2019 with Tulips --- Day 7/265

Walk: Hood Again, Town School Clothes Closet
Distance: 4 miles

Final 2018 clothes donation dropped off, 2018 tax installments paid, 2019 calendar purchased. End of the year is getting serious.

No Imelda Here --- Day7/264

Walk: No, Storm
Distance: 0, yoga

Ciwt thought this was a good stormy day for her shoe closet caper.
Ooops, wrong picture. Here's Ciwt's reality
All black, nothing dainty, low heels, tons of padding with as much
style as her long walking requirements allow.   

What is Ciwt Missing? --- Days 7/261-263

Walks:1. Desert Horizons Spa, Enterprise Rental  2 & 3. Hood
Distance: 1. 1 mile, Yoga   2&3. 4 miles

So Ciwt's time in the desert was all about family, their families, their friends, pickleball, perfect weather, delicious meals, restfulness.  This was until she happened to check the status of her return flight about an hour before going to the airport. The status of that flight  was "Cancelled."  She looked at the boarding pass in her hand, then back at the screen.  A couple of times.  Until it sunk in.  CANCELLED. No alerts, no calls, no texts, no "Sorry and Good luck, Ciwt and your cats"   Nothing.

Ciwt's catsitter had gone on to another job so the cats were at home by themselves now and there were no other planes available that day, except for $800 at an airport hours away.  So, Ciwt decided to rent a car and drive herself back to San Francisco and her cats.  No more family, friends, and not much daylight left.  It was Ciwt alone in a rental car in the desert, then passing one semi after another in the dark and finally crossing the Bay Bridge and heading home.  Luckily she had been well rested and well fed.

For the past few days she has enjoyed being home, outfoxing the airline, re-establishing herself in her cats' good graces, re-settling in her life.  But something has been missing. What could it be wondered Ciwt. 

Aha, just now she remembered:  CIWT!  She hasn't written a thing for days!!!

Indian Wells --- Days 7/258-260

Walk: Up Mountains, Around Golf Courses, On Pickle Ball Court, Amongst the Palm Trees, Past the Gurgling Fountains, onto her yoga mat, to and from the Parties, to her room to re-charge.

Distance: She'll see.  Four Days in the desert.

Parades --- Day 7/257

Walk: SFO to PSP (Palm Springs)
Distance: ?

There are PARADES

New York

 
And there are other parades

Palm Springs

                                               
Ciwt will be enjoying Thanksgiving  at - near actually - the lower one. And, parade or not,Ciwt wishes you the happiest of Thanksgivings.

Fresh Air!! --- Day 7/256

Walk: Packing and Breathing Deeply in the Rain
Distance: 8 Blocks, Yoga

                         

This Too... --- Day 7/255

Walk: Errands and just getting the ---- outside
Distance: 1.5 miles (in 'hazardous' air), yoga (for which Ciwt is so grateful)

Packing caper, Episode One --- Day 7/254

Walk: No, Packing Caper Day 1
Distance: 0, yoga


Some people pack the night before or even the morning they are leaving.
Not Ciwt.  She's getting ready to go to the desert on Thanksgivng Day, so
her packing caper began today.  (A bit early, but what's a girl to do when the
air outside is officially hazardous)?

When Glamor was Glamour... --- Day 7/253

Walk: Clay Theater (Maria by Callas)
Distance: 1.6 (hazardous air) miles, Yoga

...And talent was TALENT.

Watchmakers --- Day 7/252

Walk: No
Distance: 0

As Ciwt (along with most Bay Area residents) sat inside with her cats all day she couldn't help but note the irony of all the tech geniuses who have flocked just down the road and apply their talents to the the latest smartwatches and other smartgadgets.  And not making things for hazardour air, homeless people, overcrowded freeways, global warming, etc.  

Scrutable Unscrutability --- Day 7/250

Walk: Union Square, Embarcadero Cinema (Burning)
Distance: 2 miles, small yoga

Director Lee Chang-dong's BURNING

Sensual, ugly, beautiful, sinister, humorous, enigmatic, crystal clear.  Burning is all of these, mesmerizingly shape shifting from moment to moment.  Highly intelligent, perfectly acted and shot, Burning is also languidly literary and, at 2.5 hours, not for the impatient or those uninterested in life's ultimate mysteries.  Ciwt loved it. 

