Harriet and I pick up
license to practice at
Frank-Lloyd-Wright-designed Marin Civic Center (1960),
driving palms-
to
yet-
more-
palms
honeymoon
day...
via
the
glories
of
80
southwest,
37
west
to
Sonoma,
101
south,
Civic
Center
Drive,
then
under
North Justice Arch,
in view of Mt. Tamalpais and San Rafael Ridge (our old homestead),
parking
near
South Justice Arch.
Here we go!
To this particular lobby,
up four floors to the second (there is a reason for this, which we will soon recall),
today San Pedro Ridge in view behind the
spire,
into the Recorder's Office,
for Births, Deaths, and Marriages
in alphabetical and price order, but certainly not in chronology (Marriage, what a deal!).
The certificate is obtained, from the same helpful clerk at the desk last Thursday, in view of historical maps of Marin and a photo of FLW's Fallingwater (Laurel Highlands, PA, 1939).
Before further exploration,
catch sight and thank again James for his officiating yesterday.
Onward to the center of the building at this level -- a 3-D map, first viewing southward, with Post Office and Administration at top, dome-and-spire, Justice, jail, duck pond, nice circular-island-going-with-it-all, & Veterans Auditorium.
A nice worship wall of Wright and his creation here,
the map in its north-south orientation,
which corresponds the view looking north from here.
And south? Voila, due to the slope of the land up towards San Pedro and San Rafael Ridges, we are now indeed on the 2nd floor, with two more layers above --
made abundantly re-clear later upon leaving the lobby (floors 1-4 in Administration -- library at dome atop -- Lobby, Court, 1-2 on the Justice Side we've been frequenting).
But we're not done here, yet... far from it... Upon recommendation from the helpful clerk (who, we recall expidited our meeting with James and the wedding set-up), we process trhough the Cafeteria to the central
Patio,
where civil ceremonies take place en plein air during non-pandemic times:
a symphony of
circular and other Frank-Lloyd-Wrightian motifs, with the
spire, lo-and-beyond, not atop the dome but rising from this central-hill patio,
which certainly suggests that,
despite multiple explorations many years past,
including patio(s?) at the end(s?) of the building,
we've never been exactly here previously
(why should we have been? No cause for intuitively cutting through the Cafeteria,
and we've for certain never been married here... though, divorce, that's another story...).
Take in the scuptured area,
with views extending to Big Rock Rock Ridge; North and East Bay, San Pedro and San Rafael Ridges, Sears Point,
Puerto Suello and Santa Venetia, and it occurs that
this is an extension of yesterday's ceremony and festivities,
just
being
here
together.
But wait!
Time to call Cliff, and we agree to meet at Novato International House of Pancakes (since we met at analogue San Rafael last time, and that he is now coming south from Summer's),
so, off we go again, after talking to a nice young couple who are following in our footsteps soon on the Zoom Marin Civil Marriage path, down the four floors (only 3 visible here, to Court),
under the
arch --
twice,
driving
to
101
and
Novato,
under the watchful metaphorical gaze of Mt.
Burdell
and the
I.M. Pei (1917-2019 -- no, I did not heretofore realize he died at the ripe old age of 102 -- almost Elliott Carter, 1908-2012; and Madeleine Mihaud, 1902-2008, territory... aged 103 and 105, respectively)
Buck
Center
(1996).
De Long
to de
downtown,
but, either it's been moved or memory is foggy and it was never there,
back south,
past
City Hall,
one exit southerly again on 101 --
Agh! What is this?
A highwayic
Samuel Beckett (1906-1989) - Endgame (1957, serrandipitously enough, premiered [in London, in French as Fin de Partie], April 3 -- once again, one day late...)
[Clov . . . gets down, takes six steps (for example) towards window right, goes back for ladder, carries it over and sets it down under window right, gets up on it, draws back curtain. He gets down, takes three steps towards window left, goes back for ladder, carries it over and sets it down under window left, gets up on it, looks out of window. Brief laugh. He gets down, takes one step towards window right, goes back for ladder, carries it over and sets it down under window right, gets up on it, looks out of window. Brief laugh. . .]
or perhaps Richard Brautigan[1935-1984]'s Dreaming of Babylon (1977)...
[Lobotomy
Ah, shit!
I walked two blocks beyond my stop the other way, past the street that I lived on, thinking about having the name Smith for a private eye in Babylon, so I had to turn around and walk back again and felt like a fool because I couldn't afford to do things like that when I was just a few hours away from my first clent in months.
Thnking about babylon can be a dangerous thing for me.
I had to watch my ass.
I walked back down Sacramento Street very carefully not thinking about Babylon. As I walked along, I pretended that I had a prefrontal lobotomy.]
OK, we get to the scenic view ffrom the IHOP, and then jump ship, for variety,
to In'n'Out,
where Cliff is waiting.
Another nice visit, for safety, al fresco, the celebratory Marriage Certificate photo, and
off again
past Novato Toyota,
Rowland,
and
onto
Sonoma
37
East
eventually
crossing
over
into
Solano,
Vallejo
Cliffs,
merging
to
80
northwest
until
a
petrol /
newspaper
stop
at
Fairfield North Arco.
The
final
stretch
homeward...
on the 11th day of spring, high down 2 to 61 (locally and in Fairfield)
Vallejo, 60
Petaluma, 63
San Rafael, 62
Novato, 64
In the evening, catch up with the brilliant / fiery speech made by Joe Biden today on voting rights, which is right on --
Harriet particularly taken with the line, "I'm tired of being quiet" as an antidote to the right's (well, in this case perhaps we should say Republicans) line of years past, "I'm tired of being politically correct."
Meanwhile, the cake is gone, though Venus de Milo (Aphrodite) and Quasimodo survive in some form,
more decent news on the political front,
page 4 composed for
English Folk Song Suite Revisited, Op. 377 (January 8, 2022)
I. I'll Be Seventeen Come Sunday / Pretty Caroline / Dives and Lazarus
partially in counterpoint to Ralph Vaughan Williams's own Symphony No. 2 ("London"), with another update of
Book of Dreams, 2022, Op. 376 (2022)
January 11
2am I Didn't Say He Was Perfectly Delightful... You're Going to Try for Jobs in There...
8am A Long Pursuit or Journey Along a Repetitive Straight Musical Path...