Coming soon, 4 February 2026

I think JoAnne Pow!ers has been at every screening I've been at this year. It is not clear if this says anything about me or her.

These were the trailers at a screening of The Testament of Ann Lee which was excellent. I loved both kinds of musical numbers - the ones that gave exposition and the ones that were liturgical. The latter were quite effective in creating an ecstatic atmosphere and giving a sense of the characters' religious fervor. There were a couple scenes where I felt it would have been neat if the movie had let worshiping continue longer and more had been done with Mother Ann's visions. It would have been nice to have had a bit more that takes place outside the normal, workaday world.

While watching the credits I was pleasantly surprised to see that Amanda Seyfried did her own singing or most of it, anyway. The music was wonderful and I am curious to know how much of it was authentic Shaker music or at least based upon such songs.

An excellent flick.

The evening began with a commercial for the Metropolitan Opera. The show is Cinderella and it noted that it had a running time of 90 minutes and was in English so you don't have to be a sophisto to watch it.

Next was another commercial for Winter Olympics coverage at the cinema.

We then got a trailer for Dreams but it was not banded presumably because it had not been reviewed by the MPAA. Jessica Chastain has is a cougar here - a long way from Mrs. O'Brien. 

Jessica Chastain & Neve Campbell flicks? Are middle-aged women having a moment at the cinema?

I am hoping to see The Odyssey on film in Indianapolis while I'm at Gencon.

The second trailer that begins in the desert. I am getting them confused.

 

More older Fraus.

Red band once again. Perhaps there is no green band version of this one.

Coming soon, 27 January 2026

Seen before a screening of No Other Choice.

This was a commercial and not a proper trailer.

 A commercial for the Winter Olympics coverage followed.

 

This was a red band trailer.

 

Coming soon, 26 January 2026

Seen at a screening of Hamnet.

A commercial for the Olympic games followed.

Coming soon, 15 January 2026

Seen at a screening of Father Mother Sister Brother.

 

 

 

 

22 November 2025: Saturday in the park

A woman whom I had befriended on the bus had organized a crack Buckthorn Removal Squad and invited me to join her and the rest of the squad for a late-morning cull out at Token Creek Park.

One afternoon she noticed me reading Thoreau's Walden on our bus rides home and asked me what I thought of it. This was the first of many chats about nature writing that we've had. She introduced me to Sigurd Olson and I Ben Logan to her. Having a B.A. in philosophy, she was able to help me understand Aristotle when I was reading him. We share a joy of spending time in non-man-made environments as well as laying importance upon not despoiling them. Our conversations have been great fun and quite enlightening.

The invitation for some oak prairie restoration came after I had sent her an email lamenting that I would no longer see her on the bus as I had moved and was taking a different route to work. 

My venture in Stoughton having taken a bit longer than expected, I would be late.  I held out hope that it wouldn't be a problem or hold anything up. So, upon returning home, I hastily put on my boots and scrambled to find my gloves which were exactly where I had put them.

Much to my shame I have to admit that I'd never been to Token Creek Park before yesterday. At least I have no recollection of having done so. Better late than never. I found the meeting spot where my bus book buddy and her boyfriend were waiting. Not having seen her in a while, it was wonderful to see her and meet her beau.

We grabbed our equipment - a saw, pruner-snipper thingies, gloves, etc. - and headed down the trail to where we'd be working.

The area was littered with heaps of brush and our task that day was to cut the felled buckthorn into burnable size and stack the pieces into burn piles. My bus buddy gave her boyfriend and me a lecture on how to identify buckthorn and an overview of the restoration process. She'd been at it for a year and a half and had cleared a not insignificant area of invasive species. I was tasked with being the sawyer and so grabbed the saw and got to work on a pile of trees.

Kneeling on the ground, I cut the small trees into three foot lengths and piled up the logs. Despite the din of Highway 51 in the distance, it was lovely outside in the woods, er, prairie. The oaks had donated their leaves to the the ground and every step produced an autumnal crunch. I think the sawing was good for my back as it mimicked the physical therapy exercises I've been doing to get various muscles loosened up and run through their paces. In addition, I enjoyed feeling the cool air on my face and smelling the prairie as it prepared for winter. 

