As I write this* it is raining and I am at my sister’s house, listening to Nico Muhly and eating very gingery cookies our friends made, and drinking cold tea. The cat Manapua, a sleek fat tortoiseshell, gazes at me with eyes that I always think of as mint-colored, though they’re not at all the color of the tea I’m drinking. It is a good day.
Here are some things I made in the past week:
a 15-minute sketch of Sather Gate at UC Berkeley,
before attending a table reading of a friend’s fantastic play
Memories of the same gate, in 2004:
and in an earlier project:
an interpretation of a Turkish breakfast, for friends
(same friends who baked the ginger cookies I’m now eating)
the Turkish street-vendor bread, simit
(meant to be for our friends, but the dough didn’t rise in time)
a painting of the vase I arranged for the breakfast table
(actually, I had the idea for the composition while we were eating)
I meant to do the dark background with watercolor pencil,
but I realized I left them at my parents’ house
then I disliked the dark paint, so I jazzed it up.
I went to Learning Ally for another volunteering session, and spent most of the two hours on the table of contents of a history textbook. I never really thought how many words are involved in a TOC; when you’re reading visually, it’s easy to skip over dates and page numbers, but when recording an audio version, those must be read. As a former historian I understand the desire for dramatic chapter titles (things like “Books, beggars, and the Byzantine Empire”), but as a narrator, I rather wished the authors had opted simply for one-worders: “China,” “commerce,” etc! On the other hand, it was fun trying to get through the TOC with some measure of expression, and as always, I found the required focus meditative. I love this volunteer gig.
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*I started this post on Monday morning. I am now in my room at my parents’ house, listening to Lay Low and freezing my fingers off, wondering what’s for lunch and thinking longingly of a strawberry-chocolate puer I had yesterday.
satsumabug.com | Lisa Hsia 
That bread looks amazing…love your paintings too! That ‘stay ground’ piece is fascinating
Thanks! I didn’t draw very often in college, so whenever I did, I poured my heart into it. I was especially proud of that piece.
The bread was really good. 🙂
The flower arrangement, the painting, the bread, the Turkish breakfast, all so wonderfully creative. You have a good life, my dear.
Thank you, dear Sherry! I have such a good life it scares me, but I try not to let that hamper my enjoyment of it. 🙂 That’s one of the reasons I’ve been on such a Colwin kick lately, actually. All that domestic sensualism makes me feel somehow more able to enjoy my own happy surroundings!
Manapua prefers to be thought of as festively plump.
Her plumpness is certainly festive. 😉 And inviting, for pats and hugs!!
Ah, happiness all round. Sounds like a lovely time was had by all. NIico Muhly is challenging but I enjoyed Lay Low. Here is something I’ve often pondered. Is their a genetic tone to the Scandinavian “tribe” voice, I wonder ? If you listen to Bjork, Lay Low, Of Monsters and Men, Silje Neergard…….. there is something about their voices that says to you, if you didn’t know who they were, ” This person has a Scandinavian background of some sort.” – Or is it my imagination ?
Anyway, off to research my theory. Have another lovely day. 🙂
Some Muhly is more accessible than others, but the challengingness is something I like about his work. 🙂
I know just what you mean about the Scandinavian voices — I’ve wondered the same, and whether it’s genetic or cultural/social (just what’s popular in those regions, perhaps?), or just my reaction to particular pronunciations of English. Try Ragga Gröndal, Samaris, and Kristjana Stefánsdóttir too, for your researches. 😉 Or, for male voices, Sondre Lerche, Mew, and The Whitest Boy Alive.
I’m glad it’s not just me, then. 🙂
I notice on the one drawing of the gate, on the pillars, you have things to do before you graduate and by a specific date. Did you accomplish those things? I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how we want to spend our lives, but how life gets in the way of that.
That sounds like an interesting topic to mull over. Have you come to any conclusions?
I did accomplish a good number of the things on the drawing, which in retrospect seems amazing. I made a point of going to talk to professors, to the point that I think of some of them as former colleagues rather than teachers (it helps that I went to grad school, which encourages a different teacher/student interaction than in undergrad). In my junior year I signed up for a piano performance class, which definitely gave me more practice, but also kind of killed my wrists — I’m only just starting to see a physical therapist about that. I took classes in Spanish, French, and Portuguese, but didn’t get around to Italian, though I ended up taking classes in Chinese, too, which I didn’t anticipate during my freshman year. I also volunteered and joined a club or two — with mixed results, since most of it was done more out of “should”ism than genuinely wanting to commit. And I learned yoga and modern dance, which have forever after informed my thinking/movement. 🙂 I did not: go camping, explore Tilden Park, or learn to tango. But there’s still time! 😉 Obviously I am a diehard breadth-not-depth person!
Beautiful creativity, Lisa and I can feel so much joy and happiness coming through it. Those flowers are good, really good. Big hugs and Happy Spring!
Thank you, dear Aga! Big hugs, joy, and happy Spring to you too! ❤
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