Snapshots from the Week

I run around town in Mom jeans, a pair of sneakers, and occasionally a fanny pack--all major, major fashion faux pas--but vanity kicked in when I saw photos of myself with big brown age spots on my face.  I wanted them GONE.

I feel brave letting you see this

So yesterday I went to a very nice dermatologist who burned them away ($125, no insurance coverage),  and now I have puffy pink/purple spots all over my face.

Then I slunk around San Francisco wearing a sun visor set very low on my head (can't use sunscreen).   I caught sight of myself in the big windows of the Museum of Modern Art and thought, why is that woman wearing a sun visor in February?

Two weeks until I see positive results.

                                                                               2.

 I was in the city to see the Jay DeFeo and Jasper Johns shows at SFMOMA.  The postcard for the shows has been on my fridge for months, but I just discovered they're closing on Sunday.

I didn't know much about DeFeo, except that Squeak Carnwath, a favorite painter of mine, admired her.  And that she worked for eight years on a painting called "The Rose," which weighed over 1,000 pounds when she was finished it.

The Rose, 1958-1966, oil with wood and mica

Turns out DeFeo went to UC Berkeley,  taught at the SF Art Institute and then at Mills College, all the while making art out of a wide range of materials.  Some other pieces in the show:

Untitled, 1953,  re-purposed wood wrapped in torn fabric and coated with plaster.  Either an "unflyable kite," or homage to the floor plan of European cathedrals, which she much admired. Not a cross, per se.

Untitled, 1973, gelatin print and mixed media

She also did drawings, paintings, and collages of  things "she'd collected and held dear," including a dental bridge, cup handles, camera tripod,  and golf bag.  Her drawing, painting, and collage overlap.

Photo of Jay DeFeo working on The Rose

I wandered around the Jasper Johns show, thinking, oh, hell, I've seen his work for years, what's new?  There are some new paintings (he's 81 and still working), but I was taken with the numbers and letters and flags I learned about in art history and found them still fresh and compelling.

Light Bulb II, 1958.  Sculp-metal

Highway, 1959, oil on canvas.  Apparently, his impression of driving at night.

Flags, 1967-68.  Color lithograph

These two shows were organized by the Whitney Museum of Art and open in New York later this month.

And in the atrium of the museum, this stupendous piece by Gu Wenda:

                                                                                3.

After that, I marched up Market Street, trying to stay out of the sun.  My destination was the Vera Bradley store in San Francisco Centre.  

Not Fifth Avenue, but close

For years, I've traveled with the smaller toiletries kit below, jamming it so full it turns into a ball, which is hard to pack.  Everything that doesn't fit into it I cram into various Ziploc bags that I can never lay my hands on easily.

Finally, I said, to hell with this, I'm getting a big, new, CAPACIOUS toiletries kit, and a pretty one, not the REI-variety, which Jerry favors.   I researched online and found one made by Vera Bradley.   So yesterday, as a treat after inflicting purple spots all over my face, I went to buy one.

The mother ship and the rowboat?

Then I found the item below, which is a "jewelry folio."  I had a flash:  maybe I could fit all the chargers and USB wires for camera, MP3 player, computer, and phone into this thing.

Folded up

I took a chance and bought it.  At home, I filled the plastic pockets with cords and chargers, and it worked! No more tangle of stuff in Ziploc bags that slide around in my luggage!



Jewelry folio turns tech-tote

                                                                                4.

Sometimes I read memoirs, because they tend to lull me to sleep quicker than fiction does.  I just finished two that make me want to send notes to the writers, saying,  "the story is not what you think it is." 

To Stephanie Madoff Mack, one of Bernard Madoff's daughters-in-law, I wanted to say: "Yes, your father-in-law was very bad, no question about it, but, honestly, he's not to blame for everything in your life...and by the way, you're still awfully privileged."

And to Leslie Maitland, a former New York Times investigative reporter who wrote about her mother's family's escape from Germany, I'd say, "This story is not about your mother's teenage sweetheart whom she left behind in France and reconciled with 50+ years later, but how Hitler chipped away at the rights of Jews in Germany through the 1930's and your family's brave and incremental escape from Germany, through France, then Cuba, finally landing in the U.S."

Someone sold Maitland on the romantic angle as most marketable, I think, but the back story of her family was much more compelling to me.  She's done a lot of research on the social history of the times.


                                                                                      5.

Dept. of Audio update:  Yesterday Audible.com sent an e-mail saying that,  "After further review, 'Excellent Women by Barbara Pym' is currently unavailable in a digital audio download format for the US region."

The "US region."  That would be a country.

I may cancel.  Readers sent numerous suggestions for downloading free podcasts from the BBC and NPR, including "This American Life," which I love, and that may do it for me.

Love Ira (even if he's blurry).  And did you hear the one about his crazy dog?