THE WAY: FILM

THE WAY follows a father, played by Martin Sheen, as he walks the famous Camino de Santiago de Campostela, the way of St. James, a pilgrimage of some 480 km, beginning in the French Pyrenees, ending in Santiago, Spain, the burial tomb of St. James.  Tens of thousands of pilgrims make this walk each year (have been doing it for hundreds of years).  Martin Sheen's son, Emilio Estevez, has written and directed this film.

As the film begins, Sheen is an eye doctor in California, a typical work driven American, when he gets a call from the French police telling him that his son, from whom he's estranged, has died in a freak storm as he was beginning the pilgrimage.  Sheen then flies to France to gather the body, meets a Dutch pilgrim named Joost, decides to have his son cremated and honor him by making the pilgrimage in his son's place, spreading his ashes as he goes.  The rest of the film follows his journey, mostly inward, as he discovers not only his son but himself, the real self that had been buried by life's commitments and exigencies.

I cannot say I loved the film, as it was filled with cliches, the angry, arrogant American, out to prove something to himself.  I tired of Sheen's anger, his face, as he ignored his fellow pilgrims for most of the film, then suddenly has an epiphany, after getting drunk and disparaging his mates, totally ridiculous and predictable.  His mates, a jolly, joke cracking Dutchman, an Irish travel writer, and a Canadian women, complete the group.  Likened, though a stretch, to THE CANTERBURY TALES, we do eventually hear the stories of all four travelers.  The setting, the photography, the landscape of Spain is, however, the major character in this film, honest, beautiful, changing, and alive. It makes you want to jump on a plane and join them in the Pyrenees or small Basque towns.  The stops along the way, in various hostels, were often silly, with little interest or authenticity, just fillers made to show a particular side of a Spaniard or the ugly American.  Perhaps the problem was that we never liked Sheen, never believed his metamorphosis though we can empathize.  His fellow pilgrims were more interesting if he would allowed them in to his life.  The film took much to long for this to happen.

The journey ends, predictably, with Sheen, changed and alive at last, bosom buddies with his travel mattes, as they reach Santiago.  The last shot is of Sheen, traveling again, we assume, in Morocco, having found himself, a result of his son's death and his pilgrimage.  We are supposed to cheer his jettisoning of his inauthentic past, and embrace his living for the moment.  Whatever!

It did make me want to take this journey, as the film idealized the idea of just 'taking off,' saying screw you to the life of routine and habit, as Phillip Larkin describes in my favorite poem,  "Poetry of Departures."  But sometimes it's just as inauthentic as the life from which you fled.

Poetry of Departures

Sometimes you hear, fifth-hand,
As epitaph:
He chucked up everything
And just cleared off,
And always the voice will sound
Certain you approve
This audacious, purifying,
Elemental move.

And they are right, I think.
We all hate home
And having to be there:
I detest my room,
It's specially-chosen junk,
The good books, the good bed,
And my life, in perfect order:
So to hear it said

He walked out on the whole crowd
Leaves me flushed and stirred,
Like Then she undid her dress
Or Take that you bastard;
Surely I can, if he did?
And that helps me to stay
Sober and industrious.
But I'd go today,

Yes, swagger the nut-strewn roads,
Crouch in the fo'c'sle
Stubbly with goodness, if
It weren't so artificial,
Such a deliberate step backwards
To create an object:
Books; china; a life
Reprehensibly perfect.

Clear and Warm, A Perfect May Day in March

6:50

7:28

Spring Flowers, Finally

Willow in Bloom

Up at 6:00, to a star filled early morning sky, a few birds chirping, a silent morning, no breeze, just the twinkling of lights across the lake.  It's now 7:40, the sun brilliant off to the east, a slight film of fog, blurring the lake and surrounding coast line, like something you might see on the California coast.  It is supposed to be an amazing day, high of 73, cloudless, a great day for an adventure, if I can come up with one.

