SF Blog Archives — Page 7 of 15 — San Francisco Bay Guardian Archive 1966

Wear orange for prisoner awareness

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March 10, 2008

By Vanessa Carr

Bay Area multimedia project Plain Human calls this Tuesday, March 11th “Prisoner Awareness Day.” They ask that people wear orange – the color of most prison uniforms – in an effort to spark daily conversation about imprisonment and its effects on our communities. They also invite the public to participate in a group exercise regiment demonstration/performance outside of City Hall on Tuesday from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m.

“We want to break the silence that we carry as family members and members of communities that are criminalized,” says San Francisco-based artist and Plain Human founder Mabel Negrete.

With a brother in prison, Negrete has personally experienced the rippling effects of incarceration in a family. Negrete worries that her brother, who struggles with mental illness and is one of many inmates who has acquired Hepatitis C inside prison walls, may never be able to return to normal life.

“His condition [since going to prison] has worsened because there is no rehabilitation for him to overcome the isolation of the incarceration,” says Negrete. “I am not sure that he can come out of that. Conditions are such that people cannot improve.”

Plain Human is part of the year-long Prison Project at Intersection for the Arts, which has featured a wide range of programs since it started in early 2007, from multiple gallery installations and a day-long conference in February 2008 featuring Angela Davis as its keynote, to a pen pal project that connects incarcerated and non-incarcerated artists. The Prison Project’s closing exhibition, featuring artwork from both sides of the prison walls, will be on display through March 29, 2008.

SPORTS: Willie A(Mays)ing

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March 10, 2008

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By A.J. Hayes

He hasn’t made a basket catch since the early 1970s. He’s not the best at remembering names. And his pride-and-joy godson has decamped the scene for good. But at age 76, is still the San Francisco Giants MVP – Most Valuable Personality.

Last week in Scottsdale, AZ, the baseball living legend held court in the spring training clubhouse and the room was riveted.

Whether they were fresh faced minor leaguers, millionaire All-Stars or men who have known him for decades, everyone’s focus was directed at Mays, the greatest all-around ballplayer — ever.

Despite his amazing accomplishments – 660 home runs, 3,283 hits, karats of gold gloves – for some reason, Mays has never received the type of adulation you would think he deserved from the national media. While the likes of Ted Willliams, Mickey Mantle and Joe DiMaggio have canonized by writers with syrupy prose over the past 25 years, Mays has been taken somewhat for granted.

It could have something to do with the east coast sports media, that generally discounts anything accomplished west of Manhattan as trivial.

More likely it results from the fact that those other players are white and Mays is not.

Quirkyalone gets quirkytogether

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March 7, 2008

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“It’s okay that I’m alone.”
“But maybe there’s something wrong with me?”
“Maybe I’m just too picky.”
“I’m young, I should be having sex.”
“But I hate having sex with people I’m not really attracted to.”
“Except when I’m traveling.”

Thus were the questions plaguing San Franciscan Sasha Cagen that lead her to coin the term “quirkyalone.” It started as a concept, then became an essay, an online community, and later a book, Quirkyalone: a manifesto for uncompromising romantics (HarperCollins 2004). Above all, quirkyalone is a movement.

Quirkyalone, Cagen defines, is “a person who enjoys being single (but is not opposed to being in a relationship) and generally prefers to be alone rather than dating for the sake of being in a couple.”

To some, the term “quirkyalone” may conjure the image of an eccentric weirdo who embraces lifelong singledom for lack of dating opportunities. Quite the contrary, Cagen emphasizes: quirkyalones are not loner Jane Eyre-types, she says; they are often active, attractive, extroverts who are simply anti-dull relationships and anti-settling.

Guardian Eye: Rainbows on metal

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March 6, 2008

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We’ve invited fab (and acclaimed!) local photog Darwin Bell to share some of his photos with us throughout the next month, and tell us what the heck he was thinking when he took them.

