Apr. 11th, 2009

gurdymonkey: (Default)
 
Old stones huddle
As if pondering moves
On a shogi board.
Among dearest friends, a game
Can never last long enough.

This morning's festivities included the monthly ritual of getting rid of my skunk stripe. I went with Loreal Excellence Medium Maple Brown, which is still plenty dark on me, but has a much warmer tone to it. While waiting for my hair to dry, I got sucked - albeit willingly - into "Becoming Jane" on cable, which only serves to confirm my opinion that Anne Hathaway is pathologically luminous even when playing cricket or doing laundry and James McAvoy continues to be a dish, particularly in black velvet.

I figured it was a good time to swing by Moe's to see if there was anything new or interesting on the shelves. I picked up the Dover edition of Japanese Design Motifs for cheap, since I didn't actually own it, and A Year In The Life Of A Shinto Shrine, which looks like an interesting read.  I passed on a copy of Turning Point: Oribe and the Arts of Sixteenth Century Japan at $50. (Having just run the title on Amazon.com, I can pick up a used copy cheaper there and may do so as there were some paintings and textiles I hadn't seen in it, as well as some stunning period ceramics.)

There I was in the Art and Antiquarian room. I had just pulled something with kanji all down the spine to look at and oohed aloud because it was a very nice book on Buddhist paintings that I couldn't read or afford, when a voice said, "Pardon me, you don't read Japanese do you?" I replied apologetically that I didn't. The man explained he was looking for books on suiseki (literally "the appreciation of stones"). I hadn't seen anything like that, but I revealed my tried-and-true strategy of pulling down anything with kanji on the spine in the hopes that it might be something of interest. We lament the fate of having interests involving sources in languages we can't read. I ogled an expensive paperback on bunraku which is at least in French. He moved off down the aisle. I began rifling through the museum catalog box - and called him back to look at a Japanese catalog of Zen Buddhist art which was mostly ink paintings but had a page of photographs of rocks, some carved with the image of Jizo, some in their natural state.

The exchange jogged my memory that there was supposed to be some sort of Japanese Garden in Oakland. I decided to explore Lakeside Park, which I'd pretty much only ever seen from Grand Avenue while whizzing past, or from across Lake Merrit on Lakeside Drive. I paid the $3 to park inside the park and walked down past Children's Fairyland which was blaring canned music and seemed pretty busy on a nice day. Past the Lawn Bowling Club, to the Garden Center, which was having a rhododendron show. Seriously - there was an entire roomful of carefully labeled rhodie cuttings in wine bottles. I cut through per the signs inside the building and found myself in a small, Japanese-landscaped garden behind it. A family was sitting inside the pavilion feasting on - MacDonalds. (The place cries out for sake and bento.)

From there, I found the suiseki "grove", a group of large stones under a stand of trees, a faded red torii gate beyond them. A nearby plaque dedicates it to former Oakland City Councilman Frank Ogawa. If you stand just so, it's quite easy to block out the city and imagine you are in some remote, wooded spot.

It's a short walk past the suiseki to the bonsai garden, which had a very impressive collection. The docent was very gracious and didn't say a word about the time. I wasn't wearing a watch and didn't realize I was browsing well past closing time until I went to return the catalogue card and found the gates barred. She let me "out the back" through a side nursery with even more bonsai and said, "Do come see us again." 

More photos at http://www.flickr.com/photos/70104978@N00/sets/72157616646335208/

Hmm - ya know? It would not be that difficult to take a tripod and do some costume shots with the self-timer in the suiseki grove, particularly if it was early in the morning before too many people were in the park.....

gurdymonkey: (thought)
There's this "What Age Do You Act?" quiz making the rounds. I can't take it, as usual:

Question 1. None of the above. I subsist on PBS, documentaries and movies. "Series" television for me these days is "Mythbusters" and "Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations."

Question 2. None of the above. How about chocolate mousse? Apple pie?

Question 4. I'd keep the secret. If someone tells me something in confidence, it dies with me.

Question 6. I'd love to be able to make a living doing something artistic. On the other hand, I'd be afraid that if it became a job it would eat me alive.

Question 9. The Who!!! Which reminds me, I heard a really lovely cover of the English Beat's "Save It For Later" by Pete Townshend on the radio the other morning - and found this even better version of it live.


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