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Thousands of bees murdered at Hayes Valley Farm

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Very sad news about a massive honey bee crime at Hayes Valley Farm: apparently, sometime between the late afternoons of July 19 and July 20, someone sprayed pesticide into two San Francisco Bee-Cause (SFBC) honey bee colonies at Hayes Valley Farm (HVF) and tried to do the same to a third, smaller colony, according to Karen Peteros, SFBC’s bee keeper.

Peteros reports that thousands of bees died immediately or rushed for air in the first two hives, blocking the entrance and making escape impossible. And that he third colony, maintained by Chris Burley, lost 60-70 percent of its members.

 “The distinct scent of household pesticide could be smelled around the entrance and ventilation holes of the SFBC hives, and around the piles of dead bees,” Peteros writes. “ A sample of the residue from around the ventilation holes and a sampling of the dead bees have been preserved for analysis.  A police report has been filed.”

She also reports that each of the two exterminated colonies was healthy and thriving and likely consisted of 60,000-100,000 individuals, and was set to produce 20-30 medium frames of honey which HVF planned to sell to support the work of SFBC.

It’s hard to imagine what was going through the perpetrator(s)’ heads. But whatever their motive, it seems there is a need for more education about bees in general and the vital role they play in pollination in particular—a role that helps produce one third of the world’s food supply.

Unlike wasps, which prey on spiders and ladybugs and other insects and have the ability to sting multiple times, bees are entirely vegetarian, a switch their ancestors made back in the great angiosperm explosion some 80 million years ago that produced our modern-day flowers. That switch means bees live on and raise their brood entirely from pollen (also known as bee bread) and nectar, and are unlikely to sting you, unless you approach their hives. (Could be the folks responsible for this massacre got stung quite a few times in the process of spraying all these bees, so that could be a helpful clue in tracking them down.)

But most people consistently confuse wasps, which are hairless and can sting multiple times, with bees, which are fuzzy and can only sting once, and then die, unless they happen to be the queen bee, which can sting many times.
A recent example of the general ignorance about bees were July 2 news reports that folks had been stung by “bees” at the Alameda County Fair’s fireworks show. It turned out that the insects were in fact yellow jackets, which are a type of wasp. But national news outlets repeatedly reported that bees were to blame.

 

Farewell, Guardian’s SF blog

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“In Japan neglected or abandoned blogs are called ishikoro, pebbles,” blog expert Sarah Boxer tells us — and it’s time for us to cast a pebble into the humongous Web quarry, as we at the Guardian refocus our energies on our Pixel Vision Arts and Culture blog. Look for all our fab local content to be posted there from now on. Thanks, Guardianites!

Bomb(ers) away: Roller Derby 2.0

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By G. Martinez Cabrera

I can see the Kezar Pavilion from my bedroom window. It isn’t a very attractive building. Its Spanish red tiles, chipped peach paint, and round arched entranceway make it look a little bit like those old stand-alone Taco Bells that were around in the ‘70s. As with a lot of buildings in big cities, you could pass by it a million times and never think about why it exists or why it matters or who it matters to. But like any old gym, long faded dreams of glory are everywhere in Kezar. You just have to know where to look.

This became clear to me after spending some time with members of the San Francisco Bay Bombers. If you’re of a certain age, you might remember the name. In the ‘70s, the Bombers playing at Kezar was an Event with a capital “E”. Roller derby was as big then as any other sport — some say bigger. Coaches and team managers who’ve been around the game for decades are quick to explain that in its heyday, the Bombers would get more television viewers for its games than the A’s, the Raiders, or the 49ers.


From the mouths of babes … and Bombers. Video by Jamie Moore and G. Martinez Cabrera.

Fashion Hause: Liberals like fashion too

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Style intern Chloe Schildhause talks trends and togs. Check out her last installment here.

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Politics and fashion may seem like polar opposites, but much like lox and bagels, they actually go together quite nicely. To prove this point, to convince US citizens to vote for Obama, and to dispel the myth that progressives have no style, Environmentalists for Obama are hosting the fundraiser “Fashioning Change: A Fashion Show for Obama” on October the 17th.

There is no doubt that Obama is a fashionable man, with many comparing him and his family to the stylish political stars of Camelot. Michelle Obama is set to be a style icon as fashionable as the beloved Jackie O. Robin Gihvan, fashion writer for the Washington Post, said about the couples’ style, “Barack and Michelle Obama dressed for history…in a blend of the patriotic, the regal, the authoritative and the fashionable,” and praised Michelle Obama for “wearing a violet sheath with a wide black belt and matching shoes.”

