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Subject: San Francisco

  • Last Night: Andrew W.K. and Calder Quartet at Swedish American Hall

    ​Andrew W.K. and Calder QuartetWednesday, Oct. 7, 2009Swedish American HallBetter than: Metallica and the San Francisco Symphony.Hours before he took the stage, Andrew W.K. was amping up his fans. His Twitter feed was bursting with typical AWK excitement: "PARTY MINDSET OF THE DAY: Remember that even when life feels hard or scary, I am here cheering you on, and you will KEEP GOING!""Walking around San Francisco & thinking about moving here. Of course I would keep my house in NYC too! CONCE

    October 8, 2009
  • Vehicular Madness, Cop Swarm in Potrero Hill -- With Video

    For reasons yet undisclosed, a car somehow jumped the curb last night on Potrero Street between 23rd and 24th Street around 11 p.m. One neighbor who was returning home from work after the after the accident occurred said that it "looked like every cop in San Francisco was there." The footage above was captured by a nearby resident. Just how, exactly, the above scene came to pass -- and what became of the driver -- is not clear at this time. SF Weekly's calls to the San Francisco Police Dep

    October 8, 2009
  • Bay Links: Smarts, Fights & Foliage

    Just like Steve Martin, San Francisco's gotta lotta brains.​San Francisco has an IQ of 165. You know, if your believe in that sort of thing. [City Insider]Break time video! Kick it with the everybody's favorite dudes who like-to-blow-things-up, the MythBusters. [SFAppeal]Tom Ammiano heckles Schwarzenegger! [SFist]Awesome shots of an S.F. abode totally covered in foliage. [Mission Mission]Do you like music? Do you like comedy? Do you like writers? Then you should probably go to this on Oct. 15.

    October 8, 2009
  • Line Dance

    October 7, 2009
  • Under Exposure's Spell

    October 7, 2009
  • Is ANOTHER Industry Insider Coming to the Entertainment Commission?

    The commission will come to order​The applicants for a recently vacated seat on the city's Entertainment Commission -- a seven-member board of political appointees that regulates San Francisco nightclubs -- appear poised to once again stoke the debate over whether the commission is too cozy with the businesses it oversees.The Board of Supervisors' Rules Committee will review the three applications at an upcoming meeting on Thursday. The Entertainment Commission's open seat is supposed to be de

    October 12, 2009
  • The Meter Is Running: Municipal Transportation Agency Outlines Plan to Extend Parking Meter Hours -- Which Could Raise $9M for City

    ​Earlier today, the Municipal Transportation Agency unveiled the results of a study regarding its tentative plan to extend parking meter hours to weekday evenings and on Sunday. There's no shortage of details -- reporters were even handed a city map with "pink" and "teal" parking zones -- but whether this plan moves forward or goes down like a wooden nickel depends largely on just one thing. Namely, will the folks who don't want to pay for what they're now getting for free have more sway tha

    October 13, 2009
  • Music Awards: Should I Stay or Should I Go?

    October 14, 2009
  • Woman Accused of Vandalizing Car -- With Dog

    'What a world, what a world'​Truth be told, there are more effective ways of vandalizing a car -- via a can of spray paint or a chisel to name a couple. But employing man's best friend as a means of inflicting damage upon a vehicle -- now that earns some style points. On Sunday evening, a pair of San Francisco police officers headed to the intersection of Kelloch and Velasco to investigate allegations of automobile vandalism. Instead they got a shaggy dog story of sorts.

    October 14, 2009
  • Rain-pocalypse: Mortally Wounded Umbrellas Litter San Francisco Streets

    Discarded! ​If yesterday taught us anything about San Francisco, it's that we all invest in really crappy umbrellas. I'm no exception. Within five seconds of stepping off the bus, my umbrella, which apparently was crafted from dental floss, newspapers, and tinfoil, was reduced to shreds. My 15-minute bike ride from the Mission to SoMa this morning was like grim tour of a corpse-strewn battlefield.Flattened!​

    October 14, 2009
  • Political Strategists Confident Extended Parking Meter Plan Is Dead -- But Maybe It's Only *Mostly* Dead

    Can some manner of Miracle Max save the extended parking meter enforcement plan? ​In retrospect, the Municipal Transportation Agency's proposal to extend parking meter hours to 9 p.m. or midnight through swaths of the city and from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sundays could have been more badly timed. This, however, would likely have required a Zodiac-type killer making threats regarding the extension of parking meter hours before the MTA blithely announced its plan. Here are the facts as they stand: Wha

    October 14, 2009
  • Fail Whale, San Francisco Style: How Else Can You Encapsulate City-Centric Inadequacy?

