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Feature

Fantasy Debasedball

A new game for a new era

By Tommy Craggs

Published: March 23, 2005

Somewhere, we're sure, the baseball season approaches with its usual promise of vernal rebirth and renewal, all that lacy stuff the bards of the sport can't stop putting in the New Yorker. But in...

Matt Smith

Wrong Prescription

The sweet deal a local medical firm got from the Justice Department shows how soft the Bush administration really is on corporate crime

By Matt Smith

Published: March 23, 2005

Let's say you're happily planting tomatoes, stalking an ex-boyfriend, or whatever it is you do, when a vein in your brain sprouts a bulge like a raspberry and turns your vision dark. To prevent...

The Apologist

"I Do" Redux

Do you subconsciously oppose gay marriage? Take our quiz and set your id free!

By Matt Palmquist

Published: March 23, 2005

In a decision that intensified one of the country's most bitter debates, a San Francisco Superior Court Judge ruled last week that California's ban on same-sex marriage was unconstitutional,...

Sport

Not Don Yet

Under new basketball coach Jessie Evans, USF quickly exits the NIT. But it looks like there's more -- and better -- to come.

By Lee Hubbard

Published: March 23, 2005

When Jessie Evans took the job as men's basketball coach at the University of San Francisco last spring, one of his goals was to get the Dons into post-season play. His hopes for the NCAA...

Weekly Obsessions

Weekly Obsessions

Things we were obsessing about on March 23, 2005

Published: March 23, 2005

The American Podiatric Medical Association (APMA) recently ranked San Francisco the second best walking city in the country . To determine the rankings, they used 14 scientific criteria, including...

Letters

Letters to the Editor

Week of Wednesday, March 23, 2005

Published: March 23, 2005

Ad Nauseam Actually, we prefer the Hicks bit about a masturbating woman in a Coke ad: I'm not sure what the point of the recent puff piece on "commercial ethnography" was ("Real to Reel,"...

Music

I, Shit

You and me and the Bravery, sitting around, full of it

By Rachel Devitt

Published: March 23, 2005

Critics are full of shit, and we know it. It's actually part of our job description: "Must be able to turn own waste into prettily phrased collection of buzzwords and underused adjectives." It's...

Music

The River's Edge

Will Sheff's literate gothic folk comes into focus on Okkervil River's latest

By Andrew Miller

Published: March 23, 2005

Hundreds of artists have created odes to the black sheep. The hip hop duo Black Sheep pictured their namesake as "a brother who's not quite right/ Stays out all damn night/ Wakes up in the morning...

Reviewed

Queens of the Stone Age

Lullabies to Paralyze

By Rossiter Drake

Published: March 23, 2005

Queens of the Stone Age's Lullabies to Paralyze begins sweetly enough, as longtime contributor Mark Lanegan lends his smoky baritone to "This Lullaby," a delicate acoustic ballad and a slyly...

Reviewed

Stars

Set Yourself on Fire

By Abigail Clouseau

Published: March 23, 2005

Blame it on global warming or the tap water. Blame it on health care or G-dubs. Whoever's at fault, Canada is simply kicking our ass these days when it comes to producing compelling indie rock...

Reviewed

The Foxymorons

Hesitation Eyes

By Chris Baty

Published: March 23, 2005

Turning 21 as an indie rocker is the motherlode. Turning 31 as an indie rocker is just a mother. If you're still playing music, you're supposed to have, you know, evolved . Go Brazilian. Compose...

Reviewed

Ben Lee

Awake Is the New Sleep

By Andrew Strickman

Published: March 23, 2005

Ben Lee's made a career out of being obscure. But his longest dance in the spotlight -- dating Claire Danes -- is now the stuff of history. Lee claims his new disc, Awake Is the New Sleep isn't a...

Reviewed

Hood

Outside Closer

By Jon Pruett

Published: March 23, 2005

Hood's slightly frosty folk/indie/electronic hybrid sounds a touch brighter on this newest release. It's as if the wan Leeds-based outfit has been skipping rope and pumping iron since its last...

Reviewed

Co-Deez

Royalty

By Ross Viator

Published: March 23, 2005

When you hear an MC spit lyrics like, "We livin' in between the lines/ Knowin' that your style kinda hard to define," it's usually from overly angst-ridden "nobody understands me" types. Not so...

OK Then

Sunshine, Lollipops

The future's so bright, we've got to wear shades to this week's assortment of great shows

By Garrett Kamps

Published: March 23, 2005

Three weekends ago a friend named Nate hosted a barbecue at his house. It was a bold move: As you'll recall, three weeks ago it was raining like a sonofabitch, and had been for what felt like 40...

Bouncer

Mission to Bars

Is the Mission really gentrified? Bouncer dives in deep to find out

By Katy St. Clair

Published: March 23, 2005

Methinks there is nothing flakier than a part-time DJ. Most of the places that I show up to in order to listen to a particular DJ usually inform me that so-and-so is a) sick, b) at another gig, or...

Hear This

Hear This

You may have graduated, but Ida's still playing its pristine college rock. Plus, Coltrane gets taken "out" by an "Orkestrova."

By Justin F. Farrar, Sam Prestianni

Published: March 23, 2005

Back in my collegiate years, I saw Ida perform at this dingy-ass rock club in Kalamazoo, Mich. The band was crafting a delicate Nick Drakeinspired style of indie-folk for a crowd of...

BeatBox

BeatBox

The multitalented MC/turntablist J-Live pays a rare visit from NYC; S.F. house fixtures Miguel Migs and Julius Papp get you "Salted."

By Sam Chennault, Brock Keeling, Tamara Palmer

Published: March 23, 2005

While much of the city stands idly by as trite mash-ups and Burning Manish trance exercise Israeli-like occupation of Bay Area dance floors, nifty Club 222 acts like the good Samaritan it is by...

Eat

Pressing Issues

A search for the best Cuban sandwich also turns up great coffee and a bargain prix fixe dinner

By Meredith Brody

Published: March 23, 2005

I first fell in love with Cuban sandwiches in New York. There was a great Cuban coffee shop in the Broadway building that then housed the Village Voice , with the typical enormous coffee shop...

Dish Enchanted

Speak to Me

You don't need to know Chinese to enjoy a tasty chive dumpling

By Bonnie Wach

Published: March 23, 2005

It's utterly confounding to me that there are people living in San Francisco -- friends of mine, in fact -- who are timid about visiting foreign countries because of the language barrier. San...