San Francisco

Latest Articles

SF’s no Boston

Balls, pucks and monster trucks
While escaping New England for a few days on the west coast, in the Bay Area, just ahead of all that unexpected October wind and snow, I decided to catch a 49ers game.
By RICK WORMWOOD | November 02, 2011

Coming clean with Girls of San Francisco

Cult of personality
"Talking about drugs is very boring. It's more interesting to take them," says Christopher Owens over the phone.
By BARRY THOMPSON | September 20, 2011

Party supplies

Trans Dance Dept.
Original Plumbing, the New York–based quarterly lifestyle magazine and Web site for trans men and their friends, returns to the Midway this Friday for a queer/trans dance party featuring go-go boys, a photo booth, DJs D'hana and Justincredible, and a midnight performance by New England electropop act Nicky Click.
By THOMAS PAGE MCBEE | August 10, 2011

Review: Rise of the Planet of the Apes

Better before the CGI took over
As I watched Caesar (Andy Serkis), the übermonkey, and his primate minions break free of their human chains en route to conquering the world, I thought: 1) there are a lot of apes in San Francisco, 2) there aren't a lot of cops, and 3) this movie was better before the CGI took over.
By PETER KEOUGH | August 04, 2011

How Grass Widow came to play a concert for a small group of great apes

Gorilla Theater
Gigi was in her late 30s the first time she saw a rock band play. The concert took place outside her enclosure, at 8:30 in the morning, so it wouldn't interfere with Franklin Park Zoo's usual visiting hours.
By BARRY THOMPSON | August 04, 2011

General Assembly turns a cold shoulder on the homeless

Economics Dept.
Rhode Island's itty-bittyness is, of course, a handicap from time to time. But it is also a source of opportunity.
By DAVID SCHARFENBERG | June 22, 2011

Mastering a Latin classic

Learning a basic, but complex, Panamanian dish
As I was picking my daughter up from school, my ears perked up to a woman telling a child it was time to go.
By LINDSAY STERLING | June 01, 2011

Too soon?

Balls, pucks and monster trucks
June 17, 2007 was Father’s Day. I was at Fenway with my buddy, Brian Liddy, for an interleague game.
By RICK WORMWOOD | May 18, 2011

USM takes on another politically themed art show

More inmate work
The muse can arrive anywhere. After the protracted confusion of his arrest and trial, it's no surprise Antonio Guerrero emphasizes clarity in his work.
By NICHOLAS SCHROEDER | January 27, 2011

Review: Going the Distance

Long, Barrymore are out of gas
For a documentary, Nanette Burstein's American Teen felt awfully scripted. But it had a pulse, and characters you could invest in.
By BRETT MICHEL | September 03, 2010

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Second wind

Drug Rug hit San Fran to record a new album
The good news is that 30 new Drug Rug songs are alive and well in a stack of incubator demo tapes somewhere. It might be a while before they hit your speakers, however.
By MATT PARISH | August 02, 2010

Days of future past

'SF-1970' at the Harvard Film Archive
Science-fiction films have been with us since Edison’s 1910 version of Frankenstein , but they bloomed in the ’Nam era, nourished by a volatile cocktail of cultural ingredients.
By MICHAEL ATKINSON | June 26, 2010

Freaks, Geeks, and Faux Bono

Boston-area subcultures keep the Bay State comfortably kooky this summer
As Bay Staters, we recognize that our European ancestors sure knew how to roll: scarlet letters, sticks up asses, if-she-drowns-she's-not-a-witch-if-she-floats-she's-a-witch-so-let's-kill-her legal applications.
By ALEXIS HAUK | June 20, 2010

Making waves

Can WRNI supplant the ProJo as the state’s news king?
Rhode Island’s upstart National Public Radio affiliate, WRNI, aims to be nothing less than a major media player here. And in the space of just a couple of years, the station has taken some impressive first steps.
By DAVID SCHARFENBERG | June 10, 2010

Have beer, will travel

Craft beer in a cooler? Can do!
Culture and experience have taught us that beer in a can is of lesser quality. But with several craft brewers' recent foray into the world of canning, it may be time to put this crude stereotype to bed.
By JOSH SMITH | June 02, 2010

Fighting back

Two cases in federal court here in Massachusetts could help turn the national tide against DOMA
Thanks to a federal law that codifies discrimination against same-sex couples, more than 15,000 legally married couples (and an untold number of children) are being denied basic benefits, such as the right to file their taxes jointly, or Social Security payments and health-insurance subsidies.
By DEIRDRE FULTON | June 04, 2010

Hire us now, Ms. Gist!

