Christian Gerhaher sings Mahler: Ging heut' morgen über's Feld with the Berliner Philharmoniker

An eagerly awaited debut opens San Francisco Performances’ 35th Season. While he has triumphed in international opera and oratorio appearances, Christian Gerhaher is today’s foremost interpreter of Lieder, carrying the mantle of his mentors Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Elisabeth Schwarzkopf and Inge Borkh. The vocal beauty serves the poetry in each song, his singing an extension of true speech. Joined by his longstanding recital partner Gerold Huber, Gerhaher introduces his artistry with a program that highlights the Viennese peak of the art song tradition.

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This project is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts, Art Works.

 

Artist Biographies:

During his studies under Paul Kuen and Raimund Grumbach, German baritone Christian Gerhaher attended the Opera School of the Academy of Music in Munich and, together with his regular piano partner Gerold Huber, studied lied interpretation with Friedemann Berger. While completing his medical studies Christian Gerhaher perfected his vocal training in master-classes given by Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Elisabeth Schwarzkopf and Inge Borkh. In the meantime Christian Gerhaher is himself an enthusiastic teacher and holds an honorary professorship at the Academy of Music in Munich.
Christian Gerhaher’s exemplary lied interpretations with Gerold Huber set standards—their recordings have repeatedly won prizes. The lied duo can be heard on the stages of major international recital centres, for instance at the Wigmore Hall in London, in the Carnegie Hall in New York, the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, the Cologne and Berlin Philharmonie, the Konzerthaus and the Musikverein in Vienna. Christian Gerhaher is a regular guest at festivals such as the Munich Opera Festival, the Rheingau Music Festival, the London Proms, the Edinburgh and Lucerne Festivals as well as the Salzburg Festival. After the world premiere of Heinz Holliger’s cycle Lunea on 23 fragments by Nikolaus Lenauin spring 2013in Zurich, the 2013–14 season sees two further world premieres, both dedicated to Christian Gerhaher: JörgWidmann’s Das heißeHerz, followed by performances in Vienna, Frankfurt, London and Luxembourg (combined with Schumann and Fauré) as well as Goethe’s Harzreiseim Winter by Wolfgang Rihm, a program contrasting settings of Goethe texts by Wolfgang Rihm and Franz Schubert. The world premiere was given at the Würzburg Mozart Festival in June 2014, further performances follow at the Rheingau Music Festival and the Salzburg Festival, and in the autumn in Paris, Amsterdam, Hamburg, Florence and at the Schubertiade in Hohenems.
Besides his principle activity giving concerts and recitals, Christian Gerhaher is also a highly sought-after performer on the opera stage. Under Riccardo Muti he sang Papageno in a production of The Magic Flute at the Salzburg Festival (issued by Decca as a DVD). Gerhaher gave guest performances in the title role in Henze’s Prinz von Homburg at the Theater an der Wien, as Wolfram at the Teatro Real in Madrid, at the Vienna State Opera and Munich State Opera, and at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden in London, where he received the famous Laurence Olivier Award for his interpretation. Roles such as Mozart’s Don Giovanni, again in Frankfurt—where he has already sung Orfeo, Wolfram, Eisenstein and Pelléas—Posa in Don Carlo in Toulouse or concert performances as Olivier in Capriccio at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden testify to Gerhaher’s broad repertoire. Wolfram remains a constant role in his calendar in the opera houses in Berlin, Vienna, London and Munich. During the Munich Opera Festival in 2014 he can again be heard in the title role in a new production of Monteverdi’s Orfeo.
