Posts Tagged ‘Society’
Friday, March 5th, 2010
Here’s what’s coming up at your free San Francisco Public Library:
“Korean Comics: A Society Through Small Frames – Exhibition in the Library’s Jewett Gallery, March 13th – June 13th, 2010. San Francisco Public Library is pleased to present, Korean Comics: A Society Through Small Frames, an exhibition of 83 framed works by 21 of Korea’s most talented cartoonists drawn over a period of four decades, on view March 13–June 13 in the Jewett Gallery at the Main Library, 100 Larkin St.”
O.K. then.
I, for one, welcome our new insect overlords. Oh, wait a second, this is the cover of North Korea’s version of Animal Farm. I forget which one is the Queen Bee, is it the Dear Leader, the Great Leader? One of them, anyway. Good times:
Cho Pyŏng-Kwon (Story) / Im Wal-Yong (Art), The Great General Mighty Wing (1994), Published in 1994 by Gold Star Children’s Press
All the deets, after the jump
(more…)
Tags: 1994, 2010, A Society Through Small Frames, Andrew Farago, Animal Farm, anthropomorphic, Cho Pyŏng-Kwon, civic center, Dear Leader, dr., exhibit, for one, Friends of the San Francisco Public Library, Gold Star Children’s Press, Great General Mighty Wing, Great Leader, grove, i., Im Wal-Yong, Jewett Gallery, June 13, King—Ryok, Kkŏbŏngi, korea, korean, Korean Comics, larkin, library, main, manga, Manwha for Girls, March 13, Mike Madrid, north, Queen Bee, San Francisco, San Francisco Public Library, show, socialist, Society, south, street, Sung Lim Kim, Through Small Frames, Trina Robbins, University of California at Berkeley, welcome our new insect overlords
Posted in advertising, art, books | No Comments »
Friday, March 5th, 2010
That’s the news of last night from City Hall. Get up to speed on the issues here.
The next step is to see what happens at the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. (How much lobbying do you get when you spend five figures on a lobbyist? We’ll soon see.)
This speaker was no fan of the new fees at the San Francisco Botanical Garden. Certainly, he was outnumbered last night:
What if the fees get approved and things don’t work out? Then down will come the pay kiosks and then other options, possibly a ”tasteful sponsorship” (such as the “Chuck Schwab Co. Australia Garden*” or something) could generate a little money.
We’ll Find Out Soon Enough.
*Words from a Commissioner last night, they didn’t make the transcript.
Tags: 16, 2009, 2010, admission, Ann Cameron, Antietam, arboretum, Arden Bucklin-Sporer, battle, beverage, Bill Gaede, board, board of supervisors, botanical, botanical garden, brent dennis, cashier, Chair, Chuck Davis, City Hall, civil war, commission, commissioner, County Fair Building, Cynthia Anderson, Cynthia Jamplis, Denis Mosgofian, department, director, directors, district, Don Baldocchi, dr., Dr. James Kohn, Eva Monroe, EX OFFICIO, Family, fee, food, Frank Almeda, Garden, golden gate park, inner, Isa Mary Ziegler, jared blumenfeld, Jennifer Bowles, jim lazarus, Joseph Barbaccia, Kevin Leong, Margie Ellis, may 28, Member at large, Michael McKechnie, Monica A. Martin, non-residents, park, parks, Phil Schlein, Philip Schlein, public, recreation, recreation parks, residents, richmond, Robert Leitstein, San Francisco, San Francisco Botanical Garden, save, secretary, Society, strbing arboretum, strybing, Strybing Arboretum, suggested, sunset, Tony Farrell, Treasurer, TRUSTEES, vendor, Vice Chair, Victoria johnson, Wally Wertsch, Wendy Tonkin, William Gaede, workshop, “Honey” Johnson
Posted in parks | No Comments »
Tuesday, March 2nd, 2010
[UPDATE: Let's see here, you can discover what some local celebrities think about this idea here at Manatease's YouTube Channel and, well, here's an uncredited single-panel comic on the subject discovered by LocalColorist, see comment.]
