South of Market is home to one of the largest networks (with the fewest dropped calls?) of queer-friendly businesses in San Francisco. It has been this way for decades and doesn't appear to be changing. Or is it?...

Okay, so it's only noon-ish and perhaps it's a bit early to think about drinking, but when it involves one of our favorite bars, we're gonna brave an alkie reputation to bring this bit of news: Our friends over at EaterSF are reporting that the Owl Tree may be making its way back onto the dive bar scene. After writing about construction starting up at the SF institution, readers wrote EaterSF with e-mails saying that......

The pros and cons of law school...

*MUSIC: You know that song at the end of Juno, "Anyone Else But You"? The one Ellen Page and Michael Cera sing to one another? And it's all cute and sad? Well,it was co-written and originally recorded by Kimya Dawson, former half of the Moldy Peaches, and she's over in the East Bay tonight at 924 Gilman. She performs along with Angelo Spencer at this all-ages show. (No booze allowed, by the way.) .......

FILM: SF Indiefest wraps up tonight with Ben X, 7:15 p.m., and Paranormal Activity, 9:30 p.m., at the Roxie Cinema. For more info, go here. *MUSIC: We love the the Donnas. Seriously. Not only are they ever so much fun, but they're from the Bay Area and brimming with hot young(ish) girls playing guitar. The kind of girls with whom you want to go shopping and talk about boys, but also who you want......

Information Society: Remember these guys? No? How about now? They perform along with Tell Tale Heartbreakers, Spellbound (a Siouxsie tribute band), DJs Decay (Death Guild), Shindog (New Wave City), and Callum McGowan (Retrowerks). The energy goes from 8 p.m. to 2 a.m. at DNA Lounge; $14-20.My Kid Could Paint That (2007): Amir Bar-Lev's documentary about artist Marla Olmstead (a four-year-old at the time this was shot) whose work has raked in loads of money......

The Washbag shuts its doors for good. (But didn't they, like, invent drinking? Or something like that?) [Culture Blog] Beware of the guerilla knife sharpener. [Curbed] Tetris cookies are good cookies. [The Snitch] FasTrak violators cost the Metropolitan Transportation Commission $3.5million. For shame. [Examiner] SF is oh so similar to Second Life. [ValleyWag] "O-N-E-L-E-S-S, I wanna be one less, one less." [SFBG] The real Ron Paul. Ick. [IKnowWhatImDoing] Image credit goes to artist Guy......

-- Jackie Beat: Give 'Til It Hurts: It's a Christmastime cabaret with infamous dragster Jackie Beat. She will take some of your favorite holiday classics and render them tasteless and tacky, and you'll love every minute of it. Yes. Yes, you will. The show starts at 8 p.m. at the Empire Plush Room; $30-$32.50. -- Badmen, Hoe, Agent Deadlies, and Kittie Perm: Oh, the lunchtime grilled cheese-and-tomato sandwich memories we have from this venue.......

Found over at Laughing Squid, "The Tiki Bar TV is selling a classic pinup calendar featuring the fabulous Lala. The calendar was designed by Vancouver vfx artist and illustrator Kevin Genze." Laughing Squid also has some choice Tiki-related links, so do check them out.......

We came back from taking down the recycling yesterday evening to find we had locked ourselves out of our apartment. "Noooo!!" [Insert Emo Darth Vader ballad here. Warning -- audio.] We dialed the apartment manager on the call-box but got his voice mail. Lucky for us, the manager, who wouldn't be back until 10:00, called our s.o., who wouldn't be back until 8:00, and our s.o. called our friend who lives a few blocks away.......

We love Gridskipper's edge as of late. Take, for example, today's revealing top 8 San Francisco bars with the "crappiest crowds." Rankings 8, 7, 6, and 5 are Beauty Bar, Medjool, Swig, and R Bar, respectively. In all fairness, you need to visit good ol' Gridie to find out just who made the top four. (Also, regarding the number-one spot, we've never visited the sorta chic spot but have heard mixed reviews. Is it......

It's back on, folks. The Harvey Milk Club endorsement vote happens tomorrow. Again. If you remember their last meeting, voting members caught the vapors, pulled out clumps of their own hair, ran around in circles, cried -- fun hysteria like that. Ever since that childish display of local politicking, all sides have been more or less civil and relatively respectful of one another. It goes without say how disappointed we are in both sides.......

By Dianne de Guzman Although it took awhile, we've finally recovered from the Yelp holiday extravaganza at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. As to be expected Yelpers know how to throw a party! There was an open bar, plenty of food to go around and lots of dancers, hula hoopers (hula hoopists?) and girls running around in Yelp underwear. More pictures after the jump.......

-- Booty Call Wednesdays: Local living legend and drag artist Juanita MORE! shares the spotlight with her harem of followers, the More Boys as well as her fans, at this night of drunken debauchery and DJ dancing. DJ Missy Hot Pants and Juanita man the decks, so to speak, from 9 p.m. to 2 a.m. at the Bar On Castro; free. -- Comedy, Darling -- Hanukkah: The chosen ones are known for their comedy.......

