Don't tell the NorCal bandmates of Pomplamoose that they've "made it." Sure, they've graced the cover of the Weekly and just got off a national tour, but as one half of the band's leading couple Jack Conte writes candidly on Medium, "the phrase 'made it' does not properly describe Pomplamoose. Pomplamoose is 'making it.' And every day, we bust our asses to continue 'making it,' but we most certainly have not 'made it.'"

The 28-day tour included 24 shows in 23 U.S. cities. "We sold 1129 tickets in San Francisco at the Fillmore," he writes, "I’ll remember that night for the rest of my life." But, with a total tour income of $135,983 and $147,802 in expenses, the band was in the red, losing $11,819.

"Having the opportunity to play music as a career is a dream come true," Conte goes on, "The point of publishing all the scary stats is not to dissuade people from being professional musicians. It’s simply an attempt to shine light on a new paradigm for professional artistry."

TechCrunch, who are also fans of the the band and their openness, write that "The best part is that bands like Pomplamoose can finally share milestones on their road to success and, more important, indie writers, artists, and musicians can learn from their experiences." No doubt, some bands might be discouraged by Conte's tale, but still more might be uplifted.

And don't forget YouTube, says Conte: "YouTube has signed up over a million partners (people who agree to run ads over their videos to make money from their content). The 'creative class' is no longer emerging: it’s here, now."

Speaking of which, here's Pomplamoose in a cool video for a "Happy" slash "Get Lucky" mashup.

Just in time for the holidays, Thread will be having a two-day shopping extravaganza this weekend at Fort Mason Center, featuring wares from the top 100 hand-picked independent fashion and art designers.

Attendees can expect to find clothing, denim, sneakers, jewelry, street wear, accessories, bags, "cut n sew," new contemporary, and vintage, and many limited edition and one of a kind items. There will be live music performances, drink specials, door prizes, discounts, custom orders, and free style tips offered by the designers.

At 1 and 4 p.m. both Saturday and Sunday, there will be a Fashion Fusion runway show, presenting some of the organizers' favorite clothing and accessory designers. There will also be a Style Lounge and a Big Photo Booth, as well as four Art Lounges and Galleries: 1. Artsprojekt.com's Live Art Lounge, 2. Tribe 13 Live Painting and New Work, 3. Design Your Own Tee with Sezio, and 4. Live Art Show and Sale presented by Art Now SF.

Guests can also recycle their clothes at Thread. Get $2 off the cover charge by bringing one bag of clean clothes to donate to charity. Or bring 10 items to the Clothing Swap, which happens from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. each day, and go home with 5 items from someone else's stash. (The rest of your items will go to charity.) Check out the list of acceptable clothing for the swap at the bottom of this page.

Saturday and Sunday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Fort Mason Center, Festival Pavilion, Marina Blvd. and Buchanan St.
$8-10, RSVP online before Noon Friday (get $2 off with bag of donated clean clothes)

It's time for all you non-fiction junkies out there to get your fix. The 8th Annual SF DocFest, "the film festival that provides a manageable amount of the truth," will showcase over 50 documentaries from around the world. The fest starts Friday and runs through October 29 at Roxie Theater. All tickets are $11, and DocPasses can be purchased for $180.

This year's opening night film is The Entrepreneur, in which filmmaker Jonathan Bricklin follows his father, Malcolm Bricklin, famous importer of the Yugo and Subaru and maker of the infamous “Bricklin SV-1” automobile, as he chases that "one last deal" around the world. The Opening Night Party at Artzone Gallery (461 Valencia) will immediately follow the film, featuring a live set by Tippy Canoe and complimentary food and refreshments courtesy of Bear Flag Winery, Trumer Pilsner and Shiner Bock.

The closing night film, Cropsey, explores a terrifying urban legend about an escaped mental patient on Staten Island who would come out late at night and snatch children off the streets. The story was a cautionary tale meant to keep kids out of the abandoned Willowbrook Mental Institution, but the legend became real for the filmmakers and the town when a child from the community disappeared back in the late '80s.

