SFist commenter jacksevanroo's facetious reference to buying a geodesic dome in response to Larry Ellison's questionable tax break on his "functionally obsolete" compound, reminded us about this Silicon Valley geodesic dome home ("Brigadome") that went up for sale last month. If we could buy it, we would -- hippie stigma be damned! (Buckminster Fuller was the most under-rated genius of the 20th century, as far as we're concerned.) Located in the San Francisco peninsula foothills......

"Architecture of Density" -- Fox Plaza Apartments First, this a phenomenal shot, found in balmes' Flickr page. He or she managed to make crack towers look almost aesthetically pleasing to the eye. Really, a great picture. Second, "crack towers." As someone already mentioned in the comment section here, "some of those people up there must be clinically brain dead already to actually decide to live there." Close. replace "clinically" with "chemically" and you're in......

Certain blocks speak to specific eras. While the local architecture can play a significant role, perhaps the most crucial factor is intangible...one that can’t be defined. It’s a mood we begin to sense as we sift around an area - what we imagine it to have been like so many years before, and in the case of certain places, how little it’s changed in the years since. Mission St. in the Excelsior had us thinking 1972 or so. Country Club Drive in the Parkside had 1954 down pat. Sturgeon St. on Treasure Island seemed rutted in about 1987. Amethyst Way in Diamond Heights feels like 1966....

Protest over national vs. regional chains, the never-ending debate over the place of cars and bicycles in our metropolises, professional sports scandals, remembering a solemn day, and being issued a search warrant - it all happened across our sites this week! Another banner week at Chicagoist started off with daily reports from food writer Lisa Shames on her attempt to eat only locally grown and raised foodstuffs all week as part of a farmers market......

-- Benefit Show Honoring Erno "Tattoo" Szabady: Local rock bands Slowfinger, DickDusters, and the Walker Brothers get together to raise money for a burial "niche" for well-known, recently deceased tattoo artist, Szabady. Show starts at 8 p.m. at Peacock Lounge, 552 Haight Street (at Fillmore); $10-$15. -- Live-in Maid (Cama adentro): Norma Aleandro's dramatic role, about a "wealthy woman and her live-in housekeeper" dealing with the economic collapse in Argentina, finally arrives in the......

--Local photog Thomas Hawk gets assaulted for taking pictures -- again. [Thomas Hawk's Digital Connection, via the SFist tips line. update: From last year! Sorry! Keep those tips fresh, folks!] --C.W. Nevius didn't start the fire. [The Chron.] --Republicans busted by SF State for stomping on Muslim flags with the word "Allah" written on them are now suing. Oh, that's rich. [CBS 5.] --You thought Ed Jew Borderline was awesome? If that was Madonna,......

We really enjoyed our sweet milk fritter! (above.) It was like a cream puff encased in sugar. Mmmwah! But we're getting a little ahead of ourselves. So hey, did you see they opened up a new restaurant in the old Anna's Cookies bakery on 18th Street and Guerrero? It's called Farina and it's Italian. Though not cheap ($15-22 entrees), it doesn't look like it's really trying to compete in the Delfina/Maverick/Range divisions of the......

Daly City's "Little Boxes on the Hillside"...

Duck meatballs from the Oakland Tribune. We gobble the various food sections up each Wednesday. Here are our favorite nibbles from today's offerings. It's short but suh-weet. SF Chronicle: Breaking bread with neighbors and "new friends"/potential love mates continues to catch on at community tables. An explanation from restaurant guru Clark Wolf perhaps explains why the post 9/11 trend has taken awhile to grow: "...Americans don't share space well. So it took a little......

--Does architecture critic John King ever like anything? --Sad! The San Franciscan speller in the National Bee got the dreaded misspelling bell of death this afternoon in the quarter finals, on the word "ursigram." --Giuliani's in town. Lock up your wives, cousins, and ferrets. Good thing Chron political writer Carla Marinucci loves him. --They reconvicted medicinal pot grower Ed Rosenthal, but he doesn't get any jail time. --BART may run more frequently, if they......

