History Calls --- Days 14/35 & 36

Walks:  Hood ; No rain and travel planning

Distance: 3.5 miles; n/a

So if Ciwt disappears from CIWT from time to time in the next few months, chances are she's reclined on her window seat catching up on London history or sitting at her computer trying to figure what is where over there and how to get to it.  Because...she's booked a May trip to that historic city.  

Now We Are One Again --- Days 14/33 & 34

Walk: SFMOMA and galleries preparing for tour; SF Recorder's Office

Distance: 7.3 miles; 5.3 miles

So, as of yesterday, Ciwt and her cats are thrilled to be the owners of only one San Francisco property.  She's thrilled (read: relieved) economically.  (Memo to self: Don't try to sell when interest rates are on a major uptick, especially if it is election season).  And her cats are thrilled because they have lots more space to run around in and lots more windows to look at lots more birds.  (They also have a garden, but Ciwt isn't telling them about that).

Best of all, the one place they have is really, really nice.  Now it can become Home.

Small View, Enormous Circumstances --- Day 14/32

Walk: AMC Kabuki

Distance: 3.5 miles

Yesterday was such a disappointing day for Ciwt's football team favorites, today she headed off to a movie to move on.  And, happily, she was not at all disappointed with the quality of I'm Still Here, the Brazilian film nominated for two Oscars.  

The lead actress, Fernanda Torres, is in virtually every scene of the 2 hr, 16 minute movie and is suberb in every moment.  She - and Eunice Paiva, the real life woman she played - are the soul of dignity, grace and courage as they endure the most devastating of circumstances.  First her husband's essential kidnap by the police, then her own, then raising five children alone and working tirelessly for decades to seek justice for herself and her family.  Torres won the Best Actress at Cannes and the Golden Globes and is now nominated for an Academy Award which she richly deserves if she gets it.  

In the hands of a different director such a story could be a melodramatic weepie or political diatribe.  Instead Walter Salles (The Motorcycle Diaries, and Central Station) presents his audience with something much more human, heartfelt and moving. His movie is shot in the true, vivid colors of beautiful Rio de Janeiro, in the very respectable homes and offices of  its samll group of upper middle class individuals.  Every character is nicely and truly developed, naturally attractive, well presented, and living life as best they could in the face of despair -  just as they really were.  (The script is developed from a book by Paiva's own son). The result is an unembellished, deeply moving, true life view of the human spirit at work presented by the most indelible of actresses.

Ambiguous (Anti)-Heroines --- Days 14/29, 30 & 31

Walks:  Hood, Presidio

Distances:  4.5 miles daily

San Francisco Ballet Manon

So it turned out Ciwt spent time yesterday watching two cultural offerings about ambiguous women. One was San Francisco Ballet's production of Manon and the other the 13-Oscar nominated movie Emilia Perez.

For the over two hour running time of Manon, Ciwt never resolved whether she had any sympathy for the title character.  Was Manon a desperate woman with no money forced by circumstance to use her great beauty for survival?  Or was she absolutely amoral, shifting from one lover to another with utter detachment?  

One thing Ciwt was sure of: Manon is yet another of San Francisco Ballet's superlative productions.  You know when you are watching a dancer's footwork and your brain suddenly says 'that

can't be done!'?  It happens again and again thoughout Manon.  The dance combinations of the subtlest and most relentless technical difficulty are danced with complete naturalness and ease. And the dense action - often multiple simultaneous vignettes - is performed flawlessly with every member of the ensemble knowing and imparting exactly what they are doing at every second and why.  Then there are the sumptous original sets and costumes which capture the opulence and decadence of 18th C France with lavish attire for the aristocrats and ragged, threadbare clothing for the poor.  These work together with the dancers to underscore the thermes of wealth, desire and moral decline.

And speaking of wealth and moral decline, we come to Ciwt's second (anti)heroine of the day, Emilia Perez.  Is she a fundamentally good person who wishes to atone for her past drug lord crimes and use her enormous, ill gotten wealth to give her inner peace and her family a safe and better life?  Or is she a remourseless manipulator, downright villainous character who tries to use her sexual transition and charity work to wash her hands of her heinous crimes and inappropriately capture her family?  Again, Ciwt never resolved that while watching the movie.

