National:

• Iran is receiving intelligence from Russia and China on the location of US forces, including American warships, radar, and other communication systems, but there's no evidence the two countries are helping with military strikes. [NBC News]
• Military officials say it's likely US military forces were behind the strike that killed 150 students at an Iranian girls’ school Saturday, which is still under investigation. [Guardian]
• In the latest fallout from Trump’s takeover of the Kennedy Center, Jean Davidson, the center’s National Symphony Orchestra’s executive director, has resigned and will be taking on a new role as executive director and chief executive of the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Los Angeles. [LA Times]

Video of the Day:

Keep your eyes peeled for SFMTA's decked-out cable car celebrating Chinese New Year this weekend.

Image: Leanne Maxwell/SFist

This week: The real story behind the Winchester Mystery House, a historic artist’s studio-turned-artwork, a gifted local teenage violinist, and entrepreneurial high schoolers. Plus, hiking via public transit, the Presidio’s native plants, all things ube, and tasty holiday latkes.

Trail lines and transit stakes

Content creator Bike Curious hiked the De La Veaga Trail in Orinda to draw attention to looming transit budget cuts while demonstrating how residents can reach Bay Area trails without a car.

The moderate route sits on municipal land, with permits available online, and was found through Hiking by Transit’s public database. — Bike Curious

Restoring the dunes

About 100 volunteers gathered at the Presidio’s Sunset Scrub near Lincoln Boulevard last weekend to plant native species as part of an ongoing habitat restoration effort. The Presidio Trust planted roughly 2,000 natives, including coastal buckwheat and dune tansy, to help rebuild sections of the city’s historic dunescape.

The work supports insects, birds, lizards, and rare plants such as San Francisco lessingia and spineflower. The newly restored area now connects Sunset Scrub with the north dunes, creating a continuous habitat corridor between Washington and Lincoln boulevards. — KPIX

Blue conversation

Artist Catherine Wagner’s Blue Reverie at 500 Capp Street fills the late conceptual artist David Ireland’s iconic Mission District home with layers of blue. Ireland spent decades transforming the house itself into a sculptural work, altering floors, walls, and objects to explore space and domestic life as art.

Wagner builds on that legacy, adding photography, projections, and subtle installations that play with light, color, and architecture while keeping a conversation with Ireland’s ideas alive. Hidden blue moons, filtered windows, and glowing furniture turn corners of the home into unexpected moments of discovery. Blue Reverie runs through January 10 at 500 Capp Street, with a catalogue launch on December 16. — 48 Hills

Labyrinth of memory

The Winchester Mystery House has long been surrounded by salacious ghost stories, but most of them were urban legends created by locals and later promoters, not Sarah Winchester herself. These tales helped turn her eccentric home into a tourist draw, which in turn preserved it from demolition.

Beyond the myths, the house is a rare glimpse into late-19th-century San Jose architecture, built in popular Queen Anne Victorian styles and shaped further by the 1906 earthquake. — Bay Area News Group

Oven work and open doors

At Miramonte High School in Orinda, special education students are running a small dog treat business as part of their school day. In Asia Pavicich’s essential skills class, students research what’s safe for dogs, design the packaging, bake pumpkin–peanut butter treats, and sell them under the name Matadogs.

Pavicich started the project to give younger students real, on-campus work experience, beyond practice exercises. It’s also created easy points of contact between the students and the rest of the school community. — NBC Bay Area

Quiet strings, wide reach

Sausalito violinist Sydney Li-Jenkins, 15, has been named a winner of the 2026 YoungArts Competition, which recognizes young artists across visual, literary, and performing fields.

A sophomore at the Branson School in Ross, Li-Jenkins joins a national group of artists whose work reflects a rare level of focus and ambition at this stage. — Marin Independent Journal

Crispy threads

Delfina chef Craig Stoll has put a lighter, gluten-free spin on the holiday latke, balancing crisp potato strands with just the right touch of onion and potato starch. His careful prep — starting the potatoes the night before and pressing out every drop of moisture — keeps each patty tender inside and golden outside.

The latkes are perfect for the Festival of Lights, which kicks off December 14, bringing a fresh take to Hanukkah tables. For those skipping the kitchen, the restaurant offers a to-go option with a dozen flash-frozen latkes, plus add-ons like apple-quince conserva, crème fraîche, or Gingrass smoked steelhead lox. — 7 x 7

Purple by way of Alameda

Alameda baker Henry Awayan has leaned fully into ube, the Filipino purple yam he grew up with and now builds an entire cookbook around. Known for custom cakes at Whisk Cake Creations, Awayan’s The Ube Baking Book gathers more than 50 recipes — from classic halaya to ube focaccia, chiffon cakes, and breakfast pastries — tracing both flavor and family history shaped by his Filipino upbringing and years running a bakery a block from his childhood home.

Awayan plans to teach classes from the book at Whisk in 2026, with details to be announced through the bakery’s website and Instagram. — The Oaklandside

Top image: Winchester Mystery House

Previously: Field Notes: The Cockettes’ Tahara, Christmas Bar, and SCRAP Jewelry Pop-Up

Bay Area librarian Mychal Threets to host ‘Reading Rainbow;’ lost jazz treasures; creative mutual aid; painted cars; bling from “bips;” ghosts in the city; tarantulas at Mt. Diablo; films on the bay; hidden views; and Jins and DSW open at Stonestown Mall.

Cinema on the bay

The Roxie Theater is teaming up with Red and White Fleet this month to host a unique sailing movie theater — a hybrid-electric vessel turned open-air cinema with the San Francisco skyline as its backdrop.

