More giveaways! San Francisco's own Kronos Quartet has a new album out, of their acclaimed September 2003 live performance with Tom Waits of four of Waits's songs, for the Concert for Peace and Reconciliation by Richard Gere's Buddhist humanitarian organization Healing The Divide with the Dalai Lama in attendance. There's also performances by Norah Jones's sister Anoushka Shankar, Philip Glass, and the Guyto Tantric Choir. We've got a copy to give away! Even if......

It was a good year, it was a bad year. Here's my list of the so-best parts of 2004, in no order at all. So-Best photo: I'm not a super big fan of Norah Jones or anything, and it has no SF connection whatsoever, but I've been dying for an excuse to use this picture for months now. (I like the letter Y just fine, though.) So-Best city hall trend: Rate this year in local politics triple-X! Sex, violence, and foul language: F-bombs dropping like bunker busters, groping at the Gettys, and hand-to-mouth pumping action -- and that's just for two branches of the local government! Throw in some sizzling-hott judicial/executive same-sex marrying action, fights galore, plushie love, vandalism, computer hackery, and those ever-present Asian fetishists (you just love them for their money), and phew, you'd definitely have to prove you were over 18 to get into this movie! So-Best blotter entry/b>: The pranksters who stole the bronze Hermes outside the University Club. Runner-up: The angry Texas Ranger throwing the chair at heckling Mr. Bueno and hitting his wife in the nose. So-Best commuter tale: This was back in April, back when SFist was just a twinkle in our publisher's eye -- but remember that dude who threatened to kill himself on the Bay Bridge and tied up traffic for thirteen hours? And then they proposed shooting a big Spiderman net under him? The highlight of your westbound commute. Runner-up: The Baby Bullet/BART hookup finally working out is saa-weeeeeet. It could only be better if it actually went at like 200 miles an hour so when you looked out the windows, things go all blurry. So-Best makeshift top 40 radio station: I'm still torn up about the death of Z95.7. But now that I've finally gotten MTV Hits from my cable company RCN and TiVo DVR and an ipod to go, I'm completely up to date. (Damn you, Max Martin, and your catchy new Kelly Clarkson tune.) Runner-up MTV Networks so-best: Have you seen the new VH1 Classic show The Alternative? So-Best things I've learned at sfist: How to reserve books at the Public Library. Who this band the Arcade Fire is. How many different crime movies and TV shows were set in San Francisco. And all these cool people I have the privilege of writing with (awwww). Keep reading in 2005!...