Saturday, March 31, 2018

Whoops --- Day 7/36

Walk: Legion of Honor, Hood
Distance: 3.4 miles


Ciwt recently learned that a friend wrote the book Whoops I'm in Business.  Fabulous title!  And top rated by Amazon and Good Reads.  Maybe Ciwt should have read it before beginning her little art tour business (one tour down today, 3 to go this week).  

Then on her way home from giving the tour she listened to Ira Glass on This American Life.  His topic was the pitfalls of turning your passion or hobby into business.  He gave his own experience with those (the main one being numbing out on your passion - to the point where you don't have it any more 😞) and also interviewed a River Dance dancer-singer who had gotten so disconnected from her performances that she was beyond even phoning it in as she danced night after night, week after week.  (At the end of the show, Glass announced that the dancer had retired from the show and had come out with her own singing album.  Hope that's going okay....).  Truth be told, that's pretty much what happened to Ciwt's yoga teaching and bookstore operating.

Luckily Ciwt is still enjoying her art business and just had a terrific tour with a delightful, curious and intelligent (young) couple who were really interested in learning about art - and had great senses of humor. Yes!! Just exactly what Ciwt had in mind.  The trick for her (and many creative 'performers' probably) is lots of nice space between tours.  Wonder if that's in Rich Stim's book - probably, he's so smart.  And also writing Young Adults books that kids are giving Rave reviews!*

*I Didn't Kill Your Cat 
 I Didn't Steal Your Mermaid. and others...




Friday, March 30, 2018

Coming Out --- Day 7/35

Walk: Presidio
Distance: 3 miles, PT stretch, Yoga


    Wow, wait til you see this! Pet cats coming out on the deck for the first time.

                                                    Pet tree beginning to come out of dormancy

      Pet cats and pet tree meet.






Thursday, March 29, 2018

Rough Ride (sort of) --- Day 7/34

Walk: Legion of Honor, Hood
Distance: 2 miles, small yoga, pedal and pt

    Frederic Remington (1861-1909), The Bronco Buster, 1895, Bronze

This is 'cowboy artist' Frederic Remington's first attempt at sculpture.  Pretty talented, yes? Both cowboy and horse are accurately sculpted.  But its also a little inauthentic. Remington was a master of portraying horses and riders, having painted them for years, and he created the sculpture at his suburban New York home using models and studio props.  Truth told, by 1895 the Wild West was well over.  For instance, 1895 is the year the de Young Museum opened in San Francisco.  Less 'wild' yet, thousands of operas had already been performed here since 1851.  

But, that didn't stop sales.  Remington's edition of Bronco Buster was a sell out except for the one he reserved to give to his friend, Theodore Roosevelt.  When he was elected President in 1901, Roosevelt took the bronze with him to Washington and it is now a part of the White House art collection. 





Wednesday, March 28, 2018

I Come Before You To Stand Behind You*... Day 7/33

Walk: Fort Mason             
Distance: 2.5 miles, small yoga, pt

Yoda Fountain, Lucas Arts Building, San Francisco, Presidio

                  
    Willis Harold O'Brien (1886-1962), Special Effects Pioneer


 
                                               Darth Vader?                                           ?
                   
                   And the one Ciwt Does Know,, R2D2

Ciwt is sorry to go dark occasionally these days, but things are going from the sublime to the ridiculous in Ciwt's Art tour department.  There's now a possibility that she who knows vitrually nothing will take Star Wars fans to the Lucas Arts Building for a tour.  And, even sillier, possibly give of tour of the Scientific (Ciwt?)
Exploratorium to a group of Russian who, for all she knows are visiting scientists.

When you open a business, be careful what you wish for....

Here is the speech in its entirety:

Ladles and Jellyspoons,
I come before you, to stand behind you,

To tell you something I know nothing about.
Next Thursday, which is Good Friday, 
There will be a mothers' meeting for fathers only.
Admission is free, pay at the door,
Pull up a seat and sit on the floor.
We will be discussing the four corners of the round table.

Author: Unknown


Sunday, March 25, 2018

Impossilble Beauty and Athleticism and Ciwt --- Day 7/32

Walk: Cinema Club (Borg McEnroe), SF Ballet (Robbins and Broadway)
Distance: 5.3 miles

Today Ciwt was treated to a double header of Beautiful Athletic Perfection.



