“Fate has brought me to the right place.” Elim Chan

SAN FRANCISCO

Lee Heidhues 5.22.2026

San Francisco has been a leader culturally and politically for decades.

The international City by the Bay has broken ground with its hiring of renowned Elim Chan to be its 🎶 music director. The first woman to take the podium as director at Davies Hall in the symphony’s 115 year storied history.

Ms. Chan, 39, will formally assume her role in September 2027.

Elim Chan will take the helm next year and will follow in the wake of the late Michael Tilson Thomas. His recent death has left a tremendous void in the hearts and minds of San Francisco.

**Elim Chan conducting the SF Symphony in 2023. She will conduct the Symphony June 5-6**

Connie Chan gets the Pelosi endorsement she needs

SAN FRANCISCO

Lee Heidhues 5.18.2026

It’s a long way Connie Chan to the top if you want to Rock ‘n Roll.

‘Progressives’ are being taken in by Saikat Chakrabarti’s political pandering to the ‘Progressives’. Saikat is nothing more than a Carpetbagger coming to San Francisco. Thinking he can bamboozle the electorate. Saikat can’t and won’t. I am posting this is as a registered Green Party member for most of the past 35 years. For the record I am voting for Connie Chan, a San Francisco Supervisor whose politics lean left with a very practical outlook,

State Senator Scott Wiener totally disrespected Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi by trying to force her out of the race announcing his intention to challenge this San Francisco icon and speed her retirement. It was a fatal political error on his part. You just don’t make that play with San Francisco royalty.

It took too long. It is a long time in coming. And long overdue

**Mission Local. San Francisco – 5.18.2026**

**KQED 88.5FM – San Francisco – 5.18.2026**

Nancy Pelosi finally endorsed San Francisco Supervisor Connie Chan in her race to succeed Ms. Pelosi in Congress.

This endorsement vastly increases Connie’s chance to enter the runoff in the November election

Trump orders DOJ to declare War on the Press

SAN FRANCISCO

Lee Heidhues 5.12.2026

Donald Trump’s love of War has no boundaries.

With no country to attack this month Trump is declaring War on the Press. Ordering Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche to launch criminal investigations against the media.

The same Todd Blanche who was Trump’s defense counsel when he was convicted of over 30 felonies in a New York courthouse in May 2024.

Making a mockery of the Justice Department as an independent agency.

The latest assault on the 🇺🇸 American media.

Issuing Subpoenas to the business friendly politically conservative Wall Street Journal for its reports on the war against Iran 🇮🇷

**The 😱 screaming Trump in the Chinese media**

⁹⁹⁹⁹9⁹

Why is the Mayor smiling?

SAN FRANCISCO

Lee Heidhues 5.11.2026

Crowded buses. Unhoused on the streets. Rampant street drug use.

**A beaming Mayor Daniel Lurie. A product of the San Francisco ruling class aristocracy**

“Why is this Man smiling?”🤨

It’s hard to take the San Francisco Chronicle poll seriously showing billionaire Levi’s scion Mayor Daniel Lurie has a high in the sky 74 percent approval rating.

There is an obvious chasm between the haves and have nots in San Francisco.

For the blogger who spends a lot of time amongst the common citizens he can only ask, “Who did The Chronicle poll?”

Photos: Lee Heidhues

Artificial Intelligence enters the murder genre

SAN FRANCISCO

Lee Heidhues 5.10.2026

**The real World 🌎 of AI ‘ChatGPT’s Chilling Queries – Wall Street Journal-5.4.2026+**

I never thought that Michael Connelly, the Master criminal fiction writer with over 40 published novels, would create a masterpiece on the perils of Artificial Intelligence.

The tale tells the story of an AI creation ‘Clair’ whose 16 year old user, utilizing ‘Clair’ on his home computer, forges a relationship with ‘Clair’ and at the AI Bot’s urging murders his girlfriend for her presumed “disloyalty”.

**‘STOP HIRING HUMANS’ – AI ad in San Francisco**

Michael Connelly’s protagonist ‘The Lincoln Lawyer’ Mickey Haller takes on the case on behalf of the slain girl’s mother.

‘The Lincoln Lawyer’ brings a civil action against Clair’s creator Tidalwaiv.

