Book-Ish --- Day 5/132

Walk: Marin Driving Day
Distance: San Rafael, PGCCSF (golf club)

  (Not exactly)

Ciwt is just back from a book club discussion at her maybe club. Sisters-in-Law by Linda Hirshman about the two first female Supreme Court justices, Sandra Day O'Connor and Ruth Bader Ginsberg. Good book overall but probably a lot better if you are a lawyer because the author got pretty intense and specific about the exact legal points of many of the cases that came before these women.

Read for yourself if interested.  What interested former book store owner/operator Ciwt over and above the book was her discomfort with book club discussions.  Once again.  Every time she goes to one she thinks this one will be more 'orderly' and 'interesting.'  Ie, that it will go the way Ciwt wants it to go and stay pretty narrowly focused on the book, the writing, the content, etc.

Ciwt's experience so far is that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

Purrfect!  Callie stepped in (and onto the keys) just as Ciwt was going to elaborate, and said it better than Ciwt ever could.  The 'book' discussions go here, then there, then onto kids, husbands, political opinions, who knows what.  Everything except the book Ciwt has spent hours reading and thinking about so she might have something interesting to contribute.

No Big (But Still...) --- Day 5/131

Walk: No
Distance: Forgot to Exercise



Decision (Nothing big; re: whether to join a club) and Wind on Ciwt's mind today.  To be continued...

Price of Passion --- Day 5/130

Walk: PGCCSF, 'Hood
Distance: 3 miles and home yoga



Ciwt was reading an article recently about Harvard's worst career advice to its graduating students: Follow Your Passion.  Now in Ciwt's inbox is an article from the NYT titled 'Pursue Passion -- and a Paycheck.'  So which is it?

Ciwt has pursued her passions several times with some interesting results.  She owned and managed a bookstore, dragged carton after carton of books, day after day through the snow from the Post Office, put them up on the shelves, and then began all over the next day.  It was backbreaking work with antiquated, time-consuming systems, earning a 'paycheck' of roughly $1. an hour.  And... she never read a book while she owned the store, didn't have the time and needed to keep up with so many books all she could do was read blurbs about them and listen to customer reviews.  (This was before the internet, but she doubts the book business is much less labor intensive today).

Then it was on to her art passion (the first time).  Again that low paycheck, long hours, limited buyers, artists with at best bizarre notions of money and business - and this time during the sad, sad days of aids.

While teaching yoga, she kind of lost her personal practice.

The list goes on a bit longer, but the 'bottom line' is that her passions would not have supported her or a family.  For the most part, passions are not lucrative if they even pay at all, and usually while you are pursuing that passion, it gets converted into a passionless money thing - at least for the time you are doing it for money.

All this being said, in retrospect, Ciwt values her opportunities to explore, have some fun, "see behind the green door" and learn more than she might have wanted to at the time about the realities of these various fields.  She also values the way the 'paychecks' nipped at her heels and forced her to find other ways - basically investing in real estate and stocks -  to pursue her even greater passion for freedom.

N9-a --- Day 5/129

Walk: Union Square
Distance: 1 mile and Home Yoga

So, Ciwt has been wondering for years where Hillary Clinton gets her bright colored, high quality travelling pants suits..


And then came Gwen Ifill ,

Elizabeth Warren ,

Janet Yellen, Elana Kagan and a host more political and executive women.  Turns out they are all wearing Nina (pronounced Nine-ah) McLenore, a 70-year old designer who launched her label in 2001* and has a great story: She grew up in Mississippi where her mother made her clothes and she learned to sew but studied economics in college.  Her fashion business training was intense working through executive jobs at Liz Claiborne and helping develop early professional-apparel lines like Dana Buchman.  Then enough with clothes already, she earned an MBA at Columbia, worked for several years in private equity, then retired.

Which gave her time to really hear her professional women friends complain about the difficulties of finding appropriate clothing.   The options were often ill-fitting, poor fabric, limited, drab color, too expensive - which McLenore confirmed for herself when she posed as an investment banker and scoured Madison Avenue.

The rest became history - which Ciwt just caught up with today when she visited the McLenore store in San Francisco (which has been here for 9 years).  Wonderful!! fabrics, essentially impossible to wrinkle and excellent basic cuts in, yes, a rainbow of colors and moderately affordable/mid-range expensive.

If Ciwt had a political-executive lifestyle she would seriously consider wearing McLenore.  (And if Nina cut quite a bit smaller and toned down some of those colors).  Ciwt thinks the line particularly becomes Hillary.

*(About then, Ciwt - always interested in fashion - began teaching yoga and was far, far removed from such clothes).  

Takes a Village* --- Day 5/128

Walk: T. Joe's
Distance: 2 miles, small yoga on deck





*Ciwt said darkly...

You Know You're a Movie Buff When... ---- Day 5/127

Walk: Opera Plaza Cinema (The Fits), Hats of the Fillmore
Distance: 4 miles, small yoga



You walk miles to a tiny theater, see a small indie with essentially no plot - and really like it.

