Our team took the day to change up sceneries and brain storm outside the office. I’ve always wanted to do an off site meeting at a museum… and it looks like my wish has finally come true.
Today, we went to the Modern Museum of Art in San Francisco. When you first enter, you’ll notice how high the ceilings are. Most places in SF have low ceilings to maximize space, but this MOMA doesn’t apologize for its scale—it celebrates its openess.
If you’ve never been there before, I highly recommend it. It’s reasonably priced ($25), considering that there’s a ping pong bar (yes, a bar where you play ping pong) that charges $50 per hour down the street. I repeat, a ping pong bar that charges fifty f’n dollars per hour. And what’s more hilarious is that my coworkers were trying to justify the cost. *SMH*
Speaking of clowns, here are the two I went with. And yeh, that’s a giant living wall behind them. Me likey.
We had some interesting conversations over breakfast. We talked about everything from meditation, to multi-tasking, to alzheimer’s disease.
Yeh, it’s a pretty wide gamut, but I guess that’s what happens when you put a Slacker and Wenner together.
And did I mention that the pastries there were kind of amazing? Yeh, that was unexpected. The coffee was so-so, but their seasonal croissant was off-the-chain.
Okay, so before I show you some modern art, I wanted to throw in one of my own artsy photos (above). Okay, now that you’re in the zone, let’s continue.
We started in the photography section. Rudy studies the pictures intensely and is amazed by how this series shows close friends aging over the years.
If you’re old enough, you’ll remember the slide projectors.
This was one of the most profound installations. These are the backs of photos, with hand written messages. The authors would have never guessed that their photos and messages would preserved in a museum.
Each letter tells a different story, and when displayed together, you realize that the world we live in doesn’t have this anymore. It’s kind of sad to think that children born today will probably never know what it’s like to tie sentiment to physical objects.
I wonder if there will be trends in the future that lash back against ephemeral photo/video sharing apps like Snapchat. Anyway, that’s getting pretty deep… I’ll save that for another post. ^_^ Onward.
As we entered the next floor, we had to snap a couple of souvenier photos. This, my friend, is the best way to describe Slack. Hah!
And of course, we went through some of the pop art. Love him or hate him, Warhol changed the game.
Neon lights with artsy messages that rotate every second.
Rudy standing in front of the corner light installation.
People were fascinated by this wax sculpture of an old police officer. Rudy nearly mistaked the sculpture for a real person.
Can you imagine what it would be like if you had hundreds of people walking up these stairs?
As we walked through the top floor, we got to check out some of the more abstract paintings.
After we finished going through the abstract floor, we changed gears and checked out a floor designated to typography and some technology. Yes, that is a type writer.
The way the type is wrapped around the sphere almost seems alien. What beautiful relics!
It was cool to see the Whole Earth Catalog. Some of my comrades are working on a site that was inspired by this, called Kit. Check ’em out when you get a chance.
And here, the geeks marveled at the code used to create the vector graphics printed on black.
And yes, that is a Mac Classic.
Seriously, how many of you guys remember this? What an amazing piece of history.
And I’m going to finish off with the iPhone. It’s a coincidence that I was just re-watching the original video of Steve Jobs introducing the iPhone the other night. Wow. Just wow. Wow. Wow.
