*CRAFT: Knitters and crocheters come together in harmony tonight over at the (newly remodeled!) Three Dollar Bill Cafe. Don't know how? No worries. Someone will be there to teach you. Happens every Monday. Q&A: Ask Dr. Hal is back. One time fixture over Chicken John's the Odeon (RIP), you can now find Hal over at 12 Galaxies. So head on down to Mission Street to ask him whatever pressing questions are on you mind......

Oakland Interfaith Gospel Ensemble: This awe-inspiring gospel ensemble from "the other side of the Bay," noted for its "interfaith, multi-racial, and multi-cultural" makeup -- will get you in the mood. The Christmas-y mood, that is. And if you can't handle all of the holiday joy abounding, there are plenty of bars around the neighborhood where you can get your joy on, booze-wise. The singing starts at 7 p.m. and 9 p.m. at Slim's; $15.Midnight......

We're baaaaaaack! We missed you! Sorry we've been gone from the scene for so long -- yes, we've been swamped at work, but honestly, we've been so dispirited with this particular election cycle lately, we figured we were going to boycott posting until it was OVER. Over over over. So -- man, how irritating is this? It's never going to be over! Thanks to the city's questionable ballot-reading machines, it's going to take weeks to......

-- Chicken John hosts the Loser's Ball. Which a lot progressives did. Lose, that is. [Politics Blog] -- Although Prop A might pass due to prog efforts. (See where horizontal pastels get you, Mr. Fisher?) [BeyondChron] -- Washington Packing Corporation's abandoned, graffitied tuna cannery. [WhatImSeeing] -- Bay Bridge fender bender spills "mysterious" oil into the Bay. [Oakland Tribune] -- Henry K. Lee live-blogs, as they say, on the Hans Reiser murder trial! [SFGate] --......

Anyway, the real story here is that it's an uninteresting race, but that that shouldn't matter. With Gavin Newsom running unopposed in the minds of many a San Franciscan, the city sheriff having no serious challengers, and the district attorney running unopposed, we can see why. And according to Alex Clemens in today's Examiner (AP), "[w[]"ithout a good fight at hand, a lot of people are worried that many San Franciscans will opt out of the process and just go to work instead." (That what they want you to believe, man! Wheels within wheels.)...

In a final tip of the hat that sums up this year's (disappointing) election, Gavin Watch has celebrity candidate Chicken John's surprise Saturday night debate with San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom. Not the real mayor, mind you, but Gavin in puppet form. (Kudos to those who created the puppet, though we would've have liked to have seen Newsom sporting a signature cold-blue tie. We digress.) It's a humorous bit, one that stretches on and......

Anyways, Sean saw this, failed to see any humor in it, and made his offer to be the money bags to everyone's favorite "hunky-hipster attorney". Again, we don't know if this is true or what the what is with the story. It could be a joke, a crazy rumor, or something Sean and Matt jokingly talked about while drinking some wine and discussing the finer points of Costas Gravas's L'Aveu. ...

Beware: staring tonight at precisely 7:30 p.m. the undead will gather around the Double L Gyratory Undead Attractor and wreak havoc around the city. Might you be one of them? Horrors! Double beware: tonight's march of the dead will take place near the SF Main Library where the San Francisco Mayoral debate will be in progress. We'd hate to think that any of you interrupted the Mayoral shenanigans -- bringing tears to the eyes......

-- Chicken John gets slapped for raising campaign money via Pay Pal. Assumes he's "the first candidate who's raised funds this way...this is a situation that no candidate has ever been in before." Which? Not so much, rock star. [The Snitch] -- Richmond mom accused of killing her 8-year-old son. [Chron] -- The fuzz is on the hunt for a double-stabbing suspect. [Examiner] -- Fight! Fight! Fight! The fur flies between the guys at......

Last week's winner, the San Jose Metro: Google Earth gets sound. Free spay/neuter for pit bulls in the South Bay (females over 6 months pay a little extra.). Cover article: Profile of an improv cartoonist. Crosswording favorite Etta James in performance. The Three Sisters in Mountain View. Russian food and deli in Campbell. And a vegan wedding! And next up, the Bay Guardian: Tim Redmond and the Guardian editorial board go in with both fists......

-- Gross, sticky, exhausting, hot weather begins. But! Ride public transit for free tomorrow during a Spare the Air Day. [Examiner, SFMTA] -- Gang members, extortion, and THC.. [Bluoz] -- 12-year-old Jose Trujillo of San Leandro dies after a skateboarding accident. Sad. [Chron] -- Mick LaSalle laughs hysterically at cute, young, blonde girl's misfortune. [Chron Blogs] -- Closet-case Senator "has never been gay." He's just a guy who digs other guys, dude. [CBS5] --......

