Congratulations, LGBTQ ilk of India, you are now free to engage in acts of same-sex sex at your leisure. You see, an Indian court just turned a 148-year-old, colonial-era law that "declared gay sex an 'unnatural offense' and made it punishable by up to 10 years in jail," the BBC reports. The court ruled that the 150-year statute violated the rights of citizens by criminalizing consensual acts. India's gay rights campaigners hailed the decision as 'India's Stonewall,' but warned that gays still face widespread persecution." Exactly like the state of California, people in India "regard same-sex relationships as illegitimate." Also, much like the state of California should know, international human rights groups "have long argued that the law contravened human rights." Ashok Row Kavi, editor of India's first gay magazine, tells the BBC, "The social stigma will remain. It is [still] a long struggle. But the ruling will help in HIV prevention. Gay men can now visit doctors and talk about their problems. It will help in preventing harassment at police stations." So, have at it, queer folk of India. (Protip: It only hurts the first few times, gentlemen.) UPDATE: This applies to New Delhi, not the rest of India. Alas. more ›

-- Girl fight! [KGO] more ›

Two people were killed this morning after a single-alarm fire broke out at the Star of India restaurant on Polk and Broadway. "The kitchen was fully involved in flames when firefighters arrived," said San Francisco Fire Department Lt. Mindy Talmadge according to Bay City News. The bodies were found in a loft space just above the kitchen. Also, "one firefighter's foot fell through the floor of the loft," prompting the crew to leave until... more ›

-- Eraserhead (1977): More than just a t-shirt you saw all the art majors sport in college, it's one of David Lynch's first films. And it's sort of spooky in that David Lynch sort-of-but-not-exactly-creepy kind of way. Screens tonight at 7 p.m. and 8:50 at the Castro Theatre; $6-9. -- The Haunted Laundromat: A Pre-Halloween Spooktacular: SOMA's cafe, laundromat, and intimate venue of choice is have a scary bash, complete with candy and costumes.... more ›

No, no -- not these freshly-scrubbed little blessings
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Thank goodness the Department of Homeland Security's on top of all the threats to American freedom -- the New York Times today profiles Nalini Ghuman (at right), a British musicologist and assistant professor at Mills College who hasn't been able to get back to Oakland to teach her classes and work on her book about composer Edward Elgar, because Immigration and Customs refuses to let her back in the country. more ›

When you live in a neighborhood overrun by donut purveyors and nail shops, with a fair number of fairly unappetizing Chinese restaurants sprinkled in between, the arrival of a new joint featuring a new regional cuisine is cause for at least a little salivation. more ›

Question: Innes Ave. is in which area of San Francisco? A) Hunters Point: San Francisco’s notorious waterfront/hilltop ghetto, adjacent to a naval shipyard-cum-Superfund site. B) India Basin: Hardscrabble home to industrial businesses galore. C) India Cove: Cozy-sounding name marketed by area developers. D) Hunters Point / India Basin Historic District: Once “India Cove” takes root, the little brown “Historic District” signs won’t be far behind. E) All of the above. Answer: E, or at least that’s what we think. Few San Francisco streets rival the 800 block of Innes Ave. between Arelious Walker and Griffith for wide-ranging Blocker fodder. The immutable racket of welding equipment and other power tools punctures the Monday afternoon air out here along the shores of the bay. The day’s action at Zebra Awning and Nueva Castilla Metal Fabrication is in full noisy swing. Protective eye goggles are often part of the work uniform along this part of Innes - and on Sundays, so is prayer: At the eastern end of the stretch of small warehouses stands MarketPlace Fellowship. It’s an unlikely spot for a place of worship, but no less likely than one for a castle-turned-brewery-turned-studio. And speak of the devil, that’s the old Albion Ale & Porter Brewery behind the ivy-lined walls and iron gate at 881 Innes, across the street. The ornate, 137-year-old stone structure – updated in the 1930s after years of Prohibition-inflicted neglect – is now a private home, with space rented out to working artists. A peek through the Wonka-reminiscent gate reveals a lavishly landscaped front area that looks more South Yorkshire than southeast San Francisco. We have it on good authority that invitation-only parties occur here on occasion, oompa loompas and rivers of century-old beer be damned. more ›

We found Thomas Swick's traveling-abroad tips in this Sunday's Chronicle both cute and informative. But since we're stricken with a crippling fear of any existence east of (the) 5, we were left starving for a few answers as to why. more ›

Total number of people pictured in this week's Swells society column: 67. more ›

After quitting his job at Oracle, Rajeev Samant moved back to India to grow wine. The India Times/Economic Times has the story on Samant's journey from Stanford student to Oracle employee to a winemaker. He started his winery, the likes of which has never been seen in his native country before (and, in fact, was illegal according to some state laws), back on his family's 30-acre plot in India. more ›

