SFBG Blogs

The health-care bill mess

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The Democrats in the state Assembly managed to pass a complicated health-care bill that the governor likes, his own party members oppose and the nurses and the insurance companies both hate.

Over at Calitics, David Dayen has a nice analysis of some of the financial problems with the bill — including the fact that it might all amount to absolutely nothing a few years down the road.

The Cal Nurses Association is even harsher:

Insurance companies can continue to deny medical care they brand as “not medically necessary” or experimental, deny access to specialists, and deny tests – even when those care options or treatment are recommended by a physician.
Insurance companies can continue to charge whatever they want. The bill has no limits on escalating premiums, deductibles, co-pays, or other rising costs.
Individuals are still forced to buy insurance without guarantees of what they are buying or whether they can afford it.

I recognize that some progressives support this (Andy Stern and SIEU are big fans) , and that you can’t make the perfect the enemy of the good .. but let’s be serious — this is never going to work.

There’s only one way to solve the health-care crisis, and that’s to get the private insurance companies the hell out of it. This kind of hodge-podge that still lets these greedy crooks set the rates, decide what they’re going to pay for and make life difficult (and expensive) for patients and doctors simply can’t be effective in controlling health-care costs.

Maybe it’s better than nothing, but not a whole lot better.

Ammiano: a Jersey joke

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New Jersey bans the death penalty. Bada Bing!

(From the answering machine of Sup. Tom Ammiano on Dec. l7, 2007.)

Full disclosure: Ammiano is from Mountclair, New Jersey, and a fan of the Sopranos.) B3

Stockton by Walters

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To read full Stockton article, click on the Continue Reading link.

Iowa: a report from the grassroots

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By Bruce B. Brugmann

As an Iowan, I am fascinated by all the reports by all the hotshot out of state reporters who paratroop into the state and start filing stories from Rock Rapids, Clear Lake, Storm Lake, and Cedar Rapids and little places all over the state.

Iowans like to see their candidates up close and there is a feeling back there that they may end up voting for the candidate they would most like to invite into their living room for a chat or meet down at the local cafe for breakfast.

Here’s a dispatch sent to me from the grassroots by Carolyn Schmidt, retired associate director of public relations at Coe College in Cedar Rapids. Carolyn is a political activist, Iowa style, calling Congress members, writing letters to the editor, emailing Congress and doing so, in the past two weeks, in the teeth of the onslaught of ice and snow.

Carolyn writes from Cedar Rapids,

“As the dems are so close. I’m betting on Obama, but Hillary and Edwards campaigns have been ringing our phone several times a week with “surveys” asking if it’s “concerning to us that Obama voted ‘present’ on a choice issue in Congress” or that he’s a community organizer while Edwards is a trial lawyer who went to bat for poor people. THEY must think Obama is going to win too. Hillary has been running some very appealing ads, with her mother and daughter in tow. She may surprise us. Edwards is on the preferred side of the domestic issues, particularly the bad deal existing for poor and low-income families, but his personality is too laid back.

“On the Republican side, I’d just say that Romney–who has spent a ton of money saturating the airwaves with ads since summer–is fading. People see him as artificial and opportunistic. Des Moines high school students on Friday characterized him as “completely fabricated.” I think they are right on! Huckabee took some hits this week for actions he’s taken as governor in Arkansas, but he still appeals to conservatives more than any other Republican, I think. McCain’s support is rising, however. Most Iowans aren’t fooled by Guiliani, but he IS charming.

“Many Iowans attend rallies for a number of candidates to see how the personalities compare. Obama comes across as fresh, articulate, straightforward, and impassioned. He’s been able to deflect criticisms, and he has a superb organization. His staff is training first-time caucus-goers on procedures and strategies. (The Democratic caucus procedures are more complicated than the Republicans who just conduct a straw poll, as you probably know.) Biden and Hillary and Richardson are impressive because of the accomplishments they can point to, saying these aren’t campaign promises, they are proof I can deliver.

“A lot can happen in the next three weeks, of course.”

I hope to get more reports from Carolyn and others. Stay tuned. B3

RZA: better to give…

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By Chris DeMento

Tuesday night, Dec. 11, and I was feeling really zoned in: got the good word that the RZA and his stagemate Monk were just getting to town after a long drive up the coast, and that meant I didn’t need to stress about getting
down there all that early. I happened to be on their clock.

