SFBG Blogs

It’s now about equal protection, not gay marriage

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By Steven T. Jones

The California Supreme Court’s decision to hear legal challenges to Proposition 8 moves the debate about same-sex marriage toward a more basic legal question: Can a majority vote to take away the constitutional rights of a minority? “The passage of Prop. 8 has pushed California to the brink of a constitutional crisis,” San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera, whose office began preparing this legal challenge even before election day, just said at a hastily called news conference, where he appeared with his deputy Terry Stewart and Santa Clara County Attorney Anne Ravel.
“Equal protection is what separates constitutional democracy from mob rule tyranny,” Herrera said, noting that the measure “trounced upon the independence of our judicial branch.” For that reason, he expects the issues and arguments that San Francisco and its 12 co-plaintiffs (and counting) make to be very different than those his office argued for same-sex marriage. Briefs will be filed by Jan. 5 and oral arguments could come as early as March.
“They’re going to decide a question that goes to the very foundation of our democracy,” Ravel said. “A majority of voters can’t undercut the court’s role in protecting the rights of minorities.”

Supreme Court takes Prop. 8 challenge

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Breaking news: The California Supreme Court has agreed to hear the challenge to Prop. 8 and to directly decide the question of whether a simple majority of Californians may use the initiative process to take away marriage rights from same-sex couples.

More soon…

Milk and blood: Visions of St. Harvey

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By Marke B.

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This week, as part of our Milk Issue, dedicated to the political memory of Harvey Milk, I take a look at some of the ways Harvey has been transformed into an icon of queer martyrdom — for good or ill. I cheekily reference the extremely moving 2004 “Saint Harvey: The Life and Afterlife of a Modern Gay Martyr” show at the GLBT Historical Society, which will also open a temporary exhibit about Harvey on the Castro beginning November 26, in conjunction with the nationwide release of the Milk movie.

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From “Saint Harvey: The Life and Afterlife of a Modern Gay Martyr.”

I also talk about influential young photographer Leo Herrera from queer collective Homochic‘s appropriation of the suit that Harvey was shot in. He displayed his impressionistic shots of that precious relic in his 2007 “San Francisco: Sex & Icons” show at Magnet in the Castro, and also assembled them in a short film titled My Name is Harvey Milk, whose soundtrack is Harvey’s recording of his own will right before he was murdered. I asked him to share some of his thoughts via email from his temporary base in NYC about his show, about Harvey as icon, and also Harvey’s “martyrdom” status.

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Harvey suit image (and all images below) by Leo Herrera

Leo Hererra: Basically I went to the Martyr exhbit at the GLBT Historical Society in ’04 and saw the suit for the first time with my brother Allan and my mother. I was completely floored not only by the way the suit was exhibited but also by the humble surroundings of the Historical Society itself. I approached them and told them that I wanted to work with them in any capacity that they needed, and they let me know that they could use a lot of help, especially from people my age. I told them I wanted to do a series of images based on gay culture and they arranged for me to shoot whatever I wanted.

Allan and I arrived and shot a lot of the relics that they have there, and I finally got the balls to ask them to shoot the suit.*

Soooo, imagine Allan and I opening up the box and there it was. The whole thing is really scary because the box had all of what he was wearing the night of his assassination, including his socks and tie. I shot some images but they weren’t coming out right, and our hands were shaking the whole time. Finally I told Allan that if we were going to do this right, we better not be afraid to touch it and we finally picked it up. And flakes of gore came off of it because it’s so bloody and gory and they fell on our arms and it went downhill from there, but I remember feeling this really intense creativity and really the spirit of gay culture in many ways.

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We laid the suit on top of a light box and the bullet holes from the shots that went through his back shone through, we also put a lamp behind where his heard would be, and did all sorts of arty shit. The funny part was, I really didn’t relate to the images as I shot them and didn’t understand them because I was using a very different aesthetic. I put the images away for a couple of years and when I pulled them out, I realized that the aesthetic of the images was really something more sophisticated than I was used to at the time and that it really matched what I was working with now, they were somehow more mature. So in a way, I had shot the images to be used four years after the fact.

