Bay Area mind-set and local discounts
No matter that we’re not in the Super Bowl; let’s hear it for the home team. The Chronicle’s Native Son, Carl Nolte, insists that contrary to rumors of extinction, “both Mark Farrell and London Breed are native San Franciscans. So now the governor, the lieutenant governor, the mayor of San Francisco, the president of the Board of Supes, and the senior senator from California are native San Franciscans. Kamala Harris, the junior senator, is a native of Oakland. I don’t think this aggregation of native Bay Area people has happened before.”
P.S. Fourth-generation San Franciscan John Dobleman suggests that the city establish a special Clipper Card for native San Franciscans, allowing them to ride the cable cars for the prices they first paid. In Dobleman’s case, that would be 10 cents. “I would gladly give up my senior discount,” he says.
Among Dobleman’s other ideas: “While crossing the Bay Bridge on Friday night on the way to the ballet, I envisioned San Francisco’s next tourist attraction: A zipline running from the top of the Salesforce Tower to the Transamerica Pyramid to Coit Tower down to Pier 39. I’m sure a few permits might be required.”
(Wait a minute, Mr. Dobleman: If you were on the Bay Bridge on your way to the ballet, does that indicate you’re not living on this side of the bay now? Really, do you think a discount should be given to those who have fled to the East?)
Says Strange de Jim: “Personally, I found the improvement in service while the government was shut down to be negligible.” Analyzing that is too much for my own mind, but it may give you something to chew over for a day or two.
Vicki Van-Hanson saw the sign in a front yard in El Cerrito: “White Lies Matter.”
According to a report on MSN this week, “As of March, Delta (Air Lines) will not allow exotic emotional support animals including ferrets, insects, spiders, goats or animals with tusks or hooves to fly.” The hooved can put on slippers, the insects can tuck themselves away in aspirin bottles, but who’s going to defend the tusked? Not everyone’s parents can afford orthodontia.
The Headlands Center for the Arts announced this week that it has awarded sponsored residential fellowships to 54 artists from around the world. Among those on the list are Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, a queer Muslim performance artist who lives in San Francisco, London photographer Hannah Collins and dancer/choreographer/writer Simone Forti of Los Angeles, “who, at 82, will use her residency to begin a new creative chapter while continuing to archive past work,” says the release about the awards.
Forti is the oldest artist in Headlands History to be awarded a residency. She lived in San Francisco for four years in the mid-’50s, when she studied with the legendary Anna Halprin. And on Tuesday, Jan. 30, at the Caldwell Snyder Gallery in San Francisco, tribute was paid to Robert Sockolov, whose paintings — the first of which was made in 1956 — were being sold to benefit the Institute on Aging.
Sockolov, well into his 80s, is the embodiment of the Institute’s philosophy, as expressed by its president, J. Thomas Briody, at the event: “Age on and have fun!”
Most of his professional life, the artist — not only a painter, but also a composer and lyricist — presided over Rochester Big & Tall, a business founded by the family of his wife, Audrey. At the same time, he has been involved in all kinds of charitable pursuits. As a longtime board member of the Institute, he has been an indefatigable fundraiser for its facility on Geary Boulevard. His decision to benefit the Institute by selling his paintings — mostly landscapes — was encouraged by his daughter-in-law Susan
Snyder, a partner in the Caldwell-Snyder Gallery.
The Sockolovs are also part owners of the Giants, and can be seen at almost every game, stalwart fans greeted by more than a few players stepping into the batter’s box with winks and nods of acknowledgment. Orlando Cepeda and son Ali Cepeda were at the art opening.
The Sockolovs have lots of friends and the party was crowded. Family members were beaming at each other; there were lots of red dots on the paintings. “Thank you,” said Audrey Sockolov to organizers of the event, “for selecting this date and giving us the opportunity to miss the State of the Union speech.”
PUBLIC EAVESDROPPING “My friend became bisexual so she could put it on her college application.”
Teen girl overheard by The Chronicle’s Steven Boyle