SFMOMA by night

Fosco and Oz had a (very small-scale) eighteen-month anniversary celebration in SoMa last Friday night. They had dinner at Northern California's fanciest food court at the Westfield San Francisco Centre. You can tell it's a fancy food court because they have real silverware. They also have an outpost of Beard Papa!

Oz was in the mood for spicy tuna, so he opted for a spicy tuna bowl:


Fosco was in the mood for the deliciousness of the Slanted Door's takeout version, Out the Door. Out the Door serves Fosco's favorite green papaya salad:

Fosco is not normally agog over green things, but this salad is exquisite. It's fresh and clean and complex and totally rejuvenating (the french-fried onions really rock it). Sadly, Fosco cannot recommend the Egg Noodles with Shrimp Stir-Fry--an unfortunate failure for such a consistently good place to eat.

After dinner, Fosco and Oz headed down the street for an after-hours corporate reception at the SFMOMA (thanks to Oz's employer, which may or may not be Mmm Carpets). It was a surprisingly hip event. The SFMOMA's atrium was almost clubby, with a DJ and everything.


The best part, of course, is that all of the galleries were open. Fosco and Oz had been to the museum recently, so there wasn't much new. However, they got a nice second look at the Martin Puryear show. Most of Puryear's work is on some borderline between wood crafts and art, usually on a (very) large scale. A surprising amount of the Puryear exhibit leaves Fosco cold, but he does really appreciate this work, entitled "Brunhilde":


The longer you walk around this piece, the more interesting it becomes. Fosco also enjoys Puryear's little tiny ladder on display in the SFMOMA's atrium:


There is a nice (short) piece on Puryear's art here that I think is helpful.

We had also seen the exhibit called "Art of Participation" before, but we walked through it again. One of the best pieces is by Fosco's adored Félix González-Torres. This is Untitled (1992-93):


The work is essentially a big stack of prints on large sheets of paper (like 2.5 X 3.5 ft). The prints are all the same. Viewers are encouraged to take one of the prints home with them. The stack is replenished forever. Isn't that cool? Right now, Fosco has one on the wall near his desk (don't worry--Oz and I have another one to frame someday):


The last time Fosco was at this exhibit, the ANT FARM Media Van wasn't working correctly. Luckily, it was running smoothly on Friday night. The Media Van is a gutted van that is the repository for a digital time capsule (which will be opened in the year 2030, assuming humans still exist then). Inside the van, there are hookups for iPods, cell phones, cameras, etc. Visitors are encouraged to hook up an electronic device to the van; the van then randomly downloads a file from that device for inclusion in the digital time capsule. Once you the van copies your file, it spits out a receipt for you (which is good for 10% off in the SFMOMA store!). Here is Fosco's receipt:


As you can see, the van randomly selected a Bloc Party song from Fosco's iPod. Fosco realized afterward that this could have been a very embarrassing situation: can you imagine putting some horrible song into a time capsule to be played in 2030? Now Fosco doesn't have a ton of bad music on his iPod, but there are still some things he wouldn't be thrilled about (Bon Jovi, Aly and AJ, Roxette...) Luckily, Bloc Party is acceptable in terms of street cred (and "Sunday" is a particularly good song with a particularly good chorus for an anniversary: "I love you in the morning / When you're still hung over.") And who knows? Maybe in 2030, that song will still sound totally rad.

Come to think of it, Fosco and Oz will celebrate their twenty-three year anniversary in 2030.