Magnificent Magnolias and A New Granddaughter!

While Massachusetts grapples with record cold and snow, I’m in San Francisco getting to know our new granddaughter, Gage Antonia Hineline, who was born on the day before Christmas to daughter Marina and Jeff Hineline.

Since Wednesday was the last full day before I return to the bitter cold of Massachusetts, Marina decided to take me and the Big Eleni (Eleni Nikolaides, who is the honorary grandma to my three children, and is now living with her own daughter and two grandchildren in Florida, but came to San Francisco to help out) to the San Francisco Botanical Garden, to see “Magnificent Magnolias—Now in Bloom, Mid-January through March.”

On the way there we passed some of the “painted ladies” of San Francisco, which I’ve admired ever since I was a student at U Cal Berkeley in 1961-1963.

I love magnolias, and was astonished to see that here in San Francisco, magnolias are now in bloom everywhere.   The San Francisco Botanical Garden, in Golden Gate Park offers, “the most significant magnolia collection outside China, where the majority of species originate.”

At the entrance, one poster advertised the “Magnificent Magnolias” exhibition and another warned us not to tread on the caterpillars of the California Pipeline Swallowtail Butterfly, which is a stunning blue color I’ve never seen before.   

Marina checked the map of nearly 100 magnolia trees—“from the monsoon-influenced temperate forest of the Himalayas to the cloud forests of Mesoamerica”-- with the Botanical Garden’s Staff member, while giant magnolia trees (originally brought from Asia in the 1930’s or earlier) bloomed overhead in white, pink and magenta, and visitors from around the world, including these young lovers, admired the beauty overhead.

This giant magnolia blossom, as large as a saucer, is Magnolia compbellii “Late Pink”, “Introduced in the Garden from seed purchased in 1934…in Darjeeling, India.”  White and pink blossoms covered the paths, and someone put these in one of the ceramic pots that mark the gardens.

Marina kept her dog, Stamper, on a leash, and introduced her to some visiting toddlers, while the “Big Eleni” pushed Baby Gage, blissfully asleep, in her clever “Doona” carriage which converts into a car seat, so you don’t have to wake the baby to put her in the car.

And here she is—turning a month old tomorrow, and already melting our hearts with her smile.  Baby Gage Antonia Hineline!  Every bit as magnificent as the magnolias!

Super Bowl & Lunar New Year Prep in One Super Day

 

 Golden Gate Park is ready for the Super Bowl

 

I thought that it just couldn’t get better than my first day in San Francisco, on Friday, with daughter Marina as my guide—first a nude-in on City Hall steps (see  my last post) then ice cream made to order at Smitten, take-out pulled pork sandwiches and wine from the Fatted Calf, a drive through Golden Gate Park, and a picnic overlooking Cliff House and the Sutro Baths.  What could top that?

Try Sunday, which combined the preparations for the Lunar New Year in Chinatown, followed by the Super Bowl starring the home team.

 Nick and I were staying at the Orchard Garden Hotel on Bush Street, so Marina and I entered through this gate to walk up Grant Street Although the Lunar New Year is on Feb. 10 and the amazing night-time parade is on Feb. 23, the local populace was out and about making preparations.

 Red lanterns and red good-luck symbols to buy for the house

 There is a lot that I don’t know about how the Lunar (Asian? Chinese?) New Year is celebrated in San Francisco, but here’s what I do know:  2013 is the Year of the Snake. (So is my birth year, 1941. That makes me a snake.) 

 You have to buy flowers to decorate the house

Here’s what I learned from a wall hanging in Chinatown: “The Year of the Snake is filled with chaos and is unpredictable. It is a time for inquiry, reflection and careful exploration.  Snake people possess a profound wisdom.  Many are blinded by their hypnotic charm, elegance and style.  They are always on a mission.”

 

Kids were standing in line to be photographed with the Lion that will lead the parade.

At least I think it's a lion. Maybe it's a dragon.

 

 This was a man with a message.

This man was playing music on an Asian instrument

 

 We stopped for Dim Sum at the Great Eastern Restaurant at 649 Jackson Street.  President Obama stopped here for take-out exactly a year before.  He carried the bag out himself.  Afterwards the media turned it into a scandal because they learned this was one of the few restaurants still selling shark fin soup after it was banned at the start of 2012.   (Who else tells you this stuff?)

 

On our way out we saw this fellow in costume who was being photographed  with families.  He was as popular as Santa Claus in the Mall before Christmas.  I did a little research and think he may be the Jade Emperor.  I also think he has something to do with AT&T, but I don't know what.

 

He was very popular and he made the same gesture with all comers. I think it was a blessing.

 

We also saw a long line of older people waiting for the free health clinic.

 

And we saw a model modelling

And some monkeys avoiding evil.

 

As the sun set, San Franciscans gathered around television sets inside and outdoors to watch the game.  It was very intense.

 

After the power went out in New Orleans it got more exciting, but the way it ended left all San Franciscans feeling very dejected.

 Especially Seamus.  He was devastated.

 

But this was a birthday party as well as a Super Bowl party, and the ladies lit the candles.

 

And the birthday boy, Matt, blew them out.

 

And Geana and Marina assured Seamus there would be another chance at the Super Bowl next year.

