International NO Music Day

It would be great to continue this to No Cellphone Day, No Computer Day, No Car Day, No Complaining Day, No Eating Meat Day, No Bad Thoughts Day, No Drinking Alcohol Day, No Gossip Day, No TV Day, and perhaps even better to name it something more proactive like Try Something You've Always Wanted To Do Day, Talk Dirty To Your Lover Day, Draw Something Day, Write a Letter and Mail It Today, Call a Family Member Day, Buy Flowers Day, Park Day, Watercolor Day, Write a Grant for a Public Sculpture Day, Make Dinner for a Friend Day, Volunteer at the Pet Orphanage Day, Beach Clean Up Day, Eat Something You've Never Tried Day, Travel to a Certain District of Town You've Never Been to Day, Play an Instrument for an Hour or So Day, Read an Entire Book Day, Donate to a Charity Any Way You Can Day, Play Tennis Day, Wear Something Night Wear Daytime Day And See How It Makes You Feel Day... etc. Setting limitations is good to make you think differently. Have a good day.

The City as Social Museum

I'm ready to commit to you San Francisco, and get to the bottom of why your public is not engaging in ART. Whether it be at SFMoMa, Headlands, private gallery or non-profit, in the park, at the ocean, in the mountains.. I am going to invite YOU to participate because I know you have it and you want it.

Museums have always been instruments of power, but in San Francisco we are almost waiting for something to happen there. But let us question the role of the museum within the rigid operating system of art. Is it possible to counteract the hectic, superficial nature of short-lived exhibitions and encourage delights of deceleration and depth, or collect contemporary art without merely amassing objects that will soon be forgotten when the zeitgeist changes?

Can the museum bear witness to time by preserving a common history for itself and its public? It is now time to nominate for Bay Area Now at YBCA and the SECA nominees from the SFMoMa will be announced soon. When was the last time either of these awards really took risks or got you excited about Bay Area artists? They have either been too little too late or is this mirror of the best of the Bay Area disappointing in itself? Should we just start macrameting and becoming sommeliers?

Instead of espousing the myth of the museum as a neutral venue of pure being, let's collect transience. Let's collaborate with diverse artists to execute new works and pursue works in progress. Let's reference place and continuity, content and experience, and in-depth contact with the public. This exceptionally open framework appeals to artists; with the museum as their active partner, they accept and enjoy a greater responsibility within the public sphere. I will do my best to do my part. Gathering my nuts for the Winter. Bring it San Francisco. This is a call to arms.

Morrissey and the Quality of Accident

I had no idea he played at the Fillmore in SF not too long ago.. and I heard that he was wonderful, even more so than when he began his first solo career. I went to the Bona Drag and Kill Uncle tour, saw him in a chapel, (we proved our fanaticism and won our tix into that show, where Morrissey signed my jeans), and even went shopping with him and Gary Day at Horton Plaza in San Diego and basically, ended up talking about homelessness in America. We bootlegged our own xerox copies of tix to go to his big arena shows. We found out where his hotel was and strewn gladiolas all over their tour buses. That euphoria.. I know it's inside locked in age and the stakes are higher but it's still there. We never googled him, or read about him in the Sun, he never made the cover of Vogue. He is ultimately a hero of MINE.

Oil Spill Updater

Okay, today's update on the Cosco Busan Oil Spill:

We went to the volunteer training this morning for this specific spill that happened 10 days ago and received very thorough professional, community information from the National Park Society, Human Resources of the City of San Francisco, and an Industrial Toxicologist... Let's just say this morning brought out and signed up 1,400 new volunteers, which literally brought tears to my eyes. What would California be without its miraculous beaches, marshlands, habitats, and the people that really care about them? (Similiarly, I watched this town meeting in Seattle on KQED outraged at the Federal government loosening it's restrictions on monopolies for newspapers to buy television, radio in similiar markets, that's another story). We learned that as of today, the beaches specifically, OB, will be reopened soon. Maybe even tomorrow they will be deemed, "Clean". I myself, suggest that you take your surf down to Pacifica or Santa Cruz, because remnants of this sticky bunker oil can still be around in the water due to tides and a few surfers who ignored or were unaware of warnings were hospitalized this past week.

What's in the water?
Bunker oil- sticky dense oil that has trace carcinogens, most fumes have flown off into the atmosphere (yikes). Some who were exposed to the oil on their skin developed rashes. If you get any on you, they suggest soap and warm water to get it off or an alcohol based cleanser like those anti-bacterial nonwash gels.

