Haikus: May 2014

HAIKUS: May 2014

By Peter Y. Chou
WisdomPortal.com

These haikus were written as exercises in mindfulness—
an attempt to catch the fleeting moment in my daily walks,
while reading, listening to music, and pondering about life.
(Underlined words are not for emphasis but to web links.)
This web page best viewed with Times font size 14.

Thursday, May 1, 2014, 1:30-2:10 pm
Mountain View: 990 Bay St. Parktown Dental Care;
Dr. Jennifer A. Espejo cleaned my teeth, Melissa took X-rays & polished teeth; Took Bus #40 & #22 to come

Three minutes walk to dentist
from my old apartment, but
now it's an hour by two buses. Thursday, May 1, 2014, 3:00-3:33 pm
Mountain View: Milk Pail Dairy (2585 California St.)
Rudy drove me here from Foothill Computer Lab
to buy specials on sale (19¢ for Romaine lettuce)

Green grapes @ 99¢/lb,
Strawberries @ 99¢/lb,
two Romaine lettuces for 38¢.

Thursday, May 1, 2014, 4:00-10:30 pm
Palo Alto: Foothill Middlefield Computer Lab
Mystery First-Grader's Incredible Poem About Dancing Goes Viral (Photo of Poem)
(By Lilit Marcus, Yahoo! News, 5-1-2014)

We did the soft wind.
We danst slowly. We swrld
Aroned. We danst soft.
We lisin to the mozik.
We danst to the mozik.
We made personal space. Thursday, May 1, 2014, 4:00-10:30 pm
Palo Alto: Foothill Middlefield Computer Lab
Oscar Night: Humphrey Bogart & Lauren Bacall;
Charles Laughton & Elsa Lanchester; Paul Newman & Joanne Woodward; Long Hollywood Marriages:

Bob Hope & Dorothy Hope (69 years)
Charlton Heston & Lydia Clarke (64 years)
James Cagney & Frances Vernon (64 years)
Tony Martin & Cyd Charisse (60 years)
Paul Newman & Joanne Wodward (50 years)
James Stewart & Gloria McLean (45 years)

Thursday, May 1, 2014, 4:00-10:30 pm
Palo Alto: Foothill Middlefield Computer Lab
Format web page of Anita's Hummingbirds photos;
Emily Dickinson's Poem 1463 on Hummingbird (1)

A blessing to have
hummingbird raising
her chicks on your patio. Thursday, May 1, 2014, 4:00-10:30 pm
Palo Alto: Foothill Middlefield Computer Lab
Opinionatior: THE STONE— What Does Buddhism Require? (By Gary Gutting, NY Times, 4-27-2014)

Buddhists see us
as impermanent & interdependent
linked to one another to reduce suffering.

Friday, May 2, 2014, 1:00-3:40 pm
Los Altos Hills: Foothill College Gym 2507;
Donna Frankel's Ballroom Dancing Class
Twelve student in class today; Danced waltz
with Michelle, Lu, Hanna, Pat, and Amanda

Donna taught zig-zag,
promenade, hesitation,
and box-step in the waltz. Friday, May 2, 2014, 7:45-9:20 pm
Palo Alto: 957 Colorado Ave (Friend's House)
Waverley Writers Poetry Reading with Stanford
Stegner Fellows Austin Smith & Peter Kline;
Tom Digby read "Speech"; Ride home with Gene Lee

Read "Blood Moon Eclipse 2014"
poem in second half session
at Waverley Writers.

Saturday, May 3, 2014, 1:11-5:00 pm
Los Altos Hills: Foothill Krause Center of Innovation
Chandler Parson's reverse layup with 0.9 seconds left for Houston lead over Portland 98-96, but Damian Lillard's 3-pointer won for Blazers 99-98 at buzzer.

Jeremy Lin: "oh we won,
the game is over" but
Lillard's 3-pointer won it. Saturday, May 3, 2014, 1:11-5:00 pm
Los Altos Hills: Foothill Krause Center of Innovation
OP-ED: Love Story (Isaiah Berlin's one night in Leningrad in 1945 with poet Anna Akhmatova)
(By David Brooks, NY Times, 5-2-2014)

True love is mind touching
mind with the heart
of great works of art.

Sunday, May 4, 2014, 2:00-2:37 pm
Mountain View: Friend takes me shopping
at Safeway (570 North Shoreline Boulevard);
Drops me off at Studio L6 to see Indian dance

Potato chips, strawberry yogurt,
crab meat, onion rings, supreme pizza,
nut & seed bread, spinach, orange juice. Sunday, May 4, 2014, 4:00-6:15 pm
Palo Alto: Cubberley Community Center, Studio L6
Kathak & Odissi Indian Classical Dance Styles
Rudy picks me up at 6:15 pm for Stanford Theatre

Over a hundred came to see
Kathak & Odissi Indian dance
performed by professionals.

