Bummer, dude. RTX canceled their WC Warehouse show Friday because they’re van broke down outside of LA. Ah well, the Oakland Art Murmur was happening, as was the scene at the Warehouse (which was expecting a performance by Ariel Pink – hot from the Lipo – in RTX’s stead but who knows if that ever happened). We pressed our noses to the glass of Mama Buzz’s new cupcake cafe instead.
SFBG Blogs
I Think You’re Crazy … Just Like Me
Oh, Crazy Sushi. 
You’re so…well…crazy. Getting us all liquored up on beer and sake (Unfiltered! In stylish glass decanters! Who could resist?), letting our rowdy 30th-birthday-bash bunch take over your whole restaurant on no notice, and priming us for a night of debauched revelry with your naughtily named Lesbionic Roll (Didn’t I try that in college?) and your Black Magic Woman (Crab, BBQ eel, avocado, cucumber, black caviar and that special spicy sauce, all to make a devil out of us…). 
I’d like to blame you for the way we bulldozed through The Transfer after we left you, for the horrific game of pool I somehow managed to win, for the “What? Are we 22?” after-party that went way too late.
But I can’t. Because it’s probably thanks to you and your insanely good food that we didn’t end up even worse off than we did.
So thank you, Crazy Sushi. You saved our (aging) asses.
(Molly Freedenberg)
Now THIS is funny
By Tim Redmond
Smoove and Patricio bring the Love
By Steven T. Jones
Someone has posted a video on You Tube of DJs Smoove and Patricio (two rocking local DJs who also happen to be good friends of mine) dropping the bass at the Anon Salon float at last year’s Love Fest. Happy people, fun times, City Hall in the background…nice! Bonus points to readers who can find me in the clip.
Take a deep breath,everyone
By Tim Redmond
Our editorial on this whole mess is here
NOISE: Rrrrr…. RTX! In Oakland! In a warehouse! In the flesh!
Whoa, news flash! If you love Royal Trux, you’ll wanna get your ever-lovin’ bad self down to the WC Warehouse/Ghost Town Gallery tonight, Feb. 2, to see Truxer Jennifer Herrema tear it up as RTX.
Herrema was in awesomely raspy form when she played Bottom of the Hill a few years ago (we won’t even go into the nutty Cocodrie Royal Trux show further back). And though she only lives a hop, skip, and several hundred miles away in LA, this doesn’t happen often, so…you know what you gotta do. And because it’s a house party you’ll have to figure out where WC Warehouse/Ghost Town Gallery is on your own. Doors open at 10 p.m., and Raspy Mugs and Hot Tubs open.
Expect Herrema to appear in other parts after the March release of her band’s next album, Western Xterminator (Drag City). Get an eyeful of RTX though after the Oakland art crawl. If you can see through them bangs…
“Suturb, ut te”
By Sarah Phelan
“Eturb, ut te” is “Et tu, Brutus” spelled backwards.
As such it seems a fittingly ass-backwards phrase to sum up the dynamics of the Newsom affair, which is so Shakespearian in terms of the lust, the lies and the betrayals, which ultimately led to yesterday’s potentially career-shattering revelations, yet seems so ass-backwards in so many ways. Very very suturbing.
NOISE: Wet Confetti, city
Gang of Four twiddler, meet a gang of three: Wet Confetti. Dave Allen, the G4 bassist, played on and produced the Portland, Ore., combo’s new album, Laughing, Gasping. You can also catch the trio in Brendan Canty’s third Burn to Shine DVD, along with Sleater-Kinney, the Decemberists, and the Shins – burning down the house with the sheer rock.
These kids will be playing at the Hemlock Tavern, tonight, Feb. 2, on a bill with the Fucking Ocean and Fierce Antler. Too much.
Newsom’s other Peter problem
By Steven T. Jones
At the end of yesterday’s sex scandal whirlwind, I finally got a chance to talk with Newsom press secretary Peter Ragone about the scandal that got pushed aside by the larger scandal: Ragone being caught using pseudonyms in online posts and then lying to cover it up. Contrary to how this has been cast by the Chronicle and KCBS, Ragone has not truly owned up to what he did or shown any signs of wanting to restore his damaged credibility — something he’ll surely need as he tries to manage the other scandal and help Newsom re-engage with the public and the Board of Supervisors.
NOISE: Avett Bros., bro
We’ve told you before – and we’ll tell you again: these Avett Bros. are strong. Strong, strong songwriters.
Country & Yaaarrrr. Courtesy of www.theavettbrothers.com.
