An Expedition to Alcatraz and Ai Wei Wei

We have never been to Alcatraz. It is not a place that was at the top of my list, but someplace that always seemed like it would be fun to visit.

But as a part of Doreen's convention, there was a tour of Alcatraz, which currently has the Chinese Artist Ai Wei Wei's exhibit installed.

We are big Ai Wei Wei fans, and this show was called Ai Wei Wei @ Large. It was a site specific installation that is ending later this month. SO if you want to go, you better go quick.

There were multiple pieces of the installation, starting with a huge Chinese kite:

The eyes look like the Twitter bird to me, and there were phrases written on some of the sections.

The second piece was my favorite, called "Trace", which was Lego portraits of various prisoners of conscience being held (or having been held) in jail for their views.

The curator told us the story about how she needed to know who was going to be represented, not to censor them (or so she hoped) but to make sure the National Park Service was prepared for any blowback that might occur. She found out that Snowden was going to be included about three days before the installation. To their credit, the National Park Service (and the State Department) did not object.

As we were leaving, Doreen had noticed that one of the Legos has been kicked out of place. She replaced it, thereby becoming part of the art.

The next piece was called "Refraction" and was a wing made up of solar cook stoves from Tibet. You couldn't get too close to this one, so it made less of an impact.

The most moving piece to me was called "Stay Tuned" which was set in Cell Block A. Cell Block A had not been open to the public prior to this show. Ai Wei Wei took various recordings, and played them in about a dozen cells. Each cell had a three legged stool where you could sit an listen. To the credit of the other viewers, it was easy to wait a minute or two (or not at all) and listen as long as you wanted. It was tremendous.

I don't have any photos of the next piece, called "Illumination". This one used the two "psychiatric observation cells" as music boxes, playing Hopi chants. Very intense, and more than a little disturbing.

The second to last was called "Blossom" which was a multi-layered installation. They were ceramic flowers placed in various toilets, sinks, and bathtubs. They represented the "Hundred Flowers" campaign that Mao waged in the 1950s. The plan was that Mao would let you pick up a flower, and say anything you wanted. But Mao was using this as a trick. He arrested the people who would say things against him or the Communist party.

The final piece was called "Yours Truly" which let you send post cards to the folks depicted in the second piece. We all wrote short notes.

Good show. More on Alcatraz later.

San Francisco, Tasty Salted Pig Parts

We're staying at the St Francis on Union Square.

It is a big hotel, but nice. They have those fancy elevators where you put your floor number in before you call the car. You have to put in your card key, and it sends you an elevator that goes right to your floor (and other guests if it is crowded) Pretty cool.

We like to walk around to shake off the flight effects (no yoga for us!) so we wandered down to the Ferry Building to get some Tasty Salted Pig Parts from Boccalone. Just a little cone of dried meats. Delicious.

 It is a beautiful day here, which makes us a little sad our first flight was canceled.

We didn't take the cable car back, but did walk past China Town

We're meeting some friends later for dinner. Right now, I think I will go and have a beer.

An Expedition to San Francisco

My Sweet Ever Lovin' has a convention in San Francisco, so I tagged along for the weekend.

We didn't have an auspicious start, though. Our Friday flight was cancelled (mechanical) and we had to re-book on Saturday. We lost a day in San Francisco.

But that is water under the bridge!

We got here about 2:00, delayed because Joe Biden is also in town.

But the flight was fine.

There is always something to see when flying cross country. At least there is if you get the window seat.

This guy and his wife sat right in front of us. They had some odd habits.

First, the didn't sit down until the plane was about to push back. Well, OK. They would be sitting for a while. They were both looking at the read of the plane, which means right in our direction.

He was reading a Michael Pollen book (Cooked?) and she was staring at her mobile phone.

Then, during the flight, he got up again, turned around, and started doing push-ups on his chair. After that, he stood in the aisle and did yoga.

I figure he is some crazy VC who just can't stand to fly commercial.

Food in Amsterdam

Yes, we ate well in Amsterdam.

Besides the delicious herring

and addictive Stroopwaffles

we ate at five outstanding restaurants that Doreen picked out and made reservations for before we arrived.