Nude-In Today at San Francisco’s City Hall

Lincoln looked appalled

Your fearless reporter Rolling Crone flew into San Francisco last night, and with her morning coffee today read the following  headline in the San Francisco Chronicle: “Nudists Hope City Hall Protest will Get them Cited”

The article began:

“Getting naked in public will be illegal in San Francisco starting Friday.  How will the ‘Naked Guys” –and gals- commemorate the day?  Hint: not by putting their pants on.

“No, they’ll stage a protest of the city’s new ban at noon on the steps of City Hall.  And naturally, they’ll do it au naturel.

“Their goal, it seems, is to get cited by police officers so they can head back to court with the claim that their right to protest politically is being violated.  U. S. District Judge Edward Chen on Tuesday dismissed a lawsuit by the nudists attempting to overturn the city’s new ban on genital exposure, but he did say they could return to court if the city enforced the ban in a way that stifles a political message.”

 Since Rolling Crone is staying in a hotel near City Hall, she asked her equally fearless daughter Marina, who promised her on an insider’s tour of the city, to pass by City Hall to see the fireworks.  They drove up right behind a police van which pulled over and  escorted the only completely nude demonstrator in sight into the van.  He was a white haired and bearded gentleman who had, to paraphrase what  David Niven said when a naked streaker  broke into the televised Oscar program, extremely small assets to display.

Cops looked grim and demonstrators chanted loudly and profanely.  The most innocuous chant was: 

“Don’t Arrest, Cite and Release.”  Which is what the police did.  They escorted the completely nude gentleman to their van, issued him a citation and let him go, as they did to anyone else who had exposed genitals.  The almost-nude protestors were not harassed. 

Daughter Marina, who lives in San Francisco, strongly felt that nudity should be allowed.  Your faithful reporter, Rolling Crone, who has seen hundreds of naked bodies of all sizes, shapes and sexes while taking many figure drawing classes, pretty much agrees with daughter Marina.  Rolling Crone also feels, as a 1963 graduate of Berkeley and a veteran of demonstrations on more serious subjects, like capital punishment,  that the police acted with  admirable restraint and tact today.

But she also felt that some of the nudists should show equal tact and share their bodies only with friends and family.  And stick to warm climates like San Francisco.  (Can you imagine a similar demonstration among the snows of Boston?”

Stay tuned for more breaking news from San Francisco as the entire city hunkers down and most stores and companies close for Superbowl Sunday.     

Found Art-- César Chavez Elementary School San Francisco

I’ve written before about the murals that fill nearly every wall in the Mission District of San Francisco—locally  designed art that expresses the hopes and aspirations, traditions and goals, heroes and saints of the many ethnic groups that make up the area.

 Most impressive to me were the painted walls of the César Chavez Elementary School on Shotwell Street in the Mission district.

 I was told that the murals were the work of two local women—I don’t know their names.  I was also told that the elementary school teaches four languages: English, Spanish, (80 per cent of the students are from Spanish-speaking families) Mandarin Chinese and American Sign Language (ASL.)  All across the front of the school is the alphabet illustrated in all of these languages.

All of the paintings are inspirational.

 Here is the back of the school, with illustrations of César Chavez, grape pickers and children learning and achieving.

 The slogan of the school is “Si, Se Puede!”—“Yes, it can be done.”

I think the murals on the walls of this school are an excellent illustration of how art, including folk art, can inspire and teach, even in the poorest and least advantaged neighborhoods.

Amalía Does San Francisco & Wine Country, Part Two

On the second day of her San Francisco visit, Amalía, eight-month-old fashionista, headed for the wineries of the Russian River Valley with Tia Marina at the wheel and Yiayia Joanie and Mommy Eleni completing her posse.

Amalía visited three wineries in all:  first Copain in Healdsburg, noted for its Syrahs and Pinot Noirs and the view of the Russian River Valley.

Because Amalía is too young to drink, she enjoyed the crackers that came with the tasting wines.
And she met a dog named Max.

The next day she visited the Korbel Champagne Cellars in Guerneville, noted for their, uh, champagnes, and had a delicious lunch.

The third winery was the DeLoach vineyards in Santa Rosa, noted for its Pinot Noirs.  It was so crowded with tasters that Amalía could hardly make it up to the bar.

They stayed in one of the western-themed cottages at Fern Grove in Guerneville, a quaint small town where Amalía saw her first five and ten cent store.

But walking across the historic Guernevillae bridge proved exhausting-- perhaps she had partied too late the night before.

Best of all was the Amalía's first sight of the Redwoods in the Armstrong Redwood Park--now part of the state park systems.  She was awed by the trees--so tall,

with such big roots

and so ancient that some are more than 1,400 years old.

On the way back to San Francisco they stopped at a house party at the home of a college friend of her Mommy's.  There, in the back yard, Amalía got a chance to practice her walking and her crawling while wearing her psychedelic dress and the retro-hippie headband that she'd packed specially for San Francisco.

Amalía was very sad saying good-bye to Tia Marina before she and her posse left for JFK on the red-eye, but she managed to sleep the whole way back, which is a lot more sleep than her Mommy did, and Mommy  had to go to work as soon as the plane landed.