When the ancient Polynesians invented surfing, they often used a paddle to help them navigate. Fast-forward a few millennia, and Stand-Up Paddleboarding, or SUP, finds itself trendy again. Part of its increasing popularity is that standing upright allows surfers to spot waves more easily and thus catch more of them, multiplying the fun factor. Paddling back to the wave becomes less of a strain as well. The ability to cruise along on flat inland water, surveying the sights, is another advantage. Finally, it’s a good core workout. If you’re sold on the idea, schedule an intro SUP lesson, free with board and paddle rental, and you may find yourself riding the waves like a Polynesian king.More
Many of us remember coming home from our elementary schools with freshly glazed pinchpots, cups, or whatever else our young imaginations could conjure up. Saturday mornings at the Randall Museum can bring that memory back, or create a new one for the youngsters. Ceramics make great gifts — especially on Mothers' and Fathers' Day. Hop on board for the Randall's once-weekly class, and for $6 and two weeks to have your work fired and glazed, you'll have all the materials you need.More
December is almost over - the New Year is coming up and everyone is busy drying off from the rain or holiday shopping. Let's take a look at what's happened this month.
PostedByPeter Jamison
on Thu, Sep 24, 2009 at 5:30 PM
'Stay the f**k away from this slate card!'
Here's the thing about aspiring political players: Sooner or later (usually sooner) they try to screw each other over. It's a dynamic that's sure to play out repeatedly over the next year on the Democratic County Central Committee, as a number of the city's rising pols duke it out for elected office in 2010.
Infighting was certainly on display at the committee's meeting last night. The provocation was a dull one -- the question of which political consultant should receive a roughly $30,000 contract to produce a small slate card for the 2009 fall election, which features a handful of unremarkable local ballot measures.
The final two bidders under consideration were Stearns Consulting -- headed by Jim Stearns, a favorite campaign adviser to city progressives who has worked for former Board of Supervisors president Aaron Peskin and current president David Chiu, among others -- and Hope Road Consulting, a firm that has done consulting for the city and for school board candidates. Stearns is a white guy; Hope Road is headed by Stephanie Ong Stillman, an Asian woman.
PostedByJoe Eskenazi
on Thu, Sep 24, 2009 at 4:59 PM
The smug rapscallions breathing sweaty, testosterone-saturated air a mile high in Denver have to be humming "Time is on My Side" right about now. The Rockies lead the Giants by four games with 10 to play in the race to lose the opening round of the National League playoffs. But Colorado did piss away a victory yesterday while San Francisco prevailed -- so the wind is in the Giants' sails, even if the waterway they now navigate is growing rather shallow.
But, as the season grows short, consider this: Will a Colorado Rockies triumph in October result in the Rapture? The franchise is proud of its identity as the most Christian Baseball Team In All The Realm, has a reputation for recruiting Christian ballplayers, and have maintained a bowdlerized locker room in which Playboy is banned and prayer meetings are the order of the day. When you're a mile high, it seems, you're just that much closer to Jesus.
"They have a great group of guys over there, but I've never been in a clubhouse where Christianity is the main purpose," then-San Francisco Giant Mark Sweeney told USA Today of his experience with the Rox. "You wonder if some people are going along with it just to keep their jobs. ... Look, I pray every day. I have faith. It's always been a part of my life. But I don't want something forced on me. Do they really have to check to see whether I have a Playboy in my locker?"
PostedByJoe Eskenazi
on Thu, Sep 24, 2009 at 3:30 PM
Supervisor Bevan Dufty says he has no reason to be coy about running for mayor
Onlookers may be thrown off when they notice Christmas decor gracing shop windows well before the first day of school. But it's a good bet the merchants aren't just inordinately fond of egg nog and frosty weather -- they want to start the jingle bells of cash registers that goes along with Christmas shopping.
Similarly, Supervisor Bevan Dufty has pulled his own "Christmas in September" maneuver by this morning officially filing to run for mayor -- a good two years prior to the election. Dufty's concerns are also largely monetary. In a nutshell, he's looking to raise a goodly sum of cash, but won't accept more than $200 at a time, tops. So, naturally, that's going to take a bit of time.
"I don't want everyone to look at me and think 'he's going to ask me for $500,'" the maximum allowable campaign contribution, Dufty told SF Weekly. "Basically, I'm going to start out asking people to give me $100 this year so I can build my organization. Next year I'll ask for another $100. I'll send the message that I'm not going to be controlled by my contributions."
