Can I Give Another Day --- Day 5/283

Walk: Marin Driving, Fillmore Street errands
Distance: 1.8 miles and home yoga





OK, so Ciwt ignored all the solicitations in her inbox today and didn't give to any causes this Giving Tuesday.  Still too recent a 'holiday' for her to take seriously, but she's opening to it a little.  Maybe another year.  Meanwhile she has her causes that she supports on random days throughout the year, every year. So, not down on giving, just questioning the sort of enforced 'spirit' of Giving Tuesday.

Cancelled --- Day 5/281

Walk: SFMOMA
Distance: 3.3 miles and small home yoga



Sorry, Piglet, no art tour this week after all.  
The people who were coming got sick.

Drinking Water (Hopefully) --- Day 5/280

Walk: Presidio
Distance: 4.4 miles



In the cold, rainy winter months, the last thing that calls to Ciwt is water.  Yet, health experts still recommend drinking adequate amounts of daily water.  Not 8-glasses, which is an urban myth, but enough to stay nicely hydrated.

OK, but what about that 'taste'? Ciwt is hopeful these (non-alcoholic) solutions will do the trick.

Rain and Studying --- Day 5/279

Walk: No, More (Necessary) Rain
Distance: 0, Home Yoga

Nazar Bilyk (Ukrainian), Rain, bronze and glass, 6', Kiev Fashion Park

Ciwt has never concentrated on sculpture for some reason.  But in less than a week she will be giving a sculpture tour.  Rain is good for many reasons, including making it easy to stay inside and study up.

Hell in Handcuffs --- Day 5/278

Walk: Sundance Kabuki (Manchester by the Sea)
Distance: 3.4 miles



Shattering, Hard to shake, So well acted, One strange (or maybe intentionally thought-provoking) casting decision.

Thanksgiving Quiz (w/answers) --- Day 5/277

Walk: Presidio
Distance: 4.3 miles, small home yoga



Okay, quiz fans, here's your Thanksgiving moment. This is Ciwt's favorite holiday and she hopes you are having/had a truly lovely day. *(Extra credit if you know what year Felix the cat was the first balloon to float in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade)


1. Thanksgiving is celebrated only in the United States.
True or False?
2.The first department store to hold a Thanksgiving parade was:
3. The Indians who were invited to the Thanksgiving feast were of the Wampanoag tribe.  Who was their chief?
4. Which President was the first to establish Thanksgiving as a legal national holiday to be held the 4th  Thursday in November?
5. What was the original name for the pilgrims?
6. The word turkey is said to come from the Hebrew word "Tukki"  which means:
7. Which President moved Thanksgiving up one week to help stimulate the Christmas shopping economy?
8. WHY is the male turkey often referred to as "Tom Turkey?"
9. The first Thanksgiving in 1621 was believed to have lasted how many days?
10. Every year the President of the US pardons a turkey and it goes to a public farm called Frying Pan Park, Herndon, VA. (It's a very nice place!) Which president is believed to be the first to pardon a turkey and start this annual tradition?



1. F; Canada celebrates in October.  
2. Gimbles
3. Massasoit
4. Lincoln
5.Old Comers
6. Big Bird
7.FDR
8. Myth:Thomas Jefferson wanted it to be the US's national bird which caused hilarity among other founding fathers - particularly Ben Franklin who wanted the turkey to be nicknamed 'Tom' after it lost out to the bald eagle. Reality: The male of many animal species are refered to as toms, especially when refering to turkeys and cats.
9. Three days.
10. JFK.
*Extra credit: 1927.  (Amusing story about Felix and other early balloons if you're 'up' for it).

Say What? --- Day 5/276

Walk: PGCC
Distance: .4 miles

Ciwt rests up for her favorite holiday tomorrow during which she will continue resting and enjoying life.  There are huge parts of her which can't believe she just typed that.

Home By Dark --- Day 5/275

Walk: Marin Driving Day, PGCC
Distance: 3.5 miles


Eudora Welty (1901-2001, Jackson, MS), Home By Dark, Yalobusha County, 1936

Ciwt so admires Eudora Welty's writing.  The Mississippi author deservedly won a Pulitizer Prize, the National Book Critics Circle Award, many O. Henry Awards AND the Medal of Freedom.  But Ciwt was amazed to learn today that, before she published a single one of her many short stories, she had a one-woman show of her photographs.

The pictures, taken soon after Welty left graduate school and returned to her beloved Jackson, Mississippi, show the rural poor in a state with Sundown Town Laws. Welty's personal place in society was very different, but her empathy and wide-ranging curiosity were not.  It was these qualities that marked her stunningly remarkable writing.

