Plastic Bags Banned in California --- Day 3/259

Walk: CPMC, Trader Joe's, Mindful Body
Distance: 2 miles and teach yoga class


Claes Oldenburg, Ice Bag - Scale C, 1971, 12' diameter

This one is made of fiber-re-inforced polyester resin, lacquer, nylon cloth saturated with neoprene, plywood, steel, fans and motors so Ciwt assumes it would be allowed here.

Its technology was updated for a 2009 show at the Whitney Museum and it now functions as the artist had originally intended, inflating and deflating with a twisting motion and mechanical sigh. (Some say soothing the art world's collective hangover).

Here and There Around the House --- Day 3/258

Walk: No, Monday Chores
Distance: 0, home yoga practice



Honda Syoryu (b. 1951), Bamboo and Rattan, Openwork twining,H.  11 1/2in xW. 25 in x D 24 in.

Brown means.... --- Day 3/257

Walk: Polk Street
Distance: 2.5 miles, Fall closet caper try-ons take energy

Brown

Colombia : discourages sales

Australian Aboriginals : colour of the land, ceremonial ochre

Feng Shui : Yang, Earth, industry, grounded

Brown : friendships, special events, earth, materialistic thoughts, hearth, home, outdoors, inexpensive, reliability, credibility, comfort, endurance, stability, simplicity, comfort, longevity, intimacy, tranquility, masculine, nurturing, contentment, strength, sensuality, productivity, passivity, fertility, generosity, dirt, substance, practicality, hard work

Brown is too low key if used broadly without texture or another color to enhance it. Useful for promoting food and outdoor products for work and play.

Reddish-brown : harvest, autumn

Beiges and tans : Yang, sophistication, neatness, conceals emotion

Copper : passion, money goals, professional growth, business productivity, career moves

Coffee browns : sophistication, richness, robustness, panache

 

It's been a good run, but looks like Ciwt and Brown are coming to a parting of the ways..

Shop Independents -- Day 3/256

Walk: Mindful Body, Union Square (Babette) Russian Hill (O.R. Design), Fillmore Street (Sunhee Moon)
Distance: 4.5 miles and teach yoga class



Ciwt was busy and feeling good today about supporting small San Francisco clothes designers.

Retail and Cinema Therapy --- Day 3/255

Walk: Union Square, AMC  Van Ness (The Skeleton Twins), Fillmore Street
Distance: 5 miles


Henri Matisse, Still Life with Sleeping Woman, 1940, oil on canvas, 32 1/2 x39 5/8 in

Ciwt is at rest after day of retail therapy and an unexpectedly good movie.

Yawn --- Day 3/254

Walk: San Rafael
Distance: 6 blocks and home yoga practice



Ciwt is taking it easy today.

I Give a Fig --- Day 3/253

Walk: Sausalito
Distance: A few blocks/day of rest


Figs in Basket.  Pompeii Fresco.

Fall means figs here in Northern California.  Ciwt has always loved them and is lucky to have a yoga student who brings them to her from her Sonoma garden.  But she has never known that figs were one of the first plants cultivated by humans and may be the first known instance of agriculture.  This intentional cultivation was in the Jordan Valley, north of Jericho and predates the domestication of wheat and rye by one thousand years.

And, mercifully because they are so delicious, they are good for us.  They're among the richest plant sources of calcium and fiber.  They are also rich in copper, magnesium, potassium and vitamin K as well as other nutrients.  And..they are antioxidants.

Well, OK!  Fresh figs in Ciwt's salad for dinner tonight; thank you, kind student.

Fall Roads --- Day 3/252

Walk: CPMC, Trader Joe's, Acuity Vision, Mindful Body
Distance: 5+ miles and teach yoga class

Ciwt's Favorite Season Began Today

Force Majeure --- Day 3/251

Walk: Corte Madera via Piatti, up and down, up and down stairs
Distance: 10 blocks and home yoga practice

  

The Cinema Club movie in Ciwt's double movie/opera double header yesterday was Force Majeure, a Cannes selection that is getting quite a bit of buzz at festivals.  It is about couple happy in a 1950's kind of way that runs into that 'force majeure' on a family ski vacation: a real life avalanche.  The trailer above gives you a very good sense of the movie: actors, cinematography, music, lighting, central problem/theme.  It includes the avalanche which is so brilliantly shot it's worth a view.

