Last week's winner, the East Bay Express. Dream cartoonist: Fascist zombies versus Marxist ones. So hard to tell the difference sometimes! The situation with the Oakland Trib union. Internal disputes at an East Bay lesbian bar. Cover article: should you store your baby's umbilical cord blood or donate it? Hand-churned ice cream in Fruitvale. Hey, we didn't know I Like Eating is a teacher! We would totally be in I Like Eating's homeroom class! Yoshi's on their new SF expansion. And the Crowded House reunion tour.
We Read The Weeklies
We Read The Weeklies
Last week's winner, the SF Weekly. Hey, why is Sucka Free City before the letters this week? Anti-Jewish slurs at Rainbow Grocery. The story behind that weird killing in Hayes Valley you guys got all worked up at us about (blah blah blah, hipsters, blah blah, SFist is racist, blah blah). Cover article: Disbar more lawyers. We are adoring the cautious yet game-for-adventure tone in this Southern Exposure pie delivery service piece! Meredith Brody bills the Weekly for her belly dancer. Hey, SFist Ced liked it! Let's Get Killed on the spate of bands coming in to perform single albums live, including Sonic Youth with Daydream Nation. We find that phenomenon so mysterious. The Bouncer passes along the theory that there are three types of bars in this city: Irish, hipster, and bars with two Asian women behind the bar. Also -- you may have heard the new Weekly web guy is now no longer with the Weekly -- best of luck to you, Matt Stroud! He was super super nice about the Day Around The Baymixup and we were looking forward to getting to know him!
We Read The Weeklies
Last week's winner, the Guardian. Tim Redmond says, war, war is stupid. Okay, it's kind of funny that the lead editorial describes PG&E's latest electrical scheme as an extension cord running from Pittsburg to SF. Josh Wolf pens an editorial -- if he wasn't a reporter before, he's certainly a reporter now. Someone who talked to the Guardian about their job on Alcatraz got fired, allegedly in retaliation. More on the anti-war protests (but Matt Gonzalez's name is misspelled.) They're never going to give back the Fillmore to the African-American community. Cheryl Eddy's not a vegetarian anymore, so here's her fave cannibalism movies. Sonic Reducer at SXSW. Cover article: local heavy metal band Hammers of Misfortune. The name Taiga is very hot right now. And if you're a Cancer, "you get the gleaming golden Sucks To Be You trophy."
We Read The Weeklies
Last week's winner, the SF Weekly. Matt Smith tries to solve a murder from 2003. The Apologist on the new mall. Paper City folds. Cover article: discrimination against mothers in the workplace. The Brutal Sound Effects Festival -- sounds intriguing, doesn't it? Meredith Brody goes to Front Porch with Hiya Swanhuyser. Everyone seems to like Hiya at the Weekly! SFist Ced has nothing bad to say about the review, but is now taking bets on when Meredith will review "Out the Door" in the Westfield Mall. Frances Reade on an experimental feminist noise group. And a tribute to Dirk Dirksen, a stalwart of the local punk scene.
We Read The Weeklies
. Boooo!). It's actually a pretty decent article about the future of the Chron online, the criminal lack of mentioning of Eve notwithstanding. Book section. Meredith Brody tries out Top Chef entrees around town. SFist Ced is outraged that she would review a TGI Friday's when there's no TGI Friday's in the City. Wasn't there a TGI Friday's in Fisherman's Wharf? What happened to that one? The (((folkYEAH!))) festival in Big Sur. Doc's Clock, everyone's second-choice hipster bar. And Dan Savage ate too much pot pumpkin cake.
We Read The Weeklies
Last week's winner, the East Bay Express. DAMN Choreography objects to an article about them with the title "Tits and Assets." It's their special East Bay politics issue! Political bloggers wreaking havoc in Alameda, that Democrat running against Pombo might actually win, hipsters are voting for Aimee Allison. The EBX recommendations, plus a genius move -- polling people about fake propositions. We liked the school vending machine tax to go to anti-bullying programs, and the requirement that the voter info guide be written at a 6th grade reading level the best. Jonestown the documentary is opening. Sichuan food in Fremont. A Rock The Voter blows off learning about the propositions to tool around town. And the Sunday morning rap radio show on KALX has been cancelled.