When her boyfriend took over sawyering duties, my buddy and I went around to deal with buckthorn stumps. I trimmed them of new growth while she applied herbicide. We chatted as we worked. I told her of my visit to Walden Pond and she of hers to Yellowstone.

We called it a day at the noon whistle. For my part, I enjoyed myself thoroughly. A little exercise, a little banter, and a couple hours spent in Nature - just perfect.

The crack Buckthorn Removal Squad meets again next month on or near the solstice. It was our hope that there would be snow on the ground as this would be the perfect accompaniment to burning the brush piles.

When I got home Piper knew I had been out of the city as she gave me a thorough sniffing.

I removed my boots and prepared to go shopping with a friend. We went to buy picture frames and groceries. In typical fashion, I forgot to bring my list which had needed comestibles and the dimensions of needed frames. This wasn't too big an impediment as I recalled the size of one of the frames I needed and consulted the internet for the other.

As we drove to the supermarket, my friend and I chatted about Christmas. She noted that, from her experiences in Europe, Christmas there is about lights and food and good company versus the endless sales and materialism that characterize the holiday here in the States. I think this was prompted by my observation at the frame store that they had a Black Friday sale going despite being almost a week out from the dreaded shopping day.

Not being a Christian, I don't celebrate Christmas and I am rather ambivalent about it these days. It used to be fun watching my stepsons open their gifts when they were young but they somehow grew up into men. And my divorce has riven the family my wife and I had into splinters, a process that began back in 2016 or 2017, to be honest. After that, Christmas no longer meant getting together with the kids. Then at some point my wife became uninterested in joining me to visit my family in the Chicago area and Christmas devolved into me visiting my family while she visited friends or family. We would convene at some point so I could give her gifts and that was that.

Sadly, I found the last 3 Christmases at home to be rather depressing. I loved spending time with my family in the Chicago area but giving my wife gifts had become rote and largely devoid of meaning for me. I felt as if I was simply feeding her lust for more things and do not recall just being together for any time beyond the opening of gifts. Sharing a meal, perhaps?

I am not expecting to begin any new traditions this Christmas but do expect to miss the days when it was a joyous time spent with the woman I loved. However, it will be nice to not feel any anxiety over finding the right gifts and right number of gifts for a woman from whom I was becoming ever more disaffected. I shall enjoy my trek to Chicagoland followed by some time spent with Piper on the couch. Not particularly celebratory, perhaps, but less stressful than in years past. Maybe my youngest stepson can find some time to spend with his stepfather. Or maybe I shall take a walk in the woods.

Diversion over. 

Grocery shopping was a similar experience to that at the frame store as I recalled most of what was on the list and then just improvised. Thanksgiving is approaching and I would be going to two people's homes to overindulge and then I am off to Chicagoland the next day so I didn't really need a whole lot. But I enjoyed being in the company of my friend as she pondered the possibility of rye dinner rolls at Thanksgiving and we engaged in supermarket badinage.

I got home, put away my things, and prepared for my next venture: seeing For Heaven's Sake downtown.

For Heaven's Sake was being screened at the Overture Center's Duck Soup Cinema. A comedy from 1926, it stars Harold Lloyd as J. Harold Manners, a wealthy, if bumbling, man about town.

Duck Soup Cinema is more than just the screening of a silent film. We were treated to the strains of a vintage Grand Barton Organ courtesy of Clark Wilson. He played before the show began as well as providing the soundtrack to the film. The organ at the Capitol Theater dates to 1927 and was built by the Bartola Musical Instrument Company up in Oshkosh. It is one of only three of such organs that remain unaltered from their original manufacture.

The show began with the emcee, Joe Thompson, making some dad jokes to his co-hostess, Alanna Medearis who works for the OC. They introduced Duke Otherwise who played some fun and funny tunes on guitar. He brought up a couple people onstage for one song and invited audience participation for another, asking people to shout out animals to be included in the tune he was performing.

Somehow I had missed Wayne the Wizard elsewhere in the building performing magic tricks for patrons. DSC spares no expense for patrons!