The openers – Audible Mainframe, Mr. Sayre, and Benflowz – held it down as a packed-full Independent waited for its headliner. Didn’t seem like all that much time to me, although more than one audience member expressed disrelish while waiting for a such a “prima donna.” Feeling really zoned in, completely ignorant of time, I reminded more than one audience member it was the RZA about to come on, be patient, dudes. Have youse a Heinekin.

Whatever route the RZA and Monk took from LA to SF had inspired them. First thing they did was soak the crowd in bubbly. Later they fed it Black Label and Grey Goose. Having officially dropped the Wu’s brand-new album that very same day, 8 Diagrams, Bobby Digital was in quite good spirits, lolling around the stage with a smile, stumbling upon a set of hand drums to beat on, feeling zoned in: “I’m feeling really zoned in,” he said.

Watch those deadly commas

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Why the world needs good copy editors: Just think about how many people have been killed because of a couple of misplaced commas.

SPORTS: A free pass for owners

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Mitchell, the owners’ man

By A.J. Hayes

Boy, George Mitchell’s juicy report on baseball’s performance enhancing drug epidemic sure pepped up the news week.

The 409-page report was part CSI Cooperstown, and part gossipy tattler sheet with tons of tasty tidbits ranging from the names of nearly 100 players (the big one being Roger Clemens), to anecdotes detailing some of the black market purchases, including dealer Kirk Radomski returning home to find an overnight package stuffed with $8,000 in cash laying in a rain puddle at his doorstep.

But the more you delve into the Mitchell Report the fishier it smells.

First off couldn’t baseball find someone other than Mitchell, a minority owner of the Boston Red Sox, to head the investigation? Mitchell may very well be ethically impregnable, but the fact is he has both feet planted in an owner’s box. Was it a coincidence that virtually no current or former Red Sox players, besides Mo Vaughn, disliked in Boston for the way he departed the team, was mentioned in the report?

Was George Will too busy rearranging his bow-tie collection?

In the report, Mitchell gave ownership a slap on the wrist. The lion’s share of the blame went to the players – most of them little known utility-infielders and back of the bullpen relief pitchers.

The fact is baseball was rolling along happily collecting the real cash box profits garnered by artificially inflated players over the past decade.

After the owners canceled the 1994 World Series, baseball’s popularity took a nose dive. It wasn’t until Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa’s thrilling competition for the single season home run record in 1998 did the fans come back.

Why, because it was damn entertaining. These buffed out sluggers had their selfish reasons for juicing, yes, but they also helped save the sport in the process. The owners knew it, the players knew it and any fan that it isn’t natural for a 38-year-old pitcher to get drastically better, knew it as well.

It wasn’t until congress got involved, threatening baseball with the removal of it anti-trust exemption that the owners considered a clean-up.

One of the players named, former San Francisco and Oakland bench warmer F.P. Santangelo, has come out this week and admitted his usage.

It’s time for an owner came out and said the same thing. Yes they had knowledge that something was up but did not act because the fans were eating the homers and strike outs, not to mention stadium hot dogs, up like crazy.

Someone has to say that, because the Mitchell Report does not.

Bush on the ‘hemorrhoid scandal’

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This is President George W. Bush. I am outraged by the baseball hemorrhoid scandal. Uh. Steroid. Whatever.

(From the home answering machine of Sup. Tom Ammiano on Dec. 14, 2007)

Tom was spotted at the annual SFT Holiday party on Wednesday night, working the crowd, doing informal Ammianoliners (his enunciation is better in person), and letting people know he is running for Assemblyman Leno’s seat. Sacramento can use some Ammiano and some Amminanoliners on a regular basis. B3

The gov’s emergency

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Governor Schwarzenegger is about to declare a state of economic emergency, which will give him broad powers to cut spending in the state.

The law that lets him do this has never been used before; it’s 2004’s Proposition 58, and you can read a pretty good analysis of it here. The basic language says that the governor can call the Legislature back into session and propose measures to address the fiscal crisis. The Legislature has 45 days to act on those proposals and can’t adjourn or move on to any other business until it does.

The problem here is that the state Constitution requires any budget bills to pass the Legislature with a two-thirds vote. So in effect, the guv can send over a list of nasty cuts, and a handful of Republicans can block the Democrats in the Legislature from enacting any tax hikes (or, for example, restoring the motor vehicle license fee, which would bring in about $6 billlion alone).

