100 McAllister in the Tenderloin / Twitterloin started off life as a church / hotel.
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Posts Tagged ‘cross’
The Church of UC Hastings Law School
Thursday, January 10th, 2013Why is the Red Cross Driving Around San Francisco in Giant Hummer SUVs?
Thursday, September 27th, 2012Uh, I don’t know.
Presenting the big-on-the-outside, small-in-the-inside Hummer H3, the “Baby Hummer.”
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I can sort of see why GM donated this this vehicle, but nevertheless, sometimes, I just don’t know.
Wouldn’t a minivan be a better choice? I think so.
PS: We should have let GM die this time, you know, as opposed to waiting until next time…
The Headless Celtic Parking Meters of San Francisco’s Civic Center: Use Them For Religious Purposes or For Bicycle Parking
Tuesday, July 19th, 2011I like these repurposed parking meters – they ought to be religious icons (if they aren’t already, somewhere in the world.)
Anyway, these crossarmless Celtic Crosses are bike racks now taking the place of parking meters.
See?
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Hurray!
ZOMG, the Ziptrek Zipline is Coming Back to San Francisco for the Summer of 2011! Just $29 a Ride
Sunday, June 26th, 2011Here’s the news from Akit: It’s ba-aaaack! Its the ZipTrek EcoTours zipline* (or ziplines, as they will have two, side-by-side). Deets are below.
Now, last year, back in 2010, the rides were free, so people were lining up at 3:00 AM. But this year, the cost will be $29, so that will certainly cut down on the riff-raff, and therefore surely shorten the queue.
(And oh, our friends from up in the Great White North just told me that they will be highly disappointed if Edwin Lee, San Francisco’s once (and future?) Mayor chickens out, if he blows off his obligation. Other Mayors have done it and it all worked out fine. See below for one example…)
This could be you:
The deets:
- Dates: Summer 2011 (Opening early July)
- Hours: Open daily (7 days a week!) from 11:00 a.m. – 7:00 p.m.*
- Price: $29 (all ages)
- Age: 6 years+
- Weight: 65lbs – 275lbs
- First come, first serve
All guests are required to sign an Assumption of Risks and Release of Liability Agreement (coming soon) before zipping. Under 19 requires signature by a parent or guardian.
The ziplines are gravity fed, so guests do not have to worry about controlling their own speed. Guides are stationed at each tower to connect (launch platform) and disconnect (landing platform) each and every guest. Age restrictions apply and guests must weigh more than 65 pounds and no more than a maximum of 275 pounds.
When:
Summer 2011
11:00 a.m. – 7:00 p.m. *
Where:
Justin Herman Plaza at Embarcadero Square, San Francisco, California
* times may vary on certain days”
Will you have the guts to climb a temporary tower (80 feet tall!) just like this one from 2010 to earn the right to tell your friends you rode the Justin Herman Plaza Zip Line?
Just asking.
via Josegee – click to expand
Clicque to expand
But first, you’ll need to wait in line next to the abysmal Vaillancourt Fountain, sign a waiver, and get harnessed up.
Le mise-en-scene.
You’ll ascend the 80 foot tower and encounter a friendly Canadian guide at the top. If you need a pep talk, you’ll get one:
You’ll soon be steadying your nerves by glancing at your jump buddy…
…and then you’ll be off, into the wild bleu.
Sisters doing it for themselves:
Can you see the nervous giggles? There’s your team bonding right there.
And this is what it felt like last year. Everything zooms by with a quickness, and there’s a loud buzzing above your noggin. Some people go upside-down even.
And they’ll totally let you bring a camera to make your own YouTube:
You owe it to yourself to try.
Don’t dissappoint lovely Ashleigh. She brought her Olympic Gold all the way down here last year just so you’d consider Vancouver as the starting point for your next vacation:
And I’ll tell you, last year the kids from Project Insight were quite amused to see former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown take a run on the fantastic British Columbia Zip-Line near the Ferry Building.
Here’s an account from John Coté.
Willie, sporting cashmere, handed out souvenir mittens (I still have a pair sitting in the back seat of Mom’s Taxi) from Up North:
Then it was time to harness up:
A reluctant exchange of headgear:
It’s go time.
Then he was off:
Here’s a close-up of those cardinal socks:
The landing tower. Here’s the reverse angle from David Paul Morris
And then a press conference:
His reaction after flying through the sky?
