Luxe life / Animal drawings at the Fairmont

Last Friday night was just another night in the penthouse of the Fairmont Hotel for Mara and I. We relaxed in seal-skin robes, shuffled around in baby polar bear ear fur slippers, snorted the finest powdered snow leopard pancreas, fed Kobe beef to the pigeons who delivered the New York Times piecemeal in tiny scrolls tied to their feet, and generally killed time. (While enjoying the Cooper holiday party).

When we emerged from a blissful reverie, we noticed that the walls were covered with an unusual world map.



It was painted in 1927, by a guy named Robert Boardman Howard. A little poking around on the Internet reveals that his work is scattered across Northern California -- sketches at the Merced post office, a design for the phoenix on Coit Tower, a relief in front of the Livermore post office.





The Smithsonian did an interview with him in 1964, where he talks about another good NorCal project. "Then there was a small theatre up at Guerneville that I decorated. They gave me a free hand. I painted all the natives of Guerneville, their portraits, including the village dog. That was quite interesting. Good experience." Amen, brother.

Impactful

It's not a word, but lots of people like to use it as if it were. Over the past few years, I've heard it more and more often, but today was the first day I've ever seen it in the mainstream media. Hmmm.

Is there something deficient about "influential" or "resonant?" What about affecting, authoritative, controlling, dominant, effective, efficacious, forcible, governing, guiding, important, impressive, inspiring, instrumental, leading, meaningful, momentous, moving, persuasive, potent, prominent, significant, strong, substantial, telling, touching, weighty, beating, booming, deep, electrifying, enhanced, full, intensified, loud, mellow, noisy, orotund, plangent, powerful, profound, pulsating, pulsing, resounding, reverberant, reverberating, rich, ringing, roaring, round, sonorant, sonorous, stentorian, strident, thrilling, throbbing, thundering, or thunderous?

Travel / Some places that got between me & my beloved blog

It started in London. I was there for, wow, how long? Three days? Seemed like three weeks. Cold, rainy, dark at 4pm, transcontinental travel, Ambien, fish & chips, trucks unloading just outside the window the Radisson all night long. I wasn't sure if I was sick, tired, both, half-awake, or what. Good times, as always. Thanks, London.





On to Paris, where there was a rail strike going on. We were here for a total of 24 hours, maybe, but it was AWESOME. Amazing light, cool old people, and insomnia just meant that I got up early enough to get some good pictures of the sunrise. Is it impossible to take a bad picture here? Champagne bottle on the curb. A not-so-interesting subject, unless it is backed by the winter light of PARIS. I took like 500 pictures on the trip, 5 of which were good and they were all in Paris.





When you're in Germany, you don't have to ash in the sink.





Finally, Poland. These are sparrows, I think, swirling around a big plaza in the middle of Warsaw. Trippy.





A couple weeks after I got back from Europe, and just as I was emerging from an Ambien haze, I went to India for a couple of days. Just, you know, to check it out. Was two days really long enough to take it all in? Maybe not. Better make it three so I make sure I see everything. In reality, I was there to teach a class, and I would have loved to stay longer. Instead, I left immediately after so that I could attend ...





Adlai and Shinobu's wedding! Good times. To be honest, it was also a bit of blur, but I remember enjoying every waking moment, even if those moments were technically half-waking.





For the holidays, Hawaii. I did some chocolate-making with Mara and her family. I drank that milkshake, for sure.





This crazy rock was last seen on the beach in the central coast of California, north of Santa Cruz and near some moaning elephant seals.