SFBG Blogs Archives — Page 416 of 597 — San Francisco Bay Guardian Archive 1966

The Larder: Peko-Peko gets sole

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February 9, 2009

Diana Dunkelberger gets the scoop on yummy local edibles. View her last installment here.

For this week’s installation of The Larder, we’ve gotten some help from Sylvan Mishima Brackett, the longtime assistant to Alice Waters at Chez Panisse, and the owner of Peko-Peko, a fantastic Japanese catering company that specializes in the robust fare of the izakaya (Japanese tavern). Sylvan, who was born in Kyoto, named his company after a rather onomatopoeic Japanese word that means “really really hungry, like spikes of pain are ripping through your body.”

These days, when Sylvan is “peko-peko,” he prepares Rex Sole Karaage. (“Karaage” is a Japanese cooking technique that involves marinating meat and then deep frying it. In this case, Rex sole, a delicious type of fish.)

The king of sole, delightfully fried. Photos by Aya Brackett

Sylvan’s favorite place to buy fish is the eco-conscious Monterey Fish Market at Pier 33, which sells sole caught 150 miles up the coast in Fort Bragg for the very affordable price of $5.99 per pound. Sylvan first discovered this recipe while he was working at a Japanese restaurant in the countryside, two hours away from Tokyo, surrounded by rice paddies. For him, the best part of this dish is that you can eat the entire sole — crispy, crackly bones and all.

RECIPE: REX SOLE KARAAGE

Shop Local contest winner

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February 9, 2009

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By Molly Freedenberg

It’s finally time! We’re announcing the winner to our Shop Local contest, in which we challenged readers to send us stories about how they spent at least $100 at locally-owned and operated businesses during the 2008 holiday season. We received so many fantastic entries, we extended the deadline way beyond Christmas day. But lucky for you, we’re publishing some of our favorites just in time for Valentine’s Day. When getting gifts for that special someone, don’t forget to send the local economy a bit of love too!

(And by the way, for those inspired to continue the shop local initiative throughout the year, please keep in mind that the plan is not only to buy things near your home, but from businesses that are based in San Francisco. The Starbucks or Target on the corner may be nearby, but they ain’t local. Now, commence your shopping.)

First up, our contest winner etristan, who will receive $500 in gift certificates to local businesses. We like this entry because the writer took shopping local to a fantastically micro level, keeping cash not only within San Francisco but within the writer’s own neighborhood. Plus, we like all the specific ideas for creative gifts.

Free Press Action Fund

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February 9, 2009

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Here is a timely action alert from the Free Press media reform organization. It is fighting “in the media and on Capitol Hill to make sure that the internet doesn’t get slashed from the stimulus plan.”

The internet is a tremendous engine for growth across every sector of the economy

John McCain (known for never having gone online) has joined blowhards Rush Limbaugh and Lou Dobbs in clamoring to strip President Barack Obama’s economic recovery bill of funds to expand Internet access.

Claiming the Internet has nothing to do with jump-starting the economy, they’ve taken to the Senate floor and the airwaves in a relentless assault against efforts to give Americans the tools they need to get working again.

Boxer socks it to the Republican blockers!

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February 9, 2009

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‘Where are my Republican friends when George Bush took the debt from $5 trillion to $l0 trillion over eight years? I didn’t hear a word.’

By Bruce B. Brugmann

I watched on CNN Saturday (2/7/09) as Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-California) spoke for about 20 minutes on the stimulus package. She was eloquent, she made the right points, and she whacked the Repubilcans’ “new found respect for fiscal responsibility.”

Working her arms as if she was actually throwing some punches, she said, “This election was about change, not the same-old same-old trickle down tax cuts that don’t work…They want it all tax cuts or mostly tax cuts. We tried it. It didn’t work. It’s gotten us where we are today. Huge debt, huge deficits, slow growth, no growth.”

Here are the major excerpts from her excellent remarks from a press release put out by her Washington office. Hurray for Barbara Boxer.

