Walks: Hood & around the house
Distances: 3.5, 3 miles
Ciwt has been busy with them, but nobody does weekend chores better than the ✰Stars☆☆.
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Mary Hartman |
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Robin Williams |
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Cinderella |
Walk: Around a little; Hood, Chiropractic
Distance: 1.5; 2.5
So, the other day, a juvenile peregrine falcon! landed on the rail just outside Ciwt's bedroom window. To say this is a rare event in a San Francisco residential neighborhood is beyond an understatement. So Ciwt watched it transfixed until it flew away, mercifully without taking one of the small local birds with it.
Then, probably because she has exceeding few associations with large birds of prey, her mind went to the falcon 'partner' of one of the main characters in the Hawaii miniseries. When she saw that bird come home to its ancient Japanese master, she thought it was some sort of production gimmick to make the character more distinguished or something. This based on her assumption that falconry was a sport of the British Isles, and English people had yet to arrive on the series' fictional Japanese shores.
Well, it turns out the Hawaii producers were right on, and Ciwt was way off. By at least a millenium. Though no one can say exactly when it began, falconry is a prehistoric means of hunting with birds of prey. Stelae around the Black Sea depicting falconry date to the 13th century BCE. And prehistoric cave paintings illustrating falconry may be even older.
The practice slowly traveled East from Arabia to Asia and Island countries before European Silk Road merchants, adventurers and Crusaders began taking falcons and falconers with them on their returns home in the middle ages (ca. 500 - 1500 CE). At that point falconry began flourishing among the privileged classes in the British Isles.
Walk: Hood and Chiropractic
Distance: 3.5 miles, 6 miles
So it seems, the internationally renowned Sacramento artist and teacher, Wayne Thiebaud (1920-2021), had two primary loves and muses. His wife, Betty Jean Thiebaud,
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Wayne Thiebaud, Betty Jean Thiebaud and Book, 1965-69, o/c |
whom he always painted with heartshaped necklines and ART. The whole sweep of it from the cave paintings to the present.
Days when nothing was pressing with his own art Thiebaud spent copying work by other artists he admired. This is how he learned his techniquies and expanded his craft throughout his entire painting life. And, Ciwt imagines, how he communed with with artists and art energy through the ages.
There were many - Matisse, Rembrandt, Degas, Seurat,
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Wayne Thiebaud, 'A Sunday on the La Grande Jatte,' (after Georges Seurat), 2000, oil on board |
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Wayne Thiebaud, Buffet, 1972-75, o/c, @42" x 60" |
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Wayne Thiebaud, 35 Cent Masterworks, 1970-72, o/c, 36" x 48" |
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Jacques-Louis David, Death of Marat, 1873, o/c |
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Pierre Bonnard, Nude in a Bath, 1936, o/c |
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Wayne Thiebaud, 'Study of a Waitress for the Bar at the Folies-Bergere after Edouard Manet,' no date, oil on masonite |
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Wayne Thiebaud, Girl with Pink Hat, 1973, o/c |
Walks: Sloat Garden Center, AMC Kabuki (The Alto Knights)
Distances: 4, 2.5 miles
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De Niro and De Niro in The Alto Knights |
If like Ciwt you're an old time mob movie 'gang member' and have seen all or many of this genre, The Alto Knights is for you. Even then, Ciwt thinks, go with limited expectations. If you do, you will enjoy all the recognizable elements - Brooklyn accents, shiny sedans, mink coats, dimly lit night clubs with leather banquettes, a bit too much opulence in upper class mansions and clothing - and of course a heap of brutality.
You will not miss Robert De Niro, one of the two Godfathers of the genre (after Brando), because he plays both main roles. And does it very well. Not his fault that the choice to have him do so was an ongoing distraction to Ciwt. Maybe that decision was made by the Academy winning director, Barry Levinson (Rain Man - and many others), or Nicholas Pileggi, who wrote the Goodfellas script as well as this one. In any event, The Alto Knights has it all and would be a shame for mob movie buffs to miss.
If on the other hand you are new to the Mafia canon, The Alto Knights is likely to bore you silly. Start with The Godfather, Parts I and II.
Walk: Hood of course
Distance: 3.5 miles
Well, lookee here at this headline. Heathrow, the second busiest airport in the world has shut down. Oh dear, all flights in and out canceled with travelers stranded perhaps for days all over the world.
What a shame for all concerned. Ciwt wishes them the best but also notes it is happening just as she was considering canceling or postponing her May trip to London. (See yesterday's post) Hmmm. Maybe a better time to stay home, begin with her new home as a home instead of a work station. And get back to CIWT. Hmmm...
Walks: Hood (ciwt likes it)
Distances: 3.5 miles
And then there's that trip to London. Maybe she mentioned, in January she bought her (refundable) ticket ticket there for ten days at the beginning of May. Somehow this year, May is much earlier than usual or something and Ciwt is beginning to consider canceling or postponing.
Those of you who have followed CIWT over the years may remember that she is one of the maybe 100 other people in America who doesn't love to travel. If you go on the internet and read about people who don't like to travel, all you encounter is bands of posters who consider that horrifying, shameful, pathetic, close minded and more - all negative.
