Mesh Magazine

Earlier today, Mayor Gavin Newsom’s re-election campaign manager, Alex Tourk, resigned citing personal reasons. Apparently they were really personal, as The Chronicle’s Matier & Ross are reporting that it’s because Newsom had an affair with Tourk’s wife, Ruby Rippey-Tourk. I don’t really care, but people are going to be flipping out about this and acting shocked for sure. But, jeezus, of all the people to have an affair with, you don’t screw your campaign manager’s wife, Gavin. Others are going to see this as an opportunity to get into the mayoral race… if you’re one of them, I know the name of a good campaign manager. I just wonder how Peter Ragone’s gonna handle this one.

Molly Ivins, the incredibly intelligent, funny and populist writer from Texas died today after a battle with breast cancer.  Here are some words from last column, published January 11th:

“”We are the people who run this country. We are the deciders. And every single day, every single one of us needs to step outside and take some action to help stop this war.”

For our friends down south, we dig into the Mesh archives to bring you some thoughts on the City of Angels.

By Daniel Taylor
The thing about flying into Burbank—as opposed to the more upscale, metropolitan LAX—is that when it comes time to exit the aircraft, you don’t do it in the now-ubiquitous, sheep-through-the-chute fashion employed by pretty much any other airport I’ve ever been to. You get off that bitch like a foreign dignitary, like an international man of mystery: out the back door, down some steps, and into the open and sweaty tarmac asphalt. Though there were, unfortunately, no throngs of well-wishers or admirers waiting to greet me with waiving signs and screams of delight, there were still the looming, smog-coated mountains ringing the San Fernando Valley and the glimmering, toadstool high-rises off in the LA distance, welcoming me to, what the great 20th Century American Poet W. Axl Rose called, “The Jungle.”

One thing you notice about Los Angeles immediately upon arrival is how ugly you are. Unless, of course, you’re beautiful. But that’s very unlikely, given that 99% of the beautiful people in America live in the greater Los Angeles area. As some erudite Chicoan once explained to me “LA is just a collection the five hottest people from every small town in America,” a statement that, at the time, I thought was something of a joke, but now see is mostly based on fact. Getting a latte in a Santa Monica Starbucks, I found myself surrounded by people who 10 years ago were voted Most Likely to Get the Fuck Out of Here as Fast as Possible in the Bumblefuck High School yearbook and did exactly that, staking their claim in the Wild Westside of Hollywood and share-cropping copious amounts of effortless hipness and sheer natural beauty. And though it would seem that such concentrated physical attractiveness would give those amongst it a somewhat skewed idea of what beauty actually is, there are always a fair share of tourists, interlopers and passers-through, from which it can accurately ascertained that yes, they are indeed, still better looking and more fashionable than everybody else.
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The ten people who live in San Francisco that are not in a band can ignore this, but for the rest of you, the always excellent Mission Creek Music and Arts Festival is now accepting registrations at its Web site, www.mcmf.org. This, the eleventh annual fest, takes place May 10th - May 20th at numerous venues throughout San Francisco.

Mayor Gavin Newsom is a master of using talking points and buzz words, never saying much of anything and, lately, getting angry whenever someone asks him a tough question. Turns out his press secretary, Pater Ragone isn’t as slick as Gavin’s hair. According to KGO TV’s Dan Noyes, it seems as though Ragone has been posting under fake names on various local blogs, including SFist and the KGO News blog touting Newsom and attacking his perceived enemies. A number of posts have appeared on both sites under the name John Nelson, which originated from Ragone’s home before 8AM. Ragone is claiming that Nelson is his best friend and that Nelson posted these comments, but no one’s really buying it. Here’s a sample comment directed at Rita of SFist (who he seems to have some weird fascination with): this rita chick is kind of weird with her angry infatuation with gavin newsom. sfist is a fun read - save her kooky and snarky attempts to make the mayor look bad. I especially like how he dumbs down his language to sound like “just some dude.” On the KGO site, he posted under the name “Byorn,” as in, we weren’t Byorn yesterday. Below is Noye’s report last night. The best part is when Noyes calls Ragone on his shit and he looks like he got caught on Dateline’s To Catch A Predator. “Absolutely not. Absolutely not.”

Went to Angel Island today.

SF Party Party warms up to Bevan Dufty over the Octavia/Market onramp controversy.

Namesake celebrates poop.

Post-Punk Junk posts a mixtape.

Beyond Chron views The Pursuit of Happyness as a progressive statement on housing as a human right.

What I’m Seeing on gold and Pee-wee Herman in San Francisco.

Awww Damn loves ketchup.

Dresden Dolls. Not gay at all.

Portishead, who are working on a new album for release sometime this year, posted some text from the Love God’s Way Web site, on “bands to watch out for” that they claim are promoting the gay lifestyle. I had to read everything three times to figure out that they weren’t joking (apparently they are may be, or probably are). My favorite is “Ted Nugent (loincloth)”. My second favorite is “Morrissey (?questionable?)”. Also included are Ghostface Killah (um, wtf?), The Faint, Frankie Goes To Hollywood (alright, I’ll give ‘em that one), Wilson Philips & Kansas.

The site also has a list of “Safe” bands, which apparently won’t turn you gay. While the list mostly consists of God Rock, also included are Dresden Dolls (pictured above) and Cyndi Lauper. The full list of “bands to watch out for” is after the jump.

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I just read a story on SFGate about Bay Area resident Erin Callahan Lambert, who apparently was completed hammered on a United Airlines flight from Boston to SFO and allegedly did the following things:

• Midway through the flight, went to the back of the plane and started talking on her cell phone and refused to sit or turn off her phone when told to do so by flight attendants.
• Said, “I’m calling 911 because the plane is being hijacked when asked who she was talking to.”
• Took another passenger’s seat when they got up to use the restroom and refused to get out of the seat.
• Refused to let a flight attendant get that passenger’s belongings.
• Took her own luggage and her pet dog in a carrier and tried to go to the restroom.
• Said, “No, you’re going to have to kill me and my dog,” when asked to sit down, then locked herself in the bathroom.
• Exited the restroom and started walking quickly to the front of the plane, saying “I’m getting off the aircraft.”
• Was handcuffed by an employee and began yelling profanities, kicking and spitting at other passengers

After reading it, the first thing that popped in my head was, “Dear God, please let her have a Myspace page.” I searched for one, and think I may have found it, but can’t be sure yet. I saved a lot of it, in case it gets taken down. As some of you know, this is one of my favorite things to do. Please, please, let it be her. It’s hilarious.