Best of the Bay 2012 Archives — Page 5 of 5 — San Francisco Bay Guardian Archive 1966

Best of the Bay 2012: BEST LABORATORY FOR MOLE-DING YOUNG MINDS

Andrew Lam

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July 24, 2012

There’s a frozen fox in the fridge, an assortment of snakes on the sideboard, and a hedgehog hunkered down in a little pen. There are gadgets whirring and vibrating, measuring the cacophony from a caboodle of broken-down instruments. There are pulleys and levers and bells and whistles and plenty of chemicals that make a good bang. And at the Mission Science Workshop, there’s no slab coat required — just a healthy dose of curiosity. Founder Dan Sudran encourages kids of diverse backgrounds to squish, mold, spin, and explore — whether it’s making giant cardboard strands of DNA; playing with vacuums and electromagnets; or assembling your very own vermin from individual containers filled with teeny-tiny pelvises, scapulae, and spines at the Build-a-Mole station — batteries not included.

3750 18th St., SF. (415) 621-1240, www.missionscienceworkshop.org

Best of the Bay 2012: BEST PLACE TO FLIP OUT

Andrew Lam

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July 24, 2012

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BEST PLACE TO FLIP OUT

It sits, waiting for the next young bendy soul: a vast, matted wonderland of balance beams, pommel horses, uneven bars, and gargantuan trampolines ready to be bounced upon and jackknifed off of. American Gymnastics Club has been molding San Francisco’s Kylie Ross hopefuls into competitors for decades. Though simple somersault class is available for preschoolers, those with thighs of steel and grace to boot can sign up for the competitive program, where they can vie for college athletic scholarships and test their nerves at state championships. Visit its Judah location — an institution — or the newer Bayshore facility. Both offer ample classes for the little one, or, if you wanna hit the mat as well, tykes from 18 months to three years can bring in the ‘rents for parent participation-friendly classes.

2520 Judah, SF. (415) 731-1400; 390 Bayshore, SF. (415) 920-1704, www.americangymnasticsclub.com

Best of the Bay 2012: BEST MUSHROOMING POPULARITY

Andrew Lam

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July 24, 2012

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BEST MUSHROOMING POPULARITY

Enough tripping over yourself at music festivals — the best kind of festive fungi has to be that which is found at the ever-growing SF Mycological Society’s Fungus Fair. Each December, Bay Area mycophiles meet up for a weekend (usually in Berkeley’s Lawrence Hall of Science) to enjoy lectures, vendors selling mushroom-dyed sweaters, and entire rooms full of specimens hand-picked by members of the Society. Attendees can also take advantage of copious class offerings: ever wondered, for instance, about the best way to serve a black chanterelle? Take the mushroom cooking class. Best of all, you can find out what SFMS gets up to during the rest of the year: San Francisco is home to the country’s longest-running mycology programs (at SF State), and the Society hosts beginners’ foraging hikes all throughout the year for the budding, mushroom-loving spore.

www.mssf.org

Best of the Bay 2012: BEST PRIDE ON WHEELS

Andrew Lam

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July 24, 2012

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BEST PRIDE ON WHEELS

Though some may quibble with the presence of lowriders at Sunday Streets in the Mission — you can often find the hydraulic-enabled, candy-painted whips parked off 24th Street as they prepare to roll out in high-gloss fashion — the cars actually recall an important chapter of the neighborhood’s history that doesn’t get enough play. According to Roberto Hernandez of the SF Lowrider Council, lowriding the Mission’s main drags was so popular in the 1980s that tourist buses would come to check out the cars, causing traffic that led to police intervention and brutality. The Council was formed in response to the harassment, and is experiencing a rebirth these days as lowriding comes back into fashion. Nowadays, member clubs have five to 30 members of all genders and races. The only requirement to join, says Hernandez, is a “finished, tight, ready-to-roll lowrider.”

(415) 206-0577

Best of the Bay 2012: BEST SKIN DEEP

Andrew Lam

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July 24, 2012

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BEST SKIN DEEP

Skin care and acne treatments are not the most comfortable things to which you can submit your face. But trust in the seasoned vets at Studio Abasi, a skin-miracle shop tucked above the serene and lush Berkeley City Club. You’ll walk away from the salon with a comprehensive guide to your skin, including details a regular dermatologist might forego in favor of a quick prescription. That — combined with owner Shannon Carter’s fondness for screening her favorite YouTube videos while she works to keep your mind off the pain of beauty — makes visiting Abasi feel more like swapping skin-care secrets at a sleepover than a trip to the doctor’s office. After all, your skin is the outermost layer of yourself, a sensitive subject that can often bring up emotions (and excruciating blackheads.) Better to get a skin care professional who enjoys talking it out, face-to-face.

2315 Durant, Berk. (510) 665-5544, www.studioabasi.com

Best of the Bay 2012: BEST TM4M TRAINING

Andrew Lam

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July 24, 2012

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BEST TM4M TRAINING

Blood is rushing to your first chakra, you’re incredibly horny, and you’re desperate to get off. But the complexities of your body have you feeling a bit insecure about where to go to have that full-body, no-commitment release you’re craving. No fear! San Francisco is a city saturated in sex, and Eros — a safe-sex-on-premises site — hosts casual sexual forays between all kinds of men, regardless of what they have going on below the belt. Eros’ Transmen for Men (TM4M) is a unique program held every second Thursday developed to foster a dialogue between transmen and cis-men on how to have hot and steamy casual encounters with each other. There’s more: Eros is open seven days a week, and is always committed to celebrating the queer masculine spectrum.

2051 Market, SF. (415) 255-3921, www.erossf.com

Best of the Bay 2012: BEST EPL IN THE AM

Andrew Lam

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July 24, 2012

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BEST EPL IN THE AM

You know you’re in the presence of hardcore devotion when all available seats at the pub are snagged ahead of a pre-dawn English Premiere League match. Such is the reality at Danny Coyle’s. The bar’s biggest team draws are Liverpool (which lured visiting movie star Clive Owen, spotted rooting for the Reds in April), Arsenal, Manchester City, Manchester United, Chelsea, and Tottenham Hotspur. Friendly bartenders are skilled at passing pints through a crowd and ample TV screens offer good vantage points from every corner. Danny’s and nearby neighbor Mad Dog in the Fog — a larger and often even more-crowded joint — are the reason you’ll hear gasps, taunting rhymes, anguished cries, and goalllll celebrations echoing through the Lower Haight’s early a.m. mists.

668 Haight, SF. (415) 558-8375, www.dannycoyles.com

Best of the Bay 2012: BEST TOME TRADE

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July 24, 2012

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Interested in perpetuating a bibliophilic mythos among your houseguests? Turned on by the image of sitting quietly by a roaring fireplace, sipping a brandy, and reading Kafka amid towers of dusty tomes? Well, the Bay Area Free Book Exchange has those tomes for you to own. Since its opening in 2009, the Exchange has given away more than 245,000 free books for the sole joy of making knowledge accessible in book form. The nonprofit is run by a collection of book-lovers in El Cerrito who sell some of the donated volumes on eBay in order to pay rent, electricity, and other expenses. The rest of the stories, however, make their way to the Exchange’s storefront, where every weekend customers are invited to take up to 200 titles at once. Stock your bathroom with freaky medical guides? Actually read the books you snap up? We’ll let you work out the ethics on your own.

10520 San Pablo, El Cerrito. (510) 705-1200, www.bayareafreebookexchange.com