This is how close Ciwt has ever gotten to Welty: she once had an email program called "Eudora."  It was a free and marvelous program named in honor of WElty and admired and proudly used by writers all over the world.  One sad day it went dark.

Short Days --- Day 5/274

Walk:  Union Square
Distance: 4.1 miles



Short days, lots to do, no more time, Ciwt is off to bed...

Legacy: Delight --- Day 5/273

Walk: No (Rain :->)
Distance: ), Home Yoga


1975 BMW 3.0 CSL. painted by Alenxander Calder

Calder South American themed Braniff Douglas DC-8-62 taken at Miami Airport 1975

Crinkly avec disc rouge, 1973, Stuttgard, Germany

Today Ciwt enjoyed spending research time with 'Sandy' Calder (1898-1976) an extremely technically proficient, innovative and influential scultptor.  What Ciwt loves most of all is his ability to uplift and delight viewers around the world, indoors and out; that's never ending.  

Ghosts --- Day 5/272

Walk: No, Too much rain for delicate Ciwt
Distance: 0, Home Yoga


Anthony Hernandez, Oakland #1, 2001, chromogenic print (with Ciwt reflected on plexiglass, 2016)


Ghost of Ciwt in ghost of urban ruin. This is when L.A. photographer Hernandez* really began hitting his stride (in Ciwt's humble opinion).

* See Ciwt 5/257

Pretty (Or Something) in Pink --- Day 5/271

Walk: SFMOMA
Distance: 4.2 miles, small yoga



Oooh, just when  Ciwt was sure she didn't need a 'new' car.  It's actually the original Pink Panther
Car all buffed out, fully functioning and currently starring at the Los Angeles Auto Show.  Its designer was the famous George Barris who built many Hollywood custom cars, including the Munster Koach and the 1966 Batmobile.

Wonder how it will do on the streets of San Francisco?

Decision, What Decision? --- Day 5/270

Walk: PGCC 
Distance: 3 miles



Ciwt is stilllll avoiding that club decision.

Creepy World --- Day 5/269

Walk: Hi Tech Nails
Distance: 8 blocks and home yoga


Bruce Conner, Couch, 1963

Ciwt, as many of you know, has spent multiple decades immersed in modern art.  She has seen many works that she doesn't like but it is rare for her to be essentially grossed out.  A Julian Schnable show in the 80's had that effect on her for tackiness/charlatan reasons, but SFMOMA's current retrospective of the late Bruce Conner's work contains images that are truly repulsive even when educated about Conner's mindset.

This leaves Ciwt in a sort bind because she is scheduled to give a tour soon to a small group of older girlfriends coming up from San Diego.  Should she include the Conner exhibition in their two-hour introduction to the huge museum?  She has decided most likely no; there is plenty of high quality,engaging art and photography for them to be introduced to.  They can be stimulated, eager for more, maybe uplifted, without having to deal with truly negative, downer, creepy images - en masse.  If they notice the signage or have read the publicity and ask for the Conner show, Ciwt will say something about the imagery and tour the show if they chose to go ahead.  Stay tuned for the verdict...

Alex to the Rescue --- Day 5/268

Walk: Marin Driving Day, PGCC Club
Distance: 1 mile and small home yoga



Such a great diversion for Ciwt and so humbling watching 8th graders so poised on television and knowing many more answers than she does.  Go Teens!

Heard the News Today, Oh Boy --- Day 5/267

Walk: SFMOMA
Distance: 3.3 miles, small yoga


                                   Gwen Ifill  (1955-2016)

'O' No --- Day 5/266

Walk: Cinema Club (Jackie), Japantown
Distance: 3.3 miles, Home Yoga



Ciwt says NO.

Ciwt's Mind Today: Portrait --- Day 5/265

Walk: Laurel Village
Distance: 2 miles, Home Yoga


Robert Ryman (American, b. 1930), Recent Paintings, Installation at Pace Gallery, New York,  2013

Unshowy Showgirl --- Day 5/264

Walk: CPMC, Sundance Kabuki
Distance: 3.5 miles, Small Yoga

Amy Adams is beginning to enter Meryl Streep, Helen Mirren territory for Ciwt.  Not the accents, utter transformations, but in her quiet, subtle way she has inhabited numerous characters and made them unique and believable.  Today she was Louise in Arrival  , an okay sci-fi film Ciwt, along with 'audience score' people, didn't like as well as the Rotten Tomatoes critics.  But she did like Amy Adams' acting.

Same went for Big Eyes , The Master  and several of her other films (there have been over forty so far).

