Private Thoughts --- Days 14/

Walks/Lopes: Presidio and Hood

Distances: 2.5 miles, 7 miles

Carlos Avila Gonzalez/The Chronicle

Caspar David Friedrich (German,1774-1840), The Moon Rising to the Seashore, 1822, o/c

So Ciwt was just spending time on line with the wonderful current show at the Metropolitan Museum of Art: Caspar David Friedrich: The Soul of Nature.  And when she went to our local paper's website, it seemed to her The Chronicle's photographer, Carlos Avila Gonzalez, today captured much of the same moody, contemplative romantism in his photograph above.

Spring Fever Off and On --- Day 14/70

Walk: Sloat Garden Center

Distance: 5 miles

Sandro Botticelli, Primavera, late 1470's or early 1480's, tempura on panel

So spring is coming and going out here and probably where you live.  One day there's sun which makes Ciwt want to wander the Headlands just across the Golden Gate Bridge, but the next day (or hour) cold, wind and rain make her relieved she isn't caught in some glen or forest far from home.  

Luckily art lovers like Ciwt can escape from the vissitudes of spring and get lost in Sandro Botticelli's Primavera, which has remained one of the most popular paintings in Western art for centuries.

Oscar End Notes --- Day 14/69

Walk: Hood, Sloat Garden Center

Distance: 4.5 miles

To Ciwt's eyes all celebrity attendees - men and women - at last night's Oscars are to be applauded for their attire which was appropriately formal and respectful.  That said, she did have some personal favorites.

Selena Gomez

Halle Berry

Michele Yeoh

She enjoyed several variations on the classic tuxedo which echoed their personal style while remaining tasteful.

Colman Domingo

Jeff Goldblum

Unfortunately a few choices just didn't work for her:

Zoe Saldana

Yasmin Finney

Omar Apollo

It's the veil.  

Timothee Chalamet
Very Timothee and he rocked it so Ciwt was torn between Best Dressed or this category.  Your choice.

Ciwt's Absolute Favorite Oscar!!!! (with nods to Kieran Culkin)

FLOW

Decisions Are In --- Days 14/60-68

Walks: Hood and arround home sticking Samplize paint samples on wall after wall

Distances: 4 miles average

 

So, when it comes to choosing paint colors, some - probably many - people think "Whatever' and go with the first off-white neutral they see.  Then there are the Ciwt types who order hundreds of paper samples to stick on her walls and actually paints several possible colors in strategic places if she can find room between the papee samples.  Then looks at all of them day and night, morning and afternoon until her painter finally says "I must have a date!"

And that date is Tomorrow 😨  So, Ciwt finally, finally decided "Whatever" and will go for now with an off-white neutral that works better than the off-white neutral (that turned purple brown in many rooms) the place came with. 

So that decision is in and tonight the Oscar winner decisions will be announced.  The BIG decision for Ciwt was whether to watch the Academy Awards since she wasn't particularly drawn to many of this year's contenders.  But she has been an Oscar regular for at least 50 years, so that became a non-decision and you can picture her in front of her TV watching Oscar tonight.   

Here are her personal hopefuls: FLOW 🐈🐈,Timothee Chalamet (but Adrian Brody will - and deserves to- win), Fernanda Torres (I'm Still Here), Kiernan Culkin (A Real Pain), Zoe Saldaña (Emilia Pérez), Gorgeous clothes, good emcee job by Conan O'Brien, short but riveting speeches, maybe a glitch here and there. 

Now, with all those creative decisions finally behind Ciwt, her readers should be able to look forward to more daily entries.   

Pryce is Always Right --- 14/59

 

Walk: No

Distance: n/a

So today Ciwt decided on a day off to escape into a book and stream a movie.  Luckily for the latter she chose one for which Jonathan Pryce received two prestigious Best Actor Awards and was reminded again of what a great actor Pryce is.  His acting is so superior, he could steal every production he is in, but there is a graciousness about him that allows him to stand and work as equal to some his greatest contemporaries; Gary Oldman, Anthony Hopkins, Emma Thompson to name a few.  Just eminently watchable in whatever role he plays.

Slow Horses

The Queen

The Two Popes

Carrington

The Height of the Storm  

with Eileen Atkins

So Many More....

Don't Know, Nope, Not Sure --- Days 14/53-58

Walks: 5 Days of Hood walks

Distances: Pretty much 4 miles daily

So, if you have any questions for Ciwt, please submit.  The more exotic, the better.  And she will pull together some answer for you.  Who knows if it is correct.  

