Thanks and Goodbye --- Days 10/332 & 334

Walk: 1. Legion of Honor, SFMOMA  2. T. Joe's, end of year errands

Distance: 1. 4.7 miles, small yoga  2. 3 miles, small yoga

So Ciwt ends 2021 with a thank you to her readers and hopeful wishes for all in the coming new year.

Good Day for Paperwork --- Day 10/331

Walk: not really, but got important paperwork done/underway in continuing⛈🥶💨

Distance: .8 miles  😶

Dreary out there

Preparing for 2022+ --- Day 10/330

Walk: 😰☔ (too cold and rainy)

Distance: n/a, 1 hour yoga

So tomorrow Ciwt begins to wind down 2021 with a visit to her fiduciary.  Fun?  Well, necessary and nice to go into 2022 knowing things are taken care of.  

Looking for Stimulating Entertainment? --- Day 10/329

Walk: No 😬💦💨 

Distance: n/a, 90 minutes yoga

Recommended getaways:

Denzel Washington and Frances McDormand
in The Tragedy of MacBeth

With these two actors and writer/director Joel Coen, oh, and the playwright, it has to be excellent.  And it is, along with being creatively filmed and staged, concise and a riveting movie theater experience.

Snowman 

A well told, informative, and heartwarming sports story about a championship 'lesson' horse that captured America's heart in the 1950's.  

Wayne Thiebaud --- Day 10/328

Walk: AMC Kabuki (The Tragedy of MacBeth)

Distance: 3 miles, small yoga

Wayne Thiebaud (1920 - 2021)

However you look at him, an outstanding teacher, a great painter, a thoroughly decent man and a Ciwt favorite.*  God speed. 

*See CIWT Days 10/61 &62, 9/290, 9/216, 9/215, 8/247, 7/237, 7/236, 7/227, 7/3, 7/2, 5/23, 4/281, 4/223, 2/341, 2/340, 2/233, 2/19, 275

Greetings from Ciwt --- Day 10/327

Walk: No

Distance: Yoga

Always a Personal Favorite --- Day 10/326

Walk: Hood

Distance: 4 miles

Claude Monet, The Magpie, 1868-69, oil on canvas

Joan Didion, (1934-2021) --- Day 10/325

Walk: Hood in light rain

Distance: 2.5 miles, small yoga

Joan Didion died today.  Ciwt's copies of her books are dog-eared from many years of rereading.  Each time radically fresh and astounding.

Goodbye from California, and may you Rest In Peace.  Your writing will live long to teach and be marveled at by future readers and writers.

Gee, Sorry, Too Far Away --- Day 10/324

Walk: No, rain👍

Distance: Yoga

As you know, Ciwt limits entrants to her Holiday Decoration Contest to her neighborhood.  Now, if she lived in other parts of the Bay Area (and a bit beyond), these would be definite - and not nearly as traditional - candidates:

Fairfield:

Livermore:

San Carlos:

Tracy:

Or even in another San Francisco neighborhood: 

Each One A Gift --- Day 10/323

Walk: Hood

Distance: 3 miles

Ciwt can't bring herself to name a favorite Neighborhood Holiday Decoration this season.  Every bow, light, Santa, reindeer, Nutcracker, wreath and more made her walks a delight and brought a warm smile.  

And More.......Thanks to One and All !!!  

'Toy' Pomo Baskets --- Day 10/322

Walk: LP Nails

Distance: 1.6 cold, sleepy miles

Miniature and micro-miniature baskets by Pomo artists (Northern California), including  Joseppa Pinto Dick (Yolayo Pomo, ca 1862-1905) and Mary knight Benson (Yokayo Pomo, 187-1930), Sedge root foundations and weft, dyed bulrush root weft

From signage at de Young Museum exhibition,  Jules Tavernier and the Elem Pomo (through  April 17, 2022):

Pomo children formerly spent much of their infancy in "cradle," or baby basket. Traditionally, various objects were hung from the baby basket's hoop to engage the baby's attention, much like today's crib mobiles. These dangling items often embodied the family's wishes for the child's future. Miniature coiled baskets were used as one such toy, often attached to girls' cradles to inspire them to become talented weavers.      These tiny baskets became favorite novelty items among non-Native collectors as they competed to own "the smallest Indian basket in the world." Native weavers profited from their sale because miniature baskets required fewer materials and less time to make.

                                                                                                                    -Sherrie Smith-Ferri

Better Hurray, Decorators --- 10/321

Walk: Cold Hood

Distance: 3 miles

Weekend before Holidays begin, so (nearly) all the decorations are up.  Look for winners of Ciwt's Holiday Decoration Contest soon!!

Contest: Lovely Tradition Abounds --- Day 10/320

Walk: Hood and de Young Museum (Elem Pomo dancers)

Distance:  6.7 miles

To A 'T' --- Day 10/319

Walk: SFSPCA (cat's teeth and Nails (yay), de Young Museum Press Opening: Jules Tavernier and the Elem Pomo

Distance: 10 miles! (mostly loping)

A friend emailed this today, and it suits Ciwt to a 'T' on many year end days, not just soltice.  You too?

