WHAT WE LOVE
Those serious roadside snacks
Road-trip food around these parts can mean everything from fancy-pants gourmet “delis” to family-run cherry stands. Wine country trips particularly warrant gourmet grub, but skip the fine-foods emporium the next time you head up Highway 121. Once you stumble across Angelo’s, it’s hard to drive by this bare-bones (but spotless) jerkycentric shack again without drooling: the little Styrofoam cups filled with nuggets of eight kinds of JERKY for tasting, the hulking tri-tips demanding to be barbecued that very night. Give it up and make the U-turn already. The turkey jerky is the most succulent, the hot is too hot for Angelo himself, and the Cajun satisfies your spiciest cravings. Except for the turkey version, all of his jerky is made from flank, because its water content is low. “Why pay for water when you could pay for meat?” wonders Angelo. Plus, he puts a little wine and garlic into everything; jerky may not be Italian, but Angelo is. After five minutes of tumbling with the spices, the meat goes piece by piece into the dryer, where it stays for eight hours. Finito. 23400 Arnold Dr., Sonoma, 707-938-3688.

WHAT WE LOVE
The bashes—and the divas who throw them
We’re noticing these days that the social calendar is crammed, with big-deal parties that somehow just keep getting better and better. The frenzy shows no sign of slowing down, not when the PR STARS in this town are trying so hard to outdo each other.

Used to be that when you needed to stage a fashionable event—charity or otherwise—you called PR pro Allison Speer. Like a wedding planner without a happy couple to get in the way, she lined up the A list, handled the caterer, arranged for the right look, and roped in the press. She’s always been in solid with the socialites; no one else can consistently get Melanie Craft Ellison or Sloan Barnett to show up. And she can still land big clients like Agent Provocateur—she did their recent high-profile store opening.

But these days, the queen bee is defending her turf against two flamboyant upstarts—Alexandra Tyndall and Claudia Ross. Then, of course, there’s seasoned vet Lori Puccinelli Stern. Despite having two kids under the age of 2, Puccinelli still throws some of the biggest bashes in town—attended by movers and shakers like Gavin Newsom. Tyndall and Ross might not be able to pull off an Ellison coup—yet—but Tyndall’s parties are a raging good time that can snag Jonny Moseley and shine a spotlight on the launch of a young company. She also scored a Chanel event, an account that Speer would have loved to call her own. Ross’s opening for Goyard, the luxury luggage outfit, was flanked by Ferraris and stocked with the sexiest crowd of unknowns we want to know, and international It girl Plum Sykes hired Ross for her book signing.

Naturally, all this competition has ruffled some feathers. Rumor has it that Speer barely speaks to Tyndall and Ross (Speer was out of town for our photo shoot). But hey, the friction can only benefit the social scene—we can’t wait to see how they’ll try to top each other in the months ahead.

You’re guaranteed a deliciously EUROCHIC CROWD when you go with Claudia Ross. The former Northwest advertising director for Harper’s Bazaar and Marie Claire, she launched Cross Marketing just last year, but her list of clients is expanding fast. She does most of Saks Fifth Avenue’s special events (a prize she recently poached from Speer) and has thrown parties for the Raphael House and Nordstrom. She’s known for her killer benefits. Cocktails lead to charity, don’t you know?

San Francisco native Alexandra Tyndall hooks up the YOUNG, FEISTY LOCALS; her events are always big fun. Tyndall learned the tricks of the trade at one of NYC’s hottest fashion PR firms, Paul Wilmont. Today, she runs Tyndall PR and has handled Dylan and Dylan Shoes, Otis lounge, Equinox Fitness, Dermalounge, a San Francisco Zoo II party, and Fashionbliss.com. Watch your backs, ladies, Lex is on the move.

A fifth-generation San Franciscan, Lori Puccinelli Stern has corralled an impressive list of clients who keep coming back to her. At age 25 she was the PR manager for Planet Hollywood San Francisco, and she still knows how to rope in the CELEBS. As senior executive at Glodow Nead Communications, she’s working on the upcoming Juicy Couture store opening and counts as clients Westfield San Francisco Centre, Ghirardelli Square, I Dream of Cake, Bliss and Remede spas, and the W Hotel. “I may not be able to perform brain surgery,” says Puccinelli, “but I can throw one hell of a party!

WHAT WE LOVE
Even our ice-cream sandwiches are seasonal
“I’m a gardener,” says former Chez Panisse pastry chef Mary Canales, “so I’m always drawn to what’s growing.” That’s why the list of flavors at Ici, her new ice-cream shop, runs heavy on the berries and stone fruits in July and will give way to pears and citrus as the year progresses.

