Reel not Real --- Day 4/91

Walk: Corte Madera, Abbey Carpet
Distance: 3.5 miles and small home yoga



If this is ...Movie buff, Ciwt has learned that seven movies/countries/mindsets in five days is her limit.  By the sixth day, she would have paid someone to take her ticket for the Spanish movie she'd invested in.  But that would have meant walking back to the theater.

Now she's rested and ready to complete her SF International Film Festival journey.  The movie she's really looking forward to comes at the end of this mad dash around the world.  It's is a feature documentary on Brian Wilson, the troubled genius behind the Beach Boys. That's not until Monday; saving the best for the last.

The great news is that she's not actually on the road having to negotiate all the countries and points in between.  Even armchair traveling has had Ciwt overwhelmed at times.   

Fingers Crossed --- Day 4/90

Walk: Creative Paint, Up and Down Stairs painting samples
Distance: 1 mile and home yoga

Painter comes Monday first thing, so Ciwt had to get final about hallway colors today.



Ceiling ?


Trim


Walls

Far From Women Too --- 4/89

Walk: Van Ness, SF International Film Festival (Far From Men)
Distance: 3 miles



Did somebody say Viggo Mortensen?  You don't have to say that very loud to get Ciwt in her seat in whatever movie he is in.  Or she might say 'Whatever movie he makes.'  Always riveting, and this time he added Arabic to the many languages in which he is fluent - on the screen at least .  Arabic because his new movie, Far From Men, is about the Algerian war for independence - about which Ciwt knows virtually nothing and will now go read.

His co-stars were the vast, barren Algerian landscape, the Nick Cave/Warren Ellis score  and 
French-Algerian actor, Reda Kateb.

So far the movies Ciwt has seen at the SFIFF have had a feminine slant - female director, or writer, or producer.  This melancholy neo-western caught up the masculine slant in one fell swoop.

One Way or Another --- Day 4/88

Walk: Trader Joe's, SF International Film Festival
Distance: 2.5 miles, small home yoga



Ciwt can't quite remember the last time she walked out of a film. Think it was the Woody Allen one about Deconstructing Harry.  Anyway, she did it today - from a First Director's movie about dead end, going nowhere, uninteresting very young maybe someday adults in present day Hanoi.  If it finds significant distribution (doubtful), the next hurdle might be overcoming its title: Flapping in the Middle of Nowhere.

Interestingly, when she left the film festival, she went to have her nails done and was the only one in the salon with a highly intelligent, energetic Vietnamese/Chinese woman who grew up in 1960's Vietnam and had fascinating stories to tell about her old country and her incredible journey from there to California. She was also informed about the lives of the many young girl students in today's Hanoi - the story Flapping.. was trying to tell.  So, at the end of the day, Ciwt received even more insight into urban Vietnam than she'd expected.

Reel Deals --- Day 4/86

Walk: SF International Film Festival (Mr. Holmes and Listen To Me, Marlon)
Distance: 2 miles

Ciwt  just home from six hours at the movies with two very difficult men,    
(Sherlock Holmes/Ian McKellen)  
              
(Marlon Brando/Marlon Brando)
two of our greatest actors (/same pictures), a well-known film critic, two important producers and a fire evacuation (not a drill).  Time to digest all these reel deels.

'Geriatric Starlet'* --- Day 4/85

Walk: Sacramento Street Shoe Repair, SF International Film Festival (SFIFF)
Distance: 3.7 miles

The first day of the SFIFF took Ciwt all the way to .... New York City.  Yes, not so international, but the clothes, costume jewelry, fabrics, and array of bling was from all over the world.  All of it, filling a warehouse in New York and apartments in New York and Palm Beach, was collected by the 'style' maven, Iris
Apfel  and her husband, Carl.

Fashion has energy as do color, baubles, and brassiness whether inanimate or animate like Iris herself.  From at least her early teens, Iris grabbed onto that energy and has never let go for 93 years and counting becoming a collector, textile designer, interior decorator, international traveler and now fashion educator to young, aspiring fashion students.  

Legendary documentarian Albert Maysles followed Iris for a year capturing her zaniness, glib wisdom, relentless energy, apparently high spirits, skill at haggling, and of course all her possessions.  It's all quite jaw-droppingly material, but after waiting in vain for some depth or ideas to chew on,  Ciwt became a bit uninterested.  Like spending hours wandering around Harry Winston or the designer department of Bergdorf's; what's there to think about after a while?**  

(PS - This didn't happen in the similar 2010 documentary on Joan Rivers, Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work which had more soul with the bling).

* The term she coined for herself and a classic example of her likably relaxed, casual, self-aware wit.

**At one point, Carl sort of slipped and was about to tell some stories about how difficult Jackie was during the re-decorating of the White House.  But he was immediately hushed up.  Too bad; that could have been fun.

Hitting the Big Screen Road -- Day 4/84

Walk: Errands
Distance: 7 blocks or so and home yoga



Tomorrow Ciwt starts her 2-week round the world odyssey.  Walking and sitting style.

San Francisco's annual International Film Festival opens this evening (too late for matinee lover Ciwt), but she has tickets in hand for 13 films after that.  Hold onto your berets, sombreros, panamas and other hats; adventure awaits!

