Volume 143, Issue #1
HOWARD'S MASSIVE GRANITE KILLER WHALES MIGRATE TO OCEAN CAMPUS EDITOR
To any unsuspecting passerby, the newest addition to Ocean Campus’ prestigious art collection might appear to be so much construction site debris. On the outskirts of the campus, surrounded by a hastily erected chain-link fence, covered in a blue plastic tarp, and in dire need of restoration, Robert Howard’s Killer Whale’s. Make no mistake; the arrival of the whales is quite the cause for celebration among the college’s art community. The mammoth granite art- deco sea mammals are from the same era (1920’s and 30’s) and community of artist as many of City College’s most prized pieces of art. Julia Bergman, Chair of the Works of Art Committee said, “I just about feel over in my chair at the idea of the Whales coming to our campus.” “The legacy of art at City College of San Francisco is important, and that’s largely thanks to the work of Timothy Pflueger”, Bergman said of the architect of the Science Building, and South Gym. “His teams always included many artists, and his buildings are very notable for the integration of art into the structure itself.” “Diamond” Dave Whitaker, the associated student’s vice president of Cultural Affairs, fondly remember Howard’s Whales from their former home at the Academy of Sciences in Golden Gate Park. He was present when the sculptures were lowered into their temporary home. “It took me back 20 years, to when my kids were young, they’re in there 30’s now, and we used to walk around in the park and they’d see the sculpture and they’d lie down and crawl around in it and so forth. Thousands of people from around the world and in San Francisco saw that. It was an important place,” Whitaker said. In the move from the Academy of Sciences to the warehouse, the Whales suffered significant damage at the hands of a furniture moving team-- better equipped to handle a piano than a work of art. The Works of Art committee commissioned Atthow, a moving company specializing in works of art, in order to get it to Ocean campus in one piece and to build a protective infrastructure to secure them from further damage said Bergman. Tobin Kendricks, associate director of facilities planning and construction, recently acquired the domain name www.whalesatcitycollege.org, in order to raise the funds necessary for the restoration of Howard’s sculpture. The idea behind the website is to publicize the need for funds to restore and install the sculpture at the Ocean Avenue Campus,” said Kendricks. “A lot of people associate "The Whales" with growing up in SF and visiting the Cal Academy. I have casually met many people who love the whales and want to contribute to their preservation, so the site would make it easy for them to do so.” Howard sculpted the Whales for Pflueger’s “Art in Action” in the Golden Gate International Exposition 1939-1940 at San Francisco building on Treasure Island. Howard’s 13- foot-tall sculpture was surrounded by works of art from such celebrated artist as Beniamino Bufano, Diego Rivera, Sargent Johnson, Dudley Carter and Fred Omstead, explained Bergman. In finding a home at City College, Howard’s sculptures sculpture is once again in the company of the artist who contributed to the exhibition for which it was created. In some cases, most notably the Diego Rivera mural, the works were created for the same exhibition and survived to tell the tale. When the exposition closed, much of the art met an untimely end. “The thing about these fairs is that most of the art that goes into them are ephemeral,” said Will Maynez, a member of City’s Works of Art Committee. “When the fair is over they would topple them.” The Whales were saved from that grim fate by the San Francisco Arts Commission, who put the sculpture in storage, where it remained until 1958. It was then that the Whales were put on center stage, in the midst of a fountain in front of the San Francisco Academy of Science in Golden Gate Park, said Maynez. When the voters of San Francisco passed a bond measure to build a new Academy of Sciences, members of the administration elected not to keep “The Whales.” A furniture moving company was called upon to transport them to a warehouse for storage. When the San Francisco Arts Commission, who owned the sculpture contacted City’s Works of Art Committee, they got the chance to re-emerge. Where Howard’s Whales will surface is a question the Works of Art Committee is now discussing. There is talk of installing them in front of the Plueger’s Science art deco influenced science building, in the spot where Beniamino Bufano’s “St. Francis of the Guns” now stands. There is also talk of integrating the sculpture into a fountain again. “Along Phelan in front of Science would be a good place.” said Patricia Arack of the Works of Art Committee, “Or in courtyard of a new building. As a fountain it would be spectacular, but may invite mischief. If it were a fountain, it should be in a secure location. They are great-looking, playful, and full of energy.” e-mail:eskow@theguardsman.com
STATE YOUR FASHION CITY COLLEGE
Sporting a black leather jacket from a Brooklyn thrift store, Leila Noorani just moved back to San Francisco, from a six month stint in New York to finish her art degree. Noorani's the type to psend 10 minutes or less to dress in the morning, so being back on the laid back streets of San Francisco is a relief to the 42-year-old students. "In San Francisco it's more of a layered look and you can be more casual," Noorani said. "I wore this shirt for color, and then threw my jacket on over it, then a random pair of hiking boots. I have about six pairs of shoes here in SF, and a few boxes in storage." When asked about the bag she had slung low on her shoulder, she replied smiling, "I stole it from my girlfriend."
e-mail:news@theguardsman.com
"THE BLACK PARADE"
The boys of the alt rock band, My Chemical Romance truly out did themselves on their third album. The new album titled “The Black Parade” harkens back to a time when the rock gods Queen ruled the world of rock and filled arenas by the thousands. Yes, the album is grand in its scope but My Chemical Romance pulls off the new sound by reinventing themselves. The band donned the persona of the Black Parade, a mixture of Goth and band geek all rolled up into one. The reason why the album works is because My Chemical Romance takes it all seriously. Every aspect of the sound and the look means something; they know their audience and they gave them something they could relate to. The only way I could have liked the album any more was if I was in high school again. Rating: 4/5 - Desmond Miller
"THE DEPARTED"
Scorsese scores again with "The Departed", a perfectly-cast cop and mobster rat-hunt starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, and Jack Nicholson. This may sound like business as usual for Scorsese; not so. This film is a departure from the director's usual pleasing-but predictable style. The two main characters have more depth than one might expect from a film of this ilk. Rather than presenting us with two-dimensional cut-outs, Scorsese uses crafty editing to add layers of information, allowing the characters to take shape slowly. More like this one, please. Rating: 4/5 - Elizabeth Skow
"JUSTICE SOCIETY OF AMERCA #1"
Justice Society of America #1, from DC Comics, is a pretty good place for any new comic book reader to start. It is a book with a long history and great characters. One would think that because of the long history it would be hard to understand what is going on. This is both true and false. The writer of the book Geoff Johns knows the history of these characters and is able to bring the reader up to speed about everything while introducing new characters. The main theme of the book is family. Every hero in the book has a lineage and John explores the relations between father and son, brother and sister, mother and daughter. It is for this reason that the reader can get a richer experience from this comic, because they can relate. Rating: 5/5 - Desmond Miller
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