Miro, Goya and Picasso at SJ Museum of Art

I will admit it...I feel a little snobbish about the Bay Area fine art museums. Legion of honor, SF MOMA and the San Jose Museum of Art are in my mind NOT some of the better fine art museums on the West Coast, let alone the US.

Then, I received an email invitation through work about a reception and a chance to see the work of 3 Spanish master: Joan Miro, Francisco Goya and Picasso. Plus, they promised sangria and tapas too...I don't think I need any more arm twisting:)

Work was actually somewhat busy, so I did not reach the museum until 7:15pm. Feeling a little hungry, I hit the buffet table for some tapas. Got myself a few pieces of cheese, some ham and a meat ball. Satisfied, I start browsing the exhibits.

I had read online the Miro exhibit will be closing soon and decided to look at his work first. Personally, I felt Miro's works are too abstract for me to interpert, but always enjoy the vibrant colors and whimsical lines/shapes. There was a painting with a drawing of I thought looked like a dog that I enjoyed. On another painting, I swore the top right figure was Miro's representation of a rat. Finally, there was a figure that reminded me of Cobi, the 1992 Barcelona Olympics mascot, waving its arms welcoming guest.

There was a series of Miro's works which were almost Zen like. Painted with wide brush strokes on beige-colored paper, it was very different from the Miro's that I am familiar with. Interesting in its own right, but, unfortunately, that series did not resonate with me at all:(

Next, I went to check out the Goya's exhibits. I remembered vividly studying about "The Third of May 1808" during my art history lessons in undergrad and always had the impression that Goya's works are mystic, dark and painful. These exhibits did nothing to change that impression. There were several etching depicting evil torturing ordinary people. Bodies were twisted in pain. There was something strange about the setup of this exhibition: the explanation posted next to the etchings read like comments of 3 art critics, where usually the titles given by the artist were posted. I still don't know what to make of that.

Finally, I checked out Picasso's etching. I was immediately drawn by the intricate lines Picasso used to drawn horses and facecs. Those detailed lines reminded me of African masks. I was quite excited since I recalled in my art history class, Professor Geiger had mentioned Picasso's "Les Demoiselles d'Avignon" was inspired by African tribal masks and Picasso had an extensive collection of African art. It seems to fit pretty well with what I was seeing.

The title of Picasso's exhibition is "Etchings of Love and Desire". Call me conservative, but I was uncomfortable with the obvious drawing of male sexual organ in some of the etching. There was a series of etchings showing the Pope, Raphael (the Renaissance artist) and his model Margherita where Raphael was CLEARLY excited. The etchings were too explicit for me to enjoy the art. It was unfortunate, since the some of the etchings had beautiful line art work which I did not associate with Picasso.

My friend H came by after work and we viewed the rest of the exhibit together. We managed to quickly glance through most of the art work before the museum closed at 9pm.

I was feeling a little hungry, so we had a quick dinner/night snack at Asqew Grill. I had eaten at their Steiner Street location in San Francisco and really enjoyed their skewers, but was frankly disappointed with the San Jose store. I ordered the Portobello mushroom skewers, which was served with citrus couscous . The grilled vegetables did not have any seasoning to it, and the soy berrre blanc sauce described on the menu tasted like soy sauce and did not bring alot of flavor to the dish. The portions seemed to have changed a little as well. I recalled the skewers were served with a starch and a creative side salad, but salad was not part of my meal.

I was happy San Jose Museum of Art was able to put together exhibitions by 3 world renowed artist. While their most representative works were not shown, one could still sense and appreciate the style of their work. I was also glad the reception successfully drew a large crowd of younger patrons. Maybe San Jose will be more cultured from now on!

Life of a Spring Couplet-4

Again, I called my calligraphy teacher for help. Since Spring couplet paper are red in color and seals are stamped with red ink, it is customary to stamp the seals on white paper, cut them out and stick onto the red Spring couplet paper. Sizing the cut and the location of the seal will greatly affect the aesthetics of the complete work, so I needed his advice.

We met at his apartment over lunch so he can give final blessing to my work and helped with sticking my seals.