We Read The Weeklies
Last week's winner, the East Bay Express. Strong feelings about Superintendant Sheila Jordan! Some land deal involving Ignacio de la Fuente. No one wants to be a cop. Cover: Get someone to buy you an illegal gun at Trader Sports in San Leandro. Strangers with Candy is weird. Jonathan Kauffman's last review before he heads out to the Seattle Weekly. Godspeed, Jonathan -- godspeed. And music venues' insurannce rates have skyrocketed. ("Insurannce" is deliberately misspelled in the previous sentence so our spam-filter won't block this post. We're broken but unbowed by you, spammers!)
We Read The Weeklies
Last week's winner, the SF Weekly: Letters: Pro-sex worker letter, and a letter pointing out race- and class-based disparities in local coverage of murdering moms. Matt Smith on the DeYoung parking shenanigans. Ways to avoid paying your taxes (shouldn't this article have run before taxes were due?). Videojournalist Josh Wolf gets subpoenaed by the feds over last year's anarchist riots. Cover article: SFIFF. Improv actors pick the theater critic's how-we-met story to act out on stage -- hilarious. Meredith Brody takes more relatives out to eat. She has a very large family, doesn't she, Ced? Matmos. The Bouncer's not drinking this week -- take care of yourself, Bouncer! You sound a little down. And Savage Love -- whatever you do, don't burn your youthful hijinks onto a CD-Rom, fool!
Next up, the San Jose Metro: San Jose should stop embracing sprawl. The Fly: Fast food politics, with a Subway application and some political donations shenanigans by King Eggroll. There's an excellent picture of a kid slaying a dragon in the California Theater Company's production of "The Reluctant Dragon," but it's not online. Curse you, Metro! Cover article: the San Jose downtown district 3 election. The chef from Campton Place's new restaurant in Mountain View. Project Runway winner Chloe Dao is in San Jose this weekend. SFIFF. Pick out the fake hyphy-related vocabulary words from this list. And SFist Eve's horoscope: rescue a talking parrot from a burning pet store. Get on that, Eve!
The EBX, the Guardian, and the pick of the week after the jump.
Picture from the Weekly's Sucka Free City column.
We Read The Weeklies
Last week's winner, the East Bay Express: Bottom Feeder asks a good question, which is: why did Sports Illustrated run an excerpt of the Barry Bonds book and not the Chron? He doesn't say, but we're going to guess money. In a separate story, the value of Bonds baseball cards has dropped. Hey, EBX, shouldn't you be focusing on your own baseball team instead of SF's? Cover article: E (aka, "thizz") stops being a raver drug and starts being a hip-hopper one. Extra bonus: author buys and takes a pill that's mostly Benadryl. E-40! Cred Sheet asks the eternal question -- why is Live 105 always playing Sublime?
We Read The Weeklies
Last week's winner, the San Jose Metro. Phil Angelides made all his money in real estate. The Merc News gets in a screamy match with Baron Davis of the GSWarriors -- literally! Yay. Cover article: Muslim comedians (including this guy). Cirque du Soleil goes South Bay. Picture of Gillian Anderson looking like Madonna. And Straight Dope: can moms really lift cars off their children? Maybe.
Bay Area Blog Pulse
Ever wondered how those Googlers spent their "20%" time? Playing with obscene amounts of silly putty, apparently. Susan Mernit points to a blogger's tale of terror at 30,000 feet, the mainstream media coverage they received, and the nasty responses from commenters at an Alaskan Airlines IP address. Speaking of blogger relations, PR pro G.A. Marken drops by Silicon Valley Watcher to guest post about what bloggers mean to the media landscape from a marketing perspective.
