19

 And we've passed onto the teens, which means that by the end of the week I'll only have eighteen active teaching days left. Thanks to Bo Levi Mitchell for his help in commemorating another passage.

I've had the pleasure of seeing Bo Levi Mitchell play in person a couple times, and will again one more time this year. He grew up in Katy, Texas and played at SMU and Eastern Washington. He's an all-time great in the CFL (and doubtless a future Hall of Famer). He played most of his career with the Calgary Stampeders, winning two Grey Cups along the way and winning two Most Outstanding Player awards. He owns some pretty amazing individual passing records, including some more team-based records such as most consecutive wins by a starting QB (14), fastest QB to 60 wins (72 starts) and 100 wins (144 starts). He's played the last couple years with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, and the hope was that he'd help them break their Grey Cup jinx (they have the longest current drought in the CFL), but they lost in heart-breaking fashion in the Eastern Finals to the Alouettes last year. I think he's now top ten in most passing categories. 

What It Means

 This morning I got up early (which isn't particularly surprising) so that I could head down the hill to the Calais Town Hall by 6:45 to volunteer for the special election on the future of the Calais Elementary School. I've volunteered at several elections over the years, and it's something that I like to do - and to give back to this amazing community. It really hit home with me this morning, however, for a couple reasons. First off, obviously, is that the clock is ticking on our time here, and it's already filling me with these bittersweet emotions. Secondly, I didn't get home last until 8:30 because I was up late teaching my Monday Images of Fascism class. That's a jarring clash of ideologies and emotions. It also struck me that things like this are the present administration's nightmare, not because I'm important (because it would be difficult to imagine someone less important than me), but because that combination - people learning about Fascism and also actively supporting democratic institutions (and community) - is not what the authoritarians want. They would prefer an ignorant and disengaged citizenship, not folks who are paying attention and fighting back, even in quietly by getting up early to spread the de-icer and check people into the system.

Obviously, there's no vetting process here.

This is also the building where we hold the Calais Historic Preservation Society meetings, so it just screams community to me.

Movies in 2026 52

 

Shoah, (Claude Lanzmann, 1985)

I can remember the first time I saw Claude Lanzmann's brilliant documentary on the Holocaust, Shoah, back in the 1980s. The entire nine and a half hours had played over four nights on Cincinnati public television. Shortly thereafter I was sitting in the history graduate school TA room and trying to express how profound an experience it was to watch it, and one of the other graduate students said that I guess the watching it over four nights was OK, but that it couldn't compare to sitting in a movie theater watching all nine and a half hours straight through. I remember thinking that this is exactly why so many people hate academics. It's odd, and sad, that that memory always pops up, as compared to simply jumping right into what makes this such an extraordinary and essential film. If you've never seen Shoah, it's not like Alain Resnais's 1956 documentary Night and Fog; that is, there are no scenes of  Jewish bodies being bulldozed into mass graves (a necessary, although painful, vision that, unfortunately, keeps too many people from watching it - and we desperately need to be watching it at this moment in American history). Instead, Lanzmann's film focuses on interviews filmed in the 1980s, which are often played over scenes of Auschwitz or Treblinka in fog or snow, which makes it all more ghostly and somehow eternal. One of the things that makes it work is that he interviews folks who remember the Jews being taken away with almost casual indifference or even humor, which helps to express the fact that anti-Semitism was/is not a simple unfortunate moment in time. Some of the most powerful moments center around secret recordings of a former prison camp guard as he discusses life in the camp, including his boisterous singing of the death camp song that they made the Jews sing. I'm showing part of it this week in my Images of Fascism class, which required me finding a way to reduce nine and a half hours down to no more than an hour and forty minutes to show in class. It's powerful and sobering and hopefully illuminating material. I invested in buying a beautiful Criterion Collection six-DVD edition a couple years ago, and this is the first (and, well, the last) time I'll ever get to show it in class. Highly recommended. 

Ramadan 2026

Every year I try to post the Ramadan schedule, although when it's sent around as a pdf as compared to a .doc file it's a little more challenging. If nothing else, I'll try and the parameters and some initial thoughts. Ramadan begins the evening of Tuesday, 17 February (the month of fasting begins nine days earlier every year) and ends of evening of Thursday, 19 March. As compared to Ramadan falling in the middle of summer, the fasting is much more manageable (especially for old men of declining health). The first official day of fasting is Wednesday, 18 February, with the fast running (here in central Vermont) from 5:28 a.m. to 5:26 p.m. By the end of the month, and after the time change, the fasting will run from 5:37 a.m. to 7:04 p.m. That is, as the days get longer the fasting will get longer as well. Still, as compared to a Ramadan that falls in the middle of the summer, fasting during this period of the year can feel more like skipping lunch. However, as I am wont to opine, the fasting pales in significance to the importance of the Quranic reading and study (as always, mine is the minority opinion on that front). Obviously, I'll have much more to say during this sacred month.

Very Vermonty

 

Yes, because, well, #YankeeHellhole (it's 63 and sunny in Catania right now). I think I'm posting this for two reasons, both related to the fact that our Unofficial Book Club is meeting this morning at the Maple Corners Community Center. First off, it's telling that no one in the group sent around an email proposing that we postpone the meeting because of the dangerous cold (it's Vermont, after all, and Vermonters are a generally rugged crew). Secondly, we always meet at 10:30 on Sunday morning, and at no point has anyone suggested that we not meet on Sunday mornings (Vermont is, statistically, the last religious state in the union - by a fair margin - so this is completely understandable). 

