Celebrating One Year Within The Darkness

"Many years ago, I adopted the name of 'The Shadow'. It is now here that I now reveal myself to the world."

One year ago today, The Shadow made this pronouncement and this blog came into being.

The Shadow has seen the darkness and now welcomes it. It enables us to travel and comment on various matters of state.

Within the past year this blog has made its mark on the world. Within the past year, over 2,000 people have visited this blog from several countries around the world. Many people have left comments, have linked to this blog, or have sent various entries to others. The Shadow welcomes all to his blog.

Over the past year, several things come to mind:

• This blog was one of the few that stayed on top of the Jill Carroll kidnapping and release from beginning to end. The Shadow was very happy that this situation came to a successful conclusion and, although The Shadow has never met Miss Carroll, he feels that this blog did play a small role in her release and subsequent defense of two controversial videos that she made.
• Several artists have been featured on this blog over the past year. The Shadow would especially like to give his personal thanks to the staff of ARTworkSF for allowing us to come in and blog all of their shows. There are also several artists to thanks but they are too numerous to name.
• The Shadow has reported on many of the evils that has lurked in the hearts of men. Some examples: Bill O'Reilly's stupid comment and insult to the government and people of San Francisco, PETA's ambush of singer Beyonce, the Chicago Police Department's website showing men who were arrested for soliciting prostitutes.
• The Shadow has visited several restaurants over the past year and many reviews of these restaurants on within these pages.

The Shadow would like to thank those loyal readers who have been with us during this past year. As this blog now goes into its second year, look for The Shadow to bring you all of this and much more.

Join The Shadow as we continue this journey into the darkness.

ARTworkSF Opens Their New Space

The Shadow is pleased to announce that ARTworkSF -- whose shows have been featured on this blog for the past year -- is finally moving into their new gallery. And you are invited to join in the festivities.

ARTworkSF will host their annual "Best of Show" exhibit, featuring works that were juried by the public over the past year. Artists featured in this show will be:

• James Albert
• Janet Allinger
• Sue Averell
• Genea Barnes
• Richard Bolingbroke
• Sylvia Buettner
• Sherri Cavan
• Dusty Cox
• Bryan Davis
• Rachel Davis
• Jamie Erfurdt
• Jo Farrell
• Jack Freeman
• Lynn Friedman
• David Harriman
• Suzun Hughes
• Mike Kendall
• Lois Llewellyn
• Alisa Lowden
• Jennifer Mack
• Lenea Maibaum
• Maggie Malloy
• John McCarthy
• Bruce Meisner
• Jennifer Morris
• Les Phillips
• Fernando Reys
• Phyllis Rockne
• Ed Shelton
• Rachel Simone
• Nicholas Smith
• Joseph Sobiesiak
• Rich St. Cyr
• Marius Starkey
• Scott Tracy
• Blake Tucker
• David Verba
• Vladimir Vitkovsky
• John Wilson
• Nick Wightman
• Pat Wipf

ARTworkSF's new gallery is located at 49 Geary Street (at Market Street), Suite 215, in San Francisco. The "Best of Show" reception will be Thursday July 6, 2006 from 5:30 - 7:30 p.m.

If you would like to attend, please RSVP to ARTworkSF by clicking here. The Shadow will be in attendance at this Grand Opening and Reception.

The Shadow Visits Other Worlds and Other Realms

The Shadow was born of darkness. The Shadow lives in darkness. And recently, The Shadow was able to be in darkness within other worlds and realms.

The Shadow recently attended a new ARTworkSF artist reception this past week. This exhibit is entitled "Other Worlds, Other Realms: Visions of far-flung and other dimensions".

Cosmos '05 by artist Dean Gustafson

Artist Dean Gustafson with The Shadow
This exhibit was curated by Heather Hanan -- who is making her curator debut (and did a wonderful job of it). Heather describes the exhibit this way:

Visions of faery, far-flung galaxies, other dimensions, heavens and hells historically have called to artists to portray their mysteries, pixalating us, repelling us, and always fascinating. Sometimes humorous, often glamorous, beyond argument, sometimes beyond reason, we both fear and long for The Other to be part of our world. The Unknown nurtures when we can muse a bit in its chaos and fogs, ready and willing to experience unchartered territory.

