other Netflix series dropping the back portion of a final season today is the crime thriller Ozark.
     In it, Jason Bateman plays a man who finds out upon the violent death of his business partner that said partner was deep in business with organized crime. Marty (Bateman) has to adapt quickly to keep said shadow partners happy and give himself and his family a chance to survive. This leads him to making them an offer to expand their operations, relocating from the Chicago suburbs to a remote, summer resort area of Missouri. It's wrapping its fourth (and, again, final) season. I'm at an odd spot with this one, because while I watched and overall enjoyed the first season enough to see it all the way through, I never made the time to come back for season two, much less move on to three, so I'm at sea as to how the show and the characters may have evolved in the past 2.5 seasons. As best I recall I was finding it just stressful and unpleasant enough that when they survived the events of season one I was happy to indefinitely let it ride at that relative safe spot. In that way it was much as I ended up leaving matters with Sneaky Pete (Amazon Prime), where season one's scheming saw the lead successfully navigate increasingly dangerous waters, and I found myself in no hurry at all to see what challenges and threats he'd be dealing with next. So it is that I have two more seasons of that canceled (officially as of June 2019) series still waiting for me over there.
     Back to Ozark, in a slightly perverse move, here's the season four, part 2 trailer that, so far, I haven't watched other than to see that the link works

     Meanwhile, over on Amazon Prime, I was happy to see the return for a second season a show I'd thought was likely to have not made it past its 2019 season one; looking back at the write-up I gave it when I got around to it back in January 2020, I see I'd forgotten that I knew then that it had been renewed for a second season. In fact, I'd only decided to watch it back then once I saw notice of the second season renewal, being a little gun-shy at the time because Prime was tending to cancel things rather than renew them, and indications were that this wasn't going to be a single season story, complete unto itself.
     It's a fantasy adventure with sci-fi elements, as Alma, a young woman who nearly dies in a car accident, discovers she has a new, flexible relationship with time. She ends up using her ability to investigate the death of her father. The show was officially Prime's first animation effort for adults, though it's done using a rotoscope process - they filmed actors and then drew over the images. It's Undone.

     Hulu seems to be going for true crime dramas, the latest being Under the Banner of Heaven. Produced by FX exclusively (at least for now) for Hulu, the first two episodes of this six-episode miniseries appeared on Hulu yesterday. The show is an adaptation (the ever-slippery "inspired by true events") of Jon Krakauer's nonfiction book of the same name. A police detective's faith is shaken as he investigates the death of a mother and baby daughter that appears to involve the Church of Latter-day Saints. Andrew Garfield plays the lead.

     This isn't the sort of thing I rush to watch, and as early reviewers were just working off the first one or two episodes there's no sense of how well or not early investment in Mormon history will pay off. To keep it more potentially interesting I've avoided details of the real-life 1980s murders, and the subsequent trial.

     Over on HBO, along with the long-awaited return of Barry (previewed last week) this past Sunday saw the debut of an eight-part (arriving weekly) new, British, supernatural horror comedy series: The Baby.
     Michelle de Swarte stars as Natasha, a 38 year-old, single woman who is revulsed by one of her oldest mates changing due to having had a baby, only to have the other member of their cards and drinking session trio announce that she, too, is pregnant. What passes as her social life outside of work now being all but dead, Natasha takes a sudden holiday to try to get her mind straight. She has no idea how surreal the experience coming for her will quickly become.

     I enjoyed the first episode, and am looking forward to the rest. Given the (soon obvious) supernatural element to the story I'm bracing myself for a likely less-than-thorough set of eventual explanations. (The first episode leaves us with several big questions.) It's dark fun both at the surface and in being an obvious parody exaggeration of the dehumanizing aspects of the tunnel vision both of the new parent herself and of the world's view of the same, in early parenthood. As with all things HBO, episodes are also available on HBO Max.

