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Subject: San Francisco

  • Drink of the Week: House's Christmas Kombucha

    housekombucha.com​Only in California could fermented mushroom tea be considered a holiday beverage, but local indie brewer House Kombucha has a lovely Christmas kombucha.House's blends are not pasteurized, carbonated, or excessively flavored with sweet stuff on top -- and still tastes good. Other current seasonal House flavors include rose green and gen mai cha. Find selected varieties at six San Francisco locations.Follow us on Twitter: @SFoodie

    December 25, 2009
  • Bad Economic Times Mean More Toys For Kids

    via flickr by WaltiBad times, good times​It might seem counterintuitive, but when times are tough, money is tight and jobs are scare, people seem to be more in the giving mood.That was evidenced by the San Francisco Fire Fighters Christmas Eve Toy Drive, where organizers collected more than 9,000 toys in less than 24 hours, breaking last year's record.In fact, it's the most toys firefighters have ever collected in the 9th annual Christmas Eve Toy Drive.

    December 28, 2009
  • End of the Year Hangover: 2009 in Music, NSFW, and Cannabis Club

    While you were out shopping or flying or arguing with the family, we were combing our photo archives to compile the best and the brightest of San Francisco 2009. From Morrissey, to Modest Mouse, from the Flaming Lips to KISS, from Dizzy Balloon to Silversun Pickups and festivals galore in between. Welcome to "The Year in Concerts: Best of S.F. Music." Christopher Victorio​ From the Folsom Street Fair 2009 to the 9th Annual Masturbate-A-Thon, San Francisco really went all out and let it all

    December 28, 2009
  • Perverting Justice

    December 30, 2009
  • Signs of Progress

    December 30, 2009
  • SF Weekly Letters

    December 30, 2009
  • Wild Foods Advocate forageSF Announces Two Urban Edible Walks

    ForageSF​In its ongoing efforts to educate locals on the bounty of wild foods growing in San Francisco, forageSF has scheduled two upcoming Urban Edible Walks of San Francisco for Monday, Jan. 14, from 2 to 4 p.m. and Saturday, Feb. 20, from noon to 2 p.m. Admission is $20 and limited to a small group (likely under 10 people), so booking early is advisable. Go to forageSF for more info.Follow us on Twitter: @SFoodie

    December 30, 2009
  • Swingless Golfers Strike In Court

    via flickr by chris.corwinNever win​The saga over the patent rights and trade secrets of the swingless golf club continues in a San Francisco courtroom.A federal judge in San Francisco today permitted some counterclaims accusing a Wyoming-based company and two directors of tricking the former owners to give up the patent rights and trade secrets to the gun-powdered loaded golf clubs. The swingless golf club uses a plastic strip of small powder chargers, which drive the striker in the club head

    December 30, 2009
  • Mochi Mochi

    December 30, 2009
  • Help Endangered Species Stick Around For Another Decade Or Five

    via flickr by Lawrence OPMarching against global warming​The buzz of the decade has been about going green. So it only seems apropos that San Francisco would ring in 2010 with a competition to save local endangered species.On New Year's Day, participants will start the search for the 36 endangered species that live in Golden Gate National Parks and then take some sort of action to help protect and preserve these species. Participants have until Dec. 31, 2010 to locate and help as many endanger

    December 31, 2009
  • Three Bay Rider Motorcyclists Charged With Attempted Murder and Gang Allegations In Broadway Stabbing

    ​Three supposed members of the Bay Riders, a motorcycle club that police say is an affiliate of the Hells Angels, have been charged with assault and gang enhancements after one allegedly stabbed a victim during a brawl on Broadway Street in December. This is the first San Francisco case to bring gang charges against members of the Bay Riders, a self-proclaimed club of "motorcycle enthusiasts" which formed after the shooting death of Mark "Papa" Guardado, the president of the Hells Angels