Senate Floor Statement of Senator Boxer

Boxer Speaks on Economic Recovery and Reinvestment Act

Saturday, February 7, 2009

Washington, DC – Today, U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) spoke on the Senate floor on the Economic Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

Boxer discussed the need for quick, deliberate action to help get our economy back on track.

Excerpts from her floor speech follow:

“Where were my Republican friends… when George Bush took the debt from $5 trillion to $10 trillion over eight years, doubled it, put it on the backs of every man, woman and child — $17,000 debt, every man, woman, and child. I never heard a word. They spent it on Iraq. They spent it on tax cuts for the richest people, those who didn’t need it. And they didn’t care about the debt.”

“I want to help the middle class and the working poor, the backbone of America because without that backbone, we have nothing.”

*****

“I want to thank those Republicans who worked with us Democrats on coming up with a solution… You stepped forward, you listened to President Obama. You stepped forward for positive change, you stepped forward to help America.”

******

“If we do nothing, if we don’t embrace this bipartisan package – and I know this isn’t perfect – but if we do nothing, that is in my view a hostile act. A hostile act, not a passive act, because to do nothing endorses the status quo.”

*****

“In my home state, I have a list here of layoffs… Target laid off 382 people in Sunnyvale. Harman Becker Automotive, 325 people in Northridge. Ghirardelli Chocolate laid off 107 of people in San Francisco. Circle Foods, 112 people in San Diego. It goes on and on and on.”

*****

“I do appreciate my Republican colleagues’ newfound respect for fiscal responsibility, but we have to admit that they never cared about it the last eight years.”

“I don’t like this. I voted for balancing the budget under Bill Clinton, and I believe we will get back to a balanced budget again. But we’ve got to take care of a crisis. We have to stem the bleeding. Every economist tells us that.”

*****

“I’m working with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle. We have a chance now to get out of this recession. Will this package do it alone? It will not. ”

*****

“Come and talk to us. Come and work with us. This election was about change, not the same old, same old trickle-down tax cuts that don’t work. Yes, there’s 42 percent tax cuts in this bill. That’s not enough for my friends on the other side. They want it all tax cuts or mostly tax cuts. We tried it. It didn’t work. It’s gotten us where we are today. Huge debt, huge deficits, slow growth, no growth.”

*****

“We are headed to a better day, and this Senate debate is very important.”

Super Ego: Hear that Booty Call y’all

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February 9, 2009

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By Marke B.

Photos from Feb. 4’s jungalicious Booty Call party by Brandon Norris. Hi-ya, Terry T!

This past Friday, Hunky Beau and I breezed through the new and a little lamely named Club Q (didn’t every college town have a straight bar with a gay night called “Club Q” or “Q Bar” or something Q-similar on some random week day? Maybe that’s the point, here. I’ll keep mum on the continuing genericalization of the Castro.) In any case, it didn’t look like it had transformed much beyond the location’s past incarnation, Bar on Castro, which is now Bar on Church, on Church. Confusing! Well, maybe there was some more red lighting.

One definite vote for the new joint though: Joshua J. and Miss Juanita More have kept their fantastically successful Booty Call nights there.

Your hostess and sometimes DJ, Miss Juanita More

Every Wednesday, fashionista gays (and alt friends!) gather to prance around to some soothing disco, funk, and soul, while fab photog pulls people into the theme-decored back room to snap them in party glory.

Street Threads: Look of the Day

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February 9, 2009

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SFBG photog Ariel Soto scoops SF street fashion. See her last Street Threads installment here.

Today’s Look: Michael, 18th St. and Castro

Tell us about your look: “My fashion philosophy is all about layers. The weather is so unpredictable; I just always layer up in the morning.”

Feeling the chill: Hauschka’s ‘Snowflakes’ tugs and putters

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February 9, 2009

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HAUSCHKA
Snowflakes and Carwrecks
(Fat Cat)

By Brandon Bussolini

Sometimes, a listener can correctly infer a lot from an album’s artwork. The cover of Snowflakes and Carwrecks, the follow-up EP to last year’s full-length Ferndorf (130701), maintains a Bauhaus-meets-art deco style, but substitutes a winter scene for the sunset and bather that graced the LP. Taking descriptions of Ferndorf at face value risked overheated nostalgia – the album’s inspiration was, after all, composer Volker Bertelmann’s upbringing in rural Germany.

