Since the Planning Commission Hearing on Kink.com’s Fortress of Pornitude a couple of weeks ago, there’s been little news about the hulking edifice or its denizens. So far the dramatic increase in crime predicted by protesters doesn’t seem to have materialized, or at least it wasn’t in evidence when I walked up 14th St. at nine this morning. The building was quiet; the only sign of malfeasance was a trickle of urine from behind a low wall. But the graffiti that has marred the building in the past was gone.

It occurred to me that it would be easy to check whether Kink.com had a bad influence on the neighborhood — just look at crime statistics on a periodic basis.

Until somebody does that, CNet news checks in with a Kink.com story: At Kink.com, a live tool against piracy. It features all sorts of Kink.com related news, from their decision to figure out how to copy-protect their product (perhaps Cory Doctorow will be joining the ranks of anti-Kink protesters) to the challenges of producing a high-def video broadcast, and winding up with a summary of how they bought the Armory and what they intend to do with it.

Photo of the Armory by Flickr Zemistor, some rights reserved.
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Hey Kids Of All Ages…

This Saturday afternoon March 31st, Baby Doe and her troupe of Devilettes present another fun filled edition of Pip Squeak A Go Go feauring live music The Time Outs at the Rickshaw Stop. If you’re not a fan of Pip Squeak A Go Go, then you might not be in touch with your inner 8 year old.

Details and more Pipsqueak A Go Go pix after the jump…
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AP has put out a story quoting high end Bay Area restauranteurs who are shunning imported bottled water in favor of tap water, or in some cases in house carbonation & filtration systems.

Is it really news to drink a glass of Hetch Hetchy’s finest from the tap?

who knew?

In other massive headline making non-revelations making the rounds…

Apple’s I-Tunes music store will allow users to download something called “albums” which is apparently an archaic form of music amalgamating once popular in a previous century.

In further retro rock tomfoolery, folks at Clear Channel’s corporate concert arm “Live Nation” have rebranded NYC’s Irving Plaza as the Fillmore New York. The rebranding will of course mimic SF’s historic venue by including free apples, a red colour scheme, and some vintage posters with the typical ten dollar per ticket surcharge we all love. W.C Fields will be pleased to know that SF’s rock legacy will also be exported to his favorite Pennsylvania city when the Fillmore Philadelphia opens later this year. (Sorta reminds me of a few years back when clueless Clear Channel execs attempted to rename Market St’s Warfield Theater as The SF Weekly Warfield, that is until the owner of the building sued insisting that the leaseholder’s of the venue had no right to the venerable location’s actual name. The altered sign was taken down, and it’s simply the Warfield again.)

Oh and MC Karl Rove has once again proven that white men can’t dance. No word on tourdates for his act, although it is unlikely to play big in the Bay Area where Rove’s previous productions have not sold well.

“Bu yao WEI ka shi!” I said awkwardly. ['Don't feed the pigeons.']
“Dui.” She responded. ['Correct.']
Whew- it had taken a bit of back and forth to communicate that I wanted to say “don’t feed the pigeons” in Chinese- she didn’t know the English word for pigeon until I had told her two or three phrases I’d looked up in my Mandarin dictionary. I had stepped into the vitamin and jewelry shop that caters to Chinese National tourists, near my block, to get some coaching in Mandarin.
Just one more incident in living in a polyglot community- you end up making new friends, learning a few useful phrases. You’d think it would be “Hi,” or “How are you?,” even “How was your day?” But now we delve right into the community aspect of… don’t make our block a welcoming home for the pigeons!

I know I won’t be able to translate all of my strong feelings on pigeons…
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There’s your four dollar-a-gallon gasoline, at the Shell station on the corner of 6th and Harrison in San Francisco.

But why pick on them? Other stations will soon follow.

Caltrans opened a new segment of the Bay Bridge approach this morning. The re-route features a wider on-ramp at 5th and Bryant than the one-lane chute drivers have had to use for the last several months, as well as a jog to the north for freeway traffic bound for the bridge.

Now they’ll tear down (”demo,” as the photo says) the old part of the approach that overshadows Stillman St., a narrow street immediately to the southeast of the old approach.

Here’s the Chronicle story.

One of my favorite comic series of recent years is Scott Pilgrim, and by “favorite” I mean, “would give up shoes for a month just to read the next one.” It tells the story of a twenty-something Canadian slacker/rocker/kung-fu protagonist and his quest to defeat the seven evil ex-boyfriends of the American Roller-Ninja Indie Chick that he has fallen in love with. The comic is amazing and funny and creative, and volume two has a killer vegan shepherd’s pie recipe. Seriously, I made it last night.

On April 20th, the night before the Alternative Press Expo (aka A.P.E.) begins, the creator of Scott Pilgrim and many other ridiculously talented comic authors and artists will be signing at San Francisco’s own Comix Experience.

Jeff Lester says: Kevin Huizenga, Hope Larson, Bryan Lee O’Malley, and Gene Yang are signing at Comix Experience from 5:00 p.m. until 7:00 p.m. on Friday, April 20, 2007. . . . This group of artists did some of the best work of 2006 and it’s all I can do not to unleash torrents of hype at all of you about their utter awesomeness. If you’re a Bay Area type or in town for APE, I hope you’ll drop by the store from 5 to 7, get a book signed from these four amazing talents, or just stop by to “hey.” APE can be an all-encompassing swirl and this may be a great way to get face time.

Why do these things always happen when I’m going to be out of town?

At a loss about locations where you can buy a Fast Pass, the monthly pass to San Francisco’s public transit? You could consult Muni’s online directory of Fast Pass vendors, but beginning April 10, Muni will sell passes online from their website.

And beginning April 7, the T-Third line will open full-time. Among other things, this means the death of the 15 Third St. bus. The 15 line’s extension into the Financial District and North Beach will be taken over by extending the 9-San Bruno line.

Finally, city officials are trying to crystalize support for the Central Subway, a huge project that will build a new line extending from 4th and Townsend to Chinatown, largely replacing the 30-Stockton — one of the most overcrowded bus lines in the country, I’ll bet. Trains might be running in the hole by 2015, just in time for Barry Bonds to hit home run number 2500.
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George and Gracie, well documented and beloved downtown duo, have apparently laid new falcon eggs on the central anchorage of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge. Fans of their future fledgling falcons, worried the babies may fall onto the roadway after hatching, are sending meddling members of UC Santa Cruz Predatory Bird Research Group to remove the eggs. The lil’ raptors, known to ornithologists as “eyases” will instead be hatched in a research facility down the coast in Santa Cruz, where we can assume baby bird birkenstocks are more widely available, and the Grateful Dead plays in the incubator on an endless mellowing loop…

For three of the past 5 years the celebrity peregrine pair nested on a ledge 33 floors above the financial district at 77 Beale Street on the PG & E bldg. A web cam was installed in 2005 so voyeuristic fans from around the world could observe the pair via the Internet.

for more background and details on this story as it hatches see the links after the fold
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