So, in addition to being "the Muni guy," Dufty wants to be "the small contribution guy." Naturally, this takes a little time: Only contributions given to Dufty after April of next year count toward his tally for public funds. He hopes to raise $100,000 or so this year to start funding his operation and then amass the roughly $550,000 next year that'll trigger $1.475 million in matching funds. With a war chest of $2 million, Dufty thinks he can compete -- and political analysts SF Weekly spoke to were inclined to agree.
PostedByAnna McCarthy
on Thu, Sep 24, 2009 at 2:22 PM
The tide is turning, mon
Today was day one of three at NORML's 38th Annual Conference, which is being held at the Grand Hyatt Hotel off of Union Square. NORML, the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, is a non-profit that has been trying to convince the world about Marijuana's miracles since 1970. The theme this year, "Yes We Cannabis," evokes an already tried and true slogan, and a poster for the conference even features a rendering of President Obama, who is smiling and somewhat greener than usual.
Although the pot conference may have attracted more dreadlocked, bearded, pony-tailed, and sunglasses-wearing attendees than, say, a real estate conference, there were still plenty of suits in the room. These are the pot professionals. Many were tapping away at their laptops and iPhones as NORML's executive director, Allen St. Pierre, gave his introductory welcome talk this morning.
After a brief summary of the history and evolution of pot policy in the U.S., giving a nod to Obama's stance on how the feds should handle the drug, Pierre suggested that as federal laws might be loosening, state laws are simultaneously becoming increasingly restrictive. In the same breath, Pierre expressed concerns about the pharmaceuticalization of pot. In other words, Pierre seemed to take the stance that pot should go mainstream enough to be legal, but not so mainstream that Big Pharma can get its dirty hands all over it.
PostedBySteve Elliott
on Thu, Sep 24, 2009 at 1:25 PM
dea.gov
Leave that weed alone, officer!
Rural sheriff's departments in California may have to find a new pastime to replace bullying medical Marijuana growers. In a major victory for pot advocates, the California Supreme Court -- right around harvest time! -- has refused to review a landmark appellate court ruling protecting the right of medical Marijuana patients and their caregivers to collectively grow weed.
The 2-1 ruling by California's Third Appellate District Court also affirmed patients' ability to take civil action when their right to collectively cultivate Marijuana is violated by law enforcement. The case, County of Butte v. Superior Court, involved a private seven-patient medical Marijuana collective in Paradise, California (oh! the delicious irony -- props to God or whomever is responsible).
Americans for Safe Access (ASA), a nationwide medical Marijuana advocacy group, filed a May 2006 lawsuit on behalf David Williams, 56, and half a dozen other collective members after the Butte County Sheriff's Department conducted a warrantless search of Williams' home in 2005. The officers forced Williams to uproot more than two dozen plants, threatening him with arrest and prosecution if he didn't comply.
PostedByAndy Wright
on Thu, Sep 24, 2009 at 12:59 PM
Warning to people carrying expensive wedding cakes, putting on lipstick or applying the final brushstroke to their masterpiece: Step away from the task at hand before absorbing this information unless you want results suitable for silent comedy. THE BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS HAS RELEASED WAGE NUMBERS FOR THE BAY AREA!
Wait, hang on a second.
Okay, I'm back. I had to whip out my inhaler. You, lady applying the lipstick. I warned you.
Anyway. Here's the rundown. In May of 2008, the average hourly wage for San Francisco, San Mateo and Redwood city came out to $29.05, which is "roughly" 43 percent higher than the national average, of $20.32. Hmmm -- If the hourly average looks like this then why does your paycheck look like this? Clearly, you are doing something wrong.
Who makes the most? In San Francisco, "Management" makes $61.30 an hour on average, which is higher than the $48.23 national average for "managers" elsewhere. The least? "Food preparation and serving related" workers pull $11.63 and hour, which is also above the national average of $9.72 (keep in mind that San Francisco's minimum wage is now $9.79)
PostedByJoe Eskenazi
on Thu, Sep 24, 2009 at 11:59 AM
The city would prefer you stayed home and watched this cartoon come Halloween rather than make trouble in the Castro
City officials have announced that, come Oct. 31, there will be no large-scale organized parties on All Hallow's Eve -- neither the famed Castro District street happening nor anything along the lines of last year's poorly attended, tightly supervised AT&T Park re-enactment of lame High School dances. This Halloween, you're on your own.
