SFBG Blogs

Hot sex events this week: September 23-29

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Compiled by Molly Freedenberg

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Strap ’em on, lace ’em up, and grease ’em down: It’s time for every leather-head’s favorite holiday.

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>> Leather Week at Chaps
Visit the home of leather, gear, kink, and cruise during the days leading up to The Big Event. Get Cheap Ass drink specials if you wear your jockstrap to Locker Room on Wednesday, celebrate the HellHole Club Inferno DVD release at Red Hanky on Thursday, join the 2nd annual Stompers Boot Pig Party on Friday or the HotBoots annual party on Saturday, and recover on Monday with drink specials.

Wed/23-Mon/28, times and prices vary.
Chaps
1225 Folsom, SF
www.chapsbarsanfrancisco.com

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>> Leather Week at Powerhouse
Gear up for Sunday with dirty, sexy demos, gear, and hands on training with Mr. S Leather on Wednesday, have a boot-lickin’ good time on Thursday, ogle titleholders on Friday, get some Nips in the Afternoon on Saturday before gettin’ Strapped and Ready later that night, and then start your Sunday right by stopping by at 10am.

Wed/23-Sun/27, times and prices vary.
Powerhouse
1347 Folsom, SF
www.powerhouse-sf.com

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>> Naughty Piano Bar with Kitten on the Keys
Hear the talented singer/songwriter perform the songs that made her famous on the international burlesque scene.

Thurs/24, 8:30pm. Free.
Rite Spot Cafe
2099 Folsom, SF
www.suzanneramsey.net

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Skin flicks: 2009 IXFF wrap-up!

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By Louis Peitzman

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Paul Festa grooms in Let Me Tell You John Cameron Mitchell.

The Good Vibrations Independent Erotic Film Festival finally went down (tee-hee!) last week. September 17’s competition at the Castro Theatre brought out the best, brightest, and naked-est in a series of shorts that will hopefully help to redefine the future of the genre. For those of us tired of the overproduced crap that usually passes for pornography, the screening was a breath of kinky fresh air.

It helped that the event was hosted by four lovely ladies: Good Vibes sexologist and chief cultural officer Dr. Carol Queen, Peaches Christ, Lady Bear, and Hugz Bunny. Sitting on a couch in front of the stage, they commented on the films with wit, insight, and just the slightest bit of sass. Stressful for the filmmakers, I’m sure — who wants to have their erection judged by a drag queen? — but entertaining for the rest of us.

There were 11 films screened, and rather than dissect them all (because that would be bo-ring), allow me to highlight my four faves.

Let Me Tell You John Cameron Mitchell (Paul Festa)
Festa’s short film is actually an edited version of an audition tape he submitted for John Cameron Mitchell’s Shortbus (2006). Despite its origins, it works well as a stand-alone. And yes, I’m probably biased by a slight crush on the director and star, but this is legitimately successful work. What I like most about Let Me Tell You is the way it sexualizes the mundane — who knew shaving one’s head could be so erotic?

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Narcissister, with hot lunch

Narcissister’s Hot Lunch (Narcissister)
I’m going to be honest: I’m actually a little creeped out by Narcissister. For those not familiar with her work, it involves a half-mask and other fake body parts. (Well, I think they’re fake. If real nipples could produce ketchup, I’d be pretty impressed.) Still, there is something hypnotizing about her dance moves and the comedy she works into the finished product. Bonus points for her use of “Hot Lunch” from Fame (1980) here.

SCENE: House of Salad gives a toss

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Interview by Marke B. From SCENE: The Guardian Guide to Nightlife and Glamour, on stands in the Guardian now.

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House of Salad, photographed by Leo Herrera

I recently ran halfway across downtown with the mother of lunatic dragstravaganza House of Salad, Ambrosia Salad herself (pictured above, bottom center, with the big head), teased out extra wig and fake Louis Vuitton suitcase full of props in tow. We were on our way from a vogue ball at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts to Aunt Charlie’s in the Tenderloin, where she was set to perform. But first we made a quick pit stop at an Indian pizzeria for a huge slice of Hawaiian, which Ambrosia relished with gusto, lipstick be damned. I guess that summarizes the ragtag retinue of underground DJs, performers, promoters, artists, and freaks that she’s gathered around herself, who represent every alternaqueer tribe in San Francisco and put on a hell of a show: Who needs makeup when you’ve got ham drippings and pineapple juice?

