A Different Light Bookstore in the Castro may be shuttering, but quietly on Larkin Street, a nearly 40-year-old institution of the printed page lives on. The Magazine, opened by partners Trent Dunphy and Robert Mainardi in a time when Polk Gulch had more hustlers and porn theaters and was a center of San Francisco gay life, is now an ersatz archive of vintage magazines of all sorts -- with vintage Architectural Digest and LIFE magazines in bins up at the front, and the smut stored in back, both gay and straight. You can find vintage Penthouses, but also magazines from the days of gay liberation like After Dark, and dusty broadsheets like Screw. more ›

It’s the dead of San Francisco winter and 46 degrees — 46 degrees! — but that’s not stopping certain hardy residents of the sizable apartment structure at 1214 Polk from opening their windows and drying their laundry au naturale. We’re impressed. 46 degrees in San Francisco, particularly along this gusty urban corridor between Bush and Sutter, feels like autumn in the Yukon. This is the southern edge of Polk’s transitional zone, where it emerges from the sleazy chic of “nitespots” like Vertigo and Blur and slowly crawls toward more prim territory northward up into Russian Hill. The upstairs residences on this block are decidedly ordinary, but there’s a dichotomy at work between, for example, the stained glasswork at O’Reilly’s Holy Grail and the $5 haircuts and $20 facials across the road at the International College of Cosmetology II. Of course, Polk St. has always been known as one of San Francisco’s more diverse business thoroughfares. more ›

-- Magic Bullets: Along with Bonde do Role and JuiceBoxxx, this local outfit (heavy on the bass lines, rhythmic keyboards, and melancholic vocals) performs tonight at 9 p.m. at The Independent, 628 Divisadero; $13. more ›

A local wine bar's new Hummer SUV. more ›

We're sorry to pass along the news that a pedestrian is near death after having been hit by a car in the Nob Hill/Polk Gulch area at around 5:30 this morning. more ›

Hey, tomorrow's Saturday. You were going to have a few stiff ones anyway, right? May as well have them at the John Barleycorn. From 1-5 p.m. tomorrow there will be a free BBQ at this the historic pub more ›

Want to go hang out in Lower Polk but think it's too seedy to want to go? Well, have no fear, a solution is at hand. The Polk Corridor Business Association wants to change the name of the area from Polk Gulch to Polk Village. Because what self-respecting transvestite hooker wants to turn tricks in a "village." Said Lulu, our favorite Polk Gulch tranny hooker, "oh honey, you know I don't take your credit card no more." more ›

Boy--we sure love completely subjective awards, and we're super thankful for a chance to give out a few of our own. more ›

So first, the good news -- your Trimethyldioxypurist happened on a swell place for a cup of coffee, one that we fully encourage you to try. more ›