Having lived in Sun Valley Ciwt enjoyed all the ski resort scenes and also the portrayal/observation of a wide range of deep, difficult and true human emotions and interactions. A psychodrama with comic moments.

Down and then Up at the Opera --- Day 3/250

Walk: Cinema Club (Force Majeure), SF Opera (Susannah)
Distance: 4 miles


Rembrandt.  Susanna, 1636.  Oil on panel, approximately 19" by 15".
Royal Picture Gallery Mauritshuis, The Hague 


Thomas Hart Benton (American, 1889–1975). 
Susanna and the Elders, 1938, Oil and tempera on canvas mounted on wood panel. 60 x 42 in. 

Susanna(h).  However you spell it, It's an ancient story- small town/village intolerance, hypocritical, punishing religiosity and mob rule- with many variations throughout history and the world*, but always so harrowing in whatever medium.

The uplift after the harrow was Patricia Racette receiving the highest medal awarded by the San Francisco Opera Company at the end of her stunning performance of Susannah. The medal honored her 25th anniversary with the company; previous awardees include the likes of Leontyne Price, Joan Sutherland, Placido Domingo, Samuel Ramey.  Quite some medal!   Such occasions are always so rousing - even the director of the Opera (and Racette's friend) had tears running down his cheeks as did Racette and most of the orchestra, chorus and audience.  Awww...

* Some American examples include: Huckleberry Finn/Mark Twain, The Lottery/Shirley Jackson, The Crucible/Arthur Miller, To Kill a Mockingbirdll a /Harper Lee and many more.

Roof Gardening --- Day 3/249

Walk: No
Distance: Home Yoga



Ciwt's big question for today is:  Can a 5'3" woman of a certain age who lives in a walk up penthouse do all/most of her own gardening? She realizes she really doesn't like being dependent on the kindness of gardeners for the heavy lifting aspects. There are some big old plantings and planter boxes she'd like to get rid of, and then irrigation lines to be adjusted and new plantings.  Can Ciwt do these - and her whole roof deck - herself?  If yes - or pretty close - that would be grand.

                                       

Fine Dining --- Day 3/248

Walk: Greens, Mindful Body
Distance: 1 mile and take 2 yoga classes



There is no place Ciwt would rather dine - with friends - than Greens at Fort Mason.  It just keeps getting better - including the  new lovely silk tapestry at the end of the room where modern art has been.  Ciwt will need to research this work; it is lovely.

Home Onus-ship --- Day 3/247

Walk: Not much
Distance: 6 blocks, up and down stairs, small home yoga

Bit of distraction going on around here along these lines:

I Heart The Presidio --- Day 3/246

Walk: Union Square (tooth treasure doing well), Presidio
Distance: 5 miles


          Free Love in the Presidio

Where's that Photo Shop? --- Day 3/245

Walk: Alta Plaza Park, Mindful Body
Distance: 1.5 miles and teach yoga class




       
Somehow Ciwt's full moon from the deck images fall a bit short.

Lunch on the Waterfront --- Day 3/244

Walk: Ferry Building
Distance: 3.1 miles and home yoga


Now
                            
                            Then            (completed 1898. Note: no Bay Bridge)


It had been a while since Ciwt had been to the San Francisco Ferry Building so she enjoyed meeting up today with a cousin who has an office there. Until the completion of the Bay Bridge (which began to carry railroad traffic) and Golden Gate Bridge in the 1930s, the Ferry Building was the second busiest transit terminal in the world, second only to London's Charing Cross Station. After the bridges opened, and the new Key System trains began running to the East Bay from the Transbay Terminal in 1939, passenger ferry use fell sharply.  The building went through a prolonged decline and was little used until a major renovation and restoration in 2002.  Since then it has become a lovely office structure as well as a premiere tourist attraction with its outdoor farmers markets and interior restaurants and gourmet food-oriented boutiques.

Ciwt, Opera Reviewer --- Day 3/243

Walk: SF Opera House (Norma)
Distance: 5 miles


The staging of today's Norma

     
     was so silly

              
              it detracted from the story - which is also ultimately silly.