Basilico and Eliasson at SFMOMA

It has been an incredibly warm summer-like weekend here in San Francisco, and I took advantage to explore both my neighborhood and the surrounding areas on foot. Today those wanderings included another visit to the SFMOMA (San Francisco Museum of Modern Art).

The featured photography exhibit of Gabriele Basilico was incredibly in turn with my own recent experience in San Francisco, and my interest in highways and industrial landscapes as expressed here on CatSynth. Indeed, it was the perfect exhibition to complement this weekend – it was been incredibly warm and summer-like, and I have been exploring my neighborhood and the surrounding areas on foot. And the title image of the I-80 and US 101 split, shown to the right, is very similar to a photo from Wikipedia that I cut from my recent Super Tuesday article:

The exhibition includes several other photos of San Francisco highways as well as other familiar images from my SOMA neighborhood, and from the towns in Silicon Valley. From the museum’s statement:

This exhibition presents a series of nearly 50 black-and-white and color photographs taken by Basilico at the invitation of SFMOMA during a monthlong residency in the Bay Area last summer…This exhibition will be the first of an ongoing project focused on Silicon Valley, in which artists will document the area on film. Basilico?s objective style and affinity for observing marginalized urban settings in a classical mode promises a compelling counterpoint to future installments in the project.

This of course inspires me to do more of my own work along these lines. I could probably fill Worldess Wednesday for the rest of the year just with photos of the city.

The next exhibition takes us from the amazingly timely to something “out of time.” Indeed, the title of Olafur Eliasson’s “Take Your Time” exhorts us to suspend our sense of time and enter a world purely of color, light and geometry. The tunnel (on SFMOMA’s fifth-floor catwalk) sets the tone for the exhibit, with color planes, plays on light, and complex but analytical geometric figures.

Challenging the passive nature of traditional art-viewing, he engages the observer as an active participant, using tangible elements such as temperature, moisture, aroma, and light to generate physical sensations.

Eliasson’s pieces also include a room entirely of yellow lamps reminiscent of the sodium street lamps used in places like San Jose, a screen of rippling light that responds to viewers’ movements on the floorboards, and a walk-in geometric figure of mirrors. To really get the most out of these works, one has to “suspend time” and explore them in detail, even though they are devoid of what we usually think of as “detail” (and what I usually try to avoid in art and design). Of course, that can be challenging on a crowded Sunday afternoon. But not impossible, if you take your time.

This article is included in the February 13 Carnival of Cities.

Weekend Cat Blogging: Embracing Modernism

As we continue to adjust to our new life, we see Luna exploring our new surroundings:

The sun has finally shown up as well.

With all the additional space, I have been free to push the modern glass-and-metal look that I have always wanted. And the architecture of our home supports that with its own modernist features:

Luna's sleek elegance fits into the design as well. And she seems to enjoy it. She will make a great city cat.

Appropriately, our bohemian kitty friends Kashim and Othello are hosting Weekend Cat Blogging.

The Bad Kitty Cat Festival of Chaos is at The Cat Blogosphere. The Carnival of the Cats is being hosted by Pet and the Bengal Brats at Pet?s Garden Blog. And of course the Friday Ark is at the modulator.

Super Tuesday Fun with Highways: I-80

So how to continue our “primary highway series” when so many states are voting at once? Well, we can't visit them all, but we touch several important places with a trip along Interstate 80. I-80 runs the entire width of United States connecting New York City to San Francisco, two cities to which I have connections. In between New York and California, it crosses three other states voting this Tuesday: New Jersey, Illinois and Utah. We have already visited two other states crossed by I-80, Iowa and Nevada, during earlier contests.

Actually, I-80 never enters New York. Rather, its eastern end is in Teaneck, a town on the New Jersey side of the George Washington Bridge:

It would have been cool if I-80 crossed the bridge along with I-95 into New York. Perhaps then splitting at the Bruckner Interchange in the Bronx (yes, I had to get the Bruckner Interchange into this article) before heading out to Long Island.

North of New York City is Chappaqua, “hometown of CatSynth and Hillary Clinton,” as I have mentioned a few times on this site. And while it is my hometown in that I grew up there, Hillary's original hometown is a little bit west of New York and New Jersey, in Chicago. But of course you can get there by heading west on I-80, which passes through Chicago's southern suburbs.

