You think Hallwoeen on the Castro is a nightmare of douche-baggie proportions? Try the Oracle Open World 2007 convention, which is happening this Sunday, November 11 through Thursday, November 15. And it sucks for us plebeians. Imagine nerds and sales tools infused with a false sense of power. (Except for any Oracle SFist reader; you're all golden.) Imagine nasty Oracle PR bitches who hangup on local media outlets trying to get a modicum of......

-- Tease-O-Rama Meet 'N' Greet: Before the sluts of the weekend-long burlesque convention Tease-O-Rama have you sporting erections via cheeky performances, come meet them for an intimate night of, um, conversation. Also, '60s, '70s, and '80s will flood the dance floor care of the California Kid. Starts at 9 p.m. at Rickshaw Stop; $5. -- St .Francis Day Animal Blessing: Yeah, this sounds like the best thing, ever. Come get your dog or cat......

The premiere offerings tonight are limited, with the 8 p.m. return of "Beauty and the Geek" on the CW being the only new show in the line-up. The show maintains its "hot girls, geeky guys" convention once again this season, but they will be adding one geeky girl and one hot guy to the "social experiment" this time around. That's right, this isn't a dating show, although there have been hook-ups in the past.......

We at the Gothamist network would like to express our heartfelt wishes to the people of Minnesota in the days after their tragic bridge collapse. We're not trying to discount the severity of the accident by making note of it in opposition to our usual -Ist lightheartedness - we just wanted to take a moment and recognize those affected last week. After the Minneapolis bridge collapse, Bostonist did a little research and found that Massachusetts......

To celebrate 07/07/07, local modern Japanese theater troupe Theater of Yugen is presenting The Cycle Plays, an all-day festival of pieces influenced by Japanese Noh theater traditions. The performances use Noh theater conventions and imagery but present stories about figures of American pop cultural legend -- so there's a piece about Ted Kaczynski, a play about Helen Keller (pictured at right), and an adaptation of A Long Day's Journey Into Night. Plays start at 9:30,......

Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 3 is a showpiece for a virtuoso of the keyboard, one with enough guts to tackle its challenges, and enough confidence to laugh at its difficult twists. Yefim Bronfman displayed more than guts and confidence, he showed some serious chutzpah. He impressed us last year in Shostakovich’s Piano Concerto No. 1, and renewed our awe Thursday night at Davies Symphony Hall with as solid a performance. He even got an extra brownie point for tongue-in-cheek creativity. ...

--Well, it's official -- Halloween in the Castro is done. We look forward to chaos this October 31 when people show up anyways and no one's expecting them. --No African-Americans in the Bay Area in either jazz or classical music today. Yoshi's apologizes, the SF Opera does not. --Good for Caltrain! They cited over 100 people who drove under the lowered railroad safety arms. --Personnel turmoil at the Oakland Animal Shelter. --You can follow......

In the taunting words of non-progressive Pat Murphy: do it, Lumpy! We stopped by the Progressive Convention where basically, on a schedule running about 90 minutes behind, everyone who's anyone in local politics stopped by and, after some exciting build-up in the form of a campaign speech by Ross Mirkarimi..... -- no one ended up deciding to run against Gavin Newsom. As Calitics puts it: Exasperating. Afterwards, a fellow blogger irritatedly reported that he had......

Pick your poison -- it's either flyering for Gavin Newsom or going to the Progressive Convention this afternoon. If politics isn't your game, here's some other options for today and tonight: --The Manga show's opened at the Asian Art Museum! Featuring the art of Astroboy! Check out the blog, and check out the show. 200 Larkin Street, $12, 10-5. --Bring a radio and come to a Southern Exposure artists' walking/radio broadcast narrative tour of 20th......

--A feuding local family's trip to the Dr. Phil show doesn't go so well for the ex-wife. --We've been trying, and failing, to muster up the energy to write up a full post about the fake San Francisco DA intern all day -- and all you're getting in the end is a Day/Bay link. --The SF Opera abruptly fired a talented, well-liked, local African-American soprano from tomorrow's season opening Don Giovanni, and replaced her......

