No bookcase.
By Tim Redmond
Here’s one of the saddest statistics I’ve seen in a long time: California will soon spend more money on prisons than on its university system.
Everyone in Sacramento seems to agree this is wrong. Nobody does a damn thing about it.
In fact, the state Legislature just agreed to spend another $8 billion on more prison beds.
More on this tomorrow.
Paradise – I gotta get me some of that!
Chris Johanson’s Abstract (Invitation) (2003). Courtesy of www.jackhanley.com.
Tomorrow, May 22, be sure to check out Paradise Library, a “very special event” in the lobby of Le Meridian Hotel in SF, Sic Alps‘ Mike Donovan e-mails. It’s the opening of an art installation by married MIssion Schooleys Jo Jackson and Chris Johanson, now bunked down in Portland. Expect “beautiful colors, many great books,” and live music by Sic Alps. Writes Donovan: “We put together a special set of tunes for this show (due to the volume constraints) so don’t miss this one-time deal!”
Sic wit it. Courtesy of the Sic Alps Web site.
It’s at Le Meridian Hotel, 333 Battery at Clay, SF, May 22, 6-8 p.m. And it’s all free – just how you like it.
Guardian photo of Ed Jew by Charles Russo
By Steven T. Jones
The Examiner today repeats their big scoop in the FBI raid of Sup. Ed Jew’s office: that agents found $20,000 in his safe that had come from a constituent seeking help with regulatory issues. This is the real story, which the Chron has missed as they chase the small potatoes allegation that he doesn’t regularly sleep in his house in the district.
“The men paid $40,000 for the consultant’s services, Jew said, $20,000 of which ended up in Jew’s safe. He did not elaborate on how the money got into his safe, but told The Examiner on Friday that he planned to spend it on community needs, including a playground, in his district,” reports the Examiner.
If that’s true — and the Examiner now appears to be standing by its initial report — then Jew should resign immediately and focus on trying to stay out of prison
By Tim Redmond
I’m not going to jump to any conclusions here; I’m an innocent-until-proven-guilty kind of guy. But I will say that there’s some very funky looking stuff in the daily papers right now about Sup. Jew. The Chron had the basics in its first-day story, but raised more questions than it answered, especially around the fact that Jew doesn’t seem to be living in the house that he owns in the Sunset. The Sunday Chron story follows that up a bit, exploring the fact that Jew’s wife and daughter apparently live in Burlingame.
But the Examiner had the most juicy bit of the scoop, something that somehow got left out the the Chron story (and now is not, apparently, on the Ex website, or at least I couldn’t find it.)
Here’s the Ex:
“Jew said the storeowners [who needed help with permits] paid $40,000 for [consulting] services, half of which ended up in his safe and which, he said, he planned to spend on community needs in his district, including playgrounds. Jew said FBI agents Friday confiscated the $20,000. He did not elaborate on how the money came to be in his safe.”
Whoa. $20,000 in cash in his safe, and he “did not elaborate” on it. That’s a question I would have pushed a bit more if I were the Ex reporter on that story, but it’s too late now: Jew has a lawyer, and won’t be making any more comments.
But we do know the FBI search warrent mentioned that the agents were looking for cash, and had a long list of currency serial numbers.
So let’s see if I’ve got this right: Jew sends some constituents to a consultant, the constitutents pay him — not the consultant — $40,000 cash, and $20,000 ends up in his safe. If that’s true — and again, I’m basing this on one Examiner story that seems to have vanished from the web (the paper is now using a brief AP report on its site) — it sure looks bad.
And to answer the question Brian poses at Calitics — if Jew was forced to resign over this, who would replace him? — that’s easy. The mayor gets the appointment, and it will be Newsom’s buddy, Doug Chan.
By Steven T. Jones
A local Hummer owner apparently just read my Governor Hummer piece from last year and sent me this e-mail.
—–Original Message—–
From: Eric Richardson [mailto:erichardson@ftftech.com]
Sent: Friday, May 18, 2007 2:53 PM
To: Steve Jones
Subject: HEY
Don’t be jealous that you cant afford a HUMMER douche bag
I couldn’t help but respond, triggering the following e-mail exchange that seems to speak volumes about the mentality of the people who buy and drive these things.
