The cold weather - and holiday festivities - descended upon Gothamist. The Rockefeller Christmas tree was lit, Broadway stagehand finally ended their strike, and NASCAR decided to run their victory lap through Times Square. There were disturbing photographs revealing the working conditions in which many city manholes are produced and ninjas were also a hot topic, either robbing homes or entering into alibis. But the city was really rocked by how Rudy Giuliani's visits......

-- The Shining (1980): "Honey, I'm home," "Here's Johnny!" etcetera, etcetera, Kubrick, and so forth. (No one wields a baseball bat like Shelley Duvall. So awkward. Also, what ever happened to her?) Screens at midnight (okay, 11:55 p.m.) at the Clay. -- Heat: The Endup gets Warholian on you with a club night dedicated to Andrew's Factory and all the wonderful superstars, nuts, and sex symbols it produced. DJ Donimo and DJ6 pump out......

-- All About Eve: Brutal, drunk, rapid-fire dialogue; famous lines ("Fasten your seatbelts, it's going to be a bumpy night," etc.); and a backstage story told so, so, so well make this '50s film more than just a camp classic. Starring Bette Davis. Screens tonight at 7 p.m. at the Castro Theatre, Castro & Market Streets; $9.50. -- Rush: Canadian rock flows freely at 7:30 p.m., Shoreline Amphitheatre, 1 Amphitheatre Pkwy, (Mountain View); $29.50-$79.50.......

Tomorrow, ESPN will take a break determining whether Tom Brady is more Now than LeBron is and feature a town hall type thingy in San Francisco on the issue of Barry Bonds and the Hallowed Record. Despite ESPN's increasing descent into annoying shtick and hype, this should be pretty interesting as it's being hosted by "Outside the Lines" host Bob Ley, one of the few ESPN "personalities" with any integrity left. It's supposed to be a discussion on all things Barry, including race, Bud Selig's complicitness in the mess, how tainted the record is, and a whole bunch of other things. The panel will feature a bunch of writers including ESPN's excellent Buster Olney and "Game of Shadows" Lance Williams as well as Barry's ex teammates Kirk Rueter and Ellis Burks as well as Dusty. Jeff Kent will not be participating. ...

LAist was comped front row seats by the Dodgers due to Malingering being struck by a foul ball last week, and she came back with some great photos, and earlier made fun of 4th of July on Venice Beach. But the biggest stories of the week was that the Mayor's Hot Tamale was revealed, and that a Kwik-E-Mart was erected in Burbank. Phillyist was busy doing the Fourth of July up right, exercising their......

Lotta stuff going on today, a lot of which we've mentioned before: Another Hole In The Head continues and the Black Film Festival gets started! Also, it's the Berkeley Edge Fest. Here's some other stuff too. --Ha ha ha ha ha ha!! It's Critical Ass! There's a naked bike ride to protest overuse of fossil fuels. Noon, starting at Justin Herman Plaza. Don't forget the sunscreen. --Well, this is an unfortunate segue: SF Recycling is......

You've still got the Berkeley World Music Festival today, and Indiefest's Hole in the Head fantasy/sci-fi/horror film fest is in full swing! Your other options include: --This looks like a can't-miss! ACT is presenting Fields of Gold, a musical about Amish teens in the throes of rumspringa (sampling the modern world). Set to the music of Sting. We quote: The songbook of Fields of Gold features a mix of Sting and The Police’s most beloved......

Tonight - two shows open (one show leaves) at Steven Wolf Fine Arts (49 Geary Ste. 411): Orly Corgan's The Wonder of You, and Sentences by Nicholas Knight - both artists are from New York. In her post-modern feminist tapestries, Cogan takes vintage tablecloths and other linens from days gone by and transforms them through embroidery into an erotic fantasyland featuring mostly her. She muses, eats sweets, snorts coke, contemplates kissing frogs and kicks around......

Some organization we've never heard of and could probably care the less about, the American Institute of Architects, put together a list of the Top 25 Bestest Buildings in San Francisco. Look for attendant show on VH-1 featuring snarky comments from Hal Sparks, Ian Michael Black, and Rachel Harris. ...

Total number of people pictured in this week's Swells society column: 65. Number of people pictured whom we recognize: 1 (Frank Jordan). Minority count: 3 (4.6%). Hats, capes, tiaras: 1, 0, 0. Eyepatches, leis, shrugs/stoles/shawls: 1, 5, 3. Getty v. Traina: 3-1. Stanlee Gatti count: 1. Number of people pictured with mouth agape: 1, at the SFMOMA Wayne Thiebaud lunch. Number of artists listed as being featured on Gordon Getty's vanity project, "Songs by American......