-- John officially wants SF throne. So does Josh. [Laughing Squid, JW] -- Dublin-Pleasanton BART station closure times, dates. (Our apologies for posting this unforgivably late.) [BART, Chron] -- Pirates beat Giants. Arrr, indeed. [Examiner] -- Fish sandwiches and bean pies: what could have been but never was. [Chron] -- 12 shootings in 24 hours in the city of Richmond. [ABC 7] -- Friday's gunfire in SF threatens the lives of two. [Chron] --......

Last night's innovative Chicken John/Josh Wolf Mayoral debate brought in "a dozen or so citizens," artists, and political fetishists. Even though it was on a Sunday night, anyone who cares about politics, SF, and progressiveness shouldn't have missed it. Naturally, we couldn't make it. Big Brother was on, and we're concerned about Jen and the near-physically/sexually-violent way that men in the Big Brother house have been treating her. Also, it was nomination night. But......

Photos from the graffiti paint out at Warm Water Cove...

Here we have le Gav looking lover-ly while kicking it with some tired Ethel Merman tranny (excuse me, fabulous "Ethel Merman impersonator") in Jesse McKinley's stellar New York Times article about our personality-littered mayoral race. (And while a very interesting piece, why Rita's or Jeremy's brilliant coverage and point of views aren't mentioned is beyond any and all logic. We're just saying is all. We digress.) Almost all of the usual and self-consciously zany......

Recently accounced mayoral candidate, activist Josh Wolf, was seeking signatures to get him on the ballot sans fee at the Noe Valley Farmers' Market on Saturday. It wasn't a great day for it weather-wise, but he was meeting and greeting nonetheless....

Let the vanity runs for offices begin: Tenacious Texas trespasser and brilliant anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan just promised to maybe, possibly, perhaps make a run against House Speaker Nancy Pelosi if our current Speaker fails to (finally) jumpstart a Bush impeachment come July 23. Sheehan plans to make it official next Tuesday, run as an independent, and swears to "give [Pelosi] a run for her money." Ladies, please! But seriously, while this may come......

The rumblings from a week ago have been confirmed: Josh Wolf, on his blog, has declared his intent to run for mayor. ...

Okay, okay, okay, okay -- we hear you about Laughing Squid's scoop that Chicken John running for mayor, folks! We were totally slammed at work today, that's why we're getting this up late. Who's Chicken John? He's a local countercultural legend! He's a Burning Man guy, the former owner of the Odeon Bar, and he hosts Ask Dr. Hal on Pirate Cat Radio. We had absolutely no idea! (Steve Jones at the Guardian knew,......

Tonight at Biscuits and Blues (401 Mason St.), legendary New Orleans pianist, Henry Butler performs solo piano, combining the classical and jazz elements he absorbed at Louisiana School for the Blind and Southern University with the gospel, blues and R&B sounds he heard growing up in New Orleans. (8pm & 10pm shows) Saturday Grab a boombox and head on over to Mission Dolores Park (18th and Dolores) for Unsilent Night 2006, composer Phil Kline’s annual......

Saturday: There's Chicken John's Christmas show at 9 at the 12 Galaxies. "Here's how it works: everyone brings a stupid gift or two, and puts it under the tree. Chicken hosts a game show that everyone in the club plays for like 3 minutes. Everyone wins. You open the gift that you select for winning right there on stage. When we run out of gifts, the show is over. Last year the show was......

The Odeon was supposed to shut down last week. We haven't been there to bite its toe and make sure it is really dead, but we do believe the Pulitzer worthy investigative work of SF most respected new media organization. We have to admit being sad to see the Odeon disappear. While the bar did not leave up to the bourgeois sophistication of its French name, we will miss it. We still have some......

In tech news, stoned graphic designers were stunned when they realized that they had no idea that Adobe was going to swallow Macromedia whole. South Park laughs to keep from crying. After singlehandedly sparking off a department-wide investigation into drinking on the job after showing up to work drunk, Fireman Steve Gritsch manages to get a DUI! We're thinking it's a quiet protest against the Muni fare increase In the California Gubenatorial " ">Where......

On a hot tip we just received, we have been informed that raconteur Chicken John has sold the Odeon Bar, an outer-Mission mainstay for freaks, geeks and the people who love them. Our source said that the new owners would probably not be keeping the original vibe, and that your last chance to Ask Dr. Hal will be on our around May 18th. SFist had just recently been introduced to the venue, but had......