Sorry for the last minute notice, but those who are already in the Union Square area could still benefit from this tip provided by FuncheapSF. Emporio Rulli Il Caffé, the Italian pastry, cafe, and wine bar located at the Stockton and Post corner of Union Square wants your participation in celebrating Italy's 150th year of unification by singing "Happy Birthday, Italia!" and enjoying some cake. more ›

The first previously unknown work by Leonardo Da Vinci to be discovered in a hundred years, a 13-by-10-inch chalk, ink and pencil drawing being called "La Bella Principessa," has been identified via fingerprint evidence. Using forensic technology, a Montreal-based forensic art expert has matched a fingerprint and palm print on the work to that of Leonardo Da Vinci, who apparently left fingerprints on many of his art works. The unsigned drawing had previously been attributed to a 19th Century German artist, until a collector purchased it on suspicion that it looked older than that and that it looked like Da Vinci's work. Experts now believe it is a portrait of the daughter of a 15th Century Milanese duke, and it was basically being used to pimp her out to prospective suitors -- not unlike profile pictures people use today to sell themselves on internet dating sites. more ›

A 6.3 earthquake killed more than 150 people in central Italy, making it the deadliest quake to hit the country in nearly three decades. According to reports, 10,000 to 15,000 buildings were either damaged or destroyed and about 100,000 people have been left homeless in the medieval city of L'Aquila. more ›

We love it when events combine movies and music! So check out , a documentary about the creation of a multi-ethnic world music orchestra from Italy. Diverse residents of the Piazza Vittorio neighborhood in Rome banded together and created the multi-ethnic world music orchestra in an attempt to save a historic movie theater from destruction. The movie then follows the orchestra's unlikely rise to success and the various musicians' stories. more ›

Someone told us a story of a famous pianist who believed in bringing culture to the people, and went to a factory in Italy to give a lecture in front of a piano. He started to talk about Schoenberg, and after a few minutes, a voice rose from the audience: "Shut up, and play!" Ok, he said, and sat down at the piano, playing the Schoenberg piece. The voice rose again: "Rather, talk!" more ›

That headline doesn't seem like anything new, but this model appears to be of a different eating-disorder variety. (Think The Insider-anorexic, not Anna Wintour anorexic) more ›

-- Audiofly: Euroduo (England's Anthony Middleton and Italy's Luca Saporito) throw down here in the states. Expect lots of basslines, techno-ness, and Italian-pop. Music starts at 9 p.m. Mighty,119 Utah (at 15th Street); $10-12. more ›

Oh dear God. Sydney, Australia has locked itself in the bathroom with a razorblade, threatening to cut its wrist, because you just totally don‘t understand them. It seems after an eight-year high atop Travel + Leisure’s (mildly arbitrary) "World’s Best City" list, for a second year in a row, it fell to a disgraceful fifth place. Simply shamless, we say. (Italy's Florence took the gold, by the way.) But the best part is that a Sydney official is "calling for all Sydneysiders to help return the city to its rightful spot at No.1." more ›

Total number of people pictured in this week's Swells society column: 67. more ›

The other day, we told you our impressions of Naia Gelateria (nutshell: pretty good overall; you should particularly dig it if you enjoy having a ton of varieties to choose from). We wanted to know a little more about this Bay Area company, so we approached Trevor Morris, the company's general manager. He's been running the company since 2003, and had prior experience in the restaurant industry before that. He took the time to answer a few questions. more ›

Everyone else is getting their swerve on (dang, that light IS bright!) so we're jumping on the bandwagon. Here's where to go for the steamy haps tonight: more ›

Lucky Carol Ness! The Chronicle Food section scribe is off in Turin, Italy, to update us on a BIG meeting for the Slow Food Movement. Her detailed reporting has always shined (ring the full disclosure bell: yes, we used to intern there, and yes, we have pals there, including our husband). Of particular note is the fact that many Californians--both famous and not so much - are participating. For the record, Dairy Queen at The Ethicurean is interested and green with envy over the Turin happenings. Mmmmkay. We're not sure we agree with Ms. DQ that the Bay Area scene is “as deserted as New York in August.” We'd rather be here, with all the artisan chocolate with tea notes, pumpkins, squash, beets, and cavolo nero popping up. We mean it, we really, really do. more ›

