These trees near Muir Woods are tall, huh?
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Posts Tagged ‘holidays’
Merry Christmas from the Groves of Marin County, USA
Friday, December 25th, 2009San Francisco’s Market Street Railway Wishes You a Merry Christmas
Thursday, December 24th, 2009
Frosty Frank Chu Wishes You a Phixgrostrenikal Christmas from Google San Francisco
Thursday, December 24th, 2009See?
Frosty the Chu Man at the SoMA office of Google in San Francisco, where the toilets all have 14 things to push, instead of just one.
via moppet65535
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To Commemorate Christmas, Google Donates Money to Fight Nazis on Your Behalf
Monday, December 21st, 2009When our corporate overlords at Google aren’t getting busted for lacking shooting permits in national parks or getting ripped off buying $7000 toilets from Japan, they’re giving the world a gift for the holidays.
See how they’re commemorating the end of the aughts, the end of 2009?
“This gift is for someone very special: Everyone. Because charities are experiencing their toughest year in decades, we have committed $20 million to helping those who help us all. Our gift to you is a gift to them.”
Check out the recipients.
Feeding America
Boys and Girls Clubs
Smile Train
CARE, Mothers Matter
World Wildlife Fund, Natural Capital Project
Mobile Creches
Prajwala
HEAL Africa
African Institute for Mathematical Sciences
The Mango Tree
National Center for Missing and Exploited Children
Harlem Children’s Zone
Save the Children, Latin America focus
Reporters Without Borders
Witness
Loud Against Nazis ["Laut gegen Nazis"]
Global Voices
Ushahidi
Save the Children, Middle East and Eurasia focus
Grupo Cultural Afro Reaggae
Ashesi University College, Ghana
Pratham
Australian Indigenous Mentoring Experience
Shin Shin Educational Foundation
Tzu Chi Foundation
Happy Holidays from Google
Hello, As we near the end of the year, we wanted to take a moment to thank you for the time, energy, commitment, and trust you’ve shared with us in 2009. With sharing in mind, this year we’ve decided to do something a little different. We hope you’ll find it fits the spirit of the holiday season. We’re looking forward to working with you to build lasting success in 2010.
Happy Holidays, Your Google Team
Thanks Google.
Look Out Shoppers – The Gap’s Traveling Cheer Squad and Drumline is Now in the Bay Area
Thursday, December 17th, 2009Here’s how it will be until the end of this week – you’ll be out and about on the Streets of San Francisco near Union Square, the Ferry Building or Fishermans Wharf and then you’ll encounter Gap’s Cheer Squad and Drumline and/or their giant buffalo-plaid bus.
This peppy crew will be giving away stuff as they perform.
Thusly. This is a lot of air without a net, huh. As recently seen in NYC:
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You can’t miss them – they just drove up from L.A. in this monster:
So, be on the look out. What more can we ask from our corporate overlords than free swag?
They’ll be hitting Santa Clara County today, San Francisco tomorrow, Marin County Saturday, and San Mateo County Sunday.
The deets:
The Gap Cheer Squad and Drumline are bringing the cheer home to San Francisco this Thursday through Sunday. They’ll be spreading cheer around the Bay Area with performances and giveaways. Show your holiday spirit and you could win cozy Gap accessories or a pair of 1969 jeans.
Thursday, December 17th
Valley Fair Mall
Friday, December 18th
Union Square
The Ferry Building
Market & Powell (The Flood Building)
Chestnut Street
Fisherman’s Wharf
Saturday, December 19th
Corte Madera
Sunday, December 20th
Stanford Shopping Center
Cheer Squad & Drumline Dates and Cities:
New York City: Friday, November 27 – Monday, November 30
Chicago: Thursday, December 3 – Sunday, December 6
Los Angeles: Friday, December 11 – Tuesday, December 15
San Francisco Bay Area: Thursday, December 17 – Sunday, December 20
New York City: Friday, November 27 – Monday, November 30
Chicago: Thursday, December 3 – Sunday, December 6
Los Angeles: Friday, December 11 – Tuesday, December 15
San Francisco Bay Area: Thursday, December 17 – Sunday, December 20
Come See the New Make Magazine MakerSheds at Frys Electronics
Thursday, December 3rd, 2009Well, here it is, just in time for Christmas, Make Magazine MakerSheds at your local Fry’s Electronics, which is most likely the one in Palo Alto.
