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Feature

Rubble With a Mortgage

What could be worse than a devasting earthquake in the Bay Area? The day after, when we all realize that no one is covered by insurance.

By Marc Herman

Published: August 1, 2001

If it's a high 8 or a 9, there's nothing to plan for, because everything will crumble and we might as well have fallen into the sea. Fortunately, it probably won't be a 9. It could be an 8. If it's...

Sidebar

Don't Have Insurance? Then Read This

A few steps worth taking

By Marc Herman

Published: August 1, 2001

If you can't afford or choose not to buy earthquake insurance, there are other ways to minimize your financial exposure to quake damage. Here are a few steps worth taking, ranked from the cheapest...

Bay View

Power Politics

Two major S.F. energy projects are in the works. Do we need both? The question isn't really being discussed.

By Jeremy Mullman

Published: August 1, 2001

On Thursday, the California Energy Commission will try again to hold a public hearing on the "environmental justice" of the Mirant Co.'s proposed new power plant in southeast San Francisco, which...

Dog Bites

Dog Bites

Rejected Proposals for Treasure Island Monuments

By Mark Athitakis

Published: August 1, 2001

Recently, Mayor Willie Brown and many other dignitaries attended an unveiling for a proposed new monument for the city of San Francisco. The $115 million project would be "a 24-story combination...

Night Crawler

Darwin Award Qualifying Trials

Nah, it's just street-luge races. Down De Haro Street. At 70 mph. Well, like we said ...

By Silke Tudor

Published: August 1, 2001

I'm on my back. My body is straight and taut, more rigid than it should be. I tuck my chin into my chest and follow the line of sight down my navel to the patch of blue sky I can see between my...

Letters

Letters to the Editor

Power Point;The Chronicle Chronicles;Outlawing Landlords and Other Amusements

Published: August 1, 2001

Power Point Besides that, how'd you like the story?: Jeremy Mullman's July 4 piece "Gray Skies," about the Potrero power plant project, presents a distorted and incomplete picture of the...

Music

Steel Away

Thanks to Joe Goldmark, the pedal steel guitar isn't just for country anymore

By Lawrence Kay

Published: August 1, 2001

The pedal steel guitar is an ungainly, baffling instrument -- a complicated gadget with two necks, strings that bend like saltwater taffy, and a confounding number of distortion pedals and knee...

Music

Spreading the Word

The Gossip's bluesy clatter moves from small-town whisper to big-time scream

Published: August 1, 2001

The Gossip has only one motivator when it comes to playing music: "We want you to dance. If you come to our show and you don't, you should have stayed at home." Any fame or notoriety the Searcy,...

Music

Pernice Brothers

The World Won't End (Ashmont)

By Elizabeth Montalbano

Published: August 1, 2001

You'd be hard pressed to find a songwriter today who makes existential angst sound prettier than Joe Pernice. On The World Won't End , the second effort from one of many Pernice incarnations (Scud...

Music

The Strokes

Is This It (RCA)

By Jennifer Maerz

Published: August 1, 2001

Over the past year, the Strokes have fueled both a flaming grease-fire of hype and a wet-blanket backlash -- without even a proper full-length. After the band released its spring debut EP, This...

Pop Philosophy

Pop Philosophy

Retro Sheik; Bruno's lives!

By Dan Strachota

Published: August 1, 2001

Look back in jangle A former roommate of mine had a favorite spiel that he would drag out on listless Friday nights. "I should've been around in the '60s," he'd say. "I would've been happier back...

House of Tudor

House Of Tudor

Replicant torch songs, outdoor cinema, and Pistel-whipped dub

By Silke Tudor

Published: August 1, 2001

Folks speak of Ruby as the solo project of Lesley Rankine, former frontwoman of Scottish noise-provocateurs Silverfish, but producer Mark Walk has been there since Ruby's inception. (In fact, the...

Hear This

Hear This

Jack West & Curvature offer ultrasvelte "progressive acoustic jazz"

By Sam Prestianni

Published: August 1, 2001

A self-professed guitar geek, Jack West likes to put all the notes in the right places. His clean, melodic riffs and savvy leads convey a clear sense of purpose that's ripe for a feature in...

Eat

Discovering Japan

Takara

By Matthew Stafford

Published: August 1, 2001

The fresh, simple nirvana that is Japanese food comes in a staggering variety of tastes and configurations -- at least if you're at its source on the other side of the Pacific. In Tokyo alone there...

Eat

Heaven on Earth

Millennium

By Greg Hugunin

Published: August 1, 2001

My friend Peter's idea of a fine meal used to run as follows: buttered English muffins, barbecued ribs, and a pint of Häagen-Dazs for dessert. Then he had a heart attack -- no joke -- and...

Social Grace

Social Grace

Work Jerks

By Social Grace

Published: August 1, 2001

Dear Social Grace, I need help with an office situation. I work in a cube environment, and my cube was created by putting up walls in a hallway next to conference rooms. The environment is very...

The Mix

The Mix

Pacific Brim

By Greg Hugunin

Published: August 1, 2001

Japantown's Hukilau is one of those friendly, welcoming bars where people toast a lot and drink deeply. Set in an alcove off the Isuzu Japanese Restaurant, the place is so tiny you could fit...

Film

The Bitch of Kitsch

Terry Zwigoff and Daniel Clowes trap us with a raptor in Ghost World

By Gregory Weinkauf

Published: August 1, 2001

Cuddly outsider No. 63178D, please step forward. Tell us, girl, what ought we to call you? Edwina Scissorhands ? That's one reaction a viewer may take away from Thora Birch's power-moping in...

Film

Out of Africa

Lumumba delivers a thrilling, if necessarily simplified, history lesson

By Andy Klein

Published: August 1, 2001

Raoul Peck's Lumumba takes on a task so massive -- the story of a vastly complex political change involving figures barely registering any longer on the public consciousness -- that it is a...

Reel World

Reel World

Adam Savage, the S.F. model-builder who worked on A.I.'s underwater scenes

By Michael Fox

Published: August 1, 2001

Starship Troopers As a child actor in New York (he played Mr. Whipple's stock boy) whose dad did a lot of animation for Sesame Street , Adam Savage got a varied show-biz education. "I learned...