The Bay Area's continuing sanctification of chefs (what in heaven's name do you think Violet Crawley, Dowager Countess of Grantham would say regarding this trend of placing cooks on such high pedestals?) goes further with the Commonwealth Club's upcoming "Meet 'n Eat with SF's Hottest Young Chef" at Bar Agricole. more ›

Next Thursday, December 15, controversial Oakland mayor Jean Quan will come to our side of the pond to take part in a panel discussion at The Commonwealth Club called Occupy: What Now, What Next. (If last night's fizzy reoccupation of Justin Herman Plaza is any indication, not a hell of a whole lot.) Quan will be joined by George Lakoff (a cognitive linguist and professor at UC Berkeley), Justin Wedes (organizer of Occupy Wall Street), and moderator Melissa Griffin (exceptional columnist at San Francisco Examiner and co-host of Necessary Conversations). more ›

Ever wanted to know more about the illuminati? The black helicopters outside your window that only you can see? Whether or not to open your own boutique militia compound? Or why that microchip embedded in you eyelid sends coded messages to the Russians? Look no further than FBI Director Robert Mueller, who will make a guest appearance this week at The Commonwealth Club. He's certain to know all of those answers and more. (OK, fine. That might be more CIA than FBI, but we all know they're in cahoots. Wheels within wheels, man. Wheels within wheels...) more ›

For those who've been looking for a chance to ask Republican Presidential Candidate and Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann some questions about her enlightening views on HPV vaccinations and race without contributing their hard-earned pennies to the Tea Party campaign, here's your chance. The Commonwealth Club has announced that Bachmann will be giving a lunch-time talk on October 20th entitled "The Revival of American Competitiveness." more ›

We attended our first Commonwealth Club event last night, which was put on by Inforum, a hip, young division of the club. The topic was about how San Francisco is setting the stage for new media, and the guest speakers were "four white dudes," SFist's Brock Keeling, Muni Diaries' Jeff Hunt, and The Bold Italics' Michael Maness, with Twitter's Robin Sloan moderating. more ›

Here's a few sports stories to get you through the bleakness of the Rox/Sox World Series more ›

-- New Pornographers: Yay, the New Pornographers! We heart them ever so. Seriously. Heart them yourselves tonight as they perform along with Lavender Diamond and Fancey at 8 p.m. at the Warfield, 982 Market; $25-27. more ›

-- Scott McCloud: Experimental and wildly popular comic artist and novelist (Making Comics) speaks tonight at "Evolution of the American Comic Book". Rory Root (owner, Comic Relief) and Andrew Farago (curator, Cartoon Art Museum) also speak. Starts at 6:30 p.m. at the Commonwealth Club, 595 Market; $7-$20. more ›

at 3 p.m. Also, Alyssa Milano will be hawking her baseball-themed jewelry around 1 p.m. Oh, Alyssa Milano, we really hoped you'd stay with Carl Pavano. $22 at the Moscone Center West (4th and Howard, across from the Metreon). more ›

We could've gone with a YouTube clip of the video for Love Is A Battlefield (totally one of the best videos ever), but we went instead for the Benatards doing "Hit Me With Your Best Shot" at the Eagle Tavern -- that's right, Pat Benatar's playing a show tonight! If you can get up to the Marin County Fair in San Rafael, Ms. Benatar and her husband Neil Girardo will be performing hits like "Heartbreaker," "Invincible," and "We Belong," among many others starting at 7:30 tonight. Concert is free with fair admission ($13), at 10 Avenue of the Flags. more ›

Other events (all movies, because Monday's a tough night): more ›

--At Intersection for the Arts, an evening of performances, readings, and conversations with formerly-incarcerated youth in The Prison Project, their year-long artistic exploration of the California penal system. $5-15, 7 p.m., 446 Valencia (x 15th). more ›

, which tells not only her story, but the story of three of her friends as well. $18, reception at 6, reading at 7, at 595 Market 2nd Fl. (x 2nd). more ›

The acclaimed French-trained Guinean contemporary circus troupe Circus Baobab makes its US debut as part of the SF Int'l Arts Festival, performing , a fable about globalization and family, complete with acrobatics, stilt-walking, and African music. 5:30 p.m., $30, Project Artaud Theater (450 Alabama, x Mariposa). They're here through Sunday, and you may find it intriguing to learn that tomorrow's performance is in French. That's them on the YouTube above. more ›

The Commonwealth Club's 76th Annual California Book Awards have been announced, and two Cal faculty members are big winners this year: Ishmael Reed for "New and Collected Poems, 1964-2006," and journalism professor Michael Pollan for "The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals." more ›

(A little late, because we're fixing our servers around here today.) more ›

For the week that burners are most burnt out, there's a lot of mess on tap. Even (and maybe especially) excluding the postponed Women on the Web mixer. more ›

Wednesday has 100 gmail invitations left! Tonight: Former SF firefighter Caroline Paul reads from her first novel, East Wind, Rain (about 1940s Hawaii), at Clean Well-Lighted. Paul wrote an acclaimed memoir of her time in the SFFD, called Fighting Fire, but what's also notable is that her identical twin sister is the actress Alexandra Paul from Baywatch. (Caroline is the Gay Twin in the picture to your right.) Thursday: We're never going to be done celebrating the 1906 quake! The Exploratorium and the SF Arts Commission are presenting a spoken word event with WritersCorp youth poets from Everett Middle School, who will read from their new collection Solid Ground, and create interactive poetry with the audience. 6-8 p.m., $13 adults, $10 students, $8 kids from 4-12. and Friday: It's not just Lotta's Fountain's centennial -- it's Samuel Beckett's too! Celebrate a century of cheerful Irish nihilism with the ACT and the Commonwealth Club as scholars discuss his work and then actors read some of Beckett's greatest hits. (Will Godot ever show up?) The big one-oh-oh kicks off at 5:30 at 415 Geary Street, and admission is free. more ›

