Jardinière, Hayes Valley's white-hot spot for perfect food and all-around exquisiteness, is having another one of their local guest bartender series tonight featuring Frommer’s Travel Guides editors. David Lytle (whose photos regularly appear on SFist) will be serving up the rye based The Rytle while newly relocated SF resident Stephen Bassman will mix the bourbon based Manhattan Transfer. Each Manhattans will sell for $9.00 with all proceeds going to Family Builders, a local organization that works to place foster children in permanent loving homes. (Proceeds going to a worthwhile cause? Hippies.) more ›

So, yeah, we want to go to every single SF Sketchfest show. Why? Oh, we'll tell you why: Amy Poehler, Paul Rudd, Molly Shannon, Rachel Dratch, Michael Ian Black, Eddie Izzard, Elliott Gould and Sally Kellerman (!), The Dark Crystal's 30th anniversary celebration more ›

The just-announced San Francisco Film Critics Circle Awards weren't as egregious and self-conscious as in years past. But not by much. The gaggle of local film aesthetes selected Terrence Malik's (overwhelming and divine) Tree of Life as the best picture of the year. Next to Lars Von Trier's Melancholia, it was our second favorite longwinded yet powerful and powerfully pretty movie this year about life's brevity and fragility. Malick also nabbed as Best Director. more ›

Are you a talented (or camera-friendly) home cook? Producers of FOX's MasterChef, a cooking reality show that insults amateur chefs, will be in San Francisco on Saturday to cast for the third season. You must bring with you one prepared dish to be served to the food judges. According to the show's site, "You will be given a few minutes to plate your dish at the given casting location, but there will not be a kitchen to cook or warm it up so come prepared!" more ›

What's this? Another declaration of a looming 'it' food on the horizon? Count us in like Flynn. We love to eat what's white-hot (and, at times, what's hot and white), so we're tickled—tickled!—that the next overpriced food thingamajig to clutter up our social media, favorite food sites, and arteries will be... fried chicken. Roots drummer Questlove proclaimed so during a recent interview with Ad Week, saying: more ›

Before he sold his soul to Beelzebub by appearing in the UK's Celebrity Big Brother in the UK, noted director Ken Russell had made some of the most visually jarring yet controversial films of the 1970s. His death was announced Monday. He was 84. more ›

For all of the machismo and swagger, we cannot stay mad at Anthony Bourdain. Who can, really? (Oh, Tony B., your love for San Francisco -- like your sinewy frame, olive-hued skin, and alto-kissed voice -- is infectious!) This summer, Bourdain was in San Francisco to film his new show, The Layover. And he finally got what Baghdad by the Bay is all about, and then some. more ›

Former Vice President Dick Cheney will appear in San Francisco today to speak at the fourth annual CLSA AsiaUSA Forum at The Palace Hotel. The event, according to Politico, "involves more than 200 CEOS and CFOs huddling with 500 institutional investors from 14 countries for more than 1,300 hours of presentations, workshops and private meetings." Cheney is slated to speak at around noon-ish. more ›

Mission Mission brings word that Martha Stewart, one of the most critical yet underrated philosophers in these our modern times, fell prey to San Francisco's sensitive cycling community over the weekend. It seems that, while shopping at Paxton Gate's Curiosities For Kids on tony Valencia Street, the (wrongfully!) convicted inside trader/domestic thinker parked her presumably gorgeous vehicle in the bike lane for a scant, very necessary five minutes. more ›

Critically acclaimed bon vivant Jay Barmann will be mixing drinks behind the bar at Jardiniere tomorrow, November 1 from 6-8pm. Join him, won't you? more ›

Jonathan Nolan, who wrote the short story "Memento Mori" (which later his brother, Christopher, turned into Memento) and helped pen The Prestige and The Dark Knight, has created some of the greatest cinematic works over the last few years using paranoia as a key theme. It should come as no surprise, then, that the envy-inducing writer has some major concerns with social media and Facebook -- brilliantly paranoid concerns, we might add. more ›

Here's Ashkon (of the Giants World Series/Don't Stop Believing forced-meme fame) doing MC Hammer's "2 Legit 2 Quit" with Hammer himself, Twitter co-founder/Ed Lee spammer Biz Stone and Giants Closer/Taco Bell spokesman Brian Wilson. All are endorsing controversial mayoral candidate Ed Lee. (SFist, if you recall, was the first to break the news that Wilson was also shilling for Lee.) more ›

The Daily Clog posted a brilliant review of a recent appearance by wounded sparrow Johnny Depp at Wheeler Hall. The cloudy actor was in Berkeley for a screening of The Rum Diaries, Depp's second foray into the dude world of excruciatingly pretentious and insecure Hunter S. Thompson, followed by a Q&A with Cal students. After one kid asked a (stupid?) question about boom mikes, the 48-year-old actor reverted back to his snippy Winona Ryder days. Thank God. more ›

