Results tagged “middleeast”

Finding peace in the Middle East, one Potrero Hill Whole Foods men's room diaper changing station at a time.

Although some reports have claimed otherwise, gays in Iraq are being "executed in batches," convicted for the crime of homosexuality. According to Reuters, "Two gay men were killed in Baghdad's Sadr City slum...and police said they had found the bodies of four more after clerics urged a crackdown on a perceived spread of homosexuality." These killings reportedly happened last Thursday. Before the executions -- wherein hundreds of Iraqi gays are currently eligible, if you will, for execution -- sermons "condemning homosexuality were read at the last two Friday prayer gatherings in Sadr City, a sprawling Baghdad slum of some 2 million people." A Sadr City Shi'ite cleric official noted, "this (homosexuality) has spread because of the absence of the Mehdi Army, the spread of sexual films and satellite television and a lack of government surveillance."

If activists, like Michael Petrelis and other Castro frequenters, really wanted to focus attention on a part of the world where gays are suffering, maybe they could take a look at Iraq. Because this is, for lack of a better word, depressing. It's unreal but all too real. Iraqi gays will be "executed in batches" this week, convicted of the crime of being queer. UK Gay News has the details.

         

Last night the streets of San Francisco saw its second night of anger at Israel's assault in the Gaza Strip. The protest over the never-ending war started on Montgomery Street at the Israeli consulate, eventually moving up to the United Nations Plaza along Market Street. The protest remained peaceful. No arrests, as far as we know, were made. (As of today, Israel has rejected a truce call, continuing to bombing Gaza to smithereens.)

Kaffiyehs: yes or no? Highly obsessed with dark prints these days, we say yes--more so to the black-and-white ones.

SFist interviews Jeff Ross, founder of Indie Fest

Forget that Jamie Foxx, Jennifer Garner, and Chris Cooper star in The Kingdom. The divine Jason Bateman also appears -- reason enough to check out this action flick.

Above poster by Trudy L. Cole If the purple Impeach banner at Sunday's Giant's game got you all giddy with subversive glee, then tomorrow's opening of the Propaganda III World Tour at the Phoenix Hotel is sure to have you hyperventilating. Celebrate our country's {insert George W's voice here} "freedom" {end voice} by perusing hundreds of culture-jamming, political posters from around the globe, the act of which will make old Uncle Sam's hairy, gray...

Total number of people pictured in this week's Swells society column: 47. (We almost counted the mannequin at your right!)

We won't say the Democrats are confident right now, but we hear Nancy Pelosi is already asking her staff to refer to her only as Madame Speaker, Ms. Speaker if you're nasty. Democrats are so confident these days that Kos himself weighed in yesterday to say that everyone is getting too confident. Hell, Democrats are so confident these days that they're starting to wonder if Nancy being in charge is really such a great idea.

"AnTEAcipation" screens at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (701 Mission St. @ 3rd) as part of the SF World Music Festival. This documentary takes a gradual, personal approach to the role of tea growing on the Laz people of Turkey. The 8pm screening is preceded by a lecture on the Laz that starts at 7pm.

Bust out the Kangol Caps, drawstring pants, and Bell Biv Devoe concert tees Raiders fans as the Silver & Black continue with their love affair with Back in the Day as they signed the one and only Jeff George. Yep, that Jeff George. George, in a way, makes a perfect Raider-- he's old, he's got a rocket for an arm, and he's dumb as dirt. Which is why he's become a running joke over the years: the dude was majorly talented yet majorly douche-y.

We raced out of a meeting at work and ran to our desk to listen to the start of tonight's Giants' game on MLB audio. Down 2-1 and at the top of the fifth, we hopped into our car and listened as the Giants took the lead and somehow managed to escape an inning in which the first two Nats hitters got on base and were then bunted into scoring position (something which almost caused us to crash our car as we were too busy slamming our fist on the dash board in celebration to notice all the traffic around us.) Finally, we got to the gym just in time for the bottom of the ninth, hopped onto a machine right in front of the TV, cranked "Freebird" on the trusty iPod, and then watched in horror as ARMANDO BENITEZ BLEW YET ANOTHER SAVE.

Look, you've probably noticed lots of other people talking about this, and look, it's not like we don't care about the Middle East or Iran or anything (hey, we read both Persepolises, we'll have you know -- and Reading Lolita in Tehran.) But -- well, look. We've tried. Good Lord, we've tried. But we just cannot get through these Letters From Iran by Sean Penn that the Chronicle Datebook is faithfully publishing. Not even to mock. We just can't get through them. We can't even scroll through them online, they tire us out so much. We like Mr. Penn fine, don't get us wrong -- he seems like a nice and thoughtful man and a good actor and all that. Just -- well, he's not really a writer, now, is he? A history of US-Iran relations? Iran's ambivalence about the US? Please, Datebook, please -- make it stop! We were wrong -- we would prefer some more articles about how to play Sudoku, or lengthier Jon Carroll colummns. Picture of S. Penn by Robin Weiner, from the Chron

A review of "Campfire," showing at the Jewish Film Festival. It won best picture in Israel, but we thought it could have been a lot better. But then, we feel that way about U.S. best picture winners, too.

We have been eagerly tasting apricots on our farmer's market forays, waiting for them to go from tart and unpleasant to juicy and sweet. Someday soon, we knew. Saturday wasn't promising until we stopped by the Frog Hollow booth. Emissaries from the stand were offering samples to the throngs of tourists at the Ferry Plaza. One bite of the heavenly apricots, and we dived into the palace of produce to get more. We these compact golden orbs, whose ancestors travelled from China to the Middle East to Spain to California. The exception is the prince, or perhaps duke, of apricots, the Blenheim, which first appeared in the Duke of Marlborough's palace in 1830. We could never give an elegy for this variety that would surpass the love letter written by kick-ass chef, eloquent blogger, and SFist reader Shuna Lydon. Go, read it. We'll be here when you get back. Engage the Expand-o-Tron for more.

While most of us have gotten over the previous election, even moving past both the four stages of mourning and the drunken depressed stupor stage, there are some people out there still fighting. Yesterday a rally was held in front of Sen. Barbara Boxer’s San Francisco office urging her to stand up and challenge the election results because of all the charges of fraud and disenfranchisement in Ohio. Tomorrow, members of congress will join together to certify the vote and already several House Democrats, including ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee John Conyers, have said they will try and contest the counting of the Ohio electors. Conyers and others are hoping to talk other Democratic members of congress, including Barbara Boxer, to join in. To help their cause, Conyer’s committee today issued a report detailing all of the problems in the election. As for John Kerry, who as a Senator is supposed to vote on all this, he decided that he’d rather duck bullets and bombs in the Middle East than vote for his defeat.