There sure are a lot of fans of The Decemberists, judging by the fact that they're about to play tonight and Friday night here at the relatively giant Warfield Theater. If you haven't heard their new album The Crane Wife, we're giving you a chance to win a copy of it plus a 20"x10" lithograph signed by all 5 members of the band. We'd show you a photo of the lithograph if we had one, but just trust that it'll be a collector's item regardless. That's one thing jumping to a major label will buy you: fancier schwag. (Contest ends 10/25; winner will be notified via email.) more ›

Caught World Cup Fever? Been watching the games? Have you been immersing yourself in terms like "Total Football" or "Catenaccio"? We ourselves have been totally obsessed about the Cup since it began. We've watched games when we could, TiVo'ed others. We've read World Cup blogs, live blogged, snuck peak at live feeds at work, and have been reading far more English newspapers than we ever thought we would. We've been so obsessed with it, in fact, that even though there's two more games left, we are already mourning the end of it and have vowed that this time, this time!-- we will continue on with our rediscovered love of soccer and start paying more attention to the Premiere and Champions Leagues. Hell, we have already marked Euro 2008 on our calendars (June 2008). more ›

Since we wrote so much about the Great Booze Brouhaha of '06, we decided to check things out for ourselves. So we grabbed a few friends, watched the epic US/Italy game at Gino & Carlos, and then headed off to check out the Precious Cheese North Beach Festival. First off, we would like to report that getting booze was not a problem. Not a problem at all. We, in fact, quote a friend of ours who we ran into: "mumble...mumble...mumble...I'm so heated!" We can also report that the bars were buzzing, the liquor stores selling, and the drunks drinking. In fact, according to the Examiner, the liquor stores made out like bandits as everyone took the proposed liquor ban as an excuse to BYOB the thing (no link to the article due to excessive suckage on part of the Examiner's Web site). Which probably explains all the people drinking in places they supposedly weren't supposed to be drinking. But we can't really say that Gavin's Great Compromise really worked out. more ›

Okay, so hopefully we got you into the idea of watching games. Now what? How do you know whom to root for? And most importantly, how can you pretend that you know what's going on? After all, you don't want to walk into a pub full of drunken Swedes and come off looking like you just wandered in by accident. That would make you look like the worst of the worst-- an Ugly American. You don't want to look like an Ugly American, now do you? more ›

It is customary to start any post about the World Cup by stating that you should care. We won't do that. Y'all know what a big deal it is and how pretty much every part of the world that isn't Canada or the U.S. is effectively shutting itself down for a month to watch. Besides, we have a feeling part of the reason soccer has never really taken off here is because too many people tell you that you have to care. So getting into soccer becomes something like eating broccoli or the metric system or any other things you are told to do because it's good for you. As a result, people here start getting all huffy and get all "nuh-uh, we're 'merican's damnit. We like our sports with non-stop action, lots of beer commercials, and scoreboards telling us when to cheer and when not to cheer, you Euro Weenie One World-ist!" Instead, we're going to try and get you into it by showing you just how much fun the World Cup can be. Picture it not as something you have to do because you have to be like everyone else, but as, well, kind of a way to travel around the world in a month without ever having to leave the city. more ›

hungry. Boy were we glad we'd had that burrito (but we must admit, that didn't prevent us from stopping off for a slice after the film). Even if you don’t love pizza, which is hard to fathom, this one's a must-see. more ›

Doesn't anyone in the 415 want a Keith Haring mural? A local SoMA day care center for underprivileged youth puts its Keith Haring mural on the block, with no local takers. more ›