Christian Gerhaher performs together with conductors such as Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Simon Rattle, Herbert Blomstedt, Kent Nagano, Mariss Jansons, Daniel Harding, Bernard Haitink and Christian Thielemann in the world’s major concert halls. Gerhaher’s intensive preoccupation with the music of Gustav Mahler brought him together with Riccardo Chailly, Gustavo Dudamel and Pierre Boulez (Wunderhornlieder with the Cleveland Symphony Orchestra, also on CD, issued by DG). Major orchestras which regularly invite Christian Gerhaher to perform include the Berlin Philharmonic, Vienna Philharmonic and the London Symphony Orchestra. He also gives concerts with major orchestras outside Europe, for instance with the NHK Symphony Orchestra, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Christian Gerhaher has very close ties with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, a partnership audiences were able to enjoy in the 2012–13 season during his residency with the orchestra. Together with this outstanding ensemble, conducted by Daniel Harding, Christian Gerhaher recorded his first album of arias devoted to opera in the German Romantic era and for which he received the International Opera Award 2013. In the 2013–14 season Christian Gerhaher was a particularly frequent guest in Berlin, the first time a singer has been artist in residence with the Berlin Philharmonic. Many concerts show how versatile the lyric baritone is, beginning with Mahler’s Songs of a Wayfarer conducted by Simon Rattle, Schumann’s Faust Scenes with Daniel Harding, Bach’s St. John Passion and the Schubert cycles Die schöne Müllerin and Winterreise accompanied by Gerold Huber, as well as Schoeck’s Notturno and Fauré’s La bonne chanson with a quartet from the Scharoun Ensemble. During the 2014–15 season Christian Gerhaher has a residency at the Gesellschaftder Musikfreunde in Vienna and can be heard with the Bavarian State Orchestra conducted by Kirill Petrenko (Hartmann’s Gesangsszene), with the Staatskapelle Dresden and Christian Thielemann (German Romantic arias) and in a Mahler recital in the Golden Hall of the Musikverein. This program can also be heard in London, Paris, Essen and at the Salzburg Festival.
Christian Gerhaher’s CDs are issued by Sony Music, with which he has an exclusive partnership. Accompanied by Gerold Huber, Schumann cycles, all the Schubert cycles, as well as many other lied recordings have been issued. Furthermore, Christian Gerhaher can be heard on CDs with orchestras such as the Berlin Philharmonic, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Concentus Musicus Wien in works by Bach, Haydn, Mendelssohn, Humperdinck, Orff and Mahler, whereby this list is far from complete. Of primary importance to Christian Gerhaher is the music of Robert Schumann—both Paradiesund die Peri and in particular his interpretation of Scenes from Goethe’s Faust were recorded live and are available on CDs issued by Sony and RCO live, and will also be issued very soon on the BR Klassik Label. In January 2014 Christian Gerhaher received the German record critics’ honorary prize Nachtigall 2014.
Christian Gerhaher and his wife live with their three children in Munich.