SFBG You grew up in the fruit fields of Monterey …

Ambrosia Most of my wonder years were spent on a strawberry farm next to the ocean, where my bedroom furniture got front row to me dancing around to Stacey Q, Annie Lennox, and Grace Jones. I was no stranger to wearing mommy’s pumps and tube tops as dresses. Oddly enough, it wasn’t until five years ago that I revisited wearing women’s clothing. At first just silly swamp drag: a mustache with a shitty wig. It wasn’t until [drag mentor] Mr. David beat the shit out of me that I discovered that Ambrosia didn’t need to be so tragic after all. In fact, she looked pretty good.

SCENE: B.A.S.S. pours it on

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Interview by Billy Jam. From SCENE: The Guardian Guide to Nightlife and Glamour, on stands now.

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B.A.S.S. ladies: Pam the Funkstress and DJ Zita, photographed by Keeney + Law

The B.A.S.S. (Bay Area Sistah Sound) Crew, which bills itself as "the Bay’s Premier Lady DJ Crew," kicked into gear in March 2008 with its first Everlasting B.A.S.S. party at Milk in the Haight. The wildly popular SF monthly, which prides itself on presenting all-female DJ and promotion talents, has now found a home at the lovely Poleng Lounge. Every fourth Saturday, founding member DJ Zita and Pam the Funkstress (formerly of the hip-hop legends the Coup) serve up a nonstop mix of hip hop, funk, soul, and dancehall. DJ Neta, currently busy being a new mom and finishing her PhD, and promoter Fiyah Lilly are also part of the Sistahood. Over the past 18 months Everlasting B.A.S.S.’s hot guest spinners have included DJ Shortee, Deeandroid, Celskiii, Melina Jones, and Conscious Daughters. On Sept. 26, DJ Similak Chyld and emcee Josie Stingray will join the mix.

SFBG What sets Everlasting B.A.S.S. apart from other parties?

Pam the Funkstress It’s all female DJs, all female emcees, and female promoters, too. It’s a whole lady thing. And our music selection is a lot different from what you would normally hear at a regular club. I mean you hear the club stuff, but Zita plays a lot of the old school stuff, and I play a lot more of the newer stuff but at the same time I play a lot of ’90s. But I don’t seem to play music that is derogatory toward women. Like with, say, Too $hort, I will play "Short But Funky" or "Blow the Whistle," but I won’t play some of his album classics that I know are hits but are derogatory.

SCENE: Funky C tears the roof off

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Interview by Mirissa Neff. From SCENE: The Guardian Guide to Bay Area Nightlife and Glamour, on stands in our regular issue now!

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Funky C with his band Joya, photographed for our SCENE cover by Spencer Hansen

Known throughout Latin America as C-Funk, singer, guitarist, and DJ Funky C, a.k.a. Cristian Moraga, was born during the bleak days of Pinochet’s dictatorship. He co-fronted popular funk-rock-hip-hop band Los Tetas and brought the groove back to a Chilean scene rife with disenfranchised punk rockers. When Los Tetas ended, Moraga vowed never to set foot on another stage. Lucky for us, though, his particular brand of funk (what he calls “Funk Latino”) was too chronic to shake. The mothership brought him to San Francisco where he recorded Joya (Sonic 360, 2007), an album full of nods to funk icons like James Brown and George Clinton and less-expected heros like Tupac and Snoop Dogg. With two recent slots at the Fillmore under his belt, Funky C is set to throw down his deep-rooted riffs and infectious songs at a series of new parties called “Latin Biatz.”

SFBG How did you end up in the U.S.?

