Blogs

By Benjamin Wachs

Sometimes it’s reeeaaaaaaally hard to tell the difference between political charity and political pandering.

Exhibit A is the country of Nicaragua, which most of us only think of when we think of …. oh … geez … war? ... gimmie a minute …

That’s me, and that’s most San Franciscans. But when Supervisors Chris Daly and Tom Ammiano think about Nicaragua, they think “Hurricane Relief.”

Hurricanes have tore up Nicaragua in recent years. Most recently Hurricane Felix which, I should admit, I was paying absolutely no attention to. Humanitarian agencies, along with the U.N. have sent a call out for people to provide relief.

As a result, Daly proposed, and Ammiano backed, a cit- funded relief package of $200,000 to lend a hand.

“The city has occasionally participated in activities of this kind,” Ammiano said after last week’s budget committee meeting. “It’s not a usual thing to do, but it’s not so unusual.”

Both Ammiano and Daly Legislative Aide John Avalos say locals with Nicaraguan heritage care a lot about this kind of thing.

“California is the place where there are many Nicaraguan refugees from what was happening in the 80s, and the Bay Area is one of the major areas where people have come,” Avalos said. While he couldn’t give an estimate of how many live in San Francisco, he estimate there are millions around the entire Bay Area. A number I have tried, and failed, to verify.

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Now that the 2007/2008 academic school year is underway in the wake of the Virginia Tech Massacre, it seems like you can't stub your toe on campus without some breathless AP report detailing the incident.
Let's get something straight. People get shot, stabbed, run over, mauled, maimed, raped, massacred and beheaded on college campuses all the time. It's not news.
We need some type of minimum qualifications for college carnage to make the news. I say: one death for local news, three deaths for national. Everything else is just reporters chasing the next Cho. And more scaremongering.
This point goes double for animal cruelty stories in the wake of the Vick scandal. -David Downs

Forget about going to the art gallery. On Thursday, the art gallery will be coming to you.

By Joe Eskenazi

As a young man, artist Philo Northrup navigated from Point A to Point B in a 1977 Chevy Vega. And while it’s the sort of vehicle of which one can easily imagine a mustachioed actor with tight jeans and chest hair sliding across the hood to deliver a spin kick to the leader of a kung fu army, Northrup’s was “a real piece of junk.”

“I didn’t feel like it properly reflected my identity — and, make no mistake, your car reflects your identity whether you like it or not. So, I put some zebra stripes and deer antlers on it,” he recalled.

“I got such positive feedback on it. And most artists don’t get that. They work in relative obscurity.”

Several decades later, Northrup is no longer obscure: He’s the guy with the car (in fact, that's him in the picture).

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Private security guards in San Francisco's financial district are striking all this week. They want a boost in pay for their sucky, $24,000 a year jobs and access to affordable health care. The SEIU Local 247 told ABC,

"Right now security officers even though they work full time protecting these multi-billion dollar properties, they only earn about $24,000 dollars a year, that's less than half of what it takes for a family to make it in the Bay Area and they don't have access to affordable health care," said Gina Bowers from SEIU Local 24/7.

Building owners told the press the two sides haven't even begun negotiating pay and benefits yet.

Labor radio says the security guards make make on average ...

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Every Monday Tuesday, this football season the SF Weekly news blog 'The Snitch' features "RaidersSuckNinersSuck", because let's face it, they do. Let us continue with Week 3. -ed

Raiders vs. Cleveland Browns
OK, so the boys in black managed to beat the worst team in football. So maybe they aren’t actually last, but rather second to last place. Did you see how many points the Browns scored? I mean for Krishnu’s sake, I couldn’t watch. Well, literally I couldn’t watch because the damn game is blacked out. So let’s add that to a new list of Raiders suckages – Fans can’t watch game on TV.
Raiders Suckages
1.Contract negotiations (Black out BS)
2.QB. Did Daunte Culpepper just go on the field for us? Santa Vaca, we are in trouble.

Niners vs. Rams
Oh the wretched Niners. As hard and as painful it is for me to say we are actually getting better. Alex Smith made a couple of throws and actually didn’t suck as bad as he might have. We are still missing the run game. Last year, Gore was the third leading rusher this year … nothing. Some spectators might ask “Hmm, I wonder what happened?” The answer is one thing -- O-Line. The offensive line can't give Mr. “I Can't Walk And Chew Gum” Smith enough time to make a decision, and they can’t push other teams out of the way for Gore. It’s going to be tough until we can get some big big boys up front.

Niners Suckages
1. Run defense: Pittburg was too strong!
2. Offensive Line: Garbage. QB: “Watch me run and then I … Oh shit now they have the ball.”