Seasonal fruits may be the heart of Canales’s kitchen, but whimsy is on the menu regardless of the time of year. It’s a key ingredient in the ICE-CREAM SANDWICHES made with custard-style ice cream and fresh-baked cookies. Each one is a well-considered match of flavors: straw­berry ice cream is spread thick between two ginger-almond wafers, peppermint–chocolate chip gets pressed between rich chocolate cookies, Meyer lemon lies down between crisp gingersnap sheets. And the cream, eggs, and fruit are all sustainably produced, because, as Canales says, “ice cream is a simple pleasure, but it involves some serious issues.” 2948 College Ave., Berkeley, 510-665-6054.

WHAT WE LOVE
Body sculptors who make us feel good
Around here, personal trainers aren’t just about looking cut, although no one’s going to turn down toned abs. The trainers who command the most loyalty put fitness first and help their clients feel good from the inside out.

In YOGA circles, Rusty Wells is a superstar whose following comes from his genuine devotion to his craft and his students. He could get rich privately instructing his high-profile celebrity clientele for $250 an hour, but he opts to teach peace-seeking urbanites on a sliding scale as well. They sit mat-to-mat in tropical temperatures practicing Bhakti Urban Flow, a sequence Wells developed for fast-moving, blood-pumping spiritual awakening. And if a seriously ill person needs one-on-one instruction but can’t afford his private rate, Wells says he’ll figure out a way to work with him or her. www.rustywells.com.

Working out with veteran personal trainer Ron Martin is a CORE-STRENGTH TRAINING extravaganza. Instead of warming up on a treadmill, you’ll find yourself creating what Martin calls a more functional and fun way to jump-start your workout. The fast-paced strength and cardio program feels like play, as you skim, speed-skater-style, back and forth on a slide board—that is, until your muscles start shaking from the effort. This trainer keeps Macintosh designer Jonathan Ive and gallerist Jeffrey Fraenkel in shape and always moving to keep that heart rate up. The Sports Club/LA San Francisco, 747 Market St., S.F., 415-633-3900, www.thesportsclubla.com.

No-nonsense personal trainer Jenny Johnson is part of the INTEGRATED MEDICAL PROFESSIONALS AND CERTIFIED TRAINERS program. In her work as the IMPACT coordinator at Bay Club Marin, Johnson keeps cancer patients active during chemotherapy by working on flexibility and using weight resistance moves. She also helps locals like KRON 4’s Jan Wahl stay in shape by combining cardio training with a variety of free weight exercises and core-strengthening moves using a stability ball. “I feel like I’m on top of the world after these workouts, and I’m not hurting the next day,” says Wahl. “That never happened before Jenny.” Bay Club Marin, Town Center, Corte Madera, 415-945-3000, www.bayclubmarin.com.

Worried about breaking the bank while getting the long, lean muscles of a PILATES habitué? By making his classes affordable, Joseph Quinn, owner and instructor of Real People Pilates, encourages everyone to try the workout. Quinn is committed to the challenging New York method, which combines strength and resistance exercises with flexibility, balance, and posture work, leaving you feeling inches taller. Quinn also offers duet sessions for half the price of a personal session, creating an atmosphere of playfulness and camaraderie. His populist studio is so popular that Quinn plans on expanding it threefold by 2007. Real People Pilates, 2718 Telegraph Ave., Berkeley, 510-704-8194, www.realpeoplepilates.com.

WHAT WE LOVE
Our homes can be as green as our gardens
Sustainable furniture, nontoxic cleaners, recycled countertops, toilets that make compost: what on Earth will our feisty, eco-obsessed architects and designers think of next?

In a neighborhood known for its Victorian cottages, Craig Steely and team are erecting a modern architectural masterpiece that’s AS ECOFRIENDLY AS IT IS GOOD LOOKING. For years, architects had tried and failed to get plans approved by the Bernal Heights Design Review Board to build on the lot at 306 Mullen Avenue. Instead of seeing the code as a barrier, Steely used it as a catalyst for creative thinking; his design left the neighbors’ views intact and brought sunlight indoors. Allowing the house to follow the natural slope of the lot, Steely created a courtyard where bamboo grows up through all three stories. Gray water—used water from showers and sinks—will flow to a cistern under the house, where a pump will recirculate it to irrigate the landscaping. Solar panels on the roof will provide electricity, and a net energy meter from PG&E will allow home owners to sell back unused power and ensure that they’re never without power when they need it. “I can only justify the consumption involved in building by creating things that are regenerative to the spirit as well as ecologically sound,” says Steely. We like the way he thinks.

As Steely knows, from furniture to flooring, bamboo is becoming the new sustainable wood of choice. Except it’s not really a wood. Bamboo is classified as a grass; unlike hardwood, it doesn’t have to be replanted because it’s generated from a network of roots. The South San Francisco–based Smith & Fong Company has been on the bamboo bandwagon since 1989, selling its trademarked PLYBOO for flooring, cabinetry, and veneer. The company also makes attractive paneling out of both raw and sanded bamboo. 650-872-1184, www.plyboo.com.