    N-Judah Chronicles/Lauren Oliver -- Used with PermissionThe N is Near​We'll admit it -- we approach Twitter and the like with the apprehension of a troglodyte suddenly confronted with a Norelco electric razor. Sure, there could be a use for this thing -- but we're busy painting antelope on the walls. And that's a marketable skill! Still, even we were enthralled with the above San Francisco-centric "Fail Whale" takeoff. It's the "N-Judah Fail!" logo, created for the quality local blog N-Judah C

    October 15, 2009
  • Where Does S.F. Department of Elections Get Those Wonderful Pictures For Voter Pamphlets? Would You Believe -- Flickr?

    ​Thousands upon thousands of San Franciscans were greeted by Voter Information Pamphlets in their mail boxes this week. And yet -- as always -- the dread of a pending election featuring confusing ballot measures, the oft-bizarre arguments expended for and against them, and a handful of unopposed candidates was mitigated by the wonderful photography on the cover of the book. I don't know about you, but the sight of that majestic seaplane soaring over the unfinished Golden Gate Bridge fills me w

    October 15, 2009
  • Transgender Activists Staying Home From Obama Protests, But Waiting for President to Back Up Trans-Friendly Words

    Code Pink on the left! Teabaggers on the right! Apparently, however, the transgender community still has President Obama's back.​While Michelle Obama marked an earlier San Francisco visit by getting her hands dirty volunteering at a Bayview playground, the O will be skipping any public event that could sully his appearance in town this afternoon. The collective wisdom is that the president is unwilling to personally face the  tumult of protests and the dreaded "

    October 15, 2009
  • 'Lucky' San Francisco Man Hurled Out Fifth-Story Window Escapes With Relatively Minor Injuries

    ​A San Francisco man allegedly pushed out of a fifth-story window in the wee hours who plummeted to the pavement below escaped with only a dislocated right shoulder and fractured right arm -- a turn of events the San Francisco Police Department has described as "amazing." The incident took place at roughly 2 a.m. Thursday morning, when an altercation, possibly fueled by alcohol, broke out at 776 Bush Street, the Burke-Lewis Apartments. Police say 40-year-old Tregg Smith, a building resident, p

    October 15, 2009
  • It's Your Friday Morning News Quiz!

    How much was that parking meter in the window...​Big rigs! Bridges! Barack! Brobdingnagian amounts of rain! And now: Quiz! 1. How did the San Francisco Police Department describe a man who fell -- and was allegedly pushed -- out of a fifth-story window in the wee hours on Thursday? A. "Unpopular"B. "Lucky"C. "Despondent"D. "Dead"2. The Municipal Transportation Agency's plan to extend city parking meter hours calls for: A. Meter enforcement until 9 p.m. in some zonesB. Meter enforcement until m

    October 16, 2009
  • Huzzah: September's Unemployment Statistics are Here

    ​Stop the presses!!! Do not click 'save' on that blog entry!!! Drop everything you are doing RIGHT NOW (fact: The kids will still be at school, they don't die if you're late) and listen up. The Employment Development Department has issued September's unemployment statistics. When last we visited them, the San Francisco metro area's unemployment rate was hovering around the nine-point-sumthin' range, and IT STILL IS. In August, 9.6 percent of you San Francisco/Redwood City/San Mateo dwellers we

    October 16, 2009
  • New York Times Debuts Bay Area Section Today. Our Verdict: Meh.

