Oh Lord. Is this for real? From the SFist inbox this morning we received alarming news that Gavin Newsom and Jennifer Siebel, like, totally hate Africans, or something like that. After the New Year's Eve announcement that the two were to enter holy matrimony, one concerned reader called "Mayor Newsom's Communication Office," wondering if the "rock he bought for his fiancee was not a blood diamond." After talking to an "incompetent" Newsom staff member......

In our continuing Orwellian coverage, we present to you a BART fight captured on tape, which happened after midnight on New Year's Eve. Really now. We expect this kind of behavior on the 24-Divis or the 38-Geary, but not on BART. (It's classy and carpeted, for Christ's sake.) Anyway, we can't understand exactly what happened - although it looks, save the fearless citizen journalist, like a lot annoying people deserved a good punch or......

Photo of fireworks for New Year's Eve...

So, it's the eleventh hour and you've decided against crushing up a couple of Ambiens into a mug of fume blanc and calling it a year. Instead, you've turned that frown upside down, choosing to see what's happening tonight on New Year's Eve 2008. Good for you. And to help you out, here are some last-minute events for each neighborhood in the San Francisco. Just follow links for more info; they will provide you......

If you haven't decided what you are doing to celebrate the New Year, it's okay - it seems that limited tickets are still available to tonight's biggest shows. We have a feeling they will go quick. If you don't like crowds, you can check out Radiohead's New Year's Eve bash on your couch with a bottle of booze. For the partiers, there are several options ranging from $8 at Hotel Utah to $100 at Cafe......

Moby must be sick with envy over this one. Tonight the "unconventional young network," Emmy Award-winning Current TV, will air a taped, private, hour-long Radiohead concert on New Year's Eve (and on New Year's day on broadcast Current TV.) Thom Yorke and his merry band of croonies will perform each track off of their top-listed 2007 effort, In Rainbows. With words that could spark the battle for the title of Christ 2.0, David Neuman,......

Free Rides on New Years Eve!...

Mayor Gavin Newsom says that one of his "top priorities is to ensure that every San Franciscan has a safe and happy New Year. Riding Muni is a smart and green way to ring in the new year." (Thanks, Gavin!) And with a firm flick of his wrist, this New Year's Eve, starting at 8 p.m., Muni will be free all night, which is about what it's worth. The free rides come to a......

The last time we saw Sandra Bernhard, which was at Bimbo's earlier this year, we almost walked into her as we were leaving the ladies room and she was making her entrance from the back of the theater, crooning "And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going." After a stagehand or security guy or au pair grabbed and shook the holy hell out of us, preventing us from colliding with Ms. Sandra, we went......

Gearing up for the big New Year's Eve bash, several artists are playing mini-residencies (two or three night stays) this weekend including: Cracker, The Radiators and ALO. If you schedule correctly, you could probably see everything that you want. Though New Year's Eve has some rocking concerts, we are going to cover those shows later in the week. For now, let's focus on Popscene's continued success in picking the perfect bands for their Thursday night......

My Morning Jacket's newest live recording entitled The 2006-2007 New Year’s Eve Skit Picture Disc Skit (Could they pick a longer title?) is available now through the band's website. The recording is from their New Year's Eve performance at the Fillmore last year. If you were there, you would know that it was a "Oregon Trail"-themed performance. (OMG, how cool is that!) But we're curious, how do you pull off an "Oregon Trail"-themed party?......

Our security guy returns this week with a post about the measure taken before a big event as well as some more answers to recently posed questions. ...

In today's Chron, there's a big story about the events that occurred on New Year's Eve. To do so, they interviewed a whole bunch of witnesses (most of whom are anonymous) and put it together into a cohesive whole. And guess what? Everybody corroborates the story of the Baker's Dozen choral group. Everybody. Which makes you wonder why nobody's been charged yet or what's up with Ken Garcia and why is Heather Fong lying but that's neither here nor there right now....

Starting next Wednesday, we're wishing the Rickshaw Stop a very Happy 3rd Anniversary! In the last three years the venue has presented shows with everyone from Jonathan Richman to Silversun Pickups and has hosted all manner of wacky special events. Our favorite memory was an early show by Phosphorescent, and a pretty fun time on New Year's Eve in '05. They're celebrating their anniversary with a three day festival featuring a different style of......

SFist interviews Andrew Kerwin, guitarist of Trainwreck Riders...

As expected, the beating up of members of the Bakers Dozen acapella group is now a full blown story with all the breathless reporting and graphics that comes with it. It's even gone national with Drudge reporting that the singers were beaten up "after singing the Star Spangled Banner" as if we here in San Francisco are so anti-American that we'll beat anyone up who sings the National Anthem. ...

Two more murders in San Francisco on early Sunday morning, within 8 blocks and 40 minutes of each other: one at 13th and Folsom and another at 17th and Mission. By our count, that brings the murder total up to 5 for 2007 so far. In other Mission district crime news, there was a stabbing around 10 p.m. at the Burger King at 16th and Mission last night too. Would those proposed cameras at the......

Sunday. Usually, a quiet, contemplative day in the Blogosphere. But not here in the Ist-a-Verse. Nonono! Just look below and see all of the wild and crazy stuff our staffs are up to....

