Pixel Vision Archives — Page 107 of 133 — San Francisco Bay Guardian Archive 1966

W. Kamau Bell did first Obama joke on Comedy Central, ‘Bell’ keeps on keepin’ on

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January 15, 2009

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Jokes.com

W. Kamau Bell – Obama

Who’s ready to get fork-fancy?

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January 14, 2009

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Absinthe’s green stuff

Oh, hey — if you’re not quite at the point where you need our priceless Hard Times Handbook — or if you’ve been hungrily saving up your scratch, just itching to try out some high-endish dining joints like Absinthe, LuLu, or Pres a Vi — here’s a chance to pick up your fancy fork for less and see things from the richer side.

Yep, that summit of budget culinary yum, Dine About Town, is upon us once again (the eighth year!), brought by the good folks of Taste SF.

Here’s the deal: Intriguing restaurants around the town are hoping to tempt you to their tables (and come back for more?). From Thurs/15 – Sat/31 you can dive into a three-course prix fixe lunch or dinner at more than 100 Bay Area restaurants. Lunch: $21.95. Dinner: 34.95. That sounds like a helluva lot — but for what you get in most cases, it’s totally worth it. Splurge on a fancy dinner or huge lunch on the cheap? Win.

Click here to see participating restos and for more info.

Burning Man Ticket Clusterfuck 2009

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January 14, 2009

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Photo of last year’s tickets by m.klynstra.

By Steven T. Jones

Burning Man tickets went on sale today at 10 a.m. With thousands of people rushing to get the cheapest tier tickets ($210 this year), it’s always a frantic clusterfuck of long delays and technical glitches, but things started fairly smoothly this year…until they once again jumped the rails, leaving me and many others with the maddeningly ambiguous repeated message “Your order may have completed” after we offered up our credit card numbers.
For awhile there, it was cruising along, with Burning Man and InHouse Ticketing running a system that let you know where you were in line (I was number 4187 after logging on two minutes after 10) and automatically updating every 60 seconds. It was a nice change from some previous years when you needed to keep hitting the “refresh” button. Then that update bar went gray and everyone starting freaking out on message boards like Tribe and ePlaya.
I decided to run a couple windows at once just in case I’d lost my place and on two of them, I had 185 people in front of me for about 20 minutes. Then, suddenly, one let me in. I bought two tickets, it processed them, and then said, “Your order may have completed,” but saying I could try again. I did, this time buying two tickets on another credit card and the same thing happened.
The promised confirmation e-mail never arrived but I can’t afford a third charge, so I checked my online banking account and found I’d been charged for two tickets. So, now I have four, two, or zero tickets, but there’s no way to be sure. I’ve got calls out to people at both Burning Man and InHouse Tickets and I’ll post more information and updates as I get them.

The changing face of Polk Street, pictured

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January 14, 2009

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By Johnny Ray Huston

Good things come in twos, so after writing about it last week, Blaine Dixon’s new book, Polk Gulch (Blurb, 144 pages, $44.95), is appearing in the Intro twice in a row. Why? It’s a perfect match for "Polk Street: Lives in Translation," a new audiovisual exhibit at the GLBT Historical Society. Both reveal the changing face — and faces — of Polk Street, the thoroughfare that once inspired me to write a millennial poem entitled "Pinocchio on Polk Street" (half the landmarks name-checked in it are now gone). A month or so ago, I found an old gay magazine. The headline of one article asks, "Castro Street — the New Polk Street?" The answer is yes — and no.

Thurs/15, 5:30 p.m. talk by Susan Stryker, 7 p.m. reception; free

GLBT Historical Society

657 Mission, Suite 300, SF

(415) 777-5455

www.glbthistory.org

>>Click here to read J. Plaster’s controversial 2007 piece in the Guardian, “The Death of Polk Street”

Local Artist of the Week

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January 14, 2009

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LOCAL ARTIST David Young

TITLE Untitled

BIO A San Francisco resident for just over five years, David Young draws inspiration from postapocalyptic films, punk music, street art, graphic novels, and war photography to present a damaged and hostile vision of SF and its place in America. All of the work in his "Live Forever" series is executed with Micron8 pens on Strathmore Bristol and American Masters paper.

SHOW "David Young: Live Forever," Thurs/15 through Feb. 14 (reception Thurs/15, 6–9 p.m.). Babylon Falling, 1017 Bush, SF. (415) 345-1017, www.babylonfalling.com

WEB www.myspace.com/dyoungv

The Blender: What we’ve been eating

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January 14, 2009

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The Guardian staff got a little fancy with their vittles ….