SFist Ced graciously allowed us to take a small break from weekly-reading and political-junkie-ing for a lovely evening out at the Opera -- thanks, Ced! The few times we've gone to the opera previously, we've only been able to afford the seats that are so high up in the building that Jon Krakauer is writing a book about our trek up the stairs (contrary to the rumors, we were not short-roped) -- what a treat to be down on the main floor where the oxygen is so thick and water boils at the regular 212 degrees Fahrenheit! It's a totally different scene on the first floor -- the lines for the bathroom are shorter, women wear sparklier dresses, and -- who knew? -- there's a cafe in the basement! We looked for Sean Wilsey's stepmother in the audience but the program said that she usually sits in Box O on the second floor. Rodelinda is a Baroque-era opera written in 1725 by George Friederic Handel (you may remember him from such hits as The Hallelujah Chorus). Rodelinda is the queen of Naples, who has just been told that her husband, King Bertario, has been found dead. Bertario's rival, Duke Grimoaldo, will take the throne in his place. Turns out Grimoaldo's been in love with Rodelinda for years (despite being engaged to Bertario's sister Eduige) and threatens to kill Rodelinda's son Flavio if she doesn't agree to marry him. Tough breaks! Making things more complicated, Bertario's not actually dead, he's just escaped back into the kingdom. Will Rodelinda marry Grimoaldo to save her child? What about Bertario's kingdom? And why is the sinister bass singer named Garibaldo always lurking around? The Opera also made one of those "controversial" moves in the operatic community, and decided to shift the setting of Rodelinda from 18th century Italy to the 1940s, and designed the sets with a modernist, film noir-type feel instead. So instead of the usual (faux-)ermine robes and scepters you think of when you think of Baroque opera, the women wore snazzy vintage suits and the men wore bow ties and tuxes. And the "kingdom" consisted of city buildings and bridge underpasses, instead of the usual moats and turrets you'd expect. After the jump: a mezzo writhing on the floor, molls and gangsters, and -- was that booing we heard when the set designers took a bow? Picture from the SF Opera more ›

San Francisco's a city of immigrants -- how many people do you know who actually grew up here? -- and our lovely vintage F-line is no exception. The refurbished trolley cars on the F hail from Boston, Philadelphia, England, Italy, and, notably, New Orleans; and starting tomorrow, the New Orleans trolley (that's the one with the sign that says "A Streetcar Named Desire") will be carrying a torch for its hometown. Actually, it'll be carrying a banner, reading "help the people of my hometown," with contact info for the Red Cross. The idea was started by friend of SFist and geeky transit enthusiast Jamision, who brought the idea to Supervisor Bevan Dufty. Bevan liked the idea and forwarded it to Stuart Sunshine, the interim head of Muni, and after some public prodding, a plan to encourage donations went ahead. Muni also just acquired an additional vintage New Orleans trolley (that one not in running condition); it's nice to see SF welcoming Nola's displaced residents, be they human or mechanical. And don't forget to give. more ›

SFist interviews Jennfier Gentle off the subpop label more ›

We fondly remember when we lived in New York oh so many years ago and we had a chuckle with a dear friend about a hilarious article in the New York Times about how they were going to name that little section of SoHo west of Broadway "NoLIta." "Nolita! North of Little Italy! Ha ha ha ha ha ha!" we said. Both of us moved to San Francisco shortly afterwards, and now the name Nolita is so unremarkable that it's become the name of an indie-pop chanteuse's album. Go figure. We were reminded of this touching tale of New York in the 90s by a piece in the Chron's newly re-jazzed San Francisco section, about how the neighborhood by the Farmers' Market and the Waterfront is taking a vote on adopting a cool new moniker for the area. Residents and people who work in the area say it'll help their image and give them more clout at City Hall if they have a buzzy new name to call themselves. We giggled a little when we read this -- but hey, no doubt that "Nolita" has done pretty well for itself since we left New York. Names under consideration include: the East Harbor District, Historic Waterfront, NoMa (oh Noma!), Seawall, and Yerba Buena Cove. We kind of like "Barbary Coast." If you live or work in the area, you're welcome to vote from 6-8 at MacArthur Park. We're looking forward to seeing new Neighborhoodies with whatever name wins the election jauntily festooned on the front! more ›

First order of business first, we run a correction. We described last week’s place Coryia Hot Pot City as Korean, as it reminded us of Brothers and such bbq places. We were oh so wrong, we hid in shame for a week. Thanks for reader Mihi for putting our nose in our doodoo, and telling us the place is more, like, Taiwanese. more ›

The Trimethyldioxypurist goes to Mario's Bohemian Cigar Store -- a small, intimate cafe in North Beach, right on the corner of Columbus and Union. more ›

When reviewing a cafe or coffee shop, the Trimethyldioxypurist's typical modus operandi is to order a straight-up cup of good ol' American drip, nothing fancy -- a good benchmark to measure the general quality of a shop with its peers. more ›