The fashionable fundraiser will feature clothing by local designers such as Erica Tanov and Cari Borja as well as a silent auction, music by DJ Heco, scrumptious hourdevoures and plenty of Sangria. Donations are highly encouraged.

Fashion Hause: Green is (sometimes) good

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Style intern Chloe Schildhause talks trends and togs. Check out her last installment here.

Though the green fashion trend has been growing in recent years, it really seemed to take off last summer, with brands like Loomstate, Anya Hindmarch, and Linda Loudermilk using hemp and bamboo materials, as well as catchy slogans, as part of a new design aesthetic. These brands are proof that eco-friendly fashion can be done right. But sadly, most of the clothing I witnessed at the Fashions With Responsibility-sponsored event late last month was less thrilling.

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Vanessa Wolfe’s designs are green and good.

Get yer bike on: Gas-Free Fridays start tomorrow

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By Amanda Witherell

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I’ve become a happier person since I sold my Jetta and started traveling almost exclusively by bicycle. Every time I’ve driven a car in San Francisco the experience has left me frustrated, annoyed, and feeling like I didn’t get where I was going any faster than I would have on my bicycle. I’m not alone — car sales statewide are down, the big three automakers are crying poverty and just got a $25 billion loan from President George W. Bush, and according to a recent national survey by Bikes Belong, of 150 bike stores polled, 73 percent said they’re selling more bikes this year.

So, it’s fantastic to see this new initiative designed to get people out of their cars at least once a week. Launched by the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition, they make the case for picking the bike over the car by pointing out that 50 percent of the city’s emissions come from transportation and half of all car trips within the city are less than two miles — an easy pedal on a bicycle. Furthermore, cars emit the most pollution during the first few minutes they’re running, which means that short car trips are the worst for the environment.

“Bicyclists will also be rewarded by knowing that riding a bicycle 10-miles a day versus owning and driving will save them $8,000/year, will burn an average of 110,250 calories (that’s 35lbs of fat!), and save our city 3,500 lbs. of greenhouse gas emissions every year,” states a press release from the SFBC.

They’ll be hosting warm-up stations at various locations where cyclists can grab free snacks and cups of fair-trade coffee and tea. Look for them tomorrow at:

Oct. 3rd: Market and 12th Streets, 7:30-9:30am
Oct. 10th: Valencia and 17th Streets, 7:30-9:30am
Oct. 17th: Embarcadero (between the Ferry Building and Justin Herman Plaza), 7:30-9:30am
Oct. 24th: City Hall, Polk and Grove Streets, 7:30-9:30am
Oct. 31st: Folsom and 7th Streets, 7:30-9:30am

Touching procession honors slain bicyclist

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Story and photos by Kristin A. Smith

Some came on fixed gears with spotless rims, others on basement bikes with balding tires. Some were clad in safety orange, others in business suits. They came from all parts of the city, with pants rolled and lights blinking, to mourn the loss of one of their own.

Jordan McKay, 23, was shot and killed on September 17 while commuting home from the East Bay. Police are chalking the incident up to “road rage” but aren’t close to making an arrest.

Last night’s route followed McKay’s final ride through the Panhandle and Golden Gate Park to 15th and Cabrillo, the site of the murder. A black and white spoke card with McKay’s picture and the words “Live. Love. Laugh. Ride.” spun in the riders’ wheels.

Fashion Hause: Kittinhawk frickin’ rocks

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Style intern Chloe Schildhause talks trends and togs. Check out her last installment here.

A glorious headdress adorned with hand-painted leather sourced from a vintage leather jacket and shaped into a flower with white netting overlapping the eye, pieces of vintage lace and, of course some white bird feathers? This is one of the creations by fashion designer Allysun Dutra for her line KittinHawk.

The San Franciscan designer, who goes by Ally (or to her close friends, Sparrowhawk) never expected to become a fashion designer. Luckily for everyone with good taste, Allysun Dutra has created a clothing line that is gorgeous, innovative, over the top, and far more exciting than the mundane fashions one may find at a department store.

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More photos at www.myspace.com/kittinhawk9.

More Street Threads: What are you wearing?

