Matters of taste

Had invites to a pair of birthday bashes on Saturday. Declined the second on account of the first, then ditched that at the 11th hour, too. Physically, I was fine, but mentally I was utterly unenthused.

Felt more outgoing today and out I went. To the Kika tapas bar in Darlinghurst (in the vicinity of St Vincent's Private Hospital). Named after a 1993 Pedro Almodovar film, its decor mixes traditional ornaments (bullfight posters, wine bottles, dancer dolls, flags) with garish paints, leopardskin and plastic flowers in an over-the-top cool way. The food was plentiful and reasonably priced, if heavy on the salt. I had a tuna and green olive salad, deep-fried potatoes with a parsley and garlic sauce, and chorizo topped with stewed apple. I then skolled the entire complimentary bottle of water :-)

Second stop was the State Library, for the World Press Photo 08 exhibition. Ran into 3/4 of the M. family who warned me the pics were significantly darker than in 2007. How correct they were. The majority of images depicted violence, but all provided worthwhile insights. The scenes of the assassination of Pakistani politician Benazir Bhutto hit me hardest. How lucky I was to be born in a peaceful country.

My excursion terminated at the Museum of Contemporary Art. It's not Fiona Hall's fault that I'm biased against experimental art, but the fact remains that most of her retrospective, "Force Field", left me cold. There was no shortage of ideas, I just found the executions to be uninteresting at best, hideous at worst. The exception was her series of insect stencils on various currencies. And hey, it was free.