Funky C I have family here and came here to play with my old band, Los Tetas. But I always wanted to come here to live. In 2007 I released the Funky C album with L.A. label Sonic 360 and decided to move here. Then my wife and I had our baby here in San Francisco, a California girl. It’s been a crazy year.

SFBG So the whole band came from Chile?

Funky C Well, I decided for myself, and they wanted to come too. And through my visa I got them visas. The drummer Pepino arrived last year. The bass player Chicho came last year, went back to Chile, and got back just in time for our show at the Fillmore last week. The only one who’s not here is the keyboard player. We’re missing one of our characters in the band, and I miss him a lot.

Appetite: Notoberfest, Ollalieberry Sour, barley beer brats, and more

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Every week, Virginia Miller of personalized itinerary service and monthly food, drink, and travel newsletter, www.theperfectspotsf.com, shares foodie news, events, and deals. View the last installment here.

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Barrel-aged beer sounds delicious right now. Photo from www.beerandnosh.com

EVENTS
10/10 Beer & Nosh presents Notoberfest
Jesse Friedman, whose popular blog Beer and Nosh is one of the best out there on the sudsy stuff and accompanying foods, throws an event beer and food lovers shouldn’t miss. But be forewarned… the event is already half sold out though weeks away.

With a cap at 150 people, Friedman told me he plans to keep it a comfortable party with various outposts around the room, flowing with food and beer. In the spirit of collaboration, Jesse assembled quite a line-up. None other than Ryan Farr and the 4505 Meats team prepare a feast with details not completely confirmed, though I hear rumors of grass-fed beef roasted over a fire, malt-studded/malt extract-glazed pork belly (yes!), barley beer brats on a stick, fried croquet on barley & sour apple chutney, and hopped rolled face on a fence(!) Dessert promises to be equally stunning with Humphry Slocombe creating six custom beer ice creams and treats just for this event. Wow.

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Sampling the goods with Steve Altamari (Valley Brew), Ryan Farr (4505 Meats), and Jake Godby (Humphry Slocombe). Photo from www.beerandnosh.com

And the beer? Valley Brewing Co. serves their suds: Reinheitsgebot-breaking beers, each non-traditional, modern takes on heirloom styles:

* Luna Blanca – Central Valley Golden Ale
* a tart Olallieberry Sour that’s been fermented using wild yeast
* Brandy Barrel-aged “Collaborative Evil” Belgian Strong Golden Ale
* India Pale Ale
* Bourbon Barrel Russian Imperial Stout
* a rich Valley Brew Skullsplitter Root Beer
* the event’s signature beer, “Notoberfest” Bourbon Barrel Maibock Lager

This collaborative night brings together passionate craftspeople serving one-of-a-kind beers, meats and ice cream. If you need any more reasons to attend, I can’t think of them.
October 10, 1-5pm
$50 pre-purchase; $60 at the door (if not sold out): includes beer, food, commemorative glass and poster (shown on Web site)
Mars Bar
798 Brannan Street
415-621-6277
www.beerandnosh.com/notoberfest

This just in: Dinners from Chef Melissa Axelrod
Read about wine or beer pairing dinners around town from Chef Melissa Claire in my current issue of The Perfect Spot.
www.melissaclaire.com

Street Threads: Look of the Day

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

Today’s Look: Virginia, Willard North and McAllister

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Tell us about your look: “I need to do my laundry!”

alt.sex.column: The new 49

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By Andrea Nebmerson. View more alt.sex.columns here.

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andrea@mail.altsexcolumn.com

Dear Andrea:


I’ve always had a pretty good sex life, with no problems getting it up or keeping it up, until recently. I’m now 59 and suddenly, even a la Viagra, it’s just about impossible. It is even difficult for me to get an erection masturbating. I had my doctor give me a whole series of tests and everything seems OK, so I am mystified. Perhaps it is just age (whatever that means, since I have been and remain quite athletic)? Any thoughts or clues? Or is my sex life pretty much over with?

