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SF Outpost Gets a B-Minus, Oakland Spot Scores Higher
While YBCA, MOMA, and the Metreon offer much in terms of arts and entertainment, dining options in the area are limited to just-palatable mall food (e.g. Buckhorn Grill, Chevy's, Jillian's) and super high-end fine dining (Ame, XYZ). B Restaurant and Bar strives to provide an upscale middle ground. Located just outside of the main building and on the second level of San Francisco's Yerba Buena Gardens, B occupies an ideal spot overlooking much of the downtown skyline with extensive patio seating. It may be a little confusing to find, but the views, especially on an unusual warm day in the city, make the search worthwhile.
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Giving Props to SF Parking Authority
You can find anything on the Internet these days -- a girlfriend, an apartment, furniture, and even your own band, as was the case with Tanya Kelleher vocalist for Return to Mono. The San Francisco-based group combines electronic beats from Andy Sibylrud with the guitar and bass work of J.G. Paulos to create intricate foundation for Kelleher to work with. The group has two upcoming concerts planned in San Francisco in support of its EP, Involution. Kelleher recently spoke with SF Station.
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SF Station Blows It Up
The Redwalls are a product of The Windy City and they proved it last Friday at Du Nord with a sound that mixed the Beatles with the Ramones and Bob Dylan with Joy Division. Logan Baren's voice and guitar and his brother Justin's vocals and bass drive you to listen, dance and scream all at once.
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A Tedious Return to Alien Nation
In The Invasion, the latest take on Jack Finney's ageless sci-fi novel The Body Snatchers, a disintegrating space shuttle re-entering earth's atmosphere showers the American countryside with highly contagious alien spores. Before long, the world is overtaken by emotionless drones in human form, slaves to a collective will who offer global peace -- in exchange for our souls.
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Just One Word: McLovin
If the words, "teen", "sex", and "comedy" in the same sentence make you wince, then Superbad, a teen sex comedy produced by writer/director Judd Apatow (Knocked Up, The 40-Year Old Virgin, "Freaks and Geeks") and written by Seth Rogen (Knocked Up, "Freaks and Geeks") and Evan Goldberg isn't for you. The film promises to deliver the kind of raunchy, vulgar, sex-obsessed comedy that trace their origins back to Porky's twenty-five years ago and, jumping ahead, to American Pie.
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Say Goodbye to Yesterday's Pampering
So you've been around the block a few times: you've done the speedy 45-minute mani/pedi combo, you faithfully visit your neighborhood aesthetician every four weeks, and you've found the perfect massage therapist (one you've decided to keep a secret from even your dearest associates). In short, you have all your pampering bases covered. But even the most discriminating spa connoisseur could benefit from a one-stop place to indulge -- whether you want a quick lunchtime fix or an afternoon of luxury -- that won't cost you an arm and a leg. Muni accessibility doesn't hurt, either.
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Provocative Puppet Jokes -- for Adults
The late great Jim Henson spawned a passel of subversive, potty-mouthed muppet performances for adults, most recently, his eponymous Puppet Improv, in which beloved figures like Miss Piggy and Kermit the Frog promenaded about the stage, bowing to the dirty dictates of audience members who couldn't resist the idea of a saucy barb from a plush, lovable childhood icon. It's a wonderful gambit, if only because the idea of a muppet -- god bless its googly-eyed, yarn-haired soul -- spewing swear words and dealing in risqué puns is invariably hilarious.
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Down Under Comes On Top
Wasn't it Gore Vidal who said, "Sydney is the city that San Francisco thinks it is"? In Australian short story writer David Malouf's milieu, Australia is probably the country that California thinks it is. Malouf's characters shift between urban and rural settings, always conscious of their man-made habitats: houses are made of pinewood and sandstone, kids play on warm bitumen. Here we see buddleia to be noticed, quince to be picked and blackfish to be angled. But like the reality of today's California, people constantly converge on one another, parents on children, teenagers on playmates, in-laws on well-meaning couples.
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