The annual Java One conference in San Francisco is still going on, and if there are a lot of sick tech geeks today, it’s because they just discovered that dozens of attendees caught norovirus, the same fast-spreading illness that has afflicted cruise ships for the last several years.

People with norovirus (CDC page) experience vomiting, fever and diarrhea for up to 48 hours. It’s not fatal but when you’re in its grip you may wish it was.

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This photograph was taken at approximately 5pm, on May 8, 2008. A post on Examiner.com states that a pedestrian on 7th street and Mission was hit by the 14L, while crossing the street.

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With all the video games, cell phones, vending machines and ATM’s in our midst, many people would argue humans have lost touch with their wild side forever.

I’ve spent most of my life in metropolitan areas. Though I’ve spent some time on horseback, I’ve spent 95% of my time riding urban public transportation systems instead. I buy my food in boxes, in bags, and heat it at home. Hell, for lunch, I even graze at a salad bar.

A train takes me to my job, which is as far from harvesting my own food and repairing my homestead as a job could possibly be. I work with digital media. CDs and DVDs and the computers that record them are my daily companions. I have an iPod, a few computers, a cell phone, a personal organizer and automated payments. I’m the perfect example of the city-dwelling, half-woman, half-machine that has every day of the week organized to an annoying level.

You could say I’m far from my roots as a savanna-loving homo sapien… you could say that of my co-workers too. So it was pretty interesting to see something quite to the contrary in the middle of my day-to-day technology bustle. I heard quite a ruckus on the bottom floor of our brand-new, giant-sized office. I gazed down from my loft to see a fork-lift pushing a giant machine into the corner of the production area.

Diagonally across from the machinery was the entire assembly crew, staring in wonder. I went downstairs to check it out. A brand new machine that resembles a yellow submarine attached to complete photo-developing station was being hoisted into our midst. It’s a massive tangle of steel and gears, still shining from the factory and looming large over every other machine in our company. I hear tell this was the major reason for moving to our new office. The gaggle of human assemblers were still staring at the great beast.

That’s when I realized what seemed so odd about the bunch…

they were afraid.
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Here is the current state of affairs in SF.

Gas = $4.41 / gallon

Parking ticket = $50 (minimum fine, sfgate story)

“Raising parking fines will lead to more abuse on the streets,” said Luis Estrella, a San Francisco parking-control officer for the past eight years who said he was punched last year by a firefighter who got a $50 ticket.

Downtown meter violations, for example, will be fined up to $60, and parking in a street-cleaning zone will set drivers back $50. The city now makes about $90 million a year from parking fines. The increase would bring in an estimated $13 million more in the new fiscal year.

COLA Formula revealed!

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I’ll be posting a reminder on the 13th, but since you can never have too much prior notice…

The second annual San Francisco Cocktail Week is coming. Running from May 13th - 19th, SFCW celebrates, as the name suggests, cocktails and “the dynamic beverage culture of our community.”

From the Opening Gala at Harry Denton’s Starlight Room to the Closing Party at Absinthe, attendees will be able to learn more about the history of cocktails, observe San Francisco’s bar illuminati in action and, more importantly, sample the essence of their labors. Select restaurants will offer tasting menus with specially paired cocktails. Neighborhood-favorite Elixir will celebrate its 150th anniversary with a tribute to the Sazerac. On the 14th, you’ll even be able to imbibe with the best — renowned guest bartenders from across the country will display their craft at bars around The City.

So put on your drinking shoes (closed-toe highly recommended) and come celebrate San Francisco’s hallowed place at the altar of fine drinkables. Just don’t forget to designate a driver or MUNI navigator.

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By chance the other day I met Kevin Gordon, the filmmaker behind the 11-minute documentary Tellin’ It Like It Is: The Work of Elouise Westbrook. Mrs. Westbrook has been active on behalf of the Bayview-Hunters Point neighborhood since she moved there in 1949, and it’s clear that even at the age of 92 she remains a force to be reckoned with. She was thrust onto the national stage when, in 1973, city officials failed to get the release of allocated federal funds to tear down the old barracks at Hunter’s Point and build housing there. In response, Mrs. Westbrook took a delegation to Washington, determined not to leave without getting the funding her neighborhood was due. Eventually she succeeded, and the city received its $30 million for the project.

However, Mrs. Westbrook’s greatest ongoing success probably lies in the clinic she helped to found, the South of Market Health Center, which now has three active facilities. A fourth facility is in development, with plans to break ground in the fall: Westbrook Plaza. The Plaza honors Mrs. Westbrook’s vision of affordable healthcare and affordable housing for all, by combining the two in a single development.

The short screens tonight at 9:00 at the Kabuki, and opens for the feature Faubourg Tremé: The Untold Story of Black New Orleans. Tickets available at the theater.

Earlier this afternoon I got Mr. Gordon on the phone and we talked a bit about this film and his aims as a filmmaker. Our Q&A starts below and continues after the jump.

So, how did you learn about Mrs. Westbrook in the first place?

