Lessons Because of Cats --- Day 7/62

Walk: Monday Hood Errands
Distance: 2 miles, Pedal, Yoga

Robo Vacs!  They get under everything: beds, bureaus, couches, chairs, you name it. Plus they are quiet as they whirr around.  And kind of like pets.  We all started wide eyed and hunched against the wall, but soon we were cozying up to the little sweeper that could.

RBG Forever --- Day 7/61

Walk: Cinema Club (RBG)
Distance: 2 miles

After today's excellent documentary on Ruth Bader Ginsburg at Cinema Club Ciwt is busy selecting her RBG tee.

Long but Comfortable --- Day 7/60

Walk: A.C.T. 
Distance: 1 mile, Many Stairs

  Ensemble from Suzan-Lori Parks' play Father Comes Home from the Wars, Parts 1,2&3 at A.C.T.

So when Ciwt tired of carrying boxes, heaters, bags of donation clothes down her stairs today she decided something stimulating was in order.  So, off to A.C.T. for a play by Pulitzer Prize, MacArthur Fellowship and general all around genius Suzan-Lori Parks.  

Maybe because of all her Prizes and Awards, nobody dared to edit the playwright.  Father Comes Home from the Wars, Parts 1,2&3 was very good but entirely too long. She felt this and so did the people sitting near her and those she heard talking in line for the Ladies Room after sitting two hours for the first act.  

Still very worthwhile plus when Ciwt went on line to look last minute there was an available frontish, centerish with comfortable seating ticket.  Too long?  Oh well.....

Know Thyself --- Day 7/59

Walk: Errands
Distance: 4 miles, small pedal

          Empty 'storage' boxes and Teacher

So this is what Ciwt's sometimes hidey cat taught her today:  She is not the sort of person who carefully fills empty boxes with seasonal or excess things and slides them under her bed.   Rather, she keeps some 'good' empty boxes, slides them under her bed and then doesn't remember they are there for years.  Until she gets a new cat with a new hiding place. 

Tomorrow they go. (Cat stays).  At least she didn't invest in a whole set or two of expensive Container Store under the bed 'solutions.'

Going Native 2 --- Day 7/58

Walk: Asian Art Museum, Hayes Valley
Distance: 2.5 miles

Judas Ullulaq (Canadian, Inuit, 1937-1999), Inukshuk (like a person), 
1981-82, Steatite, walrus tusk, and musk ox horn.

Another of Ciwt's favorites from the deYoung Inuit collection.  She loves the strength in simplicity.

Going Native --- Day 7/57

Walk: Pet Store
Distance: 1 mile

David Ruben Piqtoukun (Canadian, Inuit, b. 1950), Bear in Shamanic Transformation,
 ca. 1991, Steatite, bone, alumium and paint.

Ciwt likes many of the pieces from the de Young's  modern Inuit collection.

Here's what the de Young signage has to say about this sculpture: As a young child, the artist of this piece was sent to a distant boarding school, which he calls his 'education in forgetting.' ' The rules were very straight forward for every Inuit or Indian, do not speak your language or even whisper your original language to yourself or anyone elso around you.' 
Piqtoukun learned stone carving from his brother, Abraham Anghik Ruben.  He describes this as 'an education in remembering' and collects Inuit mythologies and stories as sources of inspiration.  This work depicts the Bear-Man, a mighty sham symbolic of the spiritual power that humans sometimes lack.

Clear As Glass --- Day 7/56

Walk: Monday errands
Distance: 3 miles

Thge dark side of home ownership.  Time again for new windows and a little less sparkle for a while.

While We Have It, Pt. 2 --- Day 7/55

Walk: Goldsworthy/Presidio Art Tour, Hood
Distance: 5 miles

Andy Goldsworthy, Spire, (2008),  On Tour Today. 
Slowly disappearing into the forest.

While We Have It... --- Day 7/54

Walk: Joe's
Distance: 2.2 miles, Yoga

      Andy Goldsworthy Spire ca 2009

So tomorrow Ciwt will give her Goldsworthy/Presidio hiking art tour.  And she will be interested to see how hidden Goldsworthy's Spire will be and the condition it is in.  When he first erected it in 2008 and the small evergreens were planted around it you could see it from just about anywhere in San Francisco.  But Goldsworthy couldn't be more distant from a "Look at Me" artist.  It was always his intention to let nature do its natural thing around Spire so that someday a hiker might just discover it in a thick grove of tall trees, maybe stand to commune or just wander on.  Some day after that Spire will be gone. The wood will have deteriorated, the debris will settle into the earth and add another layer.  And layers, not permanence, is what Goldsworthy is about.

    Andy Goldsworth Spire ca 2014

Seven Year Itch? --- Day 7/51,2 & 3

Walks: Hood, de Young Museum
Distance: 6 miles, yoga

Not to worry, loyal readers. Ciwt is fine but seems to be experiencing a bit of 7 year itch with her alter ego (or something) CIWT.  

Annals of Aging, vol. 892 --- Day 49&50

Walk: Hood, Endoscopy Center 
Distance:  Day 49 1.5 miles, Day 50 (today) 

Some of you know what Ciwt is talking about.  Others = Luckee!

All good for another five years, but gawd....

Rider and Slickers --- Day 7/48

Walk: Cinema Club (The Rider)
Distance:  2 miles

Ciwt highly recommends The Rider, her Cinema Club screening today.  Pure, deeply affecting, sensitive, beautifully acted and directed; she would even say sublime like spare poetry can be. * 

But then several of her club members walked out on the movie, so maybe it won't be for you.