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Street fashion photog Ariel Soto hits us with a fllow-up to her last Street Threads feature, highlighting fierceness on the concrete catwalk.

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Dani, Haight and Clayton

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Shannon, Haight and Clayton

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Allison and Jess, 19th St. and Stanyan

Fashion-spiration

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Fashion Hause: Guardian style intern Chloe Schildhause talks trends and togs.

A shopping experience should be a symphony of contradictions. It should take your breath away and make you hyperventilate with excitement. It should make you feel deprived if you have purchased nothing, and yet somehow satisfied by just by witnessing the awesome creations that you have just touched and caressed (or possibly even tried on!)

Few boutiques create such an emotion to that ultimate climax. My favorites are both in Europe: Dover Street Market in London and Colette in Paris. But, there is American hope in a little boutique called Acrimony, nestled on a side street on the Hayes Valley strip.

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The Hayes boutique carries fashionable couture from designers like Nuj Novakhett.

The three-minute romance

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By G. Martinez Cabrera

I had heard that there were free swing dance lessons given in Golden Gate Park every Sunday from 11am to 2pm, and being a lover of all things quirky, I thought it might be worth seeing just how many people showed up. When I stopped by a few weeks ago, I assumed I’d find a few couples, some guys in fedoras and black and white wing tips, maybe a few women in chiffon. But what I found instead was a group of probably three hundred dancers of all ages, races, and ethnicities.

The day I visited, San Francisco was host to something called a Dance Exchange—think dance convention with 2,000 swing dancers from all over the US converging on the city for three days and nights of swing-a-ling fun. In part, this explained the huge turn out, though I’m told that Lindy in the Park (www.lindyinthepark.com) regularly pulls in about 100 dancers every week.

Swing dancing is not hip anymore, but I mean that as high praise.

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Iron crotches, wonder dogs, and Qi

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By G. Martinez Cabrera

Until last weekend, I didn’t know much about Qi Gong, the foundation of Chinese Medicine. But as I entered the Golden Gateway Holiday Inn last weekend, when more than 600 international practitioners of Qi Gong flooded SF for the four-day-long Eleventh Qi Gong Congress, it was clear I was about to find out.

At first glance, the event seemed like any other hotel convention: conference rooms submerged in a sea of dark carpet, depressing lighting everywhere, vendors looking longingly for potential customers. At an event that was supposedly all about teaching people to create and manipulate energy (Qi), there seemed to be quite a shortage of positive vibes.

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Qi Gong at the Holiday Inn.

Street Threads: What the heck are you wearing?

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By Ariel Soto

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Maya, Haight and Ashbury

Is anyone else addicted to the Sartorialist? The photographer of that blog goes around New York and Europe capturing the young and beautiful as they strut their stylish threads down the street. (Much like the late, lamented Street Fancy did here.) I decided to hit the pavement and do some street fashion scouting of my own and found that San Francisco has many of its very own fashion forward citizens … and fashionable visitors as well.

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Sho, Union Square

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David, Powell and Bush

SPORTS: Make Martz the head coach

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By A.J. Hayes

As temping as it was to run down the middle of Geneva Ave. shrieking “Forty Fuckin’ Niners” after San Francisco’s 31-13 blowout of Detroit on Sunday, let’s remember that the 2007 49ers also won two of their first three contests before disintegrating into putrid tire fire.

But while the record is exactly the same as it was heading into Week Four last season, the two clubs are worlds apart. While last season’s 2-1 Niners team was timid, plodding, conservative, scared and clueless, this Niners club is confident, experimental, focused and just a bit cocky. Over their first three games the 49ers have scored 76 points; it took seven games last season to get there.

For the first time since Steve Mariucci left the team five seasons ago, the 49ers are starting to resemble the 49ers and not a confused NFL Europe squad.

Thank you Mike Martz.

Without the addition of Martz as offensive coordinator this season, it’s very likely this fall’s Niners club would be a redo of last season’s abomination.

The Niners fortunes changed for the better when San Francisco head coach Mike Nolan was essentially forced to bring in the darning Martz to run the team’s offense.

But the former Super Bowl coach of the St. Louis Rams has done more than rework the passing attack. Martz has infused hope and excitement back into the once proud franchise where last year there was none.

