No This Isn't a Painting --- Day 13/249

Walk: Hood (endless places to go and enjoy in Ciwt's hood)

Distance: 3.75 miles

Two Peahens Against a Peachy Dawn, Keoladeo National Park, India 
                                             @Shreyovi Mehta, Natural History Museum's Wildlife Photographer of the Year 

Fuzzy and Dear Times Two -- Day 13/248

Walk: Hood

Distance: 4 miles

Aren't these two owls completely adorable?  They were captured by a Wildlife Photographer of the Year, Sasha Jumanca, in Munich on a branch in its city center park, Maximilliansanlagen Park.

WILD! --- Days 13/245,246, 247

Walks: Hood

Distances: 4 miles average

So, yay!, the Natural History Museum's Wildlife Photographer of the Year is back for its sixtieth anniversary, celebrating the wonder of the natural world "with some of the most extraordinary images of our planet."

Like the exuberant one above of a stout jumping in mid air captured by Jose Manuel Grandio. Who can't feel a jolt of joy and wonder looking at it?

If you happen to be in London this October the upcoming Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition opens October 11 showcasing 100 photographs from around the world.  These were selected from a record-breaking 59,228 entries from photographers of all ages and experience from 117 countries and territories.  It should be a stunning experience being in the presence of all the winners! 

And maybe for Ciwt readers who will be treated to more gorgeous previews over the next few days.  

Cast with Benefits --- Days 13/243 & 244

Walks: Hood 

Distances: 4 miles

So Ciwt is finding that, second probably to walking a dog, having a cast is a conversation magnet.  In check out lines, receiving packages, just walking along, people will stop her and say "Me too! Isn't it a drag?'  Then they tell her their broken wrist story.  Of course it is almost always a guy with a football, soccer, rugby or skiing accident.  A much younger guy!  Darn, too late.

City Girls Wear Black --- Days 13/240, 241, 242

Walks: Hood

Distances: 4 miles 

So, Ciwt was given a choice for her cast color.  When she opted for pink, the therapist and her assistant said "Why don't we show you the pink?"  Of course it was intense Barbie pink so Ciwt did what they were silently suggesting and what all city girls do.  She chose black.

Maybe too Subtle.. Or Maybe Ciwt --- Day 13/239

Walk: Union Square, AMC Kabuki

Distance; 6 miles

Good One, the movie, has a 97% Rotten Tomatoes rating which makes Ciwt feel a bit odd. Usually she is in agreement with RT.   The photography is exquisite, the acting by Lily Collins superior, but....??  For Ciwt the message of the essentially plotless/naturalistic movie was too subtle for her to entirely grasp as was the lead up to it.  

Moonstruck --- Days 13/237 & 238

Walks: Hood

Distances: 3.6 miles

Sturgeon Blue Moon, San Francisco, August 19

Excuses, Excuses --- Days 13/231-236

Walks: Hood Errands Galore

Average: 3.5 miles

Fractured wrist.  Right hand. She's right handed. Black cast. 4 more weeks.  And that's Ciwt's excuse. 

Without Him, What? --- Day 13/230

Walk: Union Square dentist and errands

Distance: 5 miles

Gustave Caillebotte, Self Portrait, 1888-89, oil on canvas

Without Gustave Caillebotte there would not be the wonderful Museum D'Orsay with its vast collection of superior Impressionist paintings.  Nor, likely,  would some of those paintings have been produced if not for Caillebotte's patronage of the artist.  A painter himself, but even more a collector, patron, organizer and backer of several of the now landmark Impressionist exhibitions, he used his considerable wealth and diplomatic skills to support the Impressionists' efforts and create a large collection of Impressionist works.  At the age of only 28 he wrote a will leaving this collection - now the backbone of the Musee D'Orsay collection - to the French state.  (Who almost squandered it, but that is another story.  Almost; it did keep a sizeable number of Caillebotte's gifted works).

