S.F. sure loves a flash mob -- especially one involving Michael Jackson, on the King of Pop's birthday (yesterday). And even if we find the flash-mob thing a little yawn-inducing at this point, we are jaded and you don't have to listen to us. We'll try to be more encouraging. Such joy! Such presumed spontaneity! It's a wonder to behold! Anyway, we especially like the girl at the 0:28 mark in the pink tank top who decides to join in the fun, even though she clearly did not have her marching orders or know any of the choreography. That, friends, is a big flash-mob no-no. more ›

Pride isn't the only celebration this weekend: a group of (presumably not Pride-related) flash mobbers will be commemorating the 2nd anniversary of Michael Jackson's death with a series of Thriller dances across town tomorrow afternoon. more ›

In honor of Michael Jackson's 51st birthday, and in remembrance of his untimely murder, the San Francisco Wax Museum will get a new Jacko wax statue to go along with the one they already have. "Michael Jackson had a lot of styles and a lot of looks," said Wax Museum owner Rodney Fong. "In tribute to his legacy, to mark his birthday we’ll show 1991 Dangerous Michael Jackson from the video Black and White era, along with the “Motown 25th Anniversary” era Michael. We believe this makes us one of the only Wax Museums with two MJ figures." The new fax figure debuts tomorrow (his 51st birthday, by the way, would have been on Saturday; he was Leo Virgo too, which explains a lot) and "the first 10 people in line on Friday will be allowed to get their photos taken with the King of Pop and get free admission to the Museum’s entire collection." What's more, the first ten people will "be able to make a free 'wax hand' from the Museum to take home as a souvenir." Which: awesome. more ›

MSNBC giveth, and we couldn't resist. So here it is, all 3 hours of it for your scanning pleasure, in case you slept/worked through the televised event. more ›

So, yeah, everything and anything is being dominated by Michael Jackson's memorial today. Face it. And, after wading through all of the internet denziens getting choked by Colgate Total and Latisse spokeswoman Brooke Shields' eulogy, we came across this. more ›

Great man, brilliant musician, bizarre icon, lover of children -- whatever you think of him, he has passed on to next plane of life. And much like they would for the death of the pope, throngs of the faithful and members of the news media from the world over will descend upon the Staples Center in L.A. for the Michael Jackson Memorial today, and it shall be relentlessly covered, on every channel, and in every newspaper, until all concerned have run out of breath, and ink. Below, our aggregate of updates. more ›

Apparently, the image of Michael Jackson appeared on a Stockton tree stump, pictured at right, the day the pop icon passed away, and crowds have begun to gather ever since. Owner of the tree stump, Felix Garcia, has lived on the property for 22 years and had never seen MJ's image until now. Jackson once visited Stockton twenty years ago to comfort the community after a school shooting. "To Stockton, Michael Jackson meant more to us than Jesus... I think they're both about even," said one resident. Personally, we think the image looks more like Gene Simmons in full KISS make-up. [Via D-Listed, the Awl, CBS13] more ›

The details were fuzzier before, and it seemed like the place was being prepped for some kind of exposure. Now it is becoming clear that the co-owners of Neverland, a real estate firm called Colony Capital LLC, want to offload the place to some entrepreneur or mega-wealthy fan so that they can turn it into the tourist attraction it seems destined to become. They opened the property to the news media on Thursday, seemingly with the hope of showing it off to potential buyers. And Michael hadn't even been living there for four years -- after his 2005 child molestation trial he felt the spirit of the place had been destroyed, and he moved to another house five miles up the road. In 2008 sold a share of the house to Colony Capital in order to assist with $24 million in mortgage arrears. So the road trip is still on, kids! All you have to do is show a press credential or pretend to be a wealthy buyer to get in! more ›

