Frisco Vista

This 1914 video shows opium paraphernalia being burnt in what is now the Civic Center area. At the time the area had not yet been rebuilt following the ’06 earthquake (because voters would not pass bonds for funding the project because of the corruption of city leaders), but here you can see the new city [...]

United Nations Plaza was conceived as the entrance to a grand walkway leading from Market Street to City Hall, a vision that never quite materialized. The plaza commemorates the founding of the United Nations in San Francisco. On Wednesdays and Sundays the plaza hosts a farmers market, while an arts and crafts fair holds sway [...]

The main branch of the San Francisco public library unveiled its new remodel today. Somehow they have created a great deal more space, so that the entire fiction collection is now on the shelves. The audio-visual center has moved from the fourth floor to the ground floor. It looks pretty spiffy. I like the automated [...]

The above image fascinates me. It’s from an exhibition of the prints of Taiso Yoshitoshi (1839-1892), currently showing at the Asian Art Museum in the city’s civic center. Yoshitoshi witnessed a period of great transition in Japan, during which the country essentially went from feudalism to modernism. He works out of the ukiyo-e or “floating [...]

click photo for larger view Laughing Squid has posted a notice of the 28th Anniversary celebration of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence. The free event, called Night of the Living Easter, will be held in Dolores Park from 11:00 am to 4:00 pm on Sunday, April 8. “The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence celebrate our 28th [...]

I’ve completed a draft of a basic information page on the Asian Art Museum. I’ll move on now to other San Francisco musuems. And, of course, the usual Frisco miscellany.

I have in front of me some travel guides to San Francisco. I’m curious to see how they cover the city’s museums, and specifically the Asian Art Museum (hereafter AAM), because I will be putting up a page on the Asian (as it’s commonly known) soon. The results are interesting. Here’s a selection: Fodor’s barely [...]