By Todd Lavoie
All aboard the Technicolor carousel!
Patrick Wolf emerges from his blink-and-you-miss-it retirement – he’d announced only last month that he’d be taking an extended break from music – with a Left Coast tour. Our beloved British Boy Wonder will eventually head back overseas on another European orbit to support his recent glitter-fabulous release, The Magic Position (Fontana Universal). Wolf’s threats of self-imposed exile? A hasty decree delivered from a temporary funk, apparently, according to his press releases. So, I guess it’s true, folks: April showers do bring May flowers, after all.
Please, kind sir, may I offer you a ride on my showily art-directed carousel?
And what sorts of floral bouquets are we talking about here, you ask? Heavens above! How about garlands so glitzy, so glammy, so shamelessly rococo that they border on the surreal? Theatricality is one thing, but the breathlessly-ambitious Wolf – all of 23 years old – pivots and whirls into near-pageantry territory, as sweeping string arrangements and dense canopies of sound provide the sort of surging drama needed for such a commanding vocal presence. Restrained this ain’t, and the otherwise dull-as-dishwater world of pure pop has been made all the better for it. Sure, I could trot out a Rufus Wainwright comparison for the quick answer, but consider this: if Rufus aches to be Judy Garland, Wolf fancies himself the heir apparent to Hunky Dory-era David Bowie, and he’s got the vision to back it up. And much like bright-eyed Bowie believers Marc Almond and the late, great Billy Mackenzie of the Associates, the guy knows how to work the camp angle and still wreck the sweet bejesus out of your poor unsuspecting heart.
Patrick Wolf plays Monday and Tuesday, May 21 and 22, at Café du Nord, 2170 Market, SF. No Bra and DJ Baron Von Luxxury open, starting at 9 p.m. Tickets are $14.
By Tim Redmond
The good news — and it’s very good news — is that the East Bay Express is no longer a member of the Village Voice Media chain that owns the SF Weekly. I’m a day late with this news; it’s taken me a bit to process, because our ad director (and my good friend) Jody Colley has left the Guardian to go work with the new ownership. But most of the reports have been upbeat, emphasizing that Express editor Steve Buell and his partners, Hal Brody, Kelly Vance and Bradley Zeve have done a very unsual thing. They’ve taken a chain paper and made it an independent.
And although none of the principals are talking about the price, I think they got it pretty cheap. In essence, the big, bad VVM couldn’t make it in the East Bay, and was forced to bail.
Of course, it’s going to take a while to disentangle the VVM connections. The Express was very much a cog in the borg machine: The website was designed and run by VVM. The movie reviews came from VVM. The accounting and systems were all handled through VVM. And — perhaps most important — the ad sales were closely linked to the SF Weekly.
In fact, the Weekly’s ad materials these days all cite the circulation not of the SF paper but of the combined Weekly and Express, and for a lot of accounts, buying an ad in the Weekly meant a free one (or heavily discounted one) in the Express. So the two were almost like an old-fashioned joint operating agreement. They even ran the same cover story a few months ago.
I suspect on the sales side, that won’t change immediately. There are contracts and deal and money is involved, so I expect the nonsense will continue for a bit. But in the end, I hope and believe the Express will once again be a community-based and community-serving paper. And I wish them all the luck in the world.
Me and Newsom at last year’s Bike to Work Day
By Steven T. Jones
San Franciscans pedaled past an important milestone during yesterday’s Bike to Work Day: on the morning commute along Market Street, bicycles outnumbered cars for the first time. Traffic engineers counted 647 cyclists riding eastbound on Market near Van Ness from 8-9 a.m., or 54 percent of the total traffic. That number was also a 27 percent increase over last year’s bike tally. Bike advocates were thrilled with the turnout and further elated when Mayor Gavin Newsom, fresh off his ride to City Hall, announced his Bike SF 2010 Milestones. He promised to shepherd the bike plan to completion next year and ensure it studies 50 projects, including some key missing links in the current network. And to reach the plan’s goal of 10 percent of all vehicle trips being by bike by 2010, he promised to create 20 new bike lanes by then, reduce bike collision injuries by 50 percent, and to actively support so-called LOS reform, which could exempt many new bike projects from needing detailed environmental studies. It was a big day for bicycling and great first step to making San Francisco the greenest big city in the country.
