Disassembly and the Medical Profession!...

Memoirs of a Geezer!

Reflections and Observations -- A Bright Passage from the Fantasies of Youth 

to Illuminations of Advanced Maturity!

This Episode:      Disassembly and the Medical Profession!...

"Where are the Simple Joys of Geezerhood..."  Remember that great tune from the play,

Camelot (...a bit of poetic license here!)?  So?  What's become of those simple joys?  As we reach a venerable age, you know, like genuine Geezerhood, aren't we supposed to be inundated with "simple joys"?  Lots of leisure time... Unremitting respect from the young... Stable health that

would enable us to bask in the warm sunshine of wise maturity, able to enjoy a simpler lifestyle in peace and comfort? Fah!! We're too often treated like swine to the slaughter!   

Here's the problem!  Modern medicine has apparently conspired to cure our ailments by removal, disassembly! Complain about a source of pain and a doctor might remove your spleen, a lung, a bowel or a pancreas or something...  other vital members!! When my father was in his dotage, he started losing his members, meaning toes and other things! I don't wish to make light of our health care industry and the injuries and diseases upon which it must focus, nor to accuse it of disassembling bodily organs for the mere sake of practicing medical disassembly!  However, the medical profession, like any other, requires occasional fun-poking!  

Sadly, it's not all fun and riotous humor. For example, SweetHeart, my best friend and dearest companion was recently diagnosed with a 5 cm mass of carcinoma in her right kidney. Following a biopsy, a stent placed in the connecting ureter and lots of discomfort, all experienced on a Monday and throughout the following three days, she underwent a "procedure" -- meaning surgery, of course -- to remove the affected kidney the following Friday. (Today's medical professionals love to use euphemisms...  e.g.  "Some discomfort"... "a small incision is all that's required"... "Laparoscopic surgery, also called minimally invasive surgery (MIS)"... "Bandaid Surgery"(?!)... There was a bladder scan and a dye-injected full-organ CT scan that preceded the biopsy. For poor SweetHeart, it was all like undergoing a one-person battle against a horde of frenzied barbarians wearing fur-rimmed metal hats on stampeding and snorting horses squirting venomous mucus-covered darts with every gallop!! 

"Whatever it is
that's causing you
discomfort, it has
to come out!!"

We can be thankful in the extreme that some cancers are eminently treatable, even curable, in this modern era of medical science in which we are privileged to live!  SweetHeart, after seeing her GP to determine that blood in the urine was not caused by a Urinary Tract Infection (UTI), was referred to a urologist, a terrific specialist with an excellent reputation in his field.  I should mention that our much loved and outstanding GP has never steered us afoul in the referral department.  (I was seen by a heart specialist, for example, who removed nothing from my anatomy!  Oh...  I did see a gastrointestinal MD who removed my appendix, but only because he was "in there" untwisting a nasty brute of a bowel...  a prime example of expedient medical disassembly!) 

But, who am I to judge or complain. My closest encounter with medical training was occupying a desk in a biology lecture for a, then, dental student friend of mine who had other important matters to which he wanted to attend. The professor frequently looked at me rather askance! I believe he knew me for the interloper I was! However, to my undying gratitude, I learned a few things about streptococci, knowledge forever stored in my personal medical lexicon!! (Sometimes we're truly blessed and don't realize it until much later in life.  Oh, and my friend paid me a dollar!!)

I should also point out that, as a youth, my tonsils were disassembled. I played a good joke on the medical profession on that occasion! My mother was told not to give me anything to eat or drink several hours prior to the "procedure." Unbeknownst to mother, I drank a large glass of milk. Upon having the ether pumped into my small person, I bubbled over, necessitating an emptying and re-application procedure. What a good laugh on the medical guys, eh??!!  

Medicine can be a fertile source of amusement for some. My brothers-in-law for example. SweetHeart and I are in California visiting friends. We lose a wedding ring, convinced it fell into a vent filled with an army of dust rodents and other horribly toxic and hairy stuff. Both of us reached in, holding our noses and breath, but to no avail. Returning home, we noticed our entire bodies covered in red pustules!

