Our dystopias have gone back to the wilderness.
A Fresh-Minted Cumbia “Lost Classic” – Los Miticos Del Ritmo
Sometimes things aren’t what they appear, but that’s ok.
Halfway Great: A Short History of the BART System
You want to know about the BART system? Here is it in five minutes.
Shorpy: The Hundred-Year-Old Photo Blog
Shorpy is a photographic archive of American history in all its beauty and ugliness
Vice Mexico Video Roundup
To see Vice at their best, you’ve got to see the coverage of Mexico they’ve been doing recently.
Top Ten Things to do in Oaxaca City
Best things to do in the city of Oaxaca, all within walking distance of Centro.
Hecho en Oaxaca
The epic Hecho en Oaxaca exhibit brought work from twelve street artists from around the world to Oaxaca.
Alejandro Santiago’s 2501 Migrantes
Oaxacan artist Alejandro Santiago, known for his massive 2501 Migrants project, passed away in July. Here’s some of his work.
“The Mystery of Flying Kicks” Cracks the Code on Sneaker Tossing
Ever wondered what those shoes dangling from the telephone wires mean?
In ‘Son Of A Gun’ a Bleak But Humane Look At The Modern West
A new memoir documents a young man’s reckoning with his mother’s murder in Tombstone, Arizona.
Tenderloin Poet: William Taylor Jr. [VIDEO]
A poet draws inspiration from the mean streets of the Tenderloin neighborhood he’s lived in for nearly a decade. Creosote Minidoc #1
Subtexts in the Narco News
Making sense of this week’s narco news: Zetas capture could signal a shift in the drug war.
Miguel’s Story
Miguel says he was imprisoned for several years in Mexico for a crime he didn’t commit.
The Knife-Sharpener’s Song
Sounds of Oaxaca: the potato steamer’s whistle, the gas truck, and the knife sharpener’s song.
Xochimilco
Since March I’ve lived in Xochimilco, Oaxaca – home to weavers, aqueducts, and stray dogs.
The Suffering Saint of Gospel: Washington Phillips
The mystery that shrouds this man compounds the stunning beauty of his precious, few recorded songs.
The Gargoyles of Mexico City
Doomed as they are to be condemned as blight, they should be captured now in as much detail as possible, so that the Mexico City of the future will know the ruins of its past.
Arthur’s Return
Arthur Magazine has returned to carry the banner for the American counterculture, this time as a broadsheet.
In “Fruitvale” Oscar Grant Gets Attention at Sundance
The debut by young Bay Area filmmaker Ryan Coogler brings a story of police brutality on BART to the big screen.
San Francisco Stories
The current SF Bay Guardian is devoted to a slice of literary life in San Francisco, and filled with small, intimate personal essays – a rare thing in any kind of newspaper.
The Mutant Metropolis
Mexico City. What can you say about 20 million people? Not much in general, but an awful lot in particular.
Not Yet Lost: Golden West and the Craft of Sign Painting
Golden West Signs in Berkeley keeps a vanishing craft alive.
Guns, Movies, and Mass Murder in Colorado
Last week, a macabre scene blurred cinematic and real violence; this week, we ask ourselves the nature of our sickness.
Outlaw Brass: Tuba Thieves and Trend Hype
The big bass horn now boasts L.A. street cred, and schools are keeping an eye on their band rooms.
Polk Gulch Graffiti
Big letters, the undead, skulls, and street signs: Polk Gulch graffiti.
Does Anybody Know What It Was About?
Three people were shot a block from my Tenderloin apartment earlier this week. My neighbor said it was about drugs.
From the Barbary Coast to the 21st Century
Larry Rothe, author of a new history of the San Francisco Symphony, talks about the City, the orchestra, music, and writing.
It Hurts to Let You Go: Levi Pata at Kokoro Studio
Levi Pata’s solo debut at Kokoro Studio in San Francisco displays worldly inspiration along with elemental flow.
Time Travel for Introverts
In contrast to much science fiction, in Yu’s book, time isn’t fragile, it’s we who are fragile—time is malleable, self-healing, a river that splits apart and converges.
Winter Lit Journals in San Francisco
The winter literary quarterlies are hitting bookshelves in San Francisco—Zyzzyva, 14 Hills, and McSweeney’s.
The West Coast’s New Cultural Ambassador
Ice Cube has recently turned heads for appearing in a new role: as a cultural ambassador for the West Coast—his hometown of L.A., specifically.
Oakland, Occupied
What I saw last Wednesday was people gathered together, a bit raucous, pissed off but happy to be in each others presence, encouraged by a show of resistance.
We Felt It: Litquake 2011
Like the 4.2 magnitude earthquake last week that jolted the Bay Area, Litquake 2011 came and went quickly this October, leaving us all with different impressions.
Dystopian Rainbows
Tyler Bewley paints landscapes mostly: colorful and whimsical dystopias depicting industrial excess, collapse, and reinvention.
The Scribe of Burning Man
Steven T. Jones (aka Scribe) takes a deep look into Burning Man’s history and inner workings in his book, The Tribes of Burning Man.
Automatic Writing
Watz’s work, like other contemporary computer-generated art, can be both harshly geometric and strangely organic. This result comes from working with a language that’s similar, in some ways, to nature itself.
Transgressions and Confessions
Stephen Elliott’s memoir, The Adderall Diaries, captures the mood of the Bay Area’s underbelly as he explores the false confessions of others—and his own compulsions.
A Black Panther’s Guide to Oakland
In a city—and a country—that still struggles with poverty, racial divisions, violence, and addiction, the story of the Black Panther Party urgently needs to be understood.
Los Angeles Drives Itself
Driverless cars are closer than you think, and nowhere are they going to have a bigger impact than in Los Angeles.
Finding Chinatown
A conversation with Bonnie Tsui, author of American Chinatown, on the changing dynamics of the urban neighborhoods she explored.
Serving the Movement
Design Action is a different kind of design studio: a worker-owned co-op, with grassroots organizations doing front-line social justice work as their client base.
More Horror Than Glamour: Imperial Bedrooms
Bret Easton Ellis’s newest novel is another season in Hollywood Hell.
Facebook and the Late Night Train
In the Bay Area, there’s an online clamor for late-night hours on BART, one that’s gained the attention of the media and BART leadership—but what will the results be?
Crime and Other Mysteries: Donna de la Perriere
A conversation with poet Donna de la Perriere, author of True Crime and Saint Erasure and curator of the Bay Area Poetry Marathon.
Absent Lovers
Vendela Vida’s new novel, The Lovers, follows a Vermont widow’s trip to coastal Turkey, where she is haunted by her husband’s death, but also lifted into weightlessness by her new freedom to define herself.
Reading the Tenderloin
The Tenderloin Reading Series celebrated its two-year anniversary with the release of a new literary journal.
Bolinas Ridge
Bolinas Ridge, up above the bohemian coastal town, has panoramic views, open roads, and lots of cattle.
Saloon Stories
Photographer Scott Palmer shares stories about the denizens of his favorite bar, whose portraits are documented in his new book, Saloonatics.
“We’re Not the Problem”
Union members and others sympathetic to the cause of organized labor gathered in San Francisco to show their solidarity with workers in Wisconsin.
Urban Lions
Last year, a mountain lion was encountered, then killed, on the streets of Berkeley. Why was it there?