Here is the end result. As usual, my name is obscure for privacy reasons...

Notice the addition of the a animal/zodiac seal on the right scroll, as well as my name and seal on the left scroll.

The Spring Couplets have been mailed via UPS. They should reach home in time for Chinese New Year!

Life of a Spring Couplet-3

I called my calligraphy teacher in the morning. He graciously agreed to meet me over lunch to review my work.

His first observation is I had tried too hard to make the individual brush strokes dark, full and wide on all my attempts. While it is somewhat expected for Spring Couplets, it was not my style. He told me to stay true to my style.

Several other suggestions include using a different font for the word "Gold"(金), since it is repeated on the left in the word "Money"(钱). There were also some issues with spacing and balance. Finally, he reminded I need to add signatures and other elements to my work for complete spring couplets.

It so happens today I had my first class in Business Law at Mission College, so by the time I got home, it was already 10pm. After a quick dinner, I started working on the Spring Couplet.

Since I am down to my last 2 sheets of red Spring Couplet paper, I again practiced on white paper. At about 11pm, I figured it's now or never and wrote everything in one shot. Here's the outcome...

I know standard font(楷书) was not my strong point, so with the exception of writing my name, I was not going to write anything else on the work. The beginning Spring Couplet will need some other "eye candy". I decided to go with the Animal/Zodiac seal(肖形印) instead...

Took me about an hour to finish the seal...Here's a close up of the stamp... It is suppose to resemble a rat.
By now, it is 3am and I am too tired to finish putting the work together...The completion of this Spring Couplet will have to wait one more day...

Life of a Spring couplet-2

After spending the night thinking about the Spring couplet Mom had quoted, I played around with the words and worked with my calligraphy teacher over lunch to come up with the following couplet instead.

金鼠咬钱入家苑
富贵好运引进门

Translation:
Golden rat carries money into the house
Prosperity and good luck is brought through the door

It is still not very good, but avoids the repeating words. Also the last word of the first sentence(苑) is of the fourth tone(去声) and the last word of the second sentence(门) is of the second tone(阳平). The spring couplet now has the proper rhymes.

I started working on this Spring Couplet at home, starting at about 8pm. Before any writing can start, I had to look up how these words should be written in Clerk's script(隶书) in the calligraphy dictionary. I am most proficient in Clerk's script and wanted to show off my strongest fonts.

Since I have limited number of red Spring Couplet paper, I did a practice run on white paper and before writing 3 versions on red Spring Couplet paper. It was almost 1am whem I was done. I am not satisfied with any of the versions. The following is the best of the lot, but clearly more work needs to be done.

Life of a Spring Couplet-1

Mom called. On her recent trip to China, she saw a Spring couplet(春联) she really liked and wanted me to write it for Chinese New Year. The couplet is as follows:

钱鼠咬钱进家门
富贵好运引进门

Translation:
Money rat carries money through the house door
Prosperity and good luck is brought through the door

I happened to be in my calligraphy class when Mom called. My calligraphy teacher felt this Spring Couplet did not have the proper format and rhymes. Speicifically, several words are repeated for no good reason like money(钱) and door(门). Also, using the same word(门) to conclude both sentence is usually not done. Clearly, some modifications to the wording would be needed.

Chinese New Year is less than 2 weeks away, the calligraphy needs to be completed quickly. My nickname in calligraphy class is "Spring away, Autumn arrives"(春去秋来). Completing calligraphy work with tight dateline is not exactly my strength:(

Moonlight kayak in Santa Cruz

My little skiing accident on Northstar caused much pain during the week. My back muscle was tense the entire week and I was walking around gingerly, trying to avoid further straining that muscle.

It was then I discovered there was going to be a moonlight kayaking at Santa Cruz. Since kayaking is mostly a upper-body sport, I debated a little, but convinced myself in the relative calm evening water, I should be able to get around:)

My friend H and I met at Fry's electronics at about 3:30pm. We carpooled to the dock at Santa Cruz Yatch club. As usual, our guide Dave Johnston, was there to greet us. Readers of this blog may know that I had done several trips with Dave and had always enjoyed paddling with him. As an added bonus, Amy, Dave's assistant on the unsuccessful whale watching trip, was with us as well.

