The Moment it Began --- Day 8/207

Walk: PGCC Exercise Class

Distance: Not Far, 1 Hr. Class

Henri Matisse, Conversation, 1909-12, oil on canvas, 69 5/8" x 85 3/8"

Until she saw the painting pictured above, Picasso was at the top of Ciwt's personal favorite painters list.  She liked Matisse enough in 1992 to have traveled back to MoMA for its huge and hugely important Matisse Retrospective.  He was second on her list actually, but she thought of him as sort of a 'happy painter' who made wonderfully colorful, joyful but ultimately pretty art.

Then, hung on a MoMA wall by itself, Conversation jumped into Ciwt's soul.  She was in the midst of the crowds who had come from various distances around the world for the Retrospective, but it was as if she was all alone.  Alone and transfixed.  Her whole sense of Matisse and her relationship to him and his art changed in a nonsecond and forever.

Facing directly at each other, these two people - recognizably Matisse and his wife Amelie - are polarized. This is a real moment in the real lives of both of them. Whatever the conversation, it is more like a confrontation.  There's a coldness here, in the deep but stark blue color, her black robe, the stiffness of the rigid stripes in his painter's pajamas, the dark ebony grillwork separating them from nature.  In the most minimal, poetic and revealing way Matisse has distilled so much about the state of his marriage, his relationship with his wife, his isolation or stand-offishness as a painter.  (In fact one of the first things he said to Amelie before they married was " I love you, but I will always love painting more.") The feeling is so direct Ciwt might as well have been in the room with them.

So there it was Matisse is after the Truth in has art. Human truth. He's also in search of spirituality and attendant joy. And it is solitary, demanding work - deeply difficult for him and those around him. Including those of us who love his art. We see him in all his work; his presence is as unmistakable as it was for Ciwt in Conversation. But, he stands alone. We love, are profoundly - often joyfully -  affected by his art.  We follow him whenever possible but can never completely grasp him or his luminous, figurative and profoundly personal art.  In this we are in the best of company: nobody respected or was more tantalized by Matisse and his art than his artistic rival and real life friend Picasso.

Back From New York, Part 6: Vizslas, Ciwt, NYC --- Day 8/206

Walk: Orpheum Theater (💓Hamilton💘)
Distamce: 5 Miles, small yoga

William Wegman, Stationary Figures, 2018, NYC Transit  23rd Street Station

No, they aren't Vizslas as advertised but these marvelous subway mosaics of Weimaraners look so much like Vizslas many people can't tell them apart.  Hint: Vizslas have chestnut colored coats and are the ones known as 'velcro dogs' because they like to stick with their owners whenever possible.

So, what are these dogs doing in in a CIWT entry? Well, the shaggy dog story is that Ciwt was with her Belgian shoe afficiando friend at their store on Madison Avenue when she saw two Vizslas standing patiently out the window.  As she began to tell her friend about how loveable and beloved these dogs are by their owners, their actual owner - who was trying on a pair of the delicate and lovely shoes - spoke up.  Since Ciwt has a cousin who breeds and raises Vizslas, she asked this owner whether she'd ever heard of her.  Well, turns out she had gotten her first Vizsla from Ciwt's cousin. Very smalll world in a very big city.

These things happen to Ciwt in New York, and she misses them out here in San Francisco. The coincidents aren't totally surprising; Ciwt's formative years were in the Midwest and East Coast (upbringing, school, college, first jobs, the works) as were her parents' and grandparents'.  So there are many associations, connections, much history back there.

These encounters kind of makes her feel more real.  And she'd love to have more of them. Maybe. Maybe if she lived back East, there actually wouldn't be that many of them.  Or they would be a pretty insignificant part of her daily life.  Or maybe there would be too many; constant pulls back into ancient history and her ancient self.

Then there's the matter of stimulation.  NYC is always a zap for Ciwt.  San Francisco, never really.
San Francisco is gorgeous and wonderfully liveable and accessible. But, scenery aside, there isn't much about it that's particularly exciting to Ciwt, including its gold rush history.  But, is that just the way with all home towns?  We live in them because something in us resonates to them and allows us to be our true selves even if we aren't constantly stimulated.

