Every time we see an Errol Morris film, we're always astonished by his subjects' self-incrimination and displays of delusion. We had suspected that Morris is drawn to delusional people as subjects, or at least, the unusually obsessed. With Standard Operating Procedure, screened at the SFIFF on Tuesday, April 29th, Errol Morris once again attempts to answer the question that recurs in many of his movies, "What were they thinking?" In a pre-screening chat with... [continue]

You mean those train tracks are actually used by real trains? The City of Berkeley is working to implement a quiet zone to prevent the freight trains from sounding their whistles at intersections due to complaints from residents of this traditionally industrial area. While we find train horns romantic, we must admit that we might find them less so if they were not so off-in-the-distance. Though we wonder why the City didn't make the developers... [continue]

Last week's winner: the East Bay Express: It's the Summer Guide Issue: how to raise chickens (like LE Leone in the Guardian!), Segway scooter polo (this should be a Metro article), berry picking in Co-Co County and agrotourism (we believe the correct spelling is agritourism). Hey, there's even fruit in the Express' new blotter column! Alameda County Undersheriff busted for using official vehicle in lieu of moving van. (Ed Jew joke omitted.) The firm that... [continue]

Last week's winner: the SJ Metro . Cover article: San Jose Pride - family day in the park on Saturday, Gay Rodeo, Women's Music Festival this weekend. A new queer nightclub in downtown San Jo. Problems with contracting for paratransit at Santa Clara County Transit VTA . Annalee Newitz on notableness on Wikipedia. The Ann Arbor Film Festival at Foothill College. And now for our frontrunner, the SF Weekly, big trouble at the Culinary Academy... [continue]

Hopefully, just in time for your lunch break, and no snarking on David Downs this week. Last week's winner: the SF Weekly. Cover article: Treating Severe Mental Illness without Pharmaceuticals - a fairly well-balanced article about the issue. Matt Smith on Gavin Newsom's flaming coiffure - actually the story is about Newsom's proclamations about the dire need to do something about public housing in SF and his administration's failure to do anything, but Newsom's hair... [continue]

Last week's winner: the SF Bay Guardian . Cover article: Summer Guide - lots of world music and food festivals in places named "something"-ville. Remembering Jello Biafra and The Clash. Gavin's skimping on the details of his mayoralty to the public - it's the 40th Anniversary of the Summer of Love, Gavin, let the sun shine in on your calendar. Do it for Beth Spotswood. Kimberly Chun wasn't a happy camper at Coachella. Daughters of... [continue]

Tonight - two shows open (one show leaves) at Steven Wolf Fine Arts (49 Geary Ste. 411): Orly Corgan's The Wonder of You, and Sentences by Nicholas Knight - both artists are from New York. In her post-modern feminist tapestries, Cogan takes vintage tablecloths and other linens from days gone by and transforms them through embroidery into an erotic fantasyland featuring mostly her. She muses, eats sweets, snorts coke, contemplates kissing frogs and kicks around... [continue]

We'd like to thank SFist Rita for sharing weekly-reading duties! Last week's winner: the SF Weekly. Spare the glare - oops, the fancy new Federal Building's got some lighting and climate control issues. Cover article: The SF International Film Festival keeps on keeping on and tries to attract young audiences with downloadable movies (what beautiful cinematography, well, it's probably beautiful, from what I can infer from the teensy screen of the video iPod ... even... [continue]

Tonight at The Lab (2948 16th St at Capp), it's the opening reception for the Corporate Art Expo '07, an exhibition of the "art lie" du jour - artists taking on the guise of corporations with the requisite branding, logos, and jargon, often as a means to critiquing capitalism and consumerism. Curated by Shane Montgomery, the exhibition features faux-corps: the Anti-Advertising Agency, Acclair, C5 Corporation, Davis & Davis Research, Meaning Maker, Death and Taxes, Inc.,... [continue]

Last Week's Winner: SF Weekly Nothing's good enough for the SF Weekly this week: Cutting Ball Theatre's Woyzeck doesn't cut it for Chloe Veltman; Frances Reade compares Kemble Scott's hot-selling novel SoMa to Showgirls (not meant as a compliment); in an article compelling for its title, alone, Flaccid Nostalgia, Music Editor, Jennifer Maerz lays into the Mother Hips with the "you asked for it" gambit, "They want me to write about this band - I... [continue]

