I’ll tell you, the lighted Christmas snowflakes of Market Street used to stop just past Fifth Street, because, you know, who cares about Mid Market?
Well, these days, the lighted Christmas snowflakes of Market Street make it all the way to 7th Street, AFAICS.
See?
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Hurray!
Here’s how things looked last night on Market Street, with all the streetlights and giant snowflakes turned off for some reason.
Oh, baby, that’s dark:
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Could it have something to do with the jury-rigged, frat-house-style wiring our City Family uses?
I know not.
When, oh when, will our Path of Gold glitter once again?
This is unprecedented.
This is the City Family extending the Market Street lighted Christmas snowflake zone all the way to Mid-Market.
See?
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They used to stop at 5th Street, but now they don’t – they go farther this year.
Hurray!
Won’t this please our corporate overlords at Twitter? (Probably not, but, you know, can’t hurt to try.)
All right, come to the annual lighting ceremony with the Mayor this Thursday evening, if you want:
“Snowflakes on Market – Lighting Ceremony
Nov. 17, 2011 through mid-January 2012
More than 140 five-foot-wide energy-saving LED illuminated snowflakes will decorate Market Street’s signature “Path of Gold” light poles this winter from Second to Sixth streets. A lighting ceremony, featuring dancers from the San Francisco Ballet’s Nutcracker, is scheduled for Nov. 17 at 6 p.m. near the cable car turnaround at Powell and Market streets. The event is free and open to the public. For information, visit www.marketstreetassociation.org.
It will go a little something like this, probably.
Dixitque Gavin fiat lux, et facta est lux:
Those are Nutcracker-starring “Snowflakes” from the San Francisco Ballet. (The run starts up again December 9th this year.) Jessica Carter is the snowflake in the middle, so I’m told.
Happy Holidays!
Our Market Street Association is hosting the 3rd Annual Market Street Snowflake Lighting Ceremony at 6:30 PM tonight.
Just like last year.
Mayor Gavin Newsom with the Snowflake Girls in 2009 near the Powell Street Cable Car Turnaround at the dramatic “Moment of Lighting.” Dixitque Gavin fiat lux, et facta est lux:
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Market Street Snowflake Lighting
Time: 6:30pm
Location: Powell & Market Street
3rd Annual Market Street Snowflake Lighting Ceremony
November 18th at 6:30pm
Powell & Market Streets at the Cable Car turnaround
The Market Street Association organized event of the 3rd annual Market Street Holiday Snowflake lighting will kick off the downtown Holiday season. 142 snowflake decorations will adorn the historic Path of Gold lampposts from 2nd through 6th Streets. Spencer Christian of ABC 7 news will serve as Master of Ceremonies for the event. “Snowflakes” from the SF Ballet will be on hand to help with the count down to the official lighting.
Sign-holding Frank Chu and Jesus Loves You Guy expected.
See you there!
He’s back, baby! San Francisco’s Mayor Gavin Newsom is back in town, both physically and mentally. So, he’ll (OMG, is Gavin channelling giddy, laughing Tom Cruise?) once again have to deal with the so-called “delusional” media, but that won’t stop him from continuing to Take It Directly to the People, GWB-style. As here, with last night’s lighting ceremony for the Market Street Snowflakes.
Our mayor with the Snowflake Girls near the Powell Street Cable Car Turnaround at the dramatic Moment of Lighting. Dixitque Gavin fiat lux, et facta est lux:
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But let’s start earlier on in the evening. This was Market Street a little before the ceremony. It’s the darkest I’ve ever seen it, cause they turned off all the LED snowflakes (which have been burning the midnight oil quite a bit recently, as they were last summer, when they were being installed and tested) plus the streetlamps of the “Path of Gold” too.
Even a Toyota Prius driver would turn on the headlights with on a street this dark:
The streetlights and snowflakes are wired in together? That would make sense:
Anywho, back to the ceremony, apres-lux - can you see all them signs? Show Your Zip is the new “locals only” holiday shopping program. (It would appear that the San Francisco Ballet (nice new video they have on the homepage now) would have this program’s best discounts.) Scott Beale’s Laughing Squid is celebrating its 14th Anniversary as a local business with the help of famous Frank Chu. And The Jesus Loves You Guy was on the scene as well. Natch:
The mise-en-scene last night. Aside from almost always appearing bored while waiting for others to finish speaking (looking left, looking right, looking left, looking up….), Gavin Newsom always handles these kinds of public events very well, as you would expect a charismatic leader to do:
The Least-Yellowest Teeth in all Christendom. In fact, nowadays, they’re so white that they’re on the blue side, as if flourescent. Amazing:
President of the Board of Supervisors David Chiu, taking time out of his interview with KGO-TV’s Lilian Kim to greet Frank Chu in front of The Gap, which is doing better these days, don’t you know.
And this is how I left it, with the lights on ’til January 2010:
Enjoy.
The Lower Market Christmas Snowflake Lights are officially on through January. Apparently, it was just practice when these lights were on for weeks last summer. As they looked last night, click to expand:
The holidays will be a good time for San Francisco’s illegal taxi trade. See this white Lincoln Town Car? The driver will take you back to your hotel for just $50. Of course a taxi would be cheaper, but where are you going to get a taxi on a Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, or Saturday night in San Francisco? The City wants people to patiently wait their turns, but our rich tourists don’t like that arrangement. Oh well.
Here’s part of your Mid Market crackdown. The people in the Ford Crown Victoria being stopped by the SFPD are NOT cops. The two in the car were suspects for a brief time last night. Both of them are currently on probation, but that’s not a crime, right? They must not have done anything all that wrong ’cause they were released after a two- minute detention by the SFPD. Hurray!
And there are fewer cars on Market Street between Sixth and Fifth Streets, but more poo, apparently. Yes, that’s what you think it is, from yesterday, right on the traffic-free inbound slow lane of the “Champ Elysees of the Western Hemisphere.” Oh well.
This concludes Your Market Street Update.
Remember the past summer, when we had lighted Christmas holiday snowflake decorations on Market Street burning the midnight oil for weeks on end? Well, they’re back on, baby, or at least four of them anyway, confusing tourists once again. Thusly:
“Why do they have Christmas lights on in October?”
Good question. They’re still testing these thing? Well that’s a lot of testing:
And you know what, they’ve installed ’em exactly the way I would have and I’m not even an electrician or nothing. You know, extension cords and plastic handcuffs to tie everything down. Let’s hope these things handle the wind and rain better than our Bay Bridge:
But couldn’t our decorations be more overtly Christian? You know, like the giant Christmas Tree of Civic Center, the one with the Star of Bethleham on top, the way we had it in 2007…
…and 2008?
The World Wonders.
Check out this wintry scene on San Francisco’s Market Street the way it looked last night. But hey, aren’t we still in the Season of Summer?
Yes, but don’t pay no nevermind to that:
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Perhaps we could turns these lights off until the Winter Holiday Which Shant Be Named (you know, Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Festivus, one of those) rolls around in a season or two? That way, we could save enough juice to power one of Al Gore’s houses for a week or two.
Get all the deets from the fiercely smart Leah Garchik, and here’s a close-up from the talented (and gorgeous) Ingrid Taylar.
Oh well.
Better to light a snowflake than to curse the darkness. ~Chinese Proverb
