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Feature

Paying the Price

Major oil companies are gobbling up independent gas station operators, all in the name of greed

By Bob Burtman

Published: November 29, 2000

It took Mike Chiaponi 20 years, but in 1994 he finally acheived his lifelong dream. Manager of the Shell station on San Bruno just north of Candlestick Park, Chiaponi scraped together $400,000 and...

Feature

Paying the Price: Why Are S.F. Gas Prices So High?

Bay Area motorists pay the highest gas prices in the state

By Bob Burtman

Published: November 29, 2000

When gas prices spiked above the $2-per-gallon mark in the Midwest this spring and caused a national outcry, Bay Area motorists could only laugh. After all, they've been used to paying the magic...

Matt Smith

Advise and Resent

Despite a threat of a lawsuit, the love child of Milton Friedman and Satan dares to write more muleheaded opinions

By Matt Smith

Published: November 29, 2000

With the holiday season upon us, it's time to reflect upon events just past, to contemplate the coming year, and, ideally, to come out a better person for having done both. At least, that's what...

Dog Bites

Dog Bites

Fangxaminer rollout; Anarchy in the U.S.A.

As told to Laurel Wellman

Published: November 29, 2000

Don't Try This at Home If Dog Bites, who's not very good at Quark and has only the barest familiarity with Photoshop, were to lay out a newspaper at our kitchen table, we doubt it would look...

Night Crawler

Shop Till You Baaah

On the year's busiest shopping day, sheep flock to Union Square, and aliens inhabit the oxygen bar

By Silke Tudor

Published: November 29, 2000

I know the day after Thanksgiving is one of the busiest shopping days of the year. In economic theory. I've never really experienced the "mad rush" firsthand; usually traumatized by overconsumption...

Bay View

Buried Memories

San Francisco is home to one of the largest and most renowned poetry archives in the world. Where? Well, right now it's in some guy's apartment.

By Mark Athitakis

Published: November 29, 2000

It makes sense that a collection of materials related to beat generation poetry calls San Francisco its home. But "home" is a nebulous term when it comes to the Cloud House Poetry Archives . Its...

Letters

Letters to the Editor

Letters from November 29, 2000

Published: November 29, 2000

Green With Anger Never been to Europe. Been to Ohio once.: You have to wonder what political planet Matt Smith is living on. The pros and cons of voting for Nader in the presidential...

Music

Heavy Mental

The Fucking Champs aren't your typical metal band -- but they rock like one

By Glenn Donaldson

Published: November 29, 2000

Heavy metal is primped boys in spandex delivering shrieking, operatic vocals, pseudo-classical electric guitar wankery, and 20-minute drum solos. It's VH1 rockumentaries, underage hesher groupies,...

Music

Outside the Game

Greil Marcus struggles to link a president and a king

By Kurt Hernon

Published: November 29, 2000

Greil Marcus is a rock-critic legend. A graduate of the late-'60s Berkeley scene, Marcus began his rock and social criticism with then-fledgling Rolling Stone magazine and quickly became notable...

Music

Pop Philosophy

Ubiquity Recordings 10th Anniversary; National Novel Writing Month

By Dan Strachota

Published: November 29, 2000

Groove Merchants To much of the music-buying world, the name Ubiquity Recordings is synonymous with acid jazz. Never mind that the company now houses three distinct labels -- Luv n' Haight,...

Music

The Go-Betweens

The Friends of Rachel Worth (Jetset)

By Dan Strachota

Published: November 29, 2000

Reunion albums are dicey affairs. Bands usually take one of two tacks -- either trying to mine old songs for new licks or reinvent themselves through new musical trends -- with neither working very...

House of Tudor

House Of Tudor

Cat Power; Dance-Along Nutcracker 2000

By Silke Tudor

Published: November 29, 2000

Chan Marshall has written all the songs for the next Cat Power album, a follow-up to her stirring 1998 release Moon Pix ; she's even laid down the initial tracks. But she can't finish the...

Hear This

Hear This

Isotope 217 and Chicago Underground Duo

By Sam Prestianni

Published: November 29, 2000

"Sound is all," says cornetist and electronics manipulator Rob Mazurek by way of explanation for his two groups, Isotope 217 and Chicago Underground Duo. Exploring a rare union of jazz-level...

Eat

Call It Fate

Destino

By Greg Hugunin

Published: November 29, 2000

If I had to choose the two things I love most about my friends Vincenzo and Alexandra, I suppose I'd select the following: 1) They're a happily married couple and exude the comfortable, satisfied...

Eat

Goop and Its Pleasures

Blackberry Ginger

By Matthew Stafford

Published: November 29, 2000

It took some doing, but a few hours before my dinner reservation at Blackberry Ginger I finally figured out where the hell the place was. The shadowy figure who recommended the restaurant was...

Social Grace

Social Grace

Guess Who's Not Coming to Dinner

By Social Grace

Published: November 29, 2000

Dear Social Grace, I'm one to throw big parties. I love the holidays, and I'm now gearing up for my annual Christmas celebration. Every time I send out an invitation, I put "RSVP" and a phone...

Film

City of Night

Dark Days discovers the real tunnel dwellers beneath the urban myths

By Luke Y. Thompson

Published: November 29, 2000

You walk the streets of the big city every single day. You've seen both poor and rich neighborhoods, encountered people of all shapes and colors, and witnessed both atrocities and acts of kindness....

Reel World

Reel World

Rebels With a Cause; International Film Financing Conference

By Michael Fox

Published: November 29, 2000

The Strawberry Statement You've probably heard William Safire's revisionist history of the '60s. In the words of Santa Cruz filmmaker Helen Garvy, his take goes something like this: "It was all...

Night&Day;

Sex, Drugs, and Going Solo

Great Religions of America

By Elizabeth Ashford

Published: November 29, 2000

The idea of developing, writing, and performing a play alone is enough to give most thespians the heebie-jeebies. But solo performers Frank Wortham and Charlie Varon wouldn't have it any other...

Night&Day;

That's Mrs. Grandma to You

Young independent Jewish filmmakers look at Grandma

By Karen Silver

Published: November 29, 2000

Don't worry about me. No, really. I'll just sit here in the dark, watching "young independent Jewish filmmakers look at Grandma," a collection of three shorts now screening at Yerba Buena. All...