mike k in l.a.

I hope everybody had a safe and happy New Year celebration, and is enjoying the first week of 2008!

I’ve spent the past week here at Tammy’s apartment in the Mission. The experience has been different from the usual visit, because much of the beginning of it involved moving/cleaning. But overall it’s been really enjoyable. Seeing some of my other friends has also been an added bonus.

Out of the many things we’ve done, a couple have stood out. Haight/Ashberry was interesting and certainly charming, but damn, did I ever feel totally un-hip after attempting to shop there. It’s my own damn fault for refusing to spend $100 on some allover print hoodie and neon pink sunglasses. Which way is the GAP? There’s an Amoeba Music there too, which was huge and awesome.
JapanTown was excellent as usual. I’d say it’s even better than LA’s Little Tokyo. Much bigger and cleaner with more stores. The inside of the mall areas reminded me alot of the winding hallways of many of Tokyo’s larger subway stations (ramen shops, etc.). Okay, Art stuff:

Amisha gave me a VIP tour of The Exploratorium, which was really fun, but somewhat stressful at the same time. The space is really large and was packed to the rafters with screaming children on field trips. I felt bad wanting to shove them out of the way to play with the exhibits because they’re sort of the primary audience. . . But the exhibits were very cool. How could they not be? One great thing about the space is that the woodshop where some of the exhibits are made features very prominently as part of the museum, with clear walls to observe how things get made.

The Olafur Eliasson show at SFMOMA was as great as everybody told me it was. I don’t really intend to write a detailed review of the show, but suffice it to say that it was simply delightful. His work is always really impressive, fun and experiential. One highlight, was a room full of models, tests and experiments made of various cheap/raw materials. It was a bit like peaking into his studio. Seeing this sort of process work featured as a major part of the exhibition was great because it emphasized the importance of testing, iteration and failure, in my opinion. It was a good reminder to myself never forget how important process is. Then, there was an ice sculpture/car piece that I didn’t quite understand. I mean to say, I read the description and understand the political significance of doing it…But admittedly, it seems a bit “bloated” when compared to the other pieces which as you can imagine, are very simple, elegant and beautiful.

I got to meet Craig Baldwin, which was an unexpected surprise. One of my classmates and former student of his, took me to his studio/exhibition space (ATA) on Valencia to meet him. Having watched his films in college, I was nerding out a little bit and didn’t talk much. But I didn’t really need to because Baldwin was already quite excitable and talkative. He went into detail about the new film he’s working on (all about Scientology myths and scandals, and much much more!) and showed us around his crazy, messy studio space (which made perfect sense to him), including his massive, massive film archive, which is modestly crammed into a room in his basement. AMAZING. He’ll be lecturing at D|MA this fall as part of our grad “curated” lecture series. I’ll report on that when it comes!

That’s all that comes to mind for now. Now i’ll just blurt out some other great stuff; mostly places i’ve eaten. “Mission Pie” makes great…pie. We had a lovely breakfast there on New Years Day. Dogeared Books, Needles and Pens (DIY goods) and Aquarius Records on Valencia are all awesome establishments. David showed me an awesome alley full of wall paintings (Clarion Alley) that I would never have found on my own. Philz Coffee is my new favorite place to get coffee. I bought a pound of one of their many delicious handmade blends to take back to LA. Oh, and don’t ride on the rails. Dangerous!

San Francisco is a great city; You can get around without a car, people are interesting, Mexican food is amazing, and so on and so on. And now my girlfriend and best friends live here! What more could a guy ask for?

I’ll add pictures after I upload them.