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Queer and boning in Las Vegas

San Francisco adult stars storm the red carpet at the AVN Awards, a.k.a. the 'Oscars of porn'

This Week's Paper

Local stars storm the "Oscars of porn," cheap dates for V-Week, IndieFest must-sees, Irish whiskey from Livermore, Ice-T's rap flick, D5's Olague, more. Read this week's digital issue.

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From the Blogs

Meet the new supervisor

How will Christina Olague balance loyalty to Mayor Lee with the needs of the city's most progressive district?

02.10.12 - 6:00 am | Steven T. Jones |
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Christina Olague, the newest member of the Board of Supervisors, faces a difficult balancing act. She was appointed by Mayor Ed Lee, whom she supported as co-chair of the controversial "Run Ed Run" campaign, to fill the vacancy in District 5, an ultra-progressive district whose voters rejected Lee in favor of John Avalos by a 2-1 margin.Read more »

politics

Mark Zuckerberg will pay less tax than you

02.09.12 - 4:07 pm | Tim Redmond |
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Before we start talking about the Facebook Windfall and all the nice new tax dollars the company will pour into the state treasury, let me take a moment to put this in perspective. Read more »

noise

Nite Trax: DJ Rekha brings the 'Basement' beats to Non Stop Bhangra

02.09.12 - 3:53 pm | Marke B. |
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"I have been around the bhangra block," says DJ Rekha, NYC's ambassador for the highly danceable contemporary Punjabi (by way of London) sound, and founder of the popular, long-running Basement Bhangra party. "The biggest gig was definitely the White House. I have played all over the US and in Brazil, Sweden, New Zealand. I've done a bunch of music festivals and performed at cultural spaces including the Kennedy Center in DC."

Rekha brings her Basement Bhangra spin -- which includes a good bit of hip-hop and global bass influence -- to our own beloved Non Stop Bhangra this Sat/11, joining the monthly party's dholrhythms dance crew and DJ Jimmy Love for its reboot at Public Works, as I detailed in this week's Super Ego nightlife column. In an email interview, Rekha wrote about bhangra's changing scene, her favorite moments from the past 15 years at her club (Padma Lakshmi, anyone?), and her favorite bhangra bangers of the moment. 

Read more »

politics

Wiener wants a sunshine audit

02.09.12 - 3:23 pm | Tim Redmond |
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Sup. Scott Wiener is calling for an audit of the costs of complying with the city's Sunshine Ordinance -- a move that could lead to some great ideas for better public access to records or to a dangerous attack on one of the city's most important local laws.Read more »

sexsf

Behind-the-scenes pics from Courtney Trouble's Guardian cover shoot (NSFW)

02.09.12 - 2:44 pm | Guardian Staff Writers |
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When the Guardian team and photographer Molly DeCoudreaux converged on 18th and Castro Streets to shoot naked pics of Courtney Trouble and her Queerporn.tv posse, we knew we'd attract some attention. Read more »

Loveless?

Forget the corny V-Week candy and flowers: Have a heart for Non Stop Bhangra, Light Asylum, Garth and Jeno, Droog, and Opel parties this week

02.09.12 - 2:05 pm | Marke B. |
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SUPER EGO The last time I tried to make out with a cute boy who wasn't my husband, he actually said, "OK, I'm going to stand over there now. But you're a great dancer." Smooth save, Cornelius J. McRejector. I mean, if I had any pride left to be wounded do you think I'd be standing here wearing pink Baby Phat bedazzled cutoff jeans, a sequined visor that reads "Party Bottom," possum-brown Keds, and some totally offensive, insensitively appropriated Native American item, possibly a dreamcatcher nose ring? I don't need you! I'm busy re-embracing irony.Read more »

pixel_vision

This art will move you: 1AM SF Gallery's homage to truck graffiti

02.09.12 - 1:53 pm | Soojin Chang |
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“Graffiti is anti-corporation,” says Optimist, a long time Bay Area street artist in a Guardian phone interview. “Whereas advertisements on billboards are trying to sell you something, graffiti is trying to open your eyes to see who else is alive out there.” Spurred by this love of street art, Optimist partnered up with fellow street artist Plantrees to curate “Truck Show SF,” a group show which opens at 1AM SF gallery on Fri/10. Read more »

pixel_vision

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 »

video

Here is your extra special Valentine's Week fairy

02.09.12 - 8:45 am | Marke B. |
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See video

Somehow, Valentine's Day has grown into an entire week -- and come hell or high Hallmark, we may just get away with avoiding it altogether (despite all the actually cool stuff going on). What we will not avoid, however, is enjoying this special Cupid of the Castro, caught on tape way back in 2006. Heart u, SF! 

