Gus Van Sant isn't the only one who might make you a shiny, coke-addled star here in San Francisco. Take, for example, MTV and NBC who want to use you for their up-and-coming reality programming....

We swear, this guy is one step away from strapping road flares to his chest. Now, it's increasingly difficult for us to explain the conceptual art that is Michael Savage's work. Its genius lies in its demented complexity. But according to Bay City News (via CBS 5), Savage recently "sued the Council on American-Islamic Relations in federal court in San Francisco Monday over the group's use of his words on its Web site." Apparently,......

The sands of Marin and San Mateo have officially reopened to the public. (We recommend hitting the beach in the fall. There's something luxurious about walking on the beach, bundled up in winter clothing.) What's more, 50 wild birds have been cleaned up and released at Pillar Point Yacht Harbor at Half Moon Bay. But what's worse, "the spill has cost the U.S. government $1.4 million, money spent on operations by the Coast Guard,......

We've been a big fan of Willo O'Brien's design work for several years now. She's got the chops to hang with the code geeks, but she's also a hell of an illustrator, drawing funny animals like bass playin' polar bears, ice skating bunnies...and you should see what she can do with a pumpkin. We usually run into her at shows, but when we heard she was branching out and had launched her own line of......

This 4-bedroom, 5-bathroom house helped to land 94123 on Forbes’ Most Expensive Zip Codes list - #55 to be exact. At 2500 Lyon Street, you can live right down the street from Gordon Getty and Larry Ellison. How fun! The property lies at the entrance to the Lyon Street steps and boasts “abundant with rich and opulent architectural detailing and superb Bay views.” Not expensive enough for you? Coldwell Banker lists another 94123 gem......

All this kafuffle over the Patriot's version of sex, lies, and videotape can only remind us of one thing-- the Greatness of the Raidahs. What other football team is so synonymous with cheating? It's part of their legend, their mystique, their je ne sais quoi. Hell, even Lisa Simpson even knows this. Or, as John Madden put it: "everybody says the Raiders cheat...OK, we cheat. So, what are you going to do about it?" ...

There was very little else for Londonist to be concerned with when the threat of a Tube strike became a very unpleasant reality. The inconvenience was extreme: there aren't many alternatives to the Tube in London despite the best efforts of the Londonist team to get everyone from A to B. Brighter news came in the form of the first ever female Yeoman Warder, or Beefeater as the position is more commonly known, and......

Firings! Lies! Non-lies! It's so fucking exciting! A few hours after our post last week about Jeff's cameras in the THC's Seneca Hotel, we caught word of some firings. OMG did we get someone canned? Well, no. As it turns out, two folks were terminated at a different property (here's the job posting for their replacements), but it wasn't related to the cameras. Whatever the real reasons are for the firings, they cannot possibly......

SFist interviews Jonn Herschend and Will Rogan, creators of The Thing, subscription art project. ...

-- The jarring, devastating, Lohanesque Midgen-behind-the-wheel 911 tapes will shock you. Only not so much. [Chron] -- Randy Shaw has it that the glowing, science fiction-y Transbay Terminal choices aren't nominees at all, but simply glowing, science fiction-y lies. A tissues of lies. [Beyond Chron] -- Media-hungry Daly decides not to run. For now, anyway. [SFBG, Chris Daly] -- Truck kills cyclist in Oakland. [Indy Bay] -- Motorcycle race turns deadly. No kidding. [Chron]......

There aren't a hell of a lot of Wendy's left in SF. The one on 658 Market closed all too soon, and we're dying to sample the Baconator. (We really are.) Although we appreciate the noble and expensive slow-food movement, we'll always prefer Wendy's square-cut meat patties cooked in record time. Except this redhead group won't: the NAARP, National Association for the Advancement of Redhaired [sic] People (or perhaps the marketing division at Wendy's International,......

Officer Andrew Cohen made headlines in recent years for the videos he produced spoofing the SFPD. The videos were intended to be a humorous sendoff to former police captain Rick Bruce and poke fun at the officers at his station. They were also intended to be internal -- but they got out, and things got out of hand. We wanted to take this opportunity with Cohen to ask about more than the "VideoGate" scandal, rather than just rehashing what most of us already know. We sought the 12-year-vet's opinion on the state of policing in the city, his perspective on local politics and political figures, and what comes next for him....

Remember that lady who was painting signs all over house because of supposed messages from God? Well, San Mateo's Community Improvement Commission weighed in on the matter yesterday and determined that they've had enough. So the issued a ruling which said that the woman, Estrella Benevides has until February 14th to clean everything up. If she refuses, she'll be fined $50 for every day she leaves the message up. She also has to pay a fee of $1,829 for administrative reasons. ...

t's looking like Spocko the Blogger's little stunt he pulled on KSFO is working. Both Bank of America and MasterCard pulled either all of their advertising or some of their advertising from KSFO. Others are expected to follow suit. ...

