Archive Search

Feature

Conundrum

At the same time hundreds of dead gray whales were washing up on beaches, their birthrate was plunging. Theories abound, but little hard data has been gathered to solve this environmental puzzle.

By Patti Epler

Published: November 7, 2001

On a late spring day two years ago, veterinarian Frances Gulland perched precariously atop a large and very dead gray whale floating in San Francisco Bay. The doctor's grim task of slicing blubber...

Matt Smith

Call to Patriotism

If fighting terrorism requires a stimulated economy, no move could be more welcome than the dismantling of Pac Bell

By Matt Smith

Published: November 7, 2001

Mayor Willie Brown recently christened the week starting this Sunday as "San Francisco: Open For Business Week." By displaying "America: Open For Business" posters in their windows, the mayor says,...

Bay View

Firehouse Blues

Firefighters are wondering why the renovation of two stations was awarded to a contractor with a history of construction problems

By Peter Byrne

Published: November 7, 2001

The mood was somber, indeed, at Fire Station No. 32 a few weeks ago. And not only because of the tragedy in New York City. Bill Ferguson, a 26-year veteran of the San Francisco Fire Department, was...

Night Crawler

Songs of Science

If you don't know birds have accents, you haven't been attending your birdsong symposia

By Silke Tudor

Published: November 7, 2001

Last year, while replacing my great grandmother's recently deceased budgie, I bought myself a modest little Bourke parakeet. Nothing fancy, just a little gray-brown bird with a pale blue underbelly...

Letters

Letters to the Editor

Paintings in Black and White; A Night to Remember; The Hall of Records; The End Is Near; Bush Whacking; Correction

Published: November 7, 2001

Paintings in Black and White Apparently not: Oh, the dramatic story: [artist] Travis Somerville transported at the tender age of 5 into "the heart of Southern redneck country," where he and...

Music

Moving in Stereo

Can Europop act Stereo Total evolve without losing its joie de vivre?

By Dan Strachota

Published: November 7, 2001

There's a song on the new Stereo Total album, Musique Automatique , that perfectly captures the band's worldview. On "Für Immer 16" ("Forever 16"), Brezel Göring whips off raunchy guitar...

Music

A Foggy Notion

Dan Prothero's Fog City label releases Americana records that are neither country nor folk

By Darren Keast

Published: November 7, 2001

Dan Prothero lives in the Lower Haight, produces dance music for his own label, and DJs around town occasionally. But you won't find any sequencers, drum machines, or synthesizers littering his...

Music

Spiritualized

Let It Come Down (Spaceman/Arista)

By Jennifer Maerz

Published: November 7, 2001

The difference between your average ode to amore and a Spiritualized love song is the distinction between a quietly affectionate couple and a couple that's always getting it on in the stairwell,...

Music

James William Hindle

James William Hindle (Badman)

By Chris Baty

Published: November 7, 2001

James William Hindle is a sentimental man. You can hear him pouring his heart all over his self-titled debut, a locally recorded eight-song packet of hope and acoustic yearning released on the...

Pop Philosophy

Pop Philosophy

Rocketman in flight

By Dan Strachota

Published: November 7, 2001

One pill makes you higher I have to admit that Halloween didn't grab me this year like it usually does. Most times, it's my favorite holiday. When else can you give candy to strangers, ogle sexy...

House of Tudor

House Of Tudor

Gypsy caravans, heavily shellacked starlets, and eccentric emperors

By Silke Tudor

Published: November 7, 2001

For centuries, the history of the Roms (or Gypsies) has been written only in their music, because of their nearly pathological distrust of the written word -- or rather a distrust of those who read...

Hear This

Hear This

Brazilian visionary sculps wild tunes from traditional instruments and livestock

By Sam Prestianni

Published: November 7, 2001

Eccentric band leader and multi-instrumentalist Hermeto Pascoal embodies a confluence of fertile imagination and striking chops that once compelled the rarely effusive Miles Davis to hail him as...

Eat

Weighty Matter

La Santaneca

By Greg Hugunin

Published: November 7, 2001

It's no great secret that these are tough times in the restaurant business. I personally find it all a bit disheartening, since I never like to see any restaurant close (unless, of course, it's...

Social Grace

Americans, the Beautiful

The etiquette of being a guest, flying the flag, and addressing the president

By Social Grace

Published: November 7, 2001

Dear Social Grace, This summer, I went to Italy with two close friends whom I've known for years. We stayed with one friend's parents for two weeks. My other friend and I took a couple of...

The Mix

Folsom Street Flair

From gay leather bars to Irish pubs

By Greg Hugunin

Published: November 7, 2001

With the exception of the chilled-out scene at El Bobo , the bars on Folsom near 11th tend to suck. Instead, do your thing on 11th Street proper (Butter, Paradise Lounge) or continue down Folsom...

Film

Emma Goes to France

Amelie serves up a daring, moving take on Jane Austen's best-loved heroine.

By Bill Gallo

Published: November 7, 2001

The heroine of Jean-Pierre Jeunet's bold and bracing new comedy, Amelie , is Amélie Poulain, a doe-eyed crusader with the face of a porcelain doll and a sleek helmet of jet-black hair....

Reel World

Reel World

The unusual marketing effort behind Mau Mau Sex Sex

By Michael Fox

Published: November 7, 2001

Inserts Ted Bonnitt's charmingly salacious movie, Mau Mau Sex Sex , was originally slated to premiere at the Roxie in the summer of 2000. "We always thought this would be the best city because...

Night&Day;

Underground Voices

The best of Northern California filmmakers at the FilmArts Festival of Independent Cinema

By Michael Fox

Published: November 7, 2001

Northern California's independent filmmakers, even more than its organic farmers, think globally and act locally. Ambitious but cash-strapped, they turn their cameras on overlooked people and...

Night&Day;

Are You There God? It's Me, Marc

Standup comic Marc Maron writes a sharp, funny memoir about his life as a Jew

By Lisa Hom

Published: November 7, 2001

Standup comic Marc Maron doesn't think he's the best Jew, despite a trip to Israel a few years ago. As he explains in his dark and provocative memoir, The Jerusalem Syndrome: My Life As a...

Stuff

A New Tune

After September 11, some new songs just don't sound the same

By Robert Wilonsky

Published: November 7, 2001

Natalie Merchant finished recording her third solo album, Motherland , on September 9, so by no means should anyone listen to the disc's first song, "This House Is On Fire," and think it has...