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Feature

Muni's Mack Daddy

James Robinson used to be a pimp. Now he's a transit union bigwig. And he's got higher ambitions.

By Lessley Anderson

Published: June 4, 2003

The crowd at the pimp convention in January was disappointingly thin. Only a handful of men in candy-colored suits, snakeskin boots, and fur hats milled around the Holiday Inn lobby, where they...

Mecklin

So I Wrote a Snide Column

On big teeth, demographic pandering, and the Commonwealth Club

By John Mecklin

Published: June 4, 2003

Over the past six years, I have used this space to address a variety of important problems in public policy and civic culture. Usually, I focus on political figures and governmental officials when...

Bay View

'Scuse Us, Folks

Sex-abuse victims may be no-shows at Archbishop Levada's upcoming public apology to them.

By Ron Russell

Published: June 4, 2003

As San Francisco Archbishop William J. Levada prepares to preside over a June 14 "ceremony of apology" for Catholics sexually abused by priests, some victims who were once among the event's biggest...

Dog Bites

Life at Sublevel

It was a job. Not a great job. Not even a sensible job. But a job nonetheless.

By Jenny Pritchett

Published: June 4, 2003

Dog Bites needs work. Real, full-time work. We quit our job a year ago, expecting past freelance clients to beat down our door, begging us to edit copy. But we were mistaken about the state of...

Letters

Letters to the Editor

Week of June 4, 2003

Published: June 4, 2003

Is That a Crucifix in Your Pocket, or Are You Just Happy to See Me? Give accused priests the benefit of the doubt, for Chrissakes: The good long article by Ron Russell on Archbishop Levada...

Music

Pinup Energy

Sweet and sexy, the New Pornographers make pop that sticks

By Jason Heller

Published: June 4, 2003

"Aw, fuck off!" explodes Carl Newman, the singer/guitarist behind Vancouver pop combo the New Pornographers. He's just been informed that his band will have some stiff competition on its upcoming...

Reviewed

Rahsaan Roland Kirk

Compliments of the Mysterious Phantom

By Mark Keresman

Published: June 4, 2003

If there was ever a musician to whom the old saying "They made him, and then broke the mold" applied, Rahsaan Roland Kirk was it. Blind from age 2, Kirk (1936-1977) came to prominence in the...

Reviewed

Swirlies

Cats of the Wild: Volume Two

By Nancy Einhart

Published: June 4, 2003

What is a swirly? Many music fans may wonder precisely that, because despite more than a decade of existence, Boston's Swirlies remain relatively obscure. But for devoted admirers, the band's first...

Reviewed

Uncle Tupelo

No Depression/Still Feel Gone/March 16-20, 1992

By Lawrence Kay

Published: June 4, 2003

Three records that many see as foundational to the current altcountry boom, the once hard-to-find early albums of a Midwestern band known as Uncle Tupelo are now available for fans to re-examine,...

Reviewed

Prince Paul

Politics of the Business

By Tamara Palmer

Published: June 4, 2003

Prince Paul will always be best known as the genius producer behind De La Soul's seminal 1989 debut, 3 Feet High and Rising . That album's inventiveness inadvertently established a blueprint for...

House of Tudor

House of Tudor

Rejuvenated West Coast hip hop, Apocalyptic movement-theater, and Jack Palance as Fidel Castro

By Silke Tudor

Published: June 4, 2003

On the cover of Young Miss America , Gold Chains ' latest and greatest album, a collage of anorexic supermodel body parts, dripping in oversized diamond jewelry, reaches for a $10 bill. The...

Hear This

Hear This

The jazz-schooled punks of Go-Go Fightmaster celebrate their debut CD, a tour de force of in-your-face eclecticism

By Sam Prestianni

Published: June 4, 2003

A growing movement in the jazz underground is best summed up by the band name Full Throttle Orchestra, bassist Adam Lane"s spot-on moniker for his feverishly creative sextet, which combines...

Eat

Urban Explorer

A request for an inexpensive and interesting restaurant for a party of eight sends our critic to the books

By Meredith Brody

Published: June 4, 2003

I couldn't imagine living in a city, any city, without a full complement of guidebooks. And not just restaurant guidebooks (though the absolute bare minimum requirement would be a Zagat guide in...

Social Grace

No Free Lunch

When and how to blow the whistle on cheating co-workers

By Social Grace

Published: June 4, 2003

Dear Social Grace, The company I work for organizes a lunch twice a year, to benefit charities. The rules are that any employee can (but doesn't have to) attend and get a really nice meal. We...

Dish Enchanted

Soup Kitchen

Survivors of the dot-com bust live on Irma's Absolutely Famous Tortilla Soup

By Bonnie Wach

Published: June 4, 2003

During the dot-com glory days, restaurants in the design district (that no man's land between Potrero Hill and SOMA) could've cooked up old shoes and dead cats (and some, I think, did) and still...

Film

Sweet 'N' Sour

Ken Loach's look at working-class adolescents pulls no punches and offers no happy endings

By Bill Gallo

Published: June 4, 2003

The hero of Ken Loach's Sweet Sixteen is an isolated teenager mired in a gray Scottish slum with only a vague dream of family life to sustain him. Like previous Loach heroes -- the impoverished...

Film

Kurds Away

A popular Kurdish musical group gets Marooned in Iraq

By Jean Oppenheimer

Published: June 4, 2003

Marooned in Iraq is Kurdish-Iranian director Bahman Ghobadi's follow-up to his remarkable 2000 debut, A Time for Drunken Horses . That film told the story of five orphaned brothers and sisters...

Reel World

Fear Strikes Out

A diagnosed schizophrenic chronicles his illness -- and his meltdowns -- on camera

By Michael Fox

Published: June 4, 2003

Sooner or later, every documentary maker runs into a prickly, unhelpful subject. For Palo Alto artist and novice filmmaker John Cadigan, a diagnosed schizophrenic who set out to chronicle his...

Reps Etc.

Reps Etc.

Published: June 4, 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;

Pelton Wuz Here

Hitler, Civil War soldiers, and circus freaks: Welcome to the dances of Stephen Pelton

By Heather Wisner

Published: June 4, 2003

Adolf Hitler and Virginia Woolf, Civil War soldiers and circus freaks have all materialized in the dances of Stephen Pelton, a modernist with a keen appreciation for history and human foibles. In...