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Feature

A Chance for Respect?

How to tell whether the San Francisco Chronicle is becoming a great newspaper, or another nondescript Hearst money-machine

By Joel P. Engardio

Published: September 8, 1999

HOLLYWOOD DIDN'T HAVE TO VEER MUCH from the truth to make a cinematic hit out of the Woodward and Bernstein book All the President's Men . The real-life version of the Watergate scandal, with its...

Bay View

Dirty Laundry

Literally and figuratively, the UCSF-Stanford hospital merger gets fouler every day

By Lisa Davis

Published: September 8, 1999

While a report from the Bureau of State Audits last week indicated that there might be some hope for salvaging the disastrous merger that created UCSF Stanford Health Care, a legislative hearing...

Dog Bites

Dog Bites

Season of Mist and Mellow Fruitfulness

As told to Laurel Wellman

Published: September 8, 1999

Indian summer may still be ahead of us, but the year seems already to have clicked past some invisible notch and settled into its fall groove. The blue of the sky is paler; the noise of trash...

Night Crawler

Night Crawler

Bless Me Father, For I Have Driven

By Silke Tudor

Published: September 8, 1999

"People in California can't drive to save their mother's life," says Zino, a 22-year veteran cab driver. "It is only by the grace of God I haven't had a major accident." Zino gives me a craggy...

Bay View

WEB PREVIEW Pirates at the Dock

Sony, Electronic Arts sue, alleging Bay Area residents were part of international video game piracy ring

By Dara Colwell

Published: September 8, 1999

Two of the video gaming industry's biggest players are shining lights into the murky corners of international video piracy through a joint San Francisco lawsuit against alleged members of...

Bay View

Preaching to Their Choirs

It's political junkie reunion time at the first mayoral debate

By Jack Boulware

Published: September 8, 1999

crowd bunches in front of the Hebrew Academy on 14th Avenue in anticipation of the first in a series of debates between Willie Brown and the two viable pretenders to his throne. The line winds down...

Music

Commercial Success

Off pop music's radar for eight years, San Francisco's Voice Farm has slipped into the background of background music

By Mark Athitakis

Published: September 8, 1999

Poppin' Fresh, aka the Pillsbury Doughboy, is burdened. Weighted. Encumbered. Slowly, he trundles his 8-3/4-inch, 14-ounce frame across the floor of a suburban kitchen, carrying a dinner roll on...

Music

Their Noise

After 10 years, Superchunk and Merge Records are still working, albeit quietly

By Zac Crain

Published: September 8, 1999

Here's how much things have changed for indie rock. In 1994, Chapel Hill, N.C.'s Superchunk was coming off the album that remains the best-selling disc in its catalog, Foolish , its first...

Riff Raff

Riff Raff

Disappearing Acts and Blame Canada

By Mark Athitakis

Published: September 8, 1999

Disappearing Acts Sometimes, it seems those who feel paranoid about the Death of the Music Scene in San Francisco aren't being paranoid at all; given the cantankerous back-and-forths about the...

Record

Reviews

Rico Bell & the Snake Handlers' Dark Side of the Mersey, The Mekons' Where Were You?, and Stefon Harris' BlackActionFigure

Published: September 8, 1999

Rico Bell & the Snake Handlers Dark Side of the Mersey (Bloodshot) Mekons Where Were You?: Hen's Teeth and Other Lost Fragments of Unpopular Culture, Volume 2 (Quarterstiick)...

House of Tudor

House Of Tudor

Master Musicians of Jajouka, OtherStarPeople, "Musical Atrocities and Eccentrics, 1926-52," and New Music on the Mountain

By Silke Tudor

Published: September 8, 1999

The Master Musicians of Jajouka have existed as a musical entity in their small village in the foothills of Morocco's Rif Mountains for over 4,000 years. Being of an aristocratic caste, they are...

Hear This

Hear This

Chris Cutler and Thomas Dimuzio

By Sam Prestianni

Published: September 8, 1999

Adventurers who swim with sharks in the turbulent waters off Stinson Beach and then catch Deep Blue Sea at the local multiplex are the same freaks you'll likely find at this rare concert...

Eat

Brought to You by the Letter "R"

Swan Oyster Depot

By Matthew Stafford

Published: September 8, 1999

I had to wait all summer, so almost the very minute I found myself in a month whose name contained the letter "R" (Sept. 2, at the unseemly hour of 10:30 a.m., to be exact) I high-tailed it over to...

Eat

Guiding Light

North Star

By Paul Adams

Published: September 8, 1999

North Star is a newish restaurant in Potrero Hill, created by the owners of Noe Valley's Firefly, and the connection between the two places is evident. The food at both is seasonally influenced,...

Side Dish

Side Dish

Bridge and Tunnel

By Harry Coverte

Published: September 8, 1999

I guess this old song is already played out, but I've still got my tuba out of its case: I had the misfortune of being out in the Mission on Saturday night (a rare occurrence, as you in the biz...

The Man Who Came to Dinner

The Man Who Came to Dinner

Dr. Frank from the Mr. T Experience

By Barry Levine

Published: September 8, 1999

Help me out. I'm trying to decide: When I win the lottery, should I continue to write this column, or not? I mean, you always hear about those ... what do you call 'em? Oh yeah -- idiots --...

Film

Delinquency, Belgium-Style

Rosie

By Andy Klein

Published: September 8, 1999

Belgian director Patrice Toye's debut feature, Rosie , is different from most of the memorable Belgian movies that have made it to the States -- films like Man Bites Dog , Toto the Hero , and...

Reel World

Reel World

The Big Picture and I Confess

By Michael Fox

Published: September 8, 1999

The Big Picture George Lucas isn't the only big-name Bay Area moviemaker heading to the Presidio. The San Francisco Film Center, envisioned as a hub for the local feature film community, is...

Night&Day;

A Little Off the Side

The Fringe Festival

By Michael Scott Moore

Published: September 8, 1999

Every September, for the last eight years, the Exit Theater has been hosting a two-week tromp through the Tenderloin known as the Fringe Festival . The title is kind of vague: Even if you know...

Night&Day;

V-Day for Slammers

"A Victory Celebration Blowout"

By David Cook

Published: September 8, 1999

Anyone who has stepped up to a microphone in front of a raucous crowd of strangers and delivered a performance that could be judged and perhaps jeered (and no, we're not talking about karaoke here)...