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Beatle Watch Day 2: “Across the Universe” viewed with mixture of dread and fear

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August 2, 2007

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By Robert Bergin

Last week, Sean Manning posted about a bunch of lame-o’s protesting the usage of Beatles anthem “All You Need Is Love” in a diaper commercial. Whether the lame-o’s in question also knew about next month’s blockbuster film/Beatles tribute/Boomer-nostalgia epic Across the Universe remains in question, but I think it’s safe to assume that anyone who bothers to research Luvs’ marketing campaigns for instances of song-sullying probably didn’t let this flick fly under their radar.

The variable, then, must be artistic integrity – a quality dubiously associated with rock musicals. Mamma Mia and Tommy have their fans, but those productions succeed mostly because their audience has an emotional attachment to the show before the lights even dim. All the story has to do is not suck.

(I once saw a play called Steven’s Last Night in Town, which was essentially a flimsy excuse for a bunch of actors to sing Ben Folds songs. My favorite part was probably the intro to “Uncle Walter”: “Blah-blah-blah – here’s a conversation that has nothing to do with your uncle Walter.” Awkward silence. “Hey, remember your uncle Walter?!” Seriously, that’s, like, exactly what they said. Verbatim.)

Anyways, go watch this. Back? OK, so director Julie Taymor is clearly sitting on something new, right?

Today’s Ammianoliner

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August 2, 2007

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“City sponsors crafts fair in Golden Gate Park. Wine tasting and needlework.” (From Sup. Tom Ammiano’s voice mail on Thursday, Aug. 2) B3

Countdown to Burning Man

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August 2, 2007

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New author Jess Bruder hooked up with the Flaming Lotus Girls on the playa in 2005 as they were building Angel of the Apocalypse, featuring the group prominently in her just-released “Burning Book.”
Photo by Caroline Miller, aka Mills
By Steven T. Jones
With only a few more weeks until thousands of Bay Area residents head out to Burning Man, the anticipation is palpable. Impossibly ambitious art projects are being pushed toward completion at a frenzied pace in myriad local warehouses and work spaces, people’s bicycles and hair are taking on a sassy and colorful flair, fencesitters are making the decision to attend or not, and burners can be seen buying googles, costumes, and dozens of gallons of waters at stores around town.
Into this excitement now comes “Burning Book: A Visual History of Burning Man” by Jessica Bruder, an engaging collection of words and images from everyone’s favorite countercultural blowout. The book will hit the streets Aug. 7, but you can catch Bruder — who logged time with lots on local burners, from Extra Action Marching Band to the Flaming Lotus Girls — tomorrow at 7 p.m. at Booksmith in SF or Aug. 6 at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books in Berkeley.
Or out on the playa at the end of the month. See you there.

The homeless sweep won’t work

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August 2, 2007

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By Tim Redmond

I came to San Francisco in 1981, and there were people sleeping in Golden Gate Park. Dianne Feinstein, who was the chief exec back then, would periodically try to get rid of them. Art Agnos and Frank Jordan did the same thing. At one point in the 1990s, when Willie Brown was mayor, he discovered the shocking fact as if for the first time, and had a team sweep the campers out. Now the Chronicle has gotten the scoop yet again, and the mayor has dispatched his shock troops and is trying it all anew.

It won’t work this time, either.

There simply aren’t enough places for homeless people to sleep in this town. The shelters are unpleasant and often dangerous, and don’t work for people who are opposite-sex couples (all the shelters are men- or women-only) or people who have dogs (and there are quite a few homeless people with dogs). They aren’t a long-term answer for people who drink or take drugs, since they’re all alcohol and drug-free (or are supposed to be).

The transitional housing the mayor is promoting is fine — but there are thousands of homeless people and not enough rooms for all of them. So if you sweep the park, you just get homeless people sleeping in doorways.

Mark Salomon had an interesting post on this on the PRO-SF listserv; you can read it after the jump.

The saddest headline in the history of the Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones

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August 2, 2007

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By Bruce B. Brugmann

And so in the end Rupert Murdoch wanted the Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones more than did the Bancroft family that owned them for more than 100 years.

Yet another sad day for the newspaper business as these crown jewels of journalism slipped into the Maw of Murdoch and the slime of the New York Post, Fox News, the O.J. Simpson autobiography, and Murdoch’s sellout ventures in China.