It was all real arty hipster shit.

‘Nerdcore Rising’: MC Frontalot spills the geek

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By Louis Peitzman

Don’t let the name fool you: MC Frontalot is serious about rapping. He just does it a bit differently than most other hip-hop artists.

Frontalot (real name: Damian Hess) has been called “the godfather of nerdcore” for his role in establishing a genre where it’s cool to be uncool. He raps about everything from Internet porn to Magic: the Gathering – exposing nerds to hip-hop culture, and vice versa. Along with his band, he’s the subject of the documentary Nerdcore Rising, currently screening in select theaters. In a phone interview, I chatted with Hess about the film and the direction nerdcore is taking. He performs at the Uptown Night Club tonight.

SFBG: My first question is about the name – is it ironic, or do you feel as though you actually front?

Damian Hess: I mean, I picked it out originally because I thought there’d be no other rapper who would want to steal that from me. Because rappers generally eschew fronting and, you know, try to convince everyone that they’re not fronting at all.

Bill O’Reilly’s San Francisco

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By Tim Redmond

This is special.

I remember Harvey

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I remember Harvey

Bruce B. Brugmann

Toward the end of the supervisorial campaign in 1973, I got an intercom call from Nancy Destefanis, our advertising representative handling political ads. Hey, she said, I got a guy here by the name of Harvey Milk who is running for supervisor and I think you ought to talk to him.
Milk? I replied. How can anybody run for supervisor with the name of Milk?
Nancy laughed and said that wasn’t his big problem, it was that he was running as an openly gay candidate, but he had strong progressive positions and potential. Nancy, a former organizer for Cesar Chavez’ farm workers, was tough and savvy, and I always took her advice seriously. “Send him in,” I said.

High-speed derailment?

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By Steven T. Jones

After navigating a political gauntlet on the way to the momentous Nov. 4 voter approval of the California high-speed train project that he set in motion 14 years ago, you might think Quentin Kopp would savor a moment of conflict-free peace. You’d be wrong.

Instead, he decided to kick a hornet’s nest in his native San Francisco by voicing opposition to plans to bring the trains all the way into downtown San Francisco’s new Transbay Terminal – a proposed Grand Central Station-style multi-modal hub that would also include affordable housing and several towers, including the tallest one of the West Coast — suggesting the current Caltrain terminus at 4th and Townsend streets would do just fine.

In addition to raising issues of cost (almost $3 billion to tunnel the bullet trains that final 1.4 miles into downtown), Kopp also blasted Transbay Joint Powers Authority director Maria Ayerdi-Kaplan – a one-time protégé of Kopp’s old nemesis Willie Brown – for bungling the project and relying too heavily on Singer and Associates, the brash crisis communications firm now being sued for slandering and blaming the victims of the Christmas Day tiger attack at the SF Zoo.

The myriad San Francisco supporters of high-speed rail – from business community backers downtown to the alternative transportation geeks – are quietly scrambling to try to heal the rift and ensure that the trains reach Transbay, the terminus envisioned in the proposal approved by voters.

Guardian: ‘Fighting Newsom’s mid-year cuts’

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By Bruce B. Brugmann

(Scroll down for the Guardian editorial in Wednesday’s edition (ll/19/08), “Fighting Newsom’s mid-year budget cuts”)

Once again, the Guardian is editorializing about the problems of the structural city budget deficit, which of course will be worse because of the economy and because of Mayor Newsom’s moves for mid-year cuts aimed at our lame duck Board of Supervisors.

And once again, the Guardian raises the issue, as we have since our first PG&E/Raker Act scandal story in l969, that the city is losing tens of millions a year by allowing PG&E to control its cheap Hetch Hetchy power and instead forcing the city’s residents and businesses to buy PG&E’s expensive private power. (See Guardian stories and Bruce blogs for details.) And it is most annoying that Newsom and his hired gun, Eric Jaye, worked so hard to defeat the Clean Energy Act (H), when public power would be the biggest potential source of new revenue for the city. Jaye conveniently advises Newsom and runs his campaign for governor at the same time he consults for PG&E and ran PG&E’s campaign against H. Neat.