Me and Newsom at last year’s Bike to Work Day
By Steven T. Jones
San Franciscans pedaled past an important milestone during yesterday’s Bike to Work Day: on the morning commute along Market Street, bicycles outnumbered cars for the first time. Traffic engineers counted 647 cyclists riding eastbound on Market near Van Ness from 8-9 a.m., or 54 percent of the total traffic. That number was also a 27 percent increase over last year’s bike tally. Bike advocates were thrilled with the turnout and further elated when Mayor Gavin Newsom, fresh off his ride to City Hall, announced his Bike SF 2010 Milestones. He promised to shepherd the bike plan to completion next year and ensure it studies 50 projects, including some key missing links in the current network. And to reach the plan’s goal of 10 percent of all vehicle trips being by bike by 2010, he promised to create 20 new bike lanes by then, reduce bike collision injuries by 50 percent, and to actively support so-called LOS reform, which could exempt many new bike projects from needing detailed environmental studies. It was a big day for bicycling and great first step to making San Francisco the greenest big city in the country.
By Steven T. Jones
The San Francisco Chronicle is planning to lay off about a quarter of its editorial staff — 20 managers and 80 rank-and-file journalists — in the next two weeks, according to sources at the paper. Exactly how the cuts will go down and who will be let go is still being worked out by Hearst Corporation in consultation with the union, creating serious anxiety in the newsroom, even though they were told in March that this might be coming. Sources say their union contract requires a two-week notification for staff reductions, so by the end of the month there could be substantially less news gathering going on in the Bay Area and 100 media professionals wondering what’s next. It’s a sad time for journalism in the U.S.
Media Workers Guild logo
By Steven T. Jones
The San Francisco Chronicle is planning to lay off about a quarter of its editorial staff — 20 managers and 80 rank-and-file journalists — in the next two weeks, according to sources at the paper. Exactly how the cuts will go down and who will be let go is still being worked out by Hearst Corporation in consultation with the union, creating serious anxiety in the newsroom, even though they were told in March that this might be coming. Sources say their union contract requires a two-week notification for staff reductions, so by the end of the month there could be substantially less news gathering going on in the Bay Area and 100 media professionals wondering what’s next. It’s a sad time for journalism in the U.S.
Media Workers Guild logo
Artsfest 2007 Arts Expo Attendees To Create Gaint Peace Sign
Collaborative Art Project Sponsored by MySpace.com
MySpace.com and the Bay Area’s Create Peace Project have teamed up with Artsfest to offer attendees of all ages at the Artsfest 2007 Arts Expo the opportunity to create a giant peace sign made from individually created peace cards.
Based on the idea that ‘what you create will change the world,’ this collaborative community art project is part of a daylong celebration of the arts on Saturday, May 19 from 11am to 6pm in front of San Francisco City Hall (Polk Street at McAllister).
The 32 foot by 32 foot peace sign engages participants to become ‘culture catalysts’ for peace. Furthermore, the sign is designed to travel to peace and community events throughout the summer and Artsfest 2007 organizers are arranging a location for its permanent display in the Bay Area thereafter. In addition to the on-site creation of this artwork, MySpacers can also create online video cards that will be uploaded to a peace card gallery at www.myspace.com/artsfest.
Artsfest 2007 Arts Expo is a free, family-friendly, multi-cultural event that features daylong entertainment including music, dance, theatre, spoken word, visual arts, fashion, food, a beer and wine garden and more. Headliners include the hot alt rock band RubberSideDown, Hot Pink Feathers, Blue Bone Express, Lutsinga Musical Ensemble, Youth Speaks and many others.
As a unifying non-profit organization in the San Francisco Bay Area, Artsfest is a culture catalyst that engages and connects people in the arts, business, media, non-profit, government and the public sectors by producing and promoting art events and services that inspire cooperation, creativity, commerce and a culturally vibrant community.
Visit Artsfest at www.Artsfestsf.org or Create Peace Project at www.createpeaceproject.org.
