Soaring --- Days 15/82-86

Walks:  Hood, Dentist for two crown$, SF Opera House

Average: 4 miles

Ballerina and San Francisco City Hall dome during intermission of delightful Don Quixote.

Attention Please --- Days 15/80 & 81

Walks: Hood

Distances: Average 3.5

So, Ciwt missed the Oscars Red Carpet.  But she did notice some pretty distinct outfit choices over the Oscars' years.

Demi Moore

1989: Biker shorts and bustier

2026: Covered in feathers

Gwyneth Paltrow

1999: Little girl pretty in pink

2026: Ciwt is Speechless

Misses:

Oh, They're Tonight? --- Day 15/79

Walk: Hood

Distance: 5 miles

Okay, Ciwt actually does have some favorites she is rooting for when she watches:

Best Picture: Sinners

Best Supporting Actor: Stellan Skarsgård, “Sentimental Value”

Best Original Screenplay: Sinners

Best International Feature:  Sentimental Value (but she didn't see It was Just an Accident)

Oscars, Boo Hoo --- Days 15/776, 77, 78

Walks: Hood

Distances: 4.5 miles

The Oscars are tomorrow, 4:00 San Francisco time. Usually at this time of year movie buff Ciwt is madly catching up on any movies/performances she missed so she can have her choices and watch the Oscars with interest.  By usually, she mean decades, so she's feeling a fairly major sadness this year.  She skipped a lot of the entries, is not particularly rooting for any of the nominees and feels discouraged the likely Best Picture winner is a ripped from the headlines yell fest.  The sadness has been coming all year as one movie after another was of no interest.  She knows many other buffs must be feeling the same; but next year has begun and hope abides.

Hopping Down The Trail --- Days 15/74 & 75

Walks: Hood

Distances: 4.5 miles

 Ciwt's neighbors and local wonderful flower shop remind her Easter is hopping along.

Tour Moment --- Days 15/71, 72 & 73

Walks: Hood, Presidio

Distances: 4 miles average

So Ciwt has been pretty preoccupied getting her art client engaged.  A while ago he contacted her through her art tour web site.  Contacted her twice actually because Ciwt often gets at least 15 spam responses daily and tends to just delete them.  

His persistence paid off, Ciwt's heart immediately melted and she went into pre-tour action like never before.  First there were extensive emails, then a Zoom meeting with Ciwt's client and his photographer, and, as final prep, a walkthrough to ensure all proposal participants would all arrive at the exact tree the photographer was hiding behind at the appointed time.

And yesterday, at 3:00 pm, it worked!  Ciwt's client got down on his knees in front of his darling and probably completely shocked girlfriend and proposed.  It appeared he had been as thoughtful with his proposal as he had been with the lead up and setting because he stayed on his knee speaking to her for quite a while.  Ciwt couldn't see the girlfriend/becoming fiancee's face but her body seemed to soften with each moment and Ciwt assumes she was melting into tears.  Certainly Ciwt was!  It was one of the most heatwarming moments in Ciwt's life.

A darling young couple committing to each other in life's future journey. In our apparently chaotic world here was this simple, profound, love and hope filled moment. 

But really, a picture says it all - and more: 

Two Bloodlines, Same Ruthless Demands --- Day 15/70

Walk: AMC Kabuki

Distance: 4.5 Miles

So, Ciwt's main go to movie theater is the AMC Kabuki located in Japantown which contains Kabuki Springs and Spa, not too far from the renowned Asian Art Museum, and overall there is a significant Japanese population in San Francisco.  For all these reasons Ciwt has felt a bit out of it because she knows virtually nothing about kabuki, the art form.

As of today and thanks to the exquisite and riveting movie, Kokuho, she is feeling much better about this limited knowledge.  Turns out nobody, even in Japan, knows much about Kabuki theater- or ever has since its beginnings in Kyoto, 1603.   It's a very secretive art form with distinct and protected bloodlines and hierarchy.  And, as presented by Sang-il Lee, the director, after a book by Shuich Yoshida, kabuki has many ruthless similarities to yakuza, the Japanese mafia. Kabuki's violence is sado-masochistic rather than direct.  It is  more psychologically complex and certainly more graceful, lushly costumed and exacting in physical training.  Yet in both the yakuza and kabuki worlds the most subtle shifts or small deviations from tradition can be matters of life or death.

Ciwt went to Kokuho only knowing it had very high Rotten Tomatoes ratings and has been seen by over one million people in Japan.  Her assumption was that the movie would be too stylized and formal to hold her and she'd probably leave sometime before the three hour running time.  Instead she was spellbound from beginning to end by the visual poetry of costumes and makeup, intense acting and dancing by truly gorgeous performers, the exacting Kabuki art form itself and, yes, the violence on many levels. Kokuho is a deeply human, penetrating, heartrending, sometimes shocking reflection on what art, performance, and absolute greatness really means.

Not Your Grandmother's Ballet --- Days 15/65 - 68

Walk: SF Opera House (SF Ballet: Blake Work)

Distance: 4.5 miles

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DVWJ67rDYkt/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VY_sstCbxQA