Sunday, May 4, 2014, 7:30-9:00 pm
Stanford Theatre: Anatole Litvak directs
"Sorry, Wrong Number" (1948), starring
Barbara Stanwyck, Burt Lancaster, Ann Richards,
Ed Begley, Wendell Corey, Leif Erickson, William Conrad, Harold Vermilyea, John Bromfield;
(YouTube: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5); (Reviews: 1, 2, 3, 4)

Stanwyck as helpless
bedridden victim in film noir
told through flashbacks. Sunday, May 4, 2014, 9:10-11:05 pm
Stanford Theatre: Lewis Milestone directs
"The Strange Love of Martha Ivers" (1946), with Barbara Stanwyck, Van Heflin, Lizabeth Scott,
Kirk Douglas (first film suggested by Lauren Bacall), Judith Anderson, Roman Bohnen, Darryl Hickman;
(YouTube: 1, 2, 3, 4); (Film Reviews: 1, 2, 3, 4)

Kirk Douglas now 97,
Lauren Bacall now 89,
Lizabeth Scott now 91.

Monday, May 5, 2014, 10:01-10:10 am
KFDC 104.9 FM: Anne-Sophie Mutter plays
Jules Massenet, Thaïs: Meditation (1894)
Listen, CD, (YouTube: Yo-Yo Ma, Fritz Kreisler, Nathan Milstein, Itzhak Perlman, Sarah Chang);
France 1942 stamp honoring Jules Massenet

Massenet's Thaïs—
one of my favorite
meditation music. Monday, May 5, 2014, 1:15-9:30 pm
Palo Alto: Foothill Middlefield Computer Lab
A Founder Who Is Now A Billionaire Was Once Rejected By Silicon Valley Investors For Having A Dumb Startup Idea (Alyson Shontell, Yahoo! News,
5-5-2014); 2013 MIT Speech (YouTube)

Founder of $10 billion Dropbox,
Drew Houston, was rejected by
Y-Combinator in 2005.

Tuesday, May 6, 2014, 1:30-9:30 pm
Palo Alto: Foothill Middlefield Computer Lab
Born on May 6: Sigmund Freud (1856); Victor Grignard (1871); Stanley Morison (1889); Rudolph Valentino (1895); André Weil (1906); Orson Welles (1915); Willie Mays (1931); On This Day May 6:

Paris Exposition opened 1889;
Babe Ruth hits first homer 1915;
Roger Bannister breaks 4-minute mile. Tuesday, May 6, 2014, 1:30-9:30 pm
Palo Alto: Foothill Middlefield Computer Lab
Oscar Night photos: James Stewart; Marilyn Monroe; Liz Taylor & Eddie Fisher; Liz & Richard Burton;
Shirley MacLaine & Warren Beatty (1); Diana Ross
& Michael Jackson; Madonna & Michael Jackson

Jimmy Stewart reading poem
on his golden retriever "Beau"
on Johnny Carson's Tonight Show.

Tuesday, May 6-7, 2014, 10:00 pm-2:00 am
KKSF 910 AM: Coast-to-CoastAM: George Noory interviews Jay Weidner (Bio, Web: 1, 2) "Archons & Mount Shasta" BOOKS: A Monument to the End of Time: Alchemy, Fulcanelli and the Great Cross,
Mysteries of the Great Cross of Hendaye; VIDEOS: Artmind— Healing Power of Sacred Art with Alex Grey; Secrets of Alchemy; Kubrick's Odyssey Part 1; Beyond the Infinite - Kubrick's Odyssey II; Shasta

"Shining Ones" live up on Mount Shasta,
Lemurians live hidden underground
or in the tubes of Shasta. Tuesday, May 6-7, 2014, 10:00 pm-2:00 am
KKSF 910 AM: Coast-to-CoastAM: George Noory interviews Andrew Collins (Bio, Web)
"Gobekli Tepe" BOOKS: From the Ashes of Angels: The Forbidden Legacy of a Fallen Race, Gateway to Atlantis, Gods of Eden, Cygnus Mystery, New Circlemakers: Insights Into the Crop Circle Mystery, Beneath the Pyramids, Gobekli Tepe: Genesis of the Gods: Temple of the Watchers and Discovery of Eden

Megalithic complex in Turkey—
cataclysm around 10,900 BC
destroyed ancient civilization.

Wednesday, May 7, 2014, 2:40-9:00 pm
Palo Alto: Foothill Middlefield Computer Lab
Born May 7: David Hume (1711); Robert Browning (1812); Johannes Brahms (1833); Peter Tchaikovsky (1840); Rabindranath Tagore (1861); Archibald MacLeish (1892); Gary Cooper (1901); Edwin H. Land (1909); Johnny Unitas (1933); This Day May 7:

Beethoven's 9th Symphony premiered in Vienna 1824; Seattle Slew wins Kentucky Derby in 1977 on way to Triple Crown. Wednesday, May 7, 2014, 2:40-9:00 pm
Palo Alto: Foothill Middlefield Computer Lab
TELEVISION: Efrem Zimbalist Jr., Star of '77 Sunset Strip' and 'The F.B.I.', Dies at 95 (An actor whose mellifluous voice & air of European sophistication left a distinctive stamp on two popular television crime series.) (By Susan Stewart, NY Times, 5-4-2014)

Efrem Zimbalist, Jr. had a violinist
father, opera singing mother,
and an actress daughter.

