Here’s what the “South Lion” looks like. Its left paw is “resting on a Buddhist jewel with an openwork design of sculpted peonies, a flower closely associated with lions.” DNKT.
This is a composite shot, but it’s the best one I have now. Guardian lion, 1868-1912. Japan. Bronze. Gift of Marsha Vargas Handley in memory of Raymond G. Handley
These critters certainly have found an appropriate resting place!
“ASIAN ART MUSEUM INSTALLS TWO JAPANESE BRONZE LIONS ON FRONT STEPS
The Asian Art Museum has installed two monumental Japanese bronze lion sculptures on granite plinths outside the museum’s front entrance on Larkin Street. Recently acquired by the museum through a donation from longtime supporter Marsha Vargas Handley in memory of Raymond G. Handley, the 800 lb. sculptures date to the late nineteenth century and are similar to the majestic guardian lions typically placed opposite each other outside Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines.
The practice of adorning public buildings with sculptures of lions is a time-honored custom in the US–the New York Public Library and the Art Institute of Chicago are noteworthy examples. The granite plinths outside the Asian Art Museum may well have been intended to support sculptures of lions when the building was originally built in 1916 to serve as the San Francisco Main Public Library. The museum is now following that longstanding tradition–this time with a uniquely Asian spin–giving a sneak peek of the treasures held inside.
The lion on the museum’s south side has its left paw resting on a Buddhist jewel, with an openwork design of sculpted peonies, a flower closely associated with lions. The south lion’s mouth is open, and the north lion’s is closed, symbolizing the sounds and spirit of the Japanese pronunciation of the first and last letters of the Sanskrit alphabet: “A” is pronounced with the mouth open, and “Un” with the mouth closed.
Physical Description: These lions’ enormous size—nearly five feet tall and six feet long— and standing positions are unusual. Paired guardian lions outside shrines today are often shown seated or crouching, and most are made of stone, wood, or, less commonly, ceramic. This pair of large sculptures also stands out in material (bronze). Relatively few bronze guardian lions from before World War II survive, due in part to mandatory metal collections ordered by the Japanese government during the war.
Conservation: The lions have undergone extensive conservation treatment, including repairs to the feet that fasten them to a new, customized base—a strategy of earthquake preparedness. Several layers of protective coating were applied to resist weathering of Ceremonial Unveiling: Details for a forthcoming ceremonial unveiling event will be announced soon.”
“EDITORIAL Kay Vasilyeva, a member of the San Francisco Women’s Political Caucus, has come forward with the allegation that District Five candidate Julian Davis grabbed her and put his hand down her pants at a political bar crawl in 2006. That was six years ago, but it’s still important — and more than the incident itself, the response we’ve seen from Davis is highly disturbing. He’s utterly denying that it ever happened, and retained a lawyer to send Vasilyeva a letter threatening her with legal action if she continues to talk.”
And here’s the last graf:
“We have said it many times before: People on the left need to be able to put their own ambitions aside sometimes and do what’s right for the cause. Davis can’t win. He’s embarrassing his former allies. He needs to focus on coming to terms with his past and rebuilding his life. And for the good of the progressive movement, he needs to announce that he’s ending his campaign, withdrawing from the race, and urging his supporters to vote for another candidate.”
Now, see the next quote on the Julian Davis door hangar? You know, from the San Francisco Examiner?
“Davis had impressed us with his knowledge of city issues and solutions that moved beyond the typical tax-and-cut, cookie-cutter budget moves usually proposed at City Hall. SF Examiner 10/16/12″
Following revelations about the cease-and-desist letter, progressive supervisors John Avalos and David Campos have withdrawn their endorsements of Davis’ candidacy. And due to the combined effects of this new allegation and the candidate’s handling of the matter, The San Francisco Examiner is forced to do the same.
We reaffirm our pre-existing endorsement of two other candidates running in this race, and urge residents of District 5 to vote for both John Rizzo and Thea Selby when they cast their ranked-choice ballots.”