     Next Thursday (May 5), over on Paramount+, the Star Trek machine has a dovetail week, presenting both the final episode of season 2 of Star Trek: Picard, and the first episode of new, retro-Trek series Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. The new series primarily focuses on Captain Pike, Mr. Spock, and the crew aboard the USS Enterprise. So, all of this will be what the Enterprise was up to in the years before Captain Kirk took command. The main characters (this casting of them, as they were first seen by Trek audiences in the recut pilot of the original series, which was adapted into the two-part The Cage) happened during the second season of Star Trek: Discovery, which was part of the reason I did a recent rewatch of the first two seasons of that show.
     The ten-episode first season will be running from May 5th through July 7th, landing each Thursday as new Trek shows do on Paramount+. Here's the series trailer:

     Prequel series are inherently problematic in what they can and can't show, as the familiar shows, set later in their timeline, established so many firsts that these shows set earlier in the timeline can't reference without invoking some gimmick to keep the information secret from the future. Then there's the matter of the relative state of tech that can easily (and has) left us with equipment more advanced than the arguably more advanced (their timeline) adventures showed audiences decades ago.
     Predicting what the future will look like is terribly tricky business, especially as we in the audience have had front row seats to drastically expanding tech in our daily home and professional lives over the decades since the original series began back in 1966. We need to be forgiving and flexible about it, and maybe just be at least a little happy that some aspects of the future we've lived to see have already surpassed what they imagined the 23rd century would offer back in the late 20th. Our casual workstations are so much cooler and versatile than what the 1966-'69 original series crew had to work with, and our phones can do so very much more than their communicators could.

     I'm going to end this week with another made for tv movie - this one a few years older than the others I've linked to in some earlier posts - and one that'll be new to me, too, and which received generally good reviews. Originally airing on ABC as the Movie of the Week on November 24, 1970. It's a supernatural horror film centering on a couple, Maggie (Hope Lange) and Ben (Paul Burke) inheriting an old New England farm. Soon after moving in, Maggie starts having visions involving witches and satanic cults. The cast includes John Carradine. From Aaron Spelling Productions, it's Crowhaven Farm (1970  74m)

     Okay, I did peek at the first couple minutes, which gave me a couple of unintended laughs, but I'm still looking forward to watching the rest of it. Based on the opening two minutes there seemed to be no flies landing on the director, as the pace of this set-up is swift!
 
     That's as much as I have time for this week. Things are ratcheting up both at work and on the home front, with big changes coming in the case of the latter. (Hopefully not the former, unless it's a case of sudden, sustaining wealth.) Spring around here's gotten to be an oddly chilled affair of late, but at least there's been more sunshine -- not that I've gotten to be out in much of it. By Sunday it'll be May! How'd that happen?
     Take care, and I'll see you back here next Friday. - Mike

Trawling Through The Thrift Stores with Joseph Finn

 Happy Thursday, everyone!  We're moving in a week and lord knows long next week's column will be.  But let's enjoy some stuff I've found and also that I'm packing.

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Do I already own this in the current edition that also includes the novel?  Absolutely.  But do I like having the older Criterion editions as well?  Also absolutely.  Yes, it's a sickness.  But also, this is a great Australian movie that I always recommend, the tale of several boarding school students who disappear at Hanging Rock on a Valentine's Day excursion in 1900.  It's a wonderful look at the death of the Victorian era, colonizers attempting to impose their will on the landscape and the landscape fighting back, and a psycho-sexual storyline where you're never quite sure what's going on.

Picnic at Hanging Rock is currently streaming on HBO Max and the Criterion Channel.

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Now here's one that I didn't have before and is sadly mostly out of print for some reason.  The Long Good Friday (1980) came out of George Harrison's production company, Handmade Films, and was the breakthrough role for Bob Hoskins as a London gangster trying to go straight and diversify into respectable business ventures, including developments on the London docks ahead of a possible London Olympics games (which wouldn't end up happening until 2012).

Unfortunately, old business keeps rearing its ugly head with other mobs and the IRA getting in the way of Hoskins getting to enjoy a new life of respectability and American investments flowing in.  It's a fantastic piece of work, very 1980 as London starts to come back as a city the money flows through but there is still a very ugly mob scene going on.  Mona Lisa, the other Bob Hoskins movie from Handmade, recently got a very nice Criterion edition so here's hoping that this also gets a new edition.