This was the scene the other day near Golden Gate Park’s Strybing Arboretum, aka San Francisco Botanical Garden. These protesters were politely picketing San Francisco’s semi-public, semi-photo-op Budget Town Hall at the County Fair Building when an elected official walked up and asked, “What kind of protest is this?”
Indeed. These picketers, called the “Society people” by their opponents, support the idea of charging non-residents $7 to get into Strybing. Why? So there’s enough money around such that three Strybing-dedicated gardeners won’t get laid off during our Great Recession.
This gaggle of self-described “plant people” certainly are timely, as the Board of the Recreation and Park Department (RPD) will decide this auslander admission issue on Thursday, March 4th at City Hall. The question after that would be how the San Francisco Board of Supervisors will react.
Now, unlike last year, RPD isn’t having any big meetings to air out public concerns, probably because RPD knows how they would go – 250 San Franciscans would show up and the bulk of them would be strongly opposed to the charging of any fee to any one at any time.
AFAIK, the 2010 plan is similar to the more recent of the two 2009 plans in that only people who reside outside of the City and County of San Francisco would be charged. The Big Question is how many nonresidents would show up to pony up some cash and how much the program would cost to implement. After this program is up and running, the Next Obvious Step would be to charge San Francisco residents as well. Would that next step come in a matter of weeks, months, or years? There are no promises from anyone on that score.
The Save the Botanical Garden people are saying that not charging $7 would amount to ”depriving community residents of a tranquil place to visit.” Does Strybing need to become a “world class arboretum” in order to remain a “tranquil place” to visit? It would be easy to argue with the Society on this point.
Now, let’s have a go at the official FAQ:
“Isn’t a non-resident fee the first step toward a fee for everyone?”
The answer is yes. Hells yes, obviously.
“Isn’t the fee taking the Botanical Garden a step closer to privatization?”
No. This is a red herring, from the Sierra Club, for one, I think.
“Won’t setting up the booths to collect the fee and bringing in new workers just cost more than you’ll collect? Won’t setting up the booths to collect the fee and bringing in new workers just cost more than you’ll collect?”
Almost certainly not. The older “Cadillac Plan” of spending vast sums on infrastructure to enable the charging of fees might have had that risk, but there’s no reason that a well-run program, particularly one that makes the use of volunteers, wouldn’t net at least a little money.
“Why doesn’t the SF Botanical Garden Society just do more?”
Good question. The Garden Society, and they’re by no means alone on this, want to spend Other People’s Money on their pet projects. Some of them figure that Strybing needs 16 dedicated gardeners to become “world-class” and that they’ll never ever get the funding for that many from the City of San Francisco, recession or no recession.
Here’s the thing – “saving the botanical garden” will have the effect of excluding hundreds of thousands of people from Strybing. If you are a “plant person” then this is a small price to pay. And actually, plant people might even prefer to keep out the riff-raff. So, charging admission is a double win – more plants and fewer people.
If you’re a people person, you might prefer the “Keep the Arboretum Free” point of view. I guarantee you that the average person motivated enough to attend the public meetings last year would strongly favor having fewer gardeners around if maintaining the current crew meant throwing up a pay wall by installing checkpoints Charlie.
We’ll see how it goes.
Now, was this a grass roots movement in front of the Budget Town Hall? You know, this group of Society people and the P.R. volk with their identical signs and their unsigned petitions
You Make The Call.