--Carnaval went well! --Jack Daly for mayor! Quote of the day: "Daddy, this party is no fun. Let's go to another party." Don't all the progressives say that? Bonus tidbit: Sarah Daly says there is no way Chris is running. --Fanime convention video. --What's going on with that Real Foods abandoned space on 24th Street? --Those whales finally got out of Sacramento and into the Bay Area (and are thus now fair game for......

Well, you could either go to Carnaval this weekend -- or you could go to the State Green Party Convention. Ross Mirkarimi (seen here going into the dunk tank) is giving the keynote address, and the delegates plan to debate issues like ranked-choice voting, lowering the voting age to 17, and immigration. They may also get to issues about global warming. The convention starts at 11:30 a.m., goes through the Memorial Day weekend and is......

Friend of SFist judy b. is moderating a discussion about San Francisco's criminalization of poverty at the Little Roxie tonight, which is co-sponsored by the People of Color Coalition of the SF Green Party, POOR Magazine, and the SF People's Organization. Sup. Ross Mirkadreamy is scheduled to speak, as is PD Jeff A-Hotty-dachi. 6:30 p.m. and $5-15, but since it's about poverty, no one will be turned away for lack of funds). (Note: the......

Chris Daly's super excited about his Progressive Convention on Saturday June 2, right? He's telling everyone! He even crashed Gavin Newsom's party last Saturday to tell him! June 2! June 2! They're going to nominate a progressive mayoral candidate on June 2! Soooooo.... guess who else is having a mayoral event that very same day???? In order to qualify Mayor Gavin Newsom for the ballot this coming November, we need your help. We are going......

The Alternative Press Expo is this Saturday and Sunday, and hot damn we're psyched. Who better to help kick off our celebration of alternative press than one of the guys doing comics right? Larry Young is a fixture at APE -- his company, AiT/Planet Lar has been presenting there for years, exhibiting a diverse and interesting line of OGNs ("Original Graphic Novels") and other comic books. We spoke to Mr. Young about his company and pending projects....

We're tired. The kind of tired you can only get from walking a trade show floor. If you've never been to a trade show imagine a mall full of things you actually want to buy, things you just need to have. And just when you think your feet are ready to give out, your over stimulated brain gives them one last push to walk the never ending floor. This is how we felt last night when we got a sneak peak at the Bead Expo, one of the largest consumer bead shows in the country- right in our backyard for the entire weekend at the Oakland Convention Center. We settled on a fine loot of vintage beads, pearls, chain so cheap we don't know how we only bought a yard's worth, tons of charms and lots of beads we know we don't really need but couldn't pass up for the price. We had wholesaler badges, but it didn't seem to matter at most booths, except for the one where we were told some wire we were looking at was $64 a spool but then when our badge was seen the price went down to $32, we didn't need wire that badly. If you are a wholesaler you can buy in large quantities and get a great discount at the show, but the public is also welcome and the prices are still great. ...

Poor Gavin. He goes on a little trip back east and his girlfriend posts on some blog and creates a major ruckus. Then everywhere he goes, tourist officials say bad things about his city. Like there's too much panhandling and prostitutes. Not to mention dirty. And expensive. Oh, and our convention facilities are not so hot but who cares about that? ...

There's a move afoot to move up the date of the California Primary from June, where it is now, to February. The reason for it is because by the time California has it's primary, the whole thing has pretty much been settled. We've been in California for a long time and the only time we could remember having much in the way of a say in things was 2000 when thanks to the open primary rule, you could actually vote for McCain just to get your first chance of voting against Bush. ...

We don't know about you, but we are a bit drained from the excitement of last night's election and constantly "refreshing results" while our better half patiently indulged us. It is this sort of compulsive behavior that led us to swear off ebay. But we digress. We're feeling like some instant gratification tonight, and this event should fit the bill. YLEM presents “How Techies Have Fun," a show and tell featuring moving light sculptures,......

