Umbrella Tea House

Posted on November 23, 2021 by admin

I went out ’round midnight last night to put the car in the driveway. When I finished, I got out of the car and looked up, and there he was, bright as could be: Orion. Winter is here. Been cold much of this month anyway. Off in the distance, an owl woo-woo’d softly.

Back again on November 28. A good Thanksgiving to all, and don’t forget to be up at 4 a.m. on the day after for all those doorbuster sales. I plan to be asleep then, though I might be up to go to the bathroom.

The name of the place we visited recently, according to the sign over the door, is the Umbrella Tea House. That made me wonder: what was the place where Winston Smith hung out at the end of 1984, ahead of his eventual vaporization? The post-Ministry of Love Winston Smith, that is, who loved Big Brother.

That’s the kind of thing I might wonder. I didn’t even have to find my paper copy of the book to find out.

“The Chestnut Tree was almost empty. A ray of sunlight slanting through a window fell on dusty table-tops. It was the lonely hour of fifteen. A tinny music trickled from the telescreens. Winston sat in his usual corner, gazing into an empty glass.”

So I might call the Umbrella Tea House the Chestnut Tree, just for a bit of dark humor that no one would understand unless I explained it. Orwell might have gotten Big Brother and doublethink and maybe even memory hole into the common lexicon, but not the Chestnut Tree.

Umbrella Tea House, which is in a retail strip near the Schaumburg Township District Library, is anything but dark. It’s a bright place.

It has all sorts of interesting features, such as a tip pig, and — not sure how to characterize the second image.

Naturally, umbrellas figure in the décor. Up on the ceiling.

A pleasant place to occasionally drink fancy tea, which we did.

Waterfall Glen Forest Preserve

Posted on November 22, 2021 by admin

Been a distinctly winterish November this year, except that trees seem to have held their leaves a little longer than in recent years. But there have been a handful of warmish hours, such as on Saturday in the afternoon.

We made our way to Waterfall Glen Forest Preserve, south of where I used to live, but only by a few miles, and walked a while.

Nice description of the place on the Forest Preserve of DuPage County’s web site:
“The 2,503-acre Waterfall Glen Forest Preserve in Darien is one of the most ecologically impressive parcels of open space in the Forest Preserve District of DuPage County, if not northern Illinois. It is also one of the District’s most popular forest preserves, known for its Rocky Glen waterfall, Sawmill Creek bluff overlook, and extensive trails.

“Waterfall Glen offers gently rolling to hilly terrain with 11 miles of trails popular with hikers, bicyclists, horseback riders and cross-country skiers. It also offers fishing and an orienteering course, model airplane field and youth group campground.”

Had an autumnal moment or two along the trails.

Last year was a year of forest preserves. Didn’t keep up the pace this year. Rather, it turned out to be a year of vistas, for which I always try to be glad.

Kabuki

Posted on November 21, 2021 by admin

The cover of a 12-page program, from among the debris of previous years. Such items accumulate if you let them, and we do, to remind ourselves of previous years.

Except I can’t say I have anything more than a vague memory of attending the Year-End Grand Kabuki Kaomise show in November 1993. There were actors in wildly colorful costumes and makeup, pursuing their exaggerated movements, as you’d expect. The dialect, Yuriko said, was sometimes hard for her to understand. I only picked up a word here and there sometimes.

“Kabuki theatre has been the most popular indigenous theatre form in Japan since the late 17th century,” explains the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin (of all places). “Accompanied by music, the all-male group of actors perform a rich combination of dialogue, song and dance that even encompasses acrobatics, action-packed heroic tales, tragic love stories and burlesque comedies.

“By the 19th century, the best-loved actors and scenes from the most successful plays had quickly become part of an elaborate marketing system that was in part fueled by the proliferation of affordable woodcut prints which drew on the cult status of the stars they depicted.

