Are you exceptional in the visual, performing, film/video/media, literary, or fashion arts? Yes? Well, then, SF Weekly is giving away $2,500 with their Masterminds program to someone like you. Why? Who knows, exactly. But that's a lot of money, kids. (Do you know how long it takes to amass that much cash by swiping and selling new releases at Aardvarks? About four and a half years, more or less.) Behold: Masterminds™ is a program......

The seaward stretch of Balboa between 37th and 38th Avenues conjures a variety of images, from some of the thickest summer fog around to the Balboa Theater’s weathered sign. The block’s numerous Asian restaurants also merit consideration. Add hockey to the list, sort of. More on that in a bit. Unless you’re an Outer Richmond local and buy your nuts and washers at Crown Hardware on Balboa’s south side, odds are strong that you know this block best for the Balboa Theater, where the scent of butter-slathered popcorn wafts outside day and night. The circa-1926, moving picture house endures as the only one of its kind remaining in this part of town, and it seems to do well showing new releases. One reason for its success may be the fact that, as its sidewalk sandwich board announces, No private picnics (are) allowed in the auditorium. Ask anyone on this side of town what killed the Alexandria or the Coronet in recent years, and they’ll surely tell you: private picnics in the auditorium....

Wow, it's a massive weekend for movies, as studios do their best to present us with ways to escape familial holiday stress. We hate to do this, but as there are so many great new films opening this weekend, we suggest you take a look at the Chron's New Flicks page, (as long as you promise not to take any of the reviews even remotely seriously) to make sure you don't miss any of......

Well, Apple is rumored to be anouncing the iPod phone by Motorola at the Moscone Center on the 7th. 100 songs, service through Cingular are the rumored deets. In the meantime, the music business, not happy with the $350 million they've pocketed from the iTunes store since 2003, want a tiered pricing scheme, with new releases bumped to $1.49 -- which would be a great way to send people back to filesharing for the......

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......

This week offers up many new releases that we know you've all been waiting for with great anticipation. Well friends, the wait is over. Exhale and read on. In the we're-so-sick-of-that-song, we're-shocked-the-album's-not-out-already category, we have Gwen Stefani's Love, Angel, Music, Baby and U2's How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb. Fantasia's Free Yourself is the debut album from this year's "American Idol" winner. You can pick it up with a copy of last year's "AI" winner......

Sure, there are new releases this week by Britney, Eminem and Shania, but what love have they ever shown to San Francisco? "Talkin' in the Mission / Over coffee, this is my utopia," sings Vanessa Carlton on "Harmonium," her second full length album. That might sound like a normal morning to us, but we'll allow the young songstress her love affair with our fair city. Partly recorded here and produced by resident rocker Stephan Jenkins,......