Styrofoam cups and Thai Nakorn

I read his comics blog every work day for almost 3 years now.

Three years ago, Boey posted a link on Craigslist to his comic blog. Each blog entry is a simple line drawing comic about his work, friends and love life. Since he post a blog entry everyday, on some days the comic might be funny, on other days, thought invoking and, still on some days, boring.

It was from one of the blog posting I read about his styrofoam cups. Boey is an artist and draws on styrofoam cups when bored. Then he started showing the cups at Art Festivals and scored an interview on Orange County Register. That was when he hit big time!

From the article, I learned his work could be found at Marion Meyer Contemporary Art gallery in Laguna Beach. On this Thanksgiving weekend, I was in Orange County to spend time with my brother and his family. Not a shopping person, I talked my brother and his family into seeing this unique art work on Black Friday.

There were about 10 cups on display. The details on each one was amazing! This was like graphic art, souped up to fine art. Most of the cups had whimsical design, but a few were darker and more serious. Quite a treat for me, especially having seen some off the cups on Flickr.

There was a painting by Robert Mah in the Marion Meyer Gallery which we enjoyed very much as well. It was a landscape painting that had a hint of Chinese landscape painting. Using only black coloring, the brush stroke were more obvious compared to most chinese painting, but it did had the same mystic feel.

After the show, we went to Thai Nakorn in Stanton for dinner. The best thai food I had ever had. Read my review on Yelp about it here.

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Update 11-30-09

I emailed Boey and told him I made a trip to Laguna Beach to see his styrofoam cups. He repiled asking if I made the trip for that purpose only. When I answered yes, he said he felt sorry for me, because he did not leave his best work with Marion Meyer. He also told me to email him in advance on my next trip south to Orange County and he would show me his best work over coffee. Sigh...I think I have low standards. I thought the cups in Marion Meyer were quite good already.

Chihuly at De Young Museum, Beethoven Symphony No. 7

H and I planned a cultural weekend. I bought tickets to the San Francisco Symphony during their January sale. Then, about 2 weeks ago, I learned that there is a Chihuly exhibition at the De Young Museum. Since we were already going to the city, we decided to watch the exhibition on the same day.

My first exposure to Dale Chihuly's glass sculpture was his installation in Bellagio in Las Vegas. H remembered seeing his work at Monterey Bay Aquarium and was intrigued as well.

We arrived at the Museum a little after 2pm. Since it was H's first trip to De Young, we walked around the compound a little to admire the copper clad structure. Since the copper skin will turn green due to oxidation (think Statue of Liberty) to better blend with the surrounding park at some later time, I thought it would be nice for her to view the Museum in its current copper-golden shade.

Since our tickets for Chihuly were timed for 3pm, so we had time to wonder around the museum a little. H was impressed by the Mammouth ivory among the America arts exhibits:)

Finally, at 3pm, we entered the Chihuly exhibition. The first exhibit was a series of long thin white tubes with pale red base. The glass took on organic shapes and in the reflection looked like strange, white tree branches.

The next exhibit, I called the "Falling leaves". Here glass were blown into round disc with folds, almost like flower petals. The petals had shades of autumn leaf colors.

The next room was filled with Native American weaved bowls and throw. Among these artifacts were glass bowls, with earth tone. The bowls were not perfect, and I felt like I was looking at hand made bowls from clay, shaped after open gourds.

There was also a room filled with flower petals. These glasses had soft, pastel colors, and the reflection of the glass on the walls looked like a Monet painting.

Another piece was what I called "Purple goo dripping up from tree". Here water droplet shapes of purple glass was placed on dried fallen tree trunks. The droplets seem to be falling up away from the tree against gravity.

There were also 2 wooden boats, one filled with colorful glass balls, the other filled with random shapes. H and I joked that the exhibition had too many art work and not enough space that they resort to bazaar style of presentation.

In another room was a series of heart shaped glass sculpture. Both H and I do not like the series of pointed glass tubes that formed these heart, so we walked through this room quickly.

In the next room, the glass sculpture was placed on a glass see through ceiling. Light shine through the glass artwork, creating a colorful reflection on the ground. Again, H and I felt the display was too busy. It was a good idea, but the exhibit would probably benefited from more space.

