Photo credit: Rilo Kiley's Website We have some exciting news! We're offering two free tickets to Rilo Kiley's Thursday night performance at Concourse at SF Design Center. Now, here's some even more exciting news: Kanye West and Rihanna will be performing at the HP Pavilion on Saturday night. With Rihanna's summer blockbuster hit, "Umbrella," she finally created a "Hit Me Baby, One More Time." Instead of the standard sexy school-girl outfit, Rihanna dawned on......

It nice to see that the farming and ranching traditions of Livermore's past live on to this day. You see, seven men were nabbed this past Sunday in connection with a cockfighting ring on the 4000 block of North Livermore Avenue. Ick. Busted while a fowl fight was in progress, officers arrested three gentlemen from Alameda, two blokes from Livermore, one from San Jose, and another from Las Vegas. Police officers also uncovered "300......

Oh, the joys of electricity. We in our satellite Sunnyside SFist office had been without it since 8:43 this morning. Power was finally restored at 4:20 (hot!). We immediately plugged in our computer and iPhone and powered up. We couldn't believe all that we missed today! Britney losing her kids, Brazil losing some alligators, Gay tax breaks - wow! It's amazing how "wired" we've become. It makes moments like the one pictured above seem......

We were a tad disappointed when our only celebrity pregnant buddy turned out to be boring old Jessica Alba. Perhaps we were a bit too capricious in our disappointment, since news broke earlier today that 16-year-old Jamie Lynn Spears, sister to Britney Spears, is 12-weeks pregnant. There are so many snarky things we could say about the Zoey 101 star, but we didn't want to ruin the fun for all our clever readers. Okay......go!......

Each Tuesday we will feature new music that should (or whatever) be on your radar. Standouts: 1. Nicole Atkins - Neptune City: This New Jersey native, reaches down deep to relate stories of her hometown, Neptune City on her debut release. "From the time I was a kid I started collecting these sad little tragically beautiful personal stories from the people in my life, and my own as well. That sense of history really appeals......

We were super-excited when we got the chance to talk with Alex Ross, the New Yorker's resident classical music critic (and blogger). Ross's writing has profoundly affected the way we think about music and music writing in all its genres and forms, and his twin enthusiasm for new classical music of the 21st century along with his deep love of the profoundly musical Icelandic pixie that is Björk always liven up our weekly periodicals reading......

It's on! Gavin Newsom's finally pulled the trigger (.pdf), and Ed Jew is out (at least for now). What odds do you have on poor beleagued Ed Jew lawyer Steven Gruel filing a request for reinstatement with the federal court later today? Being Ed Jew's lawyer has to be the worst job ever, except possibly being a nanny for Britney Spears. Here's the tidbits we have from today's news coverage: --Even Ed Jew's process server......

-- Gargantuan steroid sting nabs two Bay Area brothers. [SJ Merc] -- PC World editor's suspected killers could receive death sentences. [Chron] -- Marines banned from filming commercial in SF. [FOX] -- Another attempt to ban the Blue Angels proves unsuccessful. Sorry, Chris. [CBS5] -- Speaking of Board of Supes, someone done got suspended/replaced. [ABC7] -- Death of an lILWU longshoreman results in Oakland port's closure for the day. [Oakland Tribune] -- Chloe Veltman......

-- "The Crib": Shitty City Nights' only decent club night, the one where you're not called a "faggot" if you happen to be walking outside of it (i.e., on Friday and Saturday nights). Why? Because tonight's for the homos. Hip hop, Top 40, and club hits abound at this popular 18-and-over twink night. Tonight's theme: Messy Britney. Do your best sloppy Britney Spears tribute on stage, and win a bag of crystal meth, or......

