Did you miss us last week? Here are our excuses: we caught a cold, had a birthday, and were up to here with work at our dayjob, for real. We're back now and anxiously awaiting a copy of Or, the Whale's brand new CD Light Poles and Pines to arrive in our mailbox. The few songs we've previewed on their site offer up banjo, steel guitar, and a chorus of male and female vocals......

It's Tuesday, so what better night to premiere a show called "Friday Night Lights"? Yeah, we think it's a pretty boneheaded move on NBC's part, but the networks seem terrified to schedule anything of real quality on Friday nights because they think people don't watch TV on Friday nights. Have they ever considered the notion that people don't watch as much TV on Friday nights because there isn't anything GOOD ON? "The Ghost Whisperer"?......

Hey you kids: get off Wednesday's lawn! Tonight: Nothing says fun like a documentary about a bipolar girl trying to deal with life after her failed suicide attempt! The Film Arts Foundation is screening Learning to Swallow as part of their True Stories: Sneak Previews of New Documentaries series. 7:30 p.m. at the Yerba Buena Center Screening Room, $8. Thursday: The Surround>Sound series wraps up its San Francisco aural experience at the Luggage Store Gallery......

So many moons ago, we wrote a post about Other Magazine. We were still young, unknown punks on this here locally scribbler scene. Nearly a year and a half later, we're still young punks at least (though we'll just be punks before long), mostly by virtue of being accepted by actual literary luminaries like Charlie Anders and Annalee Newitz. Granted, they're not hard to find, with Charlie MCing Writers With Drinks at the Makeout......

Sometimes, you just have to love Fox. While they continue to ponder what to do with their good shows, poking at them like a giant gorilla prodding at the t-rex it just killed (yeah, we saw King Kong recently), they have no problem creating blatant rip-offs of shows that are pretty much junk to begin with. We can almost hear them pounding their chests with pride. "Dancing with the Stars" has its devoted following,......

Yeah, we know. d=hv&cf=info&id=1808505212&intl=us">King Kong came out on Wednesday, and people love it. We've tried to be all cool "we already know how it ends, what's the point?" about this movie, but we'll tell you a secret: the reason we'll never see this movie is because we just can't f**king stand how sad we know it will make us. Just watching the Ebert and Roper review of it was enough to choke us up.......