Final, the last room consisted of various stand alone display of glass sculpture, set on the ground. Some had pointy tubes, like the heart exhibit, while others have tulip like leaves shapes.

Images from the exhibition from Bayareadragon.com

Overall, we liked the organic shaped of the glass sculpture and the soft natural colors. These shapes and colors transform the glass sculpture into something familiar, but at the same time mysterious. We also felt the some art installation was too busy and if the pieces were spread out more, we could enjoy individual glass pieces better. Here's a review by Mercury News, as well as SFGate.com.

After the exhibition, we took the elevator to the top of the tower. There, we enjoyed the areal view of Golden Gate park and the San Francisco skyline.

After visiting De Young Museum, H and I walked around Golden Gate Park a little before dinner.

Since we are going to Davies Symphony hall after dinner, we stopped by Indigo for a quick pre-concert meal. There, we enjoyed a grilled salmon with herbed orzo and spring vegetables, as well as a pan roasted pork tenderloin with corn, mushroom and broccoli rabe. H felt the tenderloin was a little tough and the sauce too sweet. I liked the herb orzo and fresh vegetable in the salmon dish, as well as the straight forward preparation of the fresh wild salmon. More about the restaurant at Yelp!

The program for the concert was Seht die Sonne by Magnus Lindberg, Chansons de Jeunesse by Debussy and Beethoven's 7th Symphony. Seht die Sonne was a modern piece, but had some elements of classical "depart and return" tone system, so it was fairly pleasant. We did not enjoy the Debussy piece as much.

Beethoven's 7th symphony was a big, exciting, fast paced piece of music. The conductor had only one little pause between the four movements and the final movement was a exhilarating whirl wind of music. We left the concert hall on a high note. Here, a critic disagree with my take on the concert.

Our last stop of the night was at my favorite wine bar in San Francisco: the Hidden Vine. After a day filled with exhibition and performance, we came here for a little port wine tasting to savor the sweet life:)

Miro, Goya and Picasso at SJ Museum of Art

I will admit it...I feel a little snobbish about the Bay Area fine art museums. Legion of honor, SF MOMA and the San Jose Museum of Art are in my mind NOT some of the better fine art museums on the West Coast, let alone the US.

Then, I received an email invitation through work about a reception and a chance to see the work of 3 Spanish master: Joan Miro, Francisco Goya and Picasso. Plus, they promised sangria and tapas too...I don't think I need any more arm twisting:)

Work was actually somewhat busy, so I did not reach the museum until 7:15pm. Feeling a little hungry, I hit the buffet table for some tapas. Got myself a few pieces of cheese, some ham and a meat ball. Satisfied, I start browsing the exhibits.

I had read online the Miro exhibit will be closing soon and decided to look at his work first. Personally, I felt Miro's works are too abstract for me to interpert, but always enjoy the vibrant colors and whimsical lines/shapes. There was a painting with a drawing of I thought looked like a dog that I enjoyed. On another painting, I swore the top right figure was Miro's representation of a rat. Finally, there was a figure that reminded me of Cobi, the 1992 Barcelona Olympics mascot, waving its arms welcoming guest.

There was a series of Miro's works which were almost Zen like. Painted with wide brush strokes on beige-colored paper, it was very different from the Miro's that I am familiar with. Interesting in its own right, but, unfortunately, that series did not resonate with me at all:(

Next, I went to check out the Goya's exhibits. I remembered vividly studying about "The Third of May 1808" during my art history lessons in undergrad and always had the impression that Goya's works are mystic, dark and painful. These exhibits did nothing to change that impression. There were several etching depicting evil torturing ordinary people. Bodies were twisted in pain. There was something strange about the setup of this exhibition: the explanation posted next to the etchings read like comments of 3 art critics, where usually the titles given by the artist were posted. I still don't know what to make of that.

Finally, I checked out Picasso's etching. I was immediately drawn by the intricate lines Picasso used to drawn horses and facecs. Those detailed lines reminded me of African masks. I was quite excited since I recalled in my art history class, Professor Geiger had mentioned Picasso's "Les Demoiselles d'Avignon" was inspired by African tribal masks and Picasso had an extensive collection of African art. It seems to fit pretty well with what I was seeing.

