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Appetite: With Campo de Encanto, SF gets its own pisco

07.14.10 - 10:45 am | Virginia Miller |
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You might have heard? There's a new pisco on the streets "for bartenders, by bartenders": Encanto Pisco, created by Duggan McDonnell of Cantina, sommelier and spirits guru Walter Moore, and Peruvian master distiller Carlos Romero. Although an authentically Peruvian pisco (distilled -- and already making waves -- in Peru), it's a homegrown San Francisco product, a labor of love from locals who know their spirits. Read more »

The Performant: Shrouds Illuminated at the LAB and Garage

07.14.10 - 8:09 am | Nicole Gluckstern |
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Illuminated Forest: Forest and Soft Rock Garden by Suzanne Husky. Photo by Michael Smith
Illuminated Forest: Eastern Mole Cam. Video by Sam Easterson. Installation by Alan So. Photo by Thomas Pontaillier
Illuminated Forest: Installation by Ben Bracken, Agnes Szelag, Jorge Bachmann, Alan So
Illuminated Forest: Installation by Ben Bracken, Agnes Szelag, Jorge Bachmann, Alan So
Illuminated Forest: Installation by Ben Bracken, Agnes Szelag, Jorge Bachmann, Alan So
From "Comedy Ballet"
From "Comedy Ballet"
From "Comedy Ballet"

Nicole Gluckstern reports on the Bay Area arts and culture scene

It sounds a little strange, but I’ve been thinking about shrouds. Not in a morbid way, just in the practical sense. Mostly I wonder what kind of material gets used. Movie mummy shrouds always seem to be made of cheesecloth, but that strikes me as a little flimsy for a swaddled delivery into the afterlife. Actually, speaking of swaddling, doesn’t it seem a little curious that babies and corpses should be wrapped so similarly -- at least in the days before they invented the Tickle-Me-Elmo onesie?

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Street Threads: Look of the Day

07.14.10 - 7:45 am | Ariel Soto-Suver |
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Today's Look: Katrin and Kristoffer, Bannan and Green

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Up Mission Creek with Mark Matos and Os Beaches

07.13.10 - 5:20 pm | Nicole Gluckstern |
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 I had a “hold me closer, Tony Danza,” moment when I first heard the hyper-localized anthem “High Priest of the Mission,” on Mark Matos and Os Beaches’ 2009 Porto Franco release Words of the Knife. I thought Matos sang “the high priest of omission,” then I suspected that maybe he was singing “the high priest of submission,” which gave the song an entirely different slant. Read more »

Half-remembered kaleidescopes: the Jewish Film Festival's youngest storytellers

07.13.10 - 5:16 pm | Caitlin Donohue |
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Could the past be a kaleidescope, a pattern of images that shift with each disturbance of a sudden breeze... and if the shift is everywhere, how would we know?

-Alan Lightman

If heritage remains constant, what changes is the inheritors. In a project that will live in interactive kiosks at the Jewish Film Festival (Sat/24), as well as in our own Internet devices, young artists are using websites to tell tales that only last year would have taken the shape of a movie. Modernity, man. Their theme? “Half Remembered Stories,” subject matter that lends itself to the nebulous, fragmentary nature of our online lives.

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The woman remembered

Norma Talmadge shines at the San Francisco Silent Film Festival

07.13.10 - 4:26 pm | Dennis Harvey |
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The changeover from silent to sound cinema revolutionized the world's most popular entertainment form. As in most revolutions, some heads got lopped off. The industry saw this upheaval as a chance to clean house, getting rid of pricey or difficult talent by claiming they couldn't make the transition. The public went along, suddenly hungry for all things talking, singing, dancing, and new, eager to dismiss yesterday's favorites as old-fashioned.Read more »

At your cervix

07.13.10 - 3:50 pm | Andrea Nemerson |
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Dear Andrea: As long as I can remember, I've had a fascination with gyno play and playing doctor. I've grown more and more interested in the idea of cervical dilation/cervical insertions, but have been unable to find any literature on the subject. I understand that any cervical penetration has the possibility of causing cramps and/or other pain, but I am anxious and willing to experiment with this aspect of such play. Any advice?

Love, Stretch meRead more »

Whitman criticized for opposing high-speed rail

07.13.10 - 2:19 pm |
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By Brittany Baguio

Although Republican gubernatorial Meg Whitman claims job creation is one of her top priorities, she recently stated that she opposes the plan to build a high-speed rail system in California – a project that is being eagerly anticipated in San Francisco, its northern terminus. Read more »

Fix the BART police force - or disband it

07.13.10 - 1:24 pm | Guardian Editorial |
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18 months after a BART cop shot Oscar Grant, the transit agency still doesn't have effective police oversight

EDITORIAL Who murdered Oscar Grant? Part of the equation is the years of neglect of the BART Police. — Assembly Member Tom Ammiano

We're angry, too.