    Not a disaster, no -- but not 'King of the World' either...​The nation's paper of record launched its new Bay Area section today to compete with San Francisco's paper of record. So how does the Times' San Francentric coverage measure up? Well, let's just say the Times is no Chronicle. And, believe it or not, I mean that as a compliment to the Chronicle. The "section" is all of two pages long and, for the most part, doesn't tell locals anything they don't already know. The "Indicators" co

    October 16, 2009
  • I Wish I Knew How to Quit You: S.F. Chamber of Commerce Won't Leave Global Warming-Denialist U.S. Chamber

    ​People in fields such as petroleum, investment banking, or running chambers of commerce, know what it means to be blessed. They are embedded within industries that love to put on conventions and trade shows. Workers travel to distant cities, check into the Hyatt, mingle with people who went the same (or similar) college as they did, and, at the end of the day, hit industry-sponsored dinners and cocktails. So it's easy to comprehend why the suits at the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce have

    October 16, 2009
  • Goin' Legit: Thoughts on Composting From a Former Green Bandit

    Or else, kiddies!​A few months back I wrote about how the harrowing experience of visiting "The Pit" -- the Hieronymus Bosch-like netherworld in which all of San Francisco's refuse ends up -- forced me into an illicit lifestyle. City studies have shown that roughly two-thirds of the crap at "The Pit" could be recycled or composted. And since my  building didn't offer composting, under cover of darkness I would furtively toss our compiled compost into someone else's green bin (I figured th

    October 20, 2009
  • With S.F. Critical Mass Mojo in Tow, Tesla Motors To Open Store in Biketown USA

    Tesla's next endeavor? ​Fresh off the revelation that the company's top publicist is an avid fan and participant in San Francisco's Critical Mass monthly bicycle parade, Tesla Motors announced  it will be opening an electric car store in America's top bicycling city, Boulder, Colorado.Last month we chronicled in this space how Rachel Konrad, communications manager for Tesla Motors, the Peninsula-based maker of hot-rod electric cars, revealed to a cycling-oriented podcast that she's a memb

    October 20, 2009
  • Feds complain that S.F.'s sanctuary city policies impeded investigation of Latino gang

    October 21, 2009
  • Owner of the Warfield pushes billboard ballot measure

    October 21, 2009
  • SF Weekly Letters

    October 21, 2009
  • Grub Street Truth-Squads Chang: New York Chefs Use Hella Figs

    DDanzigFoie gras torchon with duck prosciutto and Black Mission figs at Gary Danko.​Bitter knows no bounds. Following the fallout over N.Y. chef David Chang's remark that "fuckin' every restaurant in San Francisco is just serving figs on a plate," Grub Street's Adam Martin activated his iPhone's calculator and got busy running the percentages. Hi conclusion? "Figs appear on more plates in New York than they do in San Francisco." Read the raw data here. Of course, as a Grub Street reader po

    October 21, 2009
  • Will Plans to Ease Recycling of Household Water in S.F. Go Down the Drain?

    Fork over the money for the permit, water dude​San Francisco may be getting greener with the city's new mandatory composting rules, but that doesn't mean it's getting any "bluer." While the state is doing everything it can to make water recycling easier for homeowners by dumping restrictions, San Francisco appears to be doing just the opposite. Water conservationists flooded City Hall today for the Building Inspection Commission meeting to voice their opposition to code changes that would requ

    October 21, 2009
  • It's 4th Down For California Redwoods In San Francisco -- Already

    Jim HerdCory Ross and the Redwoods apparently know the way to San Jose​On Saturday, we stopped by the California Redwoods' first game in San Francisco. If we knew the expansion United Football League's San Fran era would potentially be so fleeting, maybe we'd have picked up a signature plastic cup. Damn -- they didn't have any. Don't get us wrong, it was a decent football game. Sure, you could have switched the rosters of the home Redwoods and visiting New York Sentinels just before opening ki

    October 22, 2009
  • Track of the Day: Ring Trick

    ​San Francisco's Ring Trick is a very goal-oriented artist. For one month the electronic producer/musician plans on uploading one new demo a day to his blog. "The only rule," he writes, "is that it has to be recorded and produced in the span of 24 hours."Scroll down the page and you can hear a batch of dreamy, soundtracky tunes influenced by the great minimalist, ambient composers and heavy shoegazer idols. With every new song,  Ring Track also posts a video for the artist who has particu

    October 22, 2009
  • Right-Wing Institute Gearing Up 'To Take Down San Francisco' Over Sanctuary City Policy

    Challengers to the city's proposed new sanctuary policy are already circling​You may remember the furor over the memo Mayor Gavin Newsom leaked from the city attorney stating the city would face a "likely legal challenge" if it changed the hard-line policy towards reporting undocumented juveniles charged with felonies. The "likely law suit" is no longer a nebulous threat. The Washington, D.C.-based Immigration Reform Law Institute told SF Weekly Thursday it is actively seeking a plaintiff for

    October 22, 2009
  • Does The New York Times Realize Fullerton Is Not In Bay Area? They Say They Do.

