Marsha and I just saw the Live Action Shorts and it was the best collection that either of us could remember after having seen many many years of Academy Award nominated shorts. Go if you can! We’re going to see the Animated Shorts on Wednesday. I don’t know about the Documentary Shorts yet.
And after the show I ate Tom’s Tacos with Tom, Marsha, Kelly, Kris, John, Jen, and Jordan. More fun!
I mentioned yesterday about the chores and eating out. In-between I’ve caught a few more Academy Award nominations.
Hamnet (losing their son to plague, with so much crying.)
Marty Supreme (Chalamet getting to the ping pong tournament, with so much screaming.)
One Battle After Another (Paul Thomas Anderson, DiCaprio, Penn, del Toro “When their evil enemy resurfaces after 16 years, a group of ex-revolutionaries reunite to rescue the daughter of one of their own.” I’ll watch it again since I didn’t quite get the charm.)
Train Dreams (slow moving quiet tragic life that many found touching)
Jay Kelly (Clooney, Sandler self-centered movie star and his devoted manager, and me not caring about either of them)
Bugonia (SO odd and violent but I liked it anyway)
Sinners (talk about odd and violent, both genius and horrifying, and far too many vampires)
Sentimental Value (more than half in Swedish, it was touching. Spoiler: the main character did not redeem himself.)
Blue Moon (a sad getting-to-know-you piece, especially good if you like musical theater)
For the last several days I’ve been going out to eat mostly with friends, sometimes not, because I’ve been trying, unsuccessfully, to get through my To Do list. But I have made a dent. For example I’m putting away the Christmas Tree… and I downloaded TurboTax…
Emilia had never been to the Villa and Richard and Mick last visited decades ago. We had a delightful morning of coffees and some garlic fries, and then a good tour, and then we went off for lunch.
Here are pictures of a few of the classic views.
And Back on the Beach, always a joy. This picture is from their website.
This scene catches my eye every time I walk by, which happens when I meet Darryl for lunch at Tiato.
Lilly is quite the fingernail design maven! Today we did a little shopping for Lilly to buy Valentine’s Day gifts. It was fun!
And also I had a nice coffee with Angela at The Boy and the Bear and we walked there. Thanks Angela for the comfortable pace.
And here’s a picture of how my house looked today, mid-February. So many kumquats, I’m excited for them to ripen.
Mid-morning on a Wednesday it’s not so crowded although buses of children did arrive from time to time, it was easy to find a place to stand for as long as you’d like in front of any of the exhibits. Alex and Carol joined me and then Merlyn came by for lunch at Shenanigans.
There’s a Black Rockfish and a Kelp Rockfish. I don’t know which this is, or it could be something else entirely since I’m asking google’s AI so who knows. “Both are species of rockfish (genus Sebastes), which encompasses over 100 species with a variety of colors, sizes, and shapes. They are long-living fishes, with some species living up to 200 years.”
I thought the hand in the back was cool-looking.
Blue-banded Goby (also known as a Catalina Goby). This little guy was one or two inches long.
Purple-striped Jellyfish (Chrysaora colorata), a species primarily found off the coast of California.
Probably another Rockfish.
The lorikeet exhibit is very fun. There’s a huge aviary for dozens of people to wander around in and over a hundred birds flying about. What’s a flock of lorikeets called? A chattering, which is perfect.
It’s included to get in and you can pay $5 for food guaranteeing birds will find you very attractive.
Wow, that’s a shark and the largest ray I’ve ever seen.
It was so delightful to hear all the kids shouting out “It’s Rubber Ducky..Look look at Rubber Ducky!”.
Spot-fin porcupinefish (Diodon hystrix), also commonly known as a spotted porcupinefish. It puffs up with water making spines visible.
We have our pot luck every Monday out in the valley where I used to live and I drive out there most weeks. Birthdays are so much fun and here we have February’s celebrants – Ljubica, Alicia, and Marija. We give each other rude cards and twenty bucks, and once again as is ever the case, we had no card duplicates.
First we had a nice lunch, gotta have lunch, and then we decided to have a swing by Sharon’s neighborhood destroyed by the fire. I thought I’d be able to get better pictures off the internet but none of them looked like what we saw. Above is Sharon’s lot. We could tell because the back side of a fountain survived. Below is more of the lot.
The US Army Corp of Engineers scraped all the burned ground about 6 inches deep removing contaminated soil, ash, and structural debris. A lot of weeds are grown in and every block or two had a couple houses being built. I’m not saying rebuilt because there was nothing left and I expect everything will be coming back bigger.
Here’s an aerial from the internet before the removal project.