Cocktails, snacks, and complimentary popcorn keep the decks lively while films flicker across multiple screens. This year’s lineup spans cult favorites like Top Gun, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, and Carpenter’s The Fog. Screenings run Friday nights through October on the bay. — The Whimsy Soul, Red and White Fleet

Unexpected view

Amidst nearly 360-degree views atop Broadway and Taylor in San Francisco, sits the most unique view of the Golden Gate Bridge in town, which is easy to miss. While standing near the northern crosswalk of the intersection, facing north toward Alcatraz, if you take a look at the apartment building on your right, there’s a set of mirrored windows that perfectly frame the iconic bridge.

When SFist was taking photos at the intersection (see Saturday Links), we nearly missed the hidden gem. We circled the area snapping photos for several minutes when we noticed the large windows at eye level and observed how annoying it must be to live right there where bystanders can look in — hence, the mirrored windows. Intentional design choice or not, the result was pretty spectacular. — SFist

Shadows in the city

Local paranormal investigator Ying Liu leads guests through San Francisco’s streets and architectural sites, weaving ghost stories into the city’s nightly pulse. In Chinatown’s Grand Star, her crew claims they saw a crying woman in the bathroom mirror and a floating figure sliding past empty seats.

At the Warfield, a thermal camera caught what looked like a human face etched in cold. Even a narrow alley by the Transamerica Pyramid carries its own restless presence. Tours available through Haunted Bay. — KRON4

Red earth wanderers

As the days shorten and Halloween creeps closer, Mount Diablo’s trails become overrun with male tarantulas who emerge from their burrows in search of mates this time of year.

The females wait quietly underground, some of them decades old. Just a short 2.5-mile loop from Mitchell Canyon Visitor Center brings the possibility of finding some fuzzy, eight-legged creatures, if you dare. — Bay Area Hikers, Weekend Sherpa

Art and cruisers

Rose B. Simpson’s LEXICON at the de Young pairs two art cars, Maria and Bosque, with monumental clay figures, blending ancestral Tewa techniques with contemporary flair. The cars’ painted surfaces echo pottery designs, while the towering sculptures are rough-textured, adorned with beads, branches, and symbolic markings.

Together, they create a dialogue of craft, lineage, and imagination, a space where metal, clay, and color converge. The exhibition moves between tradition and invention, embodying stories that span generations. — Alta

Echoes in a suitcase

At SCRAP, the Bayview arts and crafts reuse center founded by Ruth Asawa, a small suitcase turned up among the usual donations — inside, hundreds of photos, magazines, and autographs tracing the vanished history of the Fillmore’s “Harlem of the West.” The collection once belonged to Warren “Duke” Bynum, a doorman and jazz lover whose circle spanned icons like Duke Ellington and Lionel Hampton.

Volunteers traced the suitcase’s path through time, linking it to Bynum’s widow, Jimmye, and to neighbors and students still carrying the Fillmore’s creative spirit. Now, those images and memories are being revived in writing workshops at the Dr. George W. Davis Senior Center, where community elders are turning rediscovered history into living story. — Mission Local

Blight to Gem

In Oakland, designer Sydney Jones transforms shattered car windows into wearable art. Her line, Bips, turns the aftermath of break-ins — those glittering piles of broken glass along the curb — into tiny gems.

Through her Odd Commodity Shop, Jones also upcycles bottles and lab glass into candles and vases, merging sustainability with urban storytelling. She sells her creations at local markets and online, offering beauty from what the city leaves behind. — The Oaklandside

West side buzz

Stonestown Galleria continues to fill up — with very few vacancies remaining, as DSW and Tokyo-based Jins Eyewear opened their doors Friday. H&M will be added to the mix at the end of November. In addition to strong anchor stores like Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s, Target, and Sports Basement, the mall offers a variety of food and boutique options, as well as activity-based destinations to attract young patrons, including Regal Cinema, Activate gaming facility, and Round1 Bowling & Arcade.

SFist paid a lunchtime visit this week and found the shops to be quite bustling. When we heard that Tokyo-based Jins had returned after closing its Union Square location in 2022, we headed on over to obtain our third pair of Jins glasses, which are very stylish and were ready in 30 minutes. (Nose pads are a must for our miniscule nose bridge, we’ve learned.)

We will definitely be back to the mall soon to hit up DSW and try out some Japanese cheesecake from Uncle Tetsu. — SFGate

Mystery line, giving hands

At a pop-up table in Golden Gate Park, a wheel of chance and a tin of jelly beans double as an invitation to care. Creative Mutual Aid, founded by artists Sara Rubenstein and Joe Mitchell, turns everyday encounters into small acts of support — a watercolor for a stranger, a bar of soap for comfort, a few test strips to keep someone safe.

The group’s hotline, dialed through the number “MYSTERY,” connects callers to volunteers ready to fulfill requests both whimsical and vital. At the pop-up, they trade stories, trinkets, and small essentials across picnic blankets — the kind of spontaneous exchange that keeps San Francisco feeling alive. — KQED

Rainbows online

Reading Rainbow is back, this time on YouTube, with Mychal Threets at the helm. The former Fairfield librarian, who went viral on TikTok for his playful, heartfelt book videos, brings a fresh energy to the beloved series.

The reboot promises storytelling, celebrity guests, and the same push to make reading irresistible for kids, and adults alike. — KTVU

Top image: Rose B. Simpson (Santa Clara Pueblo), Maria, 2014. Photograph by Kate Russell. Image courtesy of the artist

In this week’s Field Notes: a live pipe organ at Legion of Honor, stone legacy in Mill Valley, Recology’s Artist in Residence exhibit, and an Aquatic Park doc. Also: Amy Tan with Christian Cooper, teen film 'The Jar', and Sacramento’s music archive.

