Work of Art; plus earthquakes and books

So I ilke competitive reality TV shows and thanks to my friend Eric R. I've gotten interested in the creative ones that started with Project Runway. The newest in that family was Work of Art, which premiered last year. Kimberly and I watched the first series, and generally enjoyed it. It wasn't quite as cohesive as Project Runway, because there were lots of different types of artists, and even more frequently than with P.R., we felt like The Emperor's New Artwork was being produced--absolute crap that the judges all said was good because they thought they should say it was good. But, there was a lot of creativity that was fun to watch and it was interesting to briefly meet this creative people. And some stuff that was created was quite good.

I have no doubt that the producers of Work of Art thought that their breakout character from last season was Miles, a somewhat neurotic artist who created a photo developing room for his first task and later used blowtorches and other tools to create his art, sometimes even creating apparatus which themselves formed his artwork.

And they seem to have taken that to heart for Work of Art 2, bringing in scads of weirdos, almost none of whom are working in traditional art forms to date. Two of them even had no depth: one who solely did work that looked like internal organs and another who did long lines of Mayan-like runic corridors. Not surprisingly, they were the first two to go, as they had no ability to respond to the challenges, but I really have to question why they were ever picked in the first place. Tonight Kimberly and I watched the second episode, and everyone and their brother was using hardcore tools, really underlying the fact that the show seems to have changed from from a show about art to much more random creativity.

I mean, I think the bottom three pieces of "art" in this last episode speak for themselves: a videotape of organ-like objects being tossed onto the ground; a garbage bag of shredded paper; and a barrel with painted hose around it several feet from a hand on a wall. Modern Art at its absolute worst.

Not really that pleased with the show this season as a result. I'm tempted to give the rest of the season a pass, and maybe come back next season if they have a more reasonable group of artists. But, maybe it gets one more week to see if it redeems itself or if the next episode leaves a bad taste in my mouth too.

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In other news: Berkeley beset by eartquakes lately. But, I don't think tiny one we just had (the third noticeable one in two days) ended the world like ye-old-religious-crazy said would happen. A local Berkeley crazy who has been diligently counting the days all summer will be bitterly disappointed.

Lucy really doesn't like all the quakes.

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In other, other news: Designers & Dragons is out!! I got a few copies in the mail on Wednesday and then got a call from a friend this evening, who'd seen them at a local game store. Endgame says theirs will be in on Tuesday, though only 8 are still available.

A Very San Francisco Day

There was no Saturday gaming today and Kimberly's usual plans were cancelled too, so we planned to go out to San Francisco. We headed out after lunch and took BART to 24th & Mission. I needed some new shoes (because I walk through the soles of all my shoes), which I got quickly a few blocks from BART, and then we headed southward with the intent of touring the murals of the Mission District.

Our first stop was Precita Eyes which has maps of most of the murals and told us where we should go. We picked up a map and then spent the next few hours walking up and down 24th and over to nearby streets. I thought the most impressive stop was a playground on 24th which had murals on the walls of the surrounding buildings that delineated the playground. But, it was actually the mosaics that attracted me more. There was a beautiful waterfall mosaic on one wall and a totally awesome snake covered in mosaic tiles that ran through the ground:

As I told Kimberly, we should do the Mosaic Walking Tour instead, some time. If there is one.

But there were murals aplenty as well. We probably saw 30-40 total, some good, some bad, some recent, some 40 years old, some monotone, some colorful. It was well worth the trip and we still only saws a fraction of the murals in the area. Here was one I took a picture of. I liked the flaming angel (right). Kimberly was amused by the angry fish (left):



It was a surprisingly hot day in San Francisco, and after a few hours walking around we were tired enough to quit with the walking and instead BART to our next stop, and the main goal of our San Francisco trip: the San Francisco Main Library. Kimberly wanted to get a library card, so she could check out eBooks. I got one too, because maybe it'll be of use at some point. 

While at the library, I decided to explore the whole building, because I like wandering around and looking at different library buildings. It's an impressive 6-story building right in the middle of downtown San Francisco. It makes great use of its location, which big windows along lots of the outside walls showing terrific views. Though there was some neat views of City Hall and such, this one amused me the most, because the sign you can see through the window was really only visible from the library:



It's not entirely visible at this resolution, but it's an ad for a nearby Subway for hungry library patrons.

The inside of the library has great views too, because it's all built around an atrium, which is a six-story shaft that drops straight through the building. It's wonderful and airy and awe-inspiring.



One interesting bit while I wandered around: I kept hearing screaming whenever I neared the atrium. I figured it was kids being brats, but Kimberly (who was resting on the 3rd floor) later told it was a woman who'd locked herself in a bathroom and then started screaming when library staff tried to extract her. Weird.

I also browsed the books a bit, and thought the library's fiction collection was very good (maybe as much as 2x the Berkeley main for general fiction, but more comparable numbers for individual genres) and that its graphic novel collection was very inadequate (almost all manga, with classics like Sandman and Watchmen not showing up at all). However, its non-fiction was totally awe-inspiring, especially in individual categories that had special rooms set aside, like eco studies, gay studies, etc.

After that we headed over to Carl's Jr. for dinner (mainly because Kimberly's mom had sent us a coupon book, which allowed us to get two dinners for about $9 total). The guys at the counter were somewhat befuddled for coupons which I've found to be increasingly the case in the modern day. Also weird..

And then we went home. I'm pretty physically exhausted, which I hope will let me get to bed earlier than usual tonight. Because we still haven't gotten groceries for the week, and I'd like to before lunch tomorrow.