Stop signs, moving automobiles, propriety be damned. If you have a bike and it's after 5 p.m. on the last Friday of the month in the city, pedal hard down to the Ferry Building 'cause it's time for some Critical Mass action. The monthly ride, meant to call attention to how tough it is to be on a bicycle in the city, has garnered its share of frustrated honks and hateration, but despite it has grown to include thousands of two wheeled participants.

The troops rally before the 6:30 start (Photo by Troy Holden)

This being the end of October, the spooookiest time of the year, Friday's ride is dubbed 'Critical Masquerade' and marked by a bigger flash mob than usual. Think lots and lots of costumes on bikes, experiencing varying degrees of mobility.

Because there's nothing like jumping a curb dressed as Delta Burke on 'Designing Woman.' Because you're trying to clear some caloric space out for all the mini-Twix and Sugar Babies. It's big and bad and the police can't shut it down because I'm fairly sure it's already illegal. So slap on some flair, throw your refreshments in your basket and start pushing pedal down to the Embarcadero.

Fri/30, 6 p.m., free
Justin Herman Plaza (in front of Ferry Building)
www.criticalmass.wikia.com

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Posted by SFBG at 05:23 PM | Comments (0)

Text and photos by Caitlin Donohue

Shop til you drop at your local prison... I mean- Goodwill!

“This is the best kept secret in San Francisco,” explains a gentleman who is shoving trash bags full of used clothes into his car. To his side, a bevy of homeless folk rummage through a newly dropped off pallet of purses, most of them spilling to the 11th St. sidewalk. They make it clear I am not to join them. Perhaps this place is a diamond in the rough, but there’s no way in hell I’m getting my Halloween costume here.

I’ll tell you what I don’t need; a hermetically sealed, corporately engineered, vastly overpriced sexy witch/hippie/dinosaur getup from Target. Not my bag. A good ‘stume is all about craft. I love the thrill of the hunt and on any day, for whatever reason, I love thrift stores.

But SF ain’t an easy town for used clothes- you find a lot of ‘vintage’ prices under the ‘thrift’ moniker. So I was all a-flutter to go to the Goodwill As Is store, located around the corner from their mega shop on South Van Ness. The As Is store is a “donation outlet,” a Goodwill warehouse supplying humanity’s offerings direct to you, without the unnecessary bother of employees “sorting,” “fixing,” or “cleaning” the items.

Right this way for endless haggling and questionable business motivation!

Now, I am not what you’d call a “squeamish” person. I’ve trawled places where regular shoppers wear rubber gloves and unproven urban legends swirl about of dead cats found in the clothing trolleys. But this store struck me as something between the black market and a Greyhound bus station.

Continue reading "Not for beginners: Goodwill ‘As Is’ gets put on notice" »

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Posted by SFBG at 03:32 PM | Comments (1)

SFBG photog Ariel Soto scoops SF street fashion. See the previous Look of the Day here.

Today's Look: Will, 22nd Street and Valencia

Tell us about your look: "Sounds good!"

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Posted by SFBG at 11:52 AM | Comments (0)

By Caitlin Donohue

Where is Cindy Sheehan these days? The 2005 Nobel Peace Prize nominee/mom was all up in the news a few years ago what with the campouts in Bush's front yard and political campaigns. Inside scoop: this Halloween she'll be kicking up her heels here in the city on behalf of a dragged-up peaceful protest to remember.

Spend your Halloween advocating for more choppers with pink bows in their propellers

Yes, the Peace Mom herself will be tramping about on stage as George W. Bush himself, at the “Make Drag Not War” benefit drag revue, hosted by Artist Malcom Drake. The event is a benefit for Dialogues Against Militarism, a group sending a delegation to Israel and Palestine to meet with peaceniks on all sides of the Gaza Strip conflict.

Stephen Funk of Iraq Veterans Against the War was an organizer of the event, which features a debut drag performance by 12 of his gung-ho veterans. Stephen says the boys are excited to rock the stage, if understandably a little nervous. “The performance will be based on stories from the military perspective. These are significant issues, and instead of sitting in a circle and talking about them, we’ll be reenacting them in a way that’s more entertaining.”


SF Boylesque: Using their good looks to noble ends. Photo by Tony Perez

Bravo, boys. Our troops will be sharing the stage with Raya Light, Suppositori Spelling and all male burlesque beauties SF Boylesque. A few of our intrepid performers leave for the Middle East tour early Sunday morning. Shall we send them off with a bad hangover and good memories?

Sat/31 7:30 p.m. (doors at 7 p.m.), $15-$20
Dance Mission Theater
3316 24th St., SF
www.againstmilitarism.org/buytickets

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Posted by SFBG at 02:54 PM | Comments (0)

SFBG photog Ariel Soto scoops SF street fashion. See the previous Look of the Day here.

Today's Look: Ulrika, 20th Street and Mission

Tell us about your look: "These are boots from Thrift Town, which is where I'm headed right now. I made this bag from cloth that my friend brought back from Bali."

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Posted by SFBG at 02:12 PM | Comments (0)

Editors note: Bay Guardian Executive Editor and acrostic master Tim Redmond has a bad 30-year addiction to mystery/crime/thriller books. He's decided that he might as well put this terrible habit to productive use by giving these sometimes awful, sometimes entertaining and -- on rare occasion -- significant works of mass-market literature the Joe Bob Briggs treatment.