What to do?
Don't go near it if you see any globules left somewhere. And don't come near or try to rescue wildlife that have oil on them. They've been traumatized enough. There's all these numbers to call on a new site for San Francisco www.www.sfgov.org/sf311

Bay clean up:
Apparently, it didnt affect the South East sector of the Bay marshlands but when they deployed hundreds of volunteers in that area, they cleaned up over 8,000 lbs. of debris, so the animals have a clean, safe place to migrate to if necessary, and they've never been cleaner.

My friend Charlie, used to ask us to accompany him down to the beach to collect those plastic flip lids for his art installations and I'd always come back w. two bags filled w. trash because I couldnt help but pick it up. If you go down there daytime, would be cool to at the end of your laxation to just bust out yr trash bag w. friends or your kids for like a few minutes and pick up some stuff. It gets kind of addicting actually once you start. You'd be surprised how many cups, plastic knives, cig butts, and styrofoam things you find blown up near the heathers.

You can also donate funds to the different organisations cleaning the wildlife, etc. on that site. Ps. the Trees look really good today, the fog or something just crazy LUSH. Just imagine if they were spotted in gross oil, how sad that would be or littered in the trees. Don't neglect our Bay.... FPXBN

Marie Antoinette's Style Guide for La Petit Trianon

This morning I woke up with anticipation to a glorious and mysterious drive up towards the Legion of Honor, one of the Fine Arts Museums in San Francisco. Perched on a seaside cliff at the end of a windy pathway through the golfcourses in the Presidio, men teeing off in the fog, and sighing with relief when I spotted the landmark waterfountain in front where little Asian kids in uniform plaids were wrestling and tugging on each other. I've been wanting to see the Rodin sculptures, craving this escape up here, but what finally brought me was a preview of Marie Antoinette's personal collection of commissioned clocks, lanterns, sofas and paintings from her private estate, one that was historically set aside for the mistresses of the French King, now her stylish countryside getaway, not from the king himself, but from the public eye. It wasn't a large collection, but after the furniture being auctioned off to Boston corn farmers or English aristocrats, her collection is slowly being restored and sought after by the Director of Versailles, who was a charming man who led the tour alongside the Curator of the Museum's Decorative Arts collection, his English accent and knowledge of every bronze gilded wreath, acorn and dog hair on her chairs made for a wonderfully delightful start to an art-filled day.. later spent with a Collector at a favorite Bruschetta Bar of mine, and then off to an arts presentation about Eliasson's HR2 vehicle development. Lots of rotating spheres... and a soothing Danish accent sort of led me to nod off a bit. But back for the Ant Farm and Buckminster Fuller lectures (possibly) this evening, all at SFMoMa.

Anyhow...
If you're interested in the decadent and complex lives of queens, the Legion of Honor is screening films about La Reine's from all periods with dinner reservations. From Elizabeth w. Cate Blanchett, and yes, of course, Coppala's Marie Antoinette to other documentaries, illustrating the full thrust of how public life for royals can be a fulltime occupation as we saw in The Queen last year, the pressure, alongside its power, of how one may focus one's attention to political duty, and one's people, or a dress collection will be up for your discussion or pure entertainment value.


FAMSF.org

Sic Alps US Tour Doc

LOVE!!!!!

PFA film schedule for Winter

East Bay and West Bay.. Pacific Film Archives programming is so underrated. If you're looking for something to do indoors, there are so many amazing films up right now... Chaplin to Passolini. Check their site for scheduling.

Have a Gentle Day

obNoxious fumes

Gas prices are ridiculous in San Francisco. $3.74 USD... It's comparable to Britain without the strength of the British pound to pay for it. Historically, we've been the most expensive city to buy gasoline in the US. And why is that? I'm going to myspace Mayor Newsom and see what his reply is...ps. What is he doing about the oil spill in the Bay.. why is it left to beach volunteers??

