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Feature

Big Dam Mess

The Environmental Defense Fund embarks on a national campaign to shame San Francisco into restoring the other great Yosemite valley, Hetch Hetchy. But is shame really a good political strategy?

By Matt Smith

Published: September 22, 2004

Following retirement from 35 years of work in the mutual fund industry, George A. Miller went to the library "to have some structure in my life," he says. And there he stayed. "After four...

The Apologist

The Chair From Abu Ghraib

When a Texas Rangers reliever threw a chair at a fan, the response was outrage. But was the outrage overdone?

By Matt Palmquist

Published: September 22, 2004

Last week, in the latest instance of fan-athlete violence, Texas Rangers relief pitcher Frank Francisco hurled a folding chair into the crowd at Networks Associates Coliseum, the sad culmination of...

Infiltrator

Mr. Manners

Comedy, they say, is the weak taking on the powerful. Enlightenment, the Infiltrator says, is attending an etiquette class for business executives.

By Harmon Leon

Published: September 22, 2004

"Present yourself with confidence and authority in any business or social situation!" the Web site says, showing pictures of people in business clothes eating expensive dinners, laughing, and...

Letters

Letters to the Editor

Week of September 22, 2004

Published: September 22, 2004

Fringe Effort Correction: Our critics don't get to eat: I appreciate Michael Scott Moore delivering a compelling review of this year's Fringe Festival by deadline ["Seeking the...

Music

Boogie for Bush!

Dubya and Franz Ferdinand have made it OK for white guys to dance

By Brian McManus

Published: September 22, 2004

It all seems so clear now. Ninety years ago, Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated -- tripping off the guns of August and the start of World War I. Doesn't that shit just make you want to...

Music

Love on the Rocks

The story of a doomed relationship makes up Album of the Year, the Good Life's absorbing new record

By Michael Alan Goldberg

Published: September 22, 2004

These days, whenever he puts out a new album from either of the two bands he fronts -- the clamorous Cursive or the comparatively subdued, acoustic-based the Good Life -- Tim Kasher knows the phone...

Reviewed

Har Mar Superstar

The Handler

By Rachel Devitt

Published: September 22, 2004

Har Mar Superstar is a paunchy, balding indie rocker from Minnesota who creates bawdy R&B; and hip hop that critiques the stereotypes of those genres by -- oh God, never mind. I'm bored just saying...

Reviewed

Octet

Cash and Carry Songs

By Philip Sherburne

Published: September 22, 2004

Bushies may think that the French are a bunch of girlie-men, but today's French musicians are proving that they can bench-press plenty. Just as Sofia Coppola's favorite Frenchies, Phoenix, easily...

Reviewed

Knife & Fork

Misery Cord

By Mark Keresman

Published: September 22, 2004

Comprised of singer Laurie Hall (Ovarian Trolley, Hallflowers) and keyboard/multi-instrumental whiz Eric Drew Feldman (who has played with or produced Sparklehorse, the Pixies, the Residents,...

Reviewed

Elvis Costello & the Imposters|Elvis Costello, London Symphony Orchestra, Michael Tilson Thomas

The Delivery Man|Il Sogno

By Mark Keresman

Published: September 22, 2004

Rock's most protean performer busts not one but two very divergent moves. The Delivery Man encapsulates the best aspects of Costello's past work without recycling -- the volatile "Button My...

Reviewed

J-Zone

A Job Ain't Nuthin' But Work

By Anna Klafter

Published: September 22, 2004

The cover alone is enough to have you in stitches: J-Zone lounging on the beach wearing a full-length fur coat, a martini in hand, a boombox by his side. It's a sign that the Queens rapper and...

Reviewed

Bark Psychosis

///Codename: DustSucker

By Chris Dahlen

Published: September 22, 2004

After five years spent agonizing over each moment of every texture, London's Graham Sutton has finished the Bark Psychosis comeback album -- a startlingly gripping production that's both...

OK Then

Me Talk Pretty

In conversation with comedian Patton Oswalt and the original pianist for John Kerry's Electras

By Garrett Kamps

Published: September 22, 2004

It's been a rough couple of weeks, hasn't it? Hurricanes have ravaged Florida, Johnny Ramone has gone to that big CBGB's in the sky, and John Kerry can't seem to capitalize on Dubya's piss-poor...

Bouncer

Bouncer

Hanging out with male prostitutes is just like climbing Mount Everest

By Katy St. Clair

Published: September 22, 2004

Mount Everest stands like a colossal ice cream sundae jutting out of Tibet, its surface sprinkled with all the nuts who perished in their attempt at mounting it. Everest is second only to Better...

Hear This

Hear This

The sullen '80s pop of Now It's Overhead; the Pixies' triumphant return to the Bay Area

By Abigail Clouseau, Tamara Palmer, Dan Strachota

Published: September 22, 2004

It makes sense that Now It's Overhead would choose a Magnetic Fields cover ("The Book of Love") to complement the single for "Wait in Line," from this year's Fall Back Open , a warm,...

BeatBox

BeatBox

"Sugar" is as sweet as ever; "Recovery Party" will make your post-party crash feel more like a fender bender

By Brock Keeling

Published: September 22, 2004

On Saturdays, the Stud brings you "Sugar," a too-hot, too-gay dance club catering to too-fine males who -- oh, Jesus Christ, who the fuck cares? You wait in line, you take off your shirt, you...

Eat

The Egg and I

Breakfasts excite at downtown icons Dottie's and the reborn Sears Fine Food

By Meredith Brody

Published: September 22, 2004

"'When you wake in the morning, Pooh,' said Piglet at last, 'what's the first thing you say to yourself?' 'What's for breakfast?' said Pooh. 'What do you say, Piglet?' 'I say, I wonder what's going...

Dish Enchanted

I Scream

Nondairy ice cream that's worthy of Milwaukee's best

By Bonnie Wach

Published: September 22, 2004

When I lived in Milwaukee, I spent a lot of time (usually during the dinner hour) lamenting the fact that I wasn't in San Francisco anymore. Good Chinese food was about as scarce as a sober...

Film

Empty Sex

John Waters' latest farce strives for nothing more than NC-17

By Melissa Levine

Published: September 22, 2004

The very best thing about A Dirty Shame , a giddy sex farce from John Waters, is the credits. What's not to love about a list of characters that includes "Sylvia Stickles," "Marge the Neuter,"...

Film

Dead Good

Shaun of the Dead revives the zombie comedy with a U.K. twist

By Luke Y. Thompson

Published: September 22, 2004

"Ash is feeling a little bit under the weather, so I'll be taking charge." So says Shaun (Simon Pegg) to his valiant crew of appliance salespeople, but if you don't get the real meaning, you're...