For me, the saddest headline in WSJ history was the top head on the front page of the Aug. 1 edition: “Murdoch Wins His Bid for Dow Jones,” with the front page subheads that nailed down the outcome for the world to see: “News Corp.’s Success Follows Delicate Dance Between Suitor, Target” and “Bancroft Family Agrees to $5 Billion Offer After Deal on Fees, A New Owner for Journal.”

The Eclipse: One Day, Two Giants of Art Cinema Gone

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August 1, 2007

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By Max Goldberg

It’s enough to make you wonder. Not twenty-four hours after headlines announcing Ingmar Bergman’s death at 89 news arrived of Michelangelo Antonioni’s end at 94. Both died this past Monday. They seemed on parallel tracks throughout their careers—producing strings of self-consciously intellectual films bent on existential meaning—making their alignment in death all too temptingly neat of a frame for the heavy eulogizing to come. Still, maybe they would have appreciated the coincidence: a flash of suggested meaning, the intimation of magical thinking.

Will Lennar ever be fined for dropping the dust ball?

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August 1, 2007

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By Sarah Phelan

But will the Air Quality District ever levy any asbestos-related fines from Lennar?

If you got the impression from yesterday’s Board hearing that Lennar won’t get fined for screwing up asbestos dust mitigation at Parcel A of the Hunters Point Shipyard, think again. Or, at least, hold that thought for now.

Karen Schlocknick, spokesperson for The Bay Area Air Quality Management District, reports that the air district is still looking into the matter—and has “up to three years” to decide how much to fine Lennar.

One year has already passed since Lennar came forward and admitted that there was a problem with the batteries in its air monitors at Parcel A. So, that leaves the Air District with two more years to make its move, though Schlocknick predicts that, “it won’t take that long”.

Jew to stand trial

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August 1, 2007

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By Steven T. Jones
After a preliminary hearing, Judge Harold Khan has ruled there is sufficient evidence to put Sup. Ed Jew on trial for perjury and other charges related to the allegations that he doesn’t really live in San Francisco and is therefore unqualified to hold off. No big surprise here, but it does raise the question of what Mayor Gavin Newsom is waiting for. Part of his job is to initiate official misconduct proceedings against supervisors were elected fraudulently, or who shake down their constituents for $40,000 cash bribes. Mr. Mayor, what are you waiting for?

Ballot measure threat!

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August 1, 2007

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by Amanda Witherell

Gavin for sale.jpg
photo courtesy of Green Guerrillas, www.letsgreenwashthiscity.org

Some of the city’s PG&E watchdogs are sweating over what the mayor’s been up to lately and are worried he may sneak a pro-PG&E/anti-public power measure on the ballot by Friday’s deadline. Take a look at their concerns here and give ole Gav a ring to let him know what you think.

Photo of the week

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August 1, 2007

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Isn’t this special? Joe Veronese, police commission member and state Senate candidate, and Julie Veronese, pose with Warren Hinckle, who is in his usual sartorial splendor. (Thanks to Luke Thomas and Fog City Journal)

McGoldrick lets us down

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August 1, 2007

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By Tim Redmond

Jake McGoldrick was the swing vote on the wrong side on the 3400 Cesar Chavez project. Some interesting comments and debate here.

I don’t think McGoldrick is corrupt (as one commenter says at leftinsf), and I’m not going to support the attempt to recall him (as another proposes), but I’m deeply disappointed. McGoldrick is a housing guy; he knows better than this.

I live near 3400 Cesar Chavez, and the plan is terrible for the neighborhood. We could have stopped it, and opened the door to a real affordable housing effort. Damn.

Two construction contractors that escaped Cal/OSHA fines aren’t new to business in San Francisco

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August 1, 2007

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By G.W. Schulz

This week we posted a story about two contractors hired by the Golden Gate Bridge Highway and Transportation District in 2001 to complete phase two of its ongoing (and over-budget) retrofit.

The original contract was for $122 million, but a spokesperson for the bridge told us this week that the joint venture formed by two contractors to bid on the job, Shimmick-Obayashi, would actually earn more than $150 million for the work, which is almost finished.

