San Francisco, time changes and another Gowanus Canal painting

FATE on the Gowanus Canal , work in progress- 140# Arches Coldpress

The Husband and I have just returned from a trip to California.   We went for a family wedding and stayed to celebrate our own wedding anniversary.  I have to say, I love California. Other than the mega-drought, earthquakes, mudslides, wildfires, taxes and traffic, it’s a wonderful place.  I really would live there if I could afford it and wasn’t constantly in fear of the above named items.  We were in San Francisco and Napa Valley and did all the touristy things we could in San Francisco including walking the Golden Gate bridge and riding a cable car.

Then we were off to Napa Valley which is gorgeous.   Not a place for a non-wine drinker like me, but I learned a bit about wines. One of the more interesting things, for me at least, was reading the descriptions of the wines or more specifically the “Tasting Notes”.  For example:  brims with classic, savory aromas of boysenberry, ripe red plums and black cherries which is then complemented with hints of vanilla and a pinch of cinnamon. Concentrated blackberry jam, coffee, black pepper and tar.  TAR?   What about the descriptions that include “cat pee”.  Yep, you heard me right, “cat pee”.   Who, may I ask, is drinking cat pee and admitting to it?

Confused and fascinated I finally found this article from The Week which was quite helpful.   Still not drinking cat pee, but was more informed.  17 disgusting descriptions for delicious wines.

What about a NYC wine?  What would the tasting notes be?   Opens with a splash of gunshot residue, followed by the buttery sweetness of hipster beard, ripe, red sidewalk bloodstains and the leathery taste of back-seat taxi sweat.  High kicks of Broadway and soaring notes of skyscrapers & diversity. Hints of subway overcrowding and non-affordable housing.  Finishing notes of  despair.

Finally to add to the list of things I hate (flying was listed in the previous post) we can now add daylight savings time (yes, I know it’s officially “daylight saving (NO “s”) time).   I get home from California which is 3 hours earlier than NYC only to have to change my clocks back for Eastern Standard Time.  “Spring ahead, fall back”.  I changed all the clocks and I bet you can guess what happened! Every clock in my apartment is wrong and now I have jet lag combined with SAD.

The painting above is of the extremely polluted “Venice of Brooklyn” a/k/a the Gowanus Canal, a superfund site of seriously polluted water.  The graffiti on the corrugated metal said “hate” but I didn’t like that so I changed it to “fate”.   Who believes in fate?   Are things destined?    I would rather contemplate fate than hate anyway.   I need to make this painting a little “dirtier” and add more graffiti. Then it will be finished.   Like NYC wine.  I need to finish it with some despair.