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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.

From the Blogs

Trash Lit: The Expats (almost) lives up to the hype

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There's an awful lot of hype around this first novel by Chris Pavone. John Grisham compares it to the early works of Ken Follett, Frederick Forsyth, and Robert Ludlum. The folks at Crown publishing think this is going to be the Next Big Thing in the thriller world. And since I'm such a huge fan of overhyped authors, I decided I'd pour a nice glass of Buffalo Trace and read the first 20 pages.Read more »

West Oakland's Bikes 4 Life re-opening with rides for all

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"It keeps me occupied, not doing trouble in the summer, and after I'm gone it's going to leave me with some experience," says Lamar, a 16-year-old who works at Bikes 4 Life in the West Oakland community bike shop's promotional video. After the completion of its remodels, the shop is re-opening tomorrow, Sat/11, and will be handing out free rides to the neighborhood kids. Read more »

How much hot gay tail are the rabid conservative gentlemen of America getting this weekend?

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Hooray, it's time for our favorite blog post of the year. Every year Wonkette goes to the huge Conservative Political Action Convention in DC, and trolls Craigslist for attendees looking for gay sex. Then Wonkette posts the ads. This installment features Dan Savage scanning the CPAC crowd with Grindr! Check it out here.

Would Sept. elections be better than RCV?

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A proposal by Supervisors Sean Elsbernd and Mark Farrell to end San Francisco's experiment with Ranked Choice Voting will come before the board Feb. 14, and RCV suporters are organizing to fight it. According to an email I just got from Steve Hill, one of the leaders in the RCV movement, "the vote is going to be close."Read more »

Telegenic Band Check: Kelly McFarling

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SFBG videographer Ariel Soto-Suver, along with a small posse of banjo fans, met with Kelly McFarling at Viracocha in the Mission for an intimate evening concert.

Calling all Kevin Smith fans (you know you're out there)!

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At the 2011 Sundance Film Festival, Kevin Smith created one of festival's biggest sensations for audiences and film buyers alike by announcing he was going to auction off his film Red State after its world premiere screening.

Added to that, the hate-spreading publicity junkies known as the Westboro Baptist Church announced they would be staging a protest in front of the event with their usual "GOD HATES FAGS" signs, which in turn inspired Smith to stage his own protest of the Kansas-based church as a self-proclaimed "FAG ENABLER," which in turn inspired hundreds of people from Park City to make their own signs. Tickets to the movie were rumored to have been scalped for close to a thousand dollars, and the buzz surrounding the situation was truly something I have rarely felt at Sundance.

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Federal government sets its sights on 12 more SF dispensaries

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Bad news for medical marijuana patients in the Bay Area: as reported by the SF Examiner, the DEA has requested records from the city's Department of Public Health for 12 of San Francisco's existing 21 cannabis dispensaries. This is the same move the DEA made before sending the threatening letters to five other cannabis collectives last fall. Those five dispensaries are now closed. Read more »

Hearing today on bizarre Occupy Oakland stay-away order case

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The first Occupy Oakland protester to allegedly be in violation of a stay-away order has a hearing today.

Joseph Briones, 30, was arrested along with 408 others at an Occupy Oakland protest Jan. 28. He is one of 12 who were apparently issued the restraining orders, and is therefore barred from being within 300 yards of Oakland City Hall, potentially for the next three years, according to Alameda County Deputy District Attorney Teresa Drenick. Read more »

Trader Joe's signs agreement in labor victory

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Trader Joe’s, known for being really more of a snack emporium than a grocery store, can now be known for something else; buying tomatoes picked by people with basic human rights.

Feb. 9, it became the second grocery store chain-- the first was Whole Foods-- to sign an agreement with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW), a group based in Immokalee, Florida famous for its successful Fair Food campaign.Read more »

Larry Ellison won't miss $22 million

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If the America's Cup fundraising committee can't come up with $32 million, the city's going to be on the hook for a big chunk of change -- as much as $22 million -- budget analyst Harvey Rose says. Read more »

Live Shots: Making truffles with Neo Cocoa at La Cocina

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“Ganache is proof that God loves us,” exclaimed a student with pink and purple hair, as Neo Cocoa founder Christine Doerr rapidly whisked a bowl of melted chocolate and poured it into a metal frame for cooling. We all stood around a huge table at La Cocina, learning how to make Doerr's award-winning chocolate delights, essentially the soft and rich insides of a classic truffle without the hard outer shell. After a quick demo, it was time to get to work ourselves, rolling the chocolate in our hands to form balls and then dusting them in all variety of coatings, from fennel powder to cacao nibs.

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Meet the new supervisor

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

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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 »

Mark Zuckerberg will pay less tax than you

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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 »

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

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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. 

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Life after the fall: John Felix Arnold's post-apocalyptic musical comic book art

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Artist, illustrator, and graphic designer John Felix Arnold III lived his childhood in movement. His parents were both professional dancers and they kept the family mobile, relocating back and forth from Durham, North Caroline to Brooklyn, New York. While Arnold did not inherit a passion for dance, he was inspired by his mother and father's kinesthetic sensibilities and he grew into a visual artist.

The February 4 opening of “The Love of All Above,” his new solo show, featured musical performances by Daylight Curfew, Kool Kid Kreyola, and Him Downstairs -- a prime example of Arnold’s mixing of media and his obvious passion for the values inculcated by a deeply creative family. The musical performances took place on a funky altar composed of found objects built by Arnold, which will be on view as part of the exhibit. Read more »