Bless you, Drew Altizer, for your always-fun pictures of the local celebs in town! We wish we were Vegasist, so you'd have some pictures of Britney Spears's flabtastic performance at the VMAs last night. (aaaaaaaaaah!!!!!!) Anyhow, so Paris Hilton was in San Francisco earlier this week, at a Macy's event, and friend of Jennifer Siebel Molly Sims was at Cartier (after the jump). Drew's got the pics! Enjoy. All pictures by Drew Altizer.......

Giants 9 Reds 5- Here are three things we once thought improbable: Britney Spears having a comeback, Mitt Romney winning a "Pet Owner of the Year" award, and Matt Cain getting enough run support to win. Well, the improbable happened and for the first time since Mother's Day, the Official Favorite Giant of SFist got enough run support to win. In fact, he got a lot of run support, all thanks to Fred Lewis who......

--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......

Cruciverbalists rejoice! New York Times crossword editor Will Shortz, widely considered the best puzzlemaster in the world, is speaking tonight at Cal Performances. Shortz was profiled in the documentary Wordplay and is credited with modernizing and popularizing crossword puzzles with witty clues, aesthetically satisfying designs, and pop cultural awareness. Folks like Jon Stewart and Bill Clinton (above, with the puzzle he made in yesterday's paper here) swear by Shortz's puzzles, and you will too (if......

Set the rumor mill to spin: the latest word we're hearing is that everyone's favorite unstable gum-chewing rehab-graduating baldie mommy Britney Spears is making an attempted career revival at the Red Devil Lounge Monday night. You gossip mavens probably already know that Ms. Spears performed lip-synced a brief but dance-intensive 15 minute set in San Diego and LA earlier this week, under the name "the M+Ms." Well, guess who's listed on the marquee at the......

The Sunday Styles section of the Chronicle does it again! Not content to rest on its laurels after watching poor Jennifer Bumblebee Siebel decimate herself, Styles next turns its gimlet eye on two other prominent members of the Swells set: Denise Hale and the inimitable bicycle-intimidator Dede Wilsey. Sunday Styles RULES. Turns out Pat Montandon, mother of Sean Wilsey and ex-wife of Dede's late husband Al Wilsey, has decided to pen a book of her......

Photo from Etchasketchist via Flickr......

From yesterday's Chronicle article about Newsom stalker Han Shin: Inside [Shin's car], police found a map of San Francisco with the location of the mayor's building highlighted and a line following streets from the building to the Bay Bridge. Also found were a cutout composite photograph of the mayor, Shin and Shin's father, magazines with articles about Newsom, a laminated photograph of Newsom, three purple latex gloves and a cassette tape titled "President Newsom." Now,......

Check out the hailstone that SFist Jim captured on film at around 9:07 p.m. in the Haight! In his poetic phrasing, "bigger than a bb, smaller than a lemon drop." This was all due to a small storm cell above the northern half of the city, and was accompanied by heavy rain and lightning. Where were you when the ice started raining down? We were just leaving a bar downtown, and then we got......

And it's the (drum roll please)....BART. BART? ...

Greetings from the great beyond! We've just died and gone to blog heaven after this explosion of every single thing we're obsessed with over on the Chronicle's Culture Blog. RIP, us! Okay, so let's see, what do we have here... a 1) Catherine Bigelow-penned blog entry featuring 2) Britney Spears's bald head grafted onto the bodies of 3) local politicians and 4) Pac Heights celebutantes!! Over on our beloved former co-editor's new online adventure, with......

You think Gavin Newsom'll shave off all his hair next, just like rehabbing Britney Spears? Okay, so where were we the last time we checked in with the Ruby Rippey-Tourk sick leave investigations? So the mayor's office and the Tourk family spokesman were taking the position that Rippey-Tourk got the city to cover her salary as paid sick leave during the time she was in rehab through the city's catastrophic-leave program, where people can......

...But we couldn't resist posting this excellent YouTube of Justin Timberlake's "What Goes Around (Comes Around)" set to the movie "Closer." When TourkGate 2007 broke out, we were at home listening to our Justin Timberlake CD. We waited with bated breath until the video co-starring Scarlett Johansson premiered, but we were underwhelmed with the result - too much talking, we didn't get the whole concept with the dancers, and JT's acting kind of sucks. (Plus, we like Natalie Portman in this movie because she totally stole our old haircut.) ...

