Yesterday at high noon on Ocean Beach a group of about 25 otherwise warm people, brought together by social media and a shared desire for a meaningful beginning to 2012, jumped in to the Pacific Ocean. While the Ocean Beach plunge might not have had quite the attendance of our counterparts at Coney Island back East or the stamina of the Dolphin Club's Alcatraz swim, it did offer something decidedly San Franciscan. By which we mean there were naked butts. Possibly NSFW video of the new tradition, after the jump: more ›

Handy reminder: the yearly gathering of drunk people in Santa Claus costumes returns to grace the city's streets with its annual displays of costumed public drunkenness tomorrow. Which means the day drinkers will be wearing fuzzy red suits (possibly arranged in a slightly promiscuous fashion on the ladies) and the eye-rollers will be silently judging them while also kind of wishing they were getting drunk in the afternoon. On Santacon day, like any of San Francisco's boozy holidays, everyone falls in to two camps: aggressively drinking or actively avoiding. So this map of Santa-friendly watering holes should come in handy for pretty much everyone in town. And because this is San Francisco, the city of a million options, there are several Santa-themed meetups this year, each with a different levels of acceptable nudity. more ›

Santacon, the yearly gathering of drunk people in Santa Claus costumes, will feature a lot less red velvet and a whole lot more pasty white this year. An offshoot of the main Santacon flashmob/bar hop group is looking to nab the Guinness Book record for the World's Largest Gathering of Naked Santas, thanks to San Francisco's longstanding history of tolerating nakedness and the fact that all the other Santa-related records were already taken. But what is Santa without his fuzzy red suit, you might wonder? The organizers explain the rules: more ›

On Saturday in the city's Castro arrondissement, a smattering of residents attended a nude-in in response to Supervisor Scott Wiener's cover-up legislation. And, let's be frank, the protest, while titillating, made little to no sense. Wiener isn't anti-nudity; he's anti-poop. He doesn't want to see or, worse, smell your skidmarks on a public chair or bench. And neither should you. Do you like poop? You shouldn't. It's disgusting. Yes, it is. And at the very least, don't you expect your civic leaders to shun shit? To eschew poo? The answer is yes. Yes, you do. Otherwise, you're a major poop lover. And that's icky, you doo-doo lover. more ›

During today's Board of Supervisors meeting, District 8 Supervisor Scot Wiener will unsheathe new legislation about public nudity in San Francisco. Wiener represents the Castro, which has seen an uptick in nakedness as of late. Sanitary issues surrounding clothing optional ilk have made some residents worry that they're leaving more than just a jarring impression. If you catch our drift. more ›

After yesterday's Giants 4-1 victory over Arizona, rookie D-Backs were forced to don their finest swim gear while en route to the airport. Why? Why not. But if you must know: more ›

Time to trim that bramble you call public hair (protip: careful grooming makes your shaft look bigger, fellas) and pull out the SPF 50. San Francisco Bay Guardian's 36th annual guide to Bay Area nude beaches hits the racks today. In addition to informing you on nakedness and anti-nude law enforcement at Bay Area beaches, the issue is brimming with stark raving nudity. (The print version has more fleshy bits than online, by the way.) Check it. more ›

Oh, the zany things that happen north of San Francisco. And by "zany," we mean "methy." Presumably. Take, for example, a naked man who "ran up and down Lemur Street in west Santa Rosa, breaking into homes Saturday night before being chased back into his own house by a group of teenagers wielding a baseball bat." more ›

Nudity and cycling clashed at yesterday's monthly Critical Mass. Plug1 of What I'm Seeing snapped these choice images, some of them drastically NSFW. (Warning: nudity) more ›

San Francisco Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi spoke to Matier & Ross about the new Bay to Breakers rules, telling them that "there is no reason to go this far ... Nudity and floats are part of the spirit of the race." (Does this mean we will get to see Mirkarimi unleashing his stuff come May? One can only hope so.) Mirkarimi district includes much of the B2B route. And while he's pro-nudity, Mirkarimi tells M&R that the booze ban is "probably here to stay." An anti-Bay 2 Breakers rally is scheduled to shake up the squares at City Hall on Thursday at noon 11:30 a.m. more ›

According to an angry missive from the fine folks over at SoMa's DNA Lounge, the California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control is trying to put them permanently out of business. It seems the buzz kills have accused them of "running a disorderly house injurious to the public welfare and morals", and are trying to revoke their liquor license, which would put them out of business. more ›

Since more people have taken the time to air their disapproval (7000+ on one Facebook page alone, according to SFCitizen) of ING’s new rules for the Bay to Breakers race than have registered for the race itself, a rally at City Hall will take place on Thursday to add even more fuel to the fire. (God forbid SFist should tell you how to prioritize your battles, San Francisco. But, a rally to keep public pissing, nudity and drinking in a race? Really? Huh.) Citizens for the Preservation of Bay2Breakers will hold a press conference this Thursday at noon at City Hall. Not sure where Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi stands on this issue or if he plans of making an appearance at Thursday's rally. Word on the street is that he thinks ING went too far/overreacted to last year's problems. more ›

