Six months ago, Javae Reed could hardly have pictured himself as part of the solution to the problems that plague the East Oakland community where he grew up. Fresh off an incarceration in Reno (Reed had relocated temporarily to be with his mom) on charges of robbery, the 19 year old didn’t have a history of positive association with the system. But thanks to Youth Uprising, a youth advocacy non-profit -- which celebrates its fifth anniversary with a gala fundraiser Tues/25 -- Javae has landed a job, and got his driver’s license. Read more »

Facial hair isn't something that Xavier Marvel grows for the glory. This is his life. “I didn't decide to go to the championships and then grow my musketeer,” says the dashing Marvel, who will represent the Bay Area at the upcoming 2010 National Beard and Mustache Championships in Bend, Oregon (June 5). I spoke to him recently on the phone, painfully divorced from seeing his follical glory in person. “I already had it. The competition is not the reason for my facial hair, it's just sort of a bonus.” Read more »

Repurposed streetcars perch haphazardly in dunes not yet cowed by asphalt and the Java Beach coffeeshops. They’re homes to a community of urban escapists and artists. Some of them have front porches, some of them house bicycle clubs. It’s like a Dali painting, it’s like the boxcar children -- but it’s also an accurate picture of the first non-indigenous inhabitants of the Sunset, on whom local historian Woody LaBounty has written an awesome book, Carville-by-the-Sea. 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 »

Yuppies love jokes about homeless people.

Consider that a telling, if ancillary, lesson I learned at last night’s Conan O’Brien “Legally Prohibited From Being Funny on Television” tour, which continues tonight, Fri/23.

In the wake of O’Brien’s sacking from his late night gig at NBC earlier this year, the show marked a return to relevancy for the comedian. His comeback seemed to resonate with the younger, upper middle crowd at the Nob Hill Masonic Center, many of whom are no doubt fighting to maintain their own $79.50 comedy show lifestyle in the face of economic shittiness and uncertain employment. Read more »

Gosh, you think. Charles Barkley just looks so dapper in his doggie vest/pocket watch/monocle ensemble. I wish more people could share in the joy his beauty brings me!

First of all, thanks for considering the rest of us. Secondly, Mr. Barkley’s time to shine has come. Just bring him down to Duboce Park this Sat/17 for Dogfest 2010, McKinley elementary school’s fundraiser excellent. The Fest offers a chance to, once and for all, determine that his bark is better, his coat is shinier, and y’all are two more identical peas in a pod than that Boston terrier and her owner down the street, those bitches. Read more »