For Heaven's Sake was great fun. It's only my second Harold Lloyd film after Safety Last!. Although Manners has the wealth of Croesus and enjoys being a dandy, he is a good man at heart. And so when he accidentally sets a charity cart afire, he pays the owner, Brother Paul, enough for the man of God to start a mission. One day Manners is aghast that Brother Paul has named the mission after him so he goes down there to correct the situation only to become enamored of the churchman's daughter, Hope.

Their decision to marry draws the ire of the city's elite who kidnap Manners. However, he is rescued by some drunken groomsmen who are denizens of the mission. A long stretch of physical comedy follows as Manners' attempts to get the intoxicated groomsmen back to the mission are foiled by their random behavior including abandoning the driver's seat of a double-decker bus in motion.

For Heaven's Sake was great fun and, just as yesterday's visit to Token Creek Park was my first, I do believe this was my first time at Duck Soup Cinema. But not my last!

On my way out I ran into one of the ladies from the Polish Heritage Club who made some of that nalewka that I sampled earlier in the month along with her beau. We chatted briefly and was told that I would be invited out with them on their next trivia outing. We PHC members take care of our own, doncha know.

The ride home was uneventful despite the bus being well-populated on a Saturday night. When I got to my door, I found that the Beer Fairy has stopped by. 

A fine close to a busy but highly rewarding day.

Coming soon, 19 July 2025

Seen before Eddington.

I am still thinking about Eddington. It is drenched in that Ari Aster feeling of a situation that is uncannily uncomfortable. The scenes with the sheriff, Joe Cross, arguing/pleading with his wife Louise really hit me. A bit too close to home, a bit too soon. And, honestly, the same goes for the nearly ubiquitous commentary on technology - the addictive qualities of smartphones and the power they give to quickly and unthinkingly vent one's spleen.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the movie - it was shot by the great Darius Khondji - but there were many an uncomfortable moment that Aster could not have foreseen. The final act took a really dark turn that I did not expect and it made me uncomfortable in a whole new way. Our hero falls and becomes what he despises. Whom should I feel sorry for? My head was a mess of conflicting feelings.

Onto the trailers. I should note that Marcus shows many fewer commercials than AMC and not as many trailers. Thank you, Marcus.

I didn't know that there was a new Yorgos Lanthimos film to be had.

I am intrigued by the latest from Spike Lee.

I did not recognize The Rock until the voiceover said his name or it appeared onscreen. Did he just add hair or has his face been given prosthetics? 

"Nature is utterly indifferent"

Werner Herzog on 60 Minutes.

Madison screening for Separated

WUD Film down on campus will be screening UW-Madison alumnus Errol Morris' latest movie, Separated, later this month on the 27th as part of a series called "Social Cinema". It documents the first Trump administration's horrible policy of separating migrant families.

Warm milk - R.I.P. David Lynch

First news that Bob Uecker had died appeared and then it wasn't long before word came down that David Lynch had joined him. So many great memories of enjoying his work. I think his films fostered a deep love of the uncanny in me. There's a nice tribute by Brian Tallerico up at rogerebert.com.

As far as I can remember, I first heard of Lynch when I was in college from a friend who was a bit older than me. We were hanging out at his apartment at Johnson and Bassett and he remarked that he was excited for Lynch's new TV show, On the Air, to debut. Upon learning that I was not familiar with Lynch, he went on to extol the virtues of Twin Peaks, Blue Velvet, etc.

Another great memory is binge watching Twin Peaks while I was house sitting for a friend out in rural Edgerton. A shiver went down my spine as the Giant intoned, "It's happening again..." I was perplexed yet couldn't help but be intrigued when the horse appeared to Sarah. Surely it was all those scenes in the Black Lodge that gave me such an affinity for the uncanny.

It was freezing outside when I went to Chicago to see Inland Empire at The Music Box. If memory serves, it was on Super Bowl Sunday with the Bears playing the Colts. The Kennedy Expressway was as dead as I'd ever seen it and we made great time.

Watching Lost Highway at Cinematheque here in Madison a couple years back was just fantastic. I got to hear the soundtrack as it was meant to be heard for the first time and it was incredibly unnerving.

