Don't get us wrong: We hella love Oakland, in all its urban, slightly dangerous, Brooklyn-in-the-90s sort of glory. But excuse us if we chuckle a little finding it on a list of places around the world to visit this year, sandwiched between London and Tokyo, in today's New York Times. They cite the three-year-old Fox Theater and the burgeoning food and bar scene — specifically Commis, Hawker Fare, and Daniel Patterson's Plum, Plum Bar, and Haven — as signs that Oakland is finally coming into its own, at least in the eyes of NYT-reading tourists. more ›

Oakland mayor Jean Quan is standing firm. She is not resigning, or so she announced on Friday, after she was booed off the City Hall stage Thursday and after she was largely responsible for a week of insanely bad press for her city, vis a vis some deeply unnecessary (and near-deadly) treatment of Occupy protesters. And now the beleaguered mayor, who was once a student activist at Berkeley herself, is front and center on the NYT front page this morning, with one of the protesters' signs saying 'Quan Lied.' Oh, Jean. This isn't good. more ›

The NYT finds the situation in S.F., with "anywhere from 9 to 37 people running to become mayor," quite amusing. The headline: "San Francisco Is Awash With Mayoral Candidates," and the story goes on to elucidate the chaos that awaits us as the election approaches, what with the ongoing confusion about ranked-choice voting, and the whole 'Run Ed Run' campaign, etc. more ›

Featuring an adorable cover shot of the two-time Cy Young Award winner, SF Giants star Tim Lincecum will appear in this week's T Magazine, the gray old lady's weekly style rag. You can find it in print or, better yet, online. On Sunday. Look for it. more ›

The New York Times sent Carpetbagger writer Melena Ryzik on a tour through Pixar in Emeryville, and she gushes, "Pixar's about as a cool a place to work as anyone can imagine!" Why look at this, they have a pool table! And ping-pong! And a glass case to keep all their Oscars from getting dusty. Anyway, blah blah, Pixar's awesome, blah. more ›

Citing the opening of Passion Café, along with the presence of Split Pea Seduction and Tu Lan, NYT reporter Scott James (who's listed as a local novelist and Emmy-winning TV journalist) declares Sixth Street as the next emerging "gourmet ghetto." more ›

Somehow we missed this late last week, but Emily Anderson of Seattle arrived in San Francisco on Thursday after completing a cross-country trip from New York in a reconstructed 1909 Maxwell D.A. A similar trip was taken by first-wave feminist Alice Ramsay a hundred years ago, making her the first woman ever to drive across the country. The re-enactment required Anderson and her car buff father to assemble a Maxwell using antique parts found on eBay and elsewhere, as only one intact 1909 Maxwell still existed and the owner was not willing to sell. more ›

The new film Away We Go, directed by Sam Mendes and with a script by local literary it-couple Dave Eggers and Vendela Vida, received a gut-punch of a review by A.O. Scott in today's NYT that sounds suspiciously like an indictment of the attitude -- nay, "smug self-regard" -- of the writers themselves. The movie stars Maya Rudolph and John Krasinski as expectant parents traveling around to visit friends and relatives in an effort to choose a place to raise their child, and inevitably passing judgment on each. Scott writes, "even though they express themselves with a measure of diffidence, it's clear that [the couple is] acutely, at times painfully, aware of their special status as uniquely sensitive, caring, smart and cool beings on a planet full of cretins and failures." Scott doesn't exempt director Mendes from criticism, saying, "To observe that they inhabit no recognizable American social reality is only to say that this is a film by Sam Mendes, a literary tourist from Britain who has missed the point every time he has crossed the ocean." more ›

Alastair Macaulay, writing for The New York Times, gave a rather stilted and mixed review of the San Francisco Ballet's current staging of Balanchine's "Jewels," honoring several of the dancers but getting fussy about the conducting and lighting. (We're not sure we've ever read a ballet review that didn't sound stilted and fussy, but whatever.) "Jewels" is an evening-length triptych which has been called a "Balanchine primer," revealing three distinct facets of the choreographer's style and featuring music by three composers: Fauré, Stravinsky, and Tchiakovsky. It's playing in repertory at the War Memorial Opera House through May 10. Find remaining dates and purchase tickets here. more ›

Maureen Dowd is kind of an idiot. And we mean that in the nicest way possible, because she seems so smart. But then she goes off and writes this. In her most recent op-ed piece for the New York Times, she attempts to show the world of online writing what's what. How so? Well, she attacks Twitter and other types of newfangled online internet world wide web sites, claims that journalists are "hot" in Hollywood right now ("Russell Crowe, playing a messy and morally ambiguous Washington investigative journalist, teaches the self-regarding blogger, Rachel McAdams, a thing or three, including why a pen is necessary" is just one example of print publishing's tenacity), and compares cumbersome newspapers to the ageless Norma Desmond. more ›

Those left-wing extremists, Sarah Palin gang-rapists, and Zionist hoodlums over at the New York Times came to town to write about politics and San Francisco. (No, not about the increasingly-retarded local SF political scene -- because that's what it's become, a scene -- and those who choose to revel in it.) In a nutshell, Jennifer Steinhauer's article talks about how we get damp over Barack Obamat, that us Bay Area folk, it seems, take pride in being "unreasonable and unshaven," and that we prefer arugula over McDonald's (it's spicy tang really is irresistible) over other red-state cities. Oh, and there's something in there about the imploding economy, or whatever. So: nothing new, really. more ›

Mayor Gavin Newsom, who seems to be getting a decent amount of ink in the Gray Old Lady these days, says the following about recycling: more ›