Movies in 2026 51

 

Three on a Match, (Mervyn LeRoy, 1932)

 
I continue to work my way through the Pre-Code Mervyn LeRoy collection on the Criterion Channel. Sometimes, when I'm tired, their shortness and oversized theatrics is a welcome. That doesn't mean that they are just flighty entertainment, and it would be grossly unfair to consider them as such. The very fact that so many of them caused "outrage" among the religious leaders of the time, and eventually led to the Code, speaks to the fact that they were talking about things that "polite" society didn't approve of and didn't think should be part of the national cultural dialogue. Rather, there are nights when you just find yourself saying, I don't think I'm up for Kieslowski or Bergman or Trier tonight, but an hour and five minutes of pre-Code bad behavior is a fitting nightcap. Last night I finished LeRoy's 1932 film Three on a Match. It was kind of a mess, mainly because I think they were trying to tell about three hours of story in an hour and five minutes. If nothing else, it's notable for the appearances of a very young Bette Davis and Humphrey Bogart. Davis is one of the three main stars, although with the smallest and least-demanding role, and Bogart doesn't pop up until around forty-five minutes into the movie (as always, as soon as Humphrey Bogart strides onto the screen everybody else disappears into the background, such is that strange cinematic magnetism that he always possessed). It tells the story of Mary (Joan Blondell), Vivian (Ann Dvorak), and Ruth (Davis), who grow up together, but then go their separate ways, before reuniting with unforeseen (some good, some terrible) consequences. I'm sure several things grabbed the attention of the more puritanical viewers, mainly Vivian cuckolding her attorney husband Robert (played by Warren William, in a classic Warren William role) with Michael (Lyle Talbot, in a typically slimy Lyle Talbot role) - and, by the end, Vivian clearly being a coke addict (emphasized by the fact that Bogart, smiling to the other members of the gang, brushes his fingers under his nose). Like I said, it's kind of a mess, especially with a kidnapping thrown in with exactly ten minutes left in the movie - and it's frustrating for a film buff to see Davis and Bogart given so little to do (but, again, they were just getting started - and in that sense it's kind of cool to see them) - but, all things considered, I'd recommend it. If for no other reason it does give you a sense of what eventually led to the disastrous Code a few years later.

Ketchup or Catsup?

 I'm chronicling a very odd moment from yesterday's Breakfast of Excellence, my routinely scheduled Friday morning breakfast with my friends at the TASTee Grill. At a certain point, after we'd finished our traditional meals (we actually never order, we just sit down at the waitress brings the same four selections) when Erik pulled out a penny and asked me to pass the ketchup. He wanted to determine the date, which I initially thought related to a discussion of the value of that particular vintage of currency, but I think he was then going to ask us what we thought the most important thing that had happened in that year. So, why the ketchup? Apparently, ketchup, because of its acidity, was/is good for cleaning coins (or at least pennies), and Erik assured us that he used this method all the time when he was growing up in Burlington. Kevin then assured that this was well known, and I had to admit that once again the Indiana education system had failed me. I decided to capture this moment in time because I thought it said something about lovely, odd, organic nature of long-term friendships. None of us thought that it was odd at that moment that Erik decided to clean an old penny with ketchup, and it immediately launched us into this meandering discussion of somewhat related subjects, including Sandy relating his father, a very successful attorney, and his decades-long quest for found coins and elaborate theories on the best places to find them (he didn't collect coins, rather, he just saved them in a special pile and used them to occasionally take his wife out to dinner; he took her out to eat at many times, but the coin-generated meals was an acknowledged special treat). I cannot do justice to how much I will miss these guys next year.

I didn't get to ask whether or not the cleaning required ketchup or catsup because, in the end, the penny was so damaged that the date could not be recovered. It was so light that it almost had the weight of a similar circle of cardboard, weird. 

Movies in 2026 50

 

Heat Lightning, (Mervyn LeRoy, 1934)

I'm meandering my way through the Criterion Channel's Mervyn LeRoy's Pre-Code collection. They're short and gritty and entertaining and often quite good, and you can clearly get a sense of how Hollywood (and the US film industry as a institution) took a step back with the implementation of the Code. There is that Puritanical, anti-intellectual aspect to American thought and life which sadly never seems to go away, and we never benefit from it. The other night I watched LeRoy's 1934 film Heat Lightning. It starred Aline MacMahon as Olga. She and her sister Myra (Ann Dvorak) run a gas station in the middle of an ungodly hot desert in the southwest, and their tranquil life (perfectly tranquil for Olga, stifling for Myra) is threatened by the arrival of Olga's ex George (Preston Foster) and Jeff (Lyle Talbot), who crooks on the run. It's essentially a pre-film noir film noir. I'm not saying insanely highly recommended, but I also definitely enjoyed it so I'd recommended giving it a look. It was great to see Aline MacMahon, who had a very long career as a character actor, finally get a chance to star in a movie.

20

 And another week has passed, four down and only ten to go, in my last semester of my four-decade career as a college professor. It hasn't overwhelmed me yet, although I suspect it will several times along the remaining time in unexpected ways.

Thanks this week to Brady Oliviera of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers for helping out with the countdown. He was actually born in Winnipeg, and, after playing collegiately at the University of North Carolina, he returned to play professionally for his hometown team. Oliviera remains one of the CFL's best running backs (and I suspect they would have won one or two more Grey Cups in their five year run if they had simply given him the ball more - sometimes teams do outsmart themselves). He is a two time Grey Cup Champion, a two time Most Outstanding Canadian, and was voted the Most Outstanding Player in 2024. It looks like the Winnipeg/Saskatchewan doubleheader is a go for this July, so hopefully I'll be able to watch him play a home game (I've seen him play in Montreal).

