What with all of the media attention this summertime concert has received as of late, you would assume Miley Cyrus (the Madeleine Elster/Judy Barton narrative of our time) was booked to "sing" at Golden Gate Park. Alas, she is not. Your consolation prize? Radiohead, Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, and Jack Johnson are lined up for the debut of the Outside Lands Music & Arts Festival, happening August 22-24. Ticket prices, activities, other performers,......

We arrived at 9 p.m., parked at the West Oakland BART station and walked the block or so to the Fire Arts Festival. A gathering of local neighbors stood just outside the fence, watching. Giant hand-wrought metal sculptures — spiders, dragons, machines from the future/past — viewable from that distance, and from the BART trains passing by above, thumped and shook and spewed balls of fire high into the air. We passed the LONG......

Saturday.... in the park... wish it were the Fourth of July! (That's the Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra performing the Chicago classic above). Here's your events for today: --Supervisor Dreamy, Ross Mirkarimi's picking up litter and planting trees as part of the Community Clean Team in the Inner Sunset today from 9 a.m. to 12 noon. Meet at the City Parking Lot on 9th between Irving and Judah. --Close out the month-long National Queer Arts......

--It's Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas's 100th anniversary this year! They're celebrating around the world, and San Francisco's contribution is a staged reading of Stein's last book (Brewsie and Willie) and Toklas's first (The Alice B. Toklas Cookbook). $12, 7 p.m., at the Jewish Community Center, 3200 California (x Presidio). --As part of this month's Queer Arts Festival, the LGBT Community Center presents "Are You There God? It's Me, Ben McCoy" (brilliant title), a......

As part of the National Queer Arts Festival, graphic artist and memoirist Alison Bechdel is speaking at Michelle Tea's Radar Reading Series at the SF Public Library tonight! We've been huge fans of Bechdel's Dykes to Watch Out For for, like 10 years now (we're latecomers -- she's been drawing the strip since 1987), and her first graphic novel, Fun Home, about her relationship with her closeted gay father totally blew our mind with......

The acclaimed French-trained Guinean contemporary circus troupe Circus Baobab makes its US debut as part of the SF Int'l Arts Festival, performing The Jumping Drum, a fable about globalization and family, complete with acrobatics, stilt-walking, and African music. 5:30 p.m., $30, Project Artaud Theater (450 Alabama, x Mariposa). They're here through Sunday, and you may find it intriguing to learn that tomorrow's performance is in French. That's them on the YouTube above. Other events:......

May's Asian-American Heritage Month, so of course there's an accompanying street fair to emphasize the fun! Stop by Howard Street between 5th and 7th any time between 11 a.m. and 6 for food, music, community awareness booths, and fun across all the Asian ethnic groups. Other events: --SF Women Against Rape present the documentary "NO!" at the Women's Building. 5-7:30 p.m., $5-$15 sliding scale, Audre Lorde Room, 3542 18th St. (x Valencia). --Bohemian Carnival --......

SFist Jenna's rocked so hard, we've made her a full-fledged staff writer as of this post! Congratulations, SFist Jenna! We're excited to have you on board (like we're a ship or something). It's going to be freezing, but what else is new? Might as well make the most of it -- be sure to pack plenty of blankets and head over to a screening of the original Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory tonight, in......

It's more than just Heart and Soul: the Berkeley Arts Festival presents an evening of four-hand piano pieces, composed by beloved local minimalist Terry Riley, and performed by Joseph Kubera and Berkeley radio host/pianist Sarah Cahill. 8 p.m., $10-20 sliding scale, at the temporary Berkeley Arts Festival location, which is the Fidelity Bank Building at 2323 Shattuck (x Bancroft). Other events: --A talk at the SF Main Public Library on "How to Listen to......

Last month's winner, San Francisco Magazine: Cover: Spring '07 Style Forecast. Is it just us, or does the model on the cover look a whole lot like Carmen Electra? Sadly, it's not, but we love the orange Prada dress she's sporting. Short Stories: spring's super-short dresses are fabulous, and inspire us to do more squats. (But we think we'll stick to knee-length, because the world has seen enough hoo ha lately to last a lifetime.) href="http://sanfranmag.com/home/view_story/1534">Deconstructing Eco-chic: Tips on how to dress green, and still look good. Style Counsel: An interview with Mellisa Ceria, the founder of ShareYourLook.com, a personal style website for anybody too shy to ask a stranger, "Cute bag. Where did you get it?" Not that anybody ever asks us that every day. ...

When you assume, you make an ass out of you and Wednesday. Tonight: As part of its year-long partnership with the Yerba Buena Center, the SF Jewish Film Festival is screening the Oscar-nominated documentary "The Ritchie Boys," about young German Jews who fled to the US and were recruited into anti-Nazi psy-ops. Film starts at 7:30 and a surviving Ritchie Boy will be speaking after the screening. Thursday: Words not hands! Learn more about nonviolent communication techniques at an introductory seminar at SF State. Class starts at 7, and it's $0-35 sliding scale. and Friday: As part of the 2006 Queer Arts Festival, the Raw Dance troupe is performing at 69 Belcher (between 14th St., Duboce, Church, and Sanchez). The program is called "Per-Verses," and presents an exploration of porn, erotica, and intimacy through dance. Adult audiences only (our favorite!)....