SCABIES!! Holy human excrement! Scabies!! I went to see a crack dermatologist, Dermis Bumpimple, MD. I hauled out my most private appendage and attempted to hand it over. He eyed me and my appendage with utter disgust and said, "I'm not touchin' that thing!"  

"But," I stammered, "what about an examination? Don't you have rubber gloves, maybe a medical appendage tongs?" He offered a prescription and ushered us quickly out the door. The story had my brothers-in-law consumed in mirth for hours. On another occasion, returning from a pre-marital holiday in Colorado, I made an appointment with a GP, Dr. Eustus T. Fyreblanks. I had what I described to him as a broken testicle. I displayed the full majesty of my private region. He asked, "How long you had that rash?"

"I don't know," said I, "I've had a history of fungus in that area, like 'athlete's crotch,' " I quipped, trying to add a note of humor to the uncomfortable proceedings.

"Here," he said, handing me a prescription, "spray this on your feet and your crotch'll clear up."  The brothers-in-law were convulsed over that one. I don't recall that we ever actually took care of the broken globule part!! But, I suppose the doctor may have given me a pill or something!

Needless to state, and returning to the more serious nature of this writing, cancer is scary as hell, and we never want any of the people we love having to hear that sort of dire pronouncement from medical doctors. The turn to humor, however, trying to make light of the thing, is a coping mechanism, a device or tool we humans tend to use to some advantage, to remove or at least lessen the fear. To cite an example, I suggested to SweetHeart,

in order to ease the discomfort of having to explain her recent weight loss to a certain party, "Organ removal is not the best means of reducing!" The party of the second part seemed to be put at greater ease, made apparent as she chuckled merrily, if nervously.

In the end, we have to acknowledge that cancer is, for now, an un-arrested thief that steals our parents, much-loved relatives and dear friends, way too many of us, often far too soon, without regard to age or value to those left behind. The big and happy "however" part is the increasing rate at which medical science and we humans generally are able to defeat cancer, at least certain forms of the dreaded thing. For that, we are grateful beyond words!! I've had SweetHeart in my life for more than 50 years; we plan to be together for many, many more to follow, and no snot-nosed slug of a cancer is going to stop us!!!  Thank You.   

(Special Note of Dedication:  The perpetrator dedicates this posting to his Beloved SweetHeart who underwent a major medical procedure with calm acceptance, great dignity and exemplary courage. I hope she'll forgive the tangential digressions, but in the end will know that the essential aim of this writing is to express my growing love and admiration, attempts at humor thrown in just to soften the overall theme. SweetHeart is my ultimate hero!) 

Humbly Submitted 02-06-17 -- Joel K.        

           

          



      

Chicken Pox and Imagination!... Kids Want to Know!... An Illustrated Children's Book!

Memoirs of a Geezer!

Reflections and Observations -- A Bright Passage from the Fantasies of Youth 

to Illuminations of Advanced Maturity!

This Episode:       Imagination!...  A "Stab" at Children's Literature!

Thrill to a Dancing
Pickle!...  this and so much
more:  Read:  An "Awful"
Beautiful Day...  Or, Me
and My Chicken Pox!

"From a bright pen they dripped away, 

Thin and filmy, whirling, elusive,

In the end but shreds, scattered and lost,

Caught on the breath of the wind..." 

          -- Anon.

With any passionate discipline, the imperative is action, movement...  an inexorable journey! If one is driven to write, for example, the pen or keyboard tends to fuse with fingers and mind! The writer is compelled to stab nouns with adjectives and send the pair skittering off with eager verbs... It's a kind of madness, some say, an obsession.  a thing that has to be done with compulsive regularity. Or is it a blessing? Who the hell knows what it is, and why the urge is so insistent, like eating, sleeping and other natural impulses. Within the vastness of words corralled in books and libraries, how many are actually remembered, cherished?  Very few, it's true... but, that's not the point. If you love to write, well then you just have to carry on...  For many it's not even a matter of choice, I suppose!