Our story explains that following the accidental death of a carpenter named Kevin Noah, Shimmick-Obayashi was fined $26,000 by Cal/OSHA for allegedly failing to properly rig Noah’s fall protection and also for not providing workers with scaffolding to stand on where the footing was less than 20 inches wide.

But Shimmick-Obayashi never paid the fines, because on appeal three years later, a lawyer from the company argued that the original citation didn’t contain its full legal name. An administrative judge bought the claim and tossed all of the citations.

What we didn’t have space for in the story was explaining the extent of the construction work both companies have conducted in the Bay Area.

60-story Millennium Tower

Grinderman at Slim’s: a top three on Tuesday

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July 31, 2007

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My top three performer-audience mano-y-mano, mi-show-tu-show moments at the Grinderman performance at Slim’s on July 27:

3) A toss-up between the umpteenth time this dude in front of me yelled, “STAGGER LEE!” causing his long-suffering female companion to gently pat him on the shoulder and say, “Yeah. OK. We all know now,” and the moment Nick Cave inadvertently insulted another rabid fan bellowing for old Bad Seeds songs by calling him short and bald. It’s Grinderman, get it? Just play along, dumbkopf. Of course Cave, being the grindingly productive gentleman of letters he’s famously morphed into, immediately qualified the insult with “I’m sure you’re perfectly nice” or some such soft-pedal. Ever feel like you’ve walked into some kind of ongoing dialogue…otherwise known as a rock show?

2) The decision about the last song of the first encore landing in the hands of the guy hollering “TUPELO!” for most of the night. His time came when Cave and Grindermen gathered to decide on the final number – this after playing a raucous, brawling, beer-swilling “Henry Lee,” a genuinely moving “Lucy,” a torrid “The Weeping Song,” and the predictable “Red Right Hand.”

“You can’t leave the country without playing ‘Tupelo,'” hollered our friend.

“What did you say?” asked Cave, straining to hear and seeming to be honestly interested.

“YOU CAN’T LEAVE THE COUNTRY WITHOUT PLAYING ‘TUPELO’!”

“What was that?” The crowd appeared to somehow part, creating a quiet corrider between the singer and the screamer.

To make a painfully protracted interaction mercifully short, let’s just say the guy had to yell the same thing about four or five times before ole Caveroni made the connection. And lo, Grinderman played “Tupelo” with about as much roaring vigor as can be expected from a band half the size of the Bad Seeds. Needless to say, dude was probably beyond psyched.

The crumbled sugar cookie topper: after the song ended, Cave turned back to the audience as the rest of Grinderman shuffled off the stage, and declared, “Now…we can leave the country.”

1) That perfect end was upstaged by the second encore – and the bizarre sight of both Henry Rollins and Jello Biafra jumping on stage to sing hearty backup on a jig-worthy “Deanna.” Who could have imagined that Cave would have been willing and able to orchestrate this totally surreal Giants of Punk Vocals summit. Maybe someone should be enlisting the songwriter for Mideast peace talks.

Ode to Michelangelo Antonioni, 1912-2007

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July 31, 2007

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Matt Sussman pays tribute to the director:

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Monica Vitti in L’Eclisse was a revelation to me as a college freshman. I had a serious crush on her, perhaps more than any other film actress up to that point (certainly, as a gay man, more than any other woman up to that point). Her leonine blond mane and Roman cheekbones framed eyes that could dish out giddy flirtation and unexpected hurt in equal measure. In all the “Antonioni’s greatest moments” recaps that have been posted in the past 24 hours I don’t think any commentator has mentioned the incredibly bizarre scene in L’Eclisse where Vitti puts on blackface and dances amidst African artifacts. Echoes of Italy’s then-recent colonial past are immediately summoned in Vitti’s character’s tipsy performance of bored bourgeois privilege, but Antonioni also seems momentarily to take in the visual pleasure provided by the spectacle of the dancing Vitti. For a director famed for his ambiguity, this is perhaps one of his most ambiguous and unsettling scenes.

A real “green” in 2008?

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July 31, 2007

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by Amanda Witherell

Awesome enviro news website Grist is gauging the greenness of the presidential candidates through a series of interviews. So far none of them are perfect, but we’ll see what Dennis Kucinich has to say when he gets in front of their mike.

