Our sources tell us that Halloween in the Castro as we knew it is now dead. Long live a dull and tedious San Francisco. Although supervisors promised us that Halloween in the Castro would return for 2008, it turns out that it will not make a spooktacular comeback; in fact, it won't return at all. The event is no more. Dead. It seems that the Entertainment Commission -- whose job, it seems, is to......

SF Late Night Coalition chairperson Terrance Alan (far left), Police Chief Heather Fong, and Newsom at yesterday's announcement With nightclubs like Jelly's, Whisper, and 715 Harrison playing host to fatal mischief over the past few months, yesterday Mayor Newsom and Police Chief Heather Fong went on the offense against SF nightlife. Four bits of legislation, co-sponsored by Supervisor Sophie Maxwell, will be put before the board of supes: - The first ordinance would require......

Violence at SF nightclubs has been all the rage this year - all nine days, that is - and now a summit is being held this month in order to curb the violent tomfoolery. A few choice incidences to refresh your memory: Marcus Pepper, 26, was killed on New Year's Day outside a Ninth Street warehouse SOMA party; Clarence Corbin 34, was shot outside Jelly's Dance Cafe in Mission Bay; Club Vessel was, well,......

According to the BAR, there now exists a need for "the creation of an Office of Special Events" at City Hall, a "'dedicated and separately funded' office to oversee annual events like Halloween." But isn't that the Entertainment Commission's job, you ask? Doesn't it "plan and coordinate the provision of City services for major events for which there is no recognized organizer, promoter, or sponsor," as it says on SFGov? No, it seems. "The......

First bedbugs, then crack addicts, then bone-rattling noise -- that's the sort of bad-neighboring up with which Tenderloin residents will not put. Residents of the Lawrence Hotel have been scowling for a long time now at the deafening noise generated by Club Six -- check out these complaints. Shaking windows and floors, people on medication for sleep deprivation due to noise, doors left illegally open, and crowds so big on the sidewalk that you......

Anyways, die to recent troubles at two clubs, the Entertainment Commission is looking at possible solutions to the problems. One of them is to have better and more educated owners. The other? Later closing times! ...

Otherwise known as stories we missed while we were on vacation... -The last time we heard from Krissy Keefer, the Green candidate for Congress, she and some of her gal-pals were banging the Taiko drum and handing out cookies to celebrate her official entrance into the race. We maybe a little fuzzy on our American history, but we think Lincoln started that way too. Anyways, we hadn't heard from her since then but last week, she and her Merry Band of Dancers took part in a celebration of Fidel Castro's 80th birthday, which the San Francisco Sentinel described as a "spectacular evening ensemble of music, song, dance and poetry." Keefer's dance troupe performed and Keefer performed the monologue during the performance. You know, nothing says "striving for mainstream political acceptance" like staging dance performances to celebrate Fidel Castro. While it's not official, word has it that Keefer is in talks to take part in a new VH-1 reality show "Dancing With Dictators." It's not know yet who'll she be dancing with, but we here the Stacey Keibler/Mahmoud Ahmadinejad team will be pretty hard to beat. ...

The battle over lap dances in strip clubs moved to the Entertainment Commission last Friday as they held an often contentious, standing-room-only hearing on the issue. During the meeting, strippers, err "exotic dancers," testified in front of the commission to say that the proposed new rules, that calling for the ending of private rooms and booths and it's possible ending of lap dancing, could impede their ability to make money. In our minds, the testimony was given like something out of "Hot for Teacher" in which the moment the dancer got up to the podium, they tore their clothes off to reveal slinky lingerie underneath, but we have a feeling things didn't happen that way (BTW, while searching for the "Hot For Teacher" clip we also stumbled upon a bootleg video of VH doing it live in an outdoor concert in 1984 and it is awesome). Oh well. Also testifying in support of the legislation were local Bay Area rappers who claimed that no more lap dances in strip clubs would hurt their ability to "be gangsta." ...