Thursday, January 21, 2010

$2 Family Thursday - this week!

"secret of nihm" 1982


So yeah, it's been raining a bunch and no sign of it letting up until Saturday. Maybe it's time to get the little one a movie and relax for a few hours. Or since the movies won't be due back until Sunday, get your Family Films for the weekend, today! why? Cause this weeks Thursday section is Kids movies... the entire section is $2!!! Relive you childhood on the cheap!

Saturday, January 16, 2010

Friday, January 15, 2010

Your Friday Night?

Stop by here* after work...
see some art...
get a drink...
order some pizza at delfina...
pick up a movie at fayes...
go home...
and wait for the rain.





*ID Redux

January 15–February 20, 2010
Opening: Friday, January 15, 2010, 6–8:30 pm
714 Guerrero Street, San Francisco, CA 94110

Cain Schulte Gallery is pleased to present the group show “ID Redux.” The exhibition brings together the work of one Berlin-based and three Bay-Area artists: Daniel Ochoa, Kirstine Reiner, Michael McConnell, and Lars Theuerkauff.

Portraiture becomes the unifying theme of the four artists' inquiry, the research perimeter for their intervention. The physical appearance becomes a symbol for personal identity, condensed and reduced to a single expression, expanded into the viewer’s mind into an imaginary narrative.

Facial expression and body language are usually considered as suggestive of stories laden with our personal interpretations, thus reducing in one single observed gesture the complexity of the individual. However, one soon realizes that in reality, unlike photographs that do capture an expression in a moment, painted portraits are the negation of the instant, thus raising important issues about time, truth, permanence, and perceived identity.

Daniel Ochoa presents his latest oil paintings, which engage viewers to ponder notions about human consciousness, belonging, randomness. His intense, at time grotesques portraits, raise important questions about assimilation, integration, and culture, while representing the obscurity and complex layering of human emotions.

Kirstine Reiner is the author of a series of expressionist portraits. In these subjects the artist seems to seize upon a secret meaning, an inner space less concerned with a physical likeness or the final outcome, rather striving to achieve an uncensored reaction and interpretation of the model.

The work of Michael McConnell pivots on the collection and analysis of autobiographical stories. His paintings, reminiscent of old photographs, blur the line between the observed and the imagined. A closer observation of playful images of children and animals reveals darker stories of skepticism and failure, layered with narrative possibility.

With great care, Berlin artist Lars Theuerkauff starts from a disarray of paint marks that finally unite in coherent images. The images disappear at close up, lost in a contemporary pointillism that make the images almost accidental. In his work Theuerkauff represents and gives form to the most secret and intimate of human spaces - that of the dream and of the subconscious.

Friday, January 8, 2010

N.I.N.Y. -- The Mexico Edition


¡Hola, San Francisco!

I'm here in Puebla, Mexico, on a six day trip with my honors seminar group. We flew in to Mexico City on Wednesday afternoon and spent the rest of the day touring the central zocalo. We stopped in at the Palacio Nacional to see Diego Rivera's murals, then moved on to the Catedral Nacional. We closed the Mexico City afternoon with a look at the Aztec ruins which lie off to the side of the central square.

That same evening we took a 2 hour bus ride down to Puebla, where we're spending most of our visit, with the exception of two day trips to Cholula and Cuetzalan. I've been having a great time here in Puebla. I was here 3 years ago, the only person out of our 50 person group to have been here before, so I vaguely know my way around the historical district of the city. The legal drinking age here is 18, so we've been strolling around the neighborhood at night, catching live musical performances, drinking micheladas, eating tacos, and getting free shots of tequila from the friendly local residents. Yesterday I discovered Rompope, a sweet alcoholic drink made with eggs, milk and sugar. I'll be bringing some home.

Today we took a trip to Cholula to see some of the churches along the way and visit the partially excavated pyramid and church that are the main tourist attractions in this adorable city. We trekked up over 1000 steps to reach the top of the pyramid, and I purchased a 30 cent necklace made of coffee beans. It smells excellent around my neck.

Tomorrow we take a day trip to Cuetzalan to visit a 'traditional' hospital and some steam baths. Our group is here until Tuesday, when we drive back up to Mexico City and fly back to NYC.

Fayes, I'll try and bring something shipping-friendly back to New York. that I can send home to you. The coffee here is excellent...