So Schwarzenegger can come pretty close to demanding deep cuts in social programs and in aid to cities and the Legislature will have a hard time doing anything but enacting them.

That will suck for San Francisco, which, like all cities, will get slammed as state money vanishes.

Murdoched: the Stockton Record is next

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By Bruce B. Brugmann

As things get tougher and tougher in the newspaper business, there are two jobs that are the toughest of all. One is writing the obituary for your own paper and your own job. The other is writing the story that tries to explain why the daily paper you work on keeps getting peddled about like the stakes in a Las Vegas poker game.

The latest example of the second story appeared in today’s Stockton Record by an unlucky soul by the name of Mike Klocke. He starts out as these stories usually do, citing the honor that came once upon a time to the paper when it was owned by a local family.

“The Irving Martin Assembly Room at the Record is named for the newspaper’s founder, whose family owned the business for its first 74 years,” Klock wrote. “Ironically, if the day comes when The Record once again is sold, employees will get the news in the upstairs room that honors one of Stockton’s historic figures.

“I bring this up because of last week’s $5 billion offer by publishing magnate Rupert Murdoch to purchase Dow Jones @ Co. The community newspaper division of Dow Jones, Ottaway Newspapers Inc., owns the Record.”

Wait a moment. There is a telling detail: the date on the story is May 6, 2007, the date of Murdoch’s offer to buy Dow Jones, and the Record is running the exact same story six months later on the day that the sale is finalized back on Wall Street.

Bravely, Klocke goes through the Record history of five owners since Loretta Martin ended the family’s association with the Record in l969. The Record, he says, “has been somewhat akin to a baton in a track meet relay.
The Martin family sold to Speidel Newspapers Inc. (l969: which merged with Gannett Newspapers Inc (l977), which sold the Record to the Omaha World-Herald (l994), which sold to Ottaway (2003).

Still more bravely, Klocke writes that “uncertainty can be draining on employees at all levels. If you’re not careful, it can make you lose your focus. I’Ive always believed working in the newspaper business is a mission. We cover news aggressively, help you decide where to shop with advertisements and put the newspaper on your driveway each morning.

“We also now put news and advertising at your fingertips online throughout the day. We also have a bit of the chameleon in our DNA. We embrace challenges and adapt to new environments. The future? Who knows?

“The Record could be sold again, or Ottaway (Dow Jones) still could own the company for decades. Our business model, news-gathering approach and company makeup likely will continue to change.

“Our commitment to the mission and the communities we serve will not falter.”

Idle question: Why can’t reporters who think like this, and editors who allow this kind of story to run when their papers are in play, end up running our valuable community daily papers?

Well, the word from my sources out in the valley is that there are only two real possible buyers: Singleton or McClatchy newspapers, both of whom already own a dangerously huge chunk of the California newspaper business.

They are members in what I call the Galloping Conglomerati. And they are poised to pounce at the very same time that the Big Media are blacking out or marginalizing the major Big Media story that the FCC is about to open the floodgates to even more local media consolidation and even more junk news. (See my blow below.)

Where it all will end knows only God. B3

Owners might change — but not the mission

The Irving Martin Assembly Room at The Record is named for the newspaper’s founder, whose family owned the business for its first 74 years.

Ironically, if the day comes when The Record once again is sold, employees will get the news in the upstairs room that honors one of Stockton’s historic figures.

I bring this up because of last week’s $5 billion offer by publishing magnate Rupert Murdoch to purchase Dow Jones & Co. The community newspaper division of Dow Jones, Ottaway Newspapers Inc., owns The Record.

Murdoch’s eyes, of course, are on The Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones’ myriad successful online ventures. For now, he’s been rebuffed by Dow Jones’ controlling shareholders.

News industry speculation is intensifying about whether this is a first foray by Murdoch and whether other potential buyers will materialize.

As for The Record? Editor and Publisher magazine’s online site reports that New England-based GateHouse Media Inc., a very active recent buyer of newspapers, would be a likely bidder for Ottaway.

GateHouse doesn’t have a West Coast presence, so The Record could in turn be sold to a company with successful California “clustering” of newspapers such as McClatchy (Sacramento, Modesto, Merced and Fresno) or MediaNews (Bay Area papers).