Everybody dance now! Take in a "thought provoking" dance/theater performance with CounterPULSE's Under the Radar tiny caberet featuring an international cast of disabled and non-disabled performers. Consider what it means to be normal. Jess Curtis directs, and the performance takes place at 1310 Mission (at 9th Street). Since it's the first week, tickets are only $10 - 15. Reservations and info, call 415-435-7552 or email info@counterpulse.org . more ›

Your mainstream release pick: The Namesake. The saga of a family that journeys from homeland India to wintry New York, Mira Nair’s newest film is based on the titular bestseller by Jhumpa Lahiri and features Kal Penn (Kumar from Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle), Jacinta Barrett and Indian singer/actress Tabu. It’s a beautiful and sensitive look at identity in the context of a cross-cultural family. Nair’s known for bringing insight to her subject matter and this movie appears to be no different more ›

The Board of Supes' budget committee were doing performance reviews of various departments in the city to see who is doing what and how well. When they did a review of the SFPD, the results weren't so hot. According to the report, Homicide investigators only "cleared" just thirty-three murders for the 2006 fiscal year that ended July 1. The hoped for number was fifty-five cases. In other words, if the SFPD were a major corporation, there'd be layoffs, pension cuts, and more outsourcing to India. You know, that's one good thing about being a cop: it's probably one of the few jobs that won't eventually be outsourced to India. more ›

The Amazing Cho Bros maintained their fourth place position at the end of last week's "Amazing Race." This week they opened their first Amazing Clue to learn they'd be leaving India and heading off to Kuwait to find a mystery location which was revealed to them via some video on a cell phone (it was Kuwait Towers). The Chos maintained their alliance with Team Doing It For Our Kids (aka Team Bama) and Team Kentucky (who were in last place). All the teams managed to get on the same flight to Kuwait. more ›

Once again, we begin with "The Amazing Race." The Cho Bros started the race in fourth place and set off on a train to Hanoi where they'd then have to catch a plane to Chennai, India. Uh-oh! Here comes the dreaded Indian leg of the race! At the train station, the teams were bunched as they waited for the train station to open. The Cho Bros seem to have an alliance with the Team Doing It For Our Kids and Team Kentucky, and tried to pull a fast one on Creepy Peter by pretending to make plane reservations by phone. That plan kind of backfired when Peter saw what they were doing, and got a phone of his own to make actual reservations. In the end, it didn't really seem to matter as Peter still had to go to the actual travel agency to get the tickets. The Cho Bros managed to get on the second of three flights and then we lost track as there was much flight changing by the teams. Ultimately, the Cho Bros got to India in third place. more ›

First, onto baseball: The Giants are now on a three-game roll after taking two from the Cubbies and beating the Reds in ten innings Monday. Your Black & Orange hero? Shea Hillenbrand who hit the game-winning home run in extra innings. That trade is suddenly looking less like a total disaster these days. Also of note, the heating up of Barry Bonds who hit numero 730 and has now hit five home runs in his past six starts. That gulp you're hearing is of pitchers in the NL, other teams in the Wild Card hunt, and officials at Major League Baseball now pondering the meaning of a so hot right now Barry. The Giants have now won 15 of 21 and are for the first time in a long while, .500. No, we're not going to go there as of yet but we're starting to disbelieve our disbelief. more ›

First off, if you're one of crowd that heads to Austin each year for South by Southwest ("South by So What to the locals, apparently), the polls are still open to vote for what panels you'd like to see at the Interactive portion. So vote now, and we hope to see you there next spring. more ›

Hey, we scored a free fan! NBC 11 was giving out free handheld fans to SFIAAFF-goers attending last night's screening of Bengali movie Memories in the Mist. We're not really sure what the fan had to do with anything (most of the movie is set by the ocean and several scenes center around sudden breezes, so it's not like we got a sense of profound heat or anything from the film), but we're always happy to get free things. Memories in the Mist is directed by Bengali director Buddhadeb Dasgupta, considered one of the region's finest directors, and the movie was described as "Bunuelian" in the program. We're not entirely sure what that meant, exactly (no eyes get sliced open in this movie), but Memories in the Mist is kind of a dryly-witty, magical-realist tale about one Calcutta man's life of quiet desperation. Is that Bunuelian? Main character Sumantha, a socially-awkward man devoted to his two children and cute-as-a-button black lab Jill, isn't getting along with his America-obsessed wife (played by Sameera Reddy, "Bollywood's Jennifer Lopez"), who makes no pretense about hating his guts. As his wife grows more and more distant and his situation at work gets worse and worse, Sumantha struggles for some type of rapproachment with his estranged father and tries heroically to make some kind of connection to anyone he can find -- a newscaster, a pickpocket, a man carrying around a huge bloody dagger. The movie was like a particular type of good novel -- it was the kind of engrossing where you kind of wanted to debate the characters afterwards ("Sumantha, why don't you talk to the guys in your office about the boss?"), and then you kind of wanted to debate the director ("why does Bollywood's Jennifer Lopez have to be so one-dimensionally shrewish?). The acting was great and the movie was beautifully shot. Plus, Southern India looks gorgeous -- we totally want to go now. Picture from Memories in the Mist. more ›