Martz is a renegade in the Bill Walsh tradition, someone who’s always a step ahead of the competition and not afraid to play games with the oppositions head. Does anyone think that back-up, back-up tight end Delanie Walker, who caught a touchdown Sunday, would be even remotely involved in the game plan if Martz wasn’t on board?

Which leads to the next point: The Niners have to start thinking about retaining Martz beyond this year.

A message from Angels?

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By Jeremy Spitz

If I were Christopher Ablett — who police say shot Frisco Hells Angels head Mark “Papa” Guardado on Sept. 2 in the Mission District — I would seriously consider turning myself in to the police. If the 1500-2000 grieving bikers with their mile long chrome and leather procession didn’t send a clear enough message then surely the three pipe bombs detonated early this morning at the San Jose home of Mongols leader Robert Rios must have gotten their point across.
There is no proof that the Hells Angels were responsible for the attack, but if I were Ablett I would feel a lot safer in custody than facing retribution from the “filthy few,” the club’s fabled death-squad. No one was hurt when the bombs went off around 4 a.m. this morning, but authorities have begun to express fear that the attack may herald an “all out war” between the rival clubs.

A walk in the PARK

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Think metered parking spaces can only be used for cars? Think again. The forward-thinking, public space-obsessed art collective REBAR has been exploiting a legal loophole that allows just about any use of those car-sized spots – as long as the meter’s being fed – since 2005.

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Back then, the small Bay Area-based collective started by building miniature public parks in places where private SUVs usually live. The result was so surprising and delightful that the idea’s caught on worldwide – and now, on Friday, September 19, in 600 cities globally, metered spaces will be used for everything from extended sidewalk seating outside a café to, in one Bay Area case, a marriage locale. (Watch the two men wed on Friday at 137 Scott, from 3 to 5pm.)

Even if you don’t have time to build your own park, take a walking tour and join in the fun as businesses, individuals, and arts groups all over the city transform gutters into gardens. For more info on PARK(ing) Day, visit www.parkingday.org. Or, for maps of the day’s haps, check out the Trust for Public Land’s national info at their website.

For more information on REBAR, including other projects such as a commission for the City of Amsterdam and a presentation at the world-renowned Venice Architecture Biennale, check out their website at www.rebargroup.org.

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Sure beats a carpool. Flickr photo by Plaid Iguana.

Covering a Hells Angels funeral

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Story and photos by Jeremy Spitz
It was a hazy morning in Daly City, but the thunder did not come from the sky.
The ground literally shook as an estimated 1,500 leather-clad bikers honored the memory of Mark “Papa” Guardado , president of the San Francisco chapter of the Hells Angles, with what police estimated to be the largest, and loudest funeral procession in Daly City history.
Guardado, 45, was shot on September 2 outside a bar in the Mission District. Police are still searching for Christopher Ablett, 37, of Modesto, a member of the rival Mongols Motorcycle Club, the chief suspect.
The service took place on Monday with a memorial vigil the previous evening Duggan’s Serra Mortuary. Hells Angles from as far as Germany and Belgium, England and Australia came to pay their respects for their fallen comrade. Though the parking lot of the mortuary looked more like a tailgate party or a Harley Davidson dealership, the scene inside was a somber and touching tribute to a man that had enormous ties to his community.

Sports: A San Francisco Yankee’s tribute to the old house

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By A.J. Hayes

Every team needs a second-string catcher, and from 1948-56, San Francisco native and current Peninsula resident Charlie Silvera was owner of the plumb back-up backstop job in baseball, caddying for Yogi Berra with the powerhouse New York Yankees for nine seasons.

While playing behind a future Hall of Famer didn’t allow Silvera much playing time, it did allow him to be part of one of the greatest dynasties in baseball history. The Yankees won seven American League pennants and six World Series championships, including five straight from 1949-53.

Yankee Stadium will be demolished after this season to make way for a parking lot for the state-of-the-art new Yankee Stadium, set to open in 2009. On the eve of the final game ever to be played in the original big ballpark in the Bronx, Silvera, now 83, and still active in baseball as a major league scout with the Chicago Cubs, talked about his memories of the big ballpark in the Bronx.

San Francisco Bay Guardian: It’s ironic that after the Yankees great history of winning, Yankee Stadium will close (on Sunday, Sept. 21) with the Yankees most likely not advancing to the playoffs for the first time since 1995.