Metallic Rainbow

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Darwin Bell: “This is the outside of the new(ish) De Young Museum in Golden Gate Park. This is another fascinatingly designed SF building and definitely a challenge to photograph. Because of its size and shape, it is difficult to photograph as a whole, so I favor photographing fragments like this.”

Guardian Eye: Seeing red at Zeitgeist

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March 3, 2008

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We’ve invited fab local photog Darwin Bell to share some of his photos with us throughout the next month, and tell us what the heck he was thinking when he took them.

Redily Available

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Darwin Bell: “I LOVE colors, especially if it is all one color with different layers. And bright colors at that. Nothing beats the outside, weirdly painted red patchwork panels of the Zeitgeist bar on Valencia.”

SPORTS: Winning at losing

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March 3, 2008

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The Giants suck. So do the A’s. But it could be a fun season.

By A.J. Hayes

How’s this for sunny spring time forecast: for the first time since the mid-1980s, both the Giants and A’s will enter the major league season without a sliver of a hope of contending for a playoff slot.

Sad face?

In fact, it will take a minor miracle for both clubs to finish higher than last place.

But that doesn’t mean that the 2008 baseball campaign has to be a snooze-fest. There’s something appealing about a losing baseball team. Football and basketball are just unwatchable when they’re performed shabbily, but bad baseball can be a hoot.

The train-wreck 1962 expansion New York Mets who went 40-120 turned the bumbling Marv Throneberry and Choo Choo Coleman into flannel uniformed folk heroes. The Chicago Cubs and the Boston Red Sox (until their recent World Series success) built up the most loyal fan bases in the game with their lovable losers flying in the wind like a prop-plane banner.

49ers fans, on the other hand, would just as soon forget this past splotchy season.

It’s something about the daily intimacy of baseball and the fact they the players have traditionally resembled normal humans – discounting the steroids era – that allows us to empathize. Baseball players are not covered up with helmets and pads, so we see the embarrassment when they bobble a pop-up the same way we might drop a jar of bread-and-butter pickles on our foot.

But baseball fans are not suckers, and not every lousy club is in a position to be celebrated.

Guardian Eye: Federal blinders

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February 28, 2008

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We’ve invited fab local photog Darwin Bell to share some of his photos with us throughout the next month, and tell us what the heck he was thinking when he took them.

Blinders

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Darwin: “Ok, let’s start with how utterly insane the new Federal Building on 6th and Mission is. And insane in the best possible way. I don’t even understand how anyone would come up with that design, but for me it totally works. Except, it is hard to take pictures of that gives the viewer a sense of what the building is about. Except for the blinds on the back side of the building. I could take pictures of those all day long. They just lend themselves to being photographed. And the colors rock!”

Sad tooths: A Broke-Ass Guide to Tooth Maintenance

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February 27, 2008

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By Justin Juul (with apologies to Broke-Ass Stuart)

It really sucks when your teeth start falling apart, especially when you’re young and broke, but you don’t have to quit your job and run off to Mexico or spend weeks trying to win the lottery at BFC as soon as it starts happening. (See this week’s Guardian cover story.) If the pain is tolerable, you can put off emptying your bank account at the dentist for years. But you’re gonna need some things. Here are five items you’ll need to get through the wait.

Ibuprofen
Vocodin and OxyContin are great and all, but they’re expensive as hell and it’s hard to get a prescription for them. Especially when you don’t have health insurance! I’ve always relied on Ibuprofen. It’s cheap and it works. Eat one or two for normal throbbing and up to 15 a day for serious pain. And don’t worry about overdosing on the stuff. I’ve eaten a whole bottle in a single weekend and look at me. I’m alive.

Fun Flossers!