More: it also annoying that the San Francisco Labor Council allowed PG&E to hold labor hostage in this campaign and in effect allowed PG&E to drum home the charge, without labor counter, that city workers are so dumb, so incompetent, and so lazy that they can’t run an electricity system. This posture puts city workers and their unions at a disadvantage when the budget axe starts falling.

The Guardian editorial: “Fighting Newsom’s mid-year cuts”

Race and Prop 8: What’s next? Plus: Transgender Remembrance Day

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The fight against Prop 8 continues — and here’s some touching and empowering video of fierce comedian Wanda Sykes stepping up to the lesbian plate in LA last weekend (via Ta-Nahesi Coates):

(Not in attendance: Prince)

And the somewhat-exhausting dialogue about what role race played in the passage of Prop 8 also continues (um, see funny black dyke above) — and there’s sure to be some intelligent voices included at the below forum on this Wednesday (11/19) at the LGBT Center, sponsored by StopAIDS.

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Prop 8 and Race: What’s Next
A community forum
Wed/19, 7pm-9pm
SF LGBT Community Center
1800 Market, SF
www.sfcenter.org

Also, just a reminder: Thursday November 20 is Transgender Day of Remembrance, commemorating our transgender brothers and sisters who’ve lost their lives to live their lives — a surprising number of which are non-white. There will be a rally with community speakers followed by a march through the Tenderloin to City Hall this Thursday evening:

Transgender Remembrance rally and march
11/20, 6pm-8pm, free
Beginning at the TRANS:THRIVE offices
815 Hyde Street, 2nd Floor, SF
info@sfcenter.org

Plus, the fabulous LGBT synagogue Congregation Shaar Zahev will be holding a special Transgender Remembrance Shabbat at 7:30pm in Friday, November 21. (You don’t have to be Jewish to attend, trust me.)

If you can’t make it, at least light a mental candle for these recently passed-on TG warriors.

Meet the lovely ladies of Carrots

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SFBG’s Justin Juul continues his fashionable Meet Your Neighbors series with an somewhat-organic boutique makeover

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Carrots is one of those fancy boutiques you pass on your way to work and think Jesus, who the hell can afford this stuff? At least, that’s what I was thinking as I peered into the store’s window and saw a mannequin wearing a wool sweater and a button-up shirt with a $280 price tag. Beyond that was a palace filled with bearskin rugs, rusted machinery, and high-end apparel. On a normal shopping day I would have scoffed and taken my business elsewhere. But today was not a normal day. I had been sent to Carrots by the editor of a culture-and-nightlife magazine to check out the boutique’s new promotion: styling appointments for men who love beer. That’s how I met the first heiresses I will probably ever know, the proud owners of Carrots, Catie and Melissa Grimm of Grimmway Farms. They bought me beer, dressed me up in some swanky stuff, and even consented to this no-holds-barred interview about what its like to run a fashion emporium and live on karat juice.

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Ooh la la!

SFBG: How did you guys get into the fashion thing?
Melissa Grimm: We’re sisters and when we were growing up we always talked about owning a business together. When we moved here three years ago we just fell in love with the city, but after about six months we realized that something like this was missing; you know, a store that combines men’s and women’s fashion. We wanted to create an environment you could just walk into and not feel intimidated, just a really comfortable space with a nice selection of hard to find things. We have handmade belts from Geoffrey Young, for example. Almost no one else has those.

SFBG: Yeah, you have a lot of stuff I’ve never seen, that’s for sure. Cool stuff. Did you go to fashion or design school or anything?
Melissa: No, but we know a lot about fashion and we try to pride ourselves on things that are hard to find. It comes from living a life of travel, growing up with a mother who’s very elegant and stylish. She sort of instilled that in both of us.

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The sisters, anything but Grimm

SFBG: Yeah, my dad was a Marine so…

Catie Grimm: Um, yeah. Also, we both love to travel. It’s our favorite thing to do. And we love fashion. So we try to incorporate those two passions in everything we do.

