With over a dozen or so problems that the above graffiti could have critiqued about this poster advertising the Academy of Friends annual "gala" fundraiser for HIV/AIDS -- such as paying to attend an event to watch the Oscars; or the lack of originality with this year's title, "Shaken Not, Stirred" -- he or she takes the easy route here, pointing out the obvious homosexual nature of the event. Meh. And although the talking......

Laughing Squid’s Last Minute Unholiday Party: Scott Beale and the gang will be having a most splendid post- and un-holiday party/experiment with social media. Although LS will be "providing some beer and buying pizza, but please feel free to bring some more beer, wine, leftover holiday food, etc." The mood is low-key and geek-filled, and we mean that in the best possible way. Starts at 7 p.m. at Citizen Space. Ben-Hur (1959): Not only......

It was a deadly weekend to be famous, that’s for sure. As one commenter already pointed out today, famous people tend to die in threes: Bill Walsh, Tom Snyder, and of course, ABC 13’s Marvin Zindler from Houston, who -- while still tied-up with breathing tubes, in his hospital bed, and very pissed off at 24-Hour Fitness -- gave and gave until the very end. But another one squeaked in there among those three: Ingmar......

You know how they say the most effective ad uses the words FREE SEX NOW? Well, that's what we've got! We've got passes to the smuttily-highbrow Lady Chatterley, a French movie based on D.H. Lawrence's second draft of what would ultimately become Lady Chatterley's Lover, called "John Thomas and Lady Jane." The movie's won five Cesar awards (the French Oscars) -- plus it sounds like there's plenty of steamy activity as well, given that it's......

Okay, this was a pretty cool event. Peter Morgan, the writer responsible for both Forest Whitaker and Helen Mirren's Oscars this year (for The Last King of Scotland and The Queen) won the film festival's second annual Kanbar Award for excellence in screenplay writing -- so they had him up for an hourlong talk about his distinctive docudrama perspective on contemporary historical events and the flawed personalities behind them, and then they screened The Deal,......

Last week's winner, the Bay Guardian. Tim Redmond says the progressives need something to do (so why not run a mayoral candidate?). Too many skyscrapers. Wi-fi and sunshine laws, Ruby Rippey-Tourk, cars in Golden Gate Park, and SF is totally unprepared for global warming. The gay porn Oscars! Cover articles: Noise Pop! SFist Elaine says to check out Scissors for Lefty. Dude, there's like a review for every band playing! Yay Noise Pop! L.E. Leone......

The San Francisco Film Critics Circle announced their season ending yesterday, something of which we are constantly told could mean something when it comes to the Oscars. The idea, we guess, being that these awards are like the NCAA brackets: Movie A wins the SF Flim Critics and movie B wins the LA Film Critics award, then they go off to meet the winner of the New York Critics Awards with the winner being the front-runner for Oscar gold. Or something like that. ...

Look, we love the 90s as much as anyone. We loved the Smashing Pumpkins and the whole grunge thing and we loved Pubic Enemy and watching "BH 9'er" and "Melrose Place" back-to-back and we loved being in our twenties and partying all night in our tiny apartment in North Beach and actually being able to dream of a Democratic President. But as much as we love the idea of those days, we also realize we can't go back to them. Among other things, it's pretty much near impossible as we don't have a space ship we can slingshot around the sun with. And second of all, we're old enough to realize that, as a wise man once said, you can't go home again. Which brings us back to the Warriors who this morning fired Mike Montgomery and re-hired Don Nelson. That Don Nelson. You know, crazy, eccentric, mad-genius basketball coach known for employing smallish lineups with an emphasis on scoring and well-known inability to go anywhere in the playoffs. That Don Nelson. The Don Nelson who helmed the last hey-day of the Warriors, the RUN-TMC Warriors. The one who accidentally started the whole free-fall downfall of the franchise when he got into it with Chris Webber. And yes, the one who coached the Mavs and couldn't take them to the Finals until he retired and handed the team over to Avery Johnson. ...

Saturday: It's POMO 2006, which means all sorts of Filipino stage performances at YBCA. Our POMO pick is "Bronze Lit: FilipinoAmerican Voices in Literature", at 2 p.m. today, in which writers including Jaime Jacinto, Jason Bayani, Jason Perez, Jean Vengua, Leny Strobel, Marianne Villanueva and Barbara Jane Reyes read from their works. And it's free! Sunday: If you haven't already, go see Awesome; I F**kin' Shot That! at The Bridge. Never mind the mixed......

