Walks: Presidio, Hood
Distances: 3 miles
Just a year in her new place and already time for a closet caper.
Walks: Presidio, Hood
Distances: 3 miles
Just a year in her new place and already time for a closet caper.
Walk: Presidio
Distance: 4 miles
Walk: Hood
Distance: 5.5 miles
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Henri Matisse, Open Window,Collioure, 1905, o/c |
Walk: Union Square
Distance: 5.5 miles
So Ciwt's gorgeous amaryllis which she'd been given as a holiday uplift finally stopped producing its blooms in January. Unsure what to do with the flowerless leaves and bulb she stuck their basket way back in a dark closet and completely neglected it. No water, no light, no attention except to lop off the leaves a few months later when they started flopping over the shelf's edge in a creepy way that bothered her.
Then, yesterday, Ciwt was straightening out the closet and couldn't believe her eyes when she saw this:
Impossible to believe, but the bulb had sprouted! Not only that, when she brought it out of the dark and sent a picture to her amaryllis expert friend, her friend responded: That looks like it is going to BLOOM again! If so, I think I would give it some water. None of mine have ever done that ...yours is a premium Amaryllis and a high achiever!Walk: Sports Basement Presidio
Distance: 4 miles
Ciwt was entirely! wrong about last night's Succession finale. And she couldn't be happier. No Chekhov, many guns left still loaded, and devastatingly perfect. It was pre-gun, stark Greek Tragedy in which the show mastermind, Jesse Armstrong, gave new meaning to English cooking, 'a meal fit for a king,' hand holding, empty suits, hubris, defeat and victory.
If you haven't been a Succession follower, some day you owe it to yourself to spend 40+ hours watching all 4 seasons from beginning to end. Meanwhile Ciwt will be joining the bereft original audience who are doing just that - for the second or third time .
Walk: Not sure yet
Distance: ditto
Walks: Hood
Distance: 4.5 miles, 2.5 miles
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Edward Hopper (American, 1882-1967), ca 1937 |
So, as the grey cold summer winds continue in San Francisco, Ciwt's mind goes to the rather grey, cold artist Edward Hopper who was one of the premier recorders of American mid-century malaise. Hopper's favorite subjects were lonely gas stations, New York diners at night, movie theaters, women alone staring out windows. All on the American East Coast, particularly New York City which continually both fascinated and eluded him. New York had something he couldn't quite reach but continued to try.
Ciwt was surprised to learn that some of Hopper's formative artistic years were actually in Paris, a city he visited three times between 1906 and 1910. He was working at a New York ad agency and hated it so Paris was a breath of fresh air to him, and he's quoted as believing there was "never a city so beautiful nor another people with such an appreciation of the beautiful as the French."
Hopper's times in Paris coincided with the beginnings of Matisse, Picasso's Cubism, and all the many artists who had moved to the city during that revolutionary time in art. But already Hopper was his own man, appreciating the great innovative artists surrounding him while also evolving his own methods, style and visual vocabulary.
Even though Impressionism was on its way out as a dominant artistic style, Hopper was clearly instructed by their preoccupation with capturing light and spontaneity as he wandered the streets, setting up his easel along the same streets, river and churches they had painted.
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Edward Hopper, Notre Dame de Paris, 1907 |
But that isn't all Hopper's sharp eye was attuned to in that "City of Light." Already he resonated with the dark, the solitary, the remote.
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Edward Hopper, Stairway at 48 rue de Lille, Paris, 1906 |
Walk: Union Square
Distance: 5.5 miles
So yesterday Ciwt referred to the Phoenix bird but then realized she wasn't entirely sure of the Phoenix's story. If you are like her, you might be interested in how Hans Christian Andersen's tells it.
Walk: Presidio
Distance: 5 miles
Walk: "Unnatural" Park
Distance: 2 miles
So golf season is about begin in earnest in the months ahead, Ciwt's father was in the business of manufacturing golf clothes and all her sister and brothers play golf so often it might has well be their jobs. Not Ciwt. She's a pretty good athlete in some sports but wasn't given the golf gene.
Today a friend sent her an article about a professional golfer who shot a quintuple bogey in a major tourament. (That's 5 over par). And she thought too bad she couldn't have played that hole with him - because she might have been able to beat him on.