“I was scared as Hell, but there was no way I was going to show it!”
Good for you, Mr. Brown. Will you ride again in 2011?
Anyway, if he can do it, you can too.
See you there this summer!
And get the latest info direct from la source here:
Dirty Harry at 40, San Francisco Time Capsule from 1971: Who Emptied the Hilton’s Swimming Pool Atop 750 Kearny?
Wednesday, April 6th, 2011Dirty Harry at 40 continues with the case of the pool atop our Financial District / Chinatown Hilton.
Now check it – everybody’s favorite psycho killer hippie Scorpio somehow got on the roof of famously-sawtoothed* 555 California, you know, in order to start the carnage. See?
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Now wouldn’t it be cool to go swimming up there on a dreaded sunny day?
Well, we’ll never know – here’s how it looks these days:
Empty empty empty.
Oh well…
I’ll get some more screen grabs and make some more posts from this movie later on.
In the meantime, check out all the locations – there are lots and lots:
In San Francisco:
- 555 California Street
- California Hall, 625 Polk Street (until recently, the California Culinary Academy)
- San Francisco City Hall
- Hall of Justice – 850 Bryant Street
- Forest Hill Station
- Hilton San Francisco Financial District, 750 Kearny Street – rooftop swimming pool in opening scenes
- Kezar Stadium – Frederick Street, Golden Gate Park
- Dolores Park, Mission District
- Mount Davidson
- Sts. Peter and Paul Church, Washington Square, 666 Filbert Street
- Washington Square, North Beach
- Big Al’s, 556 Broadway St.
- Roaring 20′s strip club, 552 Broadway
- North Beach, San Francisco
- Other locations
- Larkspur Landing — scene of Callahan and Scorpio’s showdown, known as the Hutchinson’s Rock Quarry when filmed
- Greenbrae, California
- Mill Valley, California
- Universal Studios Hollywood — San Francisco Street (Hot dog café / Bank robbery sequence)
*So every shark laboring at triple-five Cal can have his/her own “corner office,” of sorts, that’s why the BofA Building has that distinctive shape.
Dirty Harry at 40: Using San Francisco’s Favorite Cop Movie as a Time Capsule – Mad Bison at the Buffalo Paddock
Sunday, April 3rd, 2011Say what you will about that highly-rated Dirty Harry film, it ably shows you what the 415 looked like back in 1971, back before it became too expensive for Hollywood to do business in San Francisco. This movie is all 100% genuine on-location San Francisco Bay Area (with the exception of the early bank heist shots).
Now these days, the Golden Gate Park’s Buffalo Paddock doesn’t have more than a half-dozen critters. There’s just a handful left, all female (the Golden Girls let’s call them), so unless Ted Turner comes through with his offer of free bison from one of his ranches in Montana or someplace, we’re going to run out of bison.
But check out how things were back in the day. They were all over. See?
You can barely make out the school bus that psychotic hippie Scorpio just hijacked:
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I’ll get some more screen grabs and make some more posts from this movie later on.
In the meantime, check out all the locations – there are lots and lots:
In San Francisco:
- 555 California Street
- California Hall, 625 Polk Street (until recently, the California Culinary Academy)
- San Francisco City Hall
- Hall of Justice – 850 Bryant Street
- Forest Hill Station
- Hilton San Francisco Financial District, 750 Kearny Street – rooftop swimming pool in opening scenes
- Kezar Stadium – Frederick Street, Golden Gate Park
- Dolores Park, Mission District
- Mount Davidson
- Sts. Peter and Paul Church, Washington Square, 666 Filbert Street
- Washington Square, North Beach
- Big Al’s, 556 Broadway St.
- Roaring 20′s strip club, 552 Broadway
- North Beach, San Francisco
- Other locations
- Larkspur Landing — scene of Callahan and Scorpio’s showdown, known as the Hutchinson’s Rock Quarry when filmed
- Greenbrae, California
- Mill Valley, California
- Universal Studios Hollywood — San Francisco Street (Hot dog café / Bank robbery sequence)
2 Jesus, 1 Cross
Wednesday, December 22nd, 2010These two late-20′s/early-30-ish carpenter dudes were espied on Church, appropriately enough.
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All Those Airplanes Making Noise Over San Francisco are Landing at OAKland – A Rare and Dangerous Fed-Ex MD-11 Jumbo
Monday, November 22nd, 2010Here’s a recent view from the Western Addition towards the west, so the giant American flag you can see is indicating an atypical stiff breeze from the south, more or less.
