It looks like Mayor Gavin Newsom will take a stab at running for Governor of California in 2010. In addition to the gaggle of Democratic hopefuls looking to succeed Gov. Schwarzenegger after his reign comes to an end -- which include former governor Jerry Brown, former state controller Steve Westley, and Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, just to name a few -- San Francisco's very own mayor wants the title as well.

And seeing as how any serious contender "would need to raise anywhere from $30 to $40 million to mount a serious campaign," our wealthy mayor has a pretty good shot. According to CBS 5, Newsom "has been meeting privately with Democratic campaign strategists" about making the move from SF to Sacramento. CBS 5 goes on to say that "it's premature to talk about it in the open...we'll see what happens in the next few months."

Tournaments will be held in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Boston, with the winners of each city going to finals in New York. San Francisco's chance at playing will be on February 23 at 1015 Folsom, starting at 2 PM. The first 256 people at the door will get a chance to play, along with $10 Best Buy cards. While that's a lot of people to battle, the prizes are very sweet. According to Nintendo:

The grand prize winner will receive a crystal-coated Wii with a design from Super Smash Bros. Brawl, a home theater system from Best Buy and a copy of the game. The second-place finisher will receive one Wii system and Wii Remote, one copy of Super Smash Bros. Brawl and a $1,000 Best Buy gift card. The third-place finisher will receive a Wii and Wii Remote, a copy of the game and a $500 Best Buy gift card. The fourth-place finisher will receive a Wii, an extra Wii Remote, a copy of the game and a $250 Best Buy gift card.

Though this may amuse a smattering of transplants who neither want this city to grow nor evolve into the world-class city it secretly is, a new global Monopoly board is coming and San Francisco is not a part of it. You see, people of the earth get to vote to see which of the 68 world cities will make the final 22 on the global board game. San Francisco, it seems, is not on the list. In fact, California gets a pithy single nomination (Los Angeles) while France receives a shocking two (Paris Lyon).

Naturally, we are sick to our stomach over this slight. With geographical locations whose existence we question, like "Buenos Aires, Argentina;" "Shanghai, China;" "Caracas, Venezuela;" and "Canada," we're both saddened and surprised not to find Baghdad by the Bay among the list. Hrumph, indeed.

Fear not, San Franciscans--or Oaklanders, Athertonians, or Orindaians, or whatever--there is a write-in wildcard category where you can vote up to 10 times per day for which city not in the nomination bunch will become one the properties on the board. The downside? You have to register. Alas. Anyway, you can vote here.

Gavin, this seems like your kind of issue, yes? Let's get on it, stallion.

We instantly checked to see who was "headlining" the event and the six biggest names are: Jack Johnson, the Verve, Raconteurs, Portishead, Kraftwerk, Death Cab for Cutie, Roger Waters, Love and Rockets and My Morning Jacket. It doesn't seem as strong of a line-up compared to last year's line-up: Arcade Fire, Andrew Bird, The Decemberists, Amy Winehouse and of course, Bjork. (And we only named a few.) Is it as exciting? We're thinking, no. But, we were excited to see two local bands come up on the list: Rogue Wave and dredg.

Rogue Wave, an indie-rock band from Oakland, are performing on the first day of the festival, Friday, April 25th. They recently released their third album, "Asleep at Heaven's Gate" on Brushfire Records. (Their first two records were released on Subpop Records.) Zack Rogue, the lead singer and founder of the band, has been featured at Noise Pop 2006 where SFist Emily thought the male-pattern baldness seemed to plague half of the band members. (That sucks.) This doesn't deter these guys from rocking out.

Dredg (officially named "dredg" with a lower-case d) are originally from Los Gatos and have been together since 1996. They officially just came out of hibernation last fall with a performance at Great American Music Hall. (Did anyone go?) It looks like they will have some new music for Coachella.

To see the full list of performers, take the jump.

He's cute, 1/3 Jewish, 1/3 Filipino, and 1/3 Los Angelian. What more do you need? Oh yes, he also brings on the funny. Big time. And tomorrow night he will appear with Moshe Kasher and Alex Koll in Boomtime. What is Boomtime, you ask? Ahem:

Boomtime is the newest incarnation of Berlin's seminal modern dance troupe: Bodies-In-Motion. The three former San Francisco stand-up comedians Brent Weinbach, Moshe Kasher, and Alex Koll leapt into the forefront of the 1980's modern dance movement with their piece, "Defecating On The Berlin Wall." Ronald Regan later credited the performance with the toppling of the wall. Boomtime has quickly become known as the most famous of the all male, anti-communist, defecation-based, West-Berlin, avant-garde modern dance troupes.

And lookie here, we're giving away free tickets to the show on Jan 16th, Wednesday, at the Eureka Theatre. Simply fill out the info below, and you might get the chance to catch Brent Weinbach in Boomtime for free. Yay, you. (Part of SF Sketchfest.)

Well, this was unnerving.

We came across these, um, public art pieces while walking down Stillman Street. Shot earlier this evening, the paint was fresh yet gooey. If we had to guess, one to two days old, maybe? What these images lack in whimsical mischief--like last November's bout of graffiti that marred a Los Gatos church, which somehow made Bay Area headlines--they make up for in fear and fright.

Anyway, we're curious: what exactly does "Ø.F.C." mean? According to neighbors in the area, this acronym, along with the classic swastika, have made appearances on the stairwell walls of residential apartment buildings on Stillman Street over the last six months, but they're also stumped as to the meaning of "Ø.F.C."

But wait, there's more: for even more Neo-Naziesque hate signage in SOMA, including a misguided tribute to Vacaville, follow the jump.

Reading a rare, first-edition copy of Sherlock Holmes on the bus sounds like a very San Francisco thing to do -- no matter what decade.

Submit your Bay Area finds to found [at] sfist [dot] com, or tag them sfist and found on Flickr! Let us know where/when you found the item and any other helpful info.

It appears that the Billy Beane Player Emporium is still open for business as Beane just traded Nick Swisher to the White Sox for a bunch of prospects. The house-cleaning continues.

Swisher batted .262 with 22 home runs and 78 RBIs, all career highs, and he appeared to be on the cusp of being one of the A's Big Dogs. More importantly to all those stat-heads, he had high numbers in things like walks, pitches seen per plate appearance and on-base percentage against left-handed pitchers. He was also wildly popular with A's fans for his laid-back demeanor and friendliness. The prospects the A's received in return were Gio Gonzalez, pitcher Fautino De Los Santos and outfielder Ryan Sweeney. All of the prospects the A's received were among the best in the Sox system but are all a very bright shade of green.

With this trade and the Haren trade, the A's seem to have restocked and retooled their farm system and added depth to the team. And Beane always seems to know what he's doing, but, as an A's fan and coworker just exclaimed when she heard about the trade "I hate this stupid team" and disavowed her fandom. We should also note that while reaction on Athletics Nation hasn't quite filtered through, one of the tags given on a post about it was "suicide." For what it’s worth, Sox think Beane pulled a fast one on the Sox GM.

Still, it's not easy being a fan of the gold and green.