Thankfully, this is also streaming on HBO Max and Criterion.  (And hey, look out for an almost shockingly young Pierce Brosnan.)

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I'd somehow never seen the original Criterion of Brazil, which is a three-disc set that has one of those weird plastic sleeves that were a bit of a rage for a while in DVD sets.  Luckily, this is in great condition with no tears or weird abrasions.

And the discs are themselves in great shape!  This is was darn good find.

I love the progression of these covers.  The first disc contains the Terry Gilliam cut of Brazil, the second is the various documentaries about the production and about the infamous fight over the cut, and the third disc contains the disreputable happy ending cut after the head of Universal, which was handling the US release, insisted on a shorter and happier movie.  Somehow, I've never seen that cut and I think I will try it at some point just to. compare.

Brazil is not currently on any streaming platform but for rental or purchase.

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Another example of "do I already own these sets but want the complete set?"  Absolutely. And what an interesting presentation it is.

Yep, that's fake grass on top around a gravestone.

The use of the key art here for the cast isn't great, but I do like that they don't pretend that the heights line up perfectly.  Like Claire is in no way close to Nate's height.

I love so, so much of Six Feet Under's promotional art but that season 4 art is just wrong.

I like the touch of having the family tree for the major characters as of the end of the series.

And hey, obituaries for everyone!  (Spoilers ahoy but come on, the finale of this series was 17 years ago.)

Seriously, these soundtracks could not have been more early 2000s.

Six Feet Under is all streaming on the various HBO platforms.

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My recommendation for the week, like from so many other people, is to rush out to a theater if you can and are comfortable and see Everything Everywhere All At Once.  Not going to say a damn thing as to what it is about but suffice to say it has at least four performances I can see getting Oscar nominations as well as a fight scene involving a fanny pack that is pretty damn amazing.  You owe it to yourself to see this.

Unbuttoning America: a Biography of Peyton Place by Ardis Cameron -- a review by Elleanore Vance

Note from the blog administrator:  Regular reviewer Elleanore Vance did a review of Peyton Place for us in February of this year. If you would like to see that, click HERE.

Cornell University Press offers both books as a discounted bundle HERE

This book was not what I wanted it to be. I guess I wanted more about Grace,  or even the Sheep Pen Murder. What I got is more of an analysis of the ripples Peyton Place created. 

Ardis Cameron shows us how Peyton Place helped us in our understanding of human sexuality as a whole. We see  the reactions of libraries and book stores to the book, those who banned the title,and those who couldn't keep copies on the shelves. We spend more time than I would have preferred on the Kinsey Report. 

According to the subtitle, this was supposed to be about Peyton Place, but I feel it was more a dissertation about censorship and human sexuality, using Peyton Place as a bow to tie it all together. Unbuttoning America reads like a Master's thesis  published for public consumption: informative in the extreme,  but not very fun to read.

⭐⭐⭐3/5

Project Gutenberg #2 : Pipefuls by Christopher Morley -- Garbo

in a fairly recent post, I gave a brief overview of Project Gutenberg, an online resource which offers free e-book versions of publications in the public domain. In this post, I begin a series based on selecting specific items to be found and read for free at Project Gutenberg. 

Readers know author Christopher Morley best for Parnassus on Wheels and its sequel The Haunted Bookshop. Morley was prolific, however, and one volume I didn't know till I spotted it on the PG site was this one: 

Why the title? Check out some of Morley's author photos.

 

 

The online e-book version of Pipefuls is found HERE.

As a side note, Christopher Morley's daughter, Louise Cachane, did a lot of interesting stuff. 

These included producing children's programming for the BBC in the early 1950s, doing some work with Eleanor Roosevelt, and writing a book of her own for young readers. 

The Wikipedia entry for Louise Cachane is found HERE

Some TV Time Travel (With Some Music)

 by whiteray

Late last week, I happened upon a boxing match as I wandered late at night through the premium channels. I’ve never watched a lot of boxing, but when I come across it by accident, I sometimes watch for a few minutes. I did so then, and that got me to thinking about a time when boxing was on network television on a regular basis. 