Fallon Walks Among Us
Tipster Yoshi infoms us:
On Sunday night, my girlfriend and I spotted a bespectacled Jimmy Fallon at Specs Bar in North Beach, digital camera in hand he looked like any other tourist, except this one knows Horatio Sanz. Anybody there know why he may have been in town?Well, Yoshi, the buzz up here in Hollywood-North is that Jimmy was in North Beach preparing for his role in an upcoming docu-dramedy-thriller about San Francisco's very own Meredith Brody. It's a family-romantic-horror flick in which he plays a man who will go to any lengths necessary to protect his beloved pet lobster (played by that Wishbone dog) -- which, as we all know, is Meredith's favorite food to review, almost to the point of exclusivity. Though he had to don a fatsuit for his role in the hilarous upcoming hit . What a freak! Thanks for the tip, Yoshi.
We Read The Weeklies
Last week's winner, the East Bay Express: They didn't make the drop at our usual pick-up spot today, so we're stuck with the web version (which is always so much less satisfying). Bottom Feeder addresses SFist Jon's concerns about Pombo's vulnerability and the Shirek post office! Maybe SFist Jon should also start looking into the Alameda County supervisors' race, which is Bottom Feeder's third topic. Vote no on 80! Like we have any idea what any of these propositions even are yet! (80 = power plants). Don Perata's private investigator. Oakland's favorite Idol, LaToya. And getting baked at the Chabot Center planetarium (the music of Moby is featured).
The SF Weekly: Hee hee! PUNI says Google buys SF! And renames Gavin G-New! Hee! And MUNI's renamed G-Cruiser! Hee hee! A totally fascinating story about this attorney who busts cults, grew up in a upper-crust family with a closeted father, and annoys San Anselmo residents with his large left-wing signs. Movie critic doesn't like 24 Hours on Craigslist. Make it stop, we can't bear the Meredith Brody. Soup in Noe Valley. Clap Your Hands Say Pitchfork. Cover article: hip-hop blogs. And -- yoikes -- check out Savage Love's collection of letters about the man who thinks he might have been raped.
The Guardian and the pick of the week after the jump! (Sorry, we had Metro distribution problems again.)
We Read The Weeklies
Last week's winner, the Bay Guardian: Still angry about Hetch Hetchy! Mandatory retirements at the Chron. A shopping center at Piers 27-31? Cover article: animal research at UCSF. (two upsetting sidebars here (monkeys) and here (dogs)). Is it a good idea for autistics to mock non-autistics by calling them "neurotypical"? (This is like when the group of geeks would say "you're normal!" to the other kids in school.) Taquerias in strange places. And the Lit section, which we skipped.
The SF Weekly: Yet another article about mandatory retirements at the Chron! Leaking like the New Orleans levees! Cover article: Harmon Leon terrorizes pro-abstinence people! The part where he wore the short-shorts and made suggestive comments the whole day ("mmmm, threesome") is truly brilliant. Oyster eatoff next Tuesday! Books about the 1906 earthquake. Meredith Brody waxes on and on and on about New Orleans. Take it, SFist Ced! Should you or your deaf cousin pay for the sign-language interpreter at your wedding? (Aw, hell to the no! It was not just suggested by the relatives that they just not invite the deaf cousin!) Free Bluegrass Festival this weekend. And the Bouncer reflects on the big questions of life at that bar next door to El Rio's.
The East Bay Express, the Metro, and the pick of the week, after the jump.
We Read The Weeklies
Before we get into it -- ding ding ding! Envision a scantily-clad lady with a placard reading Round Three! Alt-weekly fight! If this were a schoolyard, we'd all be surrounding the SFBG and the Weekly in a circle. The Weekly lunges! And the SFBG throws a punch back! Oooooh! (Online only -- and geez Louise, the Weekly's essay is loooooong. We got a cramp in our mouse finger scrolling down.)