Yeah, Right!  More shameless self promotion!  But, you see,
it's my blog, so I get to throw these images in from time
to time...  You know, to edify...  to annoy! It's a swell book;
it contains a good story, funny and educative too!  Get a
copy:  www.amazon.com; www.barnesandnoble.com;
www.booksamillion.com; www.outskirtspress.com...

With the great success achieved with my first published work (stated with admitted sarcasm, tongue placed solidly in cheek!), I thought I'd try my hand at a book for children. It has now been completed, and includes wonderful illustrations created by an exceptional artist / collaborator, my brother, Kris. SweetHeart's deft hand, too, of course, always a superb editor and contributor! Why not?, I figure!  Other lunatics have tried writing and having books for kids published; many have even succeeded.  Why not one more delusional lunatic?!

Perhaps it's an ego-driven madness of sorts. I make no lofty claims.  I'm no prolific writer or oft- published novelist. I've not achieved fame; I have no bookshelf filled with hardcover volumes bearing my name. In fact, as I recall, there was a Jesuit teacher in my high school who, when asked if writing could be in my future as a possible vocation answered, "That's the last thing you should do!" In spite of that rebuke or because of it, I chose my profession... And thus I write, whether anyone reads what I write is another matter entirely.      

Possibly I should have been wisely counseled prior to embarking, but in any case...  The result of my latest effort -- accomplished recently, and well into my geezerhood -- is entitled, An "Awful" Beautiful Day...  Or, Me and My Chicken Pox! It's based on an episode experienced by my remarkable daughters, Alie and Bethie.  Well, perhaps I should reveal at least the beginning of the story, in its own words, just to demonstrate that the thing is indeed a fait accompli...

             



  


















What the hell...  I'll include another, maybe even two more of the gorgeous illustrations...  I'm certain readers, devotees and others will be excited and delighted. Won't they? Here are more of the illustrations, with text even!:

























The story's central focus is on IMAGINATION! Quite a few readers have pronounced it "Fun and Funny"...  "Delightful Reading..."  "Entertaining..."  "...an Interesting Reminder of a Nasty Virus Kids Used to Get...  and about Which They're Still Quite Inquisitive!"... Yeah, say I!  That's the whole point, fer crying out loud!! Interested literary agents are most welcome to call or write! I must warn you, however, I'm quite discriminating!...  Anyone out there??!!  Hello??!!

Bethie (left) and Alie in their present
day manifestations.  I tried to give
them a kind of "cartoon-ie" look, in
keeping with the theme... 

Writing is a joyful and can be a somewhat lonely experience, but almost always gratifying, that carries with it a sense of accomplishment. Something you can step back and admire once it's done. And so I say to you, my friends, empathetic comrades and kindred souls, pick up a nib, a quill, a pencil or a keyboard and write something. Even if you and a family member or a friend are the only market or audience for your work.  

Oh yeah, one more thing.  There's a Chicken in the book, a rather large, cartoon-ie one! A truly glorious fowl creature to behold! It alone is worth a look...  Ba Gawk, Ba Gawk...  Buk... Buk... Buk! Its words are translated within the story, and that, too, should generate interest and readership

throughout the entire poultry farming community, agriculture in general... the entire planet, even the inhabited parts!! For those of you who many not be fond of chickens, we apologize, and remind you that there are many other redeeming parts of the book, Characters too, that you're certain to find enjoyable, possibly even memorable! 

[ Special Note of Dedication and Attribution:  The perpetrator extends giant thanks, and dedicates this writing to his beautiful, incomparable, fun and funny daughters for their unending gifts of themselves, their humor, support, understanding, patience and love. In addition, a special joint dedication to Brother, Kris, and to SweetHeart, my best friend, muse and cherished co-collaborator in life! (But not also dedicated to the pantomime chicken I met the other day in the mall!) Thank You, and Good Night...! ] 

(A Second Note:  "And Good Night to All the Beautiful Young Women..." is available through www.amazon.com; wwwbarnesandnoble.com; www.booksamillion.com; www.outskirtspress.com! The Illustrated Children's Book -- "An 'Awful' Beautiful Day..." is not yet in print, but can be made available to interested parties...  Contact:    jkriofske@att.net    or    joel.mary@icloud.com!)     