For Ciwt though travel is anxiety producing from beginning to end. Oh, except for the thinking of the trip and booking her plans part which is exhilerating and seeing friends and art when she gets there. Those things aside, there are leaving her cats, the airplane rides both ways, and the many unexpected situations, basically the vast diminishment of personal control. For instance there was her friend who went on a river cruise with her husband, but at some point the river ran dry. So they had to reinvent their trip right in the middle of it. And actually they ended up running into Ciwt's brother in Vienna where he and his wife had been diverted from a completely different trip because of international miscommunication about arrival dates.
Travel lovers probably roll easily with these unforeseen events, maybe pat themselves on the back for their resourcefulness and thoroughly enjoy the substitute place. Not Ciwt. First of all, she generally travels alone, and she has no interest in being stranded in the middle of a foreign river and having to slap together some solution for getting back to her cats - in a foreign language with foreign currency. She can do these things, but internally she is not rolling with them and congratulating herself for what a terrific traveler she is - while also grooving on being in this foreign place. She's just thinking "How soon before this is over.?"
Such is the life on the road for we small band of non-travelers. So, perhaps her readers can understand why she is reconsidering that London trip. And maybe they are also thinking "How pathetic, shameful, closeminded, etc. of Ciwt."
Walks: Hood
Distances: 4.5 miles each
What color do you want for the office walls? What about the rest of your place? What size pillows, how many, where in the living room? Oh, and what fabric? hdo you want this table? What are you going to do wtith the things in the storeroom
Ciwt has been on the move for the past 3 years, and the moving decisions are beginning to wear her out. Even worse, they are pulling her creative energies away from CIWT. Like many people, she actually enjoys decorating decisions, but she's thinking this is beginning to be too much of a good thing.
The good news is the end is in sight. Sort of. Only four more projects to go. They are big ones - office, storeroom, living room rug - but not so fraught with the great unknown of what colors, fabrics, furniture locations she'll still be in tune with years from now.
Okay back to work on her place.
Walk: AMC Kabuki (Black Bag)
Distance: 3.5 miles
Yay! A real grown up movie and something to write about. Superbly acted but ultimately a consummate director's movie.
From the opening nanosecond Steven Soderbergh, that director, drew Ciwt directly into, Black Bag. And he kept her there feeling the breath, analyzing the smallest action and look of each character while staying hyper alert to what in the world was going on. Much of the time Soderbergh's camera can't be more than two feet from his actors and each one is up to the acute watchfulness with clean, precise, intriguing portrayals. Ciwt did miss quite a few words at the beginning due to the rapid 'Brit speak,' but was happy to realize those words apparently weren't important and she was able to track the overall action. She even wonders in retrospect whether the muffled words were another device by Soderbergh to heighten suspense and rivet his viewer even more to every detail.
Without patting herself on the back, Ciwt will say this is a thinking person's movie. Viewers who rely on pyrotechnics, shoot em ups, kung fu action for their entertainment will likely be bored. For those who like their fare precise, intelligent, challenging, cleanly filmed and acted, this movie is in the bag.
Walks: A Few Hood; A Few Rain Days Off
Distance: Hoods: 4 miles, Rain: n/a
Once again Ciwt (aka Pooh in her youth) is pondering. What to write about? All her rooms piled high with furniture while her place is painted? No. That she's already started to wonder about another color? No. The economy? Certainly not. Her cats, her back, the Gene Hackman marathon she's sharing with a friend, local storms? All rejects.
Please hand in, dear readers. She's been in this ponder empty place before, so, anon, she'll be back with new gems - or entries at least.
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Aren't I Cute? |
Walk: Hood
Distance: 5.5 miles
Reader Quiz: There is one particular difference between these two bedroom pictures which is on Ciwt's mind these days. Can you figure out what it is?
Walks: Hood, SF Ballet, TBD
Distances: 3 miles, 5 miles, TBD
So, this morning it took Ciwt 1 hour and 10 minutes to feed her two cats?!? From there it took her minus one hour to turn on her computer. Needless to say this was very disorienting for Ciwt until she realized - finally! - last night was 'spring forward' night.
In the marvelous olden days, local newspapers would start warning readers days ahead that they would be changing their clocks soon, and the day before the warnings were near banner headlines. Another tradition lost and lamented at Ciwt's home.
Her Daylight Savings Hero friend on the other hand never, ever forgets And has her clocks synchronized to the nanosecond. Here for the future is how it is done according to her system:
You walk around to each clock with iphone in hand.
When the new minute shows, you immediately set the clock.
The remaining seconds allow you time to get to your next clock.
Repear until all your clocks are synchronized.
Maybe Ciwt will try that when 'Fall Back' comes around. If she remembers.....
Walks/Lopes: Presidio and Hood
Distances: 2.5 miles, 7 miles
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Carlos Avila Gonzalez/The Chronicle |
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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.
Walk: Sloat Garden Center
Distance: 5 miles
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Sandro Botticelli, Primavera, late 1470's or early 1480's, tempura on panel |
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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.
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 |
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Halle Berry |
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Michele Yeoh |
Colman Domingo |
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Jeff Goldblum |
Zoe Saldana |
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Yasmin Finney |
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Omar Apollo |
Timothee Chalamet Very Timothee and he rocked it so Ciwt was torn between Best Dressed or this category. Your choice. |
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FLOW |
Walks: Hood and arround home sticking Samplize paint samples on wall after wall
Distances: 4 miles average
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's 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.
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
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with Eileen Atkins |