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. Friday, the local music......

Behold, the tight-lipped duo who, at this point last week, couldn't have imagined the death and subsequent big-cat madness in store for them today. Under supervision at San Francisco General Hospital, due to severe bite and claw wounds since last Monday, Paul Dhaliwal, 19, and Kulbir Dhaliwal, 23, were released into the wild yesterday afternoon. In addition to the brothers' hospital release, NPR reports that all the big cats at SF Zoo will most likely......

SFist interviews Rachel Schutz of Darlybird and hosts a giveaway of some of her awesome wares...

-- The very attractive Yusuf Bey IV, Your Black Muslim Bakery chief and sudden media darling, now faces real-estate scam charges. Gulp again, dude. [Chron] -- Blue Angels still allowed to soar; Daly still fights to ground them. [Examiner] -- VMware shares also soar. [Chron] -- Giants' Russ Ortiz and something called the youth movement. Hmm. [BeyondChron] -- Stop attacking SF meter maids, folks. [NPR] -- SF surveillance cameras suuuuuck. [ABC 7, via AP]......

According to NPR, it seems both Los Angeles and San Francisco are in the habit of slashing the tires of and beating the crap out of our dear meter maids -- now more than ever before. The absurdity of SF's parking ticket-dispensing habits aside, this is awful. A year ago, we saw a couple of altercations on Valencia Street, with vile douche bags puffing up their flaccid feathers at hard-working meter maids (meter-men? parking......

Droll NPR commentator (who was previously fired for cursing) Sandra Tsing Loh brings her one-woman show, "Mother On Fire," to the Women's Building tonight! For a 9 night run! The show's about her travails trying to find an appropriate school for her kindergarten age daughter in the California school system and ran for 7 months in LA. Here's the one-liner. "I looked at public schools, private schools, parochial schools -- even Baptist school. It turns......

We'll admit: we've been to Alcatraz enough that we pretty much never want to go there again (third time's the charm). But it looks like NPR's All Things Considered has the goods on some interesting new exhibits, as well as some findings that were uncovered after a recent renovation....

Cruciverbalists rejoice! New York Times crossword editor Will Shortz, widely considered the best puzzlemaster in the world, is speaking tonight at Cal Performances. Shortz was profiled in the documentary Wordplay and is credited with modernizing and popularizing crossword puzzles with witty clues, aesthetically satisfying designs, and pop cultural awareness. Folks like Jon Stewart and Bill Clinton (above, with the puzzle he made in yesterday's paper here) swear by Shortz's puzzles, and you will too (if......

It's all about the numbers at tonight's Ask a Scientist: The World's Most Fascinating Numbers event. Ask any burning math (from pi to irrational, imaginary, familiar, and beyond) question to Keith Devlin, who is NPR's "Math Guy," as well as a prof and author. There will also be food, drinks, socializing, and chat about "the universe's most fascinating mysteries!" 7 to 9 p.m. Canvas Gallery, 1200 9th Avenue, SF 94122. If greed and scandal,......

You know that woman who was a Madame in the DC area who threatened to release all the names and info on her client list? Well, she just went out and released all the names and info on her client list. In an e-mail to a Washington D.C. radio station, the Madame, Deborah Jeane Palfrey, said she gave everything to "what I believe to be one of the most reputable and respected investigative news organizations in the country, to assist me with my needs." We somehow don't think she meant NPR. ...

Okay, so we admit it. We read your comments, sometimes. And thus, this post is for you, Gene. First, a clarification. The egg yolks in the center of the moon cakes that prompted your concern, and presumably the concerns of many others (statistically, for every letter written to a congressperson, the government assumes 9, or 99, or some other amount of people feel the same way — and so shall we), are not raw. Moon......

Did you know that Chinese New Year is celebrated for 15 days? The last day, March 4, 2007, is the Lantern Festival. So, we're not too late in getting this crucial holiday food news to you: Your celebratory moon cakes could be a danger to your health. ...

What, you don't believe in Santa Claus? Don't tell Dr.Lloyd Darrow, a self-proclaimed 'Santa-ologist', whose made it his life's mission to uncover the truth about this elusive fat man who visits us just once a year. Darrow's proof the jolly man exists include a lost video from a 1949 polar expedition, the Santa Papyrus dating from 1342 B.C., and an actual jingle bell found in the wreckage at Roswell, New Mexico. ...

So the Chron has this spiffy new feature to their web site in which they play phone calls left by readers about various issues and turn them into podcasts. Some are positive things, some aren't. Recently, a call was posted on the site by somebody who had a problem with an article on drones, the pilotless plane variety. Apparently, in a story, the subhead useed the phrase "pilotless drone" and for those who don't know, a drone plane is pilotless. Using the term "pilotless" with the word "drone" is, of course , redundant. Well, somebody had a huge problem the usage in the subhead and left what can only be described as a long, crazy rant about the subhead. ...

Well, this sounds like fun! A reader who went to yesterday's live taping of the NPR news game show "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me" writes in to report that the game show's "special guest" of the day was none other than our favorite newspaper editor, Phil Bronstein! Many of the topics were centered around San Francisco: Gavin's boozing and sexcapades, and the Armory's new porn studio. It was hysterical. The ChronBlogs did a little research......

Feeling that crafty holiday spirit? Head on over to NPR's website and enter their first ever craft competition. They're asking for entries of menorah's or ornaments that represent the news of 2006. A Gavin Menorah with all of his ladies? Or maybe one of his famous blue ties fashioned into an ornament? Sounds like fun to us. You've got until December 11th, so get those glue sticks out and start crafting. ...

