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Feature

The World on a String

As the San Francisco Conservatory of Music moves to fancy new digs, its students struggle with a shrinking professional marketplace.

By Nate Cavalieri

Published: April 20, 2005

A strange transformation happens to David Southorn just after he puts his violin under his chin and just before he begins to play. Without the instrument, the slight, fair-haired 20-year-old...

The Apologist

Finger Food 2.0

Who's to blame for that finger in the Wendy's chili? Are you Hannibal Lecter? Take quiz, find out.

By Matt Palmquist

Published: April 20, 2005

In late March, an unlucky diner at the Wendy's in San Jose at 1405 Monterey Rd. made a horrific discovery: She had bitten into a human finger in her bowl of chili. The finger was described by...

Dog Bites

A Star Isn't Born. Still.

Dog Bites takes a second shot at Beach Blanket Babylon and paid health insurance

John Mecklin

Published: April 20, 2005

So we called in sick to our Saturday day job from hell last week, spent gas and bridge-toll money, and trekked back down to Beach Blanket Babylon Boulevard to continue our musical quest to find...

Weekly Obsessions

Weekly Obsessions

Things we were obsessing about on April 20, 2005

Published: April 20, 2005

We'd heard about the wonders of kayaking Elkhorn Slough, but when we stopped the wind was up, and visions of being trapped, upside down in ice-cold water, filled our claustrophobic brain. Luckily,...

Letters

Letters to the Editor

Week of Wednesday, April 20, 2005

Published: April 20, 2005

Spot On And then I asked him with my eyes to ask again Yes and then he asked me would I Yes and his heart was going like mad and Yes I said Yes I will ... Not: This week's Infiltrator,...

Music

The Planet Mercury

Fast approaching its sweet 16, college-rock stalwart Mercury Rev is as vital as ever, whether you're paying attention or not

By Michael Alan Goldberg

Published: April 20, 2005

In the grand scheme of Mercury Rev's majestic and wondrous sixth album, The Secret Migration , "Moving On" is easy to overlook. Just a minute or so long, it's the ninth of 13 tracks; an interlude...

Reviewed

Loquat

It's Yours to Keep

By Nancy Einhart

Published: April 20, 2005

Loquat is the quintessential hardworking local band. It records at home, gigs like mad, and took about four years to release its debut album. After two EPs of teasing, It's Yours to Keep arrives...

Reviewed

Fischerspooner

Odyssey

By Dave Segal

Published: April 20, 2005

Now that electroclash has gone the way of countless rails of yayo, New York's Fischerspooner confronts that difficult second album in a post-Scissor Sisters soundscape. Perhaps not coincidentally,...

Reviewed

Moby

Hotel

By Dave Segal

Published: April 20, 2005

Moby is far too wealthy to care about credibility in the dance-music world he left behind after 1996's ill-conceived rock album Animal Rights and the megasuccess of 1999's Play. Dissed as a...

Reviewed

Zion I

True & Livin'

By Sam Chennault

Published: April 20, 2005

Potential can be a bitch. Proclaiming that a group has potential is a backhanded compliment at best, implying that that group may be decent or even great in the future, but only in the future. For...

Reviewed

Emanon

The Waiting Room

By Sam Chennault

Published: April 20, 2005

Summer may be a couple of months away, but if you're like me you're already mapping out the soundtrack for this season's procession of barbecues, swimming pools, and lazy days, and with The...

Reviewed

Mary Timony

Ex Hex

By Mark Keresman

Published: April 20, 2005

Those put off by the progressive-rock modes of singer Mary Timony's previous disc, The Golden Dove , can rest easy: Ex Hex (her first for East Bay label Lookout!) is a return to the thorny,...

OK Then

Getting to Know Him

Indie rock's patron saint Gary Wilson emerges from the underground after a 25 year absence

By Garrett Kamps

Published: April 20, 2005

When they found him in 2001, he was working the graveyard shift at an adult bookstore and playing keyboards in a four-piece during his regular nightly gig at the Rancho Bernardino Lounge. His...

Bouncer

Mother Knows Best

A night on the town with Mom means talking about Jacko, Dabney Coleman, and pedophilia

By Katy St. Clair

Published: April 20, 2005

My mother has just left, and I am now in what's called the "puppet period." The puppet period occurs after a parent you haven't seen for a while has come to visit. As soon as you drop her off at...

Hear This

Hear This

VHS or Beta are set on disintegrating the dance floor; Blue Merle equals Coldplay plus an electric mandolin

By Tamara Palmer, Maya Kroth

Published: April 20, 2005

Louisville, Ky., quartet VHS or Beta has undergone marked changes in its three years between album releases. Once thought of as an instrumental "jam band" with dance-music leanings (see...

BeatBox

BeatBox

MC Myka Nyne and friends celebrate that most blurry of holidays; the best in dirty French techno comes to town

By Sam Chennault, Philip Sherburne

Published: April 20, 2005

In the rest of America, it may be no more than a holiday for dazed deviants, but in the Republic of the Bay, where there are more bongs than Republicans, 4/20 is something special. It's a day for...

Eat

Fat City

Good for you and just plain good, too: the organic and delicious philosophy at Jack Falstaff

By Meredith Brody

Published: April 20, 2005

Even though I do, as the lyric goes, love a parade, it's rare that I bestir myself to watch one in the flesh. My favorite parade memories are of accidental, almost tangential sightings:...

Dish Enchanted

Truckin'

Getting our street-food fix from the taco trailers on Harrison

By Bonnie Wach

Published: April 20, 2005

Back in the day, when I held down a 9-to-5 job in an office that wasn't close to, well, anything, I lived for the Pavlovian horn that signaled the arrival of the roach coach. The motorized meal on...

Fresh Eats

Fresh Eats

A weekly listing of new restaurants around town

Published: April 20, 2005

Biscuits & Blues: 401 Mason (at Geary), 292-2583, www.biscuitsandblues.com . Downtown . Full-service Southern kitchen. BS Restaurant: 4072 18th St. (at Castro), 355-1998,...

Film

Taste Test

Sampling the flavors at the S.F. International Film Festival

By Karen Zuercher

Published: April 20, 2005

Most film festivals that come through town have a single theme -- surf movies, say, or zombie horror in 3-D. The San Francisco International Film Festival is different: It has no unified focus, not...