    The commute to San Francisco is even worse than Fairfield's ​Those of you who still read news -- God bless you -- here in San Francisco may be aware that the venerable New York Times has beefed up its local coverage with a Bay Area section. The Grey Lady has also inaugurated a local blog; since our job is to scour and report on local news, we'd be fools not to read it. Well, there has been some good reading to be had. I was particularly fond of a blog entry in which scholars parsed the legalit

    October 23, 2009
  • Awesome Biking Checklist: Pump, Gloves, and $40,000 in Drug-Tainted Cash

    D'oh!​When it comes to navigating the streets of San Francisco, life isn't fair for avid bicyclists.Take the case of a Wisconsin cyclist who apparently had the ride of the century planned when, in May, he sent a FedEx package through the San Francisco airport en route to a friend's place in Eureka, where he planned to move.

    October 23, 2009
  • Iron Cupcake San Francisco Turns One, Celebrates with Beer Challenge

    ​The San Francisco chapter of Iron Cupcake has been active with monthly cooking competitions for the past year, and has tasked local bakers to use ingredients such as squash, pepper, and curry in their creations. To celebrate its birthday, this month's Iron Cupcake San Francisco challenge straps on the lederhosen and takes on an Oktoberfest theme. Follow the St. Pauli girls to Leland Tea Company (1416 Bush at Polk) tonight at 7 p.m. to taste and judge a spread of mini cupcakes all made with be

    October 26, 2009
  • SF Gov InAction: Supes Try To Save Cats, Unify Ireland, and Create Public Power

      The moral high ground in San Francisco may be the most valuable real estate of all. Last week Gavin Newsom -- who thumbed his nose at state and federal law on gay marriage -- tried to claim it by saying he couldn't help illegal immigrants because he has too much respect for the law. The Board of Supervisors also tried to claim the moral high ground by saying that Gavin Newsom -- whom they supported when he thumbed his nose at state and federal law on gay marriage -- has to help immig

    October 26, 2009
  • Entertainment Commission Reform Legislation Passes in Supes' Committee, Headed for Full Board

    Legislation that would reform how San Francisco's nightclub-industry watchdog agency operates was approved by the Board of Supervisors' City Operations and Neighborhood Services Committee today, and is headed for a vote by the full board next month.Are changes coming to SF nightlife?​Following a three-hour hearing that featured extensive public comment from both supporters and opponents of the legislation, the three-member committee unanimously approved the new law, which would grant the Enter

    October 26, 2009
  • The best of the Bay Area's "costume rock"

    October 28, 2009
  • Track of the Day: Jern Eye

    Jern Eye​San Francisco's BOAC has a number of notable remixes and tracks that he's produced on his Web site. He's tackled hip-hop's titans (his version of Eminem's "Crack a Bottle" sounds so much fiercer than the original) and worked with indie faves (Sunspot Jonz and Luckyiam). I'm really digging BOAC's remix of Oakland rapper Jern Eye, though. Jern's new album Vision is out now, and he teamed with the local producer to spin off a fresh version of "Get Down." The single has BOAC playing piano

    October 29, 2009
  • U.S. Sues San Francisco Over 2005 Muni Fuel Spill

    Jim Herd​UPDATE: City, DOJ, EPA Agree on $250K settlement, see details here.U.S. Department of Justice attorneys filed suit against San Francisco in connection with a 2005 bus yard fuel spill that released as much as 54,000 gallons of diesel gasoline into San Francisco soil and sewers -- with some of it ultimately reaching the Bay.According to the complaint, filed on behalf of the Environmental Protection Agency, personnel at the Municipal Transportation Authority's John M. Woods Motor Coach f

    October 29, 2009
  • Update -- S.F. Pledges $250,000 to Settle Diesel Spill Lawsuit

    ​San Francisco has agreed to pay $250,000 to settle an EPA lawsuit demanding that the city  prevent a repeat of a 2005 Muni diesel fuel spill.SF Weekly obtained a copy of the consent decree between San Francisco and U.S. officials just after posting an item about an Oct. 27 EPA lawsuit charging San Francisco with environmental law violations in connection with the 2005 spill at a city bus yard.In addition to the payment, the city has also agreed to train staff and install new safety equip