Movies in 2026 49

 

Love, (Dag Johan Haugerud, 2024)

The other day, when singing the praises of Dag Johan Hargerud's Dreams and his Oslo trilogy, I mentioned that I had loved Dreams so much that I had almost immediately started Love (how all three members of that trilogy all came out in the same year boggles the mind; although, if you're filming actual people talking in actual locations that depend upon CGI nonsense, I guess many things are possible). I don't know if I liked Love as much as Dreams, but that is no critique because I really liked it and also completely recommend it. The action centers around Marianne (Andrea Braein Hovig), a urologist, and her nurse Tor (Tayo Cittadella Jacobsen), and her discovery that he takes additional trips on the ferry simply to meet or pickup men, and she begins to wonder if his casual/transitional view of sex might not actually be the best approach, at least for her. By the end of the movie you're not certain that he believes that to be true anymore, but her own sexuality is blossoming while also facing challenges based on her own ideas. The relationships and sex, both heterosexual and homosexual, are handled naturally and sympathetically and beautifully. Again, highly recommended. As I proposed when discussing Haugerud's Dreams, it's so reassuring to watch intelligent films dealing with real issues, when we're surrounded by such crass idiocy.

Translations

 I've started another re-read of Proust, which I think is my fifth total reading. The big difference this time is that I'm switching translations, from the traditional standard edition of C.K. Scott Moncrieff's Remembrance of Things Past to the new Penguin Classics In Search of Lost Time. Each of the seven volumes of the new Penguin Classics series is translated by a different person, which should make for an interesting experience. I don't speak French so I'm a poor judge of which is the "correct" version, and I would not pretend to be. They're both beautiful. Some of the differences in the new translations are slightly jarring, but that's mainly because I'm used to the C.K. Scott Moncrieff version. Let me give a brief comparison of one of my Proustian paragraphs from Swann's Way, first from Moncrieff and then from Lydia Davis's award winning translation.

"But it was in vain that I lingered beside the hawthorns - inhaling, trying to fix in my mind (which did not know what to do with it), losing and recapturing their invisible and unchanging odour, absorbing myself in the rhythm which disposed their flowers here and there with the lightheartedness of youth and at intervals as unexpected as certain intervals in music - they went on offering me the same charm in an inexhaustible profusion, but without letting me delve any more deeply, like those melodies which one can play a hundred times in succession without coming any nearer to their secret. I turned away from them for a moment so as to be able to return to them afresh. My eyes travelled up the bank which rose steeply to the fields beyond the hedge, alighting on a stray poppy or a few laggard cornflowers which decorated the slope here and there like the borders of a tapestry whereon may be glimpsed sporadically the rustic theme which will emerge triumphant in the panel itself; infrequent still, spaced out like the scattered houses which herald the approach of a village, they betokened to me the vast expanse of waving corn beneath the fleecy clouds, and the sight of a single poppy hoisting up its slender rigging and holding against the breeze its scarlet ensign, over the buoy of rich black earth from which is sprang, made my heart beat as does a wayfarer's when he perceives upon some low-lying ground a stranded boat which is being caulked and made sea-worthy, and cries out, although he has not yet caught sight of it, 'The Sea!'" (Swann's Way, p. 151, C.K. Scott Moncrieff translation)

"But though I remained there in front of the hawthorns, breathing in, bringing into the presence of my thoughts, which did not know what to do with it, then losing and finding again their invisible and unchanging smell, absorbing myself in the rhythm that tossed their flowers here and there with youthful high spirits and at unexpected intervals like certain intervals in music, they offered me the same charm endlessly and with an inexhaustible profusion, but without letting me study it more deeply, like the melodies you replay a hundred times in succession without descending further into their secrets. I turned away from them for a moment, to accost them against with renewed strength. I pursued, all the way onto the embankment behind the hedge that rose steeply toward the fields, some lost poppy, a few cornflowers which had lazily stayed behind, which decorated it here and there with their flower heads like the border of a tapestry on which there appears, thinly scattered, the rustic motif that will dominate the panel; infrequent still, spaced apart like the isolated houses that announce the approach of a village, they announced to me the immense expanse where the what breaks in waves, where the clouds fleece, and the sight of a single poppy hoisting its red flame to the top of its ropes and whipping it in the wind above its greasy black buoy made my heart pound like the heart of a traveler who spies on a lowland a first beached boat being repaired by a caulker and, before catching sight of it, cries out: 'The Sea!'" (Swann's Way, p. 141, Lydia Davis translation)

Again, I'm not going to presume to comment on which is the more accurate or "better" translation. I may be generally ridiculous, but not that ridiculous. The line, "But it was in vain that I lingered beside the hawthorns," is one of my all-time favorite lines from Proust, so it was strange to see it rendered so differently, although how Davis interprets it is wonderful. I know that I've appreciated the power and beauty and profundity of Moncrieff's translation with every re-read, and I'm sure the same will be true with the new Penguin Classics editions. It reminds me of my Muslim friends who assure me that you can never truly grasp the beauty of the Quran until you can read it in Arabic, and I'm sure the same is true of Proust and French. For some time I've been thinking about writing a novel about an old man who learns he's going to die, and decides he's only going to read Proust endlessly until he passes, so that he's assured of dying in beauty.

