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Infiltrator

The Minuteman's 15 Minutes of Fame (Minute 14.5)

At the Arizona border, Infiltrator checks in with Americans who help the government look for illegal aliens

By Harmon Leon

Published: June 22, 2005

In front of a flapping American flag, screaming into the microphone, a hard-ass fireman from Southern California is angry. No, let's say he's foaming-mouthed pissed off. He directs his attention to...

Matt Smith

Bridge Out

A look at the comically delayed Fourth Street drawbridge project, and how the city's Byzantine contracting system costs millions

By Matt Smith

Published: June 22, 2005

In Kentucky, you can buy a type of iron ore-rich gravel useful for radiation-resistant concrete vaults. In San Francisco, this type of concrete is being used to shield the city from the latest in a...

Dog Bites

The Dog Bites Audition: Les Misérables

Two young theater bunnies behind us discuss existentialism versus spiritualism

John Mecklin

Published: June 22, 2005

We could run, but we couldn't hide. There it was, right there on our computer screen: "THE BROADWAY NATIONAL TOUR OF LES MISÉRABLES TO HOLD OPEN AUDITIONS -- TO BE HELD AT THE SAN FRANCISCO...

Postscript

The Infiltrator Who Proved Nothing!

A rebuttal from Lie Detector

By Mark Phillips

Published: June 22, 2005

Help, we've been infiltrated. Yes, it did come as a bit of a shock when San Francisco-based polygraph experts called us to point out that Harmon Leon (heretofore known to us as Hank Leon) was...

Letters

Letters to the Editor

Week of Wednesday, June 22, 2005

Published: June 22, 2005

Katy St. Clair's "Total Letters" Page Gentle Reader, Ah, language. Where would we be without it? Why, clicking our tongues and pointing, methinks. Herein I have collected some of my most...

Music

Lizard Kings

Is Louis XIV just another hot-to-trot retro rock band, or something far more sinister?

By Rachel Devitt

Published: June 22, 2005

With a couple of tours with the Killers under their hot little belts and the release of their new album, The Best Little Secrets Are Kept , the four guys who make up Louis XIV -- singer/guitarists...

Label

The White Stripes

Get Behind Me Satan (V2)

By Abigail Clouseau

Published: June 22, 2005

Why Jack and Meg chose "Blue Orchid" as the first single from their latest full-length is a bit of a mystery. The song is crammed with unexciting '70s guitar riffage and even less exciting falsetto...

Reviewed

Charles Lloyd

Jumping the Creek

By Sam Prestianni

Published: June 22, 2005

Saxophonist Charles Lloyd is on a tear. Since 1999, he has released a string of albums that consistently rank among the best jazz titles of the year. The recently issued Jumping the Creek , a...

Reviewed

The Mountain Goats

The Sunset Tree

By Justin F. Farrar

Published: June 22, 2005

The Mountain Goats is the name used by this singer/songwriter John Darnielle, who initially emerged during the golden age of cassette-released, lo-fi indie-folk circa '92. So, yeah, the dude is...

Reviewed

Sarah Dougher

Harper's Arrow

By Rachel Devitt

Published: June 22, 2005

Harper's Arrow , which was originally conceived as a rumination on Homer's Odyssey , is an exploration of complicated, multiple meanings as seen through the lens of a Homerian metaphor about...

Reviewed

Scott Amendola Band

Believe

By Mark Keresman

Published: June 22, 2005

Bay Area drummer Scott Amendola has provided the beat for an exceedingly diverse lot, including folk and rock singers (Sonya Hunter, Carla Bozulich) and jazz instrumentalists (John Zorn, Charlie...

Reviewed

Backstreet Boys

Never Gone

By Rossiter Drake

Published: June 22, 2005

Yup, the boys are back in town, although they would argue that they were never gone -- hence this cleverly titled comeback album. Like a boomerang to the head, the Orlando, Fla., quintet has...

OK Then

The Talented Mr. Madlib

Hip hop sensation Otis Jackson Jr. has more personalities than albums (well, almost)

By Garrett Kamps

Published: June 22, 2005

I don't smoke much pot anymore. In the past year I've puffed the magic dragon maybe two or three times, and even then I've taken only a few teensy-weensy hits. The stuff makes me crazy. Immediately...

Bouncer

Weird Science

Bouncer visits Catalyst Cocktails to see if she can cause a reaction in her housemates

By Katy St. Clair

Published: June 22, 2005

Acatalyst is something that initiates the change of something else without being changed itself. So, like, if I put a bear trap at the intersection of Harrison and Sixth and then run over to the...

Hear This

Hear This

Neil Young, Arthur Lee, Coughs, White Mice, and Fountains of Wayne. Did you get all that?

By Justin F. Farrar, Mark Keresman, Maya Kroth

Published: June 22, 2005

As America's answer to Syd Barrett, Arthur Lee commands the attention of generations of rock music geeks. Though maintaining a sporadic solo career, he's (in)famous as the...

BeatBox

BeatBox

Funky house impresario Chris Fortier; "The Hottest Dyke March After Party" at the Rickshaw Stop

By Brock Keeling, Tamara Palmer

Published: June 22, 2005

In the notoriously fickle corner of the international dance music scene that focuses on progressive house rumblings of the sort popularized by superstar U.K. DJs like Sasha and John Digweed,...

Music

The Talented Mr. Madlib

Hip hop sensation Otis Jackson Jr. has more personalities than albums (well, almost)

By Garrett Kamps

Published: June 22, 2005

I don't smoke much pot anymore. In the past year I've puffed the magic dragon maybe two or three times, and even then I've taken only a few teensy-weensy hits. The stuff makes me crazy. Immediately...

Eat

Steak Out

When you crave a big hunk of meat, Alfred's is the place (since 1928)

By Meredith Brody

Published: June 22, 2005

For the first week or so that I was in Russia, enjoying the food, some familiar (three versions of chicken Kiev; many diverse cabbage borschts; terrific blini, whether served with caviar, smoked...

Social Grace

Goodbye, God Bless, and Good Riddance

Here it is: The final word on how to address envelopes

By Social Grace

Published: June 22, 2005

Dear Social Grace, We are having a lunch in our office next week for a member of our team who is being deployed with the military. We aren't happy about it, but we do want to show our support...

Film

24-Hour Pouty People

One day in the life of angst-ridden New Yorkers reveals a promising young director

By Bill Gallo

Published: June 22, 2005

So little time, so much trouble. In the 24-hour period that's dissected in Heights , the first feature from Harvard/Cambridge/USC film school-educated Chris Terrio, an aspiring Manhattan...