Results tagged “abc”

The Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control, a malignant cancer attacking San Francisco's nightlife scene, has dropped its "ambiguous" suit against Great American Music Hall. It seems the ABC was upset at the O'Farrell venue, according to NBC Bay Area, for "operating more like a nightclub than a restaurant." (They serve food at GAMH?!) This creepy attack from the booz controllers goes along with similar complaints they have filed against clubs like Cafe Du Nord and DNA Lounge. On Monday, however, "the ABC dismissed its complaint against the Great American Music Hall after an administrative law judge recommended the charges be dropped because 'the regulation relied upon by the ABC was ambiguous.'"

7 x 7 created this great video featuring Dawn Holliday, co-owner of Slim's, Guy Carson, owner of Cafe Du Nord, and Amy Miller of Sonicliving.com speaking about the Alcoholic Beverage Control's recent "crackdowns" on all-ages venues. The clubs' funds are all being depleted from fighting lawsuits, and staff morale is very low since they don't know how long they'll have jobs. Guy Carson has been in the business for twenty years and has never had any ABC violations. His question is, Why now, all of a sudden? His answer is that the folks in Sacramento are simply forcing their worldview onto San Francisco, which is pretty scary.

This cannot be good. Aiding in the closure of one of the few business that make money in SF? Ugh. According to Anna Conda, former Miss Trannyshack and club promoter of Herr-A-Chick, the DNA Lounge finally "lost its liquor license," so she's moving her club night. If you recall, DNA Lounge came under fire from the California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control, after the covert agents witnesses the exposing of bare buttocks at one of the club's queer nights. (Anna Conda has since moved the 4/15 version of Herr-A-Chick to the Eagle Tavern.) But don't fret, DNA fans. They are still in the appeals process. Stay tuned for updates, or go here for more about DNA's ongoing battle with ABC.

You know greater-good types who, under the impression they're doing God's work, treat people like crap on a one-on-one basis? You know the type, right? (Because, let's face it, you might be one.) Stephen Fowler is their sovereign king. That is, if you go by the hate stemming from the interwebs these days. Ranked no. 3 last night on Google Trends, Noe Valley residents Fowler and his life coach wife, Renee Stephens, have developed quite a following after appearing on a disastrous episode of Wife Swap.

ABC 7's Dan Noyes needs your help, public transit riders! It's for a story. According to his latest tweet, "I-Team's looking for anyone aboard MUNI bus 33 outbound yesterday @3:45pm who witnessed an altercation with driver at Ashbury and Frederick." Did you? If so, contact Noyes at Dan.Noyes@abc.com. Update: Be sure to catch the top of the six o'clock news on ABC 7 with the latest altercation on a Muni bus.

Wow, what dicks. And not in a good way.

Remember the other day, we told you about a bunch of new TV ads about how gay families can actually be pleasant and likable? Well, you'll be glad to hear that the spots aired all over California during Tuesday's inauguration, which is great -- except in Los Angeles on ABC-TV. According to the folks who produced the ads, they were told they were "too controversial to air during the Inauguration, since 'many families will be watching.'"

Timecapsule: October 31, 1963

Delicious, effervescent cold remedy Airborne, it seems, exaggerated their sniffle-fighting prowess. Turns out they faked their clinical trials, and are now offering you, the customer, some cash back. According to a 2006 ABC report:

Image credit: Capobianco Gallery

As many of you know, Bernie Ward, former Catholic priest and KGO 810 AM host, was fired from his job after the Feds hit him with charges of child pornography. Although he used the Pete Townsend defense that he was merely doing a little kiddie porn research, that doesn't seem to be the case.

• UndergroundfilmMaker Festival: It goes a little something like this, "In an era where filmmakers are called 'users' who 'generate content,' [Hey now! -- sfist] Undergroundfilm wishes to put the spotlight back where it belongs: behind the camera." So far the festival has had three rounds. The portfolio submission, filmmaker interview, and finally, new projects. Now, the filmmakers have been narrowed down to six and-- sigh. Okay, this is starting to sound a bit convoluted. We'll break it down for you the only way we know how: it's an American Idol-ish movie contest, and its season finale is tonight. Got it? The festival starts tonight at 8 p.m. at the Roxie; $10.
• Bill Haley's Original Comets: One of the first ivory outfits to bring rock to the masses -- with such boomerific covers as "Rock Around the Clock" and "Shake, Rattle, and Roll" -- they still perform today. Come catch these Wonder Bread legends of rock tonight at the Red Devil Lounge at 8 p.m.; $20.
• Season premiere of Lost: Yeah, yeah, we screwed this up yesterday. (One might say we too were a bit...lost. Har.) Anyway, the "two-hour" premiere starts at 8 p.m. on ABC. But! ABC's trying to make it sound like it's gonna be a two-hour show, but they're gigantic liars. You see, the first hour is a recap episode and the second hour is the premiere. So...there you go.

Local-TV Tivo alert! We've got some exciting news about everyone's favorite concerned local investigative reporter, Dan "My Rumpled Tie Says No But My Piercing Gaze Says Yes" Noyes.

