LaJolla Shores

The birthday weekend was fabulous.  We went to Petco Park on Sunday and watched the Padres squeak out a 3-2 win against the Angels in 13 innings.  The game was pretty boring through the first nine innings, as both teams stranded many runners and neither could put a string of hits together.  Things got interesting in the bottom of the eleventh, when the Padres got a double with no one out, and the runner was advanced to third on a sacrifice bunt.  At this point the Angels manager pulled his left fielder in favor of an extra second baseman to play the hole between first and second, because any ball hit out of the infield would very likely score the winning run.  With one out and a runner at third it seemed like the perfect opportunity for a squeeze bunt, one of the few highly exciting plays in baseball, but it didn't happen for some reason, and instead the next two batters struck out.  Then in the bottom of the twelfth with a man on first, the Angels shortstop rather obviously dropped a line drive and immediately picked it up for an easy double play, but the umpire correctly called the infield fly rule, over the objections of the Angels manager.  Finally, in the bottom of the thirteenth, with two out, the Padres manager sent in the next night's starting pitcher as a pinch hitter, which was pretty odd, but then he got a single, which was even odder.  On a full count, the next batter hit a long single to left field, and of course the runner at first was running with the pitch.  Now the bizarre eleventh inning substitutions proved fatal for the Angels, because the second baseman playing left field bobbled the ball, and the base runner scored from first.  Truly a game to remember.

On Monday we went to the San Diego Safari Park (aka Wild Animal Park) in Escondido, and did the photo safari.  This involves climbing aboard a truck, which nowadays is fortunately outfitted with a canvas canopy, and driving out to feed the giraffes and the rhinos (see photo above).  I've done this several times before, but it's always a thrill to see those big beautiful eyes and long lashes up close and personal.   Not to mention that 10" prehensile tongue, which extends to gently extract whatever food you're holding in your hand.  Quite amazing, really.  As an extra bonus, we saw a baby rhino (4 months old) wallowing in the mud and then trying to climb up on its mother's back (with some success, I might add).  Our tour guide Lee had an interesting caution as the giraffe approached:

"Remember, she doesn't really like you.  She doesn't dislike you either, she basically just likes the food.  But she doesn't like being petted, and may knock you away with her head if you try it.  Since her head weighs several hundred pounds by itself, this might not be a very pleasant experience."

The prudent person follows advice such as this.  In any case, if you've never done the photo safari, I can heartily recommend it -- well worth the price.

In thinking about Lee's advice later, I wondered to what extent that statement also applies to so-called domesticated animals, like our dog Jake for example.  He wags his tail and gets excited when we walk in the door at home, but does this mean he's happy to see us, or perhaps only that he hopes to get something, such as food, or his ears scratched? Let's face it, animals are basically inscrutable, and even though it's easy to convince oneself that they have the same sort of feelings we do, I think there's a lot of anthropomorphism involved here.  

That night, we had a fabulous birthday dinner, featuring a musical review/roast by my three daughters and some great hot-club guitar.  Many thanks to Cherie for organizing a great birthday celebration!

Our final organized event was a tour of the Salk Institute, a famous architectural tour-de-force designed by Louis Kahn.  My main problem with this building, as well as many other mid-century buildings, is that I really detest raw concrete as an exterior building "finish".  I think it's intrinsically ugly.  Perhaps this comes from spending twenty years or so in the world's ugliest building, Evans Hall, which looks like it was built in East Germany in 1955 and then transported to the UC Berkeley campus.  Or maybe Evans is only the second ugliest, exceeded only by  -- you guessed it -- the Art and Architecture building on the same campus.  Raw concrete is an appropriate exterior finish for bunkers, blockhouses, and prisons.  It should be outlawed for use on any non-penal institution intended for human habitation.

However, leaving aside the aesthetics of raw concrete, the design is quite interesting.  The "blockiness" is broken up in many ways, for example by the use of so-called "negative space", which I think means something like enclosed but visibly empty space.  The central courtyard, which is (fortunately) laid in travertine and not raw concrete, is quite splendid.  But the most appealing aspect for me was the obvious attention paid by Kahn to the needs of the building users.  There is a full height "pipe floor" between each floor of lab space which holds heavy equipment such as low-temperature refrigeration and supply lines for various chemicals and gases for the labs below as well as the usual mechanical gear which is often located above a false ceiling in a standard office building.  The lab space itself is just a set of long rectangular bays which look like they can be easily partitioned into individual labs or offices and just as easily reconfigured.   I think some architects tend to lose sight of the "form follows function" dictum.  This doesn't simply mean that a research institue should look like it houses scientists.  It means that the primary purpose of a building is to provide for the needs of its occupants rather than to enhance the greater glory of its designer.   It looked to me as though the Salk Institute meets this standard.