Just odds and ends of thoughts as Ciwt leaves her Back From NYC entries and lets sleeping dogs lie until her next visit.

Back from NYC, Part 5: Underground Artisans --- Day 8/205

Walk: PGCC, Presidio Library (Melinda Gates Book)
Distance: 2 Miles, Exercise Class, Private Training

Imagine living in - or even visiting - New York City without its subway. People did until 1904 when The New York City Subway opened its first section, shortly began adding sections and eventually became one of the largest rapid transit systems in the world.   As she was whisked for essentially $peanuts from Midtown to Harlem and Beyond and under much of the foot traffic in Times Square she was so appreciative as she always is of that extensive, rapid and convenient system.

Budapest may have been first to an electrified underground (1896) followed by a handful of other European cities, but Ciwt finds it difficult to believe any of their stations were more beautiful than the sumptuous tiled and leaded glass former terminus located beneath City Hall Park.

    

And she's not sure any European early European camerapeople were on had to capture some of the

earliest subway trips like GW Bitzer was in 1905 when he filmed his ride from 14th Street to 42nd Street.

        

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J10-aYVG6HY

She is sure Bitzer's 42nd Street stop wasn't as tentacled as it is today.  Direction challenged anyway, Ciwt would have been lost forever trying to find her connection to the next ride down below 42nd Street without her subway pro friend to guide her.

Notice all the different corridors, then add throngs of people.

Mercifully, as you make your way through that noisy, crowded, sometimes confusing underground

that tile work and artistry are still there in abundance to interest your eye and brighten your mood. 

Edith Kramer, New York Subway Station, 1994 at Spring Street subway entrance

Ming Fay, Fish Mosaic at Delancy Street subway station

59th Street/Columbus Circle

Back from NYC, Part 4: Moved by Books --- Day 8/204

Walk: Trader Joes (in the smoke filled air)
Distance: 2 miles, Yoga

Patience and Fortitude, the two majestic lion 'mascots' outside the Main Branch of the New York Public Library were off being groomed by conservationists, but the hush, reverence for books and beauty of the restored Rose Main Reading Room were open for Ciwt and her friend to enjoy
.

Rose Main Reading Room 

Vestibule Outside Entrance to Main Reading Room

When we talked with the man at the first floor reception desk he told us he feels deeply fortunate on a daily basis to be able to work in such an essentially hallowed place.  He also told us the Main Branch is the Number Two attraction in NYC (behind the Statue of Liberty), and, most touchingly, that each day several people are overcome and moved to tears by the Main Reading Room.

That person could have been Ciwt uptown in Harlem a few days earlier  at 135th Street Branch of the NY Library where her walking guide took her to the Schomburg Center.  "Who is Schomburg?" Ciwt had asked Patrice.*

The answer was awesome.  Arturo Schomburg (1874-1938)** was an Afro-Puerto Rican who was told by his  fifth grade teacher in Puerto Rico that blacks had no history, heroes or accomplishments worth noting. The little boy set out to prove his teacher wrong and dedicated his life to learning and documenting the works of Blacks on the African continent and in the diaspora.

By the 1920's, after Schomburg had moved to New York, his collection of artworks, manuscripts, rare books, slave narratives and other artifacts of Black history filled his Harlem apartment to overflowing.  It had also gained a great reputation in that Harlem Renaissance era and was purchased by the New York Public Library in 1926.  There it became the cornerstone of the library's 135th Street Division of Negro Literature, History and Prints with Schomburg the namesake and curator of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.

Ciwt loved this quote by Schomburg embedded in the tile floor of the Center's entry floor.

* Many thanks to the brilliant and entertaining guide extrordinaire, Fabrice, for getting Ciwt to the Schomburg Center and making her aware of many people, places, and stories great and small that are part of the soul of Morningside Heights, Harlem,and the Met Cloisters.

