Wednesday, August 13, 2008

painless and painful bits and pieces.

The painless: the site move happened this morning, and most links seem to be working. I think. What a wonderful thing to have email just magically show up in my inbox. The things we take for granted...

The painful: On Monday my mom and I went to the SFMOMA for the Frida Kahlo exhibit. Good lord was that depressing. The horrible bus accident in her youth, the philandering husband, the disloyal sister (hooking up with said husband), the miscarriage, the long hospital and home confinements, complete with traction and metal corsets... I saw Salma Hayak's movie years ago, which I thought was well done and realistically grim in parts, but this exhibit shows her whole life without any glossy Hollywood polish, and it was tragic and disturbing. Mom compared her paintings to blogging - putting her (few) happiest and also her (numerous) most anguished moments out there for the world to see.

She spent a couple of periods in San Francisco in the early and late 30s, and there are some great photographs of her here with local and national celebrities. I'm not a huge fan of modern art. A lot of it I just find annoying. The SFMOMA does have a great paintings and sculpture collection, though, with some things I adore by Matisse, Rothko, Brancusi and Derain. (A very long time ago when I was living in Tulsa, Oklahoma, my boyfriend and I flew to Philadelphia just to see a Brancusi exhibit. It was one of the most extravagant things I'd ever done at that point in my young life, but it was totally worth it. I still have these tiny little earrings* of his version of The Kiss, created after studying briefly under Rodin, and breaking away to start his minimalist revolution.) I was an art major in college, initially - have I mentioned that? Boy does that seem like a lifetime ago. I am OLD.

Anyway, then we had a late lunch at The Grand Cafe, one of my favorite spots in town, before heading to Britex to drool over its astounding collection of linens and silks. I'm making all new pillows and curtains for the house, and Britex is like a (very expensive) candy store - four floors of the most wonderful textures and colors and possibilities. Tired and fed and ocularly over-stimulated, we drove home along Highway 1, where the entire coast was a lovely grey, foggy and relaxing.

*This in itself is a small miracle because I cannot keep a pair of earrings to save my life. For a long time I had a large collection of single earrings that I couldn't bear to part with - earrings I loved, and hoped beyond hope that their missing mate would turn up in some pocket or behind some piece of furniture. Eventually I realized that this was a complete waste of time and emotion, and stuck them in a Goodwill box. Not one of the missing earrings has ever turned up.