San Francisco

Last night's moon. Crazy gorgeous, eh? Well, here it is setting behind the Golden Gate Bridge, captured by local noted photographer, David Yu. [ more › ]

Amy Cleary, author of WineBookGirl, has a daughter, "K," who is some sort of modern gastronomic genius. Anyone who incorporates Boo Berry and 4505 Meats' famous chicharrones must be. [ more › ]

Sellers May Be Creating Additional Risk By Accepting No Contingency Offers In this sellers’ market Seller Market Update – No Contingencies May Equal Trouble , one of the recent trends has been for selling agents (those representing buyers) to write up offers with NO contingencies – no loan, no appraisal, no inspection. Most of the time the listing agent and seller deem that the “highest and best” offer includes no contingencies. With so many cash offers we understand the logic behind waiving the loan and appraisal contingencies. Sellers do not wish to wait for loan approval or have a transaction slowed down by the loan process. For a buyer, a solid pre-approval should be good enough from a knowledgeable loan officer or loan broker. For the appraisal, the seller certainly will not wish to haggle over the amount determined by an appraiser. But (and as Pee Wee Herman said in Pee Wee’s Big Adventure, “Everyone I know always has a big But…” eliminating the inspection contingency can be risky.  In some cases the seller and listing agent have provided a package of inspection reports and they expect that to suffice for the buyer. Other sellers do not even provide basic termite or contractor reports. The listing agent will say that the property is being sold “as is.” Certainly, in this market, most buyers will expect the property to be sold “as-is” with no repairs or repair credits however, when the seller doesn’t give the buyer any time to conduct their own inspections then they may lead to trouble down the line. If a seller gets into a transaction where they have accepted a non-contingent offer, then they may be setting themselves up for a possible lawsuit. Let’s say that the seller accepts a non-contingent offer but later in transaction or after the transaction the buyer discovers some material defect. If the disagreement ends up in court the buyer will claim that he was forced to buy the house without the opportunity to inspect. The seller will claim that it was the condition of the market. Who is a jury going to side with? Do you want to take that chance? Selling “As-Is” Still Means Allowing The Buyer Time For Due Diligence Some real estate attorneys have mentioned that by accepting non contingent offers sellers and listing agents may be put themselves at risk even though the CAR contract (as are many real estate contracts) are “as-is” contracts. How to solve the problem? Even if a buyer submits a non-contingent purchase offer, a smart seller and listing agreement will counter the offer with three day inspection. In other words the smart seller and listing agent want to give the buyer some opportunity to do their due diligence so later on the buyer can’t claim that they were “forced” into the terms dictated by the “market conditions”.

.@NickyBenedetti w @SFSymphony on the bay in SF. Does it get better? @livenationsf @SFSInsider

Despite being located in the shadow of the Central Freeway, the Entertainment Commission ruled Tuesday that Brick & Mortar Music Hall is too noisy and is only allowing the club to remain open under burdensome circumstances. The Examiner reports:The restrictions stem from nearly two years of complaints by neighbors of the venue on Mission Street near Duboce Avenue who say they have heard noise from the concert hall since it opened.Following an hourlong discussion, the commission voted to approve numerous restrictions for the club, including limiting entertainment hours from 5 p.m. until 12:30 p.m. on weekends and 5 p.m. until 11:30 p.m. on weekdays. The sound levels of the club may also not exceed 80 decibels, which is about the level of a garbage disposal.At the hearing, the owners explained they had already invested $50,000 in soundproofing, however the commission demanded the club schedule additional soundproofing by June 15--despite some neighbors defending the club, saying noise issues have improved. Additionally, Brick & Mortar claims to have never received a complaint or police citation.Brick & Mortar's owners allege the heavy-handed restrictions are not in fact over sound issues, but over their refusal to employ the Entertainment Commission's lone inspector's private security company, Yojimbo Protection Services. In an interview with the SF Weekly, Brick & Mortart's owner Jason Perkins claims the club's troubles began last fall when he declined to hire Yojimbo at the inspector's urgings."I think if I hired his security company we would not have had one complaint," Perkins says.Other club owners, speaking off the record, report similar occurrences. One says [Inspector Vajra Granelli] referred him to a partner at Yojimbo to hire security for a nightclub. The owner hired the firm, but soon found that it was too expensive. After he replaced the firm, the club began getting noise and security citations from Granelli, according to the owner."The reason why clubs hire this person is because they [the entertainment commission] leave us alone," he says.The corruption has left Perkins frustrated and ready to throw in the towel. “We will close," he told the Examiner. "We’ve got four other venues to run, it’s not worth it.”[SF Weekly | Examiner]Categorized: Music, PoliticsTagged: Brick and Mortar, Way to Go San Francisco--Shutting Down Another Fine Venue Over Some BullshitNo Comments

