The San Francisco Citizen

It’s on! It’s fantastic. It’s you. It’s Power and Glory: Court Arts of China’s Ming Dynasty running through September 21, 2008 in the first floor Lee, Hambrecht, and Osher Galleries at San Francisco’s Asian Art Museum. Take a look at the show here and learn more about it here, courtesy of kultural kommissar Kenneth “you need me” Baker.

You see, all this stuff isn’t merely decorative, it actually means something. That’s why the  heavy accompanying book costs $18 to ship from Amazon - this whole show is just chock-a-block full of culture. To wit, check out cover boy Prince Zhu Youyuan in his ceremonial uniform. His shoulder patches represent the moon and the sun, and you can also see green dragons blue vessels, green algae, red fire, white rice, blue axes, and blue bows. Dude’s got more icons than an iPhone 3.0. Click to expand:

Click on this one and see that they played golf in China back in the day, LPGA style. Court ladies in the inner palace, by Du Jin (active middle 15th century). Handscroll, ink and colors on silk:

Ming bling wasn’t just muddy red or brilliant blue on white - we’ve got a whole palette here:

So what’s your move? Get on over there before it closes next month. The only rational way to beat the crowds on August 3rd, 2008, Target First Free Sunday, would be to get in line before they open at 10:00 AM. But then you’d miss the opportunity to get in on the docent tours offered on all non Target Sundays at 10:30 AM,  12:30 PM and 1:30 PM.

Here’s what you do if you go on a day when you actually have to pay admission: Arrive early to check things out on your own and then take the free one-hour tour with a docent like Anthony Pan:

There’s lot’s of stuff to learn at The Asian’s best show ever. See you there!

To the chagrin of some, the Golden Gate National Recreation Area soon will soon be called the Golden Gate National Parks.

This young buck, who calls the area around Rodeo Beach home, is licking his chops in anticipation of living in a full-fledged National Park:

Just take MUNI bus #76, MARIN HEADLANDS over to Rodeo Beach on a Sunday sometime to see a good part of the GGNRA.

“Chris Daly is not exactly the president of Mensa.” That’s the quote today in the Chronicle in an article about closing part of Market Street to cars. Is Supervisor Daly supposed to be stoopid or something?

1. Trying to close part of Market seems a lot more appealing than some other ideas. Ideas like this, or like corn ethanol for example. Trying this Market Street concept, which has been proposed by others in the past, would be cheap to implement and would be simple to undo if things didn’t work out.

2. Chris Daly could easily become president of Mensa if he had a reason to want to do so. (Look out Alan Winson!) Chris wouldn’t even have to take a test to join. He could most likely dig up the SAT or ACT scores he needed to get into Duke and use them to get into Mensa. Bingo bango. (Bonus: He seems familiar with the organization.)

Chris is a smart guy you just happen to disagree with on this or that. So, let’s leave Mensa out of future discussions of how to move forward, mkay?

Carry on.

The Asian Art Museum special exhibition Power & Glory: Court Arts of China’s Ming Dynasty really packed them in yesterday. Target First Free Sundays might have had a role, but this thing appears to be popular even on days when you can’t get in for free. And remarkably, Kenneth Baker likes it!

The line to get in yesterday went down Polk, Grove, Hyde (pictured), and McAllister. It was phenomenal, perhaps 500 people waiting? The museum is claiming 10,000 people dropped by on Sunday.

Click to expand:

See you there!