It's been All Quiet on the Stadium Front lately but just recently, the San Jose Mercury News got their grubby little hands on a whole bunch of complaints the 49ers have filed with the city of San Francisco. Lots of things falling, things flooding, and things breaking. ...

Worst. Holiday. Ever. For. Eritreans Near and Far. We’re not joking about the sadness and confusion this Turkey Day crime has wreaked. The shell-shocked East African Eritrean Bay Area community, numbering 10,000 to 12,000 strong according to many reports, is still reeling from the Thanksgiving Day killings that left 3 members of the same family dead in an Oakland apartment shoot out. "This is the worst ightmare for Eritreans,"Yikaalo Gebreselassie of Alameda told the Chron, who said he was a friend of the victims. "We've never had this kind of experience before, and now we have three people dead." ...

We've got some minicomics this week, some of which were written by locals. But this is a little awkward -- the best ones are by non-Sanfranciscans. WTF, local comics folk? Where is the local answer to Man Enough, by New Yorker Bill Roundy? It's a humble story with humble art, detailing two boys' nervous first date. Well, actually, one of them isn't exactly a boy. That's what makes it so awkward. Sometimes, the GLBs......

Tonight we're headed down to the Hemlock (1131 Polk Street) for the release party for Volume one Of Defenestration Literary Magazine. No, silly, not The other Defenestration, this is the "all-girl, San Francisco pajama party" Defenestration. Who would you rather hit the Hemlock with? The event is gloriously free, and runs from 6:30-8:30 tonight. There'll be readings from Volume One, billed as "Lies exposed, curse words uttered, Keith Richards mentioned."......

Special chock-full-of-mp3s-from-great-local-bands edition! Hailing from Helsinki, Husky Rescue blends the rich, cinematic production and songwriting of Marko Nyberg with the gorgeous, honeyed vocals of Reeta-Leena Korhola. The result is a hypnotic combination that lies somewhere between futuristic and backwoods. Listen to "New Light of Tomorrow" and enter to win a copy of their record Country Falls. Be sure to see their live show on Friday at the Rickshaw Stop. (Contest ends 9/13; winner will be......

Still without a clear idea of what Chris Mullin and company think the identity of this team is, Warrior nation breathlessly awaits (reg. req.) the results of today's NBA draft. With the 9th and 38th picks, there's a chance the Warriors could come away with a missing piece of the puzzle.

But InsideBayArea.com staff writer Geoff Lepper reports that when "asked to put a percentage value on the chances that the No.9 pick will make it to October training camp as a Warrior, Mullin demurred, saying, 'I couldn't answer that now. It's total speculation.'" That's confidence inspiring.

Who Mullin selects should be determined by what type of team he is trying to build, but therein lies the rub: what type of team is he trying to build? A high-flying fast break team? A half-court grinder? A team built around defense?

After a Q&A with less specifics than a Scott McClellan press briefing, we still don't know! Mullin doesn't have to tell us exactly who he wants to draft, but he could at least give us a detailed description of the type of team he wants to build. Otherwise, it just looks like the same old Warriors' game plan: draft the "best available player," muddle through another season of mismatched parts, flub a lottery pick, repeat.

We're sure the problem is that Mully just isn't getting enough opinions or input about who to take with the team's two picks. To give him a hand, we've drawn up a little primer that he can use to guide him through tomorrow's Kobiashimaru.

Top-secret photo of Warriors' hi-tech draft selection determination device from the San Luis Valley (CO) Museum Association.

Remember those halcyon days of 2005 when it became apparent the Giants season was not going to go as expected and everyone on the team started in with the kvetching? Well, it's happening again. First up to start in with the kvetching is the Giants' closer, Armando Benitez. Benitez complained to a writer about the negative vibes in the clubhouse, boos from the stands, negative comments from the broadcasters, and disrespect from the manager. Other than that, he's doing fine. ...

Someone please page the karma police, vengeance division: a man is in court for allegedly pimping out a mentally handicapped woman in San Mateo County. He and a buddy had stolen a car they were using to drive her to her assignments, and were caught when the police traced the car's Onstar signal to their place. Wow, evil and dumb. Earlier this week, the tony Los Altos Hills suffered its first armed robbery in at least four years, necessitating a search dog, a roadblock, and a police helicopter. A white man with a heavy Slavic accent and wearing a track suit, broke into a couple's home, duct-taped them up, repeatedly asked them if they were okay, and then made off with $300, two watches, and some costume jewelry. Well, isn't this nice? A man claiming to be the robber called the San Jose Mercury News to say that it was a fake gun and that he's not going to rob the couple again. "They can sleep." The robber said he was looking for something specific, which he wouldn't name, but which a neighbor said was two Ferraris. And a physics teacher at Mount Tamalpais High is in a heap o' trouble, after a parent complained anonymously about his methods of teaching velocity to students, which involved bringing in his Korean War rifle and firing a bullet into a piece of wood in class, and then having the students calculate how fast the bullet was going. The physics teacher says it's completely safe because he has all the students stand behind him when he fires the gun. In this class, he also lies on a bed of nails and asks students to break a cinder block on his chest with a sledge hammer (we can't tell if the sledgehammer part is at the same time as the bed of nails). ...