Thursday, May 8, 2014, 1:03-9:30 pm
Palo Alto: Foothill Middlefield Computer Lab
Born May 8: Edward Gibbon (1737); Henri Dunant (1828); Harry S Truman (1884); Leon Festinger (1919); Gary Snyder (1930); On This Day May 8:
(Photo on Bus #40: May 8, 2014, 12:35 pm)

Today brings good cheer—
it's a sonnet of years
meeting such a good friend. Thursday, May 8, 2014, 1:03-9:30 pm
Palo Alto: Foothill Middlefield Computer Lab
Formatting 39 photos from Kathak & Odissi Indian
Classical Dance Styles taken on Sunday, May 4, 2014
at Cubberley Community Center, Dance Studio L6
(Kathak: Anuradha Nag; Odissi: Niharika Mohanty)

Lucky to find a seat in
front row for performance
so photos came out well.

Friday, May 9, 2014, 12:45-1:00 pm
Los Altos Hills: Foothill College Library;
Checked out: Isaiah Berlin's "Power of Ideas",
"Sense of Reality", "Proper Study of Mankind",
& Michael Ignatieff's "Isaiah Berlin: A Life"

After reading David Brooks'
"Love Story", want to learn
more about Isaiah Berlin. Friday, May 9, 2014, 1:00-3:40 pm
Los Altos Hills: Foothill College Gym 2507;
Donna Frankel's Ballroom Dancing Class—
Nine student in class today; I'm the only guy
dancing with Michelle, Lu, Hanna, Lisa, Kathy

Donna taught zig-zag,
rocking step, pretzel,
and box-step in the rumba.

Friday, May 9, 2014, 6:40-7:20, 9:20-10:15 pm
Stanford Theatre: Samuel Fuller directs "Forty Guns" (1958), starring Barbara Stanwyck, Barry Sullivan, Gene Barry, Robert Dix, Dean Jagger, John Ericson, Hank Worden, Eve Brent, Jidge Carroll (sang songs "High Ridin' Woman" & "God Has His Arms Around Me"); (YouTube: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5); (Reviews: 1, 2, 3, 4)

Stanwyck did stunt three times
dragged by white horse on ground
during a wild windy tornado. Friday, May 9, 2014, 7:30-9:10 pm
Stanford Theatre: Rudolph Maté directs
"The Violent Mens" (1955), with Glenn Ford,
Barbara Stanwyck, Edward G. Robinson,
Brian Keith, Dianne Foster, May Wynn,
Richard Jaeckel, Jack Kelly, Willis Bouchey;
(YouTube: 1, 2, 3); (Film Reviews: 1, 2, 3)

When one of his men
was murdered, Glenn Ford
seeks vengeance on killers.

Saturday, May 10, 2014, 12:41-5:00 pm
Los Altos Hills: Foothill Krause Center of Innovation
Stonehenge Discovery 'Blows Lid Off' Old Theories About Builders Of Ancient Monument (By Macrina Cooper-White, Huffington Post, 5-9-2014)

Gigantic timbers built
between 8820 and 6590 B.C.
before erecting Stonehenge. Saturday, May 10, 2014, 12:41-5:00 pm
Los Altos Hills: Foothill Krause Center of Innovation
Michael Ignatieff's "Isaiah Berlin: A Life" (1998),
p. 155— Anna Akhmatova on her meeting with Isaiah Berlin: "But how gladly I heard his step on the stair,"

"his touch on the bell
as shy as a boy's fingertip
touching his first girl."

Sunday, May 11, 2014, 3:00-3:46 pm
Mountain View: Friend takes me shopping
at Safeway (570 North Shoreline Boulevard);
then drove me to Los Altos Library where I picked
up Isaiah Berlin's "The Hedgehog and the Fox"

Almond coconut milk,
popcorn shrimp, coffee cake,
Black Forest ham, orange juice. Sunday, May 11, 2014, 5:07-5:48 pm
Los Altos Library: Bookmarked 4 NY Times articles;
OP-ED: Lost Booksellers of New York (Argosy Book Store, Strand Bookstore, Ursus Books still operating)
(By Larry McMurtry, NY Times, 5-11-2014)

Gotham Book Mart hung sign
outside the store announcing:
"Wise Men Fish Here".

