Starting this week, as we all know by now, Palme d'Or-winning writer/directer Gus Van Sant starts filming Milk on our pretty yet smelly streets. But Gustave needs your help, folks. On Monday night, Feb. 4, and Friday night, Feb. 8, he will require you use your thespionic skills during several march reenactments. If you go here and register, you will be used. All ages, races and genders are just dandy; however, you must be 18 or over to participate. Alas. more ›

You know how the Bay Bridge is going to be closed on this Labor Day weekend? And how that means there'll be fewer car-trips into San Francisco? A reasonable person might assume that that'll mean an increased demand for public transit -- but Muni's response to that is, "reasonable people? What on Earth are those?" more ›

On Monday in Modesto, a 10-year-old boy was caught a tad off guard when a hunk of ice the size of a bowling ball crashed through the roof and hit him on the head. The poor little guy was probably scared out of his mind. All nine people inside the house (Was there a party we were not invited to?) fled when the ice came through the living room ceiling. A hole in the roof measured three-feet wide. more ›

Springing forth from SF's thigh, a new power couple is born: Savage Jew. Wednesday, Ed Jew appeared on hyperbolic grandpa/genius performance artist Michael Savage's show, The Savage Nation. Jew discussed why left-leaning views also deserve First Amendment protection and his decision to vote against Sandoval's proposed resolution to get Savage to use his inside voice. Along with his attorney Steven Gruel, Jew also blathered on about his own legal woes. (Maybe you've heard about... more ›

On Monday, three people are each making their respective 500th open-water swim to Alcatraz and back. Swimming's hard! And the water's cold! And they won't be wearing wet suits. But these three guys have obviously had few problems doing it again and again, and each have significant open-water swimming accomplishments to boast of. more ›

Ed Jew! How we've missed you. After getting back from China, the first thing Tapioca Ed did was give only Chinese-speaking members of the media a tour of the place he calls his Sunset home. Man, our relatives were right that we would regret not having gone to Chinese school as a child. more ›

On Monday's show, Conan did a little video bit where he spent the day traveling around the city showing off the city's sites. We looked and looked and looked for it but couldn't find it anywhere. Finally, today, we found a version of it on YouTube. Come on YouTuber's, it's been days before this video aired! more ›

We've got two contests this week, one to celebrate over a decade of experimentation and the other to to support some stalwart locals.
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Let's face it, in the peloton of American spectator sports, cycling got cracked off the back on the first climb out of town and is just now working its way back into the rear of the pack. Even with eight straight years of Americans winning the Tour de France, the biggest event in the cycling world, cycling has only the most tenuous of holds on the American consciousness. O'er the pond, the Europeans have more than a century of rich road racing history and cultural lore out front making a passionate pace.

One of the problems is that American race promoters and fans haven't quite figured out how to wrest maximum entertainment value out of a professional cycling race. Organizers of the 2007 Amgen Tour of California (TOC) understood this issue and came up with a great solution: circuit laps to finish the stages. Brilliant.

Ho' boy. Somebody better call FEMA. Fire up the buses and make sure that the Oracle has plenty of cots and bottled water, because there could be a CAT5 disaster looming in the Warriors future.

Last night at the Oracle, the team was able to withstand the Sacramento Kings, 126-113, in a game that the hometown hoopsters controlled from the opening minutes, but there's storm clouds brewing. Ironically, last year's killer storm, Hurricane Artest, was in the house to remind the Warriors about decision making. It was ironic, because the Warriors again find themselves toying with the idea of voluntarily welcoming an NBA bad boy into the fold even as their team chemistry seems to be taking on a little water.

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What a stinking dog of a putrid rotting corpse of a disgusting disgrace of an abomination of a disgrace of a debacle of a sham of a fraud of a spectacle of a sham of an embarrassment. Or something like that. How else to describe the Warriors recent sleepwalk through Texas.

On Monday night, the San Antonio Spurs spanked the tribe like a teenager's monkey, 129-89; just 24 hours later, the Houston Rockets piled on and beat the living tar out of them, 118-90 -- neither game was as close as the scores would indicate.

We had a great week of music last week, starting on Thursday night when Live 105's Madden invited us to join him on air. Along with SFists MattyMatt and Jon we talked for a half hour about local music, Muni and of course Gavin's hair. Madden was a friendly and gracious host and we thank him for inviting us! On Monday night Cursive packed The Fillmore for a straightforward set of songs from their new record and a few older tracks. We could see the crowd in the front singing, screaming and dancing right along for the entire set, so we were a little surprised when the band didn't return for an encore. But we won't complain too much, it just leaves more time to hang out after the show. Tuesday night brought the Twilight Singers back to Great American for another soulful, sultry set. more ›

Local hotels are all smiles as they prepare for cable news talking heads to storm the city en masse as our local politicians have put us in the cross hairs again. And what did they do to bring this upon us again? Go after a bunch of fresh-faced kids. Well, Jesus loving fresh-faced kids, the one's who were here over the weekend for their "Battle Cry for a Generation” shindig. We here those rallies were hookup city. more ›

On Monday night, the War-droops begin a three-game home stand. It couldn't come at a better time. more ›