Actually listening to it was something else altogether: these compositions for prepared piano and chamber orchestra ride the minimalist pulse of non-suck Philip Glass minimalism with worthy little melodies that aspire to the repetitive potency of Erik Satie’s Vexations or the Buddha Machine. Neither snobby or pandering, the album was the sort that’s easy to imagine, but hard to find.

Accordingly, it’s the sort of album that’s easier to praise than make time for. I play it during shifts at a café, and as noncontroversial background music I can say it’s nonpareil, but also the sort of music that feels vulgar next to a decent amount of movement and exertion. “Heimat,” the full-length’s high point of contemplativeness, sounds best suited for playing at extremely low volume in a sad but dignified brasserie.

Too slick for the Suicide Girls?

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February 8, 2009

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By Molly Freedenberg

Speaking (still) of Suicide Girls, those lovely ladies of alt erotica have published a new book (Suicide Girls: Beauty Redefined, 2008). This one’s big and glossy and pretty, with full page photos of select girls organized by location.

I can’t deny that it’s attractive coffee table material for the yuppie punk. Intro pages look very art-booky with their big, bold type; and the nudie photos are uncomplicated with text or information (other than the model’s Suicide Girls moniker). It’s certainly more sleek and sophisticated than the first book (SuicideGirls, 2004).

But that’s why I like the first book better.

Very happy ox: Chinese New Year’s parade pics

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February 8, 2009

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Text and photos by Ariel Soto

The Year of the Ox started with a bang of firecrackers and a gigantic parade that made its way through downtown San Francisco. Families lined up early to get a prime viewing spot along the parade route, while munching on steam buns and pot stickers to keep them warm. Colorful dragons pranced along with dancers and fanciful floats. Happy New Year … Gung Hay Fat Choy and Gong He Xin Xi!

Lit: What about Iraqi women?

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February 7, 2009

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By Marke B.

To a slightly lesser extent than the invasion of Afghanistan — where Taliban assholes are still spraying young girls’ faces with acid — the occupation of Iraq was touted as a women’s liberation project. We were the white knights coming to tear the veils off and throw open wide the doors to fancy new schools, theaters, community centers, and business opportunities.

Boy, that turned out to be quite a bit of presumptive hash. In the giant WTF that followed “shock and awe,” many learned the limits of such blanket assertions — but of course the deaths of tens of thousands are still seen here as nothing but a big fat lesson for Westerners. What about the people who had to live through it all?

One incisive complaint is that the West has failed to include enough voices from Iraq to give a fuller picture of the occupation’s effects — both the disastrous and the hopeful. Iraqi women, especially, seem even more invisible now than before the invasion.

Co-authors Nadje Al-Ali, Reader in Gender Studies at the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies and Nicola Pratt, Lecturer in Comparative Politics and International Relations at the University of East Anglia, just released a new UC Press book that attempts a corrective. What Kind of Liberation?: Women and the Occupation of Iraq is the first book to examine how Iraqi women have fared since the invasion, and attempts to “expose the gap between rhetoric that placed women center stage and the present reality of their diminishing roles in the ‘new Iraq.'”

SEIU preaches unity while trying to divide and conquer CNA

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February 7, 2009

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By Steven T. Jones

Service Employees International Union is caught in the position of decrying efforts by breakaway leaders of the new National Union of Healthcare Workers to steal away SEIU members during a critical moment for the labor movement, while at the same time SEIU is meddling in the internal affairs of another union, California Nurses Association.

On Thursday, CNA blasted SEIU for “impersonating nurses in a multimillion dollar campaign” to topple current CNA leaders and replace them with candidates closer to SEIU and its incremental approach to health care reform. The charges echoed those by Sal Rosselli and other NUHW leaders, who say SEIU under President Andy Stern has sacrificed member interests and rights in its drive become a national powerhouse that works closely with elected officials and large corporate employers.