Hey, we're back from vacation! And we just missed the 5-foot sinkhole that opened up on California Street between 6th and 7th Avenues for New Year's Eve. Does anyone have pictures? In our second item of news on the city's west side, CHP and the SFPD shut down the Golden Gate Bridge to pedestrians to thwart Code Pink's peace march across the span, to commemorate the 3000th U.S. casualty in Iraq. Code Pink didn't have......

We came across this video on GooTube for Propaganda New Year's Eve Party at Laszlo, featuring SFist fave Brittanie Mountz doing what she does best. Love the stunna shades, Brittanie! No confirmation on whether or not Mountz was actually there. And no word on what Gaviffer did for NYE, but we're guessing they probably went to bed at 1:30am with the rest of the over-25 crowd. Yawn. Special thanks to Peter Ragone for successfully breaking up Mountsome and ruining the best bit of blogging gold in 2006. We hate you, Peter! ...

In the spirit of New Year's Eve, we present to you the bad idea that is the Art Shell drink....

Yes, New Year's Eve is considered amateur hour. Which is never really our problem with it. Like Halloween, New Year's Eve is one of those holidays where you feel like a loser if you don't have like at least three or four things to go to. Or if you don't go out. It might be better in the long run to avoid going out but for those few moments when the ball drops and everybody's popping champagne and a whole bunch of people are kissing people they shouldn't necessarily be kissing, staying at home by yourself and watching it on TV ain't that much fun. That's why we like wearing headphones when we're home on this night-- that way you can pretend nothing is going on around you. ...

What? This isn't Thursday? OK, all this holiday brouhaha has made us a day late from our usual posting schedule but we just know you'll forgive us. To make it up to you, we want to share a brand new video from Trainwreck Riders. According to our buddy Nat, last week the band hit the streets with a super 8 camera and a bag full of costumes that they dug up from their basements. They......

Last week's winner, the Bay Guardian. And ... whoa! Pictures of Margaret Cho's burlesque performance online (probably NSFW, but not really hardcore or anything). Make Gavin Newsom tell us what he does all day. Aaron Peskin on some kind of shenanigans with a City College building in North Beach. And -- this is weird -- so the Guardian is sort of mad at (or at least puzzled by) Chris Daly on Sophie Maxwell's housing plan,......

Today's giveaway of a tea collection isn't the only giveaway happening-- we still got those BART flash passes to giveaway too. We're giving fifteen of these things away and the contest doesn't end until the 15th. ...

oday's gift is actually somethting more useful than fun. It's a BART flash pass for New Year's. The flash pass will let you have unlimited service on BART New Year's Eve from Saturday, December 31 to 3 a.m. Sunday, January 1. Yeah, okay it's not perfect but it's still pretty good. And let's just say that BART ride at 3 in the morning is tons o'fun lots of drunk people in ever state of messed upness. Actually, the ride the next morning is pretty fun too full of hungover people and walks of shame. Or would that be ride of shame?...

We loved the empty marketplace we found at the Ferry Building on a soggy New Year's Eve day. Few buyers wanted to come out on the wet holiday. Sadly, many farmers felt the same way, and the thriving market was a shadow of its normal self. Ah, well, we still found some bright green Brussels sprouts to take home for dinner. Brussels sprouts are one of those love-em-or-hate-em vegetables, and we hope you'll use......

Our inchoate suspicions were answered -- the music student whose $175,000 loaner violin disappeared has now recanted her story that the violin was stolen from her locked trunk and admitted that she filed a false police report. The violin itself mysteriously turned up on the steps of a church in San Bruno -- possibly after the violinist learned that the insurance company would not cover the instrument's "loss." Maybe 2006'll be a better year for the SFPD! File under heartwarming -- two couples driving home from two separate New Year's Eve parties in San Jose saved a toddler from a burning van on the Lawrence Expressway. The mother, who was driving, had apparently continued driving the van after its left front tire fell off, and sparks from the wheel well set the car on fire. The mother jumped out of the car but somehow managed to lock herself out and the child in. The partygoers smashed the window with a heavy flashlight and got the baby out safely. And file under ...."a machine gun???" The BART police broke up a fight at the Balboa Park station at 3:40 a.m. on New Year's Day, and found out one of the (teen) perps had a Tec-9 assault weapon on him. We have two thoughts: 1) good thing that kid had until April 1 to report that gun to City Hall, and 2) we sincerely hope this doesn't cut into our chances of getting 24 hour BART service around here! ...

Going out on New Year's Eve is practically expected, but getting where we want to go is such a hassle we're tempted to stay in and toast 2006 with that last can of champagne. Driving can be a real pain, as we're expected to retain a level of alcoholic responsibility while everyone else on the road appears to be hammered into oblivion. Taxis can be hard to get, especially for anyone who doesn't already......

Saturday: There are a disturbing number of options for New Year's Eve, but we're going with Friends of SFist and R.E.M. tribute band Chronic Town, which is playing a cover free show at Ireland's 32. It all gets started at around 9 p.m., and we hear there'll be free champagne at midnight. Sunday: Are you kidding? If we leave the house at all on Sunday, we'll consider it a major accomplishment. If we do......