Experimenting 2 (1st Thursday of June 2013)

June 6, 2013 at 8:33 pm (Flowers, Weather)
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Self has been repeat-watching Game of Thrones Season 3 –  that is, she’s starting from the very beginning. Fun, fun, fun.

No, in fact, self has begun watching from the last few episodes of Season 2.  She fell asleep during Season 2 Episode 9.  That was the battle of Blackwater Bay.  So many things now strike her as poignant:  for instance, the first meeting of Robb Stark and Talisa.  And the start of the Brienne/Jaime Lannister journey.

Anyhoo, it is a gorgeous day.  The neighbors all around are out in their yards, including the neighbor to her left who plays old rock –  and self means REALLY REALLY old, pre-Led Zeppelin old — at full volume.  He doesn’t have children, he began showing up over a decade ago, his father (previous occupant of the house) died, and then the man was there all the time, occasionally rousing himself to garden, whenever it suits him, even if that means gardening under the broiling noonday sun.

Today is Thursday, which means it’s the day for the San Carlos Farmers Market.  The Man has expressed a desire to check it out.

In the meantime, self is enjoying the student pieces from her on-line creative writing (nonfiction) class.  Occasionally, when she feels in need of physical activity, she takes her camera outside and tries different kinds of shots:

Clematis "Regal Josephine" after the blooms have fallen off

Clematis “Regal Josephine” after the blooms have fallen off

This is what happens when the wind stirs a plant just before self presses the shutter release.

This is what happens when the wind stirs a plant just before self presses the shutter release.

Stay tuned, dear blog readers.  Stay tuned.

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Last Day of May (2013)

June 1, 2013 at 3:28 am (Family, Lists, Places, Recommended, Weather)
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Where does the time go?

Today just flew by!

Self found a copy of Sole Fruit of Her Loin’s birth certificate.

She spent the afternoon in the company of son:

  • We saw a movie together in Palo Alto Square (Sarah Polley’s absorbing documentary about her parents’ relationship:  Three out of four stars)
  • We walked along the strangely sparse corridors of Fry’s Electronics, and gazed upon a low, brick building advertising itself as GROUPON offices.
  • We walked along California Avenue and self showed son one of her discoveries, Spice Kit, right across the street from erstwhile favorite The Counter.

It was the second incredibly hot day of the year.  Self ran her car’s air conditioner at full blast (Thank goodness she had it fixed last year!) and listened to an old Mariah Carey CD.

She stopped by the Palo Alto Baking Company and bought two cream puffs (The Man’s favorite).

As soon as she got home, she watered and watered.  Then she made dinner:  broiled baby back pork spare ribs.

Now, time to rest.

Looking at the backyard at the end of a sweltering day . . .

Early Evening

Stay tuned, dear blog readers.  Stay tuned.

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BLACK RICE, a novella by K. M. Kaung

May 30, 2013 at 9:11 pm (Artists and Writers, Books, Recommended, Weather, Women Writers)
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It is soooo hawtt!

Self, remember what you were moaning about only yesterday?  About how chilly it was inside the house?

Must you always need reminding:  BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR ???

Kyi’s novella, Black Rice, arrived in the mail today.  That was quick!  Self only ordered it on Tuesday!

The voice packs a punch.  The reader is immediately immersed in the narrator’s world, Burma during World War II:

. . .  The bricks in the old temples are held together by stucco cement mixed from nothing but lime, sand and boiled sticky rice.

Yet this rice-based cement has held the temples together for hundreds of years.  The monk and the nun fortune-tellers always say:  My name fits my skin color.  My skin color matches my name.  That is necessary for good luck and survival.  In our country these are necessities, like food and drink, like good health.  No one proves that better than the Old Man, Bright Sun himself.

Stay tuned, dear blog readers.  Stay tuned.

 

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WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge: In the Background 2

May 25, 2013 at 3:08 am (Places, Traveling, Weather)
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Jardin du Luxembourg, Paris, July 2012

Jardin du Luxembourg, Paris, July 2012

It was a cloudy day.  It was the first week of July, 2012.  Self had just spent a month in Scotland, on a writing residency.  She went to Paris to fulfill a lifelong dream.  Her birthday was July 14, Bastille Day.  She didn’t get to stay until then, she went home a week early.  But at least she finally saw the City of Light with her own two eyes.  Yeeees!!!

Stay tuned, dear blog readers.  Stay tuned.

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Weekly WordPress Photo Challenge: Escape 4

May 22, 2013 at 1:20 am (Traveling, Venice, Weather)
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Today was a mad, mad day.  First of all, it was Date Due of Assignment 1 for her on-line UCLA Extension class, and the students were so thrillingly engaged.  Self spent hours perusing the students’ responses and also reading the first batch of writings.

