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Feature

Guitar Dreams

Adrian Freed's decades-long desire to marry music and technology is finally going public. Will anyone listen?

By Bernice Yeung

Published: January 7, 2004

Adrian Freed, a bespectacled, middle-aged techie sporting a mop of unruly brown hair, swings open the door of the Guitar Center in El Cerrito with visible delight. Like a mountaineer taking in an...

Matt Smith

The Place That Time Forgot

Why things never seem to get better in the Tenderloin, no matter how much money is thrown at it

By Matt Smith

Published: January 7, 2004

Time doesn't move steadily. Sometimes, in some places, it clambers along vigorously through acres of portentous events. Elsewhere it coasts for miles past flat, empty expanses that disappear from...

Night Crawler

Behind the Mask

We're amazed by what we see during three days wearing a blindfold

By Silke Tudor

Published: January 7, 2004

The instruments of darkness tell us truths. -- William Shakespeare What I give form to in daylight is only one per cent of what I have seen in darkness. -- M.C. Escher...

Dog Bites

Promises, Promises

In which the boy mayor shows off his basketball, um, prowess, while his wife just shows off

By Brock Keeling, Tommy Craggs

Published: January 7, 2004

With only the din of the office soda machine keeping us company, Dog Bites wallowed in a lonely and discouraging day on New Year's Eve, no soiree plans in sight. But suddenly, like Glinda...

Letters

Letters to the Editor

Week of Wednesday, January 7, 2004

Published: January 7, 2004

A Master in the Shadows Too bad this great artwork isn't more publicly visible: Reading Ron Russell's article on the Diego Rivera mural at City College brought back memories for me...

Music

Power Chord Broker

Hangin' with President Clinton, drafting ultra-important documents -- Chris Gallagher has moved on from such trifles. Now he just wants to write purty songs.

By Nate Cavalieri

Published: January 7, 2004

Financial District Bob Dylan wannabes should take their first lesson from Chris Gallagher: "Writing a song is a lot more difficult than writing a memo." Gallagher's epiphany may not seem...

Reviewed

Citizens Here and Abroad

Ghosts of Tables and Chairs

By Abigail Clouseau

Published: January 7, 2004

The ghastly, alarmlike guitar pattern that opens "The Voices," the first song on San Francisco quartet Citizens Here and Abroad's Ghosts of Tables and Chairs , is a good indication of the urgency...

Reviewed

Various Artists

Velvet Tinmine

By Dan Strachota

Published: January 7, 2004

Iron Virgin was the prototypical glam band. Its members wore ridiculous outfits (two-tone polka-dotted jumpsuits, bechained chastity belts), sang about teenage rebellion (i.e., skipping school),...

Reviewed

Various Artists

Dis-Jointed

By Anna Klafter

Published: January 7, 2004

When the Beastie Boys proclaimed, "This one goes out to my man the Groove Merchant/ Comin' through with the beats that I've been searchin'," on 1992's Check Your Head , they solidified the Lower...

Reviewed

People Like Us + Kenny G

Nothing Special

By Ben Bush

Published: January 7, 2004

"The best-selling instrumentalist in the world, with over 70 million albums sold to date, Kenny G is an international superstar who has earned countless prestigious awards throughout an illustrious...

OK Then

New Year's Repetitions

Somehow it found me: Arnold Schwarzenegger's Total Body Workout. And work out I did.

By Garrett Kamps

Published: January 7, 2004

Writers I know say that December is the worst month to work, but I think it's also the worst month to play and/or release music. Did anything noteworthy happen in December besides Iggy Pop's...

House of Tudor

House of Tudor

The godfather of hip hop graces S.F. with his presence, as do some Filthy Thieving Bastards

By Silke Tudor

Published: January 7, 2004

Already a seminal New York DJ by the early1970s, Afrika Bambaataa earned his title as the "Godfather of Hip Hop" organizing massive block parties and legendary DJ battles in the southeast...

Hear This

Hear This

Haircuts, hipster cred, psychosis: Ima Robot's got more to offer than "Black Jettas."

By Charlie Amter

Published: January 7, 2004

It's ironic that Ima Robot 's biggest indie "hit" off of its fantastic debut record is the hidden, uncredited gem "Black Jettas." The hilarious song (which is hardly emblematic of the band's...

BeatBox

Beat Box

Dig the '60s and '70s? How 'bout dancin' DJs? Perhaps Sundays at the Hush Hush will make you "Smile."

By Dan Strachota

Published: January 7, 2004

The best bartenders drink with their customers, and the best DJs dance with their audiences. Neil Martinson -- the DJ responsible for "Smile," S.F.'s finest retro-pop dance night -- spends almost...

Eat

Feta (Not Quite) Accompli

Our second meal isn't as dazzling as our first at a new Greek eatery

By Meredith Brody

Published: January 7, 2004

"I haven't had a Greek meal since I moved to San Francisco," I said to Robert as we drove toward dinner at Estia, a new Greek place on Grant. Fifteen years ago, I explained to him, a very good and...

Social Grace

Bearer of Bad News

When you have to tell people things they probably don't want to hear

By Social Grace

Published: January 7, 2004

Dear Social Grace, I have had a very difficult few months, in that my father died in September and my mother died just last week. They were divorced, and they were both relatively young. Their...

Film

Liberty for None

Mandy Moore's likable enough; wish we could say the same about her movie

By Robert Wilonsky

Published: January 7, 2004

There are two options when discussing Chasing Liberty , in which pop star-turned-actress Mandy Moore plays a president's daughter named Anna Foster who wants some alone time, sans Secret Service,...

Reel World

The Dreamlife of Angels

The year ahead in local film

By Michael Fox

Published: January 7, 2004

A new year means a fresh slate -- of films. We movie fans indulge in airbrushed expectations of a perfectly fabulous year in cinema, at least until the first dog of January fouls the air. But while...

Reps Etc.

Reps Etc.

Published: January 7, 2004

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;

It's a Killer

Gloriously gruesome: a six-film series of serial-killer movies from around the world

By Joyce Slaton

Published: January 7, 2004

From Silence of the Lambs to Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer to Monster , America's fascination with murderous villains has reached a cinematic peak. Where movie monsters were once mythical...