Sadly, for all concerned -- including the deceased -- Michael Jackson's public memorial is going to take place at the Staples Center, Tuesday, July 7th at 10 a.m. and tickets will cost $25. We're guessing Diana Ross is going to sing. In any event, we still encourage the die-hard fans and all those who never say no to a road-trip to swing on by Neverland, where plenty of sod-laying and moving van activity seems to indicate that something is going to happen there... and at the very least it will likely open as a tourist attraction that will rival Graceland both in size, and bizarreness. more ›

Sure to rival the public memorials of Evita, that woman who made Queen Elizabeth II's life a living hell, and Jesus H. Christ, Michael Jackson's viewing will be, if reports stand correct, splendiferous. To say least. more ›

Steve Rhodes was on the scene at last night's Michael Jackson Tribute/Flashdance Flash Mob at Justin Herman Plaza. We hear it lasted for six hours. We're surprised there weren't any zombies. Check out SF Appeal for video footage and links to more photos of the event. more ›

• A UPS man cries.
• A Chron staff writer goes to Rasputin, interviews folks.
• Toxicology results, predictably, not coming for weeks.

According to Twitter reports, "Mourn MJ SF-style tonight: Michael Jackson trike ride and flash dance. Starts @ 7 at Dolores Park. Winds down @ Ferry Plaza at 8:30." more ›

According to TMZ, "Michael suffered a cardiac arrest earlier this afternoon and paramedics were unable to revive him. We're told when paramedics arrived Jackson had no pulse and they never got a pulse back." more ›

Each Tuesday we will feature new music that should (or whatever) be on your radar. more ›

Here's todays sports news more ›

What's on the cell phones of those who survived the recent tiger attack? more ›

The Dhaliwal brothers, they seem like a couple of nasty little rapscallions. Ruffians, we'll go so far as to say. Why? Because after last week's Christmastime big-cat attack - a mauling that took the life of their "friend," Carlos Sousa Jr. - it seems that at the two brothers "had slingshots on them at the time" - well, at least according to "sources" at the New York Post. (Seriously, aside from aspiring serial killers, who does this? Who goes to a zoo to aggressively taunt the animals? This behavior goes well above and beyond the reliable boys-will-be-boys excuse.) more ›

Ta-da. whatimseeing.com has the images and video you've been waiting for: the Thrill the World Michael Jackson "Thriller" dance-off (as well as choice images of today's protest, by the way). We hope it broke the record so we don't have to do this again for at least another year. All in all, a pretty good routine. Sure, someone is calling out the steps during the routine, and the moves could've been a bit tighter; but... more ›

This morning a press conference was held in front to City Hall about this Saturday's March to End the War Now. The parade (grumble), which will start at City Hall and drain into Dolores Park (next to the worldwide Michael Jackson choreography routine), will be honored with its own day. It seems that the Board of Supervisors passed a resolution making October 27 "End the War in Iraq" Day. (And that day only.) Hopefully, Newsom won't wuss out and pull the resolution like he recently did with el Snoop Dogg. more ›

We just caught wind of this worldwide Michael Jackson "Thriller" movement, so [insert bad pedophilia, child abuse, or body dysmorphic disorder jokes here]. Thrill the World, "a worldwide attempt to break the Guinness World Record (GWR) for the largest simultaneous dance with Michael Jackson's 'Thriller,'" will take place in Dolores Park this Saturday. So...have at it, Michael Jackson followers. more ›

Chicagoist is gearing up for this weekend's annual Air & Water Show along the lakefront. In what's becoming an annual tradition around there, staff member Todd McClamroch even got to fly with one of the participants. Chicagoist's decidedly opinionated readership was also appalled that one of their staffers found a popular local brewpub to be a great place to bring a kid. They also think that an unlikely activist for immigration rights should just take her medicine and offered their own suggestions to how the city should capitalize on the local music scene. And everyone thinks that a suggested tax on bottled water is a great idea. more ›