With the Yoga Journal conference going on at the same time as SF Sketchfest, SFist didn't know which way to turn. So, we spent the weekend in child's pose. Then, still feeling childish, we took our big sister to the Sketchfest tribute to Paul Reubens Monday night at the Palace of Fine Arts....

SF Sketchfest presents Paul Reubens in Conversation with Ben Fong-Torres at the Palace of Fine Arts (3301 Lyon St. at Bay) followed by questions from the audience. You can ask Reubens his opinion about Mormons. There's also a post-show reception with Paul Reubens at Amante, with food and beverages provided. (8pm) More Sketchfest tonight at the Eureka Theater (215 Jackson Street at Battery) with Killing My Lobster, the SF sketch comedy group and film production......

As you might have noticed, we've been enjoying ourselves at Sketchfest. You've also might have noticed that we've partnered up with them. Which is why we're pretty excited about today's, last minute, giveaway. Because we're going to give away five (that's five!) pairs of tickets for tonight's SF Sketchfest to Paul Reubens. You know, Pee Wee Herman. ...

Half by SFist Jon, half by SFist Rita. You guess who wrote which half! --Cal Alum fights the good fight to keep view of Memorial Stadium free. --More lane closures on the Bay Bridge for the very last time. --It's raining. --Who's got San Francisco values around here? --Bill Clinton endorses Cindy Chavez for SJ Mayor. --Animal rights activists and environmentalists hate Pombo. --They're reopening the lagoon by the Palace of Fine Arts. --And cancer......

We were treated to performances on Monday night at the Palace of Fine Arts by Zach Rogue, Dave Eggers, Mark Kozelek, Sarah Vowell and Patton Oswalt (also the host), and Aimee Mann, during Bookeaters, a benefit for 826 Writing Centers nationwide. There really aren’t that many better ways to spend an evening. The show posed the question: which is better, words or music? We aren’t any closer to answering that for you after Monday’s stellar......

We keep missing the rock-n-roll celebrity sightings around this city. Last week Kirk Hammett (Metallica) and Robert Trujillo (Suicidal Tendencies) were at Rock It Room on the night of the Madame Legal show we told you about. And then after playing two nights at the spacious and refined Palace of Fine Arts, Ryan Adams stole over to the tiny 12 Galaxies on Thursday night to jam with Phil Lesh. Friends who've known him or met......

Saturday: Box magazine is having their Issue 3 (Fetish) launch party from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. at Oakland's Golden Bull (412 14th Street). They're promising us DJs, drink specials, giveaways, and more. Sunday: We're hitting Project Artaud Theatre 450 Florida St at 17th) for AcroSports City Circus's new acrobatic spectacle, the Metropolis-inspired 2106 Shows are Fridays at 7p.m., Saturdays and Sundays at 2 p.m. until April 30. Monday: We're plumb out. What are......

In 1950, the great mystery writer Raymond Chandler wrote of the contemporaneous critical response to his stories and those of James M. Cain, Dashiell Hammett, et. al. that: It takes a very open mind indeed to look behind the unnecessarily gaudy covers, trashy titles and barely acceptable advertisements and recognize the authentic power of a kind of writing that, even at its most mannered and artificial, made most of the fiction of the time......

Saturday: We're strapping ourself into a corset and heading to the Great American Music Hall for The Gilded Bat, the sixth annual Edwardian Ball. Part gothic ball, part evil cabaret, there will be music, burlesque, and ballroom dancing. Friend of SFist Jill Tracy will be performing at 9:15, so don't be late! Buy tickets here. Sunday: We're hitting the Palace of Fine Arts to watch the public auditions for San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival. "Ninety-five......

It's like the 49 Mile Drive, only with squealing tires! Around midnight Saturday morning, cops reported to a double shooting on Mission and 18th Street, only to see a Honda peeling away. The cops put on the woo-oooh woo-oooh sirens and set chase, but lost him near Alameda and Utah. Other cops then found him and chased the guy all the way down to SoMA, where the suspect crashed the car at Fourth and Bryant.......

Doesn't anyone in the 415 want a Keith Haring mural? A local SoMA day care center for underprivileged youth puts its Keith Haring mural on the block, with no local takers. Back in 1985, artist Keith Haring painted (for free) a funky, 77 foot mural along the wall of the gym of the South of Market Child Care Center. He painted it in one day, while in town for another project down the street at......