“One of the high points in the theatre calendar was the wave of premières marking the season’s opening, held annually in the eleventh month of the moon [sic] calendar, during which it was customary for a theatre’s entire ensemble to present a play to the fans. This event is known as ‘kaomise,’ which literally means ‘the showing of faces’ and took its name from the fact that all stars employed for the coming season presented themselves to the public.”

I’d say the Japanese have seen a vast expansion of entertainment forms since the 19th century, just like everyone else, rendering kabuki a niche interest. I’m glad I went, but never felt the urge to go again.

Miscellany Thursday

Posted on November 18, 2021 by admin

Been a cold November so far, especially late last week, except for a few hours on Saturday afternoon. So I took a walk at the Chicago Athenaeum International Sculpture Park that day. It’s pretty much the same as ever, though of course a sculpture was added in 2019.

There’s still a side path through the woods.

As well as along water destined for the Mississippi.

That same day, I went to the Sears at the Woodfield Mall. It was about to close for good; it did so a few days later. So my stroll was through mostly vacant retail space, the ghost of a once-vast enterprise.

But not quite empty.

It was the last Sears in Illinois, the state formerly home to the Sears Tower. A retailer ending with a whimper.

I didn’t buy a rug. I will say that my lawn mower before the current one, a Craftsman, was a Sears acquisition.

Even further back is the cast iron table on our deck, purchased ca. 2003 at a Sears. Looks as solid as the day we got it, so like my cast-iron frying pan — bought ca. 1983 at a Nashville grocery store, not a Sears purchase — the table will certainly outlast me.

I was glad to see that Barbara’s Bookstore, a metro Chicago chain, has opened in the mall. I don’t go to the mall a lot, so I’m not sure when. The Barbara’s branch I remember best was the store in the lower level of the Sears Tower, which I visited sometimes ca. 2000-05 (gone now).

Up with the times, Barbara is, with a twist on the old retail warning.

Most everyone in the mall was masked. Otherwise, everything was about the same as any recent year. The crowds were thick, and I’m sure they’ll get thicker still as the days progress toward Christmas.

I interviewed a British retail expert not long ago, and she happened to mention the prospects of Black Friday retail sales this year in the UK. I’d heard before that is now part of British retailing, and I told her I thought that was funny.

“What’s the special occasion?” I said. “The fourth Friday in November?”

She chuckled. Like Japanese merchants importing Valentine’s Day, their British counterparts have imported Black Friday — and come to think of it, American merchants are doing their best to expand Día de Muertos in the United States. About a month ago, I saw a Día de Muertos-themed box of Pop-Tarts in a mainstream grocery store.

We also discussed American Halloween, which she said the British have taken to as well. I hope not to the detriment of Guy Fawkes Day, I said. Some customs have faded, she answered, such as a penny for the guy, but there are still bonfires.

Good. We see no reason/ why gunpowder treason/ should ever be forgot….

The Presidio

Posted on November 17, 2021 by admin

From Crissy Field on San Francisco Bay, a convenient walking path leads to one of the formal entrances of the Presidio, on Girard Road, and some nearby green space.

Actually Crissy Field is part of the 1,491-acre former fort, which is part of Golden Gate National Recreation Area and sprawls across the northwestern part of the San Francisco Peninsula. These days, the Presidio includes many former military structures, museums, restaurants, lodging, recreational spots, art installations, trails and lawns, but also residential and commercial properties, including Lucasfilms headquarters.

Too much to see, even in a series of days. Still, I saw a fine slice. I spent most of the afternoon of October 30 at the Presidio, taking a look at some of the large stock of former military properties.

A former band barracks.

I didn’t know that band members ever had their own barracks, but apparently they did at the Presidio. The building could accommodate 37 musical soldiers.

“The Presidio of San Francisco represents one of the finest collections of military architecture in the country and reflects over 200 years of development under three different nations,” says the NPS.