Humbly Submitted, 01-16-17 -- Joel K.         

      

    

Old Friends Renewed... A Sort of Re-Awakening!

Memoirs of a Geezer!

Reflections and Observations -- A Bright Passage from the Fantasies of Youth 

to Illuminations of Advanced Maturity!

This Episode:     Old Friends Renewed...    A Sort of Re-Awakening! 

Long before entering the depths of Geezerhood (or should it be heights?), in my student days, I read Jean-Paul Sartre's The Wall, in which his protagonist is condemned to death by firing squad against the "eponymous," much-feared wall. The story is set during the Spanish Civil War.  The man is ultimately reprieved for "consideration," temporarily, but not before "surrendering the illusion of immortality."

At least that's one interpretation, admittedly an over-simplification of a classic existentialist narrative.  Nonetheless, it leads nicely into the theme, setting up the topic of this month's attempt at constructing a story!  I think that as we age, we engage in more and more self-reflection, looking behind to consider where we've been, ahead through tunnels of presumptive destinations as they grow ever nearer.  Notions of Mortality, even the "illusion" (we all make future plans, don't we??!!) we all seem to hold on to, creep increasingly into consciousness. I haven't actually "surrendered," but I think about it more often these days...  

I don't know if that's the sole motivation, but in recent years it's the thought of mortality that perhaps moved me to seek out old friends, even after 40 or 50 years' absence.  I'm happy and gratified that I did, and wonder often why I waited so damn long to do so.  Noteworthy among them...  

Freddy and I had been childhood friends.  We had paper routes, played ball in the gravel lot adjacent to his family's garage,

cut lawns, rode our bikes recklessly... had great fun and many adventures.  I'm sitting one day staring a my computer, and the word, "rice-a-floffa" (not sure of the spelling!?) wanders into my head.  I look up Freddy's phone number and ring.  To my delight, he responds happily, enthusiastically, and with a hearty laugh as I begin, "I'd like a large order of rice-a-floffa to travel!" Now we get together for lunch at least once a month.  I was in his wedding many years ago, and attended his and Pat's recent 50th Wedding Anniversary Celebration. A renewed friendship...  pure joy!

This famous Milwaukee
custard stand served
equally famous skinless
wieners made by Johnny's
family business...

Johnny B. was one of the first friends I made during freshman year of high school.  Beginning recently, we E-Corresponded, we talked, and now we get together for lunch or dinner, once a month when time and schedules permit.  In our younger days, we prowled around the old neighborhood, "borrowed" his father's car, went to Louie's cottage for boat rides and water skiing.  Now that we're older and far more brilliant, we talk about politics and former bad habits, the Peace Corps, travel and many other topics of significance that great minds crave.

Richard M. and I were in school together, and enjoyed a friendship in the 60's and 70's.  A couple of weeks ago, following some re-introductory E-Messaging, we set a lunch meeting, and caught up, each of us in turn summarizing perhaps 45 or so years since we last saw one another. It was a Great Time! We plan to get together again, sometime after the start of 2017, perhaps even including other mutual old chums...  

Above is a badly-fabricated image of
the fabled saloon, Morry's on Prospect,
where many great friendships were
forged from a crucible of booze,
juke box tunes and good times!!  

Such as...  Mike B.  We met for coffee, sharing recollections of highly amusing if possibly self-destructive adventures.  Mike reminded me of one of them.  After working a day shift in my profession as "beverage host," he and I stuffed 7 "long necks" each into our winter coat pockets and motored off to a basketball game during which we consumed our booty.  We drove back to the saloon using nothing but alley ways, for reasons I can't readily recall.  Brilliant lads! Brilliant times (uh...  weren't they??!). (I've been counseled not to mention our "famous" automotive backing race the wrong way on Prospect Avenue...  ?!)  I should mention, Richard, Mike and I often encountered one another at the fabled and now famous, but former, Morry's On Prospect. And speaking of Morry...  