Love,

Feeling Down

Dear Down:

I’m feeling a little down too, just reading this. No way should your sex life just be over, and no way should we assume that that bunch of tests was testing for the right things. As much as we (the sex educator "we") often direct help-seekers right back to their medical providers, medical providers frankly kind of suck at solving sex problems.

Did the doctor test your testosterone? Did s/he check it more than once? Did you get a prostate exam? How about your blood sugar? Are you on beta-blockers or similar for high blood pressure? And, perhaps most important, did s/he send you on for a cardio work-up? I don’t want to scare you, but inability to get blood to the pelvis may be indicative of inability to get blood circulating nicely everywhere else, and that’s never good.

There is much discussion lately of desire disorders, the sudden (media) prevalence of which is a bit mysterious, not to mention a bit subjective. One person’s desire disorder is another’s normal sex drive, and refreshing as it has been to see women’s sexuality taken seriously, there may be a bit of — dare I call it hysteria?- around women and desire going on out there. But more on all that later. This sounds physical.

Altered Barbies, or darling prolific rabbits?

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By Caitlin Donohue

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“Gene Simmons Begs Barbie” by Lavonne Sallee from the 7th Annual Altered Barbie Exhibit

During the years in which I was easily influenced by colorful plastic and catchy commercial jingles, my parents were good feminists and most certainly did not buy me Barbie dolls. Nonetheless, Barbie dolls multiplied in my toy chest like darling, prolific rabbits. How? The fact of the matter is that The Blonde One is a part of our social milieu. Getting away from Barbie is a proposition akin to avoiding pavement or romaine lettuce; it is simply not done.

SFBG TV at Altered Barbie 2008

This brings us to the San Francisco 7th Annual Altered Barbie Exhibit, wherein local Bay Area artists have appropriated the pink high heels, the taffeta, the Corvette and permanent purple eyeshadow and made this anatomically improbable fact of life their own.

Women’s Building turns a spiffy 30

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By Caitlin Donohue

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Photos by Erik Anderson

Back in January 2008, before Obamarama had reached its most dizzying heights, before the Beer Summit, even before calling Kanye West a “jackass,” our Barry O.’s campaign trail led him to the Women’s Building. El Presidente-to-be picked the site to publicize his plans to aide working class women and families. He couldn’t have chosen a soapbox with better mojo.

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In 1979 the Women’s Building became the first women-run and operated resource center in the country. For the past 30 years, its extravagantly muraled walls have housed a cornucopia of practical tools for some of the most overlooked members of our community: a food pantry for immigrant families, dirt cheap professional legal advice, information on how to obtain a restraining order, even an after-school running program to help build confidence in girls. “This is a safe space for women,” says Corrin Buchanan, Program Director. “Lots of people have come through these doors and left with social services. It’s a place to gather for the community.”

NYT Censored

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Click here to read the Oct. 5, 2009 Bruce blog, New York Times: Censoring Project Censored.

Sonic Reducer Overage: Hammer, Indian Jewelry, Rain Machine, MV and EE, and more

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By Kimberly Chun

Keep your ears open for the sound of rolling thunder, and your heart dilated with the music of yesterday and tomorrow. Today? Well, here’s some of the musical worthiness coming down the pike right about now.

Mark Eitzel and Victor Krummenacher
Singles going steady? The American Music Clubber meets up with his Camper/Monk chum, who flies solo. Thurs/24, 8 p.m., $12-$15. Red Devil Lounge, 1695 Polk, SF. (415) 921-1695.

Hammer
He won’t hurt you — though his parachute pants could cause damage. With Whodini. Fri/25, 8 p.m., $45.75-$65.75. Fox Theater, 1807 Telegraph, Oakl. www.apeconcerts.com

Bike trek ends in SF theft

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By Steven T. Jones
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Bike thefts in San Francisco are always bad (and mostly ignored by the local cops), but this one seems particularly tragic. Andrew Marinelli just completed a 6,255-mile, cross-country bike trek to raise money for the UN World Food Program, arriving in San Francisco on Saturday.