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We've been waiting for this for years, okay, weeks, since we first took a gander at Berkeley's PFA calendar, is a collection of remakes of that touchstone of the Gen-X grade school experience. Curators Thomas Beard and Nick Hallett enlisted a bevy of contemporary artists and filmmakers, including former SF performance artist, Nao Bustamante, to rework or restage the original's all-too-memorable segments including "William Wants a Doll" and the skit with Michael Jackson still secure in his blackness. (2575 Bancroft Way between College and Telegraph 7:30 pm) more ›

There's a developing story hitting the peninsula today and that is an outbreak of a virus that's starting to infect a bunch of people. The virus is called Norovirus (virus for virus and Noro for we have no fricking clue) and is a gastrointestinal virus and for those who have had one of those things, they plain old suck. And this one sounds particularly nasty, one of those things where for a few days, everything comes out of everywhere and we don't think we need to go any further in the description. So far, the virus has infected a bunch of people at a Belmont senior living center and is thought to have also shown up at three medical facilities in San Mateo County. Upwards of forty-five people are said to have it. more ›

Cultural Learnings of Blogosphere for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of -Ist-a-verse more ›

>For those who haven't been following it, there's a real humdinger of a scandal brewing in LA involving Anthony Pellicano, Private Dick to the stars. Pellicano is in a wee little trouble with the Feds for wiretapping as well as various other shady activities that are considered illegal by the government unless done by the government, all in the name of his high-powered clients. How much fun is this case? The whole thing started because of shenanigans in a case involving Steven Seagal and the mafia. Other clients he's rumored to have had include everyone from Tom Cruise to Sylvester Stallone to Michael Jackson to O.J. Simpson to Hillary Clinton. And it just got director John McTiernan charged for lying to the Feds. So what does this have to do with the price of the Tea at Coffee Tea & Spice on Haight? Turns out one of his clients was rumored to be one Barry Lamar Bonds. more ›

-The Mayor of San Jose, Ron Gonzales, was censured last week by the San Jose City Council for sheninigans involving a contract he negotiated with Norcal Waste Systems. The censure was the first in the city's 155 year history. Breaking with political tradition and going against every rule in the political book, Gonzales accepted responsibility for the censure and said that he "wholeheartedly'' accepted it, adding "it is my obligation to earn back that trust" that he lost over his actions. In calling for censure, however, the City Council also voted to end the independent investigation into the contract because they don't want to "wallow in our shortcomings.'' They also voted to take away some of the Mayor's powers and to consider booting him off several committees. more ›

The Governator made the inevitable official as he officially announced that the great pissing contest known as the "Special Election" is now going to happen. The announcement came today in a speech broadcast live, something we're sure is already causing most news operations fits as the editors try and figure out a way to justify leading with the Michael Jackson story. Basically, the election will be primarily to vote on three resolutions-- teacher tenure, a state budget cap, and the actually-not-a-half-bad-idea-redistricting plan. All told, estimates are that the election will run a tab of at least $70 million dollars, meaning that the only people psyched about this are TV stations who know they'll be rolling in ad money for the next five months. Now that the election has been announced, a feeding frenzy has broken out between partisans on both sides as they figure out a way to tickle the proverbial voter g-spot in order to get their supporters out to vote. Republicans have put on the ballot resolutions on union dues and parental consent abortion laws while the Democrats have put on the ballot resolutions on prescription drugs and energy regulation. And since the Democrats are pushing for a prescription drug plan, the drug manufacturers have pushed one of those phony baloney resolutions that have no purpose other than to confuse the hell out of everyone so that nobody votes for either one. What to expect over the next few months? Wall-to-wall TV ads, Arnie going across the country to suck up more corporate money, totally lame witticisms from political hacks, one side yelling "you are" while the other side yells "no, you are!" and friends and family from the East Coast calling to make fun of us. Hopefully, somewhere in all this, somebody will be able to answer the biggest question of all-- is this any way to run a state? more ›

In tech news, stoned graphic designers were stunned when they realized that they had no idea that Adobe was going to swallow Macromedia whole. South Park laughs to keep from crying. more ›