Tooth Harps
Eating with a full set of rotten teeth isn’t impossible, but it can be really difficult and it’s always irritating. By the time I was 26 my teeth had deteriorated to the point where I could lose an entire peanut in one of my cavities. Seriously! I could fit the tip of my pinky in two of them. So at the end of every meal I would have to run to bathroom to empty the food out of my cavities. Toothpicks work pretty well, but if you’ve got a serious problem, you’ll want to invest in some harps. They’ve got built in floss and you can bend them to get way back there. If you run out of toothharps just use a tightly rolled piece of cardboard. Cigarette packs work great.

Sad tooths: Canadian dental tourists flock to Mexico

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February 27, 2008

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By Justin Juul

One of the first things I noticed when I went down to Los Algodones, Mexico, to get my teeth fixed (this week’s Guardian cover story) was that many of the people roaming the streets there were Canadian (and somewhat older). The “ayes” and “aboots” gave it away. “What are these funny hats all aboot?” I heard one of them say.

I asked around and discovered that Los Algodones has become a popular vacation destination for Canadians. They drive down in RV’s by the thousands and spend their winters drinking cheap margaritas, relaxing in the warm Mexican sun, and getting their teeth and eyes fixed for a fraction of what they would pay back home. But I always thought Canadians got free health care and free dental care. Turns out our neighbors to the North aren’t sitting as pretty as I’d been lead to believe.

Here’s what one of them had to say:

Guardian Eye: Always look up!

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February 26, 2008

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We’ve invited one of our favorite photogs Darwin Bell to share some of his extraordinary local snaps with us, along with what the heck he was thinking when he took them.

A View From the Ground

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Darwin Bell: “This photograph taught me to always look up. I went down this driveway on Pierce Street, off Hayes, to take a picture of a rusty lock — and happened to look up because I heard a Blue Angel plane flying overhead. I saw this blue cross between the white buildings. Always look up!”

Ed note: Which reminds us of a zinger from a much-loved poem by Frank O’Hara, where the sun says to him: “I know you love Manhattan, but you ought to look up more often.” Except, you know, Frank got run over by a jeep on a beach on Fire Island. Be careful!

And the worst sports Oscar goes to …

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February 25, 2008

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By A.J. Hayes

It’s been said every star athlete secretly wants to be a rock star, and vice versa. Unfortunately, some sports icons also want to be actors. And if you’ve seen late Raiders lineman John Matuszak‘s performance in “Caveman” or Shaquille O’Neal‘s in “Kazaam,” you know why the Oscar is not named after former Cubs pitcher Oscar Zamora, or ex-Cleveland Indian Oscar Gamble (though he did sport an award-winning Afro), or even basketball Hall of Famer Oscar Robertson.

Rappin’ genie with attitude!

For every believable performance (NBA star Ray Allen in “He Got Game“) there are a dozen “star turns” that should convince every sports figure that they should stay between the white lines — and not read any scripts.

In honor of the recent (and rather boring) Academy Awards, here’s a random look at the worst performances by an athlete that made it to the silver screen.

SPORTS: Scoring votes — the faceoff

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February 19, 2008

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By A.J. Hayes

Turn on cable television or AM radio any afternoon and you might be hard-pressed to tell the difference between the sports and political news programming. Whether it’s ESPN’s Pardon the Interruption or Fox’s Hannity and Colmes, it seems as if everyone is yelling with the fervor and conviction of a roided-up high school P.E. teacher.

Some political shows (Hardball) have sports inspired names and another (Countdown) is hosted by Keith Olbermann, who cut his broadcasting teeth inventing new catch phrases to describe home runs and field goals.

So considering that politics and sports are both populated by the same types of egomaniacs, we’ve decided to wed the three top remaining Presidential candidates with the Bay Area sports figures that best fits their persona.

McCain behind the straight talk?

John McCain and Don Nelson. Both the Warriors head coach and leading Republican nominee have seen great victories in their day, and have both have suffered their share of humility in their given professions. Though Nelson is one of the NBA’s all-time winning coaches, he’s never captured a NBA title and each coaching stop he’s has made has ended ignominiously, with invariably lawsuits flying after his departure.