“Today, the Presidio boasts more than 790 buildings, of which 473 are historic and contribute to the Presidio’s status as a National Historic Landmark District. The building types range from elegant officers’ quarters and barracks to large, industrial warehouses, administrative headquarters, air hangars, major medical facilities, and stables.”

Who says the military isn’t concerned with aesthetics in its buildings? Was concerned, anyway.

The Main Parade Ground.

Food was available.

I had some excellent Korean food from the Bobcha food truck. It seemed like a better bet than Viva Vegan, at least to my tastes. Had a nice view while eating, too. I was at the next table down.

Not far from the parade ground is San Francisco National Cemetery.

A picturesque hillside cemetery with towering trees.

At about 28 acres, there are more than 30,000 service members interred there. It was the first national cemetery on the West Coast.

A memorial to an incident that doesn’t have that many memorials: the Boxer Rebellion.

In this case, memorializing four marines from the USS Oregon who died on the Tartar Wall defending the Legations in the summer of 1900.

As I sometimes do, I picked out an ordinary soldier to look up later.

Motor Machinist Mate First Class (MOMMI) Clayton Lloyd Landon of St. Louis, a submariner who went down with the USS Tullibee in 1944. It seems that the vessel was a victim of one of its own torpedoes, as happened sometimes.

Gunner’s Mate C.W. Kuykendall, on watch up top at the time, was the only survivor of the Tullibee sinking, having been knocked into the water by the explosion and later picked up by a Japanese ship, to spend the rest of the war as a POW. Remarkably, he tells his story in a recent video.

“I just feel like I’m lucky.” Well put.

The Misty Golden Gate & Crissy Field

Posted on November 16, 2021 by admin

After leaving the Palace of Fine Arts, I made my way to the shore of San Francisco Bay. It isn’t very far.

It was a foggy moment, though most of it burned off as the afternoon progressed. In the foreground, the St. Francis Yacht Club. Off in the distance, Alcatraz.

If I’d had another day, I might have taken a tour of Alcatraz, if tours are running again. We took a boat around the Bay in ’73, a splendid excursion I remember even now, which went past the island, and under both the Golden Gate and the San Francisco-Oakland Bay bridges. No tours went to Alcatraz at that time, in the aftermath of the AIM occupation, and I didn’t bother in 1990.

In the other direction, the Golden Gate itself, looking a mite foggy.

I walked along the Crissy Field beaches and marsh.

It’s hard to imagine now, but Crissy Field is an important place in the history of aviation. There are a few visible reminders, such as this plaque.

Up closer.

I didn’t know about Lincoln Beachey, but I do now. A flying daredevil among daredevils. He had his moment of fame until he came crashing down, quite literally, during the Panama-Pacific International Exposition.

An oddity: the last lines of the plaque.

Dedicated on Lincoln Beachey Day 1998
March 16, CY 6003, by Yerba Buena No. 1
Ancient and Honorable Order of E Clampsus Vitus

That is a fraternal order I was unaware of. Travel is broadening, isn’t it? All kinds of useless information out there, just waiting for the taking.

The org claims — not too seriously, since its whole point seems to be not too serious — a founding year of 4005 BC, meaning 1998 would be 6,003 years since then. CY = Clampus Year?

Apparently Clampers are fond of installing plaques, something we can all get behind. If Wiki is to be believed, 1930s members of the order also were possibly — probably? — behind the forgery known as Drake’s Plate of Brass. I think I read about the plate in one of those pre-Internet, true-life mystery-and-enigma books we had around the house when I was a lad, along with the likes of the Oak Island mystery, and hadn’t thought about it since.

The Palace of Fine Arts

Posted on November 15, 2021 by admin

Back in March 1990, I spent a few days in San Francisco before flying to Japan for the first time. On one of those days, which was warm and clear, I took a bus across the Golden Gate Bridge in the direction of Sausalito. I got off at some point and walked back across the bridge.

