Posts Tagged ‘star’
Wednesday, December 23rd, 2009
Either it’s National Daiquiri Month and the Powers That Are at City Hall wanted to honor California’s strawberry and lime / avocado growers, or….
…this lighting arrangement is the best They can do to approximate Christmas Red and Christmas Green down in Civic Center. (Way too much yellow in that “green” IMO.)
Click to expand:

I’m sure somebody better at Photoshop than I could tone down the riot of color in this photo in order to properly honor Natalis Invicti, or the birthday of baby Jesus, or whatever. But hey, what about the new hires at City Hall? That crew of recent gubernatorial campaign workers seems to be famliar with Photoshop…
Or not – they didn’t do a very good job it would seem. Oh well, the unaltered photo above will have to do as the record of what Christmas 2009 looked like at City Hall.
Hey, speaking of Christmas, there’ll be no more stars on government trees up in Sonoma. Remember stars atop government Christmas trees? We had a big star on our big tree in Civic Center until about a year ago when it got took down, forever. Oh well.
Merry Christmas!
Tags: campaign, carlton, christmas, City Hall, civic center, constitutional, december, gavin newsom, goodlet, Governor, green building, grove, holiday, invicti, Jason Elliott, Joaquin Torres, led, lights, lime, Mayor, mcAlllister, merry, natalis, Nicholas Panagopoulos, Nick Clemens, Polk, red, star, strawberry, van ness, xmas, Yashar Hedayat
Posted in christmas, government | 4 Comments »
Tuesday, December 1st, 2009
Our 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.
Tags: 2007, 2008, 2009, bethlehem, christmas, City Hall, civic center, giant, government, Harvey Milk, holidays, lighting, rainbow world fund, rita moreno, San Francisco, Sharon Gless, star, Stuart Milk, tree, Tree of Hope, Yasumasa Nagamine
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Wednesday, October 7th, 2009
New San Francisco Police Chief George Gascón is becoming known for donning a suit more often than a uniform, per this bit from CW Nevius. Now the last time we had a chief like that was from 1975-1980, when “outsider” Charles Gain ran the SFPD.
Did Chief Gain really have all of San Francisco’s police cars painted soft pale blue and did he really replace the seven-pointed SFPD stars on the doors with the San Francisco Seal avec an encircling ”POLICE SERVICES” motif?
Yes, yes he did. How friendly!

Can you imagine?
Looks like the seven-pointed star made it onto the trunks, though. As seen in Milk:

Now what do you think the union thought about that? Not much.
Mayor Dianne Feinstein asked for his resignation in 1979 after the White Night Riots and he was replaced in 1980.
And now San Francisco’s “black-and-whites” are black and white again, with stars and everything.
Don’t expect that to change anytime soon.
Tags: 1975, 1980, arizona, association, black, Blue, cars, charles, chuck, department, dept., gain, gascon, George, George Gascón, jacket, new, Oakland, officers, pale, police, Police Chief, prowlers, radio, San Francisco, services, SFPD, star, suit, tie, uniform, union, white
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Friday, July 10th, 2009
Cause it’s been done already.
Click to expand to see these shutdown stores, these brokedown palaces of obsolete technology. Your days are over, analog cameras and TVs. Try not to leech too many chemicals into Mother Earth when you get to the landfill.

As seen on otherwise somewhat-bustling Irving Street in the touchy, prideful Inner Sunset District. (Take the tour this Saturday!)
Cue tumbleweeds…
He picks up scraps of information
He’s adept at adaptation
Because for strangers and arrangers
Constant change is here to stay
He’s got a force field and a flexible plan
He’s got a date with fate in a black sedan
He plays fast forward for as long as he can
But he won’t need a camera or TV repair store
He’s a digital man
Tags: (415), 664-5678, analog, camera, closed, digital, district, inner sunset, irving, man, passport, photo, Photograph, photos, rush, sales, service, shut down, star, street, television, TV
Posted in real estate | Comments Off
Monday, July 6th, 2009
You would think that a car that could fit into a garage could also pass through the sidewalk cut-out made for said garage. Of course you say, it’s axiomatic ‘n stuff. But some people don’t believe that. These homeowners pester the City for official DPT sidewalk curb red paint to keep encroaching street parkers at bay.
As if that’s not enough, said homeowners then proceed to add in their own menacing, hysterical “TOW” lines in red paint, paint that never quite matches the official colour. Thusly, as seen in Ashbury Heights:

