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Sizzle & Fizzle: Highs and Lows from the Last Week in S.F. Music

Willie Nelson Says Pot Saved His Life

Willie Nelson, king hippie of country music and walking THC repository, was recently asked a question about legalizing marijuana. And guess what? He's for it. The fact that ol' Willie thinks weed oughta be legal and taxed is about as surprising as hearing that Ted Nugent acquired his dinner with a ... More >>

World Anti-Doping Agency Asked to Dump Marijuana From List of Performance-Enhancing Drugs

Among the Drug War's finer ironies is the treatment of marijuana by the world of sport, which has taken a deliciously schizophrenic view on the miracle/devil plant: It's a gateway drug that dooms its users to a lifetime of apathy, ignorance, and nonproduction. It's also a performance-enhancer, in th ... More >>

Things Music Critics Hate: Skrillex

Music criticism is as much an affliction as an occupation -- especially these days, it's far more reliable as a sickness than a paycheck. Things Music Critics Hate is an occasional series that will attempt to diagnose and explain the broadly shared beliefs and biases that shape the landscape of musi ... More >>

Oh God It Is Present-Buying Season. Quick, Buy Everyone Cookbooks.

This isn't on anyone's lists yet, but we'd still recommend it.​Piling on the retailers of America, who would like all red-blooded Americans, Christian or no, to participate in Black Friday and Cyber Monday, the food media has come out with a strong message to shoppers: Buy cookbooks for Christmas. ... More >>

Today in Science: Hunger Makes You Snarf Junk Food

Next time you order nachos, blame hormones.​Didn't your parents teach you never to go shopping on an empty stomach? Now, neuroscience -- science! -- confirms that, unlike the prohibition against swimming right after dinner, you should follow their advice. As the UK Guardian reports, researchers ... More >>

Things Music Critics Hate: Foster the People, Cage the Elephant, Young the Giant, Portugal. The Man, Etc.

Foster the People: Not bad. But also not that good.​ Music criticism is as much an affliction as an occupation -- especially these days, it's far more reliable as a sickness than a paycheck. Things Music Critics Hate is an occasional series that will attempt to diagnose and explain the broadly ... More >>

Halloween Laughs: The Top 5 Cheesiest Songs From Horror Movie Soundtracks

​In a recent piece for the UK Guardian, Stephen Thrower discussed the dramatic function of a good horror movie soundtrack. Citing examples like the themes from Halloweenand The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, as well as Mike Oldfield's "Tubular Bells" (memorably used in The Exorcist), Thrower identif ... More >>

London Warehouse Fire Badly Burns Indie Labels

via yfrog​The London riots began with a fatal police shooting, but the latest casualty may be independent record labels. Protesters burned down a CD and vinyl stock warehouse in North London last night that was owned by Sony DADC and used by the PIAS Group, a marketing and distribution firm t ... More >>

Dead Kennedys: Not Drunk Enough to Promote Heineken

via Flickr​Of all the ways to promote beer, a song called "Too Drunk to Fuck" seems like a pretty dumb way to do it. Earlier this month, complaints forced Heineken to drop a beer ad on Spotify that featured a lounge-ish cover of the Dead Kennedys' classic punk song by Nouvelle Vague, the UK ... More >>

Successful Kibbi at Palmyra, Failed Milk Campaigns and Herbicides

​Today's notes on national stories, local trends, random tastes, and other bycatch dredged up from the food media. Jonathan KauffmanPalmyra's kibbi plate.​ 1. Kibbi. I finally got a chance to stop at Palmyra, the Syrian restaurant on the corner of Haight and Pierce that still looks an awful lot ... More >>

The Top 5 Dave Grohl Smackdowns

You may have seen Dave Grohl a few days ago giving Glee creator Ryan Murphy a good verbal kicking for acting like a prissy pants (no surprise there -- have you seen that show?) every time an artist refuses to let him use their music for the series. Grohl -- clearly the eternally sane voice in a worl ... More >>

Crass, the Anarcho-Punk Fountainhead, Is Coming to S.F. in March -- Sort Of

​Depending on your perspective, legendary British collective Crass was either the truest band of anarchists to ever strap on guitars -- loudly, proudly advocating radical ultra-left politics through its atonal avant-punk music, Dadaist collage artwork, and edge-dwelling DIY lifestyle -- or it was ... More >>

Mini Cows Just Might Save the Planet

guardian.co.ukMini cows: Three times the beef for a third of the feed.​Part of why agribusiness beef is such an environmental nightmare is that the cows are fucking huge, often tipping the scales at over half a ton apiece. However, for every pound of meat ranchers can glean, cows chomp 16 poun ... More >>

Cults' affecting pop is the blogosphere's latest darling

guardian.co.ukMini cows: Three times the beef for a third of the feed.​Part of why agribusiness beef is such an environmental nightmare is that the cows are fucking huge, often tipping the scales at over half a ton apiece. However, for every pound of meat ranchers can glean, cows chomp 16 poun ... More >>

So what if August: Osage county won a Tony? It's still boring and bloated

guardian.co.ukMini cows: Three times the beef for a third of the feed.​Part of why agribusiness beef is such an environmental nightmare is that the cows are fucking huge, often tipping the scales at over half a ton apiece. However, for every pound of meat ranchers can glean, cows chomp 16 poun ... More >>

Good Living

Novelist Nick Hornby, the voice of the modern dysfunctional male, switches genders in his new work How to Be Good.