There has been an explosion of new restaurants in my neighborhood — San Francisco’s Mission District. Among my favorites are a sausage joint and a new vegan Mexican place — which, oddly enough, I think draw a cross-over crowd.
San Francisco
aka The City by the Bay, City of Love, S.F., Frisco, Golden Gate City
Back When Music Videos Meant Something
Vanessa | March 15th, 2010
As a teenager, I majorly missed out on music videos: I didn’t have MTV, and streaming video was a distant dream. So it’s only now that I am getting caught up on the great music video canon, especially Spike Jonze’s old videos. It’s entirely possible that I just don’t watch enough videos these days (I do have MTV but would never dream of sitting around and watching it — I mean, do they even play music videos anymore?), but it seems to me like they are so over produced and over reliant on sex appeal. Read More
The Bold Italic
Vanessa | March 12th, 2010
As print media migrates online, there are some things that just don’t translate. For instance, there is just no replacement for the feeling of leafing through a beautifully designed magazine, its heavy, matte pages emanating that fresh paper smell. One new magazine, existing only online, comes close to rivaling print in design: The Bold Italic, which chronicles the offbeat in San Francisco. Read More
The Booty Hunt
Vanessa | February 26th, 2010
American Apparel is officially out of control.
It started with 70s porn kitsch in their store, models in increasingly compromising positions and an obvious embrace of the amateur porn aesthetic. It went from the titillation of using “real workers” as their models to using “real porn stars.” And now, there is the Booty Hunt.
Dive Gourmet: Mission Street Food
Vanessa | February 26th, 2010
Chevre tostada w/ blistered shishito peppers, and pickled cherry tomatoes ($6.)
Broccoli rabe w/ garlic confit, maitake, macadamia butter, shaved truffle ($10.)
Cacao and banana handpie w/ spiced walnuts and lychee “buttercream”($5.)
Every Thursday and Saturday nights, the Lung Shan restaurant on Mission Street in Francisco transforms from an average-seeming Chinese joint and to a pop-up candle-lit restaurant serving up incredibly gourmet dishes at shockingly reasonable prices. It’s called Mission Street Food, and it’s the most exciting restaurant in my neighborhood right now. Read More
The Road
Vanessa | February 25th, 2010
The movie that haunted me the most this past year was The Road, the adaption of the Cormac McCarthy novel — though it’s definitely not for everyone. Two friends I went with left the theater saying that it was the worst movie they’d ever seen.
Wire Fans Eagerly Await Treme
Vanessa | February 23rd, 2010
My obsession with The Wire continues — it’s no doubt the best series ever made, and I continue to be an evangelist. I’m not the only one who thinks it’s so great. Harvard, Berkeley and a bunch of other schools are offering courses focused on The Wire this semester. Read More
Natural Child, Teengirl Fantasy, Mexico
Vanessa | February 19th, 2010
It really shouldn’t be so surprising that great music is coming out of Nashville, but I’ve just heard another Infinity Cat band — Natural Child — whose garage rock-y songs will not get out of my head (especially “Dogbite”.) Like label mates Jeff the Brotherhood and Heavy Cream, Natural Child has a young, energetic, no pretenses vibe that is really refreshing. Read More
The Radiohead Approach to Compensation
Vanessa | February 18th, 2010
When Paige Williams‘ feature story got killed by The New York Times, she was out $2,000 and couldn’t find another home for the piece. So she took the Radiohead approach: she published the story on her own website and added a donate button to recoup costs and possibly even eke out a paycheck for herself. Read More
Zahelu!
Vanessa | January 22nd, 2010
My friends are completely divided about Avatar. It seems to be a litmus test for how much of a bleeding heart hippie you are — which apparently I am, as I totally loved it. Yeah, it was Pocahontas meets Fern Gully meets Dances With Wolves, but I was floored — and heartened — that the blockbuster movie grossing more money than any other was, above all, about deepening one’s own connection with nature and becoming more spiritual. Read More
The future of fragrance-free
Vanessa | January 12th, 2010
When I was a kid, one of my friend’s mother had “chemical sensitivity.” She got sick from the fumes from just about anything synthetic — glues, cleaners, shampoos, lotions, perfumes. Of course everyone thought that she was a hypochondriac. At that time there was not as much awareness about chemicals in the environment.
Fast-forward fifteen years later, and I practically choke and pass out when someone walks by with heavy perfume on. Are you serious? I think. What year do you think it is, 1995? Wearing perfume is like someone smoking indoors. Not cool! Read More
Dock Ellis and the LSD No-No
Vanessa | January 11th, 2010
If you haven’t yet seen the “Dock Ellis and the LSD No-No” on youTube, clear your schedule. You will watch it at least three times the first day that you see it. It’s the story of Dock Ellis, the pitcher for the Pittsburg Pirates, and his infamous no-hitter game in 1970 that he claims he pitched “high as a Georgia Pine” on LSD.
What Would Fantastic Mr. Fox Do?
Vanessa | December 31st, 2009
This is the question that my friends and I were asking each other for weeks after seeing Wes Andersen’s newest movie, Fantastic Mr. Fox. It’s hands down the best movie I’ve seen in a theater in the last year.
Ghosts on Tape brings the tropical-booty-crunk
Vanessa | December 29th, 2009
I can’t understand how this guy is not more famous yet.
Ghosts on Tape is a one-man dance jam powerhouse from San Francisco whose unique tropical-booty-crunk sound defies categorization. In his own words, Ghosts on Tape is “live PA with no laptops on some janky ass ghetto equipment that no one would be caught dead using in the 21st century.” This means that he does his whole performance live on two blinking mixer looking things (no turntables involved) that look straight out of the early ’90s. Read More
Keeping it Local and DIY for the Holidays
Vanessa | December 25th, 2009
There is nothing I hate more than buying Christmas gifts. It’s hard to know what to get people, and there’s this sort of sinking, soulless feeling if you end up freaking out and just buying something at the mall — or even worse, Amazon.
Enter the Indie Mart, a monthly party where local designers and artists come hawk their wares, while DJs spin, bartenders serve up margaritas and bloody marys and people browse racks of altered and handmade clothing, spreads of vintage and new jewelery, and any number of other quirky items, from feather hats to clocks to wall-mounted bottle openers.