Laughing Squid brings our attention this this video, created by Boing Boing's Rob Beschizza, showcasing almost every Apple design in 30 seconds. Enjoy. more ›

Berkeley-based artist Eric Drooker painted this lovely-but-ominous cover, which he submitted to The New Yorker about a year ago, but only this week did the magazine decide it was thematically appropriate for the time. Says Drooker on the New Yorker's blog, "Manhattan Island has become more and more an exclusive place for the super wealthy, or the super corporations—and a hostile place for people to live, not just for the working class, but even for the middle class. The city has become this monolithic cathedral to money.” more ›

In addition to fare and fanfare, another noted Chez Panisse signifier would have to be the illustrations and printing found on their menus and cookbooks. Simple, elegant, and concise--just like the food it denotes--the prints have been around for decades, but little is known about the artist. Until now. Artist, designer, and printmaker Patricia Curtan began hand printing menus while working as a cook in the Chez Panisse kitchen. In her new book Menus for Chez Panisse--a shockingly impressive and addictive tome, especially when you consider that, more or less, it's a book about menus--Curtan shows off four decades of her work, which feature special menus for such media and gastronomic darlings as Julia Child, Hillary Clinton, Mikhail Baryshnikov, James Beard, and more. more ›

You may have heard, via the big national ad campaign, that iconic Italian design house Missoni released their line of inexpensive clothing and home goods today at Target. Though we do not yet have a Target within city limits, design- and bargain-fiends have been clamoring to buy something -- anything! -- at the nearest store. The products went live on the store's website this morning, and demand for the stuff crashed the whole site -- though it appears to be up and running again [Ed. Note: actually, attempts to purchase things are delayed, and even small items now appear "on backorder"]. Also, greedy society that we are, people have already turned around and put the stuff up for sale on eBay, at a significant markup, and PEOPLE ARE BUYING IT. more ›

FILM: The epic 13 Assassins takes place at the end of the samurai era in 1844, featuring thirteen swordsmen who are enlisted to assassinate a sadistic lord, who rapes and kills with impunity, before he can gain more power, "culminating in one of the bloodiest, muddiest swordfights ever put to film." (6:30 and 9:30 p.m., Landmark Embarcadero Cinema, 1 Embarcadero Center) more ›

PERFORMANCE: Sister Spit co-founder Michelle Tea and lesbian author Ali Liebegott host the Sister Spit: The Next Generation, an all-gendered and trans-inclusive national tour, in other words "a vanload of multimedia, queer-centric brilliance" featuring work by "taste-makers, novelists, fashion plates, painters, performance artists, poets and fancy scribblers." Tonight's event includes special SF guests Ben McCoy & Beth Lisick. more ›

It just doesn't get any better than this. Remember those balloon dog bookends at Park Life that threw artist Jeff Koons into such a PR tizzy last December? The $55 bookends, which had initially sat in the store collecting dust before Koons accused them of infringing on his intellectual property, are now -- thanks to Koons' tantrum -- flying off the shelves. Get yours while you still can! (We quite like the periwinkle ones.) more ›

FILM: SF Cinemateque celebrates both the late filmmaker Curtis Harrington and the late, great Dennis Hopper in Remembering Dennis Hopper, featuring Harrington's first feature film and Hopper's first leading role, Night Tide (1961), along with short film The Wormwood Star. more ›

Well that didn't take long. After last week's Internet backlash, San Francisco's favorite khaki maker* has reverted back to their classic logo. Gap president Marka Hansen apparently changed her mind about how "contemporary and current" the new logo was after an "outpouring" of pro-bono replacements offered up by designers. more ›

Local mega-brand Gap ditched their iconic logo, known for sufficiently capturing the brand's tasteful and unpretentious character, in favor of a slick new helvetica-laced number this week. Which brings them ever closer to the American Apparel territory they've been inching towards since they debuted new ads for their 1969 denim collection a year ago. more ›

Sailing Away: A Live Dance Performance on Market Street: Zaccho Dance Theatre explores the history of African Americans’ early contributions to the development of S.F. in a site-specific dance performance this afternoon through Sunday. more ›

FILM: In Yatterman, Takashii Miike "takes the audience for a wild ride of robotics and animation in an adolescent battle of good vs evil with some cheeky elements of young lust tossed in for good measure". The film is a take on the '70s TV show of the same name, in which a mysterious glowing skull stone is scattered around the globe and when the four pieces are united there is promise that "miracles" will take place. more ›

Please welcome Chloé Harris, SFist's new Style Editor. Why Harris, you ask? Because she has an awesome wardrobe, isn't a slave to flats, and doesn't dress like a 25-year-old Missionite who looks like she's on the school playground. And that's good enough for us. Also, she's a bit of a do-gooder who, along with her spouse Frankie Frankeny, co-founded JustMarried.us, a lifestyle campaign for marriage equality. more ›

"Creating this ticket is more or less equivalent to printing money, since each one is valued over $200," notes San Francisco-based graphic designer Arin Fishkin, who created this year's Burning Man ticket. "Security features include embossing and two separate foil stamps, including one holographic. The ticket is also meant to be a tiny piece of art that builds enthusiasm and communicates the theme of the event (this year its Metropolis)." more ›

