Where are You Headed this Weekend?

(not my pic, sorry, does anyone know?)

Hope the journey is not too arduous.

David Hockney. WOW.

From my weekend before last in San Francisco:

Big was no kidding.  (At the De Young in San Francisco.  Just closed.)

The range and the scope and the virtuosity, the volume of work

in the exhibit was just amazing.  So sorry I can't show you pictures of the colossally scaled Yorkshire

landscape oil paintings and videos that were the main attraction.  Photography was not allowed.

And I probably should not even be posting these works

from Hockney's 2004 book, Hockney's Pictures, The Definitive Retrospective which were part of the show.  

He is an artist who is fully and always engaged in the act of seeing and wants to bring us all along for the ride.  If you saw his shows at the Royal Academy and Bilbao in the last years, you'll know what I'm talking about.  But this exhibit comprised many additional works.

Judging the reaction of the other visitors to this show, seeing (and mark-making which was one of the outstanding qualities of the work) are NOT out of fashion.  Even in the old US of A.  Cheers to that!

Island Country

I thought we all might need a change of pace.  So many are having such terrible weather lately.

Yeah, I've been holding out on you.  These pics have been tucked into a corner of my computer for awhile.

This is the island of Oahu.  Which is just clinging on to a little bit of country.

Despite many efforts to build ugly hotels on every square inch of it.

Here's a sweet little petting farm by the side of the road.

They take donations to pay for the feed.

Further on from here the road will take you to -

Along the way you'll pass lovely, idyllic He'eia at a bend in the road.

There used to be a highly recommended little eating place here, but that chef has moved on.

My recommendation?

Bring your own lunch and stick to the road.  How's your breathing?  Easier already?

How was the weekend?

It's Only a Paper Moon.......Shining on Hollywood Boulevard

What's old is new on Hollywood Boulevard: Paper Moon Vintage

Right across the street from Wacko/The Soap Plant and Umami Burger.  This is a neighborhood that has struggled a bit over the years in the retail way.  So go on...give it some love!

Nothing dates from after the 1960's.

For more, check out their very up to date Facebook page here.  Time to put on your dancing shoes?

Have a lovely weekend!

Paul Smith at the Design Museum - Part Two

O.K.  There's no way that I could ever wear these clothes. 

 (Do click the links in the photo captions darlin's!)

 (didn't James May wear this shirt - or - was that my husband????)

That doesn't mean that they are any less fabulous.

 (to be worn especially w/ chopsticks in your hair)

It might mean, however that I should have been born a lankier kind of person.

(on the piste!)

Slenderer  and longer in every dimension.

 (a little very Celia Birtwell or Early Expectant-with-Wills Diana if she had just let her freak-flag fly - Sir Paul made cushions out of this pattern too - did he not???  With bobbles! L-O-V-E!)

And with a sort of regularly featured statue-ish elegance and gawk that is

(sing a Hollies song here)

typical of some English people.  Like Sir Paul Smith, Stella Tennant, and on his good days, Mr. Paradis.  Who, like Sir Paul, was ALSO born into the fashion and textile tradition that is Nottingham, England.  (Yes I do own a Nottingham lace tablecloth.)

I have to admit that I was surprised that these are the pieces that Paul Smith personally chose to represent him at the Design Museum.  And not his safer, though beautifully put-together, men's suits with that trademark "POP" of color that is his bread and butter.  On the other hand, these are a perfect amalgamation, a different expression (from the suits) of that utterly English passion for the exotic and the flamboyant, the whimsical, AND the muted, reserved, sort of straight-laced comportment that we think of them as having.  That is to say, how scary is it that I could also imagine them being worn - without the slightest twinkle of an eye - by my Mother-in-Law?  (Herself another Nottingham Beauty.)

Well.  Shall we just call them:  FRUMP-TASTIC!  If only I could get away with being so verryyyy.....Paul Smith.

All the Wrong Reasons

Hey Everybody!  How was the weekend?  Hope yours was good!  Mr. Paradis and I went to San Francisco to see the David Hockney show now closing at the De Young museum.  (Some pictures about that maybe later in the week.)

This pretty post is what I'll call a "meta" post

(using pictures I've been collecting over the year) that seem somehow so appropriate for what's going on inside my head.......

"A PICTURE IS WORTH A THOUSAND WORDS"

but none of which were taken by me, and which reflect only remotely what is going on in my external life.

When I say that this post is about "All the Wrong Reasons" it's because for a brief weekend in SF

life was delicious and sweet and lovely.  And so is my backyard coming home.

Life is lazy and feels safe.  But here in California we are living in the middle of a grand illusion.  (As perhaps much of the whole world is.)  For us, the problem is no rain.  We drove home through thousands and thousands of miles of dry blonde hills the color of a lion's haunches.

This is terribly wrong in January.  The hills should be green.  So I am posting these pictures - FOR ALL THE WRONG REASONS.  I should be out doing rain dances instead of enjoying life so very much.

Again, So Soon?

 Have a good one!

Wherever you are.

Yeah, do.

Paul Smith at the Design Museum, Part One

Hello, My Name is.......

Sir Paul Smith

Too cool, too fun, too exciting

to get a little peek into his

process. 

 His spaces.

His light, his color.

His STRIPES!!!!!

Until March 9 at the DESIGN MUSEUM, SHAD THAMES, LONDON.  Come back here for Paul Smith, Part Two.   

Next week!

What''s Not to Love About the Victoria and Albert Museum?

Actually I went to the V&A to see the Pearls Exhibition.

Which was nice, but I had expected to have my heart stolen away by something transcendental.

Which the pearls weren't, quite.  For me.  (Possibly for you?)

I was wowed, instead by the fashion exhibit - which covered many eras.

And highlighted all that is handmade.

I say, put me in that time machine, take me back!

I don't need to be a princess, let me just dress her, or weave for her, or sweep up after.  Anything to be able to touch, for a moment, the magic that envelops her!  Oh yes indeed, my heart was stolen away.  

Again and again.

London is a Fun Fair at Christmas

Most especially

at Leicester Square.

It's another weekend in January already!  Have a good one!