Free Things to Do in San Francisco

There’s going to be a docent lecture and slide show at the Sunset library branch on the current de Young Museum show Asian | American | Modern Art: Shifting Currents, 1900 - 1970. I saw the show recently and enjoyed it very much. It was filled with thought-provoking art, almost all of it unfamiliar, and it was exciting to see so much new (to me) work.

Where and When: Downstairs at the Sunset branch library, Irving and 18th Avenue. Monday, January 5, 7:00 - 8:00 pm.

Logistics: The Sunset library, which was renovated in 2007, has a new program room. It’s nice, but small, so if you want to be sure to get a good seat, you might want to get there a bit early. Parking may be difficult.

For more information on the Asian | American | Modern show, see the exhibit’s website. The show ends on January 18.

The library’s website is here.

Totally free? The library lecture and slide show are free, but not the show at the de Young.

The temporary ice skating rink in Union Square, originally scheduled to close after January 4, 2009, will be staying open until January 19. (Not free to skate, but free — and mesmerizing — to watch.)

Here’s one that is new to me, that I read about in the Chronicle:

The San Francisco Chamber Orchestra, which puts on free concerts year round, is presenting “Leading Ladies,” a performance of Handel, Mozart, Valerie Coleman, Gershwin, and Haydn.

What:

From the Orchestra’s web site:

The mission of the San Francisco Chamber Orchestra is to bring the immediacy and intimacy of music for small orchestra and chamber ensemble to audiences of all ages by presenting classical, contemporary, and commissioned works as well as to educate and enlighten the next generation of music lovers through outreach programs.

When and Where: Monday, December 29, 2008, at 7 PM, with a pre-concert talk at 6:30, at the Herbst Theater, 401 Van Ness Avenue.

Totally free? Yes, although priority seating is given to members, and in the past, this particular concert, their most popular of the year, has “sold out.” It sounds as if it is the New Year’s Eve performance (in Berkeley) that is the most crowded, though, and that you will be able to get into this one in SF if you get there early.

For more info: Leading Ladies, SF Chamber Orchestra

1. Take a walk on the beach. This is a surprisingly popular thing to do, at least when it’s not raining. Some people get festive, decorating themselves and/or their dogs with bits of tinsel, Santa hats, etc. Plus, it’s always fun to tell your relatives in colder climates that you went to the beach on Christmas. (Just don’t tell them that you had to bundle up!)

2. Take a walk in Golden Gate Park. The Botanical Gardens will be open on Christmas from 10 to 5. It will be probably be very quiet in the gardens, and you can pretend that you are way out in the country, instead of a block away from a main drag.

3. Go the the new Contemporary Jewish Museum. They will be open 11 am - 4 pm, and admission will be free for the day (until 3:00). There are a couple of wonderful exhibits there that are closing soon, so this is a great time to see them. It will probably be crowded and lively.

4. Take a stroll around the neighborhood(s) of your choice. Even familiar places will look different on Christmas, when the streets are peaceful and quiet.

In honor of the San Francisco Zoo’s baby gorilla, I’d like to point you to a blog I found, while surfing around, that posts pictures of baby animals from zoos around the world:

Zoo borns

Awww!

Who do you think is cuter — our own (still unnamed) baby gorilla or baby gorilla Dayo from the Artis Zoo in Amsterdam?

Remember, admission to the San Francisco Zoo is free, for city residents, on the first Wednesday of every month.

Also, coming up on Sunday, January 11, the zoo will be free for San Francisco families (adults must be accompanied by a child or children under 18). This is part of something called Family Appreciation Day, sponsored by the Mayor. It’s a huge event with free admission to 32 attractions, which I’ll be posting about in more detail later.

The de Young is showing two movies this month as a tie-in with its show on the fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent. The movies - The Pink Panther and the French film Vivre pour vivre — both feature costumes designed by St. Laurent.

What and when
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The Pink Panther is the famous 1963 movie starring Peter Sellers as the bumbling Inspector Clouseau. Rember the music? Da dum … da dum … da dum da dum da dum da dum, da dum dumdumdumdumdumdum.

It will be showing on Saturday, December 20, from 2:00 to 4:00 in the Koret Auditorium downstairs. Free, with no museum admission required.

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Vivre por vivre is a 1967 French film starring Yves Montand and Candice Bergen and directed by Claude Lelouch, best known as the director of A Man and a Woman.