Tone Madison published a nice article a couple years back that detailed Lynch's affiliation with Tandem Press here in Madison called "The art life of David Lynch in Madison".

I raise my coffee mug to him! Got a light?

Errol Morris & Jacob Soboroff on Separated

Perhaps our greatest living documentarian (and University of Wisconsin-Madison alumnus), Errol Morris, has a new movie out called Separated which looks at the Trump administration’s policy of separating children from their aspiring immigrant parents at our southern border. It's based on the book Separated: Inside an American Tragedy by journalist Jacob Soboroff. Sadly, it seems that it had a very brief theatrical run in New York to qualify for Academy Awards and will only be available to stream. It comes to Amazon and Apple TV on the 17th of this month. Perhaps a DVD/Bluray release...?

The pair were recently interviewed on ReasonTV and it was very interesting - and disturbing.

The Corona Diaries Vol. 118: An inauspicious start to the new year

{Watch the lovely prelude.}

(late January 2024)

The new year did not start well. My Frau did not make Hoppin’ John.

It was a mix of her ongoing health issues and just feeling depressed which is obviously intimately tied into those aforementioned health problems. I hoped that this was not a portent for 2024 and that she would find relief, if not being cured outright, soon. It has been heartbreaking to witness her struggles over the last year and I really didn't want a repeat.

Although I knew it was going to happen, I was still saddened at the news that Valkyrie Brewing had closed. You may recall that this was my stop of choice for some muscle relaxant after my hikes at the Chippewa Moraine State Recreation Area. I shall miss their Whispering Embers dearly.

Their last call was on the 6th and the intrepid editor of the Barron News-Shield, Ryan Urban, was there. You may recall him from earlier entries as we met on Twitter and have gotten together for a few beers on a couple of occasions.

Saturday’s farewell event featured many of the elements of a Saturday at the brewery. Games of cribbage were going on at nearly every table, game after game was played at the vintage pinball machine, friends and strangers alike conversed with enthusiasm and laughter, and there was music—for this occasion, by Kaptain Karl and the Dirty White Boy Band. Many people brought flowers and gifts for the Lees, and there was a cake, which they cut together with a sword, of course.

In addition to lamenting the loss of their amber restorative, I will miss the Viking theme of their taproom. Despite being in a former creamery, it eschewed the sadly fashionable industrial chic of so many taprooms and instead owners Randy and Ann Lee created one with a cozy, Nordic ambience. A real third space vibe where one could comfortably practice drawing runes and contemplate raiding monasteries.

Speaking of beer, now that it’s winter, one of my all-time favorites is once again available: Tippy Toboggan from Vintage Brewing here in Madison.

It’s a Roggenbock, I guess you’d say. That is, a German-style hefeweizen brewed to bock strength and with the healthy addition of rye to the customary grain bill of wheat and barley. And so it has the banana/clove flavors of a hefeweizen along with the earthy-spicy taste of rye. As someone with a lot of Central and Eastern European blood, I love rye. And with an A.B.V. of 6.9%, it keeps the chill at bay on cold winter days.

********

We had a few good snowstorms the first half of this month which made for some pretty scenery as well as great walks at my beloved Acewood Conservation Park. Temperatures got rather chilly too which made those walks a bit shorter than they would have been otherwise. It’s all-too easy to just stay inside on winter days and watch the TV, browse the internet, or do chores that you put off all summer and autumn. But it’s important for me to get outside regardless of both the temperature and the fact that the dryer vent needs cleaning.

Just after the first storm of the new year, I headed out to Acewood. The arch was bare.

While some folks and dogs too had come through already as evidenced by their tracks, the path was empty during my time there.

While the bare trees gave off a feeling of emptiness and death, there were critters aplenty out and about. This squirrel seemed to be taking a breather from scurrying around. I hoped that it was relaxing after a hearty meal. It looks well-fed.

I heard a woodpecker and somehow managed to track it down and, believe it or not, get a decent photograph of it. I think it was a hairy woodpecker.

A few days later we got several more inches of snow and the backyard was a veritable winter wonderland so I wandered around the house to check out the scene.

The house sparrows were ravenous!

 

It wasn’t long before we got yet another big storm and even more of the white stuff. This necessitated another trip to Acewood.