**If you want to know more about Schomburg, Carole Boston Weatherford has published Schomburg, The Man Who Built a Library. 

Back from NYC, Part 3: The Play's - no, the Acting's - the Thing --- Day 8/203

Walk:  NO; the windstorm is Howling
Distance: 0, Yoga

So, the main event of Ciwt and her friend's New York trip was Yale Educational Travel's Theater Weekend, a three day affair featuring three Broadway and off-Broadway plays. The plays were selected by a Yale Drama School professor/lecturer, sent to attendees to read ahead of time, initially presented by various Yale experts (including a budding actor) and then discussed before and after with fellow (and very bright!) attendees.

Our first play was Tennessee Williams' The Rose Tattoo. Having read the play, our entire group reported being jarred by the director's take when they saw it.  Since its Broadway premiere in 1951, the play has been regarded - and presented - as a drama exploring love, sexuality, religion, the immigrant experience among other topics.  But The Rose Tattoo Ciwt and her group saw was played as comic farce (with row upon row of pink flamingos across the stage no less).  This changeup was not well received by our group who speculated (along with our Yale professors) that the 'modification' might have been made to appeal to younger playgoers with short attention spans and little interest in the then-thorny issues Williams was grappling with.  

Who knows?  But what our group uniformly agreed on was the tour de force performance by Marisa Tomei, who played Serafina, the central figure in the play.  Tomei is too old and way too beautiful

for the role, but her acting is so alive and wonderful to watch, Ciwt and others settled right into it.  (The same is easily said for the very young Tomei in her My Cousin Vinny Oscar winning role and, in Ciwt's mind, for all the roles she's played throughout her career.  Also, would you ever believe the Tomei in the picture above is nearly 55 years old?)

Eileen Atkins and Jonathan Pryce in The Height of the Storm

Our next play was also a feast of excellent acting by two of the most revered actors on stage and screen, Eileen Atkins and Jonathan Pryce.  And again our discussion revealed that, the acting aside, most of us weren't sure we had understood the play entirely and weren't particularly fond of it in any event.  The elephant in Storm's living room is Alzheimers or some form of dementia. And, the entire Yale Travel audience being of a certain age, you can imagine that many members had or were currently having experience with those syndromes somewhere in their lives.  

Ciwt and her friend played hooky on the last play.  No big stars there, and the topic was Irish alcoholism, as if we haven't heard about that for ever and ever.  Plus we were interested in going to the movie, Parasite,* instead. 

As much as she enjoyed her fellow participants and the play discussions, Ciwt questioned the play choices.  But, now that she's home, she's so glad she saw them because the very plays she questioned are the ones currently receiving the most media attention.  The New Yorker, The NY Times and countless other media are full of buzz about them.  Usually Ciwt reads such reviews from a distance, feeling very curious and wishing she could see the productions.  This year Ciwt finds it immensely satisfying that she was right there.

* More on that movie in another CIWT.

Back from NYC, Part 2: Art Day --- Day 8/202

Walk: AMC Kabuki (JoJo Rabbit), Hood
Distance: 2 Miles, Yoga

So on her second day in New York Ciwt headed up to the Metropolitan Museum for their newish Dutch Masters show.  As she entered Central Park, she encountered these huge, arresting horses, large like steeds but certainly not mighty.  Also not traditonally elevated on a pedestal or grandly underneath an even more grand rider.  People, including Ciwt, were just among them at their level making what each individual made of their relationship to the magestic creatures with all their psychic, fantastical,  real and fictional references.

Jean-Marie Appriou, The Horses (Central Park/59th Street, Sept. 11, 2019 - August 30, 2020)

Metropolitan Museum, Entry: In Praise of Painting: Dutch Masterpieces at the Met, Ongoing

After The Horses, the Dutch Masterpieces exhibition at the Met seemed as dull as its entry.  Usually the quintessence of charm and universally enjoyed by all art audiences, these 'masterpieces' are hung as a tedious, contrived, intellectual viewing exercise that nearly robs them of life.  Instead of just being able to feast one's eyes and sensibilities on some of the most abundant and finely rendered art in human history, the Met insists that these long held works by the beloved Rembrandt, Hals, Vermeer and other artists now be considered 'in a thematic arrangement that emphasizes the controversies that animated the era.'  Ciwt says, "puleeze..."