That’s a recipe for a peak experience, and sure enough, it was. A land-water view with few equals that I know. Then I pressed on, along the water’s edge, and walked back to Fisherman’s Wharf. For some distance, a narrow waterside trail was all that was open. Though the Presidio was on its way out as a military installation, at the time it was still under the jurisdiction of the Army and closed to casual walkers.

Eventually I passed through San Francisco’s Marina District. A lot of buildings were boarded up in that neighborhood, with visible damage from the earthquake the previous year.

Back to 2021. When I arrived at the Palace of Fine Arts in the Marina District on October 30, I asked myself: how did I miss spotting it on my walk all those years ago? The Palace isn’t that far from where I walked, but I’m sure I didn’t see it. I would have remembered. Maybe I was too occupied with looking out at the water.

Well, never mind. Under gray and drizzly skies, I saw it this time.

Chicago had its World’s Columbian Exposition. Somewhat later (1915) San Francisco held the Panama-Pacific Exposition, and the Palace is (in effect) a surviving structure from that world’s fair, a design by California architect Bernand Maybeck.

“The vast fair, which covered over 600 acres and stretched along two and a half miles of water front property, highlighted San Francisco’s grandeur and celebrated a great American achievement: the successful completion of the Panama Canal,” notes the NPS.

“Between February and December 1915, over 18 million people visited the fair; strolling down wide boulevards, attending scientific and educational presentations, ‘travelling’ to international pavilions and enjoying thrilling displays of sports, racing, music and art.”

It’s a survivor from the fair, but not exactly in its original form, which wasn’t built to last. Like the Parthenon in Nashville, also a relic from a fair, the Palace was completely rebuilt later (in the 1960s and ’70s), and a seismic retrofit was finished in 2009. Hope it stands a lot longer.

The Asian Art Museum, San Francisco

Posted on November 10, 2021 by admin

I saw Oakland City Hall during my recent Bay Area visit, so I thought it only reasonable that I see 1915-vintage San Francisco City Hall as well. I already knew it is doozy, designed by Arthur Brown Jr. to replace one damaged in 1906.

So on the morning of October 30, I made my way to the building, which looks as grand as any U.S. state capitol, and more than some.

It even inspires selfies.

Unfortunately, it was closed on a Saturday morning.

Facing away from City Hall.

According to an old and pitted plaque in the ground, this public space is officially the Joseph L. Alioto Performing Arts Piazza. Wonder if anyone actually calls it that. Google Maps calls it Civic Center Plaza.

Across Larkin St. from the plaza is a tent city, behind a fence on four sides. There is good aerial view of it at this New York Post article (why that paper cares, I couldn’t say). It’s a city-sponsored experiment in dealing with pandemic-era homelessness.

From the ground, only a small part is visible.

I hadn’t come this way just to see City Hall or the nearby tent city. Rather, I was killing time before the opening of the Asian Art Museum, which faces City Hall.

The museum’s subhead — that’s what I’m going to call it — is the Chong-Moon Lee Center for Asian Art and Culture, reflecting the fact that the businessman of that name gave $15 million to museum to seed its relocation from space shared with the de Young Museum to its current location, in the former SF Main Library.

The building, designed by George W. Kelham, was completed in 1917 to replace one destroyed — you guessed it — by the 1906 earthquake. It in turn was damaged in 1989, and replaced by a new main library not far away. Seismic activity is just a fact of remaking the city, it seems.

These are slightly embarrassing times for the Asian Art Museum. Turns out the wealthy businessman whose collection was the basis for its splendid collection — Avery Brundage — reportedly had Nazi sympathies or at least anti-Semitic tendencies and (something much better documented) was on the wrong side of history in 1968 when, as IOC president, he had Tommie Smith and John Carlos kicked out the Olympics for their Black Power Salute. Oops.

For his retro-gressions, the museum removed a bust of Brundage from the foyer of the building last year. It has not, I noticed, removed the acknowledgements with each piece of art that came from the Brundage collection. Give it time.