Tags: 2009, 2010, admission, Ann Cameron, Antietam, arboretum, Arden Bucklin-Sporer, battle, beverage, Bill Gaede, board, board of supervisors, botanical, brent dennis, cashier, Chair, Chuck Davis, City Hall, civil war, commission, commissioner, County Fair Building, Cynthia Anderson, Cynthia Jamplis, Denis Mosgofian, department, director, directors, district, Don Baldocchi, dr., Dr. James Kohn, Eva Monroe, EX OFFICIO, fee, food, Frank Almeda, Garden, golden gate park, inner, Isa Mary Ziegler, jared blumenfeld, Jennifer Bowles, jim lazarus, Joseph Barbaccia, Kevin Leong, Margie Ellis, may 28, Member at large, Michael McKechnie, Monica A. Martin, non-residents, park, parks, Phil Schlein, Philip Schlein, public, recreation, recreation parks, residents, richmond, Robert Leitstein, San Francisco, San Francisco Botanical Garden, save, secretary, Society, strbing arboretum, strybing, Strybing Arboretum, suggested, sunset, Tony Farrell, Treasurer, TRUSTEES, vendor, Vice Chair, Victoria johnson, Wally Wertsch, Wendy Tonkin, William Gaede, workshop, “Honey” Johnson
Posted in parks | 2 Comments »
Tuesday, January 19th, 2010
Why did Shanghai, the largest city in China, become one of our 16 Sister Cities in 1979? Well, we should all thank former Mayor and current U.S. Senator Diane Feinstein:
“It was sort of a race between Los Angeles and San Francisco to establish a Sister City relationship with Shanghai and of course San Francisco won – and it was the first such Sister City relationship between an American city and a Chinese city.”
(Once again L.A. loses, of course(?) - thanks DiFi.) Now it turns out that our Big Sis is hosting a big party this year – it’s World Expo 2010. So, that’s a good excuse for a bunch of the Bay Area’s cultural organizations to represent, via the Shanghai Celebration featuring Honorary Chair and San Francisco First Lady Jennifer Siebel Newsom.
Jay Xu, Director of the Asian Art Museum, confronting a media scrum after today’s announcement:
Check out the calendar of upcoming events all related to the Paris of the East - it’s packed, baby. Swan Lake featuring San Francsico Ballet Principal Dancer and Shanghai native Yuan Yuan Tan will kick things off from January 23-31 and then on February 12th comes the debut of the cornerstone of the Shanghai Celebration, a big exhibit at our Asian Art Museum simply called Shanghai. It’s going to be mega.
Just ask Jay Xu:
“The 2010 World Expo that opens in May is Shanghai’s coming-out party, the official debut as the city reclaims its position as a global powerhouse. The Asian Art Museum’s Shanghai exhibition was timed to coincide with this prominent international event. Only through understanding its tumultuous history, can one truly understand the progressive and stylish Shanghai of today.”
O.K. then.
Our jet-setting mayor was on hand to cheerlead for San Francisco, a part of his job which I think everybody would agree he does well. He was dressed for rain today, with blue jeans, and a pair of brown shoes that he claimed were “ruined” by the wet:
More deets from the AAA:
“The Shanghai Celebration is an unprecedented, year-long festival presented by more than thirty San Francisco Bay Area organizations commemorating the 30th Anniversary of the sister city relationship between San Francisco and Shanghai.
Spearheaded by the Asian Art Museum, the Celebration runs throughout 2010, coinciding with the World Expo presented in Shanghai from May to October. The more than 50 Shanghai-related programs feature exhibitions, concerts, performances, films, lectures, book readings, artist demonstrations and other special events and cover topics such as Shanghai’s architecture, jazz, historic Jewish communities, Art Deco design, filmmaking industry, contemporary art, cuisine, high-rise urban planning and fashion.
The cornerstone of the Celebration is the Asian Art Museum’s presentation of Shanghai, a major exhibition examining the visual culture of one of the world’s most cosmopolitan cities, scheduled for February 12-September 5, 2010.
For the Shanghai Celebration program calendar of events, and a list of participating organizations, please visit www.shanghaicelebration.com.”
Check the lengthy, lengthy sked, after the jump.