Due to a gasoline tanker truck accident -- which resulted in an eco-unfriendly dousing of over "26 gallons" (?) of gasoline, or so said CBS 5's Judge Judy breaking-news interruption -- all northbound and southbound lanes on Highway 101 in Redwood City are closed. That? Blows.

According to the Coast Guard, "a barge has hit the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge" around 6 p.m. this evening. Yikes! The barge, reportedly carrying 63,000 barrels of heavy black oil, hit the east piling of the west span. So far there are no reports of any injuries or leakage.

St. Mary's Medical Center got a tip of the hat care of VH1's Best Week Ever blog. For what, exactly? Why, for acting like Dr. Frankenstein and slicing off carpenter Garrett La Fever's big toe and reattaching it as his thumb. According to to ABC 7:

-- Fallout from yesterday's tiger-ian death of 17-year-old Carlos Sousa Jr. continues. [CBS 5, SFGate, Spotswood, FCJ, SF MetBlog, Peta (cuckoo!)]

Although ABC 7's Cheryl Jennings -- who we find kicky and whimsical -- told us that a cleaning solvent spilled into the bay this morning, we're getting conflicting reports as to whether or not the spill actually hit precious, precious SF waters.

For reasons better left unsaid (and in the name of tasteful censorship), we here at SFist are enjoying ABC 7 Dan Noyes' new publicity shot. Very much so. (Even better than the old one, yes? Yes.)

Sounds like a mess down on 880 just north of Highway 84, where a big rig ran off the highway at around 1 a.m. this morning and spilled its cargo all over the highway. The cargo in question -- crushed cars.

This one goes out to all of you octogenarians out there who still receive print papers at your door every morning.

Egads! The west span of the Bay Bridge was struck this morning by a container ship, the Cosco Busan. According to the Chronicle, "Coast Guard officials said the incident was not serious enough to merit a bridge closure." Still, that looks like some serious damage. A witness on the ship claims that the Cosco struck the second tower west of Yerba Buena Island, and says the the extent of the damage isn't known. If...

According Eric Thomas from ABC 7, who went into mighty graphic detail about what happened, a suspect was arrested today for the kidnapping and rape of a 17-year-old Palo Alto teen. A press conference is scheduled at noon (now!), where even more details, names will surely unfold. This past Wednesday a teen was kidnapped in Palo Alto, taken to Sunnyvale (on the 500 block of Fair Oaks Avenue), and then sexually assaulted. She survived...

Photo of protest by Filipino-American's at the Disney Store.

The remaining fall TV premieres are trickling in, with two bowing tonight. The first is another in a string of current shows to be set in our fair city. It's called "Women's Murder Club" and it premieres on ABC at 9 p.m. Has anyone seen Angie Harmon running around town sporting a badge? If not, it's probably because like so many other San Francisco shows, much of it is actually filmed elsewhere. Based on a series of books by James Patterson, the show focuses on Harmon, who plays a local police lieutenant who likes to solves murders with her girlfriends in her spare time. Well, with the murder rate in this city what it is, it's no wonder she has to recruit her friends for help. We haven't actually had the privilege of watching the pilot yet, but the fact that it is creeping into the fall line-up a few weeks late, and on a Friday night, is not a good sign.

Hey, remember angry Sarah Nome, the lady who refused to move out of the Kaiser hospital in Marin for over a year, and ran up a $1.4 million bill? Well, Kaiser's 1) gotten ownership of her house in San Anselmo and 2) will be auctioning it off to pay off her tab. Kaiser was awarded the house after Nome was put in the care of the state (after her daughter refused to take her in), and has been paying the mortgage while their case against Nome was pending -- even though they haven't actually been given access to the place. The house isn't in the best of shape -- it's apparently been hit by falling trees and Nome was in a fight with her insurance to get them to pay for it -- but given the real estate market in Marin, we're guessing it'll probably move fairly quickly.

Tonight's big premiere is the quirky comedy "Pushing Daisies" which premieres at 8 p.m. on ABC. There are a lot of big names associated with this dramedy, including executive producer Bryan Fuller, whose previous shows include "Wonderfalls" and "Heroes." Director Barry Sonnenfeld also produces, and directed the pilot. Lee Pace stars as a piemaker who can bring the dead back to life if he touches them. Problem is, if he touches them again, they're dead for good. Bring in a dead first love, and you can see where that could get tricky. And, because every show on TV has to involve some element of crime or procedurals, the piemaker uses this gift to help solve murders.

OK, we're kind of loathe to even mention one of tonight's series premieres because it is that infamous sitcom that's based on a series of Geico commercials. We're speaking, of course, of"Cavemen", and it premieres on ABC at 8 p.m. Now, the last time a TV sitcom was based on a series of commercials, the result was "Baby Bob," so we can't blame people and their knee-jerk reactions to this. That trailer up there isn't helping much, either. We will, however, withhold judgement until we actually watch it, but will note that one of the actors playing a caveman is Nick Kroll, who is usually pretty damn funny on "Best Week Ever," and we also kind of liked his sketch comedy series "Human Giant" on MTV...Whether that has anything to do with the quality of this show remains to be seen.