Mayor announces nothing

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February 14, 2008

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S-2(2).jpg
Homeless policy director Dariush Kayhan and Mayor Gavin Newsom

Mayor Gavin Newsom announced a new plan to redesign the city’s homeless shelters this morning.

The press conference was held at Multi-Service Center South, one of the largest homeless shelters in the city, and addressed a small crowd of journalists and shelter staff. There didn’t appear to be any homeless people in the room (unless some of the staffers are also homeless, which is possible. The shelters are required to have homeless or formerly homeless individuals account for 25 percent of their employees.)

After a rambling introduction recounting the various perennial problems with homelessness in San Francisco, Newsom got to the point and said he’d like to import the Project Homeless Connect model into two shelters – MSC South and Next Door – so that clients would be able to one-stop shop for services. “The idea is putting a smaller version of Project Homeless Connect in these two shelters so we’re here seven days a week and to look at the medical side of the equation,” said Newsom. He also said he hopes that one day all the shelters, excepting these two large facilities, are closed for good. “Eventually, I can’t wait until these are the only two shelters remaining in the city and every single other one of them is shut down,” said Newsom.

As for revamping the two remaining shelters, the medical side of the equation would be a respite center, Kayhan clarified, which is curious, since Next Door shelter already has an entire floor of their four-floor building devoted to respite. I recently visited that facility and spoke with Cynthia Lee, a registered nurse, who told me they can only take patients who come out of the hospital. “The idea is to stabilize them, then transition to a bed or room,” she said. If someone on another floor (in this facility which houses 250 people) is having health issues they can’t go there. “I, personally, would like to do that but Next Door has their own clinic – out of Tom Waddell Health Center. It’s not open every day,” Lee said.

In other words, there’s a fully provisioned respite center in a high volume shelter, and the clients there are not allowed to access it. I asked Kayhan if they’d be looking at opening up the facility to the greater shelter population, but he wasn’t able to give me specifics.

Which is true of the entire press conference: no specifics, though a number of questions immediately come to mind.

Homeless people share their stories

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February 13, 2008

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by Amanda Witherell

Note: Though much of the investigation for Shelter Shuffle: Inside San Francisco’s confounding system of housing the homeless was done undercover, the following profiles are of people who shared their stories with me after being informed that I was a journalist.

RUBY WINDSPIRIT

Ruby Windspirit has been homeless since Jan. 14, and her first shelter experience, at A Woman’s Place, was not good. “I felt safe only because I know I can take care of myself,” she says, “But the women who were mentally handicapped did not. Their biggest concern was getting thrown out on the street.” She describes instances of shelter staff asking clients to fetch food from the store in exchange for not getting written up when they broke the rules. “I was really upset at that,” she says. “It was only certain members of the staff that did that.”

“The first night I was there I said, ‘Can I have a towel so I can take a shower?’ They gave me three heavy duty paper towels and said I had to give them back because they reuse them.” Windspirit describes the towels as thick paper, like the kind mechanics use to wipe oil dipsticks. She did what she was told and gave them back when she was done.

Windspirit has bone cancer, but when she asked for an extra blanket and a thicker mat to cushion her 59-year-old body from the floor, she says staff turned her down.

“I was getting sicker and sicker there. Finally I ended up in the emergency room,” she recalls. “The doctor who visits a Woman’s Place saw me and said, ‘What are you doing here? You don’t belong here.’ I said, ‘I don’t know the system.’” The doctor sent her to Tom Waddell Health Center, which referred her immediately to the hospital for emergency care.

Pollo Del Mar explains it all for you

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February 13, 2008

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Eager-eyed writer Justin Juul continues his Guardian’s SF series “Meet Your Neighbors” by interviewing the current reigning Miss Trannyshack (and local journalist) Paul E. Pratt, aka Pollo Del Mar.

