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Feature

Law and Borders

Prosecutors, judges, governors, a sex offender, and a woman with a penchant for poor judgement entangle California and Texas in an epic child custody war with two sure losers -- aged 7 and 9.

By Lisa Davis

Published: November 14, 2001

Alameda County's Santa Rita Jail is among the largest county jails in the United States; it holds thousands of women, including, since her extradition in September, Debra Schmidt, mother,...

Sidebar

Wives' Tale

More than one ex-spouse has had problems with Manuel Saavedra

By Lisa Davis

Published: November 14, 2001

When Debra Schmidt met Manuel Saavedra in 1991, he was not yet divorced from his first wife, a woman he regularly described in unflattering terms to the new Mrs. Saavedra, who eagerly adopted her...

Matt Smith

On the Homeless Front

Providing comprehensive services for street people is morally uplifting -- and, as shown in New York, good policy

By Matt Smith

Published: November 14, 2001

Sexagenarian pamphleteer Bruce B. Brugmann is around 6 1/2 feet tall and carries the weight of a generous side of beef. His fists are only slightly smaller than cabbages. For reach, think Sonny...

Bay View

Will Blackouts Be Back?

With many power plants scheduled to go down for repairs, a stretch of bad weather could spell trouble

By Jeremy Mullman

Published: November 14, 2001

Remember when the scariest thing in the mail was the energy bill? Thanks in part to much-lobbied-for federal price caps, electricity prices have settled down to almost pre-crisis levels, and...

Night Crawler

The Tammy Faye Show

"The First Lady of Televangelism" brings her odd, endearing act to the stage and owns the Castro Theater

By Silke Tudor

Published: November 14, 2001

An arrangement of white flowers sits on the table between Tammy Faye Bakker Messner and John Waters . It is no simple array or floral embellishment; it is an aromatic monolith, one that, in...

Letters

Letters to the Editor

Cleaning Up the Cash; A Group Hug; Burning Bush; Correction

Published: November 14, 2001

Cleaning Up the Cash Quote, unquote: I am the San Francisco assistant district attorney interviewed by Matt Smith referenced in the article entitled "Dirty Money" (Oct. 31). The article...

Music

Sweet Musette

The Baguette Quartette keeps French accordion music alive -- with a little help from Gypsies, tramps, and thieves

By Lawrence Kay

Published: November 14, 2001

When she was a young girl in Paris in the '60s, Odile Lavault was not particularly aware of the seismic upheavals in French popular music happening around her. Her family was conservative,...

Music

Daft Punk

Meet the self-proclaimed No. 1 face in hip hop -- a former punk gone gold

By Ali Neff

Published: November 14, 2001

"Who rocks the party?/ We rock the party/ And everybody rocks at the Gold Chains party," screams a squinting Gold Chains from the center of a recent pre-Halloween bash. The crowd around him grows...

Music

Trembling Blue Stars

Alive to Every Smile (Sub Pop)

By Dan Strachota

Published: November 14, 2001

Consistency, we are told, is a good thing. Just keep that nose to the grindstone, that pedal to the metal, that eye on the prize, and you'll get what you deserve (as well as a dictionary of...

Music

Club 8

Club 8 (Hidden Agenda)

By Jill Stauffer

Published: November 14, 2001

In 1996, when Club 8 released its first album, Nouvelle , various zines and indie music mags described the Swedish duo's sound as "Astrud Gilberto gone indie-pop." While the group's music did...

Pop Philosophy

Pop Philosophy

A flock of nostalgia; an early -- and bloody -- valentine.

By Dan Strachota

Published: November 14, 2001

A voice from the past, a fear of the present You probably won't remember Robert Seidler unless you lived in the Bay Area in the mid-'80s -- and even then, it may be tough to recall him by name....

House of Tudor

House Of Tudor

Teutonic new wave, Dutch sample-pop, junkyard blues, and snarling post-punk

By Silke Tudor

Published: November 14, 2001

A few years ago, while digging through the discount bins of her Amsterdam record store, Elisabeth Esselink bore Solex in the hopes of liberating some marked-down sounds she suspected would...

Hear This

Hear This

Fred Frith expands the boundaries of what guitar can be

By Sam Prestianni

Published: November 14, 2001

Though you won't find his name in the popular discographical guides to jazz and classical, Fred Frith has influenced countless creative players who long to push music beyond the status quo. From...

Eat

Mixed Blessing

Andalu

By Greg Hugunin

Published: November 14, 2001

People think it must be easy being a food critic: You just eat, drink, jot down an opinion, and send your employer the bill, right? Though that is the gist of it (praise the Lord), the job has...

Eat

Hangout

Street

By Matthew Stafford

Published: November 14, 2001

Choosing a hangout is one of the most important things to do when you're settling into a new neighborhood. While finding the closest movie theater and the nearest purveyor of Ben & Jerry's New York...

Side Dish

Chef's Choice

Women think Auberge du Soleil's cook is a pretty tasty morsel

By Harry Coverte

Published: November 14, 2001

Camera Ready For you overworked chefs who don't know how to get a date, consider following the lead of Auberge du Soleil's chef, Richard Reddington. Thanks to a snapshot of the 35-year-old in the...

Film

Grand Allusions

La Cienaga asks you not to cry for Argentina, but it's an impossible request

By Bill Gallo

Published: November 14, 2001

At first look, the cloud of gloom that envelops Lucrecia Martel's strangely affecting first feature, La Cienaga ( The Swamp ), seems to have no specific origin and no particular provocation. An...

Reel World

Reel World

Terry Zwigoff is set to direct a twisted Christmas tale called Bad Santa

By Michael Fox

Published: November 14, 2001

A Christmas Story Here's a match made in heaven: The Coen brothers have tapped Terry Zwigoff to direct a dark comedy for their production company, KL Line. "I'm doing a polish on this script that...

Night&Day;

Fo's Back

A tribute to the husband/wife playwriting team of Dario Fo and Franca Rame

By Lisa Hom

Published: November 14, 2001

In 1998, a year after Italian playwright Dario Fo won his Nobel Prize in literature, revivals and tributes to the left-wing scribe were all the rage, capped off in the Bay Area by a weeklong Fo...

Night&Day;

Trans cending Gender

Tranny Fest celebrates the less-charted realms of human sexuality

By Gary Morris

Published: November 14, 2001

While many niche festivals feature, and cater to, people of all shapes and sizes, Tranny Fest ups the ante by including people of all sexes. The selection is heady, leapfrogging past the...