The artists featured in this show were:

• Alisa Lowden
• Blake Tucker
• Dean Gustafson
• Katalina McGinley
• Linda Dever
• Marius Starkey
• Melissa West
• Phyllis Rockne
• Suzun Hughes

Along with great paintings and good wine, ARTworkSF introduced a new group -- the "Suzun Hughes Posse". The Shadow's good friend Suzun Hughes convinced The Shadow and three other men to wear the famed t-shirt that was shown in a previous blog entry. "The Posse" is pictured below:

The "Suzun Hughes Posse" with artist Suzun Hughes in front of Metal Totem Fragment I

This exhibit will be showing at the Hotel Triton Mezzanine Gallery, 342 Grant Avenue (at Bush Street) in San Francisco and is open to the public 24/7. The exhibit will run through July 5, 2006.

As always, all work at this exhibit are available for sale or lease (for a three-month period). Click on the ARTworkSF link on the left side for more information.

Miraculous Recovery by artist Linda Dever

For more pictures from the reception, click here.

The Shadow Gives Homage to Harvey Milk

The Shadow, as many readers of this blog know, attends art receptions on a regular basis. The purpose of reporting the reception afterwards is to bring publicity to the artist and their work. Those reports will continue.

However, last week, The Shadow attended a very special art reception in the offices of San Francisco District 5 Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi. This exhibit -- part of the monthly series of art receptions by Supervisor Mirkarimi -- was dedicated to the memory of former San Francisco District 5 Supervisor Harvey Milk.

Harvey Milk Campaign Poster
Harvey Milk was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in November 1977 and sworn into office on January 9, 1978. Milk's election was notable because he was the first openly gay man to be elected to the Board of Supervisors. On Nobember 27, 1978, Supervisor Milk and San Francisco Mayor George Moscone were shot and killed by Supervisor Dan White. After serving five years in prison, White committed suicide.

San Francisco Chronicle Front Page Announcing Assassination of Supervisor Harvey Milk and Mayor George Moscone
This art exhibit features photographs from Daniel Nicoletta and Nancy McNally.

One of the many photos on display at the exhibit
During the reception, the assembled crowd heard from both Supervisor Mirkarimi and Joey Cain, President, Board of Directors of the San Francisco Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Pride Celebration Committee, and Co-Chair, Harvey Milk City Hall Memorial Committee.

Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi addresses crowd at reception

Joey Cain addresses crowd at reception
One of the pushes of this reception was to solicit assistance in putting a memorial statute of Supervisor Harvey Milk in San Francisco City Hall. This would seem to be very fitting as Milk was loved not only by the LGBT community, but also by his constituents in District 5 in San Francisco.

If you would like more information on the Harvey Milk memorial proposed for City Hall, or to contribute towards making this dream happen, click here.

Bay Area Reporter headline on display at exhibit
To view more pictures from the reception itself, click here.

Beyonce Gets Unfair Treatment from PETA

Beyonce Knowles, the former lead singer of the group Destiny's Child, was recently confronted by two members of the People for the Ethical Treatment of Aminals (PETA) at Nobu in New York City.

VH1 had auctioned off a dinner with Beyonce on eBay, with proceeds going to the Save the Music Foundation. Two PETA members bidded on, and won, the auction. They met Beyonce, her mother and sister, at Nobu for the dinner.

Beyonce had no idea that she was dining with 2 PETA members. Beyonce has a line of clothing with her mother that uses fur.

After ordering, the PETA members began confronting Beyonce about her use of fur. They presented a DVD that showed actress Pamela Anderson denouncing fur use.

The two PETA members were soon escorted out of the restaurant. Beyonce and her relatives stayed inside.

Video footage of this confrontation, obtained from TMZ.com, can be accessed here.

The Shadow denounces this action and calls for PETA to apologize to Beyonce and her family.

A Word on Comments to This Blog

The Shadow has seen darkness and lives in the darkness. But from time to time, The Shadow must expose himself and has done that with this blog.

When this blog was started a year ago, The Shadow stated at that time that we would be looking at the dark side of culture in San Francisco and abroad. That has hopefully been accomplished.

Lately -- within the past couple of months -- inappropriate comments have been appearing on this blog. Comments that were inappropriate because they had nothing to do with the blog entry itself, but were attacks on The Shadow. In those cases, The Shadow has deleted the comments.