*MUSIC: Kelley Stoltz, Grand Archives, the Morning Benders, and le Weather Underground sing some songs for you over at the Independent. (Part of Noise Pop 2008.)

COMEDY: Get ready to hee yourself silly. Kenny Altman hosts Ron Vigh, Kelly McCarron, Maggie Newcomb, and Morgan Ryan Kasmier at "Gays and Dolls," a homosexually-charged night of stand-up hilarity. You can catch the queers killing it over at the Clubhouse. (BYOB, people. For reals.)

CLUB: New York-based DJ Satoshi Tomiie forces you to like house music all over again at Mighty. (Be sure to take a disco nap, kids. The party will go well into the wee hours of the morning.)

FILM: It's a Coen brothers blowout! The Depression Era adventure/ reimagining, O Brother, Where Art Thou?, and that movie they did a few years ago with Billy Bob Thornton that we never got around to seeing, The Man Who Wasn't There, screen over at the Castro Theatre. (7pm and 9:10, respectively.)

The Weather Underground's image credit goes to Indie for Bunnies.

The listed events were chosen by the editors of SFist and brought to you by the 2009 Toyota Corolla.

*FILM: The final release of Ridley Scott''s love-it-or-hate-it science fiction noir thriller — now with added footage, re-mixed sound, and minor improvements on visual effects! — screens at the Castro.

COMEDY: SF Supervisor Tom Ammiano attempts a return to stand-up comedy at the Makeout Room's "Laughing Liberally Local 415 with Will Durst" tonight.

MUSIC: Indie folk/country jazz duo Dean & Britta (former Luna members) perform at Yoshi's-SF. "Mazzy Star-like" songstress Keren Ann joins them as well. SOLD OUT. Alas. (Well, how about Flipper over at Amoeba, performing at 6 p.m.? We don't really know much about this '80s punk band. Sorry. Although according to flavorpill, Kurt Cobain seemed to like them. So...there you have it.)

CLUB: Over at The Transfer, DJ Rapid Fire hits the decks at "Sucker-Punch" — happening every Monday — where you can get drunk on the cheap with $1 cans of PBR. Read more about it here.

The listed events were chosen by the editors of SFist and brought to you by the 2009 Toyota Corolla.

It's almost Academy Awards® time and whether or not the writers will still be on strike, it seems that each year the movies are less and less relevant to the show itself. Between the Valentino dresses, Armani suits and pregger rumors, we feel Oscar® (or at least media coverage) has lost its focus.

Enter Magnolia Pictures and Shorts International and their Indie Movie-loving glory: they're teaming to showcase this year's Academy Award nominated short films (animated and live action) that are rarely seen. They will be presenting the showcase at the Embarcadero Center Cinema and Shattuck Cinema in Berkeley for your viewing pleasure, starting February 15. This is a great idea, since every year we watch the live telecast, we're teased (teased!) with short 15 second clips of (what look like) very good films.

But whereto do we go to watch them? We never seem to know. While Wholphin has done a good job of gaining more exposure for lesser-seen shorts, they can't cover everything. So this year, for bragging rights amongst the film nerds, we're talking up all the nominees and hope that you'll support them when they're shown at theaters.

Picture courtesy of Oscar.com.

What is the best thing about Indie Fest?
Having filmgoers get to meet filmmakers and talk movies.

What are some standout movies this year?
One of my personal favorites is POP SKULL, this weird experimental horror/drug movie. DRIVING TO ZIGZIGLAND is also really good, funny, touching, interesting take on what’s going on in the middle east by telling the story of a Palestinian guy in Hollywood trying to get into movies.

What are your favorite movie festivals?
Chicago Underground, SXSW, Slamdance, Fantasia

What makes a festival good?
Good films, curious, open minded audiences, good parties-the place filmmakers get to meet film goers!

Any tips for festival attenders?
Come early, parking/muni delays happy all the time, as we know, and are schedule is pretty tight. Stick around after the film for the QAs. They can be really interesting. Buy lots of popcorn, the Roxie could use the money!

Any new festivals in the works?
Welllll, I'd be lying if I said no. But nothing firm enough to say out loud.