    January 1, 2010
  • Sparking Interest: The Year in Marijuana Reporting

    In San Francisco, marijuana is always a topic of interest. This past year saw the city dealing with the ins and outs of medical marijuana and grappling with a debate over decriminalization. Here are some of our most read posts on the issues.Get Up, Stand Up: Ammiano Introduces Marijuana Legalization Bill to the Press​Assemblyman Tom Ammiano's press conference this morning announcing his marijuana-legalization bill started punctually and stayed relentlessly on-point -- thereby denying a barb to

    January 1, 2010
  • Guardian's 'Proof' S.F. Isn't Horribly Run Seems to Show S.F. Is Horribly Run

    ​Last month, my colleague Benjamin Wachs and I penned an SF Weekly cover story titled "The Worst-Run Big City in the U.S." Now, according to a letter we received in late December, the Guardian believes it has found the loose thread in our sweater it hopes to pull in a forthcoming article, unraveling our thesis that this is an awesomely misgoverned city, burdened by waste, incompetence, and an entrenched culture of unaccountability. After going through our 5,000-word story with a fine-too

    January 4, 2010
  • Tech Alert: Bike Rack Cozy Spotted In the Haight

    No more cold bike racks in the Haight​In the beginning, God inspired Man to create Walkman cozies. And it was good. Next came iPod cozies, Blackberry cozies, and iPhone cozies -- which was progress, we think.With the recent lifting of a court injunction against new San Francisco bike lanes and racks, upside-down steel U's promise to become the San Francisco technology device du jour. So naturally, we have.... Yep. Cozies. We spotted this one -- an elaborately knit number complete with differen

    January 5, 2010
  • Poll: San Francsico's Literasy 'Ranking' Plumetts

    Literacy problems here...​It's hard to read the writing on the wall when you can't read. And, according to a recent national poll, it's getting harder and harder to find a worthwhile, writing-splattered wall to enjoy here in San Francisco. Central Connecticut State University's yearly "America's Most Literate Cities" rankings are out -- it appears ranking burgs' literacy is CCSU's gig in the same way Texas A&M is driven to engineer gargantuan bonfires -- and San Francisco dropped from fift

    January 5, 2010
  • List: The year in news

    January 6, 2010
  • SF Weekly Letters

    January 6, 2010
  • The Guardian Way: Fudge the Numbers Till They Add Up How You Want

    ​When we got wind that the Guardian was planning a response to the "Worst-Run Big City in the U.S." article I wrote with Benjamin Wachs, we guessed they'd do two things: Focus almost entirely on one chart that went along with our lengthy article (nearly completely ignoring the article) and propose the idea of comparing San Francisco to other cities is ridiculous because other cities are so different (as if comparisons should only be made among things that are the same). Well, that happened. An

    January 6, 2010
  • How Many Do You Need?

    January 6, 2010
  • Jose Luis Hernandez-Gomez, Just 19 Years Old, Is City's First Homicide Victim of 2010

    View Larger Map As noted earlier today, the city Medical Examiner has identified San Francisco's first homicide victim of the year, a man shot dead in the wee hours Sunday in the Excelsior. Jose Luis Hernandez-Gomez, was found by police suffering from a gunshot wound while sprawled in front of 500 Naples Street. While it was initially reported that the victim was in his 20s, it turns out Hernandez-Gomez is just 19. At this time, no arrests have been made and the police are encouraging witnesses

    January 7, 2010
  • I'll Surrender My Snark If the Guardian Loses its Condescension: One More Look at the Numbers

    ​Tim Redmond thinks our debate on Forum tomorrow should be "fun." But I'm bored with his line of argument already. Because the truth is that we're reached a point in the "how much does San Francisco spend per capita?" debate where reasonable people can disagree. And at that point, debating the numbers instead of San Francisco's urgent governmental needs is letting the city get off easy. We're not arguing about facts so much as what is appropriate to put in or out of the equation ... an

    January 7, 2010
  • SF Gov InAction: Everybody's Doing the Eric Mar Dance of Futility

      Monday, Jan. 11   10:30 a.m. - City Operations and Neighborhood Services committee   There is so little going on at this meeting that physicists have yet to quantify an amount this small.  1 p.m. - Land use & Economic Development Committee When local small business owners spend years complaining, the result is a meeting like this one. Four out of the six measures on the agenda are designed to help local and/or small local businesses get more contracts and money