              

Climbing Walls, Etc. --- Days 7/249-50

Walk: Not So Much
Distance: A Few Miles, Smallish Yoga



                

We're all going a bit stir crazy around Ciwt's home not being able go outside and exercise in the smoke.

Not Fog --- Day 7/248

Walk: Hood Errands
Distance: 4 miles, yoga

Nailed It Today --- Day 7/247

Walk: Nails on Fillmore, Home for Cat Groomer
Distance: 8 blocks

  Ciwt doesn't particularly like getting her nails done. (Too boring)

But she's much quieter about it than her cats

To All Who Serve and Have Served, Love Ciwt --- Day 7/246

Walk: Cinema Club (Becoming Astrid), Calvary Presbyterian Church (War & Peace Concert)
Distance: 2.8 miles, small yoga

Page 1, NY Times, 11/11/1918

Nope, --- Day 7/245

Walk: T. Joe's
Distance: 2 miles, Yoga

 

              TODAY

Big Picture --- Day 7/244

Walk: Pier 24, Ferry Building, Hood
Distance: 4 smokey miles

Pier 24 Photography

Ciwt's picture above is small because, let's face it, she just isn't that big a fan of photography.  And Big is the operable word for Pier 24 Photography which is a once dilapidated 28,000 square foot warehouse that his been renovated (I'll say!) by The Pilara Foundation to be the largest space in the world devoted to photography.  This will change when a European venue opens next year, but then Pier 4 will still be the largest on the Western continent.

Ciwt aside, many, many people love and prefer photography and some collect it. For them Pier 24 is a treasure.  And for anyone interested in beautiful, historical San Francisco sites (this one is on the Bay under the Bay Bridge) and walking destinations Ciwt highly recommends checking out Pier 24 Photography like she did today.  (click for its website)

Around Town for Some --- Day 7/243

Walk: Marin Driving Day, PGCC Book Group (Red Power)

Distance: Small yoga, 1 mile

Ciwt thought these outfits from the de Young Museum's Contemporary Muslim Fashion show were fresh, cute, stylish (and probably frightfully expensive). 

Sumptuous Modesty --- Day 7/242

Walk: de Young Museum (Contemporary Muslim Fashion Show)
Distance: 6 Miles, Yoga Stretch

If you love textiles,

Jewels,

            

Exquisite fabrics and fabrication, 

the de Young's current show, Contemporary Muslim Fashion, is a feast for your eyes. But even as the show dazzles, it also provokes many questions about the ways the sumptuous garments on view fit into the contemporary world.  Unfortunately, not many of those are answered. 

For openers, the show does not mention that all of the fashion on display could only be afforded and worn by exceedingly wealthy women.  Then there is the matter of why some mannequins have covered heads and others don't when they only thing most Americans think they know for sure is that Muslim women are obliged by their faith to wear a veil.* You might also wonder what occasions the fashions are worn, in what Muslim countries, whether the fashions are also worn by non-Muslims, and many other things.   

Those answers are skimpy.   But, oh those lush fabrics and colors!! 


* Since she didn't find any signage that explained this, Ciwt consulted Professor Internet and found that wearing the hijab or veil Muslim is a complex and debated issue with some/many thinkers on the side of women having free choice about whether to veil themselves.

Okay, Enough Nice --- Day 7/241

Walk: Union Square
Distance: 3.5 Miles

The other day Ciwt was talking long distance to a friend who said she considered going out but it looked like it might snow so she stayed inside, lit a fire and curled up with a book.  As San Francisco's annual and glorious Indian summer goes on and on with Thanksgiving on the horizon, a part of Ciwt envies her friend.

Ciwt doesn't feel like playing golf, or running, or biking or hiking all day, or doing anything summer! Or feeling guilty because she's not doing those things.  It is fall. She wants to wear her cashmere and other yummy fall fabrics and colors.  Her cats' coats are thick; they are ready for the cold.  So at our house we're saying Bring It On.