Okay, onto the actual weeklies. Last week's winner (who's featuring last week's cover on its website), the Guardian. Dude, we are so not prepared for a Katrina-type disaster. Cover article: nuclear power is bad. Hats! If the restaurant Maverick were in your neighborhood, you'd be a lucky person. People complain about their, um, endowments. And oh yeah, we threw out some shiny insert about food.
The Weekly: Matt Smith in rare form, on various humiliations visited on the white race by SF last week. The Chron's Burning Man coverage is only the beginning of the Smith attack! The Infiltrator tries to get his cat cloned. Tommy Craggs on the new A's stadium (lots of diagrams). Meredith Brody's father reminisces about his dinner with Kinsey (no number on the scale revealed.) OK Then on anti FEMA music. Canada, the new Montreal! And the Bouncer goes to the Lone Palm.
After the jump: The East Bay Express, the Metro, and the pick of the week.
We Read The Weeklies
Last week's winner, the Weekly: Are you an apologist for Tom Cruise? Cover article: SF Cardinal Levada's denial of Catholic sexual abuse in the Bay Area. Meredith Brody hits her western boundary at Max's on Van Ness and Golden Gate. Bands in town next week: the peppy Go! Team and Sufjan (pronounced "Soof-yan") Stevens with two of the fifty nifty United States. Savage Love: male bisexuals -- are they real? And why don't bis date other bis?
The EBX: Why do shooting-range targets have pictures of animals on them? Cruelty! Poorly-retrofitted houses. Cover article: A guy who loves metal (not Chuck Klosterman). Bay to Barkers! (not the family of Travis from blink 182). Judging pies at the Alameda County Fair. The Hammer show sucked. The top 10 Li'l Jon hits (we like his work with Pitbull ourselves.) More KPFA drama, this time featuring the hip-hop show Hard Knock Radio. And Sufjan!
After the jump, Sufjan and other delectables in the SFBG, and the pick of the week.
MeredithWatch
Okay, there are three bloggers in town who at one point in their lives asked themselves, "Am I the only person who thinks Meredith Brody's restaurant reviews stink?" Well, thanks to the magic of the internets, we discovered that we were not, in fact, alone. Some say SFist Cedric's disdain for Meredith borders on the obsessive, but someone's listening, apparently.
Wanna Be a Pundit?
We received a nice note from Wendy over at KQED's Bay Area Bites Blog who tipped us off about the following opportunity:
We Read The Weeklies
Last week's winner, the SF Weekly: the "winner" for the female synonym for cock-block is "clitoris-no-more-us." SFist Jackson's snatch-latch was so much better! Matt Smith hates the Chron (Laguna Honda overrun edition). Cover article: Roller derby girls. Meredith Brody goes back to the Ferry Building, and the vegan also goes to Cafe Gratitude. Music: Sleater-Kinney, one week late. And Savage Love: politics.
The Bay Guardian: Dude, you gotta check out the letters! dreamy Matt Gonzalez on his commitment to gay rights, the phrase "punk Chris Daly school-yard bullies," and high dudgeon at the SF School District! Plus: editorial by the original punk school-yard bully himself, on homelessness! And a dude in Berkeley almost-just-quite managed to squat his way to full-out home ownership! Man, what have we done this week? Nothing. Also, there's lead-tainted candy in the Mission. Annalee Newitz loves Vader, J-town hates Starbucks. Cover article: Mission Creek Music/Arts Fest!
Chocolate in the East Bay and the pick of the week after the jump.
We Read The Weeklies
Last week's winner, the East Bay Express! Bloggers and spammers on an anti-Ignacio De Le Fuente's blog, in Bottom Feeder. Robot cars. Cover article: rookies who accidentally shot an undercover cop. Harrowing, but with special bonus Family Circus-like diagram with dotted lines showing what happened when. Teena Marie's in town. Book reviews. I Like Eating advocates bacon on everything (so true). And Savage Love on the etiquette of barebacking -- so righteous the EBX put him in smaller type so they wouldn't have to edit!