Chicago is all the home of Barack Obama. So we have two candidates with Chicago roots, either of whom I would be very happy to support.

What a strange position to be in, to have such a choice – and I admit I have had a hard time deciding. There are historic opportunities with each, connections to various aspects of my own life (geography, education, mixed heritage). I guess it's much better than 2004 when I was excited about no one.

Traveling further west along I-80, we eventually come to Utah, a place of striking natural beauty that I would love to visit again soon. In the south are canyons, stone formations and other wonders of the southwest. In the north, along I-80, are the Great Salt Lake and the Bonneville Salt Flats:


[Click to enlarge]

When they say salt flats they mean flat. It is an incredibly stark landscape, and that's part of what makes a great experience. And the silence. Longtime readers know how such things appeal to my personal and aesthetic sensibilities. Although I have been to the Great Salt Lake, I did not get to see Robert Smithson's Spiral Jetty, which is considered a major work of modern American art, and which I have seen reproduced countless times.

Heading further west, we cross Nevada and then arrive in California, where I-80 crosses the Bay Bridge into San Francisco, my new hometown.

I-80 actually ends as the western approach of the Bay Bridge, although most people (and road signs) suggest that it continues into San Francisco to US 101. This section of freeway actually cuts through my South-of-Market (SOMA) neighborhood, contributing to its urban, industrial feel.


[Click to enlarge]

I did manage to find my polling place, and will soon have to make a choice as this election season reaches home. But it is great that those of us in California finally get to make a difference. Same for the folks in New York, New Jersey, Illinois and Utah. So many of us have had very little opportunity to actually have a say in the process, long dominated by Iowa and New Hampshire and the South. The rest of the country will finally have to listen to the people in our major urban centers and in the west. And I'll be satisfied with whomever we end up choosing (at least in one party).

Weekend Cat Blogging: The Move-in

Well, it's now been a week since the big move to San Francisco.

Luna arrived last Sunday, after a spending a few days safely away from the commotion in the care of the folks at Kitty Hill Resort for Cats in Santa Cruz. It was a great place to board her, with nice large quiet rooms. But it's not home.

The trip up was difficult. And Luna was of course frightened the first evening, mostly hiding behind boxes. But eventually she ventured out to explore, and found some new interesting places:

Here she looks out from several of our balconies that overlook the cavernous main space below:

Yes, we still have quite a bit of work to do here to get set up. But that hasn't stopped Luna from claiming this comfy rocking chair in the loft as her new favorite spot:

When I come upstairs, there is a decent chance I will find her sitting there, or napping. With some effort, I have managed to convince her to share it. Indeed, we are both enjoying the chair right now.

Weekend Cat Blogging is being hosted on this Groundhog Day by Katie and a rather agape Puddy at A Bytootaful Life. Check out Puddy's photos and the round up.

The Bad Kitty Cats Festival of Chaos goes home to Megan and Zed Monster at the Bad Kitty Cats.

The Carnival of the Cats is going to be with the “Meowers of Death” at When Cats Attack this Sunday. And of course the Friday Ark is hosted by modulator.

Upcoming radio and live shows

I am happy to announce several upcoming shows with Polly Moller and Company. Our group consists of Polly Moller (flute, bass flute, & voice), Jim Carr (bass), Amar Chaudhary (electronica), and Bill Wolter (guitar).

February 2, 2008. 3PM. KFJC 89.7 FM.
Polly Moller & Co. will play live in the Pit on Nozmo Kingâ??s Saturday afternoon show.
Listen live on www.kfjc.org!

February 5, 2008. 8PM. 1510 8th St Performance Space, Oakland, CA.
Matt Davignon and Les Hutchins will interweave their amazing electronic sounds at 8:00 p.m., followed by Polly Moller & Co.

February 7, 2008. 8PM. Luggage Store Gallery, 1007 Market Street @ 6th Street, San Francisco.
8:00 p.m. – Karl Evangelista, solo guitar
9:00 p.m. – Polly Moller & Co.
$6.00 – $10.00.
My first show as a resident of San Francisco!