Airline passengers don’t fly in three-engined tri-jets anymore because the concept isn’t fit for the 21st century. But the stuff you order on the Amazon rides old-school Fed-Ex Cargo McDonnell Douglas DC-10‘s and MD-11‘s all the time.
Now, the DC-10 got a bad rep about three decades back – some of that wasn’t its fault (like when a pilot heard 1500 feet instead of 1500 meters) but some of it was. So Mickey D came out with a replacement, the MD-11. It was better in a lot of ways but it turned out to be more crashy than its predecessor and that’s a whole story in itself.*
Anyway, these MD trijets generally do fine when they land facing straight into the wind, as here:
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Stay safe in your pterodactyls, in your flying dinosaurs, Fed-Ex pilots!
*Like how they made the landing gear stronger to handle the stretched body, so they’re stronger than the wing they’re hanging from – that situation has killed passengers and pilots. McDonnell Douglas simply tried way too hard to make up for the fact that its only jumbo design just happened to have an unnecessary third engine sucking up a lot of fuel.
Small Section of Golden Gate Park Reserved Solely for Cross-Bearing, Proselytizing, Apostolic Franciscan Friar
Friday, September 24th, 2010So there I was in Golden Gate Park tracking a giant blue bird and then when I looked up, I saw a hippy on a Jesus trip coming straight towards me larger than life.
Like this. See the robe, the beads, the sandals, the cross with the letters JHS* or IHS? This statue is a like a giant Catholic billboard on public land.
Check it, a huge bronze by Douglas Tilden made in 1906 and dedicated in 1907:
Via mharrsch - click to expand
So, here’s the Baby Name Wizard’s take on Junipero:
“Father Junipero Serra: Spanish Franciscan Friar. He is very well-known as a misogynistic abuser of native slaves and women, but remains an important historical figure in Central California.”
O.K. then. (Wow, a little harsh, huh?)
But what do you think Father Junípero Serra is trying to communicate here?
And what do you think the City and County of San Francisco is trying to promote by allowing public land for this kind of use?
Now, for some Christians, this statue, and the Prayerbook Cross just down the way, are not enough. These people go into the Music Concourse, see Father Serra and then get bummed:
“I was just there today, and as a Christian, I was very dismayed by the fact that it seems the park administration has allowed the landscaping to STRATEGICALLY block out the base of the sculpture that has the inscribed descriptions of Junipero Serra. It’s religiously discriminatory and outright insulting, and apparently it’s condoned by the city. But then Jesus said his followers would be hated. At least we were warned.”
I’ll agree that the shrubbery appears to have been placed around this statue to obsure it somewhat. This kind of cover could be, as they say, constitutionally significant – it could affect a judge’s or a jury’s opinion on whether it’s kosher for San Francisco to reserve its land for this kind of message.
Father J was much more prominent back in the day. See?
I’ll tell you, our neighbors to the south in Los Angeles had similar issue with a cross that was a part of its history – here’s the story of how they handled it.
How will San Francisco handle the case the Father Serra proselytizing in the GGP?
Now, shouldn’t Golden Gate Park be a proselytizing-free zone reserved as a place for giant blue birds to eat rodents…
…and recycle aluminum cans?
You Make The Call.
*Now, about that inscription on the crossbar. It’s just a Christogram that spells out the first three letters of the name Jesus. So, it goes J-E-S, or Iota-Eta-Sigma. There’s no need to make up a backronym like Iesus Hominum Salvator or nothing.
Is It “Nearly Impossible” to Ride the Justin Herman Plaza Zipline? No, No It’s Not
Monday, April 12th, 2010Per NBCBayArea, our Justin Herman Plaza Zipline is “nearly impossible to ride” owing to its popularity.
And yet, almost 1000 souls enjoy its charms every day. Mmmm. It wasn’t impossible for all those people to ride, right?
(In other news of the day, here are NBCBayArea’s random photos of Playboy bunnies and Hooters Restaurant employees. That’s got to be pure gold, trafficwise, in’nt.)
The Impossible Dream?
Are we saying to get there way early in the day? I think that’s what we’re saying.
Irregardless, NBC’s accounts of when people got into line and when they were able to ride that day (if ever) are enlightening. And, agreed, it’s probably not a good use of time to drive all the way up from San Hoser just to try to go for a 20-second zip.
