Check out Boulevards' Guide to San Francisco

Cover: Lush Life
Bottoms up or hitting bottom? The fine line between drinking and alcoholism.

House of Cards: Tarot, not temping.

Tara's Advice: Tara engages an academic atelier.

1:15: Gossip columnist C. Silo.

Frisco Utopia: Hank Hyena saves the wails.

San Fran-Disco: DJ Josh goes back to the old skool.

Play Time: Moby prepares to meet the masses with 'Play.'

Music Picks: Reviews of the latest CDs by Orbital, Sissy Bar and various artists.

Club Guide: Disco divas, hip-hop connoisseurs and salsa suaves to flannel-clad pinball players, jazz luminaries and more.

Patio Parfum: Dara Colwell smells like clean spirit.

Miss Pinkie Shears: The debonair miss gives her fashion advice.

Concrete Runway: Julie Pike at Sutter & Taylor.

Celebrating Selling Out: Kurt Anderson's 'End of the Century' greets futureshock with humor.

Book Picks: Reviews of the latest books by Duncan McLean and K.K. Beck.

Glam Slam: 'Cyberotica' puts Michelle Goldberg between a teletubby and a hard place.

Cheap Shots: Are the Kucher brothers the new Warhol and Waters?

Losing It: 'The Loss of Sexual Innocence' tempts fate with its mythic tale.

Film Picks: Reviews of 'The Last Woman of Shang,' San Francisco International Lesbian and Gay Film Festival and '420.'

Please don't forget to write! The Metropolitan welcomes letters. Like any great work of art, they should be originals--not copies of letters sent elsewhere. Include address and daytime phone (for verification purposes only). Letters may be edited for length and clarity or to correct factual inaccuracies known to us. Postal: Metropolitan Letters, 1776-A 18th St., San Francisco, CA 94107. Fax: 415/487-9094. Email: [email protected]. Emailers, please include name, city of residence and phone number. Letters printed will list email address unless otherwise specified. Letters to the editor are not currently published in the online version of this paper.