He and I had lunch together after a similar span of years had elapsed since we last had any purposeful and protracted conversation.  Here again, so good to see and interact with Morry, both socially and culturally!  A great friend and a friendship renewed! We, too, plan to make it a somewhat regular occasion.  In our most recent telephone chat, we even settled on our next choice of lunchtime cuisine!  Now that's a true sense of commitment, yes?!  Wonderful!!  Lest I forget, great, also, to see Dave K. over lunch!

Greg G. is yet another gem, an old friend with whom coffee and great conversation is a

somewhat newly initiated routine upon which I place great value!  Greg has a way of discovering the best in people and their ideas.  My time with him is always edifying and revealing. He has a generosity of spirit that is both admirable and enviable. Oh, and he admires Jungian Philosophy! (When's our next coffee date, eh, Greg??)   

Though I place equal value on (fairly) newly formed friendships with people of a "shared generational map," we've discussed such as those within the context of "film club" postings.  (Please see archival writings...   http://geezerjoel.blogspot.com/)...  I won't lengthen this piece with a repeated litany of names or the themes of our gatherings.

By contrast, and to her great credit and that of her fellows, SweetHeart enjoys uninterrupted friendships -- celebrated each month over dinner! -- with nearly lifelong good friends. Women, I suppose, being perhaps smarter (some apparently assert!) and more socially conscious than men, at least many of us, have the skill and emotional gifts to maintain relationships, even those that began some 50 and 60 years ago! Men can sometimes acquire such gifts in later life, and as in my case, emotional growth finally blossoms.  (It's a right brain thing, I think! Aina??!! One wonders why it can take so long for right brain functions to function?!)

This is SweetHeart, not with an
old friend, but a relatively new one!
(Possibly an Eagle Scout?...)

Do renewed friendships that originally commenced long ago tend to last?  Or are they ephemeral, like novelties that tend to capture our imaginations briefly and then fade as interest wanes over time?  I sincerely hope not. And to be honest I don't think so...  I think friendships with those with whom we became pals long ago can actually be stronger, more fulfilling! Why, you may ask!  Because in later life we're far less likely to try or want to impress one another.  We're able to be ourselves, without pretension, without the youthful proclivities of competition on too many levels...  financial success, who owns more stuff, number of marriages, who's funnier or more clever, who has a bigger house or garage... Maybe I'm being naive, but I sincerely hope these re-connections, renewed friendships, last a great long time, in fact, as long as those good friends and I do.   (Questions listed, below!)  

Humbly Submitted 12-30-16 -- Joel K.

Questions You May Wish to Consider, Even Answer:   

1.)  Have you re-connected with a friend or friends after the passage of many years?

2.)  How you did you arrange the re-connection, and by what means...  Email, letter, social media, chance encounter, school, the county jail...?

3.)  How do you meet...  lunching, drinks, dinner, at a skating rink, your home, her / his home?

4.)  How often do you get together, or plan to meet...  monthly, bi-monthly, weekly?

5.)  What's the history of your friendship with an old friendship renewed, and how did you first get together?    

     

     

                       

Getting Away...

Memoirs of a Geezer!

Reflections and Observations -- A Bright Passage from the Fantasies of Youth 

to Illuminations of Advanced Maturity!

This Episode:      Getting Away...

Time being the precious commodity that most would agree it is, there are times in the course of human events when one simply needs to get away.  No matter the distance or the length, it is or can be a cathartic necessity.  For those of us in the sagging arms of geezerhood, we need a bit of respite, particularly if we're still productively (but maybe not lavishly!), gainfully employed.

