BLOGAHOMA

The Necessity of Appearing in Your Own Face 

There are days when that is the last place
in the world where you want to be but you
have to be there, like a movie, because it
features you. ~ Richard Brautigan

Back in the 1950’s a popular TV show, “This is Your Life” aired for a decade. The premise: a person, some celebrity of a kind, would be the receiver (target) , then people, teachers, best friends, former dates, relatives and the like would be dredged up from their recent and distant past. The mystery person (standing off stage) would proceed to give the person hints, sometimes embarrassing, sometimes heart-warming; the celebrity would then try to guess.

Facebook is very much like “This is Your Life” but on steroids. For me it has turned out to be one stupendous open house where people from you life come out of the woodwork and onto you facebook. Three years ago I attempted to join but alas my generation had not come aboard so I ended up talking to myself.  (A blog is much better place for that.) Then on Christmas my daughter got me up and running again.  Like most I felt a little frustrated when I first looked at the maze they call Facebook.  Having left timidity behind years ago I opened the door and walked in.

 My easiest path for regrouping on Facebook is family due to mine being vast. I began finding cousins and collating them onto my Facebook. My sister Lucy (being influential as the first born of the cousins) coaxed a batch of them on and gregarious Aunt Pauline wrangled in more.  Now there are 70 people I am related to. 70! More than half of all my friends are actually related. After that followed the Lourdes Academy class of 1964 (I scanned in all the Senior pics and tagged them) followed by neighbors, and people I worked with from three previous jobs. Friends brought other friends and cousins brought the kids and their kids, kids. And pretty soon it was big open house where you never know who might walk in and whether you will recognize them.  But unlike an open house they won’t see the stunned expression on your face as you see how they have aged and visa versa, and no one offers you a cocktail although that might be a nice addition.

 And like an open house people will arrive and after they get reacquainted they will bring out the pictures of the their kids, grandkids, dogs, cars, vacations and the like. And the comments will come “adorable”, “nice family” “beautiful” etc. etc. And you are free to wonder among your guest as you get introduced to friends of friends, sisters of friends and it goes on. But there comes a time, like any party, when people are seated or standing and involved in a deeper more meaningful conversation. And you’ll want to be there because it features you.

Click on Picture to View Slide Show of our Visit

Yes, I needed it, the San Francisco fix. I had only asked that we see some live music and eat interesting food. Son Colin and DIL (daughter-in-law) Nifer who never do things in a small way, except maybe Balsa Man (miniature Burning Man), dished up a variety of activities that kept us old hippies hopping.

Tuesday Feb 24- Arrived having digested only pretzels since leaving OKC, we noshed out on fabulous orders of sushi from Sushi Zen ordered up with no hesitation by Nifer. Highlights included Cool Summer Roll and Winter Hama Roll, house specialties toasted with saki.

Arriving in their home in the Sunset District we got reaquainted with Ghastly of the Sphinx cat persuasion and met new roomy Stella a charming creative live wire.

Wednesday Feb 25  Lunch at Frjtz Belgium Fries on Valencia Street. Fresh choices to make your palate spin. And you must have the fries. I had a crazy mixed up salad with tuna, cranberries, caper and avocado and more. We meandered the mission from there and stopped into the Five and Diamond THE place for your favorite Steam Punk clothes and accessories.

After grocery shopping, Nifer produced a nummy dinner of grilled orange roughy and tasty jimaca, corn salad. Met the other half of the roomies Doug of the orange and yellow hair owner of two adorable rats that have a pension for good booze.

Thursday Feb 26th – Cellphone problem finally fixed thanks to Tim Leung of Verizon SF. Took a trip up North to Mt. Tamapai for picnic and hiking. Great views, glorious day! That evening we grabbed a cookie from Hot Cookie in the Castro. Then down a few store fronts to the Castro Theatre to see “Milk“. As Milk is all about Harvey Milk, of the Castro, how he fought for gay rights, it was so right to be there in that marvelous deco theatre with the organ rising from under the floor. Being part of the audience was an electrifying experience as people cheered and wept during transforming scenes throughout the movie.

Friday Feb 27th – Colin accompanied us to The JeJune Institute. (Antisystematically increase creative inspiration in the public sphere). Suffice it to say that we were initiated. The process took the better part of the day. And that is ALL we can say. We are sworn to secrecy.

Colin good to his promise, took us to a concert took us to the Great Music Hall, a melange of Baroque and Rococo decor, the perfect venue to experience indie music. There was opening acts, Rafter being the best, a crazy guitarist/ singer with zany stage presence. The main act, St. Vincent (Annie Clark), was wispy bit of thing with huge talent including singing her own songs in several voices and wielding the guitar like she was the second coming of Jimi Hendrix.We will be the probably be able to see her for a mere $16!

Saturday Feb 28th – Doug’s 30th Birthday Party. Stella throws together outfits for the two of them for the Logan’s Run themed party. (An apropo movie where no one is allowed to live past the age of 30.) The festivities moves through San Francisco spots linked in ways to the movie. It is during one of the stops in the Castro district where we are invited to slide down the concrete slides (erected by a hippy family in 1973) in the Castro. Then it is on to Eddie Rickenbackers where classic motorcycles hang from the ceiling as eye candy. We down an Irish Coffee or two before we head for home base (other’s hit a few more spots). The rest of the party arrives and we actually watch the movie while chowing down on some pretty decent East Indian food.