Is the owner of this Toyota RAV4 playing a dangerous game? Click to expand.
Is it true that huge WW II-era battleships had less room to play with, width-wise, going through the Panama Canal than what some complaining San Francisco homeowners demand for their little cars? Yes. For example, the 34,000-tonne U.S.S. North Carolina battleship had just 12 inches clearance on either side, back in the day.
But you give a San Francisco homeowner just a foot on either side and it’s TOW, TOW, TOW.
Driving lessons cheerfully given for free. NB: Try not to steer too much. NNB: Try backing her in when you garage it in the first place.
Here’s an idea. After you actually learn how to drive, then take the sandblaster you’ve got somewhere in your garage (you know, right next to the unexploded ordnance you all seem to store) to eliminate evidence of your unneighborlyness.
Good on you, mate.
Tags: blocked, call, curb, cutout, DPT, drive, garage, homeowners, know, mta, note, overhand, paint, parallel, park, parking, rav4, red, san francisco parking street ashbury heights, sfdpt, SFMTA, sidewalk, star, ticket, tow, towed, towing, toyota, truck, wacky, yellow
Posted in cars | Comments Off
Monday, December 22nd, 2008
Well here directly below is what the giant Christmas tree of San Francisco’s Civic Center looked like in 2007, complete with a star on top. But SFist and Mssrs. Matier & Ross were a bit confused by all this last year. Recalling the official policy of 2007:
“The biggest rule: Steer clear of any religious references “not consistent with the city’s commitment to diversity and inclusiveness,” including “nativity scenes, menorahs, angels, crosses or stars on the top of trees.” It’s interesting to note, however, that the giant official tree directly in front of City Hall has a nice, big, lit star at its top. And the Recreation and Park Department has yet to receive a single complaint.”
Which is fair enough. (And nobody complained about Obama Christmas this year either, apparently). Click to expand:

Well that was then and this is now. So, the new 2008 tree went up last month in November without a star at first, but then a star was added a few days later. As seen in November 2008:

OK fine. But now the star is gone again. As seen a few days back. Today, the tree looks like it just got a flattop hair cut.

Maybe somebody complained.
Tags: christmas, civic center, holiday, San Francisco, star, tree, winter
Posted in parks | Comments Off
Friday, December 12th, 2008
This aging Honda has something to say:
“S.F. POLITICIANS USE SAME SEX MARRIAGE TO HELP LESBIANS ROB THE CRADLE”
O.K. fine. If it’s any help to try to understand the message, the car also has a couple flags flying, as seen in the upper left. (Maybe that’s not too much help.)
At least the message is polite.

Click to expand.
Tags: 8, American, californai, california, civic center, cradle, david, eight, flag, Honda, israel, marriage, politicians, prop 8, Proposition, Rob, robbing, same-sex, San Francisco, star, white
Posted in politics | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, December 2nd, 2008
What you’ve got here is the three brightest objects in the night sky all posing for a family portrait above Golden Gate Park. Venus and Jupiter are in conjunction (conjunction junction, what’s your function?)and the cresent moon is thrown in as a bonus. Here’s another view.
What’s it all mean? Well, if you were born during such a rare conjunction back in the day, then “brutality and vulgarity are intolerable to you” per AstrologyWeek. A similar display might have been the Star of Bethlehem about 2000 years ago, if you want to believe that.

Click to expand
Enjoy.
Tags: astology, astrology, astronomy, bethlehem, christmas, conjunction, crescent, evening, golden gate park, jupiter, moon, nova, planet, San Francisco, star, venus
Posted in parks | Comments Off
Monday, November 24th, 2008
Well look what just sprouted up betwixt City Hall and our famous Victory Garden in the Civic Center - it’s a “Holiday Tree.” Let’s travel back to Christmas Past to learn the rules:
“Public displays of religion, of course, are out. Department bosses can, however, set up “inclusive displays” such as plants, snowflakes or trees – as long as they use nonreligious and nonallergenic decorations. And definitely no stars on top of trees.“
Sort of looks naked without the star, but they’re working on it still.

Click to expand.
Enjoy your year-end holidays!
Tags: 2008, christmas, City Hall, civic center, holiday, star, tree, victory garden, winter
Posted in events | 1 Comment »