How many movies will you see at it this year?
35 features, about 60 shorts

In case you missed the packed ReadyMade party last night or were too distracted by all the cute people and free drinks to actually get any holiday shopping done here are some more events where you can spend some money and get your buzz on.

Tonight
Post-Postcard 11th Annual Small Format Art Sale
The LAB
2948 16th Street @ Capp
1-7pm
Free
Originally starting out as a postcard show, the LAB now invites artists to sell anything they can fit in a small box provided by them. Original pieces ranging from $1-$30.

Saturday 12/8
Nest Craft Show
The Hardware Store Gallery
3824 Mission Street
12-5pm
$5 at the door all proceeds go to Nest
Support a very cool non-profit that provides funding to women in developing countries to create their own craft-based businesses.

Sunday 12/9
SF Indie Mart
12 Galaxies
2565 Mission Street @ 22nd
12-5pm
Free
Sip on bloody marys and buy goods from over 40 tragically hip vendors.

-- HIJK, the Invisible Cities (voted "Best Indie Pop Band" by savvy SF Bay Guardian readers), and Show Me State: Oakland "math-rock" (!) art band HIJK celebrates the release of their latest work. DJ Ted Leibowitz of Bagel Radio spins in between sets. Show starts at 8 p.m. at the Rickshaw Stop, 155 Fell; $8.

-- Kim Addonizio: Local writer reads from her latest effort about a homeless junkie, My Dreams Out in the Street. 7 p.m. at Booksmith, 1644 Haight; free.

-- Aaron Ximm: Sound artist (not "musician", you plebeian fuck) presents his work tonight at a downtown listening party. Starts at 7 p.m. at SF Camerawork, 657 Mission (2nd floor); free.

Scott is the Art Director/Concept Artist at Double Fine Productions, creators of the acclaimed Psychonauts computer game, and he's a regular contributor to the Hickee comic anthology, the latest edition of which is due out this June. His work has also been featured in several various publications.

April is especially busy for Scott. He is currently doing a solo show called "Stacks of Stones" at Cowboys & Angels through June 5th, and the opening is tonight from 7 to 10 pm.

Scott is also part of four different group shows this month:

• "Picks of the Harvest" at Thinkspace Gallery in Los Angeles, opens this Friday and runs through April 27.

• "I Am 8 Bit" at Gallery 1988 in Los Angeles, opens April 17 and runs through May 12.

• "The Indie," part of the grand opening of Gallery 1988 in conjunction with the Alternative Press Expo in San Francisco, April 21 through May 12.

• "Music of Hickee Mountain" at Red Bird Studios in Montreal, April 26.

Then, hopefully Scott can take a break until June 7th, when he and the Hickee gang have another show in Portland at the Pony Club. (Jeez, we're just tired from typing all of this out!)

You can also buy some of Scott's prints online for a mere $20–30! That is, if we haven't snatched them all up already.

More of Scott's paintings and his great answers to SFist's questions after the jump!

The SF Asian-American Film Festival hosts not only ten days of the latest and greatest in Asian and Asian-American film, but two nights of current highlights from the Asian-American music scene too: one of hip-hop and electronica, and one of indie rock.

Every year these concerts sell out, so get ready, get set, and get those tickets!

Hip-hop/Dance: Friday, March 16, at the Independent, 5th Platoon's Neil Armstrong and Vin Roc, and SF MC Estiary, along with DJs Mochipet vs. Mike Boo vs. Mike Reed, and DJ Zita. Visuals by Daniel Hai. $9, 21+ (sorry, kids), tickets $15.

Indie rock: At the Rickshaw Stop on Wed. March 21, the full range of the Asian and Asian-American indie rock spectrum, from dreamy local faves Scrabbel to the all girl jangle-pop Oakland trio Dreamdate, a DJ to boot, and the latest craze, the Tokyo scenesters Kiiiiiiiii (we may not have the correct number of i's in there; we're too lazy to check). Kiiiii is described as "like the Olsen Twins, but Japanese and on acid," which we must admit we find to be an intriguing description. Tickets are $10, doors at 9 p.m (and also 21+).

By MiHi, contributing