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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.

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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. 

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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.