Also, one of our readers, Molly Johnson, sent some quotes from the candidates (from the YouTube debate, me thinks) on whether or not we need more nuclear power plants…tsk, tsk, Obama…

Read their atomic words after the jump…

Winner, by TKO …. boxing boot camp

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July 31, 2007

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By Rob Quintiliani

Usually the things that you least want to do end up giving you the most. When I was presented with the option to go through six weeks of intense boxing training, at 6am every weekday, at Third Street Gym, and to fight someone from the SF Weekly at the end it was an easy decision…Hell No!

But then I looked a little deeper, beyond the gimmick that was fighting the Weekly. I saw guaranteed weight loss, changing my eating (and getting drunk) habits, seeing the sun come up every morning, strutting like a pimp every day because of sore legs, beating my brother in a bare knuckle push-up competition, and on and on…So I changed my tune and figured, what the hell… and six weeks and 1 win by TKO later, it’s hard to believe that I almost turned down the opportunity to throw down.

I learned quickly that signing on for bootcamp and finishing bootcamp are two very different propositions. The group of over 50 shrank to about 30 by the end as injuries and exhaustion led people to stop showing up…Of course my opponent from the SF Weekly was also one of the 20 to go, despite being the one to pursue the contest in the first place.

The Chronicle’s David Lazarus: the consumer reporter who wasn’t allowed to cover the biggest consumer story in San Francisco history

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July 31, 2007

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By Bruce B. Brugmann

David Lazarus wrote his farewell consumer column for the July 27th Chronicle under the headline, “Where is the media watchdog?”

Indeed. Lazarus answers his question by quoting Ralph Nader as saying that there will never be another Nader because “the media have lost interest in consumer advocacy as both a story and a calling.”

Lazarus says that the “Chron’s editors have stood behind this column” and says that “a tip of the hat is due here to Editor Phil Bronstein, Deputy Managing Editor Steve Proctor and, most of all, Business Editor Ken Howe. They took enough heat on my behalf to boil soup.”

And yet, despite the fact that Lazarus is a damn good reporter and a strong consumer advocate and claims support from his paper, he was still unable to cover the biggest consumer story in San Francisco history.

Which is, as attentive Guardian readers know, the PG&E/City Hall/Raker Act scandal and how PG&E has cheated the city’s businesses and residents for decades out of the city’s own cheap, clean, and green Hetch Hetchy electrical power. (See past Bruce blogs and Guardian stories and editorials going back to 1969).

Our unnecessary nuclear future

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July 31, 2007

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by Amanda Witherell

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photo of Diablo Canyon nuke plants courtesy of PG&E’s Jim Zimmerlin

Sigh. Just when you’re starting to think something productive might occur in the legislature, enter the monkey wrench. A recently released study outlines exactly how we could be planning for an energy future free of nuclear and coal. If only our leaders would quit pandering to industry and adopt such a plan, but instead it looks like the nuclear industry has quietly tucked a provision into the new energy bill that would provide billions of dollars of loan guarantees for new nuclear power plants.

Senate energy bill helps nukes

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July 31, 2007

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By Tim Redmond

The New York Times reports today that the Senate energy bill contains huge government subsidies for new nuclear power plants. This is no joke, folks: As we’ve been reporting in the Guardian, these folks are back. And they still lie.

Duuude — a top pot cop?

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July 31, 2007

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By Tim Redmond

The Examiner’s having fun with front-page headlines today (“Better sit down for this — Muni removes benches”), but my fave is the interview with the co-chair of the Marijuana Offenses Oversight Committee. I’ve known Michael Goldstein, fomrer Harvey Milk Club president, for years, and I don’t think he ever expected to be called the city’s “Top Pot Cop.”

This is strong?