Paul E. Pratt is an entertainment journalist who leads a double life as a crazy ass drag queen. So, when he’s not interviewing people like Spike Lee and Oliver Stone he’s getting all fierce and fabulous down at Trannyshack, where he was recently crowned Miss Trannyshack 2007. I’m not exactly sure how it happened, but I wound up spending the better part of a recent quiet Sunday drinking Pilsner and watching a drag show with Pratt at Mecca in The Castro. Here’s what he had to say.

SFBG: Hey, you don’t look like a drag queen at all. Whaddup with that?

Pratt: Well, I like to keep a fine line between who I am in drag and who I am out of it.

SFBG: Yeah, I didn’t know what to expect before I met you. I kind of thought you’d be all dolled up, ten feet tall and scary.

Pratt: Well that’s something you see more of in the Midwest, where I used to live. A lot of the drag queens out there feel sort of forced to live in drag all of the time. You’ll see a lot of transgender people, men trying to become women. The point of the community out there is different in that sense. San Francisco has another side. There’s the pageant circuit — the Imperial Court thing — that you’re seeing some of now. And then there’s the Trannyshack crowd. It’s not so serious out here. I mean, there are straight guys who perform occasionally. There are also female drag queens — we call them faux queens — and even couples like Landa Lakes and Miso Hornay. You don’t find too much of that elsewhere.

SFBG: So what you do is more just for fun then?

Pratt: It’s for fun and glamour and fabulousness.

Climate change: yes? no? banana?

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February 13, 2008

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Global warming is just one of many, many emergency environmental issues — like, the world is just plain looking trashy lately — but, hey, warming gets all the press these days. Whether or not the uptick in earthly sweatiness is caused by man (“anthropogenic”) or cosmos (solar flares?) is kind of a moot point: everyone pretty much agrees there’s some warming going on, and, to me, anything that panics consumers into using less and actually thinking about how products are made and where they come from is a good thing. Consumer consciousness needs a swift kick in the pants — let the panic continue!

Yet it’s been awfully confusing to follow the warming debates — especially since it’s so easy in these days of selective media to just read things you agree with. Luckily, Interneteurs Douglas Campbell and Dennis Dutton (who maintains the mighty fine Arts & Letters Daily Web site) have started Climate Debate Daily, which collates recently Web-published “Calls to Action” and “Dissenting Voices” on either side of the debate (perhaps a bit simplistically). Informative!

Five Days Homeless: The Journals

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February 13, 2008

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MSC South, one of the city’s largest homeless shelters

by Amanda Witherell

DAY ONE – Wednesday, January 16, 2008
Multi-Service Center South, 525 Bryant Street

In San Francisco, you’re not supposed to just walk into a homeless shelter and get a bed, but I decide to give it a shot.

The woman behind the counter wants my “last four.” I have no idea what she’s talking about. She clarifies – of my social security number.

“I don’t think you’re going to find me in the system,” I tell her.

“You’ve never been here?” She says with surprise. She sets up an account for me, with my name, SSN, and date of birth. (Later, I discover I’ve been listed as male — something one of her co-workers kindly fixes.)

I’m told they only have beds at Ella Hill Hutch – do I know where that is? I shake my head no. She passes me off to another staffer, named W. who looks at the clock and decides he’ll “drop beds” and see if they can get me in here tonight instead. He goes through the reservations and identifies the no-shows who haven’t turned up in time for curfew at 6:30. The rule is simple: miss curfew, good-bye bed.

SPORTS: Pants on fire

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February 12, 2008

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By A.J. Hayes

Host Allen Ludden and regular panelist Larry Hovis, of Hogan Heroes fame, may have passed on ages ago, but look for the Liar’s Club

to make a big return to television on Wednesday.

This time the star will be none other than ace pitcher Roger Clemens, and his audience will be members of Congress and baseball fans desperately seeking closure to the steroids era.

Like a Clemens strikeout pitch, expect the untruthfulness to come fast and furious.