After the Met downer Ciwt decided to walk to the expanded MoMA which was set to open to members (including her) the next day.  When she got to the heavily guarded front door 

she happened to speak to one of the attendants.  As their conversation progressed (and maybe he'd sized up Ciwt as a true art lover and no threat to the museum), he told her "Actually, the Museum is closed today for a private party, but, if you want to, you can go in until 2:00."

Want To!?!  Hearing this Ciwt raced to her hotel to meet up with her friend who is on record as 'not being a museum person' to see if, in this rare and special instance, she could be encouraged to go into a museum.  The answer was Yes! and off we went.

The guards were good for their word and let us into the Enormous, corporation-like lobby with multiple banks of elevators and hardly any art in sight.  A uniformed sentry finally directed us to the correct elevators and up we travelled.  Stepping out on Floor 5, the world changed utterly and began speaking art in the most interesting and beguiling ways.  Gallery after gallery is arranged/presented/hung in manners that are arresting, involving, and thought provoking to all MoMA visitors from newbie to expert.

As an example, let Ciwt say that as she was briskly walking through the first gallery, it was her non-museum friend who became instantly transfixed by an early movie of the New York subway.  Yes, movie, on the wall along with paintings, photographs, postcards, sculpture - all early fine and technological arts of a young U.S. - presented in ways that piqued curiosity but were non-intrusive to whatever the viewer might make of them.

Underwood and Underwood, President Theodore Roosevelt in Yosemite (1903), Being cheered by cowboys on horseback (1903), in Wawona, driving through the big trees of California (1903)

"Go on; I think this film is marvelous," Ciwt's friend told her.  Shocked and happy, Ciwt raced off to find her artistic love, Matisse.  

                                                   Matisse sculpture viewing The Red Studio (1911)

The room dedicated to him was wonderful as well as a bit audacious - like all the rooms. Just a bit: For example, see the sliver of the painting next to The Red Studio?  It is by a contemporary artist and may or may not - depending on what the viewer makes of the relationship - echo some of the qualities of the Matisse work.  And below, what is that Parrot?! doing in front to the Miro painting behind it?  (Ciwt guesses the connection is Surrealism, but that's Ciwt).

On and on the enlarged MoMA goes like this.  A total winner of an art space.  And this spoken by a devout museum avoider and Ciwt who disliked the former MoMA and was prepared to basically despise the even bigger and newer one.  

Expect the unexpected in art, and this opportunity to have MoMA virtually to herself was just that as well as the perfect way to end Ciwt's art day in New York.

Back From NYC, Part 1: the Upper, Upper --- Day 8/201

Walk: AMC Kabuki (The Lighthouse), TJ's
Distance: 3 miles, Yoga

So, like Alice in Wonderland, Ciwt will begin at the beginning.  Her beginning in New York City was in the 60's when you pretty much took your life in your hands if you ventured above the Upper East Side.  So she has been deficient in her knowledge of the upper parts of the  Borough of Manhattan ever since.  Which is not to say she wasn't quite clear about the way things were up there.

For instance, she 'knew' all of Manhattan was flat and laid out in a grid.  WRONG.  Well, sort of.  The grid system continues to 155th Street, but not all of Manhattan below that was flattened.  Definitely not Morningside Park
                                                                    (Not the Great Wall of China)

She also 'knew' that all New York archtecture was some sort of brownstone or hard surface.  WRONG.

Take the federalist style Morris-Jumel Mansion, for instance, where General GeorgeWashington not only slept but temporarily headquartered his command early in the Revolutionary War.  

Back to the flatness and grid, Ciwt assumed The Cloisters Museum (or Met Cloisters) was part of that.  DEFINITELY WRONG.