Yes --- Day 7/240

Walk: AMC Kabuki (Can You Ever Forgive Me?)
Distance: 2.5 miles, small yoga, small pedal

In real life the celebrity biographer Lee Israel was caustic, cruel, a filthy slob, alcoholic, self-absorbed, loved only by her cat (if he did).  In other words thoroughly unpleasant and unlikeable.

The wonder of Can You Ever Forgive Me? is that the screenwriters and Melissa McCarthy have made Lee so watchable.  Still not particularly likeable but sympathetic and interesting as she survives her life with the fewest of people skills coupled with desperate and witty creativity.

Forgive Me showcases McCarthy's considerable serious acting talent.  But she refuses to play it cute or winking or apologetic in any way and continues to be a role model for body positivity by looking and comporting herself exactly as herself in her own skin. 

Family Portrait --- Day 7/239

Walk: Cinema Club, Japantown
Distance: 2.5 miles, Pedal

Shoplifters, written and directed by Hirokazu Koreeda

So, Ciwt has another movie to recommend.  If you are more than an occasional CIWT reader, you probably know that many of her recommended movies are of the quiet, thoughtful, well acted and directed type.  That is, indie and arty.  And here she goes again with Shoplifters which won the (usually arty) Cannes Palme D'Or for Best Picture.  The director/writer/editor, Hirokazu Koreeda, is fast becoming a national treasure in Japan for his filmmaking, and the acting is uniformly superb.  

People whose cinema tastes run to action, you should probably know Shoplifters is a quiet, masterful drama about a ragtag family that runs a bit over 2 hours; ie, probably not for you.  Don't despair though, Ciwt Loves good fast paced (sometimes incomprehensible), rough tough (sometimes violent), gripping, suspenseful movies too.  (As well as documentaries, animated longs and shorts, musicals, the works)!

Say It With Visuals (And Music) --- Day 7/238

Walk:  Vogue Theater (20th Annual Animation Show of Shows)
Distance: 2 Miles (weirdly the glorious warmth slows Ciwt down)

Luckily a small, old-timey neighborhood theater near Ciwt is one of the venues for the Annual Animation Show of Shows.  This compliation of animated shorts is the love child of this man:

 Ron Diamond who has curated, produced, promoted and accompanied his baby to each college campus, theater, basement theater and everywhere his Show of Shows is shown.  He was there today talking about watching 1,200 shorts and culling them to the 16 in this year's group.  During the past 20 years, 38 of his choices have been nominated for Academy Awards and something like 13 have won Oscars.  But winning awards is not what Diamond is all about; his mission is bringing the labor, love, and talent of the intensive art of animation to people's awareness and doing whatever he can to encourage young people dreaming of being in the field themselves - or making just one short.

It is always a bittersweet adventure for Ciwt.  Sweet because it is such a treat to see animation from all over the world - particularly at such a high level.  But bitter because each film takes innumerable hours - for one film this year, the director hand drew each frame for ten years before having enough to make the short he had in mind.  Then it is over and maybe, very possibly, only a handful of people will see the final product or hear the original music written for it.  Soul work kind of .

Monlight Becomes the River --- Day 7/237

Walk: SFMOMA, PGCC
Distance: 4 miles

George Ault, The Hudson River from Riverside Drive, 1920-21, oil on linen*

Ciwt is not a particular fan of Modernist art, but she loves this little gem.

It is filled with moonglow which lights the entire gallery it hangs in.  Thank you, Wayne

Thiebaud for bringing it to our attention in his, ahem, illuminating "Artist's Choices"

show at SFMOMA.

* No, it isn't your eyes, Ciwt's photo is off kilter.

Oh, Am I Drawing? Didn't Notice ---- Day 7/236

Walk: Marin Driving Day
Distance: Kind of 0

    Wayne Thiebaud (b. 1920), Notebook Drawings, felt tip pen and graphite on paper, no date

Like many artists, Wayne Thiebaud carries a notebook and pen with him at all times and draws nearly continually.  Ciwt loves how the cat and the female nude echo each other - and of course that dog.