Last week's winner, the Bay Guardian: People feel ambivalent about the MUNI fare strike. Darn that Newsom, he's failed again to solve SF's housing problems. Special online editorial: Noooooooo!!!! The New Times might merge with the Village Voice media! Wow, this is long (and talks at great length about the Sherman Act). Cover article: Arts in the fall (many lists). Filipino indie rock fest piNoisePop this weekend! And an evening out at the ostentatiously-straight Club Freak.

The East Bay Express: The Chron's preemptively bought out a bunch of anti-Chron domain names, including www.darthvega.com, sfchroniclesucks.com, and the sffreepress.com (which is the name striking writers used to publish a paper during the last Chron strike). Why do religions get tax breaks anyways? Cover: insider property dealing by the Republican representing Tracy, CA in Congress, and why this makes Tracy's traffic so bad. Asian indie rock band Bento at the Oakland Chinatown Street Fest. Reggae on the River and a new Filipina pop goddess.

The Weekly, the Metro (it's back!) and the pick of the week -- after the jump.

The SF Weekly: Someone's mad at the Weekly about that Gaverly Barbie doll spread, calling it "vitriolic." It's not true, Weekly! Do it again! Dog Bites, through Tommy Craggs, got a letter from Brugman sent to the Weekly's music department. Mr. Craggs -- you crazy! He got the handwriting analyzed. Ill! Brugman has "a pretty decent sex drive," apparently, based on the loop in his y. Who knew? Cover article: The Chuck behind the wine of two bucks. (his name is actually Fred! He bought the name Charles Shaw off someone else.) Sonoma indie rock, highlights of PiNoise Pop, and the Bouncer goes to the Scotty tribute party at the Edinburgh Castle.

And the Metro: Ethical shenanigans at the Merc with the music columnist trying to plug his own bar band? Japanese-American baseball teams in the South Bay! Cover articles: Also a fall arts preview. Huh, "kabbalah" spelled backwards does sort of spell "hollaback." The food critic doesn't like stinky tofu! What gives? And the guy who runs Asian Man Records is trying to raise enough money to open an all-ages club in San Jose.

Pick of the week: Gotta go with the Weekly. As the graphologist hired by the Weekly says, "Who's Cleo Chanel?" The Metro makes a strong comeback, though -- we're totally going to the "SF as Purgatory" Sandow Birk show at the SJ Museum of Art