LIT: Launch party for Larry Smith and Rachel Fershleiser's newest release, Not Quite What I Was Planning: Six-Word Memoirs by Writers Famous and Obscure, which is, well, just as it sounds: six-word memoirs penned by famous and not-so-famous writers. Happens at the Rockit Room tonight. *CLUB: You know who knows how to party? Service industry workers. From chefs to bartenders to waiters to barbacks, you will find a group no finer than these people......

It's going to be a grand ole party (sorry, we had too...) over at Bottom of the Hill on Sunday night where Grand Ole Party will be headlining. They just finished a very successful tour with Rilo Kiley and Vampire Weekend and are celebrating the physical release of their debut album, Humanimals (which came out earlier this month). Check out three of their recently recorded songs over at Daytrotter; it's pretty damn cool. Hailing......

We've had a couple of chances to catch Perfect Machines live over the past few months. What can we say, other than that they rock in that super-fun NOFX-meets-Misfits supercharged punk way. They're throwing a CD release party tomorrow at 111 Minna - copies of the album are free with the $10 cover, along with Jameson shots - and we decided to take the opportunity to ask them a few questions. Name Perfect Machines Sam......

We came back from taking down the recycling yesterday evening to find we had locked ourselves out of our apartment. "Noooo!!" [Insert Emo Darth Vader ballad here. Warning -- audio.] We dialed the apartment manager on the call-box but got his voice mail. Lucky for us, the manager, who wouldn't be back until 10:00, called our s.o., who wouldn't be back until 8:00, and our s.o. called our friend who lives a few blocks away.......

How the church appeared on November 13. This Friday -- Black Friday -- Michaela Alioto-Pier's little neighborhood that thrives on ridicule will become a little more ridicule-less. At 9 a.m., Pacific Standard Time, on the day of November twenty-third, two thousand and seven, the store at 2125 Chestnut will open its doors. And at that moment? Apple will welcome in its third San Francisco store, completing the trilogy started by its flagship location on......

Oh, man. Timing is everything. This is better than gum. This is better than energy bars. Today we were given Advil Liqui-gels when coming out of Embarcadero Station....

Over the long week-end, we thought we'd take in some art as the SF Opera performed gratis in Dolores Park. It was so cold that, up on stage, it ended up looking like a scarf fashion show at Macy's. And now, showing off a pastel pink cashmere pashmina, please welcome Susan Graham! For those who were hoping to ogle on some decolleté, well, no cleavage for you, perv. We even took a few pictures, that......

We know we're saving up our money for countless Halloween-themed events this weekend, so tonight we're all about the free stuff. Funcheap SF is an e-mail newsletter that clues in the city's under-employed, bored and frugal on the best in fun and cheap stuff to do. Tonight they're hosting the Cheap Bastard Fun Happy Hour at EZ5 Bar(682 Commercial St. at Kearny near the Holiday Inn in Chinatown). The event will feature cheap happy......

A few years back, it seemed like everyone we knew was vacationing in Thailand. To keep ahead of the curve in fashionable Southeast Asian travel destinations, we're heading over to the Main San Francisco Public Library (100 Larkin @ Grove) to see Wendy Yanagihara, author of “Lonely Planet’s Guide to Vietnam,” talk about her travels in said country and learn all about the off-the-beaten-path gems so we can nod sagely and make intelligent comments......

We're the first to admit that we're not a big Robin Williams fan. That fast talking, manic thing got stale for us before we hit the "cocaine" unit in health class. We find his beard movies even more tiresome, but do like us some creepy Williams: in Insomnia he outacted Pacino, no mean feat, and in One Hour Photo he was only eclipsed by Michael Vartan's saggy balls. We were surprised to see that......

Here at SFist, we like the Asian Art Museum, and we love free stuff -- so we're happy to see the two come together for the http://www.asianart.org/40thanniversary.htm">Asian Art Museum's 40th Anniversary, this weekend. All day (well, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.) this Saturday and Sunday, admission to the museum is free, with the bonus of all sorts of celebratory events. See their calendar here for a full rundown of the fun, and don't forget......

Getting ready for Tuesday's election? Study up on our handy-dandy chart of the gubernatorial candidates or our five-second summary of all the state and San Francisco propositions. Or pick sides in Ma v. Ja! And if your favorite candidate loses, well, he or she can always become a filmmaker instead. Free free free! A free Madame Butterfly performance, free We Are Scientists tickets, free readings, a free baseball, free stuff on Craigslist, and free......

