The CIWT, Best Actor 2016 --- Day 5/314

Walk: Opera Plaza Cinema (Hacksaw Ridge)
Distance:  3.8 miles



Stand back, Casey, Denzel and other contenders, Ciwt has decided that her pick for CIWT Best Actor 2016 in all the Award Ceremonies is....Andrew Garfield as Desmond Doss in Hacksaw Ridge.  Plus she doesn't have to compromise anything: Garfield is a beautifully trained and seasoned British-American actor, he works on behalf of excellent causes, and seems to be an all around thoughtful, intelligent and good guy.

Free For Flicks --- Day 5/313

Walk: Opera Plaza Cinema (Miss Sloane, Nocturnal Animals)
Distance:  4.5 miles

Ciwt was relieved and energized at not having to somehow become a French speaker before her trip, she marched right off to catch up on her award-contender movies.  Not just one but two.



Jessica Chastain, a Best Actress contender, was terrific as always, and the film had more of a story than she was expecting.  Good enough, but Chastain's character was one-note throughout.  Good for her for breathing some variety into it.



It was a little weird to walk out of a movie where the star was a sophisticated beautiful career woman with long red hair and bright red lipstick directly into another movie whose star looked virtually the same.  In this case, though, not the least one note was Amy Adams' character, and Amy did an outstanding job of portraying her several faces, moods and circumstances in Nocturnal Animals. Same with Jake Gyllenhaal whose acting just keeps getting better and better even though he could have just settled at being a hunk.  Who knows what the movie was about.  Certainly not the many reviewers including Ciwt, but the arty cinematography was slick and just gorgeous.

Language Triage --- Day 5/312

Walk: No, Busy studying 
Distance: 0, Home Yoga


                 Remember Study Hall?

While continuing to cram old French language memories into the present for her upcoming trip, Ciwt encountered a couple of sentences in some travel advice book.  (Advice book for anxious travelers actually). Essentially, the author cautioned: If you have a rudimentary grasp of a foreign language and speak it to a native, you need to be able to understand their response.  If you begin speaking in their language, they will assume you are fluent and answer you in the local speed - ie, a mile a minute to you. When they realize you aren't fluent, they will (probably with some frustration) wonder why you didn't ask "Do you speak English?" in the first place.

Ciwt finds this this advice soothing.  She is very good at quickly pronoucing "Do you speak English?" And many people in Paris do, so win-win.  Win-win-win because she actually reads French quite well - well enough to get by anyway and at her own speed.

Ritual in White: 'Everything' Room --- Day 5/311

Walk: de Young Museum (docent tour of Frank Stella show)
Distance: 5.5 miles, small stretch

Ritual in White: Hallways --- Day 5/310

Walk: Trader Joe's, Golf Club Member's Party
Distance: 3 miles, small stretch

You how we all have our little rituals?  One of Ciwt's is to begin each year with white flowers only. Sort of a calm blank slate and stepping aside to let the year enter with its own colors.

Parlez-vous Quoi? --- Day 5/309

Walk: Presidio
Distance: 5 miles



And now Ciwt begins dusting off her ancient French speaking 'skills' for her trip to Paree.

Personal Traditions --- Day 5/308

Walk: Sundance Kabuki (Fences)
Distance: 2 miles



Ciwt honored her Christmas tradition of going to a movie today. (She skipped the long, lovely walk she was intending to take because brrrrr).  She always heads off with high hopes because the supposedly Best movies are released at the Very end of the year. Unfortunately her hopes have been dashed for a couple of years - Hateful 8 last year and Fences today.  For Ciwt both were B+ while she went hoping for an A.  Maybe New Year's Day or next Christmas...

Got Yogurt* --- Day 5/307

Walk: Trader Joe's
Distance: 1.7 miles and small home yoga


 Ciwt's  Breakfast

Ciwt's Lunch

 

Ciwt's Dinner

b-o-r-i-n-g --- Day 5/306

Walk: Union Square Dentist
Distance: 2.9 miles



Now Ciwt is under orders to.. Rest, Refrain from doing much talking (Sorry, Callie), Yogurt and totally boring food only, No yoga, A bunch of antibiotics.  Ie, totally b-o-r-i-n-g for like a w-e-e-k.

Holiday Happiness Is.... Day 5/305

Walk: Marin Driving Day, Fillmore errands
Distance: 2.6 miles and small yoga



Lunch with friends on their Sausalito Houseboat on a clear, blue and warm day two days before Christmas.

Downtown After All --- Day 5/304

Walk: Union Square Dentist
Distance: 1 mile, small home yoga







Ciwt spoke too soon yesterday. She did have to go downtown again after all, and it looks like she'll be getting a new tooth for Christmas.

