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Feature

A Jodo Shinshu Buddhist Primer

By Jorge Aquino

Published: January 3, 1996

Amida Buddha: A compassionate divine personage of Jodo Shinshu Buddhism who created a Pure Land for the faithful to enter into upon the attainment of their enlightenment. Dharma: The Buddhist...

Feature

Dharma Bummed

As it approaches its centennial, the San Francisco-based Buddhist Churches of America finds itself weakened by Japanese-American assimilation, spiritual decline, and a nasty sexual harassment suit

By Jorge Aquino

Published: January 3, 1996

It's an all too typical Sunday service. The oak pews are mostly empty. Nearly all of the 40 congregants who have come are seated in the rear rows, conspicuously distant from the pulpit. Pale light...

Letters

Letters

Published: January 3, 1996

Woe Is Muni How assuring it is to read about the courage and dignity with which TWU's Larry Martin deals with criticism ("Willie's Wild Ride," Dec. 27). By calling anyone who disagrees with you...

News

Booked Up

A tower of tomes on Mission Street

By Paul Critz

Published: January 3, 1996

Drunks and junkies move back and forth along the sidewalk at 2141 Mission. Up the way someone is yelling, and the voice echoes in the dim recess of the building's entrance. Only the faded...

News

Blakk Power

San Francisco drag queen Joan Jett-Blakk aims for the presidency

By Joe Brown

Published: January 3, 1996

So you've come to San Francisco, and you're a drag queen. In any other town, that's enough at least to get you noticed. But here? As if we need another drag queen? To make a mark in this seen-it,...

News

Chatterbox

Published: January 3, 1996

Another four defections from the Monarch of the Dailies were recorded in December, bringing the year's total of buyouts, leaves, and resignations to more than 40. (A running box score of Examiner...

News

Dog Bites

By George Cothran, John Sullivan

Published: January 3, 1996

The Rematch The face-off between Arlo Smith and Bill Fazio for district attorney promised a vicious row, but then Terence Hallinan stepped in and turned the battle into a tag-team match. For...

Music

The Book of Lists

SF Weekly contributors salute the best (and worst) music of 1995

By James Sullivan, Billy Jam, Tim Kenneally, Silke Tudor, Tom Lanham, D. Strauss, Spence D., Johnny Ray Huston, Sia Michel, Sam Prestianni, Shoshana Berger, Jesse "Chuy" Varela, Colin Berry, Eric K. Arnold, Greg Milner

Published: January 3, 1996

James Sullivan's Best Music, 1995 1. Insurgent Country/Twangcore/Cowpunk: Two of my favorite records of the year -- the Geraldine Fibbers' Lost Somewhere Between the Earth and My Home and...

Music

The Sound vs. Fury

The secret success of 1995's rhythm nation

By Sia Michel

Published: January 3, 1996

Was 1995 terrible for music? In their annual roundups, a slew of critics have slammed the year as the pale successor to the glory days of 1994 (which, incidentally, met the same censure last year),...

Music

Albums

By Sia Michel

Published: January 3, 1996

1. P J Harvey, To Bring You My Love (Island) (See essay.) 2. Tricky, Maxinquaye (Island) (See essay.) 3. The Roots, Do You Want More?!!!??! (DGC): Aceyalone had the flows, but the Roots had...

Eat

Bohemian Beat

On 16th Street, La Movida and Pastaio serve unpretentious fare with a measure of boho chic

By Paul Reidinger

Published: January 3, 1996

A little girl, a kindergarten ballerina, pirouetted beside our table at La Movida on a quiet Saturday afternoon. In her neat white skirt and shiny black pumps, she looked like a dancer -- a...

Eat

Dish

By Paul Reidinger

Published: January 3, 1996

Menu in Uniform The city's first "casual military restaurant/bar," Take Orders, opened New Year's Eve. The place features "battleship floors" and "galvanized steel tables" that would be the...

Film

Say Uncle

Chinese Torture Chamber flits surrealistically between carnality and brutality

By Paul Reidinger

Published: January 3, 1996

The title of director Bosco Lam's new film, Chinese Torture Chamber, misleads by omission, because the movie is at least as much about sex as violence. In fact it's not about much else: It's like a...

Night&Day;

Night+Day

By Johnny Ray Huston

Published: January 3, 1996

wednesday january 3 Toru Toru Toru A sound design pioneer in the '50s and '60s, Japanese composer Toru Takemitsu has scored more than 90 films, including Woman of the Dunes and Akira...

Halloween

REAL ASTROLOGY For an Unreal World

By Rob Brezsny

Published: January 3, 1996

Aries (March 21-April 19): You'll probably have to carry twice as much responsibility in '96 as you did in '95 -- and three times as much power and charisma. I'll even go so far as to predict that...

Halloween

Slap Shots

By Jack Boulware

Published: January 3, 1996

Heads We Win Instead of this week's regular meanderings, this space will celebrate the holidays by running the following vintage Slap Shots column, not from the past, but from the near future --...

Stage

Catch the Moon

West Side Story shines brilliantly as a model of musical theater

By Mari Coates

Published: January 3, 1996

It's not often an authentic work of genius comes our way. But until Jan. 21, we've got one in West Side Story. With a book by Arthur Laurents, music by Leonard Bernstein, and lyrics by Stephen...

Stage

Aisle Seat

By Deborah Peifer

Published: January 3, 1996

It's Not Pat When I think of great comedy, I rarely think of cancer, and I never think of my parents moving in with me. That is more the stuff of tragedy, or at least melodrama. But for Julia...