Pretty Much at the SFMoMa

It's rare that a Museum can be spot on with every aspect of an exhibition-the lighting might be too hot or off angle, the sculptures might be too tall for the scale of a room, or perhaps the painting department is strong but the photography is, meh.. After a month of just envying the raucous felt from New York's Fall kick off and second annual Performa buzz, the SFMoMa tonight volleyed its weight and hit every nail on the nose with its current exhibitions in every department.
The Design and Architecture Department houses an almost surreal frozen BMW by Olafur Eliasson with his distinct neon yellow beaming from below the stainless steel exoskeleton like a modern day Christine from Stephen King's novel. The Modernist permanent collection shook off its dust and looked so fresh it could have fooled me as a solid contemporary show. Groupings of artworks by one artist resonated seamlessly to the others in its proximity, echoing either its color scheme, or complementing its subject matter. Walking through the galleries became a lucid experience of joy. For example, a few electrifying Yves Klein paintings and a scultpure in one corner bled into a sublime cerulean Mark Rothko painting whose dense abyss emerged into a brilliant orange abstract sunset. Unusually muted Philip Guston paintings, let the room breathe leading your eye to a delightful Dali sculpture of a red Dorothy shoe filled with marble squares, hairs and brass twining on a plinth that made you feel like a kid gawking at unusual creatures at the Bay Aquarium. Around the corner, Alexander Calder's sculptures and merry mobiles playfully interacted with the contours of a glowing Hans Arp bronze. Three minimal white Robert Rauschenberg panels are lit by a blue neon Dan Flavin jetting up at a 45 degree angle. I imagined for a moment that the Flavin could have been a glorious beacon in the night lighting pristine white futuristic architecture as public sculpture if the glowstick were thirty times its original height. Jeff Wall's lightboxes were perfect in scale to the museum walls. My standing ovation goes to SFMoMA building architect, Mario Botta, for anyone who knows a museum's layout can make or break its exhibition designs. The SFMoMA building is like a comfortable modern home. It is sleek but doesn't shout at you or make you uneasy. Although, the bridge on the Fifth floor where Matthew Barney's permanent Drawing Restraint lives is a doozy, rightfully so. Not to fret, as one can easily be distracted by the Eliasson nano-lacquered tunnel temporarily canopied above the footbridge. (Look up, unless you live for vertigo tingles in your fingertips). I was only once claustrophobic when accosted by about nine of Wall's gigantic lightboxes in one room together. The most recent SFMoMa acquisition (pictured above) is an exquisite piece and didn't make any fanfare announcements of its arrival. A silk yarn sculpture by Teresita Fernandez. Elegant, whimsical and breathtaking, it lives in its own room, complemented by a few graphite drawings that reflected similar subject matter, string and rubbery bits. That was kind of pushing the limit of exhibition design, but I accepted it. Okay, someone was on a roll. But the blue ribbon winner for the evening went to the Douglas Gordon exhibition room which I spent over an hour and a half with. Well, I was waiting to go to the New Langton auction later that evening as well, but this room kept me entertained regardless. Titled, "Pretty Much Every Film and Video Work from 1992 until Now", the room was painted black and tv's were perched on plinths of every size, lining every wall. I felt like I was in David Bowie's living room in "The Man Who Fell to Earth" or Chris Marker's "La Jetee" or even in the privacy of my own home where I have itunes opened, youtube, myspace, the television and a call on the phone going simultaneously. Every visual and audio sensory stimulated and engaged. Some videos had headphones, some were silent. I sat for a long time listening to Gordon sing acapella, Lou Reed and the Velvet Underground, which I've been indulging in this Winter, but you can watch other videos in the room too while on the headphones to alter the experience. There was Captain Kirk flirting with all types of glamorous space ladies, an elephant on HD lying around, walking around and blinking, The Excorcist overlayed with a Christian black and white bible thumping film. Even the museum goers in the dark room added to the enigma. It made me feel like I was living in an art piece somewhere between a Todd Hido photograph and that scene in Nightmare on Elmstreet 3 where the patient gets sucked into the TV in the mental ward. The room itself was compelling, eerie, and felt very 70's family room with square cushion chairs, and old monitors. There were scenes from TV, cinema noir, voyeuristic performances of Gordon taping his face, painting his hand with a sharpie. It was gross and it was TV at its most magnetic. I couldn't turn away. There was a video of a lady stripping with an enormous rack and I caught people watching it but feeling ashamed and trying to look past it. When the late night Thursday crowd entered they felt so at ease in the room they just started chatting as if it were a lounge. I had to shhhhsh them, but...I had to. If their jokes were funny, maybe I'd let them chit chat. But it was like, "Dude, I can do that", kind of jibberish. Kudos to all the curators and installation staff. The SFMoMA looks handsome as ever. You know it's a good sign when it keeps you there. Oh, and their education lounge is showing films about the artists work on display. It's not just for kids anymore, although I couldn't get the docents to fix the Jeff Wall artist talk video to save my life. Another story.
Well, later on, over at New Langton which I was fashionably late to, the Catherine Wagner photo was the piece to bid on. It was, coincidentally, an homage to Yves Klein. No, after, I didn't go the Avant Guardian party, or Kaila's birthday, or to see M.I.A. I had a quiet dinner at a German restaurant adorned with fantastic wreaths of dried flowers and caught up with a friend. Tomorrow night is Lucy McKenzie's opening, Friday at the SFMoMA. Her friend's boutique is part of the installation, so if you don't have anything to wear, well, you can just buy something off the rack. How cool is that?