SFist interviews artist Misako Inaoka...

While the pairing seems unlikely (despite San Francisco being the "Paris of the West"), the Legion of Honor has received the, uh, honor of hosting the Marie-Antoinette exhibit. The show specifically focuses on Petit Trianon—Marie-Antoinette's personal retreat in Versailles—as well as the life and times of the lady herself. Paintings, furniture and anything else not bolted down in her house have been flown over here for display while the "cottage" (ahem) is being renovated.......

Yesterday, Mayor Newsom signed into action the Tommy Ammiano-introduced legislation that requires the city to handout ID cards to undocumented immigrants and other residents who either can't or just won't apply for driver's licenses. The good news is that these IDs will help (formerly) undocumented residents gain access to the wonderful world of banking, a sense of peace before calling the fuzz, as well as "health services at city-run clinics, public library privileges, and resident discounts at museums and other cultural institutions." (Entry fee discounts at the Exploratorium: the American dream realized.) ...

Londonist got the big scoop of the week with what may be the first images of notorious street artist Banksy in action. They also got on a runaway train without an operator provoking a response from the transport authorities. Elsewhere, London's answer to Central Station is about to open for business, and Londonist got a sneak preview. Meanwhile, spooky goings-on beneath London Bridge, where a cache of skeletons provided an apt story for Hallowe'en.......

View Larger Map Talented local designer and fiber artist, Leslie Yang of Feisty Elle, created a Google Map marking favorite local crafty spots, from boutiques that sell handmade wares to yarn and art supply stores to craft museums. Email her at Leslie at feistyelle dot com if you want to add to her list. And be sure to check out Leslie's beautiful selection of accessories available for sale on her website. Leslie is also a......

What happens when nearly 30 local artists create works of art made entirely from reclaimed and recycled materials? Head over tonight (or sometime this month) to find out at the Market Street Gallery for ReArt: The Art of Reuse. till 5pm, 1554 Market Street,SF. More art for the month of June - local artist David Benzler had been all over the thriving Mission district art scene for the last several years. His latest work......

It's a short Swells this week! Total number of people pictured in this week's Swells society column: 85. Number of people pictured whom we recognize: 2: Dede Wilsey and Frank Jordan. Minority count: 13 (15.3%). Includes three food servers. Getty v. Traina: 0-1. Where's Gavin this week? We know he loves a party! Museums featured in this week's column: 3: the Museum of the African Diaspora, the Legion of Honor, and the Cal Academy of......

This isn't just tonight -- it's for all month -- but it's so cool we're making it the pick of the day! Bank of America customers, you can flash your ATM card or credit card and you and a guest get into a bunch of local museums for free, free, free! (Wells Fargo card holders, you'll have to pay not only admission but also a $2.50 service charge. Kidding, kidding.) Offer applies to the SFMOMA,......

Peace in our times! Bikers and car drivers, with the help of none other than the Honorable Gavin Newsom, have worked out a permanent solution to the Golden Gate Park Healthy Saturdays impasse. We know, we're totally amazed too -- next, the mayor's office will say they've worked it all out between the Shias and the Sunnis; Lindsay Lohan and Hilary Duff; and Pat Murphy and Chris Daly. We're nominating Gavin for a Nobel peace......

We know that by its nature, this topic will invite enthusiastic commenting. Please behave yourselves, remember our commenting policy, and for crying out loud, don't act stupid. In two weeks, Healthy Saturday comes on a Monday! April 9, City Hall, 1pm: those party animals on the Land Use and Economic Development Committee will be throwing a sure-to-be-fun public hearing about a six-month study on opening up more of Golden Gate Park to pedestrians on the......

It looks like there might be peace in our time as a deal is in the works over the whole Healthy Saturdays thing. Apparently, city officials are trying to work out a compromise between fans of the plan and supporters of the Dede Wilsey Shrine to Her Wilsey-ness. No details have emerged yet, but apparently Gavin has been meeting with both sides to figure something out. ...

Spring appears to have, er, sprung, at least temporarily, in most of the Ist-A-Verse, so naturally, we're all feeling pretty good. (Yes, we know that spring doesn't officially start till later this month. Just let us enjoy our weather!) And that makes us that much more eager to share all of the nifty things we're up to... ...