The SF Weekly up next: Matt Smith (gasp!) praises Gavin Newsom! (Earthquake preparation.) Cover article: Harmon Leon gets on the reality show Lie Detector! Genius! PUNI: clip and save religious texts to flush down toilets! What probably was going to be the cover article except they were probably trying to avoid looking Guardian-esque: Saddam Hussein was not a very nice guy. Funny anecdote about having to change the name of the trapeze artists/indie rock show from "Music to Plummet to your Death By" to "Music Not to Plummet to your Death By." (Trapeze artists, a serious lot.) Meredith Brody gets souffles and fondue. Books. And Negativland!
The San Jose Metro makes a last gasp appearance, and the Guardian, after the jump!
Get Stuffed: Mifune
Covering the San Francisco Film Festival can make you hungry. Just ask Meredith Brody! On second thought...
We Read The Weeklies
Back to our usual format, guys. We're still working on a pie chart of the weeklies, though!
Last week's this week, The Guardian. Yipes, a cover of people flipping you off! Hello, community standards and decency board? Angry letter from Markos of the Daily Kos. Public power's "close relative," community-choice aggregation. We have no idea what that sentence means. Follow up on Is Badlands Bad (now called And Castro For All). Paul Reidinger goes to Jack Falstaff. Cover article: blurbmania about the SF Int'l Film Fest movies. Mary Timony: she's not all about unicorns anymore!
The SF Weekly! Dog Bites tries out for Beach Blanket Babylon again. Cover article: challenges facing the SF Conservatory of Music. This Tuesday, Trannyfest is throwing its annual faux king contest (drag queens dress up like drag kings -- genius!). Blurbmania about the SF Int'l Film Fest movies. Meredith Brody goes to Jack Falstaff. And Mary Timony: not all about unicorns anymore!
The East Bay Express, the Metro, and -- hey, does anyone want to go to Jack Falstaff with us?
We Read The Weeklies
Last week's winner. the SF Weekly. Yikes, a free AOL cd fell out of our weekly! Throw it away. Hey, a letter about Mission Housing from one of our commenters, Jim Ausman! Moving up into print media, Jim, we like it! Cover article: one of those SF Weekly Card Games (tm), this time for baseball. We do not have time in this life to read Meredith Brody's thoughts on Cuba, but the other food columnist has a dandy time ordering lots of different dumplings at the Shanghai Dumpling Shop. Nate throws a good party and the Bravery is already overhyped. New Hot Band Stars! (Canada: the new Seattle!) And Savage Love: people who send out mixed signals.
The Guardian: Does Susan Leal love public power now? A seven point test. Dufty and Alioto-Pier take on the Chris Daly TIC machine -- fight! fight! Trying to reduce the murder rate in the city. Cover article: Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get you (9/11 edition). Annalee Newitz has a good time at the emerging technology conference. Dan Leone makes no fricken sense yet again. New Hot Band Stars! (Canada: The New Seattle!) And Kim Chun has a good time at SXSW.
No EBXs made it to our usual pickup point this week, but we have the Metro and the Weekly of the Week after the jump.
Bay Blogger Thursday
As you've probably figured out by now, SFist has a tendency to crush on people, especially people in the media. Granted, we're also known to have petty rivalries with people, again, especially in the media. Well, one object of our affection is Adriel Hampton, who's not only an actual journalist with the San Francisco Examiner, but a blogger as well. See, Meredith Brody and Mick LaSalle? Go start a blog and maybe we won't harsh on you constantly. Okay, nevermind -- that didn't work for Jerry Brown. See what we mean about the petty rivalries? So we should say start a blog, link to us repeatedly and shill our merchandise. Then we'll talk.
We Read The Weeklies
...drunk!