It’s also been hot.  Self and The Man arrived mid-afternoon yesterday, to find the garden absolutely parched.  Since yesterday evening, self has been dragging around buckets of water and alternating hand-watering with running the sprinklers.

In addition, self has been madly perusing the hundreds of photographs submitted by fellow WordPress bloggers on the theme of “Escape.”  There’s everything from picturesque sailboats and beach shots, to forested glades, stacks of books (Good one, this!) and even a pair of abandoned white shoes that left self feeling strangely disturbed.

So far, self has posted three photographs on the “Escape” theme:  the first was a picture of mochi and miso soup, from the time she took Son and Jennie to the Japanese Tea Garden in Golden Gate Park, early last year.  The second was a landscape shot taken August 2007, when self was doing a residency at VCCA.  The third was a shot she took at the Claremont Graduation Ceremony, this past Saturday:  a close-up of a graduate’s mint-green shoes!  Here’s a fourth:

Venice, from the vaporetto en route to Burano

Venice, from the vaporetto en route to Burano, April 2013

Who knew that the subject “Escape” would prove to be such a potent one?

Stay tuned.

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Weekly WordPress Photo Challenge: Pattern 2

May 15, 2013 at 9:24 pm (Places, Traveling, Venice, Weather)
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San Marco Square, April 2013

San Marco Square, April 2013

Self keeps checking to see if there’s a new theme posted for the WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge, but there isn’t.

So, here’s another picture she took in Venice.  It was a cloudy afternoon, threatening rain.  Self had only been a few days in Venice, and most of the time she had stayed clear of the square.  But she finally ended up there, and it was all just as she had remembered it being, the last time she saw it, when she was a girl of 11.

Stay tuned, dear blog readers.  Stay tuned.

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This Is What Happens

May 9, 2013 at 7:47 am (Books, Links, Surprises, television, Weather)
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Umm, self simply cannot let go of this “Game of Thrones” Jamie Lannister/ Brienne of Tarth thing!  So, until self gets to a really interesting, quotable part of The Portrait of a Lady, by Henry James (she managed to breeze through Little Heathens, the remaining 150 pages, which were all about milking, walking to school in deep snow, etc)  –  which might, actually, already have happened, because in the very first paragraph of the Preface, James reveals that he wrote this novel over three months in Florence and several weeks in Venice!  And what self wants to know is:  How can anyone get any writing done in Italy?  That country is the buzz-kill of all buzz-kills!  In the future, she will only go if she wants to eat.  And eat.  And eat –

Back to “Game of Thrones” things.  And all the wee digressions leading there-to.

Self fell asleep right after The Man got home.  It’s like, everything inside her builds and builds, and then The Man gets home, and she is all normal again.

So, she was all normal ten minutes after The Man got home.  He decided to walk The Ancient One, because it was hot enough.  Seriously, what’s with this weather?  It was cold all the way until 3 p.m., and then it became scorching hot.  This is definitely not the kind of weather pattern self enjoys.

In fact, self was so normal, she fell asleep.  For six straight hours.  She vaguely remembers The Man asking her where the trash can in the bathroom was.  She vaguely remembers telling The Man that she made his dinner:  ravioli with every left-over in the fridge chopped up and sprinkled on top.  With minced oregano from the garden.

Then, self woke at midnight, feeling completely energized and ready to get started with her day.  So she naturally continued her internet explorations of Jamie Lannister and Brienne of Tarth (She has no intention of reading the books, mind you.  Which makes her a total Philistine.  Stop reading right now!)  And now she has stumbled on a site called winteriscoming.net.  And here is an excerpt from an interview that FaB and three other journalists conducted with the intrepid pair, March 21 of this year.  It’s very, very entertaining:

FaB:   You were very muddy through all of last season.

Nikolaj:   That doesn’t change though.

FaB:   Nothing?  No bathing?   No one’s thought to wash you down . . .  ?  Give you a bath . . .  ?

FEEL FREE TO MENTALLY INSERT THE SLY MICHAEL MYERS DR. EVIL RAISED PINKIE LOOK I WAS GIVING BOTH OF THEM.

Nikolaj (after a casual shrug):   Maybe we . . .  might have a bath.  At some time.

Terri catches on quickly, leaning forward, and asks, “May we say there could be bathing in season three?  Or . . .  is that in future seasons . . .  ?  This . . . POTENTIAL bath . . . ?”

Some polite coughing ensues.  But I cannot stress enough how each reporter is now . . .  slowly . . .  beginning . . .  to lean forward.  We’re so eager!

Gwendoline (casually):  I think everyone washes.  Don’t they?

Terri has the tail of a fish and refuses to let go, saying, “In the woods?  Do they?  I guess there are streams (innocently).  Maybe . . . “

Nikolaj (smiling casually):  I think Jaime would love a bath.

