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kate_nepveuI was halfway through a chatty, fairly detailed trip report, but I am really tired today and work has come crashing down on me. So you're getting a minimalist version, though I'll keep a few paragraphs.
San Francisco, Friday August 13 to Tuesday August 17:
- Travel:
- Getting tagged for the random additional security screening makes my skin crawl. It didn't used to, and the people were very nice (if puzzled by the ice scraper I'd forgotten I had in my bag, because it was San Francisco), but my awareness that they could be arbitrary tyrants if they wanted and there's very little I could do, well.
- Also, you can't check in online if you've been tagged for screening, which is stupid and annoying, because you can check in at a kiosk.
- San Francisco Airport's United section has pathetic food options.
- I do not recommend the Hotel Shattuck in Berkeley.
- Yay, iPod.
- Tourism:
- The Asian Art Museum is
huge, really excellent, and highly recommended. Not only does it
have remarkable breadth and depth, better than the Met's sections
that we saw a few months ago, but the explanatory texts are, I
think, the best I've ever seen in a museum. They were very clear,
had excellent historical context, and also placed the items in
context with each other: "the statute behind you is the
same deity carved seven hundred years later; compare X, Y, and Z,"
that kind of thing. They explained a lot of things I'd always
wondered about, such as a series on visual puns in Chinese art
(with a panel just on "good luck on your civil service exams"
puns). I really encourage people to go see it, it's worth it.
We also went through the special exhibition Geisha: Beyond the Painted Smile. It was also a perfectly good exhibit, the subject matter just gives me hives. It was an object lesson in how beauty is culturally constructed: at one point, it was fashionable for women to black their teeth and paint their lower lips green.
- Boalt Hall (the law school at Berekeley) is an excellent school. It's really too bad its facilities aren't the same. (We were visiting Chad's sister who's a student there.)
- The walk from the Civic Center BART up Market isn't very nice. The cable cars are appallingly crowded. Taking a cab up to Fisherman's Wharf is the equivalent of taking your life in your hands.
- Yes, I know Fisherman's Wharf is a tourist trap. Horrible, crowded, tacky, yes, yes. However: the sea lions at Pier 39 are the Best Thing Ever. I'm serious, you have to go see them. Words cannot express how cool and fun they are. SF Gate article with lots of information; webcam.
- There are several cool ships that you can inexpensively tour at the Wharf: S.S. Jeremiah O'Brien, a WWII cargo ship; Eureka, a big passenger ferry discontinued when the Golden Gate Bridge opened; and the Balclutha, a full-rigged ship with a steel hull.
- The Asian Art Museum is
huge, really excellent, and highly recommended. Not only does it
have remarkable breadth and depth, better than the Met's sections
that we saw a few months ago, but the explanatory texts are, I
think, the best I've ever seen in a museum. They were very clear,
had excellent historical context, and also placed the items in
context with each other: "the statute behind you is the
same deity carved seven hundred years later; compare X, Y, and Z,"
that kind of thing. They explained a lot of things I'd always
wondered about, such as a series on visual puns in Chinese art
(with a panel just on "good luck on your civil service exams"
puns). I really encourage people to go see it, it's worth it.
- Food:
- XOX Truffles are the best thing ever that isn't sea lions. We happened across them on Columbus purely by chance, bought a couple for the walk, and after I put the first one in my mouth I said, "I have to go back and buy a whole box." (They're much cheaper if bought in person, too: $7 for 20 in a little paper take-out box.)
- Skates on the Bay has excellent food and an excellent view.
- Socializing: lots. Saw/met Chad's sister, A. who lives with her, Chad's godmother and family, Chad's great-uncle and great-aunt (one of), one of Chad's college friends and his girlfriend, and Tom Whitmore at the Other Change of Hobbit.
Since then:
I've either been sluggish, or distracted by the Olympics (which I'm quite enjoying; the cable coverage is good, and NBC is much less annoying this year), or wasting time re-doing the book log, or (today) very tired and stressed. I'll be better once I can get my brain in gear and start thwacking work into submission.
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no subject
Date: 2004-08-23 06:29 pm (UTC)Glad to hear that you had an interesting trip. Thanks for sharing your thoughts on the Asian Art Museum, especially; I have to pick up houseguests in a few hours, and the AAM has free admission the first Tue of each month....
no subject
Date: 2004-08-23 06:41 pm (UTC)Re: Boalt: I'm surprised it can't get some alums to pony up for renovations of the inside at least. I was appalled to hear that first-years had to either hand-write their exams, or buy and use their own _typewriters_, because they don't have facilities for everyone to use laptops. I realize that older alums are probably not so sympathetic about this, but still.
no subject
Date: 2004-08-23 07:01 pm (UTC)The facilities issue is campus-wide, though. I wonder how soon and to what extent UCB's shiny status will slide, since technological infrastructure is increasingly important for students as well as instructors. UCLA rents laptops hourly to its students (any level/program) for use in a library, for example, whereas UCB so cannot afford to start or maintain that kind of service, the way things are currently set up.
no subject
Date: 2004-08-23 07:39 pm (UTC)(I'm hoping you'll still do the long, chatty trip report when you have time and energy.)
I'm glad you enjoyed the Asian Art Museum. That was a discovery we made simply because we'd bought the CityPass; we probably would have overlooked it otherwise, which would have been an absolute shame.
Amusing traveling exhibit note: we saw the Geisha exhibit at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem; now it's in SF. We saw the Art Deco exhibit in SF; it's now at the MFA in Boston. (We'll probably go to see it again now that it's in town. For that matter, any Worldcon attendees who want to see it?) Side note to this: the new PEM is beautiful, and Boston visitors who have an afternoon or more to spare should head up to Salem.
The sea lions are cool (though smelly) and I still wish they were back at their old stomping grounds at Seal Rocks, instead of lying on man-made floats behind tacky souvenir shops....
no subject
Date: 2004-08-24 08:36 am (UTC)I don't know where Seal Rocks are, but if you couldn't get as close, I think the Wharf is a better bet. And yeah, they are smelly and noisy, but the upper balcony is a good balance for observation. And they are _so_ _cool_.
no subject
Date: 2004-08-23 09:35 pm (UTC)XOX Truffles are the best thing ever that isn't sea lions.
What do sea lions taste like?
no subject
Date: 2004-08-24 08:37 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-08-24 01:06 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-08-24 12:06 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-08-28 02:30 pm (UTC)--Trent
no subject
Date: 2004-08-29 06:44 am (UTC)Sorry about that.
no subject
Date: 2004-08-29 01:06 pm (UTC)Oh, and have a great time at WorldCon. I expect a big, juicy report, since I've never been to a Con, much less a WorldCon....
--Trent