By Steven T. Jones
Last night’s San Francisco Tomorrow 37th annual dinner on Fisherman’s Wharf offered a who’s who list of environmentally engaged political leaders and activists — a testament to the important role this venerable organization has played in creating the San Francisco of today (full disclosure: my sweetie, Alix Rosenthal, recently joined the SFT board).
Supervisors Chris Daly, Aaron Peskin, and Tom Ammiano all showed up, as did Sen. Carole Migden, Assessor Phil Ting, and Democratic Party stalwart Jane Morrison. Activists being honored by the group were filmmaker Judy Irving (who made “Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill” and other films focus on SF urban environment), recycling scold and innovator Denise D’Anne, and Amy Meyer and Dr. Edgar Wayburn, who have worked for more than 30 years to create the Golden Gate National Recreation Area.
Yet to me, the most interesting award and resulting speeches were for the special award that Ammiano received for creating a universal health care program for the city, in the process braving aggressive attacks by downtown and finally winning over Mayor Gavin Newsom.
Ex-Guardian art director Victor Krummenacher has left our fair offices but he’s not forgotten: dude can still be seen playing around town and far beyond city limits with his groundbreaking group Camper Van Beethoven and in CVB vocalist David Lowery’s Cracker – and now solo (see this week’s Sonic Reducer) – future appearances include opening for the Knitters at Great American Music Hall on Saturday, May 19.
Folks depart, but some things are eternal…like music lists. Here’s Krummenacher’s most recent adds to his iPod.
– Tinariwen, Aman Iman (World Village)
By far the most badass Malian blues band going. The CD of the year so far.
– James McMurtry Americana Master Series: Best of the Sugar Hill Years (Sugar Hill)
Given to me by a friend, an old friend who knows me too well and is currently stuck on “Gulf Road.”
– Grinderman, Grinderman (Anti-)
The undercurrent of demonic Pro Tools loops by Warren Ellis keeps grabbing my ear.
– Paula Frazer and Tarnation, Now It’s Time (Birdman)
Best release by Paula in a long time – cool string arrangements.
– Fall, Hex Enduction Hour double-CD reissue (Castle)
A birthday present. My favorite record of my junior year of high school holds up 25(!) years later.
By Sarah Phelan
My 20-year-old son called me on Mother’s Day. He could only talk for a minute, because he was calling from a National Guard camp, where he’s training before deploying to Iraq, and all the other soldiers-in-training wanted a turn talking to their moms and families, too.Afterwards I choked up. I’ve been opposed to invading Iraq, ever since Bush began banging the anti-Saddam war drums in November 2001, so it’s hard to see my son volunteer at this time in history. I worry about what will happen once my son gets to Iraq, but I can’t stop him from making his own decisions.
What I can stop is Bush from getting away with bloody murder. We all know that his administration spun up a bunch of lies to invade Iraq in March 2003. We all found out the hard way that it was easier for Bush to tell these lies than it was for us to debunk them, especially once US troops were on the ground. Since then we’ve all witnessed how ruthless the Bush regime has been when it comes to smearing those who have challenged their lies. And no one wants to be accused of not supporting the troops.
But giving Bush more money for his war in Iraq is not supporting the troops. It’s supporting the Bush lie. I don’t blame America that my son signed up, but I will blame myself, if I don’t try to air the truth about Bush’s war. And if my son, who is Canadian, is prepared to fight for this country, Americans should be prepared to defend their Constitution, which has been under constant attack since Bush and his cronies came to power. So, don’t tell me there’s nothing you can do. Support the troops, bring them home. Defend America, defend the Constitution. It’s in your hands.
By Sarah Phelan
In his time, City Attorney Dennis Herrera has been accused of paying too much attention to dress codes, cuff links and time schedules. But on Friday, members of the AIDS/LifeCycle Riders team in his office, along with anyone who has contributed to their 545-mile Trek to Los Angeles fundraising efforts will be allowed to wear jeans. Or, to quote Herrara’s legalese, they will be given “a first-ever, one-day-only ‘dress code dispensation'”.
