Tanti Auguri A Me

September 22, 2015 - my 39th birthday. It started with a text message from my mom at 6am. I decided to do my hair in a sideroll and let my hair hang in curls. I've been lazy about doing my hair in recent weeks favoring a Gibson roll suitable for ultra hot weather. I decided to go pink for the day and wore my 1940s day dress that I purchased in Portland. 

Delayed Commute

As I was ready to leave for the CalTrain station, my gut feeling told me that it would be a bad day for public transportation; perhaps I should drive. I should've listened. While aboard the train, we stood for about 10 minutes; apparently someone was evading fare and was being cited and escorted. Cheater. Finally we were on our way. Then all of a sudden, the train slowed to a crawl and was ready to stop. I looked out and noticed we were in Mountain View. Wait a minute! This train does not stop at Mountain View. Is the engineer a rookie? Finally the train gained speed and I was off to Santa Clara.

Classes in Session and a Major Sugar Rush

Thank goodness I arrived with minutes to spare before student arrival. Each came one by one with one of those smiles that seemed suspicious. Of course they knew it was my birthday, but then one of my former students showed up with a cake. That was unexpected and a very pleasant surprise. I then showed my class an email from their fellow classmate who just had her baby. We were cooing over the pictures of her new baby boy. Then one of my students said, "you have a new email." So I opened the message and I was floored. I mean really, REALLY surprised. Apparently some of my students pooled money together and got me a gift certificate to one of my favorite shoe reproduction stores. They know my love for shoes and vintage. I truly was touched. So very thoughtful. The rest of day was filled with endless text messages from family and friends wishing me a Happy Birthday.

Part of the "mi" in my name cracked a bit.

Enjoying some cake

My afternoon class surprised me with yet another cake! One student made chocolate by hand and brought it for the class. I knew I was going to have a major sugar rush. A somewhat smaller class than morning one, we pretty much shot the breeze and did some literature discussion. It's a good thing it was the last day of the quarter before finals, so all content had been covered.

Mmmm...Mascarpone Cheesecake

Another Commuter Delay, Yet Adventurous

Now that classes were done, it was back on the Caltrain for my commute home before having dinner with some friends. Recall how I mentioned having that gut feeling earlier in the day. I definitely should have driven. It went smoothly until we stopped at San Carlos. The conductor stated, "And this is as far as we can go. There's been a collision on the tracks in San Mateo." I looked out and saw the marquee; 90 minute delay! It was already 6:45 and I'm supposed to meet my friends at 8:00. I immediately got off the train and arranged for an Uber ride.

The driver arrived in less than a minute. When I opened the door, I rambled, "Caltrain is down and I have to get to Burlingame. It's my birthday and I have to meet my friends for dinner." Then I sat and smiled. He was very gracious and smiled and continued driving. He was pretty quiet and suddenly I noticed there was Spanish music playing. He was ready to change it until I started speaking in Spanish saying that the music is fine. He was surprised - ¿hablas español? When I confirmed, a sense of relief came over him and he started to relax. We conversed about language and education as we were flying down Old Country Road. I completely forgot about the roadblock at Hayward Park. Since it was a small barrier I told him he could go around it as the car way ahead of us was doing the same thing. He sped through the first barrier and again the second barrier before we were legally driving down Delaware. By the time we caught up with that car, we realized it was San Mateo Police. Oops! My bad! But hey we got through, and we didn't get pulled over. He had a good sense of humor about it. Once we got to Burlingame, we noticed there were still no trains in sight.

Birthday Dinner

I'm very simplistic when it comes to my birthday, so when asked what I wanted for my dinner, I just said, "Mexican Food! I have a craving for tamales and champurrado!" So it was off to Taquería Vallarta, my favorite taquería in The Mission. I ordered my usual tamales de rajas (cheese and roasted chile) and smothered it in tomatillo salsa. Mmmm...heavenly.

Tuesday Night Jump

Then it was back to my usual stomping grounds. The Verdi Club. Tanoa waived the $12 as he does for all birthday folks. The other folks thought it odd that I was not having a Birthday drink so I went ahead and had a rum and coke and 2 shots of pomegranate tequila later on. When asked my age, everyone was shocked. They thought I was anywhere between 28-30. Nope. 39. It's the Latin genes. 