Despite being sworn to tell the truth, Clemens will do anything to get around the accusations that he used performance-enhancing drugs to take his baseball career to a higher level at an age when pitchers have traditionally moved to mop-up roles.

Search for shelter: Bryan Cohen’s nightly journals

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February 12, 2008

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Editor’s Note: Guardian intern Bryan Cohen contributed to this week’s cover story: “Shelter Shuffle: Inside San Francisco’s confounding system of housing the homeless.” What follows is a fascinating log of his experiences:

Mural on the southeastern wall of MSC South, one of the city’s largest shelters

By Bryan Cohen

I have a new saying for the San Francisco Human Services Agency: fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice shame on me; fool me three times . . . Oh wait, shame on you again because public service programs shouldn’t be in the business of fooling people — or making them feel shameful about being fooled.

Here’s the story – I’d just arrived in San Francisco from Boston when my car was impounded. I got a job, but came up short for a down payment on an apartment. With no back up cash, staying at a hotel would put me back even farther and I don’t know anyone on the west coast, let alone the state of California or the Bay Area.

All of this is absolutely true, except for one fortunate detail: I was able to Craigslist my way into a short-term apartment. Otherwise, this would have been much more than just an undercover investigation for a newspaper.

I took off on a chilly Saturday evening, expecting at the very least a gym floor and a blanket. Three days later I had yet to see a bed or a good nights sleep. And to add supreme insult to that injury: official city reports I reviewed later showed lots of vacancies at the very shelters that were denying me and others a place to stay.

Slap that ass for spring

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February 11, 2008

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By Justin Juul

“I don’t know what it is about women, but I will go to my grave wanting to pet their butts and boobs.” — Kurt Vonnegut

If Mr. Vonnegut had been born 50 years later, his famous quote might read something more like I don’t know what it is about women, but I will go to my grave wanting to spank their asses. What? Haven’t you heard? Spanking is the new hugging. Everyone’s doing it. And it’s totally natural too. Behind-the-scenes activities may differ from relationship to relationship, but nearly all of them involve some sort of spanking ritual. My girlfriend, for example, gets spanked whenever she reaches for fruit from the bottom drawer of the fridge. She gets it when she’s tying her shoes, petting her cat, and well, anytime really. And she loves it! (I hope.) But alas, there’s a stigma attached to spanking. It’s something only immoral sex freaks do, some people say. Well, this is San Francisco and we say spank away.

But how, you ask. Well, there are plenty of ways to slap an ass. But, as with most things, it’s best to get some guidance. Thank god for Good Vibrations. And thank god for Rosy Cheeks, the store’s new spanking instructor. Apparently, while the rest of us were out stuffing our faces and drinking eggnog over the holiday break, Ms. Cheeks was drafting the lesson plan for her new class, Hot Spanking, which she’ll be teaching in March at The Good Vibrations store on Polk Street. Too late for Valentine’s Day — but springtime’s coming, people. Time to get that ass in gear!

Hot Spanking
March 18, 8pm-10pm
$25 pre-register/$30 drop-in
Good Vibrations
1620 Polk Street, SF
(415) 345-0400
www.goodvibes.com

The bears are a-comin’!

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February 11, 2008

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If you happen to notice large numbers of big furry gays prowling the streets, gyms, cafes, dance floors, and internets of SF this week (craigslist M4M is a total hirsute hoot this time of year), then be not alarmed — it’s merely the influx of hearty attendees for International Bear Rendezvous 2008, the huge hairy gathering sponsored by the Bears of San Francisco.

The conference/celebration takes place Feb 14-18 at the Holiday Inn Golden Gateway — and it’s pretty all-encompassing, with satellite pudge-parties and ravenous ribaldry (with Tiffany?!?), and also a few panels and local vendor booths (although the emphasis seems less and less on these each year).