LAist is experimenting with blogging dates from J-Date, but finds the best men are found offline. Some date vicariously online and that is one reason why porn is big -- really freaking big -- so they ask if they should cover XXX since the heart of it lays in the city's San Fernando Valley. A writer grapples with her food porn photography obsession, another gets censored on Flickr, one gets scooped by the LA......

--They tore down that house everyone's laughing about. --The Niners got San Francisco to cough up money originally intended for parks to go to fixing up Monster Park instead. They're just going to move to Santa Clara anyways, guys! --Mission Bay bores Chron architecture critic John King. --Fiona Ma sponsors legislation to make it easier for, say, Gavin Newsom to change his name to Gavin Newsom-Siebel. --Aaaaaaa-choo! --The SF Sentinel's photo tips. Also, they......

In artist Paul Madonna's weekly comic series All Over Coffee, San Francisco architecture—and coffee—seem to be the main characters. Beautifully technical drawings of SF scenes, combined with disembodied voices that almost feel like the city's collective consciousness, give an ethereal quality to the pieces. You can catch All Over Coffee every Sunday in the Pink section of the Chronicle, and it's archived online as well. Paul also updates his web site every Monday with a new free cartoon. This month, there are several ways you can get to know Paul and his work a little better. • Tonight from 7 to 10 pm at 312 Valencia @ 14th street, there is a Book Release Party for Paul's collection of past to present work from All Over Coffee. You can also buy the book at a discounted price from City Lights Books. ...

Spring is when we get busy here in the Ist-A-Verse. Very busy. But, after staying bundled-up indoors all winter, it's nice for us to be out, about, and collecting things to write about for you. Here's a glimpse at what's been keeping your favorite citybloggers busily away from home and out of bed. For LAist, strong winds attacked LA on the same day the Feds raided the Crips. Not to fear, though: the Japanese version......

We don't know about where you are, but it seems like spring can't decide whether or not to happen. Some days are warm, some days are cold, and sometimes you aren't sure which. Baseball may have started up (and soccer/football winding down) but it still seems cold out there. Unless it's not. Anyways, onto the -ists....

Sorry, we've become so obsessed with the upcoming Fake Question Time and those Yalie a capella singers that got beaten up that we totally didn't cover any of the other city news from today! So here you go: While we were distracted with all the RSVP shenanigans for Saturday's event, we almost forgot to tell you that the Board of Supes once again overrode Gavin Newsom's second veto of Ross Mirkarimi's foot patrols with an......

Happy Holidays! Chances are, you're reading this the day after Christmas, back at your day job after all-too-short a holiday, and the last thing you want from us is stuff about the holidays. But that's just too bad. Because, see, here in the Ist-A-Verse, we do things ahead of time. It might be December 26 for you, but that's what you get for not checking your Favorite Local Blog on Christmas Eve. ...

The SF Opera revived yesterday its 2003 production of the Barber of Seville, with Nathan Gunn returning in the role of Figaro. 2003, you say? Indeed, smack in the heart of the Rosenberg era, which means a re-invented version of the popular opera, set in some period best desribed as achronistic, rather than anachronistic: the set is the star of the show, a beautiful, white two story house which spins on its axis to......

Paging beleaguered Chronicle architecture critic John King! There's an article by Witold Rybczynski on Slate.com lamenting the lack of attractive buildings in San Francisco. We'd get more upset about this piece except, well, it's not like San Franciscans haven't been complaining about this for awhile themselves. Rybczynski throws us a couple bones (he hypothesizes that part of the problem with architecture in SF may be that the city is already too pretty, and notes that......

Sure, we talk all big about how we're above crass materialism and how yuppie bastards are ruining this town for us Missionistas -- but okay, we'll fess up: we are extremely excited about the Westfield San Francisco Shopping Centre's reopening of the old Emporium space on Market and Powell this Thursday (the 28th). Cross your fingers along with us that the opening ceremonies will include Gavin cutting a red ribbon with a big ol' pair......

If we were to name our column again, we'd go with "the SFist on the table" or Get ur food on or whatever witticism we did not come up with when we settled on Gastronomique. Snacks on a plate? We'd try to convey what we attempt to do: inform and show off our camera phone food pictures and maybe squeeze in a joke here and there. We assume that restaurant owner face the same conundrum,......