And then last night, his bike was stolen from the downtown area, where it was locked at the corner of Montgomery and Sutter streets. The bike is a large frame dark green Windsor road bike with one fender in the back and a broken right pedal. If you have any leads, contact him directly at 803.443.9343 or andrewmarinelli@gmail.com.

Despite the loss, he had a pretty good attitude about it, telling us, “It happens. I’m just glad that I made it here first.”

Lennar’s third quarter earnings are down

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Text by Sarah Phelan

Lennar kicked off the first day of fall by reporting a $171.6 million third quarter fiscal loss for the period ending August 31. That’s more than double Lennar’s $89 million third quarter loss in 2008.

In a peppy press release posted at the corporation’s investor relations website, Lennar President and CEO Stuart Miller attributed his company’s 3Q loss to lower sales volumes and falling house prices.

“While high unemployment and foreclosures will continue to present challenges, consumer sentiment has significantly improved as homebuyers have recognized that the residential housing market is stabilizing,” he said.

“Assuming the economy continues to stabilize, we believe our improved sales environment, increasing pre-impairment gross margins and ability to leverage S,G&A [ selling, general and administrative expenses] should enable us to return to profitability in fiscal 2010,” Miller concluded.

That’s a pretty big assumption that Wall Street apparently wasn’t swallowing: it sent Lennar’s shares down 53 cents, or 3.2 percent, to $16.01 in yesterday’s midday trading.

Further casting doubt over Lennar’s hopes of a 2010 comeback is the fact that it’s still unclear if lawmakers will decide to extend a federal tax credit of up to $8,000 for first-time homebuyers which expires Nov. 30.

FAIR: NYT Slams Single-Payer

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Action Alert
NYT Slams Single-Payer
Fails to include advocates among ‘diverse’ experts

The New York Times devoted some rare space on September 20 to discussing single-payer (or Medicare-for-all) health reform. The result? A one-sided account of why such a system couldn’t work.

With a headline like “Medicare for All? ‘Crazy,’ ‘Socialized’ and Unlikely,” readers probably had a sense of what the Times had in mind with the piece, which was the latest in a series titled “Prescriptions: Making Sense of the Healthcare Debate.” Reporter Katharine Seelye wrote: “Extending Medicare to all has seemed like a good idea to many–except to those who call it ‘socialized medicine.’ Or crazy.”

The Times seemed to want to express single-payer opposition in more gentle tones, explaining that the idea is, from the start, politically impractical: “Beyond a liberal base in the House, there is little support for expanding Medicare.” And outside of Congress, wise minds seem to agree: “But even experts of diverse ideological views say expanding Medicare would be far more complicated and politically difficult than it might appear.”

Editorial: Stopping PG&E’s fraudulent initiative

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Every elected official, city council, board of supervisors, and utility agency in the state needs to immediately come out publicly in opposition to the initiative and start organizing to defeat it. San Francisco elected officials, including City Attorney Dennis Herrera, need to lead the charge since San Francisco is the only city in the U.S. mandated by federal law to have public power (which it doesn’t have, thanks to PG&E’s corrupting influence through the decades.)

EDITORIAL A ballot measure that could spell the end of public power in California is headed for either the spring or fall 2010 ballot — and so far, the opposition is missing in action. This is a profoundly important issue, and every elected official, city council, board of supervisors, and utility agency in the Bay Area needs to immediately come out in opposition and start organizing to defeat it.

The source of the proposition, of course, is Pacific Gas and Electric Co. PG&E is facing political wildfires all over the state as communities rebel against bad service and high rates. In Marin County, a community choice aggregation (CCA) plan is moving along, full speed. In San Francisco, CCA is a little slower, but still on track. These efforts could turn two of PG&E’s most profitable territories into public power beachheads. Meanwhile, in San Joaquin County, a public power movement is trying to take over part of PG&E’s service area, and PG&E just spent millions of dollars fighting a similar effort in Davis.

