Full of Great

A 19th-century engraving of Bacon observing the stars at Oxford, Wikipedia

I’m grateful for hot water. In fact, I’m grateful for warm water. Warm water which I can use in my Waterpik because it feels like a spa day in my mouth. I’m grateful for the Waterpik! That thing has made a lot of dentist visits a whole lot easier. I’m grateful for indoor plumbing, electricity and refrigeration. I’m grateful for many appliances that depend on electricity, especially the one that depends on electricity and indoor plumbing: the dishwasher. There are so many people on this Earth who don't have such basic needs as water you can drink that simply pours out of pipes from the walls, but here we are drinking it, washing ourselves, our clothes and our homes with the stuff. If your parents grew up in a rural, isolated place like my father's, they probably had to take a bucket and fetch water, but our well feels endless and comes right into the house. Electricity also comes from the walls. Apparently, we have magic walls! It gives light, heat or cooling and so many more things.

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Time After Time

Patek Philippe: Begin your own tradition, price on request.

In the 19th century, an entomologist discovered that the oak beams of Oxford's New College dining hall were infested with beetles. As the dining hall was founded in 1329 there were concerns that such large beams, up to 45 feet in length, were no longer able to be sourced, until a junior fellow suggested consulting the college forester. The forester confirmed that Oxford did, in fact, own property with trees that included some oaks planted 400 years before. Though it's apocryphal that these trees were planted for this very purpose, it was common that 14th-century foresters planted oaks, hazels and ash for construction purposes, and would harvest the hazel and ash about every 25 years while the oaks were allowed to continue growing. The presence of these trees shows the long-term thinking we used to have, thinking that today only survives in the minds of commuters left waiting for the Eglington Crosstown LRT to open.

Somewhat similarly, consider the luxury watch brand Patek Philippe and their advertising campaign, "You never actually own a Patek Philippe. You merely look after it for the next generation." Often in their ads, an adult is seen engaging with a child in some meaningful activity like playing chess, solving a puzzle or laughing in a carefree manner. Isn't life grand? What they are trying to sell you is a watch worth more than most cars with the idea that this device will outlive you and you can pass it along to the next generation. Again, someone is out there thinking of the world continuing beyond their lifetime.

Now picture keeping a smartphone or a smartwatch for 50 years and passing it down to some poor kid.

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Seen in October

The Wild Robot

This was a strange October. At times it was so warm that we thought we had woken up in August. Other times, it was cold enough to be December. Pick a lane October. It felt as though we had missed the autumnal glow that comes with warm light and chilly breezes and had walked into a malfunctioning sauna/freezer. Rest assured, there was always something to watch.

Only Murders in the Building S04
Disney+
Our stalwart comedy murder mystery got all "meta" this season. Hollywood has come calling to make a film from the podcaster's life and crime-solving adventures, which is also a way to double down on the cameo quotient. There was some point in this season when we thought some previous red herrings would be put to rest, unfortunately, by the season's end the only thing put to rest was yet another murder victim. While I enjoy this show I'd like to see Martin Short and Steve Martin get a little spicier, with some more of the edge they show in their other work.

Slow Horses S04
Apple TV+
This is one of my favourite shows in a very long time. I've always wanted a spy thriller written by Douglas Adams, but maybe one like a cross between John le Carré and Armando Iannucci (creator of Veep and The Thick of It) is better. I hope that the creator of the series of books this show is based on, Mick Herron, would take this as the compliment it's intended as. Herron has admitted he didn't know much about the spy world of MI5, but he knew office politics and the internal conflicts within any bureaucratic office, so that was his starting point. It continues to be one of life's great joys to see Gary Oldman as Jackson Lamb act across from Kristen Scott Thomas as Diana Taverner. This show is so packed with talent that the great Jonathan Pryce appears in a small recurring role. I can't recommend it enough.

The Wild Robot
Motherhood, purpose, and learning by listening are all themes in this gem of an animated film. A service robot of the future washes ashore on a remote island, which lacks the very people the robot is intended to serve. It's a funny and moving film rendered in an incredibly beautiful style. It's amazing that as computer animation advances, filmmakers are finding ways to improve it by returning to traditional tools blended with new ones.

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The Fifth

A depiction of the Gunpowder Plotters, their trial and execution by Crispijn van de Passe the Elder.