Rodin, chandeliers, and a hundred-year-old organ

Every Saturday at 4 p.m., the Legion of Honor fills its Rodin Gallery with the sound of a 100-year-old pipe organ.

Jonathan Dimmick playing the Spreckels Organ at the Legion of Honor, 2002. Photograph by Gary Sexton

Built into the museum itself, its 4,500+ pipes are tucked behind chandeliers and sculptures, designed to resonate through the marble rotunda. The concerts are free with admission, turning a quiet weekend visit into something grander. — Secret San Francisco

Sculpting history in Mill Valley

Mill Valley’s O’Hanlon Center for the Arts pays tribute to its founder, the late sculptor Richard O’Hanlon, with Dialogue with Stone, a display of his monumental stone sculptures, sketches, and archival photos.

Fabrice Florin/Flickr

Alongside it, the Dreams and Visions exhibit explores O’Hanlon’s life, techniques, and inspirations — including geology and astronomy, providing context to his body of work as well as his hillside studio and its surrounding landscape, which O’Hanlon and his wife Ann converted from an old dairy farm in 1942.

The grounds feature outdoor works, some now home to lichens, inviting visitors to wander through both art and history. Runs through August 31, with guided tours available. — Bay Area News Group

From trash to treasure: 35 years of Recology AIR

San Francisco’s Recology Artist-in-Residence program turns the city’s garbage into gallery-ready art. For 35 years, artists have transformed discarded materials — from meat grinders to hair clippings — into striking, unexpected works.

The anniversary show at 1275 Minnesota Street highlights 35 years of creativity, with over 250 artists’ pieces on display. Free to visit through August 30, it’s a uniquely SF experience that makes you look twice at what we throw away. — Recology Artists in Residence

Ship-shaped SF landmark gets its due

The iconic Maritime Museum, formerly known as the Aquatic Park Bathhouse — a 1939 WPA-built bayfront building — has a new spotlight in KQED’s documentary A Balcony on the World.

Premiering August 22, the film traces the bathhouse from public gathering space to WWII Army post to museum, highlighting its murals, glazed-tile sculpture, and restoration projects. Catch it on KQED August 22 at 8 p.m., with re-airings August 23 at 2 a.m. and August 30 at 6 p.m. — SF Examiner

10 peaks, one unforgettable walk

Peak2Peak returns Saturday, September 13, for its 21st year, sending participants on a 10-mile urban adventure through San Francisco’s hidden stairways, quiet streets, and secret viewpoints. Guided groups enjoy coffee, lunch, and snacks along the way, plus a commemorative keepsake at the finish.

Even locals will spot corners of the city they didn’t know existed — just be ready for plenty of hills, stairs, and some serious sightseeing. Tickets are limited and must be purchased in advance. — WalkSF

Amy Tan and Christian Cooper to host delightful nature journaling conference in Palo Alto

Amy Tan, Bay Area born and raised, took NatGeo host Christian Cooper on a birding tour of the region — from Bolinas cliffs to Point Reyes marshes, and of course her own backyard. Along the way, they commiserated over dog owners who ignore leash laws and trample birds’ nesting grounds. Cooper — host of Extraordinary Birder and author of Better Living Through Birding and Urban Owls — knows his birds and the rules they deserve.

On September 14, the pair will share the mic at the 7th Annual Wild Wonder Nature Journaling Conference at the Foster Museum in Palo Alto, live and online. — Amy Tan

Teens turn summer into a city-wide film set

Seventy-one Bay Area teens spent four weeks making THE JAR, a feature-length chase through Golden Gate Park, Chinatown, and the city’s steep streets. Guided by Joe Talbot (The Last Black Man in San Francisco), they rotated through writing, directing, and cinematography, learning pro-level gear and techniques.

The premiere at the Great Star Theater earlier this month drew a line up Jackson Street, and the Q&A revealed the city’s usual hazards: traffic, curious bystanders, and one very unhelpful passerby. Beyond the polished shots, campers walked away with friendships and creative collaborators that might last a lifetime. — Mission Local

A shed full of music history

In a suburban shed outside Sacramento, Shayne Stacy sits among towers of VHS, cassettes, and reel-to-reels — nearly 20,000 recordings of Bay Area punk, thrash, indie, and metal shows. He started filming local gigs in the ’80s, trading tapes through the mail, and now digitizes rare early footage of Nirvana, Green Day, as well as long-lost basement bands.

Musicians, fans, and former roadies drop off forgotten boxes, and he cleans them up, uploads them online for free, and quietly preserves decades of Northern California music history, one tape at a time. — KQED Arts

North Beach movie mash-up

Every third Wednesday of the month, Films with Friends takes over three venues at the same time in North Beach for a unique and festive night of co-occurring film screenings. This month, live male strippers will be on hand to accompany Savoy Tivoli’s screening of Magic Mike. Alternatively, take a deep dive into Mazatec psychedelic plants at Live Worm’s screening of Salvia Divinorum.

Families should definitely head to Piazza Pellegrini for the 1971 classic, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. — Renegade Cinema

Walnut Creek cafe in the national spotlight

Recently recognized as one of the top new women-owned cafes in the country, Prologue Coffee & Tea quietly thrives inside Walnut Creek’s public library. Vietnamese coffee gets a twist with banana milk, and banh mi sandwiches are crafted from house-made spreads and family recipes.

