“Timed to coincide with the Asian Art Museum‘s Phantoms of Asia exhibition, Civic Center Plaza will soon play host to Korean artist Choi Jeon Hwa’s Breathing Flower sculpture–a 24-foot tall, bright red recreation of a lotus flower with motorized petals set up to open and close throughout the course of the day.
A curatorial statement from the Asian Art Museum details some of the meaning behind the work:
“Looking closely at this large lotus by artist Choi Jeong Hwa one notices that it appears to be full of life, its petals slowly inhaling and exhaling. This is typical of the work of Choi, who takes pleasure in giving new life and meaning to otherwise inanimate and disregarded materials. Long a familiar flower in Asia and associated with both Hindu and Buddhist mythology, the lotus is remarkable for its ability to emerge from murky waters and mud, and blossom into an elegant flower. Choi created his lotus from everyday materials that, unlike a real lotus, will never disintegrate and die, and ultimately urge the viewer to meditate on the beauty and fragility of the natural world around us.”
So, we’ve got a whole bunch of dahlia sitting out there in Golden Gate Park (right there just east of the Conservatory of Flowers, you know that building what cost $25,000,000 to fix up) right now and we’ve got a Hall of Flowers Building right there near 9th Avenue and Lincoln as a place to host the show, as per usual, but we don’t have the show in 2011?
I cry foul.
What did you do, Rec and Park, drive away yet another event? You know, with your fees and whatnot?
I cry foul once again.
Anywho, here’s a big old bumblebee what just looooves our Dahlia Garden. But look out for that stinger – don’t mess with Texas!
Speaking of which, we’ve also fee’d away other annual traditions, like when we sent the Love Parade over to the East Bay. You know, after just killing last year’s effort outright. Good-bye LovEvolution.
Looking at you, Rec and Park, looking at you, MayorWilleBrownGavinNewsomEdleeDowntown dynasty:
From what they used to call the Mexican Garden in what they used to call Strybing Arboretum, which, for seven decades and up until just last year, used to have free admission:
Check out the flowery language used to make the dahlia San Francisco’s official flower:
“The dahlia partakes essentially of the character of our beloved city, in birth, breeding, and habit, for it was originally Mexican, carried thence to Spain, to France and England in turn, being changed in the process from a simple daisylike wild flower to a cosmopolitan beauty.”
“The annual Dahlia Show will take place on Saturday, August 21, 2010, from 10am to 5pm and Sunday from 10am to 4pm at the Hall of Flowers, 9thAvenue and Lincoln Way.”
So now there are more YESes and fewer NOs when you’re a-hankering for Chinese at 1:00 AM. TCB has neatly skirted the Western Addition north of Turk Street, but this map doesn’t have any redlined “no-service” areas and it doesn’t look at all gerrymandered.
So it’s No Pizza For You in the Western A all the time and no night-time pizza for you in the Tenderloin, aka “Theater District,” and the Flank, aka 6th Street from Market to Folsom, basically.
Is this kind of thing legal in San Francisco and/or America? Oh yes.
But what about a San Francisco taxi driver? Can he or she just say, “No, I don’t take paying customers to the Fillmore or the “Loin – too dangerous” – like, is that Kosher?
Hells no! That’s a misdemeanor called Failure to Convey and that will put a hack in the hoosegow.
Anyway, how can you Loiners get your East Coast-style pie from Amici’s? Maybe you could call up TCB and see if they will accommodate ya?
Just ring them up at (415) 797-2255. Who knows, maybe they’ll have some kind of solution for you shut-ins. Maybe they’ll have a way of getting some almost-as-good, piping hot, west coast ‘za to your door.
The thing about the Presidio is that you get broken water mains all the time. But that can be a good thing, cause it seems that water from a busted pipe managed to wake up some wildflower seeds recently.
Read below to see what the Presidio is saying about this today.
WILDFLOWER NOT SEEN FOR NEARLY A CENTURY RETURNS TO PRESIDIO. WATER MAIN BREAK LEADS TO SURPRISING FIND
Presidio of San Francisco (June 5, 2009) — In 1917, the Presidio Fire Station was built; the military post was supporting troops fighting in World War I; and the Smooth Owl’s Clover was last seen at the Presidio.
That is until April, when Presidio Trust staff members collecting seeds at an out of the way site near Fort Scott stumbled across a lucky find. The bright yellow flower not seen at the Presidio in 92 years was poking through the soil.
“It’s fascinating to think about the legacy, the history of the ecosystem,” says Andy Kleinhesselink, a biological sciences technician with the Presidio Trust. “That there are still parts of it living in the soil—seeds lying beneath the trees, buildings, roads–unseen but still there, still viable, just waiting for their chance to re-emerge.”
Smooth Owl’s Cloveris a native wildflower found in California’s coastal counties, but it was long thought to have vanished from the Presidio. An annual plant that stands about six inches tall, the clover’s upright flowering stem bears a few dozen little pastel yellow flowers stack on top of one another. Trust staff speculate when a nearby main burst a few months ago the soil was disturbed re-awakening the dormant seeds buried deep below the surface.
Kleinhesselink and other Trust staff members will now hand-pollinate the newly found plant, hoping to nurture the tiny, existing population and possibly replant the clover elsewhere.
“Nature has this way of re-awakening, of forcing itself back to the surface,” says Kleinhesselink. “There’s always a chance for new discoveries and surprises even in areas teeming with people like the Presidio.”
Smooth Owl’s Clover is one of several wildflowers to re-appear in the Presidio after long absences. The others:
· Chinese Caps— Not seen in the Presidio since 1936, it was presumed to be extinct in the park until it was found on the coastal bluffs in April.
· Sticky Cinquefoil– Found in the landscape behind the Golden Gate Club last year, records show it had been seen in the Presidio in 1999 and 2001 as well. Prior to 1999, it had not been seen in the Presidio since 1894.
· Baby Blue Eyes—Like Chinese Caps, presumed extinct in the Presidio until earlier this year when it was seen for just the second time in 118 years. Records indicate it disappeared from the park from 1891 to 1980.