What a collection it is. A small sample:

Greek-inspired art from the Indus River Valley, 2nd century CE. I’d heard of that, but don’t remember seeing any examples.

Thai, 11th century CE.

A detail of those monkeys.

Indian, 13th century CE.

Burmese, 15th century CE.

Chinese, 18th century CE.

Korean, 18th century CE.

Japanese, 21st century CE.

All together, the museum has more than 18,000 works in its permanent collection, with more than 2,000 items on display at any given time, variously from South Asia, Iran and Central Asia, Southeast Asia, the Himalayas, China, Korea and Japan.

The galleries mostly obscure whatever remains of the original interior —

— but I noticed an unlocked door that took me to this space, which is also used as a gallery, though not a readily visible one.

Wow. The museum shouldn’t hide this space away.

Up Russian Hill & Back Down Again

Posted on November 9, 2021 by admin

What to do on a warm afternoon in San Francisco? On October 29, after leaving the Ferry Building, I spent some time wandering around downtown, which isn’t famed in song and story. It is, on the other hand, much larger than I remembered. Then again, the nine-county Bay Area metro population is about 7.75 million these days, and downtown SF is the main one for the region. Add metro San Jose and it’s even more.

I wasn’t particularly systematic in my downtown walkabout, or I might have sought out Salesforce Tower, for instance. Here’s 101 California St. instead. A Philip Johnson and John Burgee design from 1982.

Bank of America Center (555 California), completed in 1969.

An older structure in the shadow of BoA, nicely restored.

I couldn’t very well miss a shot of the Transamerica Pyramid, albeit at some distance.

Designed by the unapologetic modernist architect William Pereira, the building was spanking new when my family and I visited San Francisco in 1973, and I regarded it with some fascination at the time. Still do.

I later took the streetcar along the Embarcadero to Fisherman’s Wharf, another place of fond recollections. As tourists, we went there in 1973 and ate at one of the restaurants — Jay had the squid — and in 1990, I stayed a few days at the Fisherman’s Wharf Holiday Inn.

Good to see that the place still attracts people. The sign at Jefferson and Taylor Sts. would have also been fairly new the first time I saw it, since it dates from 1968. It was featured during the jazz montage intro to The Streets of San Francisco, as I recall.

But I didn’t want to spend much time there in 2021, so I decided to climb Russian Hill. Specifically to reach the famed crooked stretch of Lombard St.

That I did. At my age, it wasn’t a steady walk, but walks followed by rests along the way.

Lombard St. attracts tourists too. I understand it’s even busier in the summer.

The scene at the bottom of the famed section, on Leavenworth St., which crosses Lombard at that point.

“The switchbacks design, first suggested by property owner Carl Henry and built in 1922, was intended to reduce the hill’s natural 27 percent grade, which was too steep for most vehicles to climb,” Wiki says.

“As it is one of the most visited tourist attractions in the city, this section of the neighborhood is frequently crowded with tourists. Tourists also frequent the cable car line along Hyde Street, which is lined with many restaurants and shops.”

The switchback street itself is paved in brick.

The rest of the slope is heavily landscaped, with stairs on either side of the switchback.

The road might have been created to help vehicles climb the grade, but in our time Lombard is one way on this block — going down.

I stood watching for a while, and noticed that every other car or so that went down Lombard had someone in the passenger seat taking a video with their phone. So if you are a tourist with a car in SF, this is clearly a thing to do. The city wanted to make tourists pay for the experience, but Gov. Newson said no.

At the top of the block is Hyde St.

A cable car line runs along the street. It stopped at the intersection and people got out.

I didn’t ride any cable cars this time. I did so in ’73 and ’90, but more importantly, it now costs $8. Sure, it’s an expensive system to maintain, but all transit is subsidized — including the roads themselves. Just another example of gouging tourists.

One thing San Francisco cannot charge tourists for are the views, though perhaps some mid-level functionary is working on figuring out how to. The view from Lombard and Hyde, looking over at Telegraph Hill, is wonderful. And free.