Charlie Silvera: Yeah, It’s too bad the place will close on a losing note, but what can you do – 26 world championships are pretty good for one place. There are a lot of people who hate the Yankees and they are gloating now. I say let them gloat. Look at the rings we have collected over the years.

SFBG: When your were growing up in the Mission District, the city had the Seals of the Pacific Coast League, but as far as major league baseball was concerned, did the city root for the Yankees?

CS: Oh yeah, San Francisco was a Yankee town no doubt about it. Look at all the city kids who played for them: Tony Lazzari, Lefty Gomez, Frankie Crosetti and of course Joe DiMaggio who I saw play for the Seals when I was a kid. I was a Seals fan first, but also rooted for the Yankees. My idol was Bill Dickey, the Hall of Fame catcher.

Hotel Biron’s grape ace: Meet Chris Fuqua

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Intrepid reporter Justin Juul hits the streets each week for our Meet Your Neighbors series, interviewing the Bay Area folks you’d like to know most.

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Most wine bars suck. They’re stuffy, over priced, and full of pretentious assholes and bad food. But not Mid-Market hideaway Hotel Biron, located at 45 Rose Street. This place is awesome. Biron’s beer menu features obscure wheat brews from Germany, Pilsners from The Czech Republic, and even cans of Tecate, which means I can take my girlfriend there for a fancy date and enjoy myself at the same time. But that’s not all. Hotel Biron’s cheese/meat selection is insane and its wine-list is off the charts. Zins, Cabs, Pinot? Sheeeit. If that’s all you know about wine you need to get out of California and into Chris Fuqua’s brain. The dude may look like a truck driver from Alabama, but he knows more about wine than a sommelier from Paris.

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Fuqua has been running Hotel Biron for years now, but business life hasn’t changed him much. He’s still a cook at heart.

SFBG: So what’s your deal?
Chris Fuqua: My name’s Chris Fuqua. I’m the owner and operator of Hotel Biron.

SFBG: So how did that come about? Do you have family contacts in the SF restaurant industry or something?
Fuqua: No. I grew up in a small town in Iowa, actually. I decided not to go to college after high school, probably because my dad wanted me too. So, like a lot of people, I eventually ended up in the food service business, working as a dishwasher and then as a busser and a waiter and eventually as a cook. At some point, I decided I wanted to cook for a living. So I enrolled in a culinary school in Vermont where I learned about San Francisco’s reputation as a culinary capital. After graduation, I wanted to work at either Zuni or Oliveto. As it turned out, I got a job at Zuni, which is how I found this place. I used to hang out here every night after work because it’s in the alley behind Zuni, about twenty paces away.

SFBG: How did you go from a dude who used to hang out here to becoming the owner?
Fuqua: Well, I was friends with the people who used to run Biron and I actually worked here to help them out sometimes. When one of them decided to move on, I was approached as a potential partner. It was a total shock. I mean, I was a cook, and I had never really thought of myself as the owner of anything. But my girlfriend and current partner in the bar, Jess, convinced me it was possible. So I just went for it. I was a partner in Biron with one of the original owners for a while and then I actually bought her out when she decided to move on. This situation totally fell in my lap. I’m really lucky.

SFBG: What’s it like owning a wine bar in San Francisco? It seems like there’s a lot of competition.

Cepeda statue hits a grand slam

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By A.J. Hayes

While some fans and media members quietly grumbled about the non-slugging stance William Behrends chose for his statue depicting the legendary Orlando Cepeda, I think these nascent art critics are missing the brilliant subtlety of the sculptor’s towering piece.

While the nine-foot tall statute – unveiled this past weekend at the Giants China Basin home — fails to glorify Cepeda wielding a bat, Behrends work depicts exactly how Cepeda has chosen to lead his life: standing tall, head held high and never kneeling to adversity.

Cepeda was the first superstar to debut as a San Francisco Giant. He sizzled his first big-league home run in the first major league game ever played in the city and went on to win 1958 Rookie of the Year honors. In 1962, he led the Giants to their first West Coast world series.

The youthful slugger and gregarious man-about-town was arguably the Giants most popular player during the club’s first half-dozen seasons in San Francisco, before a boneheaded trade sent him out of town.

But Cha-Cha has not been without his demons. He served time in a federal penitentiary on a drug smuggling conviction in the mid-1970s, and last year he was arrested after police in Fairfield said they found drug paraphernalia in his automobile. After a lengthy process that dragged his name through the mud, Cepeda was exonerated of the charges.