The title of Picasso's exhibition is "Etchings of Love and Desire". Call me conservative, but I was uncomfortable with the obvious drawing of male sexual organ in some of the etching. There was a series of etchings showing the Pope, Raphael (the Renaissance artist) and his model Margherita where Raphael was CLEARLY excited. The etchings were too explicit for me to enjoy the art. It was unfortunate, since the some of the etchings had beautiful line art work which I did not associate with Picasso.

My friend H came by after work and we viewed the rest of the exhibit together. We managed to quickly glance through most of the art work before the museum closed at 9pm.

I was feeling a little hungry, so we had a quick dinner/night snack at Asqew Grill. I had eaten at their Steiner Street location in San Francisco and really enjoyed their skewers, but was frankly disappointed with the San Jose store. I ordered the Portobello mushroom skewers, which was served with citrus couscous . The grilled vegetables did not have any seasoning to it, and the soy berrre blanc sauce described on the menu tasted like soy sauce and did not bring alot of flavor to the dish. The portions seemed to have changed a little as well. I recalled the skewers were served with a starch and a creative side salad, but salad was not part of my meal.

I was happy San Jose Museum of Art was able to put together exhibitions by 3 world renowed artist. While their most representative works were not shown, one could still sense and appreciate the style of their work. I was also glad the reception successfully drew a large crowd of younger patrons. Maybe San Jose will be more cultured from now on!

Walt Disney Hall, Heifetz's studio, MOCA

I had wanted to visit the Walt Disney Hall after reading an article about it in Newsweek magazine. It was described in the article as a warm and inviting concert hall, even with the metallic shell. I had also read a lot about Frank Gehry, and had wanted to visit buildings designed by him.

We arrive at about 2pm and took the audio tour. We started the tour on the ground floor. The lobby was quite small, but according to the audio guide, all glass walls open so the sidewalk will feel like part of the lobby. Luckily this is Southern California, where it doesn't rain:) At this level is a beautiful bar made of layered glass. Also on this level is a small cafe with art deco like furniture and lights.

On the second floor has a nice design feature. A space call BP Hall was created for pre-concert talk and other less formal occasion. The space itself has wonderful curve wooden walls that tapered inwards at the top, which made the space while wide open, cosy.

Walt Disney Hall does not have much windows but uses lots of skylight to brighten up the space. According to the audio guide, this was carefully conceived such that at night, interior lighting from the hall can be seen from outside, giving the hall a warm glow.

We were allowed to visit the auditorium since there was no performance scheduled on the day we visited. Like most concert hall, the auditorium had a piped Organ. Unlike most piped organ, this one have non vertical pipes, creating a dynamic center piece for the hall. The auditorium itself is quite small, with more seating in the terrace and sides compare to Davies Symphony hall. Acoustic is rumoured to be excellent, but unfortunately on this trip, I did not have a chance to experience that.

The hall has a beautiful garden where an outdoor amphitheater has been constructed for open performance and outreach efforts. Between the back splash of the amphitheater and the main building is a cleverly design narrow walkway with tall metallic walls on both sides. The walls are curved, reminding me of narrow canyons.

Frank Gehry designed a beautiful flower sculpture as a tribute to Mrs Disney. A beautiful rose is created out of cement, with pieces of broken Delft pottery embedded in them to give it a light blue color when viewed from afar. Spaces between the petals were filled with water to make it a fountain, giving the sculpture movement and reflection.

Overall, Walt Disney Hall is a beautiful structure with many thoughtful touches like BP Hall and Outdoor amphitheater. Unlike other music center, it is not grand. While the look is modern, the clever use of wood and curve shapes made the space intimate and warm.

Diagonally across the street from Walt Disney Hall is the Colburn School. We stopped by to visit Jascha Heifetz's studio, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. I had thought Heifetz used to worked in one of the studios in the building, which was then preserved. Instead, a part of Heifetz's home was cut and move into Colburn school. The interior has the familiar Frank Lloyd Wright clean lines and oh-too-low furniture:)

The Museum of Contemporary Art is right next door to the Colburn School. We happened to walk into a Gordon Matta-Clark exhibition: You are the measure. I am not familiar with Gordon's work, but did enjoy the exhibition. My favorite exhibit was 3 walls of a house, cut into similar size. The outside of the walls are plain brick red roof title, and the other side showed the indoor details. An interesting play of lines on the house structure and contrast between the inside and outside of the house. Here are some pictures I found on the web for this work(1,2).