SFist interviews Brian Regan...

-- Girl fight! [KGO] -- Barney's -- like its irritating X-Mas holiday window display this year -- is full of green, self-righteous crap. [Curbed SF] -- Mark Zuckerberg might be the next Bill Gates, but he's not nearly as dreamy as early Microsoft-era Bill Gates. Then again, who is? [ValleyWag] -- Star of India fire kills two. [SFoodie] -- Roundtable Q&A with Lust, Caution (Se, jie) director Ang Lee and star Wei Tang. [Pixel......

Warning: when visiting the ice rink at the Embarcadero, please be careful. You could fall face-first on the ice, cut open your knee, swallow a couple of itchy Vicodins to abate building pain, and then send out several emails that you won't remember writing the following morning. Or so we hear. -- The Last Detail (1973): Jack Nicholson takes Randy Quaid out for a last bit of debauchery before young Quaid is sent of......

SFist interviews the Reverend Billy of "what would jesus buy?"...

-- A Vallejo husband and father, Kevin Owens, 41, went though with a murder/suicide pact (with himself, we guess) on Friday night. He shot and killed his wife, Stacey Owens, 38; wounded his two-year-old daughter; and then turned the gun on himself (right after "a big Thanksgiving dinner at their home Thursday night.") This happened on the 300 block of Carousel Drive. Owens' 10-year-old son managed to escape the bloodbath, run to a neighbor's,......

The recently-released website post-consumer.com is addressed to “anyone who has played or attended an indie rock show in Santa Cruz between 1999-2004.” We did! We were there! We remember the tall, handsome fellow with incongruous Ugg boots and a microphone on a stick who recorded shows in every bar, basement, living room and attic during the golden years of Santa Cruz indie rock! And now you can be there, too – Nicholas Taplin’s hoard......

On Sunday morning Gary Cloutier, 45, (the gay one!) spent several hours in jail after being arrested for public intoxication in Palm Spring, CA. But he didn't just have a few sips of an appletini. It seems that the mayor wannabe was "staggering and could barely stand," according to CBS 5, after cops found him in his car, freshly sloshed after leaving a Palm Springs bar. (And it's not even White Party season!)...

Last night at a downtown bar, we eavesdropped on a heated debate about the Bonds' indictment. The all-male group of self-proclaimed Bonds-haters argued loudly about whether or not sports should simply start allowing athletes to get as chemically enhanced as they wanna be, health risks be damned. The main pro-roids (pro-drug?) point was this: seeing as how athletes already push themselves to physical extremes, shouldn't synthetic enhancers also count? Since it also deals with......

On a recent cab ride to the airport, we picked up the November issue of TODO: Little Guide. Big Town. for kicks. After scanning the restaurant, bar, and shopping guides, we came across a map of San Francisco. We thought we must be a little behind on all the new neighborhood names, but after scouring the internet for some proof, we were unable to find any other map of the city that designates a neighborhood......

By Frances Reade Eugene Robinson has been the leader of S.F.'s most dangerous art-rock band Oxbow since 1989. We don’t mean Oxbow is "dangerous" as in "Tipper-Gore-no-likey." We mean "dangerous" like “Eugene is known to lurch into the crowd mid-set and strangle irritating audience members into unconsciousness." "Dangerous" as in "the man strips down and brandishes his pee-pee in a threatening manner onstage." "Dangerous” as in… "awesome." Besides slinging 18 years of sweet, sludgy......

Oh is it a voting day or something? It totally sneaked up on us! It still feels like Monday today. Actually it also feels like October. Anyway, you should probably vote yes on A and no on H, because that's what everyone else is doing. Prop A will protect The Mt Soledad National War Memorial and do something to the air force? and will transform some colleges. Also, Aristotle endorsed it it. Proposition H......

So much to do, so much not to do. What's a girl to do? Well, here is just a smattering of what's going on tonight. (An aside, is there any reason to buy bags of fun-size candy anymore to hand out to costumed tykes? We haven't seen a trick-or-treater in ages. Sob.) -- Hellgate Halloween: Vice magazine (SF's no. 1 fan) is throwing a bash with a complimentary bar (!) and tunes by Chromeo......

Here's todays sports news...

We have sad news for barflies everywhere—the bar John Barylecorn's will close this weekend after a desperate attempt at keeping it open. The bar became in trouble when local restaurateur Luisa Hanson purchased the building that held the bar and told the owners she was not looking to keep the place open. A campaign was started to save it, complete with petitions, a Great Pub Toast, and proposed legislation from Aaron Peskin but it was all to no avail. ...

Between the black n' purple checkered floor and the burlesque porn that was playing in the TV over the bar, we knew we had entered the perfect world's most interesting venue, Bottom of the Hill. (We continued that thought as we ventured into the sticker/grafitti laden walls of the cramped men's bathroom.) Bumping into Chris Reynolds, Eulogies' drummer, at the merchandise table before the show was unexpected as the porn but we digress. After a......

Photo of people smoking in the park...