SFBG: So you carry designers from all over the world then?

‘Soft Focus’ on Jello and Bishop Brothers at Cobb’s

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This in from Jello Biafra‘s people:

“Cobb’s Comedy Club will host a taping of VBS.tv’s Soft Focus with Ian Svenonius. Svenonius will interview Jello Biafra as well as Alan and Richard Bishop of the Sun City Girls in front of a live audience. The taping is free and open to the public. You must RSVP with your name and e-mail address at www.viceland.com/softfocussf.”

SOFT FOCUS
With host Ian Svenonius featuring interviews with Richard and Alan Bishop and Jello Biafra
Wed/19, 6:30 p.m.
Cobb’s Comedy Club
915 Columbus, SF
Space is limited; RSVP at www.viceland.com/softfocussf

Daly and Mirkarimi need to talk

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By Tim Redmond

The new board will have, if anything, a stronger progressive presence than the outgoing board. For the past four years, Tom Ammiano, Chris Daly and Ross Mirkarimi have held down the left flank, with Board President Aaron Peskin on the right side most of the time (and leading the way some of the time). Jake McGoldrick, from District One, wasn’t always there, and Gerardo Sandoval, from District 11, couldn’t always be counted on. On some issues, the more centrist Sophie Maxwell and Bevan Dufty joined the progressives to override the mayor’s vetos.

This time around, with Eric Mar, John Avalos and David Chiu replacing McGoldrick, Sandoval and Peskin, David Campos replacing Ammiano, Mirkarimi coming back for a second term and Daly in his final two years, the progressives ought to have a solid six-vote majority.

But they can’t start off with the two veterans, Mirkarimi and Daly, fighting.

Mirkarimi wants to be board president. Daly wants somebody — anybody — else. He told me he wouldn’t under any circumstances vote for Mirkarimi. The two agree on almost every important issue, and yet they’re squabbling over the board’s new leadership. (And Daly doesn’t even want the job.)

Look, Mirkarimi can’t claim the board presidency by right. He has to reach out, make alliances, and line up six votes. A board president needs the support and confidence of his colleagues. If Ross can’t count to four or five, even Daly’s support won’t get him across the line.

Still, this doesn’t have to be, and shouldn’t be, a nasty fight that leaves the left divided and its leaders on the board bitter. Ross, Chris — you guys need to talk.

SPJ honors ‘The Vanishing Journalist’

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By Bruce B. Brugmann

(Scroll down for the full SPJ awards program, press release on the winners, and Tom Honig on “The Vanishing Journalist”)

The Northern California chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists held an inspired and inspiring Excellence in Journalism awards program last Thursday night at the Yank Sing restaurant in San Francisco.

The room was full of reporters and editors who have been laid off or merged out, and many others fearful of being laid off or merged out. This point was made eloquently by Bruce Newman, who won the criticism award for his movie reviews in the San Jose Mercury News, and announced in his acceptance remarks that his position of movie critic had been eliminated five weeks ago.

Yet, despite the problems of the media and the economy, the award winners and their work this year were extraordinarily worthy. The program was excellent. The food was good. And Ricardo Sandoval, the incoming SPJ president, and Linda Jue, the outgoing SPJ president, and many of the award accepters made the crucial point: that the worse the news is, the more SPJ and good journalism are needed.

And so SPJ chose this year to give its premier award, the Journalist of the Year award, to “The Vanishing Journalist.” And they chose Tom Honig, the distinguished former editor of the Santa Cruz Sentinel, to accept the award. Honig was the classic California community journalist:he started on the old Palo Alto Times in sports, then to the Sentinel in l972, to the cops and courts beat to reporter for eight years, to assistant city editor and then to city editor, copy desk chief, managing editor in l99l, and then editor in l992.

