Madonna has this new album coming out. Your over-35 gay male friends probably know all about it and have listened to all the "leaked" tracks, so you can ask them about it if you care. But before the album even has dropped, Madge has released two videos, including the one for the first single, "Give Me All Your Luvin'," which she performed at the Super Bowl and in which the savvy old dame brought in youngsters M.I.A. and Nicki Minaj to give her some cred with the kids (the thing now has 28 million view on the 'Tube, so that may have worked). Now, gladly, Los Angeles drag queen Jackie Beat has done this marvelous parody called called "Gimme All Your Blood," where Madge is basically recast as a Satanist. Fun! (Be forewarned: The audio is NSFW.) more ›

The brilliant Jennifer Saunders (Ab Fab) and Dawn French (French and Saunders) have done us a little "reading from literature," in this case the translated transcript of an interview done by a Hungarian newspaper in 1995 with Madonna, while she was there filming Evita. The interview was conducted in Hungarian, with the questions translated for Madonna, and then Madonna's responses were translated into Hungarian. Sometime thereafter, USA Today requested a copy of the interview, with Madonna's responses translated back into English. French and Saunders read this amazingness, for your amusement. [Dangerous Minds via WOW] more ›

Robert Jeffrey shared with the world this joyful lip-sync routine set to Madonna's triumphant "Vogue," which he performed in 1991 during a vacation with his parents. He was nine-years-old at the time. Jeffrey explains: more ›

A homosexual couple, Tiwonge Chimbalanga (pictured, right) and Steven Monjeza (left back) were sentenced today to 14 years in prison for gross indecency and unnatural acts in court in Blantyre, Malawi. The two were convicted earlier this week by a judge in this conservative African nation, which also plays host to Madonna several times a year because she now has two adopted children from there, and she's been helping to build a girls' school there with the organization Raising Malawi. more ›

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. more ›

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

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. more ›

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...) more ›

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... more ›

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. more ›

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. more ›

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 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 night" and sang a custom version of Madonna's "Borderline" to a much-beleaguered board member. more ›

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!!! more ›

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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: more ›

at 3 p.m. Also, Alyssa Milano will be hawking her baseball-themed jewelry around 1 p.m. Oh, Alyssa Milano, we really hoped you'd stay with Carl Pavano. $22 at the Moscone Center West (4th and Howard, across from the Metreon). more ›

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. more ›

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. more ›

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. more ›

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. more ›

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! more ›

Who doesn't love the Parkway Theatre? And who doesn't love Bitch magazine? more ›

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. more ›

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. more ›

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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. more ›

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. more ›

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 who love boys who love girls who enjoy making out in public. Maybe it was the sensuality Esthero oozed from onstage, but it was clear that the audience was feeling the love, and welcomed her back with open arms. more ›

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. more ›

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 weekend cannot come soon enough. more ›