    January 11, 2010
  • SF Weekly Letters

    January 13, 2010
  • Sadly, Decision to Drop San Francisco From World Cup Consideration Was On the Mark

    Yes, the soccer bigwigs definitely gave San Francisco the business...​San Francisco chauvinists and city soccer fans aren't a natural team. The chauvinists would like to tell you how the fact you can walk to really great restaurants here counterbalances an utterly dysfunctional municipal government -- and they believe it. While the soccer fans just really, really want to talk about how the Kop End is far superior to the Anfield End in Liverpool. And they mean it too. Now, however, they're brot

    January 13, 2010
  • Yet Another San Francisco Vehicle Fire

    www.lcpstc.org​The other day we wrote about how San Francisco was attempting to reclaim its mantle as The City That Knows How ... To Burn Cars from the East Bay. Well, the hits keep coming. Shortly before 1 a.m. this morning, police officers spotted a vehicle burning at Alemany and Naglee in the Excelsior. The fire department was called and doused the flames. And that's all we've got. We've called the San Francisco Police Department to ask: if this fire is suspected to be part of a larger spre

    January 13, 2010
  • Local Grinch Has the Balls to Cart Away Christmas

    What Balls!​How do San Franciscans know when the 12 days of Christmas have been supplanted with January/February gloom?A cruelly smiling lady shows up to carts away the gigantic decorations that festooned the tree at Pier 39.

    January 13, 2010
  • S.F. Could Improve its Anti-Smoking 'Test Score' -- By Forbidding You To Smoke In Your Own Home

    You're under arrest, mister...​Earlier this week, the American Lung Association released its annual "Tobacco Policy Report Card," grading cities on how effectively they limit smoking. The city of Richmond -- which is cursed with a reputation as a great place to have a cigarette shot out of one's mouth -- turned around its F grade last year and got an A. San Francisco, meanwhile, got a C. Obviously, that leaves lots of room for improvement -- and San Francisco is a city that bristles at the des

    January 14, 2010
  • GQ Names Bi-Rite's Salted Caramel One of 2009's Five Best Desserts

    nchoz/FlickrFrom 18th Street to the world.​GQ's Alan Richman has showered San Francisco's 18th Street corridor with love over the past year. Remember his 25 best American pizzas feature from May 2009? At #3, Pizzeria Delfina's face-melting panna pie beat out offerings from Gialina (#14) and A16 (#17). Now, in his latest missive, he's naming Bi-Rite Creamery's salted caramel ― perhaps that enterprise's most compelling signature flavor ― as one of the five very best desserts he inhaled i

    January 14, 2010
  • Cops Will Soon Pick Up Truant Kids, Drive Them To Referral Center. Just Don't Call It 'An Arrest.'

    Whack! Backlash for truant kids a'comin​Kids cutting class to wander around the city will soon face a new hurdle: the police. Mayor Gavin Newsom announced today that the cops will soon be picking up kids playing hooky and dropping them off at a new referral center, where students will be bombarded with services to get them to go to school.The center, to be opened in February or March, will be called the Truancy Assessment and Referral Center or -- as if the city needed one more acronym -- TARC

    January 15, 2010
  • Office Depot's Alleged Bilking of City Led To ... Calendar Shortage?

    This calendar is late, too...​After last week's article, a surprising number of readers contacted us querying where they, too, could obtain a San Francisco Public Defender calendar. Well, why not drop in at 555 Seventh Street? You don't even need to be accused of a crime first. If Public Defender Jeff Adachi printed out a few more copies, however, he could have fulfilled a real need here in San Francisco. The query "Where's my damn calendar?" was somewhat ubiquitous this month among city emplo

    January 18, 2010
  • Openers (New Column): Personal & the Pizzas

    ​"Openers" is a new column here at All Shook Down in which we will dig up some of the best opening bands in San Francisco each week and tell you why it's worth showing up early to catch them. Our ambition is to uncover music that you aren't familiar with and would otherwise probably eat a burrito through. Hey, we love [Insert favorite burrito dealer] too, but having caught the tail-end of so many seemingly wondrous openers, we want to save you the anguish and tell you upfront what your tamale-

