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Feature

How Sweet It Is

A brisk taste-test of S.F.'s worst cigars

By Jack Boulware

Published: December 25, 1996

America's sudden demand for premium imported cigars has unfortunately neglected to include the wide spectrum of less expensive, machine-made varieties that constitute the pillars of the cigar...

Feature

Buttheads

A longtime cigar nut examines the sudden crass commercialism of his favorite vice

By Jack Boulware

Published: December 25, 1996

Smoke hangs in the room like tule fog on U.S. 101. Underneath the inversion layer, two guys in their 20s squeeze through the packed ballroom of the Hyatt Regency, stuffing free cigars into their...

Letters

Letters

Published: December 25, 1996

Wired Strung Out This libertarian (and once-upon-a-time stringer for the Bay Guardian) was bemused by your suggestion in "Unspun" ("Tangled Up in Wired," Dec. 4) that anti-libertarian bias in...

News

Lawless Limos

Cab companies and legitimate limousine operators say some passengers are getting taken for a ride

By Jeff Stark

Published: December 25, 1996

Just past last call on Saturday night, three women in short black dresses vie for a cab at the neon corner of Columbus and Broadway. When the light changes, 25 feet of limousine creeps into the bus...

Music

The House of Tudor

By Silke Tudor

Published: December 25, 1996

In 1961 The Marvelettes recorded Motown's first No. 1 hit single, "Please Mr. Postman." Despite this fact -- and a number of fluffier ones -- the Marvelettes just didn't have the oomph of, say, the...

Music

Roots System

By Victor Haseman

Published: December 25, 1996

The Roots, Alphabet Soup, 75 Degrees Maritime Hall Saturday, Dec. 14 The Roots are one of those few rap groups who sound on record like they'd be good in concert. Their mainstream debut,...

Music

Suspicious Minds

By Sarah Vowell

Published: December 25, 1996

The 1996 Musical Top 10 and Then Some -- because lists are fun. Top 10: 1) Sleater-Kinney, Call the Doctor (Chainsaw) Was there a gale-force wind, a nuclear reaction, a burning building, or...

Music

Kiddie Primer

By Jeff Stark

Published: December 25, 1996

Live 105 Green X-mas Concert Fiona Apple, Failure, The Lemonheads, Mazzy Star, Allen Ginsberg, Orbital, The Eels, Republica, Cake, Beck, The Chemical Brothers Cow Palace Sunday, Dec....

Music

Recordings

By Michael Batty, Curtis Bonney, Victor Haseman, Sam Prestianni

Published: December 25, 1996

Come Near Life Experience (Matador) You are perhaps aware that this record has been available for conspicuous consumption for months. If so, I hope you strapped on the feed bag, since...

Music

Night Crawler

By Silke Tudor

Published: December 25, 1996

"We all know that Xmas is about ... sex," deadpans John Waters as the sold-out Castro Theater crowd recovers from a raucous standing ovation and nestles back into the plush seats. Waters smiles and...

Music

Hear This

By Michael Batty

Published: December 25, 1996

New Year's at Home With all due respect to my fellow critics (in this proud publication and elsewhere), the pickings for New Year's concerts this year are looking not only slim, but skeletal....

Music

Hear This

By James Sullivan

Published: December 25, 1996

Mono Men, Drags, Galaxy Trio Contrary to what you've been led to believe, New Year's Eve is the wrong time for finery -- for funny stemware that doesn't hold liquid well and silk blouses that...

Music

Hear This

By Sam Prestianni

Published: December 25, 1996

Korn Different from the long-hairs next door, Korn is arguably the only new metal band worth listening to. See the kickoff track, "Twist," from their ironically titled sophomore album, Life Is...

Music

Hear This

By Sam Prestianni

Published: December 25, 1996

Thurston Moore Back during SST's golden era in the early '80s, Sonic Youth poster boy Thurston Moore likely never envisioned his current role as the hard rock link to the loud improv (aka jazz)...

Eat

Dish

By Paul Reidinger

Published: December 25, 1996

What's Your Poison? If you're looking for fugu on local Japanese menus, don't be fooled by Blowfish, the enticingly named sushi bar that's moved into the space on Bryant at 20th Street vacated...

Eat

At the Stir-Fry Cafe

Firecracker's Chinese food tastes great and is less oily

By Paul Reidinger

Published: December 25, 1996

Firecracker is -- but does not look like -- a Chinese restaurant. Notwithstanding the few Fu Manchu-style dolls perched on a stagelike outcropping above the kitchen at the back of the dining room,...

Film

Second Time Around

By Michael Sragow

Published: December 25, 1996

Lolita From the beginning, British comedy fans loved the work of Peter Sellers, for its wit and sure attack and for its fillip of emotion. But it took a brilliant young American director with a...

Film

Love and Martyrdom

By Michael Sragow

Published: December 25, 1996

Some Mother's Son Directed by Terry George. Written by Terry George and Jim Sheridan. Starring Helen Mirren and Fionnula Flanagan. Opens Thursday, Dec. 26, at the Embarcadero Center. The...

Night&Day;

Night+Day

By Heather Wisner

Published: December 25, 1996

wednesday december 25 The Lark Lights Up The Lark Theater will be offering a handful of restored film favorites in a weeklong run by Turner Presents. Viewers can catch Citizen Kane, Orson...

Halloween

The Grid

By George Cothran, Chuck Finnie

Published: December 25, 1996

Pin in the Ass Annoyed at one reporter's unfamiliarity with a $2 million grant under discussion at Mayor Willie Brown's news conference Dec. 17, columnist Andy Solow snapped: "It was an Urban...