He left the Sentinel on the last day of November, 2007. His exit was illustrative: His Singleton/Media News publisher had told him he would have to lay off at least three more editorial staffers from the newsroom, after previous cuts had reduced the newsroom from a high of 43 in 2005 to 30 last year. The Sentinel’s accountant pointedly told Honig that if he left, that would save three positions. So Honig made the ultimate sacrifice and laid himself off. (He is now in a new career, as an account executive in Armanasco Public Relations in Monterey.)

“The people that run newspapers today–describe them how you will–might understand finance and they understand budgets,” Honig said. “They do, after all, understand that news organizations are in trouble. What they don’t understand is that the indiscriminate budget cuts are only hastening their own demise. You know what? You need good reporters and editors. You just do…

“It’s us– the journalists–who carry with us the knowledge and integrity that money simply cannot buy. We carry on because we know the power of questioning authority, questioning those even that we agree with –and giving those we disagree with a fair airing of their views. The talking heads on television and radio can’t do that.”

Here are Honig’s complete remarks:

by Tom Honig

I’m accepting this award on behalf of the hundreds – thousands – of veteran reporters, photographers and editors that have helped and inspired me over the years. We’re honoring the vanishing journalist tonight, and I do want to say a few words on his and her behalf.

I’d have to say that the most noteworthy thing about my career is how unnoteworthy it really has been. Some reporters go to war zones. Others call the White House their beat. But for most of us – it’s the school board. The library board. The fire that leaves a family homeless. We are the people who get it done, day in and day out – giving people the opportunity to understand their own community.

I’m truly honored that I would be asked to accept this award on behalf of all those who have come and gone before me. I once looked at my decision to spend my career in a small town – Santa Cruz, California – as something to be slightly embarrassed about. I now think of it only with pride.

I think of the writing advice I got from editors older than I who taught me strategies to get out of my own way and let the story tell itself.

When you work at a community paper, you don’t need focus groups and readership studies. People talk to you in the super market. Actually, they bitch at you in the super market. Or at the gym. Or when you’re out grabbing a sandwich at the deli. You do an investigation into misspent funds in a small town and you get a good story, but you also get a tearful phone call from a city manager who’ a really nice guy but who knows he fouled up. You do the story anyway, but you feel bad and later you keep running into him and you hope he’s doing OK.

But you do your job, and some days you don’t think much about it. But when it’s all over, you take some time, look back and realize that you’ve been part of something very special. You did good journalism. You did what the best investigative journalism does – reveal the truth to those who may or may not want to hear it.

The public doesn’t often understand the value of their local newspaper – even as they rely upon what’s there. I’m partial to local newspapers. The kind of journalism we achieved over the years in Santa Cruz I would stack up against any of the big boys. And being right there as part of the community … we knew about credibility long before the think tanks started doing their studies.

The people that run newspapers today – describe them how you will — might understand finance and they understand budgets. They do, after all, understand that news organizations are in financial trouble. What they don’t understand is that the indiscriminate budget cuts are only hastening their own demise. You know what? You need good reporters and editors. You just do.

Many of you are embarking on new ventures, on new forms of digital and online journalism as traditional outlets start to disappear. Some of you are launching these ventures on your own. We have Knight News Challenges and we have startups and we have incredible energy from those just embarking on their careers. That’s all to the good. It’s us – the journalists – who carry with us the knowledge and the integrity that money simply cannot buy. We carry on because we know the power of questioning authority, questioning those even that we agree with – and giving those with whom we disagree a fair airing of their views. The talking heads on television and radio don’t and can’t do that.

It’s the story – in whatever form it takes – that’s king. It’s the truth that we seek. As we move forward, we won’t have the old support system around us, the older, wiser editors who have seen ’em come and seen ’em go. We won’t have the structure that has carried us forward all these years. It’s breaking down, and it’s not our fault.

I couldn’t be more encouraged by the energy and the values of young journalists. But I’m also encouraged by others – those, like me, who are certified vanishing journalists who are still around, still available to help, still thinking that there’s good work to be done.

We still know a few things. We know about comforting the afflicted and afflicting the comfortable. We know the value of explaining a society to itself without fear or favor. Those are values we can’t afford to lose. Dean Singleton can try to take it all away so he can make up for his poor business decisions and cover his huge debt. We can’t let him.