For a slice of sophisticated, playful eye candy, head on over to Gallery 16 near South Park this month and check out a fantastic new show of artwork from Emigre, the independent type foundry and magazine of the same name. Husband-and-wife team of Rudy VanderLans and Zuzana Licko were sharp observers and leading participants in the innovative international design scene that exploded with the advent of the Macintosh and desktop publishing. more ›

Jeff Hunt of Muni Diaries forwarded us this beautiful map adorned with literary quotes that have shaped our beloved San Francisco, which was created by Ian Huebert. We love the whimsical typography and colors almost more than the quotes themselves. See a larger version. more ›

Stamen Design, the folks behind Oakland Crimespotting, have just launched a companion site, San Francisco Crimespotting, which is a sleek, user-friendly interface that blows SFPD's clunky Crime Maps out of the water. Users can easily identify which types of crimes have taken place in their area, including the date and time of day they occurred. (We were quite relieved to see the absence of any murders or aggravated assaults in our vicinity.) more ›

FILM: It's a double feature at the Castro with cult classic Repo Man, starring Emilio Estevez and Harry Dean Stanton, and Model Shop, about an American who receives a draft notice for the Vietnam War and falls in love with a French prostitute in L.A. more ›

DANCE: Get a free beginner salsa lesson at Salsa in the Square, a salsa music and dance festival happening every third Wednesday through October. Immediately following the lesson, test your skill to the live sounds of Anthony Blea y su Charanga. more ›

San Rafael-based Autodesk released a new web service called Project Dragonfly that lets users build virtual rooms, fill them with virtual furniture and appliances, and ultimately view them in three dimensions. more ›

Sir Allan Hough I has word that tonight is the night to voice your feelings on making Cesar Chavez Street not suck. And while we know many a Missionite is adverse to change, we can all agree that Army/Cesar Chavez is unattractive and depressing. And if there's one cure for unattractive and depressing in San Francisco, it's boutique shops, eco-friendly center divides, and anti-homeless park benches. more ›

The maker of those little tree-shaped air fresheners you find dangling from rear view mirrors have sued Gap Inc. over Old Navy's use of the iconic image in a t-shirt, emblazoned with the slogan "Keeping it Fresh." The federal lawsuit, according to the Examiner, was brought against the local retail mammoth in U.S. District Court in Syracuse, N.Y. The company, simply titled Car-Freshener Corporation of Watertown, claims that "the design on the T-shirts is identical to their trademarked design, which is used by the company on car air fresheners, apparel and other items." more ›

Oh my God, you guys, no way. Get this: the New York Post was wrong. What's next: Intelligent Design? Celebrity weddings? Our meth-induced epiphanies that the CIA, in cahoots with the Norteños, are reading our emails and listening in on our phone calls? See, it seems that "[n]o slingshots have been found" and that the NY Post was wrong. And we refuse to believe anything Rupert Murdoch-related is less than perfect. more ›

If you haven't made it to the Curiosity Shoppe yet, what are you waiting for? It's one of our new favorite shops on Valencia Street. After having an e-commerce site for a year we were thrilled to hear that owners Lauren Smith and Derek Fagerstrom were setting up a brick and mortar spot in our fair city. Not only do we adore the choice of products for sale in the shop, we're big fans of their blog, Smarts & Crafts. Lauren and Derek have also been posting every Wednesday over at Design Sponge , sharing great project ideas for fixing up any space. And now they've teamed up with Todd Oldham to host a holiday crafting challenge on You Tube. Or at least that's Todd up there in their shop asking people to send in videos of their favorite holiday crafts and DIY projects. Winners will be posted on the You Tube homepage so get out that camera and get crafting. more ›

The loss of Simone in last week's episode of "Project Runway" leaves us with one local left to root for. (Although as Rita pointed out in her recap of the show, Jack went to U.C. Berkeley, so that kind of counts. But we'll see how well Chris does before we set our sights on him...) more ›

Judging by the audiences' volatile reactions, She Wants Revenge did everything in their power to give the audience what they wanted: a spectacle (with some music). About half-way through their hour and a half set, a fight erupted. (This isn't the first time, we hear, that fights have started at one of their shows.) The lead singer, Justin Warfield asked, "Can't we all just get along?" and then continued singing their synth-pop Depeche Mode influenced... more ›

After screwing up mandated drug tests and failing to report the severity of the oil spill in a timely fashion, as of this morning Coast Guard Captain William Uberti is out. And an experienced specialist in oil SNAFUs, Capt. Paul Gugg, is in. According to the Chronicle, Gugg, 49, has "has crafted spill regulations and response plans in Washington, D.C., and helped design emergency tactics after the catastrophic 1989 Exxon Valdez spill in Alaska."... more ›

We've been a big fan of Willo O'Brien's design work for several years now. She's got the chops to hang with the code geeks, but she's also a hell of an illustrator, drawing funny animals like bass playin' polar bears, ice skating bunnies...and you should see what she can do with a pumpkin. We usually run into her at shows, but when we heard she was branching out and had launched her own line of clothing, jewelry, and other things, we thought we'd find out more. more ›

Photo of an ugly bay area bus stop more ›