Back from a trip to the west coast. A week off came at a good time. Found myself becoming a keyboard warrior at work. I'm usually on the more diplomatic side of the spectrum, so when I'm coming in hot on a regular basis, good sign to step away. It helps to have good colleagues who can hear you grumble and rumble but refuse to feed your worst instincts.
The trip started with a wedding out in Pajaro Dunes, and then we were off to a few days of adventures in Santa Cruz (and a quick dip in San Francisco) and in Los Angeles.
The early early morning flight is always so brutal. I feel mounting dread the night before (though track: "I have a day off tomorrow! I should be able to stay up as late as I want!"), and regret the decision when I wake up... but then on landing with a full wide-open day to work with, it's all worth it.
One highlight of the trip for me was seeing some giant redwoods in Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park, first time in one of those big cathedral groves. A good nature fix at the Arboretum at UC Santa Cruz as well.
Another highlight was driving up Highway 1 and using Apple Maps and Google Maps at the same time, both shouting directions and talking over each other, no social graces. The chaos had me cackling. Also interesting to hear the differences in how much info they give ahead of time, and with how much precision, and the in-the-moment encouragement.
Netted seven museums on the trip. Easy winner, by a mile, was the new Geffen galleries at LACMA – beautiful space, lots of room on a sunny weekday to mosey and absorb. The Broad continues to underwhelm and MOCA is an unsung hero in DTLA. Cool exhibition for the 100th anniversary of the Los Angeles Central Library and riding the new D Line subway extension rounded things out. Maybe in future trips I should keep making time to revisit like I did on this one. It's cool to see a city change, to pile up new memories in a place you don't see that often.
For no particular reason, I put my phone's camera in black-and-white mode and left it there for the last week or so. Given how much photos can influence memories, I wonder how that will affect what I recall a decade from now. We'll see!
Art
Hit and Miss, quilt by Mary Lue Brown. Ginza, quilt by Yvonne Porcella. Things on the Wall, oil and magna on canvas by Roy Lichtenstein. F.P.I. 19, pen on folded paper by Dorothea Rockburne. Seek, Find; Knock Open, glass beads and cotton by Liza Lou. Susannah at the Bath, collage with paint, ink, and graphite on board by Romare Bearden. Standing Woman with Jar, slip-painted earthenware from unknown artists of the Jalisco cultures, 200 BCE–400 CE. La Gerbe, ceramic tile embedded in plaster by Henri Matisse. Path of Light, stoneware with inlays of colored clay by Miyashita Zenji.
Books
On the Calculation of Volume, Book IV. Finished this week. What a great series. It'll be a long wait until book five in November...
Don't Call It Art: 10 Ways to Create Like a Kid Again. All the condensed wisdom and encouragement we've come to know and love.
Running
Taking my running shoes on vacation is very good for me. Ran along a quiet beach all to myself, along a quiet river with ducks, and into dense shrubbery where coyotes gotta annoyed and yipped at me.
Around the Web
On launching a nonprofit. "While waiting on approvals, I was churning out ideas at a rate that became absolutely unmanageable, immediately."
"You must imagine yourself happy in any number of worlds. There is nothing 'higher status' than excelling joyfully at what you do."
"The quality of this relationship between Present Self and Future Self shapes your whole life."
The western hemisphere produces more oil than than the middle east now.
Where are more people dying than being born?
Chinese immigrants overtake Dominicans as NYC's largest foreign-born group.
Alternatives to free parking in NYC.
Current Rothko, weather-based art curation.
82-0 lets you try to draft an NBA roster that could go undefeated, each round limited to a specific team and decade. (Best I got on hidden-stats mode was lucking into a 65–17 roster with Walt Frazier, Tyrese Halliburton, KD, LeBron, and Anthony Davis.)
Music
Caroline Shaw, Andrew Yee, or, The Whale. An opening track where the lyrics are tree names, and a song about quilting and craft? Shaw keeps moving up my list of favorite musicians.
INRITUVM, Ex Nihilo Ad Nihilum. Metal, didn't click with me this week.
Boards of Canada, Inferno. I don't think I've ever listened to them before? Maybe heard some here and there, not sure. All that to say: I have no emotional tie to their reappearance, but glad I tapped in after hearing all the buzz. It's good!
Laurence Pike, Possible Utopias for Jazz Quintet. I like "Night Bird".
Vivaldi: 14 Concertos (for Mandolin, Flute, Trumpet, Violin, etc.) perf. New London Consort dir. Philip Pickett, and The Academy of Ancient Music dir. Christopher Hogwood. It delivers.
Britten: War Requiem perf. London Symphony Orchestra, London Symphony Chorus, Choir of Eltham College cond. Gianandrea Noseda. Not for me!
Movies
Goodfellas. It has such fluidity, momentum, you just get carried along but ultimately I deeply hated all these miserably awful people and their terrible choices.
Bend It Like Beckham. I laughed, I cried, I had my heart warmed! Mission accomplished.
The Great Wall. Flame but no heat.
Ballerina. Slow to start, but gains momentum. At its best when it lightens up.
Influencer. Enjoyed this twisty little thriller. Villains and victims stumbling into different roles, swapping who's on the backfoot.
TV
The X-Files, s6e12 "One Son". Spender's redemption? Once again, Scully stays on track.
Big Little Lies, s2e1. Meryl Streep is gonna torment everyone and it's gonna be fun.
Hannibal, s3e12–13. And with that, the rewatch is finished. Glad I did. The first half of this season is a drag, but once we transition from the Vergers to the Great Red Dragon, things pick up again.
Couples Therapy, s5e2.