    January 19, 2010
  • The Pharcyde

    January 20, 2010
  • Police Chief Now Says First-Time Johns Won't Be Publicly Shamed

    Umberto MarinIs this Plan B?​The problem with San Francisco is that people come here to do stuff they think they can't get away with at home. Prostitutes from South Carolina, for instance. This was police chief George Gascon's take,  expressed at a community press conference this afternoon regarding the police department's nascent prostitution enforcement operation in the Russian Hill and Polk Street neighborhoods. Two weeks into the operation, police officials said, they have arrested 36

    January 19, 2010
  • Toilet Economics No. 2: Restroom Repair or Replacement Costs $391,000 Per S.F. John

    Well, you can't beat the price...​Yesterday we wondered why the cost per restroom based on the city's numbers had jumped from $326,000 to $379,000 per john in two years. Now we've learned -- are you sitting down? -- the cost to repair or replace a park restroom is actually $391,000 apiece. Well, what the hell happened here? There are two reasons the cost has "jumped." One is that, hands down, "the cost of doing business in San Francisco is outrageous," as city restroom task force member Meredi

    January 20, 2010
  • Bogus Trend Story? Dog-Nappings 'Increase' In San Francisco.

    Your collie or your life...​A KTVU news segment recently tugged at the heartstrings with the title "Heartbroken SF Family Searching for Stolen Dog." The story recounted the travails of the Gaffney family, whose dog, JoJo, was just filched while he was tied up outside the Safeway on Market and Church. The story certainly is heartbreaking enough -- though SF Weekly has learned that JoJo has since been found in Marin and reunited with the Gaffneys. But what caught our attention was the lead on KT

    January 20, 2010
  • In Store: Rooky Ricardo's (New Record Shop Column)

    ​In Store is a new All Shook Down column in which we find San Francisco's quirkiest, most beloved, weirdest, and/or otherwise-most-interesting record stores, talk to people there (employees, volunteers, customers, cops, whoever) and find out what's up. Along the way, we hope to paint a fun little portrait of each shop. Record stores are part of what makes San Francisco special. From the Mission to North Beach, this burg's unmistakable friskiness and its cultural capital emanate from those dust

    January 21, 2010
  • A Little Rain Never Killed Anyone -- Here. Yet.

    The above-the-fold news today is that a state-of-emergency has been declared in San Francisco and other California counties. Fortunately, however, this emergency hasn't ostensibly cost anyone his or her life locally -- so far. The emergency declaration issued by acting Governor Jerry Brown skips San Francisco to the head of the line when it comes to receiving state aid for our crumbling highways, eroding seasides, sewage-flooded beaches and other storm-related maladies.  Yet while Brown's

    January 22, 2010
  • S.F. Unemployment Numbers Drop -- But This Isn't Necessarily a Great Thing

    'I dunno, Paw. That sure don't sound like good news to me.' ​A quick glance at this month's unemployment numbers for San Francisco and its neighboring counties reminds us of how deftly numbers can be tortured. So, while the unemployment rate in San Francisco dropped between November and December from 9.8 percent to 9.4 percent, this wasn't necessarily because more people were working. It seems that it's because fewer people were looking for work. To its credit, the state's Employment Developme

    January 22, 2010
  • City Reverses Course, Promises No Reduction in Homeless Beds in 2010

    Jacob Riis​San Francisco officials are expected to file documents in federal court this week stating they have reached an agreement with anti-poverty activists on a pledge to not reduce the number of shelter beds available to homeless people this year.This represents an about-face from city policy of even a week ago, when it seemed as if officials would seek authority to cut homeless beds by as much as 25 percent during the coming year.On Jan. 18, SF Weekly reported that, just as Mayor Gavin N

    January 25, 2010
  • List: Graffiti abatement

    January 27, 2010
  • Tim Barsky's revival of Bright River feels dated

    February 3, 2010
  • You'd Think Ramming a Cop In the Crosswalk Would Get You Busted. You'd Be Surprised.