The program I recall was The Gillette Cavalcade of Sports, airing Friday evenings in the late 1950s and early 1960s, or so my memory told me. I didn’t really watch the show, but I sure remembered the theme song. Here’s the theme – titled “Look Sharp – Be Sharp (Gillette March)” – as recorded in 1954 by the Boston Pops:

So, thinking about The Gillette Cavalcade of Sports, I wandered over to Wikipedia, where I read that the show had run on Friday evenings into 1960 on NBC and had then moved to ABC. That made sense: I have vague memories of the show on NBC, but I also remember seeing prime-time boxing on KMSP, which was at the time ABC’s affiliate in the Twin Cities, seventy miles away. (Watching shows on KMSP was sometimes an iffy proposition, as the station distinguished itself during the years of roof-top antennas by having the weakest signal of all four commercial stations in the Twin Cities.) 

Wandering further into the topic, I checked the 1960-61 prime time TV schedule at Wikipedia and found no listing on ABC for The Gillette Cavalcade of Sports. Digging around a bit, I learned that ABC moved the show to Saturdays and renamed it Fight of the Week. Having resolved that, I spent some time looking at the prime-time television schedules for 1959-60 and 1960-61. 

And I found that fascinating, a real memory trip: National Velvet, The Red Skelton Show, Sugarfoot, Hong Kong, 77 Sunset Strip, Law of the Plainsman, Hawaiian Eye and on and on. I don’t recall watching them all, but I remember the titles. Of course, I did see some of those shows. One of my favorites was 77 Sunset Strip, a show about two detectives in Los Angeles that starred, among others, Efrem Zimbalist, Jr., who went on to star later in the 1960s and 1970s in The F.B.I., and Ed Byrnes, whose hair-combing character, Kookie, inspired the 1959 hit, “Kookie, Kookie (Lend Me Your Comb),” which Byrnes recorded with Connie Stevens. The record went to No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100. Here are Byrnes and Stevens during an appearance on the Saturday Night Beech-Nut Show from April 4, 1959.

I’m sure I didn’t see that particular performance, nor did I hear the record until many years later. My interest at the time was the drama – such as it was – on 77 Sunset Strip, which ran from 1958 into 1964. Here’s a version of the theme from the show by a group called The Big Sound of Don Ralke. (Ralke was a Michigan-born conductor, composer and arranger.) The record went to No. 69 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the spring of 1959.

Sundries

 

A velvet Carnaby Street jacket, circa 1968 -ebay

Lately, I've been remembering my childhood, and how I was in such a hurry to grow up and become someone not me. I couldn't wait to grow up, leave home, and join the swinging 60's in England, the favored place to jetty my imagination. First, I should say I had a wonderful childhood in many ways: lots of freedom, woods nearby for a good part of it, fun cousins, loving and fairly hands-off parents and grandparents. Most of my problems came from my time in school. I didn't pay a lot of attention in school, and was often reminded of that by my teachers. I'd regularly come to after the crucial information had been delivered, arising from daydreams about meeting the Beatles in London, climbing into pumpkin carriages, riding horses in the fog with a cute boy, finding real wishing wells.  I was dumbfounded by the kids who got good grades! I knew I wasn't dumb, but I figured just as well that I wasn't smart. Smart kids got better grades than I did. When the teachers gave our work back, you could tell who'd gotten the 100's. I can still feel myself thinking, "Sheesh, not again," and looking around at the other kids who'd gotten better grades. I wondered what their secret was. I never asked them. I was probably too embarrassed. I wasn't aware of my trouble paying attention being a problem. One of the main things I disliked about school was the discomfort of it, the horrible desks, schedules, and bells. There were the few mean girls, tormenting other girls, too. I find it odd, now that I teach elementary shool, to watch the budding mean girls. I was working with a first grade girl the other day who mocked her classmate's stutter, then later when telling me about her drawing, said, thoughtfully, "I just don't like people who aren't pretty." I didn't know what to say. Did she just sum up the whole mean girl trip? So, yes, personality dramatics were a trial, but worse, was the fear of being made to feel dumb about not listening or following along. I know now, that I was the daydreaming ADD subtype. I liked reading stories and biographies, great fodder, spelling and geography, loved words and places, hated math. Science and history would interest me sometimes. Mostly, history (dates?!) would bore me until college, when I had instructors who brought it to life. Throughout my childhood, though, I was a terribly daydreaming, absent minded kid. My saving grace was that I tested very well on the standardized tests. In my day to day classes, I was often reminded that I was not in that group I thought I'd be happy in. The straight A kids. I wish there had been an adult in my life that could have helped me feel less bad about it all, Instead, I'd pacify myself with an imaginary adventure a'la Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, a Kinks song, What's New Pussycat, paisley dresses, and waking up with amnesia in a house along Francis Park....