Some people are sooo thin skinned. Like our Governor. A bunch of tree hugging Austrian hippies got all huffy because Arnie executed some dude and now the Governator is all pissed. On Monday, he faxed the Mayor of Graz (what? He couldn't get the Mayor's e-mail address?) and asked that his name be taken off a stadium that was named in his honor. He also asked that his name no longer be used in the promotion of Graz and returned his "Ring of Honor" that the city bestowed on him in 1999. About the ring, Arnie said in his fax: now that "official Graz appears to no longer accept me as one of their own, this ring has lost its meaning and value to me. It is already in the mail.” Oh, snap! more ›

Just like we said at the end of the 2005 season: the A's need pitching in '06. On Monday, Billy Beane surprised baseball insiders by putting on shoes with laces and signing free agent starter Esteban Loaiza (whose last name we're going to have to learn to spell, like the whole Harden-Haren thing wasn't bad enough) to a 3-year, $21 million contract. Though Loaiza's agent, Joe Boggs, expected the A's to get out of the deep end when other teams got involved, the A's outbid, among others, your San Francisco Giants. That just doesn't happen. more ›

Over the last week in Oakland, shops have been laid waste, a store has burned to the ground, and a controversial religious organization has been implicated but denied its involvement. While our headline could be all too common, our personal experience makes the recent crimes all the more troubling. more ›

It looks like the Giants craptastic season has claimed some more people-- at KNBR. In light of KNBR's sport talk show host Larry Krueger's statements last week about the Giants being made up of "brain-dead Caribbean hitters" KNBR fired Krueger as well as long time program director Bob Agnew and the morning show producer Tony Rhein. As they say, it's not the crime but the cover-up and in this case, it's not the crime but the joking about it afterwards that did them all in. On Monday, Felipe appeared on ESPN’s "Outside the Lines" and referred to Krueger as a "messenger of Satan." In response, KNBR’s morning show aired snippets of Alou's Satan comments and parodied it with references to the Satan on "South Park." An interesting reference considering Satan is mainly depicted as wracked with inner turmoil due to a dysfunctional relationship with his boyfriend Saddam Hussein. In firing Krueger, Agnew, and Rhein, KNBR issued a statement saying that their jokes "demonstrated an utter lack of regard for the sensitivity of the issues involved and a premeditated intent to ridicule Felipe Alou's commentary." In other words, if you're trying to appear all contrite and apologetic over an offensive comment, don't make light of the person you've offended. more ›

On Monday, local activists submitted the 15,000 signatures needed to put the measure "College Not Combat" onto the ballots in November. The "groundbreaking" resolution calls for San Francisco schools and colleges to forbid military recruiters from talking to students and possibly convincing them to exercise their freedom of choice by choosing the military. Anti-War activists are claiming that part of the reason for the initiative is that in facing low recruitment numbers, the military has resorted to lying and bullying people into joining. Which is a bit on the cheesy side. On the other hand, our college promised us a fulfilling career and high paying jobs and, well, now we write blurbs for SFist during lunch break as the only way to get any creative fulfillment. more ›

This might get us in a bit of trouble, but we actually like the Chron's token conservative columnist Debra Saunders. Yes, we don't usually agree with her, but we like the fact that she has the intellectual integrity to call foul on her own side when she disagrees with them. Frankly, our political discourse would be a whole lot better if pundits didn't just repeat the party line. Every once in awhile, however, Debra grabs a big bucket of popcorn, a pen and paper, and plays Jan Wahl. Which is fine, we've played movie critic a few times too. Except that when she does, the usually intelligent Saunders smokes whatever stuff Anne Coulter does and goes on some liberal conspiracy tirade, seeing liberal propaganda in the least political of movies. more ›

Previously, on SFist: Giants fans got to attend a home opener. On Monday night in Oakland, it was Kirk Saarloos (1-1, 5.59 and still looking like a solid fifth starter) giving up six runs against the Toronto Blue Jays. Going into the game, the A's sat at three wins and three losses after series against Baltimore and Tampa Bay, and we'll take that. For now. more ›

Our live music picks for the week of 3/10-3/16. more ›

It looks like one of the Bay Area's penny-pinching owners is about to sell. And no, it's not the one everyone wishes it were. On Monday, it was reported that A's owners Steve Schott and Ken Hoffman are willing to sell ownership of the A's to Lew Wolff, an LA developer with huge connections to the Bay Area, especially San Jose. Rumors have been flying around for months that this was going to happen but now it’s official. It's not clear how much of the team he is going to buy or who else who be involved, but it is pretty clear that Wolff will be the managing partner and take control of the team. For those of you wondering just what the going rate on a baseball team with an old stadium goes for, it’s upwards of $170 million. While the purchase of baseball team can often be a slow and laborious process, Wolff is expected to take over the team come opening day. That's what happens when you're fraternity brothers with the Bud Selig or the owner of the team you're about to throw wads of money at is one of the people in charge of making the decision. He is, in fact, in Arizona right now at the owner’s meeting pitching his cause. more ›

Where SFist seeks to unsettle and dismay its loyal readers by relaying news of woe, randomly collected from a variety of news sources for the period of this week. more ›