(1) Lobster mac ‘n’ cheese, First Crush, SF

(2) Giant 47 Pound Rooster Pinot Noir

(3) Home fries with white truffle oil

(4) Mashed cauliflower "potatoes"

(5) The Gypsy cocktail, Gitane, SF

The Mix: What we’ve been up to

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January 14, 2009

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The Guardian staff got rangy this week:

(1) Watching Notorious, then having a Notorious B.I.G. YouTube party

(2) Fantasy house-hunting, Pacific Heights

(3) Hiking through Muir Woods

(4) Matt and Kim, Grand (Fader)

(5) Brass Tax renegade at Pier 30

Parea: Wine, friends, and a burrito afterwards?

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January 8, 2009

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By Sarah C. Jimenez

Paréa, meaning a friend or family gathering in Greek, first came to my attention through my bar manager, who’s been raving incessantly about its small plates and organic ingredients. Hitting up the spot with my own paréa, I found that the one (and only) thing I had to rave about this place is their expensive—I mean extensive—wine list, featuring an incredible selection of high-end wines. If you’re a super bougie cork-dork who doesn’t mind shelling out hefty bills for international wines you won’t see on most California wine lists, then perhaps this is your go-to place. But for those of you San Franciscans who actually have to pay rent and eat a decent meal without going broke, you might want to grab a burrito somewhere else instead.

If you do insist on enjoying yourself at Paréa, then by all means, drink two glasses of wine as quickly as possible (while taking careful note of its exquisite taste, of course). With a smooth buzz, you might not notice that the thinly sliced beets taste kind of limp and do nothing for the taste buds. Or that the cheese plate here is good, but nothing spectacular. If homegirl from your paréa has been baby-sitting her wine for too long, then drink hers too. Feel the tipsiness! Now you won’t care that you’re eating a dry panini with a weak slab of turkey – the whole thing mostly just a mouthful of bread. To further enhance your experience, don’t ask questions when the bill comes; just peel away those Jacksons and ignore that your broke friends decided not to pitch in again. You were insistent on enjoying yourself, right?

Street Threads: Look of the Day

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January 8, 2009

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SFBG photog Ariel Soto scoops SF street fashion. See the previous Look of the Day here.

Today’s Look: Joseph, Bartlett and 24th St.

Tell us about your look: “I get my clothes at thrift shops and from free boxes on the street. My favorite thrift shop is Thrift Town.”

Street Threads: Look of the Day

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January 8, 2009

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SFBG photog Ariel Soto scoops SF street fashion. See the previous Look of the Day here.

Today’s Look: Hanna, Valencia and 21st St.

Tell us about your look: “I’m all about color.”

Photo Essay: 11th Annual Hip Hop DanceFest

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January 8, 2009

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Photos and text by Ariel Soto

For the 11th annual Hip Hop DanceFest on November 22, eleven dance troupes graced the stage at the Palace of Fine Arts. The dance companies hailed from California, South Korea, Norway, Canada, London, and New York, showcasing a diverse definition of what hip hop dance means today. There was some tap dancing, classical music, and Michael Jackson tributes. The ages of the dancers ranged from kids to adults, but their skill and proficiency was perfectly cohesive and steeped full of energy. There was also a spectacular trio, the ILL-Abilities Crew, made up of three dancers with various disabilities who danced with such passion and talent that it brought the whole crowd to a standing ovation. It was obvious after seeing these dance companies perform that hip hop is a dance of all nations, where everyone speaks the universal language for getting your groove thang on.

Pecha Kucha: PowerPoint sprints for artists

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January 8, 2009

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By Susan White

Last month, an amalgamation of hipsters and art aficionados congregated at the Harlot Nightclub for a “hyperintellectual show-and-tell,” otherwise known as Pecha Kucha Night, a worldwide event created in Tokyo six years ago (and recently adapted for San Francisco Design Week).

Basically, Pecha Kucha (pronounced “pe-chak-cha” – Japanese for “chit chat”) is a function at which designers each have exactly six minutes and 40 seconds to present 20 slides of their work (giving them 20 seconds per slide). Having no control over the speed of the projector, speakers are forced to make their points quickly and effectively, moving on before the audience gets bored. Their work usually ranges from architecture to furniture – even the occasional science experiment. Anyone can sign up to speak in advance, and the events are usually free (with suggested donations).