Cub and the City

I got a lot of shit last year for writing about changes in the bear community (what I dubbed Bear 2.0) now that a younger generation of bears has come of age, with its focus less on community activism and combating negative gay mainstream stereotypes a la twinky Will and Grace and more on dancing to techno and having slutty fun (and a sense of humor, duh). It’ll be interesting to see how right I was again this year, but I’m a full on chubby-chaser, darlings — and February is huntin’ season in this neck of the woof woods. Suit up!

SPORTS: Super Bowl upsets, ads cause nausea

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February 4, 2008

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By AJ Hayes

We don’t make it a habit of rooting for New York teams, but the Giants’ improbable upset of New England on Sunday night was fantastic. Not only did it result in one of the best games in Super Bowl history, but it managed to wipe some of the smugness off the face of Patriots coach Bill Belichick. A sore loser and a cheat, Belichick is one of the more odorous fellows in sports today.

It also ended the talk once and for all that Tom Brady is the equal of Joe Montana. Brady may be a nice guy and a swell quarterback, but Montana saved the Super Bowl for his brightest moments, not his stumbles.

On to more important matters: Super Bowl commercials. (You can view them all here.)

Our personal favorite was the stylish Doritos ad in which a suave vermin hunter lays out half a cheesy chip on a mouse trap and sits back and waits, munching on the rest of the bag. Suddenly the wall explodes and a huge costumed rat appears, pummeling the tuxedoed hunter with a right/left combination. We laughed, even though the ad’s been around for a while, it turns out.

Now for the least funny spots.

Salesgenie. It’s not clear what a Salesgenie is or does, but its animated ad mocking Indian accents makes us want to stay clear of it.

OMG sunshine

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February 4, 2008

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Could it possibly have been the Giants’ win last night? Or perhaps the sunny anticipation of Tuesday’s primary? Maybe Ann Coulter finally died of a poppers overdose? Nah … it’s just weather, baby. But the sun has peeked through the clouds this morning, illuminating with wonky incrementalism the collection of Godzilla toys I keep on my dresser, and I’m in the mood for some effervescent Korean pop. Let’s jam!

Kim Jong Kook, “Lovely”

SPORTS: The return of C-Web is a bad idea

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January 28, 2008

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By A.J. Hayes

Thomas Wolfe may have been exaggerating when he wrote “You Can’t Go Home Again.” But in the case of basketball player Chris Webber that phrase should be taken as gospel.

Chris Webber, earlier

Especially when it comes to a possible return to the Warriors, Webber’s initial NBA club. When Webber forced his way off the Warriors in the fall of 1994, he just didn’t leave the franchise and team’s dedicated fan base in the lurch. He dumped a gallon of gasoline on the shag carpet and lit a match.

But here we are more than a dozen years later and there is serious talk of a Warriors and Webber reunion. But before the Warriors make that move we implore Golden State to take Amy Winehouse’s advice and say “No, No, No.”

The current Warriors, with Baron Davis and Stephen Jackson leading a “shoot-and-ask-questions-later” barrage are currently the most entertaining and only winning pro sports team in Northern California. But today’s W’s still have a ways to go in matching the excitement level generated by the Warriors clubs of the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Led by fish-tie-wearing Coach Don Nelson in his first tenure as Warriors coach, those Warriors reinvented NBA basketball in the Bay Area. Led by Timmy Hardaway, Mitch Richmond and Chris Mullin (AKA Run-TMC), those Warriors clubs put on awesome scoring displays every time they took the hardwood, selling out the Coliseum Arena on a nightly basis and winning a couple of league scoring titles in the process.

Warrior’s fans ate it up like popcorn, or more accurately free pizza, which they won every time Golden State scored 120 or points in a game, which was frequently.

Despite a high entertainment value, the Warriors of those days lacked the presence of a great big man to move them deep into the playoffs. But that all changed in 1993 when the Warriors managed to draft Webber, the collegiate superstar who led Michigan to the NCAA championship game in ’93.