We have mixed emotions about Diane B. "Dede" Wilsey's pet cause, the new M. H. de Young Memorial Museum building. For years the antics surrounding that concourse -- museums moving, buildings being torn down, garages built -- have provided pages and pages of entertainment in the local press. More recently, the unfinished structure loomed darkly over John F. Kennedy drive like an aircraft carrier that somehow made it inland from Ocean Beach (and we're......

Congratulations to all our lucky ResFest pass winners! Today we're giving away passes to see Cut and Paste at 6 pm Sunday, September 25 at the Palace of Fine Arts Theatre. It's described in the program as works by "filmmakers inspired by the collage art of yesteryear (who have) grown adept and stitching together and recontextualizing elements of the world around us. The Cut and Paste program runs the gamut of these styles, from......

Today's awesome ResFest giveaway is for the Shorts Three program at 4 pm this Saturday, September 24 at the Palace of Fine Arts Theatre. According to the ResFest site, in this program "hidden and frightening creatures and unseen forces mingle in a vortex of dark humor, grotesque imagery and harrowing narratives." Spooky! Enter below by midnight tonight for a pass for you and a pal to ResFest Shorts Three! Image from What The, one......

You already know that ResFest opens tomorrow at the Palace of Fine Arts. But, did you know that SFist, in conjunction with Larsen Associates (thanks, Chris!), will be giving away passes to the ResFest the rest of the week? Today's contest is for passes for you and a guest to go see Cinema Electronica (warning: sound, and it's a song that won't get out of your head) at 10 p.m. on Friday, September 23.......

Being a blogger by day and fashion correspondent by night is freakin' tiring. While we didn’t make it out to the Palace of Fine Arts Thursday night, we were back and ready for fashion on Friday, and Krissy even made it out to the Jackpine Social Club party at the end of the night to see Alejandro Escovedo. See our all our Friday Fashion Week photos on out Flickr page.......

The Beautiful People were out in full force at the Palace of Fine Arts Theater Wednesday night. We felt like we had really pulled a fast one as we picked up our media accreditation and gift bags (most appreciated item: the Clif Bar we ended up scarfing down halfway through the night) and slipped into the VIP area for a quick drink before the crazy-ass glamour hit the stage.......

All day long, our colleagues at our day job have been asking why we look so nice today. Ignoring what this implies about our usual appearance, and marvelling at what a difference a shower makes, we have responded to these complimentary remarks with "It's Fashion Week! Duh!" That's right, San Francisco Fashion Week opens tonight and runs through Sunday the 28th. Featuring scores of Spring 2006 collections, rad parties, intriguing workshops (check out Catwalk......

There was something vaguely unsettling about watching SFIFF’s presentation of Alfred Hitchcock’s silent film, Blackmail, with live accompaniment by the Alloy Orchestra. Alloy's gained some renown for composing and performing new scores for silent films, and a crowd of eager moviegoers started gathering at the Palace of Fine Arts Theater even before the box office staff was in place (much to the alarm of what few staff members were there). The audience loved the......

Well, pretty much everyone who's anyone in indie rock this weekend (including your regular columnist and SFist's new music editor SFist Krissy) is in Austin for SXSW. The rest of us forlornly left behind can comfort ourselves with the following shows. Tonight, local country-folk rockers The Court and Spark are playing at the Hemlock. Get some dreamy twang with your smokers' lounge! There's an embarrassment of riches on Friday: Metal band the F***ing Champs play 12 Galaxies, Elephone brings their avant-garde electronica to the Bottom of the Hill, Xhibit plays the Fillmore (maybe if you ask nicely, he'll pimp your ride), and for those of you looking for cheap laffs, Mandonna will be bringing the cross-dressing pointy bras and headsets to the Great American (watch out for blood from the Ian Brown show -- FYI: SFPD has decided they won't prosecute but have encouraged GAMH to sue). On Saturday, for those of you who can't spend $24-42 on tickets to blues and soul legend Solomon Burke's Friday SFJAZZ show at the Palace of Fine Arts, he's doing a free show at Amoeba on Saturday. Show starts at 1:30 but in our experience, those free shows fill up pretty fast, so get there around noonish and do some browsing while you wait. (You may remember Solomon Burke also as the man who wrote the single that got Rob and Laura together in Nick Hornby's High Fidelity.) If you make it out alive from the crazed crush at Amoeba, stop by BotH later that evening and catch Nerf Herder, the guys who recorded the Buffy the Vampire Slayer theme song. Listings for the next work week, after the jump. Picture of Solomon Burke by Kathy Willens of the AP....