McClatchy and MediaNews both have pursued buying The Record in the past.

Sure, it’s speculation at this point. It’s difficult not to ponder the future when there’s the potential for a fifth different owner since Loretta Martin decided to end the family’s association with The Record in 1969.

In the past 38 years, The Record has been somewhat akin to a baton in a track-meet relay.

The Martin family sold to Speidel Newspapers Inc. (1969), which merged with Gannett Newspapers Inc. (1977), which sold The Record to the Omaha World-Herald (1994), which sold it to Ottaway (2003).

I’ve worked for three of the owners, and they’ve all contributed in positive ways to the company and community.

Ottaway – with excellent guidance and financial support from Dow Jones – made the dream of a new press facility a reality.

Company executives didn’t waste any time, telling us within 30 days of their ownership to get moving on the long-overdue project. The new press became a reality less than two years later.

Ottaway has given us – and Record readers – something we’ve needed for decades. Our Web site development also has been an Ottaway initiative.

The Omaha company proved to be a very good newspaper steward in its nine years of ownership. Omaha executives invested in The Record, and I believe the newspaper truly reconnected with the community during that time.

The Gannett years were, at times, tumultuous. Some excellent longtime employees were hired in various departments back then, and The Record benefited from the opportunities presented by a large, national chain.

Speidel was before my time.

Business uncertainty can be draining on employees at all levels. If you’re not careful, it can make you lose your focus.

I’ve always believed working in the newspaper business is a mission. We cover news aggressively, help you decide where to shop with advertisements and put the newspaper on your driveway each morning.

We also now put news and advertising at your fingertips online throughout the day.

We also have a bit of the chameleon in our DNA. We embrace challenges and adapt to new environments.

The future? Who knows?

The Record could be sold again, or Ottaway (Dow Jones) still could own the company for decades.

Our business model, news-gathering approach and company makeup likely will continue to change.

Our commitment to the mission and the communities we serve will not falter.

Contact Klocke at (209) 546-8250 or mklocke@recordnet.com.

Click here for article.

A key legal filing in the Guardian’s lawsuit

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Since it appears that our lawsuit against SF Weekly and its parent company isheaded for trial the first week in January, and the Weekly has been running a lot of misleading stories about the case, I thought I’d post the key document in the case so far — our brief explaining why the case should not be dismissed and should go to trial.

Here’s the brief, as a pdf. Although it’s marked “confidential,” it was introduced and discussed in open court and is now public record.

The judge in the case, Richard Kramer, tossed out the SF Weekly’s summary judgment motion, and the court of appeals rejected an SF Weekly writ seeking to have that dismissal overturned. So the case is going forward, and if you read our brief, you can see what this is all about.

The art of the Eagle men’s room: “Walls of Glory”‘s one-night stand

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A portrait of Queen Elizabeth by Christina Empedocles was stolen from its perch over a toilet just before the bar opened for the show.

By Stacy Martin

For one night only, the three bathrooms at one of San Francisco’s all-time favorite leather bars were multipurposed into mini-fine-art galleries. “Walls of Glory,” a temporary, site-specific installation at the Eagle Tavern debuted at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 12, and closed that same night at 10. Curated by California College of the Arts graduate student Luke Butler, the show included works by 18 artists.

Butler’s idea for the event came from his desire to stage an exhibition in an undesirable location, a place that’s the complete opposite of a gallery and its white, pristine walls. He also wanted to bring artworks to a place everyone eventually has to go to, and one of the great equalizers of humanity is, indeed, the toilet.

After much convincing, skeptical Eagle bartender Doug agreed to let Butler stage the event, though the show was kept to its brief viewing hours due to potential environmental hazards. But some work was designed to handle the rough environment.

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Muddy waters: Danny Keith showed paintings of dudes getting down and dirty.

Take Erik Scollon’s series of tiny porcelain figurines of nude men lewdly posing in the urinals, all begging to be pissed on – and pissed on they were. Jason Kalogiros’s sneaky and rusty tin tea box sat on a shelf above another urinal, with its image of King Edward sporting a black bar of tape over the monarch’s eyes. The object is actually a pinhole camera, and removing the tape lets Edward get a peek and take an image of the visitors to the loo.

Danny Keith’s paintings of guys wrestling in the mud shared stall-wall space with Travis Meinolf’s homey embroidered motto piece, while a photograph by Larry Sultan adorned one wall across from a sink sporting Elisheva Biernoff’s specially molded hand soap in the shape of a nude male reclining on a bed.