Yesterday was also warm and sunny, a lazy day except for some gardening for Evie, some scraping and steel brushing of some dock horses for me.  I am trying to take the rust off the metal horses, at the weak points, where they tend to rust out and break.  Then, I paint on a product that supposedly destroys the rust and strengthens the area that has just been painted.  It's quite expensive, ten bucks for 10 oz. but it should be enough to cover the joints of all my dock pieces.  We will have to see if it works but if it does, it will be more than worth it since the dock pieces are getting very expensive, especially the end pieces.  Evie continued to remove the lake sludge/compost from in front of ours and Leonards's house so now both are cleaned up.  She is putting the composted sea weed around our privets, some in the backyard, and we will have to see how rich in nutrients this product is.  Let's hope it works well.

We had left over Adobo chicken for dinner, perhaps even better than when we had it on Sunday night.  What is it about left overs that they seem better the next day.  When we went to turn on the TV, we found that our cable and Internet were out for the entire area, even as far north as Dunkirk, with little idea as to when it would be fixed.  Fortunately, we had a DVD of ER to watch, so we went through three episodes.  We went to bed around 11:00 and neither the TV nor Internet were working.

When I got up this morning, however, everything was fine.  It's amazing how dependent we are on our cable TV and Internet.  Without it, we feel lost.  What did we do ten years ago without Internet?  Sixty years ago without TV.  Listen to radio, I suppose, to shows like Sky King, The Long Ranger, and comedians on weekend evenings like Jimmy Durante and Jackie Gleason.

AH SPRING

7:20

7:25

7:35

Finally, it's spring and at 7:20 it's already 46 degrees, with a high in the low 70's later today, with no rain forecast.  The sun is trying to peak through the clouds, outside its windless, the lake like glass, with a few buffleheads floating off shore, a perfect spring day to come.  The sun's rising is almost due east, the same place it rose back on December 21st, where both daylight and night are equal, sunrise and sunset are about the same, around 7:20. Finally, it does not only feel like spring, but it is Spring.  Another sign from the other evening.  We heard peepers (frogs) off in a distant field.

Yesterday, was yoga, then off to a couple of stores, the library, then home again, to enjoy the afternoon and do some reading. I am reading Tom Perotta's most recent satiric novel, THE LEFT OVERS, about what happens to the Guilty Remnants after the Rapture. Various individuals from all over the world, from different religions, different cultures, have just disappeared and are assumed to have been taken up to heaven.  Both serious and very funny, it chronicles one family who are among the 'left overs,' and their attempts to live on in a changed world.  As usual, as I relaxed and read, Evie was busy in the kitchen, making a couple of loaves of our new favorite bread, Onion Rye with Caraway Seeds, and a boiled dinner of corned beef, potatoes, and lots and lots of cabbage.  We had Ron and Linda over for dinner, as they are leaving on Wednesday for PA.  They came early because we were going to watch GAME CHANGE, the HBO movie about Sarah Palin on our TV.  We watched it from 5:30 to 7:30, then discussed it over dinner.  We all agreed it was really well done, seemed mostly accurate, at least from what we remembered in the news from a couple of years ago.  It begins with the slogan Nation First, John Mc Cann's campaign theme, then asks the question, in the movie, was choosing Sarah Palin as a running mate putting the nation first or just a ploy to win, not worrying about her credentials to be a heart beat a way from the Presidency.  She ends up being cast as both victim and Lazarus, arising from the dead when you casts aside the image makers and becomes herself, a savvy, charismatic politician.  It was a fun night, a great dinner, and good conversation,

The Vernal Equinox

Ah, spring! This season brings increasing daylight, warming temperatures, and the rebirth of flora and fauna.

The word equinox is derived from the Latin words meaning “equal night.” The spring and fall equinoxes are the only dates with equal daylight and dark as the Sun crosses the celestial equator. At the equinoxes, the tilt of Earth relative to the Sun is zero, which means that Earth’s axis neither points toward nor away from the Sun. (However, the tilt of Earth relative to its plane of orbit, called the ecliptic plane, is always about 23.5 degrees.)

Spectacular Dawn...Warm with a Soft Rain

7:05

7:08

7:18

Up at 6:15 to a dark sky and a crescent moon hanging over Tom's Point.  It's warm, 48 degrees and I am happy, as the Ohio University Bobcats beat Southern Florida last night, to move on to the sweet sixteen, the first time since 1964, when our team went as far as the final eight, beating Kentucky, then ranked # in the first round of the sweet sixteen.  The past hour, the sky has been amazing, something out of Arizona magazine and the sun has yet to rise.  No wind, placid lake, a few ducks, amazing colors.