During their second set, Stompy Jones played a birthday jam. That is, the birthday gal/guy takes center of the floor and everyone else stands around clapping to the rhythm while he/she dances. Then a series of leads (or follows if it's a birthday guy) will cut in until the end of the song. I was hoping for a faster song, but slower BPMs are okay. I definitely enjoyed my evening of swing dancing.

Despite some of the hiccups, it was definitely a wonderful birthday. Lets see what my 39th year brings...hopefully admittance into a Ph.D. program...my main goal.

Ciao.

Runnin' Wild

A couple weeks ago, a friend and I drove across the bridge to Niles, Fremont to catch a silent double feature at the Essenay Silent Film Museum. They were featuring Clara Bow's first film, Down to the Sea in Ships. Just prior to the showing, we perused the museum shop inventory of silent film memorabilia. Since this was a night celebrating Clara Bow, there were several items displayed and on sale. I found a copy of her biography and it was lauded by the volunteers as a great work and beautifully written. Since it only cost $10, I decided to purchase it.

The biography is entitled: Clara Bow - Runnin' Wild written by David Stenn. It's a fair title and implication of her wild life not because she was thought to be a party girl. Rather, she lived a very hard life with cruel twists of fate. She was railroaded and the only peace in life was achieved at her death.

I don't recall my first instance of learning the name Clara Bow. But I've known of her legacy a very long time; at least 25 years. I knew she was Hollywood's first sex symbol nicknamed The "It" Girl. When I saw "It" I was truly mesmerized by her performance. She really was a great actress. Every appearance on screen seemed to have this glow that you couldn't help but smile. I sought out other films and attended silent film festivals that featured Clara Bow. Not only was she the "It Girl", I consider her to be the original quirky redhead (pre Lucy). She was indeed a comedic talent with great facial expressions. And those eyes! There is no mistaking the sadness that lingered behind those big eyes.

I heard all the rumors that she was a promiscuous flapper known for her lavish parties and alleged servicing of the USC football team. I also heard they were totally untrue. Perhaps the most prominent story was her downfall from showbiz during the advent of "talkies" films due to her harsh Brooklyn accent. Her voice, however, was just fine. I've researched some of her talkie films and I never understood why anyone would find it problematic. But it was indeed true that she suffered from "mic fright" and was often self-conscious about its lurking above her head.

The biography gets to the truth of her sudden retirement from films. She was severely exploited by Paramount; she was overworked and underpaid. The industry saw her as a dimwitted Brooklyn gal too eager to please at any price. And they were right.

Clara was an unwanted child from birth. Her abusive father was in and out of her life. She was left alone with a mentally ill mother, who on several occasions had threatened to murder her. What Clara wanted out of life was a stable home life with loving parents to dote on her accomplishments. She often sought that companionship and encouragement in her co-stars, lovers and friends. In the end, though, they played Clara for her fame and money. Her own father even took advantage of her royalties. 

As I read her biography, I had immense empathy for this poor woman. She was typecast and assumed to live her true life as that on screen. In fact, she was a rather shy and down to earth lady. The press, however, characterized her as low-class, and she became the social pariah of Hollywood despite her popularity among the movie-going public. Her antics were heavily publicized and she made no effort to deny it. She was, after all, doing what EVERYONE in Hollywood was doing; drinking, gambling, having a lover or two (or three). She just chose not to lie about it. She thought those naysayers as hypocrites. Indeed they were, but her antics were not the stories of drunken orgies. By today's standards, she was rather tame. But her downfall was not playing the game. She was too honest and open that her trust and confidence in others often blew up in her face.

Though Hollywood created her image, it essentially destroyed her both professionally and personally. She was never prepared for the transition from silent to talkie; that is the fault of the studio executives whose only purpose was to make money off her fame. Rather than help her through her anxiety, they perpetuated it to a point where she had a nervous breakdown. It was absolutely heartbreaking.

Runnin' Wild offers more perspective on Clara's life from birth to death. It also gives her back the integrity that Hollywood denied her both during her life and in death.