To remind you, here are a few of Ciwt's (and the world's) favorite Caillebotte's:

The Floor Scrapers, 1875, oil on canvas

Paris Street in Rainy Weather, 1877, oil on canvas

Skiffs, 1877, oil on canvas

Contemplating the City --- Day 13/229

Walk: Day of rest (and home upkeep)

Distance: n/a

Gustave Caillebotte, Young Man at His Window, 1876, oil on canvas

Some of Ciwt's favorite paintings from the Impressionist time are by Gustave Caillebotte.  Perhaps because he by-passed pretty and captured so well and realistically the urbane, upper middle class of Paris. His class as he was born in a well-to-do family and trained to be a lawyer before taking up painting after service in the Franco-Prussian. 

The man at the window is his brother looking out at the newly designed Paris from the Caillebotte family home.  You feel like you are in the room with him but he is distracted by his own thoughts and the view outside.  There is also a modern sense of constraint, like he is feeling trapped inside, not quite able to enjoy the sunlight and open air for reasons we do not know.

Pure Winning --- Day 13/228

Walk: Hood 

Distance: 3.5 miles

Something about Steph Curry brings tears to Ciwt's eyes.  (Purity maybe?)  She loved (Steph's long time coach) Steve Kerr's comment about Steph getting his dream, an Olympic gold medal. " I'm happy Steph has his medal and even happier that he went out there and got it for himself."

Kerr was referring to Curry's show in the final minutes of a close game.  He scored 12 points on four straight three pointers in just over two minutes.  It was an otherwordly display that exceeded even his fans' expectations and put the game away for Mens' Team USA basketball.

Summer of Love Redux --- Days 13/221-227

Walks: Hood errands (and quick stop at urgent care for wrist fracture 😒)

Distances: Average 4 miles

So Ciwt thinks it is very dear that a new San Francisco 'thing' has begun: Getting married at our famous, internationally attended Outside Lands music festival.  

The festival now includes a new "City Hall" wedding area, just off a dirt Golden Gate Park footpath heading to one of the performance stages.  With a little advance preparation (a valid marriage license, a reservation, and $361.95) couples can reserve the little grove for a 15-minute, nondenominational wedding, complete with an officant and a photographer.  Friends and family can sit on log benches and, when the new spouses kiss, Outside Lands volunteers shoot streams of bubble into air from soapy guns.  

Today is the first day, and all 14 wedding time slots were sold out.  It is a three day festival, and it looks like a new institution is beginning.  So new that one young Outside Lands attendee on her way to the stage carrying a neon can of energy drink, stopped to ask  "Is that a real weddding?!"

The Play's the Thing - Wherever You Are --- Day 13/220

Walk: AMC Kabuki (Sing Sing)\

Distance: 4.4 miles

Ciwt was periodically bored by all the necessary care and restraint, but felt Sing Sing was certainly a worthwhile (fictionalized doc?) movie with one Oscar worthy performance by Colman Domingo and other very real acting.  Usually she doesn't read reviews ahead of time (and didn't), but in this case recommends doing so to truly appreciate the movie. Theater buffs will appreciate it in any event because much time is spent on the mechanics of play and acting development.

This Teenage Life --- Days 13/215-219

Walks: Hood, AMC Kabuki (Didi)

Distances: Average 3.5 miles

Truth be told, not every teenager is cute or likeable. Not every teenage event is 'coming of age' - or even rises above commonplace and boring.  But every teenager is in a constant state of unrest, anxiety, collosal unsureness of themselves.  Every teenager in his or her own way is worried sick about popularity, who they are, whether their parents are an embarrassment or something.  They all try on personas to meet all the new moments they encounter.  And many shoplift - even the good ones.

Sean Wang's new movie, Didi, captures all that with no attempts at the usual movie happy outcomes, personal growth, marvelous resolutions.  And that is what makes Didi great.  That and sterling performances by its teenage star, Isaac Wang, and his movie mother Joan Chen.