Goodbye for a While, Downtown -- Day 5/303

Walk: SF Playhouse (She Loves Me)
Distance: A Few Blocks



Ciwt is hoping tonight's season tickets play will be her last trip downtown until after the holiday season.  It's pretty down there but also pretty crowded .

Expanding --- Day 5/302

Walk: SFMOMA (plan: last time before holiday crowds), Fillmore Street
Distance: 6.2 miles, home yoga




Reminder to self and friends:  In these colder, darker months with its short days and extra demands it is particularly important to remember expansive movement.  Tai Chi, Swimming, Yoga, Simple Stretching. Or let a massage therapist do the expanding for you.  Strength training and cardio workouts are good, but stretching or yoga is better.  The first two types of activities harden and tighten our bodies and actually accelerate the aging process with deliberate constriction. So it is important to counteract the tightening with opening activities. If you spend 5 minutes with weights or running, spend 10 stretching. If you are a walker like Ciwt, spend some time stretching out.

Many expansive activities have built in cardio and strength components.  Hatha Yoga does with its moving and weight bearing asanas, so does swimming with its deep breathing and stretching.  Tai Chi is well-rounded.  In many ways, stretching/expanding is the fountain of youth - or at least a vital link to our health and wellness.

Couples' Stories --- Day 5/301

Walk: Cinema Club (Toni Erdmann), Dosa
Distance: 2 miles



La La Land

Toni Erdmann

Ciwt says see both these movies...

One More Day on THAT Planet --- Day 5/300

Walk: Sundance Kabuki (La La Land), Club
Distance: 2 miles, small yoga, dance (? - hopefully not)



So now Ciwt is going dancing at her 'new' club.  She said she wouldn't, and she hates to dance (really), but got roped into it.  Tomorrow the club closes for 3 weeks so Ciwt can return to the life she knows.

PS  -  Speaking of 'where are we?' moments, Ciwt looked in the paper this morning to check out the weather in the place she grew up.  At 4 a.m. it predicted to be -24 with a wind chill factor that brings the temperature to @ a death-defying -44.  Take care, people and animals...

Festi-what? --- Day 5/299

Walk:  Best Buy and other errands
Distance: 2.3 miles




Ciwt is busy with club holiday festivities.   (What planet are we on?)

Ciwt Waits in Line --- Day 5/298

Walk: Presidio (Home Land Security Art Show), Legion of Honor (Le Nann Bros. Show)
Distance: 1.2 miles and home yoga


Tirtzah Bassel (Israel, b. 1979), Concourse, 2016, duct tape on wall
     (with Ciwt)

Today's storm - and the deadline for the show's closing - prompted Ciwt to return to Home Land Security, a temporary art show installed in some of the Presidio's old military defense structures. When she first heard about it, Ciwt thought "No Way; Too political and too much of a downer."

But luckily she got over herself and to the show which she found to be high quaility and thought provoking.  Also, sincere, straightforward and honest which sets it apart from so much of of the art since the 80's which has been all about bombast and attention getting.  (Eg, the attention of corporate/industrialist buyers.  But that is another story for another day)

Concourse, the art work above is 'drawn' entirely in duct tape, a material most often associated with quick fixes and temporary solutions. We've all been to this post 9/11 airport: the long lines, the waiting, the possibility of pat down, the complex feelings.  On the one hand there is travel - free adventurous -and on the other vulnerability, discomfort, needing to conform.  Even with such limited materials the artist has achieved a world that encouraged Ciwt to enter and reflect on.

One of Those Moments --- Day 5/297

Walk: Union Square, Best Buy
Distance: 4.2 miles



Ciwt turned around on her way home yesterday and caught sight of a moon like she had never seen before.

She stopped and watched mesmerized as it silently rose higher


and higher


and cleared the building and kept rising.  Today someone told her that moon and tonight's moon are the biggest we've seen in 30 years because the earth is closer to the moon than it has been for that long.

Huppert Oui -- Day 5/296

Walk: Embarcadero Cinema (Elle)
Distance: 3.5 miles, home yoga



This is the time of year Ciwt gets in as many award nominated movies as possible - whether they call to her or not.  Take today's movie, Elle.  Ciwt had considered it for weeks but, no, not interested; then Isabelle Hippert showed up on all the Best Actress nomination lists so far. So off she went happy for an excuse to walk in the dank and later light rain of day.

A visually likeable, peculiar little affair.  Huppert is absolutely smashing which makes Ciwt glad she went.  Tomorrow she's thinking Lion, another nominated one she's been avoiding until now.  Stay tuned.....

Everyday Antiquity --- Day 5/295

Walk: Marin Driving/Mill Valley
Distance:  2.3 miles

 

Ciwt's Favorite Nearby Garden. Timeless with a soothing sense of antiquity. Particularly nice to contemplate today after brave Ciwt had lunch with classmates she hasn't seen since high school graduation.  