Hilda stopped by after taking her son Raffi to visit her mom’s grave, in honor of the 5th year of mom’s passing. On the other side of the frame is a picture in the same pose of Hilda kissing Raffi’s forehead. It’s a beautiful thing.
Hilda brought a Persian sweet treat most often shared at funerals and the anniversary of the passing of a loved one. It’s called halvah and it turns out there are two very different types, the kind you get at the deli made of crushed sesame seeds, and the Persian kind made with toasted flour. I’d never had the flour kind before(!) and it was delicious.
Jo Ann and Alan at Forma, they have to drive across town but I can walk, lucky me.
We first saw the Collecting Impressionism at LACMA exhibit which was interesting and I was glad to have seen it and then we saw a real museum highlight, an exhibition of the work of Tavares Strachan called The Day Tomorrow Began that left us slack-jawed. It’s on until March 29 and you won’t be sorry if you can get there. It’s a wowzer for sure.
There’s too much to say about the few objects here and the many more in the show. Here is the LA Times review of the exhibit with plenty of words.
“Some loads are too heavy to carry alone.”
We are a few months late but, you know, it’s always something. Happy Birthday Susie!
Movies with Marsha
Book group
Monday Ladies
Dinner with Rome
Steve and Celina came by
Above, Darryl brought his team from around the US to Santa Monica for meetings, and some FUN!
Yup, I still haven’t put away the tree! I got it up so late, I didn’t do it for a few years, and I still haven’t got a picture that feels right.
Muriel and her favorite helper Allie. I took Muriel to see some assisted living places just to get a feel for what’s available.
One of the dining rooms.
All my curls are gone from the 100 hairs that I still have on my head. The hair cutter was doing her best.
The students of Redondo Union High School staged a walkout this morning in support of the anti-ICE movement. You go kids!
Guðbjörg took me around Reykjavík for several days when I was in Iceland in 2022 and now she’s here visiting her boyfriend Albert. The connection is through Hilda – thank you Hilda!
We enjoy lunch at Casa del Mar, one of my favorite spots to relax and visit.
(photo below from Albert)
Then we finished the afternoon with a coffee in my yard and we picked a bag of oranges for Albert to take home.
Let’s try to pronounce Guðbjörg = “Guðbjörg is pronounced GVOÐ-byorg (approximate IPA: /ˈkvʏð.pjœrk/). It is an Icelandic name broken down as “Goo-th” (with a soft, voiced ‘th’ like ‘the’) + “byorg” (with a short ‘o’ sound, often resembling a “u” or “y” sound in English, and a ‘g’ that can sound like a ‘k’).” And here’s what another source says: g-uthbyeurh(is)
Robert treated me to lunch today. I hired him back at Crystal in the early early days, so long ago, and he’s made a wonderful life for himself and his family. It’s a beautiful thing!
We enjoyed a stroll along Palisades Park with a rest for my benefit before the turn-around, and then lunch on the porch of the Georgian Hotel. We were Ladies Who Lunch and by the end of the day I had more than 9,000 steps.
Thank you Ken for the picture!
Lynn, Ken, Susie, Shelly, Joyce, Emilia, Carl, me, Richard, Josh, Mick, Dan, Ben
WOW, what a great gathering, everyone was so pleased. Thank you Richard for making it happen in honor of those of us who have passed. Goodness, we’ve know each other for a very long time.
Meriellen’s cover shot.
Fendi is releasing a new line of shoes and purses and our Jo Ann conceived of and is leading the art side of the advertising campaign. Fendi shipped tons (literally, tons) of gear to LA and so many participants – multiples of hair, makeup, costumes, lights, electrical, staging, catering, models, props, costumes, etc etc, and even a seamstress. I got to hang around for a lot of Saturday and some Sunday too and what FUN.
I can tell more about it and show so many pictures that you will beg for mercy, but none with product until the release date. I promised!
Meriellen and Alan were there for the Friday setup and all of Saturday then Meriellen went home to Chicago while Alan stuck with it through all of Sunday too. I’m excited to put up the rest of the pictures and to see how the chosen ones turned out.
A couple pictures from Darryl – Thanks! Angela, Lilly, me, Liz, Gary, Rome, Darryl. Yumm, and then cake and ice cream and gifts, a game, walking the dog, all together a lovely day.
Lilly and I had lunch at Lilly favorite restaurant, Din Tai Fung in the Del Amo Mall. It was tasty and we always have fun. Then Angela met us and we all looked at dresses for Lilly’s high school Winter Dance. Flash from the past!
Below is an internet picture from a high school dance in 1963 when I was 16 as Lilly is today. I’ll add a picture of Lilly in her dress when she decides. It won’t look like this.
But sometimes that’s just not possible or even the best solution for an engaging life. I’m thinking to have a plan already worked out when/if being home is not happening, and many of my aging friends are thinking the same.