One unfortunate consequence of this fun, but risky installation came just an hour or so before the official opening time when a painting of Queen Elizabeth hung over one of the toilets was stolen. The artist Christina Empedocles, realizing that the show must go on, quickly fashioned a response piece for the thief. She embroidered “Hello Teeny” in pink thread onto black fabric and hung it in place of the missing work. Works by Butler, James Gobel, Erin Allen, Jordan Kantor, Keith Boadewee, Jason Hanasik, John Jenkins, Brian Murphy, Jessica Rosen, Patrick Hillman, and Guardian critic Glen Helfand rounded out the show.

For his next curatorial adventure, Butler is hoping to flip the environment from the masculine to the feminine – perhaps creating a new installation in one of the city’s public women’s restrooms.

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Glen Helfand introduced a book installation to the Eagle Tavern men’s room; Jason Kalogiros, a King Edward tobacco/tea can-cum-pin-hole camera. Curator Luke Butler presented collages of nude men with presidential heads – the Gerald Ford and Richard Nixon noggins were notable – lounging in natural settings.

Feu Therese on fire?

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By Todd Lavoie

It’s gonna hit! So says Montreal’s slinky experimentalists Feu Therese on the front of their new album, Ca Va Cogner (Constellation) – if my ever-rusting grasp of the French language serves me well. (Oh, my ancestors would be so proud.)

Now, I’m not sure if the “it” posed by the title is a sweaty funk-bomb or a seedy stab of gutter-synth – could be either, judging from the ample amounts of each being offered on its 37 fascinating minutes – but I reckon the not-knowing’s the whole idea: this Quebecois quartet seems to thrive on delivering the unexpected. Like a bucketload of bricks – that’s how it’s gonna hit, pumpkin, so duck and cover and let that heavy shit fall where it may. Me, I was blindsided. And it felt fantastic.

Fess-up time: I’m no expert on all of the intricate details of the willfully iconoclastic Constellation Records universe. (Yeah, a pun, I know.) I’ve adored the cinematic sturm-und-drang naysayers Godspeed You! Black Emperor from the get-go, and I’ve always enjoyed the elusive textures and chilling silences of Do Make Say Think, but there’s a hell of a lot of other stuff on that label I still have yet to hear. Fact is, I probably would’ve missed out on Feu Therese, too, if I hadn’t heard the last couple of tracks from Ca Va Conger playing in a record store recently. My point? Up until then, I’d always somehow expected the entire Constellations roster to be a pretty serious lot, all agitprop and clenched jaws – not that there’s anything wrong with that, of course, when it’s done eloquently and thoughtfully, which Godspeed et al. have managed all along. So, I was more than a bit bowled over by Feu Therese’s playfulness. There’s an anything-goes spirit at work here which leaves me with a satisfied smirk every time. Picture this: Serge Gainsbourg has hooked up with Talking Heads and Brian Eno – y’know, back during their fertile Fear of Music/ Remain in Light (Sire) collaborative heyday – to pay homage to Kraftwerk and Can and early-’70s Italian thriller soundtracks. What could be better, really?

Teens girls lusting after Tom Waits

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Buddyhead interviewed Tom Waits recently, and while overall, the interview is a piece of shit, we just loved Tom’s response to the following:

So what do you think of Scarlet Johanson doing an entire album consisting of covers of your songs?
Well some songs are meant to be recorded by other people. Those are the seeds in the tomato, you know? You expect that someone will hear it and might wanna interpret it themselves. So we’ll see.

Yea, hey, you might have a whole new audience of 14-year olds!
Oh yea, the teeny boppers, it’ll be like The Beatles concerts, girls crying, holding pictures of me and coming apart emotionally behind police barricades.

“Coming apart emotionally behind police barricades.” The smallest turns of phrase separate the songwriters from the douchebags.

Image credit: Myfilmo.com from “Down by Law.”

Merry Fucking Xmas!

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Photo of last year’s SantaCon by Lane Hartwell

By Iris Tablas-Mejia
It’s that time of year again! Dust off your red and white apparel ‘cause a fleet of debauched Santas will be running amok through San Francisco again on Saturday, Dec. 15, spreading their unconventional holiday cheer to bars, city landmarks, jaded locals, and unsuspecting tourists starting at 10 a.m. at the Pier 39 carousel.

