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Music
Released on Dangerbird Records, 8/5/08
Darker My Love did not have me at 'hello'. In fact, before I even heard them I took one look at the band name and wrote them off as a neo-gothic electro-pop band pumping out mediocre hopped-up My Bloody Valentine meets Duran Duran numbers. Well let me just say, for the record, that I couldn’t have been more wrong. Darker My Love, I apologize. I am sorry I judged your band by its name. I, of all people, should know better. It wasn’t until I played their sophomore album, 2, about 7 times in a row that I was able to pick up on the genius I have now discovered as Darker My Love. More
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Music
Released on RCA Records, 7/8/08
Strokes fans already know they can find solace in Albert Hammond, Jr.'s solo output during his band's absence. On ¿Como Te Llama? he proves, once again, that he’s able to properly satiate. The album opener "Bargain of a Century" kicks off in good Strokes fashion with a chugging bass line exploding into staccato guitars. One of the more memorable tracks on the album, Hammond properly showcases his ability as a guitar player beyond the how-fast-he-can-strum style with a grandiose solo. More
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Music
Released on Drag City, 7/22/08
My family moved from Northern Ireland to Lincoln, Nebraska in 1984. We were truly strangers in a strange land. We were Irish transplants smack dab in the middle of the U.S. on a one year “working vacation” which lasted 24 years and running. Suffice to say I listened to one heck of a lot of traditional and popular Irish jams in that duplex in Lincoln. More
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Music
SF Station Blows It Up
When I found out that Dolly Parton was in town, there was no way I would miss it. Once the queen of country hit the stage, she ran around in heels and rhinestones and belted out amazing tunes, even doing a rendition of "Jolene" that made me sing along. All this was to promote her new album Backwoods Barbie, her first mainstream country record in 17 years. I would advice every aspiring singer should look at Dolly and learn. More
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Music
An Inside Scoop
The Outside Lands Music and Art Festival juggernaut, with its six stages and 60 bands, is landing in San Francisco on August 22nd, putting the city on the map as a large-scale music festival destination. Despite the obvious attractions -- back-to-back sets by Radiohead and Beck and a performance by Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers -- the festival offers several other draws that are unique to San Francisco. More
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Literary Arts
A Good Cause for a Smile
Mary Roach writes in Bonk ‘s introduction that her study of sexual physiology should not come as a shock to readers familiar with her other books, Stiff (the world of cadavers and undertakers) and Spook (the milieu of the supernatural). Perhaps the most understanding person in Roach’s life is her husband who apparently didn’t mind using vacation time to go to London in order to subject himself to a coital imaging machine for a book that his wife would later title subtitle: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex. More
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Theater
Tony winner leaves audience joyous
If you adoringly hum refrains from the American musicals of Cole Porter and George and Ira Gershwin, you will be charmed and delighted by the frolicking, play within a play “The Drowsy Chaperone” currently on stage at SHN’s ornate Orpheum Theater. If you prefer baseball to musical theater you may not understand some of the shows self-referential humor, but you will still have a damn good time. More
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Health & Wellness
Pushing the Reset Button on Knotty Muscles
"Are those birthmarks?" a girlfriend asks, noticing the cascade of perfectly circular bruises across my shoulders as we suit up for a swim in the rooftop lap pool at UCSF's Mission Bay campus. The next day at Gray Whale Cove, a different friend exclaims, "Oh my god, what happened to your back?" and while at the Jay N' Bee Club later that night, another slyly inquires, "Um, what have YOU been up to, young lady?" More
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Restaurants
Locally Sourced and Local-Loving Bites in the Tenderloin
Tucked away in the Mark Twain Hotel near the theater district, and a block from Powell BART, the small but elegant, Fish and Farm Restaurant is easy to miss. Once we located this buzz restaurant, we found its cheeky nautical-themed wall hangings, coffee shop booths, tasteful light blue colors and candle-lit tables inviting. Its menu, laden with fresh local seafood and seasonal produce sourced from within one hundred miles of San Francisco, culls a number of Americana classics meant to whet a diner’s appetite. More
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Movies
He’s Scarier Than He Looks
Baghead, an audience favorite and critical hit at this year’s Sundance and South by Southwest film festivals, is the second film from writing/directing/producing brothers, Jay and Mark Duplass. Their first film, The Puffy Chair, a so-called “mumblecore” effort (i.e. a twenty-something character-driven indie comedy/drama, heavy on non-action and natural speech patterns), was also a hit on the festival circuit. For Baghead, the Duplass Brothers decided to combine their mumblecore roots with the horror genre, to surprisingly positive results. More
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