Archive Search

Feature

Whistleblower

By most accounts, David Kessler's four years as UCSF's medical school dean were a rip-roaring success. So why was he fired?

By Ron Russell

Published: April 9, 2008

In a cafe near his Pacific Heights home, David Kessler — who weighs maybe 160 pounds soaking wet — is expounding in a scholarly fashion on the causes of obesity, the subject of the...

Sucka Free City

Tori Spelling Meets Her Drag Queen Doppelganger in S.F.

By Evan James

Published: April 9, 2008

Most drag queens only dream of meeting the teenage soap-opera stars to which their stage names pay twisted homage. For one depraved female impersonator by the name of Suppositori Spelling, fate...

Matt Smith

Cruise Control

Public health advocates want gay hookup Web sites to promote safe sex.

By Matt Smith

Published: April 9, 2008

For public health advocates, the Internet, and its ability to spread disease through anonymous sex hookups, is the new tobacco. Just as the "right to smoke" as an important civil liberty has been...

Sucka Free City

Olympic Torch Protesters Pump Money Into the Local Economy

By Lauren Smiley

Published: April 9, 2008

This week's Olympic torch relay is expected to attract thousands of tourists to San Francisco. It's also expected to attract thousands of protesters (including actor Richard Gere) denouncing...

Sucka Free City

UCSF Is First Hospital in California with a Musician in Residence

By Tamara Palmer

Published: April 9, 2008

The typical sounds of a hospital — metered beeps and muffled shuffling — do little to ease young patients' anxiety, depression, and discomfort. But a funky change is in the ear at UCSF...

Reviewed

R.E.M.

Accelerate (Warner Brothers)

By Annie Zaleski

Published: April 9, 2008

R.E.M.'s fourteenth studio album, Accelerate , lives up to its speedy title. It's loud, quick, and dirty, spinning by so fast that it takes multiple listens to absorb. It's full of buzzing...

Music

Cat Power Under the Covers: A Listening Party with Jukebox Muses

By Andy Tennille

Published: April 9, 2008

"Hey, Andy, do me a favor. Move the phone away from the speaker, turn it down a little bit, and play it for me one more time." Daryl Brown sits quietly as I re-cue "Lost Someone" on my iTunes....

Reviewed

Gnarls Barkley

The Odd Couple (Atlantic)

By Ben Westhoff

Published: April 9, 2008

We expect a lot from our indie-ethos crossover pop stars nowadays, even from a duo as inspired as Gnarls Barkley, aka DJ Danger Mouse and rapper Cee-Lo. We expect guilt-free yet radio-worthy...

Music

Matador Records Skips Important Credit on Cat Power's Jukebox

By Andy Tennille

Published: April 9, 2008

Despite near-ubiquitous praise for Chan Marshall's Jukebox covers from the songwriters and performers interviewed for this story, there is one artist whose friends believe Marshall cheated her....

Reviewed

Finest Dearest

Finest Dearest (Bloodtown)

By Doug Wallen

Published: April 9, 2008

Your opinion of Finest Dearest may very well rest on how much you like '90s indie rock. An unabashed throwback to the lo-fi glory days of K Records and Kill Rock Stars, the San Francisco...

Music

Tift Merritt Faces the Unknown Overseas

By Michael D. Ayers

Published: April 9, 2008

In late 2005, North Carolina native Tift Merritt needed a break. She wanted to escape from her comfort zone. So she holed up in Paris for several months — not exactly a hotbed for country...

Reviewed

Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey

Lil Tae Rides Again (Hyena)

By Mark Keresman

Published: April 9, 2008

The lads comprising Tulsa's Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey — none of whom are named Jacob or Fred — are jazz musicians of a generation for whom rock, funk, and electronica are not anathema....

Music

Meat Beat Manifesto: The Past and Future of Electronic Music

By John Graham

Published: April 9, 2008

Perennially digging two feet deeper than superficial trends can earn an artist legendary underground status. Unfortunately, it may also cause the world to lose musicians beneath the mantles of...

Reviewed

Enon

Grass Geysers ... Carbon Clouds (Touch & Go)

By Mark Keresman

Published: April 9, 2008

Formerly a noise-rock vehicle for John Schmersal, Brooklyn's Enon is now a coed trio mixing shards 'n' sheets of noise with fuzzy production and bittersweet melodies. The shift evokes the...

Bouncer

The Naked Ape: Body Image and Baboons at Retox Lounge

By Katy St. Clair

Published: April 9, 2008

Seein' as I just love Planet of the Apes , along with all of its offspring (sequels, remake, TV show, merchandising), I was excited to recently watch Behind the Planet of the Apes , a 1998...

Hear This

Making Grown Indie Boys Weep: Xiu Xiu

By John Graham, Michael Alan Goldberg, Ernest Barteldes

Published: April 9, 2008

"Fuzz" is for Muppets — the abrasive garage-punk of Japan's King Brothers more closely resembles steel wool. While these self-proclaimed "blues aliens" occasionally use a light touch for a...

BeatBox

Gobbling Psychedelics with Stars of the Lid

By Tamara Palmer, Andy Tennille

Published: April 9, 2008

RJD2 (aka Philadelphia-based Ramble John Krohn) offers a much broader musical palette than the sparse bleeps of the little Star Wars robot that inspired his name. Primarily known for...

Eat

Izakaya? O Yes

Small plates but big flavors in Japantown.

By Robert Lauriston

Published: April 9, 2008

In Japan's informal, convivial izakayas, groups of friends or co-workers gather around a table for a few hours, knocking back large quantities of beer, sake, wine, shochu (sake's distilled...

Fresh Eats

New Restaurants

Published: April 9, 2008

A weekly listing of new restaurants around town. To recommend a spot, e-mail fresheats . Bar888: 888 Howard (at Fifth St., in the Intercontinental Hotel), 616-6566. SOMA . Grappa and...

Film

Smart People Depicts Dumbass Brainiacs

By Robert Wilonsky

Published: April 9, 2008

Smart people got no reason to live — and, sure, that's not quite how Randy Newman sang it, but the point still stands. Because in Noam Murro's directorial bow — one of those Sundance...