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Feature

Future Speak

The Long Now Foundation wants to assemble every human language on one nearly indestructible disk -- and, maybe, to last forever

By Michael Scott Moore

Published: October 9, 2002

Jim Mason is stout and sturdily built, with a mass of dirty-blond hair that looks like it once hung to his shoulders. On a warm day he wears no shoes around the Long Now Foundation's airy Presidio...

Matt Smith

Palookaville

In S.F.'s political fight game, all the contestants are ignoring a national biotech debate that could put the local economy down for the count

By Matt Smith

Published: October 9, 2002

If San Francisco were a palooka and our economy a prizefight, the 2000 dot-com bust would be an early-round blow to the head. The 2001 telecom meltdown would be the third-round sucker punch. And...

Night Crawler

Caught on Tape

The first Duct Tape Festival displays the many uses of adhesive strips of rubber, cloth, and plastic. Bowling, anyone?

By Silke Tudor

Published: October 9, 2002

Minnesota Chrome, Roadie's Roll, Canoeist's Companion, 200 MPH Tape, First-Aid Roll-Up, Gaffer's Tape, 1,000-Mile Tape, Hiker's Helper, Missile Tape, or the Ultimate Power Tool -- no matter what...

Letters

Letters to the Editor

Week of October 9, 2002

Published: October 9, 2002

The Silent Minority Come now, everyone 's motivated by possible shags: I could not tell whether Dan Strachota's article on the "dying" S.F. music scene ["The Sounds of Silence," Sept....

Music

New Manifesto

After 15 years, Jack Dangers may have found a way to leave all his electronic music imitators behind

By Darren Keast

Published: October 9, 2002

Electronic music appears to be headed for a creative and commercial slump just as dire as the technology market's. The Village Voice recently wrote that prominent European DJs aren't filling...

Reviewed

The Black Heart Procession

Amore del Tropico (Touch and Go)

By Nancy Einhart

Published: October 9, 2002

Upon first hearing this marriage of band name and album title, many may ask, "Is this some bizarre combination of goth rock and Brazilian tropicalia?" And the answer would be, well, yeah -- and the...

Reviewed

Wobbly

Wild Why (Tigerbeat6)

By Mike Rowell

Published: October 9, 2002

Wobbly is the recording and performing moniker of Jon Leidecker, a San Francisco sound-collage artist who has lurked within the Bay Area experimental scene since the '80s. He's performed solo and...

Reviewed

Sondre Lerche

Faces Down (Astralwerks)

By Philip Sherburne

Published: October 9, 2002

Call him precocious or wise beyond his years, but Sondre Lerche is hardly your typical 19-year-old songwriter. While most barely legal bards are likely to bang out three-chord tunes about girls,...

Pop Philosophy

Revenge of the Nerds, Parts One and Two

Hella Rad takes on the trouser mafia; Anagrams spell relief

By Dan Strachota

Published: October 9, 2002

Beware the trouser mafia The members of the trouser mafia don't use guns; their weapons are sneers and sneakers, hair gel and v-necks, hooks and harmonies. Jason Smith, drummer for punk-poppers...

House of Tudor

House of Tudor

Gogol Bordello's debauched Gypsy ferocities, and the Transcinema Festival's mind-altering new media

By Silke Tudor

Published: October 9, 2002

You might think a handlebar mustache should only be worn with an ironic wink, but the long, curving whiskers sported by 30-year-old Eugene Hütz are, for better or worse, an expression of...

Hear This

Hear This

Harold Ray: Live in Concert rescues old soul tunes from obscurity

By Mark Murrmann

Published: October 9, 2002

Since forming last year, Harold Ray: Live in Concert has won over Bay Area clubgoers by rescuing old soul tunes from obscurity and breathing new life into them. From the graffitied concrete...

Eat

The Times They Are A-Changin'

Paisley's

By Matthew Stafford

Published: October 9, 2002

A great city is by definition a great restaurant town as well: You can't have one without the other. A great restaurant town is a global crossroads packed with eclectically ravenous people...

Social Grace

Hello and Goodbye

Holding an in-law summit, accommodating newly sober co-workers, and getting the gift you really want

By Social Grace

Published: October 9, 2002

Dear Social Grace, My son has recently become engaged to his girlfriend of five years (he is 27). I've never met or talked with her parents, who live in Southern California. She currently lives...

The Mix

Mixed Breed

Sniffing around the newest hot nightlife neighborhood of the Dogpatch

By Greg Hugunin

Published: October 9, 2002

A motley crew of barhoppers rules the night in Dogpatch, a diverse and rapidly changing hodgepodge of quaint Victorians, heavy industry, and spanking-new live-work lofts. By 10 p.m. on a Friday,...

Film

Crazy Taxi

Jason Statham is The Transporter in Luc Besson's often preposterous world

By Andy Klein

Published: October 9, 2002

In the last few years -- since the failure of his embarrassing Joan of Arc epic The Messenger -- director Luc Besson has become a fantastically prolific writer/producer. (The movie Web site...

Reel World

Waiting for Guffman

Finn Taylor gets movie distribution without selling his soul, plus HBO on heroin and anime at the Metreon

By Michael Fox

Published: October 9, 2002

Cherish director Finn Taylor is gearing up to shoot his third feature in the East Bay early next year. An ensemble comedy about community theater in a small town, Caught in the Act marks the...

Reps Etc.

Reps Etc.

Published: October 9, 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 admission;...

Night&Day;

Heart of Glass

The haunting docudrama Koyaanisqatsi with Philip Glass' hypnotic, baroque soundtrack -- live

By Sam Prestianni

Published: October 9, 2002

When Godfrey Reggio's cult film Koyaanisqatsi was first released early in the Reagan-Bush reign, its tag line, "Life out of balance" (a translation of the Hopi title), hit home with...

Night&Day;

Tales of the City

Shaking up the local book scene at Litquake and Green Apple Books' 35th birthday party

By Lisa Hom

Published: October 9, 2002

San Francisco has always called itself a book town, citing a rich literary history that inevitably references Jack London, the Beats, and Armistead Maupin's Tales . But part of being a city of...

Stage

Foreign Correspondents

Tom Stoppard's 1978 play reminds us of a time when reporters had access to war zones

By Michael Scott Moore

Published: October 9, 2002

First, a funny story: On opening night of Night and Day , Chronicle editor Phil Bronstein sat behind the play's director, Carey Perloff, and when an Englishwoman onstage made a crack about...