Drama, beauty and real life at the Asian

First, the happy result and the beautiful means:

The Asian Art Museum’s Art + Technology fundraiser, on Thursday, March 2, raised $1.65 million for the museum’s educational projects. Outside techno-drummers Gregangelo and Velocity Arts & Entertainment greeted guests. In a dramatically darkened tent, neon lights (by Got Light?) glowed, vibrantly colored spring flowers (by Miguel Torres of McCalls) were silhouetted in spotlights on the tabletops, five iLuminate dancers wearing black studded with radiant spots formed a moving light show. The effect was visually stunning.

But before sitting down to dinner, we walked through the “Tomb Treasures” exhibition, which — even avid partygoers will admit — is the heart of what the museum’s about. The artifacts displayed date back to the second century B.C.; they’re 2,200 years old. Brilliant curators had augmented some of the displays with relevant commentary from modern authorities on relevant subjects.

Next to a corner that contained a stone toilet, for example, was a comment from Doniece Sandoval, founder of Lava Mae, which repurposes school buses to provide hygiene facilities for the homeless. “It’s remarkable that 2,000 years ago, nobility of the Han dynasty enjoyed the pleasure of toilets and bathrooms that were considered a luxury,” read one sign, “and that even today, toilets are still an unattainable luxury for many . .... Hygiene should be a basic right.”

In many ways, museums are sanctuaries, but the curators’ linking the displays to modern life in San Francisco didn’t feel like an intrusion, even — and maybe especially — at such a glamorous event. Wrapped in a carefully planned swirl of color and light, mingling with all the ladies in ball gowns and gentlemen in black tie, the reminder of everyday realities fortified the link — at the core of a museum’s mission — between the present and the past.

P.S.: Doreen Ho, who was one of the principal forces behind last year’s San Francisco Opera premiere of Bright

Sheng’s “Dream of the Red Chamber,” said she was about to leave for Hong Kong, where the work will be performed on March 17 and 18 (it’s already sold out). She’ll be met there by Mayor Ed Lee, who managed to be there by appending Hong Kong to his already-planned itinerary to visit a sister city in Vietnam.

In China after those performances, the opera’s supporters are hoping to “introduce it to contacts in Beijing,” said Lee, in order to arrange performances in Beijing later in the year.

The work’s ending — not the ending in the original classic novel — is that the emperor punishes a family for its misdeeds by taking away its fortune. The message should be to the liking of the current Chinese government, which has declared itself anticorruption, said Ho. The opera will be performed in Asia in English, as it was written.

The Chronicle’s Janny Hu, summoned for jury duty to the Hall of Justice, was astonished to find herself in La La Land when the clerk read a list of names that included “Justin Bieber.” The name was said three times, because the person was late. At its mention, every person in the courtroom looked stunned and curious, gazing around the room and waiting for the celebrity.

But the name was spoken and not spelled. Perhaps the clerk was reading “Justin Beeber,” “Justin Beaver,” “Justin Beeper,” “Justin Beeva” or any such Justin-Bieber-ish name. The only thing we know for sure is that whoever bears the sound-alike name — finally, a man in his late 20s showed up — had a much better life before the famous one turned up with the same handle.

On Friday, Feb. 24, reader Greta Gordon emailed that the “upper parking lot at the Legion of Honor is a mass of glass from car break-ins.” I ricocheted between the Richmond District Police Station, police headquarters and the federal Park Police in an effort to pin down who was responsible for the area. Finally, after a a do-si-do, a San Francisco police officer said that the mass of glass was probably the accumulation of many days’ crimes. There are break-ins every day, he said.

But a Fine Arts Museums rep confirms that there were multiple incidents that night. The museums have asked the Police Department to increase patrols. Near Seal Rock, where there have been similar problems, surveillance cameras were installed about a year ago.