Sunday March 1st - Thai Temple Berkley for curry brunch in the rain. Surprising number of folks considering the steady downpour. Seated under tents we dine with the burner community. The took is lively, the company fun.  Seated next to me is Michael, a 16 year old film editing genius and par cor aficionado. Some day I will see his names on the credits of some action thriller as, yes, film editor. I also meet Brody, Kitty, Elliott, Kevin, Flint (with that name you gotta be a burner), Ben, Chris and CTP (maker of strange buttons). Fueled up with spicy curry we move on over to The Berkeley Botanical Gardens. At first the rain is little annoying but then not much noticeable as view the lush grounds. Last stop a Berkeley cafe for me a must. Michael prepares my favorite, butternut squash soup and brushetta with goat cheese. Nifer gets fire going and soon we have forgotten the dampness of the day.

Monday March 2nd - After fine breakfast of citris fruit in orange liquor and Michael’s muffins Colin, Michael and I head up to SFMOMA to take in the visual arts. Nothing special on exhibit but being able to view Katharina Fritcsh’s Baby with Poodles is worth the trip.  I pick up a few new ideas in the gift shop that I promise I will try to work on when I get back.  Back to Berkeley this time meeting up with Morley, an engineer/ geologist in the making, for zesty Cajun fare at Angelina’s Kitchen. Lots of techie conversation mixed with plans for TIMEscale (lost funding) for Burning Man. Walk down in the rain for Gelato, worth it. My choice Ginger and Roasted Banana.

Tuesday March 3th Last day in San Francisco starting out with Nifer’s eggstrata with cheese, aspargus and pear. Down to San Jose to go through the Tech Museum of Innovation. We all agree although there was fun aspects they need to update the innovation part. Last meal masterpiece…. Lamb burgers with carmelized onions and pesto, cucumber salad with yogurt sauce, and rosemary pototos. Thanks Nifer.

Final notes: Most nights brought out the board games including Ticket to Ride, Settlers and Mexican Train Dominos.  Always a good way to end our pleasant days. Conversation was always clever and pithy (don’t know one tell you different). Thanks to Colin for being the man of record as he carried his cute little Kodak Zi6 for capturing grown up kids on slides and the like.

It was 1953 when the first TV moved into the Norris household in Ohio. It was a massive (most of them were then) Muntz with small screen in a big box. Although we were one of millions of families buying their first TV at that time,  for our working class, family of nine, it was a real luxury. ( By 1955, within five years, 64.5% of U.S. households owned a TV). My dad was a techie before his time and loved the “new” advancements. Our TV viewing was highly monitored with NO TV during meal times or before homework. Forget violence, we weren’t allowed to watch boisterous shows like Howdy Doody  or any that didn’t support our family values. Father Knows Best was unsurprisingly one that Dad believed conveyed just the right messages. As with all good rules there are exceptions; any activity would be preempted by  Jim Doney’s Adventure Road or any show my father deemed as “history in the making”. Falling under this category was The McCarthy Hearings, political conventions, the launching of satellites, landing on the Moon, great speeches by great men, and inaugurals. Yes, I remember watching the McCarthy Hearings I would have been eight! The first political conventions I watched were in 1956. It was then when my father was touting the virtues of Eisenhower that I determined I liked Stevenson because  even at eleven I knew that frankly he was a much better speaker.I relate this Norris family TV history to help explain the extraordinary lengths my youngest sister Patsy’s and her husband took to watch inauguration of Barack Obama.

Hi everybody, Just thought I would let you know at what lengths Bob will go for me. Monday afternoon our TV satellite dish decided to quit working. After checking things out, I figured the icicles hanging from the dish, while lovely, was not conducive to proper reception. Seeing that TC was not here to shoot them off, I concluded that I would not get to see Obamas inauguration or Bush’s welcomed retreat to Texas, ( the state of Texas has their idiot back ). In the cold and dead of night, after a hard day at the office, Bob hatched a plan. Since the new roof would probably act as ski slope if tread upon, he had to be resourceful. With simple tools like a broomstick, footstool, vacuum hose, my hairdryer, a pillow, my new purple duck tape, extension cord, his huge spotlight, and a tool case, we ventured upstairs to hang out the window. Mind you, all these tools were not thought of at one time so I got my exercise running up and down the stairs. After taping the hairdryer to the broomstick, turning it on and directing it at the dish, he decided a stool to stand on and a pillow on the window ledge would make things more comfortable. He then added the vacuum hose to make the broomstick more balanced. My job was to secure the window to stay open with the tool case, feed the extension cord and direct the spotlight. It worked! The icicles were gone. His creative genius saved the day! As with all good plans something is bound to go wrong. As I was trying to open the window wider, the tool case, with tools, decided to take a ride down the roof. Of course it stopped short of falling off and too far for us to reel it back in. Our thoughts … it would find its way down when the snow melted ….was just wishful thinking. My suggestion that we roll a bowling ball down to knock it off was greeted with a “what are you, crazy?”. So, next time a son or son-in-law comes by, I have a job for you! Tuesday was then spent watching the pageantry of the new administration being sworn in and the usual missteps of a gathering of two million people all in one place. Have a good day. Love, Patsy

1. Television Bureau of Advertising, 2001
2. As amazing as it may now seem, there were published concerns over violent content in Howdy Doody, but though the action in Doodyville generally involved slapstick, parents generally supported the show. Much of the mayhem was perpetrated by a lovable, mischievous clown named Clarabell Hornblow. Museum of Broadcasting
3. Jim Doney Adventure Road was a local Cleveland, OH travel show
4. The Subcommittee on Investigations hearings, chaired by Senator McCarthy, began on January 15, 1953 and ended on January 3, 1955, Wikipedia