(more…)
Tags: 2010, American Jewish Committee, Anchee Min, angel island, Angela Au, architect, Architecture and Survival, art, Art Deco, Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, Art Speak, Arts Commission, Arts of Pacific Asia, AsiaAlive, asian art museum, Assignment Shanghai, Ballet, Better City, Better Life, Birth of Jazz in Asia, botanical garden, building, Building Green in China, celebration, Chamber Music Concert, China, chinese, Chinese Jews of Kaifeng, city club, City Club Roundtable, comics, concert, Congregation Emanu-El, Conservatories, Contemporary Figurative Painting, Cultural Encounters, Dany Chan, de Young, Decorative Arts, documentary, dr., Drunken Dishes, East Meets West, Economica, Ellen Lou, Embroidery, Exhibition Opening, Eye of the Tiger, Fabric of Everyday life, Fall Antiques Show, Fall Antiques Show Preview Party Benefit, First Free Sunday, First Thursday Lecture Series, Forbidden City, Friday Nights, gala, Gavin, Golden Age of Chinese Nightclubs, High-rise Architecture, Historically Sensitive Development in Shanghai, immigration, Immigration Station, jay xu, Jeff Heller, jennifer, Jews in Modern China, joan chen, Later Jewish Communities of Shanghai, Lehrhaus Judaica, Li Xiaofei, library, life, Lisa Claypool, lounge, Lunar New Year, Lunar New Year Flower Market, Lynn Marie Kirby, matcha, Mayor, Mint, Moderne and Modernity, Music at Meyer, Music Festival, Newsom, O Perspective, old, Old Mint Building, Open Books, Opening NIght Gala, Oregon Reed College, Past/Present/Future, Personal Stories and Reminiscences, Photographs on the Eve of Revolution, piano, Preview, professor, Propaganda Poster Art, public, reception, Recital, Remaking of China’s Gateway to the World, Renee Chow, SAA, San Francisco, san francisco ballet, San Francisco Botanical Garden Society, San Francisco Museum and Historical Society, Sandra Lee Gallery, shanghai, Shanghai 2010, shanghai celebration, Shanghai Connection, Shanghai Dress, Shanghai Film Series, Shanghai Jazz, Shanghai Painting, Shanghai’s Jews, Shuang Stella Zhang, siebel, sister city, Sisters, Society, society for asian art, spur, SPUR Urban Center, Station, stories, String Quartet, swan lake, Swinging Chinatown, target, Target First Free Sunday, U.S. Immigration Station, UC, uc berkeley, UC Berkeley Art Museum, urban center, Visual Narratives of Inter-War Shanghai, Women & the Global Economy, Xian Rui 2010, Yuan Yuan Tan
Posted in art, events | No Comments »
Thursday, January 14th, 2010
Here’s what you should do – turn off the Ricki Lake and volunteer at Golden Gate Park.
Representatives from the California Academy of Sciences, the de Young Museum, the Conservatory of Flowers, the San Francisco Botanical Garden Society, the San Francisco Recreation and Parks Department and the San Francisco Parks Trust will all be on hand to recruit you this coming Feb. 10:
Become a Volunteer at the Golden Gate Park Volunteer Fair!
Wednesday, February 10th, 2010 – 10 AM to 2 PM
Location: Conservatory of Flower’s Orchid Gallery, 100 John F. Kennedy Drive, SF, CA 94118
Representatives of the California Academy of Sciences, de Young Museum, Conservatory of Flowers, San Francisco Botanical Garden Society, San Francisco Recreation and Parks Department, San Francisco Parks Trust and affiliated community groups will be on hand at the Conservatory of Flowers to provide information about volunteer opportunities in Golden Gate Park. The fair is a one stop shop for an exciting and meaningful way to meet new people, pursue lifelong passions, educate the public and lend a helping hand in one of the Bay Area’s most beautiful parks! For more information, please contact, Erika Frank at 415-637-4326 or efrank@sfcof.org.
Volunteering at the Conservatory of Flowers is a great way to learn more about tropical plants, meet people with similar interests and share your knowledge and enthusiasm for plants with visitors. We invite you to become a greeter, docent, horticultural volunteer or a children’s Jungle Guide.
Volunteer opportunities
Greeters welcome visitors, check tickets and answer general questions.*
Gift Shop volunteers sell souvenirs to visitors in our Gift Shop in the Special Exhibits Gallery.
Docents provide visitors with information about the plant collections, the Conservatory, and provide guided tours.
Horticultural volunteers work directly with our plant collections and Nursery Specialists.*
Children’s Jungle Guides lead 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th grade classes on scheduled tours through the Conservatory.
