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Feature

Still They Ride

A newly minted star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame offers an occasion to look back on the career of Journey. That's right, Journey.

By Dan Reines

Published: February 9, 2005

They came from the corners of the country for this, from Florida, from New England, from Tennessee, and yes, from San Francisco. They came out by the hundreds, maybe more, lining up in numbers...

Matt Smith

Chemical Welfare

The government accuses Bechtel of mismanagement as a smoke screen to avoid paying for alternative means of destroying deadly gases

By Matt Smith

Published: February 9, 2005

When Bechtel Corp. inflates federal infrastructure contracts, manipulates politicians into serving the company's economic ends, and egregiously fails to comply with Army project specifications such...

The Apologist

Cuss and Conquer

A more polite, nuanced approach might prove more effective for Supervisor Chris Daly. Or not.

By Matt Palmquist

Published: February 9, 2005

Supervisor Chris Daly is again making headlines for his outrageous comments in public meetings, only a few months after avoiding a rare censure motion brought against him by his colleagues. Since...

Dog Bites

Naked Ambition

Our friend takes photos of naked people at City Hall. And then he publishes them.

John Mecklin

Published: February 9, 2005

Our housemate was nude on the Channel 7 news. Let us explain. It all starts the day Harvey calls. He's been tooling down 101, fresh from terrorizing Seattle, where his naked-in-public photo...

Weekly Obsessions

Weekly Obsessions

Things we were obsessing about on Feb. 9, 2005

Published: February 9, 2005

It's so frigging obvious that the upstairs neighbors are tweakers . We hear them clomping around their apartment with the crazed footsteps of people who realize at 3 a.m. that they need to scrub...

Letters

Letters to the Editor

Week of Wednesday, February 9, 2005

Published: February 9, 2005

Church in State A continued effort at justice: The article "Zipped Up" [Jan. 19] reveals the politics surrounding the maneuverings of various Bay Area district attorneys and lawyers...

Music

Turn Around, Bright Eyes

Indie icon Conor Oberst grows up -- and blows up

By Dan Strachota

Published: February 9, 2005

Some pop culture phenomena are unfathomable. Why the boys in Maroon 5, who have as much soul as a worn-out sandal, are hugely popular is beyond comprehension. Ashlee Simpson? She couldn't sing her...

Music

Going Insaints

The Insaints' former lead singer left some pretty big shoes to fill. Is Miss Eva von Slut up to the task?

By Hiya Swanhuyser

Published: February 9, 2005

Marian Anderson: It's such an innocent-sounding name, a little old-fashioned, even. It could be the name of your ninth-grade English teacher. It's definitely not the name you'd match to a punk rock...

Reviewed

Snitches Get Stitches

I Liked You Better When You Were a Corpse

By Rachel Devitt

Published: February 9, 2005

Snitches Get Stitches are definitely rotten, blistering, hardcore punks, and they prove it with their schoolyard-bully name, the appropriately sinister title of their album, song titles like...

Reviewed

John Legend

Get Lifted

By Sam Chennault

Published: February 9, 2005

With neo-soul backdrops and a voice that exudes a sexy sort of sadness, John Legend clearly resides in the house that Stevie built. And like late-era Stevie Wonder, this album does occasionally dip...

Reviewed

Ol' Dirty Bastard

Osirus: The Official Mixtape

By Sam Chennault

Published: February 9, 2005

The great thing about the Wu-Tang Clan's ODB wasn't that he smoked crack, fathered a dozen children, or had an arrest record thicker than a Russian novel. Listening to the Wu-Tang's finest was like...

Reviewed

Lou Barlow

Emoh

By Abigail Clouseau

Published: February 9, 2005

The name Lou Barlow always comes up when discussing low-fidelity indie rock, so it's odd that he's never put out a solo record. A crucial part of Sebadoh, Folk Implosion, and early Dinosaur Jr.,...

Reviewed

Josh Rouse

Nashville

By Nate Cavalieri

Published: February 9, 2005

With just a glance it's clear that Josh Rouse, like other lesser lights in white-boy roots songwriting, makes much ado about his hometown. But Rouse's literate, melodic writing bears more of a...

OK Then

Love Stinks

A warm, fuzzy roundup of depressing anti-Valentine's Day anthems

By Garrett Kamps

Published: February 9, 2005

I'm writing this column on a plane, listening to "Brick" by Ben Folds Five. Regardless of what you think of Ben Folds Five, "Brick" is a nice tune, so sad yet so catchy, a pop song bereft of...

Bouncer

Bouncer

The best place to ponder the Metallica movie Some Kind of Monster: Zeitgeist, of course

By Katy St. Clair

Published: February 9, 2005

During one month in Indian summer of last year, according to a Stella Artois distributor who shall remain nameless, the Zeitgeist bar on Valencia went through at least 75 kegs of the stuff. To give...

Hear This

Hear This

Talking work and sex with Beep Beep's unhappy-hour dance party; Steve Earle reminds us that he's a little bit country, a little bit rock 'n' roll

By Michael Alan Goldberg, Sam Prestianni

Published: February 9, 2005

Unease runs deep in the waters of Saddle Creek Records, whether it's the diaryland fatalism of Bright Eyes, the booze-sodden heartache documented by the Good Life, or the skree-punk'd, unhappy-hour...

BeatBox

BeatBox

Mr. Lexicon reminds us that rap can be smart and funny; the crew that produces News Breakz brings the jams; the Last Poets deliver classic agitprop -- and a writing workshop

By Sam Chennault, Tamara Palmer

Published: February 9, 2005

Hailing from a country of "undisclosed origin" and issuing scathing critiques of American international policy in the name of "foreign rap," the Bay Area's Mr. Lexicon -- Iced Grille, Tex Binder,...

Eat

Chocolate U

It takes more than the sweet stuff to educate us on Café Cacao's charms

By Meredith Brody

Published: February 9, 2005

My name is Meredith, and I am not a chocoholic. Oh, it's not that I don't enjoy the confection. In fact, at any one time, there may be as many as half a dozen items containing chocolate...

Dish Enchanted

Chard Into Memory

Food for when you're in danger of becoming a hopeless pessimist

By Bonnie Wach

Published: February 9, 2005

Am I the only one who thinks this country needs a massive dose of ginkgo biloba? First we bomb the crap out of Iraq on the hunt for nonexistent weapons of mass destruction. Then we have a Senior...

Film

Same Old Song and Dance

Jane Austen goes Bollywood in Bride & Prejudice

By Luke Y. Thompson

Published: February 9, 2005

Bride & Prejudice is the third major film released stateside in the past few years to fuse the epic romantic musical stylings of Indian "Bollywood" movies with more Westernized, "Hollywood"...