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6 Easter treats for adults

03.27.12 - 11:43 am | Soojin Chang |
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Trust us, this holiday can be fun -- and not just in the annual Hunky Jesus contest sense (although that's pretty adult-entertaining as well). Here are some suggestions for grown-up hoppin' around as April 8 approaches. 

>>Boozy Easter chocolates 

Why eat a hollow rabbit when you could nosh on white chocolate ganache infused with fresh lime and anejo tequila? Why chew on a tasteless Peep when you could have brown sugar-caramel laced with Kentucky bourbon? Why would you ever eat a plain chocolate egg when you could have Moet and Chandon Champagne blended with dark chocolate into a creamy, velvety dream? This conversation is over, check out Christopher Elbow's local chocolate offerings for your snuggle-bunny (before last call.)   Read more »

Wicka wicka

HERBWISE: Butane, beware. We present to you, the hemp wick

02.28.12 - 4:12 pm | Caitlin Donohue |
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HERBWISE I absolutely hated the hemp wick the first time I saw one on of my stoner friends' lighters – and oh yes, at the moment this particular product will only show up in connection with your most stoner of friends. 

“What the hell is that?” They were sparking a joint with this awkwardly long waxed hemp string that they'd wrapped around the torso of their lighter. 

I was an idiot. I apologize, hemp wicks. Now I know you only have my best interests at heart. Read more »

Buy local: yoga edition

Drop that Lululemon and kit yourself up with these nearby retailers

02.23.12 - 1:08 pm |
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YOGA Walking into Bay Area yoga studios can sometimes feel like being subsumed into a cult of Lululemon, Yogitoes, and Gaiam. Yoga means big bucks these days, and most everyone seems to be sporting the same few brands while getting their warrior on. Yogic ideology espouses non-materialism and self-acceptance, yet it's hard not want to fit in. Fortunately, there are lots of options that can get you out of big brand conformity and into stylie yoga gear that supports local vendors and designers. Read more »

The Performant: Science, Honor, Psychogeography

02.09.12 - 1:41 pm | Nicole Gluckstern |
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The Phenomenauts at Rickshaw Stop. Photo by Nicole Gluckstern
The Phenomenauts at Rickshaw Stop. Photo by Nicole Gluckstern
The Phenomenauts at Rickshaw Stop. Photo by Nicole Gluckstern
The Phenomenauts at Rickshaw Stop. Photo by Nicole Gluckstern
California Delta tapestry by Adrian Mendoza at Alley Cat Books. Photo by Nicole Gluckstern
Bar map by Geoff Horne at Alley Cat Books. Photo by Nicole Gluckstern
Bar map (detail) by Geoff Horne at Alley Cat Books. Photo by Nicole Gluckstern
Percussionists jam at Alley Cat Books. Photo by Nicole Gluckstern

The Phenomenauts and Alley Cat Books shoot for the moon.

Trapped in a world they didn’t create, the spacecraft-garage band known to us as The Phenomenauts must surely come from a more evolved time and place, as evidenced by the spiffiness of their natty uniforms -- and the electric jolt of their stage shows. As refinement and heroism (the band motto is “Science and Honor”) are qualities in tragically short supply among your run-of-the-mill rock groups, bands which contain both are bound to stand out, with or without the additions of attention-grabbing technical flourishes such as pinpoint lasers, billows of stage fog, and the custom-built Streamerator 2000, which shoots festive streamers of toilet paper out onto the frenetic crowd. Speaking of frenetic, I love a band that can make San Franciscans dance as if possessed by dervishes with hyperkinesis. For that feat alone, they deserve an intergalactic medal for courage in the face of cosmic indifference.

