Today, a beautiful, rare hot day in San Francisco and I was able to be there from before 9:00 until about 5:00. Drove in with RoRo to see whaleboat rowing races. Excellent rowing! Even to my untrained eye. The event was held at the Bay View Boat Club, an utterly charming building (which houses an excellent bar) way down on the Embarcadero by the ballpark. While RoRo checked in with her teammates, I did something I've always wanted to do - a jog along the Embarcadero. I ran slow and went a bit longer than usual, starting at the statue of Willie McCovey in the eponymous cove and turning back at the statues near the Ferry Building.
Regardless of how you feel about the Giants (OK, regardless of how I feel about the Giants), there is something very moving about seeing the statues of McCovey and of Juan Marichal (moving, perhaps, because they have been caught in motion). And being that close to the cove that received so many home run balls was pretty cool (regardless of what I think of Bonds). AT & T Park is also an amazing place, even at 9:00AM on a non-game day. It really is an intimate venue, for a sports stadium. And to take my mind off the fact that I was running I allowed myself a daydream of being there for Game 7 of a not-so-distant-future World Series and seeing the ninth inning 3-up/3-down pitched brilliantly by El Duque, leaving the Giants one point down as the strains of "New York, New York" float over McCovey's cove and out onto the bay.
After the run, I stopped to use the facilities at the BVBC before going back to the car to get my gym bag so I could clean up and change. Within a minute of being in that place, though, I realized that changing would not be necessary - most people were dressed to row or coming in off their boats, so I felt perfectly at home in my red trail runners, cut-off just below the knee sweats and grey wife-beater (yeah, yeah, I know). My attire, the company, the weather, the free Hefeweizen all contributed to making this an amazingly relaxing day.
Icing on this lovely little cupcake of a day: one last time to the "Think While You Shoot" exhibit at SFMoMA. While the museum had been building up the "Matisse as Sculptor" show on lightpost banners all over the city all summer long, it was this travelling exhibit of Martin Munkácsi's photographs that brought me in 5-6 times since July and probably prompted the purchase of the membership. I cannot find an image online, but Munkácsi's portrait of Frida and Diego* is absolutely riveting. The best composition I have ever seen in a portrait of these artists. Diego looks straight at the camera, eyes like magnets, and is almost handsome. Frida's face is placed at a diagonal (a characteristic of the photographer) and conveys her emotions and illustrates her personality every bit as effectively as her self-portraits do. I am going to miss being able to see this photo and the others, but especially this one, whenever I want, but perhaps "Think While You Shoot" (a quote from Munkácsi) will go on to another city to delight other viewers.
*Possibly the only artists I will ever refer to by first name
No comments:
Post a Comment