Snooping at the MOMA

I was cleaning out my bag and almost threw out a crumpled napkin until I realized I had my interview notes from this weekend! I decided to spend my birthday weekend in San Francisco and visit my sister. On Saturday we decided to wander around the city and check out an exhibit at the SF MOMA.

If you've never been to the SF MOMA you should definitely check it out. Some good stuff showing right now like this AMAZING video installation by Candice Breitz. Actually there were two but the one my sister and I were in awe with was "Mother". It featured Meryl Streep, Faye Dunaway, Shirley McLaine and Julia Roberts. Uh-Mazing!

We enjoyed our time outdoors in the Yerba Buena Gardens.

We enjoyed art like this called "Single Dinner" made out of rubberized hair...

On the rooftop sculpture garden I encountered Lillian sitting on one of the benches with a cup of hot tea from the cafe. "I always carry a book around with me and just come up here to read. It's nice and quiet, and there is a great view. I just want to high five the people who put so much money into building this place."

That day she was reading a non-fiction work called "Snoop: What Your Stuff Says About You" by Sam Gosling. This book was recommended to her by a friend and it's about how you can learn about someone by merely "snooping" through their stuff or analyzing their surroundings. This reminded me of my Anthropology class where we had to digg through anonymous people's garbage and make conjectures on what they were like.

The book features studies on subjects living in a dorm. They go through their stuff, talk to their friends, and piece together their findings.

Lillian isn't really liking the book so much. "There's too much studying and scientific jargon and not enough cocktail chatter." She prefers books like Malcolm Gladwell's "Tipping Point" where there's some personality in the analyses.


Plus, Lillian normally reads fiction. One of her favourites is Let the Great World Spin and it's been one of her top books over the past 3 years. "Everyone should read it." Another favourite is The Life of Pi by Yann Martel. Ah, yes, a book dear to my heart that also made me bawl for days!

Growing up she really enjoyed To Kill a Mockingbird and a childhood classic, Where the Red Fern Grows.


Lillian's own book would be a fictional murder mystery. "Take books like Nancy Drew or murder mystery novels, every time you read them you're not doing much thinking. You're mind is at rest. I want to be able to write a book that people can fully escape into, not have to think so much and be swept away by the story."