San Francisco Bay Guardian

Utility PR 101: Glossy mailers galore!

03.19.10 - 2:32 pm | Rebecca Bowe |

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PG&E’s public-relations playbook (“Defending Your Shareholder-Owned Electric Company Against New Municipalization Threats, authored by San Francisco PR firm Solem & Associates), Tab IV, Section 17, instructs: “Design and implement a direct-mail program.” Read more »

"Repo Men" not exactly full of tense situations

03.19.10 - 12:34 pm | sfbg |

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By Peter Galvin

If you are considering going to see Repo Men you’ll need to go ahead and turn off your brain first — the guy who wrote it sure did. The script is jam-packed with contrivances and tonal inconsistencies, which is a shame because the plot had potential.

Project One's mural community

03.19.10 - 12:04 pm | Caitlin Donohue |

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There’s a mural by my work I pass everyday that is visually astounding. It’s a super burner- a big, looping maze of letters, or maybe just design, that must represent in its whorls every color of the rainbow. It takes up the street side of a long building on a background of black-on-black fluer de lis design at Turk and Mason. Not to trivialize the sweet and sour roughness of ‘Loin life, but it gives the dope heads, the police cruisers and the general down-and-outery of the ‘hood an air of artistry.

You don’t see color like that just anywhere.

Which was why it was so nice to put a face to the piece during my trip down to Project One gallery to check out their current show “Four Squared,” a collaborative project between Chor Boogie, Apex One, Jet Martinez, and David Chong Lee. Apex One (who spray painted the mural in the Tenderloin) was there putting up a fresh new entryway sign for the gallery, and we got the chance to chat on how the group partnership came to be.

Developers win, but just this round

03.19.10 - 11:25 am | Tim Redmond |

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So the developers won the first round of the 555 Washington battle -- and the role of the Recreation and Parks and City Planning Commissions said a lot about the state of local politics today. In both cases, you had the equivalent of a party-line vote: Every commissioner appointed by Mayor Gavin Newsom voted in favor of the project, and every commissioner appointed by the Board of Supervisors voted against it.Read more »

In the wake of March 4, education battles continue

03.19.10 - 10:25 am | Rebecca Bowe |

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Two weeks after protests against cuts to education filled Bay Area streets (and one freeway) on March 4, employees in the public-education sector are still engaged in a fight against budgetary rollbacks. But it’s an uphill battle, as was made clear at a briefing organized by United Educators of San Francisco at City College of San Francisco March 18.

At El Dorado Elementary School in the Bayview, 11 of 15 teachers were issued pink slips, according to elementary school teacher Megan Caluza (featured in the video above). While this doesn’t mean all 11 teachers are on their way out the door, it does mean that none of them knows for sure whether there’s a guaranteed job in the school district in the coming year. Since the budget cuts hit, Caluza says she’s been spending just as much time “fighting to teach” as she has in the actual classroom. Read more »

noise

Mom was a mess (and then she rubbed all up on me)

03.18.10 - 6:20 pm | Andre Torrez |

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Nobunny loves you -- in a big, phallic way.

Going in to Thee Parkside on Fri/5, I didn’t know what to expect from the show’s openers. Considering Mom’s antics, it’s probably best that I didn’t do any pre-show research. In a nutshell, Mom was a mess. Read more »

Live Shows

noise

SXSW: See me! Hear me!

03.18.10 - 5:29 pm | Spencer Young |

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The leopard prints and stage-front licks of Hunx and His Punx.

Everyone is trying to be seen and heard.

The days tend to blur here at SXSW. The festival's sponsors and participants are pouring information and alcohol in you everywhere you go. You forget that you are an autonomous being, not just a receptacle for emails and fliers and Sobe in small plastic cups and little goo bars that taste like chocolate stuck in carpet that are thrown -- literally thrown -- at you on every street corner. Read more »

SXSW

Anti-war movement seeks allies

03.18.10 - 3:47 pm |

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By Jobert Poblete

This Saturday (March 20) will mark the seventh anniversary of the Iraq war and local groups are mobilizing for another round of protests to oppose the occupation of Iraq and the expansion of the war into Afghanistan. But this year's program will also highlight local struggles as well, with speakers delving into the fight for more public education funding and the march passing by two hotels where union workers are in strained negotiations for a new contract.

Cinnamon buns: your gateway drug to hardcore vegan sweets?

03.18.10 - 3:16 pm | sfbg |

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By Robyn Johnson

For all you vegan sweet snackum lovers -- and curious crumb-lappers -- the ladies behind Fat Bottom Bakery and Cinnaholic have a sale on Sat/20 that you just might egg-free love. Read more »

Food and Drink

noise

Snap Sounds: The Consulate General

03.18.10 - 3:01 pm | Amber Schadewald |

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THE CONSULATE GENERAL

Person Number

(Circle Into Square)

We loved him when he was creating music under the moniker Boy In Static and I think a few tears may have been shed when Alexander Chen left the Bay and unpacked his instruments in Gothenburg, Sweden. Like anyone who has ever taken residency in that beautiful country, Chen’s creativity has flourished and his new solo project, The Consulate General, is a breath of fresh Nordic air.

Snap Sounds

Sunshine sleuth nets $3.5 million for SF

03.18.10 - 1:51 pm | Rebecca Bowe |

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Sunshine advocate Kimo Crossman is sometimes counted as a thorn in the side of city government agencies due to his tendency to pepper them with public-records requests. But in the last couple days, he earned a gold star from the San Francisco Assessor-Recorder for pointing out that when Morgan Stanley walked away from five high-profile San Francisco properties, it neglected to pay a transfer tax. Thanks to an email from the ever-inquisitive Crossman, the assessor-recorder was able to collect roughly $3.5 million and feed it to the city’s ailing General Fund. Read more »

Yee asks DA to drop charges against reporters

03.18.10 - 1:20 pm | Tim Redmond |

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State Sen. Leland Yee has asked the Alameda County district attorney to drop all charges against reporters who were arrested while covering the protests over education cuts. In a March 8 letter to D.A. Nancy O'Malley, Yee noted that "at least two of the individuals arrested were journalists covering a legitimate news story."

That adds to the pressure on O'Malley not to press charges against reporters. But we're still waiting to hear from the D.A.'s office.Read more »

Prop 17 discourages going car-free

03.18.10 - 12:28 pm | Steven T. Jones |

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Efforts to encourage car-sharing and ways of getting around that don’t involve owning a car would be undermined by Proposition 17, a June ballot measure that I wrote about in this week’s cover story. While I didn’t mention that impact in the story, it is of real concern to people like me who don’t own cars and encourage others to try the car-free lifestyle on for size.Read more »

If we're going to be whores, let's at least get paid

03.18.10 - 11:57 am | Tim Redmond |

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The San Francisco City Planning Commission will be voting March 18th on a proposal to build luxury condos next to the Transamerica building. The developers are two out-of-town outfits that support Republican candidates. And therein lies an interesting tale.Read more »