Saturday, a week ago, Michele and I met Richard Taylor at Linda Fleming‘s Opening of Meanderings, an exhibition of sculpture and drawings at Brian Gross Fine Art. When I picked up my camera to bring it along, I realized that the battery was dead and I had forgotten to charge the batteries I had used up on the trip to Maine. Linda’s brother-in-law, Kirk Moore, was there, fortunately, and he has generously agreed to post some of his pictures of the opening.
Friday night, we went over to the Oakland Museum for the reopening of the refurbished Natural History Gallery. I lived in Oakland from the mid 60’s to the early 70’s, during the time when the Oakland Museum first opened. I loved living in Oakland, I loved the diversity, I loved the Raiders, and I – especially – loved the Oakland Museum. I still love the museum, it was and still is the only Bay Area museum about California and California art.
Even then, the San Francisco museums were trying to become national or world museums, trading in their excellent examples of local artist’s work – such as Nathan Oliveira – for mediocre examples of works by more famous New York artists like Jasper Johns. I like Jasper Johns, but I would much rather see local artists when I go to a local museum; Roy Lichtenstein in New York and Robert Arneson when I go to a California museum. The Arnesons are in storage at SFMOMA and – one of them atleast – are on display in Oakland.
Our night started out in an empty BART car in Daily City that filled as we went through downtown SF.
We got out at Lake Merritt and walked a block to the Museum and a Friday night Food Truck Jamboree. As I understand it, the Food Truck thing is the museum’s idea in an effort to get more people to visit, and – I guess – the City of Oakland has blocked off the nearby space. The museum provides music, sells wine and beer, and has made Friday admission half price. I hope it is working.
Inside, the newly refurbished and reopened Natural History Gallery was packed. And it should be: it is brilliant. But, then, I also liked the old gallery which had the various California econiches in different parts of the room. The problem with the old system is that it was static. Somebody, we have no idea who, decided what was important and we – the museum goer – passively went along. Year after year, it remained the same and, after wandering trough a couple of times, the museum goer – now presumably a better person for being better informed – wandered off to a new place. Hopefully, the new place was one of the actual econiches itself, say Yosemite, but – usually – not. Usually the passive spectator just got bored and quit coming back. I did both.
The new Gallery is much more interactive and the main econiche is Oakland, both – I am guessing – in an effort to build traffic.
There is also an emphasis on the streams and creeks that flow through Oakland from the surrounding hills. Most of these streams and creeks have been buried in pipes and channelized but some are – also – newly reopened and refurbished (reminding me of the refurbished and reopened Los Angeles River that Will Taylor has been talking about on facebook).
Another change that I like and I hope works – but I am not so sure that it is – is adding some California art to the Natural History Gallery in an effort – I presume – to drive traffic to the California Art Gallery upstairs.
But, this Friday, atleast, the art gallery was pretty empty (but it did have an Robert Arneson).
The good news on the art side of things is that the main gallery that had an powerful show of paintings by Hung Liu, the Professor of Painting at nearby Mills College, was packed (no pictures allowed). The other good thing was that Gina Matesic and I were able to get a couple of self portraits reflected in a very nice Larry Bell.
(iPhone photo by Michele)
For the final part – presumably – of Michele’s 2013 Birthday Extravaganza, we went to see Anne-Sophie Mutter at the, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill designed, Louise M. Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco.
Before the performance, we went to a new – for us – Thai Restaurant, Lers Ros. It was a little bit of a shock with tastes and textures that were new to both of us (atleast with Thai food). I think the restaurant is the Thai equivalent of the introduction of new Hunan Chinese food into our cultural cuisinescape about 50! years ago. Up until last night, every Thai restaurant we have been to – even in Hong Kong – have been pretty much the same. Some were better than others, but all were rifts on an established theme. The food here is hotter and had more pickled veggies than we are used to in Thai food. It was more interesting than the satisfying comfort of the familiar and we want to go back.
Anne-Sophie Mutter is a German violinist we both love from her – our? – CD’s and she was accompanied by the pianist, Lambert Orkis. But, for Michele and me, Mutter was the reason we were there and she didn’t disappoint. We sat in the $15 seats behind and above the stage and, I think, they were better than most of the seats in the house (except that they are benches and they did get harder over time). We had a great time – Anne-Sophie Mutter was great, Lambert Orkis was a more than pleasant surprise, and the Skidmore, Owings & Merrill building just gets better with age – and, because we do stuff like this so infrequently, it felt very celebratory.
Michele’s birthday, this year, turned into a season that – sort of – bled into Super Sunday (not so super here on the left coast, however). On the day after Michele’s actual birthday, we went on the Napa WineTrain with Michele’s sister, Claudia, her stepdad, Jim, and her Mom. Like any train ride that doesn’t actually go anywhere, it is more of an amusement park activity than a ride. In this case, the train runs the mid-Napa Valley from the City of Napa to somewhere near St. Helena at about 15 miles per hour. And then returns at 15 miles per hour. Inside, we tasted wine on the way out and had a very nice lunch on the way back.
From the time we arrive at the departure station, done in a sort of old-timey brothel station temporary-building-decorated-for-New Years style, every effort is made to make sure we are having a memorable experience.
And, by and large, they succeed.
The train goes up the center of the valley and it is a nice way to get a general lay of the land.
For me it was a way to stake out some buildings that I would like to come back and photograph. The Opus One Winery, for example, which seems to be half buried in an artificial hill and the original Mondavi Winery building designed by Cliff May in 1966 (Cliff May is the designer credited with designing the California Ranch House). For all of us, it was a chance to watch the valley pass by.
This being Napa – the same Napa that is becoming as much about food as wine – we finished the Napa part of the day at the nearby Fatted Calf. The Fatted Calf is an ordinary looking suburban butcher shop – well, maybe not ordinary any more because most butcher shops are in supermarkets and, then, only ordinary looking from the outside – that sells way upscale, organic, pasture raised, meat.
The cost is very high, but Michele sort of works around that by getting stew meat or pork scraps for stir fry. In this case she bought a marinaded pork shoulder for phase III of her birthday season. Then it was home, watching the sunset as we headed south.