This week she handled all sorts of topics she knows nothing about: what a paint color will look like in certain rooms at different times of day, which plants and shrubs will survive in various locations in her upcoming garden, what to do if someone abandons a huge microwave on the sidewalk in front of her building and more.  

Privately she is always thinking "I have no idea," but, rest assured, she will come up with an answer.

Christmas in February --- Days 14/51 & 52

Walk: SF Ballet, Sunday rest

Distance: 5 miles; 1/2 mile

Well, lookee Here.  New blooms in February!   

Post Aria Rest --- Day 14/50

Walk: Presidio

Distance: 5 miles

Day in the Picking Paint Life --- Day 14/48 & 49

Walk: 1. No, Storm  2. Creative Paint

Distance: 1. n/a  2. 5 miles

Yesterday brought an atmospheric river, so Ciwt thought "Oh, good, I can spend a little time on line looking for a living room paint color."  She sat down at her computer around 9 a.am., and found a color that appealed right away. The research for it took her to a suggested similar color, and then that color did the same.  Each color had lengthy reviews and vast, incomprehensible scientific comparisons with other colors .  And they were so alike she had to go back again and again to remember the shade she was researching.  Finally there were images of rooms painted in each color that didn't look the least bit like the color she's just devoted time learning about.  

So captured was she by this color chase, it wasn't until her cats  came in and out meowing about their dinner that she turned off the computer and left her desk.  And, no, she never did settle on a color - but does know for sure if he had, the actual paint would be wrong when she got it home.

Revisiting and Updating --- Day 14/47

Walk: Hood

Distance: 3.5 miles

Bust of Akhenaten (Egypt, 1352-1335 BC), sandstone

When Ciwt thinks of early Egyptian art, she thinks of stiff, sideways footed characters with no personality.  Then today she took the time to look at this sandstone fragment of Pharaoh Aktenaten carved over 3,000 years ago.  And, goodbye, old Ciwt's thoughts.

To her, this Aktenaten is as mesmerizing as any contemporary portrait.  The elongated face and beard, lively contemplative eyes, full lips, crossed arms.  This loftily removed man is a thinker, questioner, decision maker whose enigmatic presence is still felt 3000 years later.

Shades of White --- Days 14/43- 46

Walks: 1.Berkeley Art Museum in 'atmospheric river,' 2. Presidio 3. Not much, Sunday chores and the not to miss even though she told herself she would Super Bowl  4. Monday errands in the hood 

Distances: 1. 2.5 miles ,2. 6  miles, 3. 1/2 miles  4. 4.5 miles

When Ciwt bought her new home, it was painted throughout in the 'sell your place' white scheme that has been au courant for several years out here. Very pretty actually, but to Ciwt it felt cold.  Particularly the long, long hallway.  

So, the other day she took her chances on fiddling with another (maybe 'not sell your home at all') white, and thinks her hallway now feels warmer and more pleasant.  (Although realtors and stagers - and maybe her readers -would probably be aghast).  

Here's Looking at You, Kid --- Days 14/40-42

Walks: SF MOMA (x2) Crown Point Press, John Berggruen Gallery (all x 2), No rain and win, Hood Errands and Presidio

Distances: 4 miles (x2), n/a, 5 miles

No Access, Ian Wood photographer

So, this photo does nothing for Ciwt.  But what does she know?  76,000 people voted for London's Natural History Museum Wildlife Photographer of the Year and this badger reflecting on its 'portrait' was the firm winner of the People's Choice Award.

Goodbye, Hello --- Days 14/38 & 39

Walk: No, Sunday home chores; SFMOMA Tour

Distance: n/a; 3.5 miles

Ciwt is saying goodbye to her last gift Amaryllis bloom.  But, lucky her, there is a whole new second bloom on the way.  Over two months of gorgeous company and counting.....  

High, High, High Please --- Day 14/37

Walk: AMC Kabuki (Santosh)

Distance: 2 miles

So where are the cute, just slightly tense, always enjoyable movies with light, happy endings?  Like the one above - with a cast filled with more stars than on the poster, like the great Louis Armstrong?

Ciwt walked through the wind and rain today to see the Indian movie, Santosh.  And the blustery walk was the uplifting part.  Like other movies she has seen recently Santosh is intelligent, well acted, and checking most of the good movie making boxes.  But, also like recent ones, it is focused on the most wretched situations here in the U.S. and/or internationally.  