Sans the AT&T Park extravaganza, this is exactly what happened last year; there simply won't be any street closures in the Castro and large -- but not stifling -- numbers of folks will certainly wander around in costume and pump money into the local economy. Supervisor Bevan Dufty -- who represents the Castro -- told SF Weekly this was a "joint decision" that he, the mayor's office, public safety officials, and area merchants hammered out after two or three meetings. "Everyone expects to do great business, but there won't be any street closures so there's not a street party," said the supervisor. "It'll be similar to last year when there was a strong safety presence between sheriffs and firefighters early in the evening. It worked well. People were happy."
If people can wander about the Castro and other San Francisco neighborhoods in costume and revel and carouse in a manner that doesn't impede others' liberties -- hey, that's great. And you'd have to be more than a little selfish to say that the Castro Halloween events -- which, by the time a gunman plugged nine revelers in 2006, had degenerated into a drunken free-for-all in which out-of-towners used the Castro as their personal punching bag and toilet -- weren't in need of a massive overhaul. Still, it's astounding how thoroughly the city has broken the back of this so-called tradition.
PostedByJoe Eskenazi
on Thu, Sep 24, 2009 at 8:30 AM
The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a judge's ruling banishing a convicted felon from entering San Francisco city limits without the permission of his probation officer
The term "oldies but goodies" has apparently expanded to encompass more than everyone's favorite Doo-Wop hits. Who could have predicted that the early 21st century would feature legal and ethical debates about a modified version of the sorts of dunking procedures used to ferret out clandestine witchcraft during the Dark Ages?
Banishment is more benevolent a punishment than trial by ordeal, but the term is still fettered with Medieval connotations. And yet, just yesterday, San Francisco's 9th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a prior ruling by San Francisco Federal Judge William Alsup in which he declared that convicted carjacker Deandre Watson is effectively banished from this city as a condition of his plea agreement.
While Watson made the "you never said that before I signed the dotted line!" argument and further claimed this violated his "constitutional rights to travel and move," the 9th Circuit panel essentially returned with the sentiments "good luck in Oakland or Marin."
PostedByJoe Eskenazi
on Thu, Sep 24, 2009 at 7:30 AM
Joe Eskenazi
News articles about names invariably end up quoting Romeo and Juliet: "What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other word would smell as sweet."
Fair enough. Just choose that word and stick with it, or everyone's going to get confused. That's the case at this Mission Street market just between 18th and 19th. While the sign says "Gino's" the awning reads "George's."
We wandered inside to see what the proper name is, Gino's or George's. And the counterman told us it's neither of these.
PostedByJoe Eskenazi
on Thu, Sep 24, 2009 at 6:30 AM
Everyone is having a fine -- and dress-appropriate -- time at the Sunset District Autumn Moon Festival
San Francisco is a town where people revel in the opportunity to drop trou and traipse about au naturel. Don't believe us? Why don't you look here, here, here, here, and here -- and that's just for starters.
Yet despite its promising name, the forthcoming Sunset District Autumn Moon Festival is a place to keep one's pants on. If you have "moon" in mind as a verb instead of a noun, you're probably thinking of something like this, an annual Southern California event in which large numbers of people brandish their bare asses at passing trains.
No, Saturday's all-day Moon Festival on Irving between 22nd and 25th Avenues is a family affair and a venerable Chinese tradition. It commemorates not crass nudity but a bloody military revolt -- the popular legend goes that rebel leader Chu Yuan-Chang spread a message secretly baked into moon cakes instructing his followers to revolt against the Mongolians on the 15th day of the eighth lunar month. So it was done, and the Mongol overlords were vanquished.
Sub Pop recording artists 'clipping.' brought their brand of noise-driven experimental hip hop to the closing night of 2016's San Francisco Electronic Music Fest this past Sunday. The packed Brava Theater hosted an initially seated crowd that ended the night jumping and dancing against the front of the stage. The trio performed a set focused on their recently released Sci-Fi Horror concept album, 'Splendor & Misery', then delved into their dancier and more aggressive back catalogue, and recent single 'Wriggle'.
Opening performances included local experimental electronic duo 'Tujurikkuja' and computer music artist 'Madalyn Merkey.'"