The combo will be playing alongside Willie Nelson, Rage Against the Machine, Bjork, Red Hot Chili Peppers, and Arcade Fire at this year’s Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival on April 29. But if you’re not going down then, see ’em tonight, Feb. 2, at Slim’s, SF. That excuse about being scared of soaring standup basses ain’t gonna fly anymore.
Newsom’s apology
By Steven T. Jones
There were lots of different ways that Gavin Newsom could have reacted to news that he was having sex with an at-will employee who was also married to his close friend and top adviser, but almost all of them involved an apology. Here’s what he chose to say this morning, in its entirety, followed by why I think he has fallen short and sown the seeds for dragging out this scandal longer than necessary:
“Thank you for coming here on such short notice. I want to make it clear that everything you’ve heard and read is true and I’m deeply sorry about that. I’ve hurt someone I care deeply about, Alex Tourk and his friends and family, and that is something I have to live with and something that I’m deeply sorry for. I am also sorry that I’ve let the people of San Francisco down. They expect a lot of their mayor and my personal lapse of judgment aside, I am committed to restoring their trust and confidence and will work very hard in the coming months to make sure the business of running this city is framed appropriately. I also want to extend a personal apology to everyone in our administration, to my staff who I just met with, to my friends and my family members. I am deeply sorry and I am accountable for what has occurred and have now begun the process of reconciling it and will now begin working aggressively to advance our agenda in this city and to work hard to build again the trust, to restore the trust, that the people of San Francisco have afforded me. I appreciate everyone taking the time to be here today. Thank you very much.”
It’s Getting Hot in Here
It’s Getting Hot in Here
Sarah Phelan
Hours before all hell broke loose over at City hall over news that he’d been having an affair, Mayor Gavin Newsom showed up at the SFPUC’s Climate Change summit to endorse long overdue efforts to combat global warming.
“God’s delays are God’s denials,” began Newsom, blissfully unaware that his former appointments secretary Roby Rippey-Tourk was about to confess to her husband Alex Tourk about the affair, and that Tourk would immediately confront the mayor–and resign from his post as Newsom’s campaign manager. Ouch.
Looking chill in his trademark ice-blue tie, Newsom remarked that there had been no snow in the Alps during his recent trip to Davos, Switzerland, little suspecting that he’d be quite so red-faced by the end of the day.
In addressing climate change today, observed Newsom, “we’re burdened with mistakes from the past,” adding that this past, and not just the future, must be part of “the next narrative.”
Expressing enthusiasm for tidal wave and solar power, and efforts to measure where we’re at with our carbon emissions’ levels , the Gavsta wrapped up saying, “We’re willing to take great risks in San Francisco.”
And then Newsom was gone, little guessing that while water managers heard incontrovertible evidence that global temperatures and sea levels are rising, bringing a host of nasty side effects and consequences, he’d be finding himself up to his neck in political and emotional hot water as a result of his own past denials and risk takings. Double Ouch.
Unsolicited advice to the mainstream press covering alternative press stories
Never try to sabotage a story when the facts can come back to haunt you. B3
Hearst, MediaNews talks included possible sale of Chronicle
SFBG ONLINE: Barons of monopoly
Bavarian cream: Herzog blogged
I’m sure you Herzophiles have been languishing for days now, waiting for the rest of this interview (the best niblets made it into the paper here). Here are the ready-for-blogging-goggles portions. A veritable, unsugary feast of Bavarian whimsy.
SFBG: There are some awe-inspiring landscape images in The Wild Blue Yonder. Where were they shot?
Werner Herzog: That was in southern Venezuela.
SFBG: How would you describe your relationship to the land – I hear you’re a big walker?
WH: Not a walker I travel on foot once in a while. When it comes to essential things I would travel on foot. But I’m not a hiker and I’m not a backpacker. I am an outdoors person when it comes down to it, but when you say “walking on foot,” I’m not walking leisurely. I’m traveling, and I’m not into the business of backpacking. And I’m not in the business of jogging.
NOISE: Thee More Shallows sell out to Anticon
Our longtime faves, the underappreciated Thee More Shallows, are making a break for a whole ‘nother kinda big time. The top-notch indie rockers have signed to Bay Area out-hip-hop imprint Anticon.
Could such a deal have come to pass because a certain TMS band member is the landlord of another certain Anticon reg? Dunno – but I’m psyched that these guys will be getting more attention for their forthcoming album, Release Book of Bad Breaks, said to be full o’ weird Casio, absolutely filthy breaks, and, whoa, French horn.
Thee More plans to tour more in May. That Kiss Me Deadly-style suitcase full o’ gear is packed and ready to go.
An actual issue
By Tim Redmond
I don’t care about the mayor’s sex life. Frankly, I’d rather not think about it. If he had an affair with a good friend’s wife, that’s between them. Makes him look like a jerk, but whatever.
