Awhile back I became a fan of 365 Things to Do in San Jose on Facebook. Glad I did because yesterday I saw this posted:

After wishing our respective moms a happy Mother’s Day, I promptly dragged Shrek downtown for a look at the current collections on display.

Activities aplenty kept the kids busy trying their hand at sketching.

My favorite collection? I especially like Wayne Thiebaud’s cheerful paintings of every day life. They pop with vivid pastels and, well, they just make me happy.

The most mesmerizing? Mark Hansen’s and Ben Rubin’s The Listening Post. It’s a spellbinding new-media installation that streams live text fragments from chat rooms, bulletins, and other unrestricted open forums across the globe and displays them across a suspended grid of more than two hundred small electronic screens. The fragments are simultaneously read by a robotic-sounding voice synthesizer.

The catch? The installation is programmed to pull statements that begin with “I am,” and, boy, was it depressing. Each line my eye caught zipping across the tiny screens were negative, most politically charged. Try as I might to spot some exuberance, nothing. I think unintentionally it lends a very bleak look at where our collective psyche is right now. I finally turned away feeling defeated and a little nauseated from staring at the fast scrolling text for too long. Despite, it is something definitely worth checking out. Just make sure to visit the cheerful Theibaud collection post Listening Post.

For museum location and hours, visit their website.

The museum self-tour took us about an hour to navigate after which we headed over to Mosaic in the Hotel Montogomery for an impromptu 2-for-1 happy hour. 5 pm – 7 pm daily!

First things first: the bartender was really cool; even though we showed up at 4:30 he gave us happy hour prices so I got 2 mimosas and Shrek 2 scotches for $21+ tip. Since it was a Sunday, Shrek and I basically had the entire place to ourselves. (Later two separate couples wandered in for dinner service which smelled wonderful.) We parked ourselves on some cozy couches while some tunes were piped through the recessed speakers and a few sports games were turned on for Shrek’s viewing pleasure, though I would like to think I captivated him for most of the time!

Can’t wait to go back on a Friday or Saturday to see what kind of crowd this place draws. The hotel itself recently bought into the Starwood/Sheraton Four Points group of hotels. Fortunately for Shrek and his family who like to stay here when they do-it up downtown, the room rates are still the most reasonable around. The location is excellent, too, right in the heart of downtown so definitely consider staying here vs the Fairmont next door. (Still can’t get over how dirty the Fairmont SF is!)