Both my friend and I had kayaked before, so I decided I would paddle in front and be the main drive of the kayak. For most other paddlers on this trip, this is their first kayaking experience. Dave had all of us paddled around a little in the harbor to get comfortable.

At this time of the year, the sun started setting really early. We got into the water at about 4:30pm and by 4:45pm, the sun had began setting below the breakwater. The silhouettes of hikers/walkers on the breakwater slowly came into view and within the relative calm of the habor water, there was a certain sense of peace. This is the part about kayaking I enjoy the most, an almost serene moment on the water...

We decided to head outside the protective breakwater into the open sea. It was a peaceful night and there was no strong current. Dave ordered the group to head north towards the wharf. Along the way, we saw a sea lion sticking its head out of the water, playfully observing us:)

I did not track time, but it must had took us a good hour to paddle from the Yatch club harbor to the wharf. Under the wharf, we could see harbor seals resting on the wharf structure and barking loudly. Dave had us go around the wharf, then paddled under the wharf to get a closer look.

At this time, it was completely dark and the moon was already up in the sky. Unlike my previous moonlight paddling trip, I did not see the moon climb slowly into the sky. My friend explained based on the lunar calendar, my previous trip was on the 16th, which was why I had gotten to see the slow moon rise. Tonight was the 12th.

As we slowly make our way back to the Santa Cruz Yatch Club habor, I observed the reflection of the moon in the sea water, broken by the gentle waves. I was reminded of Xu Zhimuo(徐志摩)'s poem about Farewell to Cambridge(再别康桥). In the poem, he coyed:

那榆荫下的一潭，不是清泉，是天上虹；揉碎在浮藻间，沉淀着彩虹似的梦。

Translation:
That pool under the shade of elm trees
Holds not water but the rainbow from the sky;
Shattered to pieces among the duckweeds
Is the sediment of a rainbow-like dream?

The statement about rainbow from the sky, shattered ito pieces somehow felt appropriate to what I was watching.

H sang Su Dongpuo(苏东坡) poem of the Water Song(水调歌头) on our way back. The wave was pushing us in the right direction and we did not had to paddle too hard.

We were on the water for a total of about 2 and a half hours, but it certainly felt too short. One draw back was the Santa Cruz coastline was not well lit and unlike the Oakland skyline, did not had much to see.

I had still not gotten my transparent dry bag for digital camera. I used my old analog camera instead on this trip. Pictures will be posted once the films are being developed.

A co-worker had recommended Saturn Cafe for dinner. I ordered the Spartacus Salad, and was rewarded with a big plate of organic greens, with bits of feta cheese, diced pita break, crispy faux meat patty, tossed in a creamy, slightly tart, dressing. Quite good!

The restaurant had a 60's Art Deco vibe. While Santa Cruz is located no more than 30mins from west San Jose, it felt like a much different world. The cafe culture seems stronger than San Jose and the neighborhood felt more lifely than San Jose. I come to Santa Cruz mostly for paddling, but felt that I should explore it further.

Skiing at Northstar

We decided we would try to beat the crowd at Northstar this morning. We woke up at 7am, and left for Northstar at about 8:00am, arriving at about 8:45am. By this time, others had already arrived, so no virgin snow for us:)

Most of my friends had wanted to ski the back hills of Northstar on the black diamond trails, specifically Burnout. I am not skilled enough to tackle those trails, so I decided to stay mostly on the front mountain, skiing the Lumberjack trail. This is a fairly long green run, and gave me lots of room to improve on parallel skiing.

On my second trip down the hill, a snowboarder merging in from a steep slope(I think it is Sidewinder) collided with me and knocked me on the back. I was in a great deal of pain, but luckily there were no further injuries...

For lunch, I met up with my fellow skiiers at the Summit deck for lunch. If I was alone, I would probably had not chosen this location for lunch since I need to go do a blue slope to get back to the base of the mountain, so I decided to take full advantage of this opportunity. The mountain top actually had pretty good view of the cascading mountains around the Northstar ski resort. I must admit the food was pretty good too! I chow down on a decent size piece of smoked ham, served with a side of grilled potatoes, seasoned with herbs and a not too creamy cole slaw.