She realizes she's missing the moment, but Ciwt is ready for some High, High, High So-ci-ety..🎵𝅘𝅥𝅲

History Calls --- Days 14/35 & 36

Walks:  Hood ; No rain and travel planning

Distance: 3.5 miles; n/a

So if Ciwt disappears from CIWT from time to time in the next few months, chances are she's reclined on her window seat catching up on London history or sitting at her computer trying to figure what is where over there and how to get to it.  Because...she's booked a May trip to that historic city.  

Now We Are One Again --- Days 14/33 & 34

Walk: SFMOMA and galleries preparing for tour; SF Recorder's Office

Distance: 7.3 miles; 5.3 miles

So, as of yesterday, Ciwt and her cats are thrilled to be the owners of only one San Francisco property.  She's thrilled (read: relieved) economically.  (Memo to self: Don't try to sell when interest rates are on a major uptick, especially if it is election season).  And her cats are thrilled because they have lots more space to run around in and lots more windows to look at lots more birds.  (They also have a garden, but Ciwt isn't telling them about that).

Best of all, the one place they have is really, really nice.  Now it can become Home.

Small View, Enormous Circumstances --- Day 14/32

Walk: AMC Kabuki

Distance: 3.5 miles

Yesterday was such a disappointing day for Ciwt's football team favorites, today she headed off to a movie to move on.  And, happily, she was not at all disappointed with the quality of I'm Still Here, the Brazilian film nominated for two Oscars.  

The lead actress, Fernanda Torres, is in virtually every scene of the 2 hr, 16 minute movie and is suberb in every moment.  She - and Eunice Paiva, the real life woman she played - are the soul of dignity, grace and courage as they endure the most devastating of circumstances.  First her husband's essential kidnap by the police, then her own, then raising five children alone and working tirelessly for decades to seek justice for herself and her family.  Torres won the Best Actress at Cannes and the Golden Globes and is now nominated for an Academy Award which she richly deserves if she gets it.  

In the hands of a different director such a story could be a melodramatic weepie or political diatribe.  Instead Walter Salles (The Motorcycle Diaries, and Central Station) presents his audience with something much more human, heartfelt and moving. His movie is shot in the true, vivid colors of beautiful Rio de Janeiro, in the very respectable homes and offices of  its samll group of upper middle class individuals.  Every character is nicely and truly developed, naturally attractive, well presented, and living life as best they could in the face of despair -  just as they really were.  (The script is developed from a book by Paiva's own son). The result is an unembellished, deeply moving, true life view of the human spirit at work presented by the most indelible of actresses.

Ambiguous (Anti)-Heroines --- Days 14/29, 30 & 31

Walks:  Hood, Presidio

Distances:  4.5 miles daily

San Francisco Ballet Manon

So it turned out Ciwt spent time yesterday watching two cultural offerings about ambiguous women. One was San Francisco Ballet's production of Manon and the other the 13-Oscar nominated movie Emilia Perez.

For the over two hour running time of Manon, Ciwt never resolved whether she had any sympathy for the title character.  Was Manon a desperate woman with no money forced by circumstance to use her great beauty for survival?  Or was she absolutely amoral, shifting from one lover to another with utter detachment?  

One thing Ciwt was sure of: Manon is yet another of San Francisco Ballet's superlative productions.  You know when you are watching a dancer's footwork and your brain suddenly says 'that

can't be done!'?  It happens again and again thoughout Manon.  The dance combinations of the subtlest and most relentless technical difficulty are danced with complete naturalness and ease. And the dense action - often multiple simultaneous vignettes - is performed flawlessly with every member of the ensemble knowing and imparting exactly what they are doing at every second and why.  Then there are the sumptous original sets and costumes which capture the opulence and decadence of 18th C France with lavish attire for the aristocrats and ragged, threadbare clothing for the poor.  These work together with the dancers to underscore the thermes of wealth, desire and moral decline.

And speaking of wealth and moral decline, we come to Ciwt's second (anti)heroine of the day, Emilia Perez.  Is she a fundamentally good person who wishes to atone for her past drug lord crimes and use her enormous, ill gotten wealth to give her inner peace and her family a safe and better life?  Or is she a remourseless manipulator, downright villainous character who tries to use her sexual transition and charity work to wash her hands of her heinous crimes and inappropriately capture her family?  Again, Ciwt never resolved that while watching the movie.