Movies in 2026 48

 

Dreams, (Dag Johan Haugerud, 2024)

It's really difficult to express how much I love and appreciate the Criterion Channel, and not simply because they provide me with more good movies than I could possibly watch in a month. I'm introduced to so many directors and actors that I would never come across is I just depended upon HBO Max or Prime, etc. One of this month's special collections focused on the Norwegian director Dag Johan Haugerud and his Love/Sex/Dreams trilogy, all of which came out in 2024. I started off with Dreams, which won the Golden Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival. The film focuses on Johanne, a high school student who falls in love with her French teacher, Johanna. Throughout the story Haugerud keeps you guessing about whether the love affair was consummated or not, but then realizing that in the end does it matter. A year after the end of the affair Johanne writes down the story, which she shares with her grandmother and her mother, who have dramatically different interpretations about what this means, including coming to the realization that this is a story that could be published, and does that trump any concerns about the young girl writing the story. It's so intelligent and beautifully filmed and acted, and I started watching his Love almost immediately. How could you not love someone like Dag Johan Haugerud, who lists himself as a librarian, novelist, screenwriter and film director - in that order. The other thing about the Criterion Channel that makes me happy is that it gives me hope for the future. There are actually people out there making intelligent, personal films, and not just adaptations of comic books and video games. Very highly recommended.

Movies in 2026 47

 

Little Caesar, (Mervyn LeRoy, 1931)

The Criterion Channel has a new collection of pre-Code films directed by Mervyn LeRoy. Because they're pre-Code they're a little rougher and not marked by definitive moral lessons. The first film I watched was LeRoy's Little Caesar, starring Edward G. Robinson in a star-making role as the gangster  Caesar Enrico "Rico" Bandello, and co-starring Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. as his friend Joe Massara, who doesn't want to me a gangster anymore and would simple prefer to be a professional dancer with his girlfriend Olga Stassoff (Glenda Farrell). It was entertaining and started gangster film genre.

21

 My final 21st official day at Champlain was also an odd day, as it was last Monday when we buried unto a foot and a half of snow. Yesterday I was sick as a dog, so I carried out class from here at the cabin. Still, not every day is a pretty one - but it is still a day.

Today it is Simoni Lawrence who is helping me celebrate mu retirement countdown. Lawrence attended college at the University of Minnesota, and, like a lot of CFL players, had repeated stops on NFL practice squads (St. Louis Rams, Philadelphia Eagles, Chicago Bears, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and Minnesota Vikings) without ever appearing  in a game. But still, he persisted, playing along the way for the Hartford Colonials and Las Vegas Locomotives (both of the United Football League). Eventually he found his way north, playing one season for the Edmonton Eskimos before settling in for a long-run with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats. He holds the Hamilton record for most tackles and defensive tackles, and the CFL records for most tackles in a game (17).  Lawrence is also a three-time winner of the James P. McCaffrey Trophy, given three times to the best defensive player in the East Division.

Movies in 2026 46

 

Prelude to War (Why We Fight), (Frank Capra, 1942)

And since we're talking about World War II propaganda films that I'm using in my Images of Fascism class, last night we watched Prelude to War, the first installment in Frank Capra's Why We Fight series. In World War I the US government discovered that a series of dry lectures given after an exhausting day of training was not a good system to explain to the soldiers the point of their sacrifice. Two decades later they turned to Frank Capra - yes, that Frank Capra (It's a Wonderful Life, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, It Happened One Night, You Can't Take It with You, etc.) - to provide a more entertaining cinematic explanation. Walt Disney provided the animation. Janet, who had never seen the series, kept turning to me in amazement. It's more than a bit jarring to watch a previous US government laying out the beliefs and actions that define Fascism and how they match the beliefs and actions of a present US government.

Movies in 2026 45

 

The Eternal Jew, (Fritz Hippler, 1940)

Not every film I'll watch this year is a happy experience, obviously, not simply because it may be a film that I'm excited to watch and in the end I didn't like it - or it might be a film that I know in advance is not going to provide any joy but I need to watch it anyway. Fritz Hippler's 1940 Nazi propaganda film The Eternal Jew definitely fits into the latter category. It's a film that I'm, not surprisingly, showing in my Images of Fascism class, and it's also a movie that I had not watched in its entirety in decades. Before the advent of Youtube it was a film that was hard to find, and I remember plaguing graduate school connections to track down a copy back when I taught my old World War II & Film class. For my class purposes, I want my students to see how authoritarian regimes define and describe the minority group that they demonize and use to justify their grossly unconstitutional and inhumane actions. 

Movies in 2026 44

 

The Great Dictator, (Charlie Chaplin, 1940)

There are some films that make me cry every time I watch them, and one of them is Charlie Chaplin's The Great Dictator. His impassioned speech at the end, when the Jewish barber is mistaken for the dictator, and he takes the opportunity - essentially breaking away from both characters to speak directly to the audience as Chaplin, trying to convince the world to not embark on this madness, simply breaks me. I'm showing it in my Images of Fascism class. Every time I watch it I'm reminded that while I always focus on that speech, there are so many great moments in the film. Obviously very highly recommended, especially now. One final note: it's interesting how it's often the comedians who are the only ones brave enough to provide actual critique in the face of authoritarianism.

CFL Attendance or Pre-Retirement

 I don't think you can be more thoroughly in a pre-retirement mode than taking time out from grading and writing to update the CFL map outside your office by sticking in little pins to celebrate the number of people that you have taken to games over the years. I just focused on number of people, not total visits, which would have been much harder to calculate. Again, this process is essentially retired.

I've dragged 19 different people to Alouettes games, 1 person to an Ottawa game, 2 people to Toronto games, and 2 people to Hamilton games (my cousin Nick is already excited about being the third to attend a Tiger-Cats games, one of our plans for the summer).