Holiday Contest: Best Neighborhood Store Windows --- Day 10/318

Walk: Presidio Pickleball and Hood

Distance: 5.5 miles, 1 hour pickle

                              Traditon. Tradition 🎵🎵

Just Enjoy --- Days 10/316 and 317

Walk: 1. Golden Gate Park Pickleball  2. Cold hood before the rain

Distance: 1. 2.5 miles, 90 minutes pickle  2. 3miles, Yoga

Vincent Van Gogh, Olive Trees with Yellow Sky and Sun, 1889, o/c

Olive Trees, Van Gogh Immersive, San Francisco, April, 2021 

So which of these expressive and colorful olive tree landscapes do you resonate to?  

If you are like Ciwt, the answer is both.  She loved being immersed in the huge fields and trees, suns, flowers, people and villages that were part of Vincent Van Gogh's life.  Animate or inanimate they affected him deeply and he painted them all with palpable passion and love.

In the immersive Ciwt was able to see even more clearly Van Gogh's multiple brush strokes and color upon color upon color in each painting.  The enormity of the surrounding art work allowed her to 'exist' in Van Gogh's world and even a bit in his head.

On the other hand the glow of the oil and the tight agitation, near frenzy in which Van Gogh worked wasn't as electrifying to Ciwt as standing before of one of his actual paintings.

Both experiences are affecting and transporting.

So, why pit them against each other as some art critics have?  If the immersives are all that someone ever sees of Van Gogh, if they never enter a museum and just have the memory of a beautiful, moving experience and new knowledge of Van Gogh and his life, so what?  Many people value other activities over museums, and Ciwt has never heard anything except joyful reactions to the immersive experiences.

If someone else is a museum goer and only sees Van Gogh's paintings in that venue, lucky them!  If they go on to study his life and techniques because of it, even luckier.

And if they have all three experiences as Ciwt has, well, Wow!

Bowed Trip --- Day 10/315

Walk: No - Rain

Distance: 0, Yoga

Ciwt is busy updating her will during a cold, windy rainstorm and wishing she could just get in this Holdiday Car and drive somewhere - anywhere.......

Clanging and Climbing --- Day 10/314

Walk: No, Rain!

Distance: Yoga

  

Maybe because she did it right in the middle of her annual Halloween Contest, Ciwt forgot to tell you she finally stopped into San Francisco's Cable Car Museum.  Thanks to having discovered a long lost (and buried) cable car line just a block up the hill from her home.  (See CIWT Days 10/194 and 10/195). (The ways San Francisco keeps surprising, stimulating and entertaining Ciwt after over the 50 years of living here is always a delight).

Like everyone most days of the week, she just walked right in - absolutely free.  The surprise was finding not just a museum but a fully functioning powerhouse for the entire rail line.  Visitors go downstairs and are below the San Franicsco streets looking directly at the huge spindle pulleys, called 'sheaves' loudly at work pulling the cars up and down the hills.  

They have been doing this night and day since 1873 when inventor Andrew Smith Hallidie's way of using wire rope cables to drag wooden trams up and down our steep, fog-slippery streets became operational (and spared horses).  These gigantic clock-like gears are part of San Francisco's infrastructure transporting people and lending San Francisco part of its fabled character to this day.  

Yes, cable cars continue to climb 'halfway to the stars 𝅘𝅥𝅱𝅘𝅥𝅱."  They are a traveling piece of history, in a way the heartbeat of our city.  There are four lines operating, down from the original and more extensive 8 lines.  But these four are now protected by the City Charter so they won't be going anywhere - except slowly up and down our hills with bells clanging and tourists and local commuters alike hanging onto straps, talking with the conductor, and becoming a moving part of San Francisco.

Cable Car Wood Patterns (a matter of invention and reinvention until they were perfected in 1880)

Employee time clock @1900

Meter 579 when the fare was $ .25 (today it is $8.00 - and worth it!)

Ciwt, who lives on Jackson Street, would definitely be taking this car if the line was still operating

Now Side Action Is The Thing --- Day 10/313

Walk: Outdoor errands before predicted big (needed🌧) storm, Vogue Theater (West Side Story)

Distance: 7 miles

Ariana DeBose and David Alvarez in Steven Spielberg's Adaptation of West Side Story

So, Ciwt ran all the way home from West Side Story because the dancing, the NYC settings and several of the performances were electrifying.  Go the Spielberg's remake for those and other elements of one of Broadway's greatest musicals.  The central love story wasn't believable for Ciwt (because of some shallow acting and the 1-day duration of the romance), but that made way for the larger, deeper personalities, side and back stories with which Spielberg has enhanced his movie.   

Holiday Contest: Besides Wreaths and Bows --- Day 10/312

Walk: Hood, Sloat Garden

Distance: 5 miles

Holiday Contest: Wreaths, Bows and Houses --- Day 10/311

Walk: Hood

Distance: 5.7 miles