And Week 3 'Suck Trophy' goes to:
Niners – at least the Raiders won

RaidersSuckNinersSuck Overall 2007 Season Score:
Raiders: 2
Niners: 1

Photo of Herbert von Karajan by Tom Zimberoff

An S.F. photographer decided he’d never seen a good photo of an orchestra conductor. So he spent six years taking them his way.

By Joe Eskenazi

Tom Zimberoff likes to quip that being a portrait photographer is a little like hunting big game: You stalk your prey, take your best shot and, when it’s all said and done, you hang their heads on the wall.

The problem for Zimberoff, though, was he wasn’t very fond of some of the heads staring back at him.

“I realized that every picture I’d ever seen of a conductor had him waving a blurred baton in a dark concert hall with a grimace of rapture on his face or sitting in a bow tie and tails and looking like he just sat on his baton. They’re just really horrible photographs,” said Zimberoff, 55, who lives in the “rust zone” of the Outer Sunset.

“Nobody had ever really turned a camera on these people as human beings. So I spent almost six years doing that.”

He notes with a chuckle that he never really finished. But he did manage to get 53 world-famous conductors to pose for him, and you can see his “work in progress” (for free, no less) at the San Francisco Performing Arts Library & Museum.

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Every Tuesday morning, the SF Weekly news blog the Snitch profiles one of the Bay's many cool blogs. This week, it's more of a list than a blog, but anyways, here's where to find things like strippers on dramamine! -d2

Thrillist Offers Frat Boi Cheat Sheet to SF
By Ty Callister
Twenty-seven year old Patrick Heig is the editor of what claims to be the manliest online publication in this hippie-ass city, other than you know, 100 Percent Beef.

The brand new media property Thrillist purports to be your pal at the bar stool, you know, one who sends you e-mails with cool stuff to do.

“We try to think of it as one buddy telling another buddy about something cool,” Heig says.

Prime example: Thrillist told their audience about The Mermaids Cruise, a tiny cruise ship on which the main entertainment is strippers. (They have never served the Minnesota Vikings). As The Mermaids Cruise website says, strippers on a boat is “the other San Francisco treat.”

Throughout the week, Thrillist e-mails many little treats to various ...

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Every day at noon, the SF Weekly.com news blog 'The Snitch' tours its peers in the Village Voice Media chain to find cool stories. Today on ChainSmoking, the bucolic and boring-- OC Weekly -d2

OC Roller Girls VS. Sac City Rollers on 9/15:

The meanest ladies from the north and south clash at the Anaheim Hockey Club in a flurry of skates, kneepads and fishnets.

--The search for skinny jeans:
"You like that there’s some highly recognizable stitching on your butt that allows people to know exactly how much you spent. It’s okay!"

Every Monday, the SF Weekly News blog 'The Snitch' reports on what the SF City Government will be up to in a feature we call: SFGovernmentInAction.
This Week!: Mobius strips of bureaucracy say what we all know; giving the police hell; and Ed Jew fights for what he really believes in - Parking. Plus -- does San Francisco have a secret government cartel that wants to annex Oakland? Probably not, but, if they did it would be called: LAFco.

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A weekend citizens’ task force meeting inspires the question: Why not plan for reality?

By Joe Eskenazi

One could, theoretically, label the vicious barrage of questions recently hurled toward Capt. Rich Dyer (right) “police brutality.” Then again, as the Sheriff’s Department officer had to repeatedly remind the occasionally bellicose Castro crowd, he is not a policeman.

Dyer (who deserves credit for keeping a straight face while speaking from behind the world’s most provocatively decorated podium) fielded questions from ...

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Just in time for San Francisco’s election, a judge has put the kibosh on the city’s $500 campaign contribution ceiling. That sound you hear is Gavin Newsom applauding.

By Joe Eskenazi

If you’ve got strong feelings about the upcoming San Francisco election and gobs of cash, it just became infinitely easier for you to put your money where your mouth is.

In a late Thursday, Sept. 20 ruling, S.F. Superior Court Judge Jeffrey S. White issued a preliminary injunction disallowing the city from enforcing the seven-year-old campaign contribution laws voted into existence via Measure O. When it comes to making a donation to an independent committee, there are now only two limitations remaining: How much ya got and how quick will it clear?

The injunction was the opening salvo of a lawsuit filed against the city by the pro-business Committee on Jobs and the Building Owners and Managers Association, which have, in the past, donated more than half a million dollars to Mayor Gavin Newsom and his pet campaigns; the S.F. Weekly first wrote about this suit back in July.

