Do you remember what happened October 1st, 1991 at the Oakland Coliseum? It was George Michael's last concert in the Bay Area. It has been 17 years since the Bay Area last hosted the international pop star! Not much has changed: back then we were amidst the Gulf War and Clinton was seeking the Democratic nomination. Sound familiar? Very. George Michael will be bringing his smash 25 LIVE tour to North American Arenas in the......

California's First Lady makes yet another visit to S.F...

Because we love us some music lists and just featured our staff's favorite songs and albums of 2007, we thought it would be nifty to feature up-and-coming efforts of '08. A few of our favorite seasoned artists will release new works, along with new talent on the horizon that we're impatiently anticipating (even some local bands!), so check them out: 1. Sia, Some People Have Real Problems - (Monkey Puzzle Records/Hear Music) 1/8 -......

The loss of Simone in last week's episode of "Project Runway" leaves us with one local left to root for. (Although as Rita pointed out in her recap of the show, Jack went to U.C. Berkeley, so that kind of counts. But we'll see how well Chris does before we set our sights on him...) At the beginning of the episode we were put through the always boring selection-of-the-models ritual. This could be a......

Let's be honest, we were never really Maroon 5 fans. (Ick, right? Right.) We've never turned off their music if it happened to be on the radio but we've never, by choice, listened to it on our iPod. It is not because they are bad or hate their music - we've just never really cared to listen to them (voluntarily). Maroon 5 picked the best band to open for them, The Hives because they......

Mission hipster haven, Ritual Roasters, is hosting a stellar art event organized by curator/painter/illustrator extraordinaire, Sacha Eckes. The show runs through December 2nd and features artists Timothy Buckwalter, Bill Dunlap, Sacha Eckes, Nancy Mizuno Elliott, Christopher Jernberg, Alexis Mackenzie, Paul Madonna (whom we interviewed in May), Mike Monteiro, Fred Rinne, Brion Nudah Rosch & Ifton Schlinger and Micke Tong. Each artist has created about three pieces of art, which have been framed in white,......

Anyways, Sean saw this, failed to see any humor in it, and made his offer to be the money bags to everyone's favorite "hunky-hipster attorney". Again, we don't know if this is true or what the what is with the story. It could be a joke, a crazy rumor, or something Sean and Matt jokingly talked about while drinking some wine and discussing the finer points of Costas Gravas's L'Aveu. ...

Banner week for SFist as the site's new editor introduced himself -- hooray for Brock! While the NY Times weighed in on SF's mayoral race, only SFist had the (insert tongue firmly into cheek) hard-hitting latest on candidate/activist Josh Wolf. Coverage of a protest vs. gentrification spawned a fantastic debate amongst SFist's readers. Finally, from the sublime to the ridiculous: video of a man that confused a Board of Supes meeting with "open mic......

YES!!!! Thank you, CUIP-SF, for passing along your YouTube clip of the guy singing his pro Ed Jew version of Madonna's Borderline at the public comment session of yesterday's Board of Supervisors meeting! Thank you thank you thank you!!! The Chron's Local News Blog's got a clip up too. Hooray!......

--Local photog Thomas Hawk gets assaulted for taking pictures -- again. [Thomas Hawk's Digital Connection, via the SFist tips line. update: From last year! Sorry! Keep those tips fresh, folks!] --C.W. Nevius didn't start the fire. [The Chron.] --Republicans busted by SF State for stomping on Muslim flags with the word "Allah" written on them are now suing. Oh, that's rich. [CBS 5.] --You thought Ed Jew Borderline was awesome? If that was Madonna,......

Thanks to Sweet Melissa, watching the Board of Supes meeting today so we didn't have to (hey, did Michela Alioto-Pier clear her schedule out and make it in?), who reports the following from the public comment session: At about 51:30, someone gets up and starts singing the Madonna song "Borderline" only with changed pro-Ed Jew lyrics to say "You just keep pushing Ed Jew's service over the borderline" - I s*** you not. I......