Owner Thuy Nguyen left banking to open the shop just over a year ago, and locals — plus visitors from across the Bay — are quickly discovering this unexpected gem. — KGO

Top image: Tariq Stone, A Little Bit of This, 2024. Photo by Tariq Stone; Model: Isabel Li; Production Design: Emily Hernandez; Makeup: Niku Radan; Production Assistant: Theo Garvey

Previously: Field Notes: Prelinger Library’s Treasures, SF to Guerneville by Clipper, Historic Lanterns Relit

In this week’s Field Notes: A tween skate star, a giant whale sculpture, floating saunas, a community hub in the making, indie legends at the Greek, and kitsch in San Luis Obispo. Plus, opossum rescues, Fringe Fest weirdness, easy hikes, and Jane at SFMOMA.

One to watch on the ramp

At 11 years old, Oakland’s Anna Shea Reynolds-Madsen is making an impact on the skate world. She first picked up a board by borrowing her sister’s in secret. Within a year, she was skating vert ramps and learning to drop without any lessons or coaches — just trial, error, and a lot of determination.

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Vert skating is rare and demanding, especially for kids. But Anna loves the height, the speed, and the pure physics of it. She’s now competing in national events like Tony Hawk’s Vert Alert, catching air in massive arenas one week and skating DIY parks in the East Bay the next.

She’s got style, and she’s not afraid to be herself. According to a 2023 interview, off the ramp, she draws, plays piano, and crushes it in soccer. Her dream is to go pro, travel the world, and one day snowboard in Iceland. But for now, she’s just a Bay Area kid chasing the next drop-in, fearless and fully in her element. — S1 Helmet Co. / Old Bones Therapy

Golden hour sounds at the Greek

The Greek Theatre’s hillside setting and breezy eucalyptus canopy make it one of the Bay Area’s most atmospheric venues, especially on late-summer nights. This season’s lineup feels tailor-made for the grown-up indie crowd.

Father John Misty headlines there tonight with Lucinda Williams and Hamilton Leithauser — a mellow, melancholic triple bill that suits the venue’s golden-hour glow. Still to come: My Morning Jacket returns August 22 with their signature blend of psychedelic rock and Southern soul, known for long builds and explosive crescendos. On August 28, the Pixies bring their raw, off-kilter alt-rock to the stage alongside Spoon’s sharp, clean hooks and Fazerdaze’s dreamy fuzz-pop.

September 7 promises maximalist spectacle as the Flaming Lips and Modest Mouse team up for a co-headlining show likely to include giant props, bubble machines, and cathartic singalongs. And October 16 brings a long-awaited reunion from Rilo Kiley, with Jenny Lewis leading the band’s bittersweet indie-pop back onto the big stage for the first time in over a decade. — Broke-Ass Stuart

A 24-foot whale and the power of tools

A 24-foot wooden whale just surfaced at Berkeley’s Adventure Playground, thanks to 85 youth builders from Girls Garage. The climbing sculpture — complete with baleen mouth and 3D-printed handholds — was the centerpiece of a month-long summer camp blending carpentry, design, and confidence-building.

First-timers learned to use jigsaws and drills; returning teens mentored and imagined. Instructors say it’s about more than construction—it’s about showing young people their strength. And the whale’s just the latest. Girls Garage also builds free installations like garden beds and tiny homes for community orgs across the Bay. — Berkeleyside

Weird on purpose: The Fringe lives on

Theater veteran Christina Augello has been keeping San Francisco weird since 1983 — and at 77, she’s not slowing down. As founder of The Exit, she’s produced thousands of experimental, often chaotic, and occasionally brilliant shows in the Tenderloin. These days she’s down to just one stage, but her annual San Francisco Fringe Festival marches on from August 8–25, showcasing 15 original productions drawn by lottery.

Expect clown shows, pole acrobatics, spoken word, and a few total flops — because that’s the point. For Augello, creating space for small, strange stories is an act of resistance, and The Exit is still a place where something unforgettable might happen… even if you walk in expecting nothing at all. — Mission Local

Low-effort, high-reward trails near you

No need to trek too far from home for a great hike. This roundup highlights ten top user-rated easy trails, from San Francisco’s coastal Lands End and Oakland’s redwood-filled Redwood Regional Park to Marin’s Dipsea Loop and the peaceful Purisima Creek near Half Moon Bay.

Each trail offers something unique — whether it’s ocean views, towering trees, or quiet forest paths. Best of all, they’re all accessible for a casual stroll with plenty of payoff. — Chronicle

Opossum season in full swing

At Yggdrasil Urban Wildlife Rescue, it’s peak opossum season. The all-volunteer nonprofit, based in Oakland, is putting out the call for fosters — especially for babies who need care before they can be released back into the wild.

Volunteers should have backyard space for an outdoor enclosure, plus a little open-mindedness when it comes to these misunderstood marsupials. “They eat rats. They’re gardeners’ friends,” says founder Lila Travis. Between wildfires, fireworks, and summer disruption, the rescue often sees up to 60 opossums at a time, alongside a rotating cast of raccoons, squirrels, and hummingbirds. — KGO

Nordic heat, bay views

A new retreat in Richardson Bay blends Nordic tradition with Bay Area flair — Fjord, a pair of hand-built floating saunas, opens next month along Sausalito’s waterfront. Designed by Marin locals Alex Yenni and Gabe Turner, the twin cedar structures feature 190-degree Finnish-style heat and icy plunge decks—all bobbing gently in the bay.

Each sauna fits six people, with pre-sales now open for the unique “sea-spa” experience. Come for the detox, stay for the view. — Mill Valley Patch

A new Jane in town

SFMOMA is teaming up with local favorite Jane the Bakery to open Jane on Third, a new ground-floor cafe and brunch spot debuting this August. The menu promises fresh salads, quiche, sandwiches, and French toast — with indoor and outdoor seating available and no museum ticket required.