    October 29, 2009
  • Mission Art Goes Uptown

    October 28, 2009
  • SF Gov InAction: Gavin Newsom, the Morning After, Will Still Have to Celebrate Small Business Month

      The news at the end of October was devastating for San Francisco: Trauma and Gavin Newsom for Governor were canceled in the same week. It's heartbreaking: Both were expensive pilots with such promising premises. In Trauma, a group of troubled but devil-may-care emergency medical technicians raced through San Francisco saving people from giant fireballs and learning to trust in each others' sex appeal. In Gavin Newsom for Governor, a devil-may-care San Francisco mayor deeply concerne

    November 2, 2009
  • Video of the Day: Sleepy Sun's New Age

    San Francisco psych-popsters Sleepy Sun get extra cosmic on their new video, "New Age," a red- and droopy-eyed ballad that opens up into some seriously stony guitar solos. We would expect nothing less from a band that got its original musical and spiritual guidance down in Santa Cruz. 

    November 2, 2009
  • Erotic City: How S.F. went from prudish to porn capital

    November 4, 2009
  • Europe and S.F. vie for the affections of Mr. Kitty

    November 4, 2009
  • Donuts' three-year anniversary

    November 4, 2009
  • Nate Appleman Is a Dick, But We're Sorry to See Him Bounced from The Next Iron Chef

    Skanky Indian food did him in, even when douchey antics didn't.​If anyone who cares doesn't know by now, former pizzaiolo laureate of San Francisco Nate Appleman will not be the next Iron Chef, following Luce chef Dominique Crenn who ended up on the chopping block last week. To be fair, he was bounced out of competition for falling short, not in a test of his butchery talents, dough-stretching, pasta-making, or on-the-spot facility with unique ingredients, but for his inability to devise a

    November 4, 2009
  • Video of the Day: We Are Douchebags

    Beware, San Francisco. The VIP dwelling, bottle service-ordering, loud cell phone-talking douchebags of the world are organizing. They demand a new, politically correct respect from all you snide hipsters out there. And they've made a video (posted on Laughing Squid earlier in the week) to prove it.

    November 4, 2009
  • Bay Links: Cacophony, Fare Inspectors, & Grilled Cheese

    ​Early nineties video of San Francisco's Cacophony Society. [Laughing Squid] Shots from last night's gay marriage rally. [SFist]Oh, San Francisco voters, you are a capricious lot. [Sweet Melissa]Oh, joy! Grilled cheese in South Park. (Conveniently located near the Weekly offices). [Eater]Why do even fare-paying riders hate Muni fare inspectors so much? [Muni Diaries]Got a picture of transportation gone awry? These guys want it. [Streetsblog]

    November 5, 2009
  • Drink of the Week: Egg Cream from Miller's East Coast Deli

    T. Palmer​If like us, you grew up here and are of a certain age, at some point in your life you've probably wondered what the heck an egg cream is . These days, you don't have to go all the way to New York to get a good answer to the question, only as far as Miller's East Coast Deli (1725 Polk at Washington).An egg cream typically contains no more than whole milk, seltzer water, and chocolate syrup, but the blend produces a sweet foamy head that disappears fairly fast. The ones at Miller's com

    November 6, 2009
  • 'Signs' Point to Better Times Ahead for Cyclists

    The tide is turning...​ For San Francisco's ever-growing cadre of bicyclists, this week opened with both good news and bad.On Monday, San Francisco Superior Court Judge Peter Busch postponed until Nov. 12 his decision on whether to allow the city to install bicycle improvements. San Francisco has for years been barred from installing amenities such as bike lanes and racks thanks to a court injunction based on the theory that the city hadn't devoted sufficient environmental review to the notion

    November 6, 2009
  • New York Times' YouTube Investigation: Bicyclists Sometimes Run Stop Signs

    ​The odd media war unfolding in San Francisco -- in which major dailies establish editions here while local periodicals fade away -- advanced in a new direction Friday, with a page A-19 story in the New York City edition of the New York Times titled "San Francisco's Cyclists Facing Backlash for Flouting Rules of the Road."The story didn't coincide with the headline. The purported San Francisco backlash consisted of one guy  on a bike who got a ticket for running a stop sign in Portola Val

    November 6, 2009