In light of the new study coming out saying that the closure of JFK boulevard on Sundays doesn't hurt attendance at any of the fancy new museums in Golden Gate Park, supporters of the Healthy Saturdays initiative gathered to renew the fight. In a press conference yesterday, Jake McG said he was going to reintroduce the measure to close the park on Saturday for a six month trial run. ...

Let's take you back on the Wayback Machine to last spring when the Board of Supervisors wanted to close down Kennedy Drive like it is on Sunday. They voted for it, Gavin vetoed it, then sought a compromise on the issue by asking for a study. The study was to see if closing the street down on Saturday's would hurt museums attendance, make life miserable for neighbors, and make it more difficult for people to get to the museums. Well, on Valentine's Day, the report came out and said the effect of closing down Kennedy Drive on everything would be pretty much nothing. In fact, it said that attendance went up on Sundays. How you like them apples? ...

Sulky, sulky -- Gavin Newsom was sober and mad after yesterday's Board of Supervisors inaugural ceremony, which the Chronicle tactfully described as having a "tone of political contentiousness running just beneath a veneer of polite ceremony." In reading the summary of the meeting, though, we're not seeing much of a veneer of anything -- unless Chris Daly was smiling extreeeeemely magnanimously as he went through "San Francisco's version of apartheid" (economic disparity in District......

You may want to metaphorically brace yourself under a solid table (and not in a doorjamb, for crying out loud!) -- 2006 is not only the year of the Congressional midterm elections, but also the 100th anniversary of the Great San Francisco Quake and Fire (April 18, 1906). (Dude, they had orders to shoot to kill looters back then! Gavin better not try any of that!) To kick off the centennial, two local art museums are now featuring 1906 earthquake themed shows -- the SF MOMA is featuring historic photographs of the disaster, along with (starting in March) films from the Library of Congress of the quake itself, and panel discussions about the commemoration of disasters through photography. Meanwhile, the Legion of Honor is sponsoring the show "After the Ruins: Rephotographing the San Francisco Quake And Fire," where photographer Mark Klett has visited sites of famous 1906 photographs and reshot them as they are today: so there's shots of Union Square, the Presidio, Dolores Park, and (as seen above) the Ferry Building, then and now. And before you ask -- yes, both the SFMOMA and the Legion of Honor are seismically sound. Composite photograph of Ferry Building from 1906 and 2006 from the Legion of Honor website ...

Saturday, January 28, marks the 20th anniversary of the space shuttle Challenger's explosion. SFist can't help but think of the ill-fated tenth mission every time we pass Onizuka Air Force Station down in Sunnyvale. We're not the only space groupies with the anniversary on our minds: the Chabot Space & Science Center in Oakland will feature a special memorial presentation all day, and screen the movie To Be an Astronaut at 11:30 am and......

Doesn't anyone in the 415 want a Keith Haring mural? A local SoMA day care center for underprivileged youth puts its Keith Haring mural on the block, with no local takers. Back in 1985, artist Keith Haring painted (for free) a funky, 77 foot mural along the wall of the gym of the South of Market Child Care Center. He painted it in one day, while in town for another project down the street at......

Saturday: We're heading over to Oakland's Parkway Theater for the midnight Rocky Horror Picture Show & Live Stage Show. The movie plays on the big screen, and the cast from Barely Legal performs it on stage. It's a multi-media extravaganza! Sunday: We're borrowing a kid, and hitting as many attractions as we can for San Francisco Family Appreciation Day. Between 11 a.m. and 4 p.m., any San Francisco based family with a child under......

Childless curmudgeons, gnash your teeth in anger over another way in which society prefers folks with kids over you! Gavin Newsom and the San Francisco Dept. of Children, Youth, and Families are sponsoring Family Appreciation Day this Sunday, January 8. Various museums and other local attractions are flinging open the door and child-proofing all their power outlets at places like the Asian Art Museum, SBC Park (which will be sponsoring free tours), Coit Tower (who's going to let you take the elevator for free), the zoo, the Exploratorium, and about a bazillion other places too. Those of you who live for First Tuesdays, you may want to borrow your friends' kids for the afternoon -- and those of you who hate those ankle-biters, you might want to check the list too, to figure out where you won't be this weekend. Kids must be between 0 and 18, and adult supervisors must bring proof of San Francisco residency. The rules also state that grown-ups must accompany children at all times. We now have a vision of wailing abandoned toddlers in the front foyer of the Asian Art Museum as the adults dash off into the Chinese painting galleries! ...