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So that’s something new under the Sun. Read all the deets, and a pitch for “TripGlasses,” right here:
“We’re ecstatic about the fact that we now have Maker Shed kiosks, with magazines, books, and electronics kits, in several California Fry’s stores. We think this is big news, not only for Maker Media, but for all indie makers — a major retail chain is now giving small kit-makers this level of exposure. And, we think it’s particularly cool that we designed and built these kiosks in-house, and even personally delivered them to the stores! What other publisher could claim that?
Here, Assoc. Publisher and General Manager of Maker retail, Dan Woods explains more:
Maker Shed kiosks are now installed in four of Fry’s largest superstores. Each kiosk merchandises current and back issues of MAKE, Make: Project books, and kits, with an emphasis on maker-made kits produced by indie makers like Limor Fried’s MintyBoost, Mitch Altman’s Brain Machine, Ken Murphy’s Blinky Bugs, Dale Wheat’s Tiny Cylon and Wee Blinky kits, and Amy Parness and Ariel Churi’s DIY Design Electronics kits. This indie maker angle was a really important selling point to Fry’s. The kiosk’s themselves are all-MAKE in their design and construction. The challenge was to create a merchandising/branding kiosk that could show off maker-made kits, as well as our books and magazines, all in a 2′ X 2′ footprint. The design we came up with incorporates the Maker Faire workbench framing as the internal structure, refurbished fence boards from West Sonoma, and some nicely weathered corrugated shed aluminum that was locally salvaged. The result is a nice combination of weathered shed and repurposed industrial tubing. They’re uniquely MAKE, and Fry’s is ecstatic. In fact, they were even trucked down and setup by Heather (Harmon-Cochran) and Rob (Bullington) in one day.
These are the stores that currently have kiosks. (San Diego will be set up by Fry’s staff next week)
San Diego, CA
9825 Stonecrest Boulevard
(858) 514-4500
San Jose, CA
550 E. Brokaw Road
(408) 487-1000
Fremont, CA
43800 Osgood Road
(510) 252-5300
Sunnyvale, CA
1077 East Arques Avenue
(408) 617-1300
The Maker Shed kiosks, designed and built with locally-sourced reuse materials, just popped up in Fry’s stores in San Jose, Fremont, Sunnyvale and San Diego this week.
The San Francisco based company, Cornfield Electronics is very happy to share in this expansion of the Maker Shed’s exposure and availability to a wider consumer audience. The TripGlasses™ will now be available alongside other fantastic electronics kits, magazines and books from MAKE Magazine’s signature store.
The TripGlasses™ are a light and sound machine that induces brainwaves to synchronize with the sequence of meditation (a process known as “entraining”). In a state of tranquil meditation, many users experience visual hallucinations of unique patterns and vibrant colors. The do-it-yourself version of the Trip Glasses™ is one of the most popular projects published in MAKE Magazine (Volume 10) and available through the Maker Shed.
Wonderful gifts for curiosity seekers, crafters, budding scientists and makers of all ages are now available at select California Fry’s stores. Let’s get making!
Star of Bethlehem Fails to Appear Atop Civic Center’s Giant Christmas Tree 2009
Tuesday, December 1st, 2009Our 2007 Civic Center Christmas / Holiday tree had a big Star of Bethlehem on top all the way through the season.
Our 2008 tree had a star that came and went.
And now, our 2009 tree has no star at all. Oh well. Looks a little plain now, huh?
Maybe they’re still working on it. Click to expand
Speaking of plain, take note of the Great Gravel Plain of Civic Center – it’s what we get this year instead of grass or a Victory Garden the way we had last year.
Oh well.
If you like holiday trees, head to City Hall, where Rita Moreno (ask about her Grammy, Oscar, Emmy,and Tony) will star at the Rainbow World Fund Tree of Hope 2009 lighting celebration.
“Come to the tree lighting celebrationat City Hall with Mayor Gavin Newsom. Join us as we gather wishes and hopes for the future of our global community and give them wings. The event takes place on the rotunda inside San Francisco City Hall and features a concert by the San Francisco Boys Chous, Veronica Klaus and more. Free beverages and light refreshments.
