of the six stamps in the series san francisco has been chosen three times to be the official city. we must be doing something right in san francisco. i am honored to represent the postal service. today is an exciting service. we are proud to celebrate our special time with our friends and the asian community. appreciate the beauty of the stamps for them to use in the new year greetings to families and friends and we capture that beauty this year into celebrating the lunar year stamp. the stamp features the firecrackers that scare off evil spirits and renew hope for the future. the staff is available today at

all post offices to help you prepare for the two-year mailings,, greeting cards , party invitations and gifts. we don't have stats available-for-sale at city hall but we do at this table here. we can put the date of issue postmark on them. we have cancellations at lincoln station and also add chinatown for the next 60 days. we are providing the cancellations of those two stations. on behalf of the united states postal service i will like to invite mayor lee and our guests to unveil and dedicate the 2013 lunar new year stamp, year of the snake (chinese). >> i would like to invite representatives from oca and the chinese benevolent

association to join us. (applause)

>> bonnie banks. bonnie banks. my definition of noise is uncontrolled music. without format. pretty simple affair. pancakes, and you're -- people get up on sundays around noon, weekends or whatever. should not be too hard to walk into place. have your audio alarm clock go off for two hours waking your up while you are eating breakfast with many interesting visuals once in a while.

improvisation. listening or not to the person you're playing up against or people or machines. trying to get as many different people in as possible. different genres, experimental noise, electronics, dissonance some drums.a tiny bit of ambient -- the first noise pancake shows, 1999, the first waffle noise, 2001. god-waffle noise, noise pancake came out of cubist art, place

on mission street, brutallo, where the church -- opened up his house and saturday morning cartoons. a big space. you can have everybody set up and barely move equipment around; small room for an audience to move around, walkover and get pancakes without getting burned up in the kitchen. there's like people in their hard-core gabber; people into really fast death metal; black metal. people who don't listen to music at all.

guy like larnie bock (sounds like) set up huge, motor driven harp. i don't know how to explain it. 40 foot of motors that he had running over strings and wires. and then played each string individually with the mixer. there is a feeling of euphoria when somebody's really good at what they do. experiencing a buffer, pushing your bowels out your rear. different. a lot of noise. you don't play clubs with a cleaning schedule, a guy coming in the morning emptying the beer bottles.

you play the warehouse. if you travel around you will see the exact same kind of weirdos doing their own thing. it is like in the bay area it's even more absurd. there seems to be more people that in a place like new york or tokyo. we did a show in new york, i didn't think that anyone was at hardly, and people come up and said i saw the show. i wish they had some kind of breakfast noise going on over there. i think a lot of people were being, walking out of the shows. that was incredible. i can't believe it's over already, after two hours. if you are reluctant to enjoy something like this it will probably take

a mass of peers to sell you on it. it's fine if you stay away. most of the people that come to the shows are pretty happy to be here. you may not be one of them. which is fine. i'm robert chief and i'm the park's supervisor in the parks in the sunset district. i've been working here for 3 years. we are 60-70 street below street level. the 64 acre park. the park is divided into 2 sections we are in the stern area. when you get over to pine lake

meadow and pine lake, pine lake is considered a natural area. in 1847, the green family came out here, back then this was kind of an empty canyon and sand dun area. they claimed this property. in 1892. george green who's a second generation built the truckdaro club house. there was a hotel then. it was said this was the place to go if you were weary of the dirty city and the police. there were a couple of gun fights the front door has bullet holes. i don't ever repair them. 1931 stig mond bought the property from the green family. she donated it to the city of

san francisco and had a specification, i'm giving it to the city that will be used forever for the enjoyment forever of the people of the city of san francisco. it has ever since. every summer the stern grove association in san francisco rec and parks put on 10 free concerts. usually people come out at 10 in the morning it's a family affair. everybody is on the lawn with picnics and it's free. anybody can come out. it's a great way to spend a sunday. >> goes to 1-2 in the afternoon and runs until 5. [music]. thanks to the stern grove association they renovated the concert meadow. it used to be a rolling grafsy area. put in a new stage and stage building. they put in terraces.

we get from 8,000 to 12,000 people. and the meadow next to the concert meadow is full of people even though they can't see the music they hear it. i walked into the meadow several times and they don't even care. we do have literally events going on day and night. the concert association has kids days during the week. the performers come out for hundred 200 kids. now, the truckadero truck house gets rented out for weddings and retirement. the croquet clubs and horse shoes. 2 play grounds, tennis courts. we have from 25 to a hundred

dogs here. it's like bisons going across the mid west. there are so many dogs they are covering the ground cht it's a get together. all the dog walkers know each other. if you go to pine lake day camp now, you will see 50 kids there. the r directors are wonder. >> the pine lake is natural. they take of the area around the lake. they plant natives that are drought tolerant. one that stands the dry summers here. the whole park is under going quite a bit of reconstruction. they will renovate the trails around the lake. and the big project is the capital project for pine lake

meadow. they are going to returf the dog run and the meadow by the day camp. we are looking for a very busy fall. by the spring of next year should have major renovations to the mark thal make it an outstanding park. i don't ever refer to it as my park. all the parks belong to all the people. this park belongs just as much to the families in the bay view sdrishth as it does to the gentlemen that lives across the street. i'm happy and proud to be the caretaker for them. i wake up every day and thank that i have

(music) >> herb theatre,open rehearsal. listen to the rehearsal. i think it is fun for them, they see our work process, our discussions, the decisions we make. it is good for us. we kind of behavior little bit when we have people in the audience. msk (music) >> we are rehearsing for our most expensive tour; plus two concerts here. we are proud that the growth of the orchestra,

and how it is expanded and it is being accepted. my ambition when i came on as music director here -- it was evident we needed absolutely excellent work. also evident to me that i thought everyone should know that. this was my purpose. and after we opened, which was a spectacular opening concert about five weeks after that the economy completely crashed. my plan -- and i'm absolutely dogmatic about my plans --were delayed slightly. i would say that in this very difficult timefor the arts and everyone, especially the arts, it's phenomenal how new century

has grown where many unfortunate organizations have stopped. during this period we got ourselves on national radio presence; we started touring, releasing cds, a dvd. we continue to tour. reputation grows and grows and grows and it has never stopped going forward. msk(music) >> the bay area knows the orchestra. you maybe take things for granted a little bit. that is simply not the case will go on the road. the audiences go crazy. they don't see vitality like this on stage. we are capable of conveying joy when we play. msk(music) >> any performance that we do,

that a program, that will be something on the program that you haven't heard before. string orchestra repertoire is pretty small. i used to be boxed into small repertoire. i kept constantly looking for new repertoire and commissioning new arrangements. if you look at the first of the program you have very early, young vibrant mendelson; fabulous opener and then you have this fabulous concerto written for us in the orchestra. is our gift. msk(music) >> and then you have strauss, extraordinary piece. the most challenging of all.

string orchestra work. 23 solo instrument, no violin section, now viola section; everybody is responsible for their part in this piece. the challenge is something that i felt not only that we could do , absolutely could do, but i wanted to show off. i can't tell you how aware i am of the audience. not only what i hear but their vibes, so strong. i have been doing this for a long time. i kind of make them feel what i want them to feel. there is nobody in that audience or anywhere that is not going to know that

particular song by the fourth note. and that is our encore on tour. by the way. i am proud to play it, we are from san francisco. we are going to play that piece no matter where we are.