Buy yourself some peanuts and cracker jack: Baseball All-Star Game mania continues apace in San Francisco! The All Star Fan Forum runs until 8 p.m. tonight. You can just hang out, or you could attend a session on teaching kids how to play catch (7 p.m.), and learn how to score a baseball game (4 and 6). If you're so filled with baseball fever you're skipping work, you can also meet the women players who......

In artist Paul Madonna's weekly comic series All Over Coffee, San Francisco architecture—and coffee—seem to be the main characters. Beautifully technical drawings of SF scenes, combined with disembodied voices that almost feel like the city's collective consciousness, give an ethereal quality to the pieces. You can catch All Over Coffee every Sunday in the Pink section of the Chronicle, and it's archived online as well. Paul also updates his web site every Monday with a new free cartoon. This month, there are several ways you can get to know Paul and his work a little better. • Tonight from 7 to 10 pm at 312 Valencia @ 14th street, there is a Book Release Party for Paul's collection of past to present work from All Over Coffee. You can also buy the book at a discounted price from City Lights Books. ...

We were listening to the traffic reports a few days ago when one of the radio announcers said that there was a problem on 280 because a naked woman was spotted walking around the highway. All the deejays laughed, of course, so the traffic guy had to say over and over again that it was a true story. And you know what? It was a true story. Even crazier, police think there might be a connection between her and the murder of a transgender person. ...

Happy Holidays! Chances are, you're reading this the day after Christmas, back at your day job after all-too-short a holiday, and the last thing you want from us is stuff about the holidays. But that's just too bad. Because, see, here in the Ist-A-Verse, we do things ahead of time. It might be December 26 for you, but that's what you get for not checking your Favorite Local Blog on Christmas Eve. ...

Think you'd rather see a movie than go hear Jean-Yves Thibaudet at the SF Symphony (opening tomorrow through Sunday in the Saint-Saëens Piano concerto, conducted by Simon Bychkov)? Why choose, when SFist is here to give away a copy of Thibaudet's The Movie Album, where you'll hear music from A League of Their Own (no vocals from Madonna, thank goodness, it's only a piano solo album), The Piano (of course), The Pianist (ibid.), the Royal Tenenbaums, and all time San Francisco favorite, Spartacus, by composers like Debussy, Chopin, Rachmaninoff, Gershwin and Duke Ellington. Just fill in the form below and a lucky winner will be notified by e-mail tomorrow. ...

Renaissance-woman entertainer Peaches Christ topped our personal dream list of SFist interviewees since before we started the site, but (and we're not kidding about this) we've always been too starstruck and intimidated to actually approach her. That's right, we'll march boldly up to Gavin and say all sorts of stupid s**T, but PC left us shaking in our flip flops. Hey, at least we have our priorities straight! But when we got a release on......

Who doesn't love the Parkway Theatre? And who doesn't love Bitch magazine? Two of the Bay Area's cultural treats combine tonight as the feminist pop culture magazine kicks off its 10th anniversary celebrations with an 8 p.m. 9:15 showing of Desperately Seeking Susan. Admission's $7 for this benefit showing; as far as SFist is concerned, the real benefit is seeing Madonna in a movie that isn't Swept Away. The Parkway Theatre's at 1834 Park......

As a writer, Claudia has written many things--ghostwriting a book on biodiesel and writing about the educational system among them-- but her latest endeavor was to fulfill a life-long urge to write a children’s book about a Meerkat who goes on a safari, as Meerkats are wont to do. After all, everyone’s writing children’s books these days, even Madonna. But unlike Madonna, Claudia doesn’t have some secret kabala message she’s trying to convey. But actually writing the book was the easy part. After writing it and finding an illustrator, Claudia threw herself into the murky and often frustrating world of self-publishing, and found that it ain’t as easy at it looks. In fact, since she embarked on her self-publishing quest in 2002, she has schooled herself in an at-times painful lesson in publishing one's own children’s book. ...