A reader attending the Oracle OpenWorld convention, who wants to be credited as "someone who's there," passed along these pictures of the scene under the tents on Howard Street. Yes, people, they closed off your city block so attendees could eat roast beef and fried chicken in wax-lined paper boxes in peace. The Howard Street tent apparently seats "thousands." Keep their conventioneering stomachs in mind as you get diverted onto Mission Street, everyone! More......

Hope you weren't planning on driving 1) to the Metreon, 2) to the Westfield mall, 3) to the W Hotel, or 4) to the Gold Club for the next eight days -- 800 pound gorilla Oracle has managed to convince the city of San Francisco that it is essential to the success of their Oracle OpenWorld convention that they entirely shut down Howard Street between Third and Fourth to traffic, because they need the space......

Renowned tattoo artist Don Ed Hardy is speaking at Mills College (5000 MacArthur Blvd.) in Oakland tonight at 7 pm in the Concert Hall. Besides inspiring the skin art and cover art of countless punk and rockabilly bands, Hardy is a painter and printmaker and has a line of clothing favored by celebrities like Larry King. Green Apple Books presents friend of SFist, Harmon Leon's book release event for "The Infiltrator: My Undercover Exploits......

Has all our elections coverage on the 'Fist gotten your progressive fire up? Do you want to meet Chris Daly and (possibly) Matt Gonzalez? Do you maybe just want to hear some jazz on a Saturday afternoon? Well, grab your Noam Chomsky book and head on out to St. Mary's Cathedral (1111 Gough at Geary) this Saturday, Sept. 30 for an all-day convention of the SF Peoples' Organization (9 a.m. - 5 p.m.). There'll be......

We're thinking there is no one in the Chronicle offices this afternoon, as they all seem to have raced over to the grand opening of the Westfield San Francisco Centre mall. Check out these amazing pictures that they're taking! Because we clearly have nothing to do around here, people have been lining up since 4:30 a.m. this morning to see the new retail space -- and C.W. Nevius took a break from decrying moral decay......

The good news is that the first battle in the legal fight against the NSA's wiretapping program has been won by everyone who doesn't work for the NSA. The bad news is that internet-enabled vigilante mobs could be the next big fad here in the States. Eh, we're too busy applying a new Dasani-branded profile treatment to our MySpace profile and checking out some of the videos. Damnit, we were totally going to lead off......

Gleefully recommended to us by Isotope, "Conan and the Songs of the Dead," by Joe Landsdale and Timothy Truman, is exactly what it looks like, and what we eagerly hoped it would be: the sort of zero-budget b-movie 80s cheese that you might find on an independent UHF station while flipping through channels in an Des Moines hotel room at 2 in the morning. A gruff warrior with ridiculous musculature slices up zombies and......

Yes, yes, we usually start with last week's winner, but we're so excited about getting voted best local blog by the Guardian that we're dispensing with convention and starting off with them. Boo yah! Wanna know the best thing about being best local blog? Our listing is on the same page as Gavin Newsom's, for "best local politician," and the rabidly non-Newsom SFBG does such a tooth-grindingly good job making lemonade out of lemons for......

Sometimes you need to clean yourself up, get serious, and move in with daddie for a few months before you head to Latin America for a new gig. The District bids Jenna Bush adios. D.C.-based television shows have an elderly audience and DCist has some suggestions to fix that. They're also throwing Butterstick the panda bear a birthday bash. Yeah, we may have a few issues with our World Cup broadcasters here, but this guy......

We were going to blame our missed post on Hurricane, Tropical Storm, Summer Shower Albert, but you see how that went, so we have to level with you. We were in Orlando last week on business, holed up in another convention center, this time without a laptop. We were supposed to be sharing one with someone from work, but if you've ever had to do that, or if you've ever had siblings, you know how......

Congratulations to Cement Brunette for winning our Second Gavin Caption Contest, with the entry: San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom and girlfriend Sofia Milos seen rehearsing their "I've Had The Time of My Life" Dirty Dancing number for the upcoming California Democratic Convention variety show.. Ha! In other news, we saw some more movies for the SFIFF, including the controversial The Bridge, about suicides off the Golden Gate Bridge. We also saw the Yeah Yeah Yeahs,......