Hotels for art lovers

by Anna Brones on

Last time I went to San Francisco I was happy to come across Hotel des Arts, a well-priced boutique hotel. I am normally a hostel-goer, so anytime I can branch out and have my own room it’s cause for celebration. Despite Hotel des Arts being an actual hotel, I was even more excited about its use of art as interior design. The hotel hired a San Francisco gallery owner, John Doffing, to curate the hotel and he brought in work by every type of artist from graffiti taggers to professional illustrators. The end product is a hotel full of color and life, and a look into the local San Francisco art scene, all without even leaving the hotel doors; I was hooked.

Budget Travel just published their own list of Art Hotels; places to stay where you can rest assured that your room won’t be painted in white. On the list:

Hotel des Arts, San Francisco
The Winston, Amsterdam
Art Luise Kunsthotel, Berlin
Daddy Long Legs, Cape Town
Hotel Fox, Copenhagen

To read descriptions of these and other hotels and their artistic rooms and settings go here. You might be so inspired you won’t even make it to the surrounding museums.

Photo of the day (02/25/08)

by Martha Edwards on

One of the gems from Willy Volk’s fisheye photography collections for your viewing pleasure. This one, “From the Gold Dust,” was taken in San Francisco last month. I like the gold-ish tint, very apropos!

Because everything here is pretty much in focus, it is safe to assume that Willy came to this watering hole for research purposes only.

***To have your photo considered for the Gadling Photo of the Day, go over to the Gadling Flickr site and post it.***

San Francisco’s Chinatown

by Jamie Rhein on

Willy’s photo from San Francisco’s Chinatown, enticed me to head to Chinatown’s Web site. It’s Chinese New Year after all and I’m feeling nostalgic for things Chinese. The attractions page of the Web site has photos of the various historic buildings of significance. One, Sing Chong Building was one of the first ones built after the California earthquake of 1908 1906.

Another link leads to street signs and another to descriptions of Chinatown’s various alleys. Ross Alley, the oldest in San Francisco used to be where to go to find prostitutes and try your luck at gambling. Now you can tour the Golden Gate Fortune Cookie Factory and see murals of every day life in Chinatown.

The thing I like about this Web site is that it presents an overview of Chinatown’s history and cultural significance in a way that seems as if when you go there, you’ll know what your are looking at. The events page lists a healthy dose of things to do through March. In case you’re thinking that the best of Chinese New Year passed this last weekend, think again. The Chinese New Year Parade is February 23. The Chinese Culture Spring Fair also happens on the same day and the day after. There’s also a Chinese New Year Treasure Hunt and a Chinese New Year Cruise. How great to have a holiday that lasts for days.

Alcatraz torn down to make way for peace center?

by Catherine Bodry on

If you still haven’t made it to San Francisco’s second-most-popular attraction (the first is cable cars), you might want to start planning that vacation before long. It’s possible that Alcatraz, that formidable white structure hunkered out in San Francisco Bay, might be converted into an international peace center, if voters so choose.

Reuters reports that a proposition (on ballots Tuesday) comes from the director of the California-based Global Peace Foundation, who gives his name as “Da Vid.” Da Vid and his supporters would like to tear the prison down and in its place erect “a medicine wheel, a labyrinth and a conference center for non-violent conflict resolution.”

Although the idea sounds pretty far-fetched, Da Vid and volunteers were able to collect the 10,350 signatures needed to put the proposition on the ballot.
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In the Old Mission, single speeds are in

by Grant Martin on

One interesting product of the hipster culture that’s grown in San Francisco is the abundance of single speed bicycles. It’s become a trend in the last few years and I’ve even got a good friend in Ann Arbor who converts old junkers to single speeds in his free time. In addition to being lighter and simpler, the bicycles are easier to handle and will age better – something that comes in handy in older models. The formula works pretty well in the Midwest, where we have only a few gentle hills and scarcely a reason to shift gears.

I wonder how well it works out West though. With so many hills rolling through the Bay Area is it really feasible to run a single speed through the city streets? Do people have to buckle down, jump off their bicycles and walk up the hills? From an engineer’s perspective that doesn’t strike me as very efficient.

Perhaps me and my vintage ten speed are old fashioned, or perhaps my bandy legs are too scrawny to pump up all of those San Francisco hills. In a way though, I kind of enjoy the subculture of single speed riders floating through the streets. It gives the Old Mission a unique flavor that is unreproducible in any other corner of the world.

So if you’re in the Bay Area any time soon, take some time to swing by the Old Mission for some tacos and single speed education. In addition to myriad activities in the district, the hipster nation and people watching is an afternoon in and of itself. You can take the BART to the 16th or 24th street Mission stops just north of the airport.