AltWeeklies Wire
Three Internet Myths That Won't Dienew
The internet is free, accessible, and dangerous? Hardly.
San Francisco Bay Guardian |
Annalee Newitz |
06-18-2008 |
Tech
The Kindle and the iPhone Aren't Changing the Worldnew
They are just putting a new interface on yesterday's innovations. When you want to evaluate whether a piece of tech really is "revolutionary," just put it to the simple singularity acid test. Ask yourself if you could explain it in a few sentences to people living 100 years ago. So let's sit down with your typical resident of San Francisco in 1908, and explain Kindle and iPhone to her.
San Francisco Bay Guardian |
Annalee Newitz |
06-11-2008 |
Tech
Jack Carneal's Yaala Yaala Records Pipelines the Sounds of Malinew
Labels like Yaala Yaala, which is distributed by Drag City, don't play by the outmoded rules of so-called world music production, eschewing both academic empiricism and the major labels' reductive tendency to isolate bankable masters. Meanwhile, kids in Mali listen to dubbed tapes of Led Zeppelin and Jay-Z.
San Francisco Bay Guardian |
Max Goldberg |
06-11-2008 |
Music
Scramble for Africa 3.0: Indie Bands Lead the Charge in Sonic Imperialismnew
Vampire Weekend and other indie participants in the sonic Scramble for Africa 3.0 obviously see midcentury and postcolonial African pop culture as a cheap date, a provider of organic rock mystery where one can queue for heaping sides of hi-life, soukous, mbaqanga, mbalax, juju, rai, township jive, and Ténéré desert blues.
San Francisco Bay Guardian |
Kandia Crazy Horse |
06-11-2008 |
Music
Too Many Journalists are Just Genetically Modified Mouthpiecesnew
In 2003, when I was working as an anchor for a San Francisco TV station, newscasters and reporters across the country were asked by the White House to refer to the Iraqi invasion as Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF). We were asked to call the war in Afghanistan Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF). With press releases in hand, journalists repeated genetically modified words as if their DNA depended upon it.
San Francisco Bay Guardian |
Leslie Griffith |
06-11-2008 |
Media
Tags: Iraq, War on terror, journalism, media, Afghanistan, language, war & peace, rhetoric, public relations
Two New Books Rummage Through the Rubble of No Wave New Yorknew
With its loose aesthetic boundaries, abbreviated timeline, and incestuous collaborations, the No Wave years are ripe for the kind of anthropological studies offered by two recent illustrated histories, Marc Masters' No Wave (Black Dog, 205 pages, $29.95) and Thurston Moore and Byron Coley's No Wave: Post-Punk. Underground. New York 1976-1980 (Abrams Image).
San Francisco Bay Guardian |
MAX GOLDBERG |
06-04-2008 |
Nonfiction
Erykah Badu Lets it All Flynew
But no matter how broken-down Badu's New Amerykah gets, there is always an undercurrent fed by the missions for social justice that Badu feels she has been called upon to fight.
San Francisco Bay Guardian |
KATE IZQUIERDO |
06-04-2008 |
Profiles & Interviews
'Stuck' Cuts Both Waysnew
Inspired (very loosely) by an actual incident, Stuck is a eminently satisfying comedy of the grotesque, sporting all of director Stuart Gordon's flair for balancing queasy horror and near-surreal hilarity.
San Francisco Bay Guardian |
Dennis Harvey |
06-04-2008 |
Reviews
'Bigger, Stronger, Faster' Is Smarter Than It Looksnew
In taking a trip down just such a road to self-betterment, this unexpectedly delightful and deep documentary bumps up against cosmetic surgery, steroid usage, and wheatgrass juice. As it questions the points at which an investment in exterior or physical perfection might constitute cheating, it holds up a mirror to the American way of life.
San Francisco Bay Guardian |
Dennis Harvey |
06-04-2008 |
Reviews
'Love Songs' Steps Out From Under An Umbrellanew
Love Songs proves few movies are entirely terrible or terrific. Its crushworthy final half-hour is touching and sometimes magnificent. But much of its initial hour is maddening.
San Francisco Bay Guardian |
Johnny Ray Huston |
06-04-2008 |
Reviews
Can't Skateboarders and BMX Bikers Just Get Along?new
Guess what: skateboarding isn't a crime anymore -- it's gone mainstream. And now some skaters, many of them kids who never had to live in the underground world that I did, are using their legitimacy to push out the new outlaws -- people who ride BMX bikes.
San Francisco Bay Guardian |
Duncan Scott Davidson |
06-04-2008 |
Sports
Human-Animal Hybrids Could be Stem Cell Goldminesnew
Last week the British Parliament began the process of legalizing human-animal hybrid embryo cloning. While not explicitly illegal in the US, the process has been so criticized that most researchers have stayed away from it.
San Francisco Bay Guardian |
Annalee Newitz |
05-28-2008 |
Tech
House Built on High Hopes Goes Down in Flamesnew
A cauldron of squatters and property owners, stirred by green dreams and the bursting housing bubble, set an unusual Oakland house ablaze.
San Francisco Bay Guardian |
Shane Bauer |
05-28-2008 |
Housing & Development
Are Chicken Farm Cages Humane?new
Although the egg industry says the cage systems are science-based and humane, animal welfare activists say they are cruel and restrict natural behaviors. In November, voters will decide whether to ban the cages in California, thanks to a six-month signature-gathering effort sponsored by the Humane Society of the United States along with other animal welfare groups.
San Francisco Bay Guardian |
Alex Felsinger |
05-22-2008 |
Animal Issues
'Mister Lonely' Moonwalks between Surreal and Melancholynew
Harmony Korine's latest -- his first feature since Julien Donkey-Boy -- is perhaps his most unusual effort to date, but not for the reasons seasoned Korine watchers might expect.
San Francisco Bay Guardian |
Cheryl Eddy |
05-22-2008 |
Reviews
Tags: Mister Lonely, Harmony Korine