Her Cinema Club movie was about Bjorn Borg, the great Swedish tennis player who won Wimbledon five years in a row and is still the only male player who has accomplished that feat*.  Even the also impossibly wonderful Roger Federer, who has won eight Wimbledon titles, has had years off in between.


Then it was off to the outstanding San Francisco Ballet and their gorgeous, dedicated, supremely talented young dancers.  One of their principal dancers who was on stage for a twenty three minute virtual solo was so perfectly chiseled it was like watching a dancing David.

Ahhhhh...

* NB, Gentlemen: Martina Navratilova did it in six consecutive years.  Her record still stands.

Friday, March 23, 2018

Oh, Nice Deco! --- Day 7/30

Walk: de Young Museum, Hood
Distance: 2 miles, Yoga/PT/Pedal

Just when she thinks she isn't a fan of Art Deco, Ciwt encounters gorgeous examples like these at the de Young's new show, Cult of the Machine,  opening tomorrow.

 Rene Paul Chambellan, Chanin Building (NYC) Gates, 1928, wrought and bronze (*Ciwt needs to try again  with her photography because she didn't capture the stacks of bronze coins delicately embedded throughout the gates). 


Walter Dorwin Teague, designer, Sparton Corporation, manufacturer, 'Nocturne' radio, 1935, mirrored cobalt glass, satin chrome steel, and wood.  (**with reflection of photographer and Cord B12 Phantom automobile)





Thursday, March 22, 2018

Prep School Ahead --- Day 7/29

Walk: Marin Diving Day (through wind and storm in her getting to be beloved 4wd automatic)
Distance: 0, small yoga


So, tomorrow Ciwt starts serious preparations for her seven, count them, seven (two in one day even)
art tours.  Be careful what you wish for, and also CIWT readers might prepare for a bunch of art tidbits.

Wednesday, March 21, 2018

Outer Space Life, Cont --- Day 7/28

Walk: Union Square
Distance: 8 blocks, small yoga, small pt


Still out there.  Hopefully Ciwt won't redecorate at this time.

Outer Space Life --- Day 7/27

Walk: No, Rain
Distance: 0, a little stretch




















Ciwt has taken up temporary residence in outer space.

Monday, March 19, 2018

Another Type of Art --- Day 7/26

Walk: Presidio and Hood
Distance: 4.5 miles, a little PT, a little yoga

    Saturate Before Using album cover by Gary Burden (d. 3/19/18)

Ciwt was no hipster and didn't know much about who did the art for record covers.  But she vividly remembers the simple, straight-forward, almost architectural, look of this Jackson Browne album. She didn't really know Browne's music (It was Browne's (impressive!) debut album) so she bought it largely for the cover. Turned out the cover captured something of the essence of then 23 year old Browne and his music.  Ciwt ended up listening often at home and again and again and again on tapes during marathon road trips to Sun Valley.  

A self-described 'bad boy,' he also got himself in occasional trouble for his art work. One year, for his cover of Richard Pryor's album, Roots, Burden reported he "..got two letters. One was a letter from the National Geographic Society's attorneys offering to sue him for defamation of their publication.  The second letter was a Grammy nomination for the best album cover."

A very 60-70's combination.  Burden did very well by his clients indeed in a career he, also in 60's style,  stumbled into.





Sunday, March 18, 2018

Different Roots --- Day 7/25

Walk: Presidio
Distance: 4.5 miles, pedal

Presidio Tree Roots

Years ago Ciwt wanted a place where she could get out of the city and live in nature.  And  she was able to rent a lovely, light-filled, airy apartment in Inverness, West Marin.  It was on the ground floor nestled in a stand of gorgeous, tall pine trees, and she loved looking out the window directly onto the birds feeding and preening in the garden and feeling the protection of the trees.  Then one weekend after a ferocious storm she drove up to her natural paradise and was stopped by trucks and yellow tape strung across and blocking the driveway to her apartment.  So, she got out of her car, waited a while and then was given clearance to walk up the hill.