They've moved away from San Francisco to a small town in Connecticut, but we're still claiming Mates of State as our own. The birth of the couple's baby girl Magnolia hasn't slowed their relentless tour schedule: on Tuesday they play their first of two nights at Great American (The Court & Spark open Tuesday and Asobi Seksu on Wednesday). We've got a copy of their latest record Bring It Back, out now on Barsuk......

If it weren't for our life as an -ist, we're not sure we'd ever leave our apartment. Fortunately, to fully -ist, one must seek out the new, the fresh, and the unknown. Brand new, or just new to us, that's what we're all about this week. Phillyist keeps it fresh by getting a new motto, learning to prioritize, and taking in an experimental indie rock show. Torontoist does their first post in franglais, gets ready......

Saturday: Box magazine is having their Issue 3 (Fetish) launch party from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. at Oakland's Golden Bull (412 14th Street). They're promising us DJs, drink specials, giveaways, and more. Sunday: We're hitting Project Artaud Theatre 450 Florida St at 17th) for AcroSports City Circus's new acrobatic spectacle, the Metropolis-inspired 2106 Shows are Fridays at 7p.m., Saturdays and Sundays at 2 p.m. until April 30. Monday: We're plumb out. What are......

Man, here we are all nostalgic listening to Endtroducing, and the blogosphere pays us back with some serious synchronicity -- all sorts of funky-fresh music! We're totally drooling over this new Soul Sides compilation from O-Dub, on vinyl no less! Kid Kameleon posts not one, not two, but three mixes from three different DJs, including one of his own. Mesh SF presents a "motherlode" of the 40oz. show. And while this is kinda old,......

Today marks the first on-air day of the KQED winter pledge drive. The radio station's hoping to raise some serious cash in the next two weeks. We wish them luck -- and wonder how many NPR junkies will be switching over to KALW in search of an uninterrupted fix of Robert Siegel or Renee Montagne. While SFist appreciates the need for fund-raising and can certainly understand the desire to raise as much money as possible......

From the cultural legacies of black radio and French writers to physical theater and psychology, there's something for just about everyone in this week's offerings by Bay Area theaters....

SFist interviews Ted Weinstein...

Last night SFist went to see the inaugural live collaboration between the Bay Area's own Kronos Quartetand Bollywood legend Asha Bhosle. Competing only with her sister for the title of most prolific singer in recorded history, Bhosle and KQ teamed up recently to re-record a dozen or so RD Burman compositions from Bhosle's 20,000 (!) song catalogue for hifalutin label Nonesuch, home to NPR faves like Mali's Amadou & Mariam and indie legend Stephin Merritt. The crowd was pretty upmarket - with tickets topping out over 100 clams, this was not the sort of bustling young artist bash that YBCA has been excelling at of late. Kronos kicked off the evening solo, as it were, with a performance of a Terry Riley composition that featured frequent guest performer (so frequent that Kronos joked she was their newest member) Wu Man rocking the pipa and vocals. By SFist Isaac...

SFist interviews Miranda July...

You know we love us some pirates -- from the grog-guzzling type who sing shanties to the MPAA-headache-inducing types who post Star Wars. But especially we love pirates of the airwaves like our friends at She Said, She Said who cut through the bulls**t on your radio dial like a hot chainsaw through whipped cream. We first met LeE and Jon of Neighborhood Public Radio at a Southern Exposure show many months ago. So......

The question we have to ask is this: were journalists just traipsing about the country side, fabricating quotes and anecdotes merrily for years without repercussion or something? For all the old media bleating about uneducated, unethical punks on the internets who care naught for objectivity or investigative rigor, there seems to be a rash of alleged impropriety of late. Latest victim: New York-based freelancer Michelle Delio, who recently had articles pulled or amended in......

Special up-and-down-the-penninsula edition. For the waveriding set, Tribal Surf is putting on a tsunami benefit, "Elements" at the Blue Cube to benefit SurfAid. Surf photography by the legendary Bob Barbour and surf wear from local designers will be on sale, and you can pick up your blue SurfAid wristband to make a small donation and tell the world that you both carve cutbacks and care. Reception starts at six. At the half way point......

The East Bay's Casual Commute just got a little more codified with today's Chron cover story about the cheapest way to get across the Bay Bridge. We've never been able to find a website explaining the casual commute phenomenon, or where exactly to pick up rides -- though we have seen groups of artists-working-day-jobs, slumming consultants, and other downtown denizens patiently lined up on various corners in Berkeley and Rockridge waiting on corners around 8 in the morning. Thanks to the Chron for publishing the definitive list! So the trick with cas. commute is that East Bay denizens looking to get to San Francisco meet up at designated points with drivers who are looking to get three people for the free Bay Bridge carpool lane. Once in the car, the casual commute rules are famous: no chitchat unless the driver initiates; no cell phone calls; driver's radio should be set on NPR, classical, or jazz; no food. Riders are dropped off in SoMA (though sometimes a driver will agree to take you up to the Financial District if it's along their way.). But rule-breakers are legion. One friend who casual-commutes reports a lawyer blabbing on and on about his cases on his cell phone without ever figuring out one of his companions in the car was a federal judge, much to the snickerings of the rest of the people in the car (a carful of lawyers is apparently not otherwise notable, we guess). The Chron also reports that one environmentalist will open the door to SUVs waiting in line, shout at them for despoiling our earth, and then slam the door and move to the next car in line. Awesome. Any good casual commute stories out there? ...

SFist interviews Rebecca Gholdston...