Street Threads: Look of the Day

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January 8, 2009

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Max, Broderick and Haight: “Dress differently.”

Street Threads: Look of the Day

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January 8, 2009

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SFBG photog Ariel Soto scoops SF street fashion. See the previous Look of the Day here.

Julia, Haight and Ashbury

Tell us about your look: “I like the soldier look, boots and big buttons.”

LIT: Authors and SFBG talk saving the earth

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January 7, 2009

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by Amanda Witherell

Yes, even careless placement of renewable energy is hurting the land — addressed in chapter five.
Photo courtesy of losingthewest.com

This week we reviewed The American West at Risk, a recently-published tome that details how ongoing environmental issues are destroying the general livability of Earth for all species, including humans. In short, this book shouldn’t just be on every wannabe Greenpeace activist’s nightstand. Each of the 13 chapters explore one subject in depth — forestry, mining, military operations, road building, to name a few — and balances science with politics and reality to sharpen the argument for preservation of natural resources.

We spoke with two of the authors, Howard G. Wilshire and Jane E. Nielson, who will be reading and discussing the book with co-author Richard Hazlett on Thursday, Jan. 8 at Books Inc, 601 Van Ness Ave.

SFBG: I’m curious why you wrote this book and who you feel you wrote it for.

Howard G. Wilshire: We wrote it because the three of us, all geologists, have a great deal of experience working on environmental issues in the West and we were concerned about it. We get a lot of inquiries from reporters and lawyers and others about specific issues and we figured that since we’re not going to be around forever we should write down our responses and make them available.
When we began the book we told Oxford University Press that we were writing it for nonscientists as well as for academic use, but they’re pretty fussy and decided they would market it only as an academic book. But we wrote it for people who have a problem in their own backyard and want to get some background information on how to respond to it.

Jane E. Nielson: Or for decision makers and environmental lawyers. Often they are not people trained in science and they may not know all the ramifications. Reporters often don’t know all the questions to ask when presented with some sort of a program that’s going to improve things or they have a hard time figuring out what the answers mean. These are the kinds of people who would call us, as well as people from a citizens group who have some kind of major problem coming up and want to know what they needed to think about and what they should be concerned about. This is really the reason we wrote the book. There’s a lot of expertise here and a lot of consideration of things that most people don’t think about.

The age of antiquarian: Lennon, Hemingway, and more

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January 7, 2009

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By Laura Peach

A few years ago, single and sullen on a rainy Valentines Day, I was moping past the library on my way back to my apartment. A sandwich board sign for the “Book Lovers Library Discard Sale” caught my eye and enticed me inside. A small, closetish room on the first floor was bursting with books soon to be orphaned from the library shelves. I spent my time scanning several spines before settling on a cheery red art history text from the 1920s and a distinguished hardcover volume on Hanoi. Happily home I went with these beautiful books in my arms, decidedly less depressed.

Whether or not you have a Valentine this year, you’ll be sure to find literary love at the California International Antiquarian Book Fair this Saturday. Peruse the offerings of hundreds of rare booksellers, and pick up the tomes that turn on your inner bibliophile, from a first addition of Einstein’s Theory of Relativity to a signed copy of Hemingway’s Old Man and the Sea.

Local Artist of the Week

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January 6, 2009

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LOCAL ARTIST Wayne Smith

TITLE Untitled (after GW) #1

BIO Wayne Smith is a visual and sound artist who lives and works in San Francisco. He received a BA in painting and MA in sculpture from San Jose State University. His work in a variety of media, including drawing, installation, and video, has been shown locally and nationally. In 2007, he collaborated with Berlin-based artist D-L Alvarez on a sound and video installation loosely based on Joan Didion’s The White Album, at New York’s Derek Eller Gallery. As Aero-Mic’d, he records music in SoundEdit 16, a now-defunct sound software, joined by an alternating group of musicians that has included Cliff Hengst, Scott Hewicker, William Fowler Collins, Cory Vilema, and Anne McGuire.