Since Santacon’s creation by the Cachophony Society in 1994, cities across the nation have adopted San Francisco’s merry tradition, including Miami, Nashville, Portland, and Madison, WI, to name a few. Countries such as Germany, Thailand, Sweden, and Cambodia have also organized their own Santarchy invasions. According to Michael Michael of the San Francisco Cacophony Society—a group that has been involved with other mass events such as the Brides of March, the Urban Iditarod, and the Salmon Run during Bay to Breakers—Santacon is especially popular in Japan.

“The popularity of Santacon in foreign countries has a lot to do with the extent that American culture and its icons have spread beyond our borders,” explained Michael in an email.

Santacon appears to be as synonymous with the holiday season in San Francisco as Christmas itself, but don’t call it a movement. “That’s what you do in the bathroom,” reads the website dedicated to the non-movement, Santarchy.com.

The itinerary for this year’s Santacon is a closely guarded secret, but late arrivers can sign up for updates on the progress via text message. However, the Santarchy website does hint at its plan to “deflower virgin territory.” Last year, the jolly ol’ St. Nicks and Nickettes made an impromptu appearance at a wedding in North Beach, so there’s no telling what the Santas will get into this time around.

Latterman’s analysis, Newsom’s “trying times,” Leal’s demise

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“He remained popular with voters (if not insiders) throughout the whole of his first term (after gay marriage), even through some trying personal times. Effectively, with an absence of challenge, his high poll numbers transferred directly to the ballot—rare in American politics.” David Latterman on Mayor Gavin Newsom’s 2007 reelection.
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Photo from sfgov.org’s Mayoral homepage.

“Trying personal times!” Don’t you just love how Fall Line Analytics President David Latterman tiptoes round the eggshells scattered on Newsom’s reelection path in Spring ‘07, following the news that Newsom had had an affair with the wife of his campaign manager, Alex Tourk?

And you’ve got to give it up to Latterman when it comes to analyzing quantitative and graphical political data, as he has just done for the November 2007 election. Plus, his scatter graphs look mighty festive

Latterman’s “trying times” comment also reminds me why I missed the initial media frenzy that news of Newsom’s affair broke. I was attending a day-long, ground breaking climate change conference, convened by the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission.
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I remember it well, because that was the day that SFPUC General Manager Susan Leal kicked off the conference by announcing that we’d be drinking from decanted water that day, since bottled water was bad for the environment–and we have all that great clean water coming from Hetch Hetchy.

Then Newsom made a few comments, before scampering back to the City Hall, where, as it later turned out, all hell was about to break loose, although it took Newsom 24 hours to talk about it.

Who would have thought back then, on January 31, 2007, that by year’s endr, we would see Newsom handily reelected—and Leal, who has worked hard to bring San Francisco’s water and power policies into the 21st Century, with her head on the chopping block?

Now, there’s an explanatory scatter graph I’d like to see, showing Leal’s popularity with the Mayor decreasing, I guess, as her efforts to make San Francisco’s utilities truly public increased, and as the Mayor, I suppose, increasingly took the credit for many of the initiatives that Leal has led the way on? Sweet. Now there’s justice.
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The Road to Newsom’s rise and Leal’s demise is as winding as the City’s map of how water gets to San Francisco.

Surrender Dorothy — symphonized

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Imagine our grandfatherly gay delight at the megaspectacle promised by the approaching SF Symphony’s holiday show: a big screen showing of The Wizard of Oz accompanied by a live symphony orchestra! Imagine!

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Let’s hope the piccolos don’t drown out those flying monkeys …

This event is looking to be super-popular, so get your tix now! Oh! And come dressed as your favorite character — there’ll be a contest in the lobby!

The Wizard of Oz with the San Francisco Symphony

Thursday, December 20 at 7:00 p.m.
Friday, December 21 at 7:00 p.m.
Saturday, December 22 at 2:00 p.m.
Children welcome and encouraged!
(Pint-sized ruby slippers not supplied)
www.sfsymphony.org

It’s the cheesiest

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Hello,

Below please find a picture of the grand prize winner in Tillamook Cheese‘s national macaroni and cheese recipe contest last week.

