Down the Rabbit Hole

Fences is a movie directed and produced by Denzel Washington based on one of the August Wilson plays. It's a film that was included in the 2016 top ten films and received numerous award nominations.  Fences focused on the home life of Troy Maxson, a garbage collector working in Pittsburgh. He had three children from three different women: Lyons (the son of Troy's former girlfriend), Cory (the son with Troy's wife), and Raynell (the daughter with Troy's mistress; she died during childbirth). Troy's wife, Rose, appeared to be a housewife who generously brought pie to church and gave food to Troy's brother, Gabriel. Gabriel was a veteran of World War II; he was injured in the line of duty, hence, he didn't have all his marbles with him (he constantly had a saxophone though). Troy's best friend, Bono, acted as Troy's conscience... a Jiminy cricket of sorts. Troy was living in very interesting times. The play was set during the late 1950s, if I

On an earlier visit to San Francisco, I visited the Museum of African Diaspora  (MoAD). This time, my cultural education took me to San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA). It has got to be the biggest museum of modern art that I've visited; the Salar Jung Museum in Hyderabad came second. For my SFMOMA trip, I was with Hanna and Dede; they were both in UC Berkeley this summer for a short course.  Dede and Hanna amidst Sol LeWitt's Wall Drawing SFMOMA has seven floors filled with artwork made mostly in 1860–1970 (the modern art period). I have always found appreciating the pieces from this period challenging and I'm happy that I wasn't alone. Hanna and Didi were on the same boat. But that did not stop us from enjoying our visit to the museum. After all, aside from seeing artwork, we also had good views of San Francisco's skyscrapers. From an upper floor, we could clearly see the Salesforce Building (currently the city's tallest) towering

One sunny morning, we drove down to the Del Valle Regional Park for a picnic. Lake del Valle is the second reservoir I've been to, the first one being in Lafayette . This (manmade) lake was the result of water being collected behind the Del Valle dam since the late 1960s. This led me to think about other cities which were submerged by stored water. Were there abandoned cities under this lake? Was there a real-life Atlantis under the water? A look at the map revealed that this lake is longer than it is wide. There are two small swimming areas (marked by the floaters) but there are other activities available for non-swimmers, both on water and out of it. I was interested in walking about and in taking pictures of animals... not too keen on water activities. Just as I started walking, I noticed this poster. For the past 50 years, I suppose that the wildlife living in the park have already adjusted to changes in the geography of the place. And the people who visit the park

Some hobbies don't just disappear despite a move to a different country. One of them is trying the food out in different restaurants. For this particular outing, Anna, Biboy, and I went to a restaurant called Babushka in Walnut Creek . It features nouveau Russian and French cuisine. Apparently, it's been in the list of recommended restaurants in the 2017 Michelin Guide San Francisco Bay Area and Wine Country . It's touted to be the home of the best Russian food to the west of Moscow. Babushka's simple façade and simplicity was definitely matched by the warm welcome we received from the on-duty server, Nicholas.  We started our dinner with piroshki. These are puff pastries drizzled with a mustard sauce and  accompanied by a salad containing shaved root crops. This dish was quite heavy for a starter (if we didn't share the piroshki) but it was a good introduction for the dinner that we were about to experience. Piroshki  The piroshki was followed by a

One of my classmates in high school , Hanna , is taking a summer course at UC Berkeley. So one weekend, I went to Berkeley by BART to catch up with her. It was my first opportunity to visit this school by foot because the last time I was there, Biboy and I just ate lunch at a tiny Thai restaurant just outside the campus. The campus is pretty. There were banners all over campus that had some historical snippets, probably as part of the school's 150th anniversary. For instance, Levi Strauss donated money in 1897 that became UC Berkeley's first scholarships. And then there's some flaunting of some of the university's major achievements; like having affiliations with 104 Nobel laureates. These Nobel Laureates have their own designated parking spaces on campus. So to ensure that one gets assured parking inside UC Berkeley, one sure way to get space is by becoming a Nobel Laureate. Mere mortals probably have to travel by public transportation or to compete for p

"In a Grove" (by Ryunosuke Akutagawa) has always been the murder mystery that has stumped me since I read it in high school. It's a story about a samurai who was killed in a grove. But the narration of what happened that led to the warrior's death was provided by seven people: a woodcutter, a priest, the samurai's wife, the samurai's mother-in-law, a bounty hunter, the infamous bandit, and the late samurai himself (through a spirit medium). They were providing testimony in court. As an avid reader of Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys stories, I was prepared to put the puzzle pieces together as I read the short story. However, the accounts by the four characters were so filled with inconsistencies and conflicting bits of information that it was difficult to sift through what is truth and what is designed to keep the character's reputation intact. What was consistent in their testimonies though were:                   (1) the samurai was killed              

San Francisco is such a cosmopolitan city. It's like putting miniatures of different countries in close proximity with each other. For instance, after our visit to the Museum of African Diaspora, we proceeded to walk to the Dragon Gate, Chinatown's southern entrance. The sun was still high up in the summer sky and we found the gate crowded by tourists taking souvenir photos. In fact, our photo was taken by a guy who thought that we were tourists too. Well, we were tourists for the day... Two Chinese guardian lions were seated in front of the gate. I'm always happy to these stone statues because they look happy... particularly this lioness, who appeared to be playing with a lion cub.  As if we hadn't seen enough lions yet, Anna located a third sculpture just outside a shop. This one's more like the adult Simba ; it's on display along with statues of pandas and of the infamous wise monkeys. The length of Grant Street felt like a movie set sta

Barbara was telling me that my library card can be used to get free access to several museums in the Bay Area. I decided that I wanted to see my options, so one weekend, I checked out the available passes and zeroed in on the Museum of African Diaspora (MoAD) in San Francisco. It piqued my curiosity because I've seen how different African art is from African-American art at the de Young Museum .  The exhibit currently on display was called "After the Thrill is Gone", which attempted to use fashion as an instrument of discourse about politics and culture in present-day South Africa. The artists in this exhibit were young, born after apartheid. The question was (to me): what thrill faded away?  My lack of cultural education came to the front when I saw the pieces of the exhibit. I didn't have anything profound to say about the installations. I didn't have a deep interpretation about them neither. What I had, instead, were questions. There was a sc

I was in desperate need of a walk. Thankfully, Biboy and Barbara were planning on walking in Lafayette so I joined them o their morning walk. What I didn't know was that we were going to walk around the Lafayette Reservoir, an emergency source of water for the East Bay area. back in the 1930s. It became a recreational area in the 1960s, which has allowed the public (and their leashed dogs) access to the walking trails.  The walking trail we followed was the 4-km long paved path that sat on the lake's immediate periphery. The trail provided access to the water; there were several docks where we could possible launch watercraft like kayaks and rowboats. However, there were no swimmers in the reservoir. The water looked like it had a lot of algae. Biboy spotted a fish and we spotted people fishing from paddle boats.   The wildlife we saw during our walk included bees and birds. We spotted wild turkey  and a great blue heron close to the water. The bees, on the other