Sunday, May 11, 2014, 9:10-9:25 pm
Listening to KNBR 680 AM Radio: Marty Laurie
interviews Bill Madden on his book "1954: The Year Willie Mays and First Generation of Black Superstars Changed Major League Baseball Forever".

Alvin Dark wept when
Willie Mays said he learned
more about baseball from him. Sunday, May 11, 2014, 10:30 pm-2:30 am
Mountain View: Reading Marguerite Duras book
"The Lover" (1985) for "Another Look" discussion at
Stanford Humanities Center, May 12, 2014, 7:30 pm
Film: Jean-Jacques Annaud's "The Lover" (1992)

He inhales her face,
breathes her in— the little
white girl, his eyes shut.

Monday, May 12, 2014, 1:11-5:30 pm
Palo Alto: Foothill Middlefield Lab; Born May 12: Florence Nightingale (1820); Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828); Jules Massenet (1842); Jiddu Krishnamurti (1895); Indra Devi (1899); Dorothy Hodgkin (1910); Yogi Berra (1925) This Day May 12 (Google Doodle)

Met Dorothy Hodgkin in 1977
and thanked her for sending me
X-ray coordinates of insulin. Monday, May 12, 2014, 7:30-9:00 pm
Stanford Humanities Center Levinthal Hall
"Another Look" Book Club discussion with
Stanford Professors Blakey Vermeule & Paula Moya and UCSF Psychiatry Professor Stephen Seligman;
NY Times Book Review (Diane Johnson, 6-23-1985)

She produces the richness
of her effects in the blanks and
silences of her minimalist sentences.

Monday, May 12, 2014, 7:30-9:00 pm
Stanford Humanities Center Levinthal Hall
After "Another Look", told Blakey Vermeule my visits to Boston Museum of Fine Arts as her Dad and Ananda Coomaraswamy were art curators there.

Told her she's named after
two favorite poets of mine—
Emily Dickinson & William Blake. Monday, May 12, 2014, 7:30-9:00 pm
KKSF 910 AM: Coast-to-CoastAM: George Noory interviews Lt. Colonel Chris McCleary (Bio, Web)
"Precognitive Dreams"; National Dream Center;
Dream Forecasts; Malaysian #370 in Kazahkstan

Project August will test
humanity's ability to predict
future events through dreams.

Tuesday, May 13, 2014, 12:54-9:30 pm
Palo Alto: Foothill Middlefield Lab; Born May 13: Lazare Carnot (1753); Sir Arthur Sullivan (1842); Ronald Ross (1857); Georges Braque (1882); Daphne du Maurier (1907); Joe Louis (1914); Stevie Wonder (1950); Sri Sri Ravi Shankar (1956) This Day May 13:
Apparations at Fatima; Three Secrets of Fatima

Three peasant children
saw Lady of Fatima apparition
from May 13 to October 13, 1917. Tuesday, May 13, 2014, 12:54-9:30 pm
"OP-ED: Read, Kids, Read" (Fewer than 20% of 17-year-olds now read for pleasure "almost every day".) (By Frank Bruni, New York Times, 5-13-2014)
"Kids Don't Read Books Because Parents Don't Read Books" (By Jordan Shapiro, Forbes, 5-13-2014)
(Google, Twitter, Facebook deliver texts & info.)

We prefer browsing
magazines & self-serving
blogs than reading books.

Wednesday, May 14, 2014, 8:53-9:00 am
KFDC 104.9 FM: Stephen Hough plays
Frederic Chopin, Waltz #2 in A-Flat, Op. 34, #1 (1835), Grande Valse brillante; CD, (Listen), (YouTube: Lang Lang, Rubinstein, Horowitz)

Beautiful and brilliant
Chopin's Valse Brillante
wakes me up this morning. Wednesday, May 14, 2014, 11:51-5:30 pm
Palo Alto: Foothill Middlefield Computer Lab
Born May 14: Thomas Gainsborough (1727); Otto Klemperer (1885); Diane Arbus (1923); Bobby Darin 1936; George Lucas (1944); This Day May 14 (1948):

New state of Israel
proclaimed in Palestine
as Jewish people rejoice.

Wednesday, May 14, 2014, 7:30-9:10 pm
Stanford Theatre: Robert Siodmak directs
"The File on Thelma Jordon" (1950), with Barbara Stanwyck, Wendell Corey, Paul Kelly, Joan Tetzel, Stanley Ridges, Richard Rober, Gertrude Hoffmann; (YouTube: 1, 2, 3, 4); (Film Reviews: 1, 2, 3, 4);
Robert Pippin showed film clips (Jan. 15, 2010)

Assistant DA
Wendell Corey needs mercy
when Stanwyck's through with him. Wednesday, May 14, 2014, 9:20-11:10 pm
Stanford Theatre: Mervyn LeRoy directs
"East Side, West Side" (1949), Barbara Stanwyck, James Mason, Van Heflin, Ava Gardner, Cyd Charisse, Nancy Davis (Reagan), Gale Sondergaard, Douglas Kennedy, William Conrad, Raymond Greenleaf; (YouTube: 1, 2, 3); (Reviews: 1, 2, 3, 4)

Calder mobile first seen
in an American movie
during a square dance.