By the time you get way up there the grid system has definitely ended (along with most NYC tourist maps) and a sense of the original wilderness is preserved.

Luckily Columbia University was up there as she thought.  

But it had been established by the British as Kings College, which she didn't know - along with many other things about that institution. (ie, its association with John Jay, Hamilton, Burr, etc. which every Hamilton playgoer totally knows). * 

And The Apollo Theater was up there too, but in a much more gentrified Harlem. 

How did Ciwt finally get some of these things straight - and learn myriad more?  By taking her second Real New York Walking Tour.  She could not recommend this tour company and their remarkable guides more highly. And if there is just one thing you can count on Ciwt knowing, it's WALKS.  https://realnewyorktours.com/

* Ciwt will finally get to Hamilton next week

Old dog, No New Tricks --- Days 8/198, 199, 200

Walks: Hood, PGCC
Distance: About a mile daily, exercise class, private training, yoga stretches. All in major Heat 💥

So the sun has set on Ciwt's renewing trip to New York. But she's found that didn't apply to her pre-NYC trick of missing CIWT days. Rest assured she does not forget her readers on those dark days.  So, please stay tuned and you'll hear all about her encounters with Marisa Tomei, Jonathan Pryce, Eileen Adkins, the expanded MoMA, Vizsla dogs, the Upper, Upper West Side, the Lower, Lower Subway, Parasite and so much more. 

Ciwt in NYC, Day 6 --- Day 8/197

Walk: JFK, SFO, Hood Probably
Distance: TBD

Farewell Breakfast in the lovely Elysee Library Room before returning to SFO, Ciwt's cats, more CIWT entries. 

Ciwt in NYC, Day 5 --- Day 8/196

Walk: Yale Club, Irish Repertory Theater (maybe)
Distance: Many, Many Blocks Again

Ciwt is already feeling quite like the man above about the prospects of her third Yale Ed play.  Hopefully Professor Biggs will once again pull a chestnut out of his hat and make this bleak Irish play about the anguishes of alcoholism (of course) worthwhile for Ciwt.  Or maybe, if even he can't do that, she and her friend will play hooky and enjoy our remaining time in NYC another way.

Ciwt in NYC, Day 4 --- Day 8/195

Walk: Yale Club, the new, new MoMA, Samuel J. Friedman Theater (The Height of the Storm)
Distance:  Many, Many Blocks again

Ciwt kind hated the first new MoMa after the intimacy of the old building.  Wonder what how she'll react to the new, hip and happening MoMA reboot.

And how she'll feel about the this play about old age and alzheimers.  Hopefully Professor Biggs will make it interesting for her, her friend and the Yale Ed group.  The acting will be superior and a rare treat in any case.

Ciwt in NYC Day 3 --- Day 8/194

Walk: Metropolitan Museum, Neue Gallerie, Belgian Shoes and other Stores, Yale Club, American                Airlines Theater (The Rose Tattoo)
Distance: Many Blocks

 After Ciwt worships art at two Uptown venues, the play's the thing for Ciwt and her good friend, Elizabeth.  They are taking in Yale Educational Travel's Theater Weekend with special lecturer on English and Theater Studies, Murray Biggs.  

Ciwt in NYC Day 2 --- Day 8/193

Walk: Real New York Walking Tour
Distance: 6 Hours, Miles and Miles

Today Ciwt is Waaay Uptown in NYC walking, walking, walking through Harlem, Morningside Heights, and.....

The Met Cloisters Museum.

All new places for Ciwt.  What can be better?  A private Real New York Tour* and a Great Walk.

*https://realnewyorktours.com/

Ciwt in NYC Day 1 --- Day 8/192

Walk: SFO, JFK, maybe around NYC a bit 
Distance: A few blocks, yoga/airport/hotel room stretch

So, Ciwt is looking forward to returning to her favorite midtown hotel for her New York Stay.