Chastened in its efforts to stave off the injunction, it’s unclear what the city will

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The SFWeekly Week in Pictures 9.14-9.21
By David Downs

Click on the illustration to begin a slideshow of the week in pictures.

We had a great week on the SFWeekly.com -- stiletto stabbers struck at Slide, we met the man behind Athletic's Nation, sea otters proved more important that Eleanor Roosevelt.

On the culture front: we talk to Arcade Fire, took pics of High on Fire, and look back at the Treasure Island Music Festival. Check it out. Free tickets and other easter eggs nestled throughout SFWeekly.com. Thanks, David Downs Web Editor, SF Weekly.com

News:
-- Stiletto Stabbers Still At Large After Violence at San Francisco Club Slide

-- Newsom Honors Cult With Its Own Day

-- Newsom’s Resign-O-Rama: Sixteen Reasons it Could Become a Fiasco

-- Athletics Nation: BetterKnowanSFBlog

-- Sea Otters More Important than Roosevelt: SFGovernmentInAction 9.17-21

-- Top Republican Strategist: Great Move, Gav!

-- Boost in Muni Cops Patrolling

Culture:
-- Jay-Z Gets Gangster With Help From Ridley Scott

-- Looking Back at Treasure Island: Best of Pics

-- The Back Tattoos of Treasure Island: Photos

-- Arcade Fire Request Deerhoof Audience Prior to Shoreline Date with LCD Soundsystem

-- MF DOOM Fucks SF, Again!?: WTF Went Down, Bay Area?

-- High On Fire Pictures: Metal Thunder at Amoeba Records

-- Goonies, Kat Von D, Edwin Ushiro: The Best Art Prints on the Web

-- Warhawk, warhawk, and some warhawk: GamerStatus

-- Devendra Banhart at the MOMA

Once More With Feeling
By Benjamin Wachs

It’s like a game of “telephone”, if “telephone” had a $50,000 prize.

Last week the city’s Ethics Commission denied public funding to mayoral candidate “Chicken” John Rinaldi (running under the slogan “Nuisance ’07” ) because most of his eligible donations came in through a PayPal account – and PayPal hadn’t demonstrated to the commission’s satisfaction that these donors were San Francisco residents.

This was just the latest twist in the comic soap opera that has been Chicken John’s quest for matching funds. Ethics Commission staff confirm that he has more than enough donors, and more than enough money, to qualify for public campaign dollars … but that he’ll have to prove the donors live in San Francisco to get it.

So Chicken John talked to PayPal, and PayPal talked to the Ethics Commission, and the Ethics Commission talked to Chicken John … and nobody’s actually sure if they solved anything.

A spokeswoman for PayPal says they’ve made adjustments that will meet with the city’s approval, but couldn’t explain exactly what they were.

“I don’t know that anything’s changed, I think we just explained to the city how PayPal’s accounts worked, and were able to clarify with them how this is sufficient information,” said PayPal spokeswoman Sara Gorman. “We have a verbal commitment from the commission that this should be sufficient, and my understanding is that this issue is resolved.”

Chicken John says PayPal’s given him new information to turn in … but he isn’t sure what they did either.

“They moved some stuff around, but honestly it all looks pretty much the same to me,” he said. “I can’t really tell the difference. Hopefully, PayPal and the Ethics Commission worked this out and when I turn it back in it will make sense to somebody.”

He said he’ll have the documents in on time today.

The Ethics Commission confirmed they’ve spoken with PayPal, and that Chicken John will still be eligible for matching funds if the paperwork he turns in today is acceptable, but they won’t comment on PayPal’s new approach (whatever it is) until they’ve had a chance to review all the documentation.

All in all it sounds pretty much like business as usual for an election in Belarus.

It would be hilarious if at least $50K of the public’s money – not to mention Democracy – weren’t at stake. You’d think that the city that invented e-commerce would have worked the kinks out by now. But on the other hand, maybe in this era of easily hackable voting machines, slow and deliberative is exactly the way to go.

Just so long as the end result makes sense, which is kind of a problem if you’re playing “telephone.”

Here's the real headlines. -d2

--Stiletto Stabbers Still At Large After Violence at SF Nightclub Slide

--Sean Penn Gets Wet Sloppy Make-Up Blowjob from WSJ for his Krakauer adaptation 'Into the Wild'

--Parking as a Contact Sport: Why Protesters Are Playing Ping-Pong in Your Parking Space

--Three Years to Fix the PS3, Implies Sony

--16,000 Hyphens Missing from English Language

--The Moz's Hypocritical Meat Ban: Protein Swallowers Scoff

--Earth to Toymakers: I'm Running Out of Lead

--IDK, My BFF, The Cops?: Errant Text Message Leads to Drug Bust