Thursday, May 15, 2014, 1:30-2:45 pm
Mountain View: 990 Bay St. Parktown Dental Care;
Dr. Jennifer A. Espejo put temporary crown on upper tooth #3; will put permanent crown in two weeks

Friend drove me to dentist,
another picked me up afterwards
to go shopping at 99 Ranch Market. Thursday, May 15, 2014, 3:45-4:23 pm
Mountain View: Dropped off letter & poem to Leslie,
Manager of Pamela Drive Apartments for security deposit refund; Shopped at 99 Ranch Market—

Spinach wantons, custard tarts,
yam & custard buns, bean sprouts,
tofu, bean curd, broad beans, lychees.

Friday, May 16, 2014, 1:00-3:40 pm
Los Altos Hills: Foothill College Gym 2507;
Practiced waltz, rumba, swing, merengue
for May 22 performance at Sunnyvale center

Will dance with Michelle
for rumba and waltz, Hanna
for swing, Kathy for merengue. Friday, May 16, 2014, 7:30-8:40 pm
Stanford University: CEMEX Auditorium;
Jack Kornfield: "Mindfulness, Love and Graceful Living in Fast Times"

Mindfulness, inner courage
and loving awareness will
bring resilience in our life.

Saturday, May 17, 2014, 7:00-7:07 am
KFDC 104.9 FM: André Previn conducts
London Symphony Orchestra in Peter Tchaikovsky, Sleeping Beauty: Rose Adagio Op. 66 (1889);
Listen, CD, (YouTube: 1, 2, 3)

Rose Adagio— one of the most
notoriously difficult sequences
in all of ballet. Saturday, May 17, 2014, 9:30 am-12:35 pm
Stanford University: Paul Brest Hall;
Munger Graduate Residence 4; Jack Kornfield: "Mindfulness and Compassion: A Gracious and Wise Heart"; Sitting & Walking Meditation by a master

Retreat to quiet our mind
and open the heart for
a wise and joyful life.

Sunday, May 18, 2014, 3:00-3:40 pm
Mountain View: Friend takes me shopping
at Safeway (570 North Shoreline Boulevard)

Salmon fillets, yogurt,
potato chips, salad dressings,
tapioca pudding, orange-banana juice. Sunday, May 18, 2014, 6:45-7:02 pm
Mountain View: Rudy & I went to Sprouts
Farmers Market (630 San Antonio Road)

Red seedless grapes,
clove of garlic & raincheck
for Arrowhead spring water.

Sunday, May 18, 2014, 7:30-9:10 pm
Stanford Theatre: Jean Negulesco directs "Titanic"
(1953), starring Clifton Webb, Barbara Stanwyck,
Robert Wagner, Audrey Dalton (1), Thelma Ritter, Brian Aherne, Richard Basehart, Harper Carter, Allyn Joslyn, Frances Bergen, Edmund Purdom; (YouTube: 1, 2, 3, 4); (Film Reviews: 1, 2, 3, 4)

Robert Wagner fell in love
with daughter in the film
but with mother in real life. Sunday, May 18, 2014, 9:20-11:04 pm
Stanford Theatre: Robert Wise directs
"Executive Suite" (1954), William Holden, Barbara Stanwyck, Fredric March, Walter Pidgeon, Paul Douglas, Louis Calhern, Dean Jagger, Nina Foch, Shelley Winters, June Allyson, Tim Considine;
(YouTube: 1, 2, 3); (Reviews: 1, 2, 3, 4)

William Holden's speech
on Treadway Industries wins
control over sleazy executives.

Monday, May 19, 2014, 11:11-11:23 am
KFDC 104.9 FM: André Previn conducts
LA Philharmonic in Modest Mussorgsky,
"Night on Bald Mountain" (1886);
Listen, CD, (YouTube: 1, 2, 3, 4)

Clash of cymbals with
rolls of thunder sets Night
on Bald Mountain roaring. Monday, May 19, 2014, 12:33 am-9:30 pm
Palo Alto: Foothill Middlefield Computer Lab
Funniest Joke I Ever Heard: Ernest Borgnine;
George Burns; Jack Lemmon; Victor Borge;
David Niven; George Carlin; Jimmy Stewart 1984—

Wife asks her husband
"If I were die, would you
get married again soon?"