Torontoist throws down the gauntlet and challenges all comers: pillow fight, bitch. They also stand up for a fellow blogger taking heat from the TTC and welcome city-wide WiFi. SFist can finally admit it: It's possible that Bary Bonds juiced. Is Bay Area artist (tempted to put quotes around that) Thomas Kinkaid "kinda crappy" or "explosively crappy" or does he just like marking territory? SFist wonders. Technology comes in the form of new Mac goodness......

The food blog world is aflutter over the biggest awards ceremony of the year. The Oscars? Don't be silly. It's all about the food, baby. The 2006 Independent Food Festival and Awards are open source awards, only with taste buds, not coding. And just as Firefox kicks Redmond's butt, the winners of these awards are worth seeking out. Some are national, some are local, all are good. Those golden statues barely got a mention in the food-o-sphere. Seemingly only Bruce Cole, editor of Edible San Francisco, deemed them worthy of talk and then only as a way to explain why you're better off cooking red meat than watching the red carpet. His technique sounds good, but would some pictures kill him? As long as we're in meatlandia, let's just go all out: Bacon for dinner! More meat (goat and crab), SFist Sam, and liquid nitrogen ice cream, after the jump. SFist Jacob, contributing...

Saturday: We're heading over to the Pacific Film Archive for the Women of Color Film Festival. We're especially interested in the documentary feature Who Killed Vincent Chin?, A documentary about a Chinese American man mistaken for Japanese and beaten to death by unemployed white auto workers, who were convicted with the lightest possible sentences. See the complete schedule here. Sunday: It's the Oscars, bitches! You want to know how seriously we take the Academy......

Have you seen many of the Oscar nominees? We haven't (which doesn't make this excellent Fametracker post any less funny to us -- the Brokeback Mountain TV series pitch with Gavin in the sweeps episide left us with chest pains of hilarity). We have a lot of the screeners lying on our desk, gazing at us reproachfully as we while away the hours watching Tyra crap out on stripping and Ginger Snaps Back. We're......

Hollywood is busy getting botoxed and tuxedoed in preparation for the Oscars this Sunday, and the host isn't the only thing that's changing this time around. In the past, viewers on the east coast could prep themselves beforehand with a viewing of "The Barbara Walters Oscar Special." Those on the west coast had to wait until the end of the ceremonies to catch it. But this time, Barbara's foregoing Oscar night altogether, instead bringing......

We here at SFist like our celebrities like we like our men: insane, rude, dirty, and fabulous. Oh, wait, that's NOT how we like our men anymore (that's 12 years of therapy finally paying off, folks.) But any celebrity who seems too classy, clean, or "just like us" is not who makes us buy that Us magazine at the Cala point of purchase. Our attitudes about celebrities mesh nicely with our attitude about our......

SFist inteviews Jeffrey Anderson aka Movie Jeff of combustible Celluloid...

This week on stage: a revolutionary "Richard III," the traveling medicine show returns, a piece about the American Taliban, and some shows you should see before they close....

SFist is covering Cinequest. Go see movies! Real ones!...

SFist enjoys the who big-ass spectacle that is the Oscars, but we have to admit that we've always been really bad at seeing the nominated movies. They all just look so, we don't know, educational or something! Assuming you're not quite as dumb or lazy as we are, perhaps you've seen all the nominated films already. But if you haven't, SFist has you covered. Many of the nominated films are still in theaters, so......

There's really only one TV show to talk about this week and we all know what that is. "America's Next Top Model" winner Eva Pigford is going to be on "Kevin Hill" tonight! And then there's something called The Academy Awards on this Sunday. Ahh. We kid. (Or pray at the Church of Ironic Detachment, take your pick.) Of COURSE TV is all about the Oscars this week. We won't talk about the nominees......

It's that time of year again -- time to buy breathmints and hide the carton of cigarettes that you drunkenly told your significant other that you would stop smoking as of New Years Day. It's also time to nominate your favorite weblogs for the fifth-annual Bloggies, which are like the Oscars, except with many, many fewer free giveaways to the voters. Gothamist Jen points out that there are a scant five days left to get......

He's (almost) Miss World, can't look us in the eye -- Hizzoner Newsom announced that he was nominated but did not win in the online World Mayor 2004 contest. (That Giacometti-like figure to your left is the prestigious World Mayor award -- they could call it the Wonkie). Newsom put on his best Susan Lucci face, stating through his spokesperson that "To even be mentioned in a competition like this is a great honor," (and claimed not even to have known the competition was underway. "What, the Oscars? They give out prizes for good acting now?") ...