Again. I accept this award on behalf of all the great journalists I’ve known and learned from. It’s truly an honor to be the one accepting on their behalf, and I thank you very much.

Tim Eagan

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“Part of the problem now is that this presidential transition has come at the very worst possible time. We saw it coming. I don’t know if there was any way to avoid it,” Frank says. “You know, Senator Obama has said, ‘We only have one president at a time.’ Well, that overstates the number of presidents we have at this time. We don’t appear to have any.”


Click here to read Timothy Egan’s December 13 op-ed in the New York Times, Final Days Fire Sale.

AG urges Supreme Court to review Prop 8

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California Attorney General Jerry Brown has urged the California Supreme Court to accept review of the legal challenges to Proposition 8 and promptly resolve “this matter of widespread concern.”

“Review by this Court is necessary to ensure uniformity of decision, finality and certainty for the citizens of California,” Brown wrote in a set of briefs that were filed with the Court today.

The AG’s recommendation comes on the heels of a weekend of anti-Prop. 8 protests nationwide, and less than two weeks after the City and County of San Francisco, the County of Santa Clara and the City of Los Angeles sued to invalidate Proposition 8, arguing that it“ intends to deprive gay and lesbian citizens of their fundamental right to marry in California.”

The speed of the AG’s response is further evidence that Prop. 8’s passage has brought the state to the brink of a constitutional crisis.

Typically, such matters are brought to lower courts before the Supreme Court hears the case. But as Brown argues, a stay, “would increase uncertainty related to marriages performed in California.”

“The constitutionality of the change created by Proposition 8 impacts whether same-sex marriages may issue in California and whether same-sex marriages from other states will be recognized here,” Brown wrote. “There is significant public interest in prompt resolution of the legality of Proposition 8.”

Brown also continues to maintain that “same-sex marriages performed between June 17 and November 4, 2008, remain valid and will be upheld by the Court,” according to a press release issued by his office today.

Brown’s request means the Supreme Court will consider taking up the matter at its Nov.19 closed session.

Legal insiders predict good news for same-sex marriage proponents if the Supreme Court decides to review Prop. 8, since this is the same Court that ruled on May 15, 2008 that banning same-sex marriage is unconstitutional.

If the state Supreme Court decides not to review the case, same-sex marriage supporters could pursue the case with the U.S. Supreme Court, or head back to the ballot box.

But, for now, all eyes are focused on the State Supreme Court and SF City Attorney Dennis Herrera.

As Herrera wrote the day after the November election, “If allowed to stand, Prop 8 so devastates the principle of equal protection that it endangers the fundamental rights of any potential electoral minority — even for protected classes based on race, religion, national origin and gender.”

With only 52 percent of voters supporting Prop. 8, Herrera further argued that the state Constitution’s equal protection provisions, “do not allow a bare majority of voters to use the amendment process to divest politically disfavored groups of constitutional rights.”

The old Chris Daly line again

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By Tim Redmond

The Chron’s piece on the upcoming battle for board of supervisors president was fairly accurate and well-balanced, as far as it went, except for this:

the presidency appears to be guaranteed to a bloc led by the board’s most controversial member, Supervisor Chris Daly.

Daly may or may not be the board’s “most controversial member,” but he clearly isn’t the leader of the progressive bloc. He has his allies — incoming Sup John Avalos used to work for him — but the other three newcomers have other alliances. David Campos ran with the support of Tom Ammiano; Daly backed Eric Quezada. David Chiu is way closer to current Board President Aaron Peskin than to Daly. Eric Mar, former School Board member, is friendly with Daly but also with others on the board and is far too independent to just do what Daly says. And of course, Sup. Ross Mirkarimi isn’t going to follow Daly’s lead.

Daly has made it clear that he shouldn’t and won’t be board president. And with Peskin and Ammiano leaving, there’s no clear “leader” of the “progressive bloc.” That’s why the race will be so interesting.