SHOW "Zen With a Lisp: David Enos, Frank Haines, Wayne Smith." Through Sun/11. Sun., noon–5 p.m. [2nd floor projects], call for address. (415) 824-2644

WEB www.projects2ndfloor.blogspot.com

The Blender: What we’ve been eating

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January 6, 2009

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Total holiday comfort food coma on the Guardian staff menu last week:

(1) White trash Bundt cake and Martha Stewart roast beef

(2) Meat pie

(3) Domaine De Canton ginger liqueur

(4) Yule log cake

(5) Dungeness crab and single malt Scotch

The Mix: What we’ve been up to

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January 6, 2009

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The Guardian staff got frisky — and predictably hungover last week:

(1) Breakfast of Champions on New Year’s Day

(2) The Music Library, Jonny Trunk (Fuel Publishing)

(3) Scoping hot bears at the Lone Star Saloon

(4) Y: The Last Man (DC/Vertigo) comics binge

(5) Snorbot

bay to barkers

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January 5, 2009

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Street Threads by night: What are you wearing?

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January 5, 2009

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Limor, 24th Street and Castro

Guardian photog Ariel Soto continues her quest for San Francisco’s best street togs — this time with an spotlit eye on eveningwear

Kate, 24th Street and Vicksburg

Keesa, 22nd Street and Valencia

The Mix: What we’ve been up to

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December 30, 2008

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The Guardian staff’s weekly list of recent raves:

(1) Ice skating at Justin Herman Plaza

(2) Live classical music, Revolution Cafe

(3) Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog — even better the second time!

(4) Midnight mass, Christmas Eve, Mission Dolores

(5) Braving the crowds for insane deals at Macy’s

The Blender: What we’ve been eating

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December 30, 2008

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The Guardian staff was fork-deep in comforting goodies this week:

(1) Wild grouper with mashed sweet potatoes and brussels sprouts, Derek’s, Pasadena

(2) Potato latkes with applesauce, cornbread fig and prosciutto stuffing muffins, and mushroom turnovers

(3) Red Breast 12-year-old Irish whiskey and Woodford Reserve bourbon

(4) New Hampshire rolls (bacon, bacon, bacon), Wasabi, Oakland

(5) Empanadas on the street in Chile

A Tom and Jerry Christmas: It’s hard out there for a Grinch

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December 21, 2008

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By Justin Juul

Oh yes, it’s all real

Can we all just take a minute and stop pretending that the holidays are fun? I mean sure, there are more opportunities to drink before nightfall, and sure, we’ll probably all get new iPhones. But come on! Christmas is like the most annoying time of the year. Not only do we have to spend cash on other people, but we also have to donate an incalculable amount of our free time to activities we’d normally avoid. Forget about going to the gym or watching a movie; the next two weeks are gonna be nothing but awkward work parties, shopping, cooking, and listening to music that makes you remember your childhood. Not fun.

It’s easy to get depressed over the holidays for these reasons, but it’s always better to just bear through the ordeal with a smile. After all, there are millions of people with problems far worse than our own. Starving children, homeless people, and the housebound elderly come to mind, but that’s not who I’m talking about. I’m talking about the one group of people to whom the holidays are a true burden: obsessive decorators.

Think about it. The holidays may mean that you and I will have to throw some sparkly shit on a dead tree or light some candles, but that’s nothing compared to what folks like Tom Lawson and Jerry Goldstein (AKA the cutest couple in the world), have to deal with. These guys spend weeks preparing their holiday display and the cost is through the roof. I mean, dude, look at that tree! The lights alone must cost thousands of dollars to operate. And just imagine how much effort it takes to get all that stuff up there? It’s a wonder that Tom and Jerry even bother with the holidays, but they always have and they always will.

Why? Well, that’s a good question. The Guardian stopped by the Goldstein/Lawson residence (3650 21st ST) a few times this week to get the scoop.

Tom and Jerry, in the spirit

SFBG: That’s a helluva set up you got there. How long have you been doing this?
Tom Lawson: Oh, I guess it’s been almost 20 years now.

SFBG: Jesus, man. That’s a long time. Has it always been this big?
Lawson: Oh, it’s always been on the bigger side of things, but it’s definitely grown over the years. It’s gotten pretty out of hand, actually.

SFBG: How much does something like this cost?
Lawson: Well, we don’t discuss things like that, but I will say it’s not cheap. I mean look, that crane alone costs $3,000. And then I gotta hire a Santa Clause and everything. And then of course, there’s my crew. They’ve been with me forever.

SFBG: Are they like your personal elves or something?
Lawson: Ha! Don’t let them hear you say that. No, I’m a property manager and this is my work crew. When Christmas rolls around we stop working regular jobs and we put all of our energy into this.

SFBG: Why?