Munich-born Gerold Huber was awarded a scholarship to study piano under Friedemann Berger at the Musikhochschule in Munich. He also attended Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau’s lied class in Berlin. In 1998 he was awarded the Prix International Pro Musicis in Paris / New York together with baritone Christian Gerhaher, his regular duo partner since their joint schooldays. In 2001 he was a prize-winner at the Johann Sebastian Bach International Piano Competition in Saarbrücken.
“His sensitive interludes are to die for. The pianist uncovers the subtle network of a comedy of errors and succeeds in penetrating the depths of the soul.” This is the sort of enthusiastic press reaction prompted by Gerold Huber’s piano accompaniment. In the role of lied pianist he regularly appears at festivals such as Schubertiade Schwarzenberg, Vilabertran (Spain), Schwetzingen Festival and Rheingau Music Festival and major venues including Philharmonie Cologne, Alte Oper Frankfurt, Konzerthaus and Musikverein in Vienna, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Wigmore Hall London, Großes Festspielhaus Salzburg, Frick Collection in New York and Musée d'Orsay in Paris.


Being so high in demand as accompanist, Gerold Huber works with a multitude of internationally renowned singers, amongst them Mojca Erdmann, Christiane Karg, Christina Landshamer, Ruth Ziesak, Maximilian Schmitt, Rolando Villazón and Franz-Josef Selig. Moreover he is the pianist of vocal ensemble Liedertafel, founded in 2002, which consists of Markus Schäfer, Christian Elsner, Michael Volle and Franz-Josef Selig. Gerold Huber also performs chamber music with the Artemis Quartet, Henschel Quartet and with Reinhold Friedrich.
Gerold Huber’s activities as a soloist focus on the works of Johann Sebastian Bach, Ludwig van Beethoven, Johannes Brahms and Franz Schubert. He has given recitals in Munich, Regensburg, at the Théâtre Municipal des Romains in France, at the Kultursommer Kassel Festival and the New Zealand Festival in Wellington. With actor Hanns ZIschler, he appeared in an evening of melodrama at the Vienna Konzerthaus.
Apart from two solo albums with works by Beethoven and Schumann, he is most renowned for his outstanding recordings with baritone Christian Gerhaher. They received Echo Klassik Awards for Best Lied Recording for both Die Winterreise and Die schöne Müllerin. The Schubert CD Abendbilder was honoured with the Gramophone Award in 2006. Further releases of this prestigious lied duo include Schumann Melancholie for RCA Red Seal  (Gramophone Award in 2009), Lieder by Gustav Mahler (various awards including Jahrespreis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik 2010) as well as Wolf’s Italian Songbook where they were joined by Mojca Erdmann and, most recently, the compilation Ferne Geliebte—a juxtaposition of both Viennese schools with works by Beethoven/Haydn and Schönberg/Berg (all for Sony). His extensive discography also includes Schubert lieder with Bernarda Fink (Schubert for harmonia mundi France), Ruth Ziesak (Liszt for Berlin classics; Haydn and Mahler/Zemlinsky for Capriccio, Mendelssohn for AVI) and recordings with Maximilian Schmitt (Clara and Robert Schumann/Schubert Die schöne Müllerin) for Oehms classic. He will continue his collaboration with Christian Gerhaher for Sony with a Schubert disc, recordings with Franz-Josef Selig (AVI) and Christina Landshamer (Oehms classcis) will also be released in the future.

Gerold Huber gives master-classes with increasing frequency, most recently at the University of Yale, the Aldeburgh Festival as well as at the Schwetzingen Festival. Since 2013 he has been a professor for lied accompaniment at the Hochschule für Musik in Wurzburg.



Article and Photo Sourced From:  http://sfperformances.org/performances/1415/ChristianGerhaher.html

Black Knight's Paragon MLS platform gains steam

Deal with Central Mississippi MLS boosts platform's user base to more than 210,000

Real estate data and technology firm Black Knight Financial Services has signed another multiple listing service to its Paragon 5 platform, bringing the number of real estate professionals the platform serves to more than 210,000.

Paragon 5 received top marks in a satisfaction survey conducted by real estate consulting firm Clareity Consulting earlier this year. MLS execs responding to the survey indicated high and increasing satisfaction with the platform and all said they would choose Black Knight again if they had the choice to do so.

Steam locomotive image via Shutterstock.

At the time of the survey in January, Paragon 5 had 235 MLS accounts with 197,000 subscribers. Since then, at least an additional six MLSs have signed up for the platform: the Greater Baton Rouge Association of Realtors; the Realtor Association of the Sioux Empire Inc.; the St. Augustine & St. Johns County MLS Inc.; the Charlottesville Area Association of Realtors; Triangle MLS; and, most recently, Jackson, Mississippi-based Central Mississippi MLS Inc. Collectively, those MLSs represent about 14,150 members.

"Our MLS committee and staff spent over a year researching all of the available vendors, and in the end we felt that Paragon not only offered 'out of the box' ease of use, but the most user-friendly experience and an ongoing product evolution to meet emerging trends," said Robert W. Conwill Jr., communications manager and MLS administrator for Central Mississippi MLS, in a statement today.
Central Mississippi MLS, which has about 1,500 members, joins other MLSs that have decided to replace their Solid Earth LIST-IT platforms with those of other vendors, including Greater Baton Rouge, Charleston Trident MLS, Manhattan MLS and North Alabama MLS. LIST-IT received comparatively poor satisfaction rankings in the Clareity survey.

Central Mississippi MLS signed a multiyear agreement for Paragon 5 because of its intuitive design; desktop and mobile compatibility; multitasking capabilities; easy-to-use and professionally branded comparative market analyses (CMAs); and a portal that enables real estate professionals to easily engage and collaborate with clients, Black Knight said.