- 5:30 pm – Concert by the San Francisco Boys Chorus
- 6:00 pm – Tree lighting celebration – Stuart Milk, nephew of Harvey Milk, will deliver a message of hope Presentations by actresses Rita Moreno, Sharon Gless and Yasumasa Nagamine, the Consul General of Japan.
- 6:30 pm – Veronica Klaus will perform at a party to follow till 8:00 pm.
Send a wish to the Rainbow World Fund and they’ll turn it into an origami crane which they’ll add to the tree.
See you there.
The Golden Gate Express Garden Show Returns to Our Conservatory of Flowers
Tuesday, November 24th, 2009It’s back. The Golden Gate Express garden railway show is back at the at the Conservatory of Flowers in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park. Deets below.
Can you see what was made from what?
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These are shots from Nina Sazevich
And these are from Saxon Holt:
The Golden Gate Express
The Conservatory of Flowers’ popular garden railway exhibit steams back into
town for the holidays
SAN FRANCISCO — All aboard The Golden Gate Express for a San Francisco
holiday experience like no other! Golden Gate Park¹s Conservatory of Flowers
brings back its enormously popular garden railway exhibition this winter
with many new features and surprises created by local garden railroad
aficionados and artists from SF Recycling & Disposal, Inc.¹s Artist in
Residence program. It¹s a celebration of the city of San Francisco as a
model train, cable car, streetcar and more wend their way through a lush
landscape of dwarf plants and zip past mini versions of the city¹s landmark
buildings created entirely from recycled materials. New this year also are
some only-in-San Francisco special effects including the sounds of the city
and the twice-daily arrival of the fog. The Golden Gate Express will be on
view November 19, 2009 through April 18, 2010 and opens with a preview gala
November 18, 2009.
All the deets, after the jump.
Winter Carnival and Lighting Ceremony is This Friday at Embarcadero Center
Tuesday, November 17th, 2009Remember back in the day, back in the 90’s, when you could attend a University of California law school and pay for the three years’ tuition by working part-time as a law clerk for a couple semesters in the Financial? Well, part of that job entailed moving your yuppie supervisor’s yuppie Saab convertible out of and then right back into the garages at Embarcadero Center once or twice a day. Why? Cause of the sweet validation deal EC had where buying one cup of coffee for 25 cents (remember, it was the 90’s) at the 2 Embarcadero McDonalds (no longer there) would let you park for free for three hours. And sometimes, she’d even give you a quarter to pay for her coffee. Those were the days.
Well, they’re back baby. Sort of. Starting November 20th, 2009, you can park for free after 5:00 PM at the EC for four hours with validation and for free on the weekends. Of course you can park on the street during some of those hours but sometimes those free spaces can be hard to find, especially during the holidays.
Anyway, the validation program starts the same day as the Winter Carnival and Lighting Ceremony – and on that day only, the free garage parking starts at 4:00 PM. Deets below.
The lighted buildings of the EC in the back, 505 Monty up front – from a few years back. Click to expand:
The scariest “craigslist etc” job imaginable – replacing light bulbs high atop the former Equinox revolving restaurantat 5 Embarcadero Center, aka Hyatt Regency Embarcadero. Click to expand:
One down, 17,000 to go…
All the deets:
“We ain’t got snow, but we got lights…17,000 of them!
The ceremony takes place at the Holiday Ice Rink in Embarcadero Center, beginning at 6PM. This year’s theme is “Disney on Ice Presents Worlds of Fantasy”. The event will include performances by local musicians and a spectacular fireworks finale over the skyline.
A Winter Carnival precedes the Ice Show and Building Lighting, featuring fun activities for the kids – carnival games, interactive arts and crafts making booths, face painters, balloon twisters, musical performances and more – from 4 to 6PM.
Needless to say, the highlight of the evening is the initial lighting of Embarcadero Center’s dramatic office towers which illuminate San Francisco’s skyline with 17,000 lights throughout the holiday season.
There will be four hours of free parking at Embarcadero Center from 4PM.
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Disney On Ice presents Worlds of Fantasy Kicks off the Holidays with Embarcadero Center!