And 1 to an Edmonton game and 1 to a Calgary game. Kevin is the leader with five CFL cities visited (doubtless, he'll have to be a part of an Ottawa game this summer so that we can be tied at six) and Andy is second at three.

Movies in 2026 43

 

Peter Hujar's Day, (Ira Sachs, 2025)

Now here's a movie that I simply didn't like very much, or at least I simply don't like very much so far. The Criterion Channel is currently premiering Ira Sachs's Peter Hujar's Day. It tells the story of Linda Rosenkrantz's interview with her friend, the photographer Peter Hujar. It was beautifully filmed, and Ben Whitshaw and Rebecca Hall are very good in it. I loved the audacity of the entire film being the two friends simply talking about, as Hujar walks her through his day. If the point was to put the viewer into that time and place, I simply don't know if it succeeded. I think that if you knew Peter Hujar or Linda Rosenkrantz or Susan Sontag or Fran Lebowitz (who are friends of his who come up in his story of his day) you'd say, "Wow, that brings me back," or "I could just see them saying that," but instead it simply left me cold, and felt more like name-dropping than a deeper reflection on the nature of art or the struggles of the artist. The inverse of even the more ordinary, non-famous person sometimes having the most extraordinary day would be the most talented talented, famous person having the most boring, uneventful days. I've talked before about the notion of liking the idea of some artist or some film more than liking it, and I think this definitely fits into the category. It could well be that I'll have a very different take the next time I watch it. Hopefully it lingers on the Criterion Channel so that I can revisit it in a few months. 

22

 OK, the countdown goes on. I have eleven weeks left, and two classes every week. It's still too early to get too emotional about the passing of it all, but maybe it will start to hit me as I approach single digits.

This is an extra meaningful day because for the picture I chose Joe Kapp, shown here during his time with the BC Lions. He led them to their first Grey Cup win and is enshrined in the CFL Hall of Fame. He led the Vikings to their only championship, the 1969 NFL Championship. He's definitely one of those guys who was more than a leader than he was a truly great quarterback, and his NFL passing stats are pretty dreadful, for his career throwing 40 touchdowns and 64 interceptions - however, he's tied for the all-time record for passing touchdowns in a single game with seven. His CFL stats are much better, happily.

Movies in 2026 42

 

A Woman's Face, (Gustaf Molander, 1938)

You never know what you're going to find in the Criterion Channel back alleys. I was searching for something, but came across a collection of early (pre-Hollywood) Ingrid Bergman films. This led me to Gustaf Molander's A Woman's Face. I didn't know anything about Molander, although I guess he directed the original Swedish version of Intermezzo, which inspired the later Hollywood version. It was an odd film, with Ingrid Bergman starting as cruel blackmailer with a horribly scarred face, who, after having her face operated by a kind surgeon, turned into a very nice, self-sacrificing person who ends up saving a boy's life (even though she had initially been involved in a plan to kill him). In the end it's somewhat redeemed by avoiding the temptation of staying in Sweden to be with the man she loves and instead travelling to China with the surgeon to do more helpful things in the world. Apparently, Ingmar Bergman co-wrote the script, which is strange because it certainly didn't feel like an Ingmar Bergman film, but we all have to start somewhere. At a certain point, after her facial scars were cleaned up, it occurred to me that she had been transformed into Ingrid Bergman, that is, impossibly beautiful (her character would have benefitted from a few lingering minor scars). I don't know if I would necessarily recommend it, but I also don't think that I'm any worse off for watching it - plus, well, you get to watch Ingrid Bergman, FFS.

Democracy

 Last night Janet and I attended our Representative Becca Balint's town hall in Montpelier. Vermont is one of those odd little states which, because of a small population, only has one Representative (but two Senators). I liked Balint before the town hall, and now I like her a lot more. It's hard to feel particularly optimistic in this age of autocracy, but hearing her ideas and witnessing her fire gave me more hope. She's certainly not Doctor Pangloss, but she shared a realistically, fairly optimistic view of how things can get better. She talked about the need to win in 2026 and win big, a true national referendum against this authoritarian nightmare, but also the need then to go beyond simply peeling back Trump's policies, but to be much more progressive; she said, and she's definitely correct, that the system before Trump's destructive policies was hardly a fair one, and we have to move beyond it. Personally, I think that if the Democrats don't recapture their New Deal/Great Society roots I don't know if they can win, and, well, it's sort of difficult for me to see what purpose they even serve as a party if they continue this utterly corporate path.

It was a packed house, and I almost felt like I did after 9/11 or when I received my first COVID shot, in that just being in a crowd with other people made me feel a lot better. Several times I became pretty emotional, which is not particularly surprising, I guess, but it hit me how I'm going to miss this little brave group of lunatics.

Groan - an Endless Series

 I was just telling my friend Sally that I increasingly define myself by my Lasts. And while I will miss some of my Lasts, such as the Last Time I Teach Crime and Punishment or my Last Breakfast at the TASTee Grill - and while I have more bittersweet feelings about others, such as My Last Class or My Last Car - there are others that I will not miss at all, such as my Last Vermont Winter.

Another winter and another winter day and another winter storm. The storm lasted for a day and a half, and followed hard on the heels of some bitterly cold days.

I'm guessing around a foot and a half of snow fell. Because it was still awfully cold it meant that the snow was light, which made it easier to shovel away and also decreased the chance for a power outage.

I will miss our Last Cabin.