Young Ambassadors are volunteers from high schools and colleges who staff the “Young Explorers Adventure Carts” for children.
Volunteer requirements
The Conservatory is looking for volunteers who can commit to working at least twice a month, or approximately 6 hours a month.
All volunteers are required to have an interview with the Director of Volunteer Services- Erika Frank, complete an application, and go through our Training Program (depending on the position). We provide our volunteers with the training they need for their position, along with ongoing educational and social programs that promote a positive volunteer experience.
We appreciate our volunteers and invite you to join our dedicated and fun group.
Interested volunteers should contact Erika Frank, Director of Volunteer Services, at (415) 637-4326 or efrank@sfcof.org.
* Full training program not required for this position
Tags: $10, 2010, botanical garden, cal academy, calacademy, California Academy of Sciences, CAS, conservatory of flowers, de Young, drive, fair, feb, February, golden gate park, jfk, jobs, museum, Recreation and Parks Department, San Francisco, Society, volunteer, Work
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Wednesday, December 23rd, 2009
That Catherine Bigelow, you know, she’s Everywhere You Want To Be. But she is probably taking photos for Social City using one of them stylish little digicams with the flash just above and to the side of the lens. That leads to red-eye, which needs to get fixed, as here (unless I’m mistaken and this fellow just naturally has coal-black, Simpsons cartoon eyes), and there are other issues as well.
Let’s get started, credit card at the ready:
Canon digital SLR – any type, it doesn’t matter. How about a Rebel XS (aka 1000D) for $449? Take off the kit lens and sell it on the craigslist or throw it at somebody you don’t like - just get rid of it.
Canon 35mm 2.0 lens – $320. (I paid $100 for mine, but it was used.)
Canon 580EX flash – $399
It will all look like this:
Then here’s what you do:
Put the camera in Manual Mode and leave it that way forever.
Set it for 1/100th of second exposure at f/2.5 with ISO sensitivity of 800, something like that.
Carry the camera and flash separately and then put them together at the event, making sure to lift up the white card thing on top of the flash.
Get your people together, hold the camera horizontally and press the shutter button - it will focus (with a gentle red light assist, if necessary) and take three shots, all within a second or two.
Then when you’re done, just take the flash off of the camera and they’ll both turn themselves off, ready to wake up as soon as you couple them again.
So yes, this approach is going to cost four figures and use stuff that’s a lot bigger and heavier than a $200 digicam. But it will produce images that complement the subjects and it will produce images that look good all the time, as opposed to just some of the time.
The primary benefit is having a soft flash coming from above the lens, as opposed to a sometimes-harsh flash coming from right next to the lens.
That’s my two cents.
Tags: Bigelow, camera, canon, Catherine, Catherine Bigelow, column, eye, flash, red, red-eye, San Francisco, Social City, Society, Writer
Posted in photography | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, November 10th, 2009
To the annoyance of famous local writer Beth Spotswood (“Spam?” Oh no!), the Secret Sherry Society is back in town again. I infiltrated their previous visit last summer, but didn’t say nothing about it due to a possible conflict with “work.” (But you know, I was probably worried over nothing, probably.)
Anywho, the takeaway I took from the Sherry Council of America is that the word Sherry comes from the name of Jerez, Spain. (Did not know that, no sir.) So that means that, in a way, Sherry is just like Champagne, with all the nitty gritty that entails. (We use semi-genericized names in America – it’s the law, ’nuff said. But that doesn’t stop producers from telling the world why their stuff is better, fair ’nuff.)
I’ll definitely say that the final round they served with dessert at the Slanted Door restaurant was Too Sweet For Me, but the other types they had were not. Do you want to get into the different styles and what goes well with what and let’s have a Sherry-themed dinner party? Well, the SSS would be delighted.
Not so secret, with the glass walls and all:
So, if you ever get invited to a Secret Sherry Society event, don’t consider it spam, consider it $95/pound Jamón ibérico. And then go and ask them what would pair well with Jamón ibérico. I’m sure they’d have an answer, they’re lovely people.