No more trees. Rather, no more standing trees. Twelve tall pines were now laying all over the grass.  The area was condemned and the property turned into a logging camp for the better part of a month.
By then, the owners who lived above her were freaked and didn't trust that the trees still standing wouldn't fall through their roof.  So Ciwt offered to move out of her little getaway in order for them to move in and feel safe.  So ended Ciwt's idyllic second home in the country.

The loggers and trees experts explained that the trees that fell had 'shallow root systems."  Ciwt didn't quite get what they meant.  She had a midwestern child's image of trees: huge sturdy oaks whose roots went down, down into the earth which she applied to all tall trees when she moved West.  Finally today, looking at pines in the Presidio, she got a new image and understood what "shallow root system" means.

Luckily the National Parks Service, Presidio and Golden Gate National Parks Conservatory collablorate to manage the trees within the Presidio.

Saturday, March 17, 2018

Calvin's Gold --- Day 7/24

Walk: Hood
Distance: 2.6 miles, PT, Pedal, Yoga




Ciwt stayed out of yesterday's elements, but luckily Calvin H didn't. At Ocean Beach at 8:30 a.m. he  captured this glorious double rainbow dropping its pot of gold into the Cliff House.  

Pleez Xcuse --- Day 7/23 (1)

Walk: Storm!
Distance: 0, Yoga, PT















Dear CIWT Reader,

Plee xcuse Ciwt from writin toDay.  She is so sic with her semIanual go rond with
Loukeemia.  It cums every yeer in aLLegee seeson for sum reesin.

Ciwt's Frend,
Pooh 

Thursday, March 15, 2018

Up, Out, In, Down - Repeat 30 times --- Day 7/22

Walk: Marin Driving Day
Distance: 0 essentially




















Rain?  No, problem: Ciwt's home gym awaits.

Wednesday, March 14, 2018

Soon to be In Charge Again --- Day 7/21

Walk: Hood Errands
Distance: 2 miles, PT, Yoga, Pedal


Here we go again with another cat post.  Ciwt apologizes.  For five months she was virtually alone in her home nursing her ailing knee.  Everything was Totally under control, shipshape, undemanding (except for PT) and every inch was hers.  Then came two adorable little home wreckers and a whole bunch of people who want to take her art tours.  Ciwt will regain control, and CIWT will no longer have cat entries - soon.  Hang in there.  (You know the poster image for that phrase ... 😑)


Tuesday, March 13, 2018

Grande-est, Please --- Day 7/20

Walk: Hood and Beyond Errands
Distance: 3 miles, PT


Ciwt isn't even a coffee drinker, but she's ready to become one.  Are you still adjusting to Daylight Savings Time too?

Monday, March 12, 2018

Jigger, the Doc! --- Day 7/19

Walk: No, Cats to the Vet and other cat errands, then rain
Distance: Few Blocks






















Ciwt knows cat pics are a cop out, but getting two cats to one vet appointment and then doing follow up errands for them was a full time job for her today.  Kind of a shock for her cats as well.  Patients and owners doing fine - (actually it was just a new cat follow up check).

Sunday, March 11, 2018

Horse Talk --- Day 7/18

Walk: Cinema Club, Japantown
Distance: 2.4 miles


             Charlie Plummer in Lean on Pete

Havng totally missed the message on Daylight Savings TimeCiwt arrived sleep deprived at her cinema club this morning. The film they screened Lean on Pete portraying grim, downbeat, interior loneliness did nothing to perk her up. She's never been a fan of 'down on America' anything. But she can't say conclusively "Don't go" because 15 year old Charlie Plummer - who is in virtually every scene - does a remarkable acting job. Plus the (young) critics so far and many members of her cinema club have given it very high marks. Is it bedtime yet?

Saturday, March 10, 2018

Dark As Can Be --- Day 7/17

Walk: SF Opera House (Frankenstein)
Distance: 5 miles




















Forget your stiff-legged Boris Karloff. Ciwt has never seen a ballet as psychologically and physically dark as San Francisco Ballet's Frankenstein. Flawlessly danced and conducted. Ciwt wonders if there was any kind of penalty paid by the principals who had to get into and dance such disturbing roles.