SEIU spokesperson Michelle Ringuette responded dismissively: “CNA has made wild and untrue charges against SEIU members before. This release is more of the same…It is true that there are CNA members that are unhappy with the direction their union is taking. We have spoken with a number of them, and we support the CNA nurses who want to hold their union’s leaders accountable.”

But the next day, after the Guardian identified SEIU members from other states who have been contacting CNA members in an aggressive campaign to unseat CNA leadership, Ringuette admitted to the campaign, defiantly saying SEIU would do everything in its power to protect its interests.

CNA’s leaders say SEIU’s campaign is illegal. And it certainly belies claims that SEIU leaders have made about the NUHW situation, in which Ringuette and others have repeatedly said union infighting now is major distraction from efforts to pass the landmark Employee Free Choice Act and stave off deep cuts threatened by the dire budget situation in California and its cities and counties.

Dick Meister: Less God-talk, please

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February 7, 2009

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Shouldn’t freedom of religion be coupled with freedom FROM religion for non-believing citizens?

By Dick Meister

The polls say the odds against me are about nine to one, that being the
ratio between believers and non-believers in this supposedly secular
republic. But even so, let me ask that our politicians quit pushing the
views of the 90 percent who hold religious beliefs on me and the rest of the
10 percent of the population who simply do not share those beliefs.

If they won’t ease up on the constant public references to God and
similar matters for the sake of tolerance, how about doing it for the sake
of that legal business about the separation of church and state.

Or at least do it for the sake of religion. It surely is cheapened by the
ritualistic and hypocritical references to the Almighty by the politicians
and others in public life seeking to curry majority favor the easy way.

Romantically delicious: Le P’tit Laurent

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February 6, 2009

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SFBG TV goes to Le P’tit Laurent restaurant in Glen Park. Video slideshow by Ariel Soto

Get in bed with the Suicide Girls

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February 6, 2009

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By Molly Freedenberg

All Benni wants for Valentine’s Day is you … and another tattoo.

The first Suicide Girls event I attended was a prom several years ago, before SGs became minor celebrities, appearing on Real Sex and in Dave Grohl’s video and touring the country with Warped Tour or their own burlesque show. It was held at some dive bar near the Tenderloin, the kind of place where you drink cheap beer and don’t want to put your jacket on the ground. My how things have changed. Now, the alt pin-up site will co-host an event at the swanky Supperclub for Valentine’s Day. The event promises to be interesting eye candy for casual observers and hardcore SG fans alike, as not only will tattooed and Manic Panic-ed sexpots be in attendance, but performing aerial tissu and go-go dancing. And since SGs also have come a long way since their original underwhelming live performances — thanks to an influx of models who also are talented performers, as well as better stage management and choreography — chances are the shows will be worth seeing for more reasons than just witnessing your online masturbation material come alive. (Though that’s as good a reason to go as any.)

Feb. 14, 7:30pm-2am, $100
Love is Hell (in Bed)
Supperclub
657 Harrison, SF
(415) 348-0900
www.supperclub.com

Parents and youth advocates up in arms over budget cuts

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February 6, 2009

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By Rebecca Bowe

Representatives from a host of youth-services organizations gathered on the steps of San Francisco city hall Thursday afternoon to sound off on proposed budget cuts to the Department of Children, Youth and their Families. DCYF faces a proposed $11 million in cuts for the 2009-10 fiscal year, according to NTanya Lee, executive director of Coleman Advocates for Children and Youth. Add to that cuts to juvenile probation and Human Services Agency programs, and the total annual reductions to youth-related causes could be some $15 million, Lee estimates.

“This is the worst we’ve seen it in our entire organization’s history,” said Lee, whose nonprofit organization has been speaking up for kids on budget issues for 30 years. DCYF is hardly the only city department facing funding reductions: To address a staggering $576 million budget deficit for the 2009-10 fiscal year, the mayor has asked all city departments to find ways to dramatically reduce spending. But in the case of DCYF, the announcement of funding reductions came as a second blow. Mayor Gavin Newsom’s firing of former DCYF Director Margaret Brodkin, who was widely respected for expanding the department’s services to reach more kids and especially disadvantaged children, recently drew the ire of youth advocates.

