Latest posts by Zack Ruskin

Who listens to Death Cab for Cutie? In the Seattle band’s earliest days, the answer was clear. Following their 2003 breakthrough, Transatlanticism, the work of the quartet that consists of Ben Gibbard, Nick Harmer, Jason McGerr, and Chris Walla became a soundtrack for a generation of teenagers and young adults who found solace in the […]

Early in Liz Phair’s headlining set at the Fillmore on Thursday evening, I found myself watching her feet. As is often the case with concerts these days, a smattering of cell phones had risen in unison as Phair took the stage to perform cuts from across her illustrious — and still thriving — career. One […]

As expected, outgoing Supervisor Malia Cohen’s measure to levy a gross-receipts tax on local cannabis businesses comes before San Francisco voters on Nov. 6. Not surprisingly, efforts are already underway to stop Proposition D. If passed, the measure would tax retail cannabis shops at a rate of 2.5 percent on their first $1 million in […]

If every band Johnny Marr has worked with were to play a show together, you’d have the makings of a multi-day festival. Naturally, the headliner would be The Smiths, a band that — despite existing for only five years — has become one of the most influential rock groups of the past century, but the […]

Derek Riedle can remember the exact moment the idea for Civilized entered his mind. It was 2015, and he was out to dinner with his wife in Venice, Calif. The couple had moved from Canada to L.A. the year before, and that evening they were celebrating both a birthday and their final day producing a […]

Unless you’re seeing Paul Simon — an option that’s sadly no longer available — the odds of hearing the sounds of silence at a concert are minimal at best. While acts like Sufjan Stevens and Joanna Newsom are often able to quiet a crowd when the hushed nature of a song calls for it, a cloud of idle […]

At any given time, California’s politicians are arguing about marijuana. Some want to treat cannabis like any other business, while others wish to keep the cumbersome web of restrictions and regulations they’ve spun intact. These debates are to be expected, given how the recreational industry has yet to celebrate its first birthday, but the questions […]

Many readers first came to know author Nicole Chung from her time as the managing editor of The Toast, a site devoted to hilarious literary critiques, sharp feminist observations, and tight-knit readership. While the site halted operations in 2016 — going out in style with a guest post from Hillary Clinton — Chung has continued […]

Ever since California’s recreational-cannabis industry launched this year, there’s been plenty to talk about. From profiles on budding entrepreneurs to scientific primers extolling the virtues of terpenes, the breadth of potential narratives has, at times, felt staggering. Whether your interest lies in economics, the environment, social justice, or health, the cannabis industry has something to […]

  Stripped of any additional context, the idea of a 5-year-old girl with epilepsy fighting for access to medication at school would seem ludicrous. Unfortunately, in the case of Santa Rosa’s Brooke Adams and her mother, Jana, context is everything. Brooke suffers from a rare form of the disease known as Dravet Syndrome, which leaves […]