That wasn't so much as a "barn-burner" of an American election as much as it was a burn-down-the-barn-and-everything-in-it. I guess it was appropriate that this election was held on Guy Fawkes Night, which commemorates the Gunpowder Plot by a group of disgruntled Catholics to blow up the British parliament. Now we are all left staring at the glowing embers of what was once American Exceptionalism. Congratulations, your democracy is now an exceptional heap of ashes. Don't worry, ours might be next. Hey, we did learn, however, that you don't need explosives to blow up democracy, just use xenophobic rhetoric to get the job done. To my American colleagues who were given the day off to vote, they can say, "I'll always remember the moment democracy died, at least I had the day off." For myself, I'm happy about the human brain's capacity for cognitive dissonance. Sometimes more descriptively referred to as "compartmentalization". It allows us to stow away the bad thoughts and continue on with our lives. Keep calm and all that stuff. I imagine my mind not as a palace with many rooms but as a large room full of index card drawers, where the "bad thoughts" are kept in what is more like a "bits & pieces" or "odds & ends" drawer. Every kitchen has one and so does my mind.

In that odds & sods drawer are the stuff I know exists, but I'm going to pretend doesn't. I know that cows are gentle beasts with lovely big eyes, I know that pigs are quite clever, that lambs are cute, and rabbits are fuzzy, but I also know that all of these beasties are delicious. Delicious recipes for attractive members of the animal kingdom are kept in an entirely different drawer. Now added to the drawer is that politically, one of the most influential nations on this big blue marble is sleepwalking its way to an authoritarian, Christian-nationalist, misogynist, racist, protectionist, unfettered capitalist republic. I'm sure I'm forgetting some aspersions, but you know, they can be thrown in the drawer later.

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Be Fallen

Landscapes, Zhang Feng - Chinese artist, dated 1644.

We lingered in the warm winds and sunshine for too long. Summer persisted despite the date on the calendar. The moon foretold us that autumn was here, but the Earth did not listen, until suddenly, we fell into fall like a comedic turn out of a hammock. We should have seen it coming, clearer than the morning mist. We were warned of the arrival of the coming season, but were distracted by the departure of another. Following Summer's reign, the sun did wane, with withering skies came cold rain, until Autumn's footsteps could be heard. The omens of fall were evident, abundant and all around us just as we know from aphorisms of old, here the signs of autumn were foretold:

The Basil Harvest.

Each year as summer ends and autumn creeps, we wonder how much more the basil bush can bear. Should we allow a night-shivered herb to bask and warm in the day or should we shed the plant of its herbal leaves to be mashed with oils, nuts and cheese, to be frozen and used as we please? Or let it stand another day?

When the donning of the socks and cardigans has occurred.

The morning, brisk and breezy, suggests another layer or three-zy. Socks are a must unless you just, would like to suggest to us, how, without a fuss, we might from the cold keep our toes?

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Seen in September

Regina and Valerio consider their options in Carnival is Over

A warm and welcoming beginning to the fall season led to more TV and more movies. I wonder if an earlier sunset, which of course means a longer night, gave me the impression of having more time to watch something? Fall may be the season for fashion, football and hockey, but it's a start to many longer nights and even more TV and movies.

Carnival is Over
TIFF
This was the only film we were able to catch at the Toronto International Film Festival this year. Seated near us was someone planning on seeing roughly 40 films more. One of the best parts of seeing films at TIFF is the audience and they didn't disappoint (before each film a warning about "piracy" is greeted by the audience with a pirate chorus of "Aaarrrr"). The theatre was packed for this little-known Brazilian crime drama, which also was followed by a Q and A session with the film's director, producers and one of its stars. The film is about a couple, Regina and Valerio, who have returned to Rio to help run Valerio's father's business. That business is a shady part of an organized crime syndicate that operates gambling terminals throughout the city. It's assumed that Valerio's uncle, his father's twin brother, killed Valerio's father to take over his sibling's share of the business. The couple would rather be out of it entirely and return to their life in Europe. Regina eggs Valerio to "get rid" of his uncle to clear a path to his inheritance, but in a sort of Coen brothers twist, a poorly planned act of murder becomes far messier and only draws the couple down further into the sordid business they wanted to get out of. The film is full of Coens-esque dark violence and occasional absurd humour along with Shakespearean references from Lady Macbeth, Hamlet and Titus Andronicus. You know, all the fun stuff.

Rupert Pupkin (Robert De Niro) is the hero of his own movie.

The King of Comedy
Crave
Martin Scorsese's prescient 1982 comedy about a psychopathic comedian, Rupert Pupkin (Robert De Niro), who decides the only way to get his big shot is to take the most popular late-night talk show host, Jerry Langford (Jerry Lewis), hostage unless his demands of appearing on the show are met. While the last act is where most of the action takes place, it's in the epilogue where the film's prognostications appear. It's a film about the comically high aspirations of someone with a medium-level talent. Celebrity isn't an American invention, yet they seem to have a near monopoly on the business of undeserved fame. Themes of celebrity and fame and our fascination with it are the real heart of this film. It was a nice touch in Todd Phillips' 2019 Joker that De Niro played the ill-fated talk show host to Joaquin Phoenix's Arthur Fleck (a name equally feckless sounding as Rupert Pupkin).

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