All the deets from your Sundance Kabuki Cinemas at Post and Fillmore in Japantown:
“Starts Friday: A GLIMPSE INSIDE THE MIND OF CHARLES SWAN lll is a playful comedy of lost love, friendship and revenge starring Charlie Sheen as a successful LA graphic designer whose money and charm have provided him with a seemingly perfect life. His true love dumps him, and it all falls apart. With Jason Schwartzman, Bill Murray and Patricia Arquette. Join us in welcoming Director Roman Coppola for Q+A’s after the 7.15pm shows Friday and Saturday nights.”
“…San Francisco’s biggest daylong family block party with free admission, special art activities and free performances for children and families at the following venues within 1 or 2 blocks of each other in the Yerba Buena arts district at 3rd Street and Mission Street in downtown San Francisco.”
That means that Target will pick up the tab when you visit the SFMOMA, the Jew Mu, the MoAD and the Children’s Creativity Museum.
Hurray! (Hey Target, why are you taking so long to open down there in Metreon? Or for that matter, Geary and Masonic. C’mon, wiki wiki.)
Be inspired by the exhibition Richard Serra Drawing: A Retrospective
Sketch, scribble, and squiggle your way through the wonderful world
of drawing
Marvel at Harry Houdini’s famous escape acts in the exhibition Houdini: Art and Magic
Thrill to a live performance by The Magic of Chin-Chin
Tour the exhibition COLLECTED: Stories of Acquisition and Reclamation
Make a memory box to take home, participate in a drumming workshop,
and more
Be among the first to experience the Museum’s freshly redesigned exhibits including the new Imagination Lab
Create clay animations, music videos, digital art, and more
Ride the historic carousel for free
From hula dancers to taiko drummers, enjoy live performances on the
Esplanade Stage in the Gardens from 11 AM – 3:30 PM
Delight in the clowning of Unique Derique and the grooves of the
Venezuelan Music Project on the Children’s Stage near the Children’s
Creativity Museum from 12 – 3 PM
And outside, what you’ll see are a bunch of tourists debating the merits of paying $28 or whatever to enter the gates. Usually, they walk off dejectedly.
Why does our Strybing Arboretum (aka San Francisco Botanical Garden) need to become “world-class?”
Nobody’s ever explained that one to me. But that’s the rationale for charging admission these days (after six decades of free admission.)
Now, why isn’t our Strybing Arboretum called Strybing Arboretum anymore?
So it can become “world-class.” (Apparently, naming an arboretum after the woman who gave the money to start things up is considered provincial Back East. Plus Founder Helene Strybing made the mistake of becoming old and dying so nobody gives a ROMEO ALPHA about her anymore.)
Anyway, they started charging admission so the place turned into a ghost town, a “museum of plants and trees.”
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Oh well.
They said if things didn’t work out, they’d stop charging admission.
And here’s what they look like. Yes, there’s a bathroom in there:
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Myself, I haven’t been back into Strybing (except to poke my head in to see how few people are there) since they started charging admission.
Maybe I’ll visit again when they stop charging…
But these booths need hawkers, you know, just like the strip clubs in North Beach. Why don’t you sign up?
You’ll need sales skills of course. Check out the job posting below.
BTW, your pay as a “Garden Ambassador”will be $9.92 below minimum wage (aka nothing) and your commission will be zero (0) percent. (Can you imagine what hawkers would do on slow days if they got paid a commish of one dollar per entry ticket? OMG,
“Description
Greet visitors at the North Gate of the Botanical Garden and encourage them to visit this outstanding garden. Many visitors approach the admissions kiosk and don’t know about the amazing garden that lies just beyond the gates.
Skills
Public Speaking, Sales
Requirements
Willingness to approach the public. Ability to communicate effectively and persuasively. Sincere desire to share basic knowledge about the Garden. Genuine love and appreciation for the SF Botanical Garden.”
Doesn’t San Francisco already pay seven figures a year to run the San Francisco Botanical Garden? So why should people have to pay to get into the thing? Oh, it costs money to run, a whole lot? Well, then why don’t we just shut it down?
One might wonder.
Jim Lazarus, past president of the Recreation and Park Commission, gets it wrong here:
Well actually, Jimbo, why not let’s do nothing and then the fee would go away by itself, right? No repeal is necessary, actually, as you already know, huh Jimbo?
Now here comes simple-minded Randy Shaw of Beyond Chron, who doesn’t seem to understand that the purported quarter-million a year that’s “expected” (by whom, some wildly optimistic person, obviously) to be generated by the fee will for pay three “extra” unionized gardeners at the Arboretum. There’s no way on Gaia’s Green Earth that the fee at Strybing will pay for social services.
SF Crime Examiner Thomas Pendergrast has pretty much all you need to know about the plan to make permanent the access fees at the San Francisco Botanical Garden.
And looky here, here’s a pdf from Budget and Legislative Analyst Harvey M. Rose, CPA:
When an accountant calls your forecasts “highly optimistic,” what’s he really saying?
Oh well.
I guess the BOS will soon vote to make the temporary boycott of the San Francisco Botanical Garden a permanent boycott.
Oh well.
As seen last Saturday:
Oh, and look what else is coming up:
“Thursday, April 7, 2011 2:00 p.m. City Hall, Room 416 11a. GOLDEN GATE PARK ACCESS PASS Discussion and possible action to recommend that the Board of Supervisors approve an ordinance amending Park Code Article 12 authorizing the Commission to discount admission fees for the Conservatory of Flowers, Japanese Tea Garden and the San Francisco Botanical Garden as part of a Golden Gate Park Access Pass. (ACTION ITEM) Staff: Brent Dennis.
Hey. what’s a GOLDEN GATE PARK ACCESS PASS? We’ll find out soon enough…
Quintin Mecke was on hand representing Assemblymember Tom Ammiano’s office and somebody else spoke for Supervisor John Avalos. Noticed Aaron Peskin in the audience as well.
All the while, there was absolutely nobody on or near the Main Lawn just inside the admission gate. Presenting your empty Strybing Arboretum:
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But that’s the way the San Francisco Botanical Garden Society likes it.