Commenting on the rest of Emilia Perez is a complicated and, yes, ambiguous affair for Ciwt.  Given its overall downplay of the ongoing and reprehensible atrosities of the cartel in favor of the relative triviality of transexuality (which also is handled imperfectly), it is difficult to see the movie so honored by the Oscar and other awards.  But, it is a genuinely unique, original, well acted, beautifully shot and crafted movie, so Ciwt has to say it is worthy of nominations in all the categories Oscar has chosen for it.

Hats, More Hats, Even More Hats --- Days 14/26, 27 & 28

Walks: Presidio and Hood

Distances: 4 miles avg

So, Ciwt found the First Lady's hat so fetching, it reminded her she is quite the hat person herself.  Hat buyer that is.  Over the years she has encountered some she couldn't resist.

And then she found some more,

And even more

And that's not all, but you get the idea.  Not until she gets home does she remember San Francisco's ferocious wind.  So unfortunately they have mostly languished in her closet.  Now, if hats become IN, suffice it to say, Ciwt is ready.

Ceremonies --- Days14/24 & 25

Walks: Presidio (x2) 

Distances: 4.5 miles (x2)

Pieter Bruegel the Elder, The Peasant Wedding,156, oil on board

So today was a day of protocol and ceremony in a very cold, windy Washington, DC.  And it put Ciwt in mind of a more warm and pleasant ceremony painted by Pieter Bruegel the Elder (Flemish, 1525-30 - 1569).

Bruegel is perhaps best known as a master of winter scenes, often capturing its harshness,

Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Hunters in the Snow, 1565, oil on board

so this wedding painting may seem a bit of an anomaly. But, in fact, his works often depict lively urban or rural peasants engaged in everyday activities such as farming, banquets, festivals, dances and games. He revolutionized Flemish paintings by doing this, moving away from traditional themes like portraits and religious scenes.  His complex, dynamic works teem with life and movement and leave us with a vivid representation of 16th-century society in the complex often absurd ways its daily life was actually lived.

Football Widows --- Days 14/22 & 23

Walks: No, Presidio

Distance: n/a, 5.5 miles

Pamela Anderson as Shelley in The Last Showgirl

So, Ciwt's cats have become football widows while Ciwt spends hours watching playoff games as this season heads toward its Super Bowl conclusion. 

But she did take a little time to go to The Last Showgirl.  She never thought she would be drawn to a movie starring Pamela Anderson, so Ciwt she is stunned to realize she would gladly hand the Best Actress Oscar to her.  And equally gladly would she give the unsinkable Jamie Lee Curtis (always great!) the Best Supporting Actress Oscar.  We will see what happens at Oscar time.

And now Ciwt is off to ignore her cats and see what will happen in today's playoff games.   

Old Rules, No --- Day 14/21

 Walk: Hood

Distance: 3 miles

Qi Baishi (Chinese, 1864-1957),ink on scroll paper on silk)

So, Ciwt knows little about Asian art, but she did know that older Chinese art is a highly regimented practice judged by how well the artist meets standards of perfection in its various aspects.  Artists study for years calligraphy, brushwork, respectful, near worshipful renderings of nature and formal, polite portrayals of people.  So, imagine her surprise when she encountered the ink panel above by Qi Baishi.

The subject is cleaning his ears!

And then, right across from i,t this man calmly escorting his son or grandson to or from school.  Whether coming or going, have you ever seen a child more unhappy about the school experience?  Or, maybe you have in real life, but not in traditional Chinese art.

Turns out Qi Baishi (one of the several names he used) was as interested in traditional technique and subject matter as this little boy. Basically hardly at all.  After a few years training in the fundamentals of fine brushwork and meticulous detail, he realized he could paint in his own expressive way.  That way he could pursue art as his full-time career instead of dreaming of becoming a professional artist praised by the critics. So he produced art that was personal and expressive, traveling extensively thoughout China and finding mentors here and there.  This was quite something at his time (1864 - 1957) when freedom of artistic individual expression was scorned by critics who refused to acknowledge Qi's work as art.

But, not so his fellow countrypeople.  Qi was and continues to be China's most popular artist, appreciated by viewers from all walks of life.  He often used friends, neighbors, villagers depicting them in various everyday activities.  With real people as models, his subjects are transformed from their traditional solemn appearances into charming, relatable ordinary people.  And the secular (non-art critic) Chinese immediately loved looking at and being amused by themselves in daily activities and moods they could relate to.  Qi became beloved for these and other lively renderings of subjects ranging from plant to animal life (like the doves in the previous CIWT)  And collectors at all levels of art knowledge bought up and his works during his life time and today pay enormous, headline-worthy sums for it.  

So much for critics....