Sustainability isn’t always stylish, but it is in the case of Branch, a San Francisco–based ONLINE HOME FURNISHINGS store. From the reclaimed glass bottles that are now part of the permanent design collection at New York’s Museum of Modern Art to its kitchenware made from organically grown bamboo, Branch can tell you how every product was made and what materials were used. Eventually Branch plans to open a store in San Francisco, but for now, ecoconscious consumers have to settle for ordering online. www.branchhome.com.

There’s now an environmentally friendly ALTERNATIVE TO GRANITE: mosaiclike Vetrazzo. The Berkeley-based company’s trademarked surface is made with recycled glass set in a cementlike substance devoid of polymers or resins. The result is a dazzling array of colors that adds sparkle to any countertop or bar. Vetrazzo creates slabs in a variety of designs and allows clients to customize their own. 510-843-6916, www.vetrazzo.us.

Replacing your old appliances is one of the smartest moves you can make to cut down on the energy you suck up—and your costs. Sun Frost has already made a name for itself as a creator of ENERGY-EFFICIENT REFRIGERATORS AND FREEZERS. The Northern California–based company claims its fridges cut energy consumption by a factor of five. And it’s expanded into the world of waste—the Sun Frost home composter is cleverly disguised as an attractive planter. For the true compost believer, Sun Frost even produces the Human Humus Machine, a composting toilet. 707-822-9095, www.sunfrost.com.

If that’s a shade too green for you, you can always start small. San Francisco–based Method’s slogan, “people against dirty,” encourages consumers to fight not only the dirt of the home, but also the “dirt” of toxic household products. Its cleaning supplies look good, too: cofounders Eric Ryan and Adam Lowry tapped Karim Rashid for the package design for their first dish soap. The EFFECTIVE, BIODERADABLE PRODUCTS—such as almond-scented cleaner for wood floors and ylang-ylang-scented shower spray—make housework seem more glamorous than it ever was with Mr. Clean. Available at Target and www.methodhome.com.

What’s in the GREENEST HOUSE IN THE CITY? Under the floor of 520 Clipper, a solar-powered “warmboard” provides heat to the whole house. In the kitchen, there’s an attractive counter of Richlite created from compressed and treated recycled paper. On the roof, a catchment system recycles rainwater, which gets stored to supply running water.

San Francisco home builders who want to walk the walk in terms of environmental responsibility call up Noe Valley’s Lorax Development, the brains behind the Clipper Street home. The mission of the company (which is named after the protagonist of a Dr. Seuss book) is to create “responsible homes with renewable materials, energy-efficient systems, and smart technologies.” They left out that its houses are attractive, too. Lorax used century-old Southeast Asian railroad ties for the floors, created decks with views sweeping from downtown to the North and East Bay, and even included a custom wine cellar. Green is really a beautiful thing. www.loraxdevelopment.com.

WHAT WE LOVE
That we never give up on finding Mr./Ms. Right (or Right Now)
San Francisco singles are like a broken record: it’s impossible to get a decent date in this town, we mutter incessantly. Yet we keep trying, trolling the online personals and matchmaking services and bars, always hoping that elusive someone is sitting a few bar stools away. Time to get serious…

Fifteen thousand dollars to get set up on dates? Gulp. Maybe it’s time to give the bar scene another shot. But if you could find your soulmate for life, wouldn’t you happily fork over 15K? If you’re gay or lesbian and seeking a “stable, lifetime monogamous partner,” Dale Bullock, founder of Bonds Limited, knows how to find one. The pro MATCHMAKER credits over 200 happy couples to his dating service, with only eight breakups that he knows of over a period of 12 years. To make it onto his carefully culled roster, you first get screened by Bullock himself, who susses out what you’re like and figures out who might click with you. He then sets up dates for you (which are paid for out of your original fee), joining you on the first date to ease the way, until you meet your match. Once the romance is on, Bullock discreetly retreats, but you haven’t seen the last of him. He usually makes friends with clients and, like a mother hen, checks in with them now and then just to see how things are going. Client Alan Rosenfeld (right) says Bullock is what makes the program work: “If he really believes in you, you’re set.” 415-989-7162, www.bondslimited.com.