Earlier this week we told you about some of the great shows at the Mission Creek Music & Arts Festival, including a special performance by Dieselhed at 12 Galaxies on Sunday night. We're sending two of you to the show. Preview some songs off their 1999 album Elephant Rest Home and enter to win. (Contest ends Friday at 5pm. Winner will be notified via email.) Another great show is happening at 12 Galaxies next Wednesday......

Sunday kicked off the 10th annual Mission Creek Music and Arts Festival featuring over 170 music acts, most of them local but some of them national (Vincent Gallo) and international (Ane Brun). The MCMAF offers a fantastic opportunity to get out into your neighborhood bars and clubs and see some bands on the rise. You can also get an earful of the uniquely adventurous and creative music coming out of the bay area. The......

Pull out your wallets because we'd like to tell you about a few new records that you should consider buying. The Herms celebrate their new CD Record Machine (out May 23rd) early tonight at Great American with Loquat and The Husbands, so head down to congratulate them and get your hands on an advance copy of the CD before it's out in stores. We haven't heard their record yet, but we trust our friend Nick......

We admit it, it's been a slow couple of weeks here at SchwartzenWatcher HQ. Nothing much has been going on as the Governator has been pretty quiet lately being all wonky and acting all Governor-like. But then, like manna from heaven, we get word that after a few days in D.C. schmoozing with other Governors and enjoying the fact that the Chinese control our ports and not a bunch of A-rabs, we discover that from there, Arnie is off to Columbus for the Arnold Fitness Expo and Arnold Classic. And kicking things off will be a pay-per-view Mixed Martial Arts Championship, the Gracie Fighting Championships actually, one that will be have as it's master of ceremonies our Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. Our Governor is SO not like your Governor. ...

This is a hott and sexxy weekend for mainstream movies. We've been eagerly anticipating Syriana (which confused Ruthe Stein, so good sign there), and The Chronicles of Narnia (our hearts sink as we read bizarro world critic LaSalle's glowing review). Other folks are all hot and bothered (in the good way) about gay cowboys and hot and bothered (in the bad way) about English speaking Chinese actresses playing geishas. But we've already had to......

Well, the Film Arts Festival may be at its end, but that doesn't mean we're done giving away passes quite yet! Enter by midnight tonight to get passes for you and your guest to see One Bright Shining Moment tomorrow night at 7 p.m., at the Rafael Film Center. That's right, you can be one of the first folks to see this documentary on the George McGovern presidential campaign, which "illustrates how that moment......

There are a lot of film festivals underway this weekend -- and we're going to most of them! So, stay tuned all next week for SFist reports from the trenches, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't be out there seeing some of these movies for yourself. Before we get to our picks from these fests, here's some news (remember: you heard it first on SFist) from our pals at IndieFest: IndieFest is opening a......

Thanks to all of you who entered yesterday's contest for passes to see Come Fly With Me Nude, and congratulations to the lucky winners! As we told you yesterday, The Film Arts Foundation and Larsen Associates are offering free passes to several of the Film Arts Festival screenings to SFist readers, how cool it that? Today's contest is for passes to see Scared New World Tuesday, November 8 at Oakland's lovely Parkway Theater at......

We here at SFist are looking forward to the The 21st Film Arts Festival of Independent Cinema, which runs from Nov 3-9 at the Kanbar Hall and the Roxie Cinema in San Francisco, at the Parkway in Oakland, and at the Rafael Film Center in San Rafael. Film Arts and Larsen Associates are offering free passes to several of the Fest screenings to SFist readers, starting with today's giveaway of passes for you and......

So much going on this weekend! Besides serious documentaries and awesome schlocky horror, there are also great bands and fun for the chosen people. Dang! In addition, The Dharma of Dollars, an autobiographical show about the search for enlightenment as one opens a yoga studio, is in its last weekend on stage at the Marsh. The Guardian finally got around to reviewing it this week -- but you heard it here first! The National......

Through June 5th, the San Francisco International Arts Festival will present fantastic art from around the world. Events will be held across The City. Our spy at Project Artaud Theater tells us: "The Akhe group flown in from Russia sounds crazy: the techs have been complaining about whiskey and a big mess on the stage." Sounds like our kind of modern dance performance! Their "White Cabin" show is 4:30pm this afternoon, 7pm tomorrow, and......

Wow. After the splendor that was the San Francisco International Film Festival, we're just bushed. Still, we'll forge ahead and force ourselves to see some movies this weekend, we guess. The things we do! The Sex Worker Arts Festival winds down this weekend with several film screenings at The Roxie Saturday and Sunday. Support your local sex workers and check out some of this provocative (both intellectually and erotically) cinema.......

Tonight is official Cover Band Night. At Last Day Saloon we have Who Two (they cover CSI theme songs) and Chronic Town, the Bay Area's own R.E.M. cover band. Or, there's Devo cover band Mongoloid, (The Evolution Control Committee) at the 12 Galaxies . Both shows begin at 9, and are sure offer an undergrad flashback for all relevant legally-drinking generations. So, you're going to the Skinny party Saturday night, what to do all......