By Nina Wu

For California native Kevin Ancell, there is no clear division between where art begins and surfing ends, or where surfing begins and art ends. "I never met a surfer who wasn't an artist," he said. One of his works, "Aloha Oe," greets visitors as they walk into the exhibit. Aloha Oe is 25 life-sized hula dolls. At first glance, the hula dolls are dancing — doing circular amis, or hip circles — opening their arms in welcome while holding leis and ukuleles. But a closer look reveals that the hula dolls have bruised eyes and lips ...

By Andrea Perkins

Dante Benedetti was born under the stubborn sign of Taurus, and they had to slap him ten times before he would cry. Still stubborn at 81, Dante (after the famous Italian poet) sits beneath a wall cluttered with his coaching trophies in the New Pisa, one of the last of North Beach's original Italian restaurants. The quintessential New Pisa, owned and operated by Benedettis since 1927, still serves dishes Dante's mother, who always used fresh tomatoes, once prepared. "Same food, different prices," says Dante ...

By Joe Smith

Major astronomical events are largely hearsay for coastal residents. It's not unusual for our night skies to be a dull, featureless gray. What is unusual, however, if not downright perverse, is the ability of the heavens to sense our interest in spectacular translunar displays. Nearly every time a crowded swarm of meteors is expected, a comet to end all comets, the heavens hide the intriguing sight behind a chaste veil of fog or a shroud of clouds with no place else better to go....

By Kathy Nguyen

Behind every family recipe is a good story. Take for example the saga of the An family, which owns the wildly popular Crustacean restaurants in San Francisco and Beverly Hills. Crustacean is famous for its giant roast crabs and garlic noodles, made from secret family recipes. Yet the restaurant began as a tiny deli on the foggy banks of the outer Sunset near Ocean Beach. The family matriarch, Diana An, purchased the deli on a whim during a trip to San Francisco in 1971. When Saigon fell to the Communists ...

By Andrea Perkins

Activism is a beloved American occupation. All that is required is a good cause and enough physical strength to lift a picket sign. And Californians seem to warm to protests and demonstrations. Take for example Kate and Greg Bates of Carmel. They don't look as if they would be radical or alternative, but these two recent retirees have nothing but good things to say about the flag-waving, slogan-shouting group that has just traipsed through their exclusive neighborhood on a quiet Saturday afternoon....

By Joe Smith

I'm much too absorbed in recondite speculation about the search for extraterrestrial intelligence to notice if anyone barks out "Hear ye, hear ye, all rise." Of particular interest to me is the theory, put forward by a prominent Russian physicist, that most of the stuff in the universe isn't our kind of stuff. It's as invisible as the wind which rustles the silvery leaves of aspens. But we know this other stuff, whatever it may be, exists, because we can observe its effects. A huge glob of it ...