Last week's winner: the The Guardian. Muni fare hike, rrrrgh! The Guardian shakes its fist at you. Arlene Ackerman writes a defensive letter ("I have never claimed to be perfect and my staff and I make missteps like any other human beings." Nothing good can follow that statement.) Local politics: why isn't a sports agent attorney being prosecuted for stealing money from his client? (answer: well-connected). Burning Man, part 15 of a 78-part series. Cover article: Feel-bad romantic comedies. And Inside Deep Throat: the ultimate That's 70s Show.
SF Weekly: We raced through the letters and Matt Smith so we could take the "Are you an apologist for Chris Daly?" quiz. God, this is So Fricken Good. We scored: "Please make this guy the next president of the Board of Supervisors. My TiVo would never be the same." Ladies, order your Mrs. Chris Daly t-shirts now! Cover article: Sweet Jesus, can this issue get any better? The cover article is about Journey!! Steve Perry is totally the emo-est singer alive. Meredith Brody sniffs disdainfully at the food at the Scharffen Berger café. Conor Oberst, making a run for Steve Perry's title. The clubs columnist goes to the Zeitgeist to think about Metallica. Savage Love: cancer survivor wants to have an affair, does kidney stone medication affect semen, and a complicated letter involving gurneys in Canada that we don't really quite understand.
Don't stop believin', after the jump.
Foodies Donate Know-how to Help Tsunami Victims
In what has to be the most delicious way to help those who lost their lives, loved ones and communities in the Tsunami disaster, a group of foodie bloggers from around the world have donated their formidable talents in recipe writing and wine pairing to put together "A Menu for Hope." Derrick over at Obsession With Food was where we first found the menu. He contributed a recipe for Khari Poori with Mint Chutney, and the thought that "When such a disaster strikes, we are not American or Thai or Swedish. We are simply people."
We Read The Weeklies
...while we wait for the inauguration protests to start!
Last week's winner, the Weekly. Matt Smith: did you know it's illegal for dogs to have sex in public in the City? Cover article: using California state procedural laws to stymie the rights of people molested by priests. Meredith Brody lunches like a lady at the Neiman-Marcus Rotunda. A pullout guide to your New Year's Resolutions: the usual list: weight loss, playing an instrument, things to do in the city (hey, have you taken one of these nifty cable cars?) and a list of phone numbers for kicking substances. OK Then's list of the next new "hyooj" bands for 2005. Also, OK Then got ticketed on a MUNI even though he had a transfer. Man, what gives with the MUNI cops lately? You should be exempt if you voted for Newsom's tax increases. Not our fault they didn't pass! Savage Love: three-ways, childhood traumas reemerging as sexual fantasies, humping someone's leg, and the word "santorum" wins a linguistic prize for 2004.
The EBX: The dream cartoonist illustrates a dream featuring Donnie Wahlberg as an acting teacher. East Bay versus South Bay in the stem cell wars. Trash in the San Leandro watershed. Cover article: folk singer Dave Dondero at the Golden Gate Fields racetrack. An Alameda winery is moving to Brentwood. A profile of Mike Park's peace-promoting label Asian Man.
The Guardian and the Weekly of the Week after the jump.
Bay Blogger Thursday
Way back in February of 2003, just before we packed our bags and crossed the Bay Bridge to settle in The City, we remember reading a scathing letter about Meredith in the Weekly. Since nearly ten months later she was still phoning in her navel-gazing reviews (and people thought bloggers were self-obsessed), Citizen Cedichou started a blog and kept his campaign going. When we started our Digest we had no idea that we had a comrade-in-blogs, but thanks to the magic of trackbacks we were quickly alerted.
SFist Culinary Digest
We'd like to take the time to thank everyone who bothered to read the Culinary Digest. But it's time has come -- we're retiring the digest while there's still some money left in Social Security. We're also tired of thinking up new and interesting ways of making fun of Meredith Brody, the fact that the Food section of the Chronicle is the best part of the paper depresses us and we think you've gotten the idea that we think Dan Leone and Jonathan Kauffman are doing good work. It's not like we won't still read all of them, each and every Wednesday. Instead, look for more original foodie content in the coming year. Feel free to snark on us, Meredith!