Arriving at Baycat, the Bayview Hunters Point Center for Arts & Technology, about forty minutes prior to the San Francisco premier of "Favela Rising," we hadn’t banked on the sellout crowd. Fortunately, we were offered standing room, which turned out to be the best "seats" in the house. (Once the film rolled, several others joined us on the tables we stood on throughout the show to better view the subtitles.) The cozy environment was......

The Electronic Entertainment Expo is so close you can almost taste the LA smog and the tangy sweat of desperation. In honor of that, this week's round-up is all videogame-related news. Nintendo gave bloggers-who-think-they're-funny a present on Thursday by announcing the new name for their upcoming Revolution console (warning: slow-loading Flash site). It's going to be called "Wii." Seriously. With a "distinctive ii spelling" that's pronounced like "we," "wee," "oui," and "Wheee!" Early buzz......

We've heard a lot about China's 33 pound cat, and were feeling sort of itchy and jealous. How can we bring some of that fat cat glamour to the Bay Area? Thank goodness SFst Rita tipped us off to Novato's El Gordo, who weighs 32 pounds, after a recent 10 pound weight loss. That's right, before going on his diet, this cat weighed 10 pounds more than China's celebrity cat. Bay Area RULEZ! El......

When we at SFist get our staff together, it's usually pretty fun. There's booze, and we talk about the site a little, and it's no big thing. Then again, we don't have the flop sweat of losing, like, a million bucks a week, so we can afford to be laid back. But, oh, to be a fly on the wall of a recent staff meeting at a local daily publication. In a sort of......

The Giants said hello to a new friend yesterday and resigned relief pitcher Tim Worrell. Worrell was with the team in the Glory Days between 2001-2003 and was involved in two of the most gut wrenching moments of SFist's life-- Game 3 against the Marlins in 2003 and Game 6 of the Series. Which, actually, isn't that fair as we like Worrell. He was always a steady setup man and performed nobly as a reliever when Nenn went down in 2003 (and helped our fantasy team come in 2nd place) and we never really blamed him for the collapses. We blame Felix Rodriguez. We'll always remember his goalie like stop in the eleventh inning (we think) of that climatic game against the Fish which made us think for just a second, a smidgeon of a second, that everything will be allright. Or something like that. We've been blocking most of that game for years now. ...

Wait, what's that you say? There's lots of political bickering in San Francisco? Well blow us down! We'd never have guessed. As usual, this year's local ballot features some posturing, some confusing language, and some claims that aren't NECESSARILY lies, per se, depending on how you squint at things. You don't want to get involved in all that, do you? Feh! Here's what it boils down to for SF's three major voting blocs: Pure-hearted......

Oh man oh man, we cannot freakin' wait to see Where The Truth Lies, opening this weekend at the Lumiere. We're big fans of the director, Atom Egoyan, who is not only an Oscar nominee but also a frequent director on the late, great "Friday the 13th: The Series". Hell, yeah. Anyway, the movie is unrated (which still gives us an adolescent thrill), and tells the story of a Martin and Lewis inspired comedy......

Did you look up the other day and see that big Green R rotating slowly in the sky? That's the Mirkarimi-signal! To the Ross-cave! We'll take the Prius-mobile! Remember when District 5 supervisor Ross Mirkarimi stopped a robbery in progress a few months ago? Well, the Examiner reports today that our superhero supe is safening up the Haight yet again: on Sunday, Ross was enjoying the beautiful weather in his district with a walk in Buena Vista Park. Suddenly -- "help! help!" Ross and his friend raced down the hill and found a man in need of medical attention. Ross performed CPR on the man as they waited for 911 -- and then Ross helped the EMTs get the man into the ambulance when it got there. The Examiner doesn't say how the man's doing now, but does note, "There's no word on whether the man was a voter in District 5." To be fair, the last time this happened, Ross seemed kind of embarrassed about the attention, asked people not to make him into some kind of "caped crusader," and said, "Anyone would do such a thing." Like Mariah Carey says, the hero lies in yooooooooooou. Maybe we'll name Ross the head of SF's Office of Emergency Services now! ...