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Fallout: The Past Is Present

The Nuclear Witnesses

By Lisa Davis

Published: July 31, 2002

Frank Brinton peers out the car window and shakes his head. Hunters Point Shipyard sure doesn't look like it did when he left in 1973. For the nearly 30 years he spent here, the shipyard was a buzz...

Sidebar

Burning Mad

Deciding they just wouldn't take it anymore, Bayview citizens stopped a Navy plan to incinerate toxic gas at Hunters Point Shipyard

Lisa Davis

Published: July 31, 2002

Jesse Mason stands on a steep hill near Hunters Point Shipyard and looks out across the south end of the property. The view is spectacular, and on a day like this, with near-perfect weather, you...

Matt Smith

See Jerry Not Run

If he'd just revert to type, Jerry Brown could help California avoid a Davis vs. Simon truck wreck

By Matt Smith

Published: July 31, 2002

There was once a man who suffered a debilitating psychological ailment that combined the symptoms of Tourette's syndrome, what is known as anti-social disorder, and epilepsy. When stressed, he...

Night Crawler

Joining Distaff

From Polynesian fire-spinning to polyamory, there's something for every girl at Ladyfest Bay Area

By Silke Tudor

Published: July 31, 2002

The steps of Mission High School are teeming with young women in all shapes and guises, eating their lunches and taking in the afternoon sun. Oregon's Cheryl Maquiss , a 17-year-old in an orange...

Letters

Letters to the Editor

Week of July 31, 2002

Published: July 31, 2002

Beating a Dead Dot-Com Let's do the Time Warp: I enjoyed the clarity of Matt Smith's article on the time warp at City Hall ["Political Relativity," July 17]. It does seem like our electeds...

Music

True Grit

Winfred E. Eye's scruffy Americana mines the simple pleasures of life

By Paul Koehler

Published: July 31, 2002

Like Tom Waits before him, Winfred E. Eye's Aaron Calvert sings in a voice that could easily belong to one of his characters. On his band's debut full-length, A Bottle, a Dog, Some Milk, a Bottle...

Reviewed

Radar Bros.

And the Surrounding Mountains (Merge)

Paul Koehler

Published: July 31, 2002

Status-oriented lifestyles, self-serving personal interactions, omnipresent smog -- all valid stereotypes that smug Northern Californians tend to hold regarding Los Angeles. But just as the Santa...

Pop Philosophy

Morph You

Trading clothes and matching beats

By Dan Strachota

Published: July 31, 2002

Swap meet Men are simple creatures with simple needs. Take my friend Dave, who when asked why he never left a party before it ended said, "If I leave early I might miss the one time a bunch of...

House of Tudor

House of Tudor

Alice's adventures in pictureland; Arab on Radar's psycho-aural terrorism

By Silke Tudor

Published: July 31, 2002

In a photograph marked in time by its sepia tones, young Xie Kitchin stands against a bare wall. Her dark hair falls over her shoulders in careless, languid waves, framing her pale cheeks and...

Hear This

Hear This

Jazz guitarist John Abercrombie explores a galaxy of sound

By Sam Prestianni

Published: July 31, 2002

Though far from a household name, jazz guitarist John Abercrombie has built a respectable fan base and garnered critical honors by going his own way since his mid-'70s jazz fusion start. On his...

Eat

Eiffel Towers

Chez Spencer

By Matthew Stafford

Published: July 31, 2002

Motoring around in that slice of ungentrified real estate just south of the 101 overpass and just north of the Mission, we were peering out at the locked garages, dark warehouses, and empty...

The Mix

Local Motion

Drinking with the neighborhood regulars at Excelsior bars

By Greg Hugunin

Published: July 31, 2002

To roll down Mission into the heart of the Excelsior is to discover a self-contained -- and, to many people, unfamiliar -- village of taquerias, humble Chinese joints, Latino markets, and venerable...

Film

Signs of Faith

Mel Gibson has a close encounter with God -- or just a mean E.T.

By Robert Wilonsky

Published: July 31, 2002

This time around, writer/director M. Night Shyamalan puts the surprise at the beginning of his film, and it's a subtle, shimmering clue -- one easily missed and, frankly, one that might not even be...

Reel World

Tongues Untied

Monica Lewinsky and George W. Bush are dissected in new HBO documentaries being screened in S.F.

By Michael Fox

Published: July 31, 2002

The main distribution outlet for documentaries is television, but there are a couple of cities in America -- notably New York and San Francisco -- where people willingly pay to see docs in a...

Reps Etc.

Reps Etc.

Published: July 31, 2002

Commentary by Gregg Rickman ( greggr1@mindspring.com ). Times compiled from information available Tuesday; it's always advisable to call for confirmation. Price given is standard adult...

Night&Day;

Who's Bad?

A group of local jazz bands riffs on the best-selling album of all time -- Michael Jackson's Thriller

By David Cook

Published: July 31, 2002

Michael Jackson's Thriller sold more than 50 million copies worldwide, spawned seven Top 10 hits, inspired a dance and fashion craze, and revolutionized MTV with its slick, film-inspired videos....

Night&Day;

American Pie

Eighteen-year-old novelist Nick McDonell is poised to become the new voice of his generation

By Lisa Hom

Published: July 31, 2002

Every generation needs a mouthpiece, someone who hits the nail on the head regarding the excesses of his contemporaries. Following in the footsteps of Douglas Coupland ( Generation X ), Bret Easton...

Books

Club-Hopping

Bridging the distance between San Francisco's many book groups

By Karen Zuercher

Published: July 31, 2002

The words "book club" usually bring to mind a gaggle of twentysomething women sitting around someone's living room, sipping herbal tea and discussing Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood . The...

Books

The Color Midnight Made

A street-wise 10-year-old confronts life in his decaying Alameda neighborhood in this convincing debut novel

By Andrea Renee Goode

Published: July 31, 2002

By Andrew Winer Washington Square Press (2002), $24 Andrew Winer's debut novel doesn't start off as a page-turner, but readers may find its quiet pace and realistic look at contemporary...

Books

A Breath of Fresh Air

Amulya Malladi pulls off the difficult task of writing a love story centered on the deadly 1984 gas leak in Bhopal, India

By Mark Athitakis

Published: July 31, 2002

By Amulya Malladi Ballantine Books (2002), $23.95 Amulya Malladi's gemlike first novel has a provocative, almost absurd concept -- it's a love story framed by the horrifying Union Carbide...