Politically-correct, conservative KSFO talk show host Melanie Morgan annonced yesterday that her contract would not be renewed due to financial issues over at KSFO's corporate parent, Citadel Broadcasting Corp. Co-host of the Lee Rodgers & Melanie Morgan Show, Morgan is somewhat (in)famous for jump starting the Gov. Gray Davis recall, which has since left us with Gov. Schwarzenegger; and calling for the rape, murder, hair-pulling, and vivisection of editor Bill Keller. (Okay, not really, what she actually said was that if Bill Keller should be tried for treason, he should face the ultimate penalty, which is death. So..there you go.) more ›

Sure, these places look like the types of fine dining establishments none of us could afford. Nevertheless we were delighted to read in this morning's New York Times ("Coast to Coast, Restaurants That Count") that San Francisco's Coi and Napa Valley's Ubuntu (a critically-acclaimed restaurant that also doubles as a yoga studio, oh my God) made Frank Bruni's top ten restaurants in the country. Yay us! more ›

Shit. It's Valentine's Day this Thursday and by the looks of it most of you have already planned your perfect date. Three shows are already completely sold-out: The Kills at Rickshaw Stop, Slightly Stoopid at The Independent and Common at Mezzanine. While there are still several shows you can chance Thursday night, it might be wise to stay home and wait till the weekend to take your crush out. We are. more ›

Brass Tax: DJs Fred Funk, Goldilox, Loosebeats, and Tung throw down house, breaks, and hip hop beats. But douchey and unoriginal said beats ain't! At Amnesia, everything is quirky and creatively beat, so...have at it at the Mission boutique club. Starts at 9:39 p.m. at Amnesia; $5.
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David: My thought is – how have blogs affected your daily reading habits? You know the barrier to entry is higher in Podcasting – it’s easier for a good writer to sit down and write than it is to produce a good audio. Most podcasts really can’t do a good quality show. more ›

Now that donuts have made a return to Bay Area coffee houses--minus its exhausting Homer Simpsonesque, white-trash irony--you can find the preferable pastries at places like Ritual Coffee Roasters (vegan! and actually good!), Seattle's Best at Border's Books & Music (double-glazed), and even Starbucks (plasticky). With the return of the donut comes the return of the brewed coffee. At least, according to today's New York Times, which profiles the Blue Bottle Cafe, scheduled to open today this week, and their bizarre Jules Verne-ish coffee contraption. The first-prize-at-the-science-fair-like machine is poised to make coffee's tarnished reputation shine again. more ›

Australia-born actor Heath Ledger was found dead in his NYC apartment today. It is reported that he allegedly died of either a drug overdose or hanging at Mary-Kate Olsen's apartment. More details as they come in. Sad. Very much so. Read more about the actor here and here. more ›

Easy and compact, check out Apple CEO Steve Jobs' 90-minute keynote speech in 60 seconds. It's like the Golden Globes, only not as pretty or deadly important. more ›

Francis Ford Coppola's new Youth Without Youth more ›

New York Times, in their weekly Critic's Choice: New CDs column, introduced us to four different musicians we have never heard of: Lupe Fiasco, Jaheim, Birdman and Steve Lehman. We think that it has nothing to do with the "critic's choice", but rather there is nothing significant to write about this week - seems like a repeat of last week. We're patiently waiting for the January releases of: Radiohead (the actual CD), Kate Nash, Sia, Vampire Weekend and Idina Menzel. For now, it might be best just to reflect on your favorite album of 2007 - you'll find out ours soon enough. more ›

San Francisco's musical offerings were bountiful Wednesday night ranging from Film School to Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings to The Thermals. It seems, though, that most of you made the correct choice: Vampire Weekend. Now we don't doubt that the other shows weren't amazing -- we were pretty miffed that there were so many choices on one night -- but clearly if you are anybody then you were wearing a blue pin-striped shirt, dark... more ›

Three square meals a day is finished. Heartiness plunged to its death from the Golden Gate Bridge. The entree, sadly, is dead. At least according Kim Severson of the New York Times it is, and we couldn't be more delighted. The article interviews chef Tom Colicchio who says, "I think the entree has been in trouble for a long time...[e]ating an entree is too many bites of one thing, and it’s boring." more ›

Oh this is a smashing idea. more ›

House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Tom Lantos threw down some serious shade today. "While technologically and financially you are giants, morally you are pygmies," he cried, shaming two senior Yahoo officials. Why? Because the Sunnyvale company named names, handing over private information about Chinese journalist Shi Tao's online pro-democracy action to country officials. (Or, as the New York Times so eloquently put it, their "complicity with an oppressive communist regime." Oh snap.) This landed... more ›

Photo from last year's Halloween in the Castro more ›

Aw. more ›

ODC Theater welcomes Guggenheim Fellow Donna Uchizono and her New York-based dance company with its west coast debut,Thin Air. Hailed by the almighty New York Times as "brilliantly imaginative," Uchizono draws inspiration for Thin Air from the Buddhist concept of "emptiness," which "stresses the interrelatedness of all things and quantum physics, which among other things made it possible to understand the atom. And, as the basis for our understanding of electrical currents and how to rectify and amplify them, this lead to the invention of the semi-conductor, without which, modern life is impossible to imagine!" more ›

-- Evil Dead 2 (1987): Sam Raimi's exquisite sequel to the equally-exquisite Evil Dead, minus any tree-rape. Screens at 7:15p.m., 9:15 at The Red Vic, 1727 Haight (at Cole). more ›