Last week, all we wanted was our ten dollars, but he wouldn't give it to us. So, that means you'll have to get free stuff from us, instead. So, enter our fabulize away or name that (imaginary) baby, for some loot from SFist. Sure, sure, we're jumping the gun on the baby thing, as Gavin and Sophia are only dating. Then again, that's waht we thought about TomKat, and the next thing you know......

We try our best here at SFist Answers, but we have two very real limitations: 1) If y'all don't ask us questions, we have nothing to answer; similarly, the more questions we get, the more we're able to cherry-pick the interesting ones. (That's our not-so-subtle appeal for some emails to sfistanswers@sbcglobal.net). 2) Some questions are pretty complicated and have some variable factors--it's often impossible to lead you to the end of the journey in......

SFist has a great December planned for all our readers, regardless of their respective naughty or niceness. Check this out: First, you'll wanna come see us pretty regularly, because we'll be giving away fabulous prizes every stinkin' day of December. That's right, 31 days of free stuff from SFist! Some of our contests will have long leads, some of them short, so check back early, and often! Enter our most recent contests here. What......

Earlier this week, State Senator Abel Maldonado, R-Santa Maria, called for hearings into salary compensation and raises in the University of California system. Apparently, the UC people have been hiring a bunch of people at mid-level salaries, and then gave them all sorts of extra goodies. Not to mention kick-ass raises. All this would be all well and good except for the fact nobody at UC let the Powers That Be know that they were going to do this. Oh, and they just cut a whole bunch of student services and raised fees too. In short, juicy salary raises + lots of free stuff + cuts to student services= pissed off people. ...

In our email this morning, we saw a disturbing subject line: "Notice of Class Action Settlement. Please Read." "oh, s**t, who's suing us now?" we wondered. But the joke's on us -- apparently, we're the ones doing the suing! A class action suit, (PDF!) Chavez v. Netflix, Inc., was filed in San Francisco last year, stating that Netflix failed to provide one-day delivery and unlimited DVD rentals, as promised in their marketing materials. Today,......

Our concert picks for the week of 8/25 - 8/31. ">Local label Jackpine Social Club generously doles out another few helpings of free stuff this week. Two of you will win a pair of tickets to the Jackpine Social Club party at 12 Galaxies on Friday night where No Depression's "Artist of the Decade" Alejandro Escovedo headlines. Jon Dee Graham plays also, and Jackpine artists Jesse DeNatale and Loquat complete the bill. (Enter now --......

Our concert picks for the week of 8/11 - 8/17. It's August, and if we were anywhere else in the country, the sun would be beating down on us relentlessly and we'd be wishing September would come around to bring back the touring bands. But this is San Francisco, so we put on sweaters when we leave for work and we still get good concerts even during the touring lull that is August. And here......

Niall Kennedy has been a netizen since there was such a thing. He's also maybe the first NCAA Champion we've ever met -- winning a national soccer title in 1997 with the UCLA Bruins. If you're on the national geek conference or local nerd meetup circuit, you're more than likely to run into him. Chances are, he'll be the one with the Technorati t-shirt on -- see if you can spot him in this......

Stage Fog provides you this week with a virtual tour of the world, all for the price of several theater tickets....

Our concert picks for the week of 7/7-7/13. Dear readers, we're just itching to give away some free stuff. Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson have a new comedy coming out called Wedding Crashers. You might have seen the trailer already, but you can star in the trailer here. (We're not kidding -- upload your photo and watch!) We've got an indie-tastic Wedding Crashers soundtrack to give away, including songs from Bloc Party, Flaming Lips, Spoon,......

SFist loves local magazines, from Bitch to Other to Dwell. (And before all you "Wavefans" from the same IP address write in, the answer is "no".) We're so happy to welcome The Skinny, a new Bay Area publication, to the mix. According to their site "The Skinny is a quarterly guide to the San Francisco Bay Area that caters to an underserved group of residents and visitors between the ages of 18 and 34,......

Congratulations to our Westside Organics contest winner Niall K., who managed to score himself three deliveries of fresh produce by getting back to us within, oh, thirty minutes or so of the post going up. We should have made the questions harder! Live and learn. Thanks to everyone who entered -- we're sure you'll get some free stuff from us eventually. In the Guardian, Dan Leone thanks everyone for their support through his recent troubles......

Writers and other interesting folk email editor@sfist.com!...

Once again, the Essefficist is back, a day late and at least a dollar short. We could go on all night about what a piece of junk this column is -- she may not look like much, but she's got it where it counts, kid -- but we're a little rushed, so if you'll just get on board, we'll get started. We've got two questions to answer today, both from esteemed colleagues. First, let's check......

EssEffist is frequently complimented on our glowing skin and healthy hair. Is it clean living? A healthy diet of fruits and vegetables? Yet another unplanned pregnancy?...