Friday, March 9, 2018

Immersed in Water --- Day 7/16

Walk: SFMOMA
Distance: 3 miles, little yoga stretch

After avoiding the crowded building with lots of stairs while recovering from her knee surgery, Ciwt took another trip back to SFMOMA today.  She went to begin preparing for upcoming tours, but spent her time at a couple of new exhibitions instead. Both on the 7th, Contemporary Floor.  She went relunctantly because, in her opinion, the exhibitons on that floor have been a mess (for lack of better descriptive words) ever since the museum opened almost two years ago.  Except for one "Sound Scape" exhibition which was restful and wonderful.

Her favorite piece in that was porcelain bowls floating gently and randomly bumping into each other.
When they did, the whole room sounded of ethereal chimes.  And then quiet returned.  Some people sate for hours; it was that meditative.

Celeste Bursier-Mougenot, Clinamen v. 3, porcelain
bowls, plywoodp polyvinyl chloride, water pump,
resitance water heater and water




Johm Akomfrah, Vertigo Sea in which the Filmmaker explores man's relationship with the sea and its role in the history of slavery, migration, and conflict, literature, industry and other worldly and timeless matters.

Reviewers have called it "sublime," "ravishing," "awful," "utterly immersive."  Ciwt found it all that and more.



                                         

Thursday, March 8, 2018

All Full Today --- Day 7/15

Walk: No, Marin Driving Day (Sausalito HouseBoat!)
Distance: 0, Big PT/Yoga/Pedal


Ciwt always loves spending time with her friends on their immaculate and beautiful houseboat.

Wednesday, March 7, 2018

Not Quite Seduced --- Day 7/14

Walk: Legion of Honor (Casanova Exhibition)
Distance: Not far.  Drove.  No PT, yoga or anything.

Diarama from Casanova: the Seduction of Europe exhibiton at the Legion of Honor

The Legion has done a superlative job collecting and displaying 18th century paintings, costumes, furniture and furnishings and from all over the world for their current Casanova show.  If you a Canaletto fan 
Giovanni Antonio CanalRegatta View from Ca'Foscari, 1727, o/c

this show is a Must See.  There are more Caneletto's in this exhibition than there are in all of Italy, his home country. In case you wonder where the most Caneletto's hang, that would be in Buckingham Palace where the Royal Family have 50! Caneletto's on the wall of their dining room.

But, if you are like Ciwt, there is only so much interest you can bring to that man and his frivolous-appearing era .

Tuesday, March 6, 2018

Oscar Fashion Mystery --- Day 7/13

Walk: Walgreens for new Shingles Shot
Distance: 2 miles

Ciwt was mystified when one of her more fashionable friends texted to say she LOVED Frances McDormand's Oscar dress.  Ciwt loves most things about McDormand, but she didn't love that dress  .  To Ciwt, watching on TV,  it was kind of a green blur that made FMcD's face and hair look green as well.

So how could her friend have loved it - and thought it was just perfect for the two time Oscar winner?
It turned out her friend hadn't actually seen the Oscars and saw the dress the next day in pictures.  Here are dress and star again in good lighting
Beautifully crafted dress that captures something about McDormand's essence, vibrant skin, blond hair.

Mystery solved.

Monday, March 5, 2018

Oscar Grows Up --- Day 7/12

Walk: Hood
Distance: 2.5 miles, PT, Yoga


Ciwt thought it was her first grown up Oscars last night. The Oscar fashion statements said it all.
Everyone, woman and man, looked lovely.  There were so many Best Dressed, she'll just feature a few of the men.  The only exception she can remember was some man who sported an old 'un grown up - look at me' jacket with short sleeves and long white cuffs.  

Sunday, March 4, 2018

Dim Bulb Math--- Day 7/11

Walk: Laurel Village/Hood
Distance: 2 miles, (PT, yoga while watching Oscars)



While she was watching Daniel Day-Lewis yesterday, Ciwt was sorry to have missed the First Annual American Tulip Day right downtown on Union Square. As her followers know, tulips are right up at the top of Ciwt's List of Favorite Works of Art. If she had to choose from a created work, a Matisse painting and a natural one, a vase of fresh tulips, she's not sure which direction she would go.