Catching Up After Blackout, Part IV --- Days 8/188,189, 190, 191

Walk: Not Yet, Working on CIWT and then packing for NYC

Ciwt's blank screen ready to be filled to finish her Post Blackout Catch Up as well as her pre-NYC entries.  Ciwt awards herself a big Gold *

Catching Up after the Blackout, Part III --- Days 8/188,189,190, 191

Walk: Hood



So Ciwt's bags are out for her upcoming trip to New York.  She's looking forward to using and being able to lift her new super lightweight Lipault suitcase (the one on the bottom with price tag still on it).

Catching Up after the Blackout, Part II --- Days 8/188,189,190, 191

Walk: SFMOMA (Mythos, Psyche, Eros: Jess in California



Jess, Fig. 4 Far and Few...:Translation #15, 1965, 1965, oil on canvas mounted on wood with velvet

Beatles bubblegum card

So while New York was exploding with the abstract, unemotional Pop, Minimalist and Conceptionalist movement and museum wall size canvases in the 60's, the relatively small and loose circle of San Francisco artists were intentionally out of step.  Doing smaller, more intimate, sometimes romantic and spiritual art, they often worked with found objects fashioned into collages and unusual, even bizarre materials.

Preeminent in this artistic time was Jess Collins (1923-2004) who began using the single name JESS after leaving his career as a radiochemist for the atomic bomb (yikes), entering art school here and moving in with his lover, the poet Robert Duncan (1919-1988).  Theirs was a long and openly gay union in decidely unopen times, and Jess's art often advocated for sexual freedom as well as freedom to express the mythical, whimsical and absurb.

This was the unparalled, innocent, 'summer of love' San Francisco Ciwt moved to, and she particularly enjoyed a quote from Gottardo Piazzoni, one of the other Northern California artists in
the Jess show:  When asked what religion he observed, Piazzoni said "I think its California."

Catching Up after the Blackout --- Days 8/188,189,190, 191

Walks:  1. Wait for Comcast  2. Wait for Comcast, Begin NYC Prep  3. Hood, Out of Comcast Jail,                  Begin Packing, and Cat Nails Day 🙀
Distance: 1. Yoga   2. Yoga   3. 3 Miles, Small Yoga


The mini blackout that struck Ciwt's building (undelated to the recent Big Blackout throughout California) has passed.  To catch loyal CIWT readers up, here are some recent things she wants to tell you about.

James Tissot at the Legion of Honor Museum

Before going to the Press Preview of  James Tissot (1836-1902): Fashion and Faith Ciwt was fearing her eyes would glaze over from boredom.  But she found Tissot's mid-19th C. paintings of London and Paris haute society and Bible scenes (yes) to be more alive in person than in photographs. Up close his colorful, crisp, precise  observations of manners and fashion simmer with urbanity and undercurrents of sexual drama. And they certainly have found their perfect venue in the Beaux Arts Legion of Honor buiding, which is a scale model of the Palais de la Legion d'Honneur in Paris.

Evening  or The Ball, 1878, oil on canvas  (Musee d'Orsey)

Ciwt was particularly struck by this double portrait of a gown and a lady.  She loves how Tissot not only captured the details of the fabric and frills but carried the warm, rich golden yellow throughout the canvas making it positively glow.  And she also loves the delicate full profile portrait of Kathleen Newton, Tissot's Irish muse, love and love of his life. Who might she be looking across at while on the arm of a considerably older gentleman?

What Our Saviour Saw from the Cross, ca. 1886-1894,

Opaque watercolour over graphite on green-grey wove paper

(Brooklyn Museum, purchased by public subscription)

Sadly, Newton died of consumption at age 28, and that devastating event as well as a vision he experienced at the Churcho Saint Sulpice set Tissot on a vastly different, spiritual/religious path.
Attending seances, perhaps in hopes of reconnecting with his lost love, Tissot abandoned his former subjects, steeped himself in the New Testament, and made expeditions to the Middle East to record its land, architecture, costumes and customs.  All this and more in service of his ambitious project of illustrating the New Testament with historical and archaelogical exactitude.

