The power went out for about a 20-block radius in our neighborhood so a friend and I decided to get out before we withered away from boredom and our muscles atrophied. I was happy to read by candlelight but consented because she had anxiety and OCD and it was impossible to concentrate with all the pacing and agonizingly trivial jabbering in front of me when she became bored of the infinite scroll on her phone. I'd imagine her internal and external worlds were in perpetual battle with each other over perceived micro-humiliations and misplaced mojo.
"I know a really chi-chi wine bar that just opened where we can get free drinks," she said, "and then we can hop on over to the museum." Pacifying this incorrigible monster was an overture to trouble to say the least. "When you're single after 30 it's like you're playing a game of hide and seek except no one's looking for you."
We wobbled into the museum two hours later when I took notice of this piece titled, "The Game" by David Middlebrook. The artist's statement is as follows: In this work, the enormous baseball, a symbol of the American pastime, is a metaphor for corporate America. The funnel represents the tunnel vision of this greed, whereas the umbrella is meant to suggest a narrative that the system will protect the less fortunate but, being crafted from wood, will ultimately not keep them dry.
Of course, the artist could be using a metaphor about the angst-ridden life as an Oakland A's fan or even the slow diminishing of the middle-class and social security-either interpretation fits well and I nodded my head slowly in a pontificating "art critic" pose with thumb and forefinger placed expertly on the chin as if I was laboring over unseen details.
"Let's go...this place smells tragically of lavender Fabuloso and perfume," said the girl. And we did, returning to the chi-chi wine bar where I spent more money than I wanted to before walking home with my brains feeling like mayonnaise. The power was still out and I lit a candle before quickly falling asleep in a room that had the ambiance of an icebox that hadn't been cleaned for months.
P.S. Please give Horror Fashion Review a look and perhaps a follow. Grace does a wonderful job of reviewing the clothes worn by the dames in horror movies. Funny and forward-thinking stuff!