For Ciwt, her most memorable role so far was as grifter, Sydney Prosser, in American Hustle .  Sadly she was paid a fraction of the other star actors in the movie, and the director's meanness brought her tears nearly every day.  But working well was sweet revenge when she earned her a fifth Oscar nomination for the role.  Go Amy!

Hmmm --- Day 5/263

Walk: Another Annual Doctor Visit, Trader Joe's
Distance: 2.8 miles and Home Yoga



So, Ciwt doesn't write about politics, especially politics, and she is a bit up to her eyeballs in art for a while.  So, what to write about?  Stay tuned....

Failure to Hold On --- Day 5/262

Walk: No, Ciwt ails
Distance: 0, teeny yoga



Well, that didn't work very well.  (See yesterday's post)

Hold On --- Day 5/261

Walk: Asian Art Museum, (Not the Polls Because Ciwt voted weeks ago)
Distance: 2, wee yoga



Only one thing on everyone's minds tonight.  As election results come in, Ciwt is holding onto her hat...

Strange Rx --- Day 5/260

Walk: Annual Doctor, Sundance Kabuki (Doctor Strange)
Distance: 3.2 miles

No voice so no brainer for Ciwt today after her annual doctor visit. Doctor Strange .  Many, many excellent actors together, and occasionally Ciwt even understood what was going on.  Ahhhhh, just what the doctor ordered.


Mads Mikkelsen    Benedict Cumberbatch 

 

          Tilda Swinton        Chiwetel Ejiofor

  
                 Rachel McAdams                    Benjamin Bratt



John Wong                                                               And many more...

Taps --- Day 5/259

Walk: Presidio Tour, Vogue Theater ( I Am Not Your Negro)
Distance: 3.8 miles, small yoga


Early illustration of Presidio under the Mexican flag.  Notice: no trees.

Ciwt is glad to have her tour of the Presidio with 18 people over with.  Now she rests.

The Persistence of Falling Back --- Day 5/258

Walk: Presidio
Distance: 3.7, Home Yoga


Salvador Dali (Spanish,1904-1989), The Persistence of Memory, 1931, o/c, 9 1/2" x 12"

One of Ciwt's least favorite paintings to acknowledge one of her least favorite events:  the shift from daylight savings as she sleeps tonight.  Apparently a large number of visitors to New York's MoMA don't agree with Ciwt - about the painting anyway.  It was given to the museum by an anonymous donor in 1934 and since then has been the highlight of their collection since then.

Being Seen --- Day 5/257

Walk: SFMOMA
Distance: 3.5 miles


Anthony Hernandez, L.A- based major American photographer at SFMOMA today enjoying his first retrospective. 

Who should Ciwt and her tour group run into at SFMOMA today but the photographer featured in the museum's current exhibition and a small group of the Getty's chief photography curators - all up from L.A.. He was very gracious and spent time talking with us.   One of those great things you luck into that make the tour you are giving extra special and memorable for the members - and Ciwt.

Getting Ready --- Day 5/256

Walk: Marin Driving Day
Distance: 1/2 mile, Home Yoga


Napoleone Conccetti, In the Salon, 1881, oil on canvas

Ciwt is busy preparing for a large art tour tomorrow.

Come In, My Colorful Lovelies --- Day 5/255

Walk: Presidio
Distance: 6 miles, Small Yoga 



Children followed Wood Line* path into the Hansel and Gretel and Andy Goldsworthy  forest today.

* Andy Goldsworthy site specific sculpture, 2010-11

Clowning Around --- Day 5/254

Walk: Vogue Theater (18th Annual Animation Show of Shows)
Distance: 1.3 miles and small yoga 



Ciwt forgot that Mickey Mouse was censored and banned several times since his birth at Disney studios.  His crimes included such things as scaring Romanian children for being so Huge (1935), attempting to foment a revolt (Yugoslavia, 1937), being anti-communist (E. Germany, 1954).  Acutually, he almost didn't make it to the screen at all because the censorship powers that be right here in the States accused him of being way, way too sexy.

She had sort of forgotten too about the political cartoons in revolutionary France and about Nast and Rube Goldberg and the fact that cartoons are often very dark.

As well as delightful - like the utterly charming Disney (yes) animated short, Piper, (see tiny clip here) in today's 18th Annual Animation Show of Shows. But even Piper had a (really) cute message about coming of age, and several others had messages about mothers, personal freedom to be one's self, and the ultimate resiliance of relationships.  But at least a quarter of the 16 animated shorts from around the world were dark, scary, bleak in a focused visual way that Ciwt realized is perhaps more powerful even than intentionally scary movies with human actors.

What scared - in the awe sense - Ciwt, actually, was the thought of the years and years of hard life work involved in each short feature that will be seen by the tiniest of audiences if at all.