A recent spate of fake five-star reviews has elevated our International Art Museum of America all the way up to a three star Yelp rating, so hooray for that, I guess.
And check out the crest they’re using – that’s the same one that was on the green blazers of the security guards as they ejected me from the joint on Opening Day a bit more than a year ago. Good times:
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Well the Grand Opening Celebration for our so-called International Art Museum of America is coming Saturday, October 15th, 2011 at 1023 / 1025 Market Street betwixt 6th and 7th in the gritty Twitterloin / Mid-Market area.
Get the deets about this place here and on the Yelp.
But here’s the news, this joint’s going to be free for all of October 2011:
“The IAMA Board of Directors is offering free admission to the public from October 15-31, 2011. Stop by to see our newly opened museum shop (located at 1023 Market Street) and new additions to our exhibit.
HOURS: The museum is open to the public, Tuesday – Sunday, 11 am-5 pm. Starting October 15, 2011.”
You can’t beat that, right?
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Oh and here’s the new website.
And here are the deets of Opening Day – they have an entertainment schedule and everything:
The day will begin with a celebratory dance by Leung White Crane Dragon and Lion Dance Association, followed by a ribbon cutting ceremony, welcome speeches and entertainment. Tickets for the general public from 11- 3 pm will be available at the new museum shop (located at 1023 Market Street). Prices are $10.00 adults/ $8.00 for seniors/students/military with I.D. $5.00 Children 5-17 years; children under 5 yrs. free. The museum will also offer free admission for the general public on October 15 from 3-5 pm only, in conjunction with the “24 Days of Central Market Arts Festival.” Members and their guests will be admitted free of charge all day long.
IAMA’s mission is to display the most beautiful and precious art from all over the world to promote the moral progress, spiritual health, and cultural and artistic development of humanity around the globe.
HOURS/TIMES OF OPERATION: The museum will be open to the public, Tuesday through Sunday, 11 am – 5 pm. beginning October 18, 2011.LOCATION: Public access is available at our museum entrance located at 1025 Market Street. The museum shop is located at 1023 Market Street, adjacent to the museum building. Parking is available at inexpensive parking lots on Mission Street between 6th St. and 7th St. around the corner, or take Muni to Market and Sixth St. or BART to Powell Street station and walk one block west. TICKETS: Admission is $10.00 for adults and $8.00 for seniors/students/military with I.D. $5.00 Children 5-17 years; children under 5 yrs. Free. Group tour rates are available. We offer membership with the benefit of free admission.
Why don’t you check it out and then post your opinion online someplace?
D’Accord? D’accord.
Once again, it’s time for Carnaval down in the Mission District, our “Sunshine Belt” in the 415.
This year’s is the 75th running, so won’t you come and join the fun?
All right, grab your gourd cozy…
Clique para expandir. Via David Yu
…and then fly on up to see Carnaval:
Once again, via David Yu
You know, a lot of people travel great distances to see the Carnaval, so why not you too?
“The Carnaval San Francisco Parade is always the 4th Sunday in May on Memorial Day Weekend – May 29, 2011 – Begins at Bryant & 24th at 10AM and heads up the Mission Street to 17th…”
All right, see you there!
And here are a few shots from Carnavals past:
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Rei e Rainha do Carnaval 2009? Well they certainly looked the part, anyway.
¡Irmandade! Sisters doing it for themselves:
Capoeira, as seen on Meet the Fockers
She has the rare Blood Type “C”:
Samba com criança:
Mack Daddy:
I Dream of Jeannie, or 48 Jeannies on 24th Street, or something:
Sadly, these Jeannies weren’t followed by phalanx of Major Nelsons
Mi Chevy y tu Chevy. “SICKT FO” = 1964:
Puertas de tijera – ahora mas que nunca. Will scissors doors work on my heretofore bLand Cruiser? If so, I’ll take four, plus another one on the tailgate – why not?
You’d think Zorro would have a Nissan Z-car but he makes do with his Celica and some tape.
NorCal Waste Systems, aka Golden Gate Scavenger, is now Recology:
Cão + cão = dois cães, mais ou menos
And There You Have It.
So that’s good. And you won’t be seeing headlines like, ”San Francisco proposes tax cut for Twitter” applied to this hulking white building.
It’s still attracting the curious on a daily basis down in the Mid-Market part of the Twitterloin. As seen yesterday across the street from the Chor Boogie:
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Let’s take a tour of the new museum with the only photos I have access to.
