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Feature

The Lifesaver

Shawn Richard got the city to give jobs to alleged gang leaders. If anyone can make such a program work, it's ...THE LIFESAVER

By Nate Cavalieri

Published: February 2, 2005

Shawn Richard is pacing the polished floor of a fluorescent-lit room in the basement of City Hall, about to address a group of people who, in all statistical likelihood, will be murdered. All of...

Mecklin

Reason to Question

Is the Bay Guardian's lawsuit against SF Weekly connected to Bruce B. Brugmann's unfortunate business judgments?

By John Mecklin

Published: February 2, 2005

It was October, I was in New York City on business, and I was trying to respond to phone messages asking for comment about a lawsuit that the San Francisco Bay Guardian had filed here in San...

Infiltrator

Angry Talk Radio Callers -- Unite!

Inside the Patriot Defenders Network, which is busy supporting our veterans, troops, and families, and respecting God, country, flag, and president

By Harmon Leon

Published: February 2, 2005

I'm intrigued. I must infiltrate. The ultraconservative civilian think tank known as the Patriot Defenders Network sponsors meetings every month under the banner of Town Hall ( www.townhall.com ),...

Weekly Obsessions

Weekly Obsessions

Things we were obsessing about on Feb. 2, 2005

Published: February 2, 2005

If you're in the mood to pig out on pig, put this paper down immediately, call Oliveto (5655 College Ave., Oakland, 510/547-5356), and get a reservation for any night you can between Feb. 8 and 11,...

Letters

Letters to the Editor

Week of February 2, 2005

Published: February 2, 2005

Prosecutorial Response Why DA records should stay confidential: This letter is in response to the article from the Jan. 19 edition, "Zipped Up." For the past 30 years, we have each...

Music

A Friend Indeed

Luna's last waltz and what it means to be a best-friend band

By Garrett Kamps

Published: February 2, 2005

There are very few bands that I consider my best friends. Some people I know have a lot of these bands, just as some people I know collect friends like antiques. I only have a few -- best-friend...

Reviewed

Six Organs of Admittance

School of the Flower

Published: February 2, 2005

Six Organs of Admittance is singer/guitarist Ben Chasney. Originally from Santa Cruz, Chasney also plays axe for local acid-rockers Comets on Fire, whose jams I dig even though their recent live...

Reviewed

Ani DiFranco

Knuckle Down

By Rachel Devitt

Published: February 2, 2005

So I was having this inner ethical battle about whether I could review Knuckle Down objectively given my humiliating youthful adoration of, and subsequent distaste for, the Folk Singer when my...

Reviewed

Virgin Prunes

A New Form of Beauty

By Mike Rowell

Published: February 2, 2005

Spawned from an Irish artistic movement that also birthed some rock band called U2, Virgin Prunes were a brilliantly bonkers early-'80s outfit. Commonly lumped into the goth bin, this group's...

Reviewed

Coralie Clément

Bye Bye Beauté

By Dan Strachota

Published: February 2, 2005

On Coralie Clément's 2002 debut, Salle Des Pas Perdus , the French singer acted the breathy chanteuse, brushing up against the type of jazzy '60s orchestrations favored by Françoise...

Reviewed

Unwritten Law

Here's to the Mourning

By Maya Kroth

Published: February 2, 2005

San Diego's Unwritten Law wears its drama on its tattered, beer-stained sleeve. Rehab, girl problems, band infighting -- it's all here. Maintaining cred is always an issue with a punk band, but UL...

Reviewed

Jason Anderson

The Wreath

By Abigail Clouseau

Published: February 2, 2005

Once, in a dank back music room of a venue, hidden on the wrong side of the tracks in Denton, Texas, a town only the Mountain Goats sing fondly of, Jason Anderson closed his set with an a cappella...

Bouncer

That Girl is Poison

Katy St. Clair illuminates another dubious connection: Socrates and the Hemlock Tavern

By Katy St. Clair

Published: February 2, 2005

At the beginning of the night I was sitting on a large red couch that looked like a gigantic pair of crimson lips. I was splayed out on the center of the sofa, so from a distance if you were...

Hear This

Hear This

Hip hop's first agitprop supergroup has arrived, and so have four teenage siblings from Texas who play indie pop. Yippee!

By Sam Chennault, Sam Prestianni, Maya Kroth

Published: February 2, 2005

In this time of great political peril, the music industry is simply not doing its part. Consider the slew of politically minded documentaries that were released last year, and now try to find their...

BeatBox

BeatBox

Aunt Charlie's Lounge gets cooler with "Suicide Tuesdays"; "Descarga" delivers Brazilian funk for free

By Brock Keeling, Tamara Palmer

Published: February 2, 2005

In an attempt to bring a more diverse nightlife scene to the Castro than the one dominated by homogeneous house and shaved chests (and to not just flip the equation, as has been the strategy of the...

Eat

Pasta Nostalgia

An homage to vanished S.F. restaurants like Vanessi's and the Blue Fox

By Meredith Brody

Published: February 2, 2005

San Francisco's reputation as a great eating town dates back to the Gold Rush, when miners dizzy with gold dust flocked to such places as the Poulet d'Or (quickly corrupted into the Poodle Dog) to...

Social Grace

Dinner-Party Nazis

Is it a West Coast thing when friends RSVP for a party and then flake?

By Social Grace

Published: February 2, 2005

Dear Social Grace, I'm from the East Coast, so I'm not sure if this is just a cultural difference or not, but out here in San Francisco, it seems that certain people find it perfectly OK to...

Film

The Camera's Weeping Eye

A photographer visits an Indian brothel, where heartbreak finally meets hope

By Melissa Levine

Published: February 2, 2005

Toward the end of Born Into Brothels , a superb and piercing documentary by directors Zana Briski and Ross Kauffman, a 12-year-old child examines a photograph. It's beautiful, he says, because it...

Reps Etc.

Reps Etc.

Published: February 2, 2005

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;

Playing With Food

A restaurant run by artists? It's tastier than it sounds

By Hiya Swanhuyser

Published: February 2, 2005

An "artist-run restaurant": At first, it doesn't sound like a good idea. Eateries are best when they're clean, organized, calm, and friendly, but artists aren't known for any of those qualities....