Article and Photos Sourced From:  http://www.inman.com/2014/08/20/black-knights-paragon-mls-platform-gains-steam/

Life Confirmed Under Antarctic Ice; Is Space Next?

Tomorrow’s edition of the journal Nature will include a paper documenting the existence of microorganisms living far beneath Antarctic ice.  Special drilling and extraction techniques allowed scientists to tap into an active ecosystem half a mile below the surface of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, where life was found in a lake untouched by sunlight or wind for millions of years. The discovery raises the obvious question of what other extreme environments might be able to harbor life on our planet, or beyond.

A team led by Montana State University professor John Priscu brought up samples from below the ice that contained single-celled microbes called Archaea, which convert ammonium and methane into energy to survive and grow.

“We were able to prove unequivocally to the world that Antarctica is not a dead continent,” Priscu said in a release. Similar expeditions have found sub-ice environments teeming with bacteria in recent years, but questions have been raised about possible contamination in the drilling process. The paper’s lead author Brent Christner says with this latest effort, there is now clear proof.
“It’s the first definitive evidence that there’s not only life, but active ecosystems underneath the Antarctic ice sheet, something that we have been guessing about for decades. With this paper, we pound the table and say, ‘Yes, we were right.’”

The conditions below that Antarctic ice sheet have certain characteristics in common with known places on other worlds in our solar system, leading many to wonder if life might be more inevitable in those distant locales than previously thought.
Saturn’s moon Titan Titan, for example, is far colder than Earth, but plays host to vast lakes of liquid methane that could be a potential feast for hearty microbes similar to those living under the Antarctic ice sheet. Tidally-heated liquid oceans are also believed to exist beneath the icy shell of Jupiter’s moon Europa and other objects in our solar system.

 

Some of the graduate students working on the mission to retrieve microscopic life from beneath Antarctica reportedly joked that they may have reached an early peak in their scientific careers.
“Some of the graduate students joke, ‘How do we top this?’ We can’t,” said Montana State doctoral student Alex Michaud.

Perhaps not. At least, not if they continue to limit their research to this planet. NASA could launch a mission to explore Europa sometime in the 2020s.


Article and Photos Sourced From:  http://www.forbes.com/sites/ericmack/2014/08/20/life-confirmed-under-antarctic-ice-is-space-next/

Survey: Investors Losing Interest in Bay Area, Opening the Door for First-Time Buyers

Good news for Bay Area buyers: A recent survey found that investors today are far less active in the region’s real estate markets than in years past, helping to ease some of the fierce competition for homes.

The news is especially welcome for first-time buyers, who have struggled to compete against well-heeled investors paying all cash for starter homes and then turning them into rental properties or waiting a few months and flipping them at even higher price points.

The California Association of Realtors’ 2014 Investor Survey, conducted in May and released to the public on Wednesday, found that  investors are changing their strategies and moving away from buying homes in more popular, urban areas in favor of rural locations of the state where better deals can be found.

In 2014, nearly half (45 percent) of California investors said they purchased properties in rural counties such as Kern, Fresno, Merced, San Joaquin, and Tulare, up from 27 percent in 2013, according to the survey.

Meanwhile, 15 percent of investors purchased properties in Northern California in 2014, down significantly from 27 percent in 2013.

The organization gave an early look at some of the survey data two weeks ago, and Pacific Union reported at the time that rising home prices have curtailed investment activity in high-dollar Bay Area markets like Silicon Valley.

The survey also found that 67 percent of investors paid cash, and one-third were residents of foreign countries, with China, Mexico, Taiwan, and India being the top countries of origin. Investors owned an average of 8.3 properties in 2014, up from 6.5 properties last year.

Reflecting the recovering housing market, the majority of investment properties purchased in the last year (70 percent) were equity sales, while 18 percent were short sales and 12 percent were foreclosures.

Most investors said they made minor or no repairs to the properties, and 55 percent said they intend to sell them within six years.

(Image: Flickr/Woodleywonderworks)

Woodward’s Garden to close after 22 years in the Mission

“We are leaving our Garden.”