A new mural by Chelsea Ryoko Wong, known for her vibrant scenes of everyday joy, will welcome diners and museum-goers alike. — Secret San Francisco

Coffee, zines, and conversation on College Avenue

Opening this fall in a former Rockridge storefront in Oakland, Local Economy is part coffee shop, part general store, part community clubhouse. The brainchild of couple Alexis Madrigal, of KQED, and writer and editor Sarah Rich, the space will feature a Painted Leopard coffee cart up front, shelves of handmade goods by local makers, and a pair of 8-foot communal tables anchoring the room.

Events like zine workshops, food pop-ups, and author talks will unfold just steps from East Bay Booksellers. Inspired by La Peña and Womb House Books, Local Economy invites neighbors to co-create a shared antidote to Bay Area isolation — one conversation and one cup of coffee at a time. — Chronicle

Kitsch, castles, and light in San Luis Obispo County

Tide pools and sea lions by day, glowing hillsides and speakeasies by night — San Luis Obispo County (aka SLO CAL) has all the ingredients for an extended weekend destination.

Venture from the bubblegum pink fantasyland of the Madonna Inn to Pismo’s ocean bluffs, sip Edna Valley wines (maybe by sidecar), and wander Hearst Castle’s gilded halls before heading north to Paso Robles. There, a tapas dinner sets the stage for Sensorio, a surreal, 15-acre wonderland of light and sound best explored under the stars. — 7x7

Top image: Wayne Coyne and The Flaming Lips perform in support of the band's "At  War with the Mystics" release at the Greek Theater on July 22, 2006 in  Berkeley, California. (Photo by Tim Mosenfelder/Getty Images)

Previously: Field Notes: 'Black Spaces' at OCMA, East Bay Skyline Trail Hike, and Tenderloin Museum Turns 10

Field Notes highlights moments of connection, culture, and community across the Bay Area—from a new Peninsula trail network and thriving raptors to Japantown’s retail revival, a Mission escape room, Black history exhibits, and Oakland’s tribute to a cherished mentor.

654-acre Peninsula estate launches new trail network

Filoli, an historic 654-acre estate on unceded Ramaytush Ohlone land in Woodside, has launched a new trail network guided by six giant trolls by Danish artist Thomas Dambo. The whimsical Trolls: Save the Humans exhibit marks a shift from manicured gardens to wild spaces, inviting visitors to explore two miles of easy trails through redwoods, willow houses, and playful art. It’s part of Filoli’s effort to reconnect with the land’s deeper roots and invite broader public engagement through nature, history, and imagination. [7x7]

The raptors are alright

Pinnacles National Park’s 2025 nesting season is off to a strong start. Biologists are monitoring four peregrine falcon and nine prairie falcon territories, with most pairs actively nesting. Other raptors, including golden eagles, long-eared owls, and white-tailed kites, are also settling in. After years of concern—from DDT’s legacy to avian flu outbreaks—this “wonderfully normal” season is a welcome sign for the park’s recovering raptor population. [Pinnacles National Park]

Retail revival in Japantown

While downtown’s San Francisco Centre continues to shed tenants, Japantown’s Japan Center Mall and the Stonestown Galleria are thriving—thanks to a wave of Asian retailers, nostalgic collectibles, and student-friendly entertainment like arcades, escape rooms, and karaoke bars.

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With nearly full occupancy and rising foot traffic, both malls show how cultural relevance, safe neighborhoods, and suburban-style accessibility are reshaping the city’s retail future. [Chronicle]

Unlocking connection in the Mission

Lore, a new speakeasy-style escape room, opens June 12 in San Francisco’s Mission District, inviting guests into a whimsical world of puzzles, Vietnamese-inspired cocktails, and Mad Hatter–style tea parties.

Founder Vy Tran created the space as a response to the loneliness epidemic—and as a love letter to the city that made her dream possible. In an open letter on Lore’s website, she writes, “I hope you meet someone new and that you’ll plan new adventures together.”

In a recent Reddit post, Tran explains how she taught herself building codes, drafted her own architectural plans, and made 80 trips to the Department of Building Inspection to bring Lore to life. Her long-term vision is to expand it into a full underground universe of wonder and connection, according to the Chronicle.

Black history in the American West

Two major exhibitions are honoring Black history in California, offering a fuller, richer picture of the American West:

• Black Gold: Stories Untold at the Presidio, reframing the Gold Rush through Black resilience, entrepreneurship, and military service. [FOR-SITE]

• Routed West at BAMPFA, showcasing over 100 historic quilts from African American families who migrated to California. [BAMFA]

“Be Like Boomer”

Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee declared June 6 Dr. Marvin Boomer Jr. Day in honor of the beloved Castlemont High mentor and College and Career Pathways Coach who was killed in a hit-and-run last week.

At his memorial service, a student returned a stuffed bear she’d promised to give him when she graduated. His partner, Nina Woodruff, called him “Mr. Wonderful.” The city is urging everyone to carry his legacy forward. [KRON4]

Top image: Yinka Shonibare, CBE, Man Moving Up, 2022 at Black Gold: Stories Untold                          

Commentary surrounding the newly installed R-Evolution sculpture on Market Street brings to mind the heated battle over a Marilyn Monroe upskirt statue in Palm Springs. In both cases, many folks have wondered, “Who asked for this?”

As the dust settles from the installation of the new 45-foot-tall statue of a nude woman on Market Street, which is described as “empowering women," more and more people are starting to question, “Who asked for this thing?” While the city claims the massive sculpture will be a huge draw for tourists, opponents wonder whether those tourists will actually spend any significant money downtown. Most importantly, does it justify blocking views of the beloved Ferry Building?