Experience four magical worlds in one ice spectacular when Disney On Ice presents Worlds of Fantasy comes to the Bay Area! Enter the wondrous world of Pixie Hollow to meet Tinker Bell and her fairy friends, speed through Radiator Springs with Lightning McQueen, Mater and the crew, and relive classic Disney favorites The Lion King and The Little Mermaid.From wheels to waves, Pride Lands to pixie dust, Worlds of Fantasy offers excitement for everyone! Stop by Embarcadero Center’s 2009 Building Lighting Ceremony to get a sneak preview of this one-of-a-kind production prior to its stint in the Bay Area, February 24-March 7.
As San Francisco’s “Official Kick Off to the Holiday Season”, as declared by Mayoral Proclamation in 2002, Embarcadero Center is brightening the holidays this year on Friday, November 20th, with the Building Lighting Ceremony that we are so famous for. The Ceremony takes place at the Holiday Ice Rink in Embarcadero Center Presented by Hawaiian Airlines and will begin at 6:00 P.M. In addition to the ultimate mega mix of skating, dancing and the songs you love from Disney On Ice presents Worlds of Fantasy, the event will include performances by local musicians brought to you by KDFC and a spectacular pyrotechnic show finale which will dazzle the City’s skyline. All this exhilarating entertainment has been designed to complement the highlight of the evening, the initial lighting of Embarcadero Center’s dramatic office towers which illuminate San Francisco’s skyline with 17,000 lights throughout the holiday season.
Preceding the Ice Show and Building Lighting is the Winter Carnival; a perfect event to share with the family. It will feature a host of fun activities for the kids such as carnival games, interactive arts and crafts booths, card making, balloon twisters, musical performances and more! Come and visit with Santa to give him your holiday wish list!
For those wanting to get a jump start on their holiday shopping, Embarcadero Center retailers will offer holiday gift ideas and special discounts you will not want to miss, with four (4) hours of free parking from 4:00 PM.
Make it a date! Meet family and friends at Embarcadero Center for an evening of fun, entertainment, shopping and great food!
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Delighting families, couples and ice skating enthusiasts for over twenty years, the Holiday Ice Rink at Embarcadero Center presented by Hawaiian Airlines, the largest outdoor rink, will open to the public for nine magical fun-filled weeks beginning November 11 through January 3, 2010
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Boston Properties has made it easier to shop at Embarcadero Center this holiday season … Starting November 20th, shop and dine at any Embarcadero Center store or restaurant and we will give you free parking!
Share the excitement of the holiday season and explore the shops, skate at the Ice Rink and top off the day with free parking – all at Embarcadero Center! Our merchants will have stickers on hand to distribute to customers who shop at the Center.
Remember, holiday parking starts November 20th and continues through the end of day December 24 for all those last minute shoppers. Hours of validation are 5:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m. Monday through Friday, and four hours free on weekends. On Friday, November 20, validation will begin at 4:00 p.m. for those who attend the Winter Carnival and Building Lighting Ceremony.
Desperate Union Street Landlords Open to Any Offers – Rise of the “Pop Up Stores”
Wednesday, November 4th, 2009Oh, Union Street, will you ever win? You’re chock-a-block full of meddlesome NIMBYs, hard-partying post-collegiates and empty storefronts. Oh well.
But there’s hope for the commercial landlords - it’s called the pop up shop. Why not allow a tenant to open up for a month or two for a few bucks? That’s better than the no bucks you’ve been making recently during the Great Recession. It’s POP UP RETAIL, BABY!
So, from this, right next to the Crepes a Go Go…
to this:
OMG, it’s the Sikara & Co. Jewelry Pop-Up Store! It just opened, but don’t fall in love with it – it’s closing next month.
(And for you non pop-up retailers, it’s super easy to renegotiate your rent these days. Those landlords are taking any offer, any offer at all.)
Anyway, here are the deets:
Sikara & Co. Jewelry Pop-Up Store Opens on Union Street
Sikara & Co., an internationally inspired modern fusion jewelry company makes Union Street in San Francisco its new home as a “pop-up” shop.
The pop-up style store front is one of the newest trends to emerge in retail. “This style of store front allows us to open a temporary store in San Francisco and market test our collections as we roll them out nationally; we are very excited to be one of the first pop-up stores in the city,” said Mousumi Shaw, Founder and Creative Director.
They go on and on - see you after the jump!
