Pixel Vision

Internet cats, in their own words: Colonel Meow

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I got -- and am continuing to get -- in quite a few conversations with loved ones and people I get stuck chatting with at parties, about favorite Internet cats. Such has been the all-consuming process that is this week's "Cat Pack" cover story. And shocked, I am shocked each time someone is ignorant of Colonel Meow's charms. The luxuriously eyebrowed black-and-gray Persian longhair from Washington State, and his owner Anne Marie Avey's megalomaniac prose have entered our cultural vernacular. 

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The Performant: Band(s) of a thousand faces

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Borts Minorts/Fuxedos/Polkacide fux shit up at Bottom of the Hill

It had been awhile since I’d stood in slightly gape-mouthed awe before the glorious mania of Borts Minorts, who last played the Bay Area some five years ago, the jerk, depriving me of my Dadatastic fun fix for far too long. Read more »

Internet cats, in their own words: Luna the Fashion Kitty

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While writing this week's Pets Issue cover story on world domination by Internet-famous cat magnates -- or the "Cat Pack," as they will forever after be dubbed thanks to the quick linguistic thinking of Mike "Owner of Lil Bub" Bridavsky during our interview for the piece -- a certain fashion icon was never far from my mind.

Luna the Fashion Kitty is hardly the most famous Internet cat, but her cross-eyed good looks, coupled with owner Rocio Grijalva's ability to get her to wear tutus and hairbows, is to me emblematic of the American Dream. Let the fact that Luna hails from the city of Hermosillo, in the Mexican state of Sonora allow you to draw your own conclusions about the continued cultural relevancy of that trope. Read more »

Hunky Jesus resurrected! Contest moves inside to DNA

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A cloud of gloom settled over San Francisco's cloisters when the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence's annual Hunky Jesus contest was rained out on Easter weekend. But rejoice, disciples -- the deeply irreligious happenings have a new home. Gather your tithes, it's not gonna be free this time around.Read more »

Is NFL's gay day on the way?

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Well this would be really exciting. Buried in a kinda-bummer, kinda-not-that-relevan-to-our-situation Baltimore Sun article about Baltimore Ravens linebacker and loudmouth straight ally to the LGBT community Brendon Ayanbadejo getting cut from his team's roster were these amazingly cryptic paragraphs:Read more »

All killer, no filler: new movies!

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Deadites, dino-junkies, indie supporters, doc watchers, foreign-film fans, "Hey Girl" lovers ... there's a little something for all y'all this week. (If you'd prefer to avoid the multiplex, check out the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts' Pen-ek Ratanaruang series and/or the San Francisco Cinematheque's Crossroads fest.)

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Oakland's first outdoor sculpture park opens tonight!

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Last Tuesday, in the parcel of land off of Telegraph Avenue between 19th and 20th Streets in Oakland, Randy Colosky discussed the orientation of his wooden sculpture, The Pressure to Hold Together That Which Held Things Back Part 2. Three assistants and two arts commissioners weighed in. The word of the hour, it seemed, was “dialogue.” 

“It’s about starting a dialogue,” Steven Huss, the city’s Cultural Arts Manager, said on the phone earlier that day. He reiterated the same on site as he moved a portable chain-link fence aside to enter the Uptown ArtPark, a large-scale temporary sculpture garden that will open to the public tonight during Art Murmur. His favorite part of the park’s construction, he told me, was talking to people who stopped to ask questions.

Huss is experienced in the art of dialogue. Over the past three years, he has witnessed and participated in the many that have transpired between the community, the city, and developers during the planning of the space’s use.

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Delicious beginnings: Chocolate 101 at Dandelion

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Photos by Bowerbird Photography

"Hi. My name is ______, and I'm a chocoholic."

The rest of us took turns, going around the room, introducing ourselves and proclaiming our unabashed love for chocolate. We were all gathered at Dandelion Chocolate the bean-to-bar chocolate company on Valencia Street, for Chocolate 101, an introductory class which included comparison tastings, a tour through their manufacturing area, and a slideshow presentation on farming.

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The Performant: The sacred and the profane

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Putting the "good" back into Good Friday at “Sing-Along Jesus Christ Superstar” and Zombie Christ Haunted House

They might seem merely irreverent, or downright blasphemous, to conservative churchgoers, but I’m pretty sure the original JC Superstar would have dug the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence -- you know, the water-into-wine Jesus who supported sex workers and preached tolerance and respect for the marginalized.

The Sisters, who have been preaching the same since 1979, really get a chance to shine (and glitter) come Easter Weekend. One of SF’s most singular events, Easter Sunday in Dolores Park grabs the lion’s share of the attention, what with its iconic Easter Bonnet contest, the sainting of local community heroes, and the ever-popular Hunky Jesus competition, being rescheduled as we speak due to spring showers. But for those of us who find it difficult to get up early on a Sunday morning, hardbody of Christ or no hardbody of Christ, the Sisters have expanded their influence across the weekend, creating plenty of opportunity for the nocturnal among us to grab a little of the resurrection gusto for themselves.

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Local filmmaker's '50 Children' doc debuts on HBO

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San Franciscan Steven Pressman makes his filmmaking debut with 50 Children: The Rescue Mission of Mr. and Mrs. Kraus, an informative documentary about Philadelphia residents Gilbert and Eleanor Kraus — grandparents to Pressman's wife, Liz Perle — who hatched a daring plan in 1939 to rescue 50 Jewish children from Nazi-occupied Austria. The hour-long film airs Mon/8 on HBO.

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