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Baby you can drive my TAXI

Taxi Commission officials say hundreds of medallion holders aren’t driving cabs, and that’s against the law

By A.C. THOMPSON

Published: February 14, 2007

Piloting a squirrelly, rattle-prone Crown Victoria with worn rubber on the rims and little spring left in the shock absorbers, the cabbie prowls the deserted streets south of Market on a cold...

Matt Smith

Harboring a Land Bonanza

Do union members know their boss stands to benefit from turning their pension fund investment into a gambling casino?

By Matt Smith

Published: February 14, 2007

San Francisco Plumbers union boss Larry Mazzola's quest to turn a concert venue into an Indian gambling casino hit a significant roadblock last week as supervisors in Lake County unanimously...

Sucka Free City

The First Step

By Will Harper

Published: February 14, 2007

So Gavin Newsom is in rehab. And not just any rehab, but Delancey Street, a tough-love recovery program for hard-core homeless junkies and ex-cons. We were curious how the millionaire mayor would...

Sucka Free City

Blood Money

By Martin Kuz

Published: February 14, 2007

During the shit storm sometimes referred to as World War II, Franklin Roosevelt chided those who might seek to cash in on the carnage. "I don't want to see a single war millionaire created in the...

Sucka Free City

Stained Rep

By Robert Gammon, Will Harper

Published: February 14, 2007

The upcoming trial of Oakland Post Publisher Paul Cobb in San Francisco Superior Court should be, if nothing else, dramatic legal theater. Or at the very least, perhaps a good newspaper yarn....

Letters

Letters to the Editor

Week of 2-14-2007

Published: February 14, 2007

Tele-cons Phone sharks: I enjoyed reading Martin Kuz's article regarding the telecom scheme operated out of South San Francisco several years ago ["Pay to Play," Feb. 7]. However, the basic...

Music

Slicing the '60s

Papercuts' bittersweet California pop

By Jonah Flicker

Published: February 14, 2007

It's hard to hear the '60s-influenced, lo-fi indie pop of San Francisco's Papercuts and not want to wrap yourself up in their blanket of melancholic musical introspection. It's something Jason...

Music

The Golden Road

Pioneering freak-folkers Matt Valentine and Erika Elder

By Andy Beta

Published: February 14, 2007

A few years ago, slightly lost in Williamsburg, Va., I went through an unmarked door and into a stranger's living room for an intimate performance by ex-members of early '90s noise/folk/psych act...

Music

Hot Diggity Dog

Rock 'n' Roll Adventure Kids cook up lotsa fun

By Jennifer Maerz

Published: February 14, 2007

Some musicians carry the weight of the world on their guitar strings. What with this war and that relationship problem, there are plenty of wordsmiths channeling misery into hook-ready melodramas....

Music

Mixtape Shmixtape

Wherein we review Yay Area mixes of the day

By Tamara Palmer

Published: February 14, 2007

Normally this column is used to recommend local mixes worth hunting down. Since the last installment, though, a major national scandal has cut and scratched the mixtape world, possibly beyond...

Reviewed

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah

Some Loud Thunder (Clap Your Hands Say Yeah)

Garrett Kamps

Published: February 14, 2007

Why isn't anyone bringing up the Violent Femmes? It's because the Violent Femmes aren't cool. The Talking Heads are cool, which is why anyone who wants to knight a new band Artful and Cool reaches...

Reviewed

Psychic Ills

Early Violence (The Social Registry)

Dave Segal

Published: February 14, 2007

In 2006 no rock album spent more time augmenting my headspace than Psychic Ills' Dins . The Brooklyn quartet updated the heat-blasted, exploratory psychedelia of Texan '60s legends 13th Floor...

Reviewed

VA

HEAVYbreathing Vol. 1 Bite It!|HEAVYbreathing Vol. 2 Thrill Me!

Andy Beta

Published: February 14, 2007

Your roommates and neighbors will have a twofold reaction to the strains of you blasting these initial releases of the HEAVY breathing series. The first is that you have some willfully eclectic...

Bouncer

Drinking to the dead

Katy St. Clair

Published: February 14, 2007

"Bliss" is one of those words like "decadence" that describes a good time but is actually hiding something. For example, with decadence you will eventually have a bloody downfall, or an STD, or...

Hear This

Seattle art rock climax

By Hannah Levin, J. Niimi, J. Poet, Mike Rowell, Dave Segal

Published: February 14, 2007

Two of the Bay Area's more notable experimental rock upstarts are celebrating new releases this Friday. KIT is a quartet that wields guitars and sing-song female vocals to create spastic pop...

BeatBox

Sailing the seas of soft rock fondu

Brock Keeling, Jennifer Maerz, Tamara Palmer

Published: February 14, 2007

Next to peanut butter and chocolate, bigoted remarks and rehab, and baking soda and vinegar, almost nothing goes together quite as well as the wispy genres of lite jazz and lite rock. You can't...

Eat

Mi Amor

Let him count the ways this unique Italian restaurant won his heart

By Robert Lauriston

Published: February 14, 2007

This week, in honor of Valentine's Day, I offer this love letter to my favorite restaurant, Incanto. Full disclosure: A normal, anonymous review of the place would be impossible. I've been a...

Fresh Eats

A weekly listing of new restaurants around town

Published: February 14, 2007

A weekly listing of new restaurants around town. To recommend a spot, e-mail fresheats . Amélie: 1754 Polk (at Washington), 292-6916, www.ameliesf.com . Nob Hill . Wine bar, small...

Film

Spy vs. Spy

Billy Ray takes on another liar: FBI traitor Robert Hanssen

By Robert Wilonsky

Published: February 14, 2007

In December 2002 ABC's 20/20 ran a story on Eric O'Neill, an undercover surveillance specialist for the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The piece was titled "Spycatcher," because it was O'Neill...

Film

The Good East German

Aka: When your hero is a Stasi spy

By Rob Nelson

Published: February 14, 2007

We Americans complain of Big Brother's unblinking eye in the post-Patriot Act, corporate e-mail era — as well we should. But, as The Lives of Others makes plain, things could be worse. Set...