Theater about technology about theater, sexy performance art with a message and more theater about theater....

SFist reviews Architecture in Helsinki at Great American Music Hall May 23, 2006...

Foreign Cinema's Gallery (2534 Mission between 21st & 22nd) Benefit for R.A. McBride and Julie Lindow's book, Left in the Dark: Portraits of San Francisco Movie Theatres and Christian Bruno's Film, Strand: A Natural History of Cinema Tuesday, MAY 16, 2006, 7-11pm Come enjoy a taste of San Francisco’s rich film history at this art, film and book party benefit! Support two local artists and listen to wonderful live music, scrumptious free food as......

Just as the rain stopped, everyone has a new favorite blog topic--it's earthquake centennial madness! Eric over at and the Family Buick has a fairly lengthy write-up of the event, while Rangelife has a fever, and the only cure is--more cowbell. Sorry, wrong pop culture reference. We're still on the earthquake. Your favorite ex-bathroom attendant has a write-up on the plucky fire hydrant that saved so many, while sfdx has a different drink in mind. Mona has a beautiful pic of one of the survivors up on her blog. Some others, though, are more concerned about the effects of the next big one. Jennifer admits that she's been rattled by all the voice of doom coverage, and Jamison gets snarky over what he feels is unfair proactive re-distribution of blame. Maybe he should keep the turtle he found, a pet might make him feel better. Art makes us feel better. We love that we live in a town where art thrives. The Painted Ground of San Jose Avenue posts protest art this week, while the California Department of Corrections went big time and Kvatch takes over Market Street. This poster--literally--thinks locally. VJ Culture isn't protesting anything, but we do lament the fact we'll never be as cool and smart--at the same time--as he is. On the other hand, we have jerks here, too, as chronicled this week by Ed, in addition to Thomas Hawk's ongoing struggles with building security guards. So is it any wonder that sometimes we just go a little goofy? And sometimes, when the stars are aligned correctly, we have smart, goofy Newsom protest blogs that makes milk come out our noses. You suck! Have a nice day! Picture from If I Ran The Zoo. SFist Jacob, contributing. ...

Thomas Hawk is at it again, committing the shocking transgression of (gasp!) photographing buildings in downtown San Francisco. The fine, upstanding gentleman above is a Shorenstein Company security guard at 45 Fremont who began his conversation with Hawk "middle finger a blazing", and the level of discourse just declined from there. Read his entire account of the incident for all sorts of greater detail, including a man impersonating Walter Shorenstein. And when you're done,......

Hey, the Asian Art Museum's Three Gorges Project, that we mentioned to you last week is having a reception for the artist, Liu Xiaodong, tomorrow night from 6-8 p.m. The event is free with museum admission, which is only $5 after 5 p.m. Art is fun, but there's really no party like an art party, is there? Artists' Television Access (992 Valencia Street) Left In The Dark April 5-30 Left in the Dark is......

In addition to our show reviews, artist interviews, and weekly concert listings, we added a new dimension to our music coverage this year: giveaways! We know you just love to read us talking about music (see: dancing about architecture), but we did our best to put CDs and concert tickets in your hands as well. We hope you enjoyed it. These giveaways would not be possible without the cooperation of friendly music publicists, band reps......

We love architecture, we love politics and we love San Francisco. Hence, one of our favorite blogs is San Francisco Cityscape, written and maintained by Steve Boland. What started in 2001 as a site that digested news reports about urban planning, now his posts offer more analysis and deeplinks to other relevant information about specific topics. A dedicated urbanist, he advertises tees from Cafepress with slogans like "Stop Sprawl, Grow Up." Of course, if......

"Unitarians Begone!" declares a front-page headline in this month's "San Francisco Faith: The Bay Area's Lay Catholic Newsletter." The article itself is about the unpleasant architecture of a proposed Cathedral of Christ the Light in Oakland -- we're not sure how Unitarians are to blame, or how it's possible to use the word "begone" without irony in this day and age. Oh well. Other highlights: in Sacramento, the church is selling a posh retirement......