Hiking in Dobbins Woods

Yesterday was another unseasonably warm day.  We decided to walk Dobbins Woods, about a 45 minute walk through Chautauqua Conservancy lands.  It's about a ten minute drive, one of our favorite short hikes because it's through mostly woods, lots of feathery hemlocks, and a well marked trail.  Usually, at this time of year, it would be too muddy to walk but we have not had much rain the past week, so we were able to navigate around the really wet areas.  Very little green any where except for the forest ferns, which are beginning to grow.  The rest of the afternoon, Evie worked on getting an adobo chicken dinner ready, as we had invited the Jones over for dinner because they had been eating every meal out the past few days. I watched the NCAA basketball games though none were that interesting and I had to tape the Bobcats because it was at 7:00 when we were having dinner.

David and Pat Jones

We had a great meal, enjoyed Dave and Pat, as we are getting to know them much better.  Both are really fun and we find we have lots in common.  Both grew up in Warren, PA, so their roots are in this part of the States though they have spent the past 30 years in Houston, where Dave has his business.  They are going through the painful process of choosing counter tops, cupboards, flooring and carpeting for their addition, which is not much fun.  They were going to leave on Tuesday but it sounds like they will put it off till Wednesday because they need more time.  I am glad those days are over for us.  Picking out paint for our living room last spring was painful enough.  And we gave up on a carpet because we could not really make a decision or find what we wanted.  After the Jones left, I watched the OU game till 11:00, an exciting game, well played and the Bobcats prevailed to move on.

This morning I have yoga and later, I hope to work on scraping the rust off of my dock pieces before the Mc Clures come over for a corn beef and cabbage dinner.  We also are going to watch Game Change together, since they have yet to see it.  They head home on Wednesday.

THE PALE CRIMINAL: PHILIP KERR

This is the second Bernie Gunther mystery I have  read, the first being MARCH VIOLETS.  All the Gunther novels are set in Nazi Germany at various stages of its rise.  In this particular book, it's 1938 and Bernie meets with a wealthy, elderly widow who is being black mailed, she thinks, because of her son's homosexuality.  While investigating this, Bernie is called back into the Police, to investigate, quietly, the murders of young Nazi women.  It would seem the police are so incompetent, so used to having their way and using force, that they have forgotten how to be good detectives, something Bernie is, of course.  He slowly finds his way, carefully, not wanting to step on the shoes of the S. S,. though he pulls no punches when he is around them, his dislike manifest.

It's a battle to keep his integrity in this world of power and evil and at times, he feels it's not worth the trouble.  I won't go into the details, as it gets too complicated but basically, a group of Nazis have taken it upon themselves to create even more hatred of the Jews than has already been orchestrated.  There plan was to have the Jews blamed for the murder of these young  girls, thinking they could get away with it.  A group of them, led by a mad psychic, who regales himself in all the makings of Germanic folk lore, have the ear and heart of Himmler.  Bernie must break into their games, set at a castle, and tell Himmler that a number of his S.S. buddies are behind this plot.  This is done, of course, with the help of Herr Heydrich, Himmler's equal in power and arch enemy.  He supports Bernie, even hired him to find the murderer and takes great pleasure in seeing it leads ultimately to Himmler. By the way, the widow' son, the homosexual, who is being black mailed also is involved in this group. Synchronicity or silliness. The setting, the workings of the Nazis, the characters Bernie meets and his struggle to remain humane and caring form the center of this, of all his books, I assume.  My early criticism, of his ridiculous analogies, his sardonic humor, no longer holds true as Kerr seems to have found his voice.  I am ready for the next one.

Overcast But Warm, Another Spring Like Day

7:20

Buffle Head Ducks

Up at 7:15, having slept in a bit, to another pink and orange morning sky a la Arizona though now, at 9:00 the colors mostly gone and the clouds have taken over, the gray lake, gray sky, occasional boat and flock of geese or buffleheads.  Today's supposed to be warm again, like yesterday.  We are hoping to go for a walk this morning at the CI, then for a kayak ride later in the afternoon.  This weather is unsettling because you think you should be outside, planting, pruning, digging up, but it's still winter and all those types of chores are at least a month or two away.  For example, you cannot leave plants outside in this area until after Memorial day, two months away, because of a fear of frost.