It will be showing Saturday, December 27 at 2:00 - 4:00, also in the Koret Auditorium.
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Really free? Yes, the movies are absolutely free. But if you also want to see the museum’s related exhibited on St. Laurent, that has an admission fee.

There are other free things that you can always do at the de Young. You can go up in the tower, and have a 360 degree view of the Bay Area — highly recommended! You can go into the sculpture garden. The cafe and the gift shop also don’t require a museum entrance fee. In fact, the only thing in the museum that requires an entrance fee is admission to the art galleries themselves. The museum was designed to be open in that way in order to function as an extension of the surrounding park.

For more information: Events related to the St. Laurent show at the de Young.

If you’ve been reading or watching the news, you’ve heard about the baby gorilla at the S.F. zoo who had to find a surrogate mother. Here he is …. with a stuffed toy gorilla. Awwww. That picture is from the zoo, and they have lots more of him drinking from his bottle, and cuddling with his toy and with his human friends.

I don’t know if the baby gorilla will be anyplace where the public can see him soon, but there are plenty of other things to do at the zoo. And in keeping with the theme of this blog, yes, there is a way to get into the zoo for free — at least for San Francisco residents, who get free admission on the first Wednesday of every month.

Where and When: The zoo is on Sloat Boulevard by the Great Highway (right near the beach). You can take the L Taraval Muni Metro, or if you drive, park in their lot ($8/day) or for free on the street. Free admission days for S.F. residents are the first Wednesday of every month, 10 to 5. Bring proof of residency (driver’s license, ID card, or local bill sent to your house) for the free days or for a resident’s discount on all other days. The zoo has tradtionally been open every day of the year, but this year it will be closed on Christmas (presumably because of the memory of the, um, unpleasantness last Christmas).

Speaking of which, just this week, one of the Dhaliwal brothers who had been attacked by the tiger pleaded guilty to public intoxication and resisting arrest, and was setenced to 10 days in jail. The other brother had already been sentenced to 16 months in prison for his misdeeds. The brothers’ lawsuit against the Zoo is still pending, and the parents of Carlos Sousa Jr, the boy who was killed, plan to sue the City this month.

Zoo visitors today don’t have to worry, because the tiger cage has been massively reinforced. Not that it’s possible to ever completely stop idiots from trying to tempt fate — as was demonstrated a few days ago, when someone actually climbed into the rhino cage!

For more info on visiting the zoo: See their website.

City Guides, a group partially sponsored by the SF Library, offers an amazing variety of free tours of the city. Tours are led by volunteers who are history buffs, many of them retired or current teachers. There are tours every day of the week, year-round (except for holidays) — as many as 15 different tours a day. Two months a year, in May and October, they offer additional special tours.

I’ve gone on the tours for Land’s End, the Palace Hotel, Nob Hill, Golden Gate Heights Stairways, and Sutro Forest, as well as the Halloween ghost walks at City Hall and the Palace, so if you have any questions about any of those, feel free to ask.

Cost? Free, but they do pass an envelope for voluntary donations.

Comfort level? Most tours last an hour-and-a-half to two hours and go at a slow pace, with a lot of stops to look at and discuss the sights. The few tours that are more strenous are identified as such in the schedule.

More information: You can find all the information you need on the City Guides website. You can also pick up a printed brochure at any library branch.

I haven’t been to the San Francisco Conservatory of Music’s new building, but it looks absolutely stunning.

The music school, which is the oldest major independent music conservatory on the West Coast, offers frequent concerts for the public.

There are two free events this weekend:

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What: The Conservatory Chorus, a student group, will perform the Christmas portion of Handel’s Messiah, and carols and lullabies by Conrad Susa, a faculty member

When and Where: Friday, December 12, 8:00 PM. Concert Hall, SF Conservatory of Music, 50 Oak Street (right off Market and Van Ness).

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What: Opera workshop students will present three one-act operas.

When and Where: Sunday afternoon, December 14, 2:00 PM, same location

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For more information: See the Conservatory’s website.

Macy’s always has the best holiday windows in San Francisco. They’re beautifully decorated and contain real live kittens …

… and puppies.

When and where: Macy’s, Stockton and O’Farrell, through New Year’s Day.

Cost? Free to watch for as long as you like (though the SPCA volunteers will be happy to accept donations). $60 - $225 to adopt one of the animals and take it home with you.

For more information: See the SPCA website, which has a live webcam of the Macy’s windows and information on volunteering.

And while you’re in the area, stop by Union Square to watch the ice skaters in the temporary rink (it will be there through January 4).

Photos (c) 2008 Ms Terri