Will tap dance for free!
Wow! Bow-wow! How do we get a job to write a speech for state education commissioner Deborah Gist for a cool $10,000?
By PHILLIPE AND JORGE | May 26, 2010

Bike Week and beyond

From bike week to bike month, a line-up of great rides, summits, and get-togethers are helping make 2010 the year of the bike in Boston.
Boston is a great bicycling city. Sure, you have to deal with sociopathic, maniacal motorists who’ve never heard of a turn signal. And yes, you have to contend with a bunch of inconsiderate, entitled pedestrians who act like they own the road and can wander across the street whenever they feel like it, then give you a dirty look as you whiz by them.
By RYAN STEWART | May 17, 2010

How Rhode Island can eliminate homelessness

The concept is as simple as it is radical: give the homeless a place to live, with no strings attached
Making it a reality is a matter of political will.
By DAVID SCHARFENBERG | May 14, 2010

Review: Babies

Awwww
Director Thomas Balmès’s spare, occasionally stirring documentary toddles to Namibia, Mongolia, the US, and Japan to capture a year in the life of four infants. The San Francisco family comes off at once as a gross cliché of Western privilege, complete with roof-deck Jacuzzi and baby yoga.
By ALICIA POTTER | May 04, 2010

Review: And Then Came Lola

Fun Lola Fun
Was the world clamoring for a comic-erotic lesbian tribute to Run Lola Run?
By SHAULA CLARK | May 04, 2010

Lady of Leisure’s Prison Memoir

Crook Book Dept.
In prison, Piper Kerman had to get used to, among other trials, a bathroom infested with insects.
By VALERIE VANDE PANNE | May 05, 2010

Terry McMillan brings her groove to Providence

Visitations
Terry McMillan, best known for her blockbuster novels Waiting to Exhale and How Stella Got Her Groove Back , made a quick stop in South Providence the other day to raise money for the Community Preparatory School and talk shop — with 10-year-olds.
By ELIZABETH RAU | April 28, 2010

Cheap thrills

The inky delights of Dr. Lakra
They say Dr. Lakra got his pen name from the doctor’s bag he carried around when he first began tattooing, two decades ago. “Lakra” puns on the Spanish word “lacra,” meaning scar or blemish, but it’s also slang for “delinquent” or “scumbag.”
By GREG COOK | April 21, 2010

Prog wild

The controlled chaos of Bear in Heaven
Let me just assure you, right off, that after this, I promise never, ever, to talk to you about this year’s SXSW again, but check it out: we passed by a tossed-up tent-and-chain-link venue with a long line jutting into the street, and from between the portajohns came one of the lowest frequencies I’d ever heard — you could hear their plastic locks rattle and feel it on the surface of your shirt.
By MICHAEL BRODEUR | March 31, 2010

The young and the restless

Box Elders break out of the basement
Clayton McIntyre of Box Elders has one of the better "why nothing makes me nervous" stories I've heard.
By MICHAEL BRODEUR | March 17, 2010

Home and away

Zach Jones's diasporic Fading Flowers
For many songwriters, home is where the art is.
By SAM PFEIFLE | March 17, 2010

Review: Prodigal Sons

An engrossing, unpredictable, often heartbreaking family-drama documentary
Adopted four weeks after he was born and brought up in Helena, Montana, Marc McKerrow suffered through the stress of being compared with his brother, Paul, his high school's valedictorian and star quarterback.
By GERALD PEARY | March 09, 2010

Excerpt: Patti Smith's Just Kids

Rock icon Patti Smith recalls burroughs and Mapplethorpe, the early days of CBGB, and saddling up for Horses in this memoir excerpt
The stars were lining up to enter the Ziegfeld Theatre for the glittering premiere of the film Ladies & Gentlemen, the Rolling Stones. I was excited to be there.
By PATTI SMITH | March 03, 2010