Rant Chuck Palahniuck will be at sponsored by Booksmith tonight around 7 pm, reading from and signing his latest book, Rant, about a serial killer who's weapon of choice is...rabies. Booksmith, Park Branch Library, 1833 Page St., SF. Garden of Deadly Delights Head over to the Conservatory of Flowers to feast your eyes on a greenhouse full of carnivorous plants! Chomp! opens today and runs through Nov 4. The Red Party A socialist themed......

So what movies are opening this weekend, the last weekend before the holidays start up? The big one seems to be the new Bond flick, Casino Royale. It's getting good reviews and getting a lot of attention because of it's desire to "restart" the Bond franchise by changing the tone and introducing the "origin myth" as it were in telling how Bond became the Bond, James Bond we all know and love. Frankly, from what we're hearing, the new Bond is all broody and angsty and apparently gets roughed up. Even worse, there's only one femme fatale. In all seriousness, we don't want our Bonds angsty and broody and dark. We want our Bonds making bad jokes and sleeping with tons of hot women and having no problem with violence. What made Sean Connery so badass was because he was the only Bond really to actually look like he was enjoying himself. And if you were James Bond, how could you not be enjoying yourself? ...

It's not too early to make plans for Halloween weekend, and if you want to make this year especially memorable, hop a plane to Las Vegas for the Vegoose Music Festival. It's an impressive lineup of tons of bands in one place: Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, The Mars Volta, The Raconteurs, Cat Power and the Memphis Rhythm Band (we'll see about that), Gomez, Fiona Apple, Jenny Lewis, BRMC, and a bunch of those jammy/jazzy......

Special chock-full-of-mp3s-from-great-local-bands edition! Hailing from Helsinki, Husky Rescue blends the rich, cinematic production and songwriting of Marko Nyberg with the gorgeous, honeyed vocals of Reeta-Leena Korhola. The result is a hypnotic combination that lies somewhere between futuristic and backwoods. Listen to "New Light of Tomorrow" and enter to win a copy of their record Country Falls. Be sure to see their live show on Friday at the Rickshaw Stop. (Contest ends 9/13; winner will be......

This past Monday we headed down to The Fillmore to see Cold War Kids open for Editors. Cold War Kids had all the right ingredients to stand out from the pack, especially with singer Nathan Willett’s piercing voice. None of what they played sounded derived or expected, which is an impressive feat these days. Judging by the resonance of crowd favorite "Hospital Beds", we’re witnessing another dazzling San Francisco export. Editors played their catchy and......

We don't know if we have a library guardian angel or if our late return repeat offender status has put us in a special class, but we've started getting "courtesy notes" in our inbox when the due dates approach on our checked-out items. Of course, when we get an email from the SFPL we get all excited and assume our online reserves are in, but a reminder to get our stuff in on time......

You may have noticed that we're giving away 'Fisties this month. Did you read about our 'Fisties in the music category? We declared that the local boys in Two Gallants made the Best Career Move this year by signing with iesteemed indie label Saddle Creek Records. One of the perks of signing with an indie is artistic freedom, which the band exercised on the b-side of their just-released "Las Cruces Jail"/"Long Summer Day" 7-inch. Enter......