PS I support those of you unschooling your children.

~Dorothy Dolores

Art Alphabet: F - Esther

It’s Art Alphabet time! The time when we randomly pick subject matter related to art & make it begin with a letter; this week it’s F. It was pleasantly surprising just how easy F was to do in any given category & I could have got many more. But restraint is required on the arty blog. Some decorum please. What’s also pleasantly surprising for the Art Alphabet is that I actually like all the entries for today!

F

1. An Artist (Frølich): Odin, Lorenz Frølich (Denmark, 1820-1908) 

What I like about Frølich’s Odin is his ordinariness, compared with some depictions at least. He does look quite grand & imposing & his chair is very impressive, but there’s none of the over the top headgear often associated with him; he just has a sedate little headband. What’s also good is the presence of his array of pets: ravens Huginn & Muninn, as well as the less frequently portrayed wolves, Geri & Freki. & it’s all tidily contained within a lovely frame of Celtic knotwork. Terrific stuff.

2. Art Genre (Fauvism): Self Portrait with a Hat by André Derain (France, 1880-1954)

I really admire Derain’s bold brushwork – the flat, square strokes create a strong & powerful image. Here’s an artist who knows his colours & what they can do & he showcases this perfectly & with care. Less a “wild beast” & more a controlled & disciplined painter. 

3. An Object (flower): Tulip by Judith Leyster (Netherlands, 1609-1660)

Leyster’s tulip could have been painted yesterday, it’s so fresh & detailed. An artist perhaps more well-known for portraits – in particular her self-portrait at an easel - & genre paintings, this watercolour is one of several beautiful tulips she painted. Some of these appear in “The Tulip Book,” as you’d expect, a book of over forty tulip paintings by various artists.

4. A Bird (finch): Finches & Bamboo, Emperor Huizong (China, 1082-1135)

Zhao Ji was the eighth emperor (Emperor Huizong of Song) of the Chinese Northern Song dynasty. He was known to be skilled at calligraphy & as we can see was an accomplished artist.  The line work is staggeringly precise & the colours are sensitive. As a bit of a bird connoisseur, I’ve been trying to identify the type of finch in the painting. My best bet is the parrot finch, one which we don’t see in the UK.

5. A Body Part (foot): Family of Feet by Jo Beer (England)

A bunch of feet (if indeed this is the collective noun for feet) doesn’t sound like a very appealing subject, yet I love this. This is an incredible & “painterly” painting, one presumes of the artist’s own family’s feet. If it was your family’s feet, it might be a fond & poignant reminder of times together. You might remark on the fact that people’s feet are like hands & other features, often similar in related people. On the other…well, hand…you might be one of those people that dislikes looking at feet. Not all feet are great. Please therefore focus on the adept & subtle realism, the cleverly accurate colour choices & interesting composition…

6. A Country (Finland): Forest in Finland by Berndt Lindholm (Finland, 1841-1914)

This stunning painting is so delicate & utilises such an understated palette & yet, it’s hugely evocative of the forest in the fading light. It could really be any European forest, but as the title tells us, it’s placed in Finland. The work manages to capture the might of the larger trees & peace & calm of the undergrowth. I feel as if I can hear & smell it as well as seeing it. Again, using my birding skills, I’m going to say it looks as if the birds are hooded crows, a firm favourite, looking less like they’re wearing hoods & more as if they have on a cardigan. My opinion & admittedly not a very scientific one.

