*FILM: The 5th Annual San Francisco Irish Film Festival kicks things off with Garage by director Lenny Abrahamson and writer Mark O’Halloran. This is followed by a reception with the Consul General of Ireland, Emer Deane. According to LS, "other highlights include Speed Dating, a romantic comedy about a lovelorn amnesiac; the award winning Irish-language feature film Kings, and finally The Undertaking, a documentary about Irish American undertaker and poet Thomas Lynch, who is......

We first became aware of Harry Smith's Anthology of American Folk Music back in 2000, when the Coen Brothers' released O Brother, Where Art Thou? After listening to the old-timey music on the soundtrack, we pondered just what we should call that stuff so we could seek out more of it. Was it country music? Bluegrass? Folk? The key factor, at the time, was we wanted to hear the original recordings and not a......

Last week's winner, the Guardian. The SF People's Organization is having a meeting this Saturday. Letters about guns in the Castro. Everything is better with strippers -- union woes, men against women, and a no-fatties proposal at the Lusty Lady. Hating on fixie bikes -- and big ups to SFist Sarah L for pointing out to us how awesomely combative the comments in response have gotten (typical comment: "My god man, do you have an......

For those of you who haven't already fled to Canada, here are this week's concert picks. Friday night presents a lengthy ballot of entertainment candidates, but this time those troubling middle states won't keep us from our top choices. Start out the night with the laid-back acoustic funk of Citizen Cope at the Red Devil Lounge, or head to Booksmith for a free reading by legendary music critic Greil Marcus from his forthcoming anthology "The......