Vignettes

San Francisco, California


Although both locales attract global travelers, one could never mistake a walk along the four miles of San Francisco's Ocean Beach on an August afternoon for a morning stroll next to the dunes of Miami's South Beach in July. The brisk breeze, overcast sky, and wind-whipped waves of the Pacific Ocean contrast sharply with the blazing heat, diamond blue horizon, and sparkling waters of the North Atlantic. In Miami, one finds a sensation of arrival, of settled repose and personal security. San Francisco confronts with the possibilities of challenge, risk, and adventure. Metaphorically, one needs little clothing for protection on Southern Florida's shores, while sweat shirts and bonfires may provide at least psychological comfort on the beach sands of Northern California.

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The culture of the Ming dynasty, spanning the years from 1368 to 1644, is the subject of Power and Glory: Court Arts of China's Ming Dynasty, an exhibit running through Sept. 21 at the Asian Art Museum. More than 200 treasures from the old Southern capital of Nanjing and the Northern capital of Beijing include porcelain objects, ink and colors on silks and papers, garments, and jewelry.

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The year 2008 marks the 75th anniversary of the founding of the San Francisco Ballet, the oldest professional ballet company in America. Its 2007 operating budget of $38 million also makes it one of the largest. Russell Hartley, one of the company's designers, created the costumes for the country's first, full-length Nutcracker in 1944 and, in 1947, founded the Museum of Performance & Design. The museum's exhibit, Art & Artifice: 75 Years of Design at San Francisco Ballet, runs through Aug. 30, featuring original sketches for sets and costumes, set models, costumes and accessories, photos, programs, and videos.

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Visual Aid, an organization that assists and encourages Bay Area artists with life-threatening illnesses to continue their creative work, is presenting TREASURE, a solo exhibition by Jerry Lee Frost, through Sept. 11. The exhibit features 13 of Frost's abstract, oil-on-canvas paintings from 2007 and 2008, at the San Francisco LGBT Community Center, 1800 Market Street.

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The Hotel Union Square, 114 Powell Street, offers many perks: windows that open, free phone calls, free internet access, free newspapers, free morning coffee, and free California wines at afternoon happy hour. Its unadvertised and better-kept secrets include regular cable car runs and a constantly surging sea of world travelers viewed from its second floor windows. The chaos generates many gem-like surprises, such as a perfectly harmonized, sidewalk serenade of Down by the Riverside by an un-miked male quartet, delivered on a gloriously balmy Sunday afternoon!

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Most evenings, singing along with an international assemblage can be done downstairs at Foley's, 243 O'Farrell Street, where dudes Chris and Jerry hold court and take requests with their dueling pianos.

Evensong

San Francisco, California


San Francisco's Grace Cathedral offers the service of choral Evensong on Thursday afternoons throughout the year. It is a particularly Anglican service that evolved from the monastic hours and combines features of the office of Vespers and Compline. It is sung regularly in many cathedrals and parish churches throughout the country, and daily in many places in England. At Grace, one is invited to sit in the choir for the service which draws just under 100 people, including members of the choir. Yesterday's anthem, with text from Ephesians 5, was composed by Thomas Tallis, a 16th century contemporary of Henry VIII and Elizabeth I.


Evensong happens four evenings a week at the General Theological Seminary in New York. I attended twice while staying there last October. The entire chapel on the seminary grounds would fit comfortably, with room to spare, within the choir of Grace Cathedral.


Grace is the third largest Episcopal cathedral in the U.S. and, like much of San Francisco, it has become a global icon. Situated atop Nob Hill, its construction was started in 1928 and completed in 1964. It is a successor to the Grace Church which was organized during the 1849 Gold Rush. Its French Gothic architecture shares many features with the National Cathedral in Washington.


The central, Ghiberti Doors of Grace Cathedral, were cast from the same molds used in the 15th century for the Baptistry of Florence Cathedral. James Davies and I saw the Italian originals during our 1986 visit to Florence.


Following the 1906 earthquake and fire that destroyed much of San Francisco, William H. Crocker, a Grace parish member, donated the land of his ruined home on Nob Hill for the construction of a cathedral, with the requirement that "Grace" remain the name of the new structure. In 1934, William's daughter, Harriet Crocker Alexander, donated the Alexander Memorial Organ in memory of her husband, Charles Beatty Alexander; the organ was designed by the Aeolian-Skinner Organ Company of Boston.


Crocker was a banker and civic leader, and a son of Charles Crocker, one of the four original investors in the transcontinental railroad. The other three investors, Leland Stanford, Collis P. Huntington, and Mark Hopkins, also made their homes on Nob Hill. The Huntington and Mark Hopkins hotels stand today on what were the ruins of their mansions.


Before his days as a successful railroad man and merchant in Sacramento, California, Charles Crocker started life in 1822 in Troy, New York. After a falling-out with his father, he began working his way West. In 1849, he joined two of his brothers and a few other young men in leaving from Quincy, Illinois, to seek their fortunes in California.


The Peterson family lore relates that my great-great grandfather, William Peterson (b. 1815, New Jersey; d. 1899 Pineville, Missouri) joined his brother Dean and a few other young men to seek their fortunes in 1849 California. They would have departed from Adams County, Illinois where they lived, and for which Quincy is the county seat. The Petersons returned "busted."


Following Evensong, James and I located Johnny Foleys Irish House at 243 O'Farrell Street, a favorite from our previous visits. It is a mere block from our current lodgings at the Hotel Union Square, 114 Powell Street. The Powell Street cable cars run past our second floor window regularly.