Those goddamn, dirty, lovable hippies known as the Grateful Dead -- i.e., Bob Weir, Mickey Hart, and Phil Lesh -- reunite tonight in honor of (our future president) Barack Obama. Looking to snare to what Joe Garofoli refers to as, "California's gray-haired ponytail vote," the Dead is backing Obama. Minus, Jerry Garcia, of course, since he is now most literally a dead head. Billed as a one-time-only event, although they got back together briefly......

-- "Endless Strummer": It seems like at any moment in San Francisco, a Joe Strummer tribute is taking place. Ok look! Here's one now, featuring Clash City Rockers, La Plebe, David J, Odd Numbers, the Hooks, Harrington Saints, the Shakespearos, and the Ferocious Few covering his oeuvre. Starts at 9 p.m. at Bottom of the Hill, 1233 - 17th St., all-ages show; $10. -- Jay Mohr: The man who plays a most excellent asshole......

And now for another big city's mildly retarded view of San Francisco: Too much ink has been spilled and too much bandwidth used to praise/bury Critical Mass in length. Now the LA Times gets in on the action. We'd love to break it down for you, but it's a long article and we don't bike or drive; more or less, it's stuff you've heard before. So, we present to you some choice quotes from......

Submit your found photos, letters, objects, grocery lists, etc to found @ sfist.com, or tag them as sfist on Flickr! Tell us where and when you found them and any other helpful info. They must have been found in the Bay Area and their previous ownership unknown. Today's find is a very intense and forlorn love letter found by SFist reader Jeff Webb. Here's his description about the find from his blog: I found this......

There was a time in our lives when we were convinced the Smashing Pumpkins were going to save rock n' roll. There was also a time in our lives when we were convinced Billy somehow plugged into our subconscious and in "Gish" captured the sound we dreamed of in the middle of the night. That was a long time ago. So we're not sure what to think of the announcement today that the Pumpkins 2.0 are going to play eight shows at the Fillmore from July 22 to August 1. ...

A bunch of stuff formerly belonging to a longtime road manager of the Grateful Dead's, Lawrence "Ram Rod" Shurtliff, will be up for auction starting today. Rudson Shurtliff is selling his father's guitars, gold records, and more at auction house Bonhams Butterfields -- the auction will be held online starting at 10 a.m. tomorrow....

So now that our Nance is the women in charge, how did her big soiree go? Jam-a-riffic it sounds like as besides performances by Carole King, Wyclef Jean, and Tony Bennett, Pelosi had various members of the Grateful Dead and some other jam-band types play her party. Apparently Pelosi is a big fan of the Dead which we're not buying at all but we guess that's part and parcel of representing a district (does this mean if we ever achieve political office we'd have to pretend to like the Counting Crows?) ...

-Electronic devices cause BART tickets to be demagnetized causing mayhem and anarchy on BART. ...

The '70s started with Janis Joplin's death, and a mere five years later A Chorus Line premiered on Broadway, running for 15 year until 1990. ...

There was a great disturbance in the internets this week as the Grateful Dead harshed Dead Heads' mellow by trying to close down the main site Dead Heads (and others) use to download taped performances. By amazing coincidence, it was also around the same time the Dead launched a pay service on their own Web site. But after the decision drew major flack and pissed off thousands of Dead Heads (we haven't seen them this mad since the Dead played an entire three show set at Shoreline without playing one "Scarlet/Fire"), the Dead changed their minds and announced that they'll be okay with people downloading concerts taped by fans. Shows taped by the Dead themselves (Soundboard recordings), however, can now only be had on the Dead's site. ...

We've already broken our New Year's resolution to not be late anymore, but we can still rally to see more live music in '05. Things remain a bit askew during this first week of January (holiday parties are still happening?) but there are many musical options if you need to get out and about. Or as those kooky Canadians like to say, oot and aboot. Groove is in the heart tonight down at the 111......