Movies in 2026 41

 

Diamonds of the Night, (Jan Nemec, 1964)

A couple weeks ago I re-watched Jan Nemec's A Report on the Party and the Guests, which I'm using in my Images of Fascism class this semester. Last night I finished Nemec's first feature film, Diamonds of the Night. It tells the story, in a very purposefully elliptical and nightmarish fashion, of two boys who escape from a train taking them to a concentration camp. Like the later A Report on the Party and the Guests, Diamonds in the Night features commentary on present/past events mixed in with a goodly amount of the surreal. I'm not a huge Nemec fan, while also recognizing his well-deserved influence, and I didn't like Diamonds of the Night as much as A Report on the Party and the Guests, but I would still definitely recommend folks to give it a watch. 

Movies in 2026 40

 

Sinners, (Ryan Coogler, 2025)

During our science fiction readings as part of the Unofficial Book Club we've, not surprisingly, talked a lot about world building. This is also something that I thought of when I read the first two books in the Dune series. I thought of this the other night when I finally got around to watching Ryan Coogler's Sinners. Obviously, it's challenging to create anything new and meaningful when you're working in something as thoroughly explored as the vampiric, but Coogler imagines and realizes a rich and layered world, and the metaphors, if sometimes a bit heavy-handed, also work. I don't know if Sinners is worthy of setting the all-time Oscars record for nominations, but it's also awfully damn good. Highly recommended.

23

 And now we're down to 23 days until retirement. It was a strange day for this particular turnover because I wasn't on campus. We received around a foot and a half of snow during this storm (more pictures later) and so I carried out my classes on Zoom. Still, I wasn't going to cancel classes, and the conditions, both here in Calais and in Burlington, were pretty dreadful.

Here's a picture of Jonathan Hefney, whose story reminds us that not every story has a happy ending. After playing at Tennessee he had some brief stints with Tampa Bay, Philadelphia, and Detroit in the NFL, never seeing the field in an actual game, but then achieved much greater success in two stints with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, and stops with the Calgary Stampeders and Montreal Alouettes. Along the way he was a CFL All-Star a couple times. Sadly, he was injured in a helmet-to-helmet hit during his time with Montreal and ended up with nerve damage that ended his playing career.

Bliss Pond in Deep Winter

 I don't know why I take so many pictures of Bliss Pond, beyond the fact that I drive by it on my latest favored shortcut almost every day - and, well, it's beautiful. I snapped this one the other day as I was driving back from the gym on a wretchedly cold day. We're also in the middle of a massive winter storm, which is pounding half the country, so this seemed appropriate. 

I think I like this one because it features both the deep freeze but also, if you squint, maybe warmer and sunnier days ahead. Today is also the day of Janet's citizenship hearing in Sicily, so we might, potentially, theoretically, get some very positive news today - or we might get some terribly deflating news today - or we might just have to wait out more winter days to hear anything. So, yes, I guess this picture works.

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We All Loved Each Other So Much, (Ettore Scola,  1974)

One of the wonderful things - one of the many wonderful things - about the Criterion Channel is that not only does it routinely introduce me to new directors, but it also often empowers me to do a deep dive. The other day I re-watched Ettore Scola's wonderful A Special Day, and then yesterday I followed up with his 1974 film We All Loved Each Other So Much. It's the story of three friends, Antonio (Nino Manfredi), Gianni (Vittorio Gassman), and Nicola (Stefano Satta Flores) told over the course of thirty years. It's a comedy, but it has the insightful observations on politics and class and relationships that you'd expect from an Italian film of that age. Stefania Sandrelli plays Luciana, the woman who plays a central role in their lives and the unfolding story. It makes me want to watch Antonio Pietrangali's I Knew Her Well again or more of her other films. Recommended.

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Battleship Potemkin, (Sergei Eisenstein, 1925)

I suppose I shouldn't include movies that I watch in class, although, well, they are movies that I watch. Plus, if I'm going to use them in class, the reality is that I'm watching them (re-watching them) three times in the course of a week, once as part of a final prep, and then once each in my two classes. I've used Sergei Eisenstein's seminal 1925 film Battleship Potemkin class so many times over the years. As I'm wont to explain to my students, "If you were more legitimate students taking a legitimate film class at a more legitimate college, you'd watch Battleship Potemkin." Lenin was the first world leader who understood the power of this new medium, and supported artists like Eisenstein. What's the point in printing millions of leaflets for an illiterate population? However, it's not simply that, it's also a recognition of the emotional power of film. We have readings related to propaganda for class on Monday, so this makes Battleship Potemkin a natural choice. Beyond its value as a propaganda text, the movie is also simply a great film, and it has been shamelessly copied an almost infinite amount of times. Required viewing.

And Again

 Groan. There are many things I will miss about Vermont, but the winter is not one of them. Seriously. The prediction for our latest winters storm has us getting buried under 10-17 inches of snow (although it will be a tad warmer, currently it's -12 here in Calais with a wind chill of -27). This has left me with substantial logistical planning for my classes on Monday. Initially the forecast had Burlington "only" getting seven inches of snow, which made a night at Casa Kevin's a logical option for Sunday night (and he, like a great friend, is always welcoming). However, the forecast has shifted, and now BTV is predicted for 8-13 inches, so there are no good options. By comparison, it will be sunny and in the mid-60s in Catania.

It looks like Zoom is going to get a workout on Monday.