Tuesday, May 20, 2014, 12:19-9:30 pm
Palo Alto: Foothill Middlefield Computer Lab
PHOTOS: Big Wow Comic Festival in San Jose
(By Karl Mondon, SJ Mercury News, May 19, 2014)
Inspired poem "He-Man Battling Princess Leia"

5-year old Hannah beats He-Man
not because of her lightsaber
but she has on Princess Leia dress. Tuesday, May 20, 2014, 12:19-9:30 pm
Palo Alto: Foothill Middlefield Computer Lab
Opinionatior: STONE— A Life Beyond 'Do What You Love' (By Gordon Marino, NY Times, 5-17-2014)
Miya Tokumitsu's article in Jacobin magazine argued:

"Do what you love" ethos
is elitist because it degrades
work that is not done from love.

Wednesday, May 21, 2014, 1:40-9:30 pm
Palo Alto: Foothill Middlefield Lab; Born May 21: Albrecht Dürer (1471); Alexander Pope (1688); Elizabeth Fry (1780); Henri Rousseau (1844); Emile Verhaeren (1855); Robert Creeley (1926); This Day May 21: Lindbergh's first solo flight across Atlantic

Google Doodle honors
palaeontologist Mary Anning
but I'd choose Albrecht Dürer. Wednesday, May 21, 2014, 1:40-9:30 pm
Palo Alto: Foothill Middlefield Computer Lab
"The triumph of melancholy: 500 years of Dürer's most enigmatic print" (Mathematicians meet in New York to celebrate 500th anniversary of Dürer's print Melencolia) (Karl Galle, Guardian, UK, 5-16-2014)

Is Dürer's Melencolia
depicting despairing genius
or of scholarly optimism?

Wednesday, May 21, 2014, 1:40-9:30 pm
Palo Alto: Foothill Middlefield Computer Lab
Bear pulls cub to safety from busy highway
(By David Strege, GrindTV, 5-20-2014)

Mama bear rescues
her cub from highway traffic
as baby sister looks on. Wednesday, May 21, 2014, 1:40-9:30 pm
Palo Alto: Foothill Middlefield Computer Lab
Asian Art Museum Exhibit (Feb. 21-May 25, 2014)
YOGA: The Art of Transformation (Highlights)

World's first major art
exhibition on yoga—
works from 25 museums.

Wednesday, May 21, 2014, 1:40-9:30 pm
Palo Alto: Foothill Middlefield Computer Lab
YOGA: The Art of Transformation (Highlights 14/23)
Suraj Prakash (1830); Opaque watercolor and gold on paper. Mehrangarh Museum Trust, RJS 1644

"Jallandharnath flies over
King Padam's palace"
by Amardas Bhatti. Wednesday, May 21, 2014, 1:40-9:30 pm
Palo Alto: Foothill Middlefield Computer Lab
YOGA: The Art of Transformation (Highlights 19/23)
Hindoo Fakir 1902; Edison Manufacturing Co. Film, Library of Congress, Washington DC, NV-061-499

Fakir with ring about
to go through woman
suspended in the air.

Thursday, May 22, 2014, 1:10-5:50 pm
Palo Alto: Foothill Middlefield Lab; Born May 22:
Gérard de Nerval (1808); Richard Wagner (1813); Mary Cassatt (1844); Arthur Conan Doyle (1859); Thomas Gold (1920); Jean Tinguely (1925); Laurence Olivier (1926); This Day May 22: Truman Doctrine

Apollinaire said Nerval
spent eight days studying
a sunset while writing Sylvie. Thursday, May 22, 2014, 1:10-5:50 pm
Palo Alto: Foothill Middlefield Lab; Preparing Notes for "The Mountains Are Calling"— George Mallory; Edmund Hillary; QE II Coronation; Gary Snyder; Ramana; Arunchala; PB; "Hermit in the Himalayas"; Matterhorn; Mt. Pelerin; Geshe Raben Rinpoche;

Red Hawk's Mt. Shasta sweat lodge;
Allen Ginsberg & Mont Sainte-Victoire;
Mussorgsky's Night on Bald Mountain.

Thursday, May 22, 2014, 7:00-9:00 pm
Sunnyvale: Life's Garden 450 Old San Francisco Rd.
Donna Frankel's Foothill Ballroom Dance Class
Performance with line dancers & children ballet:
Fred & Pat gave me rides to dance and home

Merengue and East Coast Swing
with Hannah; Rumba & Waltz
with Michelle; Mixer with all. Friday, May 23, 2014, 12:29-1:41 pm
Mountain View: Castro Street Cal-Train #147
to San Francisco (4th St. & King St.) $7 Day Pass;
N-Muni to Civic Center 75¢; Toll-booth clerk told us to walk a block to Asian Art Museum (200 Larkin St.)

Friend decides to take
Cal-Train instead of driving
on busy Memorial Day weekend.