Boys’ noise, boys’ toys: getting off at On Land on a Saturday night

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By Spencer Young

Walking into the dark and somewhat dingy den that is Café Du Nord on Saturday night (9/19), I was confronted with the hysteric gritty sounds and seizure-inducing visuals of Joe Grimm (sorry Operative/Scott Goodwin, I missed your potentially amazing set). Interweaving noise with two 16mm video projectors, Grimm literally made sound visual as the former informed the latter into a cacophony of refracted oscillations that during heightened crossover created blinding ephemeral colors, patterns, and images — I swear I saw Kim Jong Il high-fiving Mickey Mouse at one point — that eerily resembled a Rorschach test.

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Photo by Spencer Young

All this frenzy and sensory overload froze anyone who dared watch, making the audience a mass of automatons blankly staring into a propaganda machine—eyes possessed, ears perked, and bodies stiff. I was tempted to fake a seizure to break the tension in the room or at least prevent anyone else from having one, but couldn’t shake the grip.

The cacophony continued as the boys of the evening fiddled with the knobs, switches, and wires of various gadgets. After Grimm, every act on the bill contained a special voyeuristic charm — on stage, each performer appeared as though he were alone in his bedroom on a Saturday night somewhere in the Midwest with nothing to keep him company save for some random mixers and pedals he found in the garage, and we the audience were seeing this unfold as though through a curtain-drawn, lava lamp illuminated window.

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Boys of (psychedelic) summer: Ducktails brings the blur. Photo by Spencer Young

In the case of Pete Swanson, teenage angst coupled with ennui was battled with and exorcised via a wall of sound that had him shaking in desperation. Ducktails donned Ray-Bans to casually careen through his set, evoking a bit of Dylan. His blurry summer psychedelic sound emanated from a mini Casio keyboard and a sampler inside an old suitcase. With its looped circus-like two-step dance trance and warbly guitar riffs that delicately bowed like patrons at a Japanese tea ceremony, “Beach Poijt Pleasant” was the best song of the night.

PG&E resigns from US Chamber over climate change dispute

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By Steven T. Jones

While we’ve regularly criticized Pacific Gas & Electric for its corrupting political influence and for not doing enough on climate change, but we were happy to hear the company has resigned from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce over the business association’s scurrilous campaign to dispute that climate change is real and caused by human activity.

“An intellectually honest argument over the best policy response to the challenges of climate change is one thing; disingenuous attempts to diminish or distort the reality of these challenges is quite another,” PG&E CEO Peter Darbee wrote to the Chambers, according to the company.

The recent efforts by conservatives and corporations to turn back the clock on our understanding of climate change (which even the San Francisco Examiner is promoting) are disgraceful and should have no place in honest political debate. After a weird summer of right-wing Red-baiting, gun-toting, epithet-spewing antics, it’s an indication of how low the political discourse in this country has fallen when PG&E is calling out corporate America.

Golden Gate suicide barrier lacks funding

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By Sarah Morrison
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The 2006 film The Bridge documented suicides from the iconic span.

It was almost a year ago that local officials decided that the Golden Gate Bridge needed a net constructed to prevent potential suicide jumpers, but with its projected price tag of $50 million, a lack of state funds threatens to delay the project indefinitely.

According to Marin County Coroner Ken Holmes, more than 1300 people have died jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge since its construction, an estimate that does not include all bridge suicides or incidences when bodies have not been found.

The Bridge Rail Foundation has been campaigning for years to raise the pedestrian safety rail on the Golden Gate Bridge and stop the suicides. While the board of directors for the Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District agreed to implement the net system almost a year ago, but it’s fate now seems to come down to funding.

Canadian cinemania: one critic’s take on TIFF ’09

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By Jesse Hawthorne Ficks

>>Check out critic Dennis Harvey’s TIFF takes here.