One hundred years ago this month, San Francisco survived an earthquake. You may have heard of it. Well, despite the odds (and the sky-high earthquake insurance rates), people keep moving here, and San Francisco's celebrating 100 years of rebirth and survival. The big day is April 18. And there's no shortage of things to do! Just to pick events randomly: the Commonwealth Club is holding a panel discussion about the 1906 quake on April 17. The SF Fire Department's historical society is sponsoring the 1906 Expo at Pier 48, from April 15-17, which will feature historical exhibits and modern-day preparedness events (and a costume party!). And City Hall will host a photo exhibit about post-1906 rebuilding (and a show about the PUC and Hetch Hetchy. It's so Bay Guardian!). And, like they have for the last 35 years, history buffs will meet at Lotte's Fountain on 3rd and Market, and then paint gold the one hydrant in SF that didn't fail in 1906 (on 20th and Dolores). Warning, though, the fountain meetup starts at 4:30 a.m., because that's when the quake hit. Adding insult to injury (if the quake itself wasn't injurious or insulting enough), they're expecting huge crowds for this event, to the tune of giant screens on Market Street showing the scene in closed-caption. The fountain gets painted at 7:30 a.m. We sincerely hope KRON 4 labels this program clearly so we can just TiVo it to watch later. Lots and lots and lots of other events after the jump -- we'll try and update this periodically as the big day gets closer. Let us know if we've left anything out too! Picture of the post-quake Financial District from the Virtual Museum of the City of San Francisco more ›

Summertime of Poverty pens a lyrical reflection on the modern world, but the title says it all. On that note, Ron Gonzalez gives a final state-of-San Jose speech, and San Jose Inside readers take the opportunity to lament his tenure. Up north, Michelle Slatalla plays with new real estate tool Zillow, but while intrigued, is not impressed by the inaccurate data. more ›

Say hello to my li'l Wednesday! Tonight: Don't say there's never anything to do around here! Case in point: An Italian saxophone quartet is playing their classical and light jazz repertoire tonight at 8 p.m. at the Old First Church, which is on Sacramento Street between Polk and Van Ness. We've never seen some many euphemistic synonyms for the word "....interesting.....!" before. It could really be awesome! $15. Thursday: The one, the only, the ur-Wonkette: Ana Marie Cox is in town promoting her novel. At the Commonwealth Club. In a conversation with Chose and Lost Tabitha Soren. We can't wait to see the bus ads they run for this one. "So.... do you really take it up the ass? I asked Wonkette." $20 for non-members. and Friday: Guilty pleasures, dance version! ODC Theater present Underserved II: a night of 11 choreographers setting 5-minute performances based on pop songs they're embarrassed to admit they like. Please take note: Weezer will be featured. Genius! ODC's at 17th and Shotwell, show's at 8, $12 admission. more ›

We visited the Commonwealth Club for their most recent session of Inforum, a division of the Club that aims to “inspire debate around civic issues” for people in their 20’s and 30’s. Moderated by conceptual artist and local gadfly Jonathon Keats, Graffiti: Urban Scrawl or Artistic Freedom? featured a debate (er, discussion) between the following individuals: APEX is San Francisco native and former street artist; Michaela Hocter is the Deputy City Attorney, San Francisco City Attorney’s Office; Ben Morgan is the director of Quality of Life, a film highlighting the work in SF’s Mission district; Mohammed Nuru is the Director of Operations for San Francisco’s Graffiti Advisory Board; John Doffing is the founder of START SOMA + START MOBILE art galleries. more ›

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Tune into KALW 91.7 next Tuesday at 1 p.m. to hear San Francisco's first female fire chief and first female police chief (pictured at left) speaking with SFist political reporter crush Adriel Hampton through the Commonwealth Club Broadcasts series (or stream it live now). Slippery criminals! A bank robbery suspect waiting to be interviewed by the FBI pried open a screen in the Federal Building in Oakland and then casually walked out past the U.S. Marshals office and out of custody. We hope he was whistling as he did it. The FBI re-caught the guy at the San Leandro BART station. And the Los Gatos police have made an arrest for murder in a missing persons case that's been unsolved for three years. The victim had gone out drinking in June 2001, met two guys at a bar, and then disappeared. The police finally solved the case when, about two years after the disappearance, someone living nearby contacted the authorities and said she'd found a rug matching the description of a rug missing from the victim's house. The police were able to trace fibers from the rug to the murder suspect. more ›

Marcia, Marcia, Marcia -- oh, we're just the good ol' reliable Bay Area in Election 2004, no one cares about us -- no one's wooing us, no one's filling up our airwaves with "I'm George Bush and I approved this message" disclaimers, America Coming Together and Berkeley's own moveon.org aren't hosting Springsteen and Dixie Chicks concerts at the Shoreline, and no one's marketing W ketchup at our local farmers' markets. So us lovelorn political junkies are bubbling with enthusiasm over this week's triple bill -- John Edwards at the Yerba Buena Center in San Francisco, raising $1.5 million and showing his support of the striking hotel workers, Jesse Jackson speaking at the Commonwealth Club last night, and John Ashcroft at the Tech Museum in San Jose today, ominously intoning that "Young people must learn ... of the risk of intellectual property theft." In Cleveland, Ohio or Erie, Pennsylvania, they'd probably just view that showing as pretty second-tier (and they'd be right), but for us -- wow! People actually coming here to promote national political agendas! It really must be the cheese! more ›