Yesterday's Up Your Alley Fair is what the Folsom Street Fair used to be before all the tourists pushing baby strollers started showing up. More than 8,000 leather daddies -- and as many as perhaps a dozen biological women -- braved the cold fog wearing little more than a gimp mask and a smile to benefit PAWS, the AIDS Emergency Fund, and others. We tried to limit the amount of naked penis visible in these shots, but in that kind of environment there's only so much a photographer can do. The fully-lubed, unexpurgated photoset can be can be found at DJTennessee's flickr page, as well as a few over at Nature abhors a vacuum. more ›

We've received a few curt emails this afternoon, upset over our use of the image in "Strip Club Etiquette: De-tipping?" Sexy, no? But It seems if we post a female form that's neither a tweaked out, Nair-estranged Burning Man girl, nor a zaftig, of-a-certain age Codepink protester, many of you dear readers get all aflutter. (PS, though, we thank you for sending us personal email on off-topic discussions such as this.) more ›

You know you've made it in San Francisco as a marginalized group when you start getting in fights with other marginalized groups -- so a local bisexual advocacy/social group is under fire for their policies excluding certain transgender persons. more ›

If the prospect of watching a gay pride parade on television thrills you, you'd better have cable -- because KRON, which has previously broadcast the parade over the air on channel 4, is this year bumping their coverage all the way up to Comcast's channel 99. KRON's broadcast license is up for renewal, see, and the chance of losing it over something unexpected during the parade is just too great. (You can read a highlarious lover's spat about it on our "contribute" page -- hey, folks, you know you can argue much more effectively in the SFist forums, right?) more ›

--Spot (at least) four problems with this picture! [zippy_monster on Flickr, from the SFist Flickr stream.] more ›

We're (sort of) proud to admit we used to play in a youth orchestra ourselves, in our misbegotten youth. Oh, the drama! The miserable attempts to rise in the ranks of the seating chart, the sinking realization that you're two pages behind the rest of the string section in the music, the haughty unfriendliness of the principal trumpet player and his bevy of giggling flautists..... oh, it takes us back. more ›

Security is a "top priority" for tomorrow's Mausoleum Party, hosted by the Stanford frats. You gotta love an article that starts with the splash headline "Police: Stanford not the place to go for free beer on weekends." As one officer tells the Stanford Daily, "I’ve had experiences where a high-school student from Palo Alto has gotten a hold of a Stanford ID card, made copies of it and put it over their own ID. Then, before you know it, we have 42 kids presenting cards that say they are Susie Smith.” Go Susie, go! more ›

Breaking the law, breaking the law We -ist folks love us some crime, and no misdemeanor is too petty for a post on any of our sites. This week, join us for a rogues' gallery of miscreants major, minor, and alleged. more ›

SFist interviews Barb Traub, author of "Desert to Dream: A Decade of Burning Man Photography" more ›

Theater about technology about theater, sexy performance art with a message and more theater about theater. more ›

Even as the stores sport back to school sales (which depress us, even now), summer lingers on your friends the -ists. This week's collection of links provides some of the best, worst, and oddest bits of summer fun. So, bring your laptop up onto the roof, make yourself an umbrella drink or ten, and enjoy this week's choice posts from across the Gothamist network. more ›

Are you on the hunt for a local slice of Burning Man? You're in luck. Tomorrow, the Duck Pond Crew is offering up Burn-style fun in Dolores Park. more ›

There's always a lull in touring during the late summer, perhaps because most other cities in the U.S. are experiencing temperatures in the triple digits and that’s not the best climate for when you pop a tire on your Econovan and have to wait on the side of the highway for roadside assistance. But some brave musicians soldier on to bring the rock to us, grabbing some respite in San Francisco’s chilly summer nights. more ›

More nonsense from the world of videogames: the best-selling game of the moment is Bethesda Softworks' epic role-playing game . That popularity has made it a target for modders and, now, opportunistic politicians. more ›

We first heard about , when Bruce Fletcher, the Fest's director of programming, excitedly announced to us that it was his "new favorite movie." more ›

SFist was recently contacted by local artist Alyssa Morgan, who had an interesting story to tell -- apparently, she had been contracted to provide art for the grand opening of John Colins, a new bar in SOMA. Throughout the creation process a member of the bar's ownership team viewed the art, but once delivered to the bar the art remained for only one evening. more ›

Thanks to Friend of SFist Min Jung Kim (who wrote an awesome essay on blogging recently), we had ringside seats for the Carnaval Parade. We gorged ourselves on photographs, and even busted out the cellphone to record some of the great bands. There were representatives from, oh, five or six continents on hand, all tied together by a spirit of celebration. The nearly nude (and in one case completely nude save for some creative work with acrylic paints) dancers certainly didn't hurt. That said, this was actually the least nudity we'd ever seen at a San Francisco street fair of this magnitude. But Frank Chu was there, so you know it was hott. more ›