“Animal Care & Control Concerned About Coyote Interactions
San Francisco – San Franciscans do not seem to be getting the message about how to coexist peacefully with local wildlife.
San Francisco Animal Care & Control has been notified about individuals who still allow their dogs illegally off -leash in active coyote areas despite education, posters, flyers, signs and barriers all warning dog owners to abide by the law and keep their dogs on-leash or, better yet, avoid the marked areas entirely. These irresponsible individuals are putting themselves, their dogs, and the coyotes and their pups at great risk (see video link below). Accordingly, after seeking expert advice and in collaboration with the San Francisco Recreation and Park Department, San Francisco Animal Care & Control suggested closure of locations in Golden Gate Park where coyotes appear to be anxiously protecting dens.
San Franciscans share natural places with a variety of wildlife, including coyotes. Temporary park closures are for the comfort and safety of people, pets and wildlife during breeding season. Birthing and pup rearing has the local coyotes feeling hormonally more protective which may result in more assertive behavior (as in the video). Our goals are to give coyote families temporary relief from stress (dogs) while ensuring public safety. Preventing confrontations such as this is the best policy.
San Francisco Animal Care & Control receives many inquiries about options for removing the coyotes. Relocation is illegal under CA State law. It is also inhumane. Lethal removal is ineffective and unethical since another coyote will simply take its place, often within weeks. San Francisco Animal Care & Control and coyote experts feel that the local coyotes are here to stay and their hope is that the community learns to peacefully coexist with them.
San Francisco Animal Care & Control encourages the community to be responsible pet guardians; leash dogs where required and respect temporary park closures. Wildlife in San Francisco needs a little breathing room while its young are present. Urban wildlife is part of the health of San Francisco’s parks – part of the heritage and history of our area – and coexistence is possible with a little give-and-take.Link to film of dogs harassing coyotes in San Francisco:
The Department of Animal Care & Control is a taxpayer-funded, open door animal shelter. ACC provides housing, care and medical treatment to wild, exotic and domestic stray, lost, abandoned sick, injured and/or surrendered animals. ACC aims to rehome or reunite domestic animals with their guardians and to rehabilitate and release wildlife to their native habitat. ACC responds to animal related emergencies 24/7 including animal abuse and neglect as well as matters of public safety. Animal Care & Control is located at 1200 15th St. (at Harrison.)
Deb Campbell Volunteer / Outreach Coordinator
Animal Care & Control 1200 15th Street San Francisco, CA. 94103
I don’t know, I’m all for safety and whatnot, but something about this Bye-Bye Buggy convoy struck me.
What is it, the orange and yellow safety vests, the orange pennant, the back-up orange pennant, the hand-held stop sign (held by a person with no authority to use a hand-held stop sign on Van Ness), and/or the flashing white LED light on said hand-held stop sign?
Crossing U. S. Route 101, aka Van Ness Avenue:
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I don’t know.
Oh wait, that’s right, it’s missing its BABY ON BOARD! sign hanging off the back. I just knew something was wrong with this scene. I’ll obtain one (or a half-dozen) and make a gift to this crew the next time I see them on McAllister or in front of City Hall.
This cute pup was guarding an Acura parked on 10th Street while its owner visited our SoMA Costco (I assume, I mean, why else would anybody park down there?)
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Problem? The disabled placard hanging from the rear-view has expired. See?
So guess who was waiting for this car’s owner to show up – it was DPT’s Disabled Placard Street Team with their bright blue shoulder patches.
Les mise-en-scene avec Etat de Jardin* license plates sur la Acura bleu:
This issue could end up costing the driver thousands of dollars, when all is said and done.** (I can’t say for sure because I don’t get paid by the City Family to stakeout cars, plus I had to split. Oh well.)
Now, WWSD? Like What Would KRON-TV’s Stanley Roberts Do if he came upon this scene? Oh yes, something like this.
But, you know, I might possibly be beefier than Stanley (I know I’m taller than he but I could actually outweigh him) and, you know, I wouldn’t want to get into an another Elmo situation.
