ART & CULTURE

Russia's Bolshoi Theater celebrated the 90th birthday of Cuban dancer Alicia Alonso with a gala performance this week of Russian classics performed by her pupils and countrymen.

Yerba Buena Gardens provides an oasis for the busy urbanites in the downtown of San Francisco, located in the south of the Market and around the Moscone Convention Center.

Joe Fornelli knows the art of survival.

The horrors and heroism of World War Two are given a fresh look in an Art Institute of Chicago exhibition of rediscovered Soviet propaganda posters, which depict Hitler as blood-thirsty, anxious and perverse.

In what a Lucasfilm spokesman told the BBC is an "anomaly of British copyright law," prop designer Andrew Ainsworth won the rights to sell replicas of the original "Star Wars" Stormtrooper helmets, which he designed.

Mick Jagger, say it ain't so. "BackStage Pass VIP," a new Jagger biography being shopped around for a publisher, exposes the Rolling Stones lead singer as a closet conservative who brought his parents flowers during dinner visits and begged his ex-wife, Bianca, to wear a bra under her see-through shirt during a surprise visit from his mother.

Daphna Ziman is on a mission to help foster children, and she's picked a novel way to do it -- novel, being the key word.

About 20,000 people in San Francisco attended Israel in the Gardens 2011 event at Yerba Buena Gardens, Sunday, June 6, 2011, to celebrate Jewish heritage and Israel's 63rd birthday.

About 20,000 people in San Francisco attended Israel in the Gardens 2011 event at Yerba Buena Gardens, Sunday, June 6, 2011, to celebrate Jewish heritage and Israel's 63rd birthday.

New Amsterdam Market will be officially back in business every Sunday from 11am to 4pm beginning Sunday, June 5, 2011 at the old Fulton Fish Market located on South Street and Beekman Street in Lower Manhattan. It is held outdoors, under cover, and meets rain or shine.

The 33rd annual Carnaval parade and street festival was celebrated, Sunday, May 29, in San Francisco by tens of thousands of people, who danced and shook their hips to the rhythm of Latin, Caribbean and African music.

The 33rd edition of Carnaval, which annually celebrates the rich cultural diversity of San Francisco's local communities, took place this weekend, with tens of thousands of people shaking their hip to the rhythm of Salsa, Samba, Reggae, Tango, Merengue, Calypso, Cha-Cha-Cha, Cumbia, Mambo and even Hip-Hop at the Grand Parade on Sunday, May 29.

The 33rd edition of Carnaval, the annual spring festival that celebrates the rebirth of life, brightened up the streets of San Francisco this weekend, with tens of thousands of people taking part in the colorful Grand Parade, May 29.