If a service like Bonds is out of your reach, or you’re not ready to get that serious, there’s always the BAR-TIME MEET-AND_GREET. Every weekend at the stroke of 2 a.m., a drunken dance takes place on two sides of the city. In the Marina Triangle (so dubbed because the three bars in the Greenwich and Fillmore intersection area form one), crowds pour out of the bars, liquored up and ready to strike deals at the “sidewalk sale.” Dyed blondes in tight jeans and shoes not built for comfort stumble into very metro guys in untucked button-downs. It’s a scene that’s still going strong after more than 30 years, having survived Loma Prieta, the dot-com bust, and even the mayoral hijacking of one of its biggest players. Across town, 18th and Castro is a mirror image in a different dimension. Abercrombie clones smooth talk, um, Abercrombie clones, going in for the digits and hoping for something long-term or at least a date for the night. We’ve got a battery of newfangled approaches to dating. But nothing beats the good old-fashioned way to meet someone.

WHAT WE LOVE
Giving kids cool survival tools
No Go Yell Tell! sums up Studio Naga’s method for dealing with child predators. It’s also the name of the SELF-DEFENSE WORKSHOP the Indonesian martial arts studio holds for children ages 5 to 12. Kids are taught verbal and physical self-defense as well as affirmation and self-esteem; more advanced classes for teens cover street safety techniques. Studio Naga holds its self-defense workshops throughout schools in the East Bay, and four times a year it offers a free workshop to give back to the community. Register for classes and find times online. 5850 San Pablo Ave., Oakland, 510-652-6242, www.studionaga.com.

As Kitchen on Fire’s cofounder Mike C. puts it, “Everyone needs to learn how to cook.” And who wouldn’t want their kid to whip up some California cuisine every once in a while? The Berkeley COOKING SCHOOL’s themed, two-and-a-half-hour classes take place every weekend, and Kitchen on Fire even offers culinary summer camps. Kids love that they finally get to play with their food, and adults love that their children learn about safety in the kitchen and the value of organics. The classes are $50 per session; the only requirement is to come hungry. 1509 Shattuck Ave., Ste. A, Berkeley, 510-548-2665, www.kitchenonfire.com.

WHAT WE LOVE
We can dance in the sun or fog
We’ve been DANCING OUTSIDE since gold rush 49ers jigged around the campfire. Summer of love hippies twirled in Golden Gate Park amid wisps of fog and marijuana smoke, and these days hundreds of sunglasses-wearing people in Novato wave their hands in the air and give themselves over to housed-up deep disco.

Every Sunday since 1997, swingers have flocked to Lindy in the Park looking for action—swing dancing action, that is. Skill levels range from neophyte to polka professional at this free weekly shindig, held in Golden Gate Park on JFK Drive between 8th and 10th Avenues from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. No matter how serious the dancers, they have to grin as they twirl in circles under the summer sun. And newbies who want to learn the Lindy Hop or polish their Charleston will feel comfortable here, too. www.lindyinthepark.com.

If swing isn’t your thing, check out salsa Sundays on the patio at the outer Mission’s El Rio. Music is supplied by “the Bay Area’s hardest-working salsa bands,” and the crowd is a mixed, gay-friendly lot, perfect for those who like to try their steps with several dance partners. On
sunny days, this ultrapopular, inclusive scene draws a line that snakes several dozen meters out the front door, so arrive early or prepare to be patient. 3158 Mission St., SF., 415-282-3325, www.elriosf.com.

The Ramp, a former bait shop perched on the edge of Mission Bay, always draws a diverse crowd to its weekend dance parties. Admission is free before 4:45, but after that a more serious salsa crowd descends for the live music and to show off new moves. It’s worth it to go early to soak up the sunshine and postapocalyptic ambience (a couple of graffiti-enscribed ships are moored nearby), and get your confidence up before hitting the floor with the pros. Saturdays are salsa, and Sundays typically Brazilian, R&B, or more salsa—check the website for the lineup. 855 china basin, s.f., www.ramp­restaurant.com.

The sun is high over a Bay Area park, and groups of friends are clustered on blankets, sharing deviled eggs and lemonade, slathering each other with sunscreen. When they’ve had their fill of lazing about, the 2,500 people assembled trickle over to where enormous speakers are thumping out reggae, funk, and whatever else DJs Galen, Solar, and J-Bird feel like playing. By midafternoon at a Pacific Sound System Sunset party, blankets have been abandoned, and goatees, pigtails, and cowboy hats bounce and groove around the turntables to four-on-the-floor house beats until the sun sinks. The free Sunday parties started off as small events in the Berkeley marina in 1994, and lovers of electronic music have grown up with the gatherings. Some even bring their children now, as the parties take place in venues like McLaren Park (for June’s Sunset on the Hill), Novato’s Stafford Lake, and Bolinas Beach. The only cost is the fee to get into some of the parks. Check the website or call the info line for details on upcoming parties. 415-820-1664, www.pacificsound.net.