Upstairs…
…and Downstairs
That’s all I have so far – two authorized photos of the inside.
It’s $8 to get in…
Well, about 80 people, mostly Buddhists it would seem, were on hand for the noon-time soft opening of the brand spanking new International Art Museum of America today.
No photos are allowed so I didn’t stick around too long. Anyway, the downstairs part looks like a model home in a new housing development. Everything has that new-car-smell kind of new-house-smell. Lots of gold paint about – reminds me of Bellagio in Vegas. And, I’m seriously, somebody was handing out brochures and showing swatches of marble flooring or something like that.
And there’s a flowing water exhibit downstairs, just as you might imagine after seeing shots over at Curbed SF and SFist, San Francisco’s two big local websites.
Welcome welcome. Lots of monks were on hand as well:
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And then upstairs, well it’s different. There’s at least one kind of shrine exhibit up there, it’s like a mini-mausoleum, or something, dedicated to somebody – don’t recall his name. The nice windows facing Your New San Francisco Mid-Market Area are papered over so that’s kind of a bummer.
It’s not like any museum I’ve ever seen, but why don’t you get over there and then make the call? I mean, if Angelo Alioto wants to spend millions on a Catholic kind of shrine in North Beach, there’s nothing wrong with some Buddhists having their own place on Market Street, right?
They have a expereinced museum curator Dyana Curreri-Ermatinger running the show and they have security guards with sweet (embroidered?) logos on their uniforms, but they don’t have a website up yet so oh well.
Maybe they’ll release some photos or get their Go-Daddied webpage going and then I can show you or post a link. Everybody’s very friendly – ask them a question if you’re curious about anything.
IMO, this place is more like a masoleum than a museum at this point, but that’s JMO.
UPDATE: Oh, they _do_ have some photos. Here’s one.
Credit: International Art Museum of America, 2011
I’ll get some more up later…
[Playing this one straight here.]
The International Art Museum of America will soft open at noon on Tuesday, March 29th, 2011.
That’s all I know, deets below.
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All the deets:
“The new International Art Museum will indeed be opening it’s doors to the public beginning March 29. The museum will feature annual changing exhibitions of international art. During this “start-up” period, called a “soft opening”, our entrance will be at 1023 Market Street, and visitors will have access to our second floor gallery and can visit our architectural tile and art glass display, which showcases the materials used in the design of the museum.
The museum will fully open sometime in September (date for Grand Opening, TBA in April) offering access for the public to our Chinese garden on the first floor, meeting and conference rooms downstairs and a gift shop featuring many unique items related to the museum’s exhibitions.
We invite your readers to come by and visit during the next few months, take advantage of reduced admission fees: ($8.00 for adults/ $5.00 youth/senior and military) and enjoy the museum’s inaugural exhibition. Gallery hours during our “soft” opening period will be noon – 5 pm, Tuesday – Saturday.”
Well, this is what was promised for today’s noontime transit worker rally at the Old Federal Building on Golden Gate and Polk:
Turns out that Jesse didn’t show. (Here’s what you would have seen and heard.)
But a couple-hundred or so transit workers and allies were on hand at the plaza in front of Big Blue:
And here’s how they got there. How apropropriate!
Here’s who was there. I see District 9 San Francisco Supervisor David Campos, San Francisco Labor Council Executive Director Tim Paulson, and TWU 250-a Union President Irwin Lum, for starters:
Are riders and drivers really united? Not that I can see, not in San Francisco. I’m mean, I’m sure that all involved would like Uncle Sucker to rain cash down upon the City, but beyond that, there’s not much uniting these groups. It would be nice to cancel the already-useless Central Subway and use the extra billion (or two or three) that that would free up to pay for transit people are using today, but the system doesn’t work that way, obviously. Oh well.
Here’s a take from Greg Dewar at the N Judah Chronicles.
On It Goes:
Anyway, here’s the spiel:
“Transit service cuts, fare hikes and layoffs affect millions of Americans every day. You can help save transit and counteract the nation-wide transit crisis by rallying with the Save Our Ride alliance.
Save Our Ride was formed by the Transport Workers Union, Amalgamated Transit Union and Reverend Jesse Jackson to raise awareness of the transit crisis and to rally for the passage of transit bills that will allow flexibility of federal aid for transit. The alliance is an advocate for more affordable and efficient transit systems, better air quality and a greener future for America.
