I went to Gamin’s (1335 18th St., SF), seeking a veggie burger and fries to pierce my Seis de Mayo nausea fog -- I hardly expected to find a beauty cure. Yet there it was in the refrigerator case. And it was just for me! Behold, the energy drink… for the ladies.

Yes, it’s Go Girl energy drink, available in Go Girl Bliss (yerba mate and peach tea), Go Girl Glo (aloe vera), and Go Girl Sugar Free (uh, sucralose). They max out at 35 calories, are high in taurine and “super citrimax” -- and what’s this? The can tells me it’s “good for healthy skin!" Score! Read more »

Back when he was a television star in El Salvador, Luis Echegoyen could have little guessed that fifty year later he’d be performing in his own poetry reading in San Francisco of classic Spanish authors (Sat/8, Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts). But it's not the least probable feat that legendary Spanish language Bay area news anchor Echegoyen has accomplished -- after all, poetry is his retirement project. Read more »

Greg Long stands behind his guitar-shaped spatula. “We want to make things people have joy and humor in, but aren’t embarrassed to have lying around the house,” says the co-founder of Gama-Go, a homegrown clothing and houseware store which, judging by its one year victory lap/anniversary party going down Sat/8, seems to have struck a cord with those looking for a little hip whimsy in their potholders and change purses. Read more »

 all photos by Erik Anderson

“Can you wait about fifteen minutes?” Brian Goggin asks as he climbs into the harness that will lift him up to the fourth floor of the abandoned building on Sixth and Howard. Out of respect for this remarkable artist (and rapt awe his elevation has on the observer), we wait, standing to the side on the pavement below. Goggin’s restoration of his iconic piece of public art, “Defenestration,” bears witnessing. Read more »

It’s a big weekend for celebration. May 1st is International Worker’s Day, it's the day when winter has finally left the Northern Hemisphere building, and marks the dawn dances of the pagan Beltane. All in all, it’s an apt time for rejoicing in the people and places what that make our world beautiful.

And given that we’re in the Bay, one of the Earth’s great cradles of populist art, there may be no better place to do that than CounterPULSE, the community art performance space that is celebrating 20 years (five in their current location) of helping cool artist do what they do. CounterPULSE has been sponsoring classes, performances, and residencies for some of our most progressive and exciting artists over the past decades -- and they're making it easy for you to throw some dough their way with three days of diverse, exciting programming that could really only happen here in San Francisco Read more »