Pics: No on 8 Impact rally brings chills, tears

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Text by Marke B., photos by David Schnur

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Some thousands of amped-up queers hit the streets last Saturday for the huge No on 8 “Join the Impact” rally in the Civic Center, and subsequent march up Market Street. “Join the Impact” — started by a lowly viral email from one friend to another in Seattle — fabulously grew to encompass hundreds more cities, and brought out the crem de la creme of queer intelligentsia. Several speakers highlighted the diversity of the movement, including the controversial Rev. Amos Brown, who brought the crowd to tears and chills with an incredibly stirring call to solidarity between the gay and African American communities — and Carole Migden who, in a slightly insane rant, called for California to be split in two, one part for queers and the other for bigots. I think she was joking, but who the hell knows? Anyway, it was a beautiful day. The next “Join the Impact” action will be Wednesday, December 10’s “Day Without a Gay” — call in “gay” to work to show the world the biggest bad hair day EVER.

Also, there were lots of hot boys there. You really need to go to the next rally if you missed this one. Total radical yummy. Another also: I know we’re angry, and I’m the last one to say chill out when christianist freaks come into the neighborhood, but the alleged violence in the Castro this weekend, if it happened (I wasn’t there), isn’t very helpful.

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Pics: Green Festival grows wild and free

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Text and photos by Ariel Soto

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It’s quite inspiring to spend the morning walking through what seems like miles and miles of booths, all dedicated to sustainability, green living, and creating a better future for our beautiful planet. The San Francisco Green Festival, which took place this past weekend, is a perfect opportunity for novice greenies to learn about eco-investment companies, sample fair trade chocolate, learn about natural menstrual pads, dance to some local bands and to try on clothing dyed with everything from beets to onion skins. The event is held every year at the Concourse Exhibition Center and also travels throughout the country, so if you missed its stop in San Francisco, there’s always a chance to catch it later in some other greening city.

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Another punk: Love Is All has a lot of feelings

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By Brandon Bussolini

It would be hard to take someone seriously if they told you they were addicted to music. The notion of addiction might have more purchase for books or movies, but listening to music compulsively seems like a given for this generation. Music “helps” – in the broadest sense of that word: it can be restorative or push you into productive discomfort, and can help articulate feelings that might not get very far on language alone.

It’s easy to listen to Love Is All’s new album, A Hundred Things Keep Me up at Night (What’s Your Rupture), like water, two times a day easy, on the bus trying to calm down. With each listen, the disc becomes less like a collection of songs and more like a collection of vignettes, ones that seem to capture something important about what it feels like to be in the midst of your second adolescence.

Vocalist Josephine Olausson knows how to throw a good tantrum, but even amid the more blown-out sentiments of “Give It Back,” her delivery is so much more than merely spiteful as she delivers the lines: “All the love I gave you, give it back / Every time I praised you, I’m keeping track / Every minute on the phone / It was only cos I felt so alone.”

Women bringing new strength to unions

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By Dick Meister

Women are well on the way to overtaking men in the ranks of organized labor
— and for good reason. As a new study shows, women who’ve joined unions have significantly better pay and benefits than working women who have not joined.

Although only about a fifth of women workers overall currently belong to unions, they already make up about 45 percent of all unionized workers. They’re expected to become a majority within a dozen years, according to the study by the Center for Economic and Policy Research.

Cindy: Revolution will not be reported!

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From Cindy Sheehan

The Revolution Will not be Reported!

Or Funded by Corporate Interests!

Dear Friend/Supporter,

It has been 10 days since the election and Cindy for Congress is still going strong.

I am going to start a radio show on Green 960 AM beginning November 29th at 11:30am. The brilliant part of my show is that I will be on right after Corporate Democrat, Gavin Newsom (mayor of SF). My new show is called: Cindy Sheehan’s Soap Box and we will have an amazing guest to interview each week and I will sound off on different topics: war/peace; politics; human rights; international relations; foreign policy; etc. My show will have a global/local scope to it and will also be a call to action. Also, on every show, I will answer a couple of the hundreds of emails we get every week. We will pod cast the show from our website.

