The home team sends reports from Europe

Meanwhile, in line at Whole Foods Market on Ocean Avenue, Mike Pavini overheard one young woman say to another, “They shot their victims with Baryshnikovs.”

In serious response, San Francisco Director of Cultural Affairs Tom DeCaigny and San Francisco Travel Executive Veep Howard Pickett were in London last week for the fourth World Cities Culture Summit, hosted by the mayor of London. Organizers called the event, which included reps from 31 cities, “a cultural Davos, a high-level exchange of world cities who see culture as important as finance, business and politics.”

The first session began with a moment of silence for last week’s attacks in Paris, Mayor of London Boris Johnson noting, “Whilst we make the case for economic impact of culture and creativity, last Friday’s horrific attacks in Paris, including on significant cultural venues like the Bataclan concert hall, strengthen our belief in their importance to the life and success of our cities.”

P.S.: A team of folks from Obscura Digital, which created the light show at City Hall for the U.S. Conference of Mayors earlier this year, were at the reception mentioned below. They said they’d been working on projects all over the world, including the Empire State Building and UNESCO headquarters in Paris, where they created an installation for a celebration Nov. 16 of the 70th anniversary of UNESCO. That was three days before the terrorist attacks, of course, and they worked all weekend to insert “peace language” into the presentation.

On the occasion of the 100th birthday of City Hall, I traipsed over there the other night for the reception that preceded a showing of documentarian Jim Yager’s new film “People’s Palace” (which was made with KQED, and will be shown on that station Tuesday, Nov. 24, at 7:30 p.m. and Wednesday, Nov. 25, at 1:30 a.m.). The film’s images of the ornate structure are magnificent; the rhetoric about its symbolism is soaring.

I was there for the reception, not the public screening (I saw the film separately). But contributing producer Peter Stein reports that “the audience of several hundred, watching the film projected under the very dome of the building whose history and construction are celebrated in the film, found it hard to keep their eyes on the screen. Their gaze kept drifting upwards to the amazing architecture surrounding them.”

And this San Francisco. So no one seemed to notice any philosophical gap between the movie’s closing statement (“San Francisco City Hall symbolizes the ultimate in democracy. It is, in fact, a people’s palace”), which was delivered with slow, dramatic emphasis by Willie Brown, under whose auspices City Hall was restored post-Loma Prieta; and the same mayor’s statement in the movie, when discussing his role in and advocacy for the most complete restoration of the building: “I am the law.”

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie left his calling card, embossed with a seal from “the great state of New Jersey” at La Corneta in San Carlos on Thursday, Nov. 19. Christie and entourage showed up mid-afternoon that day, with no prior warning. “There were a whole bunch of guys,” said owner Joel Campos, and Christie worked the room. He was “very nice,” staffers told Campos, talked to other customers, ordered food and seemed to be “in a very good mood.”

And more discussion from NextDoor: “I have a little less than half a 10-oz. bag of taco blend cheese that expires tomorrow, if anyone can use it tonight,” said a neighbor in central San Francisco. “Gross,” wrote one respondent. “Not because it’s ‘expired,’ but because it’s the most cruel animal product on earth.” Other respondents offered three tortillas and sour cream. Hit the deck for the leftover availability list on Black Friday.

Is this a sponsorship first? Gary Meyer noticed that the list of media sponsors for the recent New Italian Cinema minifestival included KQED, SF Weekly, San Francisco Examiner and SF Evergreen, which describes itself as “San Francisco’s only print publication focused on cannabis and marijuana news and culture.”

Today’s drought tip: Washing one’s bed linens uses a lot of water, and so does laundering one’s clothes. Turn those two chores into one by dressing yourself — in fashionable toga or sari style — in the top sheet.