A 20-foot high controversy

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February 6, 2009

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By Rebecca Bowe

At the Feb. 3 Board of Supervisors meeting, District 6 Supervisor Chris Daly expressed disgust at what he called “pay-to-play politics” and charged that Mayor Gavin Newsom had insisted upon a 20-foot height extension for the proposed redevelopment of the New Mission Theater as a favor to a developer who’d given him a political boost.

“At the very least, there is a massive and unprecedented appearance of impropriety and I think ethical malfeasance,” Daly told his colleagues. Before the meeting, he handed out photocopies of a blog post he’d written to back up his argument.

Nathan Ballard, Mayor Newsom’s press secretary, refuted Daly’s claim. “If the legislation had gone forward, the project would have been killed,” Ballard wrote in an email to the Guardian. “We reject Supervisor Daly’s false allegations. The Mayor made his decision, as he always does, on the merits alone.”

American Apparel denied store on Valencia

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February 6, 2009

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American Apparel, which is known for sexy ads and fairly progressive labor practices, failed to convince San Franciscans to let them open a fourth store here.
By Ben Terrall

Yesterday, after a long afternoon of statements from a few supporters and many opponents of American Apparel opening a new store at 988 Valencia Street, the San Francisco Planning Commission voted 7-0 to deny the Los Angeles-based chain the permit they needed to open.

The Commission Chambers at City Hall were packed to capacity as the Planning Commission began its regular meeting. The extra attendees, many of them organized by the hastily-formed “Stop American Apparel” campaign, were moved to two rooms with video monitors which broadcast the meeting.

It was strong show of force by grassroots organizers, one that forced a vote that few thought would be so decisive.

Yet another example of VVM ethics (or lack thereof)

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February 6, 2009

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Did VVM hire these people to game Digg?

By Steven T. Jones

SF Weekly parent company Village Voice Media has been exposed for predatory financial practices, undermining good journalists and practicing unethical journalism, and secretly using a social networking tool in a sleazy way to promote its advertisers.
Now, a detailed investigation by thedeets.com shows how VVM has been gaming Digg.com (which is a tenant of ours in the Guardian Building) to inflate the number of page views on its websites, apparently hoping to fool advertisers and the public into thinking they have more readers than they really do.
VVM spokesperson Andy Van De Voorde refused to comment on the substance of the allegation, instead offering only taunts and insults and writing by e-mail, “Now here we go again with the obligatory request for comment, all under the guise of fair reporting.”
Digg spokesperson Beth Murphy told the Guardian, “We don’t really talk specifics with regards to individual Diggers, sites or media outlets in order to protect their privacy and ensure a level playing field. What I can tell you is that various sites can perform better on Digg based on social media tools and the breadth and diversity of their audience. For sites or individuals that attempt to game or spam Digg, as always, we’ve developed the back-end systems and algorithms to flag and detect gaming.”

Jess Brownell: Keynes & Friedman fight it out

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February 6, 2009

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“John Maynard Keynes, he’s our man. He knows more dead than Alan Greenspan”

By Jess Brownell

In the January 28 edition of the New York Times there was a full-page advertisement paid for by the Cato Institute and signed by 203 economists (if I counted correctly; I’m not an economist myself) objecting to the following statement by President Obama: “There is no disagreement that we need action by our government, a recovery plan that will help to jumpstart the economy.”

The brief text above all those signatures advises the world that the signers do not in fact agree and deeply resent being lumped with those who do. No jumpstarting needed, in their opinion. Indeed, the so-called recession/depression seems to bother them very little. Less government and lower taxes will easily solve that problem, and psoriasis better look out, too.

So Fucked Up: more from the Toronto punkers

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February 6, 2009

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I don’t care what his bandmates might say about him – Fucked Up vocalist Damian Abraham, 29, is a mensch. I kid because I love. For more from this interview, go to this week’s Sonic Reducer. Here’s the best of the rest of this phone interview with Abraham, then in the middle of a six-hour drive to New Orleans with his group, which dwells in Toronto – a fact that Abraham is downright proud of (“Born and raised – a lot of the Broken Social people and all those other bands moved downtown from other places”).