Pics: 18th Annual Autumn Moon Festival lights up Chinatown

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By Ariel Soto

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There is no such thing as a lull on Grant Avenue in San Francisco’s Chinatown, but this past weekend things were especially active and colorful in observance of the Autumn Moon Festival, a celebration of the beginning of the fall and the hope for a bountiful harvest season. As a photographer for SFBG, I get to cover many such cultural events and happenings (yes, my job is awesome!) and after visiting several of these street festivals this summer, I really think this one takes the cake, possibly a sweet moon cake, for being very authentic and for giving visitors a real taste of the true Chinatown. Musicians played traditional Chinese folk music with a plethora of unique and beautiful instruments, while men competed in a Chinese Chess championship, while munching on steam buns and salted peanuts. Vendors sold everything from orchids, to hair dyes and curry fish balls, and many other items that I really couldn’t identify since all the signs were written in Chinese, which made the festival even more fun and an example of how this was really a celebration for the neighborhood community and not just for the out of town tourists passing through. My two favorite parts of the afternoon were a lavishly dressed singing duo who took the stage to sing and dance and just make everyone smile with their catchy tunes, and the 10-pound bag of dim sum I took home and devoured with a hot cup of tea.

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English only, LPGA and the Giants

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By A. J. Hayes

Anyone who’s ever killed a Sunday afternoon by watching golf – personally, you would have to kill me first – or has taken out his or her frustrations out on the little white ball realizes just how much the game relies on communication skills.

After precision putting and booming drives, the key to this Scottish derived sport is the ability to concisely string together words – preferably in English.

After all, how else will be able to properly address the ball?

Actually, the proficient playing of golf requires almost zero verbal skills. As you undoubtedly seen in Caddyshack, the only talking allowed on the links is expressly to be expressly done by loud clothing.

Speaking is completely frowned upon. Players throw fits if a gallery member steps on a twig or happen to have an allergy attack during a back swing. Gotta sneeze? Hold it pal.

After all, supreme concentration and total silence are required to properly hit a stationary ball.

So it came as a bit of surprise when last week officials of the Ladies Professional Golfers Association announced that beginning in 2009 its members will be required to be “conversant” in English or face suspension from the tour.

Huh?

No more bush: Meet Lonni’s Punani

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Intrepid reporter Justin Juul hits the streets each week for our Meet Your Neighbors series, interviewing the Bay Area folks you’d like to know most.

Lonni Kutzen is the owner/operator of Lonni’s Punani, a hair removal boutique in Potrero Hill that specializes in Brazilians and Manzilians (that’s pussies and balls to you and me) — and just scored a Guardian Best of the Bay award. We caught up with Kutzen recently to see what happens when people stop being hairy and start getting waxed.

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SFBG: So what’s your deal?
Lonni Kutzen: My name’s Lonni and I’m an aesthetician here in San Francisco. I do Brazilians and manzilians all day long.

SFBG: What exactly is a Brazilian and why do they call it that?
Kutzen: A Brazilian is the removal of all, or nearly all, of the hair down in your nether regions –butt hair, labia hair, all of it. I’m not really sure why they call it that. If I had to guess, though, I’d say it’s because Brazilian bathing suits are really tiny. I’ve been there three times and you can see everything.

SFBG: Yeah, I guess that’d look pretty gross if all those sexy chicks were rocking full bushes all the time.
Kutzen: Exactly!

SFBG: But you usually leave some hair right? My girlfriend went to Kabuki Springs recently and she said almost every girl had a different haircut down there.
Kutzen: There are a lot of different ways to go about it, but I usually leave my trademark triangle. So if you meet someone with a cute little triangle down there, you know they’ve probably been to Lonni’s Punani.

Guardian Eye: Arab Cultural Fest brings out community

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Photo and text by Ariel Soto

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The hip yet traditional beats of MC Rai filled the San Francisco County Fair Building in Golden Gate Park for the 14th Annual Arab Cultural Festival on Sunday, August 24. The Tunisian musician got the audience clapping and even singing along as he played an Arabic metal drum, while outside the auditorium visitors perused booths selling organic olive oil from Palestine and handmade art, jewelry and ceramics. There were crepes and pitas stuffed with meat to munch on and different types of teas to sample. More than 23 Arab cultures were represented at the festival and a true sense of community enveloped the whole atmosphere at the event.

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