Hanukkah begins Nov. 28 and continues until the evening of Dec. 6. Here s what you need to know about the holiday, and how to celebrate it in S.F. and beyond.
In defense of Pier 39. May it rise after the pandemic kitschier than ever
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Richard Nixon. The Zodiac Killer. The Embarcadero Freeway. The Oil Crisis. The Bee Gees.
Nothing
else from the 1970s got worse reviews in the pages of The San Francisco Chronicle than Pier 39. The waterfront tourist center, upon its arrival in 1978, the greatest existential crisis in the city’s history larger than an earthquake and fire that destroyed half of San Francisco in 1906. (For all its horrors, no one compared the earthquake to prostitution.)
“Tourism kills, believe me,” columnist Charles McCabe wrote unironically on Nov. 20, 1978. “My objection is that the City Fathers (and a mother or two) have caved in wholly before the idea of tourism, which I happened to think is the worst thing that has happened to San Francisco. … These strangers tend to treat these amenities with much the same regard as a john pays to a whore.”
Joshua Kosman January 6, 2021Updated: January 7, 2021, 3:56 pm
Helgi Tomasson has served as artistic director and principal choreographer for the San Francisco Ballet since 1985. Photo: Brant Ward, The Chronicle
Helgi Tomasson will step down as artistic director and principal choreographer of the San Francisco Ballet by June 2022, the company announced Wednesday, Jan. 6. The move will put the seal on nearly four decades of artistic leadership that has helped propel the ballet company to the forefront of the dance world.
Since being named to the position in 1985, Tomasson, 78, has been hailed for his success at combining excellence in the classical ballet repertoire with a spirit of artistic innovation and the development of new work. Tomasson alone has created more than 50 dances for the company, as well as commissioning work from a wide range of contemporary masters and developing artists. Meanwhile, the technical level of execution on display at the War Memorial Ope