In order of appearance, these were:

Envy. Very close to our hotel, and a great tasting menu with wine accompaniment. Mostly local foods, including some great raw local oysters. Expensive, but worth it.

Taiko. In a fancy hotel. The chef was called the best in town by the person who ran our hotel. He came out to say hello to us, and find out who called him the best chef in town (which he denied. But if not the best, he was probably close to it). The pacing was little off here. The wine paring (Doreen got the sake pairing) sometime arrived after the food. But the food (Asian fusion) was great.

Blauw. Indonesian food. We had the rijstaffle:

As Mark Bittman says, the worst Indonesian food in Amsterdam is better than the best Indonesian food in the US. And this is a good, very good, one.

Ron Gastrobar. Wonderful food here. They sell almost everything for the same price, and we shared, but it was not as easy to share as one might hope. Great service. I asked about a wine, and was warned off of it and given a taste. Nice job - we ordered something else.

De Kas. For our last night. A real "farm to table" place, where they were also the farm. You don't get a choice, you get what they cook. The main course was a sous vide chicken that melted in your mouth. Great stuff.

We had good coffee, good cheese, and a wealth of food opportunities.

Go for the museums. Stay for the food.

An Expedition in The Waterlands

One of the reasons that we chose to go to Amsterdam was that Doreen once flew into that city when the tulips were blooming. She thought that this might have been late enough to see them in person. We were planning on biking through the tulip fields.

Sadly, it was too early for the tulips.

So we decided to ride a little closer to the city, and chose a route suggested by National Geographic, but it is a pretty common ride for both tourists and locals.

I have not talked about the weather during these last couple of weeks. I can say one easy thing about it - 47° and overcast. For the whole trip, through three different cities.

But of course, the morning that we decide to ride it is in the 30s. We really hemmed and hawed before we decided to spend the €24 (for two bikes for all day!) and take the risk. Honestly, it was more that we were worried about freezing to death than anything else.

The bikes we got were typical Dutch "granny" bikes. What we would call "girl's" bikes in the US (no top tube) and very, very heavy. Mine was a coaster brake model with no gears, Doreen's had gears. Not sure that made too much of a difference.

But we headed out through the mean streets of Amsterdam. Keep in mind, no other biker cares if your are a tourist or new. They fuss and cuss if you break any of their (sometimes obscure) rules. I suppose that is OK. 47% of Amsterdamers cycle to work. They don't do this for fun, it is an economic decision for them.

But we eventually got to the ferry that would take us out of town.

It was so cold that Doreen had to wear my watchcap! I wore the new hat I had purchased the day before at the market. I was assured it was a Dutch design. It fit really well, and I like it.

I like maps and understanding the logistics of an operation. Doreen is much more of a "seat of her pants" type of rider. So I never really knew exactly where we were going, but I don't think it mattered much. We didn't (really) get lost, and we saw some great things.

Once out of town, we even saw windmills.

and more of those great double leaf bridges that they have in Amsterdam

A lot of the ride was on dikes that kept the sea out of the land. It is sort of hard to capture, but you can see it here:

Notice that the sun did come out.

These are all agricultural fields, and in some of them, they were crazing geese:

We eventually made it to Broek in Waterland, where there is an old, old inn called The White Swan, where we had lunch. Pancakes. Ham and cheese pancakes.

Outside of Broek, we rode across a very small double leaf:

and made it all the way up to what used to be the Zuiderzee (but it was dammed out of the country) and it is now called the Gouzee. 

There are plenty of those white swans here in The Netherlands, and sometimes they showed up with rabbits:

We rode on the Gouwzee dike:

This was the far point of the ride. Up to now, we have been riding into the wind, and I can say it was hard going. I was ready to get the wind at my back.

But it was worth it. We saw all sorts of birds, some of which you can see here:

And we finally started heading back.

It was getting little warmer, so we had to take off our gloves and scarves:

It was a pretty day

and quite a ride:

(I know our real biking friends will mock us for being proud of a 22 mile ride. But you know what? I don't care. We are proud of the ride!)

I will make at least one more post, where I will talk about food. All I will say now, is that the Heineken we drank when we got back was well earned.