Ciwt Helps Out --- Day 5/126

Walk: Fillmore Street (Eileen Fisher), Walgreens; Fillmore Street (Back again: Clay Theater: Les Cowboys)
Distance: 2.5 miles

Doing her part on this rocky day, tough shopper Ciwt

1. Went to a 'hood movie: Les Cowboys (tres bien she thought)




2. Then on to local pharmacy and closet filler

Too Windy to Write --- Day 5/125

Walk: Presidio, Legion of Honor
Distance: 5 miles

Not Overcoming Obstacles --- Day 5/124

Walk: Billionaires part of the hood and other hood places
Distance: 7 miles






Ciwt found it was hard to write when she had visiting family guests.  (That's her excuse...)

Something Old... Day 5/123

Walk: Nob Hill
Distance: 5 miles



Mark Hopkins Hotel Lobby

So, today Ciwt went downtown intending to go again to our new Modern Art Museum (SFMOMA), but as she got closer and closer, she realized she wasn't ready for any more newness.  So, she ended up having a delightful afternoon in the lobbies of the various grand old (for San Francisco) Nob Hill hotels. Ahhh, sometimes there is just nothing like the (updated and electrified) 19th century.

PLUS - The Mark has its own museum    

Some Circuits Not So Much --- Day 5/122

Walk: No, Monday home stuff
Distance: Home Yoga



Ciwt can't quite make a come back from two technology sessions in row today.  See you tomorrow when she'll be able to easily form sentences again.

I Didn't Mean To Do It, Really --- Day 5/121

Walk: Opera House (Jenufa)
Distance: 5 miles

Ciwt is beginning to wonder about her sensibilities.  Yesterday she went to a documentary about one of her favorite and controversial directors, Brian De Palma.  One controversy surrounds his portrayal of graphic violence.  Some say it is artistic, others, well....

Robert De Niro as Al Capone with baseball bat in De Palma's The Untouchables (Those of you who have seen the movie know what is coming next.  If you haven't seen it, you don't want to know).

After that, Ciwt thought she should take in something a bit more highbrow.  So today she went to an Opera (Leos Janacek's Jenufa), and, guess what.  Graphic violence...

Malin Byström & Karita Mattila  in Jenufa  (You can't really see the bright red slash across the daughter's cheek)

Annals of Aging, Part 5000 or so --- Day 5/20

Walk: Embarcadero Cinema (De Palma)
Distance: 2 miles, Deck Yoga


  
(Waay) Before       After (just the other day in front of Goldsworthy's Spire)

Do blonds really have more fun?  In Ciwt's experience, not really.  She learned by accident the other day when she went to a new hairdresser.  By the time she got there and not paying much attention to how the color of her hair has changed over the years. Ciwt asked him to color it - expecting the brown she thought she still was.  But, never having seen Ciwt before, he colored what he saw.  And it was b-l-o-n-d.

PS -It took Ciwt a while to figure out what had happened. She went back to the same guy the other day and is now a brunette again - (a very light one)..

And Read A Book --- Day 5/119

Walk: PGCC, Vogue Theater (Finding Dory)
Distance: 3 miles

Ciwt finds the little home lending libraries she encounters around her neighborhood very charming. Wonder if anyone actually uses them and if they exist all over the place.  Hope so.

Walk Right In, Sit Right Down --- Day 5/118

Walk: Union Square, Presidio Golf
Distance: 4 miles, hit a bucket of balls, small stretch


Ciwt was charmed by some of her neighbors' doors on one of her recent walks.



Tudor and Starfish.  Who'd have known?

Is this Alf?

Oui, Merci...

Hmmmm --- Day 5/117

Walk: Hood
Distance: 3 miles

Solar Energy --- Day 5/116

Walk: Stairs, Gardening
Distance: Not so much but quite a bit of elbow grease, Home yoga





So, here in San Francisco, the sun came out for a whole day and the wind died down (sort of).  What a difference in Ciwt's energy, spirit, accomplishments.  More of the same,  please.

Dark --- Day 5/115

Wind in the Wings - Or Not Day 5/114

Walk: Trader Joe's, Doc Fest (1. Summer Help 2. Live One More Day)
Distance: 3 miles, small yoga stretch


Joseph Hautman, Trumpeter Swan

Sneak Preview of the Federal Duck Stamp for you before it becomes available for purchase next month. Meanwhile Ciwt is taking in two documentaries with Director Q&A's.  Both films were excellent, but maybe the best part for Ciwt was a whole afternoon out of the wind. Of course, these swans would totally disagree with her.

Real Value; No Quack Here --- Day 5/113

Walk: UPS, Vogue Theater (Million Dollar Duck)
Distance: 2 miles and home yoga


Adam Grimm, Canvasback, 2014-15 Federal Duck Stamp, oil on board

Documentaries can be so good!  Ciwt just returned from one about the Federal Duck Stamp which was informative, endearing and tense in equal measure.   All the close ups of wildlife and the endless fields and wetlands of the Midwest made her think about moving back there.  Almost, for one moment....  

