Tuesday, November 12, 2024

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas.... --- Days 13/321-323

Walks: Jewish Home, Hood, AMC Kabuki (Anora)

Diastance: 4 miles daily


See?

Not a pumpkin, not a turkey, not a lovely fall đźŤ‚wreath.  No decorations at all, block after block.

San Francisco, at least the San Francisco Ciwt frequents is notorious for its lack of Christmas Holiday decorations.  But usually much time and effort is spent on stately, gorgeous, warm and welcoming Thanksgiving adornments which Ciwt loves to see and maybe add to a CIWT post.  

A friend had a guess about this highly unusual dearth: the timing.  Many San Franciscans are 'processing' and just aren't ready to celebrate 

Saturday, November 9, 2024

Lasting Charm --- Day 13/320

Walk: Jewish Home, AMC Kabuki

Distance: 4.5 miles


Hugh Grant in Heretic

So, for reasons unknown the movie Heretic has a 93% critics consensus on Rotten Tomatoes.  Not realizing it was one of the many, many horror movies in theaters these days, Ciwt went to it to see Hugh Grant.

And there he was: the same and wonderful hesitations, adorable stumbles over words, beguiling eyelash flutters, winning smile.  Wrinkled now, but all that irresistable charm undaunted by age.

Friday, November 8, 2024

Thursday? Friday? --- Days 13/318 & 319

Walks: Hood, Jewish Home

Distances: 4 avg


Do you, dear reader?  Between Halloween, daylight savings, the election, whatever Ciwt is doing to process the election, moving deliveries and just leading life in general, she seems to have lost all track of what day she's in.

Wednesday, November 6, 2024

It's Random --- Day 13/316 & 317

Walks: Hood

Distances: 3 miles


So one moment Ciwt was looking toward her empty dining room and talking to her visiting best friend from D.C..  And the next moment, her dining room looked like this.  Filled with EMT's and firemen, all of whom deserve a medal for their quick arrival and total competence.

Her friend had fallen. Badly it turned out at the hospital.  In a nanosecond everything was different and awful.  

What  Ciwt say?   She can borrow from Montaigne "Seize the day." Or from Horace who said it decades earlier in Latin, " Carpe Diem."  But she'll go with what her friend said several times as she and Ciwt began to let this incomprehensible, unexpected and sad event sink in.  "It's random. Things like this, they're random."  


PS - Her friend had successful surgery and is now in an outstanding rehabilitation center working tirelessly to recover enough to get on an airplane back to her home, friends, family and dog (who is all those things)in D.C..  Or, as she puts it, getting from A to B.

Monday, November 4, 2024

Mary Cassatt, Businesswoman --- Day 13/315

Walk: SFMOMA
Distance: 5.5  miles

Mary Cassatt's chateau at Bacheviller's

So as impressed as Ciwt is by Mary Cassatt's boldly experimental, technically proficient and downright fetching art, she is just as impressed with Cassatt's business acumen.  

Yes, Cassatt came from wealth. Her father was a highly successful stockbroker in Pennsylvania and her mother came from a prominent banking family.  Yes, her family placed emphasis on education and success, but, for Mary that meant preparing to be a good wife and mother.  This was expected of all proper women, not preparing for what Mary had firmly in mind -  a career in art.  In fact, her father was so firmly against her ambition to paint professionally he refused to give her any money that would go towards buying her art supplies.

He did agree to provide food, clothing and shelter which of course was huge and must have necessitated major bargaining on Mary's part.  But even more huge were the obstacles to a 19th century independent woman artist in Paris gaining any degree of financial independence.  Difficult enough for a man who was able to go to art school and associate with other artists at bars, cabarets and other public gathering places.  But Cassatt persisted, copying at the Louvre when she wasn't allowed to paint live nudes, working with private teachers and learning from her friend and champion Degas.  She also employed her strategic financial wiles, including selecting, posing and painting irresistably adorable children with loving caretakers in her studio, to gain commissions.  All this until she was, indeed, self-supporting as an artist.  

Ciwt suspects Cassatt's father came to have great respect for his daughter.

Sunday, November 3, 2024

League of Her Own! --- Days 13/313 & 314

Walk: Jewish Home (more later), St. Dominic's Church (more later), Shade Store (more later)

Distances: 2.5 miles


So, as much as Ciwt loves and admires her Annual Neighborhood Halloween Decorating Contest, she has become aware of a woman in Virginia who is in a League of her Own.  Sadly CIWT can't upload videos so you can only see a few stills from two long films - with eerie music! - of this woman's yard.  








All Time Grand Champion Halloween Decorator