Great Artists: Picasso

Go to this url to see an audio/video on the last works of Pablo Picasso, who died in 1973.
It bothered me when he died that the art world dismissed his last works as tired and un-original, not even worthy of viewing. I remember thinking that he deserved a better send-off. He was one of my fantasy heroes, fantasy because I knew I would never actually spend time with him. He joined Dag Hammarskjold, Leonard Bernstein, Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo as people on my list of folks I would love to share an evening with. As I write I realize there are so many more. I never categorized them. Maybe I should. Maybe I will another day.
Anyway, go here


http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/04/17/arts/design/20090417-picasso-audioss/index.html

for a taste of this remarkable man's latest and last works. And lucky you if you live in New York.

For Crossword Junkies

If you are not enthralled at the prospect of doing hard crosswords, don't even bother reading anymore.
The Saturday New York Times puzzle has been my hardest and favorite puzzle of all. But it just isn't that hard anymore, even though the creators and editor--Will Shortz--are really creative and fun. But this week I discovered an even harder puzzle! The Wall Street Journal daily puzzle. It is a bona fide stumper. I reach it by going to Crossword Links. I think I got access to that link by joining, and paying for, the New York Times puzzles. Try the WSJ. I guarantee you'll be challenged.

Easter potluck

Easter potluck
Originally uploaded by marytsao

Thomas William Tsao in his Easter Bunny hat.

Visit with Auntie Josephine

Visit with Auntie Josephine
Originally uploaded by marytsao

Mary is due any day now.

Visit with Auntie Josephine

Visit with Auntie Josephine
Originally uploaded by marytsao

More of our Chinese family.

Taxes 2008

I have no one to blame but myself. I owe almost one thousand dollars from my 2007 return, done on Turbo Tax, just like one of the Obama cabinet's young lions, can't remember which one right now, I trusted my computer program. It is like not reading the small print on a contract. Why can't they just let a woman who spent 42 years of her life being a public school teacher be dispensed from all the forms. Take what you want out of my retirement check, but save me from the red tape part of it. My mom (also a public school teacher of some enormous number of years) never did file a tax form. She was lucky that my dad actually enjoyed doing that sort of thing. So when he died, more than 15 years before my mom did, she just threw all the tax stuff in the trash. She never was contacted by raging IRS auditors. My mom had a mystical side to her, being a born meditator (tho we never once heard an OM or smelled incense) I expected maybe the angels who watched over her saw to it that the IRS just forgot about her. We live in the Mission District in San Francisco, an address where many people have lived before us. Important-looking mail arrives all the time and the postman just gives us a blank stare when we try to get it re-routed. Sort of like a "What do you people think I am, a SECRETARY?" So we throw mail in the trash, too. People have the right to be forgotten if they want.
Writing this blog entry is just another way for me to avoid filling out this year's tax form. And yes, I'm using Turbo Tax again. If some big mistake occurs costing me way too much money, maybe it'll be my turn to go off the grid, with my mom's blessing, I'm sure.