The reason we are undertaking this new show, is that the corporate media (locally and nationally) wrote me off and put a blockade on coverage even before we began our campaign. When there was coverage, the writer would opine that either: a) wouldn’t get on the ballot as an independent; b) not even beat the Republican; c) not even get 10 percent. Well, friend, I a) got on the ballot (which took 10,198 signatures); b) beat the Republican by a lot and c) got almost 17% of the vote. We did far better than anyone who has ever run against Pelosi in the past and that was with very, very little media coverage. Some election night coverage only reported the stats from Nancy Pelosi and the Republican, leaving me out entirely!

So far, (still counting) we have over 45,000 votes! With your help, we were able to mount a very serious campaign that was fueled by our very progressive platform and the support of thousands of people all over the country. Thank you so much for believing in peace, accountability and true progressive values!

We are already organizing for 2010 and have kept a skeletal staff and our office to do this and we are starting a PAC (political action committee) to be able to sustain our campaign until we come out even stronger than before in 2010. We also have some campaign debt to pay off.

I truly believe with the foundation that we have built and the growing disasters that our confronting our country, (facilitated by the “leadership” of Nancy Pelosi), we have an excellent chance of taking her seat in 2010 and finally giving San Francisco a true progressive Congressional Rep. Finally, we will also be working with progressive political activists around the nation to mount challenges to every Congressperson that does not effectively represent the interests of “We the People,” and not the corporate pirates.

Love & Peace

Cindy Sheehan

Robert Pattinson doesn’t suck

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By Louis Peitzman

Question: How do you stop a mob of unruly tweens?

Answer: You don’t.

On the morning of Nov 10, 3,000 Twilight fans tried to rush their way into the Stonestown Galleria, all for a chance to meet Robert Pattinson. In the ensuing chaos, several young’uns got trampled, one girl allegedly broke her nose, and almost everyone was turned away. (I’m guessing that last bit hurt the most of all.)

For the uninitiated, Pattinson stars as vampire heartthrob Edward in the film adaptation (out Nov 21) of Stephenie Meyer’s ludicrously popular book series. The actor’s previous credits include a (spoiler alert!) tragic turn as Cedric Diggory in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005), but his OMFG-level success seems to have popped up overnight.

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“Hey, is that the Lost Boys soundtrack?”: Robert Pattinson with Twilight co-star Kristen Stewart. (Photo credit: Peter Sorel)

When I met Pattinson in San Francisco later that same Monday, the mood was substantially more subdued.

Harding theater: the show goes on

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HARDING THEATER — LIGHTS UP ON NEXT ACT
Richard Reineccius

The SF Planning Commission came through 7-0 for a full Environmental Impact Review on the Harding Theater on Thursday 11/13!

Commissioners almost universally criticized the staff recommendation for a “negative declaration” for the need for environmental review, and agreed with neighbors of the Divisadero building that there had been almost no public input.

No date was set for the beginning of hearings on the Harding, and staff said it would likely involve a hired consultant.

Community leaders who spoke included Joe Landini, Jim Bracken, Sheila Devitt, David Tornheim and more than a dozen others from the Western Addition/Panhandle/Haight neighborhoods, arguing that The Harding as a functioning arts venue will greatly enliven the Divisadero business strip, as the renovated Brava Theater Center has done for The Mission’s 24th Street.

Attorney Arthur Levy as the pro bono attorney for Friends of 1800, a non-profit preservation organization, had made the effective formal appeal on the basis that historic buildings being considered for major alterations must receive a full EIR under California law.

Prominent theater professionals and historic preservationists voiced concerns at the two hour hearing – including directors and advocates from Theater Bay Area, Lorraine Hansberry Theatre, Brava Theater, Magic Theater, Metro Theatre Center Foundation, the Garage Theater and The Independent nightclub.

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Richard Reineccius was a founder of the SF Neighborhood Arts Program, and a long time advocate for arts facilities in communities. He, his ex-wife Brenda Berlin, and Doug Giebel founded the progressive Julian Theatre, performing in The Mission District and Potrero Hill from the 1960s to mid-90s.

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