As such, SweetHeart and I -- following a delightful birthday celebration with family and friends on the 11th of November (Please notate your 2017 calendars!) -- embarked upon a weekend in Madison, Wisconsin, home of the the University of Wisconsin's original and historic campus (1848!). We stopped only once en route, and then only to nourish ourselves on a modest portion of granola and yogurt.  One shouldn't eat and drive, we're told.  (I recall an acquaintance wisely stating, "If you drink and drive, don't smoke!"...  Sage advice indeed, what?!  We, however, neither drink spirited beverages nor use tobacco products in these perilous times!)

Having arrived in Madison, and having acquired ducats to the Badger Football contest vs. the University of Illinois and its "Fighting Illini," we parked near one of Madison's relatively new Colectivo Coffee locations, this one on Monroe Street, and walked -- my favorite backsack upon

my back -- the approximately 1.5 miles to Camp Randall Stadium.  At Gate 10, we were rebuffed by a ticket-taking / quasi-security official who stated, "We don't allow backpacks in the stadium!"  I, of course, exclaimed something rudely and with vigorous incredulity!!

We're at the game!  You know!  The
Badgers!  Camp Randall...  Footballs...

Never ones to be downhearted or lacking in strategic initiative, we walked a block or two from whence we had come, entered a pizza and gyros parlor (apparently couldn't decide between one culinary offering over another!), approached a young man who was clerking and taking orders for pizza and gyros (an admirable and highly dexterous chap, his face reddened by pizza grease and fat splatters!), and persuaded him to safeguard the aforementioned, highly valued backsack behind the pizza / gyros counter.

Not the actual loud fan, but the best
one could do in the circumstances!

Though lopsided heavily in the Badgers' favor, the game ended at 48 to 3.  Great fun to watch. The young man seated next to us was perhaps gifted with the loudest cheering voice one had ever beheld.  Every play and every success achieved by "our team" was greeting with booming cheers and parroted pronouncements...  e.g.  "First & 10... Interception... Touchdown...  Reception...   Another First Down..."  And he joined in the singing too...  loudly, very loudly... "Build me up, build me up, Buttercup...  Don't break my heart..."!!  (And other traditional ballads!...  He even "Jumped Around" loud!)  

The guy seated behind us in the tightly packed rows of bleacher seats had two perpetual-motion children who repeatedly kneed us in the backs.  "Never mind," we said graciously, following his many apologies, "we have grandchildren who knee people in their backs...  we understand completely the need for children to knee and otherwise abuse their elders..." (Lotta people wearing red!!)

Interesting Food Choices at Freiburg,
and Tall, Too!  Tall and Yummy!

SweetHeart peering
through a natural
Arboretum art form!

Dinner after the "big game" was a feast at Freiburg Gastropub on Monroe. Wonderful food, dessert too!  The following day, we hiked at the University of Wisconsin Arboretum, a beautiful acreage that features "distinct ecological communities, horticultural collections... more than 20 miles of trails..."  We dined at Everly.  My dinner was good; SweetHeart's was a mound of celery root described as having radishes, shrimp and other natural ingredients.  It was a mound of celery root with two thin slices of radish and a few diminutive shrimp that hid themselves cleverly under the aforementioned mound of celery root! And cold soft boiled egg!  

An artistic shot taken by Sweet
Heart!  We're looking into a barrel into
which drips of water are apparently
falling.  Our head tops, however, never
became moistened by falling droplets!
Very strange!

Determined to see a fine foreign film, we opted for a purported Bollywood treat from India that was described as a "romantic thriller."  SweetHeart aptly described it as "Bollywood meets Jackie Chan."  It was a mischievous blend of motorbike road romance followed by violence and mayhem that didn't sort itself out until an omniscient narrator explained everything...  And then it still didn't make sense!  But what fun it was!!  Oh yeah! We also visited the Madison Museum

Wonderful shot of SweetHeart taken from the Madison
Museum of Contemporary Art; background view of State
Street and a gorgeous late afternoon setting sun!

of Contemporary Art, one of our favorite attractions in the Capital City!  Always something novel, fun and interesting to see, and hear!  You should go! Go Now!     

