Hamburger Eyes

Friday 11:00 am---Jessica Beach, Sarah Kim, and I leave for the Hamburger Eyes Epicenter fieldtrip.

Our day started with a very interesting BART ride in to the city. This short, squirrelly-looking man and his short, squirrelly-looking girlfriend got on and immediately separated from each other. The man sat right next to Sarah across from Jessica and I while the woman sat across the train car. The man muttered something to Sarah and then moved over to another seat. The woman saw him move so she followed him over there which triggered a loud series of incoherent outbursts from the man which were replied by the woman with some awkward cupcaking; She gave him a lot of "cuchee-koo" sounding "i love 

you's" and sounded as if she were speaking lovingly  to one of her hundreds of cats.

The man wasn't having any of it so he moved again to another seat across the car. She of course followed him again which started another incoherent argument. The woman shortly after got off the train and the man got off at a later station shortly after. All in all, a very interesting BART ride.

Later on the ride over an Asian couple got on the train with their little boy. They were both talking about something important and didn't pay a whole lot of attention to the boy. I had been reviewing pictures on my camera which attracted the boy's attention. He looked over at me so I smiled and waved at him. Instead of waving back he just pointed at my camera. He immediately lost interest so I took his picture.

We got off the train in the Mission district to the sound of a woman evangelizing to the public in Spanish over a bullhorn. The only words that I heard that I could make out above the sound of San Francisco traffic and the BART pulling away under the street  were "...Jesucristo nuestro salvador" which means Jesus Christ our  Savior. She was on a mission in the mission. 

We weren't quite sure where we were going. We only knew 

the name of the street so we started walking. Less than a block from the BART station we found the street, or rather shady alleyway. The alley was covered in graffiti on either side. We were approached by a latino man pushing  a shopping cart. He started asking Jessica for a little money to get some coffee but he was asking her in spanish and she didn't understand him so I pulled a couple bucks out of my wallet for him. The door to Hamburger Eyes blended in to the wall and we nearly missed it. We rang the bell and went up.

The walls were white. The floors were just bare wood. The space reminded me of when my aunt used to live in Emeryville in her studio. The art on the walls was very thought-provoking; a lot of images that would offend the non-artfully inclined. The tour of the space didn't last very long but it did inspire me to get some work together and submit to small galleries like Hamburger Eyes.

       

Once we were done with the Hamburger Eyes tour we set off in the streets of San Francisco to see other art galleries. We visited Jack Hanley Gallery, SF Camerawork Gallery, and Rayko camera, The most memorable was the video artist at the SF Camerawork gallery who dressed in drag in a chandelier and walked around the slums of South Africa. The Rayko photo booth was pretty fun too even though it wasn't working properly. Something had been bothering my classmate Patrick throughout most of the trip. I don't know him that well so I didn't ask him what was up...but I did take pictures of him. I'd like to get to know him a little better. He seems like an interesting person.

When we were done visiting all the art galleries, Jessie took us up to the top of the Marriot hotel. It was a good end to a tiresome day full of bickering squirrelly-folk, grandmotherly latino evangelists, and drag queens wearing chandeliers in South African slums.