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Feature

A Study in Size

Three years ago, San Francisco launched an experiment with a new kind of school. It worked. So why isn't the district pursuing it?

By Ryan Blitstein

Published: May 3, 2006

Travis Fenech struts down the hallway of the June Jordan School for Equity in the Excelsior, copping the self-assured swagger of a rapper. His pants hang several inches below his waist, and a black...

Matt Smith

Doublespeak With Forked Tongue

When dealing with Chris Daly and his political objectives, it's best to leave reality behind

By Matt Smith

Published: May 3, 2006

Rarely does testimony at official City Hall gatherings meet high literary standards of eloquence and pith. But then few forums want so badly for such qualities as a Board of Supervisors committee...

News

Lifestyle Check

A gay ex-cop buys a ranch in Gold Country and finds his own version of Brokeback Mountain

By Ron Russell

Published: May 3, 2006

Ken Cantamout is an 18-year San Francisco Police Department veteran turned private investigator who retired from police work in 2003 so that he could devote more time to being a cowboy. As a...

Sucka Free City

But Can He Predict the Weather?

By Ron Russell

Published: May 3, 2006

If you think there's something different about the address above the entrance of KRON television headquarters, the fortresslike building at 1001 Van Ness Avenue, you're right. The number 552 has...

Sucka Free City

Who's the Man?

By Martin Kuz

Published: May 3, 2006

In the village known as Manhood, there are many breeds of male: the masculine, the metrosexual, the Scooter Libby. But if there's a mayor of Manhood, one guy who represents modern man in all his...

Sucka Free City

A Pigeon Noir

By Justin F. Farrar

Published: May 3, 2006

Supposedly long gone were my sullied days of crime, days spent as a young hoodlum living in some dying rust belt 'burg in upstate New York, cruising around town in a cherry-red T-top Camaro and...

Letters

Letters to the Editor

Week of Wednesday, May 3, 2006

Published: May 3, 2006

Code Violation Oh, come on. Does this paper look like the work of people who fly business class?: Let's be honest: The Da Vinci Code is fervent trash. Dan Brown has made millions with...

Music

House Work

S.F.'s Italianjob connects the world's dance floor

By Tamara Palmer

Published: May 3, 2006

Eleven out of 10 disco dollies agree: The dusty, insular San Francisco house music scene needs foundational upkeep, some substantive spackle with a little sparkle. Fortunately, Italianjob is ready...

Music

Goldfrappuccino

U.K. electro's great white hope

By Eric Davidson

Published: May 3, 2006

Goldfrapp singer/namesake Allison Goldfrapp began as your garden-variety British art school trend-spotter. After dabbling with multimedia creations and landing on some hep remix ditties, she...

Music

Beat This

RJD2's instinctive production style

By Eric K. Arnold

Published: May 3, 2006

Think it's easy being a dope producer? Think again. Sure, it may seem like fun to make blazing tracks for MCs to spit over and moody, instrumental pastiches, but most knob-twiddlers tend to be...

Music

Misc. Reviews

If it's kinda, sorta music-related, we'll review it. This week: Trap Door.

By Dave Pehling

Published: May 3, 2006

It's a given that on the average week more impossibly rare funk and soul wax passes through the hands of "Cool" Chris Veltri — the proprietor of record emporium Groove Merchant mentioned in...

Let's Get Killed

Getting zoned with Psychic Ills

By Jennifer Maerz

Published: May 3, 2006

Call it attack of the drones, but left-field rock is getting downright hypnotic. Skyscraping walls of shoegazing sound aren't just getting constantly re-erected; they're lulling listeners into...

Reviewed

The Herms

Record Machine

By Justin F. Farrar

Published: May 3, 2006

The Herms' full-length debut, Record Machine , has a fitting title. Most indie rock bands these days are like computers, extracting hooks 'n' sounds from their fave records and craftily...

Reviewed

Morrissey

Ringleader of the Tormentors

By Sam Mickens

Published: May 3, 2006

Morrissey's last record, the commercial comeback You Are the Quarry , was a giant sitting duck for sellout accusations, due in no small part to the thick sheen of Blink 182 vet Jerry Finn's...

Reviewed

Islands

Return to the Sea

By Frances Reade

Published: May 3, 2006

After releasing one silly-pop masterpiece in 2003, Montreal's short-lived indie stars the Unicorns vanished in a deluge of gushy critical slobber. From beneath this gooey sea, former Unicorns...

Hear This

Juveniles, Drive-Bys, and Melting U.F.O.s

By Eric Davidson, Jonathan Zwickel, Mike Rowell, Tamara Palmer

Published: May 3, 2006

With indie-bred insecurities declawing most guitar-based bands these days, there are so few "Damn!" moments left anymore. The Duke Spirit 's debut, Cuts Across the Land , feels like a double...

BeatBox

Say ciao to a new Sunday-night weekly

By Brock Keeling, Tamara Palmer

Published: May 3, 2006

After spending well over a decade spinning records throughout the world and representing top European super-clubs like Renaissance and Cream, DJ/producer and undeniably gorgeous lady Sandra...

Eat

An Omnivore's Dilemma

Meat two ways: pricey barbecue at T-Rex, bargain Moroccan at Tajine

By Meredith Brody

Published: May 3, 2006

When pressed to justify my omnivorous eating patterns by those who choose to restrict their grazing, I've always replied, a trifle flippantly, that I'm pleased with my place in the food chain,...

Fresh Eats

A weekly listing of new restaurants around town

Published: May 3, 2006

To recommend a spot, e-mail fresheats @ sfweekly.com . Abigail's Bakery and Cafe: 2120 Greenwich (at Fillmore), 929-8889. Marina . California bistro, brunch. Amina's Pizzeria: 655...

Film

Technicolor Yuan

China's most expensive film looks lovely but feels empty

By Michael Atkinson

Published: May 3, 2006

Coming closer even than Zhang Yimou's House of Flying Daggers to resembling the Chinese cover art for an Iron Butterfly album, Chen Kaige's The Promise is psychedelia extremis. Hardly a minute...