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Feature

Under the Gun

Why the Army thinks a 30-year-old college-educated California bull rider will help it recruit soldiers during wartime

By Nate Cavalieri

Published: September 29, 2004

Jaron Nunnemaker looks ready to die for his country. He's dressed entirely in black -- black cowboy hat, shirt, vest, jeans, and chaps. The only other colors he wears are a touch of gold and white...

Matt Smith

The City That Would Be King

To maintain its natural position atop the local political food chain, San Francisco must be benevolent, as well as strong

By Matt Smith

Published: September 29, 2004

Mufasa's ghost: Simba, you have forgotten me. Simba: No. How could I? Mufasa's ghost: You have forgotten who you are and so have forgotten me. Look inside yourself, Simba. You are more...

Infiltrator

Friend's Best Man

Quiet. The Infiltrator is getting something. Yes, he can see it clearly now: Pet ... psychics ... are ... hilarious ... frauds.

By Harmon Leon

Published: September 29, 2004

"Ever wonder what your pets feel and what they have to say?" questions an ad featuring a smiley woman hugging her dog. "They are angels beside us in physical form. With telepathy, energetics, and...

Dog Bites

Dog Bites

The thrill of Beach Blanket Babylon auditions

John Mecklin

Published: September 29, 2004

Beach Blanket Babylon Auditions: The Sequel There it was, right in the newspaper: open-call auditions for Beach Blanket Babylon , San Francisco's musical-theater equivalent of the...

Letters

Letters to the Editor

Week of Wednesday, September 29th, 2004

Published: September 29, 2004

Too Dam Negative A defense of Environmental Defense: I was pleased that Matt Smith is encouraging your readers to support restoration of Hetch Hetchy Valley in Yosemite National Park ["Big...

Music

Pop Goes the Mouse

Germany's Mouse on Mars turns years of crafting abstract electronica into pop gold with Radical Connector

By Philip Sherburne

Published: September 29, 2004

If you visit Cologne, Germany, and venture forth a few blocks from a square called Barbarossaplatz, tucked along a residential side street -- just past the pastry shop with a smiling doughnut...

Music

Special Delivery

How Story of the Year went from delivering pizzas to dishing out the rock

By Annie Zaleski

Published: September 29, 2004

For those creative types facing indifferent audiences in half-filled dives while trying to make it big with their bands, day jobs are a necessary evil. The members of the hard-edged quintet Story...

Reviewed

The Libertines

The Libertines

By Dan Strachota

Published: September 29, 2004

The most amazing thing about this British quartet's second album is that it got made at all, considering how co-singer/guitarist Pete Doherty has spent the last two years getting nicked for drugs...

Reviewed

Björk

Medúlla

By Nate Cavalieri

Published: September 29, 2004

By limiting the instrumentation of her fifth proper studio release almost exclusively to vocal samples, Björk holds to the path that has made her an icon of eccentricity. Doubtless, the 14...

Reviewed

Panthers

Things Are Strange

By Philip Sherburne

Published: September 29, 2004

Panthers -- the George W. Smith School Panthers, to be precise -- were my grade school's official mascots, but I'm pretty sure that these Panthers are exactly the kind of thing our well-meaning...

Reviewed

Zolar X

Timeless

By Mike Rowell

Published: September 29, 2004

When Zolar X was on the '70s Los Angeles music scene, audiences weren't sure what to make of spacesuited guys with Spock-like helmet hair playing over-the-top Hawkwind-meets-Bowie glam rock....

Reviewed

Joss Stone

Mind, Body & Soul

By Rachel Devitt

Published: September 29, 2004

Ever since Sam Phillips famously found his "billion dollar" dream of a white artist "who had the Negro sound and the Negro feel," the music industry has been chasing after the Elvis Holy Grail like...

Reviewed

Earlimart

Treble & Tremble

By Abigail Clouseau

Published: September 29, 2004

If the California indie rock realm were a high school, you might say that Earlimart's main man, Aaron Espinoza, was being primped for the position of prom king. After establishing himself as the...

OK Then

Too Sexy for Their Rock

Fashionable retro rock has jumped the shark. Here's why.

By Garrett Kamps

Published: September 29, 2004

I went on vacation three weeks ago. It was a spontaneous trip. My best friend, Kevin, was about to head off to England for a year, and so on a Friday morning I decided to hop a plane to Southern...

Bouncer

Bouncer

New music venue the Rickshaw Stop is a welcome addition. Its "Funtime Talk Show" is not.

By Katy St. Clair

Published: September 29, 2004

There are few things as hopeful and jaunty as a new club. The owners have decorated it just so, the staff has been carefully chosen based on friendliness and dependability, and the calendar has...

Hear This

Hear This

Flashback to the '80s with shows from the New York Dolls and Trashcan Sinatras

By Abigail Clouseau, Jerry Karp, Tamara Palmer

Published: September 29, 2004

Morrissey fans know that, aside from James Dean and Oscar Wilde, pioneering '70s glam rockers the New York Dolls remain one of the most vital influences on the moody crooner's life, and he has...

BeatBox

BeatBox

DJ Krush lays down the moody beats; "Remember" takes you all the way back to the '70s, for better or worse.

By Sam Chennault, Brock Keeling

Published: September 29, 2004

In the late '90s, Japan's DJ Krush caught the hipster zeitgeist with his crackling Japanese-garden trip hop. Spare breakbeats cradled lush atmospherics (1996's Meiso ), A-list hip hop...

Eat

Brilliant Bites

Tacos by the sea and bocadillos downtown -- the new toys of upscale restaurateurs

By Meredith Brody

Published: September 29, 2004

My favorite thing to do in the entire world is travel. And one of my favorite things to do during trips is (big surprise) sample the local cuisine. I put in my time doing research, seeking out the...

Social Grace

Just Shut Up

When your friends won't stop talking about Burning Man

By Social Grace

Published: September 29, 2004

Dear Social Grace, When my friends get back from Burning Man, bursting with stories and photos and souvenirs and declarations about Life, how do I let them know in the nicest possible terms...

Film

Imperfect Unions

A new documentary sells gay marriage as the only answer to discrimination

By Melissa Levine

Published: September 29, 2004

In 1991, two Florida police officers were married in a loving ceremony captured on video. Their names were Mickie Mashburn and Lois Marrero, and though they were both women, their union was...