Read more »

Downtown action: Sex shop Feelmore510 celebrates one year of community pleasure

02.07.12 - 2:01 pm | Ali Lane |
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The sex shop Feelmore510 is located on the corner of Oakland's Telegraph and 17th streets, across from an Obama campaign office, in between a pawn shop and the oldest African-American owned shoe store in town. The neighborhood is in transition, a place with old roots and a lot of new blooms – most businesses on this stretch of Telegraph opened within the last five years. Feelmore510 will celebrate its one-year anniversary Sun/12 when owner Nenna Joiner helps host Town Love, a new party at Hibiscus' Rock Steady. Read more »

"Toto, I don't think we're in Kansas anymore": Good Vibrations' company leaders on getting big

01.17.12 - 9:52 am | Caitlin Donohue |
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What will be the San Francisco-in-the-aughtteens equivalent of the creation of Good Vibrations in the Mission District in 1977? Let's hope some fresh new sexuality invention is fomenting that will be rocking our beds in three decades with the robustness that Good Vibes has shown. From that initial single location, the well-lit place for women to shop for vibrators has expanded to encompass not only six brick-and-mortar shops (five in the Bay Area, one in Massachusetts) -- but also a robust online business that has taken the original founders' dreams of teaching America how to have safer, better sex and made it a reality. In 2007, the one-time worker-owned co-op turned corporation was sold to GVA-TWN, a Cleveland, Ohio sex toy company. 

But the engineers behind the Good Vibes brand say it hasn't stopped growing. Last week, on the occasion of the brand's new branch opening (on Lakeshore Avenue in Oakland Jan. 28, details below) the Guardian conducted email interviews with the company's chief operating officer Jackie Strano and staff sexologist Carol Queen. The woman waxed pleasurably -- dammit, now everything is sounding dirty -- on the company's possible digital education programs of the future, Carol Queen shared her views on a future with a Good Vibes location in every American city, plus we reveal what the hell a SESA is, and how it can help improve your orgasms. Read more »

Bike lane runway

WINTER LOOKS: Where to shop for two-wheeled winter fashion

01.11.12 - 7:30 am | Caitlin Donohue |
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WINTER LOOKS I spend a lot of time convincing my friends that we should ride our bikes places, and the main pushback I get is due to the fact that they don't want to look like they just got off a bike.

It's faulty reasoning. Leaving aside how attractive environmental awareness is, anyone who has ever checked out the Vélo Vogue style blog or the global family of Copenhagen Chic websites knows that a bike can make an already-stylish outfit look sexy in a precarious, fly-by-night way. Think about watching someone run gracefully in heels.Read more »

Fix up, look sharp

WINTER LOOKS: Seven new menswear shops will spruce your presentation 

01.11.12 - 7:23 am | Marke B. |
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WINTER LOOKS Drop your Zappos, gentlemen, it's time to score some 2012 flash at the brick and mortars. Read more »

Create and destroy

WINTER LOOKS: Collin Weber is the designer to the (garage rock) stars

01.11.12 - 7:19 am | Emily Savage |
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WINTER LOOKS You might have spotted Collin Weber running through the Mission on the way to the Knockout, frantic, with a bag full of satin bows to complete a trio of Sailor Moon costumes. Or perhaps you've seen his handy-work elsewhere, in the colorful capes and pointed hats Shannon and the Clams wear in their video for "Sleep Talk" or the sixties striped shifts the Dirty Cupcakes sport in "I Want It (Your Love)."Read more »

Look sharp!

WINTER LOOKS: Our winter fashion guide turns you out with puddle-proof bike gear, fresh menswear options, rock 'n' roll clothiers, and more

01.10.12 - 7:27 pm |
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Yes yes, we know it's been unseasonably balmy of late in our city by the bay. But mark our words, fashionistas -- winter, it comes. And the mark of an impeccably-styled gent or lady is their preparedness for any situation; cloudy, sunny, rainy -- or more likely when speaking of San Francisco, anything in between. To that end: our Winter Looks issue. It's chockful of everything you need to look luxe in low temps, from magnificent menswear, to bike outfits you can pedal and preen in. Read more »