Woman in Golden --- Day 4/83

Walk: CPMC, Sundance Kabuki (Woman in Gold), Trader Joe's, Carpet Contractors
Distance: 6 miles



Hair.  Golden hair, that's the color of  Helen Mirren's in Woman in Gold.  another of her bravura performances.  As a friend texted me, "What can't she play?"  Here one could say her 'co-stars' are the holocaust and the most famous and beloved portrait in all of Austria  *
during the years of the movie.  Amazingly, with her great understatement, vitality and dignity Mirren is every bit the equal of both.  In Woman in Gold, Ciwt got to see Vienna, which she love and brush up on some art history, but it was Mirren who was most riveting. (Again, and always since first memorably encountering her in Prime Suspect). So too Klimt's portrait itself which is on perpetual view at the Neue Gallery in New York.  Like Mirren, no matter how many pictures, posters, postcards you see, nothing captures the actual presence of these stunning women. Take it from Ciwt who you might remember (accidentally) recently stood inches away from Adele Bloch-Bauer I. **

*Gustave Klimt, Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I, 1907, 54"x54", Oil, silver and gold on canvas
**see CIWT Day 3/360

It's Relative --- Day 4/82

Walk: Van Ness
Distance: 2.5 miles and home yoga


   
       

55 degrees and falling.  Ciwt knows you think we are wimps out here (we are!), but, when our temperature is in the 50's, it's cold in San Francisco.

Oddly Pink --- Day 4/81

Walk: Trader Joe's
Distance: 2 miles and home yoga


Philip Guston,  The Room, 1970

              
              Philip Guston, Dawn, 1970, 67"x108", o/c


Philip Guston (1913-1980)

Bonnard's odd pink figure, and palette of pinks, purples, greens and blues from CIWT 4/79  put Ciwt in mind of Philip Guston, an artist who worked with somewhat the same palette as Bonnard but at the polar opposite end of the joyfulness spectrum.  Here he is talking about his art.

Quiet Time --- Day 4/80

Walk: Sundance Kabuki/Cinema Club (A Brilliant Young Mind, aka X+Y), Dosa
Distance: 3 miles and small home yoga


Louis Ritman (1889-1963), A Day in July, 1918, 36.25" x 36.25," o/c  
   Bouquet by Catherine Scott Flowers (Sonoma)

A quiet interlude as Ciwt assimilates ballet, Cinema Club movie and discussion, graduation-to-now pix of classmates, and all that taupe.

Et La Femme? --- Day 4/79

Walk: SF Opera House (Program 7 Ballet)
Distance: 4.6 miles, small chair yoga at ballet


Pierre Bonnard, Ruelle de Vernonnette, ca 1912-14, 76x65.2 cm, o/c

What do you see here?  Under the sky and trees, Ciwt sees a pink nude woman squatting in a yellow courtyard with something black somehow attached to her.  To Ciwt this is such a peculiar, vulgar really, image, it seems worthy of comment.  But no comment in the signage from the Scottish Galleries Treasures show, or in the accompanying book or online at the National Galleries of Scotland site.

The Ruelle painting is certainly significant because it marks an all important shift in Bonnard's palette. Up until it, Bonnard had used dark colors.  But in this painting he began using the glowing purples, pinks, greens and yellows that are found in the joyfully intimate art for which he is known. He had recently bought a house in Vernonnet and become friends with Monet who lived nearby in Giverny.  Most likely Bonnard was influenced by Monet, and like many other artists, also found that the bright light of his new home outside of Paris led him to see and paint in more vibrant tones.

But, still for Ciwt, there is this odd image...

Bouquets to Bouquets --- Day 4/78

Walk: Cheap Pete's, Creative Paints, de Young Museum
Distance: 6.5 miles

Ciwt's favorites from this year's annual SF Fine Arts Museums fundraiser, Bouquets to Art:


She loved, loved, loved this showy peacock by Natasha's Designs (Sonoma) echoing Miuel Covarrubias', The Fauna and Flora of the Pacific, 1939.
                                            Great from the rear, like all peacocks.


And doesn't Plumweed Floral and Event Design (San Francisco) the sleek, confident elegance of the very tall and very self-possessed Lady in Black with Spanish Scarf (O with a Scarf) by Robert Henri, 1910?

Purple Messenger --- Day 4/77

Walk: Presidio
Distance: 3+ miles and home yoga


Iris douglasiana in San Francisco Presidio

With all the publicity we get about the drought, there's so little mention of how absolutely gorgeous it is out here these days - and that the Iris douglasiana is blooming like mad in the Presidio.

A few facts: Iris was the Greek goddess of the rainbow and messenger of the gods.  She is also known as one of the goddesses of the sea and the sky....  Iris douglasiana blooms from March to July and is a common wildflower of the Central, Northern regions of California and Southern Oregon.  It was first described in Monterey, California by the 19th century botanist David Douglas....Clumps are often a single clone and be hundreds of years old.

California Native Uses: One of the most important sources of rope, fishing-net, basket-making fiber in northern California for a large numbr of tribues.  The Pomo and the Klamath in particular used fibers from the edges of the leaves to make a strong rope. They removed the strands on the edges and cleaned with a sharp tool made from abalone shell fastened to the thumb.  The process was extremely time-consuming with a twelve foot rope taking nearly six weeks to make. Coast Miwok used dried Douglas Iris to heal wounds and make a tea that induces vomiting  (Much faster!!)

    

Still Daupey --- Day 4/76

Walk: CA, Abbey and Carpet Connection
Distance: 1.5 miles, home yoga and paint, paint, paint samples



Today the wall samples were painted on by Ciwt who almost had to guess which color was which as she painted - they were that close.

Carpet samples to date were also scattered.  Ciwt's eyes are itching and bleary. And about to be sad after watching last episode ever of Justified.

Taupe Daupe --- Day 4/75

Walk: Van Ness, Abbey Carpet, Carpet Connection
Distance: 3.5 miles and home yoga



Ciwt's staycation is certainly keeping her busy.  Today it is deep taupe carpet that has her going down the road sideways. Not too brown, not too grey, too dark or too light.  Oh, and did she mention that, colorwise, it must replace a 15 year old discontinued carpet  (and looks like color as well)?