San Francisco Bay Guardian

Street Threads: Look of the Day

04.16.10 - 7:03 am | Ariel Soto |

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Today's Look: Amara, 18th Street and Guerrero

Street Threads

SF's Tax Day protests: Progressives 300, Teabaggers 4

04.15.10 - 3:54 pm | Steven T. Jones |

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Teabagger on the left, Raging Grannies on the right

The entire Tea Party, 25 minutes after it started.

For all the hype about Tax Day Tea Parties, include two in San Francisco this afternoon, it was progressive causes that put the most protesters on the streets today. In fact, at a 1 p.m. Tea Party outside City Hall, the teabaggers were way outnumbered by journalists and satirical “teabaggers” doing street theater. Read more »

noise

Major Lazer 'waan show you' his weapon of choice

04.15.10 - 3:40 pm | Amber Schadewald |

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Major Lazer-- playing Fri/15 at Mezzanine-- is a cartoon Jamaican commando who lost an arm during the secret Zombie War of 1984 and then was ever so fortunate to have the US Military replace his flesh with a prosthetic laser gun. Diplo and Switch, a.k.a. the producers behind the music mascot, have quite the imaginations and as they put it, an extensive love for the Jamaican music our country often forgets to credit. Major Lazer is their way of exploiting the exploitation.

The Daily Blurgh: Sugar & Sassy & Death & Taxes (Donald Duck remix)

04.15.10 - 3:16 pm | Matt Sussman |

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Curiosities, quirks, oddites, and items from around the Bay and beyond

The 53rd San Francisco International Film Festival takes place next week, but over in France preparations are being made to reset the international festival circuit clock when Cannes '10 kicks off in May. The full-line up has been announced, and I am already curious about the new titles from Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Godard, Gregg Araki, Hong Sangsoo, Alejandro González Iñárritu, and many more. Here's to some of these being snatched up for SFIFF 54. And yes, there were movies 54 years ago.

Blurgh

How to run your life: today's stand up comedians and The Believer weigh in

04.15.10 - 3:00 pm | Caitlin Donohue |

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As far as advice columns go, I’ve always been partial to E. Jean’s bon mots in Elle, if only for her use of the term ‘whipsawed by confusion.’ But for a swift, re-motivating kick to the rear, I’ve never read anything like the gems dished out by You’re a Horrible Person, But I Like You, The Believer’s new tome of celebrity counsel.

By way of example, here’s Zach Galifianakis’ “ways to kick-start a satisfying life.”

1. Start reading Teen People

2. Rent a stretch Hummer to go see Noam Chomsky speak

3. Model your life after the movie Sideways, but instead of wine make your passion Mountain Dew

4. Ask a state trooper where the closest gay bar is

5. Have a Super Bowl party with no television Read more »

Literature

Sit/lie debate takes a strange new turn

04.15.10 - 2:45 pm | Rebecca Bowe |

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Emails are rocketing around San Francisco political circles in anticipation of an April 21 meeting of the Democratic County Central Committee (DCCC), the policy-making body for the Democratic Party in San Francisco. Committee members are slated to discuss the city's proposed sit/lie ordinance, a controversial measure backed by Mayor Gavin Newsom and Police Chief George Gascon meant to afford police more powers for dealing with hostile youth occupying sidewalk space. Read more »

Andy Stern to quit SEIU

04.15.10 - 2:30 pm | Steven T. Jones |

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Just days after a San Francisco trial aired the ugly battle between Service Employees International Union President Andy Stern and some of his former top aides in the Bay Area, Stern has confirmed that he’s resigning after 38 years in the movement, 14 as head of SEIU.Read more »

Labor

On Tax Day, are Americans getting our money's worth?

04.15.10 - 10:04 am | Steven T. Jones |

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Editor's Note: While the teabaggers try to claim Tax Day as a national day of protest against government and taxes, San Francisco author and activist Steven Hill (the father of the city's ranked choice voting system) offers a different perspective, noting that it isn't taxes and government that we should be so angry about today, but how little we get for them, thanks largely to right-wing opposition to expanding public services

By Steven Hill
Most Americans seem to regard April 15 -- the day income tax returns are due to the Internal Revenue Service -- as a recurring tragedy akin to a Biblical plague. Particularly this year, with US government deficits soaring, everyone from the teabaggers to Fox News and Senate Republicans are sounding the alarm about a return to "big government." Recently former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani even stated that President Obama was moving us towards -- gasp -- European socialism. Read more »

Street Threads: Look of the Day

04.15.10 - 7:49 am | Ariel Soto |

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Today's Look: Brody, Dolores Park

Street Threads

noise

SanFolk Disco's blazing neo-folk collision

04.14.10 - 4:40 pm | Caitlin Donohue |

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JL Stiles would like it if we all just appreciated what we’ve got a little more.

“If you look at the new artists that have come out of San Francisco recently, we’re got some really innovative people. But in the belly of the beast, traction is not easy to come by. The great artists, someone discovers them and cashes out on their genius, and then they’re touring all over and just come back every once in awhile,” says the mathematician/musician/creator of the new neo folk concert series San Folk Disco, which kicks off Thur/15 at Café Du Nord. Read more »

The Daily Blurgh: It lies beneath

04.14.10 - 4:22 pm | Matt Sussman |

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Curiosities, quirks, oddites, and items from around the Bay and beyond

What has risen may sink, and what has sunk may rise: "Years ago, when San Francisco was called Yerba Buena, a lake covered parts of the Mission. Washerwoman's Lagoon flowed through the Marina. The Sans Souci Creek traced a path now known to bicyclists as The Wiggle.

Blurgh

Teabaggers: Angry, ignorant, and proud of it

04.14.10 - 3:22 pm | Steven T. Jones |

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As the teabaggers hit the streets again on April 15 to shout their denunciations of taxes and government, a new poll in the New York Times confirms what most of us knew: these people are angrier, more conservative, and less informed than the average American – a deadly combination.Read more »

Conservative

Appetite: A course of courses

Butchering, searing, and relishing with gusto at Marche

04.14.10 - 3:06 pm | Virginia Miller |

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On a sunny Saturday morning, 3/27 in Menlo Park, Chef Guillaume Bienaime led a small group of us through cooking a five course meal, finishing with a leisurely lunch, all in Marche's well-outfitted kitchen and dining room. Groggy upon arrival -- it was 10am; not early, but I had to make it down from the city -- Guillame was steaming cappuccinos and serving awesome banana dark chocolate scones to get us properly fueled for a couple hours of cooking. Guillame and staff are about as laidback it gets. Read more »

Josh Wolf in the eye of the storm (again)

04.14.10 - 2:55 pm | Rebecca Bowe |

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Josh Wolf has landed in hot water again -- this time in connection with his reporting from inside the student occupation at Wheeler Hall on the University of California Berkeley campus to protest budget cuts. Read more »

noise

Beach House holds the keys to comfort

04.14.10 - 1:05 pm | Amber Schadewald |

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Children often favor a stuffed animal or blankie as a source of comfort, but as an adult, security is found in much less predictable places. Maybe it's your favorite cup of tea, your lover's dirty t-shirt, a night-time drive or an album that never fails to help you regain balance. For me, it's Beach House -- playing tonight at Bimbo's 365 -- and for the band's members, their comfort comes by a collection of keys.