Media rascal and likely criminal Rupert Murdoch will be in town on Friday, kicking it at the Palace Hotel (2 New Montgomery) while "addressing the National Summit on Education Reform at the invitation of a nonprofit run by presidential brother and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush," reports SF Examiner's Amy Crawford. more ›

San Francisco-based mosaic artist Jason Mecier has gained some critical attention for clever, timely portraits of celebrities like this one of Taylor Lautner made out of Red Vines; and this one of Rosie O'Donnell made from cookies, chocolate, potato chips, and candy. One of his latest is a portrait of Snoop Dogg made out of -- what else? -- weed. more ›

Oh boy, do we have a bushel of questions for America's Test Kitchen host Christopher Kimball. Like: who do you like better, Bridget Lancaster or Julia Collin-Davison? (We cannot decide!) What's the deal with the whole Vermont thing? Do you hate Good Eats since you both more or less do similar things? Why are you wasting our time with the equipment corner? And, why do you fumble on the taste-test challenge? You seem actually peeved when you pick the wrong one. Which you do. Often. And that tickles us. more ›

And just like that, the death and surrounding melee of noted Apple co-founder Steve Jobs has sparked a minor backlash. As we mentioned earlier, several people took umbrage with the fact that a few spunky nerds held an iPhone vigil for Jobs in Dolores Park last night. Heated words for mourning Mac fans hit hard: more ›

Granted, if you're above the coveted 18-to-25 age bracket, and used to another season of not-ready-for-primetime players, you're almost required to claim that you've fallen out of favor with Saturday Night Live. However, recent Emmy Award winner Melissa McCarthy killed it on SNL this past weekend. And how. Overcoming a tad of ho-hum writing, McCarthy blew a fresh shot of oxygen into the show. Her best sketch (out of many) had to be Linda, the Hidden Valley Ranch taste tester. (Also? A seamless example of product placement within a show.) We've watched it 7590326654 times since Saturday. More or less. Enjoy. more ›

Jane Lynch was the guest of honor at Fall Free for All, the season-opening celebration for Cal Performances, this past Sunday. While speaking to a (rapt) audience, Lynch said, "If I could choose who I want to be when I come back in my next life, it would be Darren Criss." more ›

Academy Award winning actor and quasi-Bay Area resident Sean Penn helped get Josh Fattal and Shane Bauer released by visiting Hugo Chavez. Penn reportedly visited Venezuela months ago to talk about the UC Berkeley hiker's imprisonment with President Chavez, a pal of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. more ›

Convicted in the 1989 murder of an off-duty Savannah police officer, Troy Davis presented affidavits of seven of the nine witnesses at his trial who have since recanted their testimony. Davis never received a new trial and was unjustly executed this week. more ›

This just in: Litquake has released 140 more tickets for their in-conversation evening with Chelsea Handler, host of E!'s popular (and chronically hit-or-miss) Chelsea Lately. She makes her first Litquake appearance on Thursday, October 13 at Z Space (450 Florida Street). Tickets range from $40 to $45 and you can purchase them via Litquake.org or brownpapertickets.com. more ›

Why, look! It's Brad Pitt. As we mentioned earlier today, Pitt and his special lady friend, Angelina Jolie, are in Oakland today to attend the premiere of the former's latest cinematic effort, Moneyball. Ben Platt was there to snap this shot of the actor posing with Billy Beane (left, the A's general manager Pitt portrays) and Eric Karros. Exciting, yes? Yes. more ›

Benjamin Button and Salt will jack up your Monday commute in Oakland tonight. And we couldn't be happier. (Glitz! Glamour! Celebrities! A-list celebrities! Chiseled bone structure!) See, Brad Pitt's latest cinematic effort, Moneyball (based on the Oakland A's 2002 season and how General Manager Billy Beane took a team with no winners and... zzzzzzz) premieres this evening in Oakland. Expect heavy traffic congestion and possible street closures around the Paramount Theatre (2025 Broadway) this evening beginning around 4 p.m.-ish. more ›

In what will be the greatest cooking demonstration in the history of time and space, Sonja Morgan, part of the Real Housewives of New York gaggle, will make an appearance at Macy's on Thursday night to promote her new toaster oven cookbook. Yes, you read that right. The single greatest member of an increasingly depressing and ill-mannered cast (e.g., Jill Zarin and that terrible lady who made millions shaving vaginas) will be in the city this week to sign copies of her latest book about cooking for royalty (et al.) using a toaster oven. Really, a goddamn toaster oven. This is what, among so many other qualities, makes Morgan a budding lifestyle genius. more ›

Former First Lady Nancy Reagan, now 90 years old, buckled on Tuesday in front of a crowd of people and cameras while being escorted by brand spanking Tea Party favorite, U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida. She had been invited to speak at the Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley. The night got off to a rough start, though, upon her big entrance. more ›