Sincerely,

Ashley

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Today’s Ammianoliner

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Huckabee and the Klu Klux Klan claim they’re not homophobic. (Gasp!) Love that sheet and that thread count. Fabulous!

(From the answering machine of Sup. Tom Ammiano on Thursday, Dec. 13.) B3

Kitty wigs!

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For only $50, your pussy can look like and angel.
(At least 20 percent goes to the ASPCA….). The perfect gift? You decide.

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From kittywigs.com:

Blonde is a magical mix of bashful and brazen. Fern shows off the many moods of a natural blonde: sweet yet catty, smart yet batty — where life is alluring and coy. Now all she needs is a bikini and a Swedish accent.

Blonde sets off your kitty’s eyes and makes your kitty look tan.

Hot with a dynell K!

Marke B’s Top 10 2007

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Ah, yes – it’s that time of year again, and why not? There was a whole lotta sonics to love this past year in music, and below is my enhanced top 10 guiltless pleasures of 2007 list. I hope you disagree with and enjoy!

1. Jill Scott, “Hate On Me”

2. Cool Kids, “Black Mags”

3. Honey Soundsystem DJs

Get off the Camel: Kill Rock Stars’s open letter to ‘Rolling Stone’

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We, the indie: Maggie Vail (left) of the Bangs fired off this open letter to Rolling Stone.

This came over the e-mail transom today from Maggie Vail, publicist at Kill Rock Stars (and also of the Bangs) with the subject line: “an open letter to rolling stone.”

“We, the undersigned independent record labels, wish to share our indignation regarding Rolling Stone’s November 15th pull out editorial, which featured the names of our artists in conjunction with an ad for Camel cigarettes. This editorial cartoon gives every impression of being part and parcel of the advertisement wrapped around it. The use of an artist’s name to promote a brand or product should be done only with the artist’s explicit consent, something that was neither solicited nor obtained from the labels or bands.

“When questioned, Rolling Stone has referred to the ‘Indie Rock Universe’ pull out section as an ‘editorial,’ but it hardly seems accidental that this editorial content is wrapped in a giant ad from R.J. Reynolds announcing their support for independent artists and labels. The idea that this was a coincidence in any way seems dubious at best. There are two other pull out sections in this same issue of Rolling Stone. Both are wrapped in advertising, but neither of these ads could be construed as part of the editorial content within.

“Many of the bands named, and the labels that represent them, are very unhappy with the implication that they have any involvement with R.J. Reynolds and Camel cigarettes. We ask that Rolling Stone apologize for blurring the line between editorial and advertisement, and in doing so, implying that the bands named support the product being advertised.

“Sincerely, Kill Rock Stars, Touch and Go, Skin Graft, Lovepump United, Lucky Madison, 5RC, Audio Dregs, and Fryk Beat.”

When we were weird: Grace Jones on “Pee-Wee’s Playhouse”

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Wow, let’s lay down the gauntlet to network (and cable) TV, Webcasters, or whatev to top the wonderfully weirdness of this Pee-Wee’s Playhouse Christmas special. Where are these surreal moments on holiday TV today, pray tell? Grace Jones picks up the beat on “Little Drummer Boy”!

Green Gala

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By Amber Peckham

You may have heard of Global Green: it’s the US affiliate of Mikhail Gorbachev’s brainchild Green Cross International, an organization with the hazy but admirable goal of a “sustainable and secure future”. However, odds are that you haven’t heard they’re throwing a party in San Francisco for the third year in a row, because it’s a highly exclusive event. Tickets to attend the cocktail party are $250,. But to participate in everything the party has to offer – a patron dinner, live “ecotastic” auction, eco-friendly fashion show, and organic spa — will set you back a cool $5k per person. Pricey, but all the proceeds go toward Global Green’s efforts to rebuild a sustainable New Orleans, as well as advance the cause of affordable green housing and schools.

Of course, everything at the party is sustainable, including the alcohol. VeeV, the first eco-friendly spirit, is the sole option at this year’s party. VeeV is made from açaí berries, small dark fruits found only in Brazilian rainforests. For every bottle sold, Veev donates $1 back to the communities that harvest the berries. A bottle runs around $33, and a dollar in Brazil usually equates to between two and three Brazilian real.

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Isn’t $5k a small price to pay for the chance to run into well-known celebrity Global Green supporters like Orlando, Leo, and Ms. Cruz? Or maybe not…

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