7. A Landscape Feature (forest): Mori (Forest) by Katayama Bkuyo (Japan, 1900-1937) 

Another forest! This time it’s less realistic but nonetheless charming. The small creature peering out over the foliage on the ground looks to me a bit like a weasel or a ferret (another F!) but you might know otherwise. It seems like an odd inclusion but in a strawberry patch, perhaps not surprising. 

8. An Emotion (fury): Fury by Michelangelo (Italy, 1475-1564)

Michelangelo. He wasn’t bad, was he? It’s a phenomenal head drawing & even the billowing cloth behind the portrait conjures fury. It’s well named too. Fury seems different from rage or anger & suggests an indignant disbelief. Of course it’s also a “fury” or damned soul. You might think you’re a good guy, but when you find yourself being flung through the gates of Hell, it must be pretty galling. This work has been much copied, usually very badly. 

9. A Household Object (fridge):  by Walter Biggs (USA, 1886-1968)

Despite this seemingly elegant affair, there’s a fridge located at the side. No doubt chilling that wine & keeping the canapés fresh. I suppose at one time the refrigerator must have been the height of fashion, an extravagant & a sort of status symbol. This painting reminds us of this. Hopefully the fridge also contains a nice big fish for the lovely fluffy cat sitting on the chair. 

10. A Sea Creature (fugu): Fugu (smaller fish at front) with Amberjack by Utagawa Hiroshige (Japan, 1797-1858)

Speaking of fish… Born Andō Tokutarō the artist has depicted the fugu – a puffer fish – as a somewhat deflated & tragic little article.  I’m greatly amused by the fact that he is the main attraction in the work, with his small smile & garnished as he is with a cherry blossom branch. At first glance, the two animals look as if they’re swimming freely in the ocean, but look closer & we realise sadly they’re probably resting on a table or work surface. On reading about the fugu I learned they are “a Japanese delicacy whose body parts contain a nerve toxin.” Mmm, delicious…

What's To Watch? - Apr 22 - Guns and Cannolis

 

Another week! Where does the time go?
 

     In the news this week were worries for streaming king Netflix in the face of a sharp loss of subscribers and, likely, people feeling they needed to make public statements even when they hadn't yet decided on what to say. It's set off at least a small panic among streaming services as everyone else in the game had to at least pause to check their own plans.
      We're in the thick of a rapidly-evolving entertainment environment. Not a topic I'm going to lean into this week, but it'll be worth some attention soon enough. Shifting sands beneath our feet. A week and a half ago it seemed that Apple tv+ had the keys to the kingdom, now it feels as if HBO Max is where to focus.
     The optimist's view, and it's a supportable one, is that we're living in a great period for entertainment. However, in the absence of casual wealth we're likely going to have to adapt, and be open to selectively closing and opening some streaming accounts. Maybe think of it like shifting addresses with the season. I've yet to really begin to sort it out satisfactorily for myself. As I've said, it'll be worth some attention.

     I'm going to start this week with a list of show and movie premiere dates I'm looking forward to. The past two years saw delays and outright derailments of production schedules such that firm dates all but ceased to exist, and my attempts to keep this sort of list went with them. Not so much that Things Are Better, but simply that the biz adapted, the result of actual release dates (at least for items that are in post-production) is the same. I'm going to stick to 2022 for now - and particularly on the next two months - because even just on the public health scene there could easily be big ripples that will distort 2023's plans. I have a longer list elsewhere, which includes many things I'll be mentioning in future Friday pieces, but that so far I'm not necessarily having a reason to look forward to -- mainly for lack of info. Without a doubt I'm forgetting some things. I'll update this this weekend as they come to mind, but I have to start somewhere:

         Barry (HBO/HBO Max) season three April 24th. (Covered in today's piece)
         The Offer (Paramount+) a dramatization of the forces at work, pro and con, in the making of The Godfather. (Covered in today's piece.)
         Grace and Frankie (Netflix) Season seven final episodes (Final season, too) arriving next Friday, April 29.
         Ozark (Netflix) season four, part two. Final season. Also April 29.
         Doctor Strange In the Multiverse of Madness (theatrical) Officially May 6, but they'll begin having showings on the 5th. (I'm going to try to get out to see it sometime opening weekend, which would be a first since the start of the pandemic.)
         Star Trek: Strange New Worlds (Paramount+) May 5.
         Bosch: Legacy (IMDBtv) May 6  Titus Welliver stars, continuing the story as he settles into a new routine after the seven-season Bosch which ran on Amazon Prime.
         Hacks (HBO Max) season 2  May 12 (1st two episodes)
         The Kids In the Hall (Amazon Prime) May 13
         The Kids In the Hall: Comedy Punks (Amazon Prime) docuseries May 20
         Stranger Things (Netflix) season four, set to release in two "volumes" - May 27th and July 1.
         Obi-Wan Kenobi (Disney+) Six-episode miniseries Friday May 27 (the remaining episodes will land on Wednesdays.)
         The Orville (Hulu) June 2.
         The Boys (Amazon Prime) season three June 3.
         Ms. Marvel (Disney+) Six-episode minseries June 8.
         Evil (Paramount+) returns to start a 10-episode third season June 12. Episodes releasing each Sunday.
         The Umbrella Academy (Netflix) season three June 22.
         Thor: Love & Thunder (theatrical) July 8.
         Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (theatrical) November 11.

     I haven't gotten to this week's episode of Donald Glover's Atlanta (Thursday nights on FX, arriving on Hulu Fridays), a series which returned March 24th for its looooong delayed third season. I continue to recommend the series as both real and surreal, with some odd moments and powerful themes. I want to point out that this season they've done two episodes (so far), the first ("Three Slaps") and fourth, that anyone can just jump in with because they don't involve any of the series characters. You don't need to know anything else with those. It's a chance to sample the overall quality and depth without spoiling anything.

     I want to particularly direct your attention to episode four, "The Big Payback", which I'm recommending with a little caution. There are people I know whom I wouldn't direct toward this, because it would fit in with some of their fears about where some social justice agendas might lead. An avid Fox news junkie's head might explode. It's a speculative, very near-future - as in, could be tomorrow - scenario that could have easily been a brief episode of Black Mirror. It's a prodding, evocative half hour that may drive you to your feet and start you pacing, even just as you wrestle with whether it strikes you as absurd or possible. I haven't had an opportunity to discuss it with anyone, but I'm sincerely interested in getting some people's reactions to it. And, again, it's a stand-alone item -- a mini-movie. It won't spoil anything about the main series, because none of those characters are in it.
     This week's episode, episode 6, "White Fashion" is back with Earn, Paperboi, etc., continuing to navigate worlds of privilege and oddly shifting advantage. The comedy continues to run to dark places, with cutting social commentary. As this continues, I'm hungry for a safe zone for Earn (Glover's character) to be able to openly react to the bizarre behavior of both the people he's meeting and those he's known long enough to have thought he knew well.

     Personal highlights for the past week included Better Call Saul (Mondays on AMC), Last Week Tonight (select Sundays on HBO), Julia and Tokyo Vice (both HBO Max miniseries). Each have one or more elements that I've been turning over in my mind since seeing them.
     From last week's items, I largely enjoyed what was done with The Batman, which arrived on HBO, though yet another reinterpretation of the characters keeps it all at least a little distant for me. Good cast and performances, but some choices among the changes (the origin and nature of the Riddler, perhaps making him a little too much like the Joker blended with Scarecrow, and changing yet again the particulars of Bruce's parents' histories and death) are at least fair game to be questioned.

     One of those items I'm noting, without any immediate pro or con bias because I pretty much only know what's in the trailer, arrived just yesterday, the 21st. It's a Japanese comedy-drama about a 32 year-old adman who discovers he's pregnant. He's Expecting (Netflix  8 episodes) is loosely based on Eri Sakai's 2012 manga
Kentaro Hiyama's First Pregnancy.

     The trailer doesn't give me much indication that it rises above the level of simple gender-swap for the sake of perspective -- not that exploring the topic of how becoming pregnant can, in social and professional circles, effectively dehumanize a person, or at least override their status as an individual isn't worth consideration, but if it doesn't have more style and nuance it could easily wear out its welcome in far less than eight episodes. This could be one of those things that keeps slipping away, remaining an option I never quite get around to, so (and this applies to so much in these weekly pieces) if you happened to watch it, please let me know how it struck you.