 

Thus begins the e-mail sent yesterday afternoon from Dana Tommasino andMargie Conard, the pair of chefs who opened Woodward’s Garden in 1992, in a rather desolate, overpass-dominated corner of Mission and Duboce. In 1994, they were part of a class of Chronicle Rising Stars Classthat also included Michael Mina, Traci Des Jardins, Brad Levy, Loretta Keller and Wendy Brucker.

(For more on Woodward’s Garden origin, and the rise of the restaurant as a personal chef statement, check out our May interview with Tommasino and Conard.)

Over two decades after its debut, Woodward’s Garden is still there, but the end is near.

The restaurant’s lease is up, and according to Tommasino and Conard, it will not be renewed.

There is no definite closing date at this point, but if you’re a fan, you might want to get back in there sooner than later.

After the closure, they hope to find a new location, and are currently looking for possibilities.

They end their goodbye note: “We are so grateful to SF and its fine support of our Garden all these years. Can’t wait for the next chapter.”

Woodward’s Garden: 1700 Mission Street (at Duboce), San Francisco (415) 621-7122 orwoodwardsgarden.com

 

 

Article and Photos Sourced from:  http://insidescoopsf.sfgate.com/blog/2014/08/16/woodwards-garden-to-close-after-22-years-in-the-mission/

Susannah: The San Francisco Opera

Music by Carlisle Floyd

Libretto by the composer

NEW PRODUCTION

 In the backwoods of Tennessee, a beautiful young woman is accused of indecent behavior after she is discovered bathing naked in a stream. Will the charismatic traveling preacher who sets his sights on her soul be her salvation, or her downfall? Carlisle Floyd’s all-American score, which beautifully evokes the work’s rural Appalachian setting, “is unabashedly neo-Romantic” (The New York Times). The radiant Patricia Racette sings the title role, with Brandon Jovanovich as her brother and Raymond Aceto as the hell-raising itinerant preacher. Conductor Karen Kamensek makes her San Francisco Opera debut in this eagerly awaited Company premiere directed by Michael Cavanagh (Nixon in China, 2012).

Note to Full Series subscribers: Susannah is not included in Full Series R. To add this production at your discounted subscription price, please select “Additional Tickets” when prompted in the ordering process or call the Box Office at (415) 864-3330.

 

 

Sung in English with English supertitles
Approximate running time: 2 hours including one intermission

Pre-Opera Talks are free to ticketholders and take place in the Opera House in the Orchestra section, 55 minutes prior to curtain.

San Francisco Opera production

Costumes owned by Lyric Opera of Chicago and Houston Grand Opera. The costumes in Susannah are made possible by a generous gift from Abbott Laboratories to the Lyric Opera of Chicago and from Philip Morris Companies, Inc. to Houston Grand Opera as sponsor to its Opera New World program.

Audio excerpts ©Virgin Classics 1994 (724354503924) / performed by Orchestre de l’Opèra de Lyon; Kent Nagano, conductor
“Ain’t it a pretty night?”/Cheryl Studer (Susannah); “The Trees on the mountain”/Cheryl Studer; “Hear me, O Lord, I beseech Thee”/Samuel Ramey (Olin Blitch)

 

 

For more information and Tickets Please Visit:  http://sfopera.com/Season-Tickets/2014-15-Season/Susannah.aspx

The 10 Best San Francisco Neighborhoods for Home Sellers

Anyone who has been shopping for a home in San Francisco recently will likely share a story involving brutal competition, multiple bids, and ultimately watching a property sell for more than its asking price.

Busy Judah Street in the Inner Sunset, the San Francisco neighborhood

where home sellers received the most over original price in the second quarter.

According to Pacific Union’s Q2 2014 real estate report, single-family homes in San Francisco sold for less than 100 percent of original price in just one month of the past year and went for as high as 113.5 percent of asking price in May. These overbids, in turn, drive prices even higher; June’s $1.2 million median single-family home price was the highest recorded in San Francisco in the past year.
Frenzied competition for San Francisco real estate has prompted buyers to scour new areas of the city, according to Pacific Union President Patrick Barber.