Pursuit of Honor
Vince Flynn
(Simon and Schuster, 431 pages, $27.99)

By Tim Redmond

This deeply delusional author seems to think he's the next Tom Clancy, with a counterterrorism-operative hero named Mitch Rapp, a love for all that is military and secretive, and a political agenda that leans toward Attila the Hun. He once devoted an entire book to the premise that the president of the United States should be murdered because he refused to de-fund the Rural Electrification Administration. In case you need any perspective, Glen Beck calls Pursuit of Honor "fantastic."

Rapp starts out this episode by beating up a stereotypical liberal would-be CIA reformer who -- guess what -- turns out to have a "personality disorder." In fact, Rapp discovers, "It's not uncommon for people with this disorder to hire lawyers." Then he beats up his best buddy who is too much of a wimp to kill the CIA inspector general, who isn't with the program.

It gets better. You've got bad Arabs right from Central Casting, paranoid terrorists who kill innocent federal (CIA) employees, female senators who love abortions and hate the CIA, and a nifty reference to ol' Joe McCarthy, who "may have been a drunk and an ass, but that didn't make him wrong."

Two broken Russian knees. One broken Russian nose. Glass-tube-up-the-dick-and-break-it torture. Nutty Al-Qaeda guys shooting Midwesterners from an RV. But not enough plot to even make this feel like waste-of-time fun.

Clancy's a right-wing loon, too, but at least he has a phenomenal talent for constructing a story. Poor Mr. Flynn isn't in that league.

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Posted by SFBG at 01:29 PM | Comments (0)

By Megan Gordon

This week, I pay homage to two very different sweet shops in two very different neighborhoods: The Mission and The Marina. Wherever you live or work, I say take advantage of the next time you need a little comfort food, sneak out of the office early, and stop by one of these places for a cookie or a cream puff and a glass of milk. Maybe you can even find someone to read you a story while you take a nap.

Pacific Puffs
Don’t get me wrong. I love a good chocolate layer cake (or a slice of it, that is) after a long day. It’s rich, reliable, and won’t let you down—three elements of daily life that I can’t say I often experience. But sometimes a basic, no-frills cream puff and a glass of milk gets a girl through the afternoon like nothing else. Enter Pacific Puffs: a relatively new Cream Puffery in the Marina, serving up a little simple satisfaction each day. And really, there’s nothing more feel-good than a few homegrown brothers starting a cream puff business in the heart of the Marina using a recipe that’s been in their family for decades.

Trent and Rhys Carvolth bake the puffs in an off-site kitchen in Bernal Heights in small batches and sell them at their Union Street location. When you visit, you’ll have an important decision to make: whipped cream or custard filling? Those who may be turned off by the cloyingly sweet cream filling of an unnamed local competitor may gravitate towards the whipped cream-filled puffs. But for the true puff-aficionado, the Classic Cream Puff is the way to go. It’s made with traditional choux pastry (a light dough consisting of butter, water, flour and eggs) and filled with a mixture of vanilla custard and whipped cream, topped with a chocolate glaze.

Continue reading "Sweet Tooth: Afternoon delights" »

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Posted by SFBG at 06:21 PM | Comments (0)

by Caitlin Donohue

“From Harriet Tubman to Susan B. Anthony to Amelia Boynton Robinson, faithful women throughout American history have shaken up the status quo, driving some of our country's most remarkable examples of broad political and social change.”

Daisy Khan touts some good ol' hope and change at her lecture tomorrow

Daisy Khan is well placed to comment on the efficacies of faith in social activism- her own name would not be too incongruous to add to the list of observing freedom fighters above. Khan’s struggle, however, is not for the Underground Railroad or universal suffrage, but rather for a Muslim religion that is fair and just for its members and has a positive relationship with the global community.

It is a tall order. But the key to a better world is identifying your allies, and Khan has identified two as the most crucial to the task at hand in her upcoming lecture “Countering Extremism in Youth and Women’s Leadership in Islam.”

Continue reading "Yes we (Daisy) Khan" »

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Posted by SFBG at 11:27 AM | Comments (0)

SFBG photog Ariel Soto scoops SF street fashion. See the previous Look of the Day here.

Today's Look: Nat, 21st Street and Mission

Tell us about your look: "I just got these clothes in the Mission. It's all fresh."

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Posted by SFBG at 10:28 AM | Comments (0)

by Caitlin Donohue

Jose Posada’s classic Day of the Dead “Calavera” engraving

The sharpening chill, nights stretching longer past their summer shortness- in autumn the world as we know it begins to draw in upon itself towards winter’s temporary death. In Mexico, this moment is celebrated as Day of the Dead, a time when the lines blur between this world and the next. Families gather together to remember and treasure lost loves and try their best to tempt them back for a visit.

How do they throw down the welcome mat? This is Mexico we’re talking about, so of course their answers are art and fiesta. There are mock altars decorated with colorful tissue paper and skulls made of sugar. Playful calaveras are written, macabre epitaphs that make fun of your still-living friends. Parades and processionals fill the main streets and over at the cemetery, people are setting up tailgating parties on their dead friends’ graves. It’s a time to strut with a smile in front of death and subvert sadness.

Back to you (you like that, don’t you), because this is also San Francisco we’re talking about. Here are two incredible ways to wild on D.O.T.D:

How it went down last year at the SF Symphony’s Day of the Dead concert

Continue reading "Partying with the dead heads" »

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Posted by SFBG at 10:20 AM | Comments (0)