Tonight at the venerable New Langton Arts (1246 Folsom St between 8th and 9th), it's the Opening Reception for Myth by Method, an exhibition that explores the unfolding of narrative through drawing, video, collage, sculpture, and music, with works by SF's Katrina Lamb and New York-based collective Lansing-Dreiden. Lamb and Lansing-Dreiden share an interest in synthesizing the realms of art and music, creating works that resonate with mythology, fantasy, and even daily life. The reception... [continue]

Tonight is another epic shindig at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (701 Mission at 3rd), celebrating the opening of R. Crumb’s Underground, a thematically-organized show of collaborative drawings (including work with his wife, Aline), self-portraits, and counter-cultural chronicles, including early and new work, plus rare film screenings of some of the blues, swing and "exotica" bands that inspired Crumb's Cheap Suit Serenaders. The soirée also celebrates the opening of The Black Factory by William... [continue]

Tonight is a big-ass party at the Exploratorium, (3601 Lyon St.) for its new exhibition, Liminality: Art on the Threshold. Liminality experiments with the Exploratorium's public space using the metaphor of thresholds as a unifying theme. This exhibition will feature large-scale artworks, created by Seattle and Bay-Area artists, which play with and accentuate the architectural features of the Exploratorium's airplane hangar-like interior. The opening party features one-night-only performances and installations by Project Bandaloop, Kal... [continue]

While we have not cultivated or honed our food-writing skills as much as our SFist food chroniclers, let alone Meredith Brody, we are quite fond of cheese. While we cannot confirm the presence of cheese at the following events, the art is worth checking out. Eleanor Harwood was once the curator of the influential back room gallery at Adobe Bookstore, and now has her own eponymous gallery (1295 Alabama St at 25th). Tonight at... [continue]

Venerable contemporary art institution, Southern Exposure hosts a big fundraiser tonight - its 7th Annual Monster Drawing Rally, where an impressively large number of local artists take turns drawing things on paper, which are then sold for a measley $50 with all proceeds benefiting Southern Exposure's exhibition and educational programs. Some draw monsters, some draw abstract patterns and shapes, though maybe one can be convinced to do caricatures of Bill and Hilary Clinton like the... [continue]

Tonight at the Darkroom Theater (2263 Mission St. at 19th) is the Miss American Fido Show, a comedy spoof of American Idol and an "open mike" contest to find the worst act in SF. The Producer and Host of the show is Mark Tyne, the Music Director for the "Blood Splatter Theater" group Primitive Screwheads and the self proclaimed "King of Bad Entertainment". During the show performers of any age, with any act, are... [continue]

Almost 20 years after the death of graffiti artist turned art star, Jean Michel Basquiat, we have a new documentary about graffiti in the art world, Next: A Primer on Urban Painting screens at Mezzanine (444 Jessie St. near 5th) courtesy of SF360 Film+Club. Directed by Pablo Aravena, the film combines cinema vérité of artists in action and interviews with painters, journalists, collectors, sociologists, DJ's, art critics and others. There will be a live... [continue]

Tonight, the SF Indiefest anschlüss continues, with a party celebrating the Coen Brothers' The Big Lebowski at Balazo Gallery (2183 Mission at 18th). Costumes encouraged. (9pm) Two great alcohol-accessorized reading events at the Make Out Room (3225 22nd St between Mission and Valencia): Friday and Saturday night is Mortified's annual doomed Valentine show with teenage stories of hopeless love, awkwardness and pain. (8pm) All this weekend it's the California International Antiquarian Book Fair at... [continue]

One of those things you learn in rehab is to take it one day at a time (Valerie Bertinelli notwithstanding), though Valentine's Day can be one of the more excruciating days to get through, just dealing with the high schoolers on MUNI with the balloons, oversized stuffed animals and flowers alone. Difficult as it may be, remember, tomorrow it's all over and the candy is on sale. But tonight, it's the 2nd annual Pillow Fight... [continue]

Catch Drawn & Quarterly cartoonists Gabrielle Bell (Lucky), Kevin Huizenga (Curses), and Anders Nilsen (Don’t Go Where I Can’t Follow) at the Booksmith (1644 Haight St), the SF stop on their West Coast book tour. The cartoonists will be presenting a slide show of their work, answering questions and signing their latest D+Q releases. Kevin Huizenga's short story collection, Curses, promoted Huizenga as "one of the brightest, most interesting new comix authors to appear in... [continue]