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Feature

Dirty Pool

As the Bayview waits for a rebuilt MLK pool, the project, a stated mayoral priority, keeps gobbling money and time--making it the prototypical city contracting fiasco.

By Peter Byrne

Published: August 8, 2001

As the chill of summer descended upon San Francisco, a spokesman for the Department of Public Works swore that the new Martin Luther King pool would open on July 22, in time for the children of...

Matt Smith

Reading the Fed

How long a recession, if the Federal Reserve adopts "Positively Outrageous Service" as an official slogan?

By Matt Smith

Published: August 8, 2001

Forget last week's Commerce Department figures announcing declining U.S. income and economic output. Brush aside June's dramatic drop in factory orders. Never mind the tens of thousands of Bay Area...

Bay View

The Making of Stephen Elliott

How a product of Chicago's group homes became a local literary cause célèbre

By Mark Athitakis

Published: August 8, 2001

Stephen Elliott is perched on a stool at the Uptown Bar, a roomy, frills-free joint on 17th and Capp streets that does everything in its power to remain inconspicuous. Most of the place's color and...

Dog Bites

Dog Bites

Socializing With the MayorZen and the Art of Shopping

By Jason Dorn, Peter Byrne

Published: August 8, 2001

As the clubs editor at SF Weekly , as well as the owner of a nightlife-based Web site, I'm in a position to learn a lot about the city's social life. Sometimes a little too much. Scene 1: The...

Letters

Letters to the Editor

There Are No Bad Books, Only Bad Writers;No New Is Good New;The Pleasure of Pain; Corrections

Published: August 8, 2001

There Are No Bad Books, Only Bad Writers A novel approach: It was with much amusement that I read Mark Athitakis' article on romance novels, "That Secret Shame" (July 25). My partner and I...

Music

Pimps and Players

Fillmore Slim has lived a life of picking, pimping, and prison -- now he just wants to play the blues

By Charlie Amter

Published: August 8, 2001

Cruising through the Tenderloin in a Cadillac, Fillmore Slim asks his friend, Bobbie Webb, to slow the car to a glacial pace. As he rolls down his window, he whispers, "Watch this, we're going to...

Music

Various Artists

The Funky Precedent Vol 2 (Matador/No Mayo)

By Mark Athitakis

Published: August 8, 2001

Like a lot of great compilation albums, the first volume of The Funky Precedent got to have it both ways -- celebrating the past while dropping hints about the future. To hear the assembled...

Music

Karsh Kale

Realize (Six Degrees)

By Todd Dayton

Published: August 8, 2001

The explosion of the '90s Asian underground inside British clubs revolutionized dance music far more than its innovators could have imagined. What was originally a way to recognize the South Asian...

Pop Philosophy

Chop therapy

Consumer retorts

By Dan Strachota

Published: August 8, 2001

Most music fanatics know how it feels to spend $200 in one visit to a record store. You walk out the door, your legs wobbling and your head spinning, feeling spent, woozy, and slightly guilty. Of...

House of Tudor

House Of Tudor

Joe Henry's frail, timeless truths, and squeeze-box central

By Silke Tudor

Published: August 8, 2001

On the opening song of his eighth album, Scar , Joe Henry hunches down into the cool, dark, atmospheric jazz soundtrack like an inconsolable man looking for relief in the quiet nod of his...

Hear This

Hear This

Legendary jazz figure Sam Rivers links the old guard and the new wave

By Sam Prestianni

Published: August 8, 2001

Sam Rivers holds a rare place in the hierarchy of contemporary jazz. Since the late 1950s, he has shared stages with legendary figures across the spectrum, from one-of-a-kind vocalist Billie...

Eat

That Voodoo

Le Krewe

By Greg Hugunin

Published: August 8, 2001

I've lived in the Mission District for almost six years, and in that time I've developed a certain pride in the neighborhood. In fact, I'll toot the Mission's horn right now by saying we have the...

Eat

It's Not the Cheese

Luzern

By Matthew Stafford

Published: August 8, 2001

Heading down 19th Avenue on my way to Luzern, a Swiss restaurant in the Sunset, I tried to organize the myriad impressions Switzerland has imposed upon my psyche across the decades. There's the...

Social Grace

Pillow Talk

The fine points of making a bed

By Social Grace

Published: August 8, 2001

Dear Social Grace, I am hoping you can help me, as I've already tried all over the Internet to get an answer to this silly question. Even Martha Stewart's Web site can't help. I have a question...

Side Dish

Guest List

The who's who at the opening of the Clift Hotel

By Harry Coverte

Published: August 8, 2001

L.A. by the Bay Unlike any of "hip hotelier" Ian Schrager's other properties, the Clift Hotel's new bar, our old-now-new Redwood Room, won't have a door policy. Says Schrager, "San Franciscans...

Film

Playing God

Francis Ford Coppola re-creates his Vietnam phantasmagoria

By Gregory Weinkauf

Published: August 8, 2001

In the 10 years since the release of the documentary Hearts of Darkness , we've been taught to revere the legend of Francis Ford Coppola walking the line between madness and disaster to bring us a...

Reel World

Fantasia

Tips for online animators

By Michael Fox

Published: August 8, 2001

"How much are people going to pay for your animation?" muses financial analyst Stuart Lerner of Mondo Media, the S.F. online entertainment company, pondering every animator's primary query. "Less...

Night&Day;

All in the Family

Cult novelist turned playwright Denis Johnson debuts his second play at Intersection

By Lisa Hom

Published: August 8, 2001

It's no wonder that cult novelist turned dramaturge Denis Johnson wrote his first two plays with Intersection's resident theater company, Campo Santo, in mind: Its name means both "sacred ground"...

Night&Day;

Moore Jazz

The 12th Annual Eddie Moore Jazz Festival honors the late Bay Area drummer

By Sam Prestianni

Published: August 8, 2001

The Oakland-based Jazz in Flight has outdone itself once again with another exceptional series of concerts for this year's Eddie Moore Jazz Festival , the highly anticipated, weeklong celebration...

missing

Windows Blind

Todd Hido's disconcerting photographs hit us where we live

By Adrienne Gagnon

Published: August 8, 2001

I like to look into other people's windows. Not to worry -- you won't find me encamped in the bushes outside your house with a pair of field binoculars. But if I happen to pass by, I may linger a...