After lunch, I worked my way down the hill, first along the West Ridge trail(blue), then onto Luggi and back onto Lumberjack. Physically, though, I am not in skiing shape and I was starting to get a little tired. I did a few more runs on Lumberjack, but I seemed to have less control compare to my morning runs. At about 3:30pm, I decided I will just have some fun. I went down Village Green--the easiest slope on Northstar, and probably all of Tahoe, a couple of times. This run is so gentle, I really did not have to do much to slow myself down. Then I decided to call it a day.

Northstar had done a beautiful job with the village at the base of the mountain. I sat on the couches next to the skating ring, people watched and little and rested while my friends finished up their runs.

We packed up all our gear and headed back to the Bay area at about 5:30pm. This was a popular week for skiing because of it snowed heavily the previous weekend, so there was quite a fair amount of traffic just to get back to the freeway. Along the freeway, it did not improve much either.

It was almost 11pm before we reached our original meetup point in Milpitas. By that time, everyone was too tired to do anything and we headed home.

I was happy to get some snow and started my ski season. Since my volunteer math tutoring program will be starting again soon, it would be difficult for me to get away on 2-day ski trips for the rest of the season.

Sand Hill Cranes at Galt, Night ski at Boreal

It snowed heavily the previous weekend, so when my friend called me up and asked if I am interested in a 2 day ski trip, I figured why not?

I am really not much of a skiier, but does like to go to the mountain at least once or twice a year. After all, where I come from, snow is not a natural phenomenon:)

Four of us met up at about 9:30am in Milpitas, then vanpooled to Galt. Someone within the group had read that the natural reserve near Galt have a large population of sand hill crane migrating at around this time and given it is on our way to the ski resort, we might as well stop by for a visit.

Frankly, we were all very disappointed. When we drove into the reserve, we saw about a total of 10-12 sandhill cranes. These cranes are not entirely white, but more grayish in color, so they don't look all that pretty. Disappointed, we decided to stop by the visitor center to see if there are other spots for better bird viewing...

Turns out, we were at the reserve during a bad time. The cranes have mostly left the reserve looking for food. A better time for bird viewing would be early in the morning or later in the evening when they are back at the reserve resting...Oh well, at least this was not the focus of our trip:)

We then drove to Sacromento for lunch. Despite having lived in the Bay area for almost 7 years now, this is my first time having lunch in Sacromento. Again, someone in the group suggested New Canton Restaurant. It was a great suggestion! The quality of the dim sum was comparable to those in the Bay area. We also ordered a stew lamb with tofu skin that was hearty and flavorful. As we were in a hurry, I didn't feel I had tasted the food carefully enough to write a review, but I would gladly go back there for lunch or dinner on future ski trips.

We arrived at Boreal at about 3:30pm. After getting our lift tickets, we hit the slopes! We hit a ski lift called the "Accelerator" to the top of the mountain. From there, there is a blue route (#17)down the hill. I had felt it was somewhat steep, and maked really wide turns to come down the slope, but my fellow skiier were not frazed at all!

I had been stuck at the ski level of trying to do mostly parallel turns for a while now. My friend was very encouraging and gave me some good tips. She also showed me the drills she had practiced while she was learning parallel skiing. Feeling route 17 was too steep for me to concerntrate on improving my techniques, I went on a ski lift call the "Claimjumper" and did some green slopes instead. There was the added bonus of shorter lines at the Claimjumper:)

After several runs, I felt that my right turns had improved and I could stop fairly well going in that direction. I could slow myself down with left turns, but was unable to stop myself.

Boreal is a small resort and lights were installed to allow for night skiing. As the day light starts to fade, the snow became more icy. But by 6pm, a small breeze had began blowing. This help bring in some new powder onto the slopes, and the ski condition actually improved a little.

I hit the "Accelerator" a few times after dark, but the cold wind made it really uncomfortable on the ski chairs. I decided to stick to the shorter green run for the rest of the night.

We stopped skiing at about 9pm and headed to a hotel in Reno to spend the night.