Daily Life 2023

Darryl, Angela, Rome, Leo, Lilly, Cali, Andre. Windy and I are missing.

User error, of course, but I just noticed that my camera was stuck on asa/iso of 25,000. Oh goodness, that’s a grainy photo since asa/iso 400 is already leaning toward grainy. It happens to me so often, I make a change and forget about it. Because I think I’ll remember, but no, I won’t remember.

Darryl and Angela hosted a delightful afternoon and dinner party in honor of Cali being here and Andre’s first visit to LA. We played Uno with 9 people and it was a total gas.

Greg and Lydia from their website.

I’ve gone to Physical Therapy twice a week for a month+ which as been quite excellent. My favorite part, surprise, a therapeutic foot massage to kick it off and an ice and electricity buzz to end. In the middle I have to do exercises which is not my favorite part, but I can measure my improvement. Now it seems all about recovering strength and balance since it hardly ever hurts.

Me (still occasionally swollen), according to Greg, blue taped like the other elite athletes who go there. I should add that the office is across the street from the Whole Foods that is down the block from my house. Just like I like it.

She set up this hummingbird feeder although some of the other small birds are trying to enjoy it too.

These days every guest conductor at the Disney Concert Hall is auditioning for a job. (Sorry for the grainy picture – it was dark…)

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Our Gustavo is leaving in a year and who will replace him is all the buzz. This conductor might be under consideration – a woman with cred. Her name is Susanna Ulla Marjukka Mälkki, a Finnish conductor. She holds the post of Principal Guest Conductor at the LA Phil as well as Chief Conductor at the Helsinki Philharmonic. This is an excellent article from the NY Times about the orchestra’s history and future.

The concert I saw with Marsha kicked off with Dvořák’s Slavonic Dances. It was like being inside an impressionist painting, at the park, sitting on the grass, listening to the band stationed under the pavilion. Light and lovely.

The second piece, welllll, during intermission we were reading about it and I said, oh, so Yoko Ono-y it is. And it was! It seemed such an unfortunate use of all these wonderful musicians. Although also the musicians had to be really good to get through it. It’s called Double Concerto by Felipe Lara. You can see a 2021 performance with the Helsinki Philharmonic on Vimeo that looks just like the one we saw. Grammy winner esperanza spalding (her spellling) was on (weird…) bass.

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We ate a pre-show meal at Vespaio across from The Broad reminding me that I haven’t been there in ages, or to MOCA for that matter. Gotta go!

Leo, Rome, Lilly

And then Lilly and I got our favorite, Yogurtland, gladly joined by Leo and Rome.

When Marija gets homemade slivovitz from back home in Croatia (this time via her sister in Germany) it’s always a big event in my life. Back in the 1990s when I visited Marija and met her extended family in Croatia I was presented with slivovitz in every home, at any hour, in little glasses on a silver tray, and it was the most sincere expression of welcome. I think of them every time we drink slivovitz.

The brother-in-law I met who used to make it all the time passed away and his son has taken over. In these two bottles the slivovitz was made by different men and the two were so different I loved getting to try both!

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Even my old wisteria, the ones that died in the fumigation, always bloomed in March. Still nothing on the left.

Marsha, me, Sharon, Mark

Marsha invited me to take Kelly’s ticket for an evening of food and entertainment. It was different – different people, different artists, and different places.

We ate at a tasty Italian restaurant in Torrance, Aliotta’s via Firenze, and then went to a Los Cancioneros concert at the Armstrong Theatre where they were performing a piece written by their director, and also they did Mozart’s Requiem. They had an orchestra, something I always appreciate, and added singers, including the soloists, from a local junior college.

The concert started right on time at 7pm so that was good, I managed to stay awake through the whole thing and enjoyed it very much. Marsha’s friend Mindy sings with Los Cancioneros so it was good to see her again too. All in all very thumbs up.

