black and white blob

Went to a garden party….
The wife and I attended the biennial Black and White Ball, a treasured event here in San Francisco, one that raises funds for the San Francisco Symphony. She being an employee thereof, we received free tickets, though we had to provide our own finery.

For people-watching, the event was quite fun. If you want to, you know, listen to music, it was a little less rewarding.

The venue is broken down into five different areas, in which classical, jazz, country, r&b, and rock are performed by famous and semi-famous performers.

But one had to wade through mobs of drunken Paris Hiltons and their cigar-chomping Guidos, none of whom seem to have any interest in actually listening to music in any form. We did get to sit outside the tent where the Violent Femmes were playing, but the Chavs in stiletto heels kept lurching into us while shouting incoherently into their cell phones. This interfered with the audio portion of the program.

One of the venues, however, was the Asian Art Museum. The exhibits were open, but sparsely attended, so the wife and I got to stroll through the museum pretty much unsupervised and alone. It was a moment of stillness in an event that otherwise resembled the kind of corporate event that used to be staged to gun up the sales force. Only in this case, nothing was being sold.

James Dean
Upon awaking this morning, the wife took it into her head to see a James Dean double feature at the Balboa, a wonderful art/revival/see-it-now-before-it-goes-to-DVD house in the Richmond District.

Teen angst in Cinemascope! With real butter on the popcorn! REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE and EAST OF EDEN! A great way to spend a sunny Sunday afternoon.