It was too hot again today. I packed kitchen stuff for as long as I could stand the heat (not long!) and then hopped BART for SFMOMA so I could see the Kentridge exhibition again.

I love SFMOMA. I got a membership the first time I went, for two reasons:
- the building. I just like walking up the staircase and gazing down at the atrium.
- Stele I, by Ellsworth Kelly, which used to be on the upstairs balcony.

With a membership, I feel a little proprietary about both. My museum. My art.

Anyhow. Stele I. I fell in love with that installation, and I should have guessed from its conspicuous absence in the SFMOMA Snow Globe and SFMOMA postcards that it was not a permanent thing.

Alas, years ago, they rotated it out and put something else on the balcony. And I would still stop by and look wistfully at the balcony (the view of the Metreon and Yerba Buena Gardens is pretty fine, and it's a good excuse for climbing the staircase anyhow) and wish they'd bring it out again.

The new rooftop garden opened this past week. And here it is again: Stele I. (It's better in person. You have to feel it. Looking at photos of installation pieces is almost pointless.)

The new rooftop garden has a new rooftop café, which is staffed by my beloved Blue Bottle Coffee. They are still working the kinks out, and I am not sure whether slow-one-cup-at-a-time-lovingly-made-coffee is the right fit for a busy museum café, but what they lack in speed they make up in cheerfulness. The dessert menu is also quite silly -- Thiebaud cake anyone?

I had a slice of Thiebaud cake (how could i not? white cake with lemon curd and raspberry frosting) and a cup of coffee and took it outside to gaze lovingly at Stele I from a shady bench.

I don't know what's better, Stele I returning to view, or watching the tourists delighting over it, or the coffee and cake.

Pretty perfect afternoon.

And then I rode BART back to the East Bay for my haircut, and by the time I left the salon it was TOO COLD TO WALK a mile and a half and I took the #9 and the #72 buses home. The #9 was a little pokey (so late I despaired of it coming at all), but the transfer to the #72 was flawless. And I finished a tenride and got to use a transfer stub, which is always exciting.

I know you care about my bus routes, so I chronicle them exactly.

--
and if you haven't seen the Kentridge exhibition yet, what are you waiting for??? Go! It closes May 31 and they've already moved some of the video work to the Koret center.