Dune: Part Two

Mike Yukhtenko on Unsplash

I watched the second installment of Denis Villeneuve’s Dune trilogy. The good news is that there will be at least three episodes. The bad news is that author Frank Herbert wrote six volumes in his series. So, there may will be many more.

Dune: Part One introduced us to Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet), son of the tragically slain Duke of Arrakis (nee Dune), now he is the heir apparent. He and his pregnant mother, the Lady Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson), escaped into the desert both ready to go full Lawerence of Arabia among the Bedouin-like desert dwellers known as the Fremen. As in the first movie, where we were only briefly introduced to Chani (Zendaya), Paul’s Freman love interest, in this movie we likewise can only glance at Alia, Paul’s unborn sister. First, to turn a phrase, “in a womb with a view” and then grown, as Anya Taylor-Joy, but only in cameo.

Then after much blood in the sand and a 2 hours and 45 minutes running time, Paul is the self-proclaimed emperor. I guess that he can now add that title to his many other epithets: Duke, Mahdi, Muad’Dib, Usul, Lisan al-Gaib, and Kwisatz Haderach. Dune: Part Two is essentially a war movie and its sequel will likely be a jihad. I guess that even with his new 4D vision, Paul could not see any way around a universe engulfing holy war. Mores the pity, but that’s people for you.

Suspicious Characters

Suspicious Characters

Cicadas

Cicada

First there was just one, then there were two, then there were a million and then there were a billion of them. We knew that they were coming. We had been looking out for them. On Sunday, we saw our first periodic cicada. Its red eyes marked as such. Once every seventeen years they appear. This one landed on Anne’s leg, while we were eating lunch. At first, we were not sure what it was. Anne thought that it might be a horse fly and I thought wasp. It was neither of those harmful insects though, but it was not a pretty bug either. Soon they will be swarming and in unimaginable numbers. They are not particularly good flyers and tend to bump into things as they go, making them a nuisance. They are also the loudest insects in the world. The deafening roar of their mating call can cause hearing damage. I suspect that at night we will soon be running the AC with the windows closed just to be able to sleep.

Luna Moth

Luna Moth

Laumeier Art Fair

Laumeier Art Fair

Anne and I went to Laumeier Sculpture Park on Sunday and attended the annual Mother’s Day art fair there. Laumeier is a county park and is normally free to enter, but this event is always ticketed. This year, we decided to join the Laumeier association that supports the art in the park, and I got a t-shirt. There was lots of beautiful art to see and even dream about buying, but all of our walls are already full of family generated artwork. We really cannot afford to support other artists, because there already so many who we are already related to. A new thing this year were stickers. Art stickers for decorating your water bottle, laptop or whatever. We looked at these too, but again no sales.

There were lots of moms and dads and their children at the fair. We held a steady texting dialog with our kids. First there were all of the Mother’s Day best wishes. First among moms was Maren, the newest of them all. The conversation then turned to the what’s happening news. On Saturday night, Dan and Britt had taken the redeye from New Mexico, back to NYC. Dave and Maren took Declan to Rockport to hang out with family at their summer cottage on the coast. In New England you do not have cabins, but instead you have cottages. We gave everyone regular reports from the art fair.

Yesterday, my blog got a thousand hits. This is now an annual Mother’s Day event. It all goes back to the first year that I began writing and posted the lyrics to the 1915 song MOTHER, “M Is for the Many things she gave me…” Anne and her sisters used to sing it to their mother, partly because it annoyed her, and I guess that I picked up on that. Anyway, if you google this lyric up comes this blog at number one and since a few years later I reposted it, it is now also number two. I know that it is not much of a claim to fame, but I’ll take it.

Ring Around the Mulberry

Mulberries