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Marcus Books celebrates its 50th

By Tessa Williams It would be easy to pass by the purple Victorian at 1712 Fillmore without realizing its importance to Bay Area black history. Located just north of Post Street, the building’s modest presence belies its legacy, both as the former home of Jimbo’s Bop City — the legendary after-hours jazz club — and…

At long last, temple retrofit begins

TAKE A LAST LOOK at the majestic pink temple glowing in the late afternoon sunlight at the corner of California and Webster. It is quickly being enveloped by scaffolding for a seismic retrofit that will strengthen the hundred-year-old home of Congregation Sherith Israel. And it will lose its distinctive salmon pink paint job and emerge next…

Let there be light at the Elite

SALOONS | Chris Barnett Theyyy’re baaaack . . . The two crystal and brass lamps circa 1938 vanished last summer, plunging the west end of the Elite Cafe’s bar into darkness. Regulars missed the elegant touch and the lumins; the faux candle replacements never cut it. Ace servers Abby, Jenna and Kate practically needed miner’s…

Fillmore loses a familiar face

Longtime Fillmore resident and noted artist Bill Shields died Wednesday, April 14, just a week shy of his 85th birthday. Shields and his wife Denise in recent years have owned and operated the Artists Inn at 2231 Pine Street. The inn is housed in his former studio, which faces a sunny patio behind their home.…

The art of flowers

F loral designer Kaori Imaizumi is preparing for a museum exhibition this month, as she has every spring since she opened her flower shop in the neighborhood in 2006. She’s participating once again in “Bouquets to Art,” the annual extravaganza in which floral arrangements interpret and comment upon works of art in the DeYoung Museum in…

Jazz giants in the jazz district

April is jazz appreciation month and there’s something special to appreciate at the Fillmore Heritage Center at 1330 Fillmore. “Jazz Giants: the Photography of Herman Leonard” is a collection of some of the finest jazz photographs ever taken by one of America’s greatest living photographers. UPDATE: Herman Leonard dies at 87