L@TE Friday Nights @ BAM/PFA

The Berkeley Art Museum is decamping from its 1970 building on Bancroft Street to a repurposed building on Addison Street near the BART station in 2014. A structural analysis in 1997 found that the modernist concrete structure was "seismically inadequate," so they braced the building enough to possibly withstand a good shaking until a new museum could be created.



In the meantime, a Friday evening series of concerts, film showings, light shows, jazz jams and other events have been happening in the space for the last three years. They always sound fascinating on paper, particularly those curated by Sarah Cahill (above), but since I am lazy and never get to Berkeley, last Friday's concert was my first.



The biggest concern was that the high, open space of the museum would be an acoustical dead zone, like Wilsey Court in the deYoung Museum, or the lobby of SFMOMA, or the Green Room in the San Francisco Veterans Building. Instead, the dynamically shaped blocks of concrete at the Berkeley Art Museum ended up creating something of an acoustical shell that happily bounced the sound back to the listeners. This was particularly true for the two homemade electronic instruments, the Quadrachord and Hurdy Grande, in the photo above.



The instruments were created by composer Paul Dresher (above) and Joel Davel (below) and the sound was something like a cross between a synthesizer and a marimba and a theremin.



It wasn't my cup of sonic tea at all, but it was fascinating to hear, and the large museum space, with its "controversial" curved wooden seating that you can lay on, was a cool setting. The price is right too, $7, or free if you're a Cal student or have a museum membership.

Your God Killed My Cat

To remove unsightly newspaper racks on every corner, San Francisco authorities some years ago ordered that all journals should be housed in these uniformly dark green racks.



In the interim, many newspapers have died, and most of the time these racks are more than half-empty, offering a perfect place for guerilla art projects and insane messages such as the ones that appeared earlier this week at the corner of Van Ness and McAllister Streets.



There is probably a satiric intent involved in these missives...



...but my immediate reaction was, "you better keep Your God away from my cat."

Walking to Sausalito 1: Shoreline

Because I needed some serious exercise on Wednesday...



...and because friends and readers in the Midwest and Northeast are currently shivering in snow drifts...



...I decided to walk from San Francisco's Civic Center to Sausalito across the bay via Fort Mason and the Marina waterfront.



Crissy Field in the Presidio was as spectacularly beautiful as ever...



...and even the newly restored beach looked like a proper sunbathing spot.



The tidal slough was playing host to thousands of birds...



...including the exotic character above.



The walk was becoming more beautiful with each step.

Walking to Sausalito 2: Bridge

Ships laden with Chinese produced stuff were gliding under the Golden Gate Bridge as I climbed up the hill to cross the span.



Though it's beautiful to look at, actually walking across the Golden Gate Bridge is not one of my favorite things.



The incessant vehicle traffic makes it feel like you're walking in the middle of the San Diego freeway while looking out at the Farallones islands.



If you have an ounce of acrophobia...



...it's terrifying to look down at the bay...



...particularly with the ghosts hovering about the structure...



...and the signage insisting that it is both "fatal and tragic" to jump from this bridge.



The final stretch of the walk down Alexander Avenue is a narrow, curving road where bicyclists and cars whiz past pedestrians at high speeds with inches to spare. All you can do is pray they are watching carefully.



Once you have finally reached pedestrian-friendly sidewalks in Sausalito, the stroll becomes pleasurable again and the views of San Francisco and the Bay Area are exquisite.

Speaking of exquisite, Donald Kinney's photoblog features the most amazing pictures of Marin County on a daily basis imaginable. Click here to check it out.