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Feature

Laugh, or We Kill the Lobster

Ben Westhoff gets inside the odd mix of cerebral and naughty humor that's taken S.F. comedy troupe Killing My Lobster to the edge of national fame

By Ben Westhoff

Published: February 19, 2003

(We hear the sounds of a couple engaged in lovemaking. Tossing, turning, soft grunting. Rene is a French prostitute. Pedro is a Spanish stranger.) Rene: Oui! ... Yes ... Paco ... Pedro:...

Feature

Poet of the Fallen World

How an S.F. theater troupe helped turn a reclusive novelist into a full-fledged playwright

By Michael Scott Moore

Published: February 19, 2003

"I'm kinda like Ozzy Osbourne," says Denis Johnson in a distracted moment, explaining that he might not remember to call me back. "My wife was just telling me that." He means he's disorganized....

Matt Smith

Losin' It

Can Wade and O'Donoghue keep up in this brave broke world?

By Matt Smith

Published: February 19, 2003

As San Francisco enters a season of political upheaval in which more than $300 million must be cut from the city's budget, just as voters prepare to choose a new mayor, we can expect to find our...

Night Crawler

Solitary Refinement

Love would be so much easier if we all lived by the credo of the quirkyalone

By Silke Tudor

Published: February 19, 2003

... [L]ove from one being to another can only be that two solitudes come nearer, recognize, protect, and comfort each other. -- Han Suyin On Valentine's Day , Feb. 14, 1953, Del Martin...

Dog Bites

Tea and Hormones

Lemon Curd? What in hell is Lemon Curd?

By Dan Siegler

Published: February 19, 2003

On a recent Sunday morning, Dog Bites and four PMSing females visited Lovejoy's Tea Room in Noe Valley. It's surmised that Dog Bites is the only male over age 7 to ever visit Lovejoy's Tea Room....

Letters

Letters to the Editor

Week of February 19, 2003

Published: February 19, 2003

Great City Forced to View Swill! Nice job of calling out the airheads: Matt Palmquist, the writer, and Tom Dougherty, the illustrator, could not have done a better job at teaming up on what...

Music

The Littlest Songbird

Jolie Holland sings the prettiest tunes -- informed by ghosts, bayous, and a whole lot of traveling

By Dan Strachota

Published: February 19, 2003

When Jolie Holland steps onstage at the Hemlock's "smallest show in town," she elicits the amount of applause you'd expect for an unknown performer. As she adjusts her cat-eye glasses and her...

Reviewed

Little Brother

The Listening

By Greg Doherty

Published: February 19, 2003

In the early '90s, the rising cost of funk and soul samples chased producers right into the arms of digital instrumentation. Thus the "golden age" of Pete Rock's and DJ Premier's horn-laden sample...

Reviewed

Rainer Maria

Long Knives Drawn

By Nancy Einhart

Published: February 19, 2003

Though Rainer Maria's origins read like a recipe for pretentious disaster -- guitarist Kyle Fischer met bassist Caithlin De Marrais in a University of Wisconsin poetry workshop; they named the...

Reviewed

Various Artists

Watch How the People Dancing: Unity Sounds From the London Dancehall, 1986-1989

By Philip Sherburne

Published: February 19, 2003

The Honest Jon's label -- launched by the U.K. record shop of the same name and co-owned by none other than Blur's Damon Albarn -- has built an eclectic roster over the course of its initial three...

Reviewed

Laddio Bolocko

The Life & Times of Laddio Bolocko

By Allan Sims

Published: February 19, 2003

A friend once related a story about the time he saw Laddio Bolocko -- the now-defunct avant-rock quartet whose entire output has been reissued as The Life & Times of Laddio Bolocko -- play live....

Pop Philosophy

The Eleventh Time's the Charm

Our critic handicaps the latest installment of Noise Pop

By Dan Strachota

Published: February 19, 2003

The Noise Poop By now, just about everyone knows what Noise Pop was -- a one-off for a handful of distortion-crazy bands beloved by S.F. music maven Kevin Arnold -- and is -- a plethora of...

House of Tudor

House of Tudor

Swingin' Utters' wistful, fist-pumping punk, and Deadly Snakes' gritty street-wise soul

By Silke Tudor

Published: February 19, 2003

It was with a very heavy heart that I set aside my adoration of the Swingin' Utters at the turn of the century. The Streets of San Francisco , the Utters' 1995 translation of all that had been...

Hear This

Hear This

Japan's DJ Krush gets his abstract-electronica groove on

By Philip Sherburne

Published: February 19, 2003

Not many foreign rap artists find their way to American ears -- and even fewer hang around for a decade. But against all odds, Japan's DJ Krush is closing in on the 10-year mark with his seventh...

Eat

Berlin by the Bay

Fine German fare sandwiched between two viewings of the fine German photographs of August Sander

By Meredith Brody

Published: February 19, 2003

I just got in under the wire to see the amazing Gerhard Richter show at SFMOMA. It was closing within days, and touring the many rooms was so overwhelming that I feared I'd given short shrift to...

Social Grace

Office Surprise

Tired of your co-workers stealing your milk? Here's how to stop it

By Social Grace

Published: February 19, 2003

Dear Social Grace, I was hoping you could help me with an etiquette question. My work does not provide milk, so I purchase my own for coffee, etc. I have caught a person taking my milk for...

Film

Gale Farce

Kevin isn't the only thing Spacey in this overlong death-penalty drama

By Luke Y. Thompson

Published: February 19, 2003

Right-wing pundits will be coming out of the woodwork to holler about this one. Bad enough, they'll say, that The Life of David Gale attacks the death penalty; it also features a caricature...

Reel World

California Split

Who's winning what at the upcoming S.F. International Film Festival

By Michael Fox

Published: February 19, 2003

Pat O'Neill, an L.A. avant-garde moviemaker famed for his painstakingly layered and surreal films, will receive the Golden Gate Persistence of Vision Award at the S.F. International Film Festival...

Reps Etc.

Reps Etc.

Published: February 19, 2003

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;

It's a Shee Thing

A play about a drag king who legally married her female stage dresser -- in the 1890s

By Karen Macklin

Published: February 19, 2003

In Shakespeare's day, all cast members had members. The illustrious age of vaudeville took drag one step further by giving birth to the first male impersonator, Annie Hindle. A top-notch drag...