I walked down Hyde St. toward the Embarcadero. The view from just over Russian Hill Park is pretty good as well. Been a good year for vistas, I’d say.

More good views closer to the shore, at Aquatic Park.

Down on Beach St., I chanced into this space.

Umbrella Alley. Besides featuring the umbrella installation and murals, the place is the starting point for such sightseeing as guided Segway tours, Jeep tours, electric scooter tours, and Lucky Tuk Tuk Private Group Tours. All very well, but after making a small donation for the art project, I continued on foot.

Across to San Francisco

Posted on November 8, 2021 by admin

On October 29, I slept late, and wanted a late breakfast when I finally got up. As luck would have it, there’s an excellent diner on Broadway in Oakland not far from Jack London Square. Buttercup, the place is called. I was headed that direction anyway, to catch a ferry to San Francisco, so I stopped in. Had some good pancakes there.

I traveled between Oakland and San Francisco more than once during my recent visit, each time but one taking a BART train, which is quite convenient. But on that Friday, I wanted to take the ferry to SF. The day was clear and warm, just right for a quick trip across the Bay.

Got a good view of downtown Oakland from the back of the ferry.

Along with a look at the port of Oakland and its infrastructure.

Interestingly, BART is above ground after it crosses over to western Oakland, so you can see the port — the same vast array of towers and containers — from the land as well.

Fairly close to the end of the run, the ferry passes under the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge.

In the tourist imagination, it’s the neglected cousin of the Golden Gate Bridge, dating from the 1930s as well. Tourist shops still sell postcards near Fisherman’s Wharf, and I had an opportunity to look at some of their racks. The Golden Gate Bridge is a common image, maybe the most common for cards of San Francisco. The Bay Bridge? Very few.

What the bridge needs is a little color. Painting the entire thing a new color would probably be cost prohibitive, but what about painting the central anchor between the two spans of the western section of the bridge (between Yerba Buena Is. and downtown San Francisco)? Or maybe hiring some big-deal artist to put a highly visible work on it. The anchor is pretty dowdy as it is.

Also, name the bridge after the Emperor Norton. After all, in a series of far-sighted decrees in the late 19th century, Norton I ordered that a bridge be built in that very spot.

The first such decree, in 1872:

Whereas, we observe that certain newspapers are agitating the project of bridging the Bay; and whereas, we are desirous of connecting the cities of San Francisco and Oakland by such means; now, therefore, we, Norton I, Dei gratia Emperor… order that the bridge be built from Oakland Point to Telegraph Hill, via Goat Island [Yerba Buena].

There were three such proclamations.

A naming hasn’t happened yet, but the good people of the Emperor Norton Trust are working on it.

The ferry takes you to the Ferry Building, fittingly enough, along the Embarcadero, with its handsome clocktower, a late 19th-century design (but after Norton’s time) by A. Page Brown. The clocktower is reportedly patterned after the 12th-century Giralda bell tower in Seville, Spain.

The Ferry Building interior is also handsome, sporting a large food hall, the creation of an early 21st-century restoration of the building. Unfortunately, my pancake brunch meant I had no appetite to try anything there.

“Opening in 1898, the Ferry Building became the transportation focal point for anyone arriving by train,” the building’s web site says.

“From the Gold Rush until the 1930s, arrival by ferryboat became the only way travelers and commuters – except those coming from the Peninsula – could reach the city. Passengers off the boats passed through an elegant two-story public area with repeating interior arches and overhead skylights. At its peak, as many as 50,000 people a day commuted by ferry.”

For years, the Embarcadero Freeway obscured the view of the building. No wonder I didn’t remember seeing it before. Why did anyone think building a freeway in front of this building and part of the Embarcadero was a good idea? Well, Nature took care of that bad idea in 1989.

Been There, Seen That

By Dees Stribling

Category Archives: Been There