It’s a sobering riveting saga. As a crime saga and courtroom drama. More importantly it introduced me to the inherent dangers of the burgeoning world of Artificial Intelligence.

Iran is beating Trump at his own Propaganda game

SAN FRANCISCO

Lee Heidhues 5.9.2026

The Iranian government has done more than hold its own on the battlefield.

The Iran propaganda machine is showing it is expert practitioners in the field of media mastery.

**🇮🇷 Iran’s media campaign is fierce as a North American Grizzly Bear**

Connie Chan races to make the November runoff

SAN FRANCISCO

Lee Heidhues 5.8.2026

The San Francisco Chronicle poll reports Scott Wiener is a shoo-in to replace Nancy Pelosi in Congress next year.

The November runoff, presuming the front runner fails to garner 50% in June, will be a contest with the runner up.

June’s runner up will be a candidate The Chronicle rhetorically labels a sacrificial lamb standing between Wiener and Washington.

**Congressional candidate Supervisor Connie Chan**

Connie Chan is no Lamb. She’s a 🦁 Lioness.

There are several reasons why Connie Chan, the District Supervisor, should get the nod.

For Connie it would be five months of local and national media exposure. It would be a boon for Connie Chan and the Asian Chinese community in San Francisco.

This exposure will propel Connie Chan to the Presidency of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors next January. Her Board mates would be remiss in not selecting Connie Chan for the second most important and influential elected position in San Francisco.

S.F. Sunday. Shopping and ride the bus on crowded streets

SAN FRANCISCO

Lee Heidhues 4.26.2026

The blogger set out on a shopping trip to the Arizmendi Bakery and tossed himself into the Sunday human melee.

**A soul survivor at the Muni stop at 25th and Geary Blvd**

A day of the week when the Muni service is truncated, the buses are crowded and the streets are packed with shoppers and folks looking for something to eat and drink.

**The suffocating Muni rider can only dream of “San Francisco on two wheels….”**

Happily, the Arizmendi Bakery is the destination where the blogger fills his shopping bag with an assortment of tasty muffins, scones and a big piece of coffee cake. Baked only on Sunday. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arizmendi_Bakery

Leaving Arizmendi the Sunday shopper is immediately gob smacked by the crowded traffic and buses.

The crowded 44 line on Sunday

**Sunday traffic backed up at 9th Avenue and Lincoln Way inching into Golden Gate Park polluting the atmosphere**

**The entrance to the California Academy of Sciences**

**Back in the Richmond District the blogger waits for the next 38R bus**

**The blogger stops off at Joe’s Place as the last stop to pick up a take out vegetarian omelet. Hardly the up market fare of Arizmendi. But tasty and filling nonetheless.**

PHOTOS: LEE HEIDHUES

‘Bunsen Burner’ from the soundtrack of the dystopian film ‘Ex Machina’ is the music for a Sunday shopper in San Francisco

Finding decent food near home. A gastronomical adventure

SAN FRANCISCO OUTER RICHMOND DISTRICT

Lee Heidhues 4.24.2026

The blogger never truly realized how difficult a task it is to find decent food\ in his San Francisco neighborhood.

The past several days the blogger has walked the streets, taken public transit and discovered some amazing eateries that fill the belly.

PHOTOS: LEE HEIDHUES

BALBOA Cinema a local landmark celebrates 100 years

SAN FRANCISCO

Lee Heidhues 4.8.2026

Next week marks the 100th anniversary of a genuine San Francisco cinema landmark.

The Balboa Cinema, nestled in the outer Richmond District less than a mile from the Pacific Ocean, has been entertaining movie goers for the past century.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balboa_Theater_(San_Francisco)

To celebrate this event the week of April 13-17 a number of classic films are on the agenda.

On April 17 two memorable movies and blogger favorites will be screened. ‘The Conversation’ (1974) filmed entirely in San Francisco. Along with ‘The Fugitive’ (1993). Harrison Ford has the lead role in ‘The Fugitive’. A younger Harrison Ford has a role in ‘The Conversation’.

‘The Conversation’ cinemaphotography of the City over 50 years ago is memorable. Never to be forgotten. Particularly is the iconic opening scene in Union Square.