“Balls of Steel – The Ultimate Nutshot” is a painfully fantastic Man of Steel spoof by Los Angeles-based filmmaker Brandon Laatsch. It shows Superman punting a serial killer and his nuts into outer space in slow motion. As a bonus, there is a great Doctor Who (0:53) and goat scream (1:21) easter egg hidden in the video for your viewing pleasure. After far too many warnings, Superman decides to make the ultimate example out of a serial killer. Here is a behind the scenes video where Brandon explains how he captured the slow motion nutshot: videos via freddiew, freddiew2

In the Book Notes series, authors create and discuss a music playlist that relates in some way to their recently published book. Previous contributors include Bret Easton Ellis, Kate Christensen, Kevin Brockmeier, George Pelecanos, Dana Spiotta, Amy Bloom, Aimee Bender, Myla Goldberg, Heidi Julavits, Hari Kunzru, and many others. Lyrical and precise in its language, Jan Richman's Thrill-Bent is a bold and adventurous debut novel from the poet. Daniel Handler wrote of the book: "This novel is everything I want in a road trip and hardly ever get: cheap thrills, oddball epiphanies, big laughs, chance encounters and lots and lots of great, great talk." Stream a Spotify playlist of these tunes. If you don't have Spotify yet, sign up for the free service. In her own words, here is Jan Richman's Book Notes music playlist for her debut novel, Thrill-Bent: I won't claim to be as pathologically amusical as that cranky synesthete Vladimir Nobokov, who wrote, "Music, I regret to say, affects me merely as an?arbitrary succession of more or less irritating sounds." But I don't listen to music while I'm writing or reading. I find that my outer and inner ear start to clash, which doesn't do any favors for either structure (not to mention for finishing the Sunday Times crossword). I go to hear live music often; I listen in my car and at friends' houses; I even occasionally sing with a blues/soul trio at a bar—but most of the songs that appear in Thrill-Bent happened in my memory. Score another point for the bildungsroman. I (and, coincidentally, my eponymous narrator) grew up in the 1960s and '70s with an omnipresent digital clock radio tuned to top 40. Plus, "Jan's" best friend writes a music column for BadMouth magazine ("NYC's premier cultural crap detector"), so I got to indulge in every writer's dream: fictional band naming. Here are a few that make appearances: Staggering Genius (clever noisepop with a Tourettic drummer and a literary edge) Pussy Posse (big-label neo-garage band led by Leonardo diCaprio's best friend) Pattycake (three girls on Casio keyboards covering TV theme songs) Obscene Goo (San Francisco hair farmer/cock rockers) Bill Withers "Make Love to Your Mind" This is a rare-ish B-side I discovered at the Hunter, a now-defunct dive bar in San Francisco's Tenderloin whose jukebox was eclectic enough to ferry me through several years of late night conversations about post-structuralism/heartbreak. I can't remember what the A-side was (maybe "Lovely Day") but this song's uber-sexy bass-driven groove and nascent feminist lyrics about taking it slow ("Before I make love to your body, I wanna make love to your mind") compel me to scream Yeah, daddy, make me be your intellectual equal! Joe Cocker, Jennifer Warnes "Up Where We Belong" I think we all remember where we were when we saw Richard Gere in his dress whites sweep Debra Winger off the factory floor at the end of An Officer and a Gentleman. Because, you know, the Navy + sexual desire = the end of poverty, right? It's a fun duet for karaoke purposes (at least, better than the other ubiquitous options, "Don't Go Breakin' My Heart" and "You Don't Send Me Flowers"). Just remember to decide beforehand which of you will be the officer and which will be the gentleman. Partridge Family "I Woke Up in Love this Morning" One of my childhood rituals was driving to Besta-Wan pizzaria with my dad. He made me guess which of his pockets held the quarters that I coveted for the jukebox, usually to play "I Woke Up in Love This Morning" as many times as I could before the pizza was ready. I liked the part where David Cassidy sang "Went to bed with you [pause] on my mind" because I understood that the pause contained some kind of pornographic innuendo. Irma Thomas "Ruler of My Heart" I spent a lot of time in New Orleans in 1998, most of it with WWOZ switched on. Irma Thomas was the Queen of the Krewe du Vieux at Mardi Gras that

So this exists: Eat Shit Cola Flavored Gummy Candy. Boxes of these “delicious little turd shaped morsels” are available to purchase on Amazon. (Bonus points for featuring happy anthropomorphic turds on the packaging.) image via Amazon submitted via Laughing Squid Tips

Medical authorities have say it was 21-year-old Dylan Mitchell who was killed yesterday morning as he was cycling through the city's Mission District. According to police, Mitchell, a Clayton r...

Pixar and Walt Disney Pictures have released a new teaser trailer for their upcoming animated film, Monsters University. The trailer shows how the Mike (John Goodman) and Sulley’s (Billy Crystal) college adventure all began. The film is set to be released in theaters on June 21, 2013. We have previously written about Monsters University‘s teaser trailers (2) and its realistic collegiate website. Mike Wazowski and James P. Sullivan are an inseparable pair, but that wasn’t always the case. From the moment these two mismatched monsters met they couldn’t stand each other. ‘Monsters University’ unlocks the door to how Mike and Sulley overcame their differences and became the best of friends. image and video via Monsters University