SFBG: The Chemistry of Common Life is such a great record. What did the band intend to do when it started to work on it?

Damian Abraham: We knew what we didn’t want to do. We didn’t want to rush it, and we wanted to try some new things. We were a lot more comfortable when we sat down to do the second record. Mike [Haliechuk, lead guitarist] e-mailed me and said, “I want you to write lyrics about light and positive things.”

Commercial politics: Yes we can!

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February 6, 2009

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It’s something like an Obamanenon, the way his campaign catchphrases have infiltrated the wholly commercial realm quicker than you can say, “Yes we can!”

We all know the most obvious instance, the fusion of Pepsi and Obama. Perhaps he triggered it by adopting a remarkably similar campaign symbol:

But Pepsi is determined to consume him — and us. It’s impossible to walk through certain BART/Muni tunnels downtown without the special form of mind control that comes from placards that tease the corners of your eyes no matter which way you turn:

Yet, without a doubt, my favorite Obama-imitator is a much smaller commercial entity, the TV ad specialist Roni Deutch. There’s something very Peppermint Patty about Roni. Yes you can fight the IRS, Chuck!:

I’m sure there are dozens of other Obama-influenced jingles out there. Yes you can tell us about them!

You don’t own Lesley Gore – but you can see her at Yoshi’s next week

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February 6, 2009

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By Andre Torrez

I”ve always known of her music, but a few months ago and admittedly after watching John Water’s Hairspray for the first time in its entirety, I became eerily obsessed with Lesley Gore‘s song “You Don’t Own Me.” That song is great. Almost immediately I bought one of her compilation CDs, shamelessly playing the track on repeat.

I guess there were hints of pessimism in some of those early ’60s hits although they maintained their poppy playfulness (i.e., “Judy’s Turn to Cry” and “It’s My Party”). It’s hard to believe Gore recorded them at the tender age of 16. Oddly enough, Quincy Jones of Thriller fame was responsible for many of her early gems – which could explain their broad appeal production-wise.

Beyond apathy: Todd Snider to deliver ‘Peace Queer’ musings at Great American

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February 6, 2009

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By Michelle Broder Van Dyke

Nashville singer-songwriter Todd Snider has been making folk-rock croons since 1994, but his last three albums have shown an evolving sound that lends itself more towards protest cries than an apathetic hipster generation is used to hearing.

His most recent eight-track EP, Peace Queer (Mega Force, 2008), springs an attack on Dubya (it was released on Oct. 14 before we knew who his predecessor would be), war, and the state of the nation with clever, literate lyrics that Snider says are meant for him (“I share them with you because they rhyme / I did not do this to change your mind about anything / I did this to ease my own mind about everything”). That statement seems as true as this non-commercial album – in title, cover, distribution strategy, spoken word pieces, and length – and reinforces Snider’s sincerity.

Stiglitz: Davos Man’s Depression

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February 5, 2009

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The spirit of Davos was that we had gone from “boom to bust” to “boom and Armageddon”

by Joseph E. Stiglitz

– Joseph E. Stiglitz, professor of economics at Columbia University, and recipient of the 2001 Nobel Prize in Economics, is co-author, with Linda Bilmes, of The Three Trillion Dollar War: The True Costs of the Iraq Conflict.

NEW YORK – For 15 years, I have attended the World Economic Forum in Davos. Typically, the leaders gathered there share their optimism about how globalization, technology, and markets are transforming the world for the better. Even during the recession of 2001, those assembled in Davos believed that the downturn would be short-lived.

But this time, as business leaders shared their experiences, one could almost feel the clouds darkening. The spirit was captured by one speaker who suggested that we had gone from “boom and bust” to “boom and Armageddon.” The emerging consensus was that the IMF forecast for 2009, issued as the meeting convened, of global stagnation – the lowest growth in the post-war period – was optimistic. The only upbeat note was struck by someone who remarked that Davos consensus forecasts are almost always wrong, so perhaps this time it would prove excessively pessimistic.