From this point forward, The Shadow has set new settings that will allow for the moderation of comments. Meaning that -- for the forseeable future -- all comments to this blog will be approved by The Shadow before appearing on this blog. This will prevent any inappropriate comments from appearing on this blog.

This blog welcomes comments from the world at large pertaining to the entry that you are commenting on. But The Shadow will not allow personal attacks on himself nor the subject of the blog entry to be permitted.

It is a shame that The Shadow must take this necessary step, but to preserve the integrity of this blog, The Shadow will do so.

The Shadow Goes Through A Kaleidoscope

This past week, The Shadow attended yet another fine artist reception held by ARTworkSF in San Francisco. Not only did The Shadow view great art, The Shadow was also the recipient of a gift from artist Suzun Hughes. More on that in a moment.

The Shadow (with new t-shirt) and artist Suzun Hughes in front of Metal Totem Fragment I
ARTworkSF's newest exhibit is entitled "Conversations in Color: Kaleidoscope -- Using Colors Without Constraints". For those of you who are regular readers of this blog -- you may remember that ARTworkSF held two other "Conversations" exhibits: "Conversations in Color: Monochrome" and "Conversations in Color: Contraposed Harmonies". This exhibit is the third and final installment of this series.

Paisley by artist Heather Hanan

The following artists are showing at this exhibit:

• Aisjah Hopkins
• AnneKarin Glass
• Blake Tucker
• Celestte
• Cyndee Chavez
• Dan Cope
• Heather Hanan
• Marius Starkey
• Mary Lou D'Auray
• Michael Childs
• Muffin Hyche
• Natalia Bortolotti
• Pauline Crowther Scott
• Seth Matarese
• Stephanie Cunningham
• Suzun Hughes

Fire by artist Celestte
In the opinion of The Shadow, this was definitely the best of the three exhibits of this series. Colors were very vibrant and everywhere. In some cases, The Shadow saw many of the artists simply outdo themselves.

Exploring the Mysteries by artist Aisjah Hopkins

This exhibit will be open to the public Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Polarity Post Productions, 69 Green Street in San Francisco. The exhibit will be shown through July 15, 2006.

Untitled III by artist Muffin Hyche

As always, all works on exhibit are available for sale or rental (on a 3-month basis). For more information, click on the ARTworkSF link on the left side under "Art Gallery and Artists Links".

Kali by artist Dan Cope

As for The Shadow's gift from artist Suzun Hughes: the t-shirt that The Shadow is wearing is one-of-a-kind. Suzun is looking into having more made in a way that is not cost-prohibitive for buyers. If you absolutely have to have the t-shirt before that time, get in touch with The Shadow and we will convey that wish to Suzun, but be prepared to pay for it. The design on the shirt is the painting below.

Metal Totem Fragment I by artist Suzun Hughes

For more photos from the reception, click here.

ARTworkSF's next artists reception will be on June 21, 2006 at the Hotel Triton, 342 Grant Street in San Francisco. The title of this exhibit will be "Other Worlds, Other Realms: Vision of Far-Flung Galaxies and Other Dimensions". Artists in this show, which will be curated by Heather Hanan, will be:

• Alisa Lowden
• Blake Tucker
• Dean Gustafson
• Katalina McGinley
• Linda Dever
• Marius Starkey
• Melissa West
• Phyllis Rockne
• Suzun Hughes

Come out and show your support for San Francisco artists!

Photographer Jo Farrell's New Book

Jo Farrell, a San Francisco photographer and good friend of The Shadow, has informed us of the publication of a new book entitled: "Jo Farrell Photographs: 1".

The coffee table book is 100 pages and contains 136 Black & White photographs of Jo's travels in China, Cuba and Tibet. Those of you who are regular readers of this blog have seen many of Jo's work in previous entries.

The book is $20.00 with a shipping charge of $5.00. You can view the book on Jo's website. If you would like a copy of the book, you can email Jo directly for details.

The Shadow and 6-6-06

The Shadow was born of darkness. That darkness now surrounds us in the 21st Century. And now the darkest day of the century has now come upon us.

There will be parties today -- most notably in Hell, Michigan. A remake of the 1975 thriller "The Omen" will be released today.

The Shadow, a man of darkness, will hide within the darkness this evening.

And for those of you who may be hoping that The Shadow will disappear after today, it will not happen. The Shadow will be here for the foreseeable future.

Happy June 6th!