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July 31, 2007

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By Steven T. Jones
Frankly, I’m not terribly disappointed to hear that Matt Gonzalez isn’t running for mayor. Having basically bowed out of public life after losing the last mayor’s race, I just didn’t see how he was a good rallying point for the progressive movement, let alone a real threat to win.
But I was a bit irked to read Gavin Newsom’s campaign manager Eric Jaye’s comment to the Chronicle: “They’re in total collapse,” Jaye said of the city’s progressives. “They had all year to organize themselves … as they get weaker, we get stronger.”
Really? A strong mayor might stand up to the Police Officers Association to demand reform or accountability, or to the downtown forces that are suing to kill the city’s new health plan and going to the ballot to undo neighborhood-based parking policies developed over the last three decades, or showing leadership (rather than a petulant “take it or leave it” attitude) in fixing his flawed wifi proposal, or doing something to create more affordable housing rather than just kowtowing to the developers of million-dollar condos, or doing his job and initiating official misconduct proceedings against Sup. Ed Jew. Instead, Camp Newsom seems to believe that they get stronger by taking weak stands and thus preserving political capital.
Apparently, it’s a strategy that has been effective enough to stay popular and clear the field of competitors. But as long as we keep buying our ink by the barrel, the Guardian will keep countering the self-serving spin of our ineffective by photogenic celebrity mayor.

Why Did Gavin and Ruby Have Sex?

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July 31, 2007

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By Sarah Phelan

Researchers at the University of Texas at Austin have managed to uncover 237 motivations for why people have sex, including, “I was bored,” “I wanted to feel closer to God,” “I wanted to get a promotion,” “The person was a good dancer,” “It seemed like good exercise,” “I wanted to break up a rival’s relationship,” “I wanted to have a baby” and “I wanted to give someone else a sexually transmitted disease.”

Other reasons cited in the U Of T press release, include, ”I wanted the person to feel good about himself/herself,” “It’s exciting,” “I was curious about sex,” “I wanted to have a baby,” “I wanted to be popular,” “I wanted to say ‘thank you’,” “I wanted the attention,” “My partner kept insisting.” and “I wanted to keep my partner from straying.”

For a full list of motivations, you’ll have to read the August issue of Archives of Sexual Behavior.

Charity or political corruption?

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July 31, 2007

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By Steven T. Jones
PG&E just put out a press release patting themselves on the back for placing sixth on the San Francisco Business Times’ annual list of the top 70 corporate donors to charity, thanks to the $14.7 million in donations the company made last year, it’s biggest year ever. And this year, they pledge to increase that to $18.3 million, just as the city is getting ready to start competing for customers directly with them.
Wow, we certainly are blessed to have such a benevolent corporation in our midst, right? As the press release quoted a top company official as saying, “As a company passionate about meeting the needs of the diverse communities we serve, corporate philanthropy and community service are natural extensions of who we are.”
But there’s probably a better way of looking at these donations and what they say about who PG&E is. After all, this is your money that they’re giving away, coming from customers paying some of the higher rates in the country. And much of that “charitable” giving is meant to buy friends and allies to defend against both public power initiatives and the efforts of city officials to hold this malevolent company responsible for its many misdeeds.
So even though its your money, the company takes credit (on signs, press releases, newspapers ads, etc.) for giving it away and reaps the rewards (from goodwill and influence peddling to tax deductions) that keep you and elected officials under its thumb. And it hits record amounts for giving just as the pressure is increasing to create more public interest and environmentally sustainable ways of generating megawatts. That doesn’t sound like very charitable behavior to me.

Why Gonzalez didn’t run

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July 31, 2007

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By Tim Redmond

So it looks as if there won’t be much of a mayor’s race this fall after all. I know that Matt Gonzalez took a hard look at it; he met with a good campaign consultant, talked to possible supporters and donors, took a poll … and decided that he wasn’t going to win.

Gonzalez didn’t want to run a symbolic campaign. He didn’t want to do what Tom Ammiano did in 1999 — galvanize the left, build a movement, and fall short of dethroning a powerful incumbent. Gonzalez felt like he did that once, and if he was going to enter the race, he wanted to know there was a real chance of victory.

But Gonzalez has been out of politics for a couple of years, and has dropped a bit off the political radar. His “maybe-I-will-maybe-I-won’t” game over the past six months has demoralized a lot of possible supporters. And he couldn’t come up with a plan to crack Gavin Newsom’s teflon: The early numbers had him losing, 60-20.

It’s too bad. I still think that if Gonzalez had started early, say back in January, we might have had a real race. I understand his frustration: No matter how badly Newsom screws up — Muni’s a mess, the murder rate is soaring, he slept with a staffer who was married to his good friend — the mayor remains almost impossibly popular.

That, I think, could change with a real candidate challenging him — but it won’t be Matt Gonzalez. So it’s time to start thinking about the Board of Supervisors in 2008.