WHAT WE LOVE
Charities fueled by ingenuity
Joan Collins, of all people, put it best: “The easiest way to convince my kids that they don’t really need something is to get it for them.” But some kids—those without a home, those landlocked by poverty, those with cancer—aren’t that fortunate. Their needs are simple and genuine, and a bunch of Bay Area charities have stepped up to fill them. It makes you proud to live in a place with true innovators.

Talk about multitasking: the Guardsmen, a San Francisco charity that benefits at-risk youth, make it possible for women to score a date with the city’s most eligible men at its ANNUAL BACHELOR AUCTION while helping underprivileged kids. In the past 59 years, this profes­sional-men’s charity has sent 150,000 Bay Area students to places like Camp Mendocino to give them a chance to experience the joy of being children, away from the stresses of school and home, and to help them learn about nature and the environment. For this year’s major fund-raiser, Ruby Skye was packed with ladies ready to bid on some of the hottest hunks in town. Harry Denton put up a package for four women (including the Presidential suite at the Sir Francis Drake, dinner at Scala’s Bistro, and $400 in gift certificates to Wilkes Bashford) that went for $3,800. The night netted $68,000, probably because everyone knows how sexy it is to be charitable. www.guardsmen.org.

When your kid has cancer, you’ll do anything to make sure he or she gets the best treatment possible. But commuting to a hospital far from home adds stress on top of stress. For 25 years, Koret Family House has been making things easier by providing FREE TEMPORARY HOUSING for families of children with cancer and other serious illnesses who are being treated at UCSF Children’s Hospital.

This year, we chose Koret Family House as the beneficiary of our sixth annual Best of the Bay Area party. A nonprofit that relies on private funding and community volunteers to take care of its families, Koret can now house 110 people.

Koret provides more than just housing; it fosters from-the-heart connections that can change lives. Executive Director Alexandra Morgan once admitted a Northern California couple whose two sons were being treated for cancer. While staying at Koret Family House, she says, they met a brother and sister from out of state who were in foster care and had been diagnosed with the same type of cancer. “In about a year’s time,” says Morgan, “the couple adopted those children, and now they have four healthy kids who return to the House for regular checkups.” 50 Irving St. and 1234 10th Ave., S.F., 415-476-8321, www.familyhouseinc.org.

MENTORING PROGRAMS that call for volunteers help children in spectacular ways, but imagine what kids would be capable of if a professional, full-time, paid mentor had their backs? Friends of the Children San Francisco, an early-intervention program serving youth from low-income neighborhoods, knows that one of the best ways to protect kids at risk for poverty, abuse, and violence is to pair them with caring adults who can teach them to make good choices. The program’s mentors—the “friends”—are as dedicated as they are compassionate: each works closely with a child for a 12-year period. In a society whose plans for the next generation are often shortsighted, it’s nice to know some of us are in it for the long haul. 800 Innes Ave., Ste. 12, S.F., 415-642-3400, www.fotcsf.org.

Even with a stable home life, being a kid can be hard. Being a kid who lives in a shelter is a whole lot harder. Kendra Stitt Robins understood that and decided to give such children a little extra TLC. In 2005, she left her career as a lawyer to found Project Night Night, a San Francisco–based nonprofit that donates bedtime items to KIDS LIVING IN HOMELESS SHELTERS here and throughout the States. This year alone, Robins and her grassroots organization have collected, assembled, and distributed more than 2,500 care packages—individual tote bags containing a blanket, a book, and a stuffed animal—to over 15 percent of the Bay Area’s sheltered families. Her motivation? Motherhood, which taught her how important it is for every kid to get a restful night’s sleep. 1800 Gough St., Ste. 5, S.F., 415-310-0360, www.pro­jectnightnight.org.

WHAT WE LOVE
Having our pick of phenomenal produce almost every day of the week

Berkeley Farmers’ Market
The well-edited collection of stalls on Tuesdays draws chefs like Quince’s Michael Tusk to shop for produce on the other side of the bridge. Derby St. and Martin Luther King Jr. Way, Berkeley, 2–7 p.m.

Heart of the City
Eliminating the middleman really brings prices down. The ridiculously cheap produce at this sprawling market held on Wednesdays has everything from Thai bird chilies to banana dates. United Nations Plaza, Market and 7th Sts., S.F., 7 a.m.–5:30 p.m.

San Carlos Farmers’ Market
This seasonal market featuring smoked fish and live music is open only on Thursdays until September 14. That’s still plenty of time to work your way through the 10 kinds of melons from Happy Boy Farms. Laurel and Cherry Sts., San Carlos, 4–8 p.m.

Old Oakland Farmers’ Market
Don’t be fooled by the restored Victorians—this is no bobo playground, what with the live crayfish, bitter melon, and okra. Oakland’s diverse population is able to pick up the goods at reasonable prices on Fridays. 9th and Broadway, Oakland, 8 a.m.–2 p.m.