New year

Singer-songwriter Ezra Furman of the Harpoons made the leap to San Francisco and didn't look back

02.09.12 - 8:06 am | Frances Capell |
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MUSIC Waiting for his coffee at Cafe Divis, Ezra Furman (who performs Sat/11 at Hotel Utah) flips through the latest issue of the Guardian. "I've been meaning to do more drugs," he says, pointing to the cannabis column, Herbwise. The wheels in Furman's head seem to always be in motion; there's a constant mischievous look in his eyes. We've met here to discuss the most recent product of his overactive imagination — his solo debut, The Year of No Returning, released on Tuesday through Furman's own Kinetic Family Records.Read more »

politics

WTF, Debra Saunders?

02.08.12 - 5:03 pm | Tim Redmond |
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I really, really can't figure out what the Chron's only local editorial page columnist, the conservative Debra Saunders, is trying to say. If I read her Feb. 8 column right, she's opposing the Appeals Court ruling on same-sex marriage -- and she seems to be saying that Mayor Gavin Newsom was wrong to allow gay marriages and that the whole matter ought to be decided by a statewide vote:Read more »

bruce

Calvin Trillin: Explaining the resurrection of Newt Gingrich

02.08.12 - 5:00 pm |
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Two attempts to explain the resurrection of Newt Gingrich

1

Yes, Newt appeared  dead at least twice. 

If Mitt's guys were playing it smart,

They would have made certain of that

By driving a stake through his heart.

II

But Newt might have said if they had,

Proceed, Mitt. You'll see I won't mind it.

You're free to drive stakes through my heart,

Except that you'll first have to find it.

Calvin Trillin, The Nation, 2/13/2012

 

politics

Campaign to regulate health insurance premiums launched in SF

02.08.12 - 4:38 pm | Steven T. Jones |
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Representatives from Consumer Watchdog and other groups today launched a ballot measure campaign to regulate health insurance rates in California with an event outside the San Francisco headquarters of Blue Shield of California, which is in the process of substantially increasing health premiums for a second consecutive year despite sitting on billions of dollars in cash reserves.Read more »

sexsf

Upset pornographers and the definition of scissoring: "Queer and Boning" controversy

02.08.12 - 3:49 pm | Caitlin Donohue |
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Brouhaha! That would be the word I'd use to describe the reaction to today's cover story, "Queer and Boning in Las Vegas," about Courtney Trouble and her posse's adventures at the AVN Awards in Vegas. The crux of the matter revolves around my interview with lesbian pornographer Jincey Lumpkin, whose oeuvre falls into a more conventional mode of pornmaking than Trouble and the other queer pornsters profiled. Read more »

pixel_vision

Sundance Diary, volume eight: the final countdown

02.08.12 - 2:08 pm | Jesse Hawthorne Ficks |
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In a series of posts, Midnites for Maniacs curator-host and Academy of Art film-history teacher Jesse Hawthorne Ficks reports on the 2012 Sundance Film Festival. Check out his first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh entries.
 
No film at this year's festival encountered as much controversy as Craig Zobel's Compliance. At the first public screening, an all-out shouting match erupted, with an audience member yelling "Sundance can do better!" You can't buy that kind of publicity. Every screening (public and press) that followed was jam-packed with people hoping to experience the most shocking film at Sundance, and the film does not disappoint. (Beware: every review I have happened upon has unnecessarily spoiled major plots in the film, which is based on true events.)

What is so impressive about Zobel's film is how it builds up a sense of ever-impending terror. In fact, I would go as far as to say that the film steps into Psycho (1960) terrain, specifically in the final act of the film. Compliance aims to confront a society filled with people who are trained to follow rules without questioning them. Magnolia Pictures, which previously collaborated with Zobel on his debut film Great World of Sound (which premiered at Sundance in 2007), picked up the film for theatrical release; if you dare to check it out, prepare to be traumatized. You'll be screaming about one of the most audacious movies of 2012 — and that's exactly why the film is so brilliant.

Read more »