Of course you’re too young to remember, but I know about how the image of Tequila has come a looooong way the past couple of decades – perhaps this effort from the Sherry folks will serve to change the image of Sherry over the coming months and years.
Only Time Will Tell.
Tags: America, ca, council, grapes, jerez, party, San Francisco, secret, secret sherry, secret sherry society, sherry, Slanted Door, Society, spain, sss, triangle, wine
Posted in food and drink | Comments Off
Tuesday, September 8th, 2009
Hey, you know who’ll be in town this week for the 26th International Winston Churchill Conference? How about Former Secretary of State George Shultz, Political Analyst Chris Matthews, Historian Michael Beschloss and Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas?
It’s going to be on!
All the deets, below.
See you there!
“Mayor Gavin Newsom Proclaims Sir Winston Churchill Week and San Francisco Hosts International Churchill Centre Conference
- Former Secretary of State George Shultz, Political Analyst Chris Matthews, Historian Michael Beschloss And Supreme Court Justice Clarence ThomasAmong Keynoters; – September 9 – 12 Conference Will Focus On The Relevance Of Churchillian Policies And Principles In Today’s World.
SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 8 – The Churchill Centre today announced that Mayor Gavin Newsom has designated this Sir Winston Churchill Week concurrent with the major International Churchill Conference taking place in San Francisco. The Churchill Centre chose San Francisco for this year’s conference to commemorate the 80th anniversary of Sir Winston Churchill’s visit to the city. The conference will focus on the relevance of Churchill in today’s global political theater and will be headlined by former secretary of state George Shultz, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, Presidential Historian Michael Beschloss and political commentator Chris Matthews, amongst others.
In speaking of the upcoming conference, Sir Winston’s daughter Lady Soames remarked that the subject matter could “not be more appropriate than now in the early years of the 21st Century. In the early years of the 20th Century my father faced the same issues in the Middle East, and the same economic and political issues as today.”
The Conference will be held September 9 – 12 at the Westin St. Francis. Conference registrations or single day tickets may be purchased onsite, along with tickets for the Conference dinners. About The Churchill Centre (www.winstonchurchill.org)
THE CHURCHILL CENTRE, successor to the Winston S. Churchill Study Unit (1968) and the International Churchill Society (1971), was founded in 1995 to educate new generations on the leadership, statesmanship, vision, courage and boldness of Winston Spencer Churchill. The focus of the Centre is education; its aim is to impress Churchill’s qualities of leadership firmly on the leaders of the 21st Century. The Centre is based in Chicago and London and sponsors conferences, tours, lectures, seminars and symposia for students and teachers from grammar school to post-graduate levels. It’s London organization includes the world recognized Churchill Museum and War Rooms.
Tags: $10, 11, 12, 2009, 8, 8-12, 9, 9-12, centre, Chris Matthews, churchill, Clarence Thomas, conference, francis, George Shultz, History, hotel, international, Michael Beschloss, San Francisco, september, Society, st. saint, Study Unit, union square, week, westing, winnie, wnston
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Tuesday, February 10th, 2009
Well the chickens are still coming home to roost with the whole Cosco Busan Oil Spill of 2007. For example, the Presidio is missing some birds, per the most recent Audobon Christmas Bird Count.
“Only one Surf Scoter, a common sea duck, was found around the Presidio. Surf Scoters usually number in the hundreds and speculation is the precipitous drop in their population may be the result of the November 2007 oil spill in the bay.”
Well, that’s not good.
The hummingbirds of El Polin Spring weren’t affected by the spill, but seabirds of the Presidio took a hit
Read all about it, after the jump.
(more…)
Tags: 2007, 2008, 2009, audobon, bird, christmas, count, oil, presidio, San Francisco, Society, spill, trust
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Thursday, September 11th, 2008
Autumn is almost here, so the bees of San Francisco are working overtime before these Dahlia blooms die off.
Click to expand:
Good luck, little bees.
See you next year.
Tags: 2008, california, dahlia, dell, flower, golden gate park, San Francisco, Society
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