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Feature

Death in the Family

Once you learn the full story of the mom-and-pop cult known as "The Family," you'll understand an unsettling reality: Any of us might have joined in.

Published: October 13, 2004

During the 12 years that Dr. Thomas Meyer had worked in the Kaiser Permanente emergency room in San Rafael, not a single child in his care had died. Much of his work involved treating tykes whose...

Matt Smith

Fiber-Optic Illusion

Why Tom Ammiano's plans to create a city-owned broadband network are a boondoggle-in-the-making

By Matt Smith

Published: October 13, 2004

When I first ran across the proposal by Supervisors Tom Ammiano and Chris Daly to fund a $300,000 study on whether the city should go into the business of providing Internet, cable TV, and...

Infiltrator

Grand Old Partying

Infiltrator joins the Young Republicans to experience the blue suits, big hair, and free beer of the Republican state convention

By Harmon Leon

Published: October 13, 2004

" Republicans! Republicans! " I chant with my arms in the air, entering the GOP state convention at the Hyatt hotel by the airport. The concourse is a conservative's wet dream, splattered with...

Dog Bites

Big If

The election aftermath and oyster-inhaling in one user-friendly column

John Mecklin

Published: October 13, 2004

What will we do if George W. Bush is re-elected in three weeks? Dog Bites doesn't know, but surely Google must. We searched for the phrase "If Bush wins, I'm ...." From the 450 or so hits that were...

Letters

Letters to the Editor

Week of Wednesday, October 13, 2004

Published: October 13, 2004

Charmin' Harmon For the right fee, we'd teach your kids anything: Just wanted to let you know that I thought your article on infiltrating the manners class ["Mr. Manners," Infiltrator,...

Music

Divide and Convolute

The Fiery Furnaces' Blueberry Boat has indie rockers confused: Are the brother-sister pair hacks, geniuses, or somehow both?

By Rachel Devitt

Published: October 13, 2004

"There's a section right after the beginning part where a Casio's playing quite fast and then a piano and a drum kit come in and they play this very hectic, cartoony-sounding thing. And eventually,...

Reviewed

The Arcade Fire

Funeral

By Chris Dahlen

Published: October 13, 2004

Whether it inspires you or just leaves you pummeled, Funeral is a staggering debut. Over the course of just one album, the Arcade Fire bursts out of the rigid beats and chopping chords of its...

Reviewed

American Music Club

Love Songs for Patriots

By Mark Keresman

Published: October 13, 2004

American Music Club frontman Mark Eitzel is not a happy fellow these days, not that anyone's ever thought of his work as "party music." The S.F. band's first album since 1994's San Francisco...

Reviewed

Matthew Sweet

Living Things|Kimi Ga Suki

By Abigail Clouseau

Published: October 13, 2004

Well, the obvious question is: How relevant is the traditionally youthful pine of a gooey power-pop love song when it's sung by a fortysomething? Normally, not so much, which is why hesitation...

Reviewed

Fatboy Slim

Palookaville

By Dan Strachota

Published: October 13, 2004

As much as you may hate to admit it, Fatboy Slim is a genius. From his own sampledelic songs to his slamming remixes, the British producer has an uncanny knack for making people sweat it on the...

Reviewed

Tom Waits

Real Gone

By Nate Cavalieri

Published: October 13, 2004

Over the past decade, Tom Waits has developed a tripartite personality: There's the surrealist cabaret singer of The Black Rider , the sorrowful lounge act that has taken a "Downtown Train" to...

Reviewed

Perfect

Once, Twice, Three Times a Maybe

By Andrew Marcus

Published: October 13, 2004

Next to the Red Sox and Adlai Stevenson, in the yet-to-be-built (in Oakland, naturally) Underdog Hall of Fame, would be the Replacements: the mythic least-successful and most-deserving band of the...

OK Then

Naked Midgets!

OK, so they didn't show. But the Dwarves' gig last Saturday rocked anyway.

By Garrett Kamps

Published: October 13, 2004

I am a pussy. There's no way around this fact, and no better way to state it. I have, however, taken one or two short walks on the wild side. There was that time, for example, when I spent 24 hours...

Bouncer

Bouncer

Looks like Popeye, sounds like a 12-piece drum kit, rivets us. Must be Kid Beyond.

By Katy St. Clair

Published: October 13, 2004

I remember a few scattered things about my one and only trip to Las Vegas in July of 1997. First, the heat was more stifling than three Baby Jessicas trapped in a well. Second, no one wanted to see...

Hear This

Hear This

Monsters of mope come to Berkeley: M. Ward, Bright Eyes, and Jim James. Old 97's are hotter than Ryan Adams.

By Mark Keresman, Maya Kroth

Published: October 13, 2004

For alternarockers the world over, one of the most despised aspects of the pop/rock mainstream was the "singer/songwriter," as that signified despised sensitivos like James Taylor and Billy Joel....

BeatBox

BeatBox

Buck 65 is not a rapper, or is he? MCs Azeem and Nac One pull a double CD-release.

By Dan Strachota, Brock Keeling

Published: October 13, 2004

In this year's "hot" issue, Rolling Stone named Buck 65 "hot indie rapper." As usual, Rolling Stone doesn't know dick. As Buck 65 (aka Richard Terfry) will be the first to tell you, he's not...

Eat

Indian Love Song

A progressive meal through three Indian places with a knowledgeable companion

By Meredith Brody

Published: October 13, 2004

Earlier this year I had a fabulous and uniquely interesting meal: an Indian tasting menu, idiosyncratic and chef-driven, in a small restaurant off the beaten track in a not particularly chic part...

Social Grace

I Feel Pretty

How to participate in a wedding when you're too butch to wear a dress

By Social Grace

Published: October 13, 2004

Dear Social Grace, I'm in a bit of a bind just now. My best friend and her boyfriend have recently become engaged, and I've been asked to be the maid of honor. I was honored to accept. The...

Film

Full of Grace

Laura Linney shines as a divorcee who goes for Topher

By Melissa Levine

Published: October 13, 2004

Throughout p.s. , a thoughtful, self-possessed film from director Dylan Kidd ( Roger Dodger ), there is a sense of the disaster it could have been. A 39-year-old woman, divorced and emotionally...

Film

Brave and Crazy

Jonathan Caouette's tumultuous life story spills out over 90 minutes

By Melissa Levine

Published: October 13, 2004

Whatever else can be said about Tarnation -- and there is plenty to say -- there is no denying this: It is a very brave movie. Rarely is the subject of a documentary willing to lay himself...