“Multiple bids and low inventory has put pressure on buyers and driven them to expand their searches to new, more affordable neighborhoods,” Barber says. “This demand is driving up prices.”
To find out which specific neighborhoods San Francisco home sellers could expect to rake in the highest premiums, we examined second-quarter MLS data for single-family homes in all 88 of the city’s subdistricts.

The data shows that homes in the Inner Sunset neighborhood, located in the western portion of San Francisco, commanded the most above original price in the second quarter: 126.5 percent. One three-bedroom home on desirable 6^th Avenue sold for 69.4 above original price in April, the second highest premium recorded in San Francisco so far this year.

Perhaps not coincidentally, Inner Sunset home prices hit three-year highs in the second quarter, rising to $1.5 million.

And of course, residences in San Francisco’s more centrally located enclaves are still fetching handsome overbids. Single-family homes in the Inner Mission and Bernal Heights neighborhoods, popular with affluent young tech workers, sold for more than 20 percent above asking price in the second quarter.

The chart below shows the 10 (11 to account for a tie) San Francisco subdistricts where sellers received the highest premiums in the most recent quarter. Buyers hoping to land a home in these neighborhoods should consider overbidding out of the gate and should certainly factor paying above list price into their budgets.





(Photo: Flickr/Torbakhopper)

Could grizzly bears return to the southern Sierra Nevada?

 TRUCKEE, Calif. — It’s the state animal and it’s on the flag — the California grizzly bear. And while that specific species is now extinct, one conservation organization is calling for the return of the grizzly bear to the Golden State.

 

Today, 1,850 wild grizzly bears live in the United States, spread over four states —
Montana, Wyoming, Idaho and Washington, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

 This summer, the Center for Biological Diversity filed a petition with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to expand the federal agency’s recovery plan for grizzly bears, including returning them to their former stomping grounds across the West.

“Grizzly bears are one of the true icons of the American West, yet today they live in a paltry 4 percent of the lands where they used to roam,” Noah Greenwald, endangered species director for the Center for Biological Diversity, said in a statement. “We shouldn’t be closing the book on grizzly recovery, but beginning a new chapter — one where these amazing animals live wherever there’s good habitat for them across the West.”

The petition, which calls for Fish and Wildlife to revise and update its 1993 grizzly bear recovery plan, identifies an additional 110,000 square miles of potential habitat in California’s southern Sierra Nevada; the Mogollon Rim and Gila Wilderness complex in Arizona and New Mexico; the Grand Canyon; and Utah’s Uinta Mountains.

Today, 1,850 wild grizzly bears live in the United States, spread over four states — Montana, Wyoming, Idaho and Washington, said Chris Servheen, grizzly bear recovery coordinator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
The Center for Biological Diversity would like to see that number rise to at least 4,000 and up to 6,000 spread across habitat areas to ensure their long-term survival.

Since 1975, the grizzly bear has been listed as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act, which aims to protect and recover imperiled species and the ecosystems on which they depend.

“If we’re serious about recovering grizzly bears, we need more populations around the West and more connections between them, so they don’t fall prey to inbreeding and so they have a chance of adapting to a warming world,” Greenwald said. “If we want these incredible bears around for centuries to come, we’ve still got a lot of work left to do.”

According to the petition, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has pursued a fragmented approach to grizzly bear recovery that fails to meet the intention of the Endangered Species Act to recover species across significant portions of their historic range.

Servheen said there are no additional resources to start new programs in new locations, since all available funding and personnel are dedicated to the service’s current recovery work.

“Any bears placed in new areas have to come from habitats with similar foods and habitats to maximize the probability of success,” he said. “Many areas of historic range have no similar habitats with grizzlies in them today, (which) means there are not any bears to move into such former habitat areas.”

Historically, as many as 100,000 grizzly bears once lived in western North America. Yet, within 200 years of European settlement, the grizzly population dwindled to hundreds due to slaughter.

While a California grizzly shot in 1922 in Tulare County is considered the last state grizzly, there were reports in 1924 of a sighting in what is now Sequoia National Park.

Today, Greenwald said he thinks Californians would be open to the idea of reintroducing grizzly bears to the state, since it’s “a wildlife-friendly state.”