    Citation to ensue. Or not. ​Yesterday we wrote about a policeman sent sprawling by a motorist while he was in a North Beach crosswalk. We were surprised to learn that the driver, who sent the cop to the hospital, was not cited at the scene. In San Francisco, curbing your wheels incorrectly will get you a citation. Running over a cop while he's in the crosswalk may not, apparently. "The only offense I've ever seen cited is hit-and-run," said pedestrian activist Manish Champsee, president of Wal

    January 27, 2010
  • It Sucks Being Rich: Modern Grumps and 'Unhappy Hipsters'

    "He sipped his tepid coffee and pondered how to tell her that, in fact, the pants made the sack dress even less appealing." -- Unhappy Hipster​What's the price of being young, hip, rich, and urban? According to the droll site Unhappy Hipsters (tagline: "It's lonely in the modern world") you no longer have the energy to smile. The blog, which takes shots at Dwell (the fruit bowl porn mag for design fetishists that was once based in San Francisco), puts witty captions under images of very unsmil

    January 27, 2010
  • No ID Yet For Home-Invasion Shooting Victim, City's Sixth Homicide

    View Larger MapSan Francisco's Medical Examiner is not yet ready to release the identity of a man shot dead last night during a home-invasion robbery. The robbery and homicide occurred on the 2400 block of Moraga near 31st Avenue in the Outer Sunset. Police have told the media that other victims of the robbery were found tied up but unharmed. This is the city's sixth homicide of the year and first since homeless man Edward Holloway was accused of killing Matthew Adams earlier this month by beati

    January 28, 2010
  • Baylinks: Mysterious Disappearances, Patty Hearst, & Love Bandit

    ​The Appeal's Beth Spotswood and SFist's Brock Keeling investigate the mysterious disappearance of women in Point Reyes. (VIDEO) [SFAppeal]Is Plumpjack Winery the next stop for Newsom? Mayor is coy about his next step. [City Insider]Patty Hearst rides amok through San Francisco. [SF Citizen]San Francisco streets mapped via sound. [Streetsblog]Video about the history of the Noe Valley Farmer's Market, with bonus amusing anti-stroller-set comment. [Noe Valley]Oh la la! The Muni Love Bandit strik

    February 1, 2010
  • SF Weekly Letters

    February 3, 2010
  • Works by Manson Family pal Bobby BeauSoleil’s Orkustra compiled on double album

    February 3, 2010
  • What To Do? Wednesday's Pick: San Francisco Ocean Film Festival

    In Awe of the Shark from Save Our Seas Foundation on Vimeo. San Francisco Ocean Film Festival @ Theatre 39 at Pier 39 In 1997, a killer whale breached the surface of the water off San Francisco, shocking a boatload of whale watchers (one with a video camera). It had a huge great white shark clamped in its mouth, upending conventional wisdom about who really ran things under the surface. If it sounds like a parable in need of a real-world application, here's one: The San Francisco Ocean Film Fe

    February 3, 2010
  • How 'Generous' Is San Francisco? No. 13 Nationally, According to List.

    ​If only San Francisco could harness the kinetic energy generated by tens of thousands of coins being shaken in thousands of pan-handlers' cups -- we could power this city and sell off the surplus and re-invest it in coins in cups. To our knowledge, there's no accurate measure of how much loose cash is handed to those lobbying for it within city limits (if so, we'd love to see it). But we do know how much money San Franciscans donated electronically with benevolent intentions -- and we rank de

    February 4, 2010
  • Openers: Get There Early For Magic Bullets

    David Bornfriend www.davidbornfriend.com​"Openers" researches the best opening bands in San Francisco each week and tells you why it's worth showing up early to catch them. Our latest pick: Magic Bullets. In a non-musical context, "Magic Bullet(s)" can refer to, among other things, a blender-like device whose absurdly enthusiastic info-mertials made for a viral culture footnote, or a trashy guide to seducing women. We're not sure whether any of these lowbrow dregs inspired the name of the new

    February 9, 2010