In a recent post, KQED’s Sarah Hotchkiss notes that the statue doesn’t make sense outside the context of the Burningman playa. She also points out the large gender imbalance in public art (PDF) and argues that art isn't inherently feminist just because it depicts a woman:

R-Evolution, in a very old-fashioned way, is not a singular person, but a self-declared symbol of “divine feminine energy” — a giant nude sculpture of a woman made by a man. We should know by now that a depiction of a woman is not inherently feminist.

But when we give our public space over to third-party art agencies and privately funded artwork, maybe all we can expect is out-of-place aesthetics and half-baked messages of representation.

It all brings to mind a brilliant Slate article from last summer detailing the three-year battle over a 26-foot Marilyn Monroe upskirt statue that was installed in a prominent location in downtown Palm Springs in 2021. Some disgruntled residents argued that the statue blocked the iconic view along Museum Way approaching the town's modern art museum, and other opponents said it served as a “monument to misogyny.” Proponents claimed that the statue drew thousands of visitors downtown every month.

Fashion designer Trina Turk and real estate agent Chris Menrad raised funds to file a lawsuit demanding that the city move the statue somewhere less prominent. An agreement was made last July to move the statue to a park adjacent to the museum.

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As SFist commenters have suggested, perhaps Hayes Valley is a better fit for SF's 45-foot lady of steel.

Wednesday was the city of San Francisco's official Ruth Asawa Day, declared back in 1982 in honor of Asawa's work as an artist and advocate for arts education in the city. Asawa's advocacy is encapsulated in the artist's fanciful San Francisco Fountain, which turned 52 yesterday.

San Francisco Fountain, which is located near the Apple Store at Stockton and Post, consists of a bronze sculpture featuring bas-relief scenes of "whimsically interrelated" San Francisco landmarks. Much of the work included in the sculpture utilizes children's art from Alvarado Elementary School, which was crafted from baker's clay by Asawa's children and friends. Asawa's mother Haru Asawa created the leaves throughout the sculpture.

Although this author has walked by San Francisco Fountain dozens of times, we've always somehow overlooked the delightful vignettes enshrined in the sculpture. Viewing the piece on an overcast day helped with zooming in and photographing the fine details of the piece.

Additionally, tickets for SFMOMA's retrospective on Asawa, which launches in April, go on sale February 18 for members and March 11 for non-members.

Images: Leanne Maxwell/SFist

Brother to the famed local defense attorney Tony Serra, internationally renowned metal sculptor Richard Serra may be best known locally for sculptures so huge that they blocked traffic in SoMa, but he passed away Tuesday in New York from pneumonia.

You’re likely familiar with notorious SF defense attorney Tony Serra, who’s defended the likes of Raymond "Shrimp Boy" Chow and Ghost Ship defendant Derick Almena. You may not be aware that renowned large-scale metal sculptor Richard Serra is his brother.

While Richard Serra is a San Francisco native, his local legacy is probably best remembered because of a 214-ton COR-TEN steel sculpture Sequence displayed in the public lobby of SFMOMA that was so large it blocked traffic on Howard Street while being installed in 2015, as part of the SFMOMA’s reopening after a three-year closure.  

According to Bay Area News Group, Richard Serra died from pneumonia Tuesday at his Long Island, New York home. He was 85.

Serra’s New York Times obituary explains that he was born in San Francisco in 1938, quickly had a fascination with the SF shipyards where his father worked, and started working in steel mills at the age of 15. This would influence the use of large metal works in his sculptures. He would go on to study at UC Santa Barbara with the likes of Margaret Mead and Aldous Huxley, and switched his interest from painting to sculpture, becoming one of the first Post-Minimalist greats.

Serra would gain notoriety in 1981 for the above-pictured work Tilted Arc, a site-specific work designed for a federal building in Lower Manhattan. The notoriety came because the employees at the building absolutely hated it, and petitioned the General Services Administration to have it removed. Serra sued to keep it there, but lost, and in accordance with Serra’s wishes, it was not displayed again anywhere else.

Serra would go on to have two acclaimed retrospectives at the Museum of Modern Art in New York (in 1986 and 2007), and saw eight of his works permanently installed at the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain.

Following the temporary installation of Sequence at SFMOMA, it returned to the Stanford campus, where it sits outside the Cantor Arts Center. There is also a 60-foot-tall Serra piece titled Charlie Brown, owned by Gap founders Doris and Don Fisher, that stands in the atrium of Gap's Embarcadero headquarters.

You can also see a piece of Serra's permanently installed in the UCSF Mission Bay campus' east plaza, titled Ballast.

And SFMOMA houses a number of Serra sketches, paintings, and smaller metal pieces, like Floor Prop from 1969 — also part of the Doris and Donald Fisher Collection.

“Serra's work took abstract and invisible properties such as weight, balance, pressure, and gravity — all of which are traditionally associated with sculpture — and made them visible and visceral,” SFMOMA says in their bio page on Serra. “Examples of this practice include installations of thrown molten lead that use architectural corners as a mold, or metal plates and poles held in place by their own weight.”

The Times notes a representative story: A few years back, Serra was diagnosed with cancer in the tear duct of his left eye. Doctors recommended he have the eye removed. But as the Times notes, “Typically undaunted and determined not to compromise his vision or his work as an artist, Mr. Serra declined the surgery.”

Related: SFMOMA's Giant Richard Serra Sculpture Blocking Traffic On Howard Street [SFist]

Image: American sculptor Richard Serra at Museum Of Modern Art Sculpture Garden in New York with one of his sculptures on 17th April 2007. (Photo by David Corio/Redferns)

The installation of Japanese artist Hiroshi Sugimoto’s new sculpture "Point of Infinity” was completed this week on a hilltop on Yerba Buena Island, and it will act as a sundial so tall that the Federal Aviation Administration had to sign off on it.