I found that the entrance to the path was snowbound as the wind had whipped up after the blizzard had ended and now my way was barred by drifts.

Although cold and windy, the sun made it, if not exactly pleasant, then much more bearable.

I saw a fair number of tracks beyond those of people and their hounds on my walk such as these which I believe were made by a mouse.

They hop atop the snow and you can see the marks its tail left here.

All in all, a wonderful walk, cold be damned.

********

Despite being the bowels of winter, I found a portent of spring at Farm & Fleet. They were taking orders for chicks and honey bees for pickup when the winter is over or nearly so, at least.

Speaking of animals, one of the movies I saw this month was Gunda.

Gunda is a documentary but an unconventional one. The title is the name of the sow on the poster above and we follow her and her piglets along with other farm animals including a one-legged chicken who despite its disability, gets along rather well.

Shot entirely in gorgeous black and white, it is pure cinéma verité as it features no narration nor any music and the camera is a fly on the wall, so to speak. I gotta tell ya, Gunda’s piglets are cute as all get out. We viewers just watch as the pigs, the chicken, and some cows simply get on with life. They eat and sleep and wander around the barnyards they call home.

I got lost in watching some creatures with whom we share this planet go about their lives. We hear them grunt, snort, moo, etc. They eat and poo. And did I mention that the piglets are as cute as the dickens? It was difficult not to ponder what was going through the animals’ heads and to not anthropomorphize them. I mean, piglets like to run and play just like human children do. Watching that chicken was inspiring as it didn't let a little thing like missing a leg stop it from roaming the barnyard with determination.

The cinematography is amazing with the camera normally low to ground putting us on the same level as the subjects, inviting us to view them as equals instead of we humans smugly looking down upon the animals from on high. And somehow director Victor Kossakovsky and cinematographer Egil Håskjold Larsen managed to get a camera in Gunda’s home to give us some intimate scenes as the piglets suckle, sleep, and spend quality time with their mother. In addition to being low to the ground, the camera was also able to get us up close to the animals. They never seem to feel like distant subjects and instead are more like pets.

I have read that Kossakovsky and producer Joaquin Phoenix are both vegans and the message here is basically “be kind to animals and don’t eat them”. By and large, though, the movie doesn’t preach this and instead tries to endear the animals to you by just letting them be themselves. The ending, however, was heart breaking and had me in tears.

Gunda and her piglets are out and about in the farmyard. An enclosure is set down with a small entry and the piglets scurry inside. The camera pulls back and we see the enclosure lifted up and hauled away by what I think was a tractor with a forklift implement attached.

Tears ran down my face as Gunda zipped around looking for her children but it was all in vain. Her grunts seem to grow ever more desperate as she darts this way and then that scouring every inch of the yard. Alas, she was never to see her piglets again. (Or so we are led to believe.) This scene is several minutes long and really tugs on your heart strings.

Piper watched the movie with me and I gave her a big hug afterwards. She came away with wet fur, I can tell you.

********

Bonus photo. Back in 2019 a transformer at the Madison Gas & Electric power plant on the isthmus had a little problem and exploded. A friend had this harrowing sight on his drive into work on that day. That jogger seems rather nonplussed.

 

 

(Look at the animals.)

The Corona Diaries Vol. 118 - Prelude: Look at the animals - aren't you glad to be one?

 

 

{Now read more in #118.}

Coming Soon 23 November 2024

I went to see Conclave over the weekend and enjoyed it quite a bit. To my mind, it's a humanist tale and I cannot get all of those shots of hands out of my head. Maybe I'll write more about it later.

Here are the trailers:

The final trailer was for Last Breath, directed by Alex Parkinson and starring Woody Harrelson, Simu Liu and Finn Cole. I cannot find the trailer on Youtube.

Coming Soon: On Becoming A Guinea Fowl

Those of us at UW Cinematheque last night for the screening of Dahomey got a taste of next semester's schedule as they showed a trailer for On Becoming a Guinea Fowl. It's ostensibly a Zambian movie, but it's a co-production with the U.S. & U.K. Looks to be a drama/dark comedy.

Coming Soon. Ish.