At the other end of our weekend adventure, we met our PhD candidate-student, Alie, with whom we had a terrific brunchy thing repast at Daisy Cafe on Atwood.  Then, off to UW's Beacon Hill School of Education building where we met two of her delightful fellow students and one of her professors. Her doctoral advisor was not available.   

Wild Torkeys!  They got wild Torkeys
at that Arboretum place!  Wild, I say!!

Prairie Section Tree!

Heading homeward, we reflected on our pleasant and renewing weekend sojourn, and I moaned about the work that was waiting for me at my global headquarters office, but admitted how lucky I am to have a good business and some truly wonderful clients.  As I write these words, my thoughts wander back to State Street, Monroe, Randall, good restaurants and coffee shops and all the sights, sounds and delights that Madison holds for the occasional traveler. The following weekend, back to Madison for Badger women's volleyball with Amy and Megan and friends.  A happy return, even if only a week later! Another chance to get away.... Perhaps we'll let you know how it all turns out.   Thank you and Good Night... 

[Special Note of Gratitude and Attribution:  The perpetrator dedicates this posting to SweetHeart who has an excellent eye for photography!  Most of the photos placed above are hers, with the exception of the ones in which she's pictured, of course, but she directed them!  The photo, above and to the right, was taken in the prairie region of the Arboretum! She also plans and organizes our holidays superbly, both small and large!! As for me, "Have Bib, Will Travel..."  (Does anyone know why so many young people wear those skinny black legging trousers?)]    

Humbly Submitted, 11-21-16 -- Joel K.                  

A Feast of a Festival, and It's Gaining National Renown!

Memoirs of a Geezer!

Reflections and Observations -- A Bright Passage from the Fantasies of Youth 

to Illuminations of Advanced Maturity!

This Episode:      More than a Film Festival, It's a Feast of Local and National Prominence!

Magnificent images, outstanding selections! A stunning array of spectacular variety.  We traveled to Istanbul, Iceland, India, China and Iran.  Desert sands and roiling seas, diverse personalities from the Middle East and Africa, cats and the remarkable people who care for them.  Movies!  Films!  An international feast!  They play on our emotions, offer glimpses into fascinating cultures and distinctive ways of living.

When it's over, we feel a sense of loss, as if a good friend has come for a welcome visit and then is too quickly gone.  A full year will pass before it returns to delight us once again.  For

"starters," a kind of appetizer, perhaps, the 2016 Milwaukee Film Festival gave us live action and animated short films for the younger set.  It's become an annual tradition.  We take our grandkids and their parents, gather somewhere for lunch, and then urge the kids to talk about what they liked best, what they learned from or thought about the short films we all just enjoyed.  Bounce was a particular favorite, by consensus!

Sweet Bean!  While it may seem like an English translation of a Japanese exclamation, it's a remarkable film featuring a quietly influential protagonist who molds the story and, in a sense, narrates more positive life choices for the other two principal characters.  And she does it with a beautiful, nearly palpable skill...  and dorayakis to tempt and please the palates of our imaginations.

Keepers of the Game takes viewers to Salmon River High School in upstate New York. This is inspirational filmmaking and storytelling at its very best.  The sport of lacrosse is at its center, as the first all-Native-American girls team makes history, crossing cultural and other formidable barriers to win a championship, recognition and even hard-won funding for their sport along the journey.  An outstanding documentary film!

For one who was based in Turkey
during one's military service, a return
visit to Istanbul -- courtesy of KEDI --
was an added gift of the Festival!  

We waited in a "rush" line, a first for us, but worth the time and effort to re-visit Istanbul and the beautifully photographed KEDI.  The people who care for them, the filming perspectives...  Even if you aren't particularly a lover of cats, this is a gorgeous look at an extraordinary city, its ancient treasures, including its finest assets -- the people who live there.     