She's thinking the ones who left might be truer city slickers then Ciwt realized existed.  A few of them stayed, commented and left Ciwt slacked jawed.  According to one, she could not imagine why anyone would get on a bucking horse, fall off, then get on another one.  Another person informed us  "People play games depending on what is available where they live. These people on the plains only have horses so they play games with horses." Clearly they had literally never heard of rodeos muchless life on the plains, and Ciwt is guessing the ones who left hadn't either.  Wow!

Sometimes one of the most amazing aspect of Cinema Club is the difference in perspectives among the members. 

*Actor Brady Jandreau and Writer/Director Chloe Zhao

Billions for Nothing --- Day 7/47

Walk: No
Distance: Long Pedal, Yoga

Having worked herself into kind of a tizzy for her recent art tours, Ciwt is currently working at doing nothing.  Not easy to do nothing but helped by demanding youngish cats and bingeing on Billions.

Day Without Art --- Day 7/46

Walk: Hood
Distance: 4.5 miles, Pedal

No images because Ciwt just realized they would constitute art.  Anyway, Ciwt enjoyed her museum free, art free day today.

More Art --- Day 7/45

Walk: Polk & Sutter Streets
Distance: Just 8-9 Blocks

Artist Diane Rosenblum and Creative Development Advisor Marc Zegans

After all the time spent at museums, Ciwt had kind of forgotten the world of art gallery openings.
Also liveable (not museum huge and in your face) art.  This evening's opening was well hung, well attended and enjoyable.

Another aspect of an art opening after a long hiatus: The other day Ciwt heard a clip of a comedian who was talking about hanging out with younger friends and how at 35+ that doesn't quite work.  He opened by saying "23 is actually still an age..." 

Listening, Hoping --- Day 7/44

Walk: PGCC  
Distance: A few blocks, PT, Yoga, Pedal

Mayoral Candidate Night at the Club.  June election coming up.

Culture Effect ---- Day 7/42 & 3

Walk: 1. No, Rest  2. SF Playhouse (The Effect)
Distance: 1. 0  2. 1 mile, PT, Pedal

Joe Estlack as Tristan, Aylet Firstenberg as Connie meet and, perhaps fall in love in SF Playhouse production of The Effect by Lucy Prebble

San Francisco ain't New York or London when it comes to theater - or probably most culture - but Ciwt enjoys the intimacy and quality of some of our small theater out here.  Plus plays are a valued break from the work of art museums. 

She has a friend who simply does not do museums - period. She does do theater and opera and always has.  Just sit back - research if you want - and take it in.

Ciwt is beginning to understand..  

Enough Chaos for Now --- Day 7/41

Walk: SF Opera House (Nijinsky Ballet)
Distance: 5 miles

Today's ballet about the sadly mad Nijinski echoed Ciwt's recent tour experience so she ended up leaving after the first act.  Excellent, unusual dancing, but a bit dissonant and chaotic - and she's sure heartbreaking in Act 2.  

A calm round trip walk in our blue sky, crisp after the deluge weather was just right.  

Horrors --- Day 7/40

Walk: AMC Kabuki (A Quiet Place), Hood Errands
Distance: 3.8 miles

Here are some things Ciwt will walk many miles to avoid: tourists, getting involved with tourist's schedules, people who are monumentally late,  people who take pictures with or hang out on their iphones while they are supposedly on a tour, last minute changes and assignments, crowds,  racing from museum to museum in an 'atmospheric river,' being outside at all in an atmospheric river.  In a word, Ciwt has gotten to be pretty enamored of control.

So why did she give back to back art tours to a swank international group of conference goers yesterday and the day before - and spend weeks ahead of time preparing and getting anxious about the unknown?  Well, because she works with someone (who lives elsewhere) who signed her up months in advance without really explaining what was to descend on Ciwt and San Francisco.

Anyway, it is over now and Ciwt is back.  (One of these days she hopes to be able to digest her food again). On this first day of rest a movie called A Quiet Place  understandably called (softly) to her.  Off she went; it was a horror movie but very well done (though with a non-sensical plot) and Ciwt was numb enough not to be particularly horrified.

Slice of Museum History - Luckily --- Day 7/39

Walk: de Young Museum
Distance: 1 mile, small yoga and PT

Tomorrow Ciwt will tour the de Young Museum.  The NEW one; now rebuilt to be one of the safest places to be in San Francisco if we have an earthquake.  For good reason:

Second de Young Museum near opening in 1920's

Second de Young Museum near closing after 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake

What a Difference an Architect Makes --- Day 7/38

Walk: Errands
Distance: 3 miles, Yoga, PT

Old SFMOMA Lobby

New Old SFMOMA Lobby

Do you have a favorite?  Many SF 'old timers' definitely do.

SSS re:S --- Day 7/37

Walk: Kabuki Cinema (Death of Stalin)
Distance: 2.4 miles, Yoga, PT, Pedal

    Jeffrey Tambor, Steve Busceme, Simon Russell Beale, (Adrian McLoughlin 'dead' on floor)

Sophisticated Sadistic Slapstick re: Stalin.  That's Ciwt's take on Death of Stalin, the movie.  (Don't know if the graphic novel it was based on was the same).  Not her style at all - except there were many moments that seemed very Monty Python which is definitely one of her humor styles.

She went because a friend recommended it.  He has lived internationally and writes about government and politics so Ciwt can understand why he enjoyed it so much.  (A huge number of Rotten Tomatoes critics as well).

Strangely enough, she came out of the theater in an up mood.  The movie moved along smartly, never a dull moment. The ensemble acting was superb.  Steve Busceme will likely get a Oscar and other nominations for Best Actor.  And the movie was so out of Ciwt's usual range it offered an opportunity for a real getaway.  Like going to a visually interesting country where you don't speak the language and just take things at face value. Or a non-English opera sung with no supertitles.