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Several times last week, I walked down Mission on my way to various events and passed interesting-looking museums. Realizing that I actually had time to hang out and partake of a bit of culture today, I planned my day around the museum schedules. The first of the museums didn't open 'til 10 a.m., so I had a leisurely morning, put on my comfy walking sandals (which almost turned out to be a bad idea, as the temperature dropped all day!), and headed out to take advantage of a bit more of San Francisco than just the convention center and the hotel.
First stop was the Cartoon Art Museum, which has a fascinating exhibit of Edward Gorey's designs for the Broadway production of Dracula. I spent a couple of hours wandering around, including some time watching the "Before They Were Famous" shorts by animators who went on to work on projects like "Monsters, Inc." I could have spent all afternoon in the Gorey room, or looking at the detail in the drawings by Mary Blair, but I was a woman on a mission and there was another museum to see before the afternoon was done!
Next up was the Museum of the African Diaspora, where I caught the last day of the Hungry Planet exhibit. Photographers followed 30 families from 24 countries and documented what their grocery list/consumption is in a typical week, then they took a picture of each family surrounded by an artfully arrayed week's worth of foodstuffs. Looking at the juxtaposition of the weekly consumption of a typical American family against a that of a Sudanese refugee family living in a camp in Chad presented a really stark picture. Just reading the "shopping list" for various countries was eye-opening, as quite a number of the representative families still listed water as being hand-carried from a community well. The photo essays have been turned into a book, and the table of contents at the link will lead you to a PDF that shows the various photos. The rest of the museum was fascinating too, with a number of interactive displays about the food chain in Africa and how it's changed as the continent's economy has become more global, and about the influence of African arts and music on various world cultures. I wish there'd been more about the music, but what was there was very well-presented. I spent several hours there and then wandered the gift shop for a bit and finally escaped having only bought one little beaded gecko (a tiny version of the big one who lives on the wall at home).
On my way back to the hotel, I stopped at Beard Papa's for a chocolate cream puff and then 'wichcraft for a sandwich and juice (all of which got taken back to the hotel, so I didn't actually eat the cream puff first :-) ). Having just seen that there are families in the world whose weekly food budget is less than what I spent in one day, it seemed somehow obscene to spend $6.50 on a glorified grilled cheese sandwich.
First stop was the Cartoon Art Museum, which has a fascinating exhibit of Edward Gorey's designs for the Broadway production of Dracula. I spent a couple of hours wandering around, including some time watching the "Before They Were Famous" shorts by animators who went on to work on projects like "Monsters, Inc." I could have spent all afternoon in the Gorey room, or looking at the detail in the drawings by Mary Blair, but I was a woman on a mission and there was another museum to see before the afternoon was done!
Next up was the Museum of the African Diaspora, where I caught the last day of the Hungry Planet exhibit. Photographers followed 30 families from 24 countries and documented what their grocery list/consumption is in a typical week, then they took a picture of each family surrounded by an artfully arrayed week's worth of foodstuffs. Looking at the juxtaposition of the weekly consumption of a typical American family against a that of a Sudanese refugee family living in a camp in Chad presented a really stark picture. Just reading the "shopping list" for various countries was eye-opening, as quite a number of the representative families still listed water as being hand-carried from a community well. The photo essays have been turned into a book, and the table of contents at the link will lead you to a PDF that shows the various photos. The rest of the museum was fascinating too, with a number of interactive displays about the food chain in Africa and how it's changed as the continent's economy has become more global, and about the influence of African arts and music on various world cultures. I wish there'd been more about the music, but what was there was very well-presented. I spent several hours there and then wandered the gift shop for a bit and finally escaped having only bought one little beaded gecko (a tiny version of the big one who lives on the wall at home).
On my way back to the hotel, I stopped at Beard Papa's for a chocolate cream puff and then 'wichcraft for a sandwich and juice (all of which got taken back to the hotel, so I didn't actually eat the cream puff first :-) ). Having just seen that there are families in the world whose weekly food budget is less than what I spent in one day, it seemed somehow obscene to spend $6.50 on a glorified grilled cheese sandwich.
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