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A Special Day, (Ettore Scola, 1977)

There are films that are almost physically painful to watch, not because they're just dreadful (such as My Blueberry Nights, see above) but because they are so true. I remember watching a theater re-release of Casablanca (actually, twice) during the first Trump administration. Thinking about what America had been and what it was supposed to mean, as compared to what it was becoming, was agonizing. I cry while watching Casablanca every time anyway, but this time the tears simply felt different (watching it now might kill me). Last night I had a somewhat similar experience, re-watching Ettore Scola's wonderful A Special Day. I'm considering using it for the final film analysis in my Images of Fascism class, so I thought I should give it a second look. It's the story of two lonely people, Sophia Loren and Marcelo Mastroianni (both playing against type), meeting and spending the afternoon together on a special day, although the special day in question was the day that Hitler travelled to Rome to meet Mussolini for a huge public celebration. The celebration, and concomitant propaganda, is perpetually playing in the background on the radio, providing a powerful contextual commentary. Mastroianni play a gay, liberal radio commentator and reporter who is waiting for deportment (or worse), while Loren plays a conservative housewife who is a Mussolini fan, complete with her generated scrapbook and portrait made of buttons. No one living through our age ever has to ask how Italy and Germany fell so quickly and effortlessly into authoritarianism. Highly recommended, the film, not Fascism. 

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My Blueberry Nights, (Wong Kar-wai, 2007)

It's difficult for me to express how utterly disappointing Wong Kar-wai's My Blueberry Nights is. It's not lacking in talent, considering that it features Jude Law, David Strathairn, Rachel Weisz, Nathalie Portman, and, in her first role, Norah Jones - and it's directed by Wong Kar-wai - but it's just an uninspired and uninspiring mess. Norah Jones isn't terrible, but she's also fairly limited, as one expect in a singer tackling her first acting role. The problems are more profound than her limitations as an actress, however. It's like, everything that Wong Kar-wai got right in his sublime In the Mood for Love he gets wrong in this misfire. It feels like an extended Norah Jones music video filmed with a CSI episode aesthetic. There are too many other interesting Wong Kar-wai films to waste time with this soulless effort.

24

 And now we're down to only 24 mandatory campus days left. I suspect it will really begin to hit me when we get down to the single digits, although maybe earlier.

Winnipeg Blue Bombers great Ken Hailey helped me mark the day. Hailey, a defensive back, was born in Oceanside, California and played his college ball at San Francisco State. He played the first nine years of his eleven year career with the Blue Bombers, before finishing with a year playing for the Ottawa (at the time) Rough Riders and then a year with the BC Lions. Along the way he won three Grey Cups, all with the Blue Bombers.

For CFL Completists

 And there you go: I now have a jersey from every CFL team. Considering that I've never bought an NFL or MLB jersey (I own jerseys that I cherish, but I didn't buy them myself - although I have bought two Vermont Lake Monsters jerseys, which further makes my point). My final birthday gift arrived the other day, an utterly sweet Ottawa Redblacks jersey.

My cousin Nick thought this was a great jersey, which, well, it is. The Redblacks have been pretty dreadful the last couple years, but they just poached the Toronto  Argonauts head coach, so better days may be on the horizon. Almost certainly, there will be an Ottawa game this summer. My friend Craig is very interested in an Ottawa trip, and the Redblacks is the only CFL stadium that I've visited that my friend Kevin has not seen, so his attendance is necessary.

This is the jersey of CFL great Henry Burris, who played for the Redblacks late in his career and helped orchestrate a Grey Cup upset.

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Oslo, 31 August, (Joachim Trier, 2011)

Yes, the Joachim Trier film fest continues. I re-watched his Oslo, 31 August, which is simply a wonderful and powerful film. It is the second film in his Oslo trilogy, sandwiched between 2006's Reprise and 2021's The Worst Person in the World, the latter of which, sadly, I haven't seen yet. Oslo, 31 August follows the day of recovering drug addict Anders, played brilliantly by Anders Danielsen Lie, on one day as he is released from his expensive rehabilitation center for a job interview. He runs into many of his old friends, and tragically but not surprisingly many of his past problems, as he comes to grips with the pain he has caused others. The film includes so many brutal emotional gut punches, and the ending is brilliant and painful, but also true to itself. Very highly recommended. 

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Inspector Montalbano: The Snack Thief, (Alberto Sironi, 1999)

We should probably just consider this post as a bit of a placeholder, as this film is the first in a series that we will doubtless be watching. Last year I gave Janet the first ten books in Andrea Camilleri's Inspector Montalbano collection, which focuses on a Sicilian detective. Since then we discovered that Camilleri's novels inspired a television series that stretched out, off and on, for over twenty years - eventually leading to the a Young Montalbano series. It's a pretty enjoyable, and painless, way to figure out a bit about our new home, even if a lot of the humor and situations are exaggerated (or maybe they're not, it is Sicily). We watched the pilot, entitled The Snack Thief, which was interesting. Years ago I read where a famous detective author propose that in the end the success of the series is really about the detective and not the mystery he/she is solving, and Montalbano seems like an interesting character. It nothing else, the first installment hasn't frightened me away from Sicily yet. 

Hell Is Getting Ready to Freeze Over

 I suppose there's not much to be said about these images, other than the usual: #YankeeHellhole

When we first moved up here to Vermont over a quarter century ago these cold snaps were more frequent (and, yes, I know that sounds like a true Vermonter, which I'm not) and you'd have stretches where the temperature never made it up to zero for days on end. I tend to not romanticize the past, especially in regards to Vermont weather.

My friend Kerry asked if I was dreaming of Sicily. I replied that my legs are. While my main problem with my legs is the mysterious muscular/neurological condition that plagues me, I also struggle with arthritis, and increasingly the Vermont winters beat on me.