There is, however, a more serious issue here, which is that Ruby Tourk was Newsom’s employee. An at-will employee who could be fired at any time, at the mayor’s call. That’s why the city may well get sued here, and why this is really kind of a problem.
It really was, to quote the mayor, a lapse in judgment for the chief executive of a major city. Big time.
Department of Public Works…Works!
by Amanda Witherell
I ride my bike. A lot. And I’ve learned to avoid the treacherous ravine that is 17th Street where PG&E has been wrecking some serious havoc for the past few months. But the very end, between Texas and Mississippi is still my preferred way to approach Guardian headquarters and there’s one final ditch that stretches across the entire width of the road and, in very unavoidable fashion, has been doing it’s best to warp my nimble rims.
So the other day I called the city’s Pothole Hotline — 415-695-2100. A nice man took down the address of the crevasse and thanked me for calling. The DPW’s website promises repairs within 48 hours and when I was riding in this morning, I was thinking, “They’ve got about two hours to deliver on that promise…”
And they did! It’s all filled in! The hotline works!
Of course, this could be a coincidence and they’d been scheduling to dump some tarmac there for weeks…to truly test this I may have to find some more potholes to report. That shouldn’t be hard.
NOISE: Shake it with Social Studies
No studies, just fun times last week – at the Rickshaw Stop’s anniversary series of shindigs and then Social Studies on Jan. 26 at Bottom of the Hill. J’adore those kiddie tambourines that were distributed to the audience for those bang-along songs.
Came in just in time for Magic Bullets whose vocalist was a deadringer/-singer for Robert Smith. The stellar indie pop kept on keeping on when Social Studies entered rocking dark denim, synth, and a terry-cloth headband. Natalia R’s dulcet tones evoked, gosh, 10,000 Maniacs-era Natalie Merchant – and that’s not an insult! An extremely Social-ized crowd went ape, like monkeys drunk on KROQ. More please! SS’s next show is Feb. 10 at Hemlock Tavern.
Getting social at BOH. All photos by Ka-ching! Chun
No joy
By Steven T. Jones
Contrary to the demented hopes of conservative ideologues like the Examiner’s Ken Garcia, there is no joy on the left over the sordid sex scandal that has now engulfed Mayor Gavin Newsom. Sure, it opens up this year’s mayor’s race and illustrates some of the character flaws of Newsom’s administration, which have manifested themselves in how he conducts himself professionally, not just personally. But nobody’s happy to see this, not the Guardian (which has also heard these rumors for the last six months but couldn’t confirm the story enough to print it) nor the politicians and activists on the left. Several of them happened to be gathered last night when the news hit, and I can tell you there was no glee in that room. Sup. Chris Daly’s public comments have been respectful and reserved and in private, he genuinely felt bad for Alex Tourk. Everybody did. Matt Gonzalez, who has been rumored to be considering a run for mayor, spent more time considering how this incident places City Hall in a bad light and in legal jeopardy than he did calculating his own prospects. And my sweetie Alix Rosenthal, who is president of the National Women’s Political Caucus, and the other women in the room are bracing for attempts to inappropriately delve into Ruby Tourk’s private life and are ready to fight back if Newsom’s people or their proxies go that route.
In the coming days or weeks, after the shock of this wears off and it becomes acceptable to make jokes or calculate its political implications, we’ll rejoin the battle for this city’s soul and actively try to help point the way forward from here. But today, we’re all just shaking our heads.
The numbers game
By G.W. Schulz
The police department sent out a press release earlier today complaining about an Examiner article from last Friday highlighting the city’s dismal homicide arrest rate. The department’s press office wants you to know that the article appears to have relied exclusively on statistics from a state criminal justice Web site.
First of all, here’s what they had to say:
“The statistics as presented in the article did not include many homicide arrests. For example, they do not reflect the recently much publicized federal gang indictments for murder … The department does not believe the statistics as presented in the article were intentionally misleading, but we believe that it is important to provide accurate data to set the record straight. The department has asked the Examiner to correct these errors to ensure that the public’s perception of our efforts in violence reduction [are] not undermined.”
Well isn’t that sweet. The department just wants clean numbers. That’s all. The problem is, their numbers don’t inspire much faith.
Sad…
by Amanda Witherell
Molly Ivins, the great political columnist, ever sharp with the pen and the wit, has passed away. She was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1999, and it got the best of her today. The left has lost a real trooper.
Newsom’s Bill Clinton
By Tim Redmond
All I can say is, think of how all the people who invested all this time and money into Gavin Newsom, the politician, must feel.
The tawdry tale was bound to come out, and it’s kind of sad; it really speaks to the guy’s judgement.