Windy came over and we spent h.o.u.r.s researching accommodation possibilities, flights, day trips and not-to-miss highlights, pouring over the map, to start preparations for our four week Italian stravaganza. We are molto eccitato!

Rome and I went for a short walk after lunch at Eat At Joe’s, one block down and one block back, because I felt up for a short walk(!…look at me walking!). We took some pictures and made a cool collage with both of our contributions. Rome did the photoshop while I hovered.

And then we went to Starbucks as usual and as usual Rome bought me my favorite treat. This time they were having a Friday special and we happily took advantage of it. Rome’s favorite drink is on the board of barista recommendations: “Pistachio Cream frappe w/2 scoops of Macha and 1 pump of Hazelnut..”

Susie and I went to the Jeffrey Deitch gallery in Hollywood to see the exhibit “Refik Anadol: Living Paintings”. It’s all ooozy and constantly reshaping itself – psych-o-delic of the first order.

He made one every day for a year (March 2015-2016). Every day, and this one was from day 100. I put dibs on it from day 100 because I knew it was the one I wanted. Darryl came over, put up a new shelf, and tidied up the sculpture. If he ever makes the 365 Wires site live again I’ll add the link here!

The right side is coming out. The left side isn’t even budding.

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Lona has been away for a while so I got to hire Cecilia for a couple Thursdays and one of those days she cleaned the shed. It’s still not a room but getting closer and now at least it’s clean!

I made kumquat preserves from the kumquats in my tree. One time a neighbor asked if he could have some kumquats but mostly people stroll by, I see them furtively looking all around, and then they help themselves to a few. I don’t seem to really mind too much since there are hundreds of them, but asking is nice.

I also made a pot of chicken and vegetables so I would have something for the freezer. I had yummy phở with Jo Ann, perfect for a cold rainy night, and another night Muriel made gorgeous pasta and tomato sauce. Have you ever had tomato sauce made with a stick of butter? Rich!

Nancy and I went to the Laemmle to watch the Academy Awards Nominated Documentary Shorts and it was a shockingly excellent program. In recent years the shorts (Documentary, Live Action, Animated) have been a source of one misery after another but this time the documentaries were all wonderful. Catch ’em if you can!

Here’s the site: https://shorts.tv/theoscarshorts/

Merlyn and I went out for some photophoto and food in celebration of Merlyn’s birthday. We do well on outings enjoying as we do a similar pace of walking and stopping for a picture. Stepping and stopping, it works out well.

We went down to the area in San Pedro that takes us to views of cool bridges..

..and to Fermin Park with the Korean Friendship Bell. The top picture is from the park. Below is the figure welcoming guests to the Friendship Bell.

That’s Merlyn and Catalina Island, 26 miles across the sea.

We had lunch here at the 22nd Street Landing Seafood Grill & Bar, serving port people, locals and visitors alike since 1990. And then we brought home Happy Birthday Ice Cream. What’s a happy birthday without a sweet treat?!

Happy Birthday to the twins Ljubica and Marija, and to Alicia. Our Monday February birthdays but I forgot a picture during the party so I took one two Mondays later.

Burt and Char took me to visit this Simi Valley landmark. We had Italian lunch first, and tea and cookies after. It was a lovely day. Both of the ‘boys’ John and Bradley, were home so I got big hugs which is a delight. These are the grandsons B&C have been raising since the boys were small, and now 18 years later, they are very much Not small. Time flies!

It’s a song kids. I seem to have a tune for every expression drawing confusion and eye-rolling from the youth. I asked Leo what he did today and he said he Got Up, Got Out Of Bed, so what’s a gal to do? Did you drag a comb across your head?!

Today we had a beach party (Down By The Sea-eee)! What FUN!

My computer bit the dust. Deep breaths, sigh, look to the practice of Stoicism. It was time. Now I have a new ‘good!’ computer for photoshop And a new ‘good!’ computer for most other things. I’ll still have to take the photoshop computer on trips but the internet computer is amazing and all I’d need for kicking around town!