We have no interest in giving up our traditional drink, get drunk, fall down, eat a bag of potato chips New Year's Eve celebration, but we would like to augment our revelry with something a bit more substantial. Our friends at the Asian Art Museum have two New Year's-related activities sure to cut through the fog of vodka, lipstick, and annoying horns. Tomorrow from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. they're having their 20th Annual......

What a friend we have in Wednesdays! Today: You've always wanted to be in movies, we can totally tell. Well, stop by the DeYoung and get interviewed by film artist Lise Swenson about the new museum. Swenson's putting together a multimedia installation about citizens' perspectives on art museums as civic institutions. Interviews run from 1 to 5, and her documentary screens at 1:30 and 2:30. You've always wanted to be shown in museums! Thursday: Stop by the SF Zoo at 11 a.m. and watch them feed the turkeys -- before you go home and let your friends and relatives feed the turkeys to you. Bourbon red turkey Ben and his adoring throng of lady turkeys will be dining on mealworms and crickets. While you're there, stop by and check out the new reindeer too. Friday: Throw out that free MUNI transfer to Powell Street and spend the day after Thanksgiving at Artists Television Access celebrating Buy Nothing Day. ATA's showing anti-consumerist films and parody ads, along with art installations, spoken word, and musical performances by The Middleclass Assassins and I will kill you f***er. Show starts at 8. The crowds at H&M are gonna be nuts anyways. ...

We have mixed emotions about Diane B. "Dede" Wilsey's pet cause, the new M. H. de Young Memorial Museum building. For years the antics surrounding that concourse -- museums moving, buildings being torn down, garages built -- have provided pages and pages of entertainment in the local press. More recently, the unfinished structure loomed darkly over John F. Kennedy drive like an aircraft carrier that somehow made it inland from Ocean Beach (and we're......

Well, it's come to this. Remember the brouhaha over docking the USS Iowa at Fisherman's Wharf? It was DiFi's idea to send $3 million worth of pork our way. Nevermind pacifist sentiment, the Navy's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy and the fact that floating military museums are a money-losing proposition -- everybody and their mother got on the Supes' case about turning the offer down. So of course The Daily Show sent out cub......

Meet Dick. Dick is the congressman from Tracy. Dick is the powerful head of the House Resource Committee. He loves the environment. Dick, you see, as head of the House Resource Committee, is in charge of the committee overseeing the care of our environment. Things like poor endangered Fairy Shrimp or some of our national parks and coastlines. Lately, Dick has been getting into the news a lot over new environmental rules he's trying to establish. Like allowing off-shore drilling (no scientific evidence that drilling hurts the environment). Or selling off naming rights to several national parks and slapping ads on park vehicles (the budget has to be cut somehow, you know). Or telling fellow committee members that no wilderness proposal would be considered unless it allows for some sort of "mechanized access." ...

Starting tonight and running until September 27 in SF venues including El Rio, Artist's Television Access, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, with two additional programs at Berkeley's Pacific Film Archive, Oct 6 and 13 MadCat is where it's at this week and next. MadCat is the self-described "highly acclaimed international festival that exhibits independent and experimental films and videos directed by women from around the globe. The Festival emphasizes work that is inventive......

Sneaking in at the very end of Cinco de Mayo, we want to remind you about the Mexican Museum. It's their 30th anniversary this year and they're also gearing up to begin construction on a new, permanent, fancy home in Yerba Buena. Much of their current fundraising goes towards their capital campaign for this new building and they're approaching the $34 they'll need. Housed now at Fort Mason, the museum features more than 12,000......

Ah, the inevitable holiday travel. What's an SFist to do but write somethin' anyway? Well, hey, man -- they got coffee in Boston too. Does the concept of a drive-thru window for your morning coffee sound odd? Not so odd in Beantown. It's an interesting juxtaposition. The Boston and San Francisco areas have many similarities -- they are both port cities with prominent Italian neighborhoods, politics that trend toward the liberal, and a bevy of......

Thomas Hawk, local San Francisco photo/blogger, posted an interesting essay on his experiences taking pictures at different private cultural venues around town. EssEffist found the link on Boing Boing, which often covers issues related to freedom of speech, expression, media and fair use....