Now the financially unattainable Matisse of course, but once upon a time those tulips would have sold for more than a Matisse would fetch today.  In the Netherlands during 'tulipmania' (ca. 1634-1637) and well before Matisse, promise of a single tulip bulb might have been enough to secure a mansion on one of Amsterdam's canals. "Promise" because people didn't have actual tulip bulbs in hand during the mania. What the "owner' bought was a piece of paper that gave "Proof of Ownership" of a tulip bulb that was apparentlygrowing in a field somewhere. And that Proof of Ownership paper could be sold to someone else, then someone else again at an increasingly higher, virtually limitless price. You can begin to see the problem; sadly most tulip 'investors' lost everything.

But the flowers are so beguilingly beautiful, Ciwt can understand wanting to 'own' them - in bulk.  The most sought after and therefore expensive were the striped  
and flamed varieties.  Luckily Ciwt prefers the solid colored ones - so maybe she would still have had a little of her money when the tulip bubble burst.



All the better to pay her fare into the movie theaters so she could watch with (some) interest hour after hour of Oscar presentations over the years.  The Red Carpet  pre-pre-ceremonies begin soon for this year's epic.  If time is money, she has a huge investment in the Oscars and doesn't want to miss a minute.





Saturday, March 3, 2018

Red Carpet Predictions Time --- Day 7/10

Walk: Presidio Theater (Phantom Thread x2)
Distance: 3 miles, PT, Yoga

Best Actor

Ciwt is just home from seeing Daniel Day-Lewis's 'hallowed' performance in Phantom Thread for the second time.  The only movie she went to twice this year (unusual) and the only category she will throw something across the room if her favorite doesn't win an Oscar.  Gary Oldman is consistently outstanding in whatever movie he's in including this year's Darkest Hour, but Day-Lewis is in a category all his own.

She's steeled for Best Actress disappointment.  Sally Hawkins should win for literally carrying The Shape of Water, but she won't get the Oscar.  Frances McDormand will which is fine with Ciwt.

Oh wait, there's a second disappointment she's expecting: Willem daFoe whose supporting actor performance gave The Florida Project humanity and soul.  And please, please don't give Supporting Actress to Allison Janney.  Like the real mother, Janney was an off-the-charts bitch in I, Tonya, but how hard is that to play, especially when there are videos of the prototype?

Okay, here go the rest of Ciwt's predictions. 


Best Picture                                                The Shape of Water*
Best Director                                              Guillermo del Toro
Best Actor                                                  Daniel Day-Lewis !!!!
Best Actress                                               Frances McDormand
Best Supporting Actor                               Sam Rockwell
Best Supporting Actress                            Laurie Metcalf* (although probably Allison Janney)
Animated Feature                                      Coco
Cinematography                                        The Shape of Water*   
Costume Design                                        The Shape of Water
Documentary Feature                                ? Ciwt missed doc this year due to house arrest
Documentary Short Subject                       Ditto
Film Editing                                               Dunkirk
Foreign Language                                     The Insult
Makeup and Hairstyling                            ? Ciwt only saw one nominee
Original Score                                           Phantom Thread, Jonny Greenwood
Original Song                                            Remember Me, Kristen Anderson-Lopez & Robert Lopez
Production Design                                    The Shape of Water
Short Film, Animated                               Revolting Rhymes
Short Film, Live Action                            DeKalb Elementary
Sound Editing                                            Star Wars: The Last Jedi
Sound Mixing                                            Dunkirk (No clue about either Sound category actually)
Visual Effects                                            Star Wars: The Last Jedi  (?)
Adapted Screenplay                                  Call Me By Your Name
Original Screenplay                                  Lady Bird

* Close contenders: Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, Allison Janney, Dunkirk

Friday, March 2, 2018

Daffy Time --- Day 7/9

Walk: PGCC, Trader Joe's
Distance: Not far, another storm on and off 




















They're here; can spring be far behind?  (This applies to you in the Midwest and East Coast.  Take heart).


Thursday, March 1, 2018

Cabin Fever, YES! --- Day 7/8

Walk: No, Storm!
Distance: A little PC/Yoga

                                        1800's Edwardian Interior

For those of us/ Ciwt living in almost daily (and glorious!) light, stormy days are such a treat. Guilt free,  we relax and enjoy our Victorian, Edwardian or other types of California. For her own reasons, Mother Nature is happiest of all.