On Saturday night, Lilia and I went to the grand opening of the de Young museum in Golden Gate Park. We were meeting some of her friends there, but got there a bit early, and it turned out to be a good thing, since the line was pretty incredible. Yes, we waited for over an hour in line on a Saturday night at 10pm to get into an art museum. It felt like a very San Francisco moment – in New York or LA, it’d be to get into the hip club, but in San Francisco, we aspire to be cultural.
The line wasn’t that bad, actually. It was a lovely night, and it was great people-watching. I really enjoyed surveying the varied population of San Francisco out in the park after dark. Plus, my friends Eddie and Jean wandered by, so they joined us in line and we caught up for a bit, and on the way out, I ran into a bunch of friends of chorus. The whole town was there!
The museum itself was decent. I love the space, not as thrilled with the collection (much like my experience at MOMA). But having a museum be open late at night and full of throngs of people was fabulous. When we left a little after midnight, the line had gotten longer again, and trended younger as the hipper set arrived for the DJ sets that were starting at 1am.
Cool experience. I like San Francisco.