You may be following the saga of the massive housing development projects on Treasure Island and Yerba Buena Island, which aspire to house as many as 20,000 people. And if you’re following that saga, you know that the developers are suing each other, which certainly clouds those projects’ near-term future.

But other entities are still proceeding with adding new infrastructure and attractions to try to make theses islands an eventual destination. And to that end, the New York Times reports today that a new 69-foot stainless steel sundial called "Point of Infinity” was installed there this week, a work by the sculptor, photographer, and multimedia artist Hiroshi Sugimoto.

"The infinity point, where two curved lines are supposed to meet, only exists in the human mind; it’s a creation of human consciousness,” Sugimoto told the Times. "I wished to make it reach all the way to infinity, but that’s technically impossible."

While the sculpture is on a hilltop on Yerba Buena Island, it was developed and commissioned under the Treasure Island Art Program run by the San Francisco Arts Commission. The commission pegs the cost of the work at a $2 million cost, its 29 sections were fabricated in Japan, and shipped to Oakland in eight different containers before the work was put together on Yerba Buena Island.

"Point of Infinity” acts as a sundial, though without hour markings, and the Times adds that “Sugimoto will place a granite marker on the ground to align with the shadow cast by the artwork at solar noon on days of the spring and fall equinox.”  According to Secret San Francisco, the base is 23 feet across, and the tip of the spire is just 21 millimeters across

The Times also points out that “A ring of white gravel surrounds the sculpture to prevent it from becoming a skateboarding ramp.”

The sundial is a reference to another sundial that had been built there for the 1939 World’s Fair event, the Golden Gate International Exposition. There are a few other remaining works of art from that fair on the Treasure Island side, like the one above.

We should note that while this work is largely completed, it will not be open to the public until at least the fall. But you can still see it. The Art Newspaper adds that it’s visible from several points in San Francisco and the Bay Bridge. That site also reports that curiously, the piece is so tall that it “required clearance from the Federal Aviation Administration."

And when "Point of Infinity” does open to the public, remember there’s a new I-80 off-ramp at Yerba Buena Island, though it only has bike access from the Oakland side.

Related: Ten Years After It Was Commissioned, 102-Foot Twisting Sculpture Installed at 4th Street Central Subway Station [SFist]

Image: SF Arts Commission

A dramatic, stainless steel tendril, seemingly growing out of the ground and reaching toward the sky, was just installed Sunday morning in the plaza outside Moscone Station, at Fourth and Clementina streets.

The piece, titled "Node," was, as the Chronicle notes, was raised into place in the Muni station plaza "without fanfare" early Sunday. The process began with its assembling from the four pieces it was shipped in some years ago. Artist Roxy Paine received this commission, worth $1.45 million, way back in 2013, and it didn't take all this time to make the piece — it's actually been finished and sitting in storage for a long while, waiting for the Central Subway to be complete and for the installation to be scheduled.

SFist reported on the commission in 2013, thinking at time we'd see it in real life, along with the damn Central Subway, by 2019. We all know how that went.

Paine was selected among 154 applicants at the time, with the funds for the piece coming from SF's 2% Art Enrichment Ordinance — which requires all big construction projects to set aside a piece of their budget for public artworks like this.

Paine describes "Node," which clocks in at eight tons, as an "enormous bio-industrial rhizomatic organism," and "an elegant line connecting earth to sky, people to underground systems and sculpture to city." A number of Paine's works in the last two decades have taken on these organic forms, in stainless steel — including this work of two tree-like forms reaching out to each other called "Conjoined," which is installed at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth.

As the Chronicle reports, Sunday's installation marks the breaking of a record: At 102 feet, "Node" is now the tallest sculpture in San Francisco, beating out "Venus," the 92-foot chrome figure at Trinity Place by artist Lawrence Argent, which isn't visible from the street.

The thing also appears to defy gravity, rising from a 48-inch diameter at the base to just a half-inch at the tip.

"It’s a way-finder and an amazing feat of fabrication,” says Dorka Keehn, former chair of the San Francisco Arts Commission’s visual arts committee — and one of those who selected Paine ten years ago — speaking to the Chronicle. “It’s going to be seen from everywhere.”

So, you have another reason to go check out SF's least-trafficked Muni station! It's on Fourth Street, across from the Children's Creativity Museum, next to the hotel formerly known as the Virgin Hotel, and now the Canopy by Hilton.

Previously: Dramatic Roxy Paine Sculpture Coming To 4th Street Central Subway Station

In honor of Juneteenth, local sculptor Dana King — whom Bay Area residents may recognize from her tenure as a new anchor at KPIX, which ended in 2012 — is unveiling a significant new sculpture installation at the Music Concourse in Golden Gate Park, titled "Monumental Reckoning."

SFist first learned about the piece last month, and it features 350 black rubber figures encircling the plinth that used to be home to a statue of Francis Scott Key. That statue was pulled down by protesters last year — Key, who wrote the "The Star-Spangled Banner," was a slave owner and anti-abolitionist, so... — and now King's piece will live there in recognition of "the original sin of slavery," as she says, for the next two years.

The faceless figures represent the 350 kidnapped Africans who sailed across the Atlantic in 1619 aboard the Spanish slave ship San Juan Bautista, the first slaves brought to the U.S.

Below, King gives a glimpse of the piece as of Friday morning, in an Instagram video. At 5 p.m. Friday, there will be a formal unveiling ceremony, co-hosted by Illuminate SF.

