Also available is a listening tour. The musuem staff will lend you a headphone for a fee, and you can listen to guides as you walk around inside. A musuem shop for souvenir items is available at the ground floor, as well as a coffee shop when you want to sit and relax.

http://www.sfmoma.org/

Hours: Thurs 11am-8:45pm; Fri-Tue 11am-5:45pm. In the summer (Memorial Day to Labor Day), this museum opens at 10am. Admission adult $12.50, seniors 62 or older $8, students with ID $7, SFMOMA members free, Thursday evenings 6-8:45pm half price, first Tuesday of the month free. Closed New Year's Day, Fourth of July, Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day. Closes Christmas eve and New Year's eve at 4:45pm.

Phone: (415) 357-4035.

However, an Ansel Adams centennial exhibit was enough to lure me back to SFMoMA for a second visit, which proved to be much more entertaining. Not only was the Adams exhibit worthwhile and crowd pleasing, but three other special exhibits also provided considerable interest: a show of California ceramics through the 20th century; a group show of contemporary Latin American Baroque artists; and a modern photography exhibit. They all had me circling around the galleries for a second look. An inventive video installation -- usually not my favorite -- managed to get a reaction out of me, too.

I also took the opportunity to revisit the art I most enjoyed from the permanent collection. To my eye, "The Flower Carrier," a masterful Diego Rivera canvas, remains the best piece here. A painting from Rivera's lesser-known surrealist period and a couple of nice Georgia O'Keefe works also hang in the same gallery. In a nearby room, it's hard to avoid staring at Jeffrey Koons's life-size (maybe even bigger) gilded white ceramic sculpture of a reclining Michael Jackson playing with his pet chimp, Bubbles. Perhaps "disturbing" is the word for it, but it is fascinating at the same time.

SFMoMA also dedicates a gallery to displaying "e art," which is art created on computers for the Internet. This collection -- called e.space -- seemed like a neat idea. You sit at a computer terminal and peruse the art. However, after playing on the computer for a couple minutes, I quickly got bored and returned to the real art.

This second visit also gave me a greater appreciation for the building itself, which was designed by Swiss architect Mario Botta and opened in 1995. I especially admired the catwalk suspended across the museum's fifth floor, the skylit ceilings, and the airy lobby with its sweeping staircases. You can find SFMoMA at 151 Third Street in the revitalized SoMa (South of Market) district. I highly recommend the museum, but my recommendation hinges on the quality of the visiting exhibitions. If something interesting comes to SFMoMA, by all means shell out the ten bucks for admission. If not, save it for another time.

I will be the first to admit that I am not a fan of all that is called modern art. In fact, several pieces on display at SFMOMA that were supposed to represent profound displays of abstract thinking---a rope hanging from the ceiling, for example---made little impact on me at all. However, other pieces let me see the world in a different light, notice a subtle nuance of beauty I might have missed without the aid of the artist.

A photography exhibit by Edward Weston, a deceased Carmel native, was my favorite in March 2002. In addition to picture studies of Point Lobos, I found his portrayals of his family fascinating: the nudes of his wife, Charis, that helped me see her as he must have seen her, a son in his sailor's uniform overlooking a cliff with his windswept wife. Most interesting to me, however, were a series of still-lifes in which Weston brought out the beauty of form in the most mundane of objects. I stared at a black and white cabbage leaf for some time. A picture of a curving toilet was done in such a way that this porcelin pot was as lovely as any curvacious woman.

Visit the museum with an open mind and open heart. Perhaps you will find a piece to remember. Even if it's the giant self portrait by Ron Mueck: a very life-like, synthetic head, mouth slightly parted, eyes closed in snoring slumber, ear as big as Prince Charles's ear--a mixed media work that stirs a strange fascination. I had to stop myself from reaching out like a child and touching the inch long whiskers on the pale cheek....

Admission: Adults/$10 Seniors/$7
Hours: M,T,F,S,Sn 11-5:45 p.m. Thu 11-8:45 p.m.
Closed Wednesdays
Check website at www.sfmoma.org for upcoming events.
TIP: Admission after 6 p.m. on Thursday nights is half price. Admission on the first Tuesday of every month is free.