Last week's winner, the San Jose Metro. Phil Angelides made all his money in real estate. The Merc News gets in a screamy match with Baron Davis of the GSWarriors -- literally! Yay. Cover article: Muslim comedians (including this guy). Cirque du Soleil goes South Bay. Picture of Gillian Anderson looking like Madonna. And Straight Dope: can moms really lift cars off their children? Maybe. Next up, the SF Weekly. The editor's note re......

Our summer camp drama club fantasies were finally realized the day new friend of SFist Peaches Christ, (she of the infamous Midnight Mass series at The Bridge), offered us tickets to the Sing Along Truth or Dare this Saturday, November 12, at midnight. Then we realized she was offering the passes for us to give to our readers. Damnit! Why do you people get to have all the fun? And by all the fun......

We love the Gate/Chronicle's Daily Dish, in large part due to the fact that we think it's so freakin' cute that a little glass dish is "rung" when it goes up. While we did note that they started allowing comments in August, it hasn't been until recently that we've started reading them. Upon our first reading, so many emotions rushed through our brains, everything from gratitude at our own commenters' comparative erudition (hell, not......

What's that? Did you say something, Apple? Sorry, we weren't paying attention; we were too busy watching full-length movies on our Sony PSP's 4.3-inch widescreen. All the tech news and gossip sites for the past week have been full of will-they-or-won't-they speculation about whether Apple was going to announce a video iPod at its big press event on Wednesday. Our best guess in the labs was that there's no way Apple would release a......

Seven years have passed since the release of Esthero's debut album, Breath From Another, until the release of her follow up Wikked Lil Grrrls last month. So we wondered who exactly would show up to her headlining show at the Fillmore last Friday. Had her fans forgotten about her during her long absence? Turns out they haven't. The Fillmore was roughly two-thirds full with fans of all size, shape, color and fashion sense. Boys......

We're bored silly just looking at most of the new releases this weekend, which have striken us with a malaise so severe we can't even summon the energy to make fun of Mick LaSalle. There's only one cure for the illness we're suffering from: the magical healing power of Madonna. That's right, folks, Midnight Mass at the Bridge Theater continues this week with Sing-Along Truth or Dare. (We can still remember sitting in the......

We'll admit it -- we've been watching a lot of movies this week, and our reading has fallen by the wayside. However, our blissfully empty weekend is almost within reach, which means a trip to one of our local independent bookstores, as well as to the library to pick up our online reserves. Right now, all we want to do is lie in bed with the pets and a good book or three, so......

The Hotel Des Arts, a boutique downtown, will be throwing open their doors to the public to view the now thirty rooms that have been covered in the liquid whimsy of some of the scene's hottest emerging artists. Go check out the 'Madonna room' before the Luis Vuitton lawyers (scroll down) have it painted over! It's all being arranged by local indie artist clearinghouse Start SOMA (though epileptics probably shouldn't click through -- they......

The Chron's Matier and Ross get back to the gossip we pay twenty-five cents in the MUNI for and report that Gav Daddy Newsom is aggressively wooing MTV to throw the 2005 VMAs in San Francisco. Certainly, San Francisco in August will be much less humid than Miami's ceremonies in 2004, where everyone looked kind of flushed and sticky. Overexcited Gavin, presumably hoping to see his secret crush the Heiress Paris again, said: "In terms of showcasing the city, this is about as good as it gets. I won't say it's equivalent to the Super Bowl, but in terms of the energy, enthusiasm and particularly the demographics, it's a perfect fit for San Francisco." Can't wait to see Nick and Jessica at the End Up! M&R also use the opportunity to get in some digs about Gavin's inability to settle the hotel strike, and also to run that same old picture of Brit and Madonna making out. (If we only had Photoshop, we'd have given you a picture of Matier and Ross making out, but alas, we don't, so you get the other famous VMA makeout, Michael Jackson attacking Lisa Marie Presley.) The other cities under consideration by MTV are Hotlanta, San Diego, and perennial favorite New York. ...

"The Bright River" is an exceptionally entertaining adaptation of "The Inferno," told with a flavor of Jewish storytelling, klezmer, and hip-hop traditions....

Bay Area crime roundup...