Well, I totally lucked out: I was actually approached with the film. Another filmmaker I’d just met called me about how the South of Market Health Center wanted a tribute made for their founder, and that she (the other filmmaker) was too expensive for them, but thought I might do it for a lot cheaper. Of course, that was the case. But when I met Mrs. Westbrook, I knew that I had no choice but to make the movie. She struck me immediately as an amazing person and an amazing subject, but it wasn’t until I was really into the research that I realized how significant she really was. So everything kind of happened backwards to how you’d normally expect it to happen.
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Just a reminder… the 51st Annual San Francisco Film Festival comes to a close tomorrow, May 8th. Fellow Metblogger Jeremy and I have featured a handful of films here on SF Metblogs, but there are certainly more films to be appreciated!

For your convenience, here is a link to tomorrow’s film lineup. Films at the Kabuki include:

• Children of the Sun
• American Teen
• Secrecy
• All is Forgiven
• Glasses (see my entry)
• Big Man Japan (see Jeremy’s recent entries: 1, 2)
• Flower in the Pocket
• The Secret of the Grain
• The Man from London
• Shadows in the Palace
• Umbrella

There are also select films playing at the Clay and Castro Theatres, as well as a couple over at Pacific Film Archive in Berkeley.

For more information on these and SFIFF films, see the the SFIFF website and buy your tickets here!

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Noc Noc

When my friend told me he wanted to meet up at Noc Noc, I wasn’t really sure what to expect. I didn’t think anything of it until I started asking around to see if anyone I knew had been there before. I started to get really excited.

I wanted to know what this cave-like burningmanesque bar located in the Lower Haight that only served beer, wine, and sake was all about.

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In case you couldn’t get to the Late Show screening of Big Man Japan last Friday (see my earlier post about it here), I just noticed that you can catch it today at the Clay Theater at 4:15 PM, and tomorrow at 5:15 at the Kabuki.

It’s one of the most hilarious movies I’ve seen in a long time: it simultaneously sends up giant-monster movies like Godzilla, superhero stories, profile documentaries, athletic endorsements, anime series, and even the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. “Future cult classic” is actually a spot-on description. It’s well worth seeing.

Here’s the festival page about it. Tickets for today’s show are available at the Clay; a limited number of rush tickets will be available just before tomorrow’s show, at the Kabuki. Get in line early for the best chance at getting in.

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Metal cookware, that is. Beijing artist Zhan Wang has sculpted a metal version of San Francisco as a part of the exhibit On Gold Mountain: Sculptures from the Sierra at the Asian Art Museum. He has painstakingly crafted a model of San Francisco with mirrors, pots, pans, and rocks specially selected from the Sierra Nevada Mountains that were then transported to his studio in China to be integrated into his sculptures.

Zhan Wang has also created similar sculptures for other cities, such as London, Beijing and Chicago. On Gold Mountain: Sculptures from the Sierra is on display at the Asian Art Museum until May 25th.

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Dust is a part of our everyday lives, whether we like it or not. We mostly look at it as a nuisance and a symbol of uncleanliness. What we often forget is what important role dust has had in the creation of our universe and our planet, and the importance of it in everyday life. There is so much more to dust than meets the eye, and we must look past its dingy reputation in order to realize this.

These ideas are explored in the German/Swiss documentary Dust, by director Hartmut Bitomsky. Different circumstances of dust are explored, as well as the people that are affected by, study, and work with dust… some seemingly to the point of obsession. There are some fascinating interludes between the presentation of facts and interviews, including the reality that dust will never go away… it is omnipresent and will always leave a trace.

Dust has its final SFIFF showing tomorrow, May 7th, at 4:15pm. For more information on this and other SFIFF films, see the the SFIFF website and buy your tickets here! The festival ends this Thursday, so catch these films while you can!

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This is a series- the first one was on Coit Tower

I had another visitor in town- from Belgium, and we were walking around Post St. on a Thursday night. She didn’t drink- and wanted to see something odd/unexpected, so I navigate to the front of St. Francis on Powell at Post St. entered the lobby, walk past Michael Minna, past the first set of elevators to the rotating door, and take a right before the door.

Description & but alas, no photos, after the jump

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I wouldn’t drop my guard just yet, but after people in Potrero Hill and Bernal Heights were plagued by a spate of muggings over the last several weeks, three men were arrested last night after an incident on Potrero Hill. Police said the men may be linked to the previous incidents.

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Could it be good, old-fashioned … humiliation?

It’s a rite of passage, a fraction of the cost of items, it’s prevention is a billion-dollar industry… it’s SHOP-LIFTING.

One grocery store in West Portal has decided to offer two choices to folks who purloin their goods…

1) Talk to the police…

or

2) Be openly mocked

I had quite a time joking with the shop-keep
about the woman in picture number 2!

She is clearly saying, “Well, I would… neeeevvvver…”

Apparently, she WOULD, and was caught shoveling handfuls of apples into her purse.
She was caught… red-handed… (sorry…)

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Welcome to the first of (hopefully) many Rapid Restaurant Reviews.

You won’t find star ratings here. You won’t find a lot of flowery descriptions of food or snarky comments about service. And you especially won’t find any charming back story about how the chef’s first job was cleaning the deep fryers at McDonald’s before securing the financing to open a wildly successful San Francisco bistro.

Instead, you’ll find the answer to ten questions that, to me, encapsulate the San Francisco dining experience:

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