San Francisco Ferry Plaza Farmers’ Market
It’s big and exhausting, and it’s gotten more play than “I Will Survive” at a karaoke bar. But the assortment of farmers on Saturdays is as staggering as the prices are inflated. Ferry Building, 1 Embarcadero, S.F., 8 a.m.–2 p.m.

San Rafael Civic Center Market
The variety is intense: there are more farmers at this Sunday market than at any other market in the state. For the mindful carnivore, the superb beef purveyors Prather Ranch set up shop here. 3501 civic center dr., San Rafael, 8 a.m.–1 p.m.

WHAT WE LOVE
The sound of our children singing
Nothing prepares you for sitting in a crowded hall as a choir of preteens and teens files in singing “Hal-le-lu-jah, hal-le-lu-jah.” As beauty rains from the rafters, you can just see American Idol sliding into purgatory. If one of the kids happens to be your 11-year-old, you may decide then and there that you have arrived in heaven.

Over the past two decades, the Bay Area has quietly become a hotbed of INTERNATIONALLY RESPECTED CHILDREN'S CHOIRS. This is not a trend many of us would expect in this postmodern, postformal region. Choral music is, we think, Christian, rigid, anachronistic. But parents learn quickly that the best choirs are worldly and diverse. Their teachers demand from kids a discipline and subjugation of ego that no parent can entice. The kids in turn receive an astounding musical education, learning theory while performing songs in a dozen languages. Eventually they can sing with top symphonies, premiere pieces by the edgiest new-music composers, earn Grammy nominations, and cross oceans to sing with world-class choirs, racking up miles and stories. At graduation ceremonies, after as many as 10 years of watching their children master this exacting, transporting craft, stunned parents weep the tears of the ages. Their kids are way beyond them now.

The best dumbfounding introduction to this music is probably a concert in Davies Symphony Hall of the 300-plus-member San Francisco Girls Chorus. This one sets the bar for all the others, requiring girls to attend after-school classes two to three days a week. “It’s very tight-knit,” says board member Lewis W. Butler, father of 10-year chorus veteran Elena and architect of the chorus’s new building near the Civic Center. “An extremely high level of poise and commitment is expected of them instantaneously.” Almost half of these girls are on scholarship, and many go on to singing careers. There may be no better musical training outside of Vienna. www.sfgirlschorus.org.

In the East Bay, the Piedmont Choirs are more Rockridge in style than Piedmont. It stresses a passion for choral music over competition and welcomes any boy and girl over 6. But the warm approach masks a supremely rigorous program. (The choir’s elite Ensemble group was chosen to perform at Cal Performances’ 100-year gala.) Every three years, the 350-member Choirs hosts an international competition, the Golden Gate Festival; the closing concert this year is on Saturday, July 1, at 7:30 at Skyline High in Oakland. Singers from Guangdong, Austria, Benin, and Tennessee will share the stage with kids from Montclair, Moraga, and West Oakland. www.piedmontchoirs.org.

The raw energy and international exploits of the Peninsula’s 150-plus-member Ragazzi Boys Chorus inspire choir members to stand tall through their voice change and beyond. The result is brilliant singing and boyish showmanship. At a recent concert in Pacifica, the boys moved from ornate classical compositions to the Beatles’ “She Loves Me,” and founder Joyce Keil watched in shock as they consoled each other onstage with aw-shucks pats on the back. “They were flirting with the crowd.” www.ragazzi.org.

WHAT WE LOVE
Only here are lectures blockbuster events
San Francisco has long been known for blowing people’s minds, but these days we’re doing it with ideas instead of drugs. Whether it’s to hear Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales expounding at a Long Now lecture on “free culture” or young literary turk Dave Eggers drawing out the reclusive Joan Didion about her marriage, we pack the halls (Long Now events frequently sell out, and Condoleeza Rice drew 1,500 for her Inforum appearance) in our eternal quest for understanding.

To predict and prepare for the next 10,000 years of progress, the Long Now Foundation invites technologists and commentators ranging from futurist Ray Kurzweil to SETI director Jill Tarter to discuss long-term developments in human life, world economics, and the global environment. While THE FUTURE concerns everyone, cofounder Stewart Brand’s former life as Whole Earth Catalog editor ensures an audience full of perennially idealistic baby boomers, but with a mere $10 suggested donation, Long Now hopes to appeal to a wide range of forward-thinking individuals. 415-561-6582, www.longnow.org.