Ann Bryant, executive director of the Lake Tahoe-based BEAR League, isn’t so sure.

“(People) can’t even co-exist with black bears,” she said. “How in the world do we think we can co-exist with grizzlies? There’s just no room, no mentality for it.”

Grizzlies have a reputation of being aggressive and territorial, especially females when cubs are involved. Documented grizzly attacks on humans have occurred over the past several decades, some resulting in death.

“The chances of getting mauled by a grizzly bear is (very small),” Greenwald said. “It is much more dangerous to drive your car to the store.”

The petition identifies 7,747 square miles of wilderness in the southern Sierra remote enough to support the omnivorous bruin. As for whether the region would have enough food supply to support the bear, additional study is needed, Greenwald said.

The diet of grizzly bears consists of nuts, berries, fruit, leaves, roots and animals. Males can weigh up to 1,000 pounds, and the bears are considered apex predators, with humans being their biggest threat.

Human tolerance is key for this idea to work, Bryant said.

“You’ve got to have a willing reception of that thing, and we’re not ready for that,” she said. “The mentality here right now is fear-based. Grizzlies probably invoke the most amount of fear. ... We’ve got a long way to go before this is anything I would take seriously.”

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is legally required to respond to the petition.

Greenwald said the Center for Biological Diversity has yet to hear back from the service since filing the petition in June.

 

 

 

 

Article and Photos Sourced From:  http://www.tahoedailytribune.com/northshore/12501540-113/grizzly-bears-bear-petition

Bay Area Homebuyers to Benefit From Credit Agencies’ New, Relaxed Rules

More people will qualify for home loans, and at lower interest rates, thanks to recent policy changes by several U.S. credit agencies.

Fair Isaac Co.’s FICO credit-scoring system garnered top headlines last week with the news that medical bills and paid-off debts would no longer be counted against consumers in computing their FICO scores. But other credit agencies have also eased their reporting rules in recent months.

The net result will be higher credit scores — perhaps an additional 25 points, Fair Isaac said — enabling some homebuyers to qualify for a loan that otherwise would have been out of reach or at a higher interest rate.

“This move will ultimately make a real difference in the lives of millions of Americans, who have been shut out of the housing market or forced to pay higher mortgage interest rates because of flawed credit scores,” Steve Brown, president of the National Association of Realtors, said in a statement. “Since the housing crash, overly restrictive lending has been the greatest obstacle to home ownership.”

The change follows a recent study by the federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau that showed that both paid and unpaid medical debts were unfairly penalizing consumers’ credit ratings. An estimated 64 million Americans have a medical-collection item on their credit reports, according to Nick Clements of MagnifyMoney, a personal-finance website.

Two of the nation’s biggest credit bureaus also recently changed their credit-reporting policies.

Both Experian and TransUnion have added verified rental-payment data into credit files, to be used to compute a consumer’s credit score when applying for a mortgage and other type of loan. Experian said the change especially favors consumers with little or no credit history, and a TransUnion study showed that including rental data raised credit scores by 10 points or more for 20 percent of renters.

Together, the changes at Fair Isaac, Experian, and TransUnion could make a noticeable difference in Northern California real estate markets.

Bay Area residents have some of the highest credit scores in the nation, but buyers face added loan pressures here because home prices are far above national averages.

TransUnion recently revealed that the San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara metro area is tied with the Minneapolis-St. Paul area for the highest percentage of “A” credit scores in the United States, with 23.5 percent of its residents scoring between 900 and 990 on the VantageScore rating system.

The San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont metro area had the second-highest percentage of “A” scores — 22.9 percent.

But looking at the VantageScore numbers by another metric shows the challenges still facing homebuyers here: Residents of the San Jose metro area collectively have an average score of 700 on the 501-to-990 scale — a low “C” grade in terms of credit worthiness. San Francisco metro area residents have an average score of 696 — a high “D.”

Those numbers show how even in a high-scoring region like the Bay Area, plenty of consumers — and potential homebuyers — will benefit from increased credit scores.