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There were quite a number of exciting films at the 34th annual Toronto International Film Festival, though attending 21 features and 20 shorts in five days also involved some disappointments. Japanese director Hirokazu Kore-eda’s Air Doll somehow dropped the ball in every which way, throwing around interesting concepts involving a sex doll who comes to life (a la The Velveteen Rabbit), but it ended up leaving me longing for Michael Gottlieb’s 1987 politically incorrect gem, Mannequin. Or Fridrik Thor Fridriksson‘s The Sunshine Boy, an Icelandic documentary about Autism around the world. Though it used Bjork and Sigur Ros on the soundtrack, it felt like an infomercial for public access. (To be fair, I saw the version with an Icelandic narrator and not the newest version with Kate Winslet reading the cues.)

Some films succeeded in minor ways, including George Romero’s fifth entry in his zombie oeuvre, Survival of the Dead. While enjoyable, this one seems to lack the political immediacy of his previous entries, including his underrated Diary of the Dead (2007). Michael Moore’s (last?) feature Capitalism: A Love Story had some brilliantly ironic moments — as always, interspersed with his typical forehead-slapping activism (do you really have to continue using minimum wage-earning security guards at major corporations as the butt of your wacky antic jokes?). It felt a bit scatterbrained. Still, the film is well worth watching and even won the runner-up audience award for Best Documentary.

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The creator of the original British version of The Office had his directorial debut with The Invention of Lying. Ricky Gervais’ cynically hilarious, cameo-packed laugh-fest sadly ran out of steam during its last act, but no matter. What’s most important here is the sucker-punch moment that has Gervais flexing dramatic skills so poignantly that it literally brought tears to the entire audience. (On a side note, why doesn’t Gervais ever end up kissing his leading ladies? Is this a conscious choice to counteract the likes of Woody Allen or Vincent Gallo or is it truly due to a low-self esteem?)

Todd Solondz’s Life During Wartime, Bong Joon-ho’s Mother, and Claire Denis’ White Materials all delivered solid entries, proving these directors know their craft and do it quite well — though depending on how much you may have enjoyed their previous films you may be left wanting a little less or a little more.

Snap Sounds: Barbara Lynn

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By Johnny Ray Huston

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BARBARA LYNN

Here is Barbara Lynn

(Water)

A lost gem of Atlantic, saved by the boys of Water in Oakland. The clarity and purity of Lynn’s voice are rare — and don’t let those adjectives fool you into thinking she’s a frail flower. Here, the left-handed guitarist makes wise ballads she wrote as a teen burn as strong and steady as anything by Irma Thomas. It’s all in the voice.

Barbara Lynn, “You’ll Lose a Good Thing”

Street Threads: Look of the Day

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

Today’s Look: Ruth, University of San Francisco

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Tell us about your look: “This outfit is a secondhand, vintage piece by local designer Karen Rentschler and I got these boots about ten years ago from Nine West.”

The new taxi plan: Everyone hates it

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By Tim Redmond

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Municipal Transportation Agency officials have drafted a plan to overhaul the San Francisco taxi industry — and just about everyone hates it.

The proposal, outlined in a Sept. 8 memo from Christiane Hayashi, director of taxis and accessible services, would ultimately shift control of cab permits away from working drivers and give them to cab companies.

The process would be slow — the drivers who currently hold medallions would be allowed to keep them until they retire or die, and the 1,700 people who have been on the medallion waiting list for more than 10 years would retain their rights.

But in the future, as the valuable medallions get returned to the city, they would be auctioned off to cab companies. The companies wouldn’t technically own the permits, but would bid for long-term leases.

The idea runs directly counter to the landmark 1978 legislation known as Proposition K, which for the first time gave drivers the right to control their own permits. Under Prop. K, written by then-Supervisor Quentin Kopp, medallions are issued for a token annual fee to active, working drivers. No corporations are allowed to hold medallions. The only way to get a medallion is to put your name on the waiting list; it often takes as long as 15 years.

Of course, drivers who get the medallions see an immediate and substantial increase in their incomes. The medallions are valid 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, so medallion holders can driver a few shifts a week and lease them out to other drivers for the rest of the time. The lease fees can add up to about $3,000 a month.

And that income continues as long as the medallion holder is alive — and driving a cab. If he or she can’t drive a minimum number of hours, the medallion is returned to the city and goes to the next person on the waiting list.

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