Turns out the worst recorded single-hole tournament golf score is 23. Darn, Ciwt would have loved to have played that hole against him because she's absolutely sure she could beat that score. But, alas, the year was 1938.
Walk: Monday errands all over the place
Distance: 7 miles
Ciwt was busy today getting exercise plus enjoying nature while doing Monday errands.
Walk: Park and Hood
Distance: 3 miles
This Morning in the 'Unreal' Park |
So Ciwt sometimes starts her day with a walk in the park right next to her building - which for some reason she thought wasn't real nature when she first moved. (Moving is hard).
Oh and here's what the wild parrots that make their home in Ciwt's park sound like - guess they never knew it wasn't real nature. https://youtu.be/tCJne7CcNiI
Walk: No, Catch up on reading day
Distance: 0. yoga
Sir Richard Sheridan Patrick Michael Aloysius Franklin Bowling OBE RA, known as Frank Bowling, (b. 1934), ca 1969 New York, British artist, born in Guyana, working in New York and London |
Skirt worn by woman dancing in the Guyana darkness:
There's a soul at work here. Technically and intellectually an extremely powerful one. Bowling's canvasses up close are a marvel. Intense, layered, complex, beautiful. Fluid and not the least bit labored. To Ciwt's eye, Bowling's work is head and shoulders above many of the now famous artists working in New York at the time. He's not just expressing himself deeply, brilliantly, with great aliveness and drama, Bowling is expanding the range of what paint can do.
Bowling has been knighted and is considered one of the greatest living British abstract painters. Why haven't we seen more of him over here in the States over the years?
I'm not the kind of person who believes making art is all about angst; I've always said that you have to have a good time when you go to the studio." \Walk: SFMOMA
Distance: 3 miles
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Walks: Hood
Distances: 2.5 miles and 3.5 miles
Solution what to watch when Succession ends: Re-Watch.
Walk: Monday errands, Browser Books
Distance: 3.5 miles
Oh Goodie, a friend recommended a new book, and Ciwt immediately went down the street to buy it at a great local bookstore. She understands from her friend the book is non-fiction, informative, written by a New Yorker writer - all of which Ciwt likes . But, most importantly to Ciwt, she believes it will talk about a subject near and dear to her heart: the ways in which art transcends its still state and becomes a comforter, teacher, friend and more to the viewer.
Walks: Hood
Distances: 4.6, 5.4, 5.3, 1 miles
Maybe it was the Coronation. Or visiting family. Or That family Ciwt has been hanging out with just before going to sleep for a few weeks now.
Or actually selling her old home. Or the cold, windy weather. Or reading the local news and seeing some of the local streets. Who/Whatever the culprit, Ciwt hit a glum, no-CIWT stretch.But now she and CIWT are back. Thanks for your patience dear readers.
Walk: CA DMV for booklet to renew license, Curbside Cafe
Distance: 6 miles
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Buddy Holly, the petit basset griffon Vendéen, winner of the Hound group and Best in Show, poses at Arthur Ashe Stadium on May 9, 2023, in New York City. |
The 147th annual Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show took place in New York City at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center over the past several days. It hosted about 4,000 dogs of more than 200 different breeds and varieties. And this year’s Best in Show was awarded to Buddy Holly, a petit basset griffon Vendéen.
If like Ciwt you love dogs or like them or even are just so-so, you owe yourselves a heartwarming look at the rest of the photos from the show
Walk: Golden Gate Park
Distance: 4.6 miles
So maybe it is because Ciwt's parents didn't insist that she take piano lessons, and she didn't. If she had she'd probably know what to look at or listen to when she goes to the symphony. Recently she has been trying to support her symphony and perhaps get more involved with classical music. But instead she kind of sits at concerts noticing how old the audience is, how deeply immersed they seem to be in the musical experience, trying to 'feel it,' and mostly just waiting for the piece to be over.
However, she loves listening to it in the car on the Bay Area's wonderful classical KDFC - and she knows just where to look: the road.
Walk: Monday Indoor Errands
Distance: 1.5 miles
Walk: Legion of Honor (SF Symphony Chamber Music Concert)
Distance: 1 mile
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King Letsie III of Lesotho and Masenate Mohato Seeiso, Queen of Lesotho |
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Raja Permaisuri Agong of Malaysia
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Prince William, Kate, Princess of Wales, Prince Louis, Princess Charlotte |
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Page and someday to be King, Prince George |