Bon courage, Acura pooch. Your owner will need all the love she can get today.
**The funny thing is that Costco has plenty of free parking. And honestly, I don’t think the good people of Costco would care all that much if you parked in their garage while shopping elsewhere. As stated, there’s nothing else going on ’round that area so it’s not like they’re on the lookout for renegade parkers.
“Is it just me or is SFBG Best of Bay cast ah, desaturated, if you will http://t.co/nEwS45c“
Ouch.
Let’s see what we can do to fix things up a bit.
Now, a lot of the faces appear to be blown out, so you just can’t simply adjust the Saturation slider to the right. But what about white balance? Using this method you push one slider to the left and another to the right to get this:
Do you think the shot is now too jaundice, too yellow, too warm, too Simpsons-esque? Well, maybe, but I think the original shot is way too blue, too cool, too white, Sherman, so there you go.
Anyway, no matter what you make of Gerry’s adianoeta, the second shot is an improvement over the first, IMO.
Now I’m one to talk – I’m as Européen nordique as they come (excepting that my cheveux ain’t blonde and my yeux aint bleu). So, you know, I’m saying that I, too, lack the flava.
But in that way, I’m exactly like many institutions and organizations about town.
But I must say that the SFBG came out the winner when I compared it with the SF Weekly in late November to middish December. I think it was the interviews with the incoming supervisors that put the Guardian over the top.* I don’t regularly read them offline so I was surprised to see how thin (‘specially the Guardian) they’ve gotten.
(Now I’ll tell you, if you ever want your phone ringing off the hook, just buy an ad in one of them then the sales force from the other will hound you incessantly. No offer will be too low, I’ll tell you.)
Is this settlement (which comes from some kind of law that most Americans outside of California have managed to live without) a “great victory” for local business? Nope. And is the SF Weekly a skosh too close to this story, so much so that they’d be better off not talking about it? Yep.
“Golden Guardian 2010 will be the sixth Full Scale Exercise (FSE) in the Governor’s Golden Guardian Exercise Series since 2004. The theme of Golden Guardian 2010 is terrorist attacks in multiple ports throughout California. The FSE will be aligned with the National Level Exercise, NLE10 (Improvised Nuclear Device in FEMA Region IX), and will take place over several days in May 2010.”
Not too often you see regular military fighter jets above San Francisco these days, you know, just flying around on some mission as opposed to performing an airshow. Last time for me seeing something like that was when a pair of U.S. Air Force F-15′s roared low and fast over the Western Addition about a half-decade ago.
Here’s the view from Haight Ashbury yesterday, through the Blue Gum Eucalyptus trees. Don’t bother looking at the misfocused photo ’cause you probably won’t be able to see them, but KPIX / CBS5 has some footage from Oakland International Airport yesterday. There they are lined up next to the King Airs and whatnot at OAK.
And of course, a crash like that one in San Diego wouldn’t kill anybody in San Francisco because the Blue Angels would react differently to a sudden loss of power. And if there were a crash for other reasons, it would be simply unpossible for that to kill “thousands.”
Anyway, if you ever want to say that you don’t like the Blue Angels, it’ll be up to you to just say that you don’t like the Blue Angels or, instead, to make a blog post going, “Blue Angel Kills Thousands in SF crash.”
Your choice.
Anyway again, this “Military Aircraft operation” might have brought a nuclear aircraft carrier to the waters of the Farallones, who knows.
Look to theskies!They are ever changing.
Suit and tie comes up to me
His face red
Like a rose on a thorn bush
Like all the colours of a royal flush
And he’s peeling off those dollars bills
Slapping them down, one hundred, two hundred, And I can see those fighter planes
And I can see the fighter planes
Across the mud huts as the children sleep
Through the alleys of a quiet city street
Up the staircase to the first floor
We turn the key and slowly unlock the door
A man breathes deep into saxophone
Through the walls we hear the city groan
Outside is America
Outside is America
