Professional Services Sector

Steve Brodsky's Nice Life: S.F. Music Lover Helped Local Artists Find Success

R.I.P. Steve Brodsky, Beloved S.F. Music Manager and Promoter

Steve Brodsky, an artist manager, show promoter, and executive who left his mark on many aspects of the San Francisco music scene, passed away Friday night of complications from leukemia. Among other endeavors, Brodsky worked with local acts like Wallpaper., Midi Matilda, Capital Cities, and others ... More >>

The Magic of Making Food Look Good on Television

Here's a fun video -- well, more of an ad/promo reel -- showing how German advertising company The Marmalade creates special effects for food television commercials. The shots involve a special high-speed camera and fake food props (we want to see more of the studio that creates fake food, by the wa ... More >>

Christopher Stender: Court Upholds Injunction Against Attorney Accused of Scamming Immigrants

Martin Guajardo, the former San Francisco immigration lawyer accused of scamming his clients, remains at large since City Attorney Dennis Herrera filed suit against him in November 2010. In the meantime, Christopher Stender, an attorney whom the city has accused of aiding and abetting Guarardo's all ... More >>

Danielle Ate the Sandwich: Show Preview

I Love That City: An S.F. Mega-Rave Moves to Shoreline

I Love That City

A huge new rave moves from S.F. to the Peninsula -- before the first beat even drops.

Concert Fans: Nob Hill Residents Would Like to See Less of You

Over the last few years, concert promotion giant Live Nation has hosted an increasing number of concerts at San Francisco's Nob Hill Masonic Center. The seated, 3,500-capacity venue doesn't usually hold crazy rock shows (unless you think Weezer is crazy), but Al Green, Yanni, and Roxette are all sch ... More >>

Skream and Benga: Show Preview

Top 5 Ways to Ruin a Perfectly Respectable Career, Featuring Kings of Leon

Is it really so hard to be Kings of Leon? That's a question that countless arena-rock sobsters have been asking themselves in the wake of the Followill clan's tour cancellation, a move which disappointed fans, upset beer manufacturers, and may damn near bankrupt Live Nation. Rather than revel in the ... More >>

H1-B Visa Program Creates Caste System for Silicon Valley

Groupon Google Ads Pulls a Bait And Switch, Lawsuit Says

Bait and switch​Groupon is being accused of defrauding consumers by purchasing advertisements on Google for services the company did not offer, according to a federal lawsuit filed in San Francisco. A Google search for "San Francisco Tours" on Feb. 24, for example, purportedly returned the followi ... More >>

Commercial Interests

Google Pays Kickbacks -- Or So Say TechCrunch's Anonymous Hearsay Sources

If anonymous hearsay says it, it must be true.​Is Google today's incarnation of Alan Freed, the 1950s R&B disc jockey accused of taking payments to play certain songs? TechCrunch cites anonymous sources suggesting something like that.A major agency "is pushing a ton of advertising dollars thro ... More >>

Grinding Justice: Operation Streamline Costs Millions, Tramples the Constitution, Treats Migrants Like Cattle, and Doesnít Work

Yes, You Really Are Paying More for Concert Tickets Now

www.economist.com​As recorded music sales slide, at least among the young, artists and promoters are charging you more (lots more) money to go to concerts.How much more? Check it out after the jump.

The Exotic Erotic Ball ditched the Cow Palace over ticket fraud

Zynga Off the Hook for Mafia Wars Vandalism, S.F. City Attorney Says

​It looks like Zynga is not going to face legal or financial consequences for alleged sidewalk vandalism carried out as part of a marketing campaign for the San Francisco-based company's new online game, Mafia Wars: Las Vegas.Instead, according to Matt Dorsey, spokesman for San Francisco City Atto ... More >>

Fast Company Influence Project Pisses Off Online Influencers

You can add another entry to the annals of botched social media campaigns; Fast Company and San Francisco based digital marketing agency Mekanism turned Fast Company readers into digital guinea pigs this morning with The Influence Project, an ornate marketing rickroll where users had to register the ... More >>

Ex-Muni Brass Linked to $200 Million in Private Central Subway Contracts

Meet the new boss...​On Tuesday, the Board of Supervisors will vote on a contract that would send tens of millions of dollars in Central Subway project funds to a firm employing the former director of the Municipal Transportation Agency. If approved, the contract will push the total amount of fund ... More >>

DOJ Approves Live Nation-Ticketmaster Merger

​On Monday, the David and Goliath of concert ticket promotion and sales -- Live Nation and Ticketmaster -- joined forces to become Live Nation Entertainment, a music industry behemoth that promises to force other music labels and promoters to rejigger their business plans to accommodate. The U.S. ... More >>

List: The Chronicle looks on the bright side

Good News, San Francisco (For Law Firms): Locals Still Suing One Another

Down -- but, locally, far from outA flagging economy hasn't yet led to the Shakespearian situation of killing all the lawyers -- at least not in San Francisco (and, again, not yet). Despite some hard-to-ignore setbacks for the city's providers of legal services, a recent report by the legal consulti ... More >>

Yuletide Good Will Spells Ruin For SF Law Firms

By Matt SmithAn apparent upwelling of holiday good cheer has destroyed two of San Francisco's oldest law firms, which had thrived during much of the past century by exploiting greed, jealousy, fear, malice and other non-holiday sentiments. Thelen LLP, begun in 1924 and until recently one of America' ... More >>

Video: Adam Werbach Describes New Job

Bar Association gives its qualified support for judge

Examiner Offers Free Advertising!

The Demise of Hyphy

Thizzle, bling, and blunts may have helped bring down the overhyped hyphy movement. But KMEL pulled the trigger.

Growing a Greener, More Hydro SF

The Guardian Gets a Reality Check from The New York Times

So Does That Mean Weeklies Were Ahead Of Their Time? Shit, They've Always Been Free

Blood Feast

Letters to the Editor

July 5, 2006

Sloganeering

For years the city has been using racy ads to sell HIV prevention. Do they work?

Real to Reel

Jesse Kipp's job in the emerging field of commercial ethnography could make you the star of your very own advertisement

Letters to the Editor

Week of July 3,2002

Auditing the Auditors

The expensive tastes of KPMG

Sleeping With the Auditor

Why San Francisco and its outside accountants are a little too close for comfort -- and how it could threaten the city's financial integrity

Soft Firm

Too often, the S.F. law firm of Lieff, Cabraser, Heimann & Bernstein strikes settlements that give the firm millions of dollars in legal fees -- and its class action clients too little

Battle Belli

The international soap opera that surrounds the crumbling San Francisco landmark that was center stage for the incomparable "King of Torts," Melvin Belli

Mecklin

Law and Odor

Reel World

Don't Delay, Act Now

Between a Rock and a ... Rock

Environmental testing in the Presidio may be a Sisyphean task

Sails Pitch

Born to sell, would-be America's Cup skipper Dawn Riley puts her birthright to work

Dish

Randy Shaw's Power Plays

Sixteen years ago, Randy Shaw started a housing clinic with $50 and a good idea: educating tenants. Now he's got more than $900,000 a year to spend -- and clout to match.

Webbing Out

Dog Bites