(Image: Flickr/401(K) 2012)

The Classics: Tommaso’s, serving wood-fired pizza since 1935

A few years ago there was a monumental North verses South debate about who “invented” the modern pizza. The South group gave credit to Wolfgang Puck at Spago; the North group gave the nod to Alice Waters at the Cafe at Chez Panisse. I contend it was neither of them; it was Tommaso’s,  a North Beach institution that brought the wood-fired oven to the West Coast in 1935.

Tommaso’s is ground zero for pizza, and even today there is often a wait for a table, even early in the evening.
When the oven was installed the restaurant was called Lupo’s. It became Tommaso’s in 1971 and was bought by the Crotti family in 1973, who have been running it since.
The restaurant has an unassuming entrance. As diners walk down a few steps, the  yeasty smell of pizza dough being cooked and pepperoni warming and settling into a blanket of cheese and tomato sauce engulfs them. There’s also a chalkboard that lists more than a dozen wines by the glass. You’ll only see the varietal and price; the producer or where it comes from isn’t listed.
Diners are seated  around the perimeter at regular tables or at a long communal table down the middle that’s often taken over for family celebrations.

The interior  looks much like it has for decades. Walls of the basement entrance are filled with memorabilia including photos of Francis Ford Coppola, a regular and fan.  Murals of Italy cover the upper parts of the dining room walls, which carry the patina that comes with age and dozens of coats of paint.
Everyone orders the pizza, which has a moderately thick crust, lightly charred by the oven. Is it the best? No, but it has a nostalgic appeal because it’s being produced the same way it has been for decades. Still, it’s good, and unless you have a big appetite, you’ll probably have a few slices to take home.
There’s also a large menu of other comforting Italian foods that include beef carpaccio,  a well-prepared Caesar salad, Cho-Cho clams,  a respectable cacciatore, lasagne. and spaghetti with marinara sauce, which is also available to take home in a jar.
Desserts, at least what was served on my visit, are best forgotten. The cannoli tasted stale; the tiramisu was simply OK.
Still, Tommaso’s has a lot to recommend. While it has an old world sensibility the preparations are generally made with care. It’s clear the family — and the no-nonsense waiters who deliver the food and will even divide it for if sharing — are committed to keeping  the tradition alive.



Articles and Photos Sourced From:  http://insidescoopsf.sfgate.com/blog/2014/06/18/the-classics-tomassos-serving-wood-fired-pizza-since-1935/#24329-3 

San Francisco Ballet's 2015 Repertory

2015 Season

Welcome to San Francisco Ballet's 2015 Repertory Season!

January 27 – May 10, 2015

This season, SF Ballet celebrates Helgi Tomasson’s 30th anniversary as artistic director with three of his greatest story ballets, the return of Shostakovich Trilogy, iconic works by Balanchine and Robbins, two world premieres, and more! Scroll down to learn about our new season.

Currently only SF Ballet subscribers can access tickets to our new season, including Nutcracker. Subscribers save up to 25% on tickets and enjoy a host of exclusive benefits. Join the SF Ballet family by subscribing today!

Single tickets to Nutcracker go on sale August 27. Single tickets for our Repertory Season go on sale in November.

 

Program 1     Learn More

Serenade

RAkU

Lambarena

Jan 27 -Feb 7

Program 2

Giselle     Learn More 

Giselle

Jan 29 -Feb 10

Program 3     Learn More

The Vertiginous Thrill of Exactitude

Variations for Two Couples

Myles Thatcher World Premiere

The Kingdom of the Shades from La Bayadère, Act II

Feb 24 -Mar 7

Program 4     Learn More

Dances at a Gathering

Hummingbird

Feb 26 -Mar 8

Don Quixote     Learn More

Don Quixote

Mar 20 -Mar 29

Program 6     Learn More

Shostakovich Trilogy

Apr 8 -Apr 19

Program 7     Learn More

Caprice

Yuri Possokhov World Premiere

The Four Temperaments

Apr 10 -Apr 21

Romeo & Juliet     Learn More

Romeo & Juliet

May 1 -May 10

For more photos, info and tickets visit the website:  http://www.sfballet.org/tickets/2015_season