Everyone in the room pretty much agrees that yes, yes he would.  And yes, a bath would be a good thing.

And there’s more!  But for the rest of the interview, you will just have to go here.

Stay tuned, dear blog readers.  Stay tuned.

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Venice Love: Scenes From a Vaporetto, and an Island

April 30, 2013 at 5:26 am (Books, Surprises, Traveling, Venice, Weather, Women Writers)
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DSCN9102

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Could this be a sundial? (Seen on the island of Torcello)

Could this be an ancient sundial? (Seen on the island of Torcello)

Chiesa di Santa Maria Assunta, on Torcello (No pictures were allowed inside -- sigh)

Outside the Chiesa di Santa Maria Assunta, on Torcello (No pictures are allowed inside — sigh)

Most of the pictures self took yesterday were grey.  True to form, she decided to bring her umbrella, for the second day in a row.  It is quite an annoyance, this bringing-along-of-an-umbrella, because she is already so laden down with maps, guidebooks, her travel notebook, and the book she is currently reading (Per Petterson’s Out Stealing Horses; good thing she didn’t bring The Portrait of a Lady.  That book weighed a ton.  More to the point, she wouldn’t have gotten to it:  since arriving in Venice, she’s only gotten halfway into Petterson’s novel which incidentally, she found out from googling, received the Dublin IMPAC Prize).

Yet another contest announcement today, this time from Flyway.  True to form, self doesn’t even remember joining.  What is interesting about the announcement, however, is that a Filipina named Catherine Torres has earned second place.  According to the Flyway announcement, Torres is “a diplomat and writer, and her work has appeared in magazines and journals in the Philippines, the United States, and Singapore.”

Stay tuned, dear blog readers.  Stay tuned.

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Venice Day 12 Part 2

April 29, 2013 at 4:38 pm (Conversations, Places, Surprises, Traveling, Venice, Weather)
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A Wee Birdie Savoring a Bite from Self's Croissant This Morning at the Hotel Rialto

A Wee Birdie Savoring a Bite from Self’s Croissant This Morning at the Hotel Rialto

Early early this morning, self crept out of the apartment (in a pretty steady rain) and made it to the Hotel Rialto, where she had a cappucino (5 euros; a kind young waitress slipped her a croissant for free).  She was hoping she’d have further sightings of that Extremely Rare Bird, the Filipina Overseas Worker.  And indeed, she saw two young lasses walking along, and self jumped right up and called out, “Hello!  You must be Filipinas!”  And the two stared at self open-mouthed.  And self cajoled them into talking with her for five minutes.  And they told her they worked as maids in a Venetian hotel.  They provided her with a name, but when self googled the hotel from a bar, she found that it did not exist.  Good One, oh Demure Filipinas!

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But, anyhoo, the morning was not a complete wash, because self was able to take many blurry pictures of people walking by with their umbrellas.

Stay tuned, dear blog readers.  Stay tuned.

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The Many Faces of Lisa Yuchengco, Magazine Publisher and Now Documentary Filmmaker

April 5, 2013 at 1:31 am (Artists and Writers, Lists, Movies, Recommended, Weather)
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So it was a very dreary day — rain!  Continuous rain!  And wiping up dog pee in the kitchen!  A flood of dog pee!

But the latter half of the day was very fine.  Self found Lisa Y’s house, and bugged her about her documentary, Marilou Diaz-Abaya: Filmmaker on a Voyage.

Self must admit:  she has always been fascinated by (Lisa and) Marilou D-A:  models, for self, growing up in Manila.  In convent school.  In a convent school founded by French nuns.

What was possible?

So, in the course of the afternoon, self had reason to ponder the following names:

  • Amy Austria (Self saw her in the few clips from Marilou D-A’s Brutal.  This actress was revelatory, heartrending.)
  • the iconic Marilou Diaz-Abaya herself, who passed away last October at 56 (“The real battle is not against cancer cells; the real battle is against fear.”)
  • an actor self had never heard of before:  Jaime Fabregas (He played the Spanish official responsible for Rizal’s execution in the movie Jose Rizal)

and of course:  Lisa herself!

Thank you for the fun time, Lisa!  You rock!

Mona Lisa Yuchengco, who directed MARILOU DIAZ-ABAYA: FILMMAKER ON A VOYAGE

Mona Lisa Yuchengco, who directed MARILOU DIAZ-ABAYA: FILMMAKER ON A VOYAGE

More of Lisa

More of Lisa

And STILL more of Lisa!

And STILL more of Lisa!

Self just has to say this:  Lisa, you look so adorable in purple!  You’re welcome!

Stay tuned, dear blog readers.  Stay tuned.

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