You can download the full press release here.
Come show your support:
June 29, San Francisco: Noon, Federal Building on Golden Gate Bridge
July 1, Sacramento: Noon, Federal Building, 501 I street
July 7, Houston: 11 am, Mickey Leland Federal Building, 1919 Smith Street
July 9, Miami: 2 pm, Government Center Building
Download the San Francisco flyer here.
Speakers to include: James C. Little, President International TWU; Harry Lombardo, TWU Executive Vice President; Warren George, President of International ATU; Reverend Jesse Jackson, Rainbow PUSH Coalition. Other speakers will include TWU and ATU local leadership, legislators, community and civil rights groups, riders who are suffering from service cuts and increased fares. (speakers subject to change)
Stay tuned to twu.org and ourride.org for speaker announcements and more information as the rallies approach.
The reason your fares have increased and your service has been cut is because the federal government has neglected transit for decades and the country’s on-going economic struggle that has slashed transit revenues has pushed transportation systems into their own crises.
“We can not allow our transit systems to crumble from financial neglect,” said President James C. Little. “We must work together to tell the federal government the neglect must stop.”
Federal subsidies to our country’s largest transportation systems do not allow enough flexibility for operating costs. So transit systems can use federal funds to buy news trains and buses (capital expenses), but not to pay the operators. If your bus doesn’t have an operator, you are not going to get to work on time.
Rep. Russ Carnahan (D-MO), and Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH), have proposed bills, H.R.2746and S3189, that would allow transit agencies to flex funding to suit local needs. Also, eight senators from the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee introduced a bill, S. 3412, to authorize emergency funding for transit agencies to help reverse fare increases and service cuts.
This legislation will help to save our transit systems, provide thousands of green transit jobs, and keep transportation affordable. If you take the bus, train, subway or streetcar to work and use public transportation to send your children to school and if you want to work towards a cleaner environment, less congested streets and green jobs, then come share your story and your voice and Save Our Ride!
Yesterday’s announcement of a sinkhole affecting N-Judah service in the Sunset District didn’t sound like any big deal at first:
“Feb 5, 2010 to Feb 7, 2010 - SF Muni N-Judah Line Delay: On Saturday, February 6, SF Muni reports delays on the inbound N-Judah Line at Judah and 29th Avenue due to a street closure involving a sinkhole near the inbound tracks. N trains are turning back at Judah and 19th Avenue and bus shuttles are being provided until further notice.”
And, in fact, the actual sinkhole location itself looks unremarkable, excepting for all the signs all around it.
But check it – appears as if work crews might be spending the next two weeks onsite at 29th and Judah:
”WE WILL TOW,” says MUNI. No doubt.
People riding the N Judah buses this AM seemed relatively unaffected* by the loss of the trolleys, but that probably won’t be the case on Monday if the tracks aren’t usable.
Or, maybe, the City’s taciturn work crews will be able to get a quick fix in this weekend and then work on a better job over the next week or so? Perhaps there’s an ongoing issue there anyway and this whole deal is a big nothingburger with a side order of nada?
MUNI probably has a pretty good idea on what will occur but they aren’t officially saying anything yet.
Only Time Will Tell.
Le mise-en-scene ce matin:
An avid radio fan, call-sign Star Scream (srsly, perhaps ironically), hepped me to when the supervisors would show up this AM, and lo, he was spot-on. (Radio – it’s like the Internet but without pictures.)
Note the cracks nearby the purported sinkhole…
…and then compare them with these nearby bits (could we call them railroad ties?) that appear to be waiting to go:
Good luck, MUNI!
[UPDATE: If you believe what Next MUNI is saying, then the trolleys will be rolling across the sinkhole spot by this afternoon, February 7th.]
*So people trying to get to MUNI’s Town Hall Meeting today (maybe it’s still going on) should be able to make it. MUNI likes these kinds of meetings because they disunite riders (because of infighting over the preservation of service on particular lines) and they unite the disparate elements of MUNI. (Is the state of California really “taking away” money from MUNI or just not giving as much money to MUNI?) Regardless, if enough people hammer on the importance of one particular line, that can make a difference…
This was the scene today in Civic Center, where hundreds of Coptic Christians rallied for religious freedom and an end to the recent violence in Egypt.
Details at 40 Going On 28.