We hope you weren't coming or going from Oakland Airport today as there was a bit of a security scare there today after somebody ran through the security checkpoints. As a result, the entire airport had to be cleared as they looked for the guy responsible. ...

Total number of people pictured in this week's Swells society column: 67. Number of people pictured whose names we recognize: 8 (Trainas, Gettys, and figures in local politics only, including on-the-way-out Steve Kawa). Minority count: 4 (6%). Hats, capes, tiaras: 0, 0, 0 (but Gavin's hair looks a little funny). Getty v. Traina: 6-12. It's Dede Wilsey's Christmas party, that's why!!! Dede had laryngitis but wore Chanel and had the best hors d'oeuvres in town......

This is it! Your District 6 election is finally here! This week's episode: Everybody Hates The District 6 Election. That's a picture of Gavin Newsom voting early at City Hall -- and you know, we've heard he lives in District 6 now too. Gosh, who do you think he voted for for supervisor? (Also, he voted against Prop I. He's afraid of Question Time!) That wasn't very nice what Mr. Newsom said about Daly supporters......

Celebrate Ben Franklin's 300th birthday with the Bikini Bandits and Phillyist! (NSFW). Speaking of Mr. Franklin, send in a picture of Ben (or Ed Rendell) with a red tongue and win a free t-shirt. And they might have the next YearlyKos in Philly. You know who's going to be upset about those Bikini Bandits? The Houston school system. Houstonist also reports on some redevelopment shenanigans over a landmark theater. LAist's sex advice column on......

These shows prove that the realm of divahood doesn't just consist of hissy fits and Botox or even transvestites....

Back before the Wonderful World of the iPod (B.I.) when we used to listen to the radio, one of our favorite things was listening to KFOG's 10 at 10 on Friday the 13th. And we didn't even listen to KFOG (yes, Virginia, we listened to Live 105). We did, however, love listening to the 10 at 10 on Friday the 13th because on that day, they'd break from tradition and play "Hits from Hell." What are "Hits from Hell" you might be asking? Well things like "You Light Up My Life." Or the god-awful "We Built This City" or "We Are the World." It's nothing but pure, unadulterated crap music and there's nothing our cheese-loving, ironic-hipster-posing-hearts love more than crap music played for the sheer hell of it being crappy. Plus, it's one full hour in which KFOG won't play Bonnie Raitt, Coldplay or John Mayer. ...

Blogs. They're either what's right or what's wrong with the Internet specifically and the collective media consciousness in general -- depending on whom you ask. Me, I kinda like blogs, but then I like to read and I like to write, and really, is it much more complicated than that? I'm the kind of person who's constantly finding a new favorite medium. But at about two years, this is the longest relationship I've had......

Clap your hands say Wednesday! Tonight: Have a mellow hump day in that interregnum between Christmas and New Year's and check out the Mission-area Community Music Center's jazz clinic performance at the Savanna Jazz Club on Mission between 25th and 26th Streets at 7:30. Thursday: After trying and failing to return to Virgin that horrendous joke CD you won in the office Christmas pool ("come on! It's still shrink-wrapped!"), stop by Union Square and watch the Bill Graham menorah get the fifth candle lit at 5 p.m. Friday: Well, no one's going to try and swallow an alligator here or anything, but the Academy of Sciences will be conducting its weekly snake feedings at the Steinhart Aquarium today. Most of the snakes will be fed humanely-euthanized mice and rats, but the Burmese whipsnakes will be fed fish. Feedings start at 2, and we're guessing no, they will not allow you to wear a python like Britney Spears either. Don't forget the Academy of Sciences has temporarily moved to SoMA. Picture of Ned McAllister with a snake from the Academy of Sciences webpage...