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Feature

So You Wanna Be a Rock 'n' Roll Lawyer?

Meet Green Day's Legal Team of Cahn, Saltzman and Hearn

By James Sullivan

Published: May 17, 1995

It only takes three chords and an attitude to start a rock band. To sustain one, though, requires the energy of a small corporation. Having sold nearly 10 million copies of Dookie, its...

Feature

The Sound of Silence

San Francisco's Ambient Music Labels Find Their Groove

By Colin Berry

Published: May 17, 1995

The waitress offers us hand-rolled cigarettes wrapped in psychedelically patterned paper. I choose an electric blue one with red stripes. "They're a blend of herbs," she says, lighting two at our...

News

Dog Bites

By Larry Bush

Published: May 17, 1995

How Much Is That Free Notice? Last year, the Independent lost the lucrative advertising contract for the city's public notices to the Examiner when the Independent bid came in $190,000 greater...

News

Why Medi-Cal Makes Doctors Sick

Money, paperwork and stigma

By Eric Bagan

Published: May 17, 1995

Rosa, 18 years old and 13 weeks pregnant, applied for Medi-Cal but wasn't accepted into the program until 21 weeks later, precariously close to her due date. Not only did Medi-Cal's cumbersome...

News

Bite Your Tongue

Gay activists may be silencing others in their bid to have the last word

By John Sullivan

Published: May 17, 1995

Two protests in as many weeks -- at the Roxie over the screening of Cruising and a direct action at a Project Inform benefit dinner -- pose the question: Are some activists casting a chill on open...

Letters

Letters

Published: May 17, 1995

Please Remain Calm I loved your article about bomb-threat checklists in Dog Bites ("Dial S for Stupid," May 3). However, I work for an oil giant at 575 Market -- Chevron. My company gave every...

Music

Brown Bag Lunch

Davis' Knapsack brings sincerity and simplicity back to indie rock with Silver Sweepstakes

By Joe Patel

Published: May 17, 1995

"Everyone loves the mysterious, maybe slightly drugged, sexually ambiguous rock star. Well, I'm all of those things," sardonically declares Blair Shehan, the 22-year-old vocalist/guitarist of...

Music

Signed, Sealed and Misdelivered

The Rise and Fall of Bay Area Bands

By Tim Kenneally

Published: May 17, 1995

It's the brass ring on the musical merry-go-round: The ever-elusive major-label contract. You read it in the local "musician wanted" ads all the time: "We have gigs, studio and major-label...

Music

Samples

By Sia Michel

Published: May 17, 1995

Street Sounds The crowds at local clubs will look a little different this weekend, with music bizzers from across the country flying in for Gavin's SF02, the second round of the annual music...

Music

The Swing Set

The New Morty Show keeps dance floors jumping to its swingin' sounds

By Silke Tudor

Published: May 17, 1995

Mango gives a Mary Kay smile as she slides across the floor, exposing dimples and pearly-white teeth, her old-fashioned taffeta skirt twitching to the bossa nova beat. John grins back, jumping into...

Music

Venus' Flytrap

Flower S.F. makes sexy angry hard rock that swallows you whole

By Tim Kenneally

Published: May 17, 1995

A rose is a rose is a rose, and by any other name would still smell as sweet, we're told. But in the case of Flower S.F., such succinctness doesn't fly. Even with one name, qualitative analysis...

Music

Recordings

By Tim Kenneally, Merrill Feitell, Silke Tudor, Philippe Shepnick, Liz Sizensky, Mike Rowell

Published: May 17, 1995

Engine 88 Clean Your Room (Caroline) It must be written in some Music 101 textbook that good rock and roll should devote at least one-third of its content to cars. The genre's canon is...

Music

Let Them Eat Cake

Cake debunks the "Rock and Roll Lifestyle" with Motorcade of Generosity

By Jamie Kemsey

Published: May 17, 1995

"We started out with the idea that it was noble to be a bar band," says songwriter/vocalist/ guitarist John McCrea of Cake, "to supply music to people, focusing just on the service aspect of...

Eat

A Breath of French Air

Alain Rondelli is a soothing, sophisticated surprise on chaotic Clement Street

By Barbara Lane

Published: May 17, 1995

There are Big Deal restaurants and there are big deal restaurants. The former, like Fleur de Lys and Masa's, require something from you, namely getting dressed up and acting like a grown-up. The...

Eat

Dish

By Barbara Lane

Published: May 17, 1995

Feeding Those Heads "You've got to give stoners a warning. If you space off and leave the hot oil bath going while you're smoking out, it can catch fire. Be careful." The moral of the story:...

Film

Reel World

By Michael Fox

Published: May 17, 1995

Magnificent Obsession Perhaps it's time, I humbly submit, for the Chronicle to update and redraw the 52-year-old Little Man. Instead of his position in a stiff-backed chair, show us the angle...

Film

Old Rules for a New World

The Dekalog highlights the ambivalence of moral absolutes

By Paul Reidinger

Published: May 17, 1995

Krzysztof Kieslowski's The Dekalog is the cinematic equivalent of a short-story collection, and it displays the chief characteristics -- good and bad -- of compaction. Each of the 10 one-hour...

Night&Day;

Night+Day

By Johnny Ray Huston

Published: May 17, 1995

wednesday may 17 a.k.a Don Bonus "Don Bonus" is the nickname of Cambodian refugee Sokly Ny; a.k.a. Don Bonus is Ny's first film, a video diary of life on and off the streets of the...

Halloween

Paper Trails

By Larry Bush

Published: May 17, 1995

Big Chiefs Asked if Mayor Frank Jordan has an opinion on the efforts of his police chief and fire chief to obtain huge raises, Jordan's press office curtly answers: "He doesn't have a position...

Halloween

Slap Shots

By Jack Boulware

Published: May 17, 1995

One Degree of Separation Some writers toil for years in low-paying day jobs, scrambling a free-lance life on the side to see their words in print. Some attend prestigious writing programs at...