Mesh Magazine

Back in 2001, I wrote a review of Garbage’s album, Beautiful, for Chico’s Synthesis. Basically I said it was horrble, and a couple years later some woman found it on the Interweb and sent an e-mail to the Synthesis in which she wrote that my “bullshit article is the epitome of crap.” I love that e-mail and have printed it below, along with the original review.

Today I have finally read something that I find deserving of that phrase: the cover story of the SF Weekly called “Steroids Confidential“. SF Weekly, your bullshit article is the epitome of crap.

These “authors,” whose names are anagrams for “Fiction” and “Satire” supposedly interview Barry Bonds’s trainer Greg Anderson’s cell mate, who says Anderson gave him the dirt on Bonds, including that he would file down Bonds’ back zits with an emery board, that Bonds drinks elk semen, that Bonds shot his penis full of HGH because he was worried about testicle shrinkage from steroid use.

Now, maybe if this was April Fool’s Day, I could see why they would run this as the cover story, but the SF Weekly is supposed to be a news weekly that reports on serious local news. Instead they waste their cover story on some made-up bullshit, that really isn’t even funny, and nowhere do they say that this article is not true, except in the anagrammed names.

Here’s the cover text: Greg Anderson has given up his freedom rather than testify about Barry Bonds. But one man has learned the deepest secrets of the trainer behind baseball’s new home run king.

What the fuck? Seriously, how do they decide to run a completely fabricated article and pass it off as true? Good hoax, douchebags.

Anyway, back to me.

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San Francisco security guards, the men and women who are supposed to protect workers in high rises from terrorists, disgruntled workers, and general crazies, have gone on strike, seeking better wages and benefits. According to the SEIU, San Francisco security guards make on average $24,000 a year, about $5 less than janitors, have no access to affordable health care and little to no chance for advancement or for an increase in salary. As the SEIU puts it, this makes being a security guard a dead-end job, leading to a 300 percent turnover rate, and preventing the most skilled workers from protecting your workplace.

Barry Bonds posted this message on his Web site today saying the Giants told him he won’t be returning. It’s sad, but as much as I loved watching him play, that’s $18 million that should come in handy next year. Does this mean we’re really getting that young team we were promised last year? And, since Barry says in the message that he will play somewhere next year, I wonder what team he’ll end up with. Oakland, I mean Fremont? He does say he wants a World Series ring, so maybe Anaheim?

Dear Fans,

This journal will be one of my last entries as a San Francisco Giant. Yesterday, I was told by the Giants that they will not be bringing me back for the 2008 season. During the conversation with Peter Magowan I was told that my play this year far exceeded any expectations the Giants had, but that the organization decided this year would be my last season in San Francisco…. read the rest.

Welcome the latest, boring, ugly addition to the San Francisco Skyline.

This sign has been sitting on Haight Street for over a month.

Local roots-rockers Trainwreck Riders were hit by a drunk driver Saturday night in Fort Worth, Texas. Bassist Garritt Heater broke his arm,  guitarist Andrew Kerwin broke a rib, and frontman Pete Frauenfelder injured his back. The band also suffered numerous scrapes and bruises in the accident, which flipped their van multiple times and heavily damaged most of their equipment. The band could definitely use your well wishes and assistance. Donations can be made through PayPal to trainwreckriders@yahoo.com or just click here.

If you live in, or want to visit, Columbus, OH, you’re stoked. Me, not so much. They do fly out of Oaktown though.

This is a serious bummer. Bay Meadows is closing for good in November. I’m way into the going to the track. Actually, I was just searching for some Bay Meadows photos and found my first ever blog post on the Mesh site, which was about Bay Meadows. Since I started going, I’ve run into some interesting people that I wouldn’t necessarily expect to be way into horse racing, like the guy that runs this thing and someone from this band.

After I wrote this, a flurry of e-mails were sent throughout the office. One guy at my work had this description of a night at the track: “Crappy cover band, sketchy people, semi palatable hot dogs! Its like a really terrible circus where you are the clowns.”

Exactly.

The first Mesh blog post after the jump.

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I got a call  from my work’s security company on Monday saying that our alarm was going off. I went down to check it out to find that the building next door to mine was on fire. The fire gutted the building, leaving all the residents homeless, and a firefighter was injured when he made a leap onto the roof of the building on the other side of it. Amazingly, our building didn’t get too damaged, just a lot of smoke and soot in the vents. Yesterday, one of the building’s residents, photographer Silver Warner, who has had work featured in Hamburger Eyes, and had many showings in San Francisco was arrested. Apparently he was suffering from mental illness, and had been taken into custody by police on Sunday night, who took him to the hospital after he told them he had taken psychedlic mushrooms and believed there were bad spirits in his apartment. Warner’s father said his son had been acting bizarrely when he saw him on Monday, talking about snipers and turning the lights on and off repeatedly.

Is it just me or do Mayor Gavin Newsom’s girlfriend Jennifer Siebel & JonBenét Ramsey look exactly alike?