Rejoice, space believers! For there is finally - yes, finally! - someplace you can go on l'Internet to read about such sci-fi-ness (excuse us, "science fiction-ness" for all of you purists) ranging from Samuel R. Delany to Joss Whedon to Small Wonder. Io9, a Bay Area-based blog care of Gawker, launched yesterday, and we couldn't be more thrilled. That is, until we read about their editor, Annalee Newitz. more ›

A sad week for LAist as they lose their trusted and amazing editor Tony Pierce to the LA Times, but what a blast his last week was. He shared his 25 Favorite CDs of 2007 and wrote a great review of just a good movie, No Country For Old Men. At UCLA, thousands of students celebrated the end of their quarter by running around campus in their undies (lots of photos in a two-part photo essay, one, two). That wasn't the only photo essay either: Joss Whedon/Mutant Enemy friends and Star Trek actors all joined in at the Writers Strike and KROQ's Almost Acoustic Christmas brought two nights of amazing bands that included Avenged Sevenfold, Linkin Park (Part I), Modest Mouse, Muse, Spoon and The Killers (Part II). Not only is L.A. a great music town, it has just been named the best city for bookish types. For those who are looking for something a little more active, American Gladiators are back (yes!) and if that's not enough, how about a Christmas gift of action and adventure? more ›

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Kablammo! Oh excuse us. We were just reading some comic books. This week, courtesy of Isotope's guidance, we're checking out Harvey Pekar's new book, . more ›

It's vaguely embarrassing to have to admit to you that there was definitely a general buzz of excitement at SFist HQ when SFist Jon found out that counterPULSE Theater was staging a live-action version of the Buffy The Vampire Slayer musical episode, "Once More With Feeling." Set for performances this weekend and next, tickets sold out pretty much immediately and geeks of all stripes (musical theater geeks, comic book geeks, Star Trek geeks, Joss Whedon geeks, and your everyday run of the mill geeks) began lovingly sheathing their precious original tickets in durable plastic covers to preserve forever. Well, where geeks go, lawyers are soon to follow -- last week, counterPULSE got an angry letter from Fox TV's attorneys, demanding that they cancel all the shows or face a copyright and trademark infringement lawsuit. Feeling as if they had no choice, counterPULSE has now cancelled all the Buffy shows (which they are now referring to as "the Halloween shows," or the "Uffy" shows). Fox is taking the position that it alone, and not some namby-pamby San Francisco theater group, has the right to profit from Buffy-related activities. counterPULSE has one last stake left in its back pocket, though -- Joss Whedon himself has apparently told Fox that he has no objection to the staging of the show, and counterPULSE has sent this along to Fox for consideration. Given the number of people whose rights would need to be cleared by tomorrow, though, we're not optimistic that this Buffy's going to be able save the universe this time. (On the bright side, collectors, you won't actually have to remove the ticket from the protective plastic sleeve you placed it in, and it won't be ripped at the door!) Picture of the Buffy musical soundtrack. Dear Fox: We believe the use of the BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER-related trademarks and copyrights in the context of this informational newspost constitutes permissible fair use. Please contact us if you have any questions. more ›

Oh man, it's a busy weekend for movies. There are two opening today that you absolutely must go see: , from the Jim Henson Company and writer Neil Gaiman and artist Dave McKean. We've been waiting all summer for A Good Movie to come out, and now, FINALLY, at long last, there's two reasons to go to the theater with our expectations high. more ›

An impatient mob nearly turned ugly last night at 1000 Van Ness, thanks to Joss Whedon. His new movie opens Friday (to confirm the obvious, it's F**KING AWESOME; we'll review it later this week) and last night the TL movie theater held a free sneak peek. Capitalizing on the buzz that "Firefly" (the show on which the movie's based) generated online, Universal let bloggers reserve seats in advance, with the condition that they blog about the movie. It seems to have worked -- Technorati shows 555 posts tagged "serenity" in the last 12 hours, and Google's blog search shows nearly 2,000 posts featuring the word in the last 2 weeks. Great idea! Did anyone get the short end of a stick? Yeah: non-bloggers. more ›

We didn't think our recent acquisition of digital cable would lead us to watch a bunch of shows we've already seen, but this is summer, after all. It's the season of reruns and crappy new reality shows. We already voiced our disdain for the latter last week, so this time we're going to wax nostalgic about some shows of yore, some shows that aired so long ago, you might have forgotten about them completely. more ›

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WonderCon was almost too much for we little nerds to handle. Look! It's Robot Monster! And over there! Spider-Man! And there's a storm trooper! And look--another storm trooper! And another! And enough with the storm troopers already, sheesh! more ›

Something's coming to San Francisco this weekend, something so big, and so exciting, that we couldn't contain our enthusiasm and had to write about it over a month ago. But now the waiting is over, and we can dust off our Princess Leia buns and our Spock ears (which can stand in for elvin ears in a pinch) and join the huddled masses that are just as dorky as us. more ›

…so we can accidentally hit people as we struggle to turn the pages while standing on BART! (sorry, neighbor.) Last week's cham-peen, the Guardian! Guess what the Guardian's worked up about? You'll never guess: PG&E! Also, an article providing a nice contrast to the Chron's unrelentingly pro-Newsom article series, about people falling through the cracks under Care Not Cash. Cover article: soldiers coming back from Iraq with post-traumatic stress disorder (well, sure). Annalee Newitz misses Joss Whedon. Sonic Reducer hated the new Lindsay Lohan album. Hooray For Anything got stuck directing traffic on Valencia this evening so no wank of the week. And to apologize for their absence over the past few weeks, the East Bay Express. Bottom Feeder gives some follow-up on the Stanford law student who became a prostitute and married one of the co-founders to Ask Jeeves.com. Apparently the law student was turned in to the IRS for tax evasion by Stone Cold Steve Austin's ex-girlfriend. A needle exchange group does one of those naked calendars to raise money. Is it just us or is that naked calendar thing getting kind of played out? People are getting botulism from a dirty batch of black tar heroin. Cover article: the dude who started dailykos.com (hey, did you hear there were a lot of bloggers covering the presidental election?). Places selling gingerbread houses, written up like real estate ads (FSBO). And hell yeah, a Jim Henson tribute band (the Dead Hensons) playing "upbeat hits" from Sesame Street, the Muppet Show, Fraggle Rock, and the Dark Crystal. (All together! One two three four five, six seven eight nine ten, eleven tweeeeeeeelve! The band notes that the funky guitar part in that song is actually kind of hard to play). The Weekly and the pick of the week, after the jump (let's all say it together: sorry, no Metro this week.) more ›