The blue jeans butt off begins with a 10:00 a.m. photo op on the City Hall steps to celebrate the ten riders who are representing Herrera’s the office in the 545-mile ride from San Francisco to Los Angeles, June 3-9, and the idea is to raise money and awareness for the cause, but you know you’re wondering, er, what kind of jeans Chief Trial Deputy Joanne Hoeper, and her husband, Steve Tomich, ; Deputy City Attorneys Kimberly Bliss, Ronald Flynn (and his partner, Neal Schwartz), Andrew Gschwind, John Kennedy, Kathryn Luhe and Kristine Poplawski; and Investigator Anne Taupier will be wearing. And, of course, who has the best jeans butt. Or is it illegal to say things like that about city attorneys?
By Steven T. Jones
The Examiner’s Ken Garcia just loves to sneer at progressives and puff up Mayor Gavin Newsom, as he did again yesterday. In fact, this seems to be Garcia’s sole raison d’etre. Yet the problem with Garcia disguising his mayoral flackery as independent journalism is that some ill-informed readers might actually believe what he has to say, no matter no bogus his points or flawed his logic.
Some people make plans to spend their summer drinking beer and barbecuing beef ribs. Others have slightly more ambitious goals. Like the people behind the Panhandle Bandshell project, a temporary installation made from reclaimed materials meant as a community performance and acoustic music space. These architects, artists, activists, freaks, friends, and volunteers are spending their whole summer doing manual labor for the collective good.
So how can we help them? (Other than drinking a beer and eating a rib in their honor?) There are all kinds of ways to be found on their website. But the most immediate is to stop by tonight’s fundraising event at Madrone. There will be a silent auction featuring local merchant wares and art, a short bandshell design presentation, and music and performance by Dr. Abacus, Allison Lovejoy, Clide vs Crocodiles,Cohen, and DJ Delachaux.
INFO: Wednesday, May 16. 8pm-2am. $5-$20 sliding scale. Madrone Lounge, Divisadero at Fell, SF.
By Molly Freedenberg
It’s rare that a youth orchestra performs Beethoven’s monumental Symphony No. 9, the one famous for being created after he went deaf (and also for being considered one of mankind’s greatest artistic achievements.) But the San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra, who will present the symphony on Sunday, May 20, is no ordinary youth orchestra.
No, this ensemble of 100 culturally diverse musicians ranging in age from 12 to 21 is considered one of the finest of its kind in the world. And that’s not just because it’s been providing tuition-free orchestral experience to youth for 25 years. It’s because the experience these kids are getting is a world-class, pre-professional caliber musical education. (After all, how often do you think youth orchestras get to work with Yo-Yo Ma and Isaac Stern the way SFSYO has? Answer: almost never.)
It’s basically a guarantee then, that Sunday’s 25th Anniversary concert will amaze and impress – especially considering the performance will include Grammy Award-winning San Francisco Symphony Chorus and four San Francisco Opera Adler Fellows as soloists. Oh yeah, and Colin McPhee’s Tabuh-Tabuhan, a work inspired by Indonesian gamelan music (you know, more of the usual youth orchestra fare…)
SFS YOUTH ORCHESTRA 25TH ANNIVERSARY CONCERT (including post-concert reception and anniversary exhibit)
May 20, 2 p.m.
$10 general, $75 reserved
Davies Symphony Hall
201 Van Ness, SF
(415) 864-6000
sfsymphony.org
By Steven T. Jones
Toward the end of Christopher Hitchens’ wonderfully caustic anti-tribute to Jerry Falwell on Slate today, he chides the Democratic Party for trying to follow the Republican Party in pandering to the religionists. That’s a very real fear that has the potential to do immense damage to this country and its constitutional separation of religion from government.
Image from Sunday’s New York Times Review of Books
Just last week, during the Democratic Party fundraiser in San Francisco on which I reported, both national party chair Howard Dean and state party chair Art Torres talked about reaching out to churchgoers. “We believe God is not a Democrat or a Republican. He’s a social progressive,” Torres said. It was a funny line that broke up the room of party faithful, but it has some serious implications.
