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Feature

Class Struggle

New school superintendent Arlene Ackerman has fostered educational excellence -- and ignited political firestorms. Her first major initiative? A significant shift in funding, from wealthier to poorer schools, being planned behind closed doors.

By Jeremy Mullman

Published: January 10, 2001

It is just past 6 p.m. on the first Monday of winter break, and the generally bustling central office of the San Francisco Unified School District is quiet. The slow moment is a rare one for an...

Matt Smith

Stone Deaf and Blind

In a city full of zealous preservationists, why can't we halt the desecration of a medieval monument?

By Matt Smith

Published: January 10, 2001

One day last spring German stonemason Oskar Kempf was minding his own business when his radio dial bumped into a drive-time talk show. That would be trauma enough to the native born. For Kempf, it...

Dog Bites

Dog Bites

Board of Supervisors; Population Growth; Dot-com Layoffs

As told to Laurel Wellman

Published: January 10, 2001

The Changing of the Guard Goodness, but City Hall was festive Monday. Dog Bites, who'd arrived a couple of hours early in hopes of securing a seat for the inaugural meeting of the new Board...

Night Crawler

Einstein's Dreams

Inventor Alex Chiu will give you a million bucks if you can come up with something better than his Immortality Device

By Silke Tudor

Published: January 10, 2001

Death is a very dull, dreary affair, and my advice to you is to have nothing whatever to do with it. -- W. Somerset Maugham A fixation on immortality has doubtless plagued humankind since...

Letters

Letters to the Editor

Letters from January 10, 2001

Published: January 10, 2001

No Sympathy for the Devil Dolls You better hope they don't recognize you: My helmet's off to SF Weekly for introducing us to the Devil Dolls ("Biker Babes," Dec. 27). Without their fine...

Music

The Fab One

Sgt. Mario's Lonely One-Man Band

By Glenn Donaldson

Published: January 10, 2001

If mental health surveys are to be believed, most people would prefer death to performing in public. Fortunately, Alameda superstar Mario Hernandez, in his solo act From Bubblegum to Sky, has...

Music

The Microphones

It Was Hot, We Stayed in the Water (K)

By Owen Ashworth

Published: January 10, 2001

As the main project of K's resident recording engineer, Phil Elvrum, the Microphones have always been half song and half studio experiment -- juxtaposing sweet singing and delicate pop arrangements...

Music

Holly Golightly; Ludella Black

Holly Golightly: God Don't Like It (Damaged Goods); Ludella Black: She's Out There (Damaged Goods)

By Lawrence Kay

Published: January 10, 2001

Since its debut in the early 1990s, British garage rock goddess Holly Golightly's grrl group, Thee Headcoatees, has carried the banner of stylish, finely crafted electric blues as ably as any band...

Pop Philosophy

Pop Philosophy

The '80s Are Back; Vacation Music

By Dan Strachota

Published: January 10, 2001

Keep feeling fascination Driving from San Diego to Mexico for New Year's, I made an interesting discovery: The '80s are back. OK, so it's not like the decade ever really went away. In fact, with...

House of Tudor

House Of Tudor

Danny Cohen; Laughing Squid's Fifth Anniversary Celebration

By Silke Tudor

Published: January 10, 2001

Considered a dodgy eccentric back in the early '60s, Danny Cohen would later find himself and his punk band the Charleston Grotto banned from stages in Los Angeles because his followers smeared a...

Hear This

Hear This

Dave Douglas and Charms of the Night Sky

By Sam Prestianni

Published: January 10, 2001

In the past decade, violin and accordion have arguably become the subtlest vehicles for creative music innovation. Well aware of the power of this unlikely pair of avant-garde instruments,...

Eat

Dinner and a Show

Boys Toys

By Greg Hugunin

Published: January 10, 2001

I can't say I've ever reviewed a restaurant that brought up as many fascinating issues as Boys Toys. For example, the ambiguous name. The first time I saw an ad for the place I thought, "Boy Toys,...

Side Dish

Side Dish

The Name of the Rose

By Harry Coverte

Published: January 10, 2001

Nights of Wine and Roses If Cindy Crawford married bar maverick Rande Gerber for his trendy velvet-rope talents, she might now consider flying the coop for the keener gifts of Jon Gasparini and...

Social Grace

Social Grace

Silent Bite

By Social Grace

Published: January 10, 2001

Dear Social Grace, One subject I've never seen in an etiquette column: people who hit their teeth with their fork tines each time they take a bite. This is like fingernails on a chalkboard to...

Film

Vein Glory

Exploitation cinema becomes art in E. Elias Merhige's Shadow of the Vampire

By Gregory Weinkauf

Published: January 10, 2001

The doomed are often a remarkably energetic and productive lot, especially when it comes to creating portraits of their personal horrors. Themes vary in intensity between slow self-destruction and...

Reel World

Reel World

Opening Dates for Megamovies; Julian Schnabel

By Michael Fox

Published: January 10, 2001

Vertigo As a public service for those planning 2001 vacations and/or action-figure purchases, here are the scheduled opening dates for several locally connected megamovies certain to bombard you...

Night&Day;

Freaks & Geeks

"Stranger Than You"

By Todd Dayton

Published: January 10, 2001

As the self-proclaimed epicenter of all that is bizarre, San Francisco has a long history of fostering odd and visionary characters, dating as far back as Emperor Norton (1819-1880), who declared...

Night&Day;

Choose Your Own Indie-venture

IndieFest

By Gary Morris

Published: January 10, 2001

San Francisco's Independent Film Festival, aka IndieFest , has carved out a cozy niche in a field clogged with contenders. Now in its third year, it's become one of the better venues for new...

Stage

Death Becomes Her

A dubious agenda and clichéd lines overshadow this otherwise skillful one-woman show

By Michael Scott Moore

Published: January 10, 2001

Serial Murderess , a solo show by Amanda Moody, has been extended at Venue 9 by popular demand. I saw it in November and wasn't sure what to think. On the one hand, Moody's sinuous talent lets her...

Stage

Waiting for Godot

Subterranean Shakespeare production

By Joe Mader

Published: January 10, 2001

What makes Samuel Beckett's masterpiece more than just a great example of absurdist theater is the compassion Beckett exhibits toward his two hapless protagonists. Waiting for Godot weds standard...