If you're casting around for a present for anyone who loves nature, ducks, wetlands (maybe youself) and has everything, you might consider a Federal Duck Stamp.  98 cents of every duck stamp dollar goes directly to acquiring and preserving wildlife habitat.  And, if your giftee is a stamp collector, well, the stamp is a collectible that increases in value.

Wind/Trees --- Day 5/112

Walk: Sundance Kabuki (The Lobster)
Distance: 2 miles and small yoga



Not quite the trees at Ciwt's nearby park

yet.

Assimilation Time --- Day 5/111

Walk: No
Distance: 



Primaries nearly over, presumptive candidates, overwhelming new museum, final groundwork touches on new website/business, talks with friends.  Ciwt is taking it all in.

The Table In Front --- Day 5/110

Walk: No; Office Update/Many Papers Bye By
Distance: A few stairs and ladder rungs, Home Yoga


Betty White (at age 93 - Still Alive in spite of celebrity death hoax)

Ciwt just got a report from one of her classmates who was back East for our __Reunion  and said it was a warm, loving, Real time.  She also said there was a table of alumnae from the class 20 years before ours - ie, 20 years older than Ciwt and her classmates.  And it was a Big table, and all the women (it was a women's college) were well-dressed, stylish, highly intelligent and fun.  In other words, very together and fabulous role models.  Isn't that kind of amazing and marvelous?!

  
Ruby Dee (at age 90)         (Not sure, but she looks lovely)

The B Car --- Day 5/109

Walk: Polling Place, Hi-Tech Nails
Distance: 2 miles and home yoga



On this CA Primary day, Ciwt thought this car was just perfect for a Bernie supporter.

(This is a politics free blog, so no political statement intended by Ciwt).

Not for Kids --- Day 5/108

Walk: Hood & Callie Errands
Distance: 3 miles and small yoga



Oh man, how does Steph (have the courage to) do what he does?  Keep going, Warriors!

Where Did It Go? --- Day 5/107

Walk: No, Editing, Reading re: Women Supreme Court Justices, General Custer, Watching Warriors
Distance: Home Yoga



Like Pooh, Ciwt is a bear of very little brain at the moment.

Looking, Learning, Living --- Day 5/106

Walk: No, Home Reading
Distance: Home Yoga


Jules-Adolphe Breton, The Song of the Lark, 1884, o/c

So 'art expert' Ciwt finally is getting around to finishing a book by Willa Cather.  It has been sitting near her bed for months with a touching scene of a lone peasant girl on the cover.  Ciwt has looked at that girl so many times assuming it was an artistic representation of the heroine of the novel.  But since that heroine goes from Chicago to New York to Europe as she rises to fame with her singing, Ciwt got confused enough about the cover image that she finally researched it.

Well...The Cather book is titled The Song of the Lark, and so is the painting on the cover.  Ciwt should say the famous painting on the cover done by a famous French Romantic-Realist painter Ciwt had never heard of, Jules Breton.  It hangs at the Chicago Art Institute, and, if you go to You Tube, you can find a video in which Bill Murray credits this very painting for saving his life.

A young-in-his-career and discouraged Murray was literally on his way to Lake Michigan to take his life when he somehow decided to go into the Art Institute and visit one of his favorite paintings.  He looked at the peasant girl clearly living a hardscrabble life but taking hope and heart from the beautiful call of a morning lark as a new day dawns behind her.  Standing there he was moved by the simple beauty that makes all lives worth living - including his own.

 "...the lark at break of day arising/From sullen earth, sings hymns at heaven's gate.." 
                                                         Shakespeare, Sonnet 29 (v. 11-12)

For the Art --- Day 5/105

Walk: Sundance Kabuki (The Nice Guys)
Distance: 2 miles



The Louvre is closed to tourists right now as the Seine waters rise, and its personnel with a few qualified volunteers are working through the days and nights to move the vulnerable art on the lower levels of the museum to higher floors.  Painstakingly precise and physically tiring labors of love.  All efforts to preserve art throughout history and in every country always seem awesome to Ciwt and give her chills.

REUNION ---Day 5/104

Walk: Garage x 2, Marin Driving Day
Distance: 2 miles, maybe a little yoga later



Right now several Ciwt's college dormitory friends are back East celebrating our __th Reunion.  Most of us have made it to this place and most of those in good health.  So now, onward with grace.

I See Said the Blind Man --- Day 5/103

Walk: Union Square Galleries
Distance: 2.5 miles and home yoga





Today Photography was cued up.  An art form Ciwt knows little about except for the famous names and images.  Especially she has no knowledge of how to evaluate technique - which is a large percentage of what sets one photographer apart from another.  And when it comes to video art, which more and more people are buying, she is quite lost.  Why have it? Where/When do you display it? Do you need separate rooms in case some your guests (or you) get nauseated or lose equilibrium from the light sensitivity?  Or the sensitivity to the images in the videos themselves? So far Ciwt has failed to get it.