      This Sunday (24th) 10 PM Eastern on HBO will see the long-awaited return of Bill Hader and Alec Berg's, multiple award-winning (nominated at least 30 times, with three wins), dark comedy series Barry.
     Hader plays the lead, as a man whose talent for killing was discovered while he was a Marine, and who has continued that as a managed, private contractor as a civilian. Deeply dissatisfied with his life, an assignment in Los Angeles finds him drawn to acting, prompting the attempt to change his career. Some careers don't have a built-in exit, though, and given the clients they'd likely prefer any retirements include an exit from life, too.
     As with so many things, this third season was long-delayed by the pandemic. We last saw Barry, friends and enemies waaaay back in May 2019, so nearly three years!

     During the long hiatus, reportedly, a fourth season's already been written, but no clear word's come out as to whether or not HBO's given it a green light. As a fan, I'm seeing this as a missed opportunity, as they could have given the nod and allowed the show to get a head start on the next season's shooting, drastically-delaying the gap between seasons.
     As with the previous two seasons this will run eight episodes. They pack a great deal into these roughly half-hour (26-35 min) episodes, and so with just 16 episodes and a nearly three year break, I'm doing a series rewatch to get myself back up to speed.

     I've also done a season one refresh and then plowed through the seven-episode season two of Russian Doll (Netflix), another series that recently returned after a little more than three year hiatus. I did a preview of that late in last week's piece. Fast-paced and glib, and as I noted based on the trailer, this season sees a different, broader twist in play.

   Starting next Monday (25th) and running weekly through May 30th on HBO (and, so, streaming on HBO Max, too), is a 6-part miniseries from The Wire creator & showrunner David Simon and frequent collaborator George Pelecanos. It's another Baltimore-set, police and crime-centered drama based on a nonfiction book by a Baltimore-based reporter. A tale of power and corruption, based on the rise and fall of Baltimore P.D.'s Gun Trace Task Force. Jon Bernthal arguably headlines a strong cast, with faces that will pop for viewers of The Wire, Treme, Bosch, Mercy Street, and Vera. It should be hitting most of the notes that The Shield did. It's We Own This City

     Out on the brink of next week's piece, Thursday the 28th will see nearly all things Corleone arriving on Paramount+. The Godfather (1972), The Godfather Part II (1974), and The Godfather Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone (1990) will all appear, along with the first three parts of a 10-part miniseries (the remaining parts will arrive weekly) aiming to dramatize producer Albert S. Ruddy's experiences adapting Mario Puzo's novel to the screen, surrounded by people for whom either getting the movie made or keeping it from being made were nearly life or death matters.
     I'm presuming there's no need to run a trailer for the movies, so here's the one for the miniseries: The Offer

     Depending on one's schedule, all of that goombah action may be more properly the province of next weekend and beyond, but knowing it'll be available Thursday could be useful.

     An update: With so many channels and streaming platforms in play, I keep overlooking things. Often I'll just let it slide into a later column, especially with the vast majority of the items being things we can summon to suit us. Still, I'm up for additions especially while the weekend's fully in play.
     So it is that I just noticed that Showtime (that's for us in the U.S. International audiences will find it on Paramount+) is launching a new series this Sunday (the 24th) based on a 1963 science fiction novel of the same name, that was also previously adapted into a 1976, David Bowie-starring movie. It's The Man Who Fell To Earth. This version stars the always captivating Chiwetel Ejiofor as Faraday, the interstellar traveler on a desperate mission to Earth. The rest of the cast is pretty promising, too, as the trailer shows.

     I've no idea how many episodes this season will be (only five are listed so far, running through the end of May), nor how open-ended their intentions are for additional seasons. I so far presume this will likely run about ten episodes, but we'll have to see.

     That's all for this week. We have some major life changes for me and mine starting by mid-May, with an uncertain elasticity. There's more prep work involved than I would have the stamina for even if I could find the time -- yet, I'll somehow have to find both. That's life, and it's better than its opposite. So, take care, and we'll meet back here next Friday. - Mike