CONTEMPORARY ISSUES, from the future of digital music to the image of America abroad, are confronted head-on in lectures and panel discussions at the Commonwealth Club of California’s INFORUM events. The group targets the next generation of Club regulars with a more youthful mix of speakers and subjects—filmmaker Spike Lee, musician Chuck D, King Abdullah II of Jordan—but that doesn’t stop older members from infiltrating. Tickets cost about $12 for members and $20 for nonmembers, and lines will form this year for Burning Man founder Larry Harvey and tai chi grandmaster Zhi Gang Sha. 415-597-6700, www.commonwealthclub.org/INFORUM.

Regularly at UC Berkeley’s Art, Technology and Culture Colloquium, a leading artist, engineer, or scholar reveals the inner workings of CULTURE IN A DIGITAL AGE—from mash-ups to electronic art to Internet democracy—to those yearning for another semester or two of college. Local professionals and creatives have vied with Cal students and faculty for lecture-hall seating to hear the musings of DJ Spooky, David Byrne, filmmaker Miranda July, and philosopher Bruno Latour. This year, they can look forward to free talks from artists like Cory Arcangel and Jane Cardiff and curator Rudolf Frieling. 510-643-9565, www.ieor.berkeley.edu/~goldberg/lecs.

Only at events sponsored by City Arts & Lectures are Nobel Prize winners commonplace. Just last season there were three of them (Wole Soyinka, Shirin Ebadi, and Seamus Heaney), not to mention two former U.S. poets laureate (Robert Pinsky and Billy Collins), a U.S. Supreme Court justice (Stephen Breyer), and America’s most trusted journalist (Stephen Colbert). Since 1980, City Arts & Lectures has imported the FINEST MINDS in culture, politics, and the sciences, and shared their words, via KQED public radio, with the rest of the nation. From Mary Karr to Stephen King, next season’s guests can be expected to uphold the tradition. Tickets are generally $20. 415-392-4400, www.cityarts.net.

Food lovers seeking the latest GOSSIP AND RECIPIES congregate for a healthy mix of conversation and hero worship at Book Passage’s Cooks with Books series. Chefs and other culinary insiders who have recently published a book (past guests include Les Halles chef Anthony Bourdain, cookbook author Diane Rossen Worthington, and Lucques chef Suzanne Goin) share their knowledge about cooking and eating over a meal they’ve personally supervised at the Left Bank Restaurant in Larkspur. Dinner and a book come at a price of $95 to $125, and this year the series hosts luminaries like cookbook author Anissa Helou and chef and author Joyce Goldstein. 415-927-0960, www.bookpassage.com.

For an hour prior to a Friday night performance of the San Francisco Symphony, conductors and composers DISCUSS THE EVENING'S CONCERT, directing the full orchestra through key musical passages, à la Leonard Bernstein. The educational opportunities of the Friday 6.5 Series tend to attract people newer to classical music than the usual audience. The upcoming season’s stellar lineup includes the sure-to-sell-out program of Michael Tilson Thomas on Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, as well as David Zinman on Aaron Copland, and Hans Graf on Ludwig van Beethoven. Tickets range from $20 to $107. 415-864-6000, www.sfsymphony.org.

Wagons ho! At the Society of California Pioneers’ Museum Lecture series, talks on subjects like the gold rush to the Great Quake supplement exhibitions of rare photographs and documents from the society’s vaults. The crowd for the $5 events consists of San Francisco aristocracy mixed with first-generation Californians looking for a little HISTORY. Past lecturers have included historian David Burkhart and journalist Carl Nolte, and while past does not always predict future, expect more lectures on the 1906 earthquake in the coming season, to coincide with the groundbreaking exhibition Shake, Bake & Spin, which runs through December. 415-957-1849, www.californiapioneers.org.

WHAT WE LOVE
Our designers solve our silliest problems
We look to our industrial designers to solve our problems with style, and it turns out the rest of the world does, too. Superstar designer Yves Béhar, founder of fuseproject, came here from Switzerland because “it’s where all the big design firms are.” Ideo, Pentagram, and Herman Miller have offices here, and along with the smaller rising stars, they’re tackling all our postmodern needs.

You’re busted. You used the “working from home” excuse for a conference call with the company bigwigs, only to be outed when the roar of baseball fans went up around you in appreciation of one of Barry’s homers. Hopefully you’ve learned your lesson: a believable office away from the office requires the proper gear. The first thing you need is a Jawbone. Launched by Aliph in 2004, the Jawbone is an adaptive HEADSET for mobile phones that filters out background noise on the user’s end and enhances audio. The vision of Béhar, the earpiece is sleek and ergonomic and was awarded the prestigious 2004 Good Design Award from the Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design competition.