Commenting on the rest of Emilia Perez is a complicated and, yes, ambiguous affair for Ciwt.  Given its overall downplay of the ongoing and reprehensible atrosities of the cartel in favor of the relative triviality of transexuality (which also is handled imperfectly), it is difficult to see the movie so honored by the Oscar and other awards.  But, it is a genuinely unique, original, well acted, beautifully shot and crafted movie, so Ciwt has to say it is worthy of nominations in all the categories Oscar has chosen for it.

Hats, More Hats, Even More Hats --- Days 14/26, 27 & 28

Walks: Presidio and Hood

Distances: 4 miles avg

So, Ciwt found the First Lady's hat so fetching, it reminded her she is quite the hat person herself.  Hat buyer that is.  Over the years she has encountered some she couldn't resist.

And then she found some more,

And even more

And that's not all, but you get the idea.  Not until she gets home does she remember San Francisco's ferocious wind.  So unfortunately they have mostly languished in her closet.  Now, if hats become IN, suffice it to say, Ciwt is ready.

Ceremonies --- Days14/24 & 25

Walks: Presidio (x2) 

Distances: 4.5 miles (x2)

Pieter Bruegel the Elder, The Peasant Wedding,156, oil on board

So today was a day of protocol and ceremony in a very cold, windy Washington, DC.  And it put Ciwt in mind of a more warm and pleasant ceremony painted by Pieter Bruegel the Elder (Flemish, 1525-30 - 1569).

Bruegel is perhaps best known as a master of winter scenes, often capturing its harshness,

Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Hunters in the Snow, 1565, oil on board

so this wedding painting may seem a bit of an anomaly. But, in fact, his works often depict lively urban or rural peasants engaged in everyday activities such as farming, banquets, festivals, dances and games. He revolutionized Flemish paintings by doing this, moving away from traditional themes like portraits and religious scenes.  His complex, dynamic works teem with life and movement and leave us with a vivid representation of 16th-century society in the complex often absurd ways its daily life was actually lived.

Football Widows --- Days 14/22 & 23

Walks: No, Presidio

Distance: n/a, 5.5 miles

Pamela Anderson as Shelley in The Last Showgirl

So, Ciwt's cats have become football widows while Ciwt spends hours watching playoff games as this season heads toward its Super Bowl conclusion. 

But she did take a little time to go to The Last Showgirl.  She never thought she would be drawn to a movie starring Pamela Anderson, so Ciwt she is stunned to realize she would gladly hand the Best Actress Oscar to her.  And equally gladly would she give the unsinkable Jamie Lee Curtis (always great!) the Best Supporting Actress Oscar.  We will see what happens at Oscar time.

And now Ciwt is off to ignore her cats and see what will happen in today's playoff games.   

Old Rules, No --- Day 14/21

 Walk: Hood

Distance: 3 miles

Qi Baishi (Chinese, 1864-1957),ink on scroll paper on silk)

So, Ciwt knows little about Asian art, but she did know that older Chinese art is a highly regimented practice judged by how well the artist meets standards of perfection in its various aspects.  Artists study for years calligraphy, brushwork, respectful, near worshipful renderings of nature and formal, polite portrayals of people.  So, imagine her surprise when she encountered the ink panel above by Qi Baishi.

The subject is cleaning his ears!

And then, right across from i,t this man calmly escorting his son or grandson to or from school.  Whether coming or going, have you ever seen a child more unhappy about the school experience?  Or, maybe you have in real life, but not in traditional Chinese art.

Turns out Qi Baishi (one of the several names he used) was as interested in traditional technique and subject matter as this little boy. Basically hardly at all.  After a few years training in the fundamentals of fine brushwork and meticulous detail, he realized he could paint in his own expressive way.  That way he could pursue art as his full-time career instead of dreaming of becoming a professional artist praised by the critics. So he produced art that was personal and expressive, traveling extensively thoughout China and finding mentors here and there.  This was quite something at his time (1864 - 1957) when freedom of artistic individual expression was scorned by critics who refused to acknowledge Qi's work as art.

But, not so his fellow countrypeople.  Qi was and continues to be China's most popular artist, appreciated by viewers from all walks of life.  He often used friends, neighbors, villagers depicting them in various everyday activities.  With real people as models, his subjects are transformed from their traditional solemn appearances into charming, relatable ordinary people.  And the secular (non-art critic) Chinese immediately loved looking at and being amused by themselves in daily activities and moods they could relate to.  Qi became beloved for these and other lively renderings of subjects ranging from plant to animal life (like the doves in the previous CIWT)  And collectors at all levels of art knowledge bought up and his works during his life time and today pay enormous, headline-worthy sums for it.  

So much for critics....