Friday, May 23, 2014, 2:30-5:00 pm
San Francisco: Asian Art Museum (200 Larkin St.)
YOGA: The Art of Transformation (3 rooms of paintings, sculptures, texts & books on yoga);
Friend bought "Yoga: The Art of Transformation Catalog"; Saw "Enter the Mandala" Exhibit upstairs

Patanjali's Yoga Sutras:
I.2: Yoga is cessation of thoughts.
PB: Yoga is skill in action. Friday, May 23, 2014, 5:00-7:30 pm
San Francisco: Walk down Market Street from High St & 9th St. to 4th St. & King St; Friend stopped by Blick (979 Market St) to buy art supplies; Walked around the Children's Creativity Museum (221 Fourth St);
Caught 7:30 pm Cal-Train 190 to Mtn View 8:38 pm

Circled Leroy King Carousel
to photograph the horses
in the Merry-Go-Round.

Saturday, May 24, 2014, 2:05-5:35 pm
Los Altos Library: Bookmarked 14 NY Times articles;
NY REGION: Comeback for the Lindy Hop (Give Credit to Sweden); (Lindy hop, a dance with roots in the Depression-era ballrooms and clubs of Harlem,
but in recent years has had a global resurgence.)
(By James Barron, NY Times, 5-24-2014)

Celebrating Frankie Manning's
centennial of the Lindy Hop
with video and 1937 film. Saturday, May 24, 2014, 2:05-5:35 pm
Los Altos Library: Born May 24: William Gilbert (1544); Daniel Fahrenheit (1686); Emanuel Leutze (1816); Queen Victoria (1819); Bob Dylan (1941); This Day May 24: Brooklyn Bridge opens to traffic; Baseball 5/24: Tony Lazzeri is first to hit two grand slams in same game, AL record of 11 RBI (1936)

Harmon Killebrew hits
471-feet homer on May 24, 1964—
longest in Baltimore Memorial Stadium

Sunday, May 25, 2014, 3:35-5:30 pm
Stanford Theatre: Vincente Minnelli directs
"The Band Wagon" (1953) starring Fred Astaire,
Cyd Charisse, Jack Buchanan, Oscar Levant,
Nanette Fabray, James Mitchell; Leroy Daniels; (YouTube: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6); (Reviews: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5)

Astaire and Charisse
dancing in the park
and jazzing in the club. Sunday, May 25, 2014, 5:30-7:20 pm
Stanford Theatre, Mark Sandrich directs
"Top Hat" (1935), with Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Edward Everett Horton, Erik Rhodes, Eric Blore, Helen Broderick; (YouTube: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, Top Hat);
(Film Reviews: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5)

Irving Berlin's "Cheek to Cheek"
always singing in my heart
because I'm in heaven.

Sunday, May 25, 2014, 8:00-10:20 pm
Stanford Flicks, Cubberley Auditorium; Justin Chadwick directs "Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom" (2014) with Idris Elba, Naomie Harris, Tony Kgoroge, Riaad Moosa, Fana Mokoena, Jamie Bartlett, Terry Pheto, Hannibal Buress;
(YouTube: 1, 2, 3, 4); (Reviews: 1, 2, 3, 4)

Nelson Mandela
imprisoned for 27 years
before becoming President. Sunday, May 25, 2014, 11:00-11:47 pm
Mountain View: After Stanford Flicks "Mandela" film
Rudy and I went grocery shopping at Safeway
(645 San Antonio Road); Rudy bought nut & grain breads, ice cream cones; I got free Betty Crocker macadamia nut and white chocolate cookie mix;
Raincheck for 8 Gorton salmon fillets @$2.50

Angel cake, egg rolls,
hothouse tomatoes, yogurt,
salmon fillets, orange juice.

Monday, May 26, 2014, 2:30-6:00 pm
San Mateo County: Russian Ridge & Mindego
Ridge Trail Hike to half way up Mindego Hill;
Came to bottom of hill on September 2, 2012

Prayer at Mindego Hill—
to surrender my ego
to merge with Mind. Monday, May 26, 2014, 6:40-6:52 pm
Mountain View: Friend takes me shopping at
Milk Pail (2585 California Street); 29¢ coupon
due today for cantaloupe that's all sold out

Produce man James
gives us honeydew as
substitute for cantaloupe.

Tuesday, May 27, 2014, 1:08-9:00 pm
Palo Alto: Foothill Middlefield Lab; Born May 27: Julia Ward Howe (1819); "Wild Bill" Hickok (1837); Georges Rouault (1871); Dashiell Hammett (1894); Rachel Carson (1907); Vincent Price (1911); John Cheever (1912); Henry Kissinger (1923); May 27:
St. Petersburg founded by Peter the Great (1703)

Google Doodle honors
author of Silent Spring—
Rachel Louise Carson. Tuesday, May 27, 2014, 1:08-9:00 pm
Palo Alto: Foothill Middlefield Computer Lab
"All Circuits Are Busy" (H. Sebastian Seung's book
"Connectome: How the Brain's Wiring Makes Us Who We Are": 85 billion brain cells, 10,000 connections
for each one: Mapping them all will take 20-30 years)
(By James Gorman, NY Times, 5-27-2014) TED talk

Connectome is a
comprehensive map of
neural connections in the brain.