I simply cannot get enough of The Lighthouse. I just love that film. And so of course my ass was planted in a seat at the IMAX on Wednesday night for a screening. The trailers:

The End. Joshua Oppenheimer goes from Herzogian documentary to a musical. Looking forward to this.

This looks to be a comedic take on The Wicker Man/English folk horror.

A new flick from Bong Joon Ho. Looks to be a grotesque dark comedy. Very dark.

Anything by Robert Eggers is a must-see.

Not my cup of tea.

I really liked the stylized text scrolls. Appears to be an epic drama.

Coming Soon?

The Frau and I went to AMC Fitchburg earlier this week and these are the trailers we saw before Meanwhile on Earth. Hopefully these flicks actually screen here. A lot of Tilda Swinton.

Huh. I cannot find the trailer for Love Me online so here's an interview.

Oof. I cannot find a trailer for The Return either. The movie apparently dramatizes the last bits of The Odyssey. Here's a clip, though.

Prog at the movies Nov. '24

"Your Move" by Yes is featured in the trailer for Robert Zemeckis' new movie Here. Not sure if it appears on the movie itself, though.

IMAX docs return for the summer

I heard some good news: our AMC cinema out in Fitchburg with an IMAX screen is bringing back a series of documentaries this summer. While it was my hope that they'd start screening them again on Sunday mornings as they used to, the flicks are instead going to be screened on Tuesday mornings while I am at work. Bummer.

Adults like 3D IMAX docs too, AMC.

6/18 - Under the Sea 3D

6/25 - Island of Lemurs: Madagascar 3D

7/2 - Deep Sky

7/9 - Under the Sea 3D

7/16 - Deep Sea 3D

7/23 - Born to be Wild 3D

7/30 - Deep Sky

Lola rennt 25 Jahre später

I went to see Run Lola Run, a.k.a. - Lola rennt, on the big screen. I don't think I'd seen it since c.1999 when it originally came to theaters. Great fun. I had forgotten quite a bit, such as the brief bits of animation.

Watching it this week, I recalled a bit of how it felt doing so 25 years ago. It felt new wavey back then with an electronic music soundtrack at a time when that genre was The Next Big Thing every year for a few years. Its frenetic pace with a plethora of camera angles woven together provided continuity but also served to heighten the tension. The characters were about my age and there was some of that aforementioned animation along with split screens. A very nice visual mix.

Now that I am older, I can really appreciate the ideas here, the notions of destiny and that one's life could have been different.

Epistolary most foul

I saw Wicked Little Letters the other day and it was quite a good time.

Olivia Colman plays pious spinster Edith Swan who has been receiving poison pen letters from an anonymous villain. Edith lives at home with her parents and the missives are upsetting her mother and making her nasty, controlling father angrier by the day.

The letters are written very strangely, as if their composer was still a novice at the whole vulgarity thing. And so you get stilted turns of phrase such as "foxy ass piss country whore", "You dirty old bitch, you belong in hell, probably", and "Edith sucks ten cocks a week, minimum!".

One person who is not an amateur when it comes to wielding profanity is the Swan's next door neighbor, Rose Gooding, a single Irish mum who frequents the tavern, amongst other unladylike activities. Rose is accused of sending the dirty dispatches.

She is played by Jessie Buckley who is foul-mouthed, spirited, and a lot of fun to watch. Buckley was great in Men and Women Talking too. Colman does a wonderful job with her facial expressions, sometimes showing her adherence to propriety (and abhorrence at those who would deny it) while at others letting us see the damage done by the repressive patriarchy of her day.

The police investigate the letters and finger Rose as does the rest of the small town. However, PC (Police Constable?) Gladys Moss believes Rose to be innocent and she assembles a Bloodhound Gang of local ladies to prove it. Moss has her own issues/run-ins with the patriarchy in the form of the hierarchy of the police department which bolsters the theme.

We aren't bashed over the head with this theme; rather it is sprinkled here and there so that we never forget it but the patriarchy of 1920s Britain is not allowed to get in the way of the mystery and the comedy.

Wicked Little Letters is a lot of fun and hearing Colman blurt out the amateurish obscenities is hilarious.