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Winter Brothers, (Hlynur Palmason, 2017)

I suppose, sitting deep in a Vermont winter, I shouldn't be watching movies based in winter in other cold places, but maybe misery does love company. In Hlynur Palmason's Winter Brothers, there's plenty of misery and winter, but sadly not much company. I had watched Palmason's Godland a few months ago, although I didn't make the connection until I began to explore another great Criterion Channel collection. Palmason is an Iceland director who will hopefully begin to get more notice. Winter Brothers focuses on two brothers, young brother Emil (Elliott Crosset Hove - who stars in Godland) and Johan (Simon Sears), who work in a mine. It's pretty grim, and deals with issues such as isolation and masculinity. It doesn't come together as cleanly as you might wish, and I suspect it wasn't meant to. Recommended. It's made me want to go back and watch Godland again.

Frequent Visitor

 As I proposed the other day, once the deer showed up and decided to hang around our yard for several hours I figured that it meant we'd have a return visitor. And, sure enough, as I was reading in the living room I looked out the window and their was our friend, just hanging out. Hopefully this is a good thing, as in she likes the flavor of our trees or the backyard possesses a nice combination of fun and a wind break, and not something bad, like she's lost her crew. Still, it's lovely to look out the window and see nature so close.

I guess we need to create some sort of loyalty program for return visitors. 

Hell Has Frozen Over

 Actually, here in Vermont I think Hell is getting ready to freeze over, but more on that in a few posts. The more immediate, and unbelievable, example of Hell freezing over is the fact that IU won the college football championship last night. Now, I don't give a tinker's damn about any college sports (and, as I've often opined, I think it's an incredibly destructive force - at least on the level of big time college sports - that has done terrible damage to the American university system), but I am happy that IU won, mainly because I have friends who are big fans and I know it gave them joy. It's almost impossible to get your brain around since, until two years ago, IU was the default answer for: What is the worst college football program of all time? Seriously, they had lost more games than any other program. And now they completed the first 16-0 season. Bizarre. I remember visiting Jack at IU in college for the Nebraska game, and we were joking about whether or not they were going to add a triple digit to the visitor's end of the scoreboard.

Jack and Juju's kids pooled their resources and bought tickets so that these proud IU alums could attend the championship game. 

 

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Dazed and Confused, (Richard Linklater, 1993)

One of the advantages of 2026's year of movies, much like 2025's year of books, is that I'm encouraged to get out of my rut and watch movies that I've always meant to watch but somehow never got around to viewing. So, why had I never got around to watching Richard Linklater's Dazed and Confused, even though it's all but a cultural touchstone. Of course, the first reason may simply be that it's a cultural touchstone, and that ran up against my well known contrarian nature. Also, I think much of the 1990s went by in the blur of child-rearing and kicking off my career. Finally, and maybe most importantly, shit, I lived through high school in the mid-1970s, and I don't have any happy or romantic memory of it. One of the thing that I like about the film is that Linklater didn't try and turn it into some idiotic George Lucas American Graffiti version of the 70s. Yes, Dazed and Confused featured a lot of fun and silly behavior, but it also included the stupidity and cruelty and small-mindedness and boredom that was also a big part of the age. I'm sorry that it took me so long to watch Dazed and Confused for the first time, and it won't nearly be so long before I give it a second look. 

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Reprise, (Joachim Trier, 2006)

We may be starting a Joachim Trier film fest. Happily, the Criterion Channel has some, although not all, of Trier's film available (but where would I be without it?). Last night I watched his first film, Reprise, for the first time in several years. The film is both joyous and dark, and even if this early effort you can see the extraordinary potential that would make Trier one of the best filmmakers in the world. The film follows the trials and tribulations of two young writers, Phillip (Anders Danielsen Lie) and Erik (Espen Klousman Hoiner) as they launch their careers, and struggle with innumerable personal problems. Highly recommended.

Company

 You never can tell who will pop by the cabin for a visit, even on a snowy cold day like today.

The last couple days I noticed the cats running up to the window to take a look in the backyard, and now I guess who had been popping by for a visit. The local beasties, the outside beasties, tend to get into patterns (at least that's true of our occasional guest, the fox) so we may have more daily visits from our friend.

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Louder Than Bombs, (Joachim Trier, 2025)

It's only lately that I've discovered the Danish-Norwegian filmmaker Joachim Trier (thanks, Criterion, as always). This morning I watched his Louder Than Bombs, which I liked but didn't love (although it had some wonderful moments). It was chock full of fine performances, and Isabelle Huppert (not surprisingly) was transcendent. Sometimes I tell my students that their papers were not fully realized, after explaining that I swiped the phrase from movies. With that in mind, I guess my critique of Louder Than Bombs was that it wasn't fully realized. I found myself thinking that it would have made a better novel, mainly because there were clearly worlds within worlds beneath the surface of four very complex characters, and only so much time to explore cinematically. I liked his earlier Reprise, Oslo 31 August, and Thelma quite a bit, but unfortunately haven't been able to see his The Worst Person in the World or his current Sentimental Value yet. 

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Vivre sa vie, (Jean-Luc Godard, 1962)

I've made the point along the way that I like Czech New Wave better than French New Wave, although that certainly doesn't mean that I don't like the latter. I think after making that bold point the other night I'm being drawn back to watching some of the best films of Godard and Truffaut and Varda, etc., so expect a number to appear. Last night I watched Godard's Vivre sa vie, starring Anna Karina (his definitive muse). She plays a would be actress, who, after leaving her husband and infant, tries to make it in Paris. Her job in a record story doesn't pay the bills and in the end she becomes a prostitute. Despite a tragic ending, she lives her life unapologetically. Karina's performance is wonderful, and the film includes some of those odd but brilliant moments (such as Karina's character discussing life with Godard's actual professor) that you'd expect from one of his films. The end will stay with you. Highly recommended.