By Sarah Phelan
Mayor Gavin Newsom’s tactics to push through a Google Earthlink Wifi franchise are beginning to look a lot like Bush’s efforts to invade Iraq: only this time the invasion is of Internet privacy, the big lie is that the Google Earthlink deal will bridge the digital divide, and critics of the deal are being smeared as racists.
Nothing of course could be further from the truth behind why the Board has been questioning Newsom’s Google-Earthlink deal for years, but trying getting that message through when the Mayor’s PR machine is set on a deafening pre-election spin cycle of false messaging.
By Tim Redmond
Back in the early 1980s, after Sister Boom Boom ran for supervisor on the “nun of the above” ticket, Jerry Falwell sent out a mass mailing to raise money for the Moral Majority featuring the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence. The letter included a Gay Pride photo and a description of my favorite nuns as a deep threat to the moral fiber of America.
I did a story about it, and Sister Sadie Sadie the Rabbi Lady called me to get a copy of the letter and the photo, which the sisters took to Melvin Belli, the famous tort lawyer, who then sued Falwell for misappropriation of their images. I don’t know where the suit went in the end, but the whole thing made for a lot of fun stories — because back then, frankly, Falwell was the Devil Incarnate.
You don’t hear as much about him anymore, but now that he’s dead, it’s worth remembering that this guy was a key player in the birth of the religious right, the election of Ronald Reagan, and the beginnings of a movement of intolerance and hatred that still plagues us today.
I saw him debate Larry Flynt on Nightline once, shortly after Falwell sued Flynt for a parody ad in Hustler suggesting that the televangelist had sex with his mother in an outhouse. Falwell was sputtering about how horrible it was to even suggest such a thing; Flynt laughed and said:
“You forgot to tell em, Jerry, that you had to kick the goat out of the outhouse first.”
Falwell’s suit went all the way to the US Supreme Court, and wound up in a stunning victory for the First Amendment; the court ruled that obvious parodies of public figures can’t be grounds for libel or defamation suits. That decision was key to the Guardian’s victory in a libel suit brought by a local landlord, Adam Sparks, who we had accused in a parody issue of using electroshock treatment on his tenants.
So we’ve had some history with the prick. And with all due respect to the dear departed, I can’t say I’m sorry he’s finally out of the way.
NOTE: There will be quite a rally at 5 pm on 18th and Castro to speak out against Falwell’s legacy.
By Tim Redmond
Quite the hearing yesterday on the mayor’s wi-fi plan. Newsom has a lot riding on this, and he got out his troops to insist that even slow wi-fi is better than no wi-fi in addressing the digital divide.
I have a real problem with turning over a crucial part of the city’s future infrastructure to private companies. But I think it’s also worth noting that this probably won’t be any effective answer to the digital divide. Sasha at LeftinSF quotes a fascinating Business Week article showing that in Anaheim, the much-touted wi-fi system doesn’t work very well at all. In a lot of palces, you can’t get any signal.
Listen: I love wi-fi. My whole house is abuzz with a wireless cloud, thanks to a cable modem and few hundred dollars worth of routers, repeaters and cables. The internal wi-fi card that came with my Toshiba laptop didn’t satisfy me, so I went out and bought a fancy external one. And still, I can’t always sit on my couch and watch golf on TV while I read my email. Sometimes, the reception is slow and spotty.
San Francisco International Airport is supposedly set up for wi-fi everwhere; it’s a T-Mobile system with a high-speed connection that costs $6 an hour. It’s a far higher quality product than what Google/Earthlink is offering San Francisco — and at lest 50 percent of the time, I can’t get it to work.
Now imagine the low-income person in the Tenderloin or in Hunters Point public housing with a cheap laptop that has a cheap internal wi-fi card. If this person is, say, a student looking to do homework in his or her bedroom, and that bedroom is more than 10 or 20 feet from the street, and the walls are concrete or brick (hello?) then the free wi-fi, which is already way slow, isn’t going to work at all.
You want reliable universal broadband, the way to do it is run fiber under the streets.
Here’s who Newsom’s plan will work well for: Business people and the cafe crowd who want to sit on park benches in Union Square or at a table outside a Starbucks and surf the net. They’ll also be able to pay the money for a faster connection.
And let’s remember: These are Gavin Newsom’s real constituents.
