A man in a black leather jacket carefully backs his Yamaha into one of the six motorcycle spaces on Haight at the corner of Shrader. He's here to see Pinback's in-store performance at Amoeba Music across the street later in the evening, but he's also pulled his bike into a world where the warm early evening air is alternately punctured by the scent of patchouli, McChickens, pee, and smoke from silly cigarettes. Plenty of off-street fee parking and reminders of the 1960s glory days are also available. Certain parts of Haight between Shrader and Stanyan have seen better commercial days – specifically, the shuttered and boarded Cala supermarket at its west end, and on a much lesser scale, the former home of taco/burrito retailer Chabela's at 1805 (dormant since the mid-'00s) – and there's no escaping the persistently suffocating sense of flower power and "revolution" around here anytime soon. (Kind bud?) The vibe on the block's sidewalks can be construed as seamy or circus-like (or perhaps both), depending upon one's tolerance for American Youth in Very Big Pants, or for politely deranged men pushing shopping carts and singing "COME TO AFRICA!!" at the top of their high-pitched lungs. But regardless of one's frame of reference, there's always a lot to take in down here in Amoeba Gulch....

Geek out! At Ask a Scientist SF, a monthly lecture slash happy hour with a guest speaker on some sciencey topic. This month's meet-up touches on everything you ever wanted to know about terra incognita, Antarctica, with Kurt Cuffey, a UC Berkeley professor of geography. Get there by 7pm to snag a beer and a seat. Axis Cafe, 1208 Eighth St., SF. If Le Tigre and The Shangri-Las had a British love child, it......

SFist Jenna sez....: Get your learn, dessert, dance and drink on at these Tuesday haps around the city: Reading & Book Signing: A.M Homes, (author of Safety of Objects, Music for Torching and The End of Alice) reading from and signing her latest book, The Mistress's Daughter, about her horrible biological parents, tonight at 7 pm. Booksmith,1644 Haight St. Get there a bit early to take advantage of the free cone day at Ben &......

Catch Drawn & Quarterly cartoonists Gabrielle Bell (Lucky), Kevin Huizenga (Curses), and Anders Nilsen (Don’t Go Where I Can’t Follow) at the Booksmith (1644 Haight St), the SF stop on their West Coast book tour. The cartoonists will be presenting a slide show of their work, answering questions and signing their latest D+Q releases. Kevin Huizenga's short story collection, Curses, promoted Huizenga as "one of the brightest, most interesting new comix authors to appear in......

While the Castro has that fabulous organ, the Red Vic (1727 Haight St at Cole) wins the prize for best popcorn, a very important aspect of our movie-going experience. Tonight the Red Vic screens the D.A. Pennebaker documentary, Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, a cinema verité cult classic depicting David Bowie getting ready for and playing one of the last Ziggy-era concerts, featuring glam rock guitarist extraordinaire, Mick Ronson (who grew up Mormon).......

SFist interviews JL Aronson, director of Danielson: A Family Movie...

We got this story from Friend of SFist, Ian about his MUNI adventure over the weekend....