for not having this idea first. more ›

Can you smell what Wednesday is cooking? Tonight: Tax breaks! The California Lawyers for the Arts are holding a workshop on how to incorporate as a nonprofit. Give your mom a tax break for supporting your career in theater all these years! The workshop goes from 7-8:30 at their offices in Fort Mason, Building C, Room 255. Thursday: As part of the Contemporary Jewish Museum's new show, Intersections: Reading the Space, they're hosting a three-part salon. Part one of the salon is tonight at the Jewish Community Center, and features a cooking class on making Muslim, Christian, and Jewish foods of India. That's $50 worth of yum ($45 if you're a museum or JCCSF member) -- so if you're looking for something on the other end of the money scale, you could also stop by a free shuttle bus historical tour of the Presidio at 12:50 (meet at the Presidio's Officers Club, reservation required at 415-561-4323.) and Friday: Our very favorite living ex-president, Nobel laureate Jimmy Carter, will be appearing and signing copies of his new book at 5:30 at Cody's SF! President Carter will not be speaking or reading, mysteriously enough, but will pose for pictures (in a separate area) if you ask nicely. Tickets are required, but there's no fee if you buy a copy of the book at Cody's. Don't attack him, killer rabbits! more ›

We decided to cheat a little for the letter S. Instead of choosing a restaurant name, we settled on an entire cuisine - from S is for South of India. By the end of the meal, at popular new spot, Dosa, we realised that the initial of the day would more aptly describe S is for "Secret" recipes. The menu is apparently full of them. more ›

You have got to love the food bloggers -- they have a real sense of community, perhaps more so than any other blogging group we have come across. Today we are raving about this bunch who, spurred into action by local girl Pim, have gotten together to raise money for the vicitims of the Earthquake in India and Pakistan. You would not believe the selection of irresistable Bay Area foodie prizes that are on offer, in return for a donation to Unicef. more ›

So color us surprised when Adriel Hampton sent us a note asking if we wanted to join him in a chat with some South Asian media professionals in town on a junket with the State Department. Apparently they wanted to learn more about these "blog" things, and how they relate to journalism, both online and in print. more ›

You read that headline right. The Albion Castle, a structure which dates to 1870 and was a brewery right up until prohibition, is being put on the market by it's owner in a real estate auction. For the last few years, it has served as a home, an event space, and the tech support headquarters of Laughing Squid -- who recently held their launch party for the new blog, where SFist fell in love with the building and its vast potential for artsy-fartsiness. more ›

We're getting so sick of this Schwarzenegger guy -- the unusually small head, the smug perma-grin, the SUVs and cigars, and -- oh yeah! -- the completely unjustified hate for underappreciated working-class people (students, teachers, nurses, women working on movie sets). What's up with the constant "I'm going to run and tell mommy if you don't play kickball the way I like," anyways? So how funny that Schwarzenegger's latest attempt to take the ball and go home to the voters (a-GAIN -- he's like the boy who cried "special election"), has hit a snag. You may recall that Schwarzenegger is now trying to take away teachers' pensions (since teachers make so much money they're completely set for posh retirements on cruise ships and stuff) through a special election process, since, unsurprisingly, he can't seem to convince anyone in the State Senate that this is a good idea. Well, the Chronicle's David Lazarus reports that the group that Schwarzenegger's cronies have hired to collect and verify signatures has been outsourcing the work to India. Dude, when you can't even keep the Republican work in the state, you got a problem. Picture from Arnoldwatch.org more ›

Shortly after the terrible tsunami in the Indian Ocean, SFist Mary-Lynn put together a great SFist Cares feature. But as the extent of suffering has begun to become fully apparent, we felt that we weren't necessarily doing enough. The scale of this tragedy will probably not be matched in our lifetimes. At least we sure hope not. more ›

Today we questioned the very being of this column. Why do we write it again? Is it an act that improves the world or diminishes it? Should we keep doing it? You'll have your own opinions, but you get to read and we have to write, and while we love both, the reading is invariably easier. Still, what's the point in diving into the depths of off-Broadway service journalism? Why do we torment these poor people? Who gives a damn what we think? All the questions that turn one drink into six, a few chips into the whole bag and unemployment into general assistance. more ›

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