Saturday afternoon paddle

Yesterday, was a yoga morning, a workout morning for Evie at the Y, plus another brief stop at Weggies for a few items we forgot from yesterday's shopping.  Yoga was fine though we had a substitute teacher, kind of the yoga Nazi of the three teachers though he did show us some interesting and different poses.  He seems to be a know it all, putting down the usual teacher with some of his comments.  Not very yoga like!  In the afternoon, we mostly relaxed, read some outside in the sun, warm enough to get a sun tan, watched some of the NCAA's and went for a great kayak ride over to Long Point, to the marina, back to Victoria and home.  As we paddled around Long Point, there were some St. Paddy's Day celebrants in a boat, floating, radio blaring and obviously inebriated.  We could hear them debating when to jump in and finally one of them did a flip off the boat, in to the water.  Needless to say, he surfaced fortunately, screamed he was not drunk enough, and got quickly back into the boat.  I am sure the temperature was in still in the 30's, perhaps low 40's, and depending on your constitution, could be fatal.  Ah Youth.  Ah Ignorance.

Around 6:30, our neighbors, the Jones, up from Houston for the weekend, to finalize plans for their addition on their house, came over for cocktails, then we went off for dinner at Webbs, in Mayville.  It was a nice evening as Webb's was packed, especially the bar, with St. Paddy's Day celebrants and they even had a troop of bagpipes playing in the bar.  We all had great meals and both Evie's salmon and my veal parmesan, were excellent.  Dave and Pat had recently been to China, so it was fun to talk to them about their trip.  They were acquainted with Yao Ming, the Chinese basketball player  when he played in Houston, so they ended up meeting up with him and his wife in Shanghai  and going out to dinner with them.  Yao seems to be doing well, owns a basketball team, and hopes to continue to grow the Chinese league because basketball is very popular there. It was a great trip and made we want to see China, its changing landscape, economy and world, so very modern in such a short time.  We stayed till about 10:00 talking and literally closed the place up as the bar was empty when we left.  We certainly are becoming party hardy's, closing up the bars.

Heavy Fog and Warm (48) at 5:45

7:15 and Fog

Kinney's Run

Looking Towards Wells Bay from Victoria

Vinca, my favorite ground cover

Why am I up this early?  Perhaps to find out if Ohio University beat Michigan last night in the NCAA.  They did---go Bobcats.  I did watch the first half, taped, last night but was too tired to finish so I went to bed.  It's hard to see much out side as it's so dark.  I can make out the shadows of our two trees, but nothing else as the darkness begins to fade.  Another warm day, even week, or so it looks today.

Yesterday morning, early, I hiked the Woodlawn/Victoria woods, as I wanted to get a walk in before we went shopping, thus a couple of pictures from the woods and Victoria.  Then, we headed into Lakewood, hitting Wegmans' and  Evan's Wine as we had to stock up on various goodies. We have finished the two cases of La Vieille Ferme we bought in New Hampshire this past October, at Trout's recommendation. And, of course, we went through a couple of cases of Charles Shaw as well the past few months, so it's been our first trip to Evans for wine in quite a few months.

It was cloudy in late morning, so we didn't mind not being out hiking or on the lake.  But later in the afternoon, it did clear up so we went for a nice kayak ride, up towards Wells Bay and back.  A few fishing boats were out but we were practically the only one's on the lake.  It's strange to have it so quiet around here, especially with this warm weather.  No snow blowers, no lawn mowers, no leaf blowers, just the sound of the birds, an occasional wind, waves lapping on the shoreline, nothing else.  Lovely.

Linda and Ron

Around 6:30, Ron and Linda came over and we went out for a fish fry at the Seezurh House, in Bemus Point.  It was just like the old days, a Friday night with the Seezurh overflowing with people, the bar full, the other two rooms as well.  The waitresses were going crazy and we did have to wait quite awhile to get our meals but it was worth it to see the restaurant/bar full of customers.  We have usually been there on Wednesday nights, when we have sometimes been the only people in the bar area.  Life seems to be picking up in Bemus because of the warm weather, I assume. We got back around 9:30 and I watched the first half of the Ohio University/Michigan game, then went to bed.  A good day.