Tis the Season... Day 5/294

Walk: SFMOMA (again!!!  That's It for a while), Calvary Christmas Concert
Diatance: 5.1 miles



Feels like SAD is lurking so Ciwt needs to begin spending quality time with her light box until the first week of January.  Or maybe it is all that ironing and mending and repeat viewings of some of the art at SFMOMA...

**## Mending --- Day 5/293

Walk: No (Rain Wimp)
Distance: 0, small yoga


Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Gabrielle Mending, 1908, o/c*

Papers filed, articles downloaded, emails answered, bills paid, closets adjusted.  Stilllll raining, so Ciwt can't avoid it any longer - the dreaded (along with ironing) mending.

*This is a (boring) late Renoir painting that inclines Ciwt toward the Renoir Sucks...crowd.  (See CIWT 4/253)
Of course, it too would sell for many millions, so once again Genevieve, his great-great granddaughter would have the last laugh.

Study in Grey --- Day 5/292

Walk: Union Square, SFMOMA
Distance: 2.5 miles and home yoga



Has Ciwt been spending too much time at SFMOMA or is everything turning into (grey) modern art?

 detail

Well Read --- Day 5/291

Walk: Marin Driving Day, PGCC Thursday Book Group
Distance: 0 and no exercise



Back again to the new club.  This time for Co-Ed Book Group.  Ciwt has noticed with some interest the women's book group usually chooses fiction selections and the co-ed one goes for non-fiction, often political.

Club Woman --- Day 5/290

Walk: Union Square, PGCC (committee meeting, bridge, speaker event, dinner)
Distance: Not far



Ciwt was busy participating in her new club today.  Catch you tomorrow...

Even Cities Have Sunrises --- Day 5/289

Walk: CPMC, Trader Joe's, Mollie Stone's
Distance: 4.10 miles and home yoga


                          From Ciwt's,  6:30 a.m.

Ciwt, This is Your Life --- Day 5/288

Walk: Monday errands & wait for furnace & iphone repairs
Distance: 1 mile, small home yoga


Ciwt's old notebooks, photos, memorabilia, extra 
office supplies, full of  things not looked at in years

Oh dear, can Ciwt do this project; the one where you have to review and actually look at your past life? Yes, she can!  Her inspiration: friends.  One is a married couple who downsized from a 3 bedroom, 2-story house with recording studio to a Houseboat!  The other lives in that 3 (or is it 4) bedroom, 3 story house with double garage BUT is so incredibly organized she might as well live on a houseboat.  Today I texted her to ask if she had ever tossed old photos and she responded "Yes! I tossed a bunch of old photos and a couple of scrapbooks.  I can do it!"

Two heroines!  Onward goes Ciwt....

Metaphysical Laughs? --- Day 5/287

Walk: Cinema Club (The Brand New Testament), Smokehouse Restaurant
Distance: 3.5 miles




Here's one kind of movie Ciwt can't get into: 'metaphysical comedy.'  So few comedies succeed in making her laugh, and then if you throw in the metaphysical part about which she cares not at all, well....

That's the kind that was shown at Cinema Club today: The Brand New Testament.  For Ciwt it felt like she used to at very long operas before supertitles; she knew the spectacle was "Good" but mostly she was uncomprehending, disengaged and wondering when it would all be over.  Of course, as is always the case at Cinema Club, most of the rest of the audience Loved! it.  But then, a lot of people leave before the discussion - presumably many who didn't like the movie any more than Ciwt.  So maybe she's not such an oddball after all.

Blue Ribbon --- Day 5/286

Walk: de Young Museum (Frank Stella Retrospective)
Distance: 5.10 miles


Frank Stella, K.144, 2013, ABS RPT (rapid prototype technology) with stainless steel

Ciwt Award: Best in Frank Stella Retrospective show at de Young Museum.

Now What? --- Day 5/285

Walk: Pets Unlimited, Vino/Mollie Stone's
Distance: 2.5 miles, Home Yoga


Alexander Calder (1898-1976), Big Crinkly, 1968, painted steel, 150" x 97" x76"

Ciwt is feeling a bit like Big Crinkly pictured here in its SFMOMA home in front of the living wall.
Part of her is grounded (or a 'stabile' as Calder's stationary sculptures are called) but her head is kind of blowing in the wind (or 'mobile' the term for Calder's moving works). Bur still lively, colorful, creative - so not to worry.

What If? --- Day 5/284

Walk: Presidio, etc.
Distance: 5.10 miles, hit medium bucket of balls



Ciwt moves?... Suddenly runs out of money?...Never, ever goes?...Travels All the Time?....What if?...What if?...What if?

So Ciwt did join that golf and more club near her home after all. And now her mind is Filled with (mostly preposterous) "What If's?"  Are you like that too after making a commitment- is it just Ciwt?

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.