Robert Brunner of Pentagram has come up with the ultimate form-marries-function GRILL. Brunner says that for inspiration, he headed to Tilden Park to watch the barbecue barons hold court. “Barbecuing is social,” he explains. “You’re at this little island, and it’s a performance.” Following that social theme, Brunner’s prototype grew into Fuego, a grill he calls “a campfire for modernists.” The Fuego 01 boasts a hybrid cooking system (gas, charcoal, or infrared), a real-time thermostat, LED controls and plenty of hideaway storage, all encased in streamlined planes of stainless steel and teak and mounted on casters, so it’s easy to move closer to the party. Set a drink down on the side, and you can almost imagine you’re at a sleek downtown bar. The 01’s slimmer sibling, the 02, is just 30 inches wide, perfect for narrow urban doorways and small porches. Time to fire up a party. available at zephyr, 395 Mendell St., S.F., 888-880-8368, www.fuegoliving.com.

You weren’t made for the digital music revolution. You don’t have the patience to learn new systems and install software that will ostensibly help you broaden your musical horizons. Even the thought of transferring your thousands of CDs to a hard drive, one by excruciating one, is enough to put you off the topic for good.

It’s almost as if Olive was founded with you in mind. A San Francisco–based company, Olive offers a variety of HIGH-END CD PLAYERS that do much more than play CDs. They digitally store huge amounts of music in “lossless” quality (meaning no aspect of the sound is lost, unlike with MP3 technology); they convert tracks into formats compatible with portable music players; they can beam music across a house to your computer and remote amplifiers; and they’re as easy to work as an iPod. Come on—you can handle an iPod, right?

If that isn’t enough, Olive makes an offer that’s hard to refuse: send the company your CDs and it’ll load them onto your new machine—for free—before it ships the product (and the CDs) to you.

Prices start at $899 for the Symphony, with an 80-gig hard drive that stores 200 CDs in lossless quality. You just might have to join the revolution, after all. 877-296-5483, www.olive.us.

WHAT WE LOVE
Let’s admit it: baby stuff!
New parents are bombarded with choices—among them, the latest books, strollers, gliders, and cribs. San Francisco’s ONE-STOP SHOP Giggle simplifies things by carrying a carefully edited selection of products, like adorably simple onesies and rolling wooden giraffes and dinos. Each meets at least three criteria from a huge list of Giggle’s valued qualities, including healthy, stylish, functional, innovative, practical, and safe. And now East Bay moms and dads can get a little relief at the store’s second location in Walnut Creek, which features the New Parent Lounge. Topping off the cuteness: the stroller parking lot at the store’s entrance, complete with vintage parking meters. 2110 Chestnut St., s.f., 415-440-9034; 1359 North Main st., Walnut Creek, 925-746-0300; www.egiggle.com.

It was kismet when Serena Dugan first met Lily Kanter in October 2003, just two days after Serena had given birth to her second child. They realized they shared the same aesthetic vision, and within a year they had developed Serena & Lily, producing SOPHISTICATED LINENS for kids. Using crisp stripes, plaids, and dots, tasteful embroidery, and simple palettes, they provide the elements for a nursery that fits in a modern home. “We want the room to be soft, fun, and inviting,” says Kanter, “with no cartoon characters on the wall.” You will find safari animals in the Zeke collection, but the designs are always clean and beautiful. No wonder the products have won over fans like Jennifer Garner and local Kendall Wilkinson Robinson. Now Serena & Lily linens are found in over 400 stores, and Dugan and Kanter are expanding this fall with paints, lamps­, and more—even a book deal is in the works. Available at Mill Valley Baby & Kids Company, 12 Miller Ave., Mill Valley, 415-389-1312.

WHAT WE LOVE
Everyone has an inner chef
It’s tough to live around here without getting really interested in food—in eating well, in cooking well. Hell, maybe even cooking nearly as well as your neighbor the surly sous-chef, which is one part of the Bay Area fantasy you can bring to life. Set aside an evening, weekend, or whole week to sharpen your skills at Tante Marie’s, a small North Beach COOKING SCHOOL that’s been offering intensive, short-term culinary and pastry courses for over 25 years. Graced with natural lighting and maple work surfaces, its kitchens are a welcoming environment where those who can’t boil water can learn the basics, before moving on to preparing tried-and-true delicacies like summer vegetable gazpacho with avocado cream, grilled lamb chops with minted tabbouleh, and plum and mascarpone tartlets.

Those more comfortable in the kitchen can polish their entertaining skills at the Summer Dinner Parties class. Aspiring professional chefs come here, too, for classes like Flavors of Latin America or Ceviches and Tapas. Classes are deliberately small, so there’s plenty of food, er, one-on-one instruction, for everyone. Guest chefs pop in from time to time to give demos—on August 29, it’ll be Rubicon’s Stuart Brioza, teaching an advanced class on presentation and taste. Prices range from $150 for a one-day class to $950 for a 30-hour, weeklong course. 271 Francisco St., S.F., 415-788-6699, www.tantemarie.com.