Angry that a police officer who shot and killed an unarmed man could wind up with little or no prison time. Angry that the news media whipped up such a fervor over the potential for a riot in Oakland that it almost guaranteed someone would show up and break a few windows. Angry that the jury who decided this case was 400 miles away and included no African Americans.

But mostly we're angry that 18 months after a BART cop shot Oscar Grant, the transit agency still doesn't have effective police oversight. And until the BART board recognizes that it still has 200 poorly trained, poorly supervised,* armed officers on the streets — and that this shooting wasn't an anomaly, it was simply the latest in a series of criminal acts by BART police officers that led to the deaths of innocent people — and until the BART Board starts treating this like the emergency that it is, the problems are going to continue.

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Board votes on Candlestick-Shipyard project EIR appeal today

07.13.10 - 1:01 pm | Sarah Phelan |
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David Thom, Tiffany Bohee and Michael Cohen (left to right) prepare to testify at Land Use Committee hearing
Project map shows Parcel UC-3 which has radiological contamination in its sewers and leads to the Bayview
Wilma Subra outlines her concerns that the project's EIR is fatally flawed
Monique Harden voices concerns about the displacement of minorities through gentrification
Bradley Bradley (center, in orange, wearing cap) shouts over POWER's rally
Stormy Henry expresses her support for the project in no uncertain terms
D. 10 candidate Tony Kelly expresses his concerns about the shipyard cleanup
Sups. Eric Mar, Sophie Maxwell and David Chiu listen to testimony during Land Use Committee meeting
Labor Council's Tim Paulson tells the media that he supports the project
Redevelopment's director Fred Blackwell looks thoughtful

All images by Luke Thomas

The Chronicle’s suggestion that the city’s massive Candlestick-shipyard project may be facing smoother sailing seems like wishful thinking to those who attended a July 12 noontime rally that was organized by POWER (People Organized to Win Employment Rights) and featured two Louisiana-based advocates who protested the project’s EIR and shared many of the longstanding concerns about project cleanup, infrastructure and financing.

The Chronicle was of course referring to five amendments to the city’s massive redevelopment proposal that Board President David Chiu introduced during yesterday’s July 12 meeting of the Board’s Land Use committee. The Chron interpreted these amendments as a sign that Chiu plans to approve the project's environmental impact report, which comes before the Board today, after several groups appealed the final EIR that the Planning Commission approved last month.

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Oakland considers limiting and licensing marijuana growers

07.13.10 - 12:48 pm | Steven T. Jones |
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Updated info below

The medical marijuana community – everyone from small growers to Harborside Health Center, the biggest dispensary in Oakland – are reacting strongly against an ordinance proposed by Oakland City Council members Rebecca Kaplan and Larry Reid to limit and license marijuana cultivation, a proposal that will be heard tonight (7/13) at 6 p.m. by the council's Public Safety Committee. Read more »

Street Threads: Look of the Day

07.13.10 - 9:56 am | Ariel Soto-Suver |
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Today's Look: Katelyn, Grant and Green

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Buyer beware of Candlestick-Shipyard project

07.13.10 - 12:03 am | Sarah Phelan |
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Board President David Chiu has introduced five amendments to the city’s Candlestick Point-Hunters Point Shipyard redevelopment proposal. All five are a good start, but longtime observers question if they are too little, too late, in the face of intense lobbying by a city and a developer intent on getting project approvals before a new Board and possibly a new mayor occupy City Hall in January 2011.

Chiu’s amendments address key concerns with the city’s proposed redevelopment plan, and they come as the Board prepares for its July 13 hearing into three separate appeals of the project’s final EIR certification, as well as amendments to the Bayview Hunters Point and Shipyard redevelopment plans.

Two of Chiu's amendments seek to address concerns about the clean-up of radiologically impacted waste at Parcel E-2 on the shipyard, and environmental impacts of a proposed bridge over Yosemite Slough.

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SFBG Radio: Should SF ban pet sales?

07.12.10 - 2:05 pm | Tim Redmond |
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In today's episode, Johnny argues that San Francisco should ban all pets in the city. Tim says his dog has a great life. Plus: The latests on the Mehserle verdict. You can listen after the jump. Read more »

Tax cuts, unemployment and the deficit

07.12.10 - 1:12 pm | Tim Redmond |
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Fifty-five thousand people a day are losing their unemployment insurance because Congress won't extend benefits. Why? Well, gee, any federal spending will increase the deficit -- and like Herbert Hoover, everyone in Washington is talking about cutting deficits.Read more »