Since I have lived modestly and saved money with the intention of being prepared to be comfortable until age 96, and since that is ever so unlikely considering, you know, cancer, I’m ready to pick a really nice place.
There are a couple on Ocean Avenue looking at Palisades Park and the blue Pacific but they are small without many activities. Below are a couple right here in Westwood touting their chefs, facilities, and their relationship with UCLA.
Our beloved Disney Concert Hall.
Cathedral of our Lady of the Angels
Downtown pigeons just don’t care.
The last of the weekend’s demonstrations.
me, Lona, Windy
When I say I have a spectacularly large head, you can see it here. We are on the same plane, the camera is the same distance away, and yet my head dominates the scene.
Darryl often joins me for lunch on Fridays and today I walked over to his office at the Water Garden. We went to a nearby restaurant/patio and had a lovely time in the most amazing weather, a warm, sunny, winter’s breeze.
The color is fading – it was purple to start and I suppose it will be purple again. It’s so eye-catching when we’re out for a walk.
Here’s Darryl’s great choice for an electric piano. I think it looks so cool (Angela’s decor of course), it sounds wonderful, and it has every feature.
Nakissa, me, Judy, Maniya, Marzi, Luna, Susan, Victoria, Hilda
We had a full house today at our book group get together. We started out with Persian Poetry and now we’re reading The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz. It takes a while for us to get through a book because first we catch up with everyone’s personal stories and then we read the book during the meeting, each person reading a page or so, and then we talk about it.
It’s such a cozy feeling. I’ve mentioned cozy twice now, first when we had all those rainy days and now again. Cozy is a lovely way to feel.
I signed up today and it was easy. Now I’m on the email list and getting ready for the deluge of offers. It’s exciting! I’ve been thinking about, and hoping for, the Olympics ever since LA applied. 1984 was so great! And after I got sick I got even more desirous of making it to the Olympics.
First, I’m feeling dang, (and maybe unrealistically?) optimistic that I’ll make it to 80 in a year and a half, and then the Olympics are not far behind. Oh goodie!
Marsha and I have gone to the movies a few times recently, and a lot of the Golden Globe nominations are already streaming. And I can’t even remember the name of the movie I saw this morning! You can see Marsha there in the middle of the middle of the theater.
Here’s a list of the Golden Globe nominations that I’ve seen:
Hamnet (losing their son to plague, with so much crying.)
Marty Supreme (Chalamet getting to the ping pong tournament, with so much screaming.)
One Battle After Another (Paul Thomas Anderson, DiCaprio, Penn, del Toro “When their evil enemy resurfaces after 16 years, a group of ex-revolutionaries reunite to rescue the daughter of one of their own.” I’ll watch it again since I didn’t quite get the charm.)
Train Dreams (slow moving quiet tragic life that many found touching)
Jay Kelly (Clooney, Sandler self-centered movie star and his devoted manager, and me not caring about either of them)
Rome and Juno came around for a visit and they got to meet the new tenant and it turned out they all had a lot in common. It was fun!
This is Lilly’s first outing behind the wheel (Angela took the picture) and Rome with their car that now has its own parking spot at the Co-op. Rome drove over to help me finish up in the studio doing the chores I can’t/don’t want to do for the new tenant who is settled in for a four month internship at the UCLA Medical Center.
I met up with Angela at 1 for a snack and a beverage and a walk to the ocean and since we had a little time left, we got our cars washed. Then I picked up Lilly at school and we went off in search of a snack and ended up at our favorite place, Yogurtland. Lilly always creates designer bowls of delights.
Black and white Converse are so photogenic and then add Oliver and it’s click click click.
I picked up some lunch for us to eat outside on Ben and Bonnie’s deck. It was a gorgeous day. Above is the mural on the side of the Canter’s building. There are many more panels than shown here, telling the history of the Jewish people in Los Angeles. Yummy bananas – I took one home!
The family came out on Sunday for yummy brunch with Rome and I got to go too. And then the Monday Ladies had a lovely lunch.
(At this rate fingers seem not Nearly enough.)
New Year’s morning at Tom and Marsha’s as I have done many times before – come NYEve afternoon, watch movies, eat a delicious dinner, catch the New York New Year’s Eve on TV and get ready for bed. In the morning we have coffee and an early breakfast snack, watch the Rose Parade a few times on rerun, and eat ham sandwiches for lunch. That’s what we do and I look forward to it!
The eagles came by in the worst of the rain but they were everyone’s favorite. This is the 11th time it’s rained on the parade since it started in 1890.
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BTW this year’s wine was SO GOOD. Goodness, I’m going to be wanting more of that!
