high fashion on a saturday afternoon

The de Young Museum in Golden Gate Park often hosts beautiful fashion exhibits. The current one is The Fashion World of Jean Paul Gaultier – a spectacular display of avant garde designs, from catwalk gowns to concert costumes for Madonna. The half-creepy, half-amazing mannequins come alive by singing and speaking. I’ve seen a lot of fashion exhibits, and this is by far the coolest (don’t judge based on my blurry iPhone photos!).

a night for beetles, both british and insect-ual

Last Thursday I headed with some work friends to Golden Gate Park and the California Academy of Science’s weekly NightLife event. This is a great thing the academy does, where for a much-cheaper entry price ($12 versus the $30 it costs to get in during the day), a 21-and-over crowd can browse the museum’s exhibits, including a rainforest, a planetarium, an African wildlife display, an albino alligator and a really cool basement aquarium, while sipping cocktails and listening to DJ-spun music. Last Thursday, the event was even more special with an exhibition of just-released early Beatles photographs from The Beatles Story museum in Liverpool. Along with the rare photos (just uncovered in the photographer’s attic after 50 years), a creepy, yet colorful, selection of beetles were on display.

the city of light meets the city by the bay

While the famous Musée d'Orsay in Paris is spending 2010 undergoing renovations, nearly 100 of its renowned pieces of art traveled to San Francisco for an unprecedented exhibition at the de Young Museum in Golden Gate Park. Birth of Impressionism: Masterpieces from the Musée d'Orsay is the largest loan of its kind, and it's closing next week, so I scurried across town to see famous Impressionist pieces like The Dance Class by Edgar Degas, which is one of my favorites.

In conjunction with this spectacular exhibition, the Legion of Honor art museum, in Lincoln Park, is showing Impressionist Paris: City of Light. This exhibition provides context for the de Young exhibition with prints, photographs and illustrations of Paris during the mid- to late-1800s when Monet, Degas, Manet, etc. were living and painting in Paris. The Legion of Honor has great art, but the building itself, along with its location near the coast and the Golden Gate Bridge, are enough to attract visitors.

The Legion of Honor Museum in Lincoln Park

A mini Louvre feature in the courtyard transports you to Paris

A view of the bay from the courtyard of the Legion of Honor

A view of the Golden Gate Bridge from Lincoln Park