Even on this path during which he painted over 350 watercolors, Tissot's eye for social interaction and drama was on full display.  Ciwt found his What Our Saviour Saw from the Cross to be shockingly original and can only image how the scene was first received by viewers when first presented in Paris in 1894 from where they traveled to exhibition crowds in London and the United States.  So moved were the readers of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle that they contributed hard won money to the Brooklyn Museum's campaign to acquire a full set of 350 watercolors of The Life of Christ.  And it is said it was to these that Lucas and Spielberg turned for visual details and inspiration in the making of the Indiana Jones movies.

So, no glazed eyes after all.  When you really look at Tissot's work, there is much to see.

Three Days in October —- Day 8/187

Walk;  SFMOMA (Jess), Vogue Theater (Downton Abbey)
Distance: 3 miles, small yoga

Comcast is 3 days overdue, but hopefully tomorrow Ciwt and CIWT will be back in the internet and phone business.

CIWT on iPhone - hopefully —- Days 182-6

Walk: Legion of Honor (James Tissot Press Preview). PGCC
Distance: 1 Hour Pickle, 3.5 Miles, general yoga stretching

So Ciwt returned home from the Tissot Press Preview today to find both her landline (remember those?) and computer out of commission.  Among other things that means she will have to count on her iPhone for her CIWT entries.  And first she’ll need to learn how to do that.  Please hang in, there’s more to call me like her thoughts on Tissot, her upcoming trip to New York, her cats, her pickleball scores, and much more.

Gentle, Pleasing Pain --- Days 8/180 and 181

Walks: Hood, Look at a Few Real Estate Listings, Cinema Club (Pain and Glory)
Distance: 1.5 miles, 3 miles, small yoga, no pickle/addiction subsiding

        Antonio Banderas in Pain and Glory

Pedro Almodovar's Pain and Glory is the most pleasantly watchable movie Ciwt remembers seeing.  A continual visual delight no matter what is happening on the screen.  And what is happening there is Antonio Banderas's best cinema acting job ever. (She hasn't seen him on stage).  Ciwt says Go, Enjoy.  .

Grace Under Insanity --- Day 8/179

Walk: AMC Kabuki (Joker)
Distance: 2 miles, yoga

So, unless you are desperate for a movie and/or needing to protect your aching back from another pickleball game, Ciwt can't think of a reason to recommend Joker.  Joaquin Phoenix's acting is superior, as you probably already know.  So, if you do go, you'll be mesmerized by that and have some thoughts about whether or not he deserves the Academy Award which he'll surely be nominated for.  But the Joker 'plot' is so thin, disjointed and going nowhere that Phonenix doesn't really have a character to develop.  Instead he electrifies scene after scene after scene with amazingly and original, and gracefully creepy performances.  Come to think of it, maybe you need to go just to watch him.

Return of the Omm --- Day 8/178

Walk: PGCC
Distance: Just a group exercise class and a yoga stretch

So there was Ciwt just a few years ago limber as a teenager (maybe) from years and years of daily yoga and walks.  Picture her today sitting down in stiff stages, getting up with crunching sounds from her knees, feeling random pinches and pains from a few months of pickleball and weights training.  Lesson for Citw: Get back to Yoga.  (Maybe you too?)

Sunday in the Park with Neighbors --- Day 8/177

Walk: Pickleball, Hood
Distance: 2 hours Pickle, 3 miles

Fall Festival in the Park

So Ciwt loves her local park so much she accepted an invitation a few years ago to join the Board that kind of looks out for it. A few months ago it was decided that we would give a neighborhood Fall Festival with balloon animals, face painting, apple bobbing, cookies, cider, the whole Fall works. Several men on the board supported the concept then ran for cover ("I didn't join the board to man information booths....").  Ciwt didn't do that - and in fact manned the information both.  But secretly she was thinking, oh dear, it will be a bust.

No!  Everybody came! And everybody - parents, kids, dogs, even Ciwt - had a blast and loves their park even more.  So nice to be wrong!