Foreclosures lead to abandoned animals

Another sad aspect of the current real-estate crisis: abandoned pets. From AP:

Pets “are getting dumped all over,” said Traci Jennings, president of the Humane Society of Stanislaus County in northern California. “Farmers are finding dogs dumped on their grazing grounds, while house cats are showing up in wild cat colonies.”…In one such colony in Modesto, two obviously tame cats watched alone from a distance as a group of feral cats devoured a pile of dry food Jennings offered.

“These are obviously abandoned cats,” Jennings said. “They're not afraid of people, and they stay away from the feral cats because they're ostracized by them.”

Stanislaus County, which contains the town of Modesto, is in the Central Valley of California, a region hit hard by foreclosures.

I think about how much effort went into moving Luna to our new home, making sure that she was safe and cared for, and helping her adjust. To just leave a loved pet behind is unthinkable. While a lot of ire about the current real-estate problems is rightly aimed at speculators and financial institutions, the homeowners are responsible for abandoning their pets. And thus they are not getting a lot of sympathy in some corners:

Bloggers are furious with the “foreclosure pet” phenomenon, especially after seeing photos of emaciated animals on the Internet. Some critics say the pet owners have already proved they are irresponsible by buying houses they could not afford or mortgages they did not bother to understand.

“They see a pet as property, no different than a worn sofa tossed into the alley when the springs pop,” says a posting about foreclosure pets on About.com.

I also contrast these people abandoning their pets in foreclosures to those who lost their homes, and their pets, in hurricane Katrina. Many of them wanted to evacuate their pets but were prevented from doing so; some stayed behind to protect their animal companions. Those facing foreclosure have advanced notice, and no government force preventing them from seeing that their animals are cared for. And simply did nothing.

Their best shot is for the owners to plan ahead some,” Jennings said. “But they didn't plan when they bought their house. I don't see that happening anytime soon.”

We at CatSynth think pets are family, you don't just abandon them. We don't excuse violence or abuse because of financial hardship (even though some others out there do), so why should we see abandonment differently? Even in the situation where one cannot bring pets, such as when moving in with family or a strict rental, at least make an effort to find them new homes.

As a last resort, at least bring them to a shelter, where they may be adopted. Luna was adopted from the animal shelter in Santa Cruz, perhaps after her previous humans moved but couldn't bring her along. We hope that at least some of the animals caught in this crisis, there is a happy ending.

Florida (Miami Beach)

We emerge from our brief hiatus to resume our campaign-highways series. Tonight we visit Florida, focusing in on Miami Beach:

Miami (which is a separate city from Miami Beach) is the southern terminus of I-95, the big north-south highway on the east coast of the US. It just sort of comes to an end at a ramp onto US 1. Much like the campaign of Rudy Giuliani. Somehow he figured he could cruise down I-95 and hang out in Florida while other actual contests were going on, and still win. I'd like to think his defeat wasn't just this rather dumb strategy, but also the rest of the country getting to know the real Giuliani that we knew in New York, without the 9-11 veneer. The man was a psycho and always needed someone to go after. That included things so integral to New York as pedestrians. Not to mention the racial tensions, the tabloid personal life. His concession speech after losing his first bid for mayor included “Ladies and gentlemen, will you please shut up!” Actually, I thought that was kinda cute. But I doubt the rest of the country would feel that way.

Interestingly, I was last in Miami during the 2004 election. Sitting in a pub and watching W get re-elected was a major downer for myself and my colleagues at the conference I was attending. But there was still plenty to do that well. A day later, we were heading downtown, over the I-395 causeway over to Miami Beach, and into the heart of the South Beach Art Deco district for an evening fun and entertainment.

I can't recall the live music being all that great. But you can't go wrong with drinks and good company. And it's warm at night in November. And the water was warm enough to swim in. How cool is that? Here in California, it gets cold at night. And the water is always cold.

The main drag through Miami Beach is Collins Avenue, part of Florida Highway A1A. A1A actually spans the length of Florida's Atlantic coast, passing through towns and beaches. It would be interesting to compare to our own Highway 1 along the Pacific coast in California. The coasts are so different, not only in climate, but in culture and history and natural terrain. Less of the spectacular cliffs and pristine natural beaches, and more private development. But it's not without its charm, and the water is warm enough to swim. Add it to the growing list of road trips not yet taken.