Wednesday, May 28, 2014, 1:16-9:30 pm
Palo Alto: Foothill Middlefield Lab; Born May 28: William Pitt the Younger (1759); Thomas Moore (1779); Jim Thorpe (1888); Ian Fleming (1908); Patrick White (1912); Walker Percy (1916); Jerry West (1938); Kirk Gibson (1957); This Day May 28: Philosopher Thales predicted solar eclipse 585 B.C.

My biochemist mentor
Gerald D. Fasman (1925-2003)
was born today— May 28. Wednesday, May 28, 2014, 1:16-9:30 pm
Palo Alto: Foothill Middlefield Computer Lab
ARTS: Maya Angelou, Lyrical Witness of the Jim Crow South, Dies at 86 (She delivered the inaugural poem, "On the Pulse of Morning" at swearing-in of 42nd President Bill Clinton on January 20, 1993)
(By Margalit Fox, NY Times, 5-29-2014)

Rock, River, Tree book
inspired by Angelou's inaugural
poem "On the Pulse of Morning".

Wednesday, May 28, 2014, 1:16-9:30 pm
Palo Alto: Foothill Middlefield Lab; SCIENCE: Gerald M. Edelman, Nobel Laureate and 'Neural Darwinist' Dies at 84 (1972 Nobel for chemical structure of antibodies; May 2, 1994 New Yorker: "Can you ask the question in such a way as to facilitate the answer? And I think the great scientists do that.") (By Bruce Weber, NY Times, 5-23-2014)

Visited John L. Wang in Edelman's lab
at Rockefeller University (12-31-1974)
for X-ray coordinates of Concanavalin A. Wednesday, May 28, 2014, 1:16-9:30 pm
Palo Alto: Foothill Middlefield Computer Lab
SPACE & COSMOS: Andromeda and the Milky Way: A Merger of Galactic Proportions (Hubble Space Telescope measurements have confirmed that the Milky Way will collide with a sibling galaxy known as the Andromeda nebula in about two billion years.)
(By Dennis Overbye, NY Times, 5-28-2014) Poem

Platonic Lambda formation
when Milky Way collides
with Andromeda Galaxy.

Thursday, May 29, 2014, 3:55-9:30 pm
Palo Alto: Foothill Middlefield Lab; Born May 29:
Patrick Henry (1736); G. K. Chesterton (1874);
Bob Hope (1903); Gregg Toland (1904); T. H. White (1906); John Fitzgerald Kennedy (1917); May 29: Hillary & Tenzing conquered Mt. Everest (1953);
Patrick Henry's "Virginia Resolves" (1765) (1775)

On his 29th birthday
Patrick Henry proclaimed
"If this be treason, make the most of it." Thursday, May 29, 2014, 3:55-9:30 pm
Palo Alto: Foothill Middlefield Computer Lab
Scientists Report Finding Reliable Way to Teleport Data (Dutch physicists reported in Science on teleporting information between two quantum bits
separated by three meters, or about 10 feet)
(By John Markoff, NY Times, 5-29-2014)

Teleportation
overrides Einstein's
"spooky action at a distance".

Friday, May 30, 2014, 7:30-9:20 pm
Palo Alto, Stanford Theatre: Mark Sandrich directs "Shall We Dance" (1937) with Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Edward Everett Horton, Eric Blore, Jerome Cowan, Ketti Gallian, Harriet Hoctor, William Brisbane; (YouTube: 1, 2, 3, 4); (Reviews: 1, 2, 3, 4)
Favorite George Gershwin tunes & scenes in film—

"Walking the Dog" on ship,
Rolling-Skate Rink dance,
"They Can't Take That Away From Me". Friday, May 30, 2014, 9:30-10:53 pm
Palo Alto, Stanford Theatre: Mark Sandrich directs "Carefree" (1938) with Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Ralph Bellamy, Luella Gear, Jack Carson, Clarence Kolb, Walter Kingsford, Franklin Pangborn; (YouTube: 1, 2, 3); (Film Reviews: 1, 2, 3, 4)
Favorite Irving Berlin tunes & scenes in film—

Changing Partners song,
"The Yam" lounge dance,
Fred-Ginger Hypnotic Dance.

Saturday, May 31, 2014, 1:17-4:50 pm
Los Altos Library: Bought Brian Kiteley's
"The 3 A.M. Epiphany: Uncommon Writing Exercises that Transform Your Fiction " (2005) ($16 for $2)

Frank Budgen helped
James Joyce write more
than Ezra Pound did. Saturday, May 31, 2014, 1:17-4:50 pm
Los Altos Library: Susan Sontag,
"Essays of the 1960s & 70s" (2013) 814.54SONTAG; "A Woman's Beauty: Put-Down or Power Source?"

For the Greeks,
beauty was a virtue:
a kind of excellence.