Archive Search

Feature

Organ Failure

An ambitious plan to relocate a historic pipe organ to the Embarcadero threatens nothing but sour notes

By Mark Athitakis

Published: December 26, 2001

Walking inside the massive pipe organ at Temple Emanu-El in Laurel Heights, organist John Fenstermaker is trying to be careful. He crouches as he moves under the low wooden railings that secure...

Matt Smith

The Perfect Crime

As we're now finding out, Gov. Davis may be the only one who won't have to pay for his mishandling of the energy crisis

By Matt Smith

Published: December 26, 2001

The final chapter of the perfect crime needn't be dramatic, brilliant, or the result of careful planning; it can also be a matter of banal luck. Unseasonable storms might clean a blood-stained...

Night Crawler

Crazy for Christmas

Tired of a traditional holiday? Try opening presents with an elephant or playing a game of Ba-Da-Bingo!

By Silke Tudor

Published: December 26, 2001

Being a San Francisco native, I have only on very rare occasion experienced the traditional white Christmas with carolers, chestnuts, and candy canes. Frankly, I don't see the allure. For my money,...

Bay View

Law of the Bungle

Sara Jane Olson's attorney would like to say a few words about how her San Francisco co-counsel handled the high-profile case

By Peter Byrne

Published: December 26, 2001

On Dec. 3, the reputation of legendary San Francisco lawyer J. Tony Serra crumbled in full view of the national media when the renowned defense attorney failed to appear in a Los Angeles courtroom,...

Dog Bites

A Little Fine Tuning

How on earth will KRON fill airtime without NBC? A sneak peek.

By Mark Athitakis, Lisa Davis

Published: December 26, 2001

A Little Fine-Tuning Dec. 31 marks the last day of KRON-TV's affiliation with NBC, officially ending the station's 52-year relationship with the peacock network. Instead, the Bay Area's demand...

Letters

Letters to the Editor

Ring Master; Salt in the Wound; S.F.: 237, N.Y.: 1

Published: December 26, 2001

Ring Master One man's schlock is another man's crock: I have no idea who Gregory Weinkauf is, but obviously he's a man who has some difficulty making critical distinctions, an impairment he...

Music

Balancing Act

Naked Music wants to be one of the premier dance labels in the country -- without losing its indie cred

By Darren Keast

Published: December 26, 2001

Since its inception in late 1998, Naked Music has been the little dance label that could. Of the hundreds of domestic independent labels servicing the fickle tastes of club culture, Naked Music has...

Pop Philosophy

Top 10 reasons for making a Top 10 list

The forgotten Top 10: The best records of 2001 that you won't see on anyone else's list

By Dan Strachota

Published: December 26, 2001

Around this time every year, we're inundated with Top 10 lists from music critics, telling us what they listened to over the last 12 months. Every year I pore over them, reading until my head...

House of Tudor

Sound Advice

The bored, the gothic, and the really flexible

By Silke Tudor

Published: December 26, 2001

Some of the most exciting shows I've seen in San Francisco have involved local artists expressing themselves in atypical ways. In such a vein, the "Bored Collective" is a nonliterary...

Hear This

The Week's Can't-Miss Performance

Jazz saxophonist spreads his mystical cool

By Sam Prestianni

Published: December 26, 2001

Though Sonny Rollins dominates the accolades of the current jazz cognoscenti, fellow tenor saxophonist Charles Lloyd merits props as well. At 63, his lifelong commitment to the music is...

Reviewed

The Langley Schools Music Project

Innocence & Despair (Bar/None)

By Philip Sherburne

Published: December 26, 2001

"Outsider art" recognizes unschooled artists from the fringes of mainstream culture as the bearers of a unique and unmediated authenticity. The genre's most succinct -- if also a bit...

Reviewed

Charley Patton

Screamin' and Hollerin' the Blues (Revenant)

By Lawrence Kay

Published: December 26, 2001

Although he never got the notice Robert Johnson received through Eric Clapton and his crowd, Charley Patton is generally considered the king of the country blues pioneers. Screamin' and...

Eat

Chicken and a Twinki

Emmy's Spaghetti Shack

By Greg Hugunin

Published: December 26, 2001

It didn't take long for my friend Rachel to form an opinion about Emmy's Spaghetti Shack. "This is the coolest restaurant I've been to all year," she declared approximately 30 seconds after we...

Social Grace

Bad Habits Repented

How to invite people to a smoke-free party or handle an annoying cell-phone caller in a public bathroom

By Social Grace

Published: December 26, 2001

Dear Social Grace, Last year, my resolution was to quit smoking, and I succeeded; however, most of my friends are smokers. I usually host a small New Year's Eve gathering, at which smoking has...

Film

Setting Son

In the Bedroom, a couple's anguish turns to rage turns to rational madness

By Robert Wilonsky

Published: December 26, 2001

It took Andre Dubus all of 18 pages to communicate the grief that fills every frame of Todd Field's two-hours-plus In the Bedroom , a wrenching bit of filmmaking based on Dubus' short tale...

Reel World

Keeper of the Flame

It was a bad year for local independent movie theaters

By Michael Fox

Published: December 26, 2001

To paraphrase Marlene Dietrich in Touch of Evil , what can you say about a year? While Bay Area filmmakers enjoyed uncommon success on a national level, 2001 was a gut-wrencher for local...

Reps Etc.

Reps List

Film Reps List for 12-26-2001

Compiled By Gregg Rickman

Published: December 26, 2001

Times compiled from information available Tuesday; it's always advisable to call for confirmation. Price given is standard adult admission; discounts often apply for students, seniors, and members....

Night&Day;

Brooklyn Prophet

Mos Def adds positive new dimensions to hip hop

By Todd Dayton

Published: December 26, 2001

If hip hop's obsession with the unholy trinity of guns, loot, and hos has made millions for record companies and given many of its affluent consumers a voyeuristic look at a life they'll never...

Night&Day;

Dinner and a Movie

Stories of crime and passion weave in and out of a busy restaurant kitchen in Dinner Rush

By Lisa Hom

Published: December 26, 2001

When I was a hostess at a four-star French restaurant in the Lower Manhattan neighborhood of Tribeca, I learned the subtle differences between foie gras and sweetbreads and was reminded time and...

Books

Virtual Gutenberg

An Oakland company is quietly preserving our intellectual history -- with technology

By Karen Silver

Published: December 26, 2001

Above Jack London Square's Bed Bath & Beyond, where you can buy a floral photo album for $9.99, a small band of dedicated book-lovers works to preserve some of the most valuable volumes in...