Asian Art Museum of San Francisco - An Art Attack for your Soul

For all you museum lovers out there, the Go SF Card will bring tears to your eyes. With the card in hand, you'll be able to check out 18 different museums in the Bay Area for FREE. Yes, admission is free with the card. How awesome is that?



There are so many cool places to see that I know for a fact you won't be able to get to them all. Make sure you look them up and plot out your course of attack. One of the museums we visited was the Asian Art Musuem of San Francisco.


It's right near the Civic Center and is easily accessible by public transportation. The building itself is remarkable to look at. But just across the way is City Hall with it's golden roof. Some may say it's gaudy, but I totally love it. It's like the Taj Mahal of city halls.

The special exhibit while we were there was on the Kingdom of Bhutan, which is located in southeast Asia. They had classes and special screenings but we didn't stick around for that. It was pretty quiet and we were in between presentations anyway. After a quick walk through of that exhibit, we spent more time with the regular collections. This in itself takes you through so many countries that it's a little overwhelming.



Despite the fact that I'm not too big an art lover and definitely don't have any in-depth art knowledge, I still found it to be an interesting way to spend a couple hours. The intricacy and beauty of the sculptures, paintings and craft work is wonderful. Most of the exhibits were attractively lit, and each had a descriptive placard next to it to help explain its significance to people like me. Also, there didn't seem to be massive crowds there. If anything, I found it to be pretty empty except for a couple of school groups.



It's amazing to think that these pieces were made hundreds or thousdands of years ago. Technology and tools being what they were at that time, I can't believe people were still able to produce such lasting pieces of work. The skill involved is incredible. I mean, how long does it take to hack away at a piece of marble or jade before it turns into a scuplture of a buddha? Truly amazing.

Robert Hoffman Update

As mentioned in a previous blog, Robert Hoffman will be starring in an upcoming kids/tween flick called Aliens in the Attic (formerly titled They Came from Upstairs). I ran across it again today while doing some movie research for work. I had completely forgotten about it. It'll be in theaters on July 31.

I doubt I'll actually pay $10 to watch this thing just because Hoffman's in it, especially since there's no dancing involved. I'll probably stick it in my Netflix queue and wait for the DVD. Still, it's a great accomplishment to make the transition from background dancer to movie star.

He's also got a number of other projects in the works, according to IMDB. Hopefully they're comedies where he'll be able to bust out the real goods. They seriously need to make something out of his urban ninja character. An urban ninja cameo in some movie would be hilarious!

Beefed up on Beef Jerky

Encouraged by an article by blogger Melissa Chang, I made the uphill trek to Jackson Market, which is located just outside of Chinatown, during this trip to SF. The day we went the cable car was down and they had buses making the journey. We decided to just take a regular bus to the area and hike it because the lines for the cable car were unbelievably long.

In this unobtrusive little corner-store market we found such a wonderful little secret. The beef jerky at this place was delish! It was $10.00 for a half pound and totally worth the trip. I bought a bunch to take home to family. My dad ate most of his bag the second he got it. I had to hand over my bag of beef because I felt sorry for him.

The jerky is very soft and so tender it's almost moist. Even if you're the type who likes the hard, dry, rip-it-with-your-teeth type jerky, you gotta try this one at least once. I'd say this is closer to pipikaula than jerky. Yes, it's that good.

One thing you need to look out for though is that because this place is family-run, the hours are a bit iffy. We had to wait about 45 minutes after the posted time for someone to open the shop. And it's not like they were inside and forgot to flip the sign. No one was even there.

I don't know if this is a regular thing or if something just came up. However, your best bet is to call ahead to make sure the store is actually open before you go. Or you could just order online and pay the shipping to get your delightful treat delivered to your doorstep.