"The ancestors are Black, the plinth is white," King tells ABC 7. "The ancestors are going to stand there until their work is done."

Ralph Remington, director of cultural affairs for the San Francisco Arts Commission, which sponsored the piece, tells ABC 7 that the racial reckoning happening around the country is long overdue.

"It sends a message that it's a new day," Remington says. "People get to see for the first time maybe what it feels like when people who have been discriminated against, who have been persecuted and demonized and vilified get to pass judgment ourselves."

King says that the 350 figures have been overflowing out of her Oakland studio, and her team of all-female assistants have been working for months on completing the small army of figures — made with 35,000 feet of black rubber tubing.

King typically works in bronze, and creates sculptures that celebrate Black bodies — a decade ago SFist noted her penchant for penis sculptures, specifically, but she was still in art school at the time. In 2018, she completed several life-size bronze figures for the National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, Alabama, representing the women of the Montgomery Bus Boycott.

Tonight's event will feature opening remarks by Mayor London Breed, a processional and choir singing James Weldon Johnson's "Lift Every Voice," a "libation ceremony" to thank and bless our ancestors, African drummers, and a musical performance by Rebel Soul recording artist and member of the SF Jazz Collective, Martin Luther McCoy.

Admirers of the female form in Las Vegas, Nevada will have something new to ogle in "Bliss Dance," a 40-foot tall sculpture wrought from 3,000 feet of stainless steel cable by Marco Cochrane for Burning Man in 2010. The work, modeled on the Bay Area-based singer and dancer Deja Solis, was removed from its temporary home on Treasure Island in San Francisco Bay last May and has taken up residence at a new MGM Resorts complex, The Park, Las Vegas, on the west side of the town's famous Strip.

An MGM Resorts press release brought the news, reported on by the Chronicle and the website Vital Vegas, and installation began on February 29th. The giant lady is now complete, though the entertainment district doesn't officially cut the ribbon until April 4th.

Refurbished after years of harsh sea winds took their toll, the sculpture, weighing in at 7,500 pounds, is one in a series by Cochrane. Another can be found closer to San Francisco viewers at San Leandro BART. A third, showing a woman standing straight with palms out-turned, was shown on the playa last year.

“What I see missing in the world is an appreciation and respect for feminine energy and power that results when women are free and safe," said the artist. "It's obvious to me that feminine energy is being suppressed and that this must change." Keeping that energy going well into the night, Bliss Dance will be illuminated by 3,000 colored LED lights.

Related: 55-Foot Burning Man Sculpture To Arrive At San Leandro BART Station

It's officially been game on for the Van Ness Avenue Bus Rapid Transit project since 2013, when the plan to construct a separated-from-traffic set of lanes for Golden Gate Transit and Muni's 49 and 47 line buses from Lombard to Mission Streets got its final OK. But the BRT plan involves more than just buses! There's also a public art component for which the San Francisco Arts Commission is presently seeking public comment.

The SFAC's part of the BRT plan (all the details of which you can read on both the SFCTA and SFMTA sites) involves the commission of "a series of significant, museum caliber sculptures of the highest aesthetic quality for permanent [there seems to be a missing word here — installation, maybe?] along the Van Ness Bus Rapid Transit route."

After a national call for artists, Los Angeles-based sculptor Jorge Pardo was chosen to create "three large scale lighting sculptures" that will be at the ends of the BRT platforms at the Market, Sutter-Bush and Union Street Stations.

The 20-foot-tall artworks "will be fabricated from steel that will be illuminated from within," the Arts Commission says. You can see the renderings of the sculptures above, as they are expected to look in daylight (l) and after dark (r).

According to Pardo's artist's statement, “the work is an urban coastal redwood……it is made of steel, light and weather…..it is young not old….it comes out of the concrete…not the soil….it does not grow…..its purpose is to orient and remind ….maybe of the past….maybe the present…..it is an urban machine…" Oh, my goodness. Art!

Pardo's proposal is on view at SF's Main Library until September 28, and members of the community are encouraged to share their opinions on the proposed sculptures with the Commission before October 20 by email at zoe.taleporos@sfgov.org, or by postal mail or hand delivery to 25 Van Ness Avenue, Suite 345.

Interested members of the public may also attend the Visual Arts Committee meeting planned for 3 p.m. on October 21 at 401 Van Ness Avenue, Room 125 and voice their opinions on the "young not old" works during the public comment period.

[h/t Hoodline]

Ever since Diego Rivera first took a brush to our fair city's walls in the 1930s, San Francisco has served as a global hot spot for for outdoor public art. Here we take a stroll through the outdoor art gallery that is the City and County of San Francisco, highlighting what we at SFist consider our finest and most fabulous street art works. And if you feel this list has omissions, inaccuracies or criticisms that you would criticize, you know exactly what to do down in the Comments section.

(NOTE: For purposes of contemporary accuracy, this list does not include seasonal works, temporary installations, ephemeral graffiti or Banksy pieces. These may be covered in a future list.)

Women's Building mural detail, Photo: Joe Kukura

Photo: @lovingsfdotcom via Twitter

Photo: Ricardo Bernandes

Photo: Rick

Photo: DavityDave

Photo: Phil Whitehouse

Photo: Joe Kukura

Photo: Joe Kukura

Photo: Joe Kukura

Photo: kke27

Photo: Joe Kukura

Honorable Mentions: Duboce Bikeway Mural, Upper Playground’s Fifty24SF Art Gallery Exterior, The Precita Eyes building, the rainbow crosswalks in the Castro, the side of Beauty Bar, Duboce Bikeway Mural, The Diego Rivera Mural at City College, Bethany Center Building, and, of course, The Bay Lights which won't return until next year.