Post film-watching conversations with like-minded devotees are a delicious by-product of the festival.  Peter (just to cite an example!) noted how the "aspect ratios" or screen configuration changed between time periods of the epic, Mountains May Depart, a great and at times troubling film that symbolically toys with our notions of freedom.

A beguiling gem from Chinese director Bi Gan, in Kaili Blues we follow Doctor Chen on a circuitous journey that involves trains, cars, boats and motorcycles.  The film includes an intriguing, unbroken 40-minute shot, complex poetry and a dizzying conflation of past, present and future.  Wonderful stuff, even for those of us lost -- or at the very least befuddled -- in the translation!

Nahid -- a strange but interesting film from Iran -- is described as Kafkaesque.   True to its definition, the eponymous character makes illogical and bizarre choices, ultimately designed to retain guardianship of her son.  

"Have you seen 'Rams,' " asks our friend, Alan.  Naturally we had to take the bait, and found a pair of feuding brothers, amid a starkly beautiful Icelandic backdrop, struggling to keep their precious animals from being slaughtered due to a variant of "mad cow disease."  The movie has, at times, a profound sense of isolation encouraged by forbidding mountains that ring their sparsely-populated valley.   Upon reading the brief synopsis, and the names of the brothers -- Gummi and Kiddi -- I puzzled, "What?  Is this a puppet show??!!"  But there's no such whimsey in this grim tale. The brothers reconcile in the end, but perhaps too late as the shivering climax leaves the viewer to wonder.  This was another film that demanded analytical conversation, lots of it! Strange and thought-provoking stuff!

This photo has nothing to do with the
film, Sand Storm (Ref: just above,
right!) But, it's a great picture of four
beautiful grandchildren taken after
a presentation of "Kids Shorts, Size
Medium."  Aren't they wonderful??!!

One more!  Sand Storm from Israel.  Bedouin mother and daughter try to rebel against their repressive, male-dominated society.  In the main, and in the end, it's a story of selfless sacrifice and acceptance of forces too entrenched, too powerful to overcome.  A quixotic fable, maybe? (Just trying to put things into a kind of perspective I might be able to fathom!!)  

For those of us who love travel, a pleasure often limited by the restrictions of economics or work or family obligations (Geezerhood, too, maybe?!), the Milwaukee Film Festival is an opportunity to travel in the comfort of padded theatre seats in conveniently located "spacecraft" (airships, maybe, flying machines, low-speed trains...) -- to wit, the Oriental, Downer, Avalon, Times and Fox Bay cinema houses!   


We love the Festival, and we support it enthusiastically. As members in good standing, we pay what we can on an annual basis in order to enjoy, not only the Festival itself and reduced-cost tickets afforded members, but the "Super Secret Screening," a highlight of each annual event.  And, members can take advantage of the free, monthly member screenings, usually, of outstanding motion pictures, some first-run, some rarely presented in the Milwaukee area, or on a limited basis only. 

A somewhat recent change, the monthly screenings are now shown both at 4:00 pm -- perfect for the Geezer Set, you know, people like me! -- and 7:30 pm, great and welcome options for most members. Members need only respond to Email invitations, and then arrive early to secure seating, picking up awaiting tickets in the lobby of the magnificent Oriental Theatre where the "monthlies" are always shown.  And there's popcorn too...  Wonderful stuff (some would argue nearly indispensable in the movie-viewing experience)! 

"Hey, we're waiting!  Isn't it time for us members to be let in to the theatre?  Come on, now. We've been standing here a long time! Hey, in there!  I could begin chanting at any moment! Let us in!!...  We need sustenance -- Movies!  Popcorn...  Dots, maybe too... Junior Mints...  !!" 

(Special Note of Gratitude:  The perpetrator of this blog posting, on behalf of fellow devotees, extends great thanks to Jonathan Jackson, Kristopher Pollard and the entire cast and crew of Milwaukee Film for bringing to our fine community yet another outstanding Festival.  May we all enjoy a great many more years of this superior and delicious Feast of Filmdom!  Thank YOU!)  

Humbly Submitted, 10-20-16 -- Joel K.