Gordon's doodles were another series which we enjoyed very much. There were doodles of plants with whimsical but aesthetic changes. One doodle can be found here.

The exhibition was reviewed by New York Times.

Other highlight of the visit includes a Jackson Pollock's painting.

We did not walk to the remote site as it was located in an iffy neighborhood and it was starting to get dark.

Dinner was at Checkers. This being a holiday weekend, the restaurant was deserted. When I read the menu, I was a little disappointed. It was not a very imaginative menu. However, the execution was superb. We started with simple salad. For entrees, I had the slow cook short ribs with polenta and my brother ordered the braised lamb shank with lentils. Both meat are very tender and flavorful. The short ribs has a hint of sweetness from the port wine reduction sauce and the mire poix bits on the dish adds a crunchy contrast to the fork tender meat. According to the wait staff, the restaurant recently went through a chef change, and the new executive chef is still working on the new menu. As such, I decided not to review the restaurant on Yelp.

After dinner, we decided to stop for drinks at Bonavista Bar, atop Westin Bonaventure. The novelty of a revolving restaurants/bars seems to have worn off these days. The only one in Bay Area, Equinox atop Hyatt Regency located at San Francisco's Embarcadero closed down in June this year. So, for me, it is actually a pleasant surprise.

View from this 35th floor revolving bar at night are mostly of the surrounding office buildings of major banks, some of which towers over the bar. This means there is limited visibility and one cannot quite see the mountains in background. For me, I enjoy cityscape and did not mind the obstruction. For more on the Bonavista Bar, please read my review on Yelp!

Bodyworlds 2 and the three pound gem

My friend Dave suggested going to the Bodyworlds exhibition at the Tech Museum of Innovation in San Jose. I had wanted to see this exhibit as well, so eagerly agreed.

We decided to pay for the audio tour since both of us do not know too much about human anatomy. The exhibits are a little gruesome since they were all made of actual human beings. These allow the exhibit to show details that recreation cannot easily accomplish.

Another aspect of the exhibition which I enjoy is how the make the exhibits relevant. The audio tour and exhibit will refer to diseases common seen in popular media and show the impact of the disease on the particular organ. I overheard a father told his teenage sons, "This is what your grandfather had." In this manner, the exhibit was interesting not just from a curiosity point of view, but also help people understand when a person contact a disease or injury, what was the resulting impact on the human body.

The unique process of creating the exhibit also presents a holistic view of the human body. When reading books and even watching documentaries, the human body always felt disconnected since the diagram was usually show only the bones, or only the organs, leaving one wondering, what is in between. 2 exhibits: the exploding man and the drawer man was especially effective in answering that question and provide a unique perspective to the human body that was unlike anything I have seen before.

There were some controversy about the full body exhibit, such as the baseball player or the ballerina. Personally, I think those full body exhibit have limited educational value, but was done in a tasteful manner that should not offend anyone.

At $22.50 for the admission and $4 for the audio tour, prices for the exhibition was a little steep, but in my opinion well worth it. We spent a total of 3.5 hours at the Tech and was able to cover everything, but felt that we could use a little more time.

Asian Art Museum and Banana Island

I like San Francisco, but don't consider it a great museum town. I sometimes to go for special exhibits, but felt the regular collection is not worth the time and effort.

The lone exception is probably the Asian Art Museum. So, when I found someone organizing a docent led tour at the Asian Art Museum, I signed up for the event.

The featured exhibits at Asian Art Museum are Hiroshi Sugimoto's "History of History" and Stylized Sculpture: Contemporary Japanese Fashion.

I arrived early and had a chance to wander about the museum before the docent led tour. The Japanese sections seem to have added new exhibits since my last visit. Interesting...I need to come back.

Our docent, Kaya, was an interesting lady. She was clearly enthusiastic but somehow unwilling to give direct interpretation of the art work we saw. There was a pendant with a ring of stylized fire sitting on a lotus flower base. In the ring was a photograph of a calm sea. Kaya pointed to the outer ring and said "History", then pointed to the photograph and said "Of History", then said no more. I could only take it to mean it was human history (the pendant) surrounding natural history (the photo of the sea).

There were several other exhibits that had similar theme. Fossils locked in a modern glass safe, jade pendants displayed inside a sterilizer and crystal balls inside a miniature pagoda. But there were also pictures of natural scenery which do not follow this pattern and Kaya also call them "History of history". I am confused.

The second part of the docent tour was for modern Japanese fashion. Kaya made a point about how kimono did not have size and adapted to the user by folding and tucking the fabric, especially resulting in a knot on the back. She told us to look for similar influences in modern Japanese fashion.

There were the usual spiky looking clothes but also several sensible looking clothes which was slightly oversized, but elegantly folded to form clean lines on the back. There was another dress which was more tubular in shape. A roll of excess fabric was form in the front of the dress, giving it a clean look with a little accent.

Then there were a few dress which not overly modern, but probably not pratical either. One example was the hunchback look, where the dress has a bough on the back to give the wearer a hunchback like look. Along the same line is the dress with a big bough on the behind, giving the wearer a snail like look.

After the docent led part of the tour, we ventured into the regular exhibit. Someone had wanted to see the central Asia exhibit, and I tagged along. I am very familiar with central Asian history and really enjoyed those exhibits.

As usual, I made dinner plans with friends living in the city whenever I visit. My friend S and I went to Banana Island in Daly City, a Singapore/Malaysian restaurant. Food was quite good, and I was amused by the chef stretching out the dough for roti prata. As a teenage, I would order the same dish and watch the chef stretch out the dough before frying it. Watching the chef do it in this restaurant brings back a lot of memories. For my detail review on this restaurant, please check Yelp!

Halloween at DC Cemetery

One thing that continues to amaze me even after all these years is how much effort, time and money people here would invest in their hobbies.

Case in point...DC Cemetery. I call it Halloween lawn decoration gone wrong:) For several years now, I always come here for my Halloween Haunted House fix.

In the front yard of a house, a few blocks away from Castro Street, in Mountain View, the owners had setup a haunted house complete with gates, and facade of a haunted castle in their front yard. That alone would have been impressive, but the owners had also installed various mechanical goodies.

There's a skeleton holding on to the railings and would periodically pull itself towards the railing, as if trying to get out. There's also a chained coffin which would make knocking sound and have its lid ajar, as if a ghost is trying to get it open. There's a skeleton playing piano, a ghost floating in a corner, glowing in the dark and a bat flying in another corner of the garden. New this year is the display of a tall ghost which stood up periodically, while smoke filled the air.

The owner collects no fees for the display, but do accept donations. Given how elaborate the puppets and decorations are, I would venture to say it's a net loss.

This year, Halloween falls on a Wednesday, so the crowd is smaller than years past. I hope there is enough donations to keep this tradition going...

Carnival, French Jewelry Exhibit at Legion of Honor

After some bargaining, K and I decided to go to San Francisco for Carnival and the French Jewelry exhibit at the Legion of Honor. I get to see scantily clad women, and she gets to see jewelry...something for everyone!

We were join by K's sister and cousin. Carpooled to the Mission, where crowd had already gathered. We squeeze our way between the people, got watch the parade from there.

This parade is a celebration of various Latin culture. I saw dancers in colorful Brazilian carnival costumes, doing the samba, people performing capoeira, Caribbean steel drum bands and several Mexican dance. The weather on this Memorial Day was too cold for the costumes many of the dancers were wearing, but they marched on bravely.

From Mission, we stopped for lunch at San Tung #2 in the Sunset district. K had invited a few more friends and we all enjoy a good lunch. See my review on Yelp for more details.

After lunch, the guys decided to check out a bar, while me and the ladies went to the Jewelery exhibition. I am not too familiar with jewelry as an art form, but the exhibits were very beautiful. There were some jewelry, clearly of the Art Nouveau style with its organic forms and the more stylistic art deco styles. The ladies were discussing what it would take for the significant others to buy them jewelry, while I